Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Disciplinary Measures (Bill Weasley)

This one shot is the last of the ones requested the last time requests were open. It was requested by silver_andgold - I know it took me a long time to get round to it, but I hope you like it nonetheless! 

And, by now, you fawns should all know that this isn't edited

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Alchemy, of all the subjects taught in this school, was one of the least popular. It was because it was mainly theoretical and students rarely saw the results for the work they put in - the results would come years down the line if they pursued their studies further. Very few did. The few students who took the subject very rarely went on to study the subject further.

The demand for the subject was so rare that Hogwarts didn't even have a full-time alchemy professor. And so, when the demand for the subject had been enough this year, I had been drafted in to teach the subject. The position was only guaranteed for two academic years and that suited me just fine, it certainly tided me over during this particular lull in my career. My research had hit a bump and I knew I needed a different environment to stimulate me into thinking differently.

I was honoured to be given the chance to work in the school, and yet, I couldn't help but second guess my heartbeat decision to return to Hogwarts to teach. As a teacher that taught only one N.E.W.T.s level, sixth-year class, three times a week, any extra activities fell directly into my lap. The other teacher's side-eyed me often enough because I was the youngest teacher and because I had more than enough free time to help Flitwick with the frog choir, to oversee the Gobstone club (which had been shut down by Umbridge, thankfully one last thing for me to do) and to have more than my fair share of detentions to monitor. It wasn't fair, I had signed up to teach so I could use my spare time to research. And yet, there was very little time for research. Especially when I had all this marking to do.

I always tried my best not to assign too much homework but then McGonagall had drawn me aside and implied I'd made Alchemy too easy a subject to pass so I'd resorted to an essay a week. Somehow I'd managed to inspire an interest in a particular student who had decided to crank up the number of essays they wrote because they had so much they wanted to research. Godric, I couldn't even be mad because they reminded me of me when I'd first gotten interested in Alchemy.

Still, it was past curfew and my eyes were growing tired, so I decided to call it a night. It was the weekend tomorrow and I could have had a lie-in if Flitwick hadn't asked me to help with the choir tomorrow because he had a date he needed to go on. My chances of sleeping in disappeared because of the guilt I felt about not pulling my own weight.

With a murmured spell, I gathered all the essays and the tests I needed to mark into a single pile. Charming the pile to follow after me, I grabbed my bag and prepared to head into my chambers. Passing through my classroom, I bypassed the door to my office and double-checked that it was locked and my research was safe, before continuing on my way out. Charming and warding the door to my classroom shut, I cast a lumos and started the trek to the other side of the castle. The very last thing I needed was to bump into another teacher - especially if that teacher was Snape who seemed to have more of an issue with having a former student as a member of the faculty. Personally, I thought he needed to get off his own damned high horse and realise how an older member of staff like McGonagall or even the Headmaster felt.

Thankfully, if I remembered correctly, Snape wasn't on patrol today so there was no chance of running into him. And, if the students had any sense, they would make sure to keep out of sight and would hear the clacking of my heels against the floors and would know to turn and run away or even to hide behind the tapestry. I'd certainly do them all a favour and ignore the portraits and the ghosts that tried to rat them in - the last thing I needed was to take points and issue detentions or even to fill in the bloody paperwork that came alongside taking points away. I never realised until I became a teacher, that we had to justify taking points away and if it was found unfair, we could expect to report to more senior members of staff. Really, I couldn't help but wonder how some teachers got their biased points taking approved.