Chapter Thirty-Two

Communication 101

By the time Timmy Miller had been dropped off at home and the others had finished off their homework and packed everything away, Quintin, Jay, and Rus were more than ready to go back to school. Truman attempted not to feel intimidated, gazing at the castle as if just realizing how big it was, wondering what the chances were of getting lost on his way to class.

"Don't worry, Truman. You won't get lost," Rus assured him as they walked up the path that had been recently cleared of snow. "I can help show you around, and of course all of the other Ravenclaws will help too."

"What makes you so sure that he'll get into Ravenclaw? You know Father always lets the Hat decide unless there's a language barrier of some sort," Jay said.

"I'm sure Sir Hat will do what's best," Jennifer said with a smile, pausing at the Doorlift and waiting for them to all file inside.

Quintin opened the door and all of the boys stepped into the Headmaster's Study, Severus glancing at them speculatively as they walked in, followed by Jennifer.

"Good morning, Severus!"

"I see you decided to not take the train back," Severus said expressionlessly.

"Yes, it was the only way I could think of to insure Rus didn't spend all his Christmas money on the train," Jennifer teased. "And because Truman needs to be Sorted."

"Yes, that, you know the drill," Severus said, and Jennifer went to the shelf.

"Good morning, Sir Hat," Jennifer said, unsurprised to see he was already wide awake.

"Good morning, Jennifer, Quintin, and the rest," the Hat said.

"Sit just there, Truman," Jennifer instructed, and Truman sat in one of the chairs and Jennifer unceremoniously plopped the Hat on his head.

"Ravenclaw," the Sorting Hat declared helpfully.

"There, you see? Nothing at all to worry about," Jennifer said.

"I'll help get you settled," Rus immediately volunteered.

"Rus, you may take him through the nursery door to get to Ravenclaw, that'll give you a chance to get him acquainted with other housemates who stayed over. Quintin, you may take Jeremy through your door, and Jay, you have my permission to use the Doorlift to get back to Slytherin."

"Is it alright if I just take the back stairs? I need to drop some books off in the library," Jay said.

"As you like. Unless any of you need anything else?" Severus inquired.

"No, we're good," Rus decided, Jennifer plucking the Sorting Hat off of Truman's head before he accidentally left with it on.

"You did warn Truman about the Maxens, I hope," Severus commented after they cleared out.

"Yes, don't worry," Jennifer said with a smile. "Truman really hasn't appreciated the fact that his trainer is an Auror, but from the sounds of it, he's been training Truman on how to defend himself without hampering his ability."

"Really? Perhaps you should learn how he's doing that," Severus said with interest.

"I think I've gotten protecting my thoughts down quite well now, thank you," Jennifer said primly.

"No, I don't mean for you. I mean that perhaps he has some techniques that you and Aurelius haven't explored as trainers that you can pass on to Rus and Quintin," Severus replied.

"Oh! Yes, alright, I'll have Aurelius talk to him since they know each other a lot better," Jennifer agreed. "How have things been here? Has Seren been behaving herself?"

"Better than the board," Severus replied. Jennifer chuckled at that, bringing Seren out of the nursery and getting rewarded with big hugs in return.

"Would you like some juice in your teacup, Serendipity?" Jennifer asked, barely even blinking when Seren snagged the Hat on the way by the shelf. "Yes, alright, Sir Hat can come too, just don't get juice on him this time."

"Shouldn't you be asking permission first?" Severus said sternly when she put the toddler down with the Sorting Hat still on her head. Jennifer blinked.

"Yes, I suppose you have a point. I'm sorry, Sir Hat, did you want to play with Seren, or do you want to be left on your shelf?" she asked the Hat. Severus stared at her.

"I would love to play, thank you, although it would be nice playing something other than tea party," the Sorting Hat complained.

"I am going to need to touch base with Janus about security and Hermione and the advisors about scheduling, Sir Hat, but perhaps I'll join you two after lunch and see if we can't coax her into playing something else," Jennifer promised. "Did you want to play with mummy after lunch, Seren?"

"Let's play!" Seren said insistently, grabbing her arm.

"Not yet, after lunch," Jennifer said.

"I'm hungry for lunch now!" Seren decided. Jennifer sighed with exasperation.

"You know, Severus, as much as we fussed over it at the time, I rather miss how time aware Quintin was," Jennifer admitted.

"Yes, next time you might want to make plans when she's not in the room," Severus suggested.

"You could have simply put me on your head so we could have planned ahead quietly," the Sorting Hat suggested.

"You're right, I should have thought of that. I'll do that next time," Jennifer replied.

"I'm not certain if I trust that. I'm not entirely convinced that you two don't plot against me every time you team up with that Hat, Jennifer," Severus said, only half-joking.

"Well, I may plot from time to time, Severus, but I never plot against you," Jennifer reassured him with a smile. "I might plot on your behalf now and again," Jennifer added mischievously.

"That's all right, then," Severus decided. "As long as your plots don't put you in so much harm's way that I need to intervene. Tell me, what sort of chances are there of you being put in that sort of position with whatever it is you've been up to lately?" he asked, gazing at her fixedly. Jennifer looked quite bewildered, especially when she saw how sincere that he was.

"Why, I haven't been into anything even remotely dangerous in years!" Jennifer said with genuine surprise, then she looked at the Hat, who was watching her speculatively from Seren's head. "And considering the only thing I've been doing this year is helping Quintin look into the history of this school, I would say there is no chance whatsoever of me being in that sort of danger this year."

"Perhaps you should say very unlikely instead, Jennifer," the Sorting Hat offered when he saw Severus' dubious expression. "Unlikely is much more believable than no chance at all, considering your talent for stumbling on that a million to one chance of danger, no matter how remote it is." Jennifer glowered at the Hat.

"Yes, the Hat has a point," Severus agreed with a serious expression. "You will inform me if that happens, won't you?"

"If I feel like I'm going to die from a paper cut while doing too much research, I'll let you know," Jennifer said sarcastically.

"Just as long as you tell me when you're over your head," Severus said calmly.

"I'm always over someone's head," the Sorting Hat commented. Seren tried to look up at the Hat on her head, her face sliding under the brim when she did so.

"All the more reason to be cautious," Severus decided, fixing the Hat on the little girl's head before sitting down beside them.

TJ waited for the rest of the Owls to be seated, and then for Boulderdash to hand out a few new schedules.

"So, for those of you changing electives, are there any big changes in your availability?" TJ asked.

"Just my sleep schedule," Jeremy said happily.

"He decided not to take Astrology," Quintin explained.

"No, but I picked up Journalism after lunch on Tuesdays... right before Orchestra I," Jeremy reported. "Since I'm already on the newspaper, it made sense to get some academic credit for it."

"And just when are you going to study?" Quintin asked.

"Monday night, of course, while everyone else is sleeping for that night class. I'll head to the library after dinner and do it then," Jeremy promised. "Don't worry, I'm taking it seriously now, Quintin." Quintin nodded at that and then smiled, seeing he was being sincere. "I will be studying in here too in case something comes up that you need help for," Jeremy told TJ diplomatically.

"Alright. Anyone else?" TJ asked.

"I'm adding a class," Eben spoke up. "I'm taking Auror Snape's Law and Order class on Wednesdays."

"Are you going to turn into a counselor to keep your siblings out of jail?" Joey asked snidely.

"No, I got a job working in the Foreign Imports Office as a clerk," Eben explained. "I figured it would help learning some basics before summer gets here."

"That's splendid! I already have a job lined up as well," TJ said brightly. "I've been hired at the WHAT Museum in charge of art research and appraisals, on Mr. Pyther's recommendation," she said, getting congratulations all around. "Everyone was pretty impressed with how well I did with appraisals at the auction. Mr. Pyther thinks I have my grandfather's eye for art. He was in art appraisals as well," she explained.

"Yes, I quite agree. You have quite the potential, Miss Selwyn," Boulderdash agreed. "If you need any second opinions, Gemshard has a cousin who works at the Gringott's Auction house. I'd be happy to introduce you some time."

"Yes, thank you very much," TJ said happily. "You know, for a while there, I was feeling very unsure about graduating this year, but knowing what's next has helped me to feel much better about it. I can't wait to put my best foot forward and see if I can't ace my History NEWT, at the very least."

"Thanks for the reminder. A lot of the professors are probably going to be looking to schedule pre-OWLS interviews and cramming in a bunch of homework to get us ready for OWLS," Olivia said.

"If you haven't figured out what to say yet, I suggest you either make use of the careers shelf or speak with me before the last-minute panic," Boulderdash suggested.

"I definitely have no idea," Penny Morris admitted.

"I bet you want to go into Divination, don't you, Gloria?" Jack Black asked.

"No, that's just a hobby for me," Gloria said. "I'm going into Magical Industry, so I can learn how to manage the company. Are you going into Divination?"

"No, I haven't figured out what I want to do yet," Jack admitted.

"Both of my grandfathers want me go into the Ministry," Olivia said. "But I really enjoy making jewelry with my father in the shop, so I think I might go into Magical Industry as well."

"Great! We can study together!" Gloria said.

"You just want to study with someone with better Transfiguration marks than you," Penny teased.

"You got that right," Gloria confirmed, and several of the others chuckled at the open admission.

"Alright, finish updating your goals if you need to and head back to your rooms. Classes start early... especially if any of you have last minute homework to finish," Boulderdash said, shooing them out of the back room.

Outside of the library, they all split into houses to head back to their dorms, and as they went down the back stairs, Jack stepped up next to Eben.

"So how was your holiday?" Jack asked.

"Are you asking because you really want to know, or are you asking because you're on my short list of replacement contenders?" Eben asked in return.

"I was just curious," Jack said with a shrug. "At the Christmas party this year, Aunt Jocelyn was commenting to Conner how it was a good thing he married into the family, because we had the craziest family she'd ever met. And after everyone had a laugh about it, I wondered what the holidays must be like at your house."

"Thanks a lot," Eben said dryly.

"Well, you have to admit, your family is a bit odd," Jack said unabashedly.

"Odd is not the same thing as crazy," Eben said curtly.

"True, but I couldn't help but wonder anyway," Jack said. "Did you spend a lot of time with Mari?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Eben admitted. "Family obligations kept getting in the way."

"I know what you mean. I'm glad to be back at school so I can get away from that stuff for awhile," Jack said.

"It doesn't work that way for me," Eben admitted. "Those obligations follow me no matter where I go."

"Well, don't let them! Just ignore them until they go away," Jack advised.

It was at that moment that Jay shouted Jack's name in warning. But since Jack didn't know what Jay was trying to warn him about, he completely missed the bucket of soapy water hovering over his head until Peeves dumped its contents on top of him. Eben jumped out of the way, only partially able to protect himself from the splash.

"Peeves!" Jack shouted in dismay.

"Jack is back! Welcome back, Jack! Welcome Jack with an attack!" Peeves chanted happily.

"Don't let your obligations follow you, Jack, just ignore them until they go away," Eben suggested with a smirk as Jack tried to shake off some of the water.

Peeves left suddenly, and Jay flung out his arms.

"Wait! Don't anybody move any closer!" Jay warned.

Ella, who had been following along behind them, peered over Jay's head to see a mop in the center of the corridor, its handle straight up as if it was standing up on its own.

"Uh oh," Jack said.

"Jack... you don't think that bucket of water was hers, do you?" Ella asked warily.

"Well don't just stand there, make a run for it!" Eben ordered.

None of the others had to be told twice. They dove towards the passage to Conspiracies, narrowly missing getting their heads swiped by the dirty head of an angry mop as Bethia took issue with them over the loss of her bucket. Howling so loudly that someone opened the door to see what the fuss was about, they all clamored inside and shut the door, hearing a muffled squawk when the mop whacked the Grinning Grackle instead.

"Yeah, okay. Ignoring one's obligations is a bad plan," Jack decided sheepishly, and they quickly ducked into their rooms to dodge the snide comments from a majority of the students in the common room who had witnessed their hasty retreat.