Month: January 2020

Dean had decided that his West wall would be something that would be totally unexpected. He’d been doing all the expected wizarding world paintings, including the front and back of Harry and Ginny’s book. That last was earning him three knuts a copy, after his 25 galleon advance was reached. He’d been informed to expect a check in early September, as they’d passed that on the first day.

So he’d carefully created a full football pitch, and started to populate the field. There was nobody but Ron Weasley to put in Gryffindor goal. He preferred a 3-5-2 formation, which put him and Hermione as the Center Forwards. He made the ball rocketing from Hermonie’s foot towards the goal. He was the other Forward. His Offensive Midfielder was Lavender, her hand raised as she was likely to do when Gryffindor scored. The closest Wing Back was Seamus, just because he could paint Seamus better than Parvati who had the other slot. In Defensive Midfielder was Neville with Ginny Weasley, her cheeks redden. Back as his Center Backs, were the trio of Sally-Anne, Harry, and Katie Bell. The later was aged down a bit.

It had taken a while to decide who to add to the Gryffindor Nine, as his class was called. Ginny was obvious, but Katie had helped him with his Tranfiguration Homework once, so that had broken the tie of the Gryffindor Chasers.

The Slytherins in opposition, well he only had to detail a few. Goyle in goal, his expression of surprise, remembered from when Lavender had managed to do a hat trick in a 5 on 5 game, perfectly portrayed, as if he knew there was no way to stop what he was sure was soon going to be known as Rocket Granger’s foot. If he could convince Hermione to play, it would be his secret weapon. Both Draco and Parkinson filled two close in Slytherins, and Crabb was a fourth that you could identify. The rest were left lacking in detail, ready to be filled in when he came home from the Autumn term.

He’d been greatly surprised when his Hogwarts letter had included a badge, proclaiming him “Gryffindor Youth Captain.” It had a football at the base of the shield below the classic Copperplate Gothic font title. A supplemental letter had informed him of the rules, schedule, and who the other two Football Captains, as well as the fact that Oliver Wood were be continuing as Quidditch Captain. The games would be on the Quidditch pitch, and Madam Hooch had apparently arranged several fields for practice. Plus there was the challenge 5 on 5 pitch that Hagrid was to run.

Hagrid was a good ad-hoc referee, if you couldn’t get Hillard or Haywood. Dean had refereed a couple matches, too. It had taken both him and Hillard to do the First Year Slyterin vs Second Year Slytherin match. And when Victoria Malfoy had decided that her dorm mates needed to challenge the Gryffindor Chasers with Fred and George on the ground, he’d ended up somehow commentating on that one, in lieu of Lee.

Dean took another look in the mirror above his dresser, before mixing just a little darker paint for the last highlights of his hair. Taking just a few light strokes with a fan brush, carefully highlighting were his hair was slicked to his forehead, he judged that he was at a good stopping point for the Summer. After all, tomorrow he would be getting on the Hogwarts Express again, and he hadn’t finished packing.

“Rest assured that I, Gildroy Lockhart, am quite prepared to fill the young witches and wizards of Hogwarts with all they need to learn to defend against the dark arts!” the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor proclaimed.

“But you seem to be unable to provide your syllabus,” Minerva said dryly.

Albus Dumbledore almost wished William Weasley hadn’t found the curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship. He could tell that he now had a toxic mix between Gildroy, Minerva, and Severus. He felt it quite lucky that Severus had managed to find a reason to skip the previous meeting. It was apparently Victoria Malfoy’s birthday and he had godfather duties.

Gildroy seemed to be waving off the requirement, again. He’d hired Gildroy as the only applicant, and if there had been any other, he would have gone for them. In fact he’d actually considered asking Serevus to move over at one point. It was a lot easier to find Potion Masters than Defense Masters. How Gildroy had obtained his masterhood in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Albus didn’t know. In fact he was already strongly considering investigating that.

“Gildroy, I expect that syllubus in Minerva’s hands by half past five, or I shall reconsider your employment. Now, Minerva, I understand that both you and Serevus have student assistants this year for your early classes. How are Percival and Penelope settling in?”

“Quite well, Albus,” Minerva said. “I’ve gone over my plans with Penny. She appears to be ready. And Serevus, how did your talk with Percy go?”

“Percival appears to be ready,” Serevus said. “He’ll be handling the double periods for both First and Second Year, as well as an open tutoring session on Saturdays. Scores this past year those taking NEWTs were up quite a bit, so there will be two classes worth of sixth years. We will be splitting both second and third years in three groups this year, split by ablity, and you may expect that first years may have some schedule changes as well, but as there are only thirty-two of them, we will only have two sections of them.”

“Tranfiguration will also be trying smaller class sizes this year,” Minerva said. “Penny will be handling most of the classes for the lower years, first through third, with an occasional fourth year class, depending on both of our availablities. Penny, after all, is a new mother. Pomona, Filius, we expect to be able to expand this program next year to your classes, given the large class incoming then will require us to hire more professors. I would like all of you to look for candidates not just for your classes but others.

“Especially look at those who successfully tutor students, and do not be afraid to have a few of your upper year students present a topic or two to their classmates. On that note, Albus?”

Albus nodded to Minerva before beginning. “Chess Grandmasters Arthur Weasley and Erlene Malfoy have asked to sponsor chess tournaments at Hogwarts this year. I understand that sign ups will be handled by Missus Malfoy’s daughter, Victoria in Slytherin House, and Mister Weasley’s son and daughter-in-law, Percival in Gryffindor and Penelope in Ravenclaw. Pomona, they would like someone to coordinate in Hufflepuff.”

Ponoma thought for a moment. “Cedric Diggory, tentatively, Albus. I will have to ask, first.”

“Understandable,” Albus continued. “The petition of last years first year Gryffindors and Slytherins to add house teams and games for football was accepted by the Board. Due to the physical nature of the games, there shall be three teams per house, first and second years, third and fourth years, and fifth year and up. Games will be scheduled to occur on Sundays in October and November, then again for a spring season April and May. As each game is ninety minutes, not counting half time and injury time, multiple games will occur on the same day. I am told we can safely schedule a game every two hours, so we should be able to do the three traditional fixture weekends for Quidditch as well as have an Autumn and Spring championship weekend.”

“I’ve set up the schedules, and with Hagrid’s help I’ve marked off some practice fields,” Hooch said. “Schedule for use will be set in my office, same as with Quiditch, save Hagrid’s challenge field, where Hagrid will be taking care of the five on five challenges, like he did last May. Which reminds me, Severus, I owe you six sickles on that Slytherin First Year Girls vs Second Year Boys game.” Hooch slid six of the silver coins across the table to the Potions Master. A family emergency in Appalachia had taken Hooch away from Hogwarts for most of the last month of the previous school year.

“Do not go against Pansy Parkinson’s left foot,” Severus said. “If I can get her, Zabini and Draco Malfoy on the Slytherin young years team, I only fear Gryffindor.”

“I may need additional volunteers to referee some five on five challenges,” Hooch said. “I know Mister Thomas in Gryffindor is quite capable, and as is Finch-Fletchley in Hufflepuff, but they will be second years, and are quite often the challengers, but they are too young to be certified as a referee. We do actually have two qualified Youth Referees at this year, Beatrice Haywood of Hufflepuff, and the newly certified Kenneth Towler of Gryffindor. Robert Hillard is a fellow Level 7 Referee in Ravenclaw While I have become quite familiar with the rules, and even took the appropriate courses in England and required games officiating to be classed as a Level 7 Referee, it takes three refs to cover a game, unlike Quidditch. For the official team match days, my assistants will be from Hillard, Towler, and Haywood. However due to complications, I will have to seek out a fifth referee.”

“I shall volunteer myself for the job,” Lockhart interjected.