Parts (9-12)
II
Chapter 3
Old Class, New Staff
Part 1: Normalcy
Despite falling asleep quickly, Scorpius didn't sleep well. Again he found woke up from nightmares he couldn't remember, he knew they were nightmares though from the way his pajamas and hair were plastered to him with sweat and the lingering feelings of fear and horror. He supposed it was a good thing he didn't remember but in one way it bugged him, he should at least know what exactly was bothering him, especially when it was happening more and more.
Michael was the only one up before him - or maybe he hadn't slept judging from the bags under his eyes, when Scorpius was done getting dressed he pulled back the drapes and saw Michael was not only dressed but had already made his bed. He was sitting on the edge of his bed holding his wand in both hands and staring down at it sadly, his eye was now purple from James' punch and he didn't seem to notice Scorpius. Not even when he said hi. Reuben was starting to rouse but Albus and Angelo were still fast asleep, the latter of which was still snoring despite the light filtering in from the window.
"Michael?" Scorpius prompted slightly louder and his friend's head shot up, "you know, I'm sure they won't close the school."
"Yeah, I'm not worried," Michael said cheerfully and smiled an almost convincing smile, "think we should wake up Al or wait a bit?"
"I kinda wanted to go to the Great Hall but you know how Albus likes his sleep."
"We could wake him, see what he says and if doesn't want to get up then just go ahead and he can meet us there?"
"Good plan," Scorpius conceded and Michael's smile was infinitely more genuine as he went to get Albus up while Scorpius made his bed, Albus' emerald flicked open and he said something that sounded unintelligible from where he was but Michael seemed to understand as he came back over, Albus rolled over and went back to sleep, "take it we're meeting him in the hall?"
"Yep."
They headed down to breakfast, it felt oddly good to be back in the castle that had been his home for most of last year but not so good to be wearing Gryffindor robes again. Michael looked more comfortable than he had in Diagon Alley, although he didn't seem to have grown an inch over the holidays. Hogwarts was almost exactly the same - almost - but he noticed that they kept passing Aurors in the hallways who would glance at them and carry on, he exchanged a curious look with Michael and they continued walking. Scorpius was starting to feel worried, why were there so many Aurors around? Were any of them Shadows? Were any of them the one who'd tried to kill Varanian? He was at least comforted to see a familiar face when they were almost at the hall.
"Professor Ashain!" Scorpius exclaimed and the tired professor smiled in greeting as they walked alongside him, he was going in their direction. Scorpius' comfort wore off however when he noticed the stitched up wound across his cheek, "what happened to your face?"
"The attack," the professor answered simply and scowled at Michael, "I was about to ask the same question of you."
"Lost a fight with a statue, gotta get used to the castle again," Michael lied smoothly and still sounding cheerful, Scorpius scowled at the usually moralistic Michael lying to his favorite professor for no reason but he decided not to call him on it as Michael spoke again, "you wouldn't happen to know what's happening, would you? Like... if the school's saying open?"
"Its staying open but I have a feeling once the owls get out then plenty of people will pull their kids out of school, Calderon will explain more."
"Good," Scorpius said brightly, forgetting his discomfort at Michael's lie. One thing he was really looking forward to being back in school was seeing the assistant again, he was going to ask if he still had his detentions or at least some for missing the last few weeks or simply volunteer to help out because he had missed them and spending time with Calderon.
"Goodmorning Ashain," a random golden eyed Auror offered cheerfully with an incredibly enthusiastic wave as he and his extremely tall companion passed by.
"Goodmorning," Professor Ashain told him back and held up his hand in a lazy wave as they continued in their opposite directions.
"Who was that?" Scorpius wondered as the professor looked confused.
"I have no idea... that was new."
"So... do we have classes today?" Michael asked.
"Yes we all have classes."
"Good," Scorpius repeated as they made it into the Great Hall - if he didn't know any better then he wouldn't have known a battle had occurred there the previous night - and waved bye to the professor as he went to join the staff table and they went over to the Gryffindor table, "so why did you lie to him about James? He could have got James in trouble for hitting you."
"I don't want to get anyone in trouble on my first day back at Hogwarts," Michael explained as they sat down at the nearly deserted table, "its just a bruise, bruises heal. Its not a big deal."
Scorpius opened his mouth to argue but thought better of it, he didn't want to get into a disagreement with him on the first day back. If James did anything else though then he wouldn't let it go so easily, although it was only partly James' fault as Michael had been defending him. Could he not go one day without hurting his friends? He glanced around the room to distract himself from being sucked back into the guilt trip, there wasn't a lot of people around yet. He recognized the albino Orous was sitting at the Hufflepuff table but no one else really, not by name anyway, Orous was tracing his finger over his wrist and staring unblinkingly into space. He looked like he'd been crying though, Scorpius scowled as he looked over to the staff table.
It was the emptiest that he'd ever seen it, most of the staff were absent and even the ones there bore signs of last night's attack, much like Professor Ashain had the nasty cut across his cheek. He still didn't like the assortment of mostly strangers, he liked the old staff better. Although he wouldn't mind if Rivers left, Rivers was looking particularly frustrated that day. It was strange seeing the empty Headmaster's chair, had Elwood recovered yet? Disappointingly Calderon wasn't there either, he would know what was happening, Calderon always knew what was happening in Hogwarts.
Michael caught him looking and they started trying to guess what the teachers taught from the look of them as more people started filing in - including battered looking teachers, Corin and Maurice arrived not long after they did and sat with them although only Corin joined in the conversation as Maurice seemed content to read, Molly also sat with them after being shunned by the rest of the table - they'd moved onto guessing their names while they ate their breakfast. Scorpius was actually glad to talk about something that wasn't last night's attack. Michael was on his third helpings when Abby and Rose arrived, Abby didn't look like she'd slept much more than Professor Ashain or Michael had but Rose looked cheerful enough.
"Sorry we're late," Rose offered as they sat down opposite the two boys, "we went to check on Neville in the hospital wing first. Where's Albus?"
"Wanted more of a lie in," Michael shrugged as he helped the reluctant Abby put food on her plate, Rose was more than capable of piling up her own, "how is Professor Longbottom?"
"Not doing too badly, he's going to be okay at least."
"Except for not having an arm," Abby whispered sadly as she picked at the food.
"But he'll live, that's the important thing."
"Yeah it is," Michael chimed in and Scorpius nodded, he did think it must be horrible to lose an arm and he felt bad for poor Professor Longbottom but he supposed Michael and Rose were trying to think of the positives. It was better that he'd lost an arm and lived then died with it.
"Any idea what's happening?" Rose asked between bites of sausage, "Daddy said that the school's staying open because none of the students were seriously hurt or killed and that Aurors would be guarding the school anyway. Although he also said that the Acting Headmaster would tell us this in the morning but its weird, Elwood is really bad shape in the hospital wing and they say his injuries were the most severe of everyone - except the dead obviously - but he didn't seem in any condition to wake up, let alone explain things."
"They probably got someone else to be Acting Headmaster," Abby shrugged but frowned, "my dad is the Deputy Headmaster and he's in no condition to run the school right now, McGonagall would have to stay in Beauxbatons with the seventh years so who did they get to do it?"
"I don't know," Michael offered, "but all of the less severely injured teachers are here now, except the ones who weren't there for the attack and Calderon but he's not really a teacher. Maybe its that Divination professor that you've mention, Scorpius?"
"No," Scorpius answered immediately and firmly as he shook his head, "no one in their right mind would make her Acting Headmistress. They probably got someone else from the Ministry and they're not here because Calderon's busy doing all the work, as usual, to prepare them. Its really not fair, he does so much and his room is practically a broom closet. In fact I think it was."
"Some random Ministry person who knows nothing about Hogwarts is probably going to need him though," Abby sighed, "or maybe they hired back one of the old professors as Headmaster temporarily?"
They debated this for awhile until Albus hastily showed up when they were just picking the scraps off their plates, his clothes looking disheveled and his hair more messier than usual, he looked exasperated as he squeezed in beside them. Albus hastily started shoving food onto his plate while prefects handed out class schedules, one of whom was Louis Weasley who apparently had been made prefect like his eldest sister before him, he was a reserve on the Quidditch team so Scorpius knew him and congratulated him. Louis beamed at the praise and proudly tossed his long blond hair back before resuming handing out schedules before Albus had the chance to speak.
"Thank you for coming to breakfast without me!" Albus burst out sarcastically.
"You did say you'd rather sleep a bit more," Michael pointed out.
"I nearly overslept and missed the whole of breakfast!"
"Well then next time get up when you're told."
"Yes, mother," Albus muttered mockingly before speaking up again, "so what's happening? Did I miss anything?"
Almost on cue, the door leading to the room off from the Great Hall near the staff table opened and Calderon came out with the puppy on his heels. He was wearing a cloak, an actual wizard cloak, sleeved and pure black with a silver fastening, Scorpius did notice his usual muggle clothing and the dragon necklace beneath though. He watched with immense curiosity as Calderon walked to the staff table and stood in front of the headmaster's chair, the puppy sitting by his side. There were some lights blinking behind Calderon and the assistant looked more nervous than Scorpius had ever seen him, he ran his hand though his dark hair and eyed the room as if trying to work up the courage to do something. Calderon took a deep breath and put his fingers to his mouth to whistle, Scorpius winced at the high-pitched sound of it but it was effective in silence the crowd and drawing attention to himself. Rivers looked incredibly sullen and pouted sulkily.
"Hello people of Hogwarts! You are probably wondering about the attack last night and what is going to happen?" Calderon called out to address the hall, his voice carrying magically and he managed to compose himself to hide his anxiety from all but those who knew him well and there were nods and murmurs of agreement all around, "to the first, its pretty simple, you were there and you know we were attacked by the Shadows. They were successfully fought off however and although the majority of the Shadows remain uncaught, they are virtually a hundred percent certain that they are no longer anywhere near this school or have any intention of attacking again considering their loss.
"As to the second, Hogwarts will remain open. This castle has held firm and taught students for over a thousand years, it withstood the onslaught of Voldemort and isn't going to crumble from a few Shadows. However if anyone is uncomfortable they are more than welcome to write home and asked to be taken home but for the rest, life goes on and steps are being made to protect that life. For one, the protective enchantments around Hogwarts have been drastically reinforced and more have been added. As an extra precaution the Ministry also has put in place a large number of Aurors, they will guard the entrances, patrol the halls just in case anything like this happens again. They won't interfere with you or your studies and I trust you won't interfere with them so they can do their jobs, guard the school and rise to its defense should the need come.
"I am sorry to tell you that Professor Dixon sadly died last night in the attack, he was here many years and he will be missed. However the rest of the staff are alive and currently stable for anyone who was worried, as you can see many of them are at the table now and most others are expected to be allowed out of the hospital wing in a few days to a few weeks. You will have classes, the schedule's have been rearranged to accommodate circumstances and life will carry on as mostly normal. And announcements, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden - in case you couldn't figure that out from the name - with the exception of being brought there for a lesson, in which case you will be escorted by a pair of Aurors as well, again though they won't effect your lesson.
"As you may have noticed there are quite a lot of new members of staff this year but only two are currently present, the others are either in their classrooms already waiting for you or in the hospital wing. You may or may not have met them by dinner but they will be introduced regardless, anyway give a warm welcome to our new Flying Instructor, Mister Eben Dunbrooke-" Calderon paused to gesture to a man who stood while they politely clapped, he looked around Rivers' age only with lustrous curly chocolate hair but a look of worry was etched into his chalk white skin and even smiling didn't make it fade as he gave them a wave before sitting back down, Scorpius thought the lumpy bruised cut on his forehead might have something to do with his unhappiness, "and our new Transfiguration teacher, Professor Pyrrhus Florian!"
Calderon stopped to gesture again to another man who stood, the Transfiguration teacher seemed more enthusiastic than the Flying Instructor as he grinned and waved to the applauding students. Despite looking a tad younger than the first, Florian's fiery hair was already mixed with gray so much so that it was more gray than red, he had tan skin and had his hands bandaged around the palms as well as his wrist. But what stuck out where his large eyes, they were violet. Not just a purplish shade of blue but violet, a bright violent violet. The applause died down and the still smiling professor sat once more, only then did Calderon continued.
"Quidditch tryouts are going to be in the second week as usual although several Aurors will guard the pitch while you're there and escort you back, again they won't interfere or even force you to go faster. Quidditch Captains must arrange to book the pitch for their tryout with Mister Dunbrooke before then and post notice in your common rooms so people will know and be able to try out, good luck with that... And you're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this and not an actual person of Authority? Well until Elwood's finished his hopefully swift and speedy recovery, I've been appointed the new Acting Headmaster-" Calderon announced and for some reason glanced at Professor Ashain almost accusingly but whatever he was going to say next was drowned out by clapping, Scorpius wasn't surprised. Calderon had banished the Shadows from the memorial, healed so many people in St Mungo's, saved the school from the Shadows with Scorpius and then again banished the Dementors and the Shadows last night, people may think he was mad but there was no denying he was brilliant. And powerful. Scorpius clapped so hard his hands were sore, even the teachers clapped - Rivers was moving his hands together and apart so slowly that it could barely be called that though - although Calderon himself looked incredibly surprised by this, he was blushing as he held out his hands and lowered them to gesture them to silence, "you don't... you don't need to clap me but erm... thanks, I'll try my best to not fail... completely. So that's about it for now, have a good day!"
The students were in a much better mood as they left the Great Hall than when they'd arrived, Scorpius glanced back to see Calderon slump into the Headmaster's chair still looking anxious as he watched the students leave. If not for the handful of teachers still at the table, Rivers in particular seemed to be complaining to Calderon about something. Not everyone was happy though, James was moaning loudly about the idiocy of putting an insane man in control of the school and if not the majority disagreeing with them then Scorpius would have said something. Most people cared little of the mental health of a man who'd summoned a giant Dragon to defend them and banished the Shadows - it was debated whether he 'obliterated' them or teleported them or if they got away - and Scorpius was glad.
Mostly glad, he was much happier with Calderon as Headmaster but the Aurors worried him. They passed more as he trudged with his friends along to their first class of the new year, Scorpius eyed the men and women suspiciously. At least one of them was a traitor, at least one of them had tried to kill an innocent man for the Shadows. Varanian had wanted him to be in Hogwarts because it was supposedly safe, the Ministry wanted the Aurors there to make it supposedly safe but Scorpius had a horrible feeling that Hogwarts was probably the least safe place to be. Especially if your name was Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy and the Shadows were after you. He couldn't help but wonder if this was part of the Shadows plan, that they'd attacked the staff with so much ferocity just to instill fear - although they could just want that for itself - so that the Ministry would insist on Aurors guarding it, not knowing there was at least one corrupt one.
"What class do we have first?" Scorpius asked to distract himself from his depressing train of thoughts although he could just have read his schedule, he'd just been blindly following and not listening to his friends' conversation he was so worried. With any luck it would be something enjoyable and distracting like Defense Against the Dark Arts with his favorite professor.
"History of Magic," Michael answered enthusiastically and everyone but Michael groaned at the prospect of their first class of the year being with Binns. Scorpius sighed, just my luck.
Part 2: Charming Potions
History of Magic was almost exactly as Scorpius remembered it, Albus and Abby sat down in the seats in front of Scorpius with Albus immediately falling asleep and Abby was clearly bored out of her mind and was half-asleep by the end of the lesson which was typical for most students. Rose sat down at the desk beside him and Michael, her and Scorpius at least tried to pay attention despite the dullness of it although his mind frequently wandered. Not liking a class was no reason to not even try, a few of the Ravenclaws were the only other ones to try pay attention like they did.
Michael was the only person in the class - probably the only person in the history of Binns' career - who actually enjoyed History of Magic, he managed to look bright-eyed with interest despite his tiredness and bruise and was smiling as he scribbled down notes on what their ghost professor was saying. Almost exactly the same as last year, except for the different content of what Binns was saying and the fact that Michael kept cringing every so often and rubbing his wrist.
"Something wrong?" Scorpius asked him after about the tenth time that Michael did this, Binns didn't seem to notice but Rose glanced at them.
"My wrist's just a bit sore still if I move it or use it, its nothing," Michael shrugged it off and carried on taking notes, "its normal, healing takes time without magic."
Scorpius went back to half paying attention, he supposed that was true although he was sure that it was the other wrist that was bruised. He didn't dwell on it though, their were more important things like the Aurors that were everywhere. At least there was none in the classroom, Binns would make an even worse protector of the class than he was a teacher. He could have been the most talented duelist in the world when he was alive but a ghost was useless in an attack.
Near the end of the class he actually looked at his schedule for the first time, after History of Magic they had Potions then lunch, after lunch they had double Charms and then Defense Against the Dark Arts. Usually he would think it was a pretty good day, Potions and Charms weren't his favorite subjects but he still enjoyed them. However as he had no idea what to expect from the new professors for them, he wasn't sure how they'd go. He'd liked the old professors. On the bright side though, no matter how they went the day would end on a good note with Professor Ashain so there was at least one positive.
He was glad and nervous when History of Magic ended, the five of them headed down to the dungeons and Scorpius was put on edge again from passing the Aurors. His friends seemed oblivious however, they were discussing who the Potions would be or rather discussing how evil the new Potions teacher would be as apparently their parents had a really mean teacher in school. Scorpius was confused, he was sure they would have had Snape and his father had spoken highly of him and he was pretty sure Snape had been a hero spy in the Wizarding Wars and Albus' middle name was after him. Had they had a substitute professor or something? He was about to ask just as they arrived at the Potions classroom and Nott stepped in front of him.
"H-Hey Malf-Scorp... um... you. C-Can I talk to you?" Nott stammered awkwardly and Scorpius exchanged a puzzled look with his friends, Nott's blue eyes kept moving as he looked anywhere but at the person he was talking to, he kept shifting uncomfortable as he ran his hand through his hair and bit his lip.
"Um... sure," Scorpius hesitantly agreed, clueless as to what the bully would want with him.
"I um... I w-wanted to um... t-to... erm... I wanted to err..." Nott started to say but seemed to be having trouble getting the words out before finally he gulped and spoke as he flicked his eyes to Scorpius' for a moment, "th-thank you. Y-You know f-for saving us f-from the Sh-Shadows."
"What?" Scorpius wondered, blinking in shock as Nott looked away again.
"Th-Thank you f-for s-saving my l-life ev-even though y-you pr-probably d-didn't d-do it f-for me. I'm s-s-sorry I w-was s-such a j-j-jerk to you and y-your friends, I w-was j-just ups-upset ab-about you beating my br-brother s-s-so I w-wanted t-to get b-back at y-you. I'm s-sorry. To a-all of you."
Scorpius was trying to comprehend what had happened when Nott turned and walked away, he went by his usual friends who called out taunts about stuttering and one of them deliberately knocked into Nott. Nott just ignored it, picked himself up and went to stand by the wall opposite, staring at the ground.
"Did-Did that just happen?" Michael asked bemusedly while Albus pinched himself.
"Yeah, I'm definitely awake," Albus nodded in confirmation, "what got into him? Is he trying to lull us into a false sense of security so he can strike?"
"No," Rose said shaking her head, "he's the reason they stopped they trying to make you remember more of the memories Varanian erased, they pushed him too far and damaged his mind somehow. Memory charms are tricky things, especially on children whose minds aren't fully grown yet, its dangerous."
"Poor guy," Michael offered solemnly before the doors to the classroom opened and a woman's voice called them inside.
They got seats at the front of the classroom and he watched Nott go all the way to the furthest corner back, he sat alone. Scorpius turned his attention to the new Potions professor instead though, it was indeed a woman and he thought she looked vaguely as one of the new faces at the table the previous night. Her right hand and wrist was heavily bandaged and she bore two horizontal cuts on her cheek as signs of her participation in the duels, it did nothing to detract from her natural beauty however. Although Scorpius supposed that might have something to do with her very tightly fitting black dress, although it was looser at the bottom and trailed on the ground. She looked around his father's age, give or take a year, she was brunette, her hair long and loose and had smooth light olive with dark long-lashed glittering green eyes that were taking all of them with an unreadable expression. She carried herself with an almost regal bearing, there was something very meticulous about her appearance and even when she smiled it was a dignified smile.
"Good morning class," the Potions Professor greeted them in a cool but not unfriendly tone, every word sounding well thought out, "I am Professor Callista Vipera, your new Potions Master. Welcome to my class, second years, I am pleased to meet you. I do not tolerate misbehavior, how are you supposed to learn anything about Potion-making otherwise? Do not misbehave and we will have no problems. I have no issue with talking amongst yourselves as long as you do the work and be silent when I'm addressing you as I am now, I will carry out the role call now. I hope we have a pleasant year."
Vipera went over to her desk and started calling out their names, it took longer than usual as she would look up with every name to identify the speaker - probably trying to memorize their names - before looking back and marking them off, which was also slower as her injured hand seemed to make writing awkward. He noticed Albus seemed to be sleepy despite oversleeping and sleeping through History of Magic, he had his face rested on his hands as he stared at the professor. It was only when she called out Michael's name that the routine was broken, when she realized he'd spoken she smiled warmly at him before continuing. When she was finished she rose once more and went to stand in front of her desk once more to address them, folding her arms once more.
"Before we truly get into the noble art of Potion-making, I wish to see where you all stand as well as for you to all to get used to the subject after the Summer absence. We have a lesson now and another tomorrow that are single lessons, we'll properly start the Second Year Curriculum on our first double lesson on Monday but for today we'll do more revision. I almost thought of giving you some paperwork and a quiz but... that's not the most interesting way to start a class or to learn, is it?" Vipera said to them and smiled, this one looked mischievous and there was murmurings of agreement throughout the class, "so today, you are to make an anti-swelling potion that I believe you covered with Professor Slughorn last year? You have until the end of the lesson. Begin."
Everyone went to get their ingredients and started on their potions, Scorpius liked Professor Slughorn a lot better but he was glad that at least they'd get to do something. Vipera remained in front of her desk for a few minutes, arms still folded as she watched the class trying to remember back to last year and create the potion. Scorpius had just put the flame on under his cauldron when the new teacher walked directly over to the three of them, he froze and Albus sat up straight to spit into his hands and seemed to try smooth down his hair for some reason but Vipera went to the boy in the middle of them, Michael, who hadn't noticed her and was dicing up his Tebascus mushrooms obliviously.
"Your dicing skills are impressive," Vipera pointed out and Michael jumped in surprise before smiling.
"Um... thanks, professor," Michael said and Albus looked distraught.
"I-I can dice good too!" Albus protested and immediately started to violently hammer his Tebascus mushrooms into lumpier chunks than Michael's.
"I'm sure you can, although those could be a little finer," Vipera stated holding up her hand to stop him, Albus grinned then looked nervous, he was sweating as he tried to make them as fine as Michael's while the professor turned back to Michael, "take twenty-five points for Gryffindor."
"For dicing mushrooms?" Michael wondered looking bemused, "I'm not really good at Potions, I just know how to cut like that from cooking at home."
"No, of course not," Vipera laughed shaking her head and Albus sliced his finger as he looked up at her, not even seeming to notice, "for what you did last night, running to help the professors and you helped with my wrist. The healer was rather short with you but you deserved some praise for what you did."
"It was nothing, anyone would have done the same," Michael offered blushing awkwardly at being praised, he wasn't usually praised.
"I-I would have helped too if I knew about injuries," Albus spoke up again and Vipera spared him a glance.
"I'm sure you would have," Vipera offered before turning back to Michael once more, "the second reason I wished to speak to you was to inquire about your eye, it wasn't bruised last night. Whoever hit you should be punished, bullying is the worst form of misbehavior and I do not tolerate it."
"It was noth-"
"It was my brother," Albus blurted out before Michael could finish his sentence, "my brother. James Sirius Potter. He's in third year. He hit Michael. I saw him."
"No, no it wasn't," Michael lied quickly.
"I'm sure it wasn't," Vipera said looking between both boys before taking out her wand, it was strangely twisted but Scorpius thought it was designed like that. She waved it at Michael's face and his bruise faded into his skin, Michael blinked and put his fingers to his eye, pressing it and not cringing in pain as Vipera put away her wand and smiled her mischievous smile again, "just in case you didn't feel like bothering those healers."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Now carry on," Vipera offered before her expression returned neutral and she started walking amongst the other students to see how they were getting on.
They went back to making their potions - after Michael helped Albus deal with his finger, it was just a scratch - but didn't speak of the conversation with Vipera. In fact Albus didn't speak at all, he didn't want to be 'distracted' from his work so Scorpius mostly talked with Michael and Rose and Abby, the girls having taken the desk beside them. They talked about their work mostly, trying to remember the exact specifics about the potion and steps and how best to do what. Scorpius thought they did alright in the end, they bottled the potion, marked their names and left it on the tray at the front for Vipera to mark or at least examine them. Scorpius wasn't glad the lesson was over, passing the Aurors to get back to the Great Hall made him anxious again.
"I'm in love," Albus announced dreamily as they sat down for lunch, the girls rolled their eyes.
"Again?" Rose complained piling her plate with food.
"Don't say it like that! She's beautiful and smart and has this amazing laugh-"
"Who is she this time?" Abby asked disinterestedly.
"Professor Vipera," Albus said with a happy sigh and the girls exchange a look before laughing, Scorpius smirked at him liking the teach and Michael just rolled his eyes, "don't laugh!"
"Can I sit here?" Molly asked sounding miserable, Scorpius' smirk became a genuine smile as he saw her, his palms started sweating again.
"Sure," Scorpius agreed brightly as he moved up a bit so she could sit inbetween him and Albus, "how was your morning classes?"
"Classes were great. Its the people treating me like a leper that bugs me."
"Is it really that bad? You're not even the squib, its your sister."
"Having a sister is close enough apparently," Molly sighed and started putting some food on her plate, she picked at it rather than eating at it though, "I guess it shows who your true friends are though, you and Nick are pretty much the only people not teachers or cousins not shunning me."
"I'm sure this will all blow over soon," Scorpius offered comfortingly almost through gritted teeth, he felt a wave of anger towards Abby's brother Nick for still being nice to her. Nick probably still liked Molly and he was only being nice to her because he wanted to date her not because he cared about her at all, "besides, you're Quidditch Captain. Once we crush Slytherin in November then at least Gryffindor will forget all about it, you'll be a hero who won the first Quidditch match of the season despite being the youngest Captain in... ever."
"Assuming anyone is actually going to try out."
"We're trying out!" Albus burst out excitedly gesturing to himself and his friends.
"For Chasers right?" Molly said slowly, biting her lip worriedly. She looks so cute when she bites her lip, Scorpius mind thought it before he could stop himself and mentally - and almost physically - slapped himself.
"Of course, they're the spots you need."
"Good. Last thing I need is another James pestering me for Seeker just because we're cousins, I'm picking the team on skill alone so don't take it personally if you don't get it. Good luck though," Molly offered sounding relieved as she smiled, his heart skipped a beat, she looked even more beautiful when she smiled and he was glad she'd cheered up a bit, "I'd recommend practicing a bit if you can, I always do that before the tryouts to make sure I'm in the best shape."
"Bonjour!" Corin greeted them, clapping Scorpius on the back as he and a sullen looking Maurice joined them without asking, "you know I was doubtful about the Hogwarts education system but your Metamorphose or Transfiguration as you call it in Britain was just great, Professor Florian is fantastic! Have any of you had him yet - oh wait you can't have because we had a double, sorry, I hope you get him soon. He's great!"
"No, we have double Charms then Defense Against the Dark Arts," Abby pointed out and Corin looked disappointed, "what's up with Maurice?"
"What? Oh he's just frustrated that there's someone in the class whose just as good as us," Corin answered and gestured to Maurice who was nibbling food with his head resting on his hand and not bothering to translate what they were saying, Maurice just shrugged as if he didn't care about the conversation and Corin continued, "since we've had two extra years practice and all but this one Hufflepuff excelled at everything practical too despite it being his first time using magic."
"Please tell me it wasn't Vern," Albus groaned and Michael scowled.
"You shouldn't be so mean to your cousin, you should be proud if he's doing well," Michael pointed out and Albus rolled his eyes, Corin spoke before he could reply though.
"It wasn't Vern."
"Then who?" Scorpius wondered although he had a strange feeling that he knew the answer.
"That albino that sat with us on the train, Orous Knox."
Scorpius instinctively looked over to the Hufflepuff table, he couldn't see Orous or Vern actually. While he was at it, he glanced at the at the staff table and smiled at Calderon sitting in the headmaster's chair, petting his dog and talking to Professor Ashain. He went back to the table, the discussion bounced between the Quidditch tryouts and Corin's excitement about Transfiguration before lunch ended.
They said bye to Molly, Corin and Maurice and headed off to Charms, again debating on the personality or appearance of the professor. Scorpius didn't say much, put off by the Aurors they passed and not looking forward to another new professor although he supposed Vipera wasn't bad. He just liked Professor Slughorn better, he'd gotten close to a lot of the staff during his daily detentions and he'd rather have people he knew and liked then strangers. Especially with so many potential evil Aurors running amok.
"Michael! Michael!" Vern called out desperately as they rounded the bend, looking upset and his clothes oddly dishevelled, Orous was with him and still looked miserable but not anxious like Vern.
"What's up?" Michael wondered.
"We got lost and we're supposed to be in History of Magic and I don't know where we are or we're going."
"Ah, happens to us all in the beginning. I'll show you the way."
"Really?" Vern wondered looking hopeful and Michael nodded as he smiled.
"Sure, its not problem."
"You'll be late for Charms!" Albus protested giving his cousin a dark look, Vern looked even more distraught.
"I don't want you to get in trouble!" Vern squeaked anxiously, "we'll find it... eventually."
"No its fine," Michael insisted brushing it off, "you guys just go on without me, I don't mind being late to help someone out."
"Fine, catch up with you later then and hope this guy is as nice as Flitwick," Albus said rolling his eyes as he, Abby and Albus carried on but Scorpius hesitated. Michael would have to walk back to Charms alone with the Aurors, any of whom could be a murder and a Shadow.
"I'll go with Michael," Scorpius told them, he was given puzzled looks, "I... I don't think its safe for anyone to be alone in the castle after what happened."
Everyone just froze for a moment, all the talk of lessons and classes had taken everyone's mind of it but he'd just brought it back. It felt a flicker of guilt but it passed, it was better than letting Michael walk back alone. They all nodded in silent agreement and split up, Michael walked in the lead talking to Vern who frantically kept apologizing for getting them lost while Michael insisted it was fine. Finally silencing when he asked him if he would rather help someone and be late then be on time and leave other people wandering around lost, Vern managed a weak smile when he realized he'd do the same and instead listened to Michael giving him hints on how to remember the way in Hogwarts. Scorpius was half-listening and half-watching the Aurors they passed, he had assumed Orous had been listening to Michael too before he spoke.
"I'm sorry," Orous whispered so quietly that Scorpius could barely hear him, the other two slightly ahead in front didn't, "I feel like I should know the way, its almost like I've been here before."
"Why?" Scorpius asked curiously and if possible Orous lowered his voice even more.
"Just in my dreams."
"Dreams aren't real, you know that right?" Scorpius pointed out firmly, he'd dreamed of going to Hogwarts when he was younger but he hadn't thought it would let him know the way. That was weird.
Orous said nothing though, his head was hung so low with his white hair covering his face anyway so Scorpius couldn't even see his expression. They arrived at the History of Magic at that point though so it was irrelevant, said goodbye to the younger boys and started to head back to Charms. They walked in silence, Scorpius was still bothered by the Aurors as he tried to remember everything Varanian had said.
"Something bothering you?" Michael inquired after a minute.
"Why would you think that?" Scorpius countered, he couldn't exactly warn them about the Aurors without saying he'd been in contact with Varanian. He wasn't sure how but he was afraid telling anyone would somehow get the word out and the Aurors or Shadows would be able to track him down and kill him.
"Because you keep giving every Auror we pass a death glare."
"I do not..." Scorpius offered and tried not to scowl, was it really that obvious?
"You've been doing it all day."
"They just make me uncomfortable, I guess. Think we should make a run for Charms? No point being any later than necessary."
"Sure," Michael agreed although Scorpius wasn't a hundred percent sure that Michael was content with his answer, they broke into a run and bolted through the corridors getting some strange looks from the Aurors but no one spoke to them. They went back to a walk as they reached the corridor with the Charms corridor, Scorpius nursing a stitch in his side but Michael laughed breathlessly, "kinda weird to run through the school without Varanian, Shadows or bullies after us, isn't it? We gotta get back into shape."
Scorpius shook his head but managed a weak smile before they reached the classroom, to his surprise as they went to enter the room they were blocked by a man. The man wasn't fat - or at least not drastically - but he was just... big, robust and broad shouldered as well as being tall, not as tall as Professor Hagrid but Scorpius thought he may have a good few inches on Calderon. He also looked to be in his late forties or early fifties maybe and he did look like he'd been at the staff table the previous night, his long combed back hair didn't seem to have decided whether it was gray or white and neither had his pencil mustache. His heavily bandaged right arm was in a sling, his left - also sporting a bandage near his shoulder - was holding a walking stick to support his bandaged thigh and he also had a fresh burn on the side of his neck, evidence he was definitely at the staff table the previous day. In comparison he had tiny eyes, dark beady eyes that looked down on Scorpius with a gruff expression and look of loathing.
"You're late," the man pointed out, "what's your name?"
"Michael Sanford. And we know," Michael said and the man's eyes flicked to him with a less intense loathing, "there was some first years lost and we were just helping them get to their next lesson."
"I'll buy that off you but a Malfoy," the man spat the word as if it disgusted him and left a foul taste in his mouth but Michael defended him before Scorpius could open his mouth.
"You wizard people need to get over your prejudices and stop blaming children from their parents mistakes. Scorpius is a good person."
"Muggle-born, eh? You just don't understand our world or our history," the man told him, "you're defending the wrong kind of people and its going to come back to bite you in butt one day. You can't help everyone."
"You can try and help the people right in front of you," Scorpius spoke up for the first time and the hatred intensified as he looked back to Scorpius.
"You're both getting detentions, I don't care why you're late. This Saturday. My office. After breakfast. Do you understand?" the man asked them and they both nodded with stony expressions, "and twenty points from Slytherin."
"Erm... I'm a Gryffindor."
"You're a disgrace to the noble name of Godric Gryffindor, I'm just going to pretend you're in the house scum like you is supposed to be in."
"The Sorting Hat put him in Gryffindor, its the only time it screamed it five times. I think its pretty sure Godric Gryffindor would have wanted him in his house," Michael spoke up defensively again, Scorpius really wished he wouldn't do that as the man shot Michael a dark look plus he knew the hat had been wrong although Scorpius felt like a Slytherin even less than he felt like a Gryffindor.
"You just don't know when to shut up, do you Sanford?" the man growled and Scorpius saw a flicker of fear on Michael's face for the briefest of seconds before his composure returned and he stared defiantly back, "both of you get into class. Sit down. Shut up. Don't speak until spoken to or told to. And Malfoy, if you try and kill this class again then I will try and kill you. Go. Now."
They both hurried into the once class and went to sat down in the corner where their friends had saved them a seat, they were smiling, the whole class looked cheerful. Had they not met their professor yet? They sat down in their usual seats while the man limped over to the front of the class, to Scorpius' surprise he no longer looked filled with loathing, his smile was jolly, warm and welcoming.
"To those of us who arrived late, I'm your new Charms teacher, Professor Wynston Grant. And to continue..."
The man - Grant - immediately started talking to them in a conversational tone, talking about the interesting spells they'd be doing that year and getting the class - except Scorpius and Michael - to join in the discussion on what spells they'd learned the previous year and getting them to demonstrate, discussing various spells and charms as they did, which they preferred and didn't, as well as spiraling into hilarious - or at least everyone but Scorpius and Michael laughed - anecdotes about the time that such and he and such and such accidentally did such and such with such and such spell. The class lapped up his every word, they were enjoying the class. He exchanged a confused look with Michael on this, had he enchanted the class or something in the few minutes they'd missed? Finally, after about half of the double lesson, they moved on to what they were learning about, the enlargement charm and let them practice it for the rest of the lesson, going around and checking on people's progress and striking up conversation.
"You know, I did warn you," Albus pointed out from behind him as they started trying the charm, "that helping Vern would make you late, you can't hold it against the poor bloke for having to tell you off. Its one telling off - that you could have avoided - and its no reason to sulk and not contribute anything or enjoy his stories. He's a good man."
"You didn't see what he was like," Scorpius protested as loudly as he dared and Michael nodded in agreement but Grant was off to the other side of the room and seemed not to notice.
"You're just irked he told you off, admit it," Rose moaned as she yet again failed to make her apple grow, "and aren't you even going to try the spell?"
"Engorgio," Scorpius said focusing and waving his wand correctly, immediately the apple grew to the size of a pineapple and Scorpius almost allowed himself a triumphant smirk. He was the first to do Grant's spell, the person that he hated. Grant noticed this now and hobbled back over, studying the apple with an unreadable expression before he shook his head.
"Its the wrong size," Grand told him solemnly.
"The wrong size?" Michael repeated incredulously and Scorpius noticed the loathing back in Grant's beady eyes.
"Yes. Keep trying though," Grant offered in a kindly voice that was loud enough for those nearby to hear before shrinking Scorpius' apple before leaning towards them both and lowering his voice, "you've both said a sentence that wasn't the spell or from being directly spoken to, that's another detention for today after your last class. I can keep this up for however you long you boys want so I suggest you both shut up."
With that Grant leaned back smiling and went back to going around the class, Scorpius didn't bother trying the spell again for the rest of the class. Michael kept trying but continuously moving his wrist seemed to pain him, it didn't matter whether Michael miraculously got better at practical work or not, Grant would inevitably tell him that he'd done it wrong. Later on in the class several other people succeeded in the charm - including Abby - and they were the same size as his apple had been, Grant didn't tell them it was the wrong size though.
Part 3: First Impressions
Scorpius was glad when Charms was over and they could finally move on to Defense Against the Dark Arts, he and Michael immediately started explaining to their friends about the things that Grant had said to them - trying to recount it word for word as much as possible. He did not get the reaction that he'd hoped for though, he'd expected his friends to side with him but they were oddly defensive of Grant.
"My dad says he's a great guy," Abby pointed out, "he may not have thought much of Elwood but he liked Professor Grant, in fact he always referred to him as Wynston which he didn't for the other new teachers. And McGonagall hired him personally because she knows him and the other teacher that had been due to take over from Flitwick backed out after being offered a job in foreign school, he considered it safer after the attacks. Dad says Wynston was good to take it on, he's likable and friendly and knows what he's talking about, Wynston actually wrote three of the Charms books we'll need for fourth and fifth year and for NEWTs if anyone takes it. Said there couldn't have been a better replacement for Flitwick, also said he was definitely not a Lockhart... whatever that means."
"But what about the things he said and giving us detentions?" Scorpius wondered incredulously, "and hating me for being a Malfoy? And apparently doing the spell wrong?"
"He just seems meaner to you because you two don't like him for giving you a detention," Albus complained as they reached Professor Ashain's classroom, "he's probably just trying to be harsh on you two now at the start of the year to make sure you clean up your acts, he has no way of knowing whether you're troublemakers or not yet."
"Don't worry about it," Rose offered in a surprisingly gentle tone, "he may be a bit prejudiced but once he gets to know you then he'll see that you're a good person and lay off you."
"And if he doesn't?" Scorpius asked irritably.
"Then go to Calderon," Albus shrugged as Professor Ashain called them inside to sit down, "you're tight with him, just say Grant's being a jerk and he'll laugh like a maniac, wave his hand and it will be dealt with.
"Are we going to do boring revision like in Herbology?" one of the Slytherin students complained without bothering to raise his hand and Scorpius turned his attention to the class, Professor Ashain was sitting back in the chair almost lazily and looked exceedingly tired. He didn't seem bothered by the question though, he just tilted his head to one side and studied the class with his deep chestnut brown eyes.
"Firstly, raise your hand if you want to speak in case you've forgotten from last year," Professor Ashain chastised the boy, "secondly, everyone raise your wands in the air and perform the wand-lighting charm. Lower your wands and put it out when I call your name."
The students did as they were told and the professor scanned the room to make sure they all had done it before doing the roll call, Scorpius thought he had an idea why, the wand-lighting charm was the only thing that had had any effect on the Specters months before and he wanted to make sure they could do it for their own protection. They all could do it and all could put it out too, Professor Ashain nodded as if glad before speaking again, usually he stood when he spoke to them but not then.
"Well I think that's enough revision for today," Professor Ashain began and the students perked up, some of the Slytherins even cheered - Scorpius was starting to not look forward to Herbology, "not that everything covered last year wasn't important but you were all capable and revision can wait for the time being. With the state of the world right now the way it is, now more than ever learning defensive magic is important. The spell we are going to start working on today is one of the most useful and well-used in duels: the Disarming Charm. Just because its a simple spell does not mean its not effective, essentially without a wand your opponent is powerless. Expelliarmus is the incantation for it, you have to be very careful with the pronunciations as Expellimellius will set fire to your opponent's sleeves which has its uses but its not what we're aiming for."
He did stand then, Scorpius could almost of imagined the slight flicker of pain on his face at moving as he went to stand in front of the desk. Everyone was paying extra close attention - Scorpius included - as Professor Ashain demonstrated the wand movement in detail as well as the pronunciation, having them say it a few times to ensure they could say it right. He asked for a volunteered to help him demonstrate, Scorpius' hand shot up as did most other people's but the professor picked him and instructed him just to hold his wand out.
"Expelliarmus!" Professor Ashain said with a flourish of a wand and a flicker of pain on his face, Scorpius felt the spell hit and his wand went spiraling into the air. With impressively good reflexes, the professor's hand snaked into the air and seemingly effortless caught Scorpius' wand. He smiled and tossed it back to him, "thank you, Scor. Now everyone partner up and give it a go."
"Expelliarmus!" Scorpius cried enthusiastically as soon as he'd paired up with Michael, he was desperate to try it for himself.
Too enthusiastically. As Scorpius flicked his wrist and a red jet shot out towards Michael, his friend's wand went flying up into the air but Michael himself went flying backwards. With faster reflexes than Scorpius had expected, Professor Ashain leaped to action and used a nonverbal spell to slow Michael's movement and gently let him onto the ground. Scorpius ran over and realized Michael's eyes were closed, for one horrific second he thought that he'd killed his friend before Professor Ashain muttered a spell and Michael's eyes flicked open.
"What... what happened?" Michael asked.
"Are you alright?" Scorpius asked almost in unison before the professor helped Michael to his feet.
"Yeah, I think."
"That happens sometimes," Professor Ashain explained to them as much as the class who'd stopped at the commotion, "a bit too much power in the spell and it acts more like a stunner, just try be careful everyone. Sometimes you forget your own power."
Scorpius was afraid to try the spell again for the rest of the class, the last thing he wanted was to hurt his friend. Quite a lot of people had managed the spell to some degree by the end of the lesson, considering it was only a single, but no one had knocked anyone unconscious like Scorpius had. Michael hadn't managed it, he tended to struggle with practical work although of all the classes with spellwork, Defense Against the Dark Arts was the one Michael was best at. His wrist seemed to be paining him though, most that happened was the hairs on the back of Scorpius' neck stood up on end and on his final try he was knocked back half a step.
It was weird coming out of the last class of the day and not seeing Calderon there waiting for him, with a depressing pang it truly hit him that he wouldn't be having his detentions with Calderon that year, he wondered if he'd get to see Calderon at all as he was Acting Headmaster. Scorpius was in a gloomy mood as they said bye to the others and headed back to their Charms detention, the Aurors passing only darkened his mood further and it didn't help that Michael was wondering if they were going to be tortured.
As it turned out though, it was just lines. A thousand of them reading I must not be late to my lessons, they were not to speak or it'd be more. Scorpius didn't actually mind too much, he let his mind wander, he supposed it was good he could disarm so forcefully if any Shadows - or traitor Aurors - tried to murder him but not so good in class. He was still trying to figure out how to contact Varanian, the most obvious thing was to just owl him but he wasn't sure Free could find Varanian as he didn't know where Varanian was or if he did then would the Shadows catch on and find where Varanian was holed up? Or what if his owl was intercepted? Last year had made him paranoid about the possibility of mail being intercepted and read, he wouldn't put it past the Aurors - they were stalking his family after all - or the Shadows if they realized he and Varanian were... what exactly? Allies? Something like that.
He wracked his brain for his conversation with Varanian, hadn't the former headmaster said that his in-laws had been helping him? Maybe he could find Varanian through them, the Ministry and Shadows probably dismissed them as Varanian's wife was long dead. Or with any luck anyway. Scorpius scowled though, he was sure Varanian's wife had had muggle parents though, they might have been dismissed for being muggles too. He wasn't keen to go about seeking out muggles. Besides, Varanian's wife's name had been Ethel, he had no idea what her last name was so he couldn't find the muggles anyway. Back to the drawing board.
"No, no, no," Grant said as he came over from his desk to check on them, shaking his head at Michael's writing, "your handwriting is atrocious, Sanford, is anyone supposed to be able to read that? Is that some kind of joke? Backwards S's in places, what are you five?! Some of these sentences aren't even the right sentence!"
"No!" Michael protested and looked somewhere between hurt and embarrassed, "I'm dyslexic, I have trouble with spelling and reading and writing, I get letters mixed up. I don't mean to."
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" Grant snorted angrily, "if you're going to have the audacity to tell such a shameless bold-faced lie then at least make it at least make it not a pathetic, half-assed, implausible-"
"Its true!"
"Nonsense! And don't interrupt. That's another detention for you tomorrow."
"Its true!" Scorpius rose to his friend's defense and the beady eyes turned to him darkly, "its a muggle thing."
"And what do pureblood supremacists know about muggles? My grandfather was a muggle and I don't know of this make-believe thing. You also spoke out of turn so another detention for you tomorrow," Grant spat and glanced at Scorpius' writing and spoke again in an icy tone, "your handwriting is passable. You may go. Sanford, start again. I'll keep you all night if you can't stop this charade and give me legible lines."
"That's not f-"
"Another detention for you on Thursday as well then. Go."
"Just go before he makes it worse," Michael told him and looked almost on the verge of crying but seemed pleading, reluctantly Scorpius headed to the exit.
"And another detention for you on Thursday too," Grant was saying angrily as he left, beginning to lecture Michael on lying and handwriting and calling him stupid.
Scorpius was in a foul mood as he walked to dinner, he passed more Aurors and gripped the wand in his pocket tightly in case any of them tried anything. He sat down with his friends and told them about the detention, they did admit he seemed unfair although also agreed they'd never heard of dyslexia either. He stabbed at his food and wished it was Grant's face. Then wondered if that made him a bad person. Then didn't care. They lingered at dinner in case Michael showed up but he didn't, Grant did though and heartily dug into a mountain of food, conversing cheerfully with Professor Hagrid. They went back to the dormitory and Michael wasn't there either. Michael wasn't back by their curfew, he wasn't even back by the third year's curfew time, or fourth, or fifth, or sixth, or seventh... Scorpius actually fell asleep waiting for him.
"Wakey, wakey," Michael said and Scorpius jolted awake again, his friend was already dressed and looked tired still, "wouldn't want to miss breakfast, I'm starved."
"How long was your detention for?" Scorpius wondered as Michael went to rouse Albus.
"Late. Grant only let me go at all because he wanted to sleep, not because he was in any way pleased with my progress. He made that very clear."
"Still think he's a nice guy?" Scorpius asked of Albus who looked a lot less sure.
If Scorpius had hoped that the day would be much better then he would have been wrong, the first thing they had was double Herbology which was being temporarily taught by the new Flying Instructor Eben Dunbrooke as he only had a much less hectic schedule. To give him his fair dues, he did know quite a bit about Herbology - he'd apparently read up about it the previous night - but he had the most boring voice that only managed to increase in pitch when he was interested, Scorpius wouldn't be surprised if he discovered Eben was a descendant of Binns. All they did was recap the work covered in the previous year for both lessons they were lectured and given homework to put everything discussed to parchment.
After lunch they had Potions again, brewing another potion from last year and again Albus was determined to be a perfectionist to impress her but Vipera seemed to treat him no different than anyone else. After Potions was another History of Magic followed by another Charms, the only blessing was that it was a single lesson. They worked on the enlargement charm again and Grant consistently found errors in the structure, size - and oddly enough color - of what he was doing, he treated Michael more or less the same although in Michael's case it was to fault his lack of progress and talent. He remained as cheery as ever to the rest of the students though, he never faulted their structure or lack of progress although at least his other friends did notice the different treatment this time.
The detention was identical as the day before only a different sentence: I must not talk back to teachers. They spent more time writing in silence, Michael was noticeably slower as if intently focused on getting all the words right. This time however though, Grant made them both start again, Scorpius for being too fast and Michael for being too slow. It was through gritted teeth that he went back to writing, he went slower and Michael went faster and again Grant wasn't satisfied, Scorpius was now too slow and Michael's handwriting was too terrible again. Scorpius was going to run out of ink if Grant kept that up. However Grant must have been feeling generous - or tired - as he dismissed them without comment after that, they had missed curfew not to mention dinner. Michael didn't seem to care, in fact he didn't even change out of his robes, just kicked off his shoes and slipped into bed. Scorpius thought he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
Scorpius lay awake though, thinking. Should he go to Calderon and complain? He had no doubts that Calderon would side with him but... he'd should at least wait a bit until they settled in. He didn't believe Grant would warm up to them like Rose had said but he did think it may ease off once he got used to them, he couldn't keep up his current detention pace forever and he'd really not bother Calderon with his class issues unless it was important. Calderon probably had enough to deal with. Despite knowing him only two days he already despised Grant, at least possessed-Varanian had been consistently a jerk to everyone rather than faking niceness...
He awoke with a start, shaking and shivering with sweat sticking to his forehead, plastering his white-blond hair to his skull and his clothes clung to him. Again Scorpius was completely clueless to what he'd been dreaming about to get him into such a state, even his nightmares about Marvin in the past hadn't had such a physical effect on him. It was really starting to bother him but he didn't have time to dwell on it as he got dressed and went down for breakfast, cheering up greatly when Michael pointed out they didn't have Charms that day and they had a double Defense Against the Dark Arts in the afternoon. They had Herbology with Eben - the teacher had specifically asked them to call them, Scorpius wasn't being deliberately disrespectful - first and then would get to meet the new Transfiguration teacher who was so highly praised. Then again, Grant was highly praised so Scorpius wasn't sure what to expect.
"Have you guys seen the paper?!" Molly burst out at breakfast, she'd taken to sitting with them due to no one else wanting to. Scorpius felt bad for her for having friends who were so mean as to abandon her just for having a squib sister - although he wasn't sure why, did they not realize how amazing Molly was? - but couldn't complain at getting to spend more time with her.
"No, the paper is boring," Albus complained through a mouthful of food.
"Al, don't speak with your mouth full," Michael chastised him and Albus rolled his eyes.
"It doesn't matter if its boring, its smart to be kept up to date with current events," Corin pointed out, he and Maurice also kept sitting with Scorpius for reasons he wasn't completely sure of. Rose hated it, she shot daggers looks at Maurice every meal which Maurice didn't even acknowledge. He also wore those gloves for some reason.
"What does it say then?" Abby seemed to decide to ask before they could veer of tangent.
"Word's out about the attack on Hogwarts, the public is enraged," Molly told them and no one looked bored, "they're furious at Uncle Harry and the Auror Office for not preventing it, they think since Varanian was Headmaster he had special access figured out a way in to attack. They blame the Auror Office for letting Varanian escape and not catching him, there was a riot outside of the Ministry yesterday afternoon over it, thirteen people are in St Mungo's still and seven are in custody. People are furious. Calderon's pretty much a hero now though."
"Calderon was always a hero," Scorpius pointed out defensively which was more or less true, the very first night that Scorpius had met him, Calderon had saved the lives of everyone on the Hogwarts Express at the risk of his own. He was a hero and Scorpius continued to look up to him, "and its stupid anyway, Varanian had nothing to do with the attack. If anything they should be outraged that they don't believe the truth and hunt innocent people."
"Erm..." Abby began awkwardly and Scorpius realized all of them - minus Maurice - were suddenly looking anywhere than at him. No one said a word.
"Varanian is innocent. You-You do believe that, right?"
"We know that you believe it," Albus said slowly and Scorpius felt flooded with anger.
"But you guys don't?"
"We know what its like to your tampered with, it really does seem like the truth-"
"It doesn't seem like the truth, it is the truth! Varanian's innocent!"
"Innocent people don't run," Abby said quietly, "and it makes sense, I mean, Headmasters have special knowledge about the school and stuff. It could be how they got through the defenses."
"NO! Varanian had nothing to do with it! I can't believe none of you believe me!"
"Think about it," Albus started again, "you hated Varanian so much and now suddenly you're defending him? You don't think that's a sign that that evil prick messed with your head?"
"I'm defending him because he's innocent!" Scorpius yelled furiously and they jumped at how loudly he'd spoken but he didn't care, it was one thing for random Aurors to not believe him but his own friends? "he was possessed! I bet his weird illness and headaches were caused by the Specter taking its toll on him, in fact I think he tried to fight it or something because in those weird bursts of niceness some of the things he used to say... I'm not saying he's a saint that we have to worship him but he is innocent and he's certainly not the Shadow Master! Innocent people don't deserve to be hunted down and have their lives in danger for no reason while the Shadows get a free pass to do whatever they want because the Aurors are too busy chasing Varanian to care! He didn't choose to be possessed, he can't help it that he was born a metamorphmagus!"
"Its an interesting theory," Maurice spoke up for the first time, his head propped up by his hand while his other hand was making the translation necklace work, "there's no way of knowing whether its true that a possessed metamorphmagus can hide the eyes or not, we don't know a lot about it, in fact no one's quite sure what the Specters are or where they come from. I believe you though, Scor, I'm guessing Varanian was the white soul?"
"Yes," Scorpius said gratefully and Maurice nodded in understanding, "although he's gray now that he killed Duvall to save my life. The Specters can't possess him now, they can't possess gray souls."
"You lost me," Albus pointed out, the exact details on how the Blood Runes worked had been left out of the paper. In fact Scorpius wasn't even sure the Aurors knew. A sudden pang of fear crossed his mind, did the Aurors realize he'd killed a man? Thankfully the bell announced them to head to classes and they started leaving the hall, still in a group until they went their separate ways.
Herbology was as boring as last time but they finished their recap and apparently next lesson would move on to what they were learning that year, he'd talked to Professor Longbottom about the lesson plans so everything should be alright. Scorpius hoped it was something practical, any kind of plant was better than listening to Eben drone on for an hour and he had heard that second year was more practical for Herbology. He couldn't wait until Professor Longbottom recovered though. They headed out to Transfiguration, Scorpius wasn't looking forward to it for once and he didn't join in the 'guess-the-teacher' discussion.
In fact he was still in a foul mood from his dream earlier. And from Grant. And from his friends not believing him. And having new teachers when he'd liked the old ones. His fists clenched angrily as he passed more Aurors. And the Aurors? How could he forget the Aurors? Patrolling around the school, they were either disbelieving dummies or treacherous Shadows. He was so angry. Why was he stuck listening to lectures on last year's work while murderers were patrolling the school? Any of whom could be after him? The scar on his left wrist started to burn with a worryingly familiar sensation.
No, no, no, I'm not angry, Scorpius told himself firmly, you've got it confused, I'm completely happy and life is perfect. The pain in his wrist intensified, he grinned through gritted teeth and tried to force his anger down. His eyes darted to his wrist, there was a small band of fire circling where his scar was but it wasn't hurting him.
"Go away," Scorpius hissed at the fire on his wrist, waving his arm and willing it to vanish before his friends in front of him noticed. It didn't and he felt another wave of anger, "go away! No-I mean I'm not angry!"
It was too late though, a burst of flame shot out from his hand and towards one of the portraits in the direction he'd been waving his arm at in an attempt to put out the fire. He cringed and his friends stopped in shock. The fire never struck the painting though. It turned into a lump of ball of water and instead just dampened it, the trio of elderly wizards in the picture started complaining loudly at being soaked but Scorpius was more interested in who had stopped the fire. His wrist was no longer burning either. Scorpius turned and saw one of their new Transfiguration professor was standing there with his wand out aimed at the fire. Scorpius groaned and put his head in his hands, now the new guy was going to all Grant on him. Great way to make a first impression!
Part 4: Reactions
"I-I'm sorry, professor," Scorpius stammered awkwardly feeling both embarrassed and afraid of the guy being another Grant and crucifying him for it, "I didn't mean to, it was an accident."
"Better than doing it in your sleep I suppose," Albus muttered unhelpfully as the new professor flicked his wand again to clean up the water before coming over to them.
"It was an accident, you say?" the new professor - Florian, if Scorpius remembered correctly - asked looking at him thoughtfully with his violently violet eyes.
"Yes," Scorpius managed more firmly, "I just... I lost control, I didn't mean to cause fire."
"Well then stop there my dear boy!" Florian exclaimed and grinned wildly, clapping together his bandaged hands cheerfully, "uncontrolled bursts of magic happen to us all, especially to the young although it does happen to adults too, not that many would like to admit it, mind. Don't worry about it, you didn't get hurt and nor did anyone else so all is good with the world.l"
"Why does it still happen even when you've started learning magic?" Michael asked curiously out of nowhere but Florian didn't seem to mind. Scorpius was just relieved to not be in any trouble.
"Excellent question! You may have noticed that magic is linked to our emotions, both are a part of us, right down to our very core, right down to our souls themselves. When in the grip of a powerful emotion you can lose control, such as blurting out hurtful words in anger for example and its no different with magic, except instead of saying words you might magically start a fire for instance. As we grow we - generally - gain better control over both our emotions and magic so the instances lessen and go away near completely, only in extreme emotional turmoil or stress you can be overcome again though and lose control. Tell me, were you feeling any particularly strong emotion right now?"
"No," Scorpius lied quickly, afraid of being asked why and not wishing to divulge - or lie some more - to a virtual stranger. Although he was glad for the seeming lack of punishment. Florian raised an eyebrow at this but didn't lose his grin, if anything it widened.
"Ah, well then we come to the other possible reason for the uncontrolled outburst. Power," Florian told him gleefully, "some wizards are naturally more powerful than others, power wants to be used, that's why it likes to sneak out when your emotions uncage it but sometimes it can sneak out for no reason. Well especially if you haven't done any magic in awhile, it builds up and bursts out. Its rarer than emotional outbursts but not unheard of, best you try do some more spellwork, practice in your own time if you aren't getting enough of a workout in class. Class, that's where we all should be now."
"We're in your class," Rose piped up as they carried on with the professor to what had used to have been Professor McGonagall's classroom. The other students had already gone in and sat down without bothering to wait for the professor.
"Excellent!" Florian said cheerfully before winking at Scorpius, "I'll make sure you get some practical for you pent-up power."
They went to sit down but due to being late there wasn't any seats for all five of them to sit near each other, Michael and Scorpius grabbed two seats together by the wall at the front, Abby and Albus got another two together more in the middle and Rose opted for a spare seat next to the smart Ravenclaw boy that consistently came in the top or near the top of the class for most things.
"Good morning!" Florian greeted the class, clapping his bandaged hands together again and continuing to beam at them while his eyes darted in every direction to take in all their faces, Michael already had his notebook out, "I'm Professor Florian, your new Transfiguration professor as due to McGonagall's promotion, she is no longer able to teach this class. Transfiguration is a rather tricky branch of magic, you may look at it as a bad thing and think its too difficult and quit but personally, I love a challenge a lot more than something so easy it bores me. The harder things are often those most worth doing. Can you really blame Transfiguration for being difficult? You're forcing things to become something that they're not, its only natural for the object to fight against having itself fundamentally changed. Now this is only a single lesson but I thought I'd do something different with you, today we're going to start practicing two spells, a new and an old."
"Corriglobo you learned last year, to turn a spherical shape into a box shape. A simple enough spell which is why its a good partner for the Reversal Spell, the spell that reverses the effects of most Transfiguration spells and is rather useful. The incantation for that is Conversio, today you'll be using both," Florian paused to conjure a ball that he tossed from hand to hand idly as he gazed at the class, "I'm going to be asking Transfiguration related questions, if I believe you should know the answer then raise your hand. I'm going to ask the first one and throw this to someone with their hands raised, tell me your name - unless you've already said it - and answer. Answer correctly and you'll earn five points for your house and get a shot at using one of the spells on it - Corriglobo if its still a ball or Conversio if its a box, answer incorrectly and you have to throw the ball to someone else - someone of the opposite house unless none have their hands up - with their hand up to try. Oh and whichever house gets the most correct answers gets to skip tomorrow's homework assignment as well as all those points obviously, that make sense? Okay, first question: What is the difference between Charms and Transfiguration?"
Almost every hand shot up into the air, both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor faces brimming with eagerness at the friendly competition to get off homework and get points. Scorpius raised his hand, not for the rewards but because he wanted to practice the spells and he knew the answer, it was a basic question. Florian's violently violet eyes found him immediately, winking again before tossing him the ball. Florian wasn't a particular good shot but Scorpius' wrist snaked out and caught the ball nonetheless.
"Impressive reflexes! You'd make a good Seeker," Florian exclaimed clapping his hands together and if possible widening his grin, he had very white teeth.
"I am a Seeker. Scorpius Malfoy," Scorpius said, remembering you were supposed to say your name, "Charms is adding properties to an object, it focuses on changing what an object does while Transfiguration is changing what an object is, altering its structure."
"Excellent answer! Five points for Gryffindor! Now have a go."
Scorpius changed the ball into a lightweight box easily and tossed it to a Ravenclaw girl with their hand raised after Florian asked the next question, she got the answer right but the Reversal Spell had no effect. Florian advised this was alright and for the next person to try it and the next, to just keep trying until it was a ball once more. It stayed a box for longer than it was a ball, although as more people tried it became a more rounded box than the one Scorpius had turned it into. Scorpius got the rounded box back soon enough and the reversal spell worked completely for him, it was a ball again. Professor McGonagall never did anything like that lesson. Florian just asked questions and kept track of the score in his head until the lesson ended, Scorpius didn't really care about the score but he still answered a fair amount of questions and excelled at the spells.
"Well done class! Enjoy your lunch and I'll see you tomorrow," Florian dismissed them cheerfully as he took the box-ball - it was somewhere in between at that particular point - but no one moved although Scorpius would of if Michael had, it was Reuben who quickly raised his hand, "yes, Mr Tear?"
"Which house won the no-homework?" Reuben asked and everyone perked up, apparently that was why they'd opted to remain. Florian laughed heartily and clapped his hands together once more.
"It was a draw so no homework for all!" Florian told them and threw his hands up, the class actually cheered and started shuffling out of the classroom. If all his classes were like that then Scorpius wasn't surprised he was such a popular teacher.
Scorpius supposed Florian was alright, he was a million times better than Grant at least but he still would loyally say he preferred Professor McGonagall. His friends were praising Florian while Albus moped at lunch over not having Potions that day but Scorpius cheered up as he looked at the schedule, after a grueling session of History of Magic he would be rewarded by a double Defense Against the Dark Arts and it was the first class the following day too, unless you counted the Astronomy they had that night in between. You had less classes on the day after Astronomy for having gotten less sleep than usual so there was just double Transfiguration after lunch then the weekend.
They carried on with the Disarming Charm again in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Scorpius did have to have a go again but thankfully succeeded in doing properly without knocking Michael unconscious. Before the end of the lesson everyone could do it - even Michael - and Professor Ashain had them practice it differently, instead of one person standing idly while the other disarmed them they had to both try disarm the other and see who could do it first. Scorpius was having a great time, it was more more challenging to be the quickest to draw and Michael actually had good reflexes.
Another detention with Grant quickly soured his optimistic cheerfulness though, at least it was the last one until Saturday unless they aggravated him somehow. They knew better than to speak, just to shut up and let Grant find faults that weren't there with Scorpius' speed of writing and continue to disbelieve that Dyslexia existed with Michael. They missed dinner again and had to go straight to Astronomy, not Scorpius' favorite subject but it was alright and he was so glad to have a teacher he knew. Scorpius brushed it off and dismissed Grant's idiotic words but Michael looked bothered as they made their way through the halls, not passing anyone but Aurors and the occasional prefect at that hour but the prefects were aware of which students had Astronomy so they weren't in trouble.
"Don't let it get to you," Scorpius said after awhile of unusual silence, "Grant's a jerk, who cares what he says?"
"I'm not," Michael brushed it off quickly, "better than Varanian's detentions anyway."
Scorpius wasn't convinced but they arrived at the Astronomy tower at that point and all thoughts of Michael and Grant flew out of his head, the last time he'd been there had been with Duvall puppetting his grandfather's corpse. How dare he desecrate his grandfather's corpse like that? It still upset him to think about it and as he starting climbing the stairs, the echo of Duvall's laughter remained even though the man was dead. They reached the top of the stairs, the scene still playing in his mind. That was where Duvall had tossed his grandfather's body away like trash... his grandfather had deserved better. And so had Varanian, he'd been framed for murder for saving Scorpius' life after he'd ran after Duvall like an idiot.
"Are you alright?" Michael asked worriedly and Scorpius realized tears had started leaking from his eyes at some point, he hastily wiped them from his face.
"Fine," Scorpius muttered, brushing it off as they took their seats in the already crowded room.
He found it extremely hard to concentrate on his work in Astronomy, his eyes kept drifting and his mind replaying the final few moments of Duvall's life. Scorpius couldn't bring himself to feel any sympathy though, he was glad Varanian had killed him. He barely said two words to his friends all lesson and if anyone had asked him then he wouldn't have had a clue what they'd been learning about that night, he'd been that distracted. He still was, he lay in bed thinking about it for hours afterwards and drifted into an uneasy sleep...
"Scorpius... Come to me..."
Scorpius' breathing was ragged and panicked when he woke up, his clothes were glued to him from his own icily cold sweat but he had no idea why. Frustratedly he got dressed, muttering a string of curse words he shouldn't even know at stupid dreams he didn't remember. For some reason it reminded him to glance at his scarred wrist, his eyes narrowed worriedly, the scar was more livid on his skin or maybe he was imagining it. He had to be imagining it, he was just tired from stupid weird dreams. He just said he hadn't slept well as he trudged along to breakfast with the others.
"Hey Dragon-breath!" James' voice barked as they arrived at the Great Hall, he was striding over to them with his cronies looking angry but Michael looked unfazed.
"What?" Michael wondered tiredly.
"What the hell are you playing at? Turning on your housemates and getting me a detention! How dare you rat me out to that Potions bitch-"
"Hey!" Albus shouted angrily jumping in front of his brother, "don't you dare call Professor Vipera a bitch! She's a very beautiful and wonderful woman!"
"Um... what?" James muttered seeming completely caught off guard by his brother's random defense of the new teacher, not knowing about Albus' crush.
"You heard me! Lay off her!"
"Um... yeah, whatever, my quarrel is with your boyfriend the betrayer. How dare you rat out a member of the same house as you! Have you no house pride? No shame, Dragon-breath? And then missing dinner so I couldn't confront you like a coward. I'll get you for this."
"I had detentions with Grant!" Michael protested.
"Who are you to talk to complain about him telling on you just because you're in the same house?!" Rose snapped eying her cousin disapprovingly, "you hit him and you're in the same house! That's worse!"
"Is not! Besides he's not much a of Gryffindor if he hangs out with psychotic spawn of-"
"James, just get over it already," a new voice interrupted and their heads swiveled, Scorpius was surprised to see the speaker was Dom Weasley who seemed to hold herself with a much more confident air than she'd had last year, she also wore her hair differently to show off her face rather than hide it, she looked better like that, "being jealous that Scorpius is a better Seeker than you is no excuse to harass him and his friends, one of whom is your own cousin and the other is your own brother. Back off."
"Or what?" James said daringly, Dom simply raised an eyebrow at him and put a hand a hand on her hip.
"Do you really want to go there?" Dom quipped back and without another word James walked into the Great Hall and went to sit down, taking his friends with him.
"Thanks," Albus offered and Dom waved it off.
"It was nothing, Aurelius says its better to be more involved with the lives of your family members especially with this Shadow War."
"Are you still on about Aurelius?"
"Of course," Dom nodded as they headed into the hall too and joined Molly to have their breakfast, Dom still with them, "just because I'm in Hogwarts again doesn't mean we stopped writing to each other. He's actually been giving me some good advice about classes. And we've been been swapping theories about the Shadow attack on the school. He's still a nervous wreck though. Afraid to be outside after Diagon Alley and afraid to be inside because of Corvinus' sudden resurgence in social life."
"Nobody cares," Rose pointed out piling her plate with bacon as Corin and Maurice joined them.
"He thinks we should be careful. Don't know why the Shadows attacked after all. For all we know they could have wanted to be defeated by Calderon to get the Aurors placed here. More Aurors here means less looking for the Shadows after all or they plan to infiltrate the Aurors. They could be after a specific person - staff or student - and the whole attack was just a cover to go after them. If the dead teacher wasn't the target then they could still be after him or her or them. We don't know how they got in or out either."
"Well what are we supposed do about it?" Corin complained from the other side of them, "we're not the adults, its their job to protect us not the other way around. Maman is most appalled, nothing like this has ever happened while she's been running Beauxbatons and she hopes Marius can do a better job than Varanian or Elwood. I for one have complete faith in him."
"Did they ever identify the person that Calderon killed?" Maurice asked abruptly, once again his head was propped up on his hand and he was holding his translator necklace in the other, interest flickered on his normally neutral expression, "that was cool."
"Killing someone isn't cool," Rose complained glaring at the younger boy but Maurice's cold smile indicated he thought otherwise.
"He deserved it," Abby said darkly, violently stabbing at her food, "that was the one who vaporized my father's arm."
"There's been nothing in the papers on it," Molly offered after swallowing the mouthful of food that had been preventing her from answering.
"Aurelius reckons either they didn't want the public to know because it was someone recognizable or they couldn't identify them and didn't want to admit it because its just embarrassing," Dom told them before jabbing a finger at Abby, Albus, Rose and Corin, followed a second later by Scorpius, "you guys should ask your parents and you should ask Calderon or Ashain because they almost certainly know and might tell you."
"The rest of us don't care who the guy was, it doesn't matter and its none of our business anyway," Rose pointed out stubbornly, "the Aurors will deal with it, they'll catch Varanian and the Shadows."
"I doubt it," Maurice stated dismissively and Rose's eyes blazed with anger once more.
"Will too!"
"Look at their track record, was it Aurors who caught Grindlewald? No, it was Dumbledore, a teacher not an Auror. Was it Aurors who killed Voldemort? No, it was Harry Potter, a teenager at the time not yet an Auror. They won't even admit there's a war going on, people are dying and not just in England. I reckon the Aurors are using us as bait, they're protecting the school because they want it to be attacked again."
"Daddy wouldn't do that!"
"Yes he would, what's the safety of a few dumb children in comparison to stopping a formidable threat?" Maurice asked coldly, "your 'daddy' is lying to you if you're actually as arrogant to believe that he would put the world at risk just for your pathetic life, there are much more important things than children and any honest parent will tell you that. Anything else and they're just lying to you because they don't think you're mature enough to handle the truth, you're only as valuable as your last accomplishment."
Rose opened her mouth to reply, looking angrier than ever but was interrupted by a fluttering of wings as the owls arrived with the mail, dropping a scattering of letters before them. It was quite a big haul but then it was Friday on the first week, Abby got three letters from two different owls, Albus and Rose both got two from the same owl - usually that meant their younger siblings had written to them too, Molly and Corin both got one letter and the Daily Prophet, Maurice got one letter, Scorpius got two letters and a package. Dom was the most interesting, she received two letters from two different owls and a third letter from a vulture, which was the letter she eagerly tore open first. Michael got nothing.
"Um... That's a vulture?" Corin said slowly gesturing to the bird as it flew off.
"Very observant, genius," Dom offered sarcastically and glanced up briefly from the letter, "I know its a vulture. Aurelius wanted to see if other birds could deliver mail, he's been sending vultures and they seem to be perfectly capable. You just never noticed because I don't usually sit with you."
"Vultures are creepy," Rose muttered as they all turned to their own mail, except Michael who just ate quietly.
It was strange to recieve a reply so quickly, the last letter he'd gotten from his parents was panicked worry over hearing about the attack and he'd replied that he was perfectly fine and they shouldn't worry. He couldn't help but feel disappointed, every day he hoped for a letter from Varanian with more information about the whole Auror and Shadow situation but got none, for all he knew Varanian could've been hurt or killed already. He would have to do something. The letters were both from home as was the package, a short one from his grandmother telling him the package was a slab of chocolate and the other from his parents asking how he was doing.
"I have to go," Maurice announced as he shoved the letter into his pocket looking the closest to upset that Scorpius had seen him, "I have to get to Charms earlier so I can practice not failing."
"Good riddance," Rose offered but it was unheard by Maurice who was no longer using his translator as he hurried off, leaving a nearly full plate of food and an untouched goblet of pumpkin juice.
"Give him a break. That albino kid, Orous, is just as good at him at spellwork," Corin said defensively.
"So?"
"So his dad expects him to be the best or he considers him a failure, even when Maurice is the best in the class he gets told off for not getting a perfect score. He's under a lot of pressure and his dad's furious at him for sharing the spotlight with the albino and furious that he's not good at flying. You know what Roman said about the attack? 'Don't let it interfere with your studies' and that was it, didn't even ask or care whether Maurice was alright. He just cares about results and threatens to abandon Maurice like his biological mother did if he doesn't meet his impossible standards. His dad's evil."
"No excuse to act like a jerk."
"You're a jerk," Corin countered childishly and scoffed down his food quickly before following after his friend.
"So... you guys are still trying out for Chasers right?" Molly asked out of the blue as she put down her letter and turned to them.
"Yep!" Albus told her cheerfully, "can't wait for next week."
"Well good, because at this rate you might get it by default if no one shows up. Dom, do you know if your brother is still trying out? He might finally get to not be a reserve."
"I don't know," Dom shrugged, "it is his OWL year. I know he's taking his studies seriously. He got prefect and he's taking that seriously too. I'm the only one of my siblings to not get prefect. Why do you think no one will try out?"
"Something my dad said," Molly mumbled and they went back to finishing their breakfast, everyone insisting people would try out.