Colleague Conversation

'Three moles. She can' deny yeh that. And they'd really be useful down here.'

Three moles, Mandy Sprout. No less. And it had to be her walking all the way up to the castle, of course, climbing the various staircase to Minerva McGonagall's Transfiguration classroom just because Rubeus Hagrid tended to avoid the inside of the giant building.

'You are behaving as ridiculously as ickle Argus,' she had informed him. 'None of the students know what happened back then. They won't despise you for a crime you haven't, in fact, committed.'

'Yeh never know,' he had said. As he tended to. And she had started walking.

There was a small hiss and the smell of molten flesh coming from the inside of the Transfiguration classroom when she arrived. A number of people screamed and when entering, all Mandy could see was a cloud of thick smoke and some loose blurs of magic. The remains of a shield, maybe, put up in haste, but yet effective.

'Mr. Snape,' she then heard her colleague's calm and very rational voice, 'please explain what you just did and why.'

But there was no instant answer. Instead, Mandy could see one of the boys (Sirius Black, she recognised) turn and pass her in a hurry. His face was pale, the air around him thick as though under the influence of a spell. She made no attempt to stop him.

'An answer please, Mr. Snape,' said the Transfiguration professor again, rather sharply this time. 'And stop crying! For Merlin's sake! You were the one casting that spell!'

'I d-d-don't know,' came a hesitant boy's voice after a small voice, from the ranks of the Slytherins. Mandy recognised it. She recognised this class, as it tended to be nothing but trouble.

'Then think!' hissed his teacher, sounding quite uncharacteristically indignant. 'And tell me why you cast that spell to set Mr. Black on fire!'

'B-b-b-because you s-said so,' stammered Snape. Mandy felt her jaw drop.

'And should that be a reason for you to do it?' snarled Professor McGonagall. 'What on earth were you thinking? Did you think at all?'

Snape shook his head. Unhappily. 'You said...'

'You told him to kill?'

All eyes within the room were suddenly directed at Mandy, who realised that she had been the one to utter the last statement. Minerva McGonagall took her eyes away from Snape and his misery.

'Professor Sprout,' she said, sounding reserved. 'What can I do for you?'

Mandy hesitated. 'I need to talk to you,' she said. 'Urgently. Official Hogwarts business.'

She was lying and Minerva knew it.

'I cannot end the lesson here,' she said decidedly, but if you would be so kind as to wait I shall join you the staff room in about ten minutes time.'

Mandy hesitated once more. Nodded, very reluctantly, and left the classroom. It took a lot of determination not to ask straight away, but she was well aware that Minerva was not too fond of curriculum discussions right in front of her clientele.

It did indeed take Minerva McGonagall a full ten minutes before she appeared at the staff room doorstep, looked around exhaustedly, and eventually lowered herself on one of the armchairs near the fireplace. She seemed pensive and reluctant to return Mandy's curious gaze. The latter chose to ignore her colleague's desperation for privacy.

'Minerva,' she said vigorously, putting the fingertips of both hands on her sleeves. 'What was that lesson about?'

'Responsibility,' said Minerva flatly. 'Dealing with aggressions beforehand. That's why young Black left. The killing matter was the final straw, but I had to see for myself if the authority problem of the Snape line continues to live in young Severus - and thus decided to go for a little... experiment.'

'What experiment?' said Mandy weakly.

'Do you happen to remember Lance's habit of not reflecting whatever decision he used to make in the old days?' replied the deputy headmistress. Mandy nodded.

'An irascible fellow he was. I haven't had much to do with older students at the time, but he was hard to miss. Bloody idiot.' She smiled.

Minerva hesitated, then returned a very thin, thoughtful colleague's smile. 'I know that you do not approve of him,' she said slowly. 'I have not seen him in a while, though. He seems to have changed. The marriage has changed him.'

'Yes, he is very lucky to have Virbia around him,' Mandy quickly agreed. 'And who would have thought that someone like him would want to have children?'

For the first time today, Minerva produced a mischievous grin.

'I seem to know that is was an accident,' she stated, thinking, then summoned herself a cup of tea. 'But anyway, Lance used to have an insufferable way of not questioning authority, whenever he was confronted with an important decision. At times I felt that... he was not able to disobey. And that is... what the experiment you witnessed was for. I wanted to see how far Snape would go.'

'And there were no other ways?'

'There might have been,' said Minerva coldly. 'But the context of the lesson demanded such drastic methods. I also meant to demonstrate to some of the others - Potter, for example, and Black - just how much damage magic used without consideration can cause. And I do believe I made a lasting impression.'

'I should try and talk to Sirius Black again if I was you,' said Mandy slowly. 'He seemed upset.

'Naturally,' agreed the deputy headmistress. 'I shall have to talk to him, if only to give him the same explanation I have just given his classmates. The most important part of the lesson, quite naturally.'

'I thought it was a bit of a risky thing to do,' said Mandy pensively.

Minerva nodded.

'And maybe a bit early?' Mandy pressed on. 'More suitable for the OWL year, perhaps?'

Minerva nodded again. 'I had my reasons, however, to confront this specific class with this problem today. Very likely, I can assure you, it will not make it into the regular second year curriculum.'

'Talking about the curriculum,' said Mandy pensively, 'have you heard about the foreign language matter?'

'Yes,' said Minerva simply. 'It's a disgrace. But I shall support Conn and Sarah in their efforts to keep French and German at least. I spent my last holidays in Germany. Very relaxing.'

'What about Troll and Centauri?' enquired Mandy, curious how her colleague had reacted to the imminent closure of the MCC department.

'A disgrace,' said the deputy headmistress again. 'Never mind Troll, though. It is Goblin that they should continue to teach. Otherwise no wizard will, in due time, be able to communicate with the Gringotts officials any longer.'

'True,' mumbled Mandy, remembering her sister's efforts of opening an account with one of the many goblins who had not been raised within the wizarding community and who had thus placed her money in a knitted sock over his very own fireplace, together with a pair of deep-frozen ashwinder eggs, believing she had specifically told him to do so.

'Did you have a reason for interrupting a lesson, by the way?' said Minerva now, drinking the rest of her tea in small, elegant sips.

'Ah yes,' Mandy remembered. 'Good of you to remind me. I would like some of the moles you used for your fifth years last week (the remaining ones, that is) to help me and Hagrid dig up the pumpkin fields. They are so much quicker than we are, and I believe you were worrying what to do with them anyway, were you not? Hagrid could take them to the Forbidden Forest afterwards, or...'

'Absolutely not,' said Minerva sternly. 'I will not leave those poor creatures as an evening snack for whatever is roaming the Forbidden Forest these days. But you can have them if you put them back in their boxes afterwards. I expect I shall have to pop into Diagon Alley some time during the next few days anyway. Filling our stocks, if you know what I mean.'

'Anti-cheating quills?' replied Mandy, grinning. Minerva nodded. 'Just a test. I'll not have another Emmeline Vance case at this school. Well then, lesson time, I daresay. Will you join me for a cup of tea after dinner? I shall have to tell you what kinds of examination papers I decided upon this year. You will find that they are... rather unusual.'