Proper credit to Miss. Jill Murphy, author of the wonderful novel THE WORST WITCH for the name of the Charm School. Oakden Hobday was one of the names JKR considered for a D.A.D.A teacher during Harry's fifth year. I always thought it was interesting. Please read and leave a review. I love hearing from my readers!
Oakden Hobday came this close to landing a job at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Dumbledore was all set to hire him and then that ministry wretch came from nowhere and stole it from him!
Oakden had always wanted to be a teacher, a defense teacher to be exact. He had loved Hogwarts, with its interesting history and long endless hallways filled with the memories of those that had walked and lived and loved there before.
But it just turned out not to be in the cards for him. Of course Dumbledore had offered him the job the year that the minister decided to interfere with the ancient school. It hadn't worked out in the Ministry's favor when all was said and done. Oakden had taken a small bit of pleasure in that. But when he re-applied for the next year, the position was already filled. Needless to say, it had been disappointing experience all around.
So Oakden went back to teaching the youngest witches and wizards at Miss Cackle's Academy for Young Witches. It wasn't even close to what he wanted to do. Basically he just had to stop five year olds from blowing each other up. But it was something.
Oakden would stop by Hogwarts every so often. He would always ask if the position was open. Dumbledore always smiled, but said no. In 1997, Dumbledore died, and suddenly nothing was the same. Hogwarts was controlled by Death Eaters, and Defense had become the Dark Arts class, according to Oakden's nieces.
But Oakden Hobday was no hero. He would still stop by the school and look at it from a far, pretending that he was a teacher at the dark school. He was in the Leaky Caldron on the night of May 2nd 1998, when suddenly the pub burst into flame. He knew nothing of the battle. All he knew that night was that the pub was on fire and everyone inside was pushing and shoving and screaming, clawing at each other, trying to get away from the flames. He was one of them.
He pushed a woman out of the way as he desperately tried to get to the door, only to discover that it had been bricked up by the Death Eaters he could hear laughing outside the bar. He clawed at one of the bricked up windows until the tips of his fingers were worn through, until blood dripped down his arms.
His robes caught on fire, and suddenly, all that work, all the studying came to naught. Oakden couldn't think of a single spell that would put out the flames now eating the legs of his pants, searing his skin. His mind emptied of everything except for the blinding pain, the screams of the others trapped in the bar, the smell of burning flesh and the animal need to escape.
Thanks to the quick wand work of a wig maker, everyone in the pub escaped from the burning building alive. Oakden was dragged from the fire by one of the bartenders and the woman he had pushed over.
He died in the burn unit of St. Mungo's three days later.
Oakden is not a bad person. He is just a person. How many of us would react the same way in such circumstances. Most likely more than a few.