Chapter Thirty-Five

Forming Up

It had been difficult to teach class that day after getting so little sleep that night. It had been even more difficult to attend the Libris Meeting, and she nearly dozed off a time or two, quickly protesting every attempt to go to the Green Candlestick in favor of her nice comfortable bed at Whitebridge.

She slept in late, grabbing an apple from one of the trees for her breakfast as she took Radiance out for a walk in the garden, wondering where a good place would be to do forms when practice was in full swing inside the Quidditch Stadium. Surely there was another open space somewhere she could use, she mused, wandering around looking for Raymond and found her way to the Wizardnet Lab. Curiously she went in, finding Raymond along with one of Frank's student aids and two other students. She smiled and went over to him.

"Watching the lab today?" Jennifer asked quietly.

"Yes, Frank is out for the weekend," Raymond explained, and Jennifer could plainly see that he had a date. "Did you need something?"

"Actually, I was looking for you," Jennifer admitted. "I'm stiff from all of that silly trick-or-treating the other day and I was looking for somewhere to do forms at when the Stadium's being used. Any ideas?"

"A few," Raymond replied. "When the weather's good, I like to go up to the roof of the Healer's School during the day. It's easy to get to from the Gazebo. The gardens are pretty from up there too."

"Oh, that's where the Astrology and Astronomy classes are held, right?" Jennifer recalled.

"Yes, but not during the day, obviously," Raymond replied. "My shift ends in half an hour. Mind if I join you then? I'm curious to what forms you might know and I don't and vice versa."

"Sure, that sounds interesting," Jennifer said cheerfully and walked out of the room, Raymond smiling thinly at that before going back to his Auror Capture videos.

As Jennifer walked to the Healer's School, she took a moment to pass by the Potion Lab and peered in, stepping inside when she saw Lav busy making a potion. Kay was in sunglasses again and Gretchen had a bag of ice on her forehead.

"Oh no, not again," Jennifer chuckled at them, watching as Lav poured them both a hangover potion.

"At least give me credit for staying out of it," Lav said. "Kay did something really dumb, and I decided to stay out of it so that I could make sure they both got back here okay."

"Why, what did she do?" Jennifer asked, but Kay was too busy holding her nose and trying to get the potion down to answer.

"She challenged our esteemed fifth Coven member to a drinking contest," Lav explained.

"What? Are you quite insane?" Jennifer said with an incredulous laugh. "Kay, she's half Dark Elf. You're quite lucky you didn't do permanent damage to yourself being that silly!"

"I already had a few drinks in me when I challenged her, so I already wasn't thinking clearly," Kay admitted.

"Well, it's a good think Lavender had enough since to look after you, then. I expect you should take it easy next time we have a gathering," Jennifer said. As the potion began to work, Gretchen looked decidedly better, while Lavender took the precaution to give them both some tomato juice and lemon to help with the dehydration.

"So where are you off to, Jennifer? Family visit?" Lavender wondered when Jennifer looked like she was going to step back outside again.

"Oh, no, Halloween and breakfast yesterday morning counted for that. I'm going up to the roof of the Healer's School to do Defense forms with Raymond," Jennifer explained. Kay looked over with a frown. "I'm still stiff from walking and decided to get some exercise. Besides, every time I try to Owl my father to see how the twins are doing, he keeps asking me if I've been able to get back on track yet," she admitted.

"Maybe someone should go up there to supervise," Lavender said, squinting suspiciously.

"Honest, Lavender, it's just Raymond, and I can very well take care of myself," Jennifer said.

"I'll go," Kay volunteered.

"Oh, come on, you're not even standing yet," Lav chuckled at her, and Kay shakily stood up.

"I want to go too. I haven't kept up on it since I left Hogwarts," Gretchen said, getting up and stretching. "Thanks, Lav, I feel a lot better."

"You betcha. I should stay here and bottle what's left for the next time you two overdo it," Lav said knowingly.

"I'll be up after I finish a bit more of this," Kay promised, so Jennifer and Gretchen walked back out and towards the Gazebo.

"I hope you're not going to be too critical. I haven't kept up my Defense forms since I graduated from Durmstrang," Gretchen admitted.

"That's all right, just go at your own pace," Jennifer reassured her with a smile. "I wonder how much Defense Kay has had, though?"

"She graduated from here, so I doubt she's had much at all," Gretchen replied. "You know they don't have any sort of sparring club here, they never have."

"Yes, I do know that. Defense at Whitebridge hasn't ever covered more than the basics unless someone was planning on going into a WIAB field," Jennifer said. "It reminds me about that incident with Jacob Greencastle, honestly."

"Joanie Greencastle's husband?" Gretchen asked, and Jennifer nodded, spending their time in the Floating Gazebo telling her about how he invited a pack of vampires into his research center. Gretchen chuckled at the story, and was shaking her head by the time they stepped onto the roof. "If it was anyone from Durmstrang, I assure you, they would not have made such a mistake. But then, we have always had a resident vampire nearby that we've had to keep an eye on, and some of them had a lot of stitches to their name."

"Yes, we've always had one or two to keep an eye on around Hogwarts as well. Even after Sunset Dawn was destroyed, it didn't take long for some of the Bridal Clan to move in," Jennifer replied thoughtfully. "Beauxbatons have always had more than one in the area as well, not to mention other beasts, and Greenburrow always has to deal with a whole range of different creatures, especially after the portal breaches and all those different Dark faerie races reinhabited those areas. I suppose Whitebridge, being in the middle of the city, really hasn't much threat to deal with, has it?" she conjectured.

"No, it is very boring here," Gretchen replied so genuinely that Jennifer couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Even in the middle of the Gardens, sometimes it's easy to pretend that none of that evil element even exists. Magic Creatures are something one sees at a Magical Creatures Park, and Wizards bent on destroying the universe is something that only happens in other places, never here." Jennifer thought about that, gazing over the Gardens with a frown.

"That worries me," Jennifer admitted, Gretchen nodding in understanding at that. "I wonder what it would take to get a sparring club started here?"

"That would never go over, Jennifer, you know that. It's a Light School focused on Healing. They'd never approve it," Gretchen said. "It's too violent."

"I'm sorry, have you ever been to an American Football game, let alone a Quidditch game?" Jennifer asked with a laugh. "In a controlled setting with a restricted list of spells, sparring is much safer."

"Well, that argument might get Brenda to go along with it, and everyone knows Wind will go along with anything you propose. But what about the board?" Gretchen asked.

"Oh, dash the board, what can they do?" Jennifer said.

"Pull funding, obviously," Gretchen replied.

"Well, then we need to do something to take away some of that power. In fact, what this school really needs more than anything is a way to ditch this school board system altogether and start fresh with a board of alumni that is only concerned about advising this school and its students, not some bureaucratic political workhorse that's more focused on getting reelected and how much power they have in the community at large," Jennifer replied, Gretchen's eyes growing wider by the second.

"Getting all of the teachers on board with you bucking the system when it comes to tests is one thing, Jennifer. But how are you going to break the system on that high of a level?" Gretchen asked.

"I don't know," Jennifer admitted. "I'll ask our fifth at Coven for ideas on that one. And in the meantime, I'm going to help Raymond start a sparring club whether the board approves or not."

When Raymond stepped onto the roof, Gretchen and Jennifer were still talking quietly among themselves. But the moment they noticed him, Jennifer flashed him that coaxing smile that made him instantly realize she was after something; it was the same smile she had given Frank the other day when coaxing him to take the Wizardnet offline for December testing.

"Just tell me what you want me to do," he said with resignation before she even said a word. Gretchen snickered.

When Kay and Lav got up to the top a few minutes later, the three of them had started some warm ups and were talking to each other, and it even seemed as if Jennifer and Raymond were showing a off a little. In fact, they were busy attempting to gauge each other's levels to try and discern a working level.

"Honestly, I really should be able to keep up with a simple Dragon in a Bee's Nest routine! Father is right. I have been neglecting my routines lately," Jennifer said with a sigh.

"Simple?" Gretchen repeated, gawking at her. "I feel like a first year student after watching the two of you."

"You aren't as bad as all of that, Gretchen. I have seen new Auror recruits with similar skills," Raymond protested, going over to her. "You simply need to loosen up a little, and wait until you're to the point where the routine has become muscle memory before you learn another one," he explained.

Kay's expression darkened a little as he watched Raymond take Gretchen through the Tern Defense form she was working on. Lav noticed the expression and stepped up, clearing her throat to announce their presence.

"Hey! You guys are good. It's a bit like a martial arts thing, isn't it?" Lav asked.

"Lav? You haven't done forms before?" Jennifer asked.

"I graduated from here, what do you think?" Lav reminded her. "So did Kay."

"See what I mean, Ray?" Jennifer said, gazing at him.

"I did start teaching it to my Defense classes this year after we started going off script," Ray reminded her.

"I know, but the Defense program here is completely inadequate, Ray, and you know it. To put it bluntly, I really don't want to hear another story of a Whitebridge student letting a pack of vampires in their house again. I know that many of the people who graduate from here may work in hospitals or in science labs or factories, but what if something did happen? They wouldn't know what to do. I don't know if you know this, but the last battle of the Sunset Dawn War was fought on the grounds of St. Mungo's hospital," Jennifer told him evenly. "And like it or not, Witches and Wizards do have to face certain dangers just because we're magic. Going into an office building and pretending to be Muggle does not change that danger level, no matter what they might tell themselves. In fact, we should be pointing that fact out to them so that they don't have a false sense of security."

"Alright! Alright! You're preaching to the choir, here Jennifer, I was an Auror, remember?" Ray protested with a chuckle.

"Yes, and you graduated from here too. Perhaps you wouldn't have had so much of an uphill battle in that field if you'd known more going in," Jennifer said.

"My father already taught me forms before that," Raymond murmured.

"Yes, but was that really enough? They're required to have five years of Defense of Hogwarts, and we always recommend seven. Two just simply doesn't cut it," Jennifer said.

"Yes, but there's a give and take to that. Adding more years to Defense means that some other class will have to be cut," Raymond said.

"Not necessarily, but we can discuss that later. I need to start these two on some basics, while you help Gretchen," Jennifer said.

When Jennifer walked over to Lavender and Kay, she couldn't help but notice just how annoyed Kay was at the idea of Raymond being put in charge of Gretchen's progress. Jennifer couldn't help but smile knowingly at that, somehow managing to pull her attention back to the center as Jennifer started them on some basics.

By Monday morning, nearly every bulletin board had a notice of a new club written on parchment and tacked down on each one, anything but subtle considering that most of the other notices had been written on thin copy paper. Both students and staff alike couldn't help but glance at it curiously.

The Competitive Defense Club is looking for members from anyone on campus who would like to intend. The club consists of learning defense and attack wand forms, situational self defense techniques, as well as formal wand competitions. If interested, meet on the Stadium field at 4pm on Thursday. J. Craw and R. Eldridge.

Outside of the cafeteria waiting for breakfast, quite a number of both students and staff members stopped to stare at it.

"Formal wand competitions?" Jason Cole asked curiously.

"Hey! I think that means it's a dueling club of some kind," Cecil Powers said. All of the sudden quite a number of the students were talking about it excitedly, while Asher Smith stood there and stared at it a moment longer, wondering about how it was worded.

Jennifer passed the group with an enigmatic smile on her face, stepping into the cafeteria in front of them and making them all realize that the doors had been opened. Asher quickly leapt into the line in front of the students and went straight over to the coffee, therefore getting there before Jennifer had gotten that far.

"Are you starting a dueling club?" Asher asked her when she finally came over.

"It will involve competitive sparring, yes," Jennifer said with a smile.

"It really doesn't matter what you call it. I'm sure the board will have something to say about it," Asher warned.

"More than likely," Jennifer agreed unconcernedly getting herself a cup. "And yes, Asher, staff are welcome to attend as well."

Gasping when he realized that her glasses were down, Asher quickly grabbed his coffee and hurried back to the other side of the room. Jennifer chuckled and shook her head, taking her tray over to her table by the pond.

Wind watched from the stands as Raymond and Jennifer organized them into groups depending on their skill level with defensive forms, painfully aware of just how many staff were standing with the large amount of students in the beginner's category. He listened to the agreed upon rules and watched as they broke up into two sections with Jennifer leading the large beginner group while Raymond led the others through a simple defensive block pattern. No doubt about it, they had their work cut out for them, Wind mused. But then, they weren't the only ones.

The next morning, he had just enough time to get a cup of coffee and take a walk through the garden to prepare himself before Steve Mason showed up at his office door without an appointment. Wind greeted him cordially when he found him waiting there.

"Good morning, Steve. How good of you to call," Wind replied, unlocking his door and letting them in.

"I hope I'm not keeping you from an appointment, but I must speak with you immediately," Steve said.

"It's no trouble, I had my first appointment free," Wind said calmly, gesturing to a chair and unsurprised when he didn't take it right away.

"It has come to my attention that students were having duels on the premises yesterday evening," Steve said heatedly.

"No, not to my knowledge, Steve. Although some were being instructed in competitive wand sparring yesterday..."

"Call it what you will! Students were learning how to fight each other! It is completely unacceptable to encourage this sort of rampant violence. They will surely start using their wands in every day disputes instead of working things out in a rational and civilized manner," he continued, while Wind unconcernedly reached for a printout. "Not only that, they're going to end hurting each other, and one of them might even get killed..."

"From a disarm spell?" Wind inquired curiously. "That's the only spell that club is using at the moment."

"Oh, but you know as well as I do that it doesn't stop there. Once they master that, I'm sure they'll learn even more Defense spells!" Steve said.

"You mean like the ones that Mr. Eldridge already teaches them?" Wind inquired.

"Worse! Harmful spells! Maybe even Dark spells, considering who it was that formed this club in the first place!" Steve warned.

"Ah, so this isn't about sparring at all. It's about Jennifer again," Wind decided.

"Of course it's about the sparring! This sort of thing has no business in a Wizard's School!" he snapped.

"I see that Northwestern has a sparring team... Salem does as well," Wind mused, glancing over the print out.

"They're private schools and can do what they like!" Steve snapped.

"Oh look! I have here the official regulations for wand sparring for Junior and High School levels, as approved by the federal Department of Wizard Affairs, stating that as of the start of last year, nearly a hundred different schools were competing. Not only that, I'm sure you know that some of the wizard colleges host a team. If they graduated and went on to another school, they would have a much better chance at getting a scholarship if they competed at a high school level, you know," Wind pointed out. Steve clenched his fists and glared at him. "Besides that, if you really had any objections to there being a sparring team, I'm sure you would have been in here Monday afternoon after that sign went up. Instead, you waited until after the club had their first session to be particularly outraged, because you were very much hoping that Jennifer would do something questionable that you could come storming in here about. Unfortunately for you, she did go by the book. I know because I sat in the stands and watched the entire session," he added for good measure. "After all, she's been Hogwarts' own Sparring Master since Severus left that position to become Headmaster. I'm quite sure she knows what she's doing. I am happy she is helping so many students get more involved in their Defense lessons, as well the rest of their studies this year. The students are much more engaged than I have seen in many a year."

"That remains to be seen. We haven't seen their POW tests yet," Steve reminded him.

"Don't worry, Steve. We have a specialist in Wizardnet security coming next month to check over our systems," Wind assured him with a smile.

"I have serious doubts that the school's Wizardnet security is the problem. Are you sure that one of your teachers didn't intentionally sabotage those tests because they were afraid they weren't doing their jobs teaching this year?" Steve challenged him.

"I do not make random accusations of my staff without evidence, Steve, they're like a family to me," Wind said firmly. "But there is one thing I can assure you as Dean of this school, and that is that all of my faculty have been doing a fantastic job teaching this year, most especially Jennifer."

"Yes, well, we'll see about that," Steve snapped. "Don't be surprised if this comes up at the next school board meeting. I am certain that quite a number of parents will be their to express their outrage over this violent new sport and why the board wasn't informed of it."

"I'm sure it will come up," Wind said unconcernedly, finally taking his seat. Steve stormed out of the room in a huff and Wind sighed, shaking his head. He spotted Brenda peering around the corner with a stack of folders in her hand, turning back to watch Steve stomp out of the Assembly Building before finally stepping into the room.

"Looks like he beat Stacey this time," Brenda ventured.

"If she comes, I won't see her. Harry Cole gave his direct permission for his boys to be in that sparring club, so she has no say in it this time," Wind replied.

"So all of the bases are covered," Brenda concluded.

"For the moment, at least," Wind said, then turned his attention to work.