Arcturus Black
By: Katerinaki
Published: 10/22/2014
Beta'ed: No
Notes: This is the last fully-written chapter that I have. The rest I have to work on. That being said, please tell me what you think.
-Katerinaki
Chapter 11: Moving On
After the argument over the Marauder's Map, Fred and George remained cool towards Arcturus and he returned the favour. The result was that Lee was rather unfortunately torn between the two groups. But he still managed to spend time with both and so Arcturus wasn't left completely friendless. In addition to Lee, he would sometimes hang out with Tonks, but as the school year wound to a close and the N.E.W.T.s drew closer, Tonks had less time for talking and most of the time Arcturus spent with her was in the library, bent over a textbook. The unfortunately side-effect of it all was that Arcturus actually studied quite a lot for his end of term exams. But he was bored out of his mind. Remus had sent him a letter just the week before, encouraging him to take these exams seriously as they would be good practice for when he eventually had to take the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s himself. Arcturus was finding that sometimes Remus could be a wet blanket. But that wouldn't stop Arcturus from creating fun.
August Prescott was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and frankly he was a bit of a nutter. He knew about Defense, but had been a rather unfortunately victim of a poorly cast Memory Charm in his youth. The result is that he would often seem to forget something, even if he'd just said it or was in the middle of doing it. In class the result was rather comical and more than a few classes had been spared a pop quiz, simply because Professor Prescott had forgotten the questions. The condition could be further aggravated by stress, such as an unruly student. Or at least, that is what Arcturus discovered.
"...and so in conclusion, a doxy bite must be treated immediately or the situation may turn...em..."
"Severe, Professor?" Ravenclaw, Graham Graves, suggested.
"Yes, severe. Thank you, Mr..."
"Graves, sir."
"Of course. Any questions?"
Arcturus raised his hand from his seat near the back and Professor Prescott suppressed a groan before calling on him.
"Yes, Mr. Black?"
"What if you tried to eat doxy eggs?"
"What?"
Arcturus twirled his quill through his fingertips as he sat back in his chair with his feet on the desk, smirking. "What if you tried to eat doxy eggs?"
"Well...I don't recommend it."
"Would you die?"
"You would certainly become very...em..."
Professor Prescott blinked a few times, looking around as if he was just realizing he was in the middle of class.
"Sick, Professor?"
"Yes, sick. Thank you Mr. Greaves."
"Graves, sir."
"Yes, yes." Professor Prescott turned back to the board, indicating that he was finished with the question at hand, but Arcturus pressed on.
"How sick?"
Professor Prescott sighed, placing the chalk down. He turned slowly and Arcturus knew he had the man just where he wanted him.
"Mr. Barnes."
"Black, actually."
"Take your feet off the desk, please."
But Arcturus only shifted from one foot to the other. "How sick would you be if you ate doxy eggs?"
"Mr. Banks..."
"Black."
"I asked you to take your feet down. I would like to continue the lesson."
"I have lower back problems."
"Excuse me?"
"You're excused, Professor."
"Well...em...thank you? What were we—?"
"If you ate doxy eggs..."
"Well I don't recommend it."
"Yes, yes, you've said that. But how sick would you be?"
"Black, enough already," Graves hissed from the front row.
"It's just an innocent question," Arcturus replied. "So how sick?"
Between Arcturus's insistence and the rest of the class's annoyance, Prescott was becoming flustered.
"Now, now, there's no need for arguing. Mr. Gray—"
"It's Graves."
"Em right, Mr. Burns—"
"Black."
"Em...what was the question again?"
The whole class groaned.
Arcturus grinned, knowing this was it. He spoke slowly, like he was asking a young child. "How sick would you become if you ate doxy eggs?"
Prescott looked around at the obvious annoyance and glares. He fiddled with the chalk in his hand before dropping it. "Well you see, if you eat doxy eggs there will be a trip to St. Mungos and no small amount of vomiting. Now, if we are finished..."
The professor trailed off again before looking around the classroom in annoyance. "What are you all doing here? I dismissed class three hours ago. Get out! Can I not have a few hours of peace and quiet away from you little blighters?" Prescott then ran from the classroom, leaving the door open behind him so that the whole class could hear his screams and cries down the corridor.
The rest of the class only sat for a moment, thoroughly confused and unsure what to do next. But Arcturus certainly wasn't in the mood to waste a perfectly sunny day. He gathered up his things.
"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I think I'm going to take advantage of this free period."
Graves the Ravenclaw didn't seem to share Arcturus's sentiments.
"The class isn't over," he retorted. "And thanks to you, the professor has run off. Now we'll be even further behind in this subject than we already are."
Arcturus snorted. "I only asked a simple question. The man is mental. Lee, you coming?"
Lee certainly didn't want to be singled out at a time like this, but he gathered up his books and followed Arcturus out to the dirty glares of the Ravenclaws and some of the more goody-goody Gryffindors. Immediately they made for the school grounds where students with actual free periods were spending their time studying or relaxing on a rare, sunny day.
"Ah, freedom," Arcturus breathed, loosening his tie and throwing his school robe over his shoulder.
"Do you think we should tell someone, about Prescott?" Lee asked.
"Nah, Graves will take care of that. Mark my words, that prat will be Head Boy when we're seventh years."
The two boys strolled down towards the lake where the Giant Squid lazily glided across the water. Arcturus picked up a few rocks and tried to skip them out towards the beast, but his arm just wasn't that good. As they walked down around the edge of the lake, they saw Tonks sitting on top of a rock. Her own bag and school robe were by her side and she was staring at a piece of parchment very intensely. In fact, she didn't even notice that her normal pink hair was actually fading to a more mousy brown.
"Wotcher, Tonks," Arcturus called.
She looked up and her hair went back to its usual, unusual colour. "Arcturus, Lee...I thought you had Defense this hour."
Arcturus shrugged. "Prescott dismissed us early. What do you have there?"
As they came closer, Arcturus could see that the parchment was in fact a letter and it seemed to be rather official. In the top corners were the official crests of the Ministry of Magic and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Tonks held the paper carefully and almost with reverence. Arcturus remembered holding his Hogwarts acceptance letter the same way when it at last came.
"I got in," Tonks said quietly. "I'm going to be an Auror."
Arcturus's jaw dropped. Of course he knew that Tonks was applying. She'd spoken about it before, but only as a fantasy, something that she would love to do when she'd graduated Hogwarts. It was nearly impossible to be selected for Auror training. Not only did you have to be at the top of your class, but you needed all sorts of extra credentials. Tonks was a fantastic dueller. Arcturus had seen her beat just about every other student in Hogwarts' duelling club. He knew she was good, but his mind was having trouble seeing Tonks as a stone-faced Auror. Tonks who tripped over her own robe hem and wore her hair bubble gum pink. She wasn't even a prefect.
"That's...amazing!" he exclaimed at last.
Tonks chuckled and then that chuckle became a full out laugh and she leapt off her rock, tackling Arcturus in an extremely enthusiastic hug.
"You don't know how happy I am!" she told him, as they tried to keep their feet. "An Auror. Me!"
"Congratulations," Lee said, smiling. "When do you start?"
"It says this summer," Tonks replied, looking at the letter of acceptance. "Pending my N.E.W.T. results. I need to go study!" Tonks gathered up her robe and bag.
"Wait," Arcturus said, grabbing her arm. "You told Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted right?"
Tonks blinked in confusion before realization came through. "Oh, no! I completely forgot. I should go owl them now! Then I'll study. Don't get into trouble," she called as she raced off towards the Owlery. She stumbled and dropped her bag, but was back on her feet and running the next second.
"An Auror," Arcturus snorted. But despite his sarcasm, he couldn't keep the grin off his face. Tonks was going to be an Auror, what she'd dreamed of since she was little and would pretend to fight bad wizards with sticks from the backyard. Aunt Andromeda had showed him some of the photos on his last visit. He truly was happy for his cousin.
"Do you think you could be an Auror?" Lee asked idly.
Arcturus scoffed. "Why would I want to? You have to be good and follow the rules."
Lee laughed. "Yeah, I suppose that would be impossible for you."
"Not impossible. But why would I ever want to? It's so much more fun this way."
The two boys continued on down the lake, chattering now with all thoughts of classes well behind them.
"Do you think Tonks would arrest me, when she's an Auror?"
Lee's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Have you done something to be arrested?"
"No. Not yet. But if I did, do you think she'd do it? I mean, my father is in Azkaban, and 'blood will out', as the rest of my family thinks..."
"I don't think you'd do anything to go to Azkaban over. And I don't think they'd send Tonks to arrest you."
"True," Arcturus conceded. He remained thoughtful a moment before shrugging. "I'd stuff her in a fight anyways."
That night at supper, Arcturus noticed that Professor Prescott was absent. This wasn't uncommon. The professor often would forget to come for meals, or sometimes he would forget how to find his way to the Great Hall. Once Filch had found him up on the sixth floor, hopelessly lost and trying to ask a suit of armour directions to Cornwall. The story had been a favourite of the Hogwarts gossip mill for quite some time after that. This time, however, Prescott wasn't going to show up halfway through the pudding. Instead, Professor Dumbledore stood and a hush came over the students and faculty.
"As I am sure many of you have heard Professor Prescott has unfortunately been forced to resign his position as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He suffered a very traumatic breakdown this afternoon and will not be able to finish out the term. His classes will continue as scheduled, however there will be no final exam in Defense Against the Dark Arts."
There were a few low cheers and plenty of whispers that were silenced by a stern look from Dumbledore.
"I am certain you are all very disappointed. I ask that you do your best in these next few weeks and have patience. Thank you."
As the Headmaster took his seat, he very specifically looked at Arcturus and Arcturus knew Dumbledore was aware of all that happened the past afternoon. The Headmaster just had a way, a very eerie and unsettling way, of knowing everything.
"Well done, Archie," George said suddenly, taking a free seat across from Arcturus.
"Yeah, well done," Fred added, settling next to him. "You've managed to do something we haven't."
"And what's that?" Arcturus asked cautiously.
"You broke a teacher."
"That takes skill."
"Proper planning."
"And no small amount of luck."
"So, you guys aren't mad at me?"
Fred and George laughed.
"Archie, my boy," Fred said, slinging an arm over Arcturus's shoulder.
"Don't be so Sirius!"