Shape of Magic Chapter 28: Plots and Plans

<<<Taylor Rose>>>

Taylor now understood why Chuck had mixed opinions towards Dumbledore, honestly she felt giving someone the boot after that shitshow of a first class is a fairly reasonable reaction. The fact that McGongall and Snape were equally upset also had Taylor feeling rather vindicated. So really it should be an open and shut case, and he could just contact Moody and have him retake the role of professor again.

The end.

But that didn’t happen, Lockhart got a severe reprimand and… that’s it. And as much as she hated it, she understood. It would reflect very poorly on Hogwarts if Lockhart was fired after his first classes. And as stupid as it is, sometimes reputation is all that matters to people.

So, there she was with Amy, Ron, Hermione, and eventually Hera in the library where she shared her dastardly plot to ensure DADA was properly taught to all Houses despite the fact that Slytherin was in good hands with Snape. Though she was fairly sure some first year snakes would join, either because they were intimidated by Snape or felt unwelcome if they’re muggleborn or half-blood. Or they wanted to get in good with her, a distinct possibility.

Still stupid reasoning in her opinion, but it wasn’t like she could force the community into the twenty-first century. Or even the late twentieth.

“A defense club, maybe call it ‘Secret Society for Safer Studies’ or something,” She said, having never been very great at coming up with names, but the alliteration amused her.

“That would be SSSS.” Amy pointed out, “And well you know… Nazis, SS squad… yeah no.”

Hermione just nodded, though she seemed still distracted.

“How about just Defense Studies? DS,” Hera offered.

“It would also be the sound snakes make, slithering silently still,” Taylor pressed, grin widening. “Steve sibilantly… I’m out of ‘S’ words, anyone know one that means ‘likes’?”

“Ron, could you?” Amy asked from the other side of the table. Ron, sitting next to her, nodded and bopped her on the head with a small book. Which didn’t hurt but did make her pout. “Thank you.”

“Well, you were acting like a nutter,” Ron said dryly.

“You all simply can’t comprehend my train of thought!” Taylor said in a faux-haughty voice.

“There isn’t a man alive that can do that,” Amy replied, voice dry, “But your idea holds merit, even if your naming sense is… not great. Neither is Hera’s. Hermione, please tell me you have a better idea.”

Hermione seemed to have been jerked out of her funk by the question. “I have… some ideas. How about Agrippa’s Legacy? He was a wizard in the fourteen and fifteen hundreds who was imprisoned by muggles because they thought his books were evil,” She explained, “He was very influential in teaching. He was also a lawyer, polymath, doctor, soldier, knight, and theologian.”

“... I like it?” Taylor said after a moment.

Amy sighed, resting her face in her hands. “We’re overthinking this.”

“How about just ‘Defense Against the Dark Arts Club,’” Ron suggested, “DADAC. We know what the Twins will be calling it anyway: Defense Against Incompetent Teachers.”

“Aw, you do know them,” Taylor snickered, “Only someone that loves them very much could predict them so accurately. Or their greatest rival, me!”

“Ron?” Ron hit her again. “Thank you. It’s a good idea,” Amy agreed, “But how will we convince the Professors to let us do it?”

“Leave that to me,” Hermione started, “I can convince McGonnigal, I’m sure of it.”

“It shouldn’t be too hard,” Taylor snorted, “She doesn’t like him more than we do. I swear I overheard him trying to correct her on how to transfigure a desk through my bugs, but there were a lot of people around so I might be wrong about that one.”

Ron gave her a look, “You are phenomenally creepy, you know that, right?”

“I once went by the name Skitter,” She informed him gravely, “I am more than aware.”

“Just making sure,” He replied without skipping a beat. He was getting used to her, that wasn’t good. She’d need to step up her game!

“There’s also the fact that I’m pretty sure Snape is planning on making the peacock disappear completely,” Taylor added, “And given his speciality, I can imagine dozens of ways he could get away with it.” She paused for a moment before shrugging. “Not sure he’s actually going to do it, but he’s certainly thinking of it.”

“Honestly, the only person on staff that likes the man is himself,” Amy said with some very valid confidence in Taylor’s opinion.

“It’s settled then,” Taylor said as she stood up, “I’ll talk to Snape about it, Herms talks to McGonagall, and then you three get people willing to sign up? Focus on the higher and earlier years, the higher years can help teach the rest.”

“Sure, sounds like a plan,” Hera said.

Taylor smirked, giving her best Lisa inspired smile, as she said, “I ran a gang once, I make great plans. Just ask Amy!”

“Ok, you’re going to have to tell us more about your childhood at some point,” Hera said, “You can’t keep being vague and mysterious forever.”

“It’s on the list,” Amy said with a tired sigh.

‘Oh thank goodness!” Hermione said, “Honestly between all these concerning comments you’ve made I was starting to draw some very unnerving conclusions.”

“The mildest being she and Amy are completely nutters?” Ron snarked with some amusement.

“No, we knew that already,” Hera replied, “I think the simplest one she said was that they were originally the children of death eaters and just repeating stories they heard when they were kids.”

“Oh no, I assure you it’s much more insane and worrying than anything you guys are thinking,” Taylor said with a nod and grin, “All will be revealed in time, promise. We, uh, honestly we’re just trying to figure out a way to tell you so that you actually believe us, because it’s kinda…”

“Completely insane,” Amy finished for her, “Utterly disconnected from reality. People wouldn’t believe it even in a book.”

“That, yes,” Taylor agreed, “Oh, I just had an idea for that, just need to ask Aif if it’s reasonable…”

Ron cleared his throat. “So… defense club?”

“... Right,” Taylor started, “Talk to you guys later!”

<<<Amy Carlson>>>

Honestly, getting people to sign up for the DADAC was a lot easier than she had expected, and  she didn’t think it would be hard at all already. Really, the only ones that weren’t interested were the girls still smitten by Lockhart and some of the upper years that were busy with their OWLS or NEWTS. But almost every first and second year were willing and eager, honestly she almost didn’t want to know what Lockhart’s first class was like for the first years to make them so eager for an after class club!

But between Ron and herself, Hermione was off pitching the entire idea to McGonagall, they got most of the entire House on board. Though some griped about the club being open to all Houses, mainly complaining about Slytherins. 

Even Wood had agreed to join, after being convinced that it wouldn’t impact Quidditch anyway. The man was obsessed, truly.

For her part, Taylor had managed to gather plenty of Snakes, Puffs, and Claws herself (the last of which had asked to join before being specifically invited). Enough people had wanted to join that the first club meeting was going to be about where they’d hold future meetings when it got too cold to do it outside!

Though, personally, she hoped Flitwick would oversee their meetings; she was pretty sure she heard he was a Dueling Champion or something. And that Lockhart stayed away, cause she would not hold Taylor back from ‘chastising’ the stupid man!

But now, looking at a parchment filled with names of people interested, Amy wondered how things would play out. She was reasonably certain that they’d get permission to form the club and everything, but would it only be for that year? She was thankful that no one else was in the common room at that moment, or else the worry on her face would hurt their plans.

She had an odd feeling that it’d become a recurring thing, but she hoped that was just her pessimism acting up.

Would it even be bad to have the club be a permanent thing either? Hermione seemed to think it would only be a good thing, as did Hera. Amy wasn’t sure, but maybe…

“Amy,” A swarm of bugs said as it started forming next to her. It was far too late in the day for it to be anything other than an emergency. “Lockhart found out about our plans and wants to be the supervising teacher.”

“No. Not just no but Hell No,” Amy said, “I will give that man ALL the cancer! I refuse to acknowledge that waste of oxygen as anything other than a sacrifice to distract a monster,” She could only imagine what sort of damage the fool could do!

What if someone broke their arm and he vanished the bones before she could heal them!?

“I know,” The swarm replied, mimicking a nod, “I’m working on it. I’m trying to get another teacher instead, or at least in addition to. Snape has shown interest, as has Flitwick.”

“Christ, how did the fool even find out?” Amy asked, morbidly curious, “And hell, I’ll take’em both.”

“From what I heard,” Taylor started, sounding irritated, “Some of his fangirls complained about the idea nearby. They’ve since apologized to me once they heard about what he did in our class. And no, I didn’t threaten them.”

“Fucking fangirls…” Amy grumbled, she honestly can’t remember if she ever had fanpeople like that herself back on Bet.

The swarm buzzed around for a few moments before saying, “The Ravenclaw prefects are in agreement with me, but Hufflepuff is being more reticent. They don’t like the idea of going around the proper authorities.”

“So should we just take it up with Dumbledore?” Amy asked, “Would that appease the Puffs?”

“It might be wise,” She replied, “We can go with Hera tomorrow, knocking on his office door and such.”

“Yeah, makes sense,” Amy said, “Probably tell him to keep the idiot away before I do something drastic…” 

Again, the swarm nodded. “And figure out why he hired the idiot, there may be a good reason for it unrelated to his… teaching abilities.” Even through her bug voice, Taylor still managed to sound sarcastic. It was a talent, assuredly. “School funding or similar. Or maybe he wants the curse to take him out.”

“... Oh yeah, that’s a thing, isn’t it?” Honestly, Amy forgot about that… but given the events of the last year it was perfectly understandable.

After all it was not everyday you saw someone pull a Jesus Christ through the power of sheer spite and bullheadedness. Honestly, Amy wouldn’t be surprised if when, if at this point, Taylor did actually die she would fight death himself cause god forbid Taylor give anyone an easy time.

“If it isn’t, I’m going to make it a thing if Lockhart fucks around,” The bugs buzzed violently before reforming into a human shape once more.

“Glad we’re on the same page then,” Amy said.

“In more pleasant news,” Taylor pivoted, “we have some workable lesson plans, but it will mean we’ll need a scheme to organize things a bit. I was thinking three different club days through the week. You and I can manage that, even if no one else can show up to all of them with other clubs and such.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Amy said, “Heh, who knows? We just might find our calling in life,” She added dryly.

“I think this is just a continuation of what we were already doing,” Taylor retorted, “Showing up idiots by doing their job better.”

“... I hate that I can’t disagree…” Amy grumbled.

“You can rarely disagree with me,” Taylor replied smugly, “At least when I’m being serious. Speaking of, if we can’t get Lockhart off our backs we’ll need to figure out a way to keep the meetings secret. I have some ideas, but I’m open to suggestions. Some snakes and claws suggested the protean charm, and that has promise but could open up a security hole if the enchanted object is stolen.”

“Hmm… maybe we could ask Dumbledore?” Amy suggested.

The swarm nodded. “We can do that tomorrow as well. Maybe the Forbidden Forest is an option, I doubt the coward would want to show up there even if he was supposed to supervise.”

Amy just laughed before sitting in an overly plush armchair that was more comfortable than it should’ve been. But Amy just attributed that to charms and didn’t give it any more thought.

“I’ll let you get some sleep for now, Ames,” Taylor said, “I’d give you a hug, but I’m not sure you’d appreciate that like this…”

Amy snorted, “You’re not wrong. We can save it for tomorrow,” She said as she scratched her cheek.

“Love ya, Ames,” Taylor said before the swarm flew out of the window they’d come in from.

Closing her eyes she just sighed before forcing herself up and deciding to head up to the dorms to wash up before getting some sleep. It was going to be a long day on the morrow.

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