Chapter 19

The weak embers glowed red in the near dark, and allowed Sam to see the shadowy figure clearly outlined. It was somehow familiar and not in a good way. He hadn't heard anyone come in, years of hunting and light sleeping would have woken him immediately. Yet there it was, staring directly at him.

He felt the cold of the room and shivered under his blankets. He was fully alert as the hairs on the back of his neck rose and told him he was most definitely not dreaming.

His fingers curled around his wand under his pillow and in one quick motion he brought it forth and shouted, "LUMOS!"

The room lit up in the blink of an eye. No shadow was safe from the floodlight of his spell and they dissolved into non-existence. After he blinked his momentary blindness away he was startled to find he was alone. But there had been someone standing there. Hadn't there?

He eased up a bit, but his heart was still thumping away in his chest. He heard footsteps outside his door and with a couple of knocks on the outside of it, it opened. In stepped Dean holding an overloaded plate of food. He instantly recoiled against the light of Sam's wand and nearly dropped the plate..

"Holy Hell!" Dean protested. "Would you dial it back man?"

"Yeah, hold on." From his bed, he muttered, "Nox." and sent the room crashing once again into blackness. He pointed his wand and directed another log onto the fire using the levitation charm. Once it was in place, he said, "Incendio!" and the fireplace sparked to life with a warm inviting fire.

The room was now cozy and well lit as Dean came in and closed the door behind him setting the food on the desk.

"Magic has made you lazy, you know that?"

Sam cut right to the chase. "Were you just in here a minute ago?" he questioned.

"Uh, no." Dean said confused. "I just got here from dinner." He looked at him sideways. "What was with the lighthouse act?"

"Someone was in my room, Dean." he said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I woke up, and they were just standing there staring at me. Right there!" he said pointing at the foot of his bed.

"You sure? Maybe you were still dreaming."

"No way. I woke up and I watched them watch me. It was creepy as hell. They just . . . stood there!"

Dean cocked an eyebrow. "So you went Super Nova with your wand and they were gone?"

"Yeah, and then you walked in."

"Just like that?" Dean asked.

"Just like that."

Dean looked around the room. It wasn't tiny by any means, nor was it large. There weren't many places one could hide. He suddenly dropped down to all fours and checked under the bed. No one there. He checked behind the curtains, under the desk, in the small lavatory, and even above the bed's canopy. All clear.

"Well you must have been seeing things, Sammy." Dean concluded.

"No, Dean I'm telling you someone was there."

"Okay, say someone was there, where'd they go? How could they just disappear?"

Sam looked at him. "Really? We're in a book, Dean. In a world where people can learn how to become animals just by practicing hard enough. The lore we grew up learning doesn't even apply here."

"You think it was a ghost? Something we haven't seen yet?" Dean asked.

"I don't think so."

Dean's eyes lit up. "Do you think it was Cass? Maybe he was trying to get through?"

"No. I know Cass, This didn't look or feel like him. There was something familiar about it though."

"Well who else knows we're here?" asked Dean.

"Nobody I know of. Cass seemed to be pretty convinced that this was important."

"Wait." Dean said as he came to a realization. "I thought Cass was all 'Pop Culture Savvy' now?"

Sam seemed to get where Dean was going with this train of thought. "Yeah. He said Metatron had zapped all the books, movie and TV he'd ever consumed into his head."

"So why didn't he know that this was just a book? You heard him, he called it 'New Gospel' as if he'd never heard of it before. Wait. You don't think it could have been Metatron?"

"No way. He's still locked up in Heaven's jail." Sam confirmed. "And besides, if it was Metatron, he would have said something. The guy loves the sound of his own voice and he gloats twice as much as a Bond Villain."

"Ain't that the truth." agreed Dean.

"I honestly don't think it was either of them. Although, now I am curious about why Cass didn't remember that Harry Potter was just a book and movies. I mean, I don't even know why we're here. These stories are complete. They don't need changing, Harry doesn't need our help, everything works out in the end and the series continues. I mean, the main villain of the franchise doesn't even show up in this book!"

"Yeah, but you messed it up though didn't you?"

Sam thought. "Well, yeah . . . I kinda. . . messed up some of the plot."

"What did you change?"

"I stopped Draco from getting hurt during Hagrid's class."

"Okay, because of that, what doesn't happen now?" Dean asked.

Sam sighed. "Draco doesn't get to ham it up and make Harry and Ron's lives suck. Buckbeak doesn't get sentenced to death because there won't be a trial, Hagrid gets to keep his job without fear of getting fired. I mean, I fail to see how this is a bad thing."

"Wait, wait, wait." said Dean. "I – I think I remember this one. This is the one where they go back in time using that necklace thing, right?"

"The Time Turner, yes."

"And they went back in time to save your bird-pony and the other guy."

"Sirius Black."

"Right, him." Dean said. "But if Buckbeak doesn't get killed, then they have no reason to go to the pumpkin patch."

Sam listened. "Yeah, so?"

"But isn't that when it all happens? They find the rat and they go to the Shrieking Shack and they find out the rat is really the guy, and then Sirius was like 'I'm not really a bad guy.' and Remus shows up and is all, 'I believe you!' then Severus is all, 'Ha Ha! I got you now'!"

Sam held up a hand for Dean to stop prattling on with his horrible impressions. "You're right. Now I'll have to do something about it. I'm surprised you remembered that much of the movie."

Dean looked proud of himself.

"Well, on the day that Buckbeak was supposed to be executed I'll just have to make sure to get those kids down there for some reason."

"If we don't find a way out of here first.

Sam felt a twinge of regret. "I feel responsible."

"Of course you do. But like you said, it's a book. In our world, I really don't think the author is gonna sue you if we leave things the way they are."

"We don't even know if we can get back until the story is over." Sam said.

Dean thought about it. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're probably right."

"But we have a bigger problem now."

"What's that?" Dean asked.

"Well," Sam said, "Now that we know the monster lore is a bust, what are we going to do? If we are stuck here till the story ends, then we have to figure out what we are going to teach."

Dean sat on the edge of Sam's bed and sighed. He scratched the back of his head in thought. "Well we've been teachers before. . ."

"Uh, no." Sam interjected. "You were a teacher. I was a janitor, remember?"

Dean smiled and chuckled. "Oh yeah. Ha ha."

"Don't laugh dude. You didn't have to clean up the aftermath of Mystery Meat Monday."

"But Taco Tuesday was sweet." Dean smiled.

"Really?" Sam asked with a grimace. "They were made with leftover Mystery Meat."

"Whatever dude. The point is I only know how to teach one thing."

Sam lifted an eyebrow in question.

"Dodgeball." he answered.

Sam's eyes lit up. "That's it!"

Dean looked at him in disbelief. "You think I should teach a bunch of magic kids. . . . Dodgeball?"

"Well not just Dodgeball, Muggle Sports!" said Sam.

Dean mulled the thought over in his brain. "Yeah, I could do that." he said finally.

"They don't really have any physical activity in the curriculum. I mean, they have Quidditch, which should be starting up in a week or two, but that's just the House teams."

"Alright," Dean said. "So I can teach them dodgeball, basketball, soccer. . . "

"Football." said Sam.

"Yeah, football too."

"No, I mean they call soccer 'football' over here."

"Freakin' weirdos" Dean said passively.

"Actually, American Football came af-"

"A-shhh shhh sssshhhh!" Dean shushed his brother. "It's sacred, man. Let me have this."

With that, he stood and retrieved the plate of food off the desk and brought it over to Sam. "Eat something. I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."

"Yeah, okay. Goodnight."

Dean left the room, and Sam set the plate of food on the bedside table. He nibbled on a piece of battered fish and sat back against the headboard. He looked around the room, his mind once again on the shadowy visitor.

He picked up his wand and cast the Anti-Intruder charm Flitwick had taught him in one of his private lessons. If someone was using magic to spy on him, he wasn't going to be caught off guard again. Especially if he was sleeping.

Tomorrow was September 19th, Hermione Granger's birthday. Sam knew that if he and Dean were to befriend her, Ron, and Harry, this would be the best opportunity to do so. Up until now they'd managed to be in Harry's good graces by having his back, which was something at least. However, other than that they'd had very little contact with the three.

But what could I possibly give her? Sam thought. He had no money, and the first Hogsmead trip wasn't until the end of next month. His eyes darted around the room looking for some small trinket or nick-knack that nobody would miss if it were to disappear from his room. His eyes came to rest on the bookshelf and he smiled to himself. He hunkered down in his bed and slept soundly throughout the rest of the night.

The next morning the students groggily made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was a lazy, drizzly Sunday. Sam waited outside in the hallway for Hermione with a wrapped parcel in his hand behind his back. Several students passed by on their way in with greetings of, "Good morning, Professor." Sam smiled and nodded his "Good mornings" in kind.

Hermione appeared at the top of the stairs with Harry and Ron in tow. They seemed to be having a heated discussion in hushed tones. Hermione looked especially tired and in no mood for the subject at hand. They reached the bottom of the stairs and joined the rest of the flow of students entering the Great Hall.

"Good morning, Professor." the three chimed in staggered unison.

"Good morning, you three." Sam said. As they passed Sam spoke quickly. "Miss Granger?"

She stopped in her tracks and turned toward him. "Yes, Professor?"

"May I speak to you a moment?" he said as cheerfully as he could. He didn't want to make it sound ominous as if she was in trouble.

"Of course." she said, exchanging looks with her two best friends. "You go on ahead, I'll catch you up."

The boys nodded and disappeared into the Great Hall with the rest of the hungry students. Sam pulled her aside and out of the way.

"Is there something wrong, Professor?" Hermione asked with bated breath.

"What? Oh, no. I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday." he said quickly. He smiled at her and that made her obvious tension melt away and she smiled with him

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Thank you, Professor!"

"And as I know you'll appreciate it," he said revealing the parcel he had been hiding behind his back, "I would like you to have this."

Her face lit up at seeing his gift. She gasped and took the parcel. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome. Have a great day, Miss Granger."

"I will!" she said, and with a bounce in her step that wasn't apparent before, she entered the Great Hall and joined her friends.

Sam followed soon after and made his way up to the head table and joined Dean who was already elbows deep in his breakfast.

"There you are!" Dean said. "Almost thought you weren't coming down."

"Yeah, I just had to run an errand real quick."

Dean looked confused. Sam pointed over in the direction of the Gryffindor table and the two of them watched as Hermione opened the parcel Sam had given her. Her eyes lit up when she unwrapped a thick, leather bound book.

"What did you give her?" Dean asked.

"It's a book about Animagi." Sam said simply. "It should give them a bit of an edge for what's to come."

He watched as Hermione turned toward him and mouthed the words, "Thank you."

Sam nodded to her with a satisfied smile.