Teamwork

Chapter 5

October sped by, bringing more snow, more homework to grade and the anticipation of a fete. Halloween was one of the events that everyone looked forward to. No rules seemed to exist for that night. Everyone had a good time.

With only a short delay for the Headmaster to make a speech that no one listened to, the huge bonfire was set alight. It blazed crazily, lighting the tables closest to it brilliantly and creating shadows wherein the actions of the crowd strobed into sight only to be swallowed by the night. The tables circling the fire were loaded with food and the faculty arrived laden with interesting bottles. It was one of the few times that all of the faculty, staff and students freely mingled. Normally, the Dark Arts professors were segregated off into their own building and taught in the dungeons. They saw each other, their students and very few other people.

Wronski sat down at one of the benches that had been set up around the fire. From his vantage point, it was whole-scale debauchery. He'd watched one of the transfiguration teachers chug an entire bottle of what might have been vodka. She had then taken out her wand and started changing things into other things until she passed. Her students had taken it upon themselves to place an enchantment that spelled out rude limericks in three languages and one of the other professors in her department had cast an engorgement charm upon her nose. The other Potions Master had come armed with a variety of little phials that he had dumped into the huge punch bowl. After watching the contents of the bowl bubble and flash, Wronski swore that there was no way he would touch anything that came out of that bowl. There were people, whom he assumed were other teachers, drinking and screaming at the top of their lungs. Taking a small sip of his first beer, he walked over to where Jones sat surveying the festivities with great interest and no alcohol.

"Nothing?" He raised his glass in suggestion.

"Are you kidding? This crew is all or nothing, isn't it?" She drank out of a bottle of water. "Can you believe this? Look." She pointed at a group of people who were sitting on top of kegs performing charms that set off stars, flowers and, in one case, obese cherubs into the sky. "Those are the upper division Spells and Charms professors. They snubbed me when I first came here. Look at them! They're casting spells that put up little stars. I am so impressed."

Wronski sipped his beer. "They're having fun. So?" He looked around, realizing that they were the only two from their department. "Where's everyone else?"

"Well, before it got too dark to see much, I saw Rabe disappear off with a Herbology teacher. I wonder if that's who he's with when he's not keeping office hours. Siegfried camped out with the Headmaster and several bottles. Probably a smart move for him. Gregorov is around. Gilles said he wasn't coming. Lowenstein showed up and about twenty women surrounded him. Haven't seen him since. What's up with that?" She looked over at Wronski who answered with a shrug. "Haken came down for about five minutes, grabbed a bunch of food, a bottle and then disappeared." She counted on her fingers. "That leave us and we're watching the loonies."

A loud roar of laughter from a group close by caught their attention. "Looks like Berger and Hyde from the Defense area," Wronski said, squinting at two men facing them. Someone in that group raised his arms dramatically and music blared forth. The beat was loud and cheery. The mostly silhouetted figures bobbed in time with it until a smaller form grabbed onto the man who Jones thought was Berger and began to dance. They watched in awe as their counterparts in the Defense Against the Dark Arts area formed up some kind of awkward conga line and bounced by. "Maybe we ought to change disciplines?" Wronski asked, only half joking. "At least they seem to like each other."

"And we definitely don't." Jones laughed bitterly and took another slug out of her water bottle. "I wish video cameras would work here. Can you imagine selling this? Makes you wonder what the students are up to."

"Well, some of the seventh years are here. Looks like trouble to me, but this is the night when anything goes," Someone screamed across the fire. It did not sound happy. Wronski looked at his beer and added, "Big day tomorrow. I think I'll turn in."

"I'm going to watch for a while. This kind of stuff keeps me going when the 'real' teachers step aside and sniff when I'm walking down the halls." She watched Wronski as he wandered back towards the dark outline of their offices until his dark outline disappeared into the night. It was truly a surreal experience. Mix too much booze and too much stress and watch the sparks. The Defense teachers came bouncing around again. The line disintegrated with an outburst of laughter and a ragged cheer. One of the teachers looked up and recognized her. He waved. She waved back.

Berger ambled forward, swaying slightly. "So, where are the rest? The wild Dark Arts teachers?" He smelled strongly of beer and sweat. Not a good combination.

"Here and there. Your group stays together at these things?" Jones hoped her translation spell was working properly. She knew it gave literal translations and sometimes those came out wrong. She had a bad feeling and suddenly wanted to leave.

Berger squinted at her as he tried to piece the slang together into something he understood. "Ja. Our department is friends." Or something that sounded like that to the translation spell she had to use. "Tomorrow, we will watch you fail. It will be so amusing." He waved wildly at one of the other defense teachers who brought an enormous pitcher of beer over to the table. The two laughed when they realized there were no glasses and they had to drink from the pitcher putting at least as much beer on them as in them.

Jones waited until they had stopped spilling beer everywhere. "Fail? What do you mean?"

"Everyone knows that your department has no one with any real ability. When you do your little demonstrations tomorrow, we will show our area's power." Much head nodding and laughing between the two. More beer followed. More of their comrades joined them, all carrying pitchers.

"So, tomorrow, your area will stop ours from doing our little demonstrations? Really?" Jones tried to make her voice sound light but it was getting very hard to do so.

"Ja!" The head nodding effect was magnified by the extra heads back lit by the bonfire. "We have the best in our area. We will show you how strong we are." This was followed by some impressive belching and laughing.

Jones got up and smiled as best she could at the grinning drunks. It was all she could do to not hit them with any of several nasty curses. She began her way back to the offices when she heard, off in the distance, Gregorov's voice. An itchy worry nagged at her. Gregorov. Gregorov and a demon. Gregorov and a demon and those idiots back there.

Away from the fire's light, she was blind. The screaming and laughing was overwhelming and she quickly gave up trying to listen for Gregorov as herself. What was the use of being an Animagus if you didn't use it? The badger had a better sense of smell and she used it to find him. In the miasma of scent, it took some effort to find him clustered together with several others. Badger couldn't see very well, so she transformed back to find Gregorov with three seventh-year girls. Wronski was right. He wasn't drunk yet, but the night was young. Visions of a drunk or hung-over Gregorov doing a summoning danced before her. She tried to get his attention. He squinted at her and made a dismissive gesture. Obviously, her presence was unwanted. She tried again and got snapped at. He told her to go. Now.

She wasn't sure what to do next. She dithered watching until Gregorov pulled one of the girls closer, his hands disappearing into the seventh-year's robes. That was enough to convince her to leave. She knew that some of the professors consorted with the students but she didn't really want to know. Not really. She'd had it described as a perquisite. She lengthened her strides and almost ran to the cold safety of the offices.

Light came out of the staff room. She stomped her way over to it, half-afraid of what she might find going on in there. Haken, de Rais and Wronski were the only three present. Haken was surrounded by the remnants of his feast and homework. De Rais was modeling a wax doll, probably for tomorrow's demonstration. Wronski appeared to be killing time.

It was difficult to explain what she had been told by the drunks and make it sound like it might be a problem. De Rais dismissed it with an arched eyebrow and went back to his modeling. Nothing ever fazed de Rais. Haken, however, wasn't surprised. He knew most of the Defense teachers and thought it quite possible that they would try to further their own department at the expense of the Dark Arts department.

Wronski sneered, "The hangovers should counterbalance each other."

"What if he doesn't make a circle strong enough? I don't even know which rites he uses. There's the long, tedious variant with loads of rituals and then there's the quicker version where you have a lot more to set up, but a lot less chanting. I'm not even sure there are enough candles in the store rooms," Jones worried.

Wronski considered the problem. "As long as Ludwig's wards hold, and they are his specialty, who cares what happens inside? Gregorov seems to have done this before. Even if he fails, people will remember it. Isn't that what this whole thing's about? I'd only worry about my own work. Don't try to prove you're the smartest witch around. It isn't worth it."

Cruel, but that was the way it was. De Rais declined to add any commentary. His wax form was complete for now and he left as quietly as he did everything. Haken sat staring at the fire, tapping his stylus in an incredibly irritating way while he thought. Wronski fell asleep on the couch.