Stunners

It was the last Wednesday in October. Roy and Julian were sitting together in the common room around nine o'clock in the evening playing a game of wizard chess.

"I don't see you flirting with Patricia anymore," Julian said while sending a Knight to beat Roy's dark-squared Bishop. "Is there nothing going on anymore, or have you just become more discreet?"

Roy's Pawn dragged the rider off his horse.

"I finished it," said Roy, while Julian's brave Knight fled the board.

"How did she take it?"

"Worse than I thought. I mean, apart from a bit of flirting, there was virtually nothing between us, and I actually thought I was quite tactful."

Julian raised his eyebrows doubtfully. "What did you say to her?"

"That I've thought about us, that I've realised that our affair is bound to fail sooner or later, because it's obvious that I'll never be able to marry her, and that she means too much to me for a mere adventure."

"Wow, I wouldn't have believed you are so charming, to be honest," grinned Julian, who was a noted expert in the delicate art of ending affairs with style. "Well, you've actually given her every reason to be flattered."

"I thought so too, but she was pretty hurt," Roy said sadly.

"Probably she feels humiliated. After all, the entire school was gossiping about you both ..."

Julian could not continue speaking because suddenly the door to the common room opened and Whiteman entered. The students looked up: The Head of Slytherin entering the common room rarely meant anything good.

Whiteman immediately and energetically beckoned to Roy and Patricia.

"Call all students out of bed immediately. They are to meet in the common room, with their wands!"

"May I ask why?", Roy demanded. "I mean, the younger need their sleep and ..."

"You may assume that I don't give such instructions without reason, Mister MacAllister!", Whiteman snapped at him. "Do what you are told!"

As it was pointless to argue, the two Prefects left to call their charges. A few minutes later, all the Slytherins were gathered in the common room.

"Each of you will now mark your wand with a name tag and then hand it over to me!" ordered Whiteman. When murmurs of protest arose, he added: "You'll be told the reason in a moment."

The students obediently conjured name tags and attached them to the wands. Whiteman collected the wands. Then he said:

"David Bancroft of Hufflepuff has just been found unconscious. A Stunning spell was cast on him. This is the fourth attack on a Muggle-born student within ten days, if you count the three Petrificus attacks in the last few days. The latter could still be shrugged off as nasty student pranks, but a Stunner is crossing a line, forcing the Headmistress to take strong action! She has entrusted Professor Gracchus Barclay with the investigation. As you know, he is an experienced Auror. He has ordered all wands of all Hogwarts students to be confiscated immediately. The teachers will check them. Anyone who has nothing to do with it will get their wand back tomorrow. The offender, however, will be expelled from school. Good night!"

While the students, confused, started to discuss loudly with each other, the Incorruptibles withdrew to a corner. Albus too had joined them.

"What do they want to check?" he asked unsurely as he saw his friends' scowls.

"Priori Incantatem," Roy said tersely. "Ever heard of it?"

"Nope."

"They will make the last spells of the wands visible," Roy explained. "They are looking for wands whose last use have been Stunners. Does that ring a bell?"

Albus' guts seemed to knot abruptly. In today's DA session they had recapped and practised everything they had learned in the past weeks, and they had spent the last quarter of an hour just with stunning each other.

"OK, but can't they also see on whom the spell was cast?" he asked, still a little hopeful.

"That would only work with the Killing Curse," Roy growled.

"But we can attest that we only stunned each other, not any Hufflepuff. My father says Barclay is a very decent and fair investigator, and that's exactly why Hermione wanted to get rid of him and sent him to Hogwarts."

"At least a glimmer of hope," Roy said. "Anyway: If the offender was clever enough to use a second wand, or if he is a teacher or a stranger who entered the school from outside ..."

"... then our wands are probably the only ones anyone has been stunned with lately," Orpheus finished the sentence. "Barclay may be well-intentioned, but he's a Gryffindor, the victim is Muggle-born, and we're Slytherins. On top of that, we are the ones the Ministry is targeting anyway. He will suspect us of giving each other false alibis. At least he will interrogate us intensively, he even has to. He will ask us why we stunned each other..."

"We say we have formed an informal working group to practise defence against the dark arts. That's even kind of true," Ares interjected.

"Could work," Orpheus admitted, "but he'll also ask where we did it, and I would hate to give away our secret room, be it just because of the books we store there. Imagine what it would look like: A group of Slytherins, considered Death Eaters by parts of the public, are the only suspects in an anti-Muggle raid, and are stockpiling heaps of literature on Dark Magic."

"We don't need to give away the secret room," Julian now said. "We say we did it in the Room of Requirement."

"Barclay will figure out pretty quickly that none of us know its exact location or how to get in," Roy objected.

"Oh yes," Julian grinned mischievously, "I know. You know" – he grinned a little bit more – "if you want to be alone with a girlfriend ..."

"That's what we should have guessed," Arabella cut him off. "Please spare us your love adventures, we probably haven't much time left because they'll be examining the Slytherin wands first! Where is it exactly and how do you get in? Please with as much detail as possible, Barclay will ask us for it!"

Julian described it to them.

"All right," Roy said. "Otherwise, we stick as close to truth as possible to avoid getting caught up in inconsistencies. We'll truthfully describe all the spells we have practised. Apart from that, we'll not give any political reasons for our training, it's only about self-defence! Oh, one more thing: We don't drag McGonagall into this, and Harry's involvement must be kept secret at all costs, understand?"

They all nodded.

They had made their arrangements just in time, because now, Whiteman was standing in the doorway again, and this time he glared at them:

"MacAllister! Lestrange! Wolfe! Malagan! Macnair! Potter! Follow me!"

Under the horrified glances of their school mates, the Incorruptibles followed the Head of Slytherin into the corridor outside the common room without showing any sign of emotion – even Albus had soon become accustomed to their stoic style when it came to serious matters.

While Whiteman led them quickly to the ground floor, Roy touched Albus on the shoulder, and, when he looked up at him, whispered: "Don't worry!"

"Silence!" shouted Whiteman. "You are not to speak to each other until I tell you otherwise!"

Albus' knees were actually weak, but he tried to give Roy the most confident glance possible, which Roy answered with a satisfied smile.