Chapter 2 : Adaptation time to Prefect status
Akira's fifth year that had just started could be described as strange. Indeed, it was disconcerting to have broken the rules in the past while trying to not get caught and now to have to spot the other students doing the same in order to punish them accordingly.
Being a Prefect was a brand new job for Akira and Arcturus and it was taking them time to get used to it, especially at the beginning of the year where they also had to get accustomed to their classes of Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions, Astronomy, History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies and Arithmancy. They were making efforts to be decent Prefects but Arcturus was too often letting his kindness come to the surface while Akira wasn't really caring about making the students behave properly as she was having her own problems.
Together, they formed a Prefects duo that wasn't up to their job, much to the displeasure of their Head Boy Eric who in addition to his own duties was reprimanding them every time that he would see them not using their authority properly when a situation required it, which was on a regular basis.
This had been the case on a Tuesday morning in mid-September, when Eric had spotted Arcturus trying to defuse with candies a conflict between two third-year students of Ravenclaw and Slytherin who had been throwing spells at each other in the hallway. In the meantime, Akira had been waiting a little further for Arcturus to finish so that they could go to their Transfiguration class and her passiveness had annoyed even more the Head Boy.
"For Merlin's beard ! You don't enforce discipline with sweets." Eric angrily threw at Arcturus after reaching the latter's level while the two students began to stare at this newcomer with a worried look. "I'll show you how it's done."
On that remark, he spun on his heels to face the two brawling students and he fixed them with such an angry look that they began to shiver with fear.
"You two, you'll get some detention. And I'll inform your respective Head of House about your bad behaviour. Now, go to your classes and may I never see you again cast a spell if it's not for a lesson."
Afraid that he might add an other punishment to the list, the Slytherin and the Ravenclaw nodded feverishly before running away at full speed to put some distance between them and Eric. Satisfied with the result, the latter turned his attention back to Arcturus and then to Akira who was still standing aside. One thing was for sure, he didn't look happy at all with their way of handling this case as his eyes were throwing lightnings at them.
"In order to become worthy Prefects, you'll have to completely change your approach. For example, if you see a student playing with a Fanged Frisbee which is on the list of prohibited objects, what do you do ?"
"I tell him to stop and go put it in his suitcase for the rest of the year." Arcturus replied cheerfully as he was sure to have the right answer.
"I take it and destroy it with a fire spell." Akira suggested so that Eric would stop looking at her with a stern look.
"What ? No ! You confiscate the forbidden frisbee that you'll give to Filch to be kept in as a proof of his crime, then you inform his Head of House who'll take the appropriate measures, like sending a letter to the parents or putting him in detention. And if you catch a student snooping in the Restricted Section of the Library without any written authorization, what do you do ?" Eric added while crossing his arms.
"Ouh, I know !" Arcturus exclaimed while raising his hand high as if he was in class. "I go ask a Professor for a pass, then I come back to catch the student."
"And you ?" The Head Boy asked to Akira.
"Is it during daytime or night time ? Because if it's during daytime, that's an unlikely example since in broad daylight with Pince around, it's impossible to go there without permission." Akira said while rolling her eyes after seeing a few students try without ever succeeding.
"Once again, you're wrong." Eric pointed out before running a hand over his exasperated face. "Unlikely or not, you have to escort the student right away out of the Restricted Section after making sure that he didn't take any book with him, then inform Madam Pince of his actions so she can punish him accordingly. To make it short, in each situation you have to put an end to the student's offense, give him detention if the offense is particularly serious and inform a Professor to take appropriate measures. It's not that difficult to understand, is it ?"
"A little bit. Because each case is different." Arcturus replied before falling silent when Eric glared at him.
"It's a job requiring some adaptation. Have you never learned anything after being around Prefects during four years ? And if my information are correct, you were both prone to break the rules in the past. So, you should know how punishments are distributed at Hogwarts."
"Hey, we were only punished a few times. And it was for minor incidents, like walking around the school at night or selling Butterbeers illegally." Arcturus defended himself and Akira as well.
"As long as you don't do it again during your time as Prefects, I'm ready to do as if I haven't heard a single thing. Even if I find it astonishing that two delinquents like you got this position. But anyway, I don't have time to give you more examples on how to handle a misbehaving student's case. Next time you see one, just use your common sense and figure out for yourself what to do. And I don't want to see any more candies or look at the problem from afar with arms crossed, is that clear ?"
"Yes, boss." Arcturus answered half-heartedly.
On that recommendation, Eric walked away but not without pointing two of his fingers at his eyes before pointing them at Arcturus and Akira. This gesture didn't bother the latter, who wasn't caring much about the Head Boy threats after having faced much worst with Slayer. But Arcturus seemed to have been really impacted by Eric's words.
"What's the problem with giving candies ? They're tasty, they put you in a good mood and I don't know anyone who doesn't like sugar."
"It can be seen as corruption. Or it could push students to do stupid things to get some. It's not really helpful to make them behave in the future." Akira pointed out to him after coming at his level.
"True. In that case, I'll move on to plan B to put an end to their foolery."
Akira was about to ask him what it was but she didn't need to as Arcturus was already pulling out a whistle tied around his neck from under his shirt.
"I stole this from Dust. Well no, he rather lent it to me. From now on, I have to be careful with the words that I use if I don't want to have to give myself detention. Anyway, I'll just have to whistle into this thing to keep order."
On that note, Arcturus tried it to see if it was working and it immediately made Akira's ears ring, forcing her to rip the whistle out of his mouth to make him stop.
"That's effective." She agreed while putting her ring finger in her ear that was racked with tinnitus.
"Of course it is. It's used in Quidditch and Football matches to cover all the sounds and be heard miles away." Arcturus commented with delight at the idea of having this new toy.
"However, don't use it for too long or too often. Otherwise, you'll have lot of enemies because no one likes to hear a loud whistle ringing in their ears." Akira warned him rightfully.
"Okay. In that case, I'll only use it when it's absolutely necessary. And then, maybe Eric will admit that I'm a professional and conscientious Prefect."
"Don't count on it too much. From what I've seen, he only seems to find that what he's doing is fine. Even the sixth-year Prefects or the Head Girl who have more experience than us get told off by him."
"Yeah. Then, I can't wait for him to leave his position at the end of the school year. But in the meantime, I'll try to do with it and honor my badge." Arcturus added before passing the sleeve of his wizarding robe over it to make it shine even more. "And you ? Are you also going to try your best to ensure that order reigns at Hogwarts ?"
"To prevent the school from going up in smoke, yes. But for minor offenses, I don't really see the point in getting angry about them." Akira replied while shrugging her shoulders.
But she had spoken too soon as her gaze was drawn towards James who was waving at her a little further down the hallway.
"Hey, Chitsute ! Look at that." He threw at her before turning his attention to the armour which was standing next to him.
He then took out his magic wand and cast a repelling spell at it which made the armour topple over. Since the school armours were made up of several pieces, it was already a disaster if one collapsed and dismantled itself on the floor. But in this hallway, there were several ones and relatively close to each other. So as soon as the pushed armour lost its balance, a dozen of them began to fall like domino, mixing their parts and leaving an unspeakable mess in this hallway.
If another student had done that, Akira would have let him deal with Filch who was surely on his way right now to check on the chaos that had just echoed throughout the entire school. But since it was James whom she hated to no end, she felt her blood boil in her veins and her rage was such that she began to shake while walking up to him. She wasn't so sure about the best punishment to apply in this case but she didn't get the time to find one as Arcturus grabbed her arm to hold her back.
"Let me deal with it. It will be a good training for me to be more strict as a Prefect." He said before reaching the level of James who was laughing while staring at Akira as if to challenge her to give him detention.
Arcturus came to stand in front of the troublemaker, putting his fists on his hips in an authoritarian manner but James didn't care about him.
"Get lost, Black. I want to see what Chitsute will dare to do to me knowing that I'll ruin her life twice as much afterwards." He revealed while leaning to the side to continue staring at Akira.
"Except that now, you're in trouble with me and I'll teach you to behave." Arcturus threatened while trying to put on a stern look that didn't suit him at all. "You're going to go to detention tonight. To… to put these armours back together one by one by hand. Oh, and I'll also advise Professor McGonagall that you used a spell to destroy them. She won't be really happy about it."
"Pff, you think that you scare me ? She has already given to me more detention than to anyone else in this school, and it has never stopped me from doing what I want. On the other hand, if I tell Sirius that you have been nasty to me, I don't think that he'll want to be your brother anymore."
"You better not." Arcturus said while trying to keep his composure.
"You want to bet ?" James replied with a smile that didn't inspire anything good.
The roles had visibly reversed and Arcturus, who adored his two younger brothers even if Sirius wanted him to leave him alone and Regulus didn't want to be seen by his Slytherin classmates with his Gryffindor brother, became afraid of this threat. He then desperately searched his pocket frantically.
"And if... I give you a chocolate frog, will you keep your mouth shut ?" Arcturus asked while giving James the candy under Akira's incredulous gaze.
The rest of September wasn't much more serene for the two apprentice Prefects. Having to manage all these first years who were discovering the school without knowing all the rules as well as keeping an eye on their older peers who were looking for innovative ways to break them, the Prefects had lot of work to do. But Akira would have an even tougher job in a few weeks as an announcement for the next Hogsmeade trip appeared on the notice board.
"So cool. We'll try to sneak past the older students to go to Honeydukes." A second-year student suggested to his friend as they were both reading the news.
"No, not while I'm watching." Arcturus intervened as he was standing with Akira right behind them.
He then tried to mimic Eric's gesture by pointing two fingers at his eyes in order to point them afterwards at the offending students but being too caught up, he ended up putting his fingers in his eyeballs.
"Ouch ! It hurts." He cried immediately while rubbing his forearm over his injured eyes as the two students used this incident to run away and disappear among the crowd in the common room.
"You don't say." Akira mindlessly replied while keeping her own eyes fixed on the Hogsmeade trip announcement.
She was feeling cold sweats running down her spine and apprehension took hold of her since this recreational day for many meant her return to business for Voldemort. Especially after receiving an harsh training on Unforgivable Curses and Occlumency during the whole summer. And even James, who was playing fool by making the school supplies of some working students levitated around the room with a spell, couldn't distract her from the fate that was awaiting her.
Hello dear readers,
According to me, it's not that easy to be a Prefect, at Hogwarts or in any other school. At least for the Prefects with ethic. You have to be strict but fair. Stern but kind. And also not be afraid to give some punishments even if it makes you unpopular. In short, it's a very demanding task.
Akira and Arcturus aren't used to the job yet. Being too kind or too distant aren't the best methods to use to put some order. They need to change their approach, as well as dealing with their courses, their homework, Akira's meeting with Rookwood at Hogsmeade, Arcturus' Muggle activities,... . Pfiu, fifth year can be really intense. And it won't get better with time, as we would see in the next chapter published at the end of the month.