Chapter 7: The Demonstrations

Waking up the next morning, I ran into the bathroom to get ready for the day. Sprinting up the stairs with the guardians close behind me, I ran up into the Great Hall and toward the teachers' table. I quickly grabbed a muffin and ran back out of the Great Hall, sliding down the railings as I went. I couldn't contain my excitement for today's class. As I was setting up for class, Calem sauntered into the room followed closely by May, Brendan, and our students. I couldn't help but smile widely at the class, "today is going to be one of my favorite lessons. We're going to-"

Someone cleared their throat near the door. Looking up, I saw Umbridge looking at us. Umbridge smiled sweetly, making my stomach. "I don't know if you were notified, but I was made the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts."

Calem nodded lazily, "we've been notified."

I looked to Umbridge for a sign to continue. Umbridge looked at the clipboard in her hand. Taking a deep breath, I looked back to the class. "Today we're going to show examples of what people choose to do with lives. Now can anyone name one job that someone can have with Pokémon?" Hands shot up, a smile on everyone's faces, "Draco, you wanna take a crack at it?"

"A trainer, Professor Bellamy," a smirk plastered on his face.

"Very good," I stated, grinning. Calem grinned, "alright Fred, take a swing."

"Pokémon Professor."

I smiled, nodded, and turned to the next student, "how about you, Miss Chang?"

"A coordinator."

"Do you want to try, Miss Bones," I asked.

"Um…a Pokémon breeder, right?"

Calem and I nodded to Susan. "Got another one Mr. Potter?"

"A Pokémon ranger?"

"Excellent," I said, "anyone know another?"

The class was silent for a moment before Hermione spoke, "a Pokémon connoisseur, Professors."

"Alright so maybe we don't have any future connoisseurs," Calem laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. The class laughed as Calem continued, "so today and tomorrow we'll be explaining what each of the professions entails."

May put a hand over her heart, "Calem, did you just use big words?" The class snickered as Calem's face turned red.

"Anyway," Calem continued, clearing his throat, "today will be dedicated to teaching the basic concepts of each profession. And since we've been moving quicker than expected…"

"You'll be getting your own Pokémon soon," I burst out. The class broke into excited chatter.

I looked over to Calem and nodded. He whistled as loud as he could and the class immediately stopped talking. "Now," I said calmly, "We have invited two very good friends of ours to help us with demonstrations. I'd like to introduce you all to May and Brendan." May and Brendan gave a slight bow to the class.

Umbridge looked up from her clipboard, "are you sure that that is necessary? I mean, we don't want to endanger the children by giving them beasts, now do we?"

I shook my head and scoffed, "if 10 year olds can handle taking care of Pokémon and traveling the world, usually on their own or with their friends, than I'm sure that a bunch of teenagers will be able to handle having Pokémon while they're at school. Besides, that was the whole point of the class."

Umbridge scowled and looked back down at her clipboard, scribbling notes as usual. Calem rolled his eyes and turned to the class, "now, since we don't want to ruin the classroom, let's go outside to give you a demonstration."

With Calem and I leading the way, the class and Umbridge followed us to the Quidditch pitch. I pointed to the seats, "you all are probably going to want to sit in the stands for the demonstrations."

Everyone walked up to the stands and watched us. "So first we're going to show you all an actual Pokémon battle."

I looked at Calem and Brendan with a smirk, "Ready?" They both nodded, smirking back in response befrore they took their places on either end of the field. May and I walked to the edge of the field before I took a step forward.

"Alright, this will be a one on one battle," I said, placing a hand into my bag, "there will be no time limit for this battle. Let the battle begin!"

Calem smirked and pulled a Pokéball off of his belt. He threw the ball in the air and a beam shot out of the opening. Calem's Greninja landed in front of him. Brendan threw a Pokéball of his own into the air and his Swampert was released into the battle.

"Greninja use water gun."

"Dodge it Swampert." Bredan called, causing the water gun to hit Swampert's foot. "Use mud bomb."

The students eagerly leaned forward in their seats, watching the due battle until both of the Pokémon collapsed, exhausted.

I stepped forward, "since both Pokémon are unable to battle, neither side has won."

All of the students clapped and cheered for the show that the duo had put on. I smiled as the applause died down, "and next May will show you what the first round of a contest would look like."

More applause ensued as May stepped forward, a wide smile spread across her face.

May walked forward to the center of the field. Grinning, she brought out her Blaziken's Pokéball and threw it in the air. Flames surrounded the fire type before finally fading.

May called for Blaziken to use blaze kick. Blaziken's blaze kick sent strands of fire in various directions, leaving burnt patches of grass scattered around the field. May smiled, "now use ember." Blaziken stopped mid-kick before leaping into the sky and shooting embers into the air. The embers formed into the shape of Hogwarts before changing into the form of Ho-Oh. The class screamed and cheered as May and her Blaziken took a bow.

I waved the class down to the field. Rushing down from the stands, the class surrounded us while yelling questions. I put a hand up and the class quieted down. "Now," I began, "soon you will be receiving your first Pokémon. Along with that, you will receive 5 Pokéball and a Pokédex. These will help you throughout the year."

Calem dismissed the class while Umbridge huffed, upset that we didn't acknowledge her, and stormed off toward the castle. May returned Blaziken to her Pokéball and started to walk silently to the school. In the years that I had known May, I had never heard her stop talking. Calem looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and ran up to May.

May looked down and pulled an envelope from her pocket. I walked over to see that it was addressed to her parents in Littleroot Town. "You see," she began, "I've been trying to send the money I earn from contests to my parents." May shuffled her feet. "My mom's sick."

I looked at her with sad eyes, "you could have told us."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't understand," she said, "you've never had to go through something like this."

I pulled her into a hug. "But friends are here to help each other," Takara said. Brendan came up behind us and put a hand on May's shoulder, "you'll be fine May."

May looked up at him, her sweet smile making its way back onto her face. "Well, we still have to figure out what Pokémon the students are going to get, right? Let's go!" And without another word, May dragged the boys up the hill toward the castle.

Shaking my head and watching as Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit glide over to me. Slowly walking up the hill, I noticed a student out of the corner of my eye. "You can come out you know. I don't attack people."

Taking a step forward, I noticed that it was Pansy Parkinson, the only female Slytherin student in our class. "Professor Bellamy," she said simply and filled with confidence.

I raised an eyebrow. "What can I help you with Miss Parkinson?"

"I want a strong Pokémon." She pointed to the trio of brothers floating around my head, "I want one of the legendary Pokémon that you speak of. I want one of those three."

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Every new trainer says that. They all want the strongest or prettiest Pokémon." I took a step closer to her and looked straight into her eyes, "I hate those people." I could see her shrink back slightly, but continue to hold her ground. "People that want the strongest Pokémon right from the get go are those that have the audacity to believe that they won't have to work at all. You're more than welcome to practice battling against one of these three; however you will have to work hard in order to help your Pokémon become stronger."

I placed a hand on her shoulder and felt her flinch away, "no one has ever said that being a trainer was easy, because it's not. And trust me, it never gets any easier. Pokémon are not tools; they're partners, pets, companions … but most importantly, they're friends. They know when their trainer's upset about something. And if their trainer treats them with kindness and respect, they will be willing to risk their lives for their trainer if it ever comes down to that."

Pansy nodded slowly. Looking down at my clock, I shook my head. "You're gonna be late for class. Come on, I'll walk you there."

We walked in silence until we got to her next class. She handed me a piece of parchment and a quill and in return I wrote a pass excusing her for being late. I turned away, but before Pansy opened the classroom door, she grabbed my sleeve. "Professor Bellamy…"

I turned to face her, "Yes Miss Pankinson?"

She smiled. It was a small smile, but it was something that I never thought I would see. "Thank you."

I smiled back. "No problem … and try to keep an open mind the next few days, okay?"

Pansy nodded and slipped into the classroom. Turning back around, I headed for our suit in the dungeons.

As soon as the office door opened, the Lake Guardians shot forward to my desk and lay down on the desk. I sat down next to Calem and looked at the list of everyone from our class. Sharing a content smile, we set to work on finding a Pokémon for each of the students. It wasn't until Snape came to find us for dinner that we finally realized just how long we had been working. Once we were finally happy with our work, we made our way up from the dungeons and into the Great Hall.

I'm so sorry that this has taken so long to post! I've had a lot of stuff to do for college (between finals, projects, rush apps, ra apps, field studies etc.), but hopefully with the new semester, I'll have some more free time :) Again, I'm really sorry. I'll try to post more chapters since it's winter break. Thank you to all of my readers, reviewers, followers, and favorite-ers. I would not be doing this without all of the encouragement and advise that I have been receiving from you all!