Chapter 15
The weekend flew past and it was a new week for the students of Hogwarts.
Lessons were slightly behind after last week’s excitement, so there was an effort to pack as much material as each of the teachers could get.
Tony, needless to say, had to find somewhere to hold class, and there were many rooms to choose from. Unfortunately, Tony and the other teachers spent all day Sunday and after classes Monday preparing the room with layers of spells and wards.
Harry, Ron and Hermione ran into Tony at lunch on Tuesday.
“I mean, the room’s fine,” he told them, having decided to eat with them at the Gryffindor table. “I just like the other one and that one’s not going to be fixed until at least the first match of the year.”
Ron was inhaling his sandwiches as Hermione sipped her juice, pointing out, “At least there wasn’t enough damage to bring all the walls down.”
“That goes without saying,” he waved a hand. “I just mean that you get used to things after spending all day around it.”
“But what about our homework?”
Ron choked as something went down the wrong way and Harry clutched his heart, looking over his shoulder to see AJ absently patting Ron’s back as her grey eyes watched Tony as he, too, recovered from her unexpected appearance.
“What about it?” he eyed her in return once he got his coughing back under control.
“Didn’t you have our homework in your office before it exploded?” AJ cocked her head in question.
“Nope. Every time I put them in my desk, they reappear in my quarters.”
“You told us you take it to your place after class!” Ron scowled at him.
“Well, sure,” he shrugged. “If someone manages to get in, they won’t find anything and they’ll get in trouble.”
“Telling people one thing and doing another?” AJ crossed her arms.
“Well, look at it this way. Neville’s down the table a ways, there, isn’t he? If I told him something that someone overhead, they might want to break into my office and frame him for cheating. I can catch the perpetrator that way, to see who would take the bait.”
“But no one would go to all that trouble,” Hermione shook her head.
“Mi,” he smiled slightly, “I would’ve loved to have had you as a classmate in my Fourth Year. Peter might know enough to tell you about it, since it’s practically legend at this point.”
Hermione still wasn’t convinced.
Somehow, the conversation drifted to the Weasley twins and Dumbledore drifted by at some point to listen.
“Ah, the fond memories of yesteryear,” the Headmaster chuckled. “Nothing is a greater joy than recalling fond moments in the process of passing them onto the next generation.”
“I guess,” Harry glanced at AJ, all of them left grinning as a Weasley Twin story was wont to do.
“Ms. Johnson and Mr. DiNozzo will no doubt be passing the stories on to their fellows before the day is out, I wager.”
“Sir?”
Dumbledore waved a hand at Tony, making Harry, Ron, AJ and Hermione look him over. Not seeing anything, the four of them looked back at Dumbledore.
“What?” Tony raised a brow at them. “You don’t see anything?”
“Are we supposed to?” Ron eyed him, but – like Harry – didn’t see anything different.
“AJ,” they turned to see Hannah moving down the table to stand next to her young Housemate. “Summer and Wynter have been looking for you.”
“If you all will excuse me,” Dumbledore gave them all a nod as he resumed his path, chuckling fondly at them.
“Mental,” Ron huffed after him, eating a sandwich triangle almost without chewing.
“Okay, Hannah,” AJ acquiesced. “Are they outside our next class?”
“Yeah. I’ll walk you over.”
The pair of Badgers said their goodbyes and were just about to leave when Hannah glanced over to see Tony lifting Hermione’s chocolate biscuit behind her back.
“Professor?” she blinked as they looked up at her. “Um, why are you wearing the Fourth Year Gryffindor uniform?”
“Oh,” Harry blinked at looked at Tony again. “So that’s what Dumbledore was trying to tell us.”
“Why he was laughing at us, you mean,” Ron nodded.
Tony watched Hannah with an unreadable look on his face before giving her a charming smile, leaning forward on an elbow. “Ms. Abbot, how would you like to work in law enforcement?”
“Oh, I’m already going into the Aurors,” she gave him a shy smile.
“Hm,” he popped a bit of biscuit into his mouth. “Fifteen points to Hufflepuff.”
“Really?” Hannah started, eyes darting to Hermione’s reaction – which Harry thought was odd.
Tony had given the Trio points since term started. Did she think Hermione was going to get upset? Granted, Harry wasn’t sure what Hermione’s reaction was back when Hannah revealed that she was going to be Head Girl, but none of the Trio wanted to have some monopoly on Tony’s point-giving authority. That’s not how things worked.
“Why are you giving us points?” AJ questioned.
“Ten for Hannah for being a fresh set of eyes and five for AJ for being so quiet. You might find that beneficial in the future. Although, speaking of heading for class,” Tony grimaced as he checked the time. “See you guys later.”
The Trio watched Tony and the girls leave and Harry quickly finished his lunch before he caught sight of Hermione frowning under the table. “What is it, Hermione?”
“Can you see anything on the floor? I think I dropped my biscuit.”
* **
They turned Tony’s homework in when they had class on Wednesday.
“I don’t think I’ll see you three until after dinner,” the Italian told them bitterly. “I should’ve known paperwork would follow me freaking everywhere.”
With that in mind, they didn’t think anything of it when they didn’t see or hear from him for the rest of the day or night.
When the Trio woke up Thursday morning – October just two days away -, they did so with an effort that they hadn’t encountered since Sixth Year.
“Not that sleeping sickness again!” Hermione despaired, struggling to climb down the stairs without falling.
“But why?” Ron threw his hands up. “Tony’s fine!”
Harry sighed in frustration.
They’d been so sure it had stopped when Tony was revealed to have been the black dog they’d rescued. Why was it still plaguing them?
Palmer had postulated that it had been worry for Tony that had started it, but they weren’t worried anymore.
“I mean,” Ron fisted his hair with a grimace. “Sure, I’m worried about what we’ll have to go through after Graduation and what we’re going to do about Tony, but I don’t think I’m that worried, yet.”
They thought on it as they made their way down to breakfast, only for Hermione to let out a gasp as she stopped in the middle of the corridor.
“What if it’s about Sherlock?” she turned worried brown eyes on them. “It wouldn’t have to be something we’re doing, I’m sure. Do you think Tony’s been thinking about him?”
Harry wasn’t sure.
From what he understood, Tony only visited Sherlock when he’d been able to - though not all of that time had been spent with the Consulting Detective; Tony did have other friends, after all -, so that meant that Tony had been with Sherlock roughly a quarter and a half of the time.
On the other hand, Harry himself didn’t find his thoughts straying to the late Detective very much, because he didn’t have the same history that Tony had had with Sherlock.
Still, sometimes Harry would wonder and remember. It was mostly because someone – not necessarily close to him – that he knew, and who was also one of Tony’s closest friends, had thrown himself off a roof.
“We can just ask,” Ron pointed out. “Tony should be in the Great Hall right now, anyway.”
They hurried to the rest of breakfast, but instead of Tony, they found –
“Peter?” Hermione jolted as she recognized their cousin sitting at the Staff table near the Headmaster.
The three of them looked at each other before moving to the high table where Peter seemed to know what they wanted.
“Good morning,” he greeted, tired brown eyes scanning them to be sure curiosity was the only thing driving them to the Staff table. “Always nice to see you.”
“It’s great to see you again,” Hermione smiled slightly.
“Yeah,” Ron agreed before – in that face-palming way of his – demanding, “Now, where’s Tony?”
Peter glanced at Dumbledore a few empty seats away before leaning forward. “I don’t know, exactly,” he confided as they leaned forward to hear, “but Dumbledore said that Tony was doing him an unexpected favor. I don’t know that much more, but I was told he’d be back sometime tomorrow.”
Harry frowned at that. “I didn’t hear anything from him,” he voiced to the others.
“He said he was grading papers,” Hermione gave him a nod.
Peter spread his hands. “Well, Tony’s got a variety of skills that can be called forward at any time. Maybe there was one that the Headmaster needed access to at that very moment.”
That sounded a lot like Order business.
Harry glanced at his two friends to see the same thought running across their own faces and thanked Peter for answering the call to help Tony.
“It’s fine,” he waved them off. “To be honest, it gives me something else to focus on besides the case I’ve now got on my desk. It’s a Muggle case and my Muggle partner is off doing a different case with Jones. Diana, thankfully, is off on vacation, so I’ve been busy trying to figure it out by myself from my desk. This’ll be a nice change of scenery.”
The Trio sequestered themselves at an empty part of their House Table and got some breakfast, thoughts running through their heads as they ate.
“But I thought he wasn’t part of… you know,” Ron eventually hissed.
“He’s not,” Hermione hissed back from Harry’s other side. “Just because the Headmaster has Tony doing something that may be related to … them, it could be virtually anything.”
“Or it’s like Peter said,” Harry looked between them. “Remember, we know that Dumbledore is looking into the Star Drop. Maybe Tony’s doing some kind of information gathering?”
That seemed to mollify Ron, who accepted it with a nod. “And Tony’s the best person to do it,” he slowly went on, “because of his Muggle job.”
“And the group knows that he won’t sell them out,” Hermione picked up, “so, he’s the perfect person to do whatever job he’s been chosen to do.”
And if Tony’s as good as they all – except Tony himself, maybe – believed he was, then they would find out sooner rather than later if the Star Drop was a myth.
Harry knew that Tony’s side job was important, so they simply expressed some worries about Tony being careful, some thoughts on Peter as a Professor and finished breakfast before rushing off to class.
* **
They heard comments on Peter as their substitute teacher and most were positive.
Neither of the three would lie, but they puffed up with pride with every good thing they heard about Peter throughout the rest of the morning and all through the afternoon.
At dinner, they caught up with him to congratulate him on his successful day.
“Are you alright?” Hermione frowned at him. “You look like you’ve got a headache.”
“I do,” the American shook his head with a small laugh. “How does Tony do it? I’ve been nervous about screwing up and then I would be known as Mr. Burke, Professor DiNozzo’s screw-up of a cousin.”
“That is not true,” she negated. “You were wonderful.”
“Yeah, we’ll see if you feel the same way,” he scoffed. “It seems that the only things I’ve been hearing is ‘but Mr. Burke. Professor DiNozzo does it this way.’ Or ‘Mr. Burke? Her name’s Radar. That’s what the Professor calls her.’ I had two of the Benson girls in class and I was lambasted for calling one by the other’s name because ‘Professor DiNozzo knows which one is which.’ I tell you,” Peter shook his head, “I honestly don’t know. I’m working off what Tony noted for his lessons.” He seemed to be at a loss for words and just moved his arms out to the sides, finally settling for, “He’s a tough act to follow.”
Harry was pretty sure that it sounded like the students treated Peter like Ziva, Abby, Ducky and McGee treated Tony when Gibbs went off to Mexico.
Odd how that worked out, isn’t it?
“So,” Harry shrugged. “Are you coming back tomorrow?”
“I really can’t,” Peter shook his head, arms falling back to his sides. “I’m not exactly the best person to be teaching Defense. I always did better at Runes and other things and left Defense to Tony.”
“Regretting that now?” Ron crossed his arms with a grin.
“You could say that…”
* **
Friday morning brought a light drizzle that the castle woke up to.
Harry wasn’t as tired as yesterday morning, but he still felt a strange fatigue that Ron and Hermione also experienced.
“I’ve been thinking,” Hermione mused as they headed down to breakfast. “There seemed to have been a few times that Tony seemed affected by this thing last year, too. The question I want to know is if he’s feeling it now.”
“He couldn’t afford it,” Harry frowned at her. “Not if he’s doing something for Dumbledore.”
“Yeah,” Ron agreed. “He’ll need every bit of energy.”
They didn’t see Peter with the rest of the staff, so they hoped Tony was back. Peter said something about Tony’s return being sometime today, after all. Then they could see what Tony found out about the Star Drop.
However, it was not to be.
Before breakfast ended, Deeks made an appearance.
“Hey, guys,” the blond dragged Harry and Ron into a hug. “Good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” Hermione glanced helplessly at them. “Tony’s not back?”
“’fraid not,” Deeks loosened his grip so that his arms draped cross the pair’s shoulders. “Dumbledore told Hetty that he’ll be here later tonight. I’ll be here, too, since Kensi twisted her ankle on… whatever she was doing at three in the morning,” he shook his head. “Hetty has us doing cold cases and paperwork, so I jumped at the chance.”
“I don’t know,” Harry smiled up at him, relieved at the news that Tony would be back within hours – however long they may seem. “It didn’t seem that you wanted to teach again.”
“Ah, but that’s the point,” the older Wizard shook him slightly. “I’m not teaching. Mac’s actually setting stuff up right now. Palmer’s still at work, sadly, but it’ll just be us two running herd over all of you. Hopefully, Tony will come back by dinner and everything will go back to what passes for normal in our lives.”
“Anything we should know for today?” Ron questioned.
“That’d be telling,” Deeks winked. “We’re having all of you be sworn to secrecy until dinner where you will gloat to all the other students about having the best teachers in the Magical World.”
Harry wasn’t sure if he was serious about being sworn to secrecy, but he smiled anyway. “We already do,” he pointed out. “It’s Hogwarts, after all.”
“Yeah, I wish I went to this school, too,” the blond’s smile dropped as an alarming darkness crossed his face.
The Trio wasn’t sure what to say next, to right the earlier light atmosphere, but Deeks caught sight of Sprout and headed over to ask about some plants that someone back home was curious about.
Harry looked at his friends, seeing the expressions on their faces.
He kind of wanted to know, but wasn't sure if he should. And it was clear Ron and Hermione were both struggling between curiosity and foreboding, just as he was.
The bell rang and they moved off to class a few minutes later.
* **
Just because they kind of wanted Tony back didn’t mean that they weren’t the least bit curious about how Mac and Deeks were going to do their class.
Harry, Ron and Hermione settled into their seats while looking around to see if there was some clue as to what they were in for.
“I don’t see anything,” Hermione voiced.
“Me, either,” Harry agreed, Ron echoing a moment later.
They didn’t need to wait long.
“Hi, everybody!” Deeks entered the room with a wave. “Remember me?”
“Agent Deeks,” Hannah waved as others called out their own greetings.
“So,” he rubbed his hands together. “Who’s ready for the most awesome lesson you’ve always dreamed about? If you are, take your wands, leave your stuff and follow me.”
“This seems promising,” Hermione grinned, leaving her things and joining the others.
“It stopped raining,” Ron noted to Harry as they followed her.
They trooped through the school’s corridors and down stairs they used every day, following Deeks as he intermittently glanced back to make sure he hadn’t lost anyone yet.
The journey led them outside and to the Great Lake where the Giant Squid curiously followed their progress.
“Sorry, Squidy,” Deeks waved as they began to move away from the water a few minutes later. “This is for bi-pedal land animals.”
Harry peeked a glance into the Lake and grinned as the Squid seemed to huff and decided to storm off in a cloud of ink.
“I think it’s upset,” Neville piped up, having also seen its reaction.
“I wouldn’t worry,” Deeks waved a dismissive hand. “It’ll probably be back once it cools off.” He led them a few feet into the woods and they soon found Mac leaning back against a tree waiting for them. “Oh, honey, we’re home!” he grinned widely.
“And just in time,” she looked up with a smile as the class was directed to make a semi-circle in front of her. “I hope everyone’s doing well this cloudy afternoon.”
Harry looked up through the slightly green leaves above to see the overcast sky. Hopefully, it wouldn’t rain before they finished, but there was nothing they could do about the weather at this point.
“Now,” Mac straightened. “I want everyone in teams of two and three. This will be a team effort, so choose wisely.”
The Trio stuck together. It was bad enough that they didn’t know where Tony was or what he was doing, so they wouldn’t stress themselves or each other even more by worrying about the other two and how they were faring through the rest of the lesson.
Luckily, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs mixed wonderfully so they were teamed up in no time.
Deeks had been watching them thoughtfully and making little notes to himself in a notebook not unlike the ones Tony had. Harry wondered what he was doing, but didn’t worry too much on it.
It was probably something to do with class or Tony.
He remembered that parchment trick Tony showed them the other day and suddenly eyed the notebook speculatively.
“Now that you are in your teams,” Mac called attention back to her, “I want everyone lined up with their teams. One by one, Agent Deeks will lead each group to the starting point and there, he will give you further instructions. Remember, you have all of class to finish, so there shouldn’t be much trouble to the point where we have to go get you once time is up. Understand?”
“Ma’am?” a different Hufflepuff raised her hand. “What if there’s something wrong and we need to leave?”
“There is something called the ‘panic’ button,” Mac explained. “One will be in every area, so you don’t need to worry about that, but it is up to you to find and note the location of each of them. If Deeks or myself need to stop at any time, all panic buttons will be activated simultaneously. When it does go off for any reason, you are to stay with your group in the area that the button is located. We will come to you.”
After a few more instructions, Deeks went off with Vince’s group.
Harry heard the nervous mutterings around them and tried not to let it get to him. He didn’t know what was going to happen, either, but he trusted Deeks and Mac to not create something that dangerous.
The Trio kept giving each other – somewhat unhelpfully – reassuring looks.
“We’ll get through this,” Hermione assured, the group next to them being taken away.
“In one piece?” Ron swallowed uneasily.
Soon enough, they were being led away from the others, Deeks humming a jaunty tune as he made small notations in his little book.
“You’ll be fine,” he noted their nervous looks with a grin.
They rounded a rather large tree and found a tent on the other side.
“We go in?” Hermione checked.
“Yup,” Deeks slid his pen behind his ear and reached into his pocket to withdraw a slim card. “You will find yourself in ten rooms,” he told them, handing the card to Harry, who opened it to see ten blank spaces. “A star will appear when you finish each. It doesn’t matter what ten rooms you end up in, just pick a direction. When the card is presented, a door will open and you will be free to leave the room.” He smiled widely at them. “Got it? Good luck and we’ll see you on the other side.”
He gave them a slight salute and Harry blew out a breath before going first.
Cautiously entering the tent, he found three doors across the room. Each was the same as the other two and he moved over to inspect them as Hermione and Ron followed him inside.
Looking for themselves, they went to stand next to him in front of the doors.
“They look just like regular doors,” Ron shrugged.
“I think they are,” Hermione eyed them uncertainly.
Looking at each other again, Ron went to the one on the far left. “He said pick a direction, didn’t he?”
Harry and Hermione couldn’t see why not, so Ron opened it as they approached.
Inside was a room with pillows all over the floor.
Pillows of all shapes and sizes lay in piles, simple and ordinary ones to complex and fancy ones.
“Alright,” Hermione frowned. The three moved inside, Ron shutting the door behind them. “What now?”
They waited a moment, but nothing jumped out at them. The pillows stayed pillows in their piles.
“What do you reckon Deeks meant by ‘presenting’?” Ron wanted to know. Harry understood his confusion, because the blond didn’t seem like he was ready to make it any easier for them.
His sharp green eyes looked out across the room and spied a small dais. “There,” he pointed it out. “I think we need to put the card on top to leave.”
“I think so, too,” Hermione nodded. She made her way over to inspect it. “Harry? Can I see the card, please? There’s a small slot here that may be important. I was helping Tony over the summer and I inserted a key into a hole to get an envelope. Maybe the slit is for the card?”
Well, it couldn’t hurt to try.
When he and Ron reached her, Harry held the card for her to take and she inserted it into the slot.
Nothing.
“I don’t know,” she finally sighed, shaking her head. “I was so certain that was what we had to do.”
Harry sighed and looked around again.
This time, his eyes caught something tacked onto the wall in front of them. He moved to it and relaxed when he saw that they were instructions.
‘There are three keys in this room. Move the pillows without touching them. Once all three have been uncovered, place them on the dais.’
“If that’s what we have to do,” Hermione beamed with confidence, “then we’ll be out of here in no time.”
“But what did it mean that we can’t move the pillows?” Ron pointed out.
“We levitate them,” she turned to a medium pillow and used her wand to lift it. It went easily and they decided to split up to search for the keys.
Using Levitation, they made walls of pillows and found the keys in short order. They had established the inability to pick a single one up while the others were still being found, so they quickly grabbed all three at once and deposited them on the flat surface of the dais.
A door appeared in front of them and Harry was allowed to take the card, opening it to find a star filling one of the squares.
In the next room, it was about Transfiguration and they earned their second star in no time.
“Are we sure we’re in Defense class?” Ron huffed, twirling his wand.
“This is all actually very simple,” Hermione smiled brightly at them. “We haven’t even needed to push the panic button.”
“What does one look like, anyway?” Harry frowned. He started slightly when the dais outlined Tony’s NCIS logo and had to smile as he found the one in real life off to the right.
“It looks like we have to keep an eye out for it, then,” Hermione noted as he pointed it out.
“Okay,” Ron nodded. “Think the rest of it’s easy, too?” he asked, hand on the next door knob.
“We’ll find out,” Harry lifted a shoulder.
“Come on, then,” Hermione told them. “Let’s go. We’ll see this through to the end without pushing the button. It can’t be that difficult, right?”
And it wasn’t.
The Trio blew through the next few doors with increasing confidence in their abilities. They had told themselves that – while there was nothing wrong with asking for help – they wouldn’t use the button.
And they didn’t.
Then they got to the eighth room.
* **