Finally, the hospital wing was empty of students. Crowley's day had been tiresome at best and absolutely dreadful at worst. He had always known that children lacked the basic common sense that some, but certainly not all, adults had and yet he had to question a few of their situations. However, later in the day he had found himself actually caring about the circumstances surrounding one of the students. The female Ravenclaw he had spoken to at the Sorting Ceremony had come into the hospital wing sporting several nasty burns and cuts from her Care of Magical Creatures class. He had treated her without the normal amount of disdain and cynicism he had been offering to the students. At least, he had until she had made a biting remark as to the nature of her injuries. That led to the two of them having a biting exchange until Crowley had mended her and sent her on her way. "A shame this world doesn't have demons," he said to the Winchesters and Castiel as the four of them gathered in Dean's chambers to discuss the events of the first day. "That one would have a real future collecting souls."
"Yeah, well, let's be happy we don't have to deal with demons here," Dean said. He took a drink from a small metal flask Sam had conjured him and offered it to Crowley who nodded his thanks as he drank. "So other than you recruiting your demon army, anything major come up today? The Guide pop up?"
"Haven't seen her," Crowley said indifferently. "And as for taking care of the little prats, please, magical world or not injuries are injuries. I am an old hand at fixing such things up. Torture and healing go hand in hand, I am sure I've said as much before."
Sam rolled his eyes and glanced to Castiel. "What about you, Cas, anything happen today?"
"Admittedly I had some difficulty reaching my first class as the stairways seem prone to changing their course." Castiel said, "However I made it only a few minutes late. I was a bit unprepared as I was unclear on what was considered a 'normal human' in this world however I determined that den of iniquities were most likely universal to normal humans in any world."
"Whoa, hold up," Sam said raising a hand. "What did you teach them about today?"
"The question they chose to ponder was one of Muggle clothing and their relation to their jobs. Specifically those Muggles whose clothing choices did not often match their occupation."
"Uh-huh…" Sam said slowly, "And, I really hate to ask this, but what did you give them as an example?"
"We discussed the garments that humans whose occupation Dean refers to as strippers and their versatility due to their occupation." Castiel explained simply. "All things considered I believe that today's lessons went rather well as the students seemed rather engaged."
The other three were staring at Castiel with the same incredulous expression, even Crowley. He quickly hid this and exchanged it for a smirk. "Well, at the very least they got a taste of the real world today." He chuckled into the flask as he took another drink and handed it back to Dean.
"Cas, you can't just teach a lesson about strippers!" Dean said. "They're kids, you can't corrupt them that early!"
"I find that odd for you to say," Castiel said, frowning. "Especially as you have repeatedly told me how young you were when you lost what you refer to as 'your cherry'."
"Okay, moving on," Dean said clapping his hands together and pointing to Sam. "How did things go for you?"
"Altogether not bad at all," Sam admitted. "I think I will focus on defensive spells this semester, it will give me something to teach and prepare them for what's coming."
"For what's coming?" Crowley repeated, frowning. "Pray tell, what is coming that they would need to know defensive spells for?"
Sam hesitated as he did not want these three to do anything to mess up the timeline but, at the same time, having them brought into the loop would certainly only help when push came to shove as it certainly would. "In a few years, not any time soon, the Wizarding World gets into a huge battle with Hogwarts as the place where it all goes down. Long story short there's this big bad named Voldemort and all he wants to do is wipe out anyone who doesn't agree with his twisted ideology."
"And you are saying that these kids are going to be a part of that fight?" Dean asked, reaching unconsciously to where his wand was in his pocket. It was amazing how fast he had come to rely on the thin piece of wood and reached for where it was stashed rather than where he would have kept his pistol. "Then we gotta warn someone!"
"That's the thing, we can't!" Sam said urgently. "Dumbledore already knows and he is the only one Voldemort fears. He's already doing a lot to stop it and if we try to do something as well chances are we might end up screwing things as likely as we might help them. The best thing we can do is try to help the kids while we are here."
Surprisingly it was Crowley who spoke up. "So, other than the obvious of preparing the brats for a war, what else can we possibly do? In case you haven't noticed, Moose, you are the only one here who knows about what is going on here. I don't read many books, not from this time period at any rate, but unless I miss my guess then this year also has a central plot to things?"
"Yeah, sorta," Sam nodded. "This is the Harry's third year. Basically that guy who escaped prison is Harry's godfather who was wrongfully accused of murdering a bunch of people. That's why there are so many dementors running around the grounds, the Ministry thinks that Sirius Black is coming for Harry to kill him."
"And is he?" Cas asked solemnly.
"No, he's coming to save Harry." Sam said.
An owl flew into Dean's room and caused Lucy to hiss from her place on Dean's bed. Strangely enough there were a few feather by her mouth and Dean sent her a glare as he grabbed the message from the owl's foot. He took the bird to the window and it flew off his hand. He returned to his seat as he read the message and sighed. "Great," he muttered.
"Something wrong?" Sam asked.
"No, I just promised to help that Oliver guy that I would help them practice Quidditch. Whatever the hell that is." He shot Sam a questioning look, but Crowley answered instead.
"Quidditch is a game played where the goal is to get a ball called the Quaffle through one of three hoops at either end of the Quidditch stadium. You have two balls called Bludgers flying around attempting to attack the teams. Since you are masquerading as some sort of important Quidditch player I imagine that is why that broomstick is doing in the corner of your room."
Dean looked to the indicated corner and his eyebrows shot up. "Huh, did not put that there." He said, grabbing it and tossing it over his shoulder. "Well it sounds pretty simple. Guess I better go see what I can do, wing it as best I can."
He left the room after that. "You know, it occurs to me that I neglected to mention to him that you play the game in the air." Crowley said innocently. "Ah, well, I suppose I had better go be ready for something unfortunate at the hospital wing, shall I?"
He left a few moments later, taking Dean's flask as he went, and left Cas and Sam alone in the room.
