Chapter 18– Spy mode
The worst thing about Tom’s flying experience is that he couldn’t tell anyone. All his many secrets before had been easy to hide but for some reason, he was really struggling to keep this one to himself. He kept trying to take his mind off it by focusing on his friends and school work but the trouble was, he was now visiting Lyrotth more frequently and had flown with her again. Therefore it was becoming increasingly difficult to shake off his memories.
The end of the Easter holidays were in sight when one of Dumby’s grave predictions actually came true. During a DL lesson that, by chance, Tom had had to miss because he was simply too tired, Dumbridge and her Slytherdin gang had found some of them running from the scene. Tom heard the story from one of the portraits that usually lived in Dumby’s office but it seemed he had gone from painting to painting, all the way through the castle to find him. Apparently, Conrad Toffee had accused Dumby of raising an army to overthrow him and had tried to arrest him. Dumby being Dumby, escaped. But it now meant that Professor Dumbridge had become headmistress. On hearing the news, Tom headed straight for Snipe.
He almost ran straight into him as Snipe seemed to appear out of a wall in the dungeons, catching Tom off guard. Snipe took one look at him and beckoned him to his office. They entered and Snipe barred the door. “I guess you’ve heard,” Snipe said in a straight voice. None of his usual sneer was present.
“Yes sir. Albus did warn me this might happen but even so, how are we going to cope with her as headmistress?”
“I presume Albus also told you what to do in such an event?”
“He did. I’m supposed to report to you and try and save any students from harm.”
“Then that is what you’ll do. Don’t worry, you haven’t known Albus as long as me, he’ll be back before long… But for now, the key is to carry out his instructions while acting like there is nothing wrong. The worst thing to do right now is draw attention to yourself. Trust me, I am a more experienced spy than you after all.”
“Very good sir.”
Tom returned to his bedroom quickly, as it was night and he didn’t want to be found by any of the ghosts as the cube didn’t work on them since they weren’t alive. Once he entered his bedroom, he checked his phone which had been buzzing on the way back. Hermione had been ringing him. He really wanted to go to sleep but knew she would hate to be left waiting so rang her back. “Tom! The DL is finished! I don’t know how but Dumbridge found us. She got Harry and took him to Dumby’s office. I don’t know what happened but Dumby’s gone! Dumbridge has replaced him as headmistress!” She said all this so fast that Tom couldn’t get a word in.
Once she had finished, he tried to calm her down. “Listen to me, the main thing you must do is keep calm. Don’t draw any more attention to yourself, tell the same to Ron and Harry. Dumbridge may be evil but she still doesn’t completely run the school. I’m sure the teachers won’t stand for it.”
“How can you be so calm now!?”
“Because I expected something like this might happen, don’t ask me how. The key thing is to stay out of trouble. Let the teachers work on Dumbridge, the most important thing for you three is to stay in school.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For helping. You’ve calmed me down and I trust you enough to follow your advice. I’ll tell the others to do the same.”
“Good. Now if you don’t mind, I need to sleep.”
Hurriedly, she said, “Just one more thing. Are you still going to teach us?”
“That’s your urgent question! I must be a good teacher,” he said sarcastically.
“I want to be prepared for anything. Will you carry on?”
“We’ll find a way,” he replied whilst yawning.
“Great. Goodnight then.”
Tom didn’t even bother saying goodnight in return. He dropped his phone to the floor and fell asleep instantly.
The whole school quickly learned of Dumby’s escape and Dumbridge’s promotion. Most people seemed to be mad about it but there were the noticeable few who weren’t. Dumbridge’s gang of Slytherdin security had been given new powers allowing them to do pretty much anything and they were taking full advantage of them. One of them made it so only Slytherdin’s could use the great hall for meals between 6 and 7, leaving only 30 minutes for everyone else, and Flint stopped all Gryffinchair’s from using the 2nd floor corridor just because he could.
Tom had forgiven Maloney for his attack on Amber but now, him, along with the whole security force, were on his watch list.
Fortunately, Dumbridge had picked a bunch of idiots for her security and they were easily fooled by his cube of illusion. The more he used it, the more he understood its full powers and learned how to control them. So far he’d managed to stop Maloney from hexing a first year Hufflesnuff girl because he didn’t like her pony tail. Instead he’d caused a pony tail to appear on one of Maloney’s friend’s head. Also, he’d stopped two seventh years who he didn’t know the names of from beating up a group of defenceless Ravensnores. Tom had taken personal satisfaction in this one. He beat up the two guys and then sent them away thinking they’d attacked each other.
True to their word, the triple threat had stayed out of trouble and Tom continued to teach them. Tom still used the Anything Goes room for his gym but they didn’t think it was safe anymore so they were practising in different locations each time to ward off any unfriendly eyes.
The triple threat were still making improvements. Tom had started to teach them magic out of the book that he’d borrowed from Snipe, ‘Elements are the greatest magic’. He’d tried to teach them spells to cause floods, intensify light and other such feats but they didn’t really get the hang of them. Tom had tried the spells beforehand to greater success than they were achieving. He thought their problem was they didn’t understand the concepts of what they were actually doing but he didn’t know how to tell them. Their floods were more like dribbles.
DL meetings had ceased to exist, understandably, but Tom was still being barraged with questions from its members left, right and centre. Most were simple things that would help them in their exams. But, on a positive note, he’d been really happy to be told by Fred and George that they had mastered their patronuses. True to his word, he showed them how to send messages via them during a free period.
Tom Collivander and the Order of the Thunderbird, A Potter Parody Page 27
