I certainly have no rights to Harry Potter, but this won't stop me writing this story. However, you probably already know this. As it is my specialty, and as in my other big stories, this shows how things go if something went different right at the beginning. Please note that I'm not a fan of bashing and also don't expect the pairings to differ from canon. However, the path to them sertainly will be quite different. I also want to try and subvert certain plots and things that became common in the fandom over the years.
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Chapter 30: Professors Hagrid and Moony
It was the morning after the students had returned to Hogwarts while Dora Tonks walked down the stairs to reach the room where the morning briefings would be done and today's duty plan be announced. Compared to the normal kind of accommodations they were used to when bigger groups spent several days out in the field, the guest building felt like a luxury. They got real bed, actual bathrooms and there were so many rooms that they didn't have to bunk together.
This is kind of a royal treatment compared to my first two years in training, Dora thought, the roots of her hair turning green at the memory.
Alastor Moody was a very hard taskmaster and more than once she had felt like giving up, but then had ground her teeth together and prevailed. Moody had made no secret that he'd ripped out some of his hair in despair over her occasional clumsiness, but despite that she knew he was very pleased with her. It was kind of sad however that once she would be be a fully fledged Auror, Moody would be forced into retirement.
Her mother Andromeda still felt a bit unwell with her choice of career, but the years had taken off the sharp edges from that particular point of friction. She also knew her mother was dreaming of grandchildren - a dream particularly pronounced due to Andromeda's medical problems as a result of the marriage habits of the Blacks preventing her from having anymore children besides her.
Dora honestly understood her mother's dream, but she clearly was too young for that right now, not to speak of the fact that she first needed to find the right man for that.
Keep your head out of the clouds, Dora. You first need to warm him up to the idea, she thought while entering the briefing room.
"Ah, Cadet Tonks! We were waiting only for you. Next time don't spend so much time caring for your hair," Moody greeted her sarcastically.
Trying to ignore the chuckles, Dora went to a free seat.
"Now, before I start, all of you probably already knew about the events of last night..." Moody held up the morning edition of the Daily Prophet, fat headlines announcing the latest blood toll caused by Greyback and his pack. "Lovely, isn't it? Let that one be a reminder to your what the stakes are. This is no game."
Dora gulped hard. While Moody was a hard and serious person, it was clear that Greyback's atrocities were seriously pushing his berserk button. She knew her mentor took such wickedness as a personal affront and would have loved to hunt down Greyback on his own, if not for his orders forbidding him from doing so.
Moody put the newspaper away. "Now, I'll say it again: don't think I'll be here every day to hold your hands. After all, I also have other duties to attend to. If you don't want to mess this up and cause some of these children to die, you have to show constant vigilance. Is that clear?"
Everyone agreed quickly, being intimidated by Moody's blunt words.
Moody looked pleased with that reaction. "Good. Now, while I know that practically all of us here have attended Hogwarts, let me remind you of some of the particulars of the area. That way you won't have the 'I had no idea'-excuse if you mess it up..."
Yes, he is really blunt, but there is a reason why he is the best, Dora thought while listening to Moody explaining some of the more important features of Hogwarts' surroundings.
At the same time the mood at the breakfast table in the great hall was tense.
Everyone was reading the latest news about another wave of savage attacks in London causing a high blood toll. Many were also noticing that the newspaper had relegated the much higher death toll of non-magical people to a small article on page four. That alone was telling and caused hurt feelings in many muggleborn students at the underlying disregard for people with no magic.
As far away as Hogwarts seemed from the troubles of the bigger population centers of Magical Britain in the south, they could not escape the atmosphere of fear such unrestrained and seemingly random murders created.
"I'm actually surprised they actually found the time to print it, considering this took place last night," Neville said while putting down the newspaper, looking a bit sick at what had happened.
"Daddy says the newspapers have started delaying the actual printing until shortly before dawn so they can get all the bloody details," Luna said calmly while filling her goblet. "Some of his friends in the newspaper business told him, adding that bad news are good news."
"Kind of sick, but understandable, since to them it's business. Nothing sells more newspapers than disaster news," Ron snorted while spearing the bacon with his fork.
"You are not going to actually read it?" Hermione asked.
"Read that during breakfast? I already know the bullet points of what happened. No need to spoil my appetite," Ron dismissed the idea before starting to chew on his bacon.
Neville, no longer wanting to read after realizing that it indeed was starting to spoil his appetite, offered the newspaper to Ginny, but she waved it off. "For once I'm with my brother. I honestly don't want to read that right now."
"That one was the last straw for my parents," someone said a little further down the table. They saw that it was Stefan Schuster. They listened to the conversation he had with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan.
"You mean the attacks convinced your parents to say 'screw you' to the Ministry and cut their losses?" Dean asked, knowing that Schuster's family did have ongoing problems with the Ministry about his schooling.
"Yes, after all the crap from the Ministry, this one is too much. They have already started the process of quitting their old jobs and finding new ones back in Germany. That will take time, as does doing the red tape, but once that's done, they'll prepare until they literally only sit on packed suitcases and as soon as we meet at the train station after the school year is over, we are out."
Seamus shook his head that it had come to this. "I honestly don't get why the Ministry created a diplomatic disturbance over this. Sure, there had been arseholes in it that got on a power-trip, but this is way over the top. And even after that they didn't see reason."
Schuster snorted. "Perhaps your Ministry has become so dysfunctional that no one cares if someone in it abuses their power, as long as it hits the right target."
"Kind of sick if you think about it..." Dean said before the boys returned to their breakfast.
Having heard the conversation, the six friends were silent for a moment, trying to process this. They had known of the troubles Schuster had with the Ministry, but it would now come to this was something they hadn't expected to happen. It also was kind of astounding that some Ministry workers could act like this and none of their superiors were doing anything against it. It even felt like the superiors, who clearly couldn't be ignorant after all of this, had to be openly encouraging them to continue doing so.
Hermione, who had frowned considerably while listening to the conversation, broke the silence. "Ron, your father works in the Ministry. Has he ever let slip anything in the direction... that there could be growing cracks in the Ministry?"
Ron shook his head. "Dad doesn't talk about such things at home. How his workday went, the antics of his coworkers and other trivial stuff, yes, but not such deeper things. Mum perhaps knows, but not us."
They however stopped when McGonagall approached them, a stack with papers in her hands.
"Ah, there you are. These are your schedules for this year. Please do not lose them, as too many students do and we have to reprint them," she told them while handing them their class schedules.
"Who would lose something like this?" Luna asked innocently.
"More students than you might believe, Miss Lovegood," McGonagall told her knowingly before she went further down the table.
"Hey, great, some of us will have time after breakfast. There's a free period after breakfast," Ron said when looking at their schedules.
"Ron, this is no reason for slacking off. It's simply that due to one of our electives being Care of Magical Creatures and you, Luna and Neville don't have that today, while the rest of us do," Hermione reminded Ron.
Electives had three periods a week each, a double-period and a single-period. During those times all the electives for each year happened at the same time. The one exception was Care of Magical Creatures. Due to it not being useful to have a single period with it, it only got the double-period in a week. Each week had two double and two single periods, so that both electives could be scheduled without trouble.
Today was single-elective, then double-Transfiguration, then lunch and finally double-elective and due to their choices and being split up, the single-elective period was empty for half of them who would have Creatures next Tuesday.
"We'll see one of our electives right away today, that's interesting. I guess since all of us have Creatures, they did split us between the two groups," Harry observed, talking about the pool of students for each elective split into two classes, which however did not follow house lines.
Of course due to the relatively small year sizes that also meant small class sizes for electives in year three, but through experience the teachers knew many students gave up one elective after one year - which they were allowed to do - and thus most of the electives then could be compressed into one class - though that of course made scheduling more difficult.
"Let's hope some of the other usual suspects do get split apart..." Ginny said while glancing to the Slytherin table, where Crabble and Goyle sat next to Malfoy like well-trained dogs while he and Parkinson were discussing something obnoxiously loud.
Seeing how more than one looks annoyed by them, I guess they aren't universally popular, Ginny thought.
"At least me and Neville won't have them in our elective for sure. No way they would touch Muggle Studies with a ten-feet pole," Ron said after again looking at his schedule.
"Let's pray they are not in our classes either and instead got shifted into the second class for those electives. After all, not every professor can be as sharp-eyed as Professor Slughorn," Hermione said.
Well, that certainly was true. Professor Slughorn was very good at stopping trouble in his classroom - perhaps due to the sensitive process of potion brewing. However, he'd become even more observant after they had given their observations to Sirius, who had given them to the Headmaster. Obviously, the man had been caught on the wrong foot concerning the structures in Slytherin and was blaming himself for not having seen them develop.
"Speaking of Professor Slughorn... when do you think the Slug Club will meet?" Neville wondered.
Due the chaos of the past school year the club had essentially only met one time - and that was in the time after the basilisk had finally been killed. Due to their state of mind at the time, Professor Slughorn had been sensible enough to tell them they were not obliged to attend. However, they would not have that excuse now.
"Knowing Professor Slughorn, he will pick the date for the biggest impact. After all, it's all about outside effect," Luna concluded calmly while buttering up her bread.
They all knew it meant it would be sprung as a surprise to them.
...later in the day...
Perhaps I should have looked at the map twice, Luna thought. Despite the divination tower being a prominent feature of Hogwarts, actually getting there proved more difficult than expected and she wondered if she had taken a wrong turn.
"Little girl, are you lost?" a portrait of a wizard in chainmail armor asked when seeing that she seemed unsure where to go next.
"I'm looking for the divination tower," Luna said, not feeling ashamed at having to ask for help.
"Well, be glad you didn't ask Sir Cadogan over there for help, he would have sent you on a wild goose chase. Just turn left after the portrait of Catweazle over there and you'll walk directly towards the divination tower," the portrait told Luna.
Luna looked to the portrait in question - which showed a wizard with wild white hair, mustache and beard who was wearing really shabby robes - then took a closer look at the portrait. "Why is he not moving in his portrait?"
The man in the portrait shook his head. "Oh, poor Catweazle. He vanished for some time during the Norman invasion and when he returned he was not the same. He always talked about weird things like 'elec-trickery', 'talking bones' and a 'sun in a bottle'. Even as a portrait he is weird and hasn't said a word ever, just sitting there."
Luna shrugged it off, since she had made her peace with the fact that there were things that simply were weird and she could just accept that fact and move on.
Thankfully, she quickly found the spiral staircase to the divination classroom after that, the sign beside it making clear that she was in the correct place. Walking up she saw that thankfully the lesson had not yet started, the various students talking excitedly about what they could learn in this class.
Looking around, Luna spotted Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil being busy with reading a horoscope they had cut out of today's newspaper. Luna hated to admit it, but Hermione had rubbed off on her on the issue of horoscopes and even she now felt they were a pile of crap. After all, the horoscopes in the newspapers changed on a daily basis and considering how many people were born under the same constellation, the vague and general claims in the horoscope were worthless.
Then spotting Dudley of all people in this class, she quickly walked over and sat down in the seat next to him. "Hello. I had not expected to see you in such a theoretical class."
"Well, it sounded interesting and since I'm not that great with numbers..." Dudley clearly was a bit embarrassed about the reason for his choice. "I already met Harry in Runes. He seems to like these a lot."
"Yes, he told us. It seems he does have an affinity to them," Luna observed, then fell silent when Professor Trelawney entered the classroom from the door that led to her private rooms.
"Good morning, class. Welcome to your very first Divination class, the odd subject that uses no magic at all" The Professor greeted them. "Here you learn about Divination and for you to learn mundane ways to predict the future behavior of other people as well as determining the most likely outcome of situations."
Lavender raised her hand and the Professor turned to her. "Professor, I thought this class is about scouting for possible seers?"
"Of course it also is about that. Over the course of this and future years there will be a few tests I conduct to see if any of you have the gift. After all, it is an inherited trait," Trelawney said, clearly feeling this was a justified question.
Luna, a question burning on her lips, raised her hand and the Professor acknowledged her. "Professor, does this include the laying of tarot cards? That is often ridiculed as fraud."
"What most so-called seers and fortune-tellers do with them IS fraud," Trelawney clarified, clearly being hurt in her professional pride. "The actually important part is the shuffling, as the gift of a true seer with enough training does influence it. The dramatic laying of the cards is just a show to rip off naive people."
Seeing that she got her point across, her features softened. "Interpreting them correctly also takes much training and the divination effect is weak. Also, since the future is not set in stone, it can easily become false or outdated. But don't worry. Once I conduct the test with the cards, I'll observe all of you closely to see if any of you shows the signs. As I said before, for the most part this elective is about psychology and coming to the correct conclusions."
"I have a feeling this could be more interesting than I suspected," Dudley whispered to Luna.
Luna didn't answer, but her interest in the elective, after getting confirmation it would not be simply esoteric, made her eager to hear what they would do for this year.
o
"What do you think we should expect from this subject?" Ron asked Neville while they walked down the corridor to the classroom for Muggle Studies.
"I heard Professor Burbage's lessons are really interesting. Lot's of hands-on stuff," Neville told Ron, trying to remember what the older students had told him. "They said it's far less reading than other subjects."
Ron chuckled when hearing that. "Hermione probably wouldn't have liked it then. Too little reading in it." They then arrived at the classroom door. Pushing it open, they stopped when seeing what the classroom looked like.
"Professor Burbage is certainly not kidding around. Just look at all these things. No conservative pure-blood would manage to be here for more than ten minutes before screaming in terror and running out," Ron joked when looking around the classroom for Muggle Studies.
"You showed me the shed in which your father tinkers around with all kind of non-magical stuff, but this puts his collection to shame," Neville agreed while they quickly sat at an empty desk.
Ron knew that was true. "He would be quite jealous at the items Professor Burbage has collected."
The classroom for Muggle Studies was very different from the others he'd seen up to this moment. A number of interesting non-magical objects rested on pedestals under glass covers, while maps, charts and blown-up still photographs hung on the walls. Ron - who actually was informed thanks to seeing photographs in a book Hermione had given him - bet his last shirt that the big photograph of Earth from outer space would cause many conservatives to go into denial.
Both of them had been a bit early, so they watched the other students trickle in.
"Ah, there are you!" Looking to the door, they saw that it were Daphne and Millicent, with Daphne being the one who had spoken.
"We knew both of you take this elective, but it's a nice surprise you are in this exact class," Neville greeted them while they quickly sat at the table next to theirs.
"Thanks. It's a surprise we can use, since this morning we also learned that we do share our Arithmancy class with Parkinson," Millicent said, looking like she'd bitten into a sour lemon. "Sadly, despite her being a shitty excuse for a human being, it turns out she does have the smarts to keep up in that class."
"Yes, but having to live with her in a dorm is a nightmare. Last night she constantly talked shit about my sister due to her being sorted into Hufflepuff," Daphne added. She had been tempted to slap Parkinson for talking about Astoria like that.
"Any idea where Crabble and Goyle ended up? I can hardly imagine them in any elective," Ron asked out of morbid curiosity.
Daphne tried to remember. "No idea. I just know they would never touch this elective. Oh, wait... they did have a free period right after breakfast."
Ron felt like planting his face on the desk. "Great... That means they do have Creatures in the same class as three of us."
"My condolences," Daphne said, feeling having an elective together with those two would be a kind of punishment.
That moment Professor Burbage entered the classroom and everyone scrambled to their seats.
Standing behind her desk, she gave her class a relaxed smile. "Hello and welcome to Muggle Studies. I'm Professor Burbage and with my help you will discover how the world is much bigger than just the magical community and that it holds many wonders. I have a feeling that all of you have an open mind, since you selected this elective."
Seeing that she got everyone's attention, she continued "While theoretical work does have a place in this class, I'm a friend of the practical approach."
Ron raised his hand, having a question. "Professor, does that mean we will work with real non-magical items and gadgets?"
Professor Burbage seemed to have expected the question. "Good question! Indeed, we will do so. And that reminds me... if you are friends with muggleborn students, don't even bother to cheat in the tasks I give you. Ask them for help and I will know and fail you automatically."
"How do you think she can do so?" Neville wondered.
"No idea..." Secretly Ron guessed it was just a bluff in order to keep them from cheating.
Looking around, Profgessor Burbage saw that the class understood that - thanks to her standard bluff - cheating would be futile. "However, that can wait for the time being, as today I first want to see what all of you know about the non-magical world. Don't hold back, regardless how mundane you think your experiences are."
Well, that will take some time once it's our turn... Ron thought. Looking to Neville, both boys came to a silent agreement to keep the preschool and Remus out of it.
o
"It still feels weird that our group got split in half for this elective," Harry said while he together with Hermione and Ginny walked to where Hagrid's hut was, as the paddocks for the various magical creatures - at least the ones that were at risk of running away - were nearby.
"Yes, and the classes are rather small with these arrangements. I think the guess is correct that they plan to put them back together after this year is over. They must have experience with how many people give up one or both electives," Hermione speculated.
One not knowing Hogwarts might imagine the choice of electives was a permanent one until the end of fifth year. However, nothing could be further from the truth. After third year students were free to again give up electives. Some did so because their choices were unsatisfying, others because they shied away from the extra work. After all, they were electives and not core subjects. The teachers knew someone was serious about their studies if the students in question kept their electives up to the end of fifth year at least.
"Well, we know a few students who won't do their subjects beyond this year," Ginny said.
Hermione had no trouble to know who Ginny meant. "If you mean the two blockheads that always hang around Malfoy, then that's pretty much a given. Considering how much we see them struggle in the subjects we have with them, they'll give up very quickly."
Harry snorted. "I pity those who have electives with them. While they most certainly are not in Muggle Studies, I also can hardly imagine them being good with animals, have any sense for numbers, even start to understand what a rune is and don't even start me on Divination."
"Yes, after all we already got a taste of their masters in our other electives," Harry said with a grimace.
There was something to it.
Harry had been introduced to Ancient Runes this morning, and as if someone wanted to make his life difficult, Malfoy had ended up in his class of all things. While Professor Babbling held a good reign over the classroom, Malfoy still had used every opportunity to show off how much he already knew about runes, while giving Harry nasty grins. That had not been a great start to his elective.
If anything, Ginny and Hermione had it even worse in Arithmancy. Professor Vector was not the most observant person outside of numbers... and they had to share a class with Pansy Parkinson. Hermione especially felt like fate wanted to give her a hard time, since the girl liked gunning at her especially and it turned out that despite sometimes being as thick as a wooden block, she had a good mind for numbers.
Hermione sighed. "Arithmancy is really interesting, but it's hard to concentrate when I always have to be on my guard in case Parkinson tries something."
"Looks like we are the first ones to arrive," Ginny observed when they reached Hagrid's hut.
Indeed, no one else was present yet. The hut's owner himself was just appearing from behind the hut, where they knew his tool shed was. Hagrid was carrying a number of small boxes, though it was a mystery what purpose these could hold. Hagrid then noticed them and put down the boxes before walking to them with a smile.
"Ah, you are the first to arrive You can't imagine how happy I am that you selected my elective," Hagrid told them, looking very happy with their choice.
"Hey, careful!" Ginny gasped when suddenly Hagrid's dog Fang sprinted to her to greet her enthusiastically.
"Well, he does have a soft spot for us," Hermione remarked while Ginny barely avoided getting slobbered on by Fang.
"Hagrid, after all the appetizers you gave us the past year, we really wanted this elective. You made it sound very interesting," Harry told him, then the girls giggled when seeing Hagrid blush a little.
"Please..." trying to change the subject, Hagrid noticed their bags. "All of you got the book I put on the list?"
"Oh yes, and it was very interesting to read! Thanks that you didn't put a biting book on our list," Hermione said, remembering the animated books in the bookstore.
Now Hagrid laughed. "Well, that one was certainly not my idea, regardless how many concerned letters from my NEWT students I got. In retrospect it's a bit foolish of the publisher to make a school book that actively tries to hurt you."
Hagrid thought it better to keep quiet about the fact that several years ago he would have thought nothing wrong with putting a biting book onto the book list. Thankfully, thanks to Kettleburn being very thorough in his training he knew better now. His classes last year had been a success and he didn't want to break this streak in his second year teaching.
"Can you give us a preview of what's coming?" Ginny asked.
"Nah, that will be a surprise. However... does any of you of you wear some kind of item made of shiny metal? You know, jewelry and such things?" Hagrid asked.
Hermione looked like she really wanted to say something, but barely managed to keep it down. Harry meanwhile shook his head, since why should a boy his age wear stuff like that? Ginny also said no, since due to finances her parents hardly could have bought her something like that. Hermione on the other hand, reached underneath her uniform top and fished out a pendant that was gold-coated.
Hagrid gave her one of the small boxes. "Here. Put it in there and lock it closed. You can put it into your bag... Oh, and all of you got no coins either?" Thankfully, none of them did.
Hermione was just done putting the box away when the other students arrived. Besides Fay Dunbar from their own house, they also spotted Roger Malone from Hufflepuff and Mandy Brocklehurst from Ravenclaw. Also they saw...
"Can you honestly imagine these two being any good with animals?" Ginny wondered when seeing that Malfoy and Parkinson also were taking this elective.
"Considering how they treat their fellow people, I don't even want to imagine how they treat animals," Hermione said, not looking thrilled to see these two, either. "Maybe they think the can get an easy good grade here with little effort?"
All three of them felt like there had to be some type of curse on them that they had to deal with Malfoy and Parkinson in both of their electives.
"Now, now, lads and lasses! I bet all of you signed on for Care of Magical Creatures to see the big and impressive ones, don't you?" Looking around, Hagrid could easily see from their expressions that this was the case. "Oh, don't worry. I like them creatures as well; the bigger the better. However, don't expect me to show off the bigger and more dangerous ones right away or in this year. After all, no need to kill the anticipation, right?"
"Good thing I told him of slowly raising the excitement," Harry whispered to his friends.
"Now, if you do manage to do well in my subject, then in seventh year we will go on excursions to the dragon preserve in Wales. Oh yes, dragons are the peak of this subject and very much part of the NEWT exams," Hagrid told the students, knowing he now got most of them.
The three friends did see the dreamy look Hagrid sported for a second. They did know of Hagrid's fondness for dragons. They also knew he used school breaks to visit Norberta, the Norwegian Ridgeback living in the preserve in Romania. The current arrangements were the best for both of them. Malfoy on the other hand had looked sour at the mention of dragons, clearly remembering his humiliation back in first year.
"However, we'll start small. Now open your books onto page 54. The one about Nifflers," Hagrid finally said.
They did do so and saw a picture of a creature that looked like a cross between a big rodent with black fur and a platypus. The creature did look harmless enough and it also explained why Hagrid chose it as the starting point. The three friends however were in the know about Hagrid's love of big and dangerous animals and blessed Kettleburn for setting Hagrid straight on what was good teaching material.
"As you can see, Nifflers look like cute animals, and they are mostly harmless. However, does any of you know what Nifflers are used for?" Hagrid asked the students.
Not surprisingly, neither Malfoy nor Parkinson knew that one. Hermione on the other hand did and slowly - after all she had learned not to be over-eager - raised her hand. "A Niffler is really good at finding shiny objects. They are therefore really useful for treasure hunting."
Hagrid looked pleased. "Really good. However, them being attracted to shiny object can also be troublesome. So if any of you wears stuff like jewelry or has coins in their pockets, put them into one of these special boxes. You can put them into your bags during the lesson."
Malone pulled some Sickles out of his pocket while Brocklehurst took off her earrings. After that was done, Hagrid guided them to part of the pumpkin patch which currently was unused. Several cages with Nifflers were sitting there, the animals looking rather bored. Hagrid opened one of the cages and took out the Niffler in it.
"Well, I did hide numerous coins of Leprechaun gold in the patch. Don't bother pocketing the coins, as they are fake. I want each of you use a Niffler on a leash to find as many coins as possible. The winner gets a big slab of Honeyduke's chocolate," Hagrid announced.
First however each of them was allowed to pet this Niffler to make themselves familiar with the animal. The Niffler was quite docile... at least until Hagrid reached Malfoy. Suddenly it looked up and jumped at Malfoy!
"Hey, what?! Stop!" Draco shouted when the Niffler started to claw all over his uniform jacket, trying to reach something.
"Oh no, you didn't?!" Hagrid gasped, suddenly realizing what this was about.
"Get this little monster off me!" Draco screamed, his voice sounding quite girlish right at the moment.
Draco's jacket by now looked quite shredded when he finally got a hold of the Niffler and threw it off. However, if landed right in front of Pansy's feet. The Niffler already seemed to sense something new and suddenly ran up Pansy's leg and under her skirt!
"What!? Eeeeeeek! Get out! Get out!" Pansy screamed shrilly, the boys having to look away due to Pansy's struggles flipping up her skirt and exposing her knickers.
The Niffler did get get out, only to quickly climb up to try and slip into the inside of Pansy's uniform shirt. "Nooo! Get off!"
Hagrid finally managed to get a hold of the Niffler before that could happen and quickly put it back into the cage. He then look at the two Slytherin students, both looking rather worse for the wear. "All right, it does look like both of you thought I was joking. Show it..."
Realizing what the big man meant, they knew they were backed into a corner. From the inner pocket of his jacket, Malfoy pulled out a pocket watch with a golden casing, while Parkinson pulled put a golden necklace she was wearing. Both of those items were quite shiny and clearly had attracted the attention of the Niffler.
Couldn't have happened to nicer people, Hermione thought, no longer surprised she could feel like that way for someone.
"I have no idea what you were thinking, but I hope you now follow my orders," Hagrid said dryly, then everyone else started laughing.
Draco and Pansy both blushed in humiliation while trying to get their clothes back into order, but Draco's jacket was a lost cause.
They had both selected this elective only partially out of laziness. The much bigger part of their reason had been their dislike of Hagrid, seeing the opportunity to find ways to humiliate the man during class. With Draco there also was his lasting anger over the disaster in first year. He felt Hagrid had intentionally humiliated him and he wanted to get even with the man.
Both of them right now however could not accept that that the incident in today's class was due their own disregard for Hagrid, and thus not following his orders, which had gotten them this embarrassment. No, instead they wanted to blame someone else for this little disaster.
"We don't have to accept such treatment," Pansy grumbled, finally having smoothed out her skirt while the rest of the class were already accepting their Nifflers.
"Indeed, we don't," Draco agreed while taking off his ruined jacket. "That big oaf loves his animals, doesn't he? Well, let's make that a very difficult love for him."
"You want to write your father, Draco?" Pansy wondered, knowing that Mr. Malfoy had grown rather annoyed of such things he saw as too trivial.
"No, I'll write Mother. I'll just blow things a bit out of proportion and she'll make life difficult for the big idiot," Draco said with a mean smile. "She knows certain ways to make people miserable."
...later that day, motorway M1 in Leicestershire...
None of the drivers of the vehicles using the motorway M1 near Leicester blinked an eye at the white and blue travel bus driving on the motorway towards the north. After all, why should they? It was one bus of many, not different at all from what they saw every day. Nothing to lose any thought about, right?
They would have thought quite differently had they known of the passengers on the bus in question.
"And to imagine they do think we move by sneaking through the countryside like animals..." the woman that brewed potions for Greyback's pack, now wearing her full punk outfit, commented while watching the motorway move by.
"They can't help it," Greyback snorted, seeing the humor in it. "Even after our little demonstration they are trapped in the idea that we are dumb animals with little capacity for planned action." He then looked at the seat to the right of the punk. "Are you enjoying the company?"
"Oh, I do! It's always nice to sit next to someone really patient who listens to all I say without any backtalk," she laughed, looking to the corpse of the bus driver in the seat next to her, his throat ripped open and blood everywhere. Bizarrely enough, he like all of them was wearing a seatbelt.
Greyback had already planned to leave London weeks in advance, knowing very well that unlike the magical authorities, the non-magical law enforcement had the numbers to put the pressure on them. Leaving also did fit well with his plans for his original goal, thus it was no loss. The Ministry due to their isolationism probably would never get how they were using all those things found in the modern world to their advantage.
After all, pressure to stay hidden taught them to embrace the modern world, a place that the highly conservative Ministry of Britain would never understand.
It had been very easy to find out which travel bus would drive to the north at a certain date, then to quickly ambush and murder the driver and hijack the bus - good thing that one of his converts used to be a bus driver in the past. Now they had a comfortable way to shorten their journey significantly and nobody would question where the bus had gone until they had already ditched it.
"Oh, Mr. Greyback, can you finally tell what the plan is?" the punk then asked, like all of them having no idea of Greyback's ultimate goal. Her gentle voice clashed harshly with her appearance and personality.
"Patience, my dear... It'll all be revealed in due time and when everyone is awake." Greyback waved his hand to the passengers of the bus, most of whom were using the opportunity to take a nap. "But let's say I want to hurt Magical Britain where it hurts the most and do something very symbolic."
"You love to keep up the suspense, don't you?" the punk said in disappointment.
Greyback chuckled darkly. "It'll be a great surprise once I tell."
"Well, all right..." She then looked around. "Too bad we have to soon leave behind this ride and my new friend."
"That can't be helped." Greyback pulled out a street map which he had marked accordingly. "We'll ditch our ride in that disused gravel pit near Nottingham and set it ablaze shortly before the evening and then vanish into the countryside. You do have prepared enough potion for today, do you?"
"Don't worry. I did it all in advance and we'll drink up before nightfall. Any plans for tonight?" she asked.
"Oh yes, I do have some. After all, we can't give them the impression that we've given up..." Even she was a bit scared when hearing Greyback chuckle darkly.
Some time later they had reached their destination.
"Make sure nothing of our stuff is missing, or you'll regret it," Greyback barked while his pack departed the bus and pulled their stuff out of the storage compartment.
"Bye, sweetie. You were a really patient listener," the punk told the corpse of the driver with a wicked smile before leaving as well.
Meanwhile, the pack's driver was busy with spilling fuel from a stolen petrol can inside the bus. After all, they could hardly use the vehicle's own fuel for that, since it ran on diesel. Once being done with the inside he used the remaining fuel to create a trail away from the bus. Throwing the then empty canister away, he took out a matchbox and waited for orders.
Greyback saw the pack already vanishing into the countryside. "Set it ablaze," he ordered.
Striking a match, the man threw it to where he'd spilled the fuel and the fumes caught on fire, the flames quickly racing into the bus, setting it ablaze. Seeing that this lose end was being taken care off, the two men followed the rest of the pack, since soon enough the authorities would become aware of the fire.
Hours passed and soon enough peaceful night had fallen over the English countryside.
A modest country house also was silent, it's inhabitants deep asleep. This house was the home of the once respected magical family of Batton. The Battons had fallen into disgrace and financial trouble when both of the youngest Battons turned out to be squibs. Their parents then making sure that their son and daughter would get a good non-magical education had sealed the fate of the Battons in an increasingly polarized society. Not to speak that their line would end, as far as magical society was concerned.
The parents and grandparents of the Batton squibs lived in the house, while the already adult children themselves lived in the nearby town of Hucknall. The house was somewhat remote... something which would doom all of its inhabitants.
-CRASH!- -skliiiir-
The sudden noise ripped the adult Battons out of their sleep, only to be confronted with a terrible nightmare. They were confronted with three very nasty looking werewolves who had smashed through the windows directly into their bedroom.
"Crap!" Mr. Batton cursed, both of them reaching for their wands.
It however proved to be a futile attempt. Before he could take hold of the wand, a clawed first had ripped its way into Mr. Baton's stomach. "Urrrgh!"
His wife did manage to get hold of her wand, but before she could cast any spell... "Aaaaahhhhh!" Mrs. Batton screamed when teeth as sharp as razor blades and as tough as iron bit into her arm, effortlessly biting it off.
Already grievously wounded, the last thing the Battons heard were the screams of their own parents from elsewhere in the house, before werewolves savagely started to rip them apart. Their squib children, after multiple brutal murders in the town that night, would arrive at their old home early the next morning, only to see the slaughterhouse it had become.
...the next day...
The atmosphere in the castle had become quite a bit tenser with the news that had arrived over the morning.
The Daily Prophet had hastily printed an extra number, since the crime had only been discovered after the regular issue had already been printed. Greyback had moved his activities out of London and more towards the north. Last night they had hit the suburbs of Nottingham and brutally slaughted numerous people and next to every member of a magical family in their country house.
As depressing as this was, right now the six friends needed to get their mind to their next class, the last one before lunch, which was Defense against the Dark Arts.
As with both years before, they had Defense with the Ravenclaws. However, unlike the years before many were looking forward to Defense this time, being in the know that Remus actually was a competent teacher. That of course confused the hell out of those who were not in the know about the secret. After all, Defense in the previous two years had been pretty much a disaster.
"Ohhh... I really don't look forward to lunch. Breakfast already had been bad enough," Ginny groaned, rubbing her cramping belly.
"Well, that's your fault," Hermione told Ginny, having little sympathy for the girl's digestive troubles. "After all, no one forced you to eat that huge slab of chocolate shortly before bed."
"Don't remind me that I can be really stupid at times..." Ginny groaned, already dreading when she had to go to the bathroom.
Fact was that Ginny yesterday had won the contest in Hagrid's class, thus earning her a maxi slab of Honeyduke's chocolate. In a fit of sugar greed she had eaten all of it yesterday evening, not thinking about the possible effects it could have on a petite twelve-year old girl. Her digestive system was certainly reminding her why that had been foolish.
"Hermione, Ginny is already suffering enough. I think she learned her lesson," Harry defended Ginny, feeling a bit sorry for her.
"Sure..." Hermione huffed, her sensibilities as the daughter of dentists having been hurt by Ginny's chocolate binge. Ginny on the other hand gave Harry a small smile for coming to her defense.
Wondering what that smile was about, Harry felt it best to change the topic. "I wonder what he has in store for us?" he wondered, knowing that Remus always tried to make his lessons interesting.
"After experiencing his teaching style, I know he does favor practical lessons," Hermione said. She herself always was more comfortable with learning from books, but that didn't mean she couldn't adapt.
The Defense classroom looked mostly the same as it did in the previous two years - one wouldn't even know it had been destroyed by pixies during Lockhart's disastrous first lesson - but strangely enough a big wardrobe had been moved into the classroom. Remus was already present, checking on the wardrobe. He looked a little tired, but considering last night had been the final night of his monthly transformations, that was understandable.
They quietly went to their seats and then waited for Remus to acklowledge them.
It took Remus only a little longer to check on whatever was in the wardrobe before he turned around. "Hello, class. I of course have heard you coming in and already have a positive impression of you. My name is Remus Lupin and I'm you teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts this year."
Seeing that he got their attention, he continued. "You can keep your things in your bags, as this one will be a practical lesson. You only need your wands for this lesson."
That caused some excited chatter among the students, as it gave a distinct possibility that Defense in this year would be much better than in the previous two.
"For our lesson, there's a boggart in there and I had the elves transport the wardrobe in here for the lesson," Remus explained further and most people seemed to feel that this was something to worry about. Seamus Finnigan eyed the now rattling doorknob apprehensively while Lavender Brown looked like she was ready to bolt.
"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces, like wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - I've even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the Headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice." Remus then faced the class. "So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a boggart?"
Several hands went up and Remus selected Hermione to answer. "It's a shape-shifter," she said. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."
"You obviously read ahead," Remus said and Hermione glowed. "So the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. It does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door, but will do so as soon as it faces someone. It will take the form of what frightens us the most, that is its special magic."
"Uhm, Professor, what does a boggart actually look like naturally if there's no fear to feed on?" Kellah Miller asked, though clearly everyone wondered about that.
"That actually is a good question. Obviously the books have not yet been updated since that question got answered a few years ago by Alastor Moody, whose magical eye can see through solid matter. Yes, the same man who is coordinating the Auror force protecting the castle." Remus waited for a moment. "However, a boggart's true form is dissappointing. Just a gray blob."
The disappointment of the students was visible.
"Now, we do have an advantage against the boggart. Can anyone of you guess what it is?" Remus asked.
Surprisingly, Hermione didn't seem to know what to answer while Harry raised his hand, hoping his idea wouldn't sound stupid. "Eh... maybe it'll get confused if there are multiple people present?"
"Precisely. If you are in company, a boggart can get confused, sometimes with hilarious results." Remus then pulled out his wand. "The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing. The charm to then force the boggart to bend to you will has the incantation Riddikulus and we first train the wand movement."
They did train for some time before Remus turned his attention to the wardrobe. "Now, we will do this one after the other and I will step in should it be too much for you. Please remember that the boggart is not the real thing, thus for example it taking the form of a cockatice wouldn't be able to use death magic on you."
Remus then looked to Harry and his friends. "Also, this is nothing personal, but considering the horrible things you six experienced, I hope you won't mind that you face your fears last."
"Considering what all of us have seen, I think that's for the best..." Ron mumbled, having a feeling that his greatest fear no longer would be spiders.
Parvati was picked first and when Remus opened the wardrobe her fear for some reasons turned out to be mummies. The blood-stained, bandaged terror turned to her menacingly, arms outstretched. Thanks to Remus' instructions however, Parvati did manage to counter her fear and her spell caused the mummy to trip, its head falling off.
It continued in that vein for a while and they witnessed all kind of fears. Though most of them were of the miundane kind, the boggart made sure to make even a mundane fear look frightening and disgusting. The fears ranged from normal stuff like spiders, worms, snakes and claustrophobia (impressive how the boggart managed to visualize that one) to magical creatures like banshees, grindylows and even a dragon (thankfully without splitting fire and in a manageable size) to outright bizarre stuff like a severed hand, making everyone wonder why that was Dean's biggest fear.
Some managed to overcome their fear, others didn't, but Remus was understanding and explained that overcoming your greatest fear is really difficult. Finally, it was only the six of them left.
"Now, which of you...?" Remus stopped when Luna stepped forward, clearly confident that she could master whatever her fear was.
Luna stood ready, the wardrobe opened and... Luna was confused when the only thing she was greeted with was a bright light, wondering what that was about.
"Luna, why are you still clinging to it? It is time to grow up and put childish things aside. It is time to face reality."
The voice was gentle and yet the words hit Luna deep inside. She knew that growing up her personality would change, would become less removed from the world around her and more connected to her emotions, and that scared her to no end. Despite all reassurances from her parents, she was very frightened of that change in herself.
Seeing Luna tremble, Remus quickly closed the wardrobe. "Please don't think you are weak. This is something very personal."
Luna said nothing and was replaced by Neville, who hoped that he would fare better.
The wardrobe door opened and... Neville was confronted by a dark-haired woman wearing Death Eater robes, though she was not wearing a mask. Seeing the face that looked so much like Andromeda Tonks - which was no surprise since they were sisters - his friends knew this was Bellatrix Lestrange. The only difference was, that unlike Mrs. Tonks Bellatrix sported a sadistic expression that seemed permanent.
"I've been waiting for you, boy. Remember how I dealt with your parents. They squeaked like frightened piggies while I cut strips out of them."
Neville held his wand high, but his voice was failing. "R- Ridd- Ridd-"
Remus closed the wardrobe. "That must have been difficult for you."
Neville nodded. "Looking at my parents gives me a constant reminder how cruel she is."
Next one in line was Hermione. She academically knew what she had to do, but after witnessing how Luna and Neville fared, she was not betting on getting an easy ride. Right then Remus opened the wardrobe and...
What am I looking at? Hermione wondered at first.
It was just her having curled up in a dark room, only a circle arround her being illuminated. However, after some seconds Hermione became very unnerved and raised her wand to banish this image. Yet... she had no idea how to counter this. Intellectually yes, she understood now what it was, but this was hitting her deep inside.
"R-Riddikulus..." she said, but it lacked conviction and failed.
"Loneliness can be a difficult thing to overcome," Remus told Hermione after closing the door, seeing how disturbed the girl was by the realization.
Ron and Ginny both caused a scare to the students. Both of them, it turned out, had a basilisk as their biggest fear, which was little wonder considering the events of several months ago. Thankfully, the stare of the fake basilisk was not deadly, it only caused strong fear. Both Weasleys did manage to deal with their fear, Ron by turning the basilisk into a knot and Ginny by making it start eat its own tail-end.
"How did you do that?" Hermione asked, very confused at them succeeding.
"We actually did face that thing before and survived," Ron said, remembering that day all too well.
Ginny had to agree. "Having faced something for real made it easier for us to not freeze in terror."
That left Harry and everyone held their breath in anticipation of what his fear could be.
The wardrobe was opened and Harry stared in horror at what he was seeing.
There stood a man made of black smoke, but grafted onto it was a face that Harry had seen at the back of someone's head near the end of his first year at Hogwarts. It was Voldemort like Harry remembered him.
"Harry, Harry, Harry..." mocked the fake Voldemort. "You won't be able to stop me. No one can. You are only living on borrowed time and I'll return soon enough. Don't worry, I'll send you to your beloved parents in due time."
Harry wanted to banish that horrible illusion, but despite having his wand raised, he had no idea how he could make something like that look ridiculous. The fake Voldemort's eyes started to glow green when Remus stepped between them, causing the boggart to turn in a hovering, silvery sphere.
"Riddikulus!" The charm from Remus was powerful enough to vaporize the boggart, leaving no trace of it. "Don't be disheartened, Harry. After all, I seriously doubt that there are many who could have withstood that."
"It wasn't that I was too afraid. I simply had no idea what I could turn it into," Harry admitted.
"Now, class, this is another very important lesson. Against a boggart all the courage of the world is useless if you are unable to use it properly. In our next lesson we will do the theoretical work about boggarts, but hopefully you now understand that I am a man who values practical work," Remus told the class.
"Before we part ways for the time being, a little announcement. As you already noticed, the castle is guarded by Aurors. I was promised that in several future lessons one of them will be our guest, giving all of you demonstrations how a professional applies the important lessons," Remus then announced.
Soon after class was over and students left to drop their bags off and then go to lunch.
Students of course also were talking about the lesson.
"I wonder why she's afraid of banshees?"
"Any idea why our teacher is afraid of crystal balls?"
"You really showed that boggart."
"An Auror showing us how it is done. That will be awesome!"
Hermione honestly didn't like what she was hearing. "It's like they don't care that our deepest fears had been on display. Even though I admit it was an interesting lesson, Mr. Lupin should have realized that it is a very private matter."
"I think he did, and that is why he did that lesson anyway. He must feel that being prepared is more important than our discomfort," Harry guessed, drawing on what he knew of his honorary uncle.
"You think anyone not in the know noticed that Mr. Lupin's fear is not a crystal ball?" Ron whispered to Ginny.
"I don't think so. I know it was supposed to be the full moon, but it was small enough that it was practically impossible to notice. I don't think he'll have any problems," Ginny whispered back, hoping that this was the case.
...the following day, September 4th, on the Quidditch pitch...
The Gryffindor Quidditch team met for the first time in this school year. Since no positions had to be filled this year, they could right away go to training and planning how to get the cup. That as very much unlike the Slytherin team, which practically had to rebuild their reserve team after many from their old reserve had advanced to the main team. The regulars and the reserve had made themselves comfortable on the benches while some other students were present either due to interest or simply to give moral support.
"All right, people. Now last year... that was an embarrassing accident. Let's chalk it up to difficult circumstances, as it hardly had been a regular season," Wood began, clearly wanting to put last year behind himself.
"Yes... After all it's a bit difficult to concentrate on Quidditch when a monster roams the castle," Fred said, unable to find in humor in that fact.
"This will be my final year at Hogwarts and I do not want to have an embarrassing exit like Flint last year, so I really want us to win the cup," Wood announced.
"Oh, don't worry about being disgraced, Oliver," Katie Bell remarked. "Unlike that pig Flint you still study hard and you also aren't in the habit of having a choleric fit."
That was met with laughter, everyone remembering the circumstances of Marcus Flint's highly embarrassing exit from Hogwarts. According to rumor, the Flint family business also had taken a hit ever since the young man had started to work for it. No one knew if there was any connection, but it certainly gave fodder for speculation.
"Question is, who will after this year replace you, oh great leader?" George asked. "Will it be Angelina?"
Said girl noticed the attention that was on her. "Well, I don't think I would be a good Captain..."
"You are selling yourself short, Angelina," Fred teased.
"Actually, I already spoke with her about the matter and she is understanding that she will only be an interim Captain for one year before the one I'm grooming as my replacement will take the job," Wood explained.
"Wait a minute... considering how often we've seen..." Ginny looked to Ron. "You?"
Ron looked a bit uncomfortable with all the attention, especially the looks the twins were giving him. Wood however became protective of Ron. "And how! Ron has a mind for tactics like I've never seen before. He's proven last year that with him working on our strategy our game has improved significantly."
"Maybe it also has improved because he explains it in a straight-forward way?"Alicia Spinnet reminded Wood. "Nothing against you, Oliver, but you tend to make your tactics unnecessarily convoluted."
"Ahem... well, Ron has prepared something for us, so I leave it to him to explain," Wood said.
Ron walked to the blackboard that stood in front of the benches, "I've tried to make it easy to understand, but this of course is just a first draft..." Ron flipped the blackboard over, revealing the new tactics he had worked on.
During Ron's explanation Harry noticed someone pulling at his sleeve. He saw it was Hermione and she was alone, since Neville and Luna right at the moment were busy in the greenhouses. "Incredible..." Hermione said, being visibly impressed. "Right when he started to explain he became very different. One wouldn't expect Ron to have such an... intellectual side."
"He's the same when he plays chess. It's where he really shines." Harry then noticed Hermione sporting a light blush. "Eh... Hermione?"
"Oh, it's just that seeing Ron like this shows there is more to him," Hermione said quickly, trying to hide what really had been going through her head.
Hermione Granger, don't go there with your thoughts, she silently scolded herself.
Ron's explanation of the new tactics was done a few minutes later.
Fred and George looked at Ron as if their brother had grown a second head. "Who are you and what have you done with our brother?" Fred finally asked, unable to connect what he'd witnessed with the image of Ron he got in his head. Sure, he had seen Ron help with tactics before, but this was a new level.
"Ah, now you are baffled," Ginny said, not being particularly impressed with Fred and George. "You honestly thought Ron's talents exhaust themselves in only chess? That shows how little attention you paid to him and how little you really know about him."
Fred and George had the decency to look embarrassed at how little attention they had given Ron, and thus how ignorant they thus were about parts of his life.
Angelina whistled after witnessing this display. "Now I understand why Oliver wants you to become his replacement."
"You really think so?" Ron did sound rather unsure about that.
"It looks like your confidence is something we have to work on," Wood said, still looking very pleased with how Ron had done. "Don't expect me to go easy on you. You'll step into big shoes once I'm out of Hogwarts."
While everyone got ready, Ginny sighed.
"Something wrong?" Harry asked.
"It's only that due to us being in the same year, I'll end school being in the reserve team. Don't get me wrong, I would never take this from you, but I pushed the realization away up until now and playing in the final game the pervious year made me want more," Ginny admitted.
Harry honestly had not thought about that and felt a bit bad for Ginny. "Maybe Wood will allow you to take my place for one game? After all, you did really well both times you did play."
"You would really do that for me?" Seeing Harry nod, Ginny suddenly hugged him. "Oh, thank you!"
"Eh... guys?" Ron asked, having watched all of it.
Ginny quickly let go of Harry, blushing. "I get my broom!" Ginny then left quickly.
"Mate?" Ron asked, looking taken aback by his sister's actions.
"I honestly don't know, Ron," Harry admitted, being highly confused, since this had felt a little more than just a hug of friendship.
...September 5th...
"I wonder why all of us are sitting here. After all, don't all of us know these things?" Ron wondered.
"Your parents told you about that as well?" Hermione asked, remembering her parents - especially her mother - making sure that she was well-informed. Giving her a book about it as well for more details about the matter.
"For us boys it was Dad," Ron admitted. "I guess Mum made sure Ginny knows everything. Did she, Ginny?"
Ginny looked a bit pained. "She did, and that in more detail than I would have liked."
This Sunday was a day none of them were looking forward to. Today all of the third-year students essentially would get a long lesson from Madam Pomfrey about the facts of life - meaning sexual education - and considering it would take more than two hours everyone was bracing for something bad. Ron had spread the word how his brothers had experienced this and even Percy had looked somewhat put off by it.
Since this was all the students in third year, they all had been crammed in the largest room they could find which wasn't the great hall. That turned out to be the big chamber which was used for Astronomy lessons. However, even the bright daylight that currently was emulated by the enchanted ceiling couldn't ease the nerves of many of the students.
"I wonder why they don't do it separately for boys and girls? This will be quite embarrassing with all of us in one room," Hermione said, being a bit concerned.
"This is intentional. Madam Pomfrey must feel that everyone needs to get the whole picture instead of boys and girls being told what is important to them only," Luna said, looking very calm about the entire thing.
"I bet you won't be so calm about this when we leave this room," Neville told Luna.
Luna gave Neville a look which screamed that she didn't believe that. "It is nothing I don't already know. So it will hardly cause me that much distress."
"Wait and see..." Neville, while not wishing Luna any ill, actually hoped the girl would be wrong about that one.
Looking around while his friends were busy with talking, Harry spotted his cousin looking very nervous. Considering Dudley's parents, Harry felt that his cousin was not very well-informed about such matters and surely would be mortified by all of this. Daphne and Millicent, despite most likely having been told a lot more by their mothers, also looked rather nervous.
He also caught sight of his four least favorite people in school. Malfoy and Parkinson tried to look relaxed and were waving off the whole issue, making Harry wonder how much their parents actually told them. Meanwhile Crabble and Goyle looked like they wanted to be somewhere else. No doubt these two numbskulls knew next to nothing about this particular topic.
It was that moment that Madam Pomfrey walked up to the desk in front. For once she did have a wand at hand - something seen very rarely - and held a look of determination. "All right. All of you are present, so we can begin."
It sounded like a threat.
It took over two hours before it was finally over.
All the young teenagers now leaving looked disturbed in one way or another. Even if they had already known most of it either from their parents telling them or from reading it in books, nothing could have prepared them for the very detailed and highly visual lecture Madam Pomfrey had given them.
"That was way more graphical than what I read in books or what my parents told me," Hermione said, looking quite a bit paler than normal.
"Did she really have to show us the recording of that woman giving birth?" Ron asked, looking a bit sick.
"I guess she wanted to hammer home to girls and boys alike the consequences of not being careful," Ginny stammered while working hard that her face didn't match her hair in color. "I wonder why she had to go through what we girls go through regularly in so much detail? Now I'm even more afraid once it starts in me..."
Ron grimaced. "Ginny, you are my sister. I really don't want to imagine you going through that."
"I don't want to imagine me going through that, either," Ginny whispered, clearly not looking forward to that aspect of being a girl.
Luna meanwhile had said noting, but she was blushing so heavily that she resembled a tomato, which was impressive considering her normally pale skin. Her eyes also were still wide, like she had went through something unspeakable.
Neville, despite feeling quite embarrassed himself, had watched Luna the entire time. "I thought you said this wasn't anything you didn't already know?" he asked her.
Luna's expression didn't change when she gave him an unreadable look. "Please don't joke about this. I had no idea how little I actually know about that. It was very... thorough and graphical..." Luna suddenly belched slightly, now looking a bit sick. "Please excuse me..."
Luna quickly rushed into a nearby girls' room.
Stopping to wait for her to be done inside it, the group saw that they were not the only ones and suddenly quickly had to jump aside when they were almost run over by Pansy Parkinson making a beeline for the girls' room, looking quite a bit green and holding a hand over her mouth. They could also spot Malfoy and his two gorillas, all three of them also looking very pale and greenish at the same time.
"I guess their parents neglected to tell them enough about all of that..." Harry remarked.
At least one positive note in this otherwise embarrassing episode.
to be continued...
Next Episode:
"Tales of Kneazles and Hogsmeade"
Notes:
Here the notes.
I honestly was in no mood to show all of the electives. While I did have my ideas for Muggle Studies and Divination, I was a bit running dry about Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Sometime in the future I will give concrete examples of what can be done with those electives.
The portrait of Catwaezle of course plays upon the TV series of the same name. (look it up, it's hilarious)
What a difference in Hagrid's teaching style compared to canon. Being the apprentice to Kettleburn for years did pay off in actually preparing him for teaching children. Of course Draco and Pansy didn't heed his warnings, resulting in them getting humiliated (again).
I again wanted to showcase how smart Greyback is and how he uses all the good things from the modern world. However, I also wanted to show that he and his pack are bloodthirsty bastards. I hope it worked in how disturbing the scene is.
Ah, the boggart lesson. I had to add Lupin's most likely reasoning why the fears of the students are shown to all of them. I hope you like my change of fears. Luna's fear of the change in herself was especially difficult to give form, as was Hermione's fear of loneliness (which she developed after getting friends more early). I felt Neville being afraid of Bellatrix, as much as he hates her, is logical due to the constant reminder in form of his crippled parents. Whatever fears Ron and Ginny had had, I thought a basilisk easily overshadows those after encounting one for real. And unlike in the books, Harry does fear Voldemort here - and that for good reason.
And some needed humor at the end.