Strange Teachers

Chapter 11

——Ron——

We soon learnt that some of the only classes that were better than Defence or Healing were Defence or Healing with our newly-engaged (read euphoric) professors. They could almost always be seen smiling and their classes were made even easier by the couple's good mood.

The engagement didn't only yield positive things, though. Harry and my ears were practically broken from my girlfriend's speculation, while Ginny seemed to be slowly warming up to her various theories. It seemed that every spare moment was spent with Hermione researching who knew what in the library, occasionally joined by Ginny, making it almost impossible to spend any time with either of them.

Around a month after the Halloween ball, we walked into the Healing, only to be met with an unusual sight. A man around our age was sat across from the teachers at their desk, the three of them speaking in hushed tones. The man had blond hair, tanned skin and blue eyes that held too much worry and sadness.

When we got closer and could hear what they were saying, it was completely unintelligible to me, but Ginny muttered an almost silent incantation and held her wand up towards the three of them.

"Even the Hunters of Artemis are looking, but it seems hopeless. Does the great daughter of Athena have any ideas?" He looked at Prof. Chase with a hopeful glint in his eye, despite the teasing tone.

A few moments later, we sat down with our classmates. The bell rang, signalling the beginning of the class. The teachers and the newcomer stood in front of us.

"Okay, class, meet our friend, Will Solace," Prof. Chase said. "He's a healer where we come from and is studying to become a muggle doctor, so we thought we'd get him to help with the more practical part of this class. We've gone over some of the basics. Those that we know, anyway. This will be a chance to see the more technical aspects and just learn more." It didn't sound too fun, but I'd been surprised by these teachers before.

It turned out that I was right. It was much better than I'd expected. Will gave a short lecture, then had us practice treatments on a partner. It seemed like my partner, Hermione, was actually worse than me at this. Who knew that she'd struggle so much at really easy stuff. On the other hand, she'd probably never read a book about it.

Will was a pretty good teacher, but he seemed distracted most of the time. I eventually remembered another overheard conversation, in between our two teachers and Hazel. They'd been talking about someone disappearing and how Will, presumably this Will, was taking it. Maybe the missing guy was his brother or friend or something. He must've been worried out of his mind.

——Hermione——

Lately, I knew that I'd been sort of neglecting Ron, but I just couldn't shake this feeling that I was missing something. And I absolutely hate not knowing things. Glancing down the scroll of parchment in my hand, I sighed exasperatedly. I had to admit, some of my ideas had been far-fetched. In my defence, what am I supposed to think. At this point, I was so desperate that I'd gladly accept the idea of them being spies from the Ministry. The only lead that Ginny and I could find was that I recognized their names from somewhere, most likely a book. So, we'd been carefully combing through any and all history books that I'd ever read, to no avail.

As I sat in the library debating with myself the probability that they were some relative species of merpeople (I once saw Prof. Jackson stay in the lake for way too long), Ginny rushed in, having just come from dinner, which I'd had early. She made a beeline for the table where I was sitting, her flaming locks trailing behind her. By the excited look on her face, I knew that she knew something that I didn't. I didn't have to wait for long to find out, though.

"I've got a lead," she started in a happy voice. "At least, I think I do. It might not help, but—"

"What is it Ginny?" What, I was really curious and, if you don't stop her early, she'll talk a long time. Her smile only grew as she removed her wand from her bag. She held it up and said an incantation that I wasn't familiar with.

"Recino."

At first, nothing happened, but then Prof. Chase's voice rang out just softly enough for Madam Pince to not be able to hear.

'Akóma kai oi Kynigoí tis Ártemis psáchnoun, allá faínetai apelpistikó. Échei i megáli kóri tis Athinás idées' (A/N: I used google translate, so it probably isn't accurate and is definitely not Ancient Greek, but let's just pretend that it is.)

I was puzzled and it definitely showed, since she explained immediately.

"I used a spell that I learned last year to spy on teachers, the recording charm. You say memoro for your wand to record until you say it again, then you just have to say recino within twenty-four hours to access it (A/N: my own invention, completely made up using Latin translation)." That was ingenious, why hadn't I thought of it before?

We transcribed the short quote based on what we heard, which, in itself, took fifteen minutes. She sure spoke rapid fire whatever-it-was. We then searched the foreign and ancient language section for anything resembling it. We came up with a few possibilities, but there were too many to guess.

Instead, we decided to focus on finding words that we might recognize already. I first noticed the two names that stuck out, Artemis and Athena, two greek goddesses. Greek myths, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase. Something was tugging at my memory, like the answer was at the tip of my tongue. Shaking the feeling out of my head as best I could, I pointed out the link to greek myths and we went looking for Ancient Greek translating dictionaries.

By the time we found one, the library was closing, so we checked it out and climbed up to Gryffindor tower. Once there, we sat next to each other on a couch near the fire and began our attempt to decode our professor's words. Ginny was telling me the words in our notes while I paged through How To Make Sense Of Greeks And Their Heroic Craziness: A Dictionary And Guide to find the latest one.

The phrase 'Hunters of Artemis' rang a bell, but I still couldn't pin it down, frustratingly. It was only when we reached the word right before the second-to-last one that it clicked. The heavy book dropped from my arms and onto the carpeted floor, but I couldn't care less. Ginny, however, did notice. At her behest, I launched into an explanation. Her face was priceless, passing from excitement to disbelief to skepticism to resignation, all in the span of a couple of minutes.

So, that's how we ended up going to sleep at one in the morning with thoughtful and triumphant expressions. We'd been looking in the wrong section of the library this whole time.

— - — - —

A/N: do you think Hermione figured it out? If so, how? I'll explain properly in the next chapter. Hint: I've never seen it done this way in any other fanfics (not much of a hint, but oh well).

On a different note, thank you all so much for almost 700 reads, which means an appr. average of 70 reads per chapter (not counting the intro)! It means the world to me!

So, I hope you enjoyed and will comment/vote!