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McGonagall in Defense


The first Defense Against the Dark Arts class back from Holidays was highly anticipated among the students as everyone waited with baited breath to see if the rumors flying about the castle about Professor Blythe were true. There was quite a bit of variety to the stories that were being passed about, student-to-student, concerning what had gone on. Some were saying that Professor Blythe had been caught stealing something and others said she’d been found to secretly be one of the Death Eaters that followed about after He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. One rumor going about was that Chriselda Blythe had been caught in the act of contacting the Dark Lord and that she’d been quarantined under a 24-hour watch and her connection to the Floo Network blocked until they could be sure that she was not a Death Eater after all. Others even went so far as to claim that the teacher, who had not been seen about the castle since the night of the incident, had been sent to Azkaban.

How much of any of that was true was hard to say.

The only thing that seemed certain was that Professor Blythe would not be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts until further notice was given, though no official notices were passed about, meaning there would be no delay in the start of classes for Defense, which meant that someone would be teaching the classes during Professor Blythe’s absence. For the second term in a row, the identity of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was driving everyone mad with curiosity.

“Perhaps, if she is on probation, we’ll have Professor Moody again,” said Sirius eagerly as they walked down the corridor to the Defense classroom first thing on Monday morning. He’d rather liked the one-eyed Auror that had taken over classes the year before when Professor Tutman had gone.

“It won’t be Moody,” Remus said.

“How do you know?” asked Sirius, disappointed.

“Because he’s busy, isn’t he?” Remus pointed out, “With everything that’s going on - all the murders and rubbish that You-Know-Who is doing - there’s no way that he has time to come teach us. He’s busy trying to defeat the Dark Lord!”

“Well it would’ve been cool if it was him,” Sirius replied.

“Yeah it would’ve!” agreed James, “I wouldn’t have minded hearing what’s really going on out there.”

They’d arrived to the classroom and Lily was already sitting on the floor opposite the door, as usual, reading. She looked up as they approached and closed her book, standing up and dusting off. Remus migrated to the opposite side of Peter to stand closer to Lily as they came to a stop in the hall before the door to the Defense class.

“See anybody yet?” James asked as they approached her.

Lily shook her head, “No signs of Blythe or any other Professors at all. I haven’t been here very long, though,” she shrugged.

James went up to the door and listened. “Well nobody’s in there,” he announced, backing away, “Unless they’re impossibly quiet.”

Lily nudged Remus and pointed down the hall. He looked and saw Professor McGonagall making her way toward them, carrying a box, and looking as sharp as usual. She glanced about at the five of them as she approached the Defense door. James hopped out of her way. “Morning, Professor,” he said. He looked at the other four with wide eyes as McGonagall pointed her wand at the Defense door and the locks clicked and the door swung open.

“Good morning Mr. Potter,” McGonagall replied, “In you go.” She waved the five Gryffindors through and followed behind after Remus, the last of them through. The students hurried to their usual seats and watched as McGonagall went up to the front of the classroom and put the box down on the desk.

Chriselda Blythe was nowhere to be seen.

“Good morning, Gryffindors,” McGonagall said, “Can anyone tell me where we are in the text in this class?”

Remus raised his hand.

“Yes, Mr. Lupin?” McGonagall asked, turning to inspect the chalkboard.

Remus asked, “Where is Professor Blythe?”

McGonagall turned, a long piece of chalk clutched between her fingertips. “I will be teaching this class for today, Mr. Lupin,” she replied with a straight lip.

“Yeah, but where is Professor Blythe?” Sirius asked without raising his hand.

McGonagall took a deep breath and tucked her hands together before her, pausing to think how to answer the question. She paused just long enough that James supplied, “Did she really get tossed into Azkaban?”

“Tossed into Azkaban?” Professor McGonagall looked astonished, “Whatever for?”

“Being in with You-Know-Who,” spoke up Peter.

McGonagall’s eyebrows were raised high upon her forehead. “Is that what’s going about this school? Merlin’s beard!” She shook her head, “No,” she said firmly, “Miss. Blythe is not in Azkaban. She is under a small investigation, but --”

“For being in with the Dark Lord?” Sirius blurted out.

“Seems being a Death Eater would require more than a small investigation!” James exclaimed.

Professor McGonagall looked a mix of cross and perplexed, “Miss. Blythe is not suspected of being a Death Eater,” she said.

“But she was caught trying to contact him, wasn’t she?” squeaked Peter.

“For goodness sakes,” sputtered McGonagall, “The rumors this school pushes about are positively mind-bending.” She shook her head, a sour expression on pursed lips. “No, Miss. Blythe was not caught trying to contact You-Know-Who.” She turned back to the blackboard. “Now, which of you can tell me what page we are on in the textbook for this class?” She started writing her name on the board - as though they didn’t know who she was.

Lily raised her hand.

“Yes, Miss. Evans?”

“Professor - if Professor Blythe isn’t in Azkaban, and she isn’t teaching the class, for whatever circumstances… I beg your pardon but,” Lily’s face was contorted with question, “Where is she?”

Professor McGonagall put down the chalk rather hard - it made a clicking sound in the tray so loud that it was rather obvious the piece had broken. A very stern expression had come over the head of house’s face. She stared at Lily and the other students for a good long moment. “It is none of your businesses exactly where Professor Blythe is, suffice it to say that she will be returning once things have been taken care of in the proper manner. Hopefully, you’ll only be needing to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts from me for today. However, you do need to learn Defense from me and therefore I should very much like it if one of you - any one of you, I don’t care which one - gives me the page number we are on for the textbook so that we may begin the lesson.” She looked about at them, challenging them.

“Two hundred eleven,” Peter said quietly.

Thank you Mr. Pettigrew,” Professor McGonagall said, turning to the desk and pulling a copy of the Defense textbook from the box she’d carried in. The copy was quite old and they could see it had notes scribbled all about the margins of it. She flipped through the pages quickly to 211 and her eyes scanned the page for a moment. Finally, she looked up and said, “Alright. Let us begin.”




“So where’s Professor Blythe then?” asked Frank Longbottom, leaning across the table in the Great Hall several hours later as the Gryffindor second years set themselves down for lunch. “You lot were the first to have Defense - again. How do you keep getting so lucky?”

Lily shook her head, “We don’t know anything new, really, except the rumors are false and Professor McGonagall is who’s taught our class. She wouldn’t tell us where Professor Blythe is. Only that she isn’t in Azkaban and she isn’t a suspected Death Eater.” Lily took a sandwich from the pile on the lunch tray.

McGonagall is teaching Defense?” said Frank.

“Yeah,” said Sirius, “Quite well, too. We learned loads. She really could teach any class in the school, I reckon.”

Shadows passed over them and Sirius looked up to see the Seventh Year students, having just arrived, sit on the opposite side of the table, beyond Frank Longbottom. Frank turned to Derek, Bilius, and Alex. “You lot heard the news? McGonagall’s teaching Defense ‘til Blythe comes back.”

“Bloody hell, McGongall in Defense!” Bilius exclaimed, “Now there’s something I can’t wait to see.”

Alex said, “I suspect she’s brilliant at it.”

“She said Blythe will be back soon,” said Sirius.

“Did she say where Blythe is at?” Bilius asked. “I mean, if she’s coming back then Azkaban like they’re saying is out.”

Derek, who was focusing entirely too hard on the bread he was smearing a bit of butter on, said, “I told you she isn’t a Death Eater and that she wasn’t going to Azkaban.”

“I was just telling you what I heard,” Bilius replied.

“She didn’t say where Blythe is at,” said James, shrugging, “Refused to talk about it after a few questions.”

Derek replied, “Perhaps the matter’s personal - ever think of that? Of course not, the gossip mill is far too active in this school to let something rest as a personal matter.” He ran the knife too hard and stabbed the bread clear in two. He sighed and put the knife down.

Bilius gave Derek a funny look - not the first one in the past few days since the rumors about Chriselda Blythe had started. “We just like to know, that’s all,” he said. He tilted the ridiculous top hat that he was still wearing about so that some of the wildly curly red hair beneath showed.

“We know Chriselda,” said Derek firmly, “You know she wouldn’t be a Death Eater. Or has the two years since she was sitting here at this very table been long enough that you’ve forgotten her entirely?”

“Bloody hell, mate,” Bilius said, “Relax, will you? It’s just that two years is a good stretch of time and things change. People change.”

“People who are good don’t just become Death Eaters for no reason,” Derek snapped. He pushed his plate away and stood up. “I’m not hungry,” he declared, and stormed out of the Great Hall.

Alex Tinnamin turned to watch him go, then turned back to Bilius, “Well, that was interesting.”

“You know he fancies her,” Bilius said, shrugging, “He always did.”

“Fancies who? Blythe?” Sirius asked, looking surprised.

“Oh yes,” said Bilius, nodding and reaching over to Derek’s abandoned plate to take some of the chips he’d left behind. “Chriselda was a couple years ahead of us, but when she and Derek were a couple since our third year. He was thirteen, she was fifteen. It was a bit of a scandal.”

“Hang on,” said James, “You mean were together?”

Bilius nodded, biting into a chip dipped in catsup. “Chriselda was in fifth year and invited him to the Yule Ball and they were together for the next three years after that off and on. Then she broke up with him after holiday her seventh year, and Derek did rather terrible at his O.W.L.S. because of it. He was a shoe-in to be Prefect before that. Then his grades came back and - well, I s’pose that’s how I ended up being Prefect.” He shrugged.

Lily looked sad, “He must’ve been heartbroken.”

Bilius shrugged, “I mean, it’s what happens when you’re a teenager, isn’t it? You see somebody and you break up with them, and then you swoon a bit and you get over it and see somebody else. That’s how it works ‘til you find the right person. You never end up with the first person you fancy at school. Anybody who says they did is full of it. There’s far too any choices to try on for that. I’m sure there’s people you lot fancy.”

Remus and Lily exchanged a glance. James looked down at his sandwich. Peter turned red and Sirius shrugged.

“Well, if you don’t now, you will soon enough,” replied Bilius. He poured more catsup over his chips and a bit more salt.

Remus reached for Lily’s hand on the bench beneath the table and he squeezed her fingers and she squeezed his fingers back while Sirius pretended not to notice it.