Chapter 21
They went back to visit Tony during their break and found Eames gone.
“He’ll come back in a few days,” Tony informed them. “He was just taking an extended lunch break from his job.”
“Is Eames part of the Order?” Harry asked point-blank. It had been bothering him since he thought of it.
“Eames? Part of the Order?” Tony started grinning. “Oh, Merlin. I can see it now,” he started laughing.
“What?” Ron frowned. “He could be.”
“No, no, he’s not,” he choked, wiping his eyes. “I just – Eames,” he wheezed. “Just no.”
Whatever Tony found funny about the accusation kept him laughing for a good ten more minutes, eventually calming and wiping his eyes.
Hermione almost set him off again when she sniffed, feathers ruffled on the absent Magical’s behalf, “Well, I think he would make a wonderful Order member.”
“In another life, maybe, but not this one.”
“And you can’t say why,” Harry sighed in resignation.
“Nope. I will say, though, that he and Snuffles would have a lot to talk about. But we’ll just have to make sure they don’t have too much fun together. Something would probably blow up for real, not just on a school day hijinks level.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Hermione perked up. “We never did get our homework back. And what about Saturday classes tomorrow?”
“Yeah, Dumbledore’s giving those back. I’ll be teaching tomorrow, so don’t worry about it.”
“Are you certain?” Hermione eyed him.
“Well, since we still don’t know what happened … yes. I promise to keel over during your class so you can be the first to say I told you so.”
“That’s really not funny,” she told him as he and the boys snickered, thought there was no mistaking her amusement.
“I thought so.”
They left with time to spare and got to the Defense classroom early, taking their usual seats in front. Harry couldn’t wait until their other Defense room was repaired. This room felt small, even though it wasn’t.
The others slowly filed in and quiet chatter filled the room as they speculated about having the Headmaster for a teacher.
“To be honest,” Hermione tapped the feather end of her quill against her cheek. “I’m not sure if I’m excited or intimidated.”
“Yeah,” Ron nodded. “Not like Tony’s the one up there. Or Moony for that matter.”
Harry wasn’t sure what the problem was, exactly.
Yes, Dumbledore was a powerful and influential Wizard, but Harry never really got more than a passing trickle of any kind of intimidation from him. He really did think of the man as a friend and kind of like a Grandfather figure if that made sense.
He knew that Tony would joke about him sometimes, but he could also hear that awed undertone of respect when the Italian was talking to the man. Well, maybe it was because Tony had met Dumbledore when he was still at Cresswell and the impression had stuck.
The Headmaster was only a few minutes late, sweeping in with a warm smile as he surveyed the class. “Good evening,” he greeted. “I trust everyone is faring well? Good. Now,” he made his way to the front of the room. “As I understand, your professor has finished grading your assignments from a few weeks ago, which will be returned at the end of class. Now, I expect you to behave yourselves as if young Tony were here – and he will be back,” he assured. “I would plan on seeing him tomorrow at some point, roaming about in his usual manner.”
“He’ll be alright, though, won’t he?” someone asked.
“Someone is sure to let you know if something happens between now and then. So,” he clapped his hands as he beamed at them in turn. “Since you’ve been reviewing materials over the past several years, I won’t go into many new topics because I don’t know what your Professor has planned. Although, I do recall having allowed Hagrid to teach you about caring for purple fuzzy Creatures just last year.”
Harry nodded, remembering that one pretty well. They’d had to make sure the things stayed with Hagrid and that none of them took the fuzzies by accident. The fluffy things got literally everywhere.
“What you all may not realize, however,” he went on, “is that they are the juvenile form of a rather alarming Dark Creature, while not quite being one themselves. Their maturity is twenty-six years of age and can last well up to one hundred years. They are rather difficult to catch once they hit a certain age, but perhaps that is a good thing. Your Professor can elaborate on more detail, since he has more experience than I. Although, I do have it on good authority that mentioning ‘Norway’ and ‘ping pong’ will put you in the uncomfortable position of explaining to Auror Donners exactly why Professor DiNozzo has barricaded himself in the Potions department.”
Harry couldn’t help wincing at the Headmaster’s sheepish tone.
The rest of the class was more of a review of what they were going over with Tony, Dumbledore answering questions happily and slipping in a few stories that may or may not have been relevant to the source material. Not like any of them minded, of course. Harry was convinced it was one of the most relaxing Defense classes he’d ever had.
Dumbledore returned their homework and Harry smiled at the A+ on his, an animated picture of a star rotating on the bottom half of his paper.
Ron and Neville revealed similar marks on theirs, Vince beaming at them as he passed.
“Seems like an easy grader,” he commented.
Harry found that no one got less than a B-, encouraging comments marking all over their handwriting.
Hermione’s paper, on the other hand –
“Oi,” Ron prodded their third as she stared at it. “You got top marks, too? ‘Course you did,” he shook his head at himself.
“You got top marks?” she scrutinized first his, then Harry’s. “But,” she kept looking between hers and theirs, a frown deepening on her face. “But … this doesn’t make sense,” she helplessly shook her head. “Come on. We need to talk to Tony.”
The boys shrugged at each other as they stuffed their things into their bags and hoisted them over their shoulders as they followed her back to Tony’s recovery room.
The Italian was amusing himself with his sketchbook and looked up when they entered. “Got your grades back, huh?”
“I think there’s been some kind of mistake,” Hermione handed her work over and they caught a glimpse of it.
Harry was pretty sure that Tony was probably the only teacher in the history of the school that had ever given Hermione less than full marks.
Tony looked it over and shook his head. “Nope. No mistake. I’m sure you’ll get it next time, so don’t worry about it.”
Hermione took it back with a frown. “But I don’t understand what I did wrong.”
“Read the directions a little more carefully next time,” Tony shrugged. “No big thing. Anyway, you three ready for tomorrow’s classes?”
“Yes,” Harry answered, Hermione still frowning on her first less than perfect homework.
Personally, Harry couldn’t tell what she did wrong, either, but Tony had to have his reasons. “Will you be up for it?”
“We’ll see, won’t we.”
They left not long after, Hermione going back to the Tower as they boys came up with a plan of action for tomorrow.
“Dunno why it could be in the Forbidden Section,” Ron mused as they wandered the grounds. “Could be in the History or Runes sections. We’ll have to look through these books carefully. The question is what their Mark’s supposed to do and what it looks like.”
Harry also wanted to know why AJ had deemed it to be the right timing to speak of it and why them? Did they need to find it or something and use it somehow?
Maybe he should concentrate on actually researching it, first. His other questions could come later.
But there was a reason they were being sent on this assignment and he couldn’t help but wonder if they would find out that reason by year’s end.
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