Chapter 6
* **
“There we were,” her friend pointed across the water.
She scrutinized the area and thought that perhaps some sort of identifying mark on the other side wouldn’t have gone amiss. “Okay,” she nodded. She turned back to where they’d been seeing the glow and tilted her head. “I don’t see anything.”
Her friend stared in that direction, too. “Well,” he said uncertainly. “We should still check it out. I mean, we know the general direction at this point…”
“Yeah, but I wonder why we can’t see any glow from here.”
“Maybe there’s something atmospheric, like the water.”
They still puzzled over it as they journeyed forward and past the point of no return, their silent shadow dogging their every step.
* **
Five minutes.
His class started in five minutes.
Already, he could hear his Fifth Year Hufflepuffs and Slytherins settling in.
Tony paced his office.
Over the last twenty four hours, he’d studied the interactions between the students and their teachers and found a huge disparity among the Houses.
Back at the Institute, sure the teachers had favored their old Houses more than any other, but not to this level. His teachers had favorite students across House lines, not limited to only their House.
Here, the Houses were their favorite students, tolerant of the rest of the school but only to a point.
Tony wondered if the teachers realized that their students were taking the House cues from them. That bias was making the Houses stick to like and away from the others.
This presented a bit of a problem.
The students were focusing half their attention on House rivalry when it could be spent doing other things.
Tony sort of longed for the days where he could sit with his inter-House group and not feel slightly unwelcome.
He took one last look at the time before straightening his shoulders and opening the door.
The room below was filled with his forty odd students, a clear divide in House with Hufflepuff in front and Slytherin in back.
Getting the idea that these were his students and feeling butterflies start gathering in his gut, he focused on not tripping down the stairs as every pair of eyes in the room watched him descend. “Okay,” he smiled nervously. He waved the door closed before looking around the room. Everyone stared back.
‘Okay…’ he coughed.
“Good Morning. Um. My name is Professor DiNozzo and, well, to be honest, I’ve never taught a class before. So, as this year goes along, I will adjust to how we interact.”
The kids watched him and he nodded to himself.
“Now, to get started with getting to know all of you, why don’t we do a little icebreaker? Put your things away and stand.”
He watched them follow his instructions and soon they were all standing in the cleared front of the room.
“I know that you know who each other is, but I don’t, so if you look at the floor around you, you will see letters on it. Please stand behind the first letter of your first name.”
Again, there was a House divide as he made everyone say their first names – also taking attendance.
All were present, so he nodded when the last person called their name.
“Now, I understand that this next activity might be uncomfortable to a lot of you, but I want you to turn to the person on your left. Who is that person?”
“A Hufflepuff,” one girl told him.
Seeing the opportunity, he pounced. “Besides House.”
Here, they looked at each other.
“But,” that same girl frowned. “What does that mean?”
… this was going to be more complicated than he thought.
“Okay. Could one of you explain what you don’t understand?”
A Hufflepuff standing behind the ‘S’ raised her hand. “What do you mean ‘besides House’? What else is there?”
The others nodded.
“What else besides Hou- Alright,” he changed track. “ Who here likes ice cream? Show of hands.”
Uncertain what he was getting at, almost all raised their hands.
Tony zeroed in on a Slytherin boy. “Why don’t you like ice cream?”
“My Aunt’s daughter is allergic to it,” he responded.
“Now. See? That something. So, he doesn’t like what you all do because his cousin can’t eat it and probably never developed much of a taste for it. That’s something besides House. Who likes flying?”
Hands went down.
“Who likes Quidditch?”
This time, all hands went up.
“You’re kidding,” he acted impressed because he knew all of them did. “All of you?”
“We have House Teams,” one told him. “We have to go out there to show our support.”
“It’s different when our siblings or cousins are there,” another added to general agreement.
“But what if your friends are on opposite teams?”
This time, a Slytherin asked almost incredulously, “Why in Merlin’s name would we have friends in other Houses?”
By the time class ended, Tony was pretty sure everyone thought he was nuts. But he learned that if any of them were going in professions that needed them to work as a team, then he had his work cut out for him.
He assigned them three sets of questions to ask three other Fifth Years from a different House. Or three at all if they could manage it.
Already, he was structuring the next handful of all his classes to be more team oriented.
It was one thing to know how to defend oneself against the Dark Arts, but it was another when tossed together with other people.
And Tony had another idea to put together: everyone was taught to use Magic with Magic, but that wouldn’t necessarily work in all situations. He did know that he had a bunch of stuff to go over, but none of it would do any good if he didn’t get anyone thinking about other ways to do things or if they failed with necessary teamwork.
He thought that he would have an easier time of it with the younger kids as they were just beginning their Magical educations. The older Years would need more attention and it was going to be tough trying to change their minds. He wouldn’t be able to rely on the Trio in this – except to perhaps be an example – because they had already been conditioned into the House frame of mind.
This also led Tony to think about how he was going to treat the kids.
All knew that teachers were extremely biased, but Tony felt that he had the advantage in not having grown up with that. He didn’t want to turn anyone against each other for favor – getting enough from his real job – and he could only come up with treating everyone the same as all the others. If he was neutral to the House thing, maybe others would decide that House lines could blur.
It most certainly couldn’t hurt if he stayed away from House bias.
He could have favorite students – that was a given -, but that would have to go like his own teachers had favorite students.
His friend Pin was a teacher at their old school, but Tony wasn’t entirely sure he was a good example since he wasn’t certain Pin had favorite students.
Making a note to himself about meeting his friend sometime soon, he got to meet with his Sixth Year Ravenclaw and Slytherin mix. He noted that this group got along rather well, nodding as he found his Seventh Year classes with the same grouping as the Sixth Years.
As ‘Agent’ last year, he’d seen his particular group of Lions against their Slytherin classmates and he really didn’t want to deal with that this year.
At the end of the first day of classes, all his students had been given the same homework to get the kids mingling. His next week’s assignment was going to be similar, but the Older and Younger Years within the Houses were going to be interviewing each other. Sure, that could be seen as going backwards, but Tony also observed the younger kids appearing shy amidst their older Housemates.
He wished they had the same mentor type program his school did. The Third Years could do with having a younger sibling figure. Almost half didn’t have a younger sibling (if they even had others) and were considered the youngest themselves.
Tony, Booker, Sparky and Pin had all adored their Third and First Years , but not for the first time did Tony wonder at their influence on the First Years entrusted to them.
The other three either still kept in touch with their mentors and charges, or at least kept enough tabs on them to let them know that they were still available. Well, that was what Sparky had told him and Booker that was what Pin had been doing.
As for Tony himself, he honestly had no idea what happened to his First Year Alicia Jacobs. They’d fallen out of touch almost after she graduated and went into something involving overseas relations. He’d been in at Ohio State at that point, getting ready to go into the Police Academy. In fact, now that he thought it, that Hufflepuff Second Year – the one that he was beginning to agree with Harry about being a Seer – reminded him an awful lot of Alicia. From what he had remembered, it had been a distinct possibility that she also had had latent psychic abilities.
But, similarities aside, it was Tony’s Third Year that had caught his thoughts again and again.
John Sheppard had been someone he’d looked up to. Tony’s cousin Peter Burke had been She’s own Third Year and Tony thought that Shep had been awesome partly because of that fact. His older Housemate had practically adopted his three friends as their group solidified and the four Detectives had adopted him in turn.
After graduating, however, Tony, Peter and the others lost touch with him after he joined the Air Force.
For the longest time, Tony had thought that he’d upset the older man or something, but that was before NCIS. Now, he knew that Shep had been waylaid by a bunch of factors and he wondered what had ever become of him.
He thought about him as he watched the sky darken out his classroom windows and wished he could talk to him.
Shep always said that he’d be a teacher or something and he would probably get a kick out of this should he ever get wind that he’d been right. At least temporarily, anyway.
“I hope you’re doing what you love, Shep. Wherever you are.”
For all he knew, the older man could be –
But… he didn’t want to think that, so he sighed and set out his next batch of classwork for tomorrow and left the familiar settings of his classroom.
He still had an hour before dinner, so he went out to the Owlry to see if Hedwig was there.
Harry had told him last night that Hedwig’s behavior worried him, so Tony decided to look into it for him.
There were a few students he encountered along the way and he spied one of the Hufflepuffs from his first class talking to a Ravenclaw about the homework.
Well, it was a start.
He got to the Owlry, but came up with nothing.
‘Guess she’s not here, yet.’ Oh, well.
He was halfway back to the main bridge when he turned back around.
The students used owls, yes, so that could only be part of the reason, but…
It didn’t explain how the thing was almost empty.
The school owls were gone, too, and Tony shook his head at himself after a minute.
‘Of course the place is empty,’ he scoffed at himself. ‘It’s almost dark now and they’re all probably off catching food or something.’
That mystery solved for the moment, he decided to head for the Quidditch Pitch instead of returning to the school.
He headed back for the main bridge and kept walking as the bridge wrapped around the school and led him out to the Pitch. Once he got there, he made for the stands and found a place to sit.
A few were flying around before dinner and Tony could see Harry and Ron among them as darkness approached. Mi was probably on the other side of the stands, watching as she probably got drawn into a conversation with other spectators.
It was going to be a pretty night, he settled in with a slight smile. He figured about two weeks or so before the weather started turning, but nothing was out there now.
He heard shuffling off to his left, shuffling that became clear footsteps as they came closer and someone sat behind him with a raspy cough.
“Nice night,” Tony commented.
There was no answer, so he shrugged and leaned forward when he noticed the fliers all gathered together near the center of the Pitch.
The light spell that Mi probably lit was fading and Tony tilted his head. Putting his hands together, he mouthed the spell in his thoughts and felt the yellow goop fill his cupped hands.
Merlin, it had been so long since he’d used this particular spell!
The goop in his hands began to float as his wrists made movements, Tony unable to stop a smirk from his face as he watched the drips and drops move away from him and toward the players on broomstick. Feeling a little Marauder-like himself, he waited until the goop had disappeared from his hands and were in position before snapping his fingers.
Half the kids jumped so badly at the sudden illumination that they almost fell off their brooms, Tony giving a slight laugh at the sight. All of them looked around and Tony waved when some of them looked his way.
“Sorry, buddy,” Tony winced as he turned around to find – no one there. “What?” he blinked. He could’ve sworn someone had been sitting right behind him. “Strange.” Unless he’d been concentrating too hard on his spell and missed the person leaving.
“Tony!” he turned to see Harry and Ron come to a stop slightly above him on their brooms.
“Hey, guys,” he smiled back. “Sorry about that, but I couldn’t resist.”
“I’ve never seen that spell,” Ron told him.
“Yeah, well,” he shrugged. “There’s a few things that I can teach you if you’re interested.”
“We’re going to be out a little longer,” Harry explained, “but you can sit with Hermione if you want.”
“Alright,” he nodded, waving as they made their way back to the other flyers . He looked around again, having been absolutely sure someone had been there, before shaking it off and heading over to Mi’s location.
Lo and behold, she’d been hanging out with some of his students from earlier, who greeted him shyly.
“It’s good to see you getting a head start,” Tony commented, lowering into a seat above them.
“You said we could talk to others in our Year,” one of them told him.
“So I did. And Mi? What’s your excuse?”
The Prefect shrugged. “I was here when the bigger group was flying.”
“That’s kind of why we’re out here,” another added. “The Pitch is a good place for talking to people.”
“I’ll remember that when it starts snowing one afternoon and no one’s able to find you,” Tony deadpanned.
“That won’t happen.”
“Oh no? It did with two of my friends in Second Year.” He never wanted to go through that again and had refused to speak with Sparky and Booker until both girls were once again the best of friends.
“She meant,” Mi added, “it won’t happen here.”
“We’ll see.”
Tony eventually made his way around the Pitch to pick up stragglers on the way back for dinner.
“Ginny told us what you told her class,” Harry told him as the four followed the others at the end of the line.
“So you already have a sense of what I’m going to tell yours,” he smiled.
“Tony,” Mi spoke. “I just wanted to tell you that you can come to us if you need help or anything.”
“Maybe a little later,” he shook his head. “I can’t come to you for what I have planned just yet.”
“Why not?” Ron wanted to know.
“… You’re a native. You wouldn’t really understand.”
By the time they got to dinner, they were convinced it was an ‘American Thing’. Tony wasn’t sure what else to call it.
* **
It was finally Wednesday and the Trio was probably more happy about that than anyone else.
It had been a horribly slow Tuesday filled with even more horribly boring – and Potions – subjects. Luckily, they had the interesting ones every Wednesday and Friday with a break, even, to sweeten the deal.
First up after breakfast, though, was Care of Magical Creatures.
The mixed group of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff made their way down to Hagrid’s, where he waited impatiently for them to gather around.
“Welcome back,” he clapped his hands together before rubbing them briskly. “Now, I know ye lot’re used ta handlin’ things from our world in general, which you’ll still be doin’, but, eh, after a bit of a, uh, event a few days ago, we figured it would be a good idea to show yeh that different countries have their own Magical creatures. An’ some of them critters don’, er, take well ta different countries or Witches n’ Wizards from those countries. An’, since some o’ them don’t like those of us who’re from Britain and the like, it’ll have ta be from the books fer ya.”
“Professor Hagrid,” Hermione raised her hand. “Shouldn’t To – er, Professor DiNozzo be teaching us some of these creatures?”
“Oh, Tony will,” he assured. “It’s jus… well, yeh’d have to ask one of the other teachers ‘cause I was off on business and… well, why don’t we start with what ya know?”
* **
Harry shook his head as they returned to the castle for Transfiguration class with McGonagall before lunch. After that, they had Charms before a break leading up to class with Tony. It was the same schedule on Friday, too.
“I wonder what happened a few days ago,” he voiced. It had to have been when they’d been coming to school or the day before.
“Tony has to know something,” Ron pointed out.
But Tony was still in class and they trooped to Transfiguration.
After their lesson, they followed their peers into the Great Hall for lunch.
A few owls made their way in with some mail as Harry watched and worried about Hedwig.
Ron pointed Tony out as he approached them with a quill behind one ear and some papers in one hand. “Hey, Tony!” he waved. “Hedwig’s not back.”
“We sent an owl to Tonks,” Hermione told him, “but we used one of the school owls because we couldn’t find Hedwig.”
“We don’t think she’s sick,” Harry shook his head. “And, well, I don’t think it’s mating season or anything…”
“Well, when you’ve ruled all that out,” Tony shrugged, “it might very well be something that’s bothering her about an area. One time, some of the owls had disappeared for a while and we found out that they could sense that something was wrong.”
“So, there’s something wrong?” Hermione frowned. “Here?”
“Probably the only thing I can think of off-hand. Besides, as Sherlock always says, ‘Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains – however improbable – must be true.’ I’ve found that he’s been right quite a few times.”
Harry smiled sadly. Leave it to Sherlock to know how to make someone feel better even after he died.
“How’ve you been, anyway?” Ron studied him.
“You don’t need to sound so serious when you ask people that,” Tony frowned at him. “But I’ve been good. Why?”
Hermione bit her lip. “Tony, he’s… dead, you know? Sherlock, I mean. And you… well, if you need to talk, we’ll listen.”
“But he’s not,” Tony blinked. “Anyway, have you seen my quill? Can’t for the life of me remember what I did with it.” He wandered off to the Staff Table and left the Trio staring at each other.
“It’s denial, isn’t it?” Hermione sighed. “He can’t believe Sherlock’s gone.”
“But Watson does,” Harry pointed out.
“Yes, but Tony was his brother, remember? Like Mr. Eames. And we all know how he’s doing. Tony was probably closer to Sherlock and that’s why the guilt is kind of strong. But, at least, Tony’s showing the beginning signs of accepting it.”
Harry nodded, glancing worriedly at Tony once in a while. The relief of having him around had a slightly worried tinge because Tony could find a way to… on campus. Which was not going to happen.
Sherlock would probably haunt them – if they weren’t dead, too – and it would serve them right.
When lunch ended, Tony wandered back over.
“Say,” Hermione frowned at him as she remembered this morning. “Hagrid said that something happened either the day before or the day of our arrival. Do you know anything about that?”
Tony had an odd look on his face and refused to comment.
Sprout, on the other hand, paused on her way past and chuckled at the question. “Oh, that. Heavens, those creatures of Hagrid’s chased the poor boy all over the castle. We managed to finally get them before the train came in. I’m sorry, Tony, but we do seem to forget that there’s an Italian on staff, don’t we?”
“Are you alright?” Harry asked, alarmed.
“I’m still here, aren’t I?” he grumbled, taking himself off to class.
Sprout continued on her way to the Greenhouses as the Trio moved out of the Great Hall.
The time was going so slowly!
* **
Blue eyes stared, mind blank.
They darted first one way, then the other.
All eyes were on him as he stood in front of the classroom.
Tony, the jerk, sat with the Trio in front, all four innocently waiting for the ‘guest speaker’/sub to start.
Said speaker/sub, on the other hand, had nothing.
One of the Hufflepuffs finally took pity on him and raised her hand. “Mr. Deeks? I think you need to call roll.”
The blond blinked before startling. “Yeah, uh, attendance,” Deeks nodded stiffly. He saw it on the podium next to him and jumped on it. “Right, good,” he was pretty sure he looked sick.
When Tony fire called him to ask him to visit, he honestly had no idea that the Italian had taken the Defense post at Hogwarts. After what was said during the reception and wedding, he never quite thought that the Italian would actually agree to teach.
“C’mon, Deeks,” Tony gleefully piped up. “Didn’t you brag about being a better teacher than I could?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d actually end up teaching!”
“Time to put your money where your mouth is, then. Besides, you’re only here for an hour anyway. Get us doing something, for Merlin’s sake.”
Deeks looked uncertainly down at the roll before a light went on behind his blue eyes. “Okay. Everyone with a last name that starts with the letter ‘M’, please stand.” He marked everyone off as they continued and Deeks had them standing against the walls of the room when everyone with that particular letter had been cleared. “Okay. Everyone’s here, so that’s good. Now, who can tell me their favorite lesson from this class in the last six years?”
Neville hesitantly raised a hand and told them about Professor Lupin’s Bogart lesson from Third Year. Soon, others got into it and it was generally agreed that Lupin was the best teacher they’d ever had. Even if he was a Werewolf.
“Alright, so there’ve been quite a few things that you already know, so my question to you is: Is there any lesson that you maybe wanted to learn differently?”
“Yeah,” Harry sighed. “Dementors.”
“Really?” Deeks blinked. “They teach about those here?”
“Not exactly,” one of the Hufflepuffs shivered. “They came on the Express and they were all over the grounds all of Third Year to look for Sirius Black.”
“You know, I’ve never really met one,” Deeks admitted. “And I don’t think I want to, either.”
“Professor DiNozzo?” a different Hufflepuff spoke. “Have you ever met one?”
Even Deeks turned to look at him for an answer.
“Yes,” he finally nodded, not looking at all happy about it. “The first time was an accident back when I was at school. Well, maybe … not an accident. That was Fourth Year, though. Mostly, I’ve been dealing with them because of Agency work and there have been a number of those incidents over the years. It never gets easier.”
“Why would anyone intentionally set a Dementor on a fourteen year old?” Ron voiced what everyone was thinking.
“Why, indeed,” he smiled sadly, his expression locked down. Ducking his head, he caught Deeks’ eye and the blond shook himself.
“Ah, okay. Anyone else have anything they wanted to learn differently?”
Half the class voted all of Second Year and the half of the class who wouldn’t change any of it – mostly all the girls – bristled.
Deeks inched over to Tony, who had a hand over his eyes. “What mine did I just detonate?” he quietly asked as an argument started.
“For future reference,” he sighed, “this is what happens when you ask about Second Year. It was the teacher. Please go ask someone else. I don’t particularly want to knock anyone out over that. And the both of us know well that Mi can really hurt people.”
“But why –”
“Someone. Else. Deeks.”
“… okay…”
The attempted change of subject failed and Tony jumped in some minutes later when it looked alarmingly like things were about to get physical, clapping his hands loudly to get everyone’s attention. “Well, that was a wonderful introduction to the year, wasn’t it? Unfortunately, Mr. Deeks can’t stay, but I’m sure you’ll be running into him again before Christmas. Why don’t we give him a round of applause for sticking it out with us this long?”
They all clapped as Tony and Deeks breathed a silent sigh of relief at the crisis averted.
* **
“That was interesting,” Hermione settled in her seat as Tony went to see Deeks off.
“Yeah,” Ron said non-committedly.
Harry shrugged as he sat between them. He certainly knew the stance each took on Lockhart and didn’t fancy having one start attacking the other.
Tony reappeared a moment later, pausing to take them all in. “Thanks for playing along,” he spoke, green eyes meeting each of their gazes. “Now, I’m sure that you all know what kind of homework is going to be assigned. I am harking back to what I said before class began about how I am not like your other teachers who look at House instead of the person I’m talking to.”
Harry remembered the little speech he gave them before Deeks arrived and he knew that Tony would do his best to live up to his word. He couldn’t help wondering, though, if it was a response to the way his boss, Agent Gibbs, ran his team. Gibbs played favorites in order to make the others compete for his attention. Harry – now that he’d met the man – kind of understood it, but whatever intentions that had been there had completely backfired to alienate Tony from the others.
So, it was only natural that Tony do away with having favorites. In regards to House, anyway, having admitted that he had favorite students.
Tony wrapped up the introduction class just as the bell rang.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were finished for the day and beamed at him.
“See?” Ron clapped his arm as the room emptied around them. “You’re a natural!”
“That’s what Dumbledore told me once,” Tony told him. “And Sparky and Eames.”
“Then they know talent when they see it,” Hermione firmly agreed.
“I still have nightmares concerning the following twenty four hours. Each.”
“Stop being so pessimistic,” she scowled. “You are going to be our favorite teacher and nothing will happen in the meantime. It is going to be a wonderful year – even after you are finished at Christmas – and the three of us will graduate, go into the Aurors and pester you every day after work.”
“If we’re still alive by the time you get into the Aurors.”
“Tony…”
“No, really. I’ll be lucky if I don’t drown in all the papers I’m going to end up grading.”
* **