Chapter Seventeen

The Little Ones

Drew waved Ran out the door, telling him to get to his homework before bed. He wiped a light coating of sweat from his forehead. He'd moved up to helping Ran practice a little extra spellwork. Teaching him how to fight as a werewolf was all well and good, but that really assumed too much. Tyrell could show up at this school on any night of the month. Drew didn't want to see his favorite student unprepared fo such an occurrence. He knew it was probably unfair of him to give all this extra instruction to Ran and no one else, but he didn't feel too bad about it. After all, Ran had sought him out to ask him for help. If the rest of the students were content to sit back and be helpless, that was their decision. There were even a few sixth and seventh years who'd opted out of Smith's and Greg's training, which was just foolish. At least they could practice out in the open.

Drew started off on a patrol of the castle. He and the other professors had set up schedules for which nights they would patrol where, under McGonagall's supervision. She herself had been closeted in her office for days, writing letter after reassuring letter to anxious parents about their children's safety. Drew had heard that word was out about the new tough American professor now, and it amused him that his presence seemed to help calm the fears of people who would have run from him a few months ago. He wondered how Ran's mother might feel about him training her son for battle. Drew had heard quite a bit about Vianne Edwards from Ran, who barely remembered the father who'd walked out on the family when his son was turned into a dangerous creature. He loved his mother, who was by his account a little overprotective of him. She was something of a timid witch, though her Muggle parents, Ran's grandparents, were always around to lend support.

Drew passed by a few classrooms that he was nearly certain had students working under Silencing charms with varying degrees of usefulness. Of course. Some of the students were practicing on their own. They would think the teachers would disapprove, officially, so they weren't taking any chances. Drew passed by the classrooms with a bolstered feeling, glad to see that the students had some initiative and some survival instincts. He realized that one of the classrooms probably contained Matt Potter and a few of his friends. Not because he'd overheard anything, but simply because Matt Potter was Harry Potter's son. Harry would have instilled in the boy an inherent disregard for rules that he thought he could handle operating outside of. Plus Matt was likely to see the danger attached to his name, and would take steps to counter that danger—on his friend Basil's advice if nothing else.

He faintly heard a door open behind him and Matt's voice speaking in a hushed tone, and smiled. He'd been right, of course. He stepped calmly into an alcove where he wouldn't be seen and peered back. To his surprise, it was not simply Matt and his two friends, but Hagrid also, who stepped out. Drew was horrified to realize that the boy had asked Hagrid to coach them, and found himself striding back up the corridor before he'd even thought about it.

"I hope these three haven't been serving detention, Hagrid," he said in a tone that made it clear he thought nothing of the sort.

Hagrid knew he'd been found out and looked abashed, and all three kids started to slide their feet backward, as if they'd take off running in a moment. Drew fixed them with a firm look to hold them in place.

"Don't worry. When the issue came up among the professors, I voted to have a set of defensive lessons for the younger students." Matt smiled, and Drew winked at him. "However . . ." He turned to Hagrid. "You never even finished school, did you?"

Hagrid was glowering ferociously, but Drew had too much experience to let it intimidate him in the least. "Look 'ere, Stevens, that's none o' your—"

"I'm glad they found someone, though," he cut the big man off. "It's better than trying to learn it on their own. I'm glad you agreed to help them."

Hagrid looked surprised, and tried to recover. "Thanks," he said gruffly. "I know I'm not the best teacher they could 'ave, but— well, they need to know, don't they?"

Drew nodded, feeling fully in control of the situation now. He was a much more gifted wizard, and he had light-years of intelligence on Hagrid. He didn't know why on earth he wanted to do this, and he heard himself saying it as if he were listening to someone else. "They certainly do. I just got finished giving a few pointers to another student, myself. I'd certainly be willing to do the same with these three, if you'd like." He turned his head as he said that, to make "you" include all present. "We can get to work after Christmas break."

Matt nodded happily, nudging his friends. Bear looked happy as well, though Basil was simply regarding him with cautious eyes. Drew didn't blame him. Teachers who were this willing to break rules ought to be a bit suspect. Drew supposed it was just that he remembered what it was like, last time. Danger was no respecter of age. It came after the little ones, too. He'd come after the little ones, once.

---Break---

"Where are you going for Christmas?" Bear asked Basil and Matt as they headed away from their "secret" lesson. She'd quite forgotten about Christmas being so soon, with everything else they'd had to think about. She normally would have panicked at such a realization and dragged out her class materials to study for end-of-term exams, but she didn't have to. Spending time with Basil and sometimes Milton Little had its advantages.

"Home," Basil said with a shrug. "Kim, you know my sister, she's prefect, she thinks she ought to stay to look after the kids who will be staying here during the holidays—but my parents want her home with us. They said there will still be plenty of protection here."

More than enough, in the minds of the three children. The Lupins had been joined by two members of the Auror squad in their protection of the castle, and Professor Smith was patrolling the corridors anytime he wasn't busy with classes, his sessions with the older students, his responsibilities to his house, or assisting McGonagall with administrative duties. Professor Smith had been looking on the verge of dropping with exhaustion for two weeks solid.

"I'll be going home, too," Bear said. "I don't have any brothers or sisters or anything, but I have a couple of friends who didn't come to Hogwarts that I'll get to see. And my parents, of course," she added matter-of-factly. She turned to her best friend/charge to ask, "You'll be going home, too, won't you Matt?"

Matt shrugged, surprising her.

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Everyone will be busy," he said softly. They'd reached the place where they had to split up with Basil, so they stopped there. Matt was looking at the ground and scuffing it with his toe. The look on his face made Bear wish that his worry would take a physical form she could pound into the ground. She wasn't good at this feelings stuff. But she did want to protect Matt.

"Your parents are both out on patrol?" Basil guessed.

Matt nodded, still paying attention to the joint of the stones in the floor more than to them. "They're barely able to manage scheduling themselves for opposite shifts so one of them is home with Crash and Charlotte. Mum wrote a letter saying I should plan to stay here. Everybody that should come for Christmas is going to be busy trying to find Tyrell. Even my grandparents."

"I'm sorry, Matt," Bear said. She racked her brains, then placed her hand on his shoulder. That seemed like the thing to do. "At least they're all out there keeping us safe, right?"

"What good is it doing?" Matt said, and she caught her breath when he looked up. His face was dark and sad. "He's too smart. He's not coming to any of the places they're guarding."

Basil spoke up then. "He's decided to put his plans on hold until they're distracted, I bet. He wants to go to those places, but he knows people are there."

Bear felt her heart sink a bit, and she was a little bit mad at Basil for bringing Matt's spirits down instead of helping her try to raise them—but Basil was right, as usual. No doubt this Dark wizard had figured out that they were catching on to his plans. Well, he wasn't being very subtle, was he?

"If you stay here, I'll stay, too, Matt," she offered. She didn't want to stay, she'd been really looking forward to seeing her parents and her friends, but she would do it for Matt.

Matt shook his head. "No, don't do that. I don't even know for sure yet. Mum said the Simpsons might still be coming like they'd planned to. If they're here, I'll go home."

"Who's the Simpsons?" Bear wondered, then remembered. "Oh, that's your parents' old friend, Ambassador Granger-Simpson, right?"

Matt nodded. "My Aunt Hermione, and her husband and my cousins."

"They're not properly your cousins, are they?" Bear asked curiously.

"Bear!" Basil hissed at her.

"No, that's not what I meant," she said, her eyes wide as she realized how it had been misconstrued. Basil thought she'd been talking about Matt being adopted! "I mean, the Ambassador isn't properly related to your parents."

"Maggie is my cousin. Her real dad was my Uncle Ron."

"Oh," Bear replied in surprise. Matt's Uncle Ron was one of the heroic—and dead—Weasley boys. She realized that she'd been given some information that had, for the most part, faded into the back of the minds of those who'd known it to begin with. She guessed it would be hard to be a family if people knew your oldest child really belonged to a different family that had been so tragically interrupted. Well, sort of like how hard it must be to be the Potter family, she thought with amazement. She'd never really thought about how hard it must be to be Matt. She wondered if people always brought up his real parents when he was at home.

Basil looked unsurprised, but Bear thought with maybe just a smidge of resentment that Basil knew everything anyway.

"Anyway," he spoke up, and his voice was a cheerful as if this awkward subject had never come up, "would you two mind if I invited Milt to come to our lessons with Professor Stevens? He's been worried—you know, because his magic isn't very strong. Professor Stevens would probably know a few things Milt could learn."

"Sure," Matt said. Bear deferred to him and nodded. She would prefer keeping the lessons as private as possible, herself, but if Matt thought it was fine, then she wouldn't say anything. Besides, Milton could be trusted to keep his mouth shut. She mentally added Milton to her list of people to protect if it ever came to it.

It was so ingrained into her being that she was the strongest and most able that it didn't occur to her to take stock of their relative magical strengths. If she had, she would have had to admit that if it came to simple spellwork, Matt would probably be the one protecting her. Of course, his reserved nature made it hard to tell. Even Matt didn't know that he would have more powerful spells than Bear if he gave it his all—and that was saying something, because Bear's magic was a near-match for her physical strength, surprisingly at her young age. He would never know that his real father, Roger Markham, would likely have been able to turn Draco Malfoy and his two cronies away, if he hadn't been taken so completely by surprise in his bed that night. Matt had inherited more than sandy hair and blue eyes. He had power sleeping in him—power that Bear didn't suspect existed, but that Basil Townsend was nearly positive of.

Let those who would come after the little ones beware.