Daphne steps out of the mist into Harry's domain, and walks over to the small rise that has become her favourite place to just stop and think. It doesn't take long for the Cerberus to find her, and beg to have its ball thrown, and these days it's only a minor effort to launch the ball into the forest. As the Cerberus bounds happily off into the forest, she sits down and thinks back over this school year. With a sigh, she tries to lower her occlumency barriers, only to find that they're already completely down. How is that possible? Especially after confronting Malfoy and the other Slytherins.
Her thoughts are interrupted as Kate walks over, gobs of dog slobber still clinging to part of her hair, "Do you mind if I sit with you?"
Daphne smiles, though not a full smile, "Sure, help yourself. What happened to you?"
"I can't throw the ball far enough, so when I got tired, he started licking me. I'm going to need a shower when I get back to the manor."
Daphne grimaces, "I'd offer to clean you up, but I don't know any of the household charms."
Kate sighs, "It's one of the things I envy about you girls, Airmed brought me here today because I couldn't stop cleaning the manor, and Morgana is keeping the stone in her domain for the moment. With magic, it would be like the fairy godmother in Cinderella, where a couple of swishes of the wand and everything's perfectly clean."
Daphne shakes her head, "I wish it was that easy, there's an awful lot of theory that goes with our spell work, and that's just to understand how to use it and why the tempo is the way it is. Please don't tell anyone I've said this, but sometimes I wish they taught intent based casting from first year."
Kate scrunches her eyebrows together, "That's what you're learning with Harry, isn't it?"
Daphne nods, "It is, and it's so much easier to do with the spells we've learnt."
"I think… it's like learning to read. It's really difficult to start with, and it takes years to become good at it. But once you are it allows you to learn from a far wider amount of resources than you could without learning it."
"Probably, and wand notation is a large part of what we're learning. How did you come up with that?"
Kate barks a laugh, "I'd rather not answer that, but I have to. When I met Shaun, I was training to be a Religious Education teacher, I've got a degree in English and Theology, and I was due to start my onsite training when we got married. That's when he broke me, even though it doesn't hurt to think about that time anymore."
At a loss of anything else to do, Daphne pulls the woman into a hug, "Sorry for asking."
Kate shrugs, "It's ok. It's a curse that Morgana gave me at the church, and before she found out what I'd gone through. Do you think it's weird that I'd like to become one of Brigid's chosen, partially to thumb my teeth at Christianity and Shaun?"
"Not at all, I've been considering asking Harry since he offered late last year. I've promised myself that I'll wait until after my OWL's before I do though."
"You are far too sensible for an 11 year old."
"12, my birthday was a week ago."
"Well, happy birthday, I'd have baked you a cake if I knew."
"It's no big deal."
Kate pulls a crab apple from a pocket, "Here, it's a bit useless for you, but happy birthday anyway."
Daphne stares at the apple, "What is it?"
"A magical apple, Amelia brought me a basket of them from her boyfriend. Said it was an apology. If you don't have magic, then apparently give you the barest spark of magic, that you can nurture so that it grows into something that's self-sustaining."
"So, why haven't you eaten it yet?"
Kate sighs, "Because you have to be so careful with it, and it will only work once. If you take too serious an injury, or you use too much magic, that's it, it's gone. On top of that, the method that Marie used doesn't work if you already have magic, so I'd have to wait 17 years before I could become a chosen."
"I'm surprised you still believe in gods."
Kate laughs, "It's hard not to when you live with one, and another one pops in every day or so. I mean, Morgana seems perfectly normal most of the time. But occasionally she'll do something, like pulling a boar through a portal and casually slaughtering it, as if it's nothing of consequence. Or she'll play with the taps at the sink, staring at them like they're the best thing ever. Of course, she then has her laughable moments, like when she unscrews the back of her calculator and stares at the circuitry, trying to make sense of it."
"She does keep saying that integrated circuits are mundane magic."
"Honestly, I'm starting to believe it myself. I never really questioned how things worked, just that there were these things called chips inside them. I mean, I sort of understand electricity, as I made a potato clock as a child; and a bulb light up with a lemon too, come to think of it."
"I think you should eat one."
"Huh?"
Daphne holds up the apple, "I think you should eat one of these. I mean, yes it will take time and care to look after it properly. But, in the end you'll have magic because of your own hard work, and it's something that nobody will be able to take away from you."
"Maybe. However, I think you're underestimating just how hard it will be to go 17 years without doing something that could cost me my magic. Especially given the fact that I'm still only able to be me when there's no men around. Maybe once I've been, I think the shrink at the hospital called it, deprogrammed, I can consider this whole thing. But until then…"
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Albus stands at dinner, "Attention everybody, I have some news to share. As you can all see, Professor Quirrell isn't present at the table. I regretfully have to inform you all that he has left us, and he will be remembered. As there are only a few weeks left of the term, Professor Snape will be…" Minerva whispers urgently at the headmaster, "…ahem, Professor Snape will be giving a master class to the NEWT students that are taking DADA. Professors Flitwick, McGonagall, Babbling, and Vector will be covering the non-NEWT classes." He looks down at Minerva again and over at Morgana before swallowing hard, "Alternatively, those of 3rd year and above can approach Dr Danann for a taste of how the Celtic people used magic in defence."
At the Hufflepuff table, Hannah looks confused, "There's only a few weeks left of the term, why couldn't he have waited to leave?"
One of the prefects that rotates with sitting near them leans over and softly says, "That's not what that phrase means. It means that he is the most recent victim of the curse on the DADA position, and died somehow."
Hannah stares at him with slowly dawning horror, "But…But…"
Susan takes her hand, "It's ok, this sort of thing happens sometimes. It's just the way that adults do things sometimes."
With a sob, Hannah wrenches her hand from Susan's grasp and disappears into the mist.
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"Hey squirt," Dora sits down on the stone bench that Hannah's sitting on, "are you ok?"
"A teacher just died, and everyone else seems so…"
"Unbothered?"
"Yes, no, sort of."
"You know I graduated last year?"
Hannah shakes her head, "I didn't."
"Well, I did. Fast tracked into the Auror program too, until I mouthed off at Morgana. In hindsight, it was the best thing I ever did. "While I was there, three of the DADA professors outright died. One of them is still in St Mungo's. Two of them retired at the end of the year, and the last one just disappeared one day. For the older students, they've probably seen this happen at least once, and had a similar talk to this one at some point.
"There's also the fact that it's only 12 years ago when the entire wizarding world was wondering if they were going to be next. What do you want to do when you grow up?"
Hannah turns to look at Dora, "Huh? What does that have to do with Professor Quirrell?"
Dora smiles, "Just answer the question."
"Healer, like dad."
"How many people do you think you'll see die, or hear about dying, if you're a healer?"
"None? That's why I'm becoming a healer."
"Hannah, someone dies at St Mungo's roughly once a week. Death is a part of life, no matter what you do, people will keep dying. Yes, it's tragic that Professor Quirrell died, but how well did you know him? Did he give you any private tutoring, or was he just a face you saw at the teachers table and in class?" Dora raises a hand, "I'm not saying that your response is wrong, just that you have more empathy than most people. Don't let go of it, it will serve you well later in life. Now do you want a hug?"
Hannah nods, and they sit there for a few minutes before Dora speaks up again, "Say, did you actually eat?"
"No."
"Let's go to McDonalds and I'll buy you a happy meal."
Later, Hannah will be found playing with Beauty, from Beauty and the Beast, switching the dresses around and generally having fun with them. Still not completely ok with the announcement, but better than she was.
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Minerva looks around the staffroom, "Good evening everyone, and Madam Marchbanks, thank you for staying for this meeting."
Marchbanks nods from her comfortable chair, "Not at all, is the headmaster not joining us?"
"He said he needed to do his apprentice duty and check in on his master."
Marchbanks makes a note on a pad of parchment, "I see. Well, until you reach the first years, I'm just observing."
Minerva nods, "Very well, we'll start with our 6th year students, do any of you have any comments?"
Severus nods, "They're still a bunch of Dunderheads in Potions, but at least I had the time needed to ensure that their most serious deficiencies were corrected."
Filius nods, "While I can't comment on their proficiency with potions, I did find myself needing to cover material that should have been adequately taught in the DADA class. I just hope we can find the budget for a good teacher next year."
Minerva nods, "I found the same thing. Though my students were kind enough to attribute it to the professor's stutter. Vector, Babbling?"
Both professors indicate in the negative.
"Dr Danann, how about muggle studies?"
Morgana shakes her head, "I had to start from the basics with them, same as the 3rd years. Most of the 6th year didn't know what a light-switch was. Worse, Mr Weasley seems to have a reputation for collecting plugs, so they associated them with something he collects. All of them should now be at least conversant with mundane dress codes, how to do some basic shopping and seek entertainment. As well as identify the most common security cameras currently in use. This will be true of every year so far."
So it continued, with the 4th year students being evaluated next. Most everyone was aware of the fact that the changes to potions wouldn't start to show until next year.
Eventually, after much note taking by Marchbanks, they come to the first year class.
Minerva shuffles some parchment around, "Now we come to the first years, I have mixed opinions about them. Dr Danann, I've noticed that none of your students have scored in the top 3 for their magical subjects, even though Miss Granger looked as though she was going to be consistently at the top of the class in every subject. However, she has also started asking intelligent questions that aren't covered by the textbooks."
Morgana nods, "That doesn't surprise me, I had a brief look at their grades, and apart from History of Magic, I don't recall any of them getting less than an acceptable in any subject."
"That is true, even if Harry is only scraping that because of his theory work in Transfiguration."
Severus scowls, "As a whole, the entire first year is acceptable at potions. During the exam I didn't have to vanish any potions. I will note that Dr Danann's students are drifting from the accepted ways to prepare ingredients. They are also doing something that is reducing the potency of their potions, almost like they're all squibs."
Filius looks excited as he chimes in, "I've caught every single one of those students doing pure intent magic at least once. This is absolutely amazing, though I do caution them that they need to learn the wand motions and incantations, as they are necessary for learning the spells in later years. However, I have never seen so many children able to do this at the same time. I feel that their exam results won't match their class performance either, I suspect that they were just showing that they'd understood what they'd learnt all year rather than trying to show off."
Minerva nods, "That's something I've noticed too. Though, Miss Bones and Miss Greengrass have both gone from Outstanding students of Transfiguration to being good Exceeds level. At the same time Harry Danann has improved from his Troll level to being almost Acceptable. One thing I will say, is that their language use in their essays is ahead of their peers."
Marchbanks looks up from her notes, "I've heard enough that, if Dr Danann can find another magical teacher, my department will sponsor the first year class next year, with the class only open to muggleborn and those who are achieving at least acceptable across the board by the Christmas holidays."