Harry Potter and the Old Believers

Chapter 03

Titus met the other faculty and staff members over the following week. Most seemed rather aloof; and Miss Evans informed him it was simply because he was an outsider and that most would gradually warm up to him over the coming months, once he'd shown his worth. The three Slytherin professors and Binns, the History teacher from Hufflepuff, seemed the most hostile. Shawn 'Sandy' Wood, the head of Gryffindor and the Charms instructor, and Howard Hubble, the Astronomy teacher and head of Ravenclaw, seemed the most friendly of the established faculty. Alan Dinsdale, the youngest faculty member at 30, and just retired chaser for the English National Quidditch team, quickly became Pwy's friend. Considering the rules of decorum, Henrietta Evans couldn't be a close friend, but she was a friend.

Despite September 1 falling on a Thursday, the now-traditional gathering day brought all the students to the Hogsmeade train station. Pwy found the sorting ceremony fascinating; very different than the simple process at the Ysgol -- the school established in Maine by the Old Believers back in 1539.

The students, especially the Gryffindors, applauded loudly for Dinsdale, their Quidditch captain 1896-98, when they'd captured the Quidditch Cup both years. Everyone's applause for him had been the smallest of the evening, but still respectful, no doubt due to Dippet's introduction.

"Our first new faculty member is Doctor Titus Pwy, from the Ysgol and the Sefydliad in America. Doctor Pwy will be taking my place as the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. Doctor Pwy already holds the Order of Merlin (First Class), is both a Sorcerer and Warlock, and has been an independent Auror for both the International Confederation of Wizards and the Druidic Council of Old Believers. He was also the North American dueling champion in Eighteen ninety-nine, Nineteen o-five and o-seven, and world champion in Nineteen o-eight and Nineteen-o-nine."

Many of the students had little choice but applaud that speech.

Friday was the first day of class. There were 14 two hour DADA classes scheduled each week, making it one of the more draining teaching positions to hold, three each day Monday - Thursday and the two beginning classes on Friday. Titus' first class was with the First Year Gryffindors and Slytherins from 8:00 - 9:50, then Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff 10:00 - 11:50.

Twenty students appeared, rather sleepy-looking and confused, but at least they were all on-time.

"Welcome to your first class at Hogwarts. As you should have gathered last night, and by your schedules, I am Doctor Pwy, and yes, that's pronounced 'Pow-eh.' Please arrange yourselves in pairs. I see there are both an even number of boys and girls in each House, so it would be best if you would arrange yourselves in pairs by House and gender -- it will make your studying together easier."

Titus waited until there had been a little minor rearrangement. "All set? Please remember where you are sitting for the remainder of the year, alright? As I call your names, please raise your hands."

"Let's see, Slytherin: Avery, Marilyn; Flint, Marcia; Malfoy, Jane; Marvolo, Sally Ann; . . . Bulstrode, Maxillian; Crabbe, Victor; Lockhart, Albert; Lestrange, Wilber; Macnair, Walter; and Snape, Septimus."

"Gryffindor: Fudge, Livia; Pettigrew, Paula; Pippen, Mary; Potter, Angela; . . . Brown, Thomas; Dumbledore, Albus; Hagrid, Richard; Lupin, Julius; Weasley, Percy; and Whisp, Warren."

"As some of you many know, you are in the first year of a revised, more stringent, curriculum. The Headmaster has graciously consented to help me teach the current Fourth through Seventh years under the old curriculum, until they have all left the school. The old one was five year of studying dark creatures and phenomena, followed by two years of dueling. We will be collapsing the first five years of study into three." There were some soft groans. "If you believe you will be studying hard, so will the Second and Third years, as they make up for lost time!"

"In your Fourth and Fifth years, you will be studying basic curses and counter-hexes. Some of these are also covered in Charms, just as some the antidotes we'll be discussing will also be mentioned in Potions, but these are important, so a little duplication is good. In your final two years, we'll be practicing more advanced magic, charms and hexes used in dueling as well as more general purpose defenses. Rest assured, you will still be learning the principles of dueling, as well as fighting."

A hand shot up. "Yes, Mister Snape?"

"Aren't dueling and fighting the same?"

"Good question. No, they are similar but not the same. Dueling has very strict rules, fighting has few, or even none. We will be practicing the former, but not the latter. However, you will still be expected to know how to fight."

Pwy paused a second, then decided to continue into an explanation. "There are two forces constraining the Magical communities of the world. As the Muggle population grows and advances technologically, we are being forced into smaller niches. At the same time, the Magical communities are strengthening as communities."

"Some individuals, Muggle and Magical, opt out of their society, although it's easier for one of us to become a warlock, with no resources other than our knowledge and our wands, than it is for Muggles without significant resources. Others, seeing the growing power of their community, wish to take it over and make it serve their needs, rather than the community as a whole. You need to be able to recognize those wizards, and, if called upon, to fight them. By the time you leave after your Seventh year, you will be able to. Yes, Mister Weasley?"

"Might you not be teaching future Dark Wizards to fight better, too?" That brought a few grumbles from the Slytherins.

Pwy smiled a little. "Dark Wizards have never had much trouble figuring out how to manipulate others, and how to curse and kill them when necessary. And, when they do, they rarely do so in proper duels. Are there any further questions? Yes, Mister Lestrange."

"Mister Snape, please allow Mister Lestrange to ask his question." Snape had been clearly trying to shut Lestrange up.

"Yes, sir."

Lestrange tried to arrange his face into the sneer his male relatives seemed to have perfected over the years. "Sir, before we start the class, since we are your first class, a number of students were just curious about your background."

"Ah, an interest reputed to be common amongst Slytherin students I've heard. So, you wish to conform to your stereotype?"

"Uh, yes, sir?" Snape as well as most of the Gryffindors rolled their eyes.

"You are from a family which likes to consider itself 'pure blood,' correct, Mister Lestrange?" Titus was glad Miss Evans had warned him, and had helped him do some detailed research, although he had anticipated this conversation coming with some of the older students rather than First years. Some of the Slytherins must really feel strongly on the issue, and no doubt other students did as well.

"Yes, sir, we are pure bloods."

"Yet the Lestrange family first enters the magical records in the Twelve-hundreds, during the reign of Henry the Third. Where were the Lestranges before then?"

"Sir?"

"Well, perhaps you should all take notes on this, as I do not wish to waste time with my other classes going over this again. The parents of that first magical Walter Lestrange didn't spring from the ground. Who were they?" Titus paused a few seconds. "No answer? Well, they were either Muggles or came from a line of so-called squibs, who were living as Muggles. Either way, that Walter Lestrange was not a 'pure blood,' even if his descendants only intermarried with active witches." Lestrange and most of the other Slytherins, and some of the Gryffindors looked hostile at their teacher's statements.

"In fact, go back far enough and I suspect most of us have a few Muggles mixed in our ancestry, and we all at least have some squibs. I, for one, do not believe that any wizard or witch can come from truly Muggle families on both sides. Instead, since most squibs are driven from the Magical community, the so-called Muggle-born wizard comes from the inter-marriage of squibs who have lost knowledge of the Magical communities, and whose combined blood is again strong enough to create a wizard or witch. Before any of you make fun of such people, remember that you all come from such ancestors as well." The hostility, especially from the Slytherins, was slowly growing.

"Miss Malfoy, for example, is descended from a wizard supposedly born to Muggle shop-keepers in London, back in the Eleven-fifties, who gained fame and fortune as an advisor to William II, for her some twenty-three generations ago. Mister Lestrange has just twenty generations separating him from some Muggle or squib. Mister Bulstrode has the fewest magical generations in direct male descent in this class of Slytherins -- six. Does that make him worse than Mister Hagrid, who has over thirty generations, or better than Miss Pippen, who has three? Or even Mister Brown, who is the first of his family? No, what really matters is how talented are you? How good a person are you? How good a witch or wizard are you?"

Titus gave them a hard smile. "From all that, since I see I haven't convinced many of you, you might think I must be either Muggle-born, or close to it. Well, if blood matters, then nearly all of you are pure trash." There were some soft noises of shock at that.

"I am of nearly-pure Old Believer ancestry. The one Muggle in my recorded past was a sailor who helped some of my ancestors flee from what is now Surrey to Brittany to safety. That was in the year Three hundred and ninety three. One of the daughters fell in love with him, and because he was brave, and they were poor if powerful, with other daughters, they allowed the marriage. There are fifty-two generations between him and myself. What are fifty-two generations compared to your twenty, Mister Lestrange? In direct male descent, I am the hundred and second recorded generation, compared to your twenty-first, Mister Lestrange. In my paternal mother's family, I am descended from the first recorded Master of what you call Stonehenge. I am the hundred and fifteenth recorded in that line -- and the oral tradition puts it much further back than that. In my mother's mother's mother's family, I am descended from King Scorpion of Egypt, the first recorded wizard outside Mesopotamia. That makes me the Two-hundred and twenty-sixth generation. So, in this class, blood does not matter." Suddenly, his deep voice sank even deeper, and the small students really noticed how incredibly large their instructor was. "Talent, intelligence, and character matter. No matter of you're from a young family, like you, Mister Lestrange, or a new family, like you Mister Brown, make your families proud of you."

"Now, any further non-sequiturs?" There was only silence.

"No? Then please take out your text books, quills, and note books. For the following several weeks, we will be dealing with ghouls, banshees, and similar creatures."

The second Sunday of the term, Miss Evans invited her nephew and his cousin to tea.

"Well, young masters," she teased "now that you're experienced Hogwarts students, what do you think of your classes?"

"They're a little harder than I thought they would be," Percy admitted.

"Really?"

"Well, they're aren't impossible or anything, but. . .applying the magic is harder than I thought it would be."

"Charms and Transfiguration do take concentration. Still, you've only had one class in each. How do you find the other classes?"

"Defense is interesting, History isn't, and Potions, Herbology, and Astronomy are sort of in between. Flying is fun."

"How about you, Mister Dumbledore?" Since they were in public, Henrietta was keeping it formal.

"Learning to control my wand is harder than I thought it would be. . . ."

"You did the best in both classes!" Percy broke in.

Albus shrugged. "If I did, that still doesn't mean it was easy. You did the best on the broom, but was it easy?"

"Well, no, but I've flown a lot before." He frowned. "I wish I could have brought my broom."

"Next year," Henrietta assured him.

Percy continued, "Any way, I like all the teachers well enough, although Professor Binns is rather boring. I like history, but I just don't understand how he organizes the class."

"He goes by topic, rather than sequentially. Why he starts with important inventions, nobody has understood since he started almost seventy years ago."

"Telling us about the beginnings of the wand doesn't make sense to me, when he doesn't tell us anything about the people who made them," Percy complained.

"You need to read the book. It's all in there," Henrietta explained. "Professor Binns hits the highlights, but you need to supply the background. Whom do you like?" She asked Albus.

"Doctor Pwy," Albus said. "They all teach well. . . ."

"Except Binns," Percy muttered.

Henrietta looked around, and saw they were fairly isolated. "Albus," she said quietly, "just give me your best judgement." He was famous in the family for his precocious good sense and abilities.

"Well, except for Professor Binns, the others are good. Professor Nott really knows the subject, but he seems a little impatient with us, especially with some of the Hufflepuffs we're with. Some of the Ravenclaws claim he favors the Slytherins, but I don't know for sure. They might just say that because he's the head of the House."

"Professor Nott has that reputation. Perhaps I should say that he plans on retiring after this year."

The two boys grinned at that news. Then Albus continued, "Professor Wood is really really good; I'd say he's my second favorite professor. He really has shown us a lot more about wand-work than Professor Nott. Professor Hubble also has a hard time teaching us the basics, but he deals with it better than Professor Nott does."

"Professor Williamson and Professor Fleming aren't as patient as Professor Wood, either, but they're even more patient than Professor Hubble. Mister Dinsdale is probably even more patient than Professor Wood is."

Albus suddenly smiled. "But Professor Pwy is. . .different. He seems to treat us. . . ."

"More like adults," Percy broke in.

"Exactly," Albus agreed. "I guess it's because what we're learning just requires. . .us to listen and understand."

"I can't wait until tomorrow afternoon!" Percy said, almost bouncing in his chair.

"What's happening tomorrow?"

"You didn't hear?" Albus asked. "The Seventh years are all going to be dueling Doctor Pwy. The School is invited to watch."

"Oh, dear," Miss Evans said, sadly shaking her head. "Those poor boys."

Albus and Percy looked at each other, confused. While they were certain their teacher could handle any one of the Seventh years, facing them successively should prove a challenge.

It didn't. Hogwarts' senior student wizards certainly understood the principles of dueling. In practice, however, they dueled with leisurely and practiced nonchalance. Pwy went through the 24 wizards three times in less than an hour and a half.

At that point, Pwy let them all know what he thought of their skills. "Dueling is not an exercise of good manners! I've seen games of gob stones taken with more seriousness! The way you all dueled was either at best mediocre, or useful only as practice." He looked at the faculty, daring them. Wood, Margate (the young Slytherin Potions Master) and Marx (the Arithmancy teacher from Durmstrang) all stood up.

The first duel was between Wood and Pwy. The students were shocked to see the speed of true duelists. It took Pwy ten minutes before he disarmed Wood, while both Margate and Marx lasted about twelve minutes.

"Those were three excellent duelists, in good form. All three could easily compete on a national level." Pwy bowed to each in turn. "Even if you don't achieve their level, you will take what you know, for you each have a good grounding in the basics, and really learn to apply it."

Albus and Percy were walking behind the Headmaster and Binns as the crowd cleared. "Headmaster, I understand now why you wanted this man here."