2 Oct 1922
The door to the Deputy Headmaster’s office sat partially open, which was strange enough that students would stop to peek in.
Inside, Gideon Blackwood sat behind his desk, sleeves rolled neatly to his forearms as he worked through stack of parchment. The man already questioning several choices made by both staff and students alike.
The office itself was warm despite the stone walls, lit by low lamps and the steady crackle of the fireplace nearby. Shelves lined with books, organized files, potion bottles, Tea and a suspicious amount of pink toys gave the space a more lived-in feeling than most students expected from him. Fiona had claimed her spot in the corner, a small child's table with an astonishing number of toys and every color imaginable in crayons.
Every so often, Gideon’s attention would turn toward the open doorway before returning to the parchment in front of him.
Office hours. A concept many students still seemed deeply suspicious of.
Still, the door remained open.
Whether someone needed academic help, guidance, permission forms signed, disciplinary discussions, or simply a place to sit quietly for a few moments, they were welcome to knock, or simply walk in, if feeling brave enough.
knock, knock, knock
“Door’s open,” Gideon called without looking up. “Though if you’re here to tell me the castle is on fire, kindly make it quick. I’ve only just sat down.”
His heart was pounding in his chest. Was he doing the right thing? Would he get in trouble? How could he get in trouble if he was the one suffering from it? He walked quickly along the stone tiles of the darkest, coldest corridors of the castle. His steps were weighed down by an intruder in the pocket of his silver-green robes, as light as they were heavy. His gaze swept over the walls and familiar faces and not of the Hogwarts students he passed, as if he were afraid of their judgment. Even the familiar hiss of that damned fake snake that served as a letterbox could startle him, given how tense he was already, making him jump back like a guilty man caught red-handed. “Salazar strike you down!” he cursed under his breath before moving on towards the door that would lead him to his Head of House. It was open, which meant the professor was in the office. First he leaned out, holding his breath, trying to hear if there were any voices inside, then he leaned out to see if anyone besides the teacher was there. Only then, seeing him alone, did he reach out a trembling hand to the door, knocking gently with his knuckles. “Can….can I come in?” he asked in a trembling voice. He waited for the next answer before entering, but not before looking around for prying eyes, then closing the door behind him.
“No, p-professor. The school is still standing.” He tried to reassure him, even though it wasn't the teacher that needed reassurance, as he approached the table where the deputy headmaster was working, his voice low, as if he didn't really want to disturb him from whatever task he was carrying out. “I came… I came to report something.” His gaze moved from side to side, finding the teacher's handwriting very interesting, now the bottle of ink, now one of the many scents that wafted through the room. “But… well… I don't want to get into trouble… well… I have nothing to do with it… I just wanted to… well… report the matter.” His voice was now shaking more visibly, echoing throughout his body and making it tremble with fear.
Trembling, he reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out what looked like a relatively square block of whitish soap, broken in half, with an equally white substance dripping from its center. Gareth looked around the table for a safe place to put it, but not finding one, he took care to grab a handkerchief of his own to place on the table before placing the soap on top, before it could make a mess. It was also difficult to put it down properly, given how it stuck to his hands. “I was in the bathroom, I wanted to wash my hands, and I grabbed this.” He began, pointing to the soap. “But when I touched it, there was something wrong… well… it's different from soap… it doesn't dissolve, it breaks immediately, it doesn't make foam and my hands” he continued, opening and closing them in front of the teacher “Not only do they not get clean, but they become…. Sticky.” he tried to explain, holding them out in his direction so that the other could examine everything if he wanted.
He looked at him for a moment, biting his lip. “The smell is strange too… and do you see how it leaks from inside?” He continued, trying to direct the teacher’s attention to the various “clues” he was bringing him. “I wouldn’t want… well… I wouldn’t want it to be one of those banned transfigured sweet…” There, he had spit it out. It hadn’t been difficult. Too bad that wasn’t the problem that mattered most to him: “If it’s true… Professor, will I be in trouble? I mean… I touched it, I had it in my pocket and it’s banned. I don’t want my house to lose points. I… I didn’t know what to do… I couldn’t go to a prefect… maybe to the infirmary? But I don’t want to waste the nurses’ time either… Not that I can waste yours… of course… I’m… I just don’t know what to do!”
The face of Gareth, one of his third year students came into view. At least this one didn’t bring an instant sense of annoyance. Thank Merlin for small favors.
“No, p-professor. The school is still standing.” Well, at least there was that.
“Come, sit. I don’t have all day.” He said, watching the young man take in his office with appraising eyes. Gideon didn’t know Gareth well, which was a good sign, the ones he knew the best were typically the worst.
“I came… I came to report something. But… well… I don't want to get into trouble… well… I have nothing to do with it… I just wanted to… well… report the matter.”
Gideon could smell the nerves wafting off the boy, which honestly annoyed him. Depositing his quill back into the ink pot, Gideon sat back in his chair, elbows perched, hands tented in front of his face. He watched the boy appraisingly, waiting for the tale he would spin.
“Proceed,” he sighed.
He really should try harder to make his students feel more comfortable, but then they would visit more often. This was why, unlike his wife, he didn’t have jars full of candies to sample. Nope, open and welcoming were not descriptors for the Slytherin Head of House.
“I was in the bathroom, I wanted to wash my hands, and I grabbed this. But when I touched it, there was something wrong… well… it's different from soap… it doesn't dissolve, it breaks immediately, it doesn't make foam and my hands. Not only do they not get clean, but they become…. Sticky.”
Ok, he had his attention. Gideon didn’t react. Didn’t ask questions. He observed the boy and took quick glances toward the odd looking soap, waiting for him to finish.
“The smell is strange too… and do you see how it leaks from inside? I wouldn’t want… well… I wouldn’t want it to be one of those banned transfigured sweet… If it’s true… Professor, will I be in trouble? I mean… I touched it, I had it in my pocket and it’s banned. I don’t want my house to lose points. I… I didn’t know what to do… I couldn’t go to a prefect… maybe to the infirmary? But I don’t want to waste the nurses’ time either… Not that I can waste yours… of course… I’m… I just don’t know what to do!”
His eyes lingered on the boy a few beats longer, silence… blissful silence, lingered until it felt uncomfortable.
Pulling the handkerchief closer, Gideon looked over the ‘soap’ while he asked a few clarifying questions. “Gareth, is it? What bathroom did you find this in exactly? Were there any other boys in there with you? And you say this isn't yours, but why should I believe you? Maybe you're trying to pin this on someone else.” Opening his top left desk drawer, Gideon pulled out a pair of dragon leather gloves, pulling them on to examine the substance closer. The boys answers would determine how he would proceed.
"Gareth Emrys Prince, sir." He suggested to the teacher. The agitation was real, and the deputy headmaster wasn't helping to calm the situation dow, quite the opposite in fact. Between his icy gaze and his knife-like questions, Gareth felt even more in danger than before. Maybe reporting the incident hadn't been such a great idea. He thought he was doing something right by cooperating with the teachers, but it seemed like it would have been better to pocket the loot like every other student, maybe even make money out of it.
With small, frightened eyes and rapid breathing, Gareth tried to defend himself from the deputy headmaster's accusatory questions. "What? No! I mean, if I wanted to blame someone, wouldn't it be easier to say… I don’t know… I saw John Jones placing it?! Or if I don't know the name, I'd at least give a description of the person." He blurted out a completely made-up name, just to give an idea of how stupid the professor's reasoning seemed to him. ”And then I can prove that I didn't do this! Ask the transfiguration teacher. As much as I hate to admit it, I struggle with that subject. I couldn't have transfigured it like that.” And he waved the fake soap in front of the teacher as if to urge him to really see what was in front of him.
He paused for a moment. “I’m sorry” he said, trying to take a deep breath and calm his nerves, as difficult as it was. “But I can swear to you on the good name of my house and my blood that I didn’t do it. ” His right hand, visually over his heart, or a short distance from his uniform before it could be stained by the melted chocolate of the fake soap. “And in fact, I want to help you as much as I can. ”
Another breath, his eyes closed as he recalled the scene in his mind, as difficult as it was for him to see with those eyes. ” I was leaving the Great Hall as soon as I finished lunch to move on to the next class on the fourth floor. However, as I was going up I felt a stomachache and stopped at the bathroom on the first floor. When I entered there was a hufflepuff, from the height I'd say sixth year, who was coming out and there were two occupied stalls. After doing what I had to do I went to wash my hands. I didn't notice how many stalls were blocked, but there was no one else at the sinks. I didn't look to see if there were any other non-soaps, I just grabbed this one and came straight here. By the way, prof, could I have a pass for being late to class? Maybe it would have been better if I kept it to myself and came after class? But you wouldn't have been here… Should I have reported it and handed it to the first professor I came across? Oh sorry, I don't know what to do. I want to do the right thing, like the aurors… but I don't know what it is!”
The boy's outburst was met with silence. Gideon simply watched him and listened. The rapid explanations, the mounting panic. It all spilled out in a wave until Gareth finally ran out of steam.
Only then did Gideon speak, taking a breath before proceeding. "Mr. Prince." His voice wasn't raised. If anything, it was quieter than before. Calmer. "Take a breath."
It wasn’t a suggestion. "If I genuinely believed you had manufactured this yourself, we would be having a very different conversation." Looking at the item sitting on his desk, it was a curious case. Someone with advanced transfiguration abilities helped with this. That being said, it wasn’t perfect.
Adjusting one of the dragon hide gloves, Gideon carefully turned the fake bar of soap over in his hands. The smell was unmistakably wrong. Not soap. Interesting. Very interesting. While his inspection was focused on the item, his eyes kept looking at the boy, assessing.
"You found a suspicious object, brought it directly to a member of staff, and reported where you found it. Those are not the actions of someone attempting to hide evidence. You can stop defending yourself. I don’t believe you are responsible for this issue.”
Succinct. Efficient. He didn’t have time for long drawn out conversations.
"The first floor boys lavatory. Shortly after lunch. One older Hufflepuff leaving and at least two occupied stalls." He repeated the details aloud, committing them to memory. "Good."
Reaching into a drawer, Gideon withdrew a blank slip of parchment and began writing. "You will receive a pass for your class. Being late because you brought a potentially dangerous magical substance directly to the Deputy Headmaster is an acceptable excuse. Wandering around with it for several hours would not have been." He said, looking at the boy. His quill scratched across the parchment. He was proud of the boy, not everyone would have thought to bring the item to an adult. A Gryffindor would have probably tried to eat it. Or sell it.
"As for what you should have done, you already did it. You found something unusual. You reported it. Next time, notify the nearest professor if one is available. If not, bring it to me.”
The pass finished, Gideon signed it with a quick signature and set it aside. "Please, leave the investigation to the adults. I don’t want word getting around that we are looking into this. Let the perpetrators think this has gone unnoticed."
Another glance at the sticky substance. "One final question, Mr. Prince, then you can head to class. Did you see anyone else touch this... soap? Anyone behaving unusually in or around the lavatory?"
"I'm sorry, Professor..." The boy tried to apologize for his nervous attitude in the teacher's presence, but he felt almost guilty, and perhaps it was also the effect of the candy, even though he hadn't eaten it, to have shaken him so much. God forbid that the latest wave of sweets would cause something just by being close to them... after all, seeing them being so creamy... with their delicious smell and... No, no, he had to control himself.
He tried to take another deeper breath now that he was certain he wasn't in danger and that he wouldn't suffer any repercussions from this whole ordeal. ” I'm not sure I can answer this question well… I saw the Hufflepuff because I had him right in front of me before entering, we almost bumped into each other. Then I paid practically no attention to anything and ran to the first free stall… so the third from the entrance. Maybe there were others occupied, but I didn't pay attention. Likewise, I didn't look at the sinks when I entered… ” Then he paused for a little while trying to close his eyes and go back to that moment. ” Maybe there was running water… ” but was it really or was he just imagining it? ” I'm not entirely sure, tho. But I don't think I saw anyone… I wasn't looking though… I had other… thoughts… ” After all, when your belly calls so strongly that you feel everything freeing itself without a push, there's not much to wait and observe the environment. ”Even after I went out I didn't see anyone. In fact the only one I really saw was the Hufflepuff, I didn't pay too much attention because… you know… emergency… but he didn't seem strange.”
Of course, there were other students passing by on the same floor or nearby stairs, and he would have mentioned them, but none who might attract attention. “I’m sorry I can’t help more than this.” He would have concluded, bowing his head slightly as if he were guilty of that embarrassing and serious crime of inattention. “I think I should really wash my hands before I go to class…” seeing how sticky they were. “I’ll go to the common room I think, since it’s the closest. I promise I won’t tell anyone… unless another professor or Auror asks questions.” He asked, then reaching for the pass signed by the deputy headmaster, taking it if the other would agree. “Can I go, professor?”
He was about to do so, but before leaving, he made one last observation. ”By the way, professor… if it can help… and I should have mention it earlier… I didn’t look to see if there were any other non-soaps in that bathroom.”
Gideon listened to the boy, taking in his answers. His mind was working through the information as it came in. He could tell that Gareth was telling the truth. Watching him shut his eyes and think back, thankfully the events of the day had been recent.
He didn’t pay much attention to those in the bathroom with him. Understandable. He didn’t know many boys who would make eye contact and start up conversations with the others walking in and out of the stalls.
Girls yes. The bathroom was a social hub. Boys, no.
“Can I go, professor?”
Gideon stood, buttoning his suit jacket as he rose to his full height. “Mr. Prince. I appreciate your help in this matter. Yes, you may go, please take your pass. Do you need to visit the Hospital wing to take care of your… issue?”
He walked around his desk, his hand coming out to shake Gareth’s, but pulled it back before extending it. Thinking about what brought him into the bathroom and the sticky soap like substance that still covered his hand, Gideon decided to forego social pleasantries.
”By the way, professor… if it can help… and I should have mentioned it earlier… I didn’t look to see if there were any other non-soaps in that bathroom.”
Gideon nodded, ”I will go to the bathroom straight away to investigate. Please keep this quiet and come to me if you see anything else questionable. You may go.” Standing by the doorway, he opened the door for Gareth, hoping that the sticky substance would stay off the surfaces of his office. ”Have a good day.” he said, as the Slytherin left his office.
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