A/N: What's happening in the world right now is crazy and scary, so I try to spend as much time in Hogwarts as I can. Writing really helps me to escape. Perhaps reading this story will help you, too.

14. In the Shadows

"All right, settle down, settle down. First order of business, if any of you are members of this top-secret duelling club that we teachers are not supposed to know about, I want them to stand up now and challenge me to a duel!"

The whole class went perfectly still and no one dared to move, not even to look at each other. They all kept their eyes on Professor Hawkyard.

"Good," he said when he seemed satisfied that no one was going to confess. "I better not find out that you were lying to me. Duelling is not a sport. At least not for students. But since you're going to do it anyway, you should at least do it properly. So, let's pair you up and see what you can do."

He made them stand, pushed the tables up against the wall and then sorted them into pairs. Minerva ended up next to Duncan. It was hard to tell who looked less happy about this.

"Now face your partner and bow. Of course, that tradition started in the good old days when people still had honour. These days you'll probably get hexed when you're dumb enough to turn your back on your enemy, but that's a different story," Professor Hawkyard said as he walked among them. "You've all learned how to disarm your opponent. Use that. But also, show me what else you got. Within reason. I haven't made a single trip to the hospital wing this year and I'm not about to start today."

Minerva waited for further instructions. When they didn't come, she raised her wand and grinned at Duncan, knowing that she had everything she had ever learned at her disposal, which was considerably more than he had.

"Uh, remember we said we'd go back to being friends!" he said.

"Sure. Expelliarmus!" Minerva yelled and Duncan's wand flew out of his hand and sailed through the classroom.

He went to retrieve it. Minerva waited until he had reached it and was just about to pick it up before she said, "Accio Duncan's wand!"

It shot straight back into her hand. Duncan glared at her from across the room.

"Very funny," he muttered as he made his way back to her.

"You're a wizard. Try to think like one," Minerva said as she threw his wand back to him.

"You're a know-it-all. Try not to act like one," Duncan countered.

He got knocked back onto his arse with a loud bang when Minerva responded with, "Flipendo!"

"Hey! It was my turn," Duncan protested when he got back up.

Minerva snorted. "You lost your turn when you lost your wand."

Duncan rolled his eyes at her and bent down to tie his shoe. At least he pretended to when in fact he cried, "Furnunculus!"

Angry with herself that she had almost fallen for that old trick, Minerva only just managed to jump out of the way, colliding painfully with a chair. "Professor Hawkyard said no hospital wing!" she reminded Duncan, rubbing her right knee.

"As if a couple of pimples more would send you to the hospital wing," Duncan sneered.

Stung, Minerva whirled around and snarled, "Felisfenga!"

The smart look was wiped off his face immediately and Duncan doubled over, grimacing and wincing in pain. He helplessly waved his hands as though he could swat away this invisible attack that way. His skin was quickly turning an angry red, tiny red blotches blossoming everywhere.

"Finite! Finite!" Minerva cried urgently. She breathed a sigh of relief when Duncan straightened up again and his skin slowly returned to normal.

"Blimey! What the bloody hell was that?" he asked, still slightly out of breath.

"I was just about to ask the same thing," said Professor Hawkyard, who suddenly came to a stop next to them. "I didn't recognise that curse."

Minerva stuck out her chin. Technically, she hadn't done anything wrong, though she did feel bad for retaliating against Duncan for his mean comments. "I invented it, Professor."

"You invented a curse?" Professor Hawkyard repeated, eyeing her suspiciously. With a start, Minerva realised that this sounded a lot like something one would do in a secret duelling club.

"But I've never used it before!" she added quickly.

"What does it do exactly?" Professor Hawkyard asked.

"It hurts. That's what it does," Duncan muttered. "Feels like a bunch of razor-sharp needles pricking you all over."

"I've been calling it the, uh, the Clawing Cat Curse," Minerva explained.

Duncan's eyes widened, then he snorted. "Yeah, that fits, too."

"The Clawing Cat Curse, eh? That does sound positively devious," Professor Hawkyard nodded and he didn't seem to think that was a bad thing. "What was the incantation again? Just out of professional curiosity?"

"Felisfenga," Minerva told him cautiously.

"Right, well, I pity any bloke who's dumb enough to piss you off," Professor Hawkyard laughed and Duncan looked miffed. "Carry on then. Just stick to textbook-approved spells for a bit."

They did as they were told and they also switched partners at some point, much to Duncan's relief. But Minerva wouldn't have tried her curse again either way. She had filed it away for emergencies.

At the end of the lesson she left the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom with Augusta, who wholeheartedly approved of Minerva's curse and using it on Duncan.

"Do you think if you hadn't lifted the curse, it would have drawn blood?" she wondered.

"Probably," Minerva said, feeling a little sick.

"Good, he deserved it," Augusta said, seeing the look on her face.

"No, he didn't. He..." Minerva felt the back of her neck prickle and she raised her wand just in time to yell, "Protego!" A curse bounced off of her, deflected by her Shield Charm. Minerva could tell that it had only been a very weak curse because she wasn't as proficient at Shield Charms yet as she would have liked.

Sure that Duncan was trying to take revenge on her, Minerva whirled around and froze when the only possible culprit who was in the corridor with them was Robert Junior.

"Did you just try to curse me?" Minerva rounded on her brother in disbelief.

"Maybe," he said, his hands in his pockets. But she could see his wand sticking out.

"How dare you...?"

"Only because you cursed me, too!" Junior interrupted her.

Minerva straightened up to her full height. She was still taller than him and she was bloody well going to use that. "I would never do that!"

"Bollocks! You cursed me by setting foot in this school first!" Junior yelled back at her. "All the teachers expect me to be as good as you and then they always look at me like I'm the world's biggest disappointment when I'm not! Or they don't even care about me to begin with because they know I couldn't possibly be better than you!"

"That... that can't be true," Minerva said. All her anger, all her indignation immediately left her, causing her to deflate like a balloon.

"If you say so. We all know you always have the right answers," Junior hissed and stalked away.

Minerva watched him leave with no idea what else to say. So much for having all the answers.

"Blimey, I'm glad I don't have a brother," Augusta muttered.

"He's not usually like that," Minerva said thoughtfully.

"Then he'll calm down again. Don't worry." She patted her on the back.

"I suppose so. Do you reckon he's right, though?"

Augusta kept walking. "Hurry up. We gotta get down to the greenhouses."

"Augusta?"

She sighed. "Fine, don't take this the wrong way, but I wouldn't want to live in your shadow either. Sometimes it's tough even being in the same classes as you, but sharing your last name? I dunno. Hogwarts might only be big enough for one McGonagall at a time."

Augusta gave her an apologetic smile and pulled her along to Herbology. But Minerva couldn't shake off what had just happened. She was so distracted that she almost got Bubotuber pus all over her. Her dragon-hide gloves were the only thing that saved her. Junior would probably have laughed if he had seen her get something wrong for once.

For most of the day her thoughts dwelled on her brother and how she actually felt sorry for him. She didn't want him to have a bad time at Hogwarts because of her. It was only his second year. Which also made her realise how unlikely it was that Junior would have already learned a curse like that and be skilled enough to use it on her. Unless he was in a certain illegal duelling club...

Suddenly suspicious, Minerva surveyed the Gryffindor common room. It was a Tuesday night so Junior should have been at a meeting of the Gobstones Club. Minerva quickly spotted a group of third-years playing Gobstones in a corner of the room. When she asked them, they told her that the meeting tonight had been cancelled and, incidentally, Robert hadn't been at a meeting in a while.

Alarmed, Minerva considered her options. She didn't have any proof, but she had a strong feeling about this. Joining a dangerous and forbidden school club must have sounded to Robert like the easiest way to set himself apart from her. She just needed someone to believe her, someone who had the power and authority to do something about it.

Leaving her homework for later, Minerva headed straight for Professor Dumbledore's office. Perhaps he had a way of finding Robert or, if not, he could interrogate him later. Surely Junior wouldn't be dumb or brave enough to lie to Dumbledore. Unfortunately, her Head of House wasn't in his study. Minerva tried the staffroom next and knocked on the door.

She needed all of her self-restraint not to take a giant step back when it was Professor Narramore who opened. "Good evening, Professor," Minerva said in what she hoped was a perfectly polite tone. "I'm looking for Professor Dumbledore."

"He's not here," Narramore replied curtly.

"Oh, do you know where I could find him then?"

"Why would I know that?" Narramore asked irritably.

Annoyed that she was the only one trying to be polite, Minerva said, "Perhaps you could ask a crystal ball or read tarot cards..."

"Even if I had the time, they wouldn't give any answers to someone so completely unwilling to understand them such as yourself," the Divination teacher replied indignantly and was about to turn away.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Minerva said quickly. "Could you... if he comes back, could you just tell him I'm looking for him and that it's important?"

"I shall give him the message. But mark my words, girl! This obsession with Professor Dumbledore is very unhealthy," Narramore told her and closed the door in her face.

Leaving Minerva to glare at it in silence. She wasn't obsessed with Professor Dumbledore! He was her Head of House. She and her brother were both in Gryffindor. They were supposed to come to him with stuff like this.

Busy abusing Professor Narramore in her head, Minerva ran straight into Ken Rigby, who was in her brother's year. "Hey, do you know where Junior, I mean, Robert is?"

"Er..." said Rigby and his eyes darted from left to right in a panic. That was the nice thing about Gryffindors. Most of them were really bad liars.

"He's in that ruddy club, isn't he?" Minerva challenged the younger boy. Using her height hadn't worked with her brother earlier, but she had a feeling it would definitely work this time around.

Rigby faltered. "I don't really know anything about that," he said quickly. "Only that... well, he's been bringing back food from the kitchens a lot lately. So I'm guessing they're meeting really close by."

Minerva thanked him and let him go. She had never sought out the kitchens before since she had always assumed that students weren't allowed to. But she knew that they were located on the basement level. She took the door on the left-hand side of the marble staircase and headed down there.

It was a brightly lit corridor, and once Minerva had walked past the spot where she suspected the Hufflepuff common room to be, it was also empty. Until she rounded a corner and came face to face with a single Ravenclaw student. Minerva didn't know him, but when he saw her, his initial reaction was panic and then, probably when he realised that she wasn't a teacher or a prefect, suspicion. He was clearly a lockout.

Minerva walked up to him and said, "I want to join."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the Ravenclaw replied.

"Is there a password? Or an entrance fee?" Minerva scoffed. "How about I give you some free advice. A Ravenclaw like you has no business standing around in this corridor. If you want to be inconspicuous, give the job to a Hufflepuff. Or at least pretend to read a book."

The Ravenclaw gaped at her. Perhaps not all of them were super smart.

"So, can I go in now or should I get a teacher?"

"Second door on your right."

"Thanks."

Minerva headed for that door and stopped right outside. She couldn't hear a thing. Somebody must have made the room soundproof. Apparently, some members of this club were clever after all. She now also remembered seeing a thin, sparkly line that had been drawn on the floor at the entrance to the corridor. Probably some kind of age line that would raise an alarm if a teacher crossed it. Really quite clever.

Minerva entered the room without difficulty and she saw right away that she was in the right place. It looked like in Professor Hawkyard's class, only unsupervised. Students were duelling each other all over the place. Most of them Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, but some Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, too. No one paid her any mind, apparently thinking that their lookout would have warned them if she were someone to worry about. Minerva searched the room for her brother and briskly walked over to him.

"Merlin's pants! What are you doing here?" he cursed when he saw her.

"I was going to ask you the same thing, actually," Minerva shot back.

Robert didn't even look guilty. "How did you find us?"

"Does it matter? I did find you. Do you really think that none of the teachers will be able to do the same thing?"

"Did you tell anyone?" Robert's eyes widened in alarm.

"No, I didn't," Minerva told him truthfully. "But I would have. This is wrong. You could get seriously hurt."

Her brother rolled his eyes at her. "We're just practising. For fun. It's not as if we're trying to kill each other."

There was a loud bang. A student was ripped off his feet and thrown against a wall where he crumpled into a heap on the floor, seemingly unconscious.

"Er... that's never happened before," Robert said quickly.

Minerva was just about to see if that student was all right when a shrill alarm filled the room and everyone stopped duelling. "Someone's in the corridor," Robert whispered. No one moved, hoping that perhaps it was Professor Beery heading for the Hufflepuff common room or the kitchens, both equally likely.

The lookout came bursting into the room. "Pringle! He's coming! He knows!" he yelled.

The effect on the room was instantaneous. After some yelling and cursing and even dropping of wands, everyone started bumping into one another in their attempts to get to the door first and to make a run for it.

"Stop! Stop! Running will only make this worse!" Minerva warned, grabbing Robert's arm to hold him back.

"You snitched!" he accused her.

"You really think I would have told Pringle?" she retorted, although yes, she would have told someone, just not Apollyon Pringle.

When half of the room ran and half stayed, they heard Pringle yell, "I see you, you little prats! I know your faces! I will get you later!"

The caretaker appeared in the doorway, breathing heavy, a mad glimmer in his eyes. "Aha, there's the rest of you! A whole room full of troublemakers. This is going to be a fun night then," he muttered as he moved closer. "Now, who wants their punishment first?"

Minerva took a step forward. "Mr Pringle, shouldn't you go alert the Heads of House...?"

"So they can go soft on you and take a couple of measly points from your houses? As if you cared about that? Nah, there's only one way to drive this lesson home!" Pringle reached around his back and pulled out a cane.

"You can't do that!" Minerva gasped. She knew that all students either feared or hated Pringle. But she had never got in serious trouble with him before, so she hadn't known why exactly, other than his nasty temper.

"I can do whatever I want to punish little rule breakers like you," Pringle snarled. "So, are you volunteering to go first?"

Making sure that she was still blocking her brother from view, Minerva said firmly, "I want to talk to Professor Dumbledore."

"Well, he isn't here, now, is he?" Pringle sneered.

"Actually, Apollyon, he is."

The looks on the faces of Minerva and Pringle were polar opposites of one another when Dumbledore moved into the room.

Pringle turned around slowly. "I was just taking care of some nasty business here. Nothing to concern you, Professor."

"Ah, but you see, Apollyon, it does concern me since these are some of my students," Professor Dumbledore responded calmly.

"Of course, but I know just how to handle this one." Pringle raised the cane in his hand with an ugly grin.

Dumbledore looked at it coolly. "Your understanding of taking care of things differs greatly from mine, I'm afraid."

"What I understand, Dumbledore, is that there's no child that wouldn't benefit from a decent whipping."

"We'll have to agree to disagree on that, Apollyon."

"Disagree all you want, Dumbledore, but it's always been done that way," Pringle insisted.

Professor Dumbledore sighed. "I don't know why everyone seems to think that makes for a valid argument. After all, just because something is, doesn't necessarily mean it should be."

Pringle looked as though this was beginning to go right over his head. What he did understand was that Dumbledore wouldn't let him use that cane on anyone. "I'll talk to the headmaster about this," he threatened.

"As will I," Dumbledore said with an air of finality. "Now, why don't you go and round up the rest of the students? I believe most of them are hiding in the kitchens. Bring them back here and then be so kind to alert Horace, Cyrille and Herbert."

It was unmistakable how upset Pringle was that he wouldn't get to punish anyone, but he didn't dare to refuse Dumbledore's orders. He was probably clever enough to realise that if he and Dumbledore went to the headmaster now to plead their cases, he wouldn't be the one to come out on top.

As soon as the caretaker had left, Minerva approached her Head of House. "Thank you for coming, Professor."

"Thank you for trying to alert me," he replied.

Minerva scowled at the empty doorway where Pringle had just disappeared. "I might not have if I had known what Pringle would do..."

"Like many of us, Apollyon is merely set in his ways," Dumbledore said.

"His ways are barbaric!" Minerva hissed. She was appalled that she had never known about some of the things that were going on in this castle.

"I agree with you, but please do not forget that Hogwarts is a very old school. Don't judge it too harshly because it needs time to change – and the right-minded people to help it do so."

Dumbledore smiled at her softly. Minerva couldn't help but think that these 'right-minded people,' clearly meaning Dumbledore, should really get a move on.