TPS part 8: Quirrell's Checkup

A few days had passed without change. Onyx didn't have any troubles aside from mysterious jinxes coming at him every now and then. Since he didn't know who performed them, he couldn't retaliate but he was now fairly ready to do so.

Two days ago he found a perfect room in the dungeons to practise in, and it also became the group's study room. The group of four had grown fairly close and although Nott still seemed rather silent and tended to sit with Malfoy at the great hall, Onyx knew he could reach the boy eventually.

Today was special however as at dinner, Jasper came through the doors with a large smile on his face. He was holding a parchment in front of him and walked right up to the headmaster.

All eyes were on the strange man. He was wearing muggle clothes. Although he was fairly old by now he dressed like a daring thirty year old would when he went out to town. Not that his age showed on his face or body of course. Wizards lived long lives and strong healthy wizards lived even longer. Jasper fit very well into that category.

He placed the parchment in front of the headmaster and called over Madam Pomfrey to join him. While Dumbledore read the parchment Jasper had started slowly walking a few steps to his left.

When Dumbledore has finished reading, Jasper had reached his destination. The headmaster voiced his concern "Jasper, surely you must understand that you can't just grab a teacher away from Hogwarts when the term has just started! Come to my office and we'll discuss this."

Jasper gave the old man a quizzical look and huffed at him. "I don't think so." He turned back to the teacher in front of him. "Mr. Quirrell, I'd just like to perform a small check with you. There have been some recent concerns surrounding your..well being.. and if you'd allow it, I'd like you to come with me to have the school mediwitch look you over.

The young teacher looked scared and saddened by those words "N-no! I d-don't th-th-think that's nec- nec- NECESSARY. I'm in p-perfect health as you can s-see."

Jasper looked at him with scrutinizing eyes. "Yeahh..About that." Jasper whistled and two annoyed looking men wearing auror outfits came through the door.

One of them yelled out "Jas, I swear to god after this is over there's no more favors, no more bets. We're all clear and I'm not dealing with your ass ever again. This better not be a false lead here." While saying that, the two men walked up to the professor's table.

Jasper's face lit up "Ah Dawlish! Savage! My lovely friends who came here to make sure nothing went wrong." He look a glance at Quirrell who looked even more scared.

The man, now known as Dawlish spoke out to Jasper "I'll never deal with your kind again if I lose my job over this. Why'd such a man like you have to save my life?" Savage stood behind with a small smile, nothing in comparison to Jasper's as the three men lead Quirrell out of the hall.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and activated a sonorus charm "In light of what has just happened, I'm afraid the dinner must end prematurely. Everyone go back to their dorms and we will notify you all about the upcoming DADA classes at breakfast tomorrow. For those who had astronomy tonight, it's also cancelled."

With that, the whispers went haywire. All around were clear, loud whispers questioning what had just happened and what it meant for them all. Some seemed happy that they might get a less stuttering professor while others were concerned what was to happen to the shy little man.

Onyx on the other hand couldn't wait to get back so he could get started on writing to Jasper for answers on what had happened. He could hear what they said as the entire great hall was completely silent, for once, when Jasper had handed something to the headmaster.

The Slytherins got back in silence but that didn't mean everyone wasn't on edge, wondering if there was something going on at the school. That night most went to bed early, and the morning after at breakfast they got a few answers.

Dumbledore cleared his throat once more. "I am sad to say that Professor Quirinus Quirrell has had a sad accident while being apprehended by the aurors. It was a bit more than the heart of our beloved DADA teacher could handle at the moment." The headmaster portrayed a sad old man who'd just lost an old friend but next to Onyx, Blaise huffed.

"Great defence teacher that. Got a heart attack from begin handled by aurors. How would he ever have the nerves to stand up to anything?!" Onyx nodded in agreement and was now really awaiting the answer from the owl he sent out.

He did get the time to answer his friend though "I just hope the next DADA professor will actually teach us something. It wasn't enough that Quirrell was s-s-stuttering his every word." Onyx performed his best impression of the professor "But he focused solely on theory and didn't have a single spell planned."

Zabini looked at him questioning "Yes. I took a look at the lesson plan for that class."

This had Moon interested "Not a single spell? Really? Well I did only hear talk of him having lectures and nothing else..Makes you wonder if Headmaster Dumbledore actually checks their lesson plans." Onyx chuckled slightly before responding quietly "Of course he doesn't."

The headmaster announced that they would be without a teacher for at most a week, but he had tried calling in a favour to get someone with plenty of experience in to do the job this year on short notice. Onyx wondered who that could be.

Later on he received a response from his great grandfather. It said that Quirrell was worse than anticipated. As soon as they let their eyes off him, a ghostlike figure had released out of him and his body fell to the ground.

The aurors reported it as a case of possession. Nobody can know who had possessed the young professor, but they had concluded that it happened during a sabbatical last year.

Turns out that Quirrell had travelled the world in search of Voldemort, believing that he was actually still around, but ended up possessed and thrown away instead. A terrible fate for a young man who simply wished to prove himself.

Onyx wondered why Jasper told him this but assume it was so that Onyx didn't blame the man himself but the possessor. In truth, Onyx could empathise with Quirrell.

He had heard of how little respect the man got when he was the muggle studies professor. The he went out on a quest to prove himself wasn't a stretch to the imagination.

Well that was one mystery, kind of, solved. He still didn't know what the bond inside Harry was but all Jasper had to say was that the boy was unreachable. He couldn't make a move for him at all, not even to check his health.

Onyx would have to do it himself at some point, let's just hope he never felt the bond as strong as he did when Quirrell was there again.

The days passed quickly. A week later they got their new teacher, an auror called Kingsley Shacklebolt. He was a dark-skinned well-built man with a calm demeanour. If his first few classes were anything to go by, he was a good professor as well. From the first speech he had every student following along with enthusiasm rarely seen.

"I know you're all expecting to be taught how to fight against the most dangerous of beasts and possibly people. But in actuality, right now, the most important thing is that you survive. The role of a first, second, third and in actuality all school years should be to survive and run away. That is why I will teach you primarily how to get away, how to call for help and simply ways to survive when faced with danger."

"I will start with the spell Vermillious. It's also called red sparks as it creates, of course, a jet of red sparks." The professor had everyone focused on his every word and so when he let out a burst of red sparks even that enthralled the students. Shacklebolt was quite a speaker. "Now let's get started, shall we?"

And the man had not lied. He had given them plenty of ways to hide, run away, alert or take advantage of a situation. He went in on some magical creatures but focused on spellwork.

They were taught several sparks, some more dangerous than others, a smokescreen spell, and a knockback jinx. Onyx was very pleased with his new teacher and thanked Jasper profusely for getting rid of his old one, even it he did feel some guilt at having cost the man his life.

The time for Onyx's birthday had arrived and he did wonder who would actually buy him something. Sure, he bought small things for all of his classmates which he had spent even the smallest amount of time with.

He didn't expect everyone else would do the same seeing as he didn't have much political pull or power or anything. It was exciting for more reason than one when he got up that morning.