Chapter 25: Getting to know each other further
Rick had loved working at the music shop and was a bit saddened that his experience ended quickly. He had argued a bit with his parents about working there but they let him when he said that he had given his word to someone who had offered him a hand when he didn’t have to and had nothing to gain from doing so and that it wouldn’t be right to not uphold his word to that person. Dorea, having visited the shop the previous day, had been the first to crack and agreed. Charlus respected his son’s attitude to keep to his word and relented after thinking about it a bit.
Rick was waiting for answers from his friends, while McGonagall had already written back. That was no surprise, Morrigan couldn’t be everywhere at any time. He had prioritized his head of house first, then Lily, then Marlene, then Amelia.He was working with his mother on the basics of chemistry in the living room, when they heard Minerva floo-calling at the time she said she would. Charlus, who was half reading a book and half looking at his wife and son doing their thing, got up and went to the chimney to let Hogwarts’ Deputy Headmistress inside the manor. He let her clean herself of the soot one got on themselves from floo travel and welcomed her properly.
“Welcome to Potter Manor, Professor. I’m Lord Charlus Potter and this is my wife, Lady Dorea Potter.” he pointed at his wife who had gotten up from the table and made her way to greet her too.
Minerva's jaw dropped when she recognized the man. She had met him years ago when she was barely out of Hogwarts and working at the Ministry. It was a brief encounter, in fact they didn’t even talk, she had just shared an elevator with him. For a brief moment she wondered if she didn’t have the wrong address.
“Of course you already know our son, Corvus.” Dorea said.
“Hello, Professor.” Rick joined his parents.
“Mister Wald? I-...”
She was confused for a bit. She knew Rick, from his letter, had been staying with a magical couple because Wool’s Orphanage had closed and she had been surprised that the couple in question was none other than Lord and Lady Potter. Remembering the story of the couple’s son missing, her jaw dropped again.
“You’re…”
“From what the inheritance test I did at Gringotts said… I am, yes.”
“That’s… Wonderful news!” the transfiguration teacher said. She was genuinely happy for the family being reunited after a decade and a half of separation. Especially since it concerns her favorite student.
“Thank you, professor.” his father said. “Please, come in. Tipsy.”
“Yes, Master? What can Tipsy do?” Rick’s favorite elf said as she popped up.
“Take Deputy Headmistress McGonagall’s coat and please serve us tea.”
Tispy obeyed and soon enough everyone was seated around a wooden and luxurious wood table with a cup of tea and some biscuits in front of them.
“We had Corvus, invite you today to thank you for taking such good care of him all those years and of course to know more about his education at Hogwarts.” Dorea said.
“I only did my duty as his magical guardian.”
“That’s not what he told us.”
“Oh?”
“Apparently he’s your favorite student?”
“I do not play favorites, Lady Potter.” Minerva replied sternly while looking at Rick.“You do not, professor. That doesn’t mean you don’t have favorites and that it’s not me. My Nimbus 1000 is proof of that.” Rick replied nonchalantly and sip his tea, the hint of a smile on his lips.
“I will not confirm or deny this, Mister Wa… Potter.”
“Actually, Professor, I’d like to be Mister Wald until I graduate.”
“How so?” she asked, a bit confused.
“I don’t want some… less than savory people to think that I reached the top because I’m a pureblood and not muggle-born. I don't want them to dismiss my hard work because of my parentage.”
“Understandable.” Minerva answered while nodding in understanding and agreeing with his line of thought.
“I’m telling you because well… you’re my magical guardian and because you’re trustworthy but please keep my parentage secret.”
“I will.”
“Thank you.”
“What about his grades?” Rick’s mother insisted, making her husband smile at her behavior. “Corvus told us he had been ranked first ever since he started Hogwarts? That doesn’t tell us much about his grades. What electives did he choose?”
“He has indeed been ranked first along with his friend Lily Evans for four consecutive years. Did he not tell you about his grades and electives?”
“He did not, no.” his father said.
“He has been quite mum about it.”
“Well, see for yourself.”
Minerva opened her small bag and pulled out a small envelope from it which she handed to Charlus (as he was the Lord of the House) who handed it to Dorea who opened it.
“The letter should have been sent in a few days but since I was meeting Mister Wald today I brought it with me.”
Both Charlus and Dorea nodded then took a look at their son’s grades. Much like Minerva earlier, their jaws dropped to the ground.
Dear Mister Wald,
Please find below your final grades of your fourth year exams at Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Reminder:
Six different grades exist for each subject.Passing Grades:
Outstanding (O)Exceed Expectation (E)Acceptable (A)
Fail Grades:Poor (P)Dreadful (D)Troll (T)
Mister Rick Wald’s grades are:
Arithmancy: O
Astronomy: O
Care of Magical Creatures: OCharms: ODefense Against the Dark Arts: O
Divination: O
Herbology: OHistory of Magic: O
Muggle Studies: OPotions: O
Study of Ancient Runes: OTransfiguration: O
Rank in the year : 1 / 83
Sincerely yours,
Minerva McGonagall,Hogwarts’ Deputy Headmistress.
They were frozen in shock and Minerva gave a meaningful look at Rick who just polished his nails on his shirt and blew on them. That made her roll her eyes but smile a bit.
“Charlus, am I seeing wrong or does our son have twelve outstandings?”
“You’re not seeing wrong or we both do, dear.”
“Your son has indeed scored twelve outstandings. A record.”
“But how?” Asked Dorea.
“I’m smart.” Rick got a glare from his mother.
“I meant that twelve classes don’t fit your schedule. It’s impossible for you to attend all classes.”
“Oh! Well, you’re right about that. I don’t participate in all of them.”
“Then-”
“Your son only assists to half the electives while Miss Evans assists to the other half.” Minerva cut in, knowing the conversation would last at this rate.
“They share their notes.” understood Charlus.
“We do. I go to Divination and Ancient runes while Lily goes to Muggle Studies and Arithmancy. We both go to Care of Magical Creatures. Lily because she loves animals and I because of my gift.”
“Still, how do you have the time to study for all of them?” inquired his Mother.
“Study? During class.”
“I never saw your son doing his homework outside of class during his first two years at Hogwarts since he did it during it. Now with the electives, I do see him from time to time working on the class he couldn’t attend.”
“Actually, Professor, I don’t either. When you see me working it’s on a personal project or when I’m sharing my notes with Lily or helping Marlene.”
“Is that so? Then when do you do your homework?”
“Summer break.”
“Sum-. You do a whole year of homework in advance?!” the head of Gryffindor house exclaimed in shock.
“I do. It’s easy to know what will be asked for homework with the textbook on hand.”
“But… Why would you do that?” his father asked.
“Well… To pass the time. There wasn’t much to do at the orphanage. And it’s not like I work hard on it. Just enough for an Outstanding.”
“What do you mean ‘just enough for an Outstanding’?” inquired his mother.
“Only the grades of the final exams count so there is no point in going beyond what’s necessary for simple homework. In fact, I’m pretty sure if there was a grade above outstanding I would have gotten it in charms, runes and potions on my finals.”
“Professor Flitwick and Slughorn did say they wish that was the case.” Minerva confirmed.
“How come Corvus and his friend were allowed to take all electives?”
“That’s a good question, Lady Potter. At the end of their second year, both came to see me and told me of their desires to take all the electives but that they understood they physically couldn’t. They were the ones to present the idea of doing half and half. Since they are the most brilliant students in their year and that your son is most of the time… fooling around.” McGonagall said while looking at Rick “because he has a lot of free time, I agreed to test their idea for one term on the condition their grades didn’t suffer. Should they, then they would have been forced to drop some subjects.”
“And they proved they could do it.” said Charlus
“That, they did.”
Both his parents looked at Rick with no small amount of pride.
“My son is a genius, that’s great but how about as a student? He showed us last week his memories of Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets and his scriptorium.” Rick’s father wondered. Speaking about the scriptorium made Dorea frown.
“And I’d like to know how my son found himself involved in the first place. For Merlin’s sake he used the Cruciatus on himself!”
“Dear!”
Minerva looked at Rick who had the decency to be both guilty and sheepish.
“Sorry, Professor. I forgot I wasn’t supposed to talk about it. To my defense, I just found out who I was half a day earlier and was quite shaken.”
McGonagall sighed and explained both situations to his parents. “Your son got in his head to map all Hogwarts in his first year. During the Winter Break of his second year, he found both locations you named earlier. For the Chamber of secrets, he… jumped down to the chamber after the Faculty. We never considered for a moment he would do something so reckless as he never displayed such behavior before. Quite the contrary. This turned out to be a good thing as his gift allowed us to localize the basilisk and deal with it promptly. At no time was he in danger during the very short confrontation. He was forty feet away outside the chamber in fact. As for the scriptorium…”
“I was impatient.” Rick confessed. “I didn’t give anyone the time to think about what to do. While my reasons were logical, it wasn’t my place to act, yet I did. What can I say? I’m a Gryffindor.”
“I’m pleased to see you’ve reflected on your actions.”
The answer Dorea got seemed to have mellowed her a bit. She wasn’t happy with what happened but she could accept it. Charlus asked again what kind of students he was, or rather what he was up to.
“Oh! Well, I can share some memories of his… most memorable moments.”
Rick’s face paled when he heard the sweet tone in his Professor’s voice. It was too sweet, almost gleeful.
“Hm, professor? I-I’d rather not?”
““We very much do.”” his parents answered in unison, noticing how pale he was.
Charlus called for Karkass to bring out the pensieve and Minerva shared multiple dozen of memories. The very first one was of his first quidditch game.
“Merlin! Is that really a student?” his father exclaimed when he saw Bulstrode next to Rick.
His mother had been very expletive when she saw what her baby boy had to go through and cheered when he sent the seventh year out the pitch. “That was beautifully done, Corvus.”
Of course, McGonagall had put the memory of his drunken episode which happened the day after the game. Charlus was laughing so much he had tears in his eyes while Dorea was both amazed by her son’s duelling abilities without training and furious that he had been drinking alcohol.
“What were you thinking?! Drinking at your age?!”
“That was no fault of his, Lady Potter. An idiot filled an empty bottle of butterbeer to no one’s knowledge with Oden’s finest and unfortunately your son was forced drink the whole bottle. He wasn’t punished for his actions since he wasn’t responsible in the first place.”
“It’s been two years and everyone is still checking my cups in the common room.” Rick said in displeasure.
“It’s now an unofficial rule in the common room.”
“You mean… it made the wall, professor?”
“Indeed, Lord Potter.”
“Merlin.” Charlus let out with amazement in his voice.
“What wall?” asked a confused Dorea.
“Gryffindors being quite… rowdy, sometimes more rules are needed just for them. It is tradition to add supplementary rules on a plaque hanging on the wall near the information billboard in the common room.” explained the head of House.
“That’s quite a feat, dear. It doesn’t happen often. And something to be proud of because you leave a trace of your passage at Hogwarts only for your fellow Gryffindors.”
“It also allows Gryffindor to be more disciplined when the new rules do not point at someone in particular. It’s a slow refining process.” Minerva explained further and Charlus nodded in agreement.
He was quite proud about his son making it to the wall and so soon at the beginning of his second year.
“Ugh. Gryffindorks.” Dorea said with exasperation.
“You do know that you’re currently surrounded and outnumbered by Gryffindors, right?” Her son remarked.
“Believe me, son. If Grindelwald wasn’t enough to defeat your mother, we certainly won’t be a match.”
“You fought Grindelwald?” inquired a very shocked McGonagall.
“I did. I softened him a bit for Dumbledore. I could have ended him but saving my husband and brother was more important.” the woman answered nonplussed.
“Is my mother a badass witch?”
“I am. Better not forget it in case you want to be rebellious again.” she said while looking at him with narrowed eyes.
Rick began to sweat. “I really got lucky when I stunned you then.”
“What do you think?” Rick’s mother replied in a ‘duh, stupid, it’s obvious’ tone.
“Mister Wald you did what?!”
“It’s water under the bridge, Professor. It won’t happen again.”
“...”
Minerva said nothing more. It wasn’t her place after all. Instead she pulled more memories. This time even Dorea laughed at Rick’s first success at the Accio Charm. She laughed even more when Filius answered his sarcasm by actually giving him points.
On and on she showed memories over the years until she had no more to show or at least none very memorable. The Potters were very happy with it. They were not only able to see their son at Hogwarts but also have a look at his friends.
“I apologize but it is quite late for me, I have another appointment.”
“Oh! Of course, of course! Please don’t let us hold you.” Charlus said.
“We’re grateful for the memories of our son.”
“I have more that I can send you by owl. They’re not as impressive though.”
“We’d love to have them, please and thank you.”
“Mister Wald.”
“Professor?”
Minerva put her hand in her pocket and tossed him something that he caught with no difficulty. Looking at the object, he noticed it was a prefect badge.
“I’m trusting you with this.”
“...Only if Lily gets one, Professor, otherwise…”
“You don’t have to worry about that.” she replied with a knowing smirk.
Rick thanked her and after saying goodbye to everyone she flooed away.
“Soooo. Which one is Lily, which one is Marlene and which one is Amelia?” His father asked with a teasing grin.
“Charlus!”
“I’m just curious about who his friends are, dear!”
“That’s not what I meant!” Dorea turned to her son and looked at him with narrow eyes. “Who’s the slattern who took your innocence?!”
“...What?” Rick asked after taking a moment to process what his mother had said. Even his father had been a bit shocked by his wife’s words.
“Which was it? I bet it’s the redhead with…”
“That’s none of your business.”
“I’m your-”
Rick ignored her and turned to his father. “The blonde is Marlene McKinnon.”
“Oh, a McKinnon? I don’t know them well but they’re good people from what I heard.”
“Lily is the dark redhead with green eyes and Amelia is the brighter redhead with blue eyes. She’s older than us by two years.”
“So she’s the one!”
Rick rolled his eyes and left the living room, his mother in tow and asking questions he had no intention to answer. Fortunately for Rick, Charlus was swift and held his wife back.
“He’s a teenager, what did you expect?”
“He’s my baby! My baby boy!”
“Perhaps but he’s also almost an adult, Dorea. An age where he discovers himself and others.”
“You’re supporting this because that slut’s body is sinful and she’s older than our son.” she interrupted with a glare. “Don’t lie to me Charlus! I grew up with two older brothers AND my older sister Cassie. I know all your boys stupids challenges and feats regarding the opposite sex.”
“Then you know our son is doing very well for himself.”
“...”
He got her there and she had nothing to say back. “How about you put that out of your mind and go back to studying whatever you were studying with him? It seemed to me you were quite enjoying yourself.”
“... I was. What the muggle found it’s… fascinating. And Corvus makes it easy to understand. Merlin, I even get ideas on how he did things and how to do some myself.”
“Really? Muggles are that… knowledgeable?” he asked a bit in surprise.
“They are. It’s mind blowing.”
“That’s because of the handicaps they have.”
Turning their heads to the side, they saw their son coming back to the living room.
“When you’re limited in your options, you either accept them or find a way to make new options with what you have. Handicaps push people to be creative. Since we have magic and can do almost everything with it, there aren’t really any restrictions and we don’t think outside the norms.”
“Well… Now I do or at least I’m beginning to. It won’t be long before I make my own discoveries.” Dorea had said that with conviction and joined her son back at the table.
She had things to learn and she would learn them.