Author's note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the canon, world, and characters portrayed below and you can tell I'm not J.K. Rowling because #transrights

Hogwarts: Assignment #1, Martial Arts Task #2: Write about avoiding a head-on confrontation.

Content Warnings: NA

A Eulogy to the Whomping Willow

"Alright everyone," Pomona announced to the other professors circling the great tree. "We'll only have about five minutes, so it'll have to be done in five minutes—because trust me, a head-on confrontation with the Whomping Willow is something that none of us want. Wands ready!"

Remus raised his wand along with the rest of the staff, mittened fingers tightening around its handle.

"On my count," Pomona said. "Minerva, are you quite ready?"

"Yes, dear," McGonagall said, smoothing down her emerald robes. She cracked her neck before shrinking down to her Animagus form. The tabby cat, now with greying tufts of fur, slowly made its way towards the Whomping Willow, aiming straight for the knot on its roots that would paralyze it. After she pressed the knot with a soft paw and lazily walked back towards her staff, Pomona tentatively threw a snowball in the tree's direction to make sure it was paralyzed for good.

"Alright," Pomona said. "Farewell, old friend… three… two… one…"

The circle of professors spoke as one then, speaking the incantation she'd taught them. Since there were so many of them working in concert, it only took a few rounds of enchantment for the tree's trunk to be sliced nearly clean.

"Back up everyone, back up!" Pomona said. They all went scampering back, away from the tree. Pomona pointed her wand to the tree's nearly-sliced trunk to deal the final blow with a powerful "bombarda!"

The tree came down almost immediately, its branches cracking as it hit the ground. Now that it was cut, Remus could see the foul green rot inside the inner rings of its trunk-the reason they were felling the great tree in the first place, before it collapsed and possibly crushed some students, went senile and started swinging its leafy limbs nonstop, or spread its sickness to the Forbidden Forest.

"Alright, thank you everybody," Pomona said. There was a slight round of applause before everyone dissipated again, but Remus couldn't help but watch on as Hagrid came forwards with an axe to see what wood could be saved for the castle's many fireplaces.

"It will be strange not to see that willow from my office window," McGonagall said, startling Remus. He hadn't even seen her take her human shape again.

"The view will be different," Remus agreed. She had told him to call him Minerva now that he was a teacher as well, but Remus couldn't bring himself to do it for the life of him. She was always Professor McGonagall to him.

"Then again, I suppose that if I survived its arrival I'll survive its departure," McGonagall said. "I remember when they planted it."

"Because its arrival was followed by seven quiet, calm, and peaceful years for you as head of Gryffindor House," Remus offered with a smile on his lips. She looked at him with an arched eyebrow.

"More likely because that tree was followed by seven of the most important years of my teaching career," McGonagall said. She arched an eyebrow and gave Remus the same kind of look she'd used on him ages ago to try and assess who had broken a chandelier in the hall—Sirius, James or Peter. She had so rarely suspected Remus, always relegating him to the role of accomplice. She was not usually wrong.

She readjusted her glasses.

"I dare say that some of your cohort taught me patience," she said. "Resilience, certainly. But I do believe that it was the boy they planted that tree for who taught me just how imperative it was to be tolerant and uncategorical about the fact that Hogwarts could and would be a home for every last student that could walk its walls."

Remus opened his mouth and closed it again. What was he supposed to do with that, after all?

"In fifth year, when James was concussed and couldn't play that last game against Slytherin, it was because he'd gone and tried to paralyze the tree himself," Remus told her. "He thought he could do it if he flew fast enough."

"Of course he did, that tosser," McGonagall said fondly. Remus smiled as well. "His son crashed a flying car into that tree in his second year."

"Harry did what?" Remus asked.

"It was his second year and I had so hoped that he would be like his mother," McGonagall said, shaking her head. Remus smiled.

"What's going to happen to the passage the willow was guarding?" he asked her.

"Anxious to update your map, Professor Lupin?"

"You know fully well it is no longer in my possession," Remus said.

"Don't remind me that that artefact is loose in the world," McGonagall said. She folded her hands in front of her. "I have asked Hagrid to build a new outdoor chess board over the passage. That way, students are kept out of the Shrieking Shack but the passage is saved should we ever need it again."

Remus nodded.

"There's a few werewolf children around Britain," Remus said. "I can think of four off the top of my head, but with what happened during the war there are probably more. Some of them may come to Hogwarts."

"Then it is a good thing we will have a safe place for them," McGonagall said. "And they will be lucky to be the first students in history to have a professor who understands them."

"I think I was rather lucky regardless," Remus told her. Then it was her turn not to know quite what to say.

WC: 916