psl for Dumbledore: An American Witch in Scotland

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"Is it true?"

She asked it before the door to the classroom had even closed behind her, eyes level on her professor sitting at the desk. It wan't angry, or not at him, anyway. She'd heard he'd been moved from the class he'd been teaching--Defense Against the Dark Arts, at which Lorelei excelled--and hadn't waited for the rest of the official announcements and presumably useless shuffling. She'd always been the sort to find out the answers she wanted for herself, and no amount of teachers calling after her down hallways or threatening detention--when she hadn't done anything wrong yet, anyway--was going to stop that.

"Professor?"

Comments

[chambermusicandtenpins]

The news was still fresh to Dumbledore, the full weight of it not entirely settled. There were practicalities to be sorted out -- he'd been reassured that he was not fired, which was something, but it did leave the question of what he'd even do. Which meant it was all still very in flux, and difficult to sort through even in his own head.

Still, there was something charming in how immediately Miss Owens demanded answers. Perhaps he was grateful that someone had noticed that something had happened.

"I am afraid I will need you to tell me what you'd like me to confirm, first," Dumbledore answers with a wry, tired smile, though of course he knows exactly what she must be referring to.

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"That you're not teaching us Defense Against the Dark Arts anymore."

That he knew Grindelwald. That he'd been communicating somehow with him. That--somehow--their teacher was involved in the miasma of tension and fear and divisions creeping in amongst everyone, everywhere, like frost past a windowpane. Any of those things, and probably a thousand more, were what Lorelei wanted him to confirm, one way or another. Lorelei wasn't stupid, she knew what was going on in the world around her even if she wasn't yet considered an adult by most people. Behind a guileless face and a curly bob of fiery red hair, she was too determined to be waylaid by much.

"And if it is true, why?"

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After a beat, he nods his head slowly, wearing a small, sad smile. "I am afraid it is true that I will no longer be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts," he says slowly, being careful with his phrasing, "though it is not yet common knowledge. I would appreciate it if you did not tell your fellow students for the time being."

The 'why' is the trickier part. He knows why. He knows that the Ministry knows more than he'd care for them to, and that they can likely guess at a great deal more. But that isn't for students to know, not even if -- Heaven forbid -- rumors got out about the true reasoning behind it all.

"The Ministry has decided I am unfit to teach such subject matter to the students here," he says, as mild as he is able.

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Her mouth firmed in the stubborn line she held it in at that news, wanting to burst out with so many responses in indignant anger at the turn of events. She didn't say any of it immediately (though it would have shocked almost everyone that knew her, Lorelei not being known for holding her tongue) when she saw her professor's face.

"I don't care what that idiot flatfoot says or thinks. You're the best teacher we have. And we need to be prepared." For whatever came their way, and who knew what that would be? She wasn't willing to bet on a stupid old man like Travers to have the next generation's best interests in mind, because people like him usually didn't. "So I need your recommendations for every book I need to finish your syllabus from the beginning of the semester." If he couldn't teach them directly they'd just have to learn it on their own.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

He's known that Lorelei was an outspoken young woman, that she was not one to hold back her opinions in the face of foolishness. To know this and to hear her praise him so highly was honestly -- well, it was surprisingly heartwarming, given the tenor of his other conversations that day.

Especially when followed by such a pragmatic command. He nods at that, smiling a tad more warmly. "Very well. I should be able to put together such a list for you. My lesson plan had been prepared for well in advance, so I can consult my notes and provide you with what I recommend by the end of tomorrow."

[mosthexcellent]

Dumbledore is the only one smiling in the room; Lorelei looks thoughtful, concerned, conflicted...all of them, quite possibly, and she worries the end of her thumb over the handle end of her wand, tucked into her belt. It's not a look often seen on her, who grasps most new spells with relative ease, even the wordless ones she technically shouldn't have learned yet.

But in light of that expression it seem a little less of a nonsequitur when she asks quietly: "Everything is going to change, isn't it, Professor?" The class, the school, the entire world feels like it's balancing on the edge of a cliff, and no one can see the ground below. This news certainly doesn't help that not feel truer every day as they hear trickles of new about the outside world coming in. Dumbledore is very nearly the only professor at the school who hasn't treated Lorelei any differently for coming in as she did from another school, for sounding different, acting like an American--and losing that bolster is going to make staying here difficult. She knows that.

"Is this how it starts?"

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Albus' expression sobers at that, and he grows thoughtful. After a moment, he says, "Everything is changing, I'm afraid. The world around us is shifting in ways we cannot predict. And even if I would like for it to never affect the world inside this school, I am afraid it is not entirely in our control."

He smiles slightly again, though this time more wistfully. "But I can promise you that I have no intention of leaving the school if I am able to remain. And I have faith that the Headmaster will do his best, given the circumstance."

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"The house they put me in...I don't think I should be there," she murmurs. "They all talk about what's going on like...it's some kind of a good thing. Like anyone nonmagic shouldn't even be here."

Her determination had put her in Slytherin, though she'd been in the Horned Serpent house at Ilvermorny, and from what she'd been able to figure out, the two weren't exactly a perfect parallel. And she was more and more isolated amongst the people here that were supposed to be her family. "You're the only teacher here who hasn't disliked me or thought I was stupid for being American."

[chambermusicandtenpins]

"You are far from stupid, Miss Owens," he says, his expression shifting, his concern growing more apparent as he listens to her speak. "You are one of the brightest students of your year. It is a shame that the people here let shallow prejudices guide them, when it is so very clear that they hold no bearing."

He had, in truth, worried that Slytherin would be a poor fit for her when he'd seen where she'd been placed. The house was supposed to be for the ambitious, and yet the focus on purity had overwhelmed it, poisoning the intention behind it.

"If you'd like, I could speak to the Headmaster," he says. "The Sorting that takes place in first year is often consider irreversible, but you were not sorted. I could argue that you deserve a fair chance with the Sorting Hat to decide your place here."

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"I don't know what it would get me even if I did change houses," she murmured, sitting on a desktop with a slow sigh. It's true, since she didn't come here as an eleven-year-old she wasn't really sorted, not the way the children usually were, and she'd had relatively little choice in the matter of where she was put. It wasn't that she minded being in any of them in particular; on the outset none of them seemed that bad. It was only because she'd opened her mouth in defense of no-maj-born students that anyone of her house was really aware of her, anyway. And she didn't regret what she'd said or how she'd said it.

But she felt inconsolably lonely sometimes, alone in the common room or whatever empty hallway she could find, or the library as late as she was allowed to be in it. "You weren't Slytherin when you were a student, were you?" No, he didn't seem as callous as the rest of her house had become.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

He wears a small, wry smile at that in spite of himself. After all, he isn't meant to show preferences between houses. But that had been tested as of late, with all of the old Slytherin families making sure that their support of Grindelwald, of the war, of purity, were all too well known.

"No, I was not," he answers. "I was in Gryffindor and enjoyed it quite well."

Tilting his head, he continues, "You yourself are a courageous young woman. Perhaps being Sorted there would improve your time here, if the Hat decided it as such. At the very least, I do believe the politics of the other houses might prove less of an affront."

[mosthexcellent]

"And if it puts me in Slytherin anyway? What does that say about me?" Lorelei asked, clearly tor over the outcomes of the idea. There weren't any very good ones--none of the other houses would trust her as far as anyone could throw her, once she'd been in there with all the old pureblood families, and Slytherin would hate her for even considering leaving. Even if she stayed.

[chambermusicandtenpins]

"That you are clever and ambitious, nothing more or less," he answers, with a small, sad smile. It was what the Hat told every new student, what every professor would say if asked what the house stood for. Slytherin had always been a hotbed of pureblood prejudices, it was true, but it had been far less prominent in the past -- or perhaps more subtle, he thinks.

"I know that the Slytherin house has come to be associated with far uglier things than its intended purpose. I suppose when an overthrow of power is in the air, it follows that those with ambitious drives would be the ones most invested in it," he says with a slight sigh. "But it does not mean that all those who are sent there are -- or ever would be -- one of those who wish to support such things."

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"Do you think it would make a difference?" Lorelei asks.

She wanted to be where she could thrive, yes, but she also wanted to be where she could make a difference, could do something. The uneasiness that seemed to permeate the globe was too volatile, and wouldn't be able to sustain itself. That she knew.

"It doesn't feel right. Staying here when we know what's going on out there."

[chambermusicandtenpins]

"I think that if you are currently unhappy, then changing nothing only guarantees you'll remain that way," he says with a small, sad smile. "Nothing changes if no change is made. But taking a chance on something new might provide an opportunity for something better."

No one could guarantee a switch would make things perfect, certainly not all at once. But staying put wouldn't solve anything, not when the problem was so much bigger than one student.

At Lorelei's second point, Albus shakes his head, "The world is changing quickly on its axis, it's true. But all the more reason for its younger members to stay where it's safe and learn, so that they'll be able to meet it head on when they are done."

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Lorelei tugs thoughtfully on a single curl of her hair behind her ear, worrying her lip between her teeth. "Then...if its allowed I'd like to be sorted. Properly, with the hat."

If they hated her, they hated her. And the outcome would have to be what she dealt with. "I still want to learn what you had to teach us."

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Dumbledore smiles at that, at both her acceptance of the idea and her clear nervousness at doing so. In a tone that he hopes is a reassuring one, he says, "Then we shall make sure you are. I can speak with the Headmaster later today to see what can be done."

The second part is honestly heartwarming. Albus likes to think of himself as a good teacher -- he's been called vain more than once for his surety in himself, not without reason -- but there is something genuinely affecting in hearing students value his teaching. He nods in response, answering:

"And you shall. If the books are insufficient -- well, I may not be able to teach the class in the same way as before, but I am a teacher still, and would be happy to meet after class to make sure you are given the education you wish for."

[mosthexcellent]

"You don't have to demonstrate the spells," Lorelei says. "We learn silent magic earlier at home than here. It's supposed to keep us safer from the No-Majs," she sighs dutifully, with the air of an often-recited admonishment. She frankly doesn't think anyone really cares about witches and wizards save the very small groups of crazies--and usually, they're good enough at making themselves known before any witch gets close enough to be hurt.

"That's why we moved here, you know. I moved with my brother after our parents died. Because here there aren't rules about who you can know and talk to. Or there weren't."

[chambermusicandtenpins]

Those words feel like an old bruise, an ache buried underneath everything else. He remembers hearing other witches and wizards discussing smugly how enlightened Britain was compared to the laws and prejudices codified in the States -- and yet it seemed that every day they crept closer to something far worse than whatever the Americas had dreamed up.

"A very valid reason to make the move," Albus answers with a small, wistful smile. "Britain is all the better for both of you being in it. Hopefully it can live up to the reputation it once had with you."