Chapter Sixteen
Weekend Plans
TJ Selwyn adored her new job, running the first floor of the WHAT Museum and overseeing appraisals and restoration. She enjoyed her new friendships with the staff, rotating her lunches with everyone from Ambrose to Halbert, and even some of the volunteers who came in to run activities for the children on the first floor. Life had been going so well since she graduated, and she hummed as she walked inside and over to the cafe where a coffee pot and a tea kettle were set up so that everyone didn't have to go to the break room to get their first cup.
"Good morning, Ronnie!" TJ said as she stepped in and went over to the kettle. Veronica was standing by the coffee pot with a paper cup of in her hands.
"Good morning, TJ. How was your date?" Ronnie asked.
"Lovely, quite lovely," TJ Selwyn replied. "Just a quiet dinner at the Enchanted Spoon in one of the private booths."
"Did he propose?" Ronnie inquired.
"No, don't be silly! We've on been dating for three months now, since we were introduced at the ball..."
"Long enough, if there's good chemistry, you know. It seems you have a really good thing going, and he's gorgeous," she added for good measure. TJ simply smiled and shook her head at her, making herself some tea.
"Good morning, girls," Ambrose said, and they looked up as he came in and went to grab a paper cup. "Hey TJ, is there any way you can come in next Saturday? It's Hogwarts day, so I need to open the shop."
"Oh, um... well I do have another date, but that isn't until evening of course," TJ said.
"I'll can ask someone else to stay over and help Adam close," Ambrose promised.
"In that case, of course. I know how much the students look forward to that shop being open on their visits there," TJ replied.
"Thanks, TJ," Ambrose said, making his tea.
"So, where is Leonard taking you next week?" Ronnie wanted to know.
"Oh, we're going to walk Tower Bridge..."
"Aha!" Ronnie interrupted in a voice much too loud for first thing in the morning. "The perfect proposal spot!"
"Oh, Ronnie, really," TJ said, turning red for saying that in front of their boss.
"Haven't they only been dating for a few months?" Ambrose asked.
"Yes, but they have excellent chemistry," Ronnie explained.
"Uh huh," Ambrose said evenly, glancing over at TJ. "Take some advice from someone who's been there... don't rush into a marriage you're not ready for."
"Well... even if we did end up getting engaged, there certainly wouldn't be any rushing involved, my father would see to that," TJ assured him. "It wouldn't be until summer, at least."
"That's good," Ambrose said, carrying his tea back on his office.
It was strange to think back on now after so many years, Ambrose thought to himself. How had it been since the day she signed those divorce papers? He hadn't heard from her since, and while it was just as well, it sometimes felt as if she dropped off the face of the planet. Tir Na Nog, he pondered with amusement. No, his father would toss her back over if she'd tried. Shrugging it off, Ambrose pulled over his in box, eager to get done so he could enjoy the upcoming Hogsmeade trip without having to think about work.
Far to the north, Anna was also looking towards the upcoming weekend. After coming in early and setting up for class, she wandered upstairs to see her brother having coffee as he read over a folder that Sirius had given him the day before.
"Good morning, Anna. I hope you're not here about the corridor estimates. I'm still going through them," Severus warned.
"No, it's nothing about that, take your time," Anna replied. "This is about something else."
"Very well, have some coffee," Severus said distractedly, finishing the page he was on before giving her his full attention. "What do you need?"
"Well, I need to get out of chaperoning Hogsmeade next week," Anna explained. "I have some school business to take care of... namely, I have to chaperone an underaged student there so that he can complete a journalism assignment."
"You'll do anything to get out of chaperoning those trips, won't you?" Severus asked evenly. "Can't you get one of the older students to do the assignment instead?"
"If I could, do you think I'd have gone all the way to Pittsburgh to get his parents' permission first?" Anna replied.
"Have you gotten permission from the Head of Housemasters?" Severus inquired.
"Yes, Jennifer signed off on it as well, and me as his housemaster. Do you want to sign it his permission slip too?" Anna dared him.
"No, thank you. It would seem you have your bases covered already and it really has nothing to do with me," Severus replied calmly. "As it happens, I was already planning to make a family day of it being the first trip of the year. I'm sure there will be plenty of the staff going who would be willing to cover for you. Feel free to call on any of the other faculty members who are attending to help you."
"Thank you, but I'm sure it'll be fine," Anna said, getting the hint at once.
"Then I'll leave it in your capable hands... and your equally capable lap, if whatever it is you are up to backfires," Severus said, handing her the cup.
"Understood," Anna replied.
"Good, then you can help me go over these different designs and estimates for the corridor before class," Severus suggested, handing her the options that he liked the best.
When Anna stepped into the journalism room that afternoon, Jeremy looked up anxiously.
"It's on," Anna said quietly, and Jeremy grinned.
"I was sure he'd turn it down once he knew who I was planning to interview," Jeremy whispered.
"He didn't ask," Anna shrugged.
"Huh. That's weird. I always thought the Professor was the suspicious type," Jeremy said.
"He is," Anna agreed, then went over to see what the other students were working on.
After helping get the newspaper copy ready, Jeremy hurried to the library for dinner, for it was going to be the first meeting of the year where every seat was filled. When he came in, Cadha gazed over the room critically. She had expected more than half of a storage room, a scroll cubby, lunch table, and an old library table with chairs scrunched together to make enough room for everyone.
"Your chair is back here, Cadha," Jay said, pointing to the chair next to Ian.
"Why do we have to sit so far in the back?" Cadha asked critically.
"To accommodate me," Ella replied unabashedly. "Sitting back here has its advantages; we're closer to both our goals and the lunch table if we want seconds or anything. The rule for food is that eating in here is fine as long as we keep books off the table until it's clean. Since it's dinner time, we'll be eating first," she explained to Cadha.
"And when will that be?" Cadha wanted to know, frowning at the empty table.
"As soon as we're all here. We're waiting on Quintin," Jay said.
"He had to run up to the Headmaster's Study real quick, to see what he thought of our fundraising idea this year," Elliot explained.
"And what are you fundraising for this time?" Cadha asked.
"We're going to help cover the last of the renovations for Dusthorn," Elliot replied. "They need to hire a team of Dwarven masons to add windows to a long corridor that has no natural light coming through, despite being on the outside of the castle."
"Dwarven Masons are so expensive, though. Can't they use a Wizard company?" she asked.
"No, not in this case. Since it's a weight bearing wall, they need experts in castle engineering," Jay explained. "The Headmaster doesn't believe in compromising price when it comes to castle repairs; he knows that any changes made need to last for centuries."
"Yes, I see," Cadha said, then looked at the door when she heard it rattle. Quintin stepped inside, quite out of breath just after the clock struck six.
"Sorry I'm fifteen seconds late, but my father just wouldn't dismiss me," Quintin said sheepishly.
"Never mind that. What did he say?" Elliot asked.
"He said that we are allowed to hold a small festival the first weekend after it snows if we follow his conditions," Quintin replied.
"What sorts of conditions?" Jeremy asked curiously. Quintin sighed and held up the scroll, letting it roll out until the end dropped on the floor.
"Maybe we should eat before we go through it," Joey immediately suggested, and everyone agreed it was a great idea. By the time Quintin rolled up the scroll and sat down, their plates were in front of them.
"So I take it that the new festival won't be anything like what my sister put together last year," Elliot prompted after everyone had a chance to get some bites in.
"It'll be quite different," Quintin replied. "For one thing, he wants us to handle more of the festival ourselves and keep staff involvement to a minimum so it's not too disruptive. That also means that we have to keep the festival internal and not invite people outside of the school, so it doesn't interfere with security staff. It'll be a festival for students and faculty only. He suggested that we throw up posters on the notice boards as soon as we can about our plans so that students will have a chance to save money instead of 'blowing it on hiccoughs at Hogsmeade'."
"Dawn and I can handle that," Mickey volunteered, and Dawn nodded in agreement.
"It's a bit of a shame though," Elliot sighed. "One of the reasons that last year's festival was so successful was because our parents came. They had more money to spend."
"I mentioned that too," Quintin replied. "But he told me that if we wanted a way to 'fleece everyone's parents' we should find some way to do it through the postal system. He also told me what he's planning to do for a fundraiser this year; they're going to have a fancy dinner during the Christmas holiday that includes a tour of the school," he explained. "He's planning to spend the most of the tour showing the donors the expansions to the original four houses as well as a tour of Dusthorn house, so they can see how the renovations are going first hand."
"Well, it sounds like we have enough on our plates already if he wants the festival planned out in advance and those posters up before Hogsmeade," Elliot said. "Let's let him worry about the parents, let's just concentrate on the festival."
"Is there anything else important on that festival list that stands out, Quintin?" Jack asked.
"Oh... this is a list of 'no's'," Quintin said. "No statues, no paintings, no Color Wheel..."
"Aw man! No Color Wheel!" Jeremy complained. "Why not?"
"It obligates the professors to get in the thing, thus increasing involvement," Quintin explained. "He wants this pop-up festival to be made in such a way that students can run it by themselves if they had to, except for their advisors, of course."
As if on cue, the door opened and Boulderdash strode in, glancing at the students before hopping on his stool.
"Sorry I'm late, but the Headmaster wanted a word with me about that snow festival of ours," Boulderdash grunted.
"But I just spoke to him about that," Quintin said.
"Yes, which is why he wanted me to come in for clarifications and further instructions," Boulderdash replied. "Since this has come up two years in a row, he is convinced this is going to be one of those thing that is likely to continue every year whether we want it to or not, and he gave me suggestions on how to prepare not only for this year but for years to come; namely, by constructing permanent booths on hinges that we can fold for storage in the Quidditch shed. That way, they can be pulled out at a moment's notice when we need them."
"Do we have funds for that?" Sissy wanted to know.
"We have a lot of lumber left over from construction over the summer that you will have access to. Mr. Carnegie has already been informed that you can have access the supply room to get the hardware you'll need. I'm told we have a lot of clever builders in this group." Mickey, Joey, and Jack all raised their hands. "I'm sure you can design something that'll suit your needs and last multiple years, although I suggest that you don't construct any more than four or five this year due to time and supply constraints. The Owls can always add one or two every year until it feels there's enough. Until we get to that point, we have permission to use three or four of the smaller tents to supplement. I suggest you get on booth construction as soon as possible."
"I don't have anything better to do this weekend," Duncan volunteered.
"Me either," Rus said.
"You're not going to Hogsmeade, Rus?" Penny asked curiously.
"I think I'm better off skipping. I don't want to risk the temptation of spending all of my money before Christmas," he explained.
"If you knew how to budget for it, you could go and still have money for Christmas," Sissy chided him.
"Oh, I know how to budget. I just don't know how to stay on it," Rus confessed.
"After that last class assignment, I would question your progress on either if I were you," Boulderdash informed Rus, who grimaced.
"I'll stay to help this weekend," Jack decided.
"Same. I can always go next time," Mickey decided.
"I know most people will want to head to Hogsmeade, but I'm sure the four of us can at least come up with a basic prototype model that will make it easy for others to pitch in the week after," Jack replied.
"Thanks, Jack," Quintin said. "And if everyone else can start thinking up booth ideas, we can talk about them next week."
"Perhaps we should put up a list in the Owl Room, so that everyone can write their ideas down before they forget them," Cadha suggested.
"Good idea," Quintin agreed with a smile.
"We should finish up so we can clean up and work on that," Elliot suggested.
"Right," Quintin said with a nod.
They're so trusting, aren't they? Cadha heard inside her head. They already seem to accept you into their little gang.
Not all of them,Cadha thought back, glancing at Dawn. But they've decided to give me the benefit of the doubt.
How quaint.
Quintin attempted to ignore what he was seeing across Cadha's expressions, quite worried that she might realize that he knew what was going on. He tried to put it out of his mind until he finally had a chance to slip over into Aurelius' office to mention it.
"Are you really all that surprised?" Aurelius asked him critically. "Surely you must have discussed the risks when she was nominated."
"Well yeah, but I didn't want to exclude anybody..."
"I think it would get more than a little crowded in that back room if you tried to let the whole school in," Aurelius pointed out. "I'm sure Slytherin could have come up with better choices than Cadha and Ian. Luckily, you'll only have to deal with Cadha for one year, and hopefully you'll learn from the experience."
"We were thinking it'd be good for her, just like it was good for Eben," Quintin replied.
"It was good for Eben," Aurelius agreed sincerely. "And I know you want to help, just like Eben does. That is why I need to tell you the same thing I've recently told him, and it's not something that's easy to accept. As badly as we may want to, we can't save everyone. We can't save those who don't want to be saved. We can't save those who ignore all of the paths we try to open up for them when they decide to follow a dark path. We can avail every resource, and with a lot of hard work, we can save nearly all of them. But as hard as we try, there will always be those who will slip through the cracks, and they will turn on everyone who tried to reach them and couldn't."
"Since I know how many times my parents have had to battle an ex-student of Hogwarts, I understand where you're coming from," Quintin said. "But those are few are far between. You just admitted yourself that most can be saved with a lot of hard work."
"Yes," Aurelius agreed. "But don't take the fact for granted, and accept the fact that some of them don't want to be saved."
"No one is going to turn on my watch. I'll make sure they stay on the right path," Quintin said with determination, stepping out of the room.
Aurelius sighed, unsurprised by his answer. Quintin would end up learning that lesson the hard way. Deciding the best course of action was to mention the conversation to his father, Aurelius packed his books so he could head upstairs before he left for the evening.
