The following morning, FitzSkimmons arose early to check out and get breakfast before they needed to leave for Kings Cross.
They had already finished breakfast and Simmons was telling them everything Hermione knew about all the new classes they were going to be taking, when the Weasleys finally started straggling down, looking as harried as they did every train morning, despite having done this every year for more than a decade by that point, not including Mr and Mrs Weasley's own seven years. While most of the Weasleys came down one by one, Mrs Weasley and Ginevra came down together talking urgently in hushed whispers to each other, until Mrs Weasley looked up and saw Daisy sitting at the table.
"There you are, Ronna!" she exclaimed. "Ginny was just telling me that you hadn't come back to your room yet by the time she went to sleep, and you weren't there when she woke up this morning! We were worried sick about you! It's dangerous to be alone these days!"
"Wanted to make sure I was ready to go plenty early," replied Daisy crisply, completely avoiding the minor fact that she'd never gone into Ginevra's room the night before, too busy in Hermione's room squishing the Simmons between her and Fitz on one of the infrequent occasions that the smallest of them took the middle from the start, and didn't merely roll over Fitz in her sleep and end up nestled in the middle by morning.
"Where are your trunks then?" demanded Mrs Weasley, looking pointedly towards the door where there weren't any trunks or cages stacked up threatening to be tripping hazards.
Simmons reached under her chair and pulled out their bag. "Flourish and Blotts has these really nifty shopping bags that are smaller on the outside. All three of our trunks are in here, along with everything else, and is much easier to carry and much less noticeable to all the muggles we'll be passing by in Kings Cross than three trunks, a broom, and several more bags full of books would be. And we already sent Hedwig to fly up to Hogwarts on his own, given the fact he is an owl, and flying is what he likes doing, as opposed to being shoved in a cramped cage for the better part of a day. And Crookshanks is napping somewhere in this bag on top of one of the trunks."
Mrs Weasley looked like she wanted to reply something scathing about that not being how she did things, but the hard glares on their faces as she started to open her mouth apparently made her change her mind, as she held her tongue and sat down with Ginevra across from them, instead launching into a story about a love potion she'd made as a young girl, both her and Ginevra giggling together all the way through. FitzSkimmons just glared back at her, but she never acknowledged them if she did notice as she and Ginevra tittered away. All three of them really wanted to call the local police and report her for attempted kidnapping and possible sexual assault or rape, but they knew there was no magical police force they could actually call, they could never convince the muggle police that love potions existed, and even if they could there wasn't any proof but Mrs Weasley's word that she could easily deny that she had ever made or used the love potion, so she'd sadly never actually get convicted of anything.
Eventually the two Ministry cars that were taking them to Kings Cross arrived outside the Leaky Cauldron, and they all piled inside. Still no one had told any of them the reason the Ministry had sent cars for them, but as FitzSkimmons still didn't care, they continued not asking. They were just happy not to be even later than they already were by having to walk to the train station from Diagon Alley, because even with the Ministry cars they only arrived outside the station with a mere twenty minutes to spare. Not wanting to risk getting locked out of the barrier again like they had the previous year (that they now knew from the books was due to Dobby the house elf), FitzSkimmons immediately jumped out of the car with their one small bag and ignored Mr Weasley's protests behind them as they hurried through the station to disappear through the barrier onto the magical platform. Only once safely there, did they stop and wait for the Weasleys. The six redheads soon arrived, including Mr Weasley, who as soon as he saw Fitz drug him off to the side, Daisy and Simmons of course following along.
Pulling Fitz behind a pillar, Mr Weasley opened his mouth to say something to Harry, before suddenly closing it again upon seeing that Ronna and Hermione were standing there with Harry.
"I'm sorry girls, but I really need to speak with Harry alone," he said, addressing Daisy and Simmons.
"Not happening," replied Daisy shortly. "Now tell us whatever it is you have to say quickly, as the train's about to leave in a few minutes."
Mr Weasley internally debated for a second, before apparently deciding it was better to tell all three of them (surely he knew Harry would immediately tell the other two anyway, even if they were actually Harry, Hermione, and Ronna) than not tell Harry at all.
"You can't run off like that, Harry, especially this year," he said tensely. "There's something I've got to tell you before you leave. I'm sure you've heard that Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban."
The three of them simply nodded.
"What you don't know, is that he's after you, Harry."
"Why?" asked Fitz.
He knew Black had reportedly been Riddle's second-in-command back in the glory days, and while it made sense that Riddle's followers would want to get revenge on the baby who'd ended their tyrant leader's reign of terror, there were plenty of other Riddle followers still around who weren't actively trying to kill Harry at the moment, such as the Malfoy's. But even with the general possibility that any Riddleian might try to do Harry in at any moment, Mr Weasley sounded like they knew for sure that Black was actively hunting down Harry, and that had to mean specific knowledge. And even if they didn't have specific knowledge, it was still worth finding out why Mr Weasley thought Black was after Harry — it could be different than their own thoughts, and more information was always better when dealing with an unknown threat.
"It's hard to say for sure, but if you ask me, he thinks killing you will bring You-Know-Who back," answered Mr Weasley gravely.
"So that's why we got the Ministry cars, and why Fudge didn't try to snap Harry's wand for blowing up Ms Dursley," nodded Simmons knowingly. "Makes sense now."
"Harry, you must be very scared learning all this," said Mr. Weasley, looking anxious.
Fitz shrugged. "Not really. Last time I checked this Black dude wasn't Riddle, who I've had to face the past two years, along with when I was a baby — Black honestly sounds like a refreshing change of pace for a year, break up the monotony."
But Mr Weasley was not amused. "I'm serious, here, Harry. I want you to give me your word that you won't go looking for Black."
"What aren't you telling us?" interrupted Daisy. "Because most people don't go looking for someone who's trying to kill them, unless there's some very specific reason — usually involving revenge. And it's not like Harry's past two years should make you think he'll go looking for Black on his own simply because he now knows Black's after him. He tried to protect a stone he had every reason to believe Snape was stealing for Riddle, on top of the professors being completely incompetent if three first-years could successfully get to the stone with honestly very little trouble at all, all things considered. And then last year, he went to save Ginevra because none of the professors were doing anything, and he was the only person in the castle with the balls to try. Completely different from looking for a guy who killed thirteen random people and now happens to be going for Harry because he's a loony and thinks killing one person will bring another back. So I repeat — what aren't you telling us?"
At that moment Mrs Weasley yelled out, "Arthur! Arthur, what are you doing? It's about to go!"
"He's coming, Molly!" Mr Weasley yelled back, before turning back to Harry. "Swear to me that whatever you might hear—"
"So there is something you're not telling us!" exclaimed Simmons, interrupting him. "Something Harry might hear that would make him want to actively hunt down Black. What is it?"
But before Mr Weasley could answer, or say anything at all — probably continuing to try to make Harry make a promise without knowing all of the details, as likely as not — there was a loud whistle.
"Gotta go," said Fitz, before hurrying off to the train with Simmons and Daisy right behind him, leaving Mr Weasley and the promise he so desperately wanted hanging.
The three of them just barely managed to hop onto the train before it started rolling, taking them to their third year of magic school.
~FSK~
"So why does Harry have reason to go after Black?" mused Fitz as the three of them walked down the corridor looking for an empty compartment.
"I don't know, but there is definitely something Mr Weasley wasn't telling us," replied Daisy as they got to the very last compartment of the train.
Inside they found a man fast asleep by the window, wearing an extremely shabby set of robes, and looking rather ill. It took everything Simmons had not to start medically looking over him when they entered the compartment to make sure he wasn't seriously ill and in need of immediate medical attention, but she restrained herself, and the three of them took the two seats on the opposite side of the compartment from him closest to the door, Daisy sitting in Fitz's lap, her back against the wall separating them from the corridor, and her legs stretched out across Simmons' lap towards the window.
"Who is he, I wonder?" said Daisy.
"R.J. Lupin — his case is on the rack up above his head," answered Simmons. "And I would guess he's the latest DADA professor, as based on the past two years I can't think of any other reason an adult would be on this train besides the snack lady and conductor, and we'll need a new one since the first one is dead after sharing his cranial space with Riddle, and last year's lost his memory trying to use Ron's broken wand."
"Makes sense," replied Daisy. "And speaking of which, I hope he's better than Mr Flamboyant Liar from last year."
"He's pretty much got to be," said Fitz. "Even Quirrell first year, with Riddle renting out a flat in his skull, was better than Lockhart."
~FSK~
Mid afternoon, Malfoy made his annual trip down the train to try to rile up Harry Potter, the Weasel, and anyone the two of them were with, flanked as always by his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.
"Well, well, look who it is," he lazily drawled as he slid open the compartment door uninvited, and without knocking. "Potty, the Weasel, and the mudblood."
When he got no reaction other than three bored looks, be continued on, "I heard your father finally got his hands on some gold this summer, Weasley. Did your mother die of shock?"
"No, but she will die of a heart attack if she doesn't lose some weight soon — surprised she hasn't already," Daisy replied boredly as she shifted slightly in Fitz's lap to better be able to see Malfoy at the door, instead of staring out the window watching the scenery pass by as she had been before he'd arrived. "Anyway, I don't pay any attention to my parents' financial irresponsibility, since Harry here just gives me all of his gold if I ask nicely — and by ask nicely, I mean kiss him really hard."
Like the two previous years in FitzSkimmons timeline, Malfoy was majorly taken aback by Daisy's indifference to his top notch insults about her family, giving him time to finally take in how the three of them were sitting.
"And here I thought you'd be hanging all over your girlfriend Ginny after saving her pathetic life last year," he sneered at Fitz.
"Nope," replied Fitz indifferently, leaning over Simmons' shoulder to give Malfoy the impression that he was looking at the book Simmons was reading, too bored by Malfoy's presence to even bother looking at the Slytherin arsehole while speaking to him. "Totally not my type. You're welcome to her, though."
Malfoy spluttered for several seconds, before finally managing to get out in what he doubtlessly thought was a spiteful, riling tone, "I wouldn't use a blood-traitor like her even as a Knockturn Alley whore!"
Unfortunately for him, his increased volume made Professor Lupin in the opposite corner snort slightly in his sleep, alerting Malfoy for the first time to the presence of someone other than the insufferable Gryffindor trio in the compartment.
"Who's that?" he asked warily, taking in the shabby-looking adult.
"Professor R.J. Lupin — the latest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, presumably," answered Simmons, still not looking up from her Arithmancy book she was reading. "Also, do you even know what a whore is? Or have you just heard your father talking about not wanting your mother to find out about any of his?"
Malfoy made to leap at her to throttle her throat, before Simmons' casual point in Lupin's direction quickly reminded him that they weren't alone, and he changed his course of action to merely a malevolent and threatening scowl, knowing better than to pick a fight literally under the nose of a professor. It was one thing to pick a fight in front of Snape, it was another thing entirely to pick a fight in front of a professor.
So knowing there was really nothing he could do, he muttered resentfully to Crabbe and Goyle, "C'mon, let's go," before exiting the compartment, leaving FitzSkimmons alone again.
~FSK~
The rest of the train ride passed by peaceably, until they were nearly to Hogsmeade station.
The train started slowing down, but glancing down at her watch, Simmons informed them that they couldn't actually be there yet, that something else must be going on. So all three of them quickly pulled out their wands and stood up, Daisy climbing off of Fitz's lap and crossing over to the other side of the door of the compartment, trying to look through the glass down the corridor to see if she could see anything.
"See anything?" whispered Fitz, as he took up position on the side of the door they'd been sitting on, though he couldn't see anything down his direction of the corridor because it was just the end of the train.
Daisy shook her head, before the train suddenly jolted to a stop and all the lamps went out.
"Lumos," whispered all three, instinctively lighting their wands.
But a few seconds later, as she continued to try to look down the hall outside their compartment, Daisy whispered, "Lights off so our eyes will adapt and so I can see down the hall better without any glare off the door."
All three of them killed their lights as Simmons moved to the window, and peering out said, "There's movement outside — I think people are coming aboard…."
"Lock the door Simmons, you're the best," ordered Daisy.
Simmons quickly turned and threw several locking charms on the door, before looking back out the window. But whoever it was had apparently boarded the train already as she could no longer see them, so she turned back towards the door.
"Someone's approaching, student I think by the size," whispered Daisy.
A few seconds later the door rattled as someone tried to open it. Daisy relit her wand against the glass, hand covering the tip of her wand on their side so all the light would go through the glass onto the person wanting to enter, so she could see who it was without blinding themselves.
"Neville? What are you doing here?" asked Daisy in confusion upon seeing the clumsy Gryffindor boy, even though only the three of them inside the compartment could actually hear her. She extinguished her light again. "Our characters didn't really hang out with him that much first two years, did they?"
"No, but probably more than anyone else in Gryffindor did, sadly," answered Simmons. "He doesn't exactly have the most friends."
"Well, if we're getting attacked, the last thing I want is him under our feet," said Daisy. "Hopefully he'll get the message we're not letting him in."
"Why is he wandering the corridor in the dark, anyway?" asked Fitz as he looked out at the dark shape that was trying to rattle the door open again.
"Because he's not a Shield agent with tactical training," answered Simmons. "And because whoever he was in a compartment with when the lights went out didn't care enough to tell him to stay inside the compartment. Oh, and of course the fact he's thirteen, as is probably everyone he was in the compartment with."
"Second person coming up," said Daisy, still trying to look down the hall past Neville. "Slightly smaller, presumably another student."
"Oh great, not that Creevey kid, is it?" grumbled Fitz.
"Can't tell," answered Daisy.
Outside, they heard indistinct mumbling, as Neville most likely told the newcomer that the door was locked and he couldn't get in. The newcomer began pulling on the door with him, in the classic 'maybe if I try to open the clearly locked door as well it'll open this time, and I don't have any better plan anyway' horror movie move, but the door remained firmly locked and closed. But suddenly the one Fitz and Daisy were pretty sure was Neville grabbed the other's arm and hurriedly pulled them both across the corridor and into the compartment across the hall that apparently was open, as they quickly disappeared inside it.
"Something much bigger is coming down the hall, looking more like it's gliding than walking," said Daisy.
But before she could see anything more, a hoarse voice behind her suddenly said, "Quiet!", and a light suddenly filled the compartment.
"Turn that off!" hissed Daisy sharply. "I can't see anything anymore!"
But Professor RJ Lupin ignored her, saying in his same hoarse voice but with an urgency of his own, "Get away from door. Get behind me."
Unable to see out the door anymore anyway, Daisy silently signaled Fitz to do as Lupin said (Simmons was still back by the window from when she'd looked out a few minutes before), before moving backwards herself, wand up and continuing to face the door except for a quick glance backwards to make sure she didn't run into Professor Lupin. She vaguely noticed that he seemed to be holding flames in his hand instead of having lit his wand, but as it seemed irrelevant to the situation at hand, she didn't pay it any real attention.
Once the three of them were behind him, Lupin began moving cautiously towards the door, but before he could get there, the door slid open, whoever it was outside apparently capable of unlocking magically locked doors. A cloaked figure glided into the doorframe, towering all the way up to the ceiling. The room suddenly felt extremely cold, as the thing took a long, slow, rattling breath and looked into the compartment at the four of them.
"You hear that screaming?" asked Fitz, not taking his eyes or wand off of the hooded creature.
"No — parseltongue again?" asked Simmons.
"No — a woman's scream. Sounds like she's being murdered or something," answered Fitz.
"I can't hear anything — and I mean I literally don't hear anything outside of us talking. Plus, there shouldn't be any women on this train, other than the snack lady, right?" said Daisy. "Not her, is it?"
"Sounds younger than that, but not a girl," answered Fitz. "And I'm still hearing it — no distinct words or anything, though. But like you said, it's literally the only thing I hear besides us."
"Still just very eerie, unnatural silence for me," said Daisy. "Not related to Leopold, is it?"
"Not anything that it's ever been before," answered Fitz. "And she's not screaming at me, or for me, or anything to do with me that I can tell. More like when Ward was torturing Jemma to get me to go to Maveth, and I could just hear her screams but nothing else."
As they talked, Lupin stepped forward towards the thing, pulled out his wand, and said to it, "None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go."
When the thing refused to move for several more seconds, seemingly staring intently at Fitz even though they couldn't see any actual eyes, or anything for that matter, under its hood, Lupin muttered, "Expecto Patronum," and a silvery ghost-like wolf shot out of the end of his wand, pushing the being out of the compartment and back into the corridor from whence it came, and possibly even further as the ghost-wolf didn't return to him before he closed the compartment door again.
"What charm did you just use to make it go away? That silvery thing you just did — can you teach us how to do that?" asked Simmons as soon as the hooded figure was gone.
But Lupin was staring in clear surprise at the three of them just calmly standing there. "None of you even flinched. How?"
FitzSkimmons quickly exchanged glances, before Simmons asked, "What was it? Or more specifically, how exactly does it work, to normally cause whatever reaction we didn't have? And what reaction is that? I mean, I felt the extreme cold it exuded on the room, but I assume you're not talking about that."
"And it kind of felt like it was trying to freeze the insides of part of me or something — I'm not really sure how to describe it," added Daisy. "Maybe like half of me never thought I'd be happy again? If that makes any sense."
"I heard a woman's scream that clearly no one else could," chimed in Fitz. "And like the two ladies said, definitely felt the extreme cold and like it was trying to freeze out part of me, or suck part of me away, or something — definitely not a pleasant feeling, or anything I'd ever want to feel again."
After studying the three of them carefully for several seconds, Lupin finally said, "They are called dementors. They protect Azkaban, and they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Stay near them too long and they will suck every good feeling, every happy memory, out of you. And if you have memories that are painful enough, you can even relive them inside your mind."
"That must have been the screaming you heard," said Simmons. "Not Petunia Dursley, was it?"
"No, but what other woman would I have ever heard screaming like that?" answered Fitz.
"Your mom," said Daisy suddenly. "They were killed by Riddle, right? It would make sense that she might have screamed at some point if he didn't shoot them in the back before they knew he was there."
"That would make sense — and I've never heard her voice before, or at least after I was old enough to remember it, so I wouldn't recognize it," replied Fitz.
Looking over at Professor Lupin, Simmons decided to partially reveal their secret — it's not like he'd really believe what she said anyway, and she wasn't going to exactly tell him what was going on.
"To answer your question about why we weren't affected, our memories the dementor was feeding on aren't ours — or, at least, we have no emotional connection to that set of memories, so we don't feel any happiness, or sadness, or fear, or anything from the memories and feelings it was sucking out of us or leaving us only with. So we could feel the physical sensations of cold and absolute silence, but not the despair of losing happy memories and being forced to only remember bad memories. It's like — it was happening to someone else, someone we don't even have any empathy for. That's the most I can explain it to you, and honestly probably too much. Sorry."
Lupin continued to study them for several seconds, before finally saying, "Well, whatever it is, you're very lucky. Dementors are terrible for most people. But I still want you to eat some chocolate, at least to get rid of any lingering effects of the cold."
And he proceeded to pull a chocolate bar out of his robes, and break off four pieces, handing them each one. As they saw him eat his own piece, they ate theirs as well, immediately feeling a sudden rush of warmth flood through them, though admittedly not the same kind of warmth they were used to flooding through them quite frequently, especially when they knew they had plenty of time all alone.
Once she finished eating her piece, Simmons asked again, "So can you teach us the spell you used to make the dementor leave?"
"Well…you don't really seem to need it, do you? You aren't affected by them somehow," answered Lupin slowly.
"But other people around us are, you said," answered Simmons. "It would be good to be able to protect them, besides not having to trust that this wasn't some kind of fluke. And we just want to learn everything we can."
Lupin hesitated for a second, before finally saying, "It's a very advanced piece of magic, usually not even taught at Hogwarts. But you three are clearly not normal, so if you prove yourselves in Defense class, I'll try to teach it to you."
FitzSkimmons nodded their agreement, before they all sat down again. FitzSkimmons took up three seats this time across from Lupin, through Simmons and Daisy did sit closer to Fitz in the middle than strictly necessary, figuring that since Lupin already thought them unusual, a little more unusualness wouldn't hurt anything and they'd have a more pleasant last bit of the ride up to the Hogsmeade train platform. Simmons also began organizing in her mind everything she knew about the spell Lupin had used — 'Expecto Patronum' — so that she could go ahead and find it, and research it, and hopefully they all begin learning it long before Lupin decided they were ready.
~FSK~
Walking out onto the Hogsmeade train platform ten minutes later, they followed everyone not first year towards a row of stagecoaches waiting to take them up to the castle.
They climbed inside the first available empty one, unnecessarily but very happily all squishing onto just one of the two available bench seats inside, and the horseless carriage soon began rolling up the long dirt road to the castle.
Midway through the ride, Daisy looked across Fitz at Simmons and asked, "Do you really think we weren't affected because the dementors can't access our feelings, only those of Harry, Hermione, and Ronna?"
"It's my only guess," answered Simmons. "I've never heard of these creatures before, so I don't know anything about them other than what Lupin told us. But based on Fitz hearing what was most likely Harry's memory of his mum, and the fact we all felt like only half of us, and the half that's purely memory, no emotions, was attacked by the dementor, it makes the most sense."
None of them said anything more about the dementors, really having nothing else to say at the moment, and they soon arrived outside the great oak front doors of Hogwarts castle. Walking inside the castle, they had just made it to the doors of the Great Hall when they heard Professor McGonagall shout at them, "Granger! I need to see you!"
As Fitz and Daisy turned to look at Simmons in surprise, Simmons said quickly, "We need to talk to her anyway, to get you two onto my class schedule. Now's as good a time as any."
So the three of them turned around and began moving towards where their Head of House was standing on the first step of the Grand Staircase, out of the way of everyone crossing through the Entrance Hall to get to the Great Hall for the Feast. Fighting their way over to her through the throng moving in quite the opposite direction of them, they finally made it over.
"I just need to speak to Granger — move along, Potter, Weasley," Professor McGonagall said sternly as all three of them stepped up onto the first stair next to her.
"Actually, we have something we need to talk to you about as well," answered Simmons politely, but firmly.
"Oh — very well then, follow me," answered Professor McGonagall, before leading them up to her office.
Once they were inside and she'd motioned for them to sit down across from her desk, she said, "So what is it you needed to talk to me about?"
Glancing over at the other two, who both psychically told her that she was more than welcome to take lead on this, since neither of them wanted to have to be the one to tell Professor McGonagall that they were taking more classes than they'd signed up for (even Daisy could communicate that much psychically, even if her psychic link to FitzSimmons wasn't anywhere near what FitzSimmons' psychic link was to each other), Simmons looked back at Professor McGonagall and said, "Harry and Ronna would like to take every single class, the same as I am. They already have all of the books, have skimmed through them all on the train ride up here, and are more than capable of handling the workload — and since we'll all three be taking all the classes, we can help one another should any one of us fall slightly behind in a subject."
She said it lightly, not demanding, but also in a tone that clearly implied they'd all be going to all the classes whether McGonagall officially gave Harry and Ronna all the classes or not. After all, they already had all the books, and did everything together anyway.
McGonagall stared at them in clear shock for several seconds, before finally clearing her throat and saying, "I allowed you, Miss Granger, to sign up for every class last spring because you have proven you can handle the workload, as you are without a doubt the best student here, and certainly in your year. But I'm afraid I can't allow Potter and Weasley to take that many classes — I do not believe they would be able to produce satisfactory work in that many subjects."
"We'll be going to all the classes anyway — ma'am," said Fitz with a tone of finality. "We will all be taking the same classes."
"You most certainly will not!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall.
"I'm afraid you're wrong there, ma'am," replied Simmons politely. "We will be attending all of the classes."
"No!"
"Yes."
"I won't allow you to!"
"You can't stop us."
"Yes I can!"
"No, you physically can't — you have classes of your own you have to teach, you can't follow us around all the time."
"I can expel you!"
"Then do it — throw us out for taking too many classes. I dare you," said Simmons coldly.
McGonagall finally seemed to realize that she couldn't win the childish shouting match she'd foolishly allowed FitzSkimmons to pull her into, and didn't immediately shout anything back. Instead, she chewed on her lip for several seconds, thinking hard for a solid reason to deny Potter and Weasley the ability to take every class, before finally just saying, "Potter and Weasley physically won't be able to make it to all of the classes."
She knew it was a very flimsy bluff, as she had already said that she was going to let Miss Granger take all of the classes, but it was the only card she had left to play that wasn't just shouting yes and no back and forth at each other until someone said the same thing the other side had just said in hopes that the other side would then say the opposite, giving them the permission they wanted. And she was smart enough to see that if she walked out, they would just proceed to ignore her insistence that they couldn't take the classes and take them anyway, which would render this entire argument worthless.
"You said at the start of this that I could take everything — which means it very much must be possible, and however I can do it, I will make sure Harry and Ronna do it with me," replied Simmons coolly, making sure McGonagall knew that she wasn't pleased with the older woman trying to freeze out her spouses.
McGonagall tried to think of any way out of her predicament, but she knew there wasn't any. Either she let Potter and Weasley try to take all of the classes with Granger, which was bad, or she didn't give Granger the Time-Turner and didn't let any of them take all the classes, meaning she would have to deny her greatest pupil the opportunity to shine, and more importantly explain to the Ministry why she was returning the Time-Turner she'd practically blackmailed them into letting her have, which was not an option.
So she finally sighed, and said, "Very well, then. But the moment I hear of any of your grades suffering in any class — that goes for you as well, Granger — I'm pulling you out of classes." Sighing again she continued on, "This also happens to be what I needed to talk to Granger about — and now apparently both of you as well. I wasn't joking when I said you physically can't take all of the classes at the same time — too many of them overlap with each other. However, there is a magical object called a Time-Turner. It allows the user to travel backwards in time, in order to be in multiple classes at once. It is a great privilege to be allowed to have one by the Ministry of Magic, and I had to write extensively to the Ministry to obtain one for Granger. Only model students are allowed one, and you must never, ever use it for anything other than your studies. And I must insist you all swear to me that you will tell no one about it, or use it for any purpose other than your classes. It is a very dangerous thing, messing with time. Awful things can happen when wizards meddle with time. Many have ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake, scared dark magic is going on when they see another one of themselves."
"But shouldn't you be okay seeing yourself as long as your future self only appears to a past self that already knows it can time-travel?" asked Fitz. "I mean, yeah, sure, it'd be a surprise to see yourself, but you'd already know you could do it."
"Harry!" hissed Simmons out of the side of her mouth. "We're trying to convince her to let us do this, not give her reasons to say no!"
"Oh. Sorry," mumbled Fitz.
"He does sound right, though," interjected Daisy, unable to leave the hole Fitz had started only partially dug. "I mean, we of course won't do it, we promise, but especially if you thought up a signal to give your other selves now, before any traveling started, you would be able to easily recognize that it was just a future version of yourself you were seeing, and not try to kill your future self. And yes, there are lots of paradoxes that come with time travel, those two know better than I do, it still mostly wizzes right over my head to be honest, but it seems like you wouldn't kill yourself."
McGonagall was staring at all three of them in surprise, possibly not having even thought about some of the things they were saying, and definitely surprised at how much they already seemed to know about time travel and its possible dangers for not even knowing that time travel existed at all until just a couple minutes before. But she collected herself, and simply said, "I am trusting you to only use this for classes, and not hurt yourselves or let anyone else know what you are doing."
Pulling a very long, very fine gold chain with a tiny, sparkling hourglass hanging from it out from inside her robes, she reluctantly handed it over to Simmons. "Each turn of the hourglass over, will take you one hour back in time. And the gold chain must be around all three of your necks to take you back. Finally, if I hear anything about you abusing this, I will take it away from all three of you. Do you understand?"
All three of them nodded their agreement. "Yes, Ma'am."
"Very well, then. You may go to the feast."
~FSK~
By the time they walked back down to the Great Hall, the Sorting Ceremony was already over.
Not that FitzSkimmons particularly cared, as it wasn't like they were hardly ever going to see any of the new first years that were sorted into Gryffindor or any other House, except in passing in the halls and in the Great Hall at meals, so it didn't really matter to them what House anyone was sorted into. They did, however, arrive in time to hear Dumbledore warn everyone about the dementors, along with announce the two new professors for that year. Professor Lupin as the DADA professor was expected, a given really, but then Dumbledore announced that Hagrid would be taking over Care of Magical Creatures.
All three of them turned to stare at each other.
"He's not even a wizard, let alone a teacher!" hissed Daisy.
"Well, he is a wizard, just an expelled one who's not supposed to have a wand, and the one he does have is snapped in half but still somehow works a lot better than Ron's last year," replied Simmons. "But he definitely isn't a professor."
"Makes sense why we have a book that bites everyone, now," muttered Fitz darkly. "Norbert — Aragog — he probably doesn't even know books exist that don't try to kill you."
"Of course, didn't you two have lots of teachers over the years who were just experts in their fields, and not actual trained teachers?" asked Daisy after a second. "Because Hagrid does have a lot of experience with wild animals, if the last two years are anything to go off of."
"Well, yes, but they were the absolute leaders of their respective fields, and highly, highly specialized fields at that usually, and they usually had decades of experience giving lectures in their fields, which are really just concentrated, condensed lessons," answered Simmons. "Also, they all went through twenty plus years of school themselves, which in and of itself doesn't make someone capable of teaching, but they were all at least around a lot of teaching before starting to teach themselves, something Hagrid certainly doesn't have having got expelled during his third year."
"Also, not every genius in their field does become a professor, even for a short amount of time," added Fitz. "Jemma and I, for instance, never taught any classes, even first year ones, at the Academy when we were at Sci-Ops before Coulson recruited us to the BUS. And while we were quite young at the time, too young to teach people who would have still been nearly our age even our last couple years at Sci-Ops, I for one don't think we ever would have been professors, even though if Shield had continued on without the whole Hydra disaster, and we didn't join the BUS, by now we probably would have been asked to. And Hagrid just doesn't seem to me like the kind who would, or should, be asked to teach, even if he does happen to be a leading authority on magical creatures, which we honestly don't know if he is or not. We only know he's had a few, and they don't exactly seem to have turned out all that well for him, all things considered."
"Oh, okay — that makes sense," said Daisy.
Meanwhile, all around them, the Gryffindor table was exploding in tumultuous applause, along with a reasonable amount of applause from the other two respectful Houses, apparently uncaring that they were getting a professor who knew absolutely nothing about teaching.