The Winterscapes

The Winterscapes - Chapter Three

Hogwarts had ten prefects plus the Head Boy and Head Girl. There were always two prefects from each house, usually a boy and a girl, and the other two positions went to the most deserving candidates, regardless of house or gender. The professors chose the prefects based on academic performance, general conduct, and leadership capabilities. Draco was not exactly sure why he had been chosen to be a prefect, though he suspected it had more to do with leadership capabilities than anything else. His grades were not bad, they were even good in the classes he liked, and his conduct record was ... well, it wasn't as bad as Blaise Zabini's. Students in years five through seven could be prefects, although there were far more sixth and seventh year prefects than fifth year prefects. Unless they did something truly awful, students who were made prefects in their fifth or sixth years usually remained prefects until they left Hogwarts. Draco himself was made a prefect at the beginning of his sixth year. He had expected to be a prefect in his seventh year as will, but Head Boy was far better. It had shocked him slightly, but certainly had made his father happy.

What did prefects do, exactly? Menial tasks, in Draco's opinion. And he found out quickly that being Head Boy was basically the same as being a prefect, though it meant that he led prefect meetings along with the Head Girl. At prefect meetings Dumbledore gave each prefect a slip of parchment with the new password for the prefect's common room written on it. The prefect read the password, destroyed the parchment, and was responsible for making sure all the students in his house knew the new password. They also enforced curfews, broke up fights, and made sure no one set fire to the common rooms. That sort of thing. They were glorified babysitters, really. One nice thing about being prefect or Head Boy was that you could take house points away from misbehaving students and give points to students you wanted to reward; only in five point increments, but it was nice to have that little bit of an advantage over one's schoolmates.

The first prefects' meeting of the term was on the Saturday after the students had arrived at Hogwarts. Draco showed up on time as he and Hermione had to start the meeting. The prefects' meeting room was a circular tower room with a round table in the exact center of the room. There was a circular chandelier hanging exactly above the center of the table. The first order of business was passwords. Dumbledore announced that the new password for the prefect's bath was "under the sea," and then he handed each student a piece of parchment. Tracey Davis and Hayden Bole, the Slytherin prefects, and Draco's parchments all said "billywig sting." Draco hated it when the password was more than one word long; it made it harder for some of the younger and dumber students to remember. He didn't like reminding them. Then Hermione beat Draco to asking if there was anything anybody needed to announce or bring up for discussion, such as suggestions for the lunch menu or secret plots they had discovered to trap Mrs. Norris. Nobody had anything to say, so it was time for Dumbledore's announcements.

"I have something to share I think you will all enjoy. Hogwarts is going to have a Halloween Festival this year," he said.

Everyone leaned forward to hear more. Draco himself was intrigued.

"In the early evening we will have our usual Halloween feast, followed by games and contests for the whole school. Later on there will be a dance for fifth, sixth, and seventh years."

Now the Hufflepuffs were actually giving shouts of "Yay!" and "I can't wait!" It did actually sound fun, but Draco had no intention of saying so.

"And of course you will all attend and help to keep things running smoothly," Dumbledore finished.

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Monday morning brought Defense class with the annoying new teacher. He was tall, solid, and cheerful. He looked to be in his mid-forties, and looked completely ridiculous in his undignified clothing. He had worn colorful, toga-style robes every day since the first day of school. Today's were bright pinkish-red. He had light brown hair that was cropped close to his head and wore round, gold colored glasses, along with a perpetual smile. His name was Professor Dannon Dagmar. Draco did not know how Dumbledore selected Defense professors. Perhaps there was a shortage, after going through one a year, and he had to go along with whoever applied for the position.

Professor Dagmar sat on the edge of his desk and made eye contact and smiled at every student who walked through the door. It was unnerving. He let them sit where they wanted and talk to each other for almost fifteen minutes into the start of the class, while he just sat there and listened to and laughed with the students who sat in the front rows. For some reason, the seats in the front rows were all filled. Draco thought it was because Dagmar looked at you when you came in and watched you until you sat down, so you couldn't very well walk to the back of the room. When Dagmar finally decided to begin class he cleared his throat and said, "Well, good afternoon everyone. I'm so glad you all could make it. We're going to talk about faery folk. Now I've been told you have some experience with Doxy, Imps, and Cornish pixies, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the shape-shifting, otherworldly creatures that are drawn to magic and ancient places. The kind of fey you might run into while hiking through the Forbidden Forest, for example."

Normally Draco found Defense Against the Dark Arts completely useless, due to the idiot professors and to the subject matter. He of course already knew the counter-curses that they went over in class and more. He also knew there were better ways to deal with vampires, dragons, werewolves, and other so-called dark creatures than killing them or warding them off. But this information about faery folk could potentially be useful. Most of what he knew about faeries was what his nursemaids had read to him from storybooks before he had started at Hogwarts.

"Witches and wizards are far more likely to see a faery than a Muggle, although it is not unheard of for a Muggle, especially a child, to see one of the fey. This is, in my opinion, because most Muggles, except for children, do not believe in faeries, and so it may be that they encounter faeries as frequently as wizards do, but are not aware of it. Of course, Muggles are less likely to be in magical places and cannot channel the magic that is thought to attract faeries, so you believe what you like. Today we will cover very basic information about faeries, and on Wednesday and Friday we will go over what you should do if you meet a faery. You'll want to take notes in case this shows up on an exam."

He waited for everyone to get out parchment and quills and continued talking in his nasal voice. "There may be good faeries and there may be bad faeries, but for the most part I believe they are completely neutral. We're covering them in Defense Against the Dark Arts because they can be dangerous, and it's conceivable that very powerful dark wizards could use the Faery World for dark purposes.

"The Faery World is where the faery folk live, if you will. From what I understand, it runs alongside our world, but things like time and matter are different there. That's why some of you may have heard stories about people who never seem to age; they are thought to have faery ancestors. The Faery World comes closest to ours during in-between times like equinoxes, dawn and dusk, and in places like misty woods or streams or, of course, fairy circles. Places where our world is not as strongly like our world as it is at noon in the middle of London ..."

Professor Dagon lectured on. He didn't say anything Draco hadn't heard before, but maybe he would on Wednesday or Friday. Draco took notes just in case any of it was on the exam; he was determined to get better marks in Defense than Potter at least.