Chapter 9 - Talks at the Staff Table

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

November 22nd, 1992, 8:46 PM

The population of the Great Hall were eating desserts and talking between them when Erik and his group entered the Great Hall.

They walk between the tables, and stop by the head of Ravenclaw table where Selena, Helena and Leona were seated.

"Welcome back~"

Selena welcomes them, eating a spoon of strawberry ice cream after.

"We are back."

Erik answers her. Joan goes back to where she was seated before, taking off her gauntlets and serving a portion of vanilla milk pudding and chocolate ice cream. Professor Flitwick nods at Erik and goes to the staff table with the other two professors. Selena then continues.

"Good job with the wards. People here could feel them going up. It generated a louder talk at the tables, but soon as I addressed it, things went back to normal."

Erik nods at that.

"Good. But we will have to involve the law enforcement… We got some pretty nasty answers from the wards. Here, let me share with you."

He then extends his hand to Selena, who drops her spoon and grabs it. She feels Erik sharing the wards controls with her, and closing her eyes and seeing the 'nasty', as Erik referred to them, she agrees with him with the involvement of the law enforcement. Not because they can't deal with the problems, but because they have to play by the rules here.

"Agreed."

She said, opening her eyes again, only to see Erik, with the spoon that she dropped earlier in hands, attacking her poor serving of strawberry ice cream.

"Erik!"

She glares at him, who doesn't even have the decency of looking ashamed.

"What? We have been married for 990 years and you didn't expect that?"

"Hmph…"

Selena just 'hmphed' him. Of course she expected that, but if there was one thing that she learned within all these years of marriage, it was that these little reactions and interactions helped to keep the fire burning.

*sigh*

Erik sighed, dropped her spoon back on the table and apologized to Selena.

"Sorry."

He then approached and gave her a strawberry ice cream flavored kiss, surprising her.

"But I will certainly do it again."

Erik said while grinning, getting some giggles from the nearby audience. He then cleaned his mouth from the ice cream with a napkin, and continued.

"I will have a talk with the staff."

Selena nodded her head, picked her spoon back and continued to eat her strawberry ice cream, like nothing happened.

Erik then walked to the staff table. The professors were listening to Professor Babbling retell the happenings of their little exploration, and how it was an amazing experience for the three participating professors. Erik just listens to them.

Then comes the part where Professor Flitwick tells about the wards that were reactivated. Erik had told them during the walk back to the Great Hall about the wards that he had reactivated. The staff got a serious face with that, imagining the problems during all past years that could have been avoided if the wards were working at full capacity. It was then that the staff members seemed to notice Erik. Professor Vector quickly apologized.

"Lord Ravenclaw, sorry, we are focused too much on the talk that we didn't notice you."

"No problem, Professor. It was exactly about the wards that I wanted to talk about with you all, but since you were already briefing the other staff, I didn't see the reason to interrupt you."

Erik gave a brief pause and continued.

"With the reactivation of the main wards, we got some good and some bad news. The good news is that the wards that didn't belong to the original main wards system were dismantled, which allowed me to reactivate the original works, and with their reactivation, we identified and isolated one malicious ward that is responsible for the curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office."

At that, the Narcissus impersonator, Gilderoy Lockheart, face paled.

"C-Curse? W-What curse?"

Stuttered the now pale and sweating man.

Professor Sprout seemed to take pleasure in giving him an answer for that.

"Oh Gilderoy, it is just a school rumour. One that said that the position of Professor for Defense against the Dark Arts was cursed. You know, with no Professor lasting more than one year in office rumours were bound to be born. But like Lord Ravenclaw just said, it was not a curse, it was just a malicious ward. Nothing to worry about. After all, a man with your baggage of heroic deeds would not be stopped by some ward."

'That's evil.'

Was what Erik thought after listening to Professor Sprout speech, and by the looks that he was seeing, her colleagues thought the same. She really seemed to take pleasure in delivering him that news, even more with the wording that was used.

"O-Off course, Pomona. I-I, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin Third Class, Honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award, will not be defeated by some measly ward!"

Gilderoy answered, giving them his famous 'charming smile'. He stuttered in the beginning, but recovered after and managed to puff his chest out. It would have worked if his face was not still pale, sweating and the smile was not so forced.

Most professors managed to keep a poker face, the rest just rolled their eyes at the blond ponse.

"Now. Continuing with the bad news. Some of the wards that were reactivated immediately reported problems within the castle. The dark creatures detector reported some boggarts hidden in some closets, that I think if well secured, could be used during the DADA lessons. The corrupted magic detection ward reported a lot of students with starts of corruption. We will have to address why the cleansing rituals are not being performed. The malicious artifact ward reported some very dangerous stuff inside the castle. And the animagus detection reported a hiding animagus."

To say that the professors were shocked with the bad news was little. They were gobsmacked. corruption in magic was a serious problem that could result in dangerous mood swings and magical decay.

"Lord Ravenclaw, the performing of any form of ritual was outlawed by the Wizengamot in the mid 50s."

*groan*

Erik groaned hearing that from Professor McGonagall.

"Do the wizengamot really want to kill Magical Britain that much?"

Minerva asked back.

"What do you mean 'kill Magical Britain'?"

That was a question that appeared within the head of the other professors too.

"Magic Corruption causes dangerous mood swings, but the real problem is the magical decay. The decay itself is not noticed within the same generation, it is passed down the line and studies in other countries can prove that it decreases the chance of pregnancy and increases the chance of squibs being born."

At that answer, the oldest professors glared at the suspended-Headmaster, whose face was white as paper. He was the one that proposed the outlawing of rituals after all, so it could be said that he was responsible for the slow murderer of Magical Britain. Albus just sagged in his chair, in regret.

"That will have to be readdressed in the near future."

Erik said after observing the staff's reaction. Minerva noted that for later thinking and addressed Erik about one other point in the 'bad news'.

"Lord Ravenclaw, you mentioned a hiding animagus. Indeed I'm an animagus, but I'm not hiding it. I even registered with the Ministry."

"Yes, Professor McGonagall, I imagined that it was the case. But I referred to another animagus. One that is not currently in the Great Hall, that I imagine is hiding within the castle's walls, in fact, he is inside Gryffindor's dormitory right now."

The professor made an 'o' face with wide eyes at that. Erik continued.

"And because of that, and the nasty artifacts, we will require the presence of the magic law enforcement in the castle, and even the Unspeakables will be required to come. With that said, Professor McGonagall, I will need that you..."

While saying that, Erik was interrupted mid-talking.

"Now, now, Lord Ravenclaw, I don't see the necessity of calling the Aurors or the Unspeakables."

Erik looked at the author of that phrase with a blank look, and addressed him.

"And why, if you could humour me, would the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and the Supreme Mugwamp of the ICW not want help when the safety of almost seven hundred student are in the line?"

"I… I…"

That was all that Albus Dumbledore managed to say before shutting up again.

"Yeah, I imagined that."

Erik said, before continuing what he was saying before the interruption.

"Like I was saying, Professor Mcgonagall, I will need you to contact the Aurors' office, and report to them that their presence is needed at the castle. Inform them that we have discovered an animagus, possibly unregistered, hiding within the castle, identity unknown, and that we have detected some dark artifacts inside the castle for them to collect. And inform them that we will require the presence of the Unspeakables to take care of two class 5 dark artifacts found inside the castle. Those were the 'nasty' ones that I talked about."

Some professors blanch at that. Within the classification of dark artifacts, the higher the class, the more dangerous they are. And class 5 was the highest one.

Professor McGonagall acknowledges the request. Professor Sprout adds to Erik.

"I have the contact of the Director of the Department of Magic Law Enforcement. Her niece, and ward, is one of mine."

Erik frowns at that, thinking that with a position of Director, politics would be involved. But indeed they needed someone with that weight to force things to be investigated.

"Is the director any good at the job, or just another political figure?"

"She is the best we had in the last century, Lord Ravenclaw."

Professor Flitwick says, understanding where Erik is coming from with his question. Seeing the other members of the staff agreeing with the professor's evaluation, Erik concludes.

"Good! So contact the Director. You can use my title to pull the Unspeakables."

Professor Sprout nods, and she and Professor McGonagall get up, with the first adding.

"My office is the nearest one. Let's go there."

Under the eyes of Erik and the staff, the two professors exit the Great Hall.

"Now that we have some time to kill before our new guests arrive, I think that it's time to address the student population…"

Erik says, but it is then, again, interrupted by the voice that he is learning very fast to dislike.

"Lord Ravenclaw, I don't think that would be a good idea. The students don't need to know about what is happening."

"Au contraire, Mr. Dumbledore, it is a very good idea. They do need to be addressed about the happenings. They having the knowledge of the happenings will kill the rumour mill before it even has the chance to start. And they, knowing that something is being done, will relax their bodies and minds. Nobody likes going to sleep with danger pairing over their heads, Mr. Dumbledore."

Most staff members seem to agree with him. And seeing that the 'old boy' would not interrupt again, he walks to the front of the elevated platform where the staff table is located and claps his hands three times, with each clap generating a loud sound that overrides the noise generated by the students talking.

The talking within the Great Hall started to diminish, and soon Erik had the attention of the entire student population.

"Good evening, students. Right now you all must already know who I am, but I will introduce myself again. My name is Eric Ravenclaw, Lord of Ravenclaw and the Hogwarts' castle. Resuming, together with my wife, Lady Selena Ravenclaw, we are the owners of the school."

Seeing that he still had the total attention of the students, Erik continued.

"Let's start with why I am here. Today, at approximately 1:30 PM, I received the summons from the castle. The summons is an action initiated by a council of trusted individuals when they see that something within the castle needs immediate action and the current Headmaster and/or Board of Governors are not doing their jobs well enough."

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a/n: I would like to recommend a fanfic to you all. It is a Harry Potter fic. It is about a Harry that dies at Forbidden Forest during the battle of Hogwarts and goes back to his 4 y.o. self without the Horcrux, just this time he will change stuff. The name of the fic is: 'Back to the Beginning...', by burnable. You can find it here in WebNovel or in fanfiction.net. The fic is already finished, with 27 chapters, and has a sequel, and the sequel has a sequel that is a crossover with another fic by the same author. Long chapters and a good read!