Teachers and one Percy Weasley took up the new hobby of stalking young Harry Potter wherever he went. I knew there was no threat whatsoever, but I pitched in every now and then just to not seem strange. I mother henned Remus Lupin when he started looking haggard around time for the Full Moon, and I saw Minerva and Severus' separate 'aha' moments, when they realized that I hadn't been told what he was. He probably realized it as well, attempting to keep his distance.

I didn't allow that, sitting beside him at meals the day before a full moon and shoving food his way.

"You're looking pale again, Remus. Eat something, before you float away, you're looking skinnier too."

Remus was saved by the arrival of one Madame Hooch, shoving a school broom at me.

"Good, someones up. The Gryffindors need someone to observe practice, and I have somewhere to be. I was worried I'd have to cancel if Remus was the only one here. Looks like a good wind would blow him over at the moment."

She whirled around to leave, and I stared in horror at the broom in my hands. I heard snickering from beside me and glared at the werewolf, who swallowed it back quickly, not quite hiding his smile.

"Not a fan of flying then?"

"Never flown a broom before."

"What?!"

I shrugged, not taking my glare away from the broom.

"Not that I remember anyway. I'm sure I can convince Mister Wood that I can observe from the ground just fine…"

The Gryffindors were all on the pitch waiting for me, Oliver looking surprised that it was me. Great, she hadn't explained then.

I scowled at the world in general, clutching the broom.

"Alright, listen up, I'm saying this once. Madame Hooch had somewhere to be, and you've got me instead. I've never flown a broom in my life, so I'll be in the stands. Try not to get yourselves killed."

They stood there frozen, and I had to wonder if maybe the 'don't get killed' bit had been too much. Then the Twins recovered, looks of horror adorning both of their faces.

"Never flown a broom!?"

"What's America like, then, if you're not given classes on how to fly!?"

"This is blasphemy!"

Even young Harry Potter was giving me a mournful look and I sidled away from all of them a bit.
"Yeah, well, I'll just sit in the stands. I've never seen a game of Quidditch either, so you guys better practice. I'll not have the first game I see sucking."

I stuck my tongue out at them playfully and they kicked into gear, the twins muttering all the way up into the air.

"Never seen a game-"

"-honestly, what other kinds of deprivation-"

"-has our poor American teacher gone through?"

"This has to be fixed-"

"-I agree completely."

Well, that was ominous. I watched them whirl through the air, tossing the balls back and forth, running through various drills. It was hours before they stopped, most of them making their way back into the castle after a quick wave my way. Harry was still up in the air, conversing with the twins and I settled back to wait on him.

After several moments Harry nodded and I had a feeling I wasn't going to like what came next. They swooped in, hovering in the air in front of me,

"Well, Professor, it's time for you to learn to fly!"

"We three Gryffindors have decided you need to learn, and who better to learn from than our glorious selves and the youngest seeker in a century?"
I snorted, pointing down to the ground.

"I don't think so, boys."

The opened their mouths, all simultaneously, and I cut in, knowing if they got out their arguments I would crack.

"I'm guarding out here for a reason, I have to stay vigilant, and messing around on a broom for the first time isn't included in that category. I'm starting to like this job, it'd be nice to keep it."
They sagged a bit and I sighed,

"After all of this mess is finished we'll see about it, alright?"

Highfives all around, and I knew I'd been played. I rolled my eyes, making a shooing motion.

"Go on then, I'll meet you on the ground."

I slid down the railing, rather than taking the stairs, walking over to the kids nonchalantly.

"I'll be walking you to the tower, today, if you don't mind."

Harry looked slightly annoyed, and opened his mouth to protest needing protection in the castle. I beat him to it.

"Mister Potter, this isn't about Sirius Black. This is about the portrait now guarding your common room being all that's left of my best friend."

His eyes widened,

"Really?"

I nodded, shoving the broom into the storage shed beside the twins'.

"Yup. The Doctor and I used to travel everywhere imaginable, getting into all sorts of trouble. And then he died. Professor Snape was kind enough to help me create the portrait, so now I have my friend back. You'll have to excuse me for hanging around your tower so often. I had thought him lost forever."

He shook his head,

"We don't mind. The Doctor's great. He always has something nice to say the lower years, and he's absolutely brilliant at everything. If the upper years have problems with Arithmancy he almost always can help them get back on track."

I nodded, furrowing my brow in thought.

"Yes, Arithmancy is awfully close to Muggle mathematics, so he would be brilliant at it. He's completely genius."

I grinned over at the three students,

"But he's absolutely mad, too."

The twins snorted,

"We noticed."

When we arrived at the tower the students went inside and I stayed, speaking with the Doctor. I talked to him everyday before I went out onto the grounds for my walk. He had been beyond excited at being in the world of magic, wizards, and dragons, and had promptly started spitting out theories as to how I had gotten there, and a few about how I could get home. He also had no idea what to do about the time line. He had actually shrugged when I asked him about it.

"I'm a painting. I can't see fixed points anymore, outside of my frame. What with the dimensional differences I can't exactly say this falls under Time Lord jurisdiction anymore. Perhaps my current self will show up at some point."

I shrugged,
"Doubtful. The rift closed behind me, and the TARDIS didn't seem very hopeful."

I cast a quick tempus, ignoring the Doctor's' excited giggles and babbling about magic.

"I have to go feed the dog now, Doctor. I'll see you tomorrow."
He waved enthusiastically.

"Be careful, Mara!"

"Aren't I always?"

He snorted, snuggling back down into his chair, not bothering to dignify that with an answer.

Sirius got ham today, and a lot of it.

"I get to see my first Quidditch match soon, canine. It's all very exciting, though Slytherin switching times has the Gryffindors up in arms. Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor shouldn't be too bad though. I got to watch the Gryffindors practice and it was brilliant! Not that I know much about it, if I knew anything about that sport it was left with the rest of my memories. Ministry of Magic, my ass. Their the clowns of magic, the dumbass representatives of arcane arts, the cunts of cluelessness. Something along those lines."

I got a dog in my lap for my troubles and I huffed out a breath.

"For such a skinny thing you're awfully heavy."

I ran my fingers through his scraggly fur and sighed,

"I wish I knew who had gotten you into the state you were in before I started feeding you. I'd rip their heads off and shove it up their ass, for their troubles."

He let out a huff of air I decided to interpret as laughter. I sat back against the stone wall of the castle, grateful we had given up meeting by the willow when the weather went to hell. I sighed heavily.
"I don't know what to do, boy. Everyone's up in arms about the guy who escaped that prison, but their stories don't make sense. I asked the portraits about him as a kid and most were unable to believe him capable of what they say he did. There are no records of a trial, and I know how shitty the justice system is here...but he attacked the tower where Harry lives. It's not looking good, but it's all muddled. I'm used to being able to see the signs as if lit up by neon, whipping out a plan from nowhere, and fixing the problem. But there's no one to hit, nothing to make go away, no coup d'etat to organize….well, I'll hold off on that last one. I'm not a fan of the current administration and there's a rather promising Gryffindor who'd I'd be willing to put into place. But then again, it's been a few months since I've toppled a foreign government…"

He sat up straight, licking my nose. I wrinkled it, leaning back slightly.

"Hey, dog breath, what was that for? You support the dismantling of the British Ministry of Magic?"
I got a happy doggy grin and could only snort, pushing him off my lap.

"Whatever, canine. I have detention with one Mister Malfoy to oversee."

I stood, brushing off the jeans I had taken to wearing under my teachers outer robe.

"He said a rather nasty m-word in my presence, and now I get to tortu-I mean entertain him, for a few hours."

I gave his ears a quick ruffle before heading back into the castle for the night.

Dinner was just ending and I nodded to the students that passed me, speaking with Luna for several minutes as I walked, giving a tip on something from her Herbology assignment. When she left for her tower I saw a few upper year Slytherins eyeing her and laughing amongst themselves. I raised an eyebrow at them.

"Care to join your fellow Slytherin in detention this evening?"

Enthusiastic denials.

"Then I suggest you move along. Loitering makes it look like you're...up to something."

I drug out the last part of my sentence, copying a scene with Snape that I couldn't fully remember the circumstances for. They scattered and I made my way to my classroom, where a sullen Draco Malfoy was standing outside the door, for once lacking his two companions. I grinned at him, opening the door with a wave of my hand.

"In you go, Mister Malfoy. I have plans for you today."

Unlike the twins Draco Malfoy could not be trusted to keep silent. But he deserved help as well. He made mistakes in the future, but he was just a kid. Now and then. He didn't know what was truly at stake, didn't truly understand the enormity of his choices, and what he'd done. He had no one to trust, and so he trusted the wrong people in the end. I was hoping to give him someone more in the grey to keep in mind as an option. And I was grey. I didn't agree with the current ministry, but neither was I on Voldies team.

I pulled out my wand, flicking it at the blackboard, clearing it with magic. I pulled off my outer robe, revealing a short sleeved shirt. I didn't particularly care that Draco was staring at the newly revealed marks, tossing the coat onto my desk. I motioned to the desks in the front row,

"Take a seat."

He did so, watching me warily.

I pulled out a piece of chalk,

"Get out some parchment, maybe a quill. I would advise taking notes. You are getting an advanced theory class."

He made a face and I tutted,

"Now, Mister Malfoy, you're an intelligent kid so I'm giving you an opportunity others in the class don't get. If you don't take anything away from this lesson it's because you didn't pay attention, or you didn't want to listen."

I turned back to the board, writing MAGIC in big block letters and turning back to the kid.

"Magic. What is it?"

He stared at me blankly,

"It's magic."

I rolled my eyes,

"Not what I meant, but whatever."

I moved my wand in a gentle arc, letting loose a few silver sparks.

"It's a force, Mister Malfoy. It's a way of life. It's dangerous, but also beautiful and marvelous. Get enough of it concentrated in one place and it takes on a life of its own."

I motioned around us,

"Hogwarts itself is testament to that. Get a few hundred adolescents leaking magical power and put them in the same place. These hallowed grounds are impossibly powerful because the wards feed off this abandoned power, and they turn that power around and recycle it in order to protect the youths who give it life."

He looked interested for the first time since he had arrived this evening, and I could only hope he stayed that way.

"Now, magical power is leaked from the children, but where do the children get it?"

I actually got an answer this time.

"From their parents."
I nodded,

"Yes, and no."

I leaned back against the wall by the board, crossing my arms.

"What did I say in class the other day about the origin of humanity?"

There was a moment while he gathered his thoughts from the abrupt change in subject.

"Either a deity put us here starting with two people, or we all formed as nature allowed."

I nodded,

"Very good, now I want you to keep that in mind."

I turned to the board, sketching out three separate 2x2 punnett squares.

"Have you ever seen a child who got a feature from some distant relative, rather than their own parents? Like their Grandmothers striking green eyes, rather than their mother or fathers brown?"
He nodded so I continued.

"Well, that's because it's random chance which traits you get from who, but you get half from each. For example, I have my great great grandmothers facial structure. I looked nothing like my mother, and it often threw off the people who saw us in public or at family functions and the like. Now-"

I sketched out to the side of the first square, and on the first column to the left, on the first row, 'M' and under it another capital 'M'. I put the same on the top, filling in all four boxes with their 'MM's.

I turned back to him, pointing to the top row.

"The top row is the traits from the father, in this case capital 'M' shall stand for the trait that gives magic. The column belongs to the mother. In this case, there is a 100% probability that the child will have magic."

I turned to the next square. The top row was given a 'M' and a 'm', the column as well.

"This is going to be a halfblood, alright? The lowercase 'm' shall be lack of magic. See how each carries it, but the big M is in front? Magic is dominant. If it's there it will usually fight it's way to the forefront. I did extensive research over all of this mess over the summer. There is a 25% chance that the child of these two half bloods won't so much as carry the possibility for a squib. There is a 50% chance of another halfblood who has the possibility of carrying a squib. And then there is a 25% chance of having the squib in question."

I moved on to the next square, putting a 'M' on the top right next to a 'm', and then two lowercase 'm's on the column.

"This is two squibs."

"How is that possible? You said magic would fight it's way to the front, and that has magic!"

I smiled,

"Usually, I said usually it would fight it's way to the front. But after so many generations of Squibs, the gene for magic will surface again as a recessive. It will appear randomly once again and allow for a magic line, several generations after it was thought lost. Do you know why?"

A headshake.

"There is no such thing as 'muggle'."

The affronted look that got me caused me to snort and wave my hand to prevent a fit.

"Remember about the whole, 'we all formed at the same time' thing? Well, the odds of only having magic pop up in a few and then not spread, or not die out completely, is so miniscule that it's laughable. In the beginning there were wizards. Everyone had the same genes as the halfblood up here, because that's how magic popped up. You see here how some got that 'pure' gene combination? Pureblood lines are an accident. Squibs happen because somewhere down the line a smaller strain of the trait pops up and purely on accident, once again, ends up in the child. Therefore, muggleborns are easily explained. Magic is in the blood of their families, from the very beginning of time itself. And it made itself manifest in them. You call it dirty blood. By all rights it is a miracle. It's an achievement. It's not so surprising for a pureblood to have magic, it's expected. It's an amazing feat of chance and magic that a line long devoid of the trait finds it again."

He was wavering, I could practically smell it, but he was putting on that pureblood mask once again.

"So you're saying that muggles are just long lines of squibs in a row?"

I raised an eyebrow at him,

"I can prove it."

Well, that floored him.

"I can take a sample of blood, examine what's in it, and locate exactly what gives someone magic. I wrote a paper on it, the Headmaster found it an interesting read, I'm told. I thought about publishing a book on it, but I really don't wish to be bothered with couples asking me to help them ensure they get a 'pure' child. Because that's utter rubbish. Magic is everywhere, the close minded many just choose to ignore it. I hadn't pegged you as unintelligent, or incapable of learning. It's disappointing to see you subscribing to the theories of others when I know you have a brain that's perfectly capable of entertaining its own."

I dropped the chalk onto the tray, leaning against my desk.

"I have found all of this, and yet, I have found no correlation between purity of blood, and strength of magical ability. 'Pureblood strength' is a myth at this stage, because you guys are going about it wrong, going off tradition rather than research, theory, and what is already understood."

I sighed, closing the curtains with a wave of my hand, cutting off the light from outside and dimming the room considerably.

"You may go. I want a foot of parchment on what you believe to be needed to make up a 'strong' human being. Your detention with Professor McGonagall that was scheduled for next Friday is now mine. I want you to bring it then, and we'll go over it."

He packed his things up quickly, and I noticed he had copied down the squares, even finishing off the last one that I hadn't filled in completely. Fast learner indeed. He could have been so much more...and maybe now he will actually have a chance to realize this.

~TimeLordOfPie