Longbottom’s office was on the ground floor today. Not that Sparrow
minded taking the simple way down to the bottom of the stairs. Iphis
did, though, and wound up taking enough time that Wren eventually
persuaded him to jump and Wren would catch him with the arresto
momentum spell.
He did, although it was not so refined as to slow Iphis gradually. The lad wound
up leaning on Wren, looking like he was about to lose his breakfast.
Nevertheless they made it to Professor
Longbottom’s office before Miranda started to sound impatient, and
there entered to find Professors Budge and Longbottom – the former
looking more grim than usual, the latter
looking pensive before the arrival of the children brightened his
spirits. "Ah!" said Longbottom, "good, good, I would
have expected those stairs would give you more trouble. Let’s get
some basic check-ins out of the way first, shall we? How have your
studies been going since our last meeting?"
"Can we just cut to the chase?" said
Budge. "I’ve got plenty of work to do."
Longbottom sighed. "I had hoped to put
that off for a happy few moments. Children, what would you like to
address first?"
"I daresay we all have things to brag
about," said Wren. "For one, Jocasta and Jill seem to have
increased their dueling capabilities in the past
couple months, Sparrow had a breakthrough in understanding how her
shield spell works, Miranda and –" At once they fell silent,
pursing their lips. They closed their eyes, letting a couple lines of
orange light shine out from between their eyelids. Then their eyes
snapped open. " – Iphis here, are attempting to reach
levels of transfiguration that are currently only theoretical, and I
am branching out from wand craft into metalwork."
Professor Budge raised an eyebrow, as he met
Iphis’ eyes. "A telling classical reference,
for those who know their muggle mythology. Good to meet you as
yourself at last, lad."
Longbottom’s eyes brows shot up as he glanced
between Iphis and Professor Budge. "Ah, is that how it is? Congratulations on your courage, young fellow.
I wondered why you seemed troubled."
Iphis snorted. "That’s not exactly –"
But then his mouth clamped shut, and though Longbottom was raising
his eyebrows again as if to prompt him to continue, the lad would say
no more.
"Well anyway," said Longbottom,
"that’s all quite impressive. It underscores our Headmistress’
opinion that you are all all well ahead of your years. But have you
been continuing to study the things that will actually be on the
OWLs? Or have you been getting distracted? Sparrow!" He met
Sparrow’s eyes and gestured to the wood-paneled wall to his left.
"Why don’t you transfigure this panel here into a different
wood, then? Show me how much you’ve improved."
Sparrow tapped her wand on the wall.
The paneling of the entire room changed from
oak to ebony.
"Good heavens," said Longbottom,
looking startled, as he tapped his own wand on the wall and returned
it all to oak. "That’s brilliant, but I think you’re all
correct about starting to run out of control. I
shouldn’t ask you to vanish anything, then, it might take an entire
century to turn up again."
"Some of us have more trouble with control
than others," murmured Jill. Sparrow took her hand, but she did
not hold Sparrow’s very tightly in return.
"Sparrow is a very quick study," said
Jocasta, "when the teacher is a pretty girl."
"Hey," spluttered Sparrow, "How
did – did you get that from him?"
Jocasta tossed her hair back. "Some of us
clever people are very observant, that’s all."
"A breakthrough like the breach of a dam," grumbled Professor Budge. "God
help everyone in the way."
"And speaking of which," said
Professor Longbottom, looking now worried, "I regret to inform
you that I have not yet been able to procure a therapist or
counselor of any sort for this school."
As Sparrow and Jocasta both let out exasperated
sighs, Wren looked puzzled. "There-a-piss?"
Iphis elbowed him. "Therapist, don’t
make a stupid joke out of it."
"Well what in the Sam Hill is that?"
Wren looked around at everyone else, who were all looking back at
them incredulously, save Miranda. "Seriously, don’t be keeping
me in in the dark here, it’s not like any of you."
"Why should we be surprised that our dear
ginger here doesn’t know?" said Miranda. "Judging by the
account of Chicago, there’s not much room for such specialized
professions in a little world of hardscrabble survivors. I would
venture that you couldn’t find a single therapist in whatever
remains of the muggle world."
"Certainly I’ve never seen any such
thing on my journeys," said Budge.
"That is broadly correct," said
Professor Longbottom. "All of my discreet inquiries turned up no
manner of muggle therapist, even in London itself – for indeed, the
idea of a profession beyond "learned scribe" and
"calculator" and "politician" and "priest"
has fallen by the wayside among them. Perhaps "general" is
also still in play, given what we know of their politics."
"And prostitute," said Sparrow,
"those never go away."
Longbottom raised an eyebrow. "Yeeeeesssss...I
suppose that is...true...in any case, my and McGonagall’s efforts
to hire a magical therapist, psychologist, counselor, whatever, for
the school, were met with dismal failure. The school governors are
apparently under the impression that children do
not need such things."
⋄⋄FUCKING BULLSHIT! ⋄⋄
This was met with utter silence, and shock from
both professors.
"I might concur," said Miranda,
"though with more delicate terms."
Professor Budge sighed. "One might surmise
that you are all desperate to let off steam. With that in mind, I
suppose you’re all wondering why I’ve called you all here today."
"I have a good guess," muttered
Sparrow.
"In the matter of Hogsmeade,"
continued Budge, "We will be making our move in two week’s
time. I regret that we cannot move any faster. I have...been working
on the matter, ever since Hogsmeade’s plight was brought to my
attention – but it’s been tricky, it’s required patience, and
I’ve had my duties as deputy headmaster on top of all that."
He sighed. "Now at least, I can make my final preparations, and
attend to the matter with all deliberate speed, and with the help of
some very talented students."
"And how exactly are we helping?"
said Jill. "What could we possibly do?"
"Stand guard as I handle the delicate
work," said Budge. "I cannot ask any of you to do the
actual curse-breaking itself, that’s beyond even all of you, but I
can ask you to refine the skills you do have, in case we meet actual
hostilities. Given your demonstrated talents for learning when
presented with the proper teaching method, I should think two weeks
ought to be enough for you." He pointed to Miranda. "You,
Miss McClivert, must make many doses of your Sunlight Potion for each of us. I am assuming it’s
possible in two weeks?"
"Possible in two days," said Miranda,
"although I will be seriously drawing down the ingredients from
my greenhouse, so don’t expect any more than that."
"Make as many as you can," said
Budge, "and never mind the cost, I’ll cover it."
"You can’t possibly cover the loss of
specimens from the other side of the sea!"
"Did you know," said Budge, "that
a flying carpet is much easier to ride long-distance than a broom?
Less flashy and all, but cargo vessels rarely are. Trust me on this
one. Iphis, I will need your help doing research in the Forbidden
Section – why are you looking at me like that?"
Iphis looked like he was struggling to keep a
straight face. "No reason. Um, might I ask what causes the
section to be forbidden? Only, I was told most of its materials were
removed."
"Oh I’ve heard there’s scary monsters
in there," said Jill. "They’ll snap at you if you offend
them."
Wren giggled, causing Budge to narrow his eyes
at them. "Hmmmm." Budge gave Jill a sharp glance. "You’ve been in
there, then."
"Can’t get anything by a master of the
Defensive Arts," muttered Jocasta.
"I would be investigating the matter and
likely assigning many of you detention," said Budge, "although
one might wonder what punishment it could possibly when you’ve
already been assigned to a rather strenuous suspension. Take you away
from your studies, I suppose."
"One might call this task a special
detention," said Longbottom. "One suited for some rather
precocious children."
"One that might serve to demonstrate to
them how far they’ve gotten in over their heads," said Budge.
"Since they seem quite keen on doing that already. Ah, but I
find it more unusual that a castle full of children bearing wands
doesn’t produce such a thing more often. A trifle disappointing, I will admit...anyway,
Mister McKinnon, first of all, nice hair. Secondly, if you’re
going to brag about your craft, I wonder if you might come up with,
say, some bracelets that offer shield charms? I was going to suggest
you use wandwood, but you mentioned branching out into metal, which
would be easier to come by anyway."
Wren gave a snappy sailor’s salute.
"Kinda edging into my territory there,"
said Sparrow.
"You don’t have eyes in the back of your
head," said Jocasta. "At least, not yet. Oh, the things one
might do with human transmutation!"
"The things one might learn not to do,"
muttered Budge. "As for you, Jocasta – you and Cormac have
been learning more advanced healing magic from Madame Abbot, have you
not? Perhaps you two could sharpen your skills on each other."
"Wait," said Sparrow, "what
exactly do you mean?"
Jocasta rolled her sleeve up and drew the tip
of her wand across the middle of her forearm. A line of blood bloomed
bright against her pale skin. As Sparrow’s jaw dropped open in
horror, Wren shook their wand out of their sleeve and pointed it at
Jocasta’s arm. "Vulnera sanentur!" The line of
blood faded, leaving a line of scabs.
Jocasta waved her own wand at it and the scabs
themselves disappeared, leaving only a faint scar. "Getting
better already, my dear Cormy. Why, in two weeks time you may be able
to set a bone immediately!"
Sparrow’s eyes followed a line of similar scars up Jocasta’s arm.
"Dear, what have you –"
"It’s fun," said Jocasta. "And
it lets the screams out a bit. And it’s good practice. I wish
I could practice on Cormy’s own
scars." She narrowed her eyes at Wren. "But I bet
you love them so much they’d come back if I got rid of them."
Wren shrugged. "Can’t lose my memory of
my friends, you know how it is."
"Yes," muttered Jocasta, taking
Sparrow by the hand. "I certainly cannot."
"Please don’t keep doing this,"
whispered Sparrow, drawing closer to Jocasta.
"I don’t see the problem,"
whispered Jocasta. "I’m perfectly – okay, not fine, but I’m
not injured."
"That looks injured to me!"
Jill laid her hand on Jocasta’s shoulder,
meeting her eyes with a fierce gaze, and soon her eyes were glowing
red, just as Jocasta’s were glowing green. They held that gaze for
a few seconds, ostensibly silent – but in truth, it was simply that
nobody wished to intrude on the conversation they knew was occurring.
Eventually the two looked away, and the glows faded, both girls
looking grim but determined.
Sparrow glanced at her professors. Both of them
were staring at Jill and Jocasta, though not quite as shocked as
Sparrow might have expected. Budge coughed. "Definitely need to
find some dedicated counselor for these children, I think, Professor
Longbottom."
"I will double my efforts," said
Longbottom.
"Now Jill," said Budge, "I know
you like to burn –"
"I don’t like to," growled
Jill, "it’s just what always winds up happening."
"Then make sure it doesn’t," said
Budge. "If we’re lucky we’ll only be on the outskirts of the
forest, but we might need to actually enter, and we’ll be
surrounded by trees and scattered wooden debris. I don’t want you
burning things down around us. In the weeks before we move, I need
you to practice offensive spells that don’t involve fire.
Granted, what we might be up against could respond to fire, if enough
of it is applied – goodness knows little enough is known of these
things, despite the centuries, and if anyone’s fire could drive
them back, it would be Jill’s."
Sparrow felt the blood drain from her face.
"Talking of which, Sparrow. In the next
two weeks, I will be having you spend some time with me learning the
Patronus charm. If there’s anyone in this world who could get it in
only a couple weeks it’s you. I certainly hope it won’t prove
necessary, and if it does I should hope my own Patronus proves
sufficient – and we’ll have Professor Flutwick as backup anyhow,
and Professor Clearwater watching over us, as usual. But, always
better safe than sorry, eh? Might as well take the opportunity to
learn a valuable spell – what’s that look on your face?"
Sparrow’s knees felt week. She found herself
leaning on Jocasta for support. "Are you implying that we’re
up against…"
"Dementors," said Budge. "Possibly.
This entire business with shade transfiguration is said to be related
to dementors. They might be making more of them, or something of the
sort. What did you think I was referring to?"
"Nothing?" said Sparrow.
"Never mind, carry on."
"And there you have all your tasks for the
coming weeks," said Budge. "I want to stress again that you
will not be expected to handle the more delicate or tricky aspects of
this work. I will be striving to make sure that we do not even
need to get close to the danger. You are all fourteen and fifteen
years old, in case you have forgotten. You are still minors, the
adults of this castle have a duty of care to you, and the only reason
I am even considering you all for this work is that I couldn’t
think of anyone who had more promising talents and proven skills."
"Not anyone from the Ministry?" said
Miranda.
Both professors scowled. "Let us not consider them,"
growled Budge. "Now, I’m sure you are all feeling rather tense
about the upcoming operation. If it allays any of your fears,
Professor Clearwater has informed me that her visions of the months
ahead do not show you with any visible physical damage. Hopefully
that is because none of us suffer any harm, and not because we must
rely on the talents of Miss Carrow and Mister McKinnon. Have you any
further questions?"
"Do we have an actual plan?" said
Iphis.
"Working on it," said Budge. "I’ll
let you know when it’s set."
"If you’re using our talents," said
Sparrow, "shouldn’t we be consulting?"
"I’ve got it," said Budge. "Don’t
worry about it. Alright, that’s all for me. Longbottom, do you have
anything else?"
"I will permit you all to attend to your
tasks," said Professor Longbottom. "Only, Mister
Brown, I would ask you to stay a bit longer, there are some things I
need to discuss with you specifically. The rest of you may
go." He waved his hands at them in a shooing motion.
Sparrow made to depart with the remainder of
her crew – but she saw Wren hanging back, holding tight to Iphis’
hand, staring into his eyes. Iphis was shaking his head, looking
apologetic. Eventually the two separated, and Wren made their way out
of the office with the others.