The Welshman
by Hyena Cub
Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, and death, especially later on.
Genre: Harry Potter

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CHAPTER 5: A Change of Staff

On Monday morning, Professor Miller addressed all the students before breakfast appeared on the tables. He stood up and announced that he had been made the headmaster by the board of school governors, a proclamation that made everyone start whispering in astonishment. He held up his hands for quiet until the whispering stopped, and continued: 'As I can no longer be Head of Hufflepuff nor Muggle Studies teacher, I would like to introduce those who will be filling those positions. Taking over for me as Head of Hufflepuff House is Skylar Harlow, our Arithmancy teacher.'

There was applause all up and down the hall, particularly from the Hufflepuffs, but people were still whispering and murmuring excitedly. Peter was watching Professor Miller with a frown, and Ke'koa and Faolan were whispering rapidly to each other. I glanced at the other teachers, most of whom looked grim and serious.

Miller continued. 'And our new Muggle Studies teacher is Professor Bond O'Malley.' Miller nodded to a new man sitting at the Staff Table, who had brown hair longer than mine. The man stood, smiling in a self-conscious sort of way as a spate of applause greeted the introduction. 'Professor O'Malley has worked for the Ministry in the Muggle Relations division and is well qualified for the position. I know you will all make him feel welcome.'

As Miller and O'Malley sat back down, the breakfast was finally sent up and people began to eat. But I wasn't hungry all of a sudden…this was all too strange.

'What do you think?' asked Peter quietly.

'I think I want to know what happened to Professor Ryan,' I said, and Peter nodded.

'Yeah…so does everyone else. You're not the only one who thinks this is sorta weird.' He turned back to his eggs and I nibbled on a piece of buttered toast, as I watched the new teacher. He seemed okay for the time being; he was talking in a friendly manner to Professor Pender, the Potions master. Miller was making conversation with Forrester…everything seemed pretty normal.

But still.

Miller's promotion to headmaster was the only thing people wanted to talk about all day, and the professors were having problems keeping people's minds on their classes. Professor Forrester finally gave up on trying to keep people's minds on Magical Creatures and spent the class talking with Artemis Fletcher instead.

A very familiar owl came for me that night at supper: our family's owl, Herald. My heart gave a painful leap to see my mother's scrawling script written on the folded letter as I took it from Herald's leg: there was my name and the imperative sentence, 'DO NOT read this at supper! Wait until you're in the dorms.'

I blinked as Herald helped himself to a bit of my supper before flying off, and I scowled distractedly at him; who knew what he'd been sticking his beak in, and now he'd stuck it in my food! I pushed the plate away and got myself a fresh meal, glancing again at the parchment. 'Do not read this at supper.' For some reason that command was making me very uneasy. My mother wasn't normally so—cautious!

'Who's it from?' asked Peter.

'Mum…it must be a reply to what I asked her last week.'

Ke'koa glanced over at it, and Faolan looked like he might explode before I got to read it…he had been the one so single-mindedly trying to figure out what had happened to Professor Ryan after all, and I probably had the answer in my hand.

Arcturus wasn't at dinner with us; he'd gotten himself detention for throwing spitballs at the Moor twins in Care of Magical Creatures, but we could fill him in later. For now, I wanted to get upstairs and have a look at Mum's letter.

Gryffindor Tower was deserted when we got there, since everyone else was still at supper. Still, I wasn't a out to take any chances; I scurried up to the boys' dorms, my friends following in my wake, and sat on my bed. When the others were grouped around me, I looked around once, then broke the wax seal on my letter.

Dear Calen,

First of all, congratulations on making the team! Your father and I knew you could do it, but he reiterates his caution not to do anything too insane when you play.

I rolled my eyes as Ke'koa snickered.

As for Victor Ryan…well, there's no real way to say this other than to just say it: Professor Ryan is dead.

I gaped at the letter in my hands, too shocked to utter a word. Dead? How could he be dead? Professor Ryan had been at Hogwarts, hadn't he? People didn't just die at Hogwaets…not anymore! I heard Peter gasp behind me as he got to that point in the letter and I looked at my friends; they all looked as stunned as I was.

'How?' Faolan managed to ask. 'How? Does your mum say?'

'I-I dunno—lemme see,' I stammered, looking back down at the letter, my eyes darting back and forth as I read the letter as quickly as possible.

This is not to go any further than this letter and anyone that you trust, at least not until it's out in the Prophet. He was found just outside of Hogsmeade, killed by a Muggle weapon, by the looks. No clues as to who could have done it, or why. But he was very close to Hogwarts. I want you all to be careful over there, and if you see anything strange or suspicious, tell someone you trust…and write to us.

Love you. Your brothers say 'hello'.

Mum

'Dead!' whispered Faolan. 'I can't believe it, who would want to kill Professor Ryan?'

'I dunno,' said Ke'koa, sounding dazed. 'That's just…that's kinda creepy, actually! I mean…he wasn't my favorite teacher, but still!'

I knew what he meant. I hadn't known Professor Ryan all that well, but he'd been a decent sort, and I was sorry that he'd been killed…murdered! I had never known someone that had been murdered, or even someone that had died! It was a sobering, frightening thing! I folded up Mum's letter, sliding off the bed to bury it in the bottom of my trunk. Then I stood up, running my hand through my hair.

'You think the other teachers know?' asked Peter.

'I think they know something,' said Ke'koa. 'Didn't you see them at supper? They know something's wrong for sure. Who d'you suppose did it? Just some random nutter?'

'No,' said Faolan grimly. 'No…didn't you read that part, the 'Muggle weapon' part? He was killed the same way as all those other deaths we've been seeing in the paper. Like that Malfoy bloke, and the Ministry woman the week before….'

We all exchanged thunderstruck looks…how could I have missed that? Muggle weapon…. 'But what would a Muggle be doing so close to Hogsmeade?' Peter asked.

'Don't ask me,' said Faolan, glancing at the door as we all heard the sounds of some other Gryffindors entering the common room below. 'All we know is it was a Muggle weapon…we dunno if a Muggle was holding that weapon or not.'

Footsteps on the stairs shut us all up; I certainly didn't want to get Mum in trouble for telling us something we probably weren't supposed to know. No one came into the third-year dorms yet, but I was sure they would be eventually, and if people were starting to come up from dinner, I didn't want to risk being overheard.

The four of us spent the time playing Gobstones and Exploding Snap, but I didn't do very well.

When Arcturus got out of detention, we quietly told him what happened via the mirrors, but he didn't look as shocked as we were. 'I'm not surprised,' he said grimly. 'Not real happy, but not surprised. A lot of the Slytherins have been saying that he was dead…guess they were right. But why him? He doesn't fit the pattern.'

I frowned, looking at Ke'koa, who shrugged. I thought about what Arcturus said, and thought back to the last one that had been found dead, the woman in the Ministry who had been trying to get the non-human wand use law repealed. Then to Hyperion Malfoy, who'd wanted to keep Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts. Professor Ryan hadn't been like that; he was half-blood himself, and I was pretty sure that he'd taught Muggle Studies himself before becoming Headmaster!

'A copycat crime?' asked Faolan. 'Someone who didn't like him, maybe, killing him like that so people'd think it was the same people?'

'Maybe,' said Arcturus from the mirror. 'But it'd odd, isn't it? Why'd he leave Hogwarts?'

'Well, the teachers do leave to go into the village,' said Peter. 'They go to the pubs or the shops or whatever when they're finished with their work. I imagine they waited until Professor Ryan did that.'

'Well I suppose Professor Miller'll do a decent job,' said Ke'koa. 'He was a pretty decent teacher. I'll see how his replacement does in Muggle Studies.'

'Hey,' I said with a goofy grin. 'Maybe Professor Miller's the one who did it so he could become Headmaster.' All four of my friends gave me a look, and I shrugged. 'You never know!'

The next second, a pillow came at me, knocking me off the bed and onto the floor. I handed hard, laughing, and caught sight of Ke'koa wielding the weapon. Faolan and Peter added their pillows to the assault until I was yelling in protest, fending off a full scale attack. Arcturus was cheering in support of my friends, and I suddenly thought I knew how Julius Caesar had felt!

Finally, as all of us were laughing too hard to fight anymore, the pillows stopped flying. Rory Brennan came in at just that moment, blinking, and giving us a very strange look. 'Listen, if you all need some time alone together, I can leave,' he offered with a straight face.

That got us all laughing again, and Ke'koa hurled his pillow at Rory. Then he looked down at me, shaking his head in despair. 'You're an idiot, mate.'

What could I say? I couldn't deny it.

--

I ended up having to keep Mum's letter for longer than I'd expected. I thought the Daily Prophet the next day would report the death, but it didn't. In fact at first I thought that Professor Ryan's disappearance wasn't in the paper at all, until Faolan borrowed a copy from one of the other students and paged through it, spotting a small headline on page 3.

'Look at this,' said Faolan disgustedly. 'Listen: 'Victor Ryan, well-known Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry remains missing as members of Magical Law Enforcement search for his whereabouts. Rumors of his death have not been substantiated, and the Ministry urges people not to jump to conclusions. Evidence points to Ryan having left the school of his own accord, and it thought to have left the country entirely.'

Arcturus, who was having breakfast with the Gryffindors as he often did, grabbed the paper, re-reading the article indignantly. 'But your mu--' he began, and Ke'koa smacked his arm.

'Shh!' he hissed.

Arcturus winced, glanced around, then looked back down at the paper. 'Sorry,' he said. 'But…but they couldn't have been mistaken, could they? Why's the Ministry keeping it quiet?'

I could only shake my head, frowning at the paper, and wondering the same thing. Why had the Ministry kept it quiet? Did they know more about Professor Ryan than even Mum had told us?

'Maybe it's not the Ministry, but the Prophet,' said Faolan. 'Though…either way I suppose it's not a good thing.'

Arcturus shook his head disgustedly. 'Those blokes must think people are idiots. If Professor Ryan's just 'missing', then why would the school governors have made Miller the headmaster? I mean, it's official. Even if Professor Ryan came back this very second, he'd have to petition the governors to get his job back!'

That was a very good point. The governors obviously didn't expect Ryan to come back. I was sure they had close ties to the ministry…maybe they had an inside source. 'Maybe they want more information before they print the story,' I said doubtfully.

'Maybe,' said Arcturus, handing the paper back to the girl Faolan had borrowed it from. 'But I doubt it.'

The one, little Daily Prophet article was the only thing we heard officially about Ryan; so far as most people were concerned, he'd just disappeared off the face of the earth. But there were other kids who had parents working in the Ministry, and they had obviously asked, too. And so somehow, eventually, the knowledge that Professor Ryan had been murdered was all over the school.

Of course most of the adults dismissed this as rubbish, except people like Professor Blake, and had little patience for what they called 'silly rumors.' As the school year gained its momentum, progressing past first-of-the-year catch-ups, we all got too busy to worry much about Professor Ryan. No new news had come out about his death, and the rumors began dying down as people had other things to concentrate on.

Ke'koa and I had practice: he had Creaothceann and I had Quidditch. Faolan, and I had Dueling Club meetings starting the second week of school, and even Peter had practice; he sang tenor in the school choir. The only one not in any clubs was Arcturus; even as much as he liked dueling, he disliked the rigid rules and structure of dueling club.

But it didn't matter. Even with no clubs, he was busy enough; the new third-year classes gave us more homework than we'd had last year, and that only added to our schedules. Faolan and Ke'koa had the worst of it with their Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies classes, since Care of Magical Creatures and Divination didn't have much in the way of homework. (Lucky me.)

Speaking of Muggle Studies, Ke'koa said the new teacher seemed okay enough, though a lot more distant with his students. He'd assigned a new textbook for his Muggle Studies classes, supplying them himself instead of making the students pay for it. I thought that was pretty weird, especially when I got a look at it. All the historical stuff about Muggles was gone from this book, all the witch-burnings and violence and all. Apparently O'Malley had said there was no need to dwell on the past…that was for History class.

'He puts Muggles in a good light,' said Ke'koa. When I asked if that wasn't a good thing, Ke'koa didn't answer.

Mum did write a few times, and I asked her if anything else had come about, but she said they didn't know anything about how the Headmaster had died or who did it…just like all the other deaths. But she repeated her plea for us to be careful, which had me a little uneasy. Mum usually wasn't a worrier. Still, I was keeping too busy to dwell much on it. Hogwarts has a way of keeping people busy.

--

Before I knew it, it was October, and Halloween was just around the corner. And better than that: our first Hogsmeade visit! None of us had ever been to Hogsmeade before; as we all lived in England, not Scotland, we used Diagon Alley for our shopping. But Hogsmeade was an entire village of wizards and witches…and there were some amazing places there.

The Hogsmeade weekend was on Saturday the twenty-sixth of October, beginning after breakfast. The Wednesday before, in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Professor Blake collected the permission slips from those Gryffindors whose parents had given them permission to go. (I didn't think any had failed to get permission.)

He also told us that we'd all better behave, and that he had special punishments for those who disgraced Gryffindor with unruly behaviour. We all knew Professor Blake too well to take him too seriously, though, and even Blake couldn't keep a straight face for long. He did say that if we were too horrible, we wouldn't be allowed back, but he was usually pretty open-minded about what constituted 'acceptable mischief.'

So when Saturday rolled around, I for one was too excited to eat much. I had a little bit of toast, but that was it, saying I planned to stuff myself silly with sweets from Honeydukes, a legendary sweetshop in Hogsmeade.

'You're gonna have an incredible stomach-ache,' warned Faolan.

'Nah,' I said. 'If I eat too much, I'm sure I can get an anti-nausea potion from Mr Jacey. Besides, I know you're gonna eat just as much!'

'Not me,' said Faolan with a grin, though I wasn't fooled. None of our group turned down sweets very often.

'Well, come on then!' said Ke'koa with a laugh. 'Let's get there as early as we can…we don't wanna miss anything, do we?'

'It's not like we won't have any other trips this year,' said Peter calmly. 'We always have one before Christmas; people do their Christmas shopping then.'

That was a great idea! I would have to scout out the different shops to get an idea for my little brothers. My parents were fairly easy to shop for, but I liked getting neat things for my brothers.

Once everyone had finished their breakfasts, the five of us headed out of the Great Hall to the huge, oak front doors. Faolan was talking excitedly about the haunted house that supposedly sat on a hill in the village, while Arcturus wondered if there was a place like Knockturn Alley. Peter and I discussed what we would get for our families for Christmas.

The caretaker, Wiley Hummel, was outside the doors, checking off people's names on a list he had. Somehow he seemed to know the names of every students in the school, even the new ones, and I always found that creepy. Especially if you were a rule breaker. He was tough to get things past!

Mr Hummel nodded politely as we passed, checking off our names. 'You behave now, boys,' he cautioned with a grin. His shoulder-length black hair framed his face, making him look a little like a vampire. Maybe he was!

'He's weird,' said Ke'koa as we went down the front steps towards the Hogwarts gates, where a crowd of students were bottlenecked. 'He's just weird.'

'Hummel's all right,' said Peter. 'He's just kind of creepy, that's all. And I think he knows every single secret passageway in the entire school…too bad he'd never tell us about them.'

'I wonder if he keeps a list or a map,' said Arcturus as we neared the gate. 'We should sneak into his office someday and find out!'

Everyone liked that idea, and we gleefully planned such an excursion as we squeezed through the crowd at the gates and were at last on our way to Hogsmeade Village. We'd probably never really do it, but plotting mad schemes and adventures was a favourite pastime of ours, whether we actually did them or not.

Hogsmeade was a long walk from Hogwarts. It never seemed that long when we rode the carriages from Hogsmeade Station, but walking was a lot different than riding. The day was a little chilly, but we were all hot and sweaty by the time we reached the outskirts of the village, where a large wooden sign proclaimed: 'Welcome to Hogsmeade!'