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Engaging Rumors


James’s father being a hero to muggles was big news throughout the castle in no time at all. James felt a bit of a celebrity as people stopped him in the hall to congratulate him on having such a brave father. “Just think,” said one of the Ravenclaw third-years, “If he hadn’t been there to help, that whole family would’ve been burned alive!”

“Yeah,” James agreed, nodding. The moment the girl had walked away he turned to Sirius, “Bloody hell, I ought to start charging folks to shake my hand, I’d make loads of galleons.” They were on their way to Defense Against the Dark Arts and had been stopped no less than three times by curious and excited students.

“Well you really should be proud of him, shouldn’t you?” Lily said, following along with them, side-by-side to Remus, hugging her books to her chest, “I mean your father’s really done something marvelous hasn’t he? He’s stood up against the Dark Lord.”

“He stood up against an overactive heater’s what he’s done,” James said.

“But in a roundabout way it’s against the Dark Lord,” Lily argued. “I mean, the Dark Lord thinks Muggle lives are useless and that they shouldn’t be protected by wizards. Your dad used magic to save them. That’s something Voldemort would never want.”

“I just wish that everyone would stop making such a blasted big deal about it,” James said. “The more of a deal they make of it, the more likely it is to upset Voldemort and the more likely it is for them to end up killed. So excuse me if I’m not bursting with excitement over the thought of it.”

They’d reached the classroom and Peter came to a stop in the doorway. “Well blimey.”

“What is it?” asked Sirius, eager to stop James and Lily from arguing any further. But Peter didn’t have time to answer as Sirius bounded around the corner - followed by James, Lily, and Remus - to see that Professor Blythe was back in the Defense room, her back to them. On the wall behind her desk was a large projection of a fearsome looking ghoul. “Awesome,” Sirius said with excitement, elbowing James, “Looks like it’s going to be a fun one, ‘ey mate?”

“Yeah, brilliant,” said James, but he still felt distracted.

The class was a good one, it was quite interesting learning about ghouls and as much as the boys liked Professor McGonagall, they couldn’t help but feel that Chriselda Blythe taught the subjects a bit more excitingly. But when Sirius raised his hand and asked Professor Blythe what had kept her away so long, she simply shook her head and said that it was a long story, better suited for another time. He noticed she kept her ring carefully turned so that the shiny diamond stayed facing her palm and his suspicions were awakened once again.

Who was Chriselda Blythe engaged to? And why was it such a big secret? What had gotten her suspended from teaching and why was she back now? What had changed between then and now?




It turned out that turning her ring about couldn’t keep the rumors from spreading. As students had Defense classes, the news of Professor Blythe’s mysterious engagement filled the halls of Hogwarts and by lunch the Great Hall was abuzz with people sorting through their thoughts on the topic. When Derek Bell came in and set himself down, however, Bilius and Alex both silenced immediately, shooting nervous glances at Derek.

Derek grabbed his food and started eating before he noticed their silence, and then he raised his eyebrow and looked between the two. “Alright,” he said, “What’s going on? Why are we being so quiet?”

Bilius and Alex exchanged glances, then Alex said, “Do you still fancy Chriselda Blythe?”

Derek shrugged as he shoveled applesauce into his mouth quickly.

Alex looked at Bilius for help. Bilius took a deep breath, “Well, mate, see it’s just that --” There was no delicate way to break the news to him, he decided, and so he said it as bold a headline as it really was, “Chriselda’s engaged.”

Derek stopped his eating and stared at his plate, a funny look come over him. He looked over at Bilius. “How do you know?”

“The second years,” Bilius answered, “And everyone else in the school, for bloody sake. Everyone’s talking about it. She’s teaching Defense again today and she’s got a diamond the size of a small planet on her hand.”

Derek continued to stare at the table.

“Sorry, mate,” said Alex.

“Thing is, nobody knows who she’s engaged to,” Bilius said, rubbing his chin and looking over the faculty table. “You don’t reckon it’s Hagrid or something, do you?” he asked, turning to Alex quickly.

“Hagrid and Chriselda?” Alex shook his head, his nose crunching up. “No, that doesn’t even make any sense.”

“Well I dunno,” Bilius said. “It’s got to be somebody - obviously - she didn’t buy herself a rock like that. And when would she have been off the grounds? Who else on the staff is single?” He looked over the assembly of faculty at the long table at the front of the hall. “I hear Slughorn’s got quite the balance at Gringott’s…” he said leadingly.

“Slughorn and Chriselda?” Alex asked, disgusted, “Seriously, man! I’d sooner believe her to be with Professor Kettleburn and his tank of mackled malaclaws.” They both looked up at the poor Care of Magical Creatures teacher, whose eccentricity meant he always seemed on the brink of losing his mind.

Derek stood up, “I’m going to go upstairs, I fancy a nap. Cover for me in Ancient Runes will you?” He ducked off from the table hurriedly, leaving his nearly untouched lunch there on the table before either could speak.

Bilius sighed, “I knew he was going to take it kind of rough…. But seriously, Professor Kettleburn, you think?”




Having a free afternoon until it was time for Astronomy, the boys were wandering about the castle, trying to work on their map. They’d investigated a hidden staircase behind a tapestry that connected the seventh floor corridor to the third floor, which they were sure Filch had used several times when he’d chased them about in the dark. Remus scrawled the tunnel onto the map as they sat huddled about a desk in an empty classroom. The map was coming on quite nicely and the boys were pretty excited about it, dreaming of all the galleons they could sell it for to the next term’s firsties.

They were walking along down the hallway together, arguing about how they ought to spend their riches (Sirius was trying to talk them into a muggle motorcycle, while Remus insisted Gringott’s investments were the way to go, Peter pointed out they could buy all of the sweets in Honeydukes and have some left over to get some butterbeers, and James wanted to split it up evenly to do with as they each pleased), when they heard someone up ahead. “Hide the map,” hissed James. “We don’t want anybody stealing our idea.”

Remus struggled with stuffing it into his pocket - it was rather a pain to fold it down quickly (as most maps are) and too large to shove in half-folded, so he held it behind his back, wishing there was a way to conceal it better. Derek Bell came ‘round the corner looking rather peaky and troubled, muttering to himself as he walked. Sirius glanced ‘round at the others and called out, “Oi, Derek.”

Derek looked up. “Oh. Hey,” he answered. “What are you lot doing down here? Shouldn’t you be in class?”

“Shouldn’t you be?” Sirius answered. “We’ve got a free period.”

Derek shrugged. “Well -- I --” he looked quite uncomfortable a moment, then shook his head, “You know, I’m sorry, I’m actually rather busy. I don’t really have time to talk, I have to go.” He stepped around them and started on down the hallway.

Sirius raised an eyebrow as Derek disappeared on down the hallway. He looked back the way Derek had come. “Think he’s skiving?” he asked.

“Must be,” James replied.

“Then what’s he doing down the classrooms corridor? He’d be insane to go walking about near the classrooms when he’s skiving,” Remus said, “Whichever professor he’s supposed to be with would see him and he’d be in detention for sure.”

James rubbed his chin, “Maybe he walked out of a class.”

“Derek doesn’t seem the dramatic exit sort,” Peter pointed out.

“Acting sullen enough to have done,” James commented, glowering at Derek’s retreating form.

Sirius was looking on down the hall, thinking, as the other three talked hurriedly in hushed voices. “You reckon he heard about Professor Blythe?” he asked suddenly.

“Well so what if he did?” asked Peter.

“Bilius said that he used to go with her, before she left Hogwarts, remember? And he still fancies her? Maybe Derek heard about her being engaged and he’s lost his mind,” Sirius said.

James’s eyebrows went up, “Perhaps. Still, he could be friendlier. Acting like that, it’s no wonder she’s chosen some other bloke over him, isn’t it?”

There suddenly came a very loud, very terrible scream from somewhere far-off in the castle. A girl. The boys eyes met and they all dashed for the staircases. The scream had come from the entrance hall, by the stairs - they knew for there was a huddle of students already converging on the girl who had screamed. They hurried down to see what had happened, joining the cluster of eagerly helpful students and the busybodies who wanted nothing more than the next big scoop to pass about like wild flower. Peter and Remus were quickly left outside the ring of pressing bodies while Sirius and James waded through to hear the words that were being said.

Terrible, just awful…

I should think that people would think before they go protecting muggles…

James felt sick and shoved even harder in toward the center of the ring. “What’s happened? What’s going on?” He made his way to the front, his palms sweaty.

One of the girls surrounding the sobbing girl on the stairs caught him, stopping him going any further, her blue-lined robe telling him she was Ravenclaw house. “Her father’s been killed.”

“Who is it?” asked Sirius, coming up behind James.

“Amelia Salt,,” replied a Hufflepuff girl.

“Isn’t that the girl Bilius was snogging last term?” Sirius asked James, eyes wide.

James nodded, “I think it was.”

“Blimey,” whispered Sirius.

There was a commotion down in the entrance hall and they looked up to see McGonagall coming out of the Great Hall and pushing her way through the crowd from the opposite side. “Excuse me!” she was shouting, “Move aside. Move aside!” James and Sirius scrambled back to allow room for others in the cluster to move back and when McGonagall had reached the girl at the center, she had to pry none other than Bilius Weasley away from her in order to help the girl to her feet. Bilius scrambled to help keep Amelia Salt steady as McGonagall brought her down the stairs the way she’d come and all three disappeared into the little room beside the Hall.

The cluster instantly began to break apart and James and Sirius shouldered their way to Remus and Peter. “It was another death,” James said, reaching them, answering the question in Remus’s eyes.

Another one?” Peter squeaked, terrified. “Who now?”

“Amelia Salt’s father,” Sirius replied.

Remus looked quite frightened. “He worked for the ministry. My father’s mates with Marcus Salt.”

“Well, he’s dead now,” James said rather coldly. “Somebody in that cluster was saying he’s been killed for helping the muggles. Like the Bells. Like a load of others, too, apparently.” He felt sick to his stomach. “If my Dad gets killed… I - I dunno what I’ll --” He felt a prat, fighting back crying over nothing.

Sirius touched his shoulder, “Your dad’s not going to be killed…”

“You don’t know that!” James argued, “Could be being killed right this moment back home. We don’t know. Nobody is safe! Voldemort’s going to kill us all.”

Remus looked sadly at James as his voice climbed and echoed off the stone walls. Several people turned ‘round to look and see what the shouting was about.

Peter looked quite frightened and clutched his hands together before him, twitching with his fear.

Sirius quickly grabbed a hold of James, “C’mon, you’re making a spectacle. Let’s get back up to the Tower and we’ll talk in our room.” The four of them moved through the crowded stairwell, headed back to the dormitories. People were looking warily at James as they passed through, as though they were afraid he were about to toss a fit.




Meanwhile, in the little tearoom off the Great Hall, McGonagall and Bilius had helped Amelia Salt into a chair and McGonagall had magicked a cup of tea for her as she cried. Bilius knelt beside the chair, his hand clutching one of her hands, staring up into her eyes and softly stroking her curly black hair out of her face and behind her ear. His jaw was set, though, a fierce determination in the way he held his mouth, even as his eyes reflected pity and sorrow up at Amelia.

“The ones we love never truly leave us, Miss. Salt,” McGonagall said gently, pulling a little foot stool over, which she sat upon on the opposite side of Amelia from where Bilius knelt. “They’re always with us in spirit. I am very sorry for your loss, but from what I have heard already, Marcus was killed for the most noble reasons… He was a member of the Resistance against Voldemort, my dear, he was fighting the most cruel wizard which has ever set a foot upon this world.”

Amelia’s tears poured from her eyes, leaving lines on her face. “But he’s dead,” she sobbed. “I -- I didn’t even get to say goodbye…”

“Voldemort has torn apart so many families, destroyed so many lives,” murmured McGonagall sadly.

Bilus looked up at her. “Which is why you need every hand, professor.”

McGonagall looked back at him, her eyes piercing. “We have had this discussion, Mr. Weasley,” she said sharply, “You and your fellow seventh years. You are children. I refuse to bring children into battle.”

“We are of age,” Bilius argued.

“But you are students,” McGonagall said, “And until the day you graduate, you are subject to our rules here and --”

“Yes but we graduate in just a few short months,” Bilius said, “And we’ll join then, regardless, won’t we? But you need us now.” McGonagall’s mouth set into a sour little pucker, quite annoyed by how right Bilius Weasley was. “We’re ready now, Professor.”

McGonagall sighed, “It isn’t up to only me, Mr. Weasley,” she said, “Even if I were to say it was okay, you would still need to talk to Dumbledore.”

“Then bring me to Dumbledore,” Bilius said with determination. “We want to fight Voldemort, professor. We want to help bring an end --” he motioned at the sobbing Amelia, “ -- to this.”

Amelia looked up, her face all blotchy and red and wet from tears, “Why? So you can get killed, too?”

“I’d rather die fighting him than like a coward hiding away,” Bilius said, “I’d rather die like your father did than see Voldemort win because too many people were afraid. That’s what he wants, isn’t it? To make us all afraid. To make us all bow down to him because we don’t dare to stand up and tell him what a bloody fool he is? He’ll kill somebody like me as quickly if I bowed as if I fought.” Bilius shook his head passionately, “No… I’d rather a chance to off the Dark Lord than to go willingly into a world where Voldemort rules over us.” He looked at McGonagall, “So let us talk to Dumbledore. Give us a chance to fight, too.”

“As you wish, Mr. Weasley,” McGonagall said thickly.