5.
Ich muss, ich muss
The students swarmed in the hall, a quarter of the total, all buzzing with excitement. Among this group the Slytherins gazed towards the center, where they were told a "guest professor" would be. Their sharp, sly eyes flitted from corner to corner, calling their friends together and wondering just what this new teacher could teach them. Some were doubtful, others excited, and still others uninterested.
Draco Malfoy stifled a yawn. He elbowed the student next to him and rolled his eyes. "They can't find good enough professors so they have to get someone from outside, don't they?" He sneered.
The student gave him a false grin and returned to his conversation which majorly centered about his wealth and the three countries he would be cruising in the upcoming summer. Draco sniffed to regain dignity and returned to his group, mocking the event quite loudly at times.
Greens mixed with blacks clashed beneath Arthur like a turbulent, dark sea. He turned to look at the Head of the House, Snape, bemusedly.
"What house were you in?" Snape asked quietly, without curiosity, but simply trying to kill off the time before they had to start on the strict schedule.
"I was not in any house, but I suppose they could have put me in any." Arthur returned with the same goal.
"What house would you have chosen?"
"I cannot say."
Snape turned, his sharp nose throwing a thick shadow across his face, masking his other eye. His greasy black hair fell like a curtain, hardly moving even with the most violent of head rotations. The candles behind them flickered.
"I believe you were taller when I saw you last." He said.
Arthur kept his hands behind his back, r0cking slightly at his heels. "Much can happen since then."
"We have time."
"It was not an accident. And we do not have that much time, for the matter." Arthur stepped forwards, his robes shimmering in the light. He drew his wand from the folds at his front and held it aloft, casting a glowing green aura from the tip that attracted all the students, their eyes bound towards him and then yonder where he then conducted a lengthy monologue about how honored he was for being there and how wonderful it was to return to Hogwarts. He said not a word of his personal life save for his name said briefly. The students, now quite enraptured, including Draco, watched him. Snape did as well, his brows raised in growing curiosity.
Arthur muttered aloud a spell and with it casted his fiery naiads. They began as small, sprightly beings that rushed through the crowds, their gowns of light fluttering in their wake and their small feet brushing the floor. As they passed, the students' faced lit up with sheer delight and wonder, as though they were children first exposed to the gorgeousness of light and sound. The naiads, nymphs, faeries, and the like evaporated when Arthur uttered another incomprehensible spell. With growing sorrow, the ghosts burst into glittering flames and at once the students held their hands out so they might catch the falling stars, but the light vanished once it brushed their skin.
Once gone, as well, the students fell back to ill-amused tempers. None seemed to have much recollection of the wonder they faced prior. They steadily examined Arthur for answers.
"Deceit, students of Salazar, deceit is what I will be teaching you this evening. As you noticed, these figures disappeared along with your bewilderment. I will teach you how to make the small kind. It's a simple spell you can use to distract an enemy, to entertain young children, or for whatever purpose else you wish. You see, magic is not solely for comfort or for fighting, it can be used for beauty. That is what I want this house to understand above all else." Arthur cleared his throat and raised his wand once again, "And, as you hone this skill, you will find that you can make these as well."
With another loudly spoken spell Arthur's wand began to ooze silky white light. It formed into a pile which rose steadily and from it, after an awed wait when the candlelight seemed to fade and the room darkened except for the figure appearing before them, a female human stood. She seemed to be made from the finest stardust, wrapped in a silky dress, her eyes of no color, and her hair floating about her. She looked at the students, to some as a temptress to others a mother and to others a sister. Her lips parted and she grinned. She held her hands forth in a cupped motion, all sound sucked away, and Arthur placed his wand in her palms, and from it sprung a flower to grandiose and beautiful some gasps erupted from the audience.
Arthur took a deep breath, his face paling with the effort of the spell, and whisked her away. He stood for a moment, regaining his energy, and placed a complacent visage towards the students. "Now, as you know something so pretty is hard to create. I want you to try to create a flower first. It's an illusion, keep in mind, so don't put your head on something serious but rather in a lofty area."
For the next hour Arthur taught them the spell, simple compared to the grand woman, and they each tried. Some could do it more easily while others tried in vain until the final moment, creating only a drop of the celestial substance.
"Don't be discouraged," Arthur told them, grinning.
Finally the hour was over and the students were, with a final farewell from Arthur, sent back to the dormitories. The students, exhausted from the effort, struggled back. Even the most stern of Slytherins were grinning with wonder. Draco included.
"Do you still think that was a waste?" Someone asked him.
Draco turned, his features contorting to a mix of affirmation and disbelief. He remained silent. He had been impressed, even with the simplicity, and that bothered him.
Next the Hufflepuffs came. They stood, much more eager and chatty than the others. Arthur did not dawdle and instantly started on the lesson, teaching them instead easier self defense techniques.
"You are kind people, and so you do not want to harm your opponent. I will not be the one to tell you to forbid your nature, but rather to encourage it. I'll teach you a spell that will put your enemy into a state similar to intoxication." He then proceeded to teach the students spells that either cast their enemies into a steadfast sleep or into a delusion.
"But can't we learn this in class?" one of them asked, only able to make his partner somewhat dizzy.
"Yes, then you will certainly pass that class. Learning from a different teacher can help you as well." Arthur said simply and walked on.
The Hufflepuffs returned with these newly learned, or relearned, spells and talked about them to one another.
The Ravenclaws were next. Arthur watched them from his post on the stairs. They were set, their brows furrowed and their wands ready. Each one aspired to master the most difficult of spells, no matter the challenge. And, as Arthur planned, that was what he had in mind. He would teach them perhaps a spell to bend trees or to call spirits, but then he realized he was looking in the wrong place. These students needed to learn something that they were not good at. Arthur then, with a brimming grin, greeted the students formally and built up tension as though to prepared to separate the sea, and instead only held his wand aloft. The students cowered, expecting an explosion or burst of light, but instead a book zipped through the air and landed pat in his hand. He flipped through it, reading from several passages, and returned it.
"No, you do that."
"Sir, that's too easy!" Some students called. Even the first years agreed.
"Of course it is. Do you think I would give you something difficult?"
"But—sir—" one faltered.
"Yes?"
"I heard that you were one of the most powerful wizards, but…"
"But what? Do you not trust my opinion based on those facts?"
"Yes, but…"
"Yes but nothing. Go on, do as I say."
The students then rigorously brought the objects lined against the walls to their grasp. Some first years were unable to catch it. And, even after some time, the older students failed and the books hit them squarely in the forehead.
"You will train this until the end of the hour. By then you will have mastered it." Arthur said.
"But why, sir?" Another student inquired, holding a candle in her hands.
"Allow me to explain, then. In Martial Arts, practiced in China and Japan along with other parts of the world, one learns various movements and then trains them until they become second nature. What you all must understand, my intelligent pupils, is that simplicity is not the same as folly or stupidity."
As he watched the students for the rest of the hour, Dumbledore watched in the back, a smile on his lips, upturning his white whiskers. Next to him Professor McGonagall watched stiffly.
"He speaks so formally," she said.
"He has to make up for his lost height somehow." Dumbledore said with a near chuckle.
And once those students left, uncertain and tired the Gryffindors came. They stood the tallest, the proudest, with the most boastful appearances. McGonagall stood next to Arthur as he sized up the students.
In the center, Hermione, Ron, and Harry caught him there with the head of their house.
"Are we here early?" Someone said in front of them.
"We just saw the Ravenclaws come down and they were tired! What do you think he had them do?"
"I haven't a clue, but I'm excited!"
Professor McGonagall, her hands clasped before her, and her sharp face, with dangerously glinting eyes, reproached Arthur.
"I haven't seen you in a long time, Kirkland."
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Minerva."
"Yes, I wish I could say the same to you."
After a pause, Arthur shifted uncomfortably. The woman was like a slab of ice-cold metal near him. "I was given a second chance. I want to redeem myself."
"Yes, but of course."
Arthur went to teach the group. As he taught, he could feel her watching him, like pricks of fire poking the back of his neck. He knew she understood what his past pertained to, at least what the past seventeen years were, and it horrified him to no end.
The students were taught a borderline complex spell on how to create a defensive border around them. The students tried, Hermione inevitably excelled all standards, and the hour ended quickly. McGonagall left, her robes trailing behind her like a shadow. Arthur saw Hermione turn, chatting wildly about the spell, and stopped her.
Harry turned, and Ron waited. Harry expected to be seen by Arthur, as he was the chosen one, but Arthur bade him to move on.
"I'd like to speak to you, young lady." Arthur said. Hermione nodded and her friends stalked off, grumbling about something about her being an over-achiever.
"What do you need, sir?"
"I would like to give you a private lesson. Do you have any plans for next Saturday? If you do: cancel them. Then I want you to meet me after breakfast. Depending on how well it goes, you can be back by lunchtime, perhaps dinner if you want to learn more, but you mustn't tell anyone of this. That includes Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley."
"What shall I tell them instead, sir?"
"You're the bright one. Tell them whatever you want."
Hermione nodded and returned to her friends, creating a story of how he had praised her for excellence with a dirty conscience.
Arthur turned away and, once he thought he was alone, save for two green eyes watching him out of the corner, he looked down at his arm, placing his alternate hand upon it, and sighed. He rolled up his sleeve and watched the dark mark for some time, absorbing light and dragging him back to that time.
The green eyes widened and a friend behind asked him to come, for he may drop asleep at a moment's notice.
The owner of the green eyes shushed the friend and he, Harry Potter, stepped back further into the shadow as he heard footsteps echoing down the chambers.
Arthur looked up and saw the speaker, someone Harry couldn't see. After Hermione had returned with the news, he slipped back, using his cloak he kept under his arm for this very reason—he distrusted Arthur—and now hid, trying to see what Arthur was doing.
"Are you still here?" the voice, slimy, slippery, snaky said.
Arthur huffed, "I'm terribly exhausted."
"Then why don't you head to sleep?" Snape said. Harry heard something shift. And, for a moment, he fancied Arthur's gaze flew to him and then back. Harry's heart leaped to his throat and began hammering. Had Arthur more powers than he anticipated? Could he sense him there as though sniffing him out like a hound dog?
"I wanted to take one last good look around."
"That Granger girl is quite interesting, isn't she? She has a massive brain in her head. I'm surprised she could stay so… good, I suppose you could put it that way."
"Yes. The Dark Lord may have had good use for her."
"He may still have use of her, if he rises or if someone else decides to take that royal crown."
Harry's heart continued to pound, so hard that he feared the rushing of blood may deafen him.
"If I am correct," Snape continued, "Then you want to teach her in private?"
"That's correct," Arthur said stiffly.
"Are you still planning to create a dark side?"
"You ought to stop interrogating me," Arthur remarked coldly, "I have a plan in mind and I will carry it out, whether by bloodshed or not."
"So be it."
Snape seemed to walk away and Arthur, with one last sweep of the room, one that seemed to linger too long on Harry, he walked away.
Harry slumped against the wall, trying to understand. He couldn't let Hermione go. Also, she had deliberately lied to them, so she must have been bound to secrecy. Harry needed to convince her not to go while also convincing her that it was for some other cause and that he did not know where she was truly headed.
Still confused, Harry went upstairs and had a fitful dream about Sirius and Hermione, each with a python tightening around them and hissing. Sirius's eyes pleaded with him and Hermione's eyes were a shade of acidic green, a smile at her lips; something he was tempted to share with the divination teacher but, not feeling much for another impending death, decided to keep it all to himself. Without the ability to tell either of his friends, he became suddenly very lonely.
Thank you again so much for the reviews!
And I was planning on responding to the questions personally, but then perhaps someone else is bothered by the same query so I'll answer it here.
Yes, I know Arthur is much taller. Don't think I kept mentioning this wrong fact without reason. Thank you, though, for pointing out his true height. I knew he was rather tall in the first place, and your observation made me happy that the adding of that fact didn't go in vain!
I raised the rating for reasons that will become evident soon.
The spells I made-up completely, using a mixture of my own imagination and of other fantasy stories.
And yes the chapter numbers aren't correct.
The title translates to "I must, I must" in German.