The first morning of the new term, FitzSimmons awoke to discover that a new announcement had been placed on the common room notice board — apparation lessons.
As they walked down to breakfast, Fitz asked, "How do families like the Weasleys afford twelve galleons per child? From the way Ron's talked over the years, that would be a significant financial strain on them, even if it is only one child per year — except the twins' year, of course."
"And if you flat out can't afford it, how do you learn without taking lessons?" Simmons replied. "Like can you read enough about it in the library to practice on your own and learn how to do it if you're muggleborn, or learn from one of your parents if you're not? Because else, if Ministry lessons are the only way to learn how to do it, that's complete highway robbery. I assume apparating is like driving, it's a privilege not a right, but it's still pushing being the same as having to pay the government for a license to exercise your God-given right to carry a gun. Not quite that bad, but still — not good either. At the very least privatize it, so that it costs less than a galleon to take lessons that would be of better quality anyway, instead of the Ministry price of twelve."
But not having any answers to these questions, or any ability to change anything for the better as sixth year students, they finished their walk down to breakfast. And as soon as they had finished eating, they headed straight to the library to find books on the subject, determined to be as prepared going into their first apparation lesson in a month as they were going into all of their classes at the beginning of every year and the beginning of every class, and as prepared as everyone else would not be if that same pattern with classes held true for this extra class as well.
The main thing that they learned from all of the books that they could find on the subject was that it wasn't something that could really be learnt from a book, or even a teacher, but was rather something that you simply had to try and fail a thousand times before it finally just happened. However, the books did have all that any teacher of apparation lessons could tell them, which was the three D's — destination, determination, and deliberation.
Keep your mind on where you wanted to go, or else you might just end up wherever your mind wandered to instead. Be determined to occupy the destination that you wanted appear at, which Simmons had a strong suspicion also included believing that you actually could disappear from one spot and appear in another like some sub-atomic particle that didn't follow the laws of physics describing normal-sized objects. And finally deliberately spin into nothingness, or really deliberately spin into apparating FitzSimmons figured, and also figured was something that was easier to do once you had done it once or at least a few times and had some clue what it was actually like.
As they walked to their first class a little while later once the first bell had rung, Fitz suggested, "So I know from 'Hogwarts: A History' that we can't apparate inside Hogwarts grounds, but could we still somehow practice this in our flat knowing that it won't work? You know, a dry run of sorts, doing everything that we would need to do, especially the mental parts, so we'll have the muscle and mind memory down before we ever get to the first lesson, and we'll be concentrating on actually doing it then, instead of how to do it, when we finally get the chance."
"It's dry-firing a pistol or rifle — won't help you learn recoil control, but it's great for drawing, sighting, knowing the weight of the trigger, and making everything surrounding using your concealed carry instinct and second nature," Simmons answered. "I'm certainly up for trying it. I mean, these books pretty much tell us what we have to do, it's just that it's like flying in that all the head knowledge in the world isn't going make you fly a broomstick — you actually have to do it. Then again, I guess everything is like that to some extent or another, from spells to shooting a gun to Krav Maga, this one just seems especially so. But I didn't see anything that suggested that it could hurt to practice."
So from that evening forth, they spent at least ten minutes every evening destinating, determining, and deliberating, spinning in circles in their dorm room. They also sent Tonks an owl and had her meet them outside on the castle grounds near the gates on the weekends, to ask her advice and suggestions on apparating. She couldn't tell them much more than the books had other than the fact that you just had to do it, and that it became substantially easier once you'd done it once or twice and knew that you could do it, but she tried to help them however she could. And so when the Saturday of their first official lesson arrived, FitzSimmons felt as comfortable going into it as they possibly could.
The first lesson was being held inside the Great Hall instead of out on the lawns because the Scottish weather was too cold, rainy, and muddy to hold it outside, so after everyone had finished up breakfast all of the sixth years reconvened inside the hall where the four Heads of House were waiting with the Ministry instructor, Mr Twycross.
After basic introductions and warnings not to try to apparate anywhere outside of the Great Hall, everyone was scattered out to stand five feet apart (since the House tables had all been pushed out to the walls to make room), so that Mr Twycross could magic wooden hoops in front of everyone, which would be their targets to apparate into. Then he told them the three D's that FitzSimmons had already read about in all of the books on apparating that they had read through over the previous month and Tonks had mentioned as well, instantly going off of the end of the third D into a one, two, three command to apparate instead of giving everyone time to absorb the information that he had just dumped on them for the very first time in most people's lives, and give them a chance to ask any questions that they might have.
But having already done all of their homework before class started, FitzSimmons did as they had practiced a thousand and one times before in their dorm room, only this time knowing that it was actually possible for them to succeed since the wards on the castle grounds had been lifted for that specific room for the duration of the lesson. And since FitzSimmons had practiced it down to the very last detail a thousand times before, were experts at focusing on a single thing in the lab when they needed to (which they now did on the destination of the hoop that they were trying to apparate into), and most importantly they assumed that they actually could do it then and there as they had never been told they couldn't, and therefore spun with a deliberation to succeed that no one else in the lesson could, they both succeeded on their very first attempt.
But being hidden in the back corner of the hall such as they were, it took several seconds for anyone to realize that they had in fact succeeded when no one else had. And then there was a predictably great amount of disbelief by the other students who all hadn't succeeded, claiming that FitzSimmons must have just jumped into their hoops when no one was looking during the pandemonium, since the pair was behind everyone's line of sight where no one could have caught them cheating if they had been, and therefore no one actually saw them disappear from one spot and reappear in the other a few feet forward. All four Heads of House and the Ministry instructor, meanwhile, were completely shocked at Potter and Granger's supposed success once they realized it, clearly not having expected anyone to succeed on the very first try — or at all in the first several weeks, as was actually the case, though FitzSimmons were blissfully unaware of that. For said adults hadn't been paying any attention to the back corner either, to see it with their own eyes, but they had no reason to believe that the brightest two students in the school would be lying. And when FitzSimmons insisted that they had actually done it and not cheated, the adults called the pair up to the front of the room and asked them to do it again in front of the entire crowd, where everyone could see if they were really apparating or not.
Which having done it once already, FitzSimmons were easily able to do again without any problem, knowing perfectly well that they could.
"How can you — ?!" McGonagall gasped at them in disbelief when they had finished showing everyone that they were not in fact liars, they were simply better — at everything.
Simmons shrugged.
"We spent the last month researching it in the library, practicing the mental parts and physical motions in our dorm room, talking with an adult witch we know who can do it already and was giving us tips, and we knew that it's obviously possible because we've been side-apparated once and it's something that wizards obviously do all the time, so we truly believed not only that it is possible, but also that we would be able to do it — and we did," she explained. "And isn't that normally half of magic — believing that you actually can do it? It sure seems like most spells, so long as you have the right incantation and wand movement if necessary, are easier to perform if you believe that you can do it, and certainly after you've done it once to know that you can do it. Anyway, is it really that big of a surprise? — We've done everything best and fastest since we stepped into this castle five and a half years ago."
"Everyone else in this hall is scared, nervous, and that was literally the first time that most of them had ever heard what they were supposed to do, five seconds before being asked to do it," Fitz picked up where his wife left off. "It's no wonder they couldn't do it. In all of our classes you go over the theoretical knowledge, incantation, and wand movements for at least fifteen minutes if not entire classes before we ever actually attempt to cast the new spell, because as professors you understand that students actually need to be taught things before they attempt them themselves — Potions before the wonderful Professor Slughorn was hired being the obvious exception, and you all know what a clusterfuck that class was even if you're all too cowardly and scared of Snape to admit it out loud. But my point is, you don't just say 'here's the incantation and the wand movement, try casting the spell NOW, NOW, NOW!', which is exactly what everyone was just asked to do with apparating. So it's no surprise that no one succeeded, that presumably no one ever succeeds on the first attempt, or maybe even the first day based on how shocked you all are. We may not have been able to actually try moving before now, but Hermione and I have been practicing the motions and thoughts for a month before we ever tried it for real, just like in classes. So maybe you should try teaching this like you teach everything else in the magical world, and the real world, for that matter — just saying."
All of the adults just stared back at them with looks of willful refusal to learn from FitzSimmons' expert suggestions simply because they didn't want to, as they did every time that something was suggested different than how they had always done it. So after a few seconds FitzSimmons just shrugged and walked back to their hoops in the very back of the Great Hall close to where they ate every day when tables were present, and waited for the instructor to resume the lesson. It took him a second but he finally did, and FitzSimmons spent to rest of the class apparating into each other's hoops just for the fun of it and to keep the class from becoming too boring.
But beyond them, the closest thing to occur to apparation was Susan Bones apparating approximately four-fifths of herself into her hoop, leaving a leg behind where she had started. The professors quickly put her back right after her scream of agony very quickly alerted everyone to what had happened, but it left her so scared of apparating that she was barely even trying to spin into apparation anymore for the rest of the lesson after that, and a large percentage of the rest of the students also seemed to be much more hesitant to try to successfully apparate after that, an understandable reaction. And so when Mr Twycross dismissed them all after an hour, only FitzSimmons had successfully apparated, and only Susan had successfully splinched.
After they had all been dismissed and wandered out into the entrance hall, since so many people were milling about, FitzSimmons decided to return to their flat to properly celebrate apparating on their very first tries and every try after that, until it was time to return to lunch, and after that they could spend the afternoon braving the wet and cold outside if they wanted to, as opposed to trying to go out there now. But as they walked up to a door on the fourth floor that they needed to go through to get up to Gryffindor Tower, they discovered that Peeves had jammed said door shut and was refusing to let anyone pass until they set fire to their own pants.
Normally the demigod fled every time that he saw FitzSimmons approaching, but this time he was too busy trying to make some second years light their pants on fire that he didn't see the pair walk up and as one pull out their wands. So before he had a clue that they were even there, Fitz was able to cast a silent Confringo at him as Simmons cast Incendio, and he was simultaneously hit by a very large, powerful explosion and a very large, powerful burst of flames. He somersaulted in the air from the force of the explosion, before streaking away screaming bloody murder in agony.
Unfortunately — or really perhaps very fortunately — Filch happened to be walking nearby when Peeves legged it past him in terror from the two students whom he couldn't abuse and assault like he did the rest of the castle, and the caretaker huffed and puffed his way up to FitzSimmons, wheezing in gleeful excitement at them.
"Aha! I caught you this time! Curses in the hallway, that's nice, long detentions for both of you!"
"Or, how about you fix this door first so that students can use it again, since you are the caretaker of this castle after all, and that's literally your job description, and then you can take us to deputy headmistress McGonagall's office and report us," Fitz counter-offered coolly.
Filch growled at them, but as they had wands and he didn't, they clearly weren't going anywhere with him if he didn't fix the door first, and even he knew of their reputation of refusing to obey even the professors, he had little choice but to look at the door. Of course, Peeves had used magic to jam the door shut, so Filch couldn't do a bloody thing about it since someone had had the genius idea of hiring a squib to take care of a magical castle, and so after a minute or two of watching him just stand their cluelessly FitzSimmons pushed him out of the way to do it themselves, proving yet again how stupid it was to have a caretaker of a magical castle who couldn't do magic.
Once the door was open again and all of the students who had gathered behind them during all of this (plus the two already there when FitzSimmons had arrived) were on their way again, FitzSimmons turned and led Filch off to Professor McGonagall's office so that he could report them for using spells in the hallway (including possibly for fixing the door for him, as that was technically illegal magic in the hallways for students such as themselves), and so that they could tear McGonagall a new one for allowing Peeves to attempt to murder students by making them light themselves on fire — just the latest in the long line of abusive actions that he had committed against students that they had heard about in the time that they had been there, and had been going on long before that.
When they arrived at the deputy headmistress's office FitzSimmons stepped to the side so that Filch could knock on the heavy wood door, which he gleefully did, mistakenly believing that he had won this fight in his war against students who could perform magic when he couldn't.
And when Professor McGonagall answered the door a few seconds later he said to her, "I caught these two casting curses in the hallway against another occupant, Professor McGonagall."
But before Professor McGonagall could reply, Simmons turned to Filch and dismissed him condescendingly with a wave of her hand, saying, "Run along now, Filchy, you're dismissed — we don't need you any more." Then she turned to Professor McGonagall and demanded expectantly, "If we may come in?"
Giving FitzSimmons a strange look she let them into her office, as Filch walked away. Sitting down at her desk as they primly took the seats across from her, she asked them, "So what is this I hear about you cursing other students in the hallway?"
"It wasn't students, it was the poltergeist Peeves, who had magically jammed a door shut and was demanding that anyone who wanted through set their pants on fire," Simmons answered. "So we did our best to set him on fire instead to give him a taste of his own medicine, just like we did to you with the hate mail filled with poison a few years back during the TriWizard Tournament. Because making someone light themselves on fire is murder in the highest degree, with torture thrown on top. He kills a single person doing that in the real world — instead of being a supernatural creature in a magical castle — and he would be looking at the death penalty. Doing it repeatedly to children? — that's as close to a guaranteed death sentence as there is. Where we come from — the real world with at least a few people who still have some amount of morals — you don't make children light themselves on fire and then just float away as the supposed 'adults' brush it all off as just being 'part of living in a magical school'.
"So we simply did what all of you professors should have started doing a long time ago — fired Confringo and Incendio at him at the same time to make him stop, and make him question whether he ever really wants to try to abuse children again. Of course, since all of you adults with actual authority encourage his abusive and criminal behavior by doing absolutely fucking nothing about it except for telling students to try to avoid him and occasionally yelling empty threats at him, he will doubtlessly abuse and assault again, and again and again because he knows that he will get by with it. But it just might be a week this time before he does it again instead of tomorrow since his ears may still be ringing from the explosion and his arse might still be burning from the fire. Because unlike all of you, we don't tolerate abusive behavior by anyone, even super-powerful supernatural demigods. So that is what Filch thought he caught us doing to report us for, but we're here of our own free will to demand that you finally get off your arse and fucking do something about this. We will never stop cursing Peeves as hard as we can every single time we see him abusing innocent students, and if we happen to successfully kill him before any of you pull your heads out of your arses and arrest him for repeated, year after year child abuse, or at the very least kick him out of the school, we certainly won't lose a moment's sleep over it, and in fact we'll probably sleep better that night knowing that he will never assault another child ever again. So get your act together, or we will get it together for you in a permanent way."
And with that she stood up and strode out of McGonagall's office with her head held high before McGonagall could say a single word that obviously wasn't going to be kicking Peeves out, and probably was going to be blaming the victim like normal, Fitz following after her without even a glance in McGonagall's general direction.
McGonagall, meanwhile, simply sat in her chair and stared after them in shock. Removing Peeves from the premises obviously wasn't an option, he had been there doing his pranks since long before any of them had even been students there. For all she knew, Peeves had moved in when the four founders were still teaching there, or had already been in that location before the castle had even been built — no one really knew anything about the poltergeist, except that the Bloody Baron had some amount of control over the prankster, and the only way to make Peeves temporarily stop doing something was to threaten to go get the ghost. Unless you were Potter and Granger, apparently, and then you could just curse him away.
But casting spells in the hallway was forbidden, and it was completely unreasonable to think about using dark curses against him every time that he did one of his little jokes on the students, especially since he never really did anything against her or any of the other professors, so she was sure that the students were just exaggerating how bad the poltergeist really was, no matter what she overheard students talking about amongst themselves and how many times she overheard it every single week, let alone each year.
So she simply dismissed Granger's concerns and went back to her grading that she had been doing before they had interrupted her with their nonsense, sure that the school would continue running as smoothly as it had for centuries.
FitzSimmons continued attending the Saturday morning apparation lessons just so that they could continue practicing, much to the irritation of all of the other sixth year students, who still weren't capable of apparating an inch.
There were a few more splinchings each week, which FitzSimmons figured was progress as splinching was technically apparating, just in a life-threatening, only partial way, but they continued to be the only two to successfully apparate, and especially be able to do it with such ease, grace, and elegance. But the fourth week of apparation lessons they skipped, as it was Hogsmeade Day. Most of the rest of the sixth years seemed to be skipping it as well, as they saw most of the other students whom they had seen in the lessons walking down the road towards the little town, all bundled up as it was a cold, damp, and windy day.
FitzSimmons met up with Tonks and Sirius in the Hogs Head Inn for lunch and drinks to warm them up, knowing that the Three Broomsticks would be jammed packed with everyone from the school, and also because the Hogs Head Inn barkeeper was much more lenient about letting them have real alcohol than Madam Rosmerta was, which was always a plus. It was the first time that they had been able to see Tonks since they had first tried apparating for real and she was thrilled to hear that they had been perfect from their very first try. Sirius was also happy for them about it, remembering how long it had taken him to apparate the first time, but Tonks had been the one trying to give FitzSimmons hints and tips over the weekends between when the notices went up and the first lesson, so it was a little more personal for her that her two students had managed to do what no one else ever could.
They spent all of lunch chatting about apparating and all of the trouble that Sirius and Tonks had got into with it since they had learned how to apparate, before moving on to what each of the three parties had been up to since the last time that they had talked, simply enjoying each other's company and postponing having to go back out into the cold, wintery weather outside. But eventually Sirius had to go, while Tonks said that she would hang out with FitzSimmons for the rest of the afternoon if they would have her.
So leaving the Hogs Head Inn and a delightful lunch, FitzSimmons hit all of the shops with Tonks. Along the way they saw the twins in Zonko's talking to the owner about what sounded like a potential purchase of the store so that the twins could open a Hogsmeade branch of their own joke shop, and let Zonko finally retire after all of the years that he had been keeping Hogwarts supplied with jokes, pranks, and entertainment.
And right before they left to head back up to the castle Tonks loaded them down with sweets at Honeydukes, insisting that they were still kids and should go make all of the adults think that they were adhd when in reality they just had a sugar rush and no way to play it all off since it was so cold outside.
~FS~
If FitzSimmons figured that not very many sixth years had gone to the apparation lesson on Hogsmeade day, it was nothing compared to the following weekend.
They were literally the only two who showed up in the Great Hall when it was time, everyone else in the castle having headed down to the quidditch pitch for the match that morning. Of course, as they could already apparate, Mr Twycross canceled the lesson, muttering as he walked out of the hall about how every year Dumbledore didn't warn him when it was quidditch weekend, so that he could stay home since no one ever came on that Saturday.
Having nothing else to do, and certainly not going out into the freezing wind to watch a bunch of people chase their balls, FitzSimmons wandered the castle looking for something new or interesting, and testing all of the broom cupboards and abandoned classrooms for snogability.
Meandering through the dungeons, they ran across Malfoy getting potion ingredients out of the students' store cupboard. As soon as he saw them, he stopped short pulling ingredients out of the cupboard, and scowled at them.
"Hey, Malfoy," Fitz greeted with a friendly nod. "Making a potion?"
As Malfoy just continued glaring at them without saying a word, Simmons said, "Well, have fun," and she and her husband resumed their walk down the hallway.
FitzSimmons found Malfoy getting potion ingredients outside of class mildly interesting, especially as now that they thought about it, they were also pretty sure that they remembered seeing him in the potions supply shop in Hogsmeade the previous weekend, but as there was nothing wrong with brewing potions on your own, they didn't really think twice about it as they moved on their way. In fact, what was more surprising was that Malfoy didn't do any more than scowl and glare at them without saying a word upon seeing 'Harry Potter', though he had been trying to bully Fitz less and less over the years as they either swung back or completely ignored him, so they just chalked it up to Malfoy finally giving up on them and focusing on weaker, easier targets. That he was doing any of this while a quidditch match was going on also seemed slightly odd, as they had always considered him one of those obsessive quidditch nuts like Ron and he was on the Slytherin team last time they had heard, but as two people who had absolutely nothing to do with quidditch themselves, they knew that it wasn't their position to question why he wasn't at a match that he wasn't playing in, or even one he should have been playing in had that been the case. But as there was no one for them to shield they forgot all about it within five minutes of leaving, as they found a new broom cupboard that needed their stamp of approval.
In reality, however, Malfoy was trying to brew one of the undetectable poisons that his former hero Snape had so graciously taught them all about in their third year when he assigned them the essay on undetectable poisons, to try to kill Dumbledore with, though he still wasn't entirely sure how to actually get Dumbledore to imbibe the poison once it was brewed — but that was a problem for after he successfully brewed the potion, and maybe tested it out on some nobody student to make sure that it actually worked.
The following Sunday a week later, notices went up announcing both the date of the first available apparation test, and the option for signing up for additional practice lessons in Hogsmeade leading up to the test date.
The extra lessons and test were only available for those who would be seventeen by the test date, but as FitzSimmons had never been two to follow the rules around there, or specifically the rules that they believed were wrong in some way, that minor stipulation was of little concern to them.
So as they headed down to their private dorm after seeing the announcements, Fitz asked his wife, "We obviously don't actually need the practice, but want to sign up and go just so that we can go into Hogsmeade every Sunday for a few weeks?"
"Of course!" Simmons answered. "And practicing somewhere new and not just the same place every week is a good thing too, as far as actual practice goes. We won't be apparating the same ten feet our entire lives, so it certainly can't hurt to go ahead and practice in a new location."
So the following morning FitzSimmons headed to Professor McGonagall's office to sign up for the additional practice sessions in Hogsmeade. Only when they told the woman that they were there to sign up, McGonagall wasn't so accommodating of their plans.
"Granger, you can sign up, you're old enough, but I'm sorry Potter, only students who will be adults on April twenty-first are allowed to take the extra lessons," she said firmly. "Anyway, why do either of you want to take the extra lessons? You don't need the practice."
"Do you want me go with approval, or do you want me going with Hermione regardless of how large a trail of dead bodies we have to leave behind in order to get out of the castle?" Fitz answered coldly. "Because we're going together regardless of what you do or do not allow us to sign up for — the only question is how much pain and hurt you and yours will be in when we go. And why we want to go is our business, the lessons are being offered regardless of why anyone wants to take them, and anyway, doesn't practice make perfect? You certainly believe that when it comes to Transfiguration — you would never question a student practicing your own subject 'too much'. But apparently wanting to practice apparation is somehow sus? Giant fucking hypocrite much?"
He didn't say that they just wanted to get out of the castle and into Hogsmeade every weekend, knowing that she wouldn't approve of that as a reason to let someone too young go — the extra lessons were strictly about extra practice, not going to Hogsmeade, no matter how many students every year signed up just so that they could go to town a few extra times.
McGonagall stared at him for several seconds, before snapping, "You will not be going, Potter, and if you keep behaving like this, you won't be allowed to go to the next Hogsmeade day, either!", clearly having yet to learn that FitzSimmons did exactly what they wanted to when they believed that they were in the right.
Simmons scoffed condescendingly. "You and what army? You wouldn't have the balls to stop us even if you did have the authority, which we all know you don't since you can't expel Harry from this school. We, on the other hand, have no problem cursing every single adult who tries standing in our way, and walking right out the gates. And if you decide to lock the gates behind us so that we can't get back in, we don't need this school — we can go do our own thing and never step foot here again, which clearly none of you want to happen. So I'd suggest you let us sign up before it's your own funeral that you're attending on the first extra lesson day."
Once again, McGonagall just stared at her, before finally snapping, "Get out of here! And it'll be a hundred points and detention if either of you try to go!"
FitzSimmons shrugged and turned and walked out of McGonagall's office, there being nothing left to say to someone so clearly delusional. And then a week later on Sunday morning they joined the middle of the queue of sixth year students heading to Hogsmeade for the extra lessons, just as they had said that they would.
When they arrived at where Filch was checking everyone off on his list and waving his secrecy sensor over all of them to make sure that they weren't trying to sneak anything dangerous out of the castle, he growled at them without even bothering to look at his list, "You two aren't allowed to go — Professor McGonagall's direct orders."
"Would you like to be able to check everyone else off on your list, or would you rather anyone who wants to just step over your frozen body?" Fitz asked as they both pulled out their wands and pointed them at the caretaker. "We already told McGonagall that there would be bloodshed if anyone tried to stop us, and we're fully prepared to follow through on that promise. So either get out of our way and keep doing your job with everyone else trying to leave, or keep standing in our way and fail to do your job for the rest of the students behind us. Your choice."
Filch's pouchy eyes bulged out of his face and he opened his mouth furiously, mouthing like a fish out of water for several seconds. Finally he managed to start sputtering out, "You wait until I — !"
But before he could finish his empty threat, Fitz muttered under his breath to himself, "We don't have time for this," and casually flicked a silent 'Petrificus Totalus' at the caretaker.
Filch froze instantly, and with a light nudge from the tip of Fitz's wand toppled over onto the ground like an extremely life-like statue. A number of the other students gathered around the hall let out a chorus of cheers and claps, having frequently faced Filch's ire against those who could do magic during their time there. And as there were no other adults around to make sure that no one just cursed Filch and eliminated him from their way, a number of students who weren't actually sixth years or weren't allowed to go to the extra lessons because like Fitz they were too young, merrily skipped their way out of the entrance hall and out onto the grounds to head to Hogsmeade, a free trip to the magical town now available.
Meanwhile, Fitz held his arm out to Simmons and said, "Shall we, my dear?"
After a pleasant stroll down the dirt road they soon found themselves at the Three Broomsticks, the meeting location of the extra lessons. Exactly as FitzSimmons expected, Mr Twycross didn't look twice at Fitz being there, at the very least not knowing that Harry Potter wasn't going to be of age come first test date in latish April, and probably not really caring anyway considering how perfect Fitz already was at apparating. A perfection that continued despite no longer being in the Great Hall or out on the Hogwarts grounds, both FitzSimmonses easily apparating everywhere that Mr Twycross asked them to, including out of and inside of various buildings in town.
Once the lesson was over FitzSimmons found Tonks waiting for them outside of the Hogs Head Inn, as they had owled her earlier in the week to tell her that they would be there, asking if she would like to meet up, grab a drink and a bite to eat, to which she had gladly responded that she would. So the three of them spent the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon catching up and chatting, and just generally enjoying each other's company.
They continued doing this for the next four weekends, until the Monday of the actual test arrived. All the while McGonagall had stormed up to them at supper every single Sunday evening after they went to Hogsmeade that morning and took away a hundred points as promised, but even she wasn't so stupid as to actually give them detentions that everyone knew they wouldn't go to. Filch, on the other hand, never challenged them again, and like every trip outside of the castle during the five and a half years that they had been there no other adults ever showed up to challenge them either, though FitzSimmons did have to wonder if that was because they didn't want to risk FitzSimmons actually fighting them, and there really being bloodshed all over taking a couple extra apparation lessons.
And the Monday afternoon of the actual exam was no different, with only Filch manning the doors of the entrance hall, all of the other adults of the castle teaching classes as for some reason someone thought that it was a good idea to have the apparation test during class time instead of on a Saturday or Sunday like all of the practice lessons had been, perhaps even on a Hogsmeade day that everyone would already be in Hogsmeade for and could just pop by and quickly take their test at their convenience, instead of having to make a special trip that caused them to miss important class time. And like every time since they had petrificused him, Filch let them pass with nary more than a glare, completely scared of them and defenseless against them.
Outside it was a beautiful bright blue day as summer was finally approaching, and FitzSimmons were excited to no longer have to illegally apparate if they ever needed to. Or, at least, Simmons would be able to legally apparate — they weren't positive that whoever was there to give out the licenses would give Fitz his even after he proved that he was the best or second best apparater out of all of the sixth years. They didn't know whether the Ministry officials would even know that Harry Potter wasn't of age yet, it would most likely depend on how much all of the different Ministry departments talked with each other for the apparation department to know from the 'How Old Everyone Is/Trace' department that Harry Potter wasn't seventeen yet. Because it was completely possible that the Ministry just trusted the school not to let any minors come to Hogsmeade to take the test in the first place, and they would assume that since Potter showed up he must be of age. Or the specific license-giver might just not care one way or the other, and if Potter could successfully apparate he could have his license.
The test itself was held down the middle of the main street, with three Ministry apparation examiners taking students at the same time. Everyone had to apparate from their examiner down to the far end of the street where there was a Ministry official standing around making sure that the students apparated to where they were supposed to and to quickly save any lives from splinching that might need saved. Then when their examiner signaled, each student had to apparate back, and so long as all body parts made both trips and landed where they were supposed to, the student passed and could legally apparate in the eyes of the British Ministry.
When Fitz stepped up to the next available examiner, the witch simply took his name and told him to apparate, never once asking his age or questioning that he was there. And upon apparating with ease and perfection in both directions, he was told that he was licensed to apparate now. Simmons similarly passed in under five minutes and they were soon heading off to the Three Broomsticks for a celebratory firewhisky, which thanks to Professor McGonagall telling them that Hermione was old enough to legally take the apparation test by that point, and therefore an adult in the wizarding world, they knew that Simmons could legally order firewhisky from Madam Rosmerta, and then immediately less legally share with her husband, given the fact that they were in a restaurant and not a private residence.
But they hadn't been sipping on their drinks for more than ten minutes when Ronald Weasley came slouching in, looking most morose.
Plopping himself down across from them, he grumbled grouchily, "Half an eyebrow — like that matters!"
"I take it you didn't pass," Fitz said in clarification.
"One stupid part of an eyebrow!" Ron groused back. "If the examiner just hadn't seen it…."
Clearly looking for consolation about failing his exam on what he thought was a trivial, insignificant matter, Simmons gave him a reality check instead.
"That one half of an eyebrow could have killed you if it hadn't been an eyebrow that you left behind. Leave behind that exact same amount of matter from part of your neck, or the inside of your elbow, or underside of your wrist, or inside of your groin, and you'd bleed out and die before anyone could do anything about it. Leave any part of skin containing a major artery or vein behind, and you're dead. Leave any number of internal sections of your body behind and you are very, very dead before you even appear at your destination. Honestly, I'm surprised it doesn't happen in practice more often. I mean, if Susan Bones hadn't had four adults on her in an instant in our very first lesson, she would have bled out from severing her leg. I don't know how you stop that risk, but no sane person would give someone an unlimited license to apparate when they're still leaving body parts of any size behind, and could easily kill themselves when they apparated. Or far more importantly kill anyone they side-by apparated, assuming that you can leave the other person's body parts behind as well, which you logically could if you can leave your own behind."
Ron stared at Simmons in shock for several seconds, before quickly spotting some other students without extensive medical training and experience and who had also failed their apparation tests sitting at a nearby table, and went to sit with them instead to roundly verbally abuse the apparation examiners as they drank their butterbeers, leaving FitzSimmons behind just shaking their heads at his willful refusal to accept the dangerous reality of the situation.
One evening in mid-May Malfoy was walking down the upper floor hallways a little before curfew, for once actually acting like he was doing (or about to do) his prefect duties of walking the halls just after curfew.
But in reality, he was looking for a young, preferably Gryffindor straggler to offer a poisoned eclair to, to make sure that his recently finished brewing undetectable poison would actually work before he himself tried poisoning Dumbledore this time, since the Madam Rosmerta poisoned wine clearly hadn't worked. He still didn't know how to actually get Dumbledore to eat or drink something that he had poisoned, and even his father hadn't been able to be of any help on that front yet this time, but he needed to make sure that his potion actually worked before he worried about that.
And this was the tenth night in a row that he had been out on the prowl, his longest streak in the two years that he'd been a prefect, of actually 'doing' his duties — or at least looking like he was to the professors who didn't actually pay any attention to the prefects after they named them — but tonight he finally had success. Just ahead of him on the fifth floor hallway that he was walking down was a first year Gryffindor girl most likely walking from the library back up to Gryffindor Tower, looking a little confused as to the layout of the castle even after almost a year of being there and presumably having one of Potter and the Mudblood's stupid maps, though she clearly wasn't looking at it at the moment if she had it on her. Really not that big of a surprise given just how ridiculous that castle really was.
So with his prey in sight, Malfoy quickly hurried up to her, saying to her in his most friendly, 'I'm important around here' tone, "Hi there, trying to get back up to your dorm? I'm one of the prefects, I can give you instructions if you're a little lost — this can be a real confusing castle, even after six years of living here."
"Yeah, a little bit," the first year admitted. "The staircase I normally take from the library wasn't there tonight."
"Yes, they do that," Malfoy answered.
Then he proceeded to give her bad directions back up to Gryffindor Tower, that while they would eventually get her to where she was trying to go, it would take her way longer than a good route would, and would take her away from any other possible people who might still be out that late at night, even any other prefects actually doing their prefect duties.
After which he said, "Here, have this last eclair I just got from the kitchens a few minutes ago as a little late-night snack — you look like you could use it more than me right now."
The first year graciously took the poisoned dessert roll from Malfoy and said, "Thanks" before taking a bite, waving goodbye to Malfoy, and heading off in the direction that he had sent her.
~FS~
Having dropped dead on a little-used hallway, it wasn't until the following afternoon that anyone finally discovered her corpse.
A couple of Ravenclaw seventh years had snuck off to do a little friendly snogging in an abandoned classroom in that direction when they came across her body lying in the middle of the hallway from where the poison had finally done it's job the night before, now claiming its second fatality by instantly killing the mood — especially as the girl screamed absolute bloody murder upon realizing that it was an actual, dead, human body lying in the middle of the hallway, quickly bringing the nearest students and professors alike.
The professors quickly moved the body to the hospital wing and kept all of the still living students out of there, so that Dumbledore could come down from his office and take a look. He quickly instructed deputy headmistress McGonagall to jump ahead of the potential scandal by reporting it to the Daily Prophet herself, labeling it as a tragic freak accident or perhaps an attempt to cast some spell too advanced for her that ended tragically, so that no one in the Prophet would try running the much more sensational, profitable, and strong emotion inducing angle of speculating that it might have been cold-blooded murder. With two students having discovered the body and far more seeing it before it was moved to the hospital wing out of sight there was absolutely no way that word wouldn't spread through the castle like wildfire, which meant letters home to parents, especially with everyone on higher alert now that the Ministry had relented to the possibility of You-Know-Who's return, and minor incidents constantly being reported in the newspaper that certainly seemed possible to be Death Eaters' doing. So there was no hope of keeping it swept under the rug like most tragedies at Hogwarts, meaning that the next best thing was controlling the narrative themselves instead of letting the Ministry control it.
Meanwhile, Dumbledore was trying to figure out what had actually happened. With his magical skill and experience it didn't take him long to detect the presence of one of the 'undetectable' poisons in her system, because the undetectable poisons were only actually undetectable if brewed absolutely perfectly, and even then there were still other signs to look for to suggest with a high probability that that was what one was dealing with — and this was a far from perfect brewing. It was a decent brewing, the poison itself had obviously worked, but it was certainly not undetectable, or even all that hard to detect by someone like Dumbledore.
The problem, however, was not detecting that it was a poison, or even figuring out who the poisoner was, but rather figuring out what to do about said poisoner. Because there was no doubt in Dumbledore's mind that this was Malfoy's doing, testing out his latest attempt to murder Dumbledore in order to make sure that the tricky to brew poison actually worked before coming after the headmaster himself.
The first thing that Dumbledore had to do, however, was talk to the godsend, God's Gift to Wizardkind who was supposed to be carefully monitoring the only student whom said wizard had ever liked.
"Severus, this is two students that Malfoy has killed trying to kill me," Dumbledore said gravely to his favorite person in the world where they were gathered in the headmaster's office. "I was at no risk from this one since I have been checking all of my food since the poisoned wine incident in case Malfoy tried to poison me again, like he did here, and similarly at no risk from the cursed necklace since Filch would have caught it when Miss Bell tried to bring it into the castle — though I could have been the one to drink the poisoned wine first and Malfoy probably would have succeeded in his mission — but he is still putting students at risk, so this can't keep going on. We have to confront him and try to bring him and his family into the protection of the Order."
"Malfoy still refuses to admit that he had anything to do with the first two, no matter how many times I tell him that they were foolish attempts and never came close to working," Snape replied. "He wants all the glory to himself, he's not going to admit to doing this one any more than the first two, and he's going to say that he will take his chances with the Dark Lord. Which for this particular assignment, he will of course be punished, but he will be fine."
"I know, but we have to try to persuade him to accept our protection anyway," Dumbledore answered. "He can still be saved, he hasn't done too much bad yet."
So that evening after supper, Dumbledore summoned Malfoy up to his office, along with Snape as Malfoy's Head of House.
"Draco, I have called you here tonight to discuss your future," Dumbledore said gravely once Malfoy was seated, and Snape was lurking in the shadowy corner like normal where a candle was apparently out. "I have allowed you to remain in this school all year as you tried to kill me, but after this morning it cannot go on any longer."
"What are you talking about? — I didn't have anything to do with that," Malfoy replied defiantly. "And I didn't have anything to do with that Bell girl getting cursed either, like Snape accused me of."
Here he cut an angry look over at the Snake, his former friend and mentor.
"Let us have no more nonsense about this," Dumbledore said sharply. "I know that you were behind the cursed necklace that killed Katie Bell, and the undetectable poison that killed the first year Gryffindor, Miss Lacey Stewart, last night or this morning. I have known all along that it was you, in all three of your attempts to kill me, including the poisoned wine from a Madam Rosmerta that you had Imperiused, which was the one of your three attempts that completely failed, and didn't harm anyone. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts to actually kill me, instead of random students...so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has really been in it."
"Why didn't you stop me, then?" Malfoy demanded. "If you really thought that I was behind any of this, trying to kill you!"
"I tried, Draco," Dumbledore answered calmly. "Professor Snape has been keeping watch over you on my orders —"
"He hasn't been doing your orders, he promised my mother —!"
"Someone can follow multiple orders to do the same thing," Dumbledore interrupted Malfoy's interruption. "But I was the one to ask him first. And regardless of who's orders or promise he has been following, Severus has been keeping watch over you all year and reporting back to me."
"Oh, he's been offering me plenty of help, all right — wanting all the glory for himself, wanting a bit of the action. 'What are you doing? Did you do the necklace, that was stupid, it could have blown everything —'. He's been on my case all year trying to steal my glory!" Malfoy shouted back angrily, forgetting that he was supposed to be pretending that he had nothing to do with any of this and was a completely innocent, model student and prefect of the honorable Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"And I thought you said you weren't behind any of this," Dumbledore said mildly, making Malfoy pull up short in his rant. "But like I said before, let us have no more of these attempts at denial, and let us discuss your options, Draco."
"I don't need your options!" Malfoy shouted. "I proved that I can serve him and kill people, and I removed two mudblood-loving Gryffindors from the world — he'll be proud of me for that, even if I didn't manage to kill you as well!"
But the only recognition that Dumbledore gave to what Malfoy had said was to say, "Please do not use that offensive word in front of me," before carrying on with what he had been saying before. "Now, I appreciate the difficulty of your position. Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realized that I suspected you. I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used legilimency against you.
"But I can help you, Draco. Come over to the right side, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother and father tonight to hide them with you. Come over to the right side, Draco...you are not really a killer, there were just a few unfortunate accidents, minor mistakes made. But nothing that can't be moved past."
"I don't need your stupid protection!" Malfoy shouted back. "I'll take my chances with the Dark Lord, and probably receive praise for what I did accomplish this year right under your nose!"
Dumbledore sighed. "As much as I wish that I could force you to accept our help, unfortunately I cannot. You are still underage, so I could try to get the Ministry involved, but I know that Voldemort would harm your parents in response if I were to hide you by force. What cannot happen, however, is you remaining at this school a day longer. I could overlook Katie Bell's accidental death, and an attempt to poison me through Madame Rosmerta, but intentionally poisoning another student to test out the poison that you doubtlessly brewed yourself before trying to poison me again is beyond what I can ignore any longer, for the safety of the rest of the school. Which means if you will not accept my help of protecting you and your family, you must go back to your family having been officially expelled from this school, and not allowed to return next year for your NEWTs."
"Who needs your stupid school!" Malfoy shouted back petulantly. "It's all an act, anyway! The Dark Lord doesn't care about exam grades or stupid homework assignments! He cares about what you actually do! It won't matter that I'm not allowed here when he takes over again!"
"I am so sorry it has come to this, Draco. I do not know where I went wrong in the six years you have been in my school, but I do apologize," Dumbledore said sadly. "What I can assure you of, though, is that if you are ever willing to take my offer, just contact anyone from the Order and we will still protect you, no matter how long you have worked for Voldemort. But if you insist on that day not being today, then we have come to a sorrowful parting. Goodbye, Draco — you may use my Floo to return to your parents' Manor."
~FS~
Especially in light of the tragic death of a young student, it took several days for anyone outside of Slytherin to notice Malfoy's absence, most people not caring enough about him to notice that he was no longer in the school, and those who were regularly bullied by him just thankful to have a few days' reprieve from the abuse that the professors had never done anything to stop.
But over time word did slowly start to spread first through the sixth year crowd as they realized that none of them had seen Malfoy in any of their classes with the Slytherins for several days, and then on to the rest of the years as everyone began to realize that they hadn't seen him torturing any younger students in the hallways in far longer than normal. However, it didn't really create any stir, as everyone was still reeling from the death of the first year girl who wasn't disliked or hated by over three-quarters of the castle, and those who did think about his absence were simply glad that he was gone and no one had to deal with him anymore.
As for FitzSimmons, they found it notable that his disappearance was timed exactly with this most unnatural-seeming death, knowing that coincidences were few and far between in the criminal investigation process — Gibbs' Rule Number 39: There is no such thing as coincidence. But they also knew that no teacher was ever going to confirm to them that Malfoy had murdered a Gryffindor student in cold blood if that was in fact the truth, and they had no actual proof that that was at all the truth, so they didn't bother asking around questions that they knew would never be answered them. Which FitzSimmons could hardly disagree with from the professors' point of view, as they shouldn't normally be answered to any sixth year students in a situation like this. And anyway, it was completely possible that Malfoy had just gone on an odd vacation for a week or two right when this had happened, and would eventually be back and as shocked as everyone else that this poor, innocent girl had died of causes that no teacher ever said.
They did however begin to wonder if the person behind the cursed necklace in October was also the person behind this death, regardless of whether that was Malfoy or someone else inside or outside of the castle. And normally, this would have fallen square in their jurisdiction of shielding the students of the castle from harm, but assuming that any law enforcement agency actually existed in the wizarding world — which they admittedly still had yet to actually see — this was literally their job to handle, not two 6th year students, super-spies though they may have been.