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fantasywriter19 · 2 years ago

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Honourable McGonagall

The theme for March on @hp-12monthsofmagic being “Life’s a Witch,” I first wanted to do something that honors our favorite Professor McGonagall. It’s taking snippets of dialogue from the Hogwarts Mystery TLSQ “A Special Celebration of Hogwarts Teachers,” while also using a different character from my Jacob’s sibling MC, Jessamyn McPhee.

Quick backstory — Ash is American, but he and his mother moved to the UK as a support system for Jessamyn’s family. They’ve been living with them for almost two years at this point in their lives, so they’re practically like brother and sister. They both started Hogwarts together and got sorted into Slytherin.

Anyway, Ash and another character were added in partially because they can take over some side quests (so Jessamyn is an MC that isn’t magically able to do everything). But also because the creator of Ash doesn’t do any writing himself, so he’s been implemented into Jessamyn’s universe (thanks brother-in-law!).

Plus... there's an additional character shown briefly that I think everyone will recognize the name of.... :P

With that, let’s dive into this short story.

03/08/1986 — 03/10/1986

Sitting directly in front of Professor McGonagall, playing an elongated round of chess, was not something Ash would have ever expected out of having her as his presentation subject.

Second year students were required to interview their subjects and do a presentation about them in the Great Hall just one week after being given the assignment. Ash just so happened to pull the name of this year’s guest of honour, who was also his all-time favorite professor.

It was because of this that it was perhaps the only project he’d ever taken seriously.

The young Slytherin had actually compiled a list of all the questions he wanted to ask her that he felt would be important for presenting everything that she means to the school and its students. His hard efforts had not gone unnoticed by his best friend, Billingsley, who continued to take everything in his own strides. With jokes.

“C’mon, Z, you can’t change your work ethic now. We can just do a tag team presentation about what we know McGonagall doesn’t like, such as her reactions to our ‘shenanigans’ as she calls them.” The Gryffindor chortled, having also drawn her name as his subject. Of course, Billingsley was often sent to Professor McGonagall’s office for his antics, which was the only reason he figured he already knew her better than anyone.

“Are you kidding me?” Ash had asked, his ebony-toned face lightly perspiring at the thought of the daunting task ahead. “She’s supposed to be the guest of honour. The last thing I want to muck up is her reputation.”

Billingsley raised a challenging brow, “I’m sure that’s the last thing you’d be able to do with a simple presentation.”

Ash wasn’t so sure about that, but it reassured him enough to get himself to his first meeting with Professor McGonagall with minimal foot-dragging. He questioned himself even further at the sight of the chess board on her desk.

“Have I come at a bad time?” he asked, shuffling the papers in his hands nervously.

“Not at all, Mr. Z,” she replied, gesturing for him to take the seat across from her. “It’s important to me that you learn something yourself as we conduct the interviews. And that is why I have set this up.”

“A chess board?” he asked, his tone doubtful as he sat down. Setting the papers next to the chess board, his hands retreated to his lap.

With a small incline of her head, she smiled slyly, “Yes, my own personal chess set. And I must warn you, I’m quite good.”

“But what am I learning from it?”

“Chess is a game of strategy that everyone approaches differently. As you learn about me, you’ll develop your game… and I’ll learn something about you as well. You can tell a lot about a person by how they approach their chess game. Have you played?”

“I’ve been playing McNully once a week. He says it’s good strategy practice for Quidditch.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” McGonagall said frankly, folding her hands together in front of her. “But you haven’t played with me. I can assure you we all have our own tricks, styles, and strategies.”

From there, he met with her each day for a short time before dinner to play the same round of chess and ask questions. However, other than the simply obvious facts about her, he couldn’t get anything personal that no one else would ever know.

“Questions of a personal nature aren’t appropriate between a teacher and a student.”

While Ash couldn’t disagree more, he was given no room to do so. After the second round of questions and chess moves, the interviews had become something rather perplexing that he felt he couldn’t surpass, let alone the fact that he was pretty sure he was losing the game. Not that he believed he even had a shadow of a chance at beating her.

Since he couldn’t turn to his own best friend for advice — and heaven knew where Tulip and Tonks had gone off to — he went looking for Jessamyn at the Slytherin table at dinnertime. When he couldn’t find her, he stood on a free seat to scan the Great Hall only to spot two particularly blonde heads at the Hufflepuff table.

He walked over to Jessamyn and Penny, the latter of whom grinned brightly at him.

“Hi, Ash!”

He rubbed bashfully at the back of his neck, “H-hey, Penny.”

Jessamyn eyed him a moment, tilting her head as she asked, “Your presentation worrying you?”

At that point, he was too anxious to even bother asking her — like he usually did — how she always seemed to know just what he was feeling. “Yes,” he replied exasperatedly. “I feel like I have to make sure I properly honour Professor McGonagall in my presentation, but she won’t go into explicit details about herself. She says playing chess in our time together will help me learn something about life… rather than just random facts about her.”

Her eyes widened, “Of course. You would want to do her justice. What do you need from me?”

“I s’pose some forms of advice would be helpful. Who are you two interviewing?”

Penny was quick to respond, “I’m happy to be doing my presentation on Professor Snape. He’s a brilliant Potions Master! He’s been accommodating, but I haven’t been asking any extremely personal questions.” The shocked, yet disturbed, look Jessamyn and Ash sent her way either went ignored or unnoticed as she asked, “Who were you assigned, Jessamyn?”

“Professor Flitwick. Ben and I are interviewing him together to make it simpler. Though our presentations are all expected to be done solo, it helps to ask questions together and give each other pointers for our presentations later.”

“Is he able to give you any pointers, or is he as silent and nervous as always?” Ash asked with a pointed look.

“That’s not the point,” Jessamyn stomped her foot indignantly. “I’m trying to tell you that you could work with whoever else pulled her name.”

“I tried that already! Winger won’t work with anyone else, Billingsley isn’t going to do anything, and none of the other Hufflepuffs will even tell me if their subject is McGonagall.”

Jessamyn stared blankly back at him, “Well.. that is quite the predicament.”

“Some help you are,” he sneered irritably, his tone causing her to brazenly stick her tongue out. Leave it to Jessamyn to be able to immediately solve everyone else’s problems but his.

Penny straightened up, “I could find out which of my housemates is doing their project on McGonagall if you like.”

Ash smiled gratefully, “Thanks Penny, but I doubt even if you did that they’d be willing to work with me…. No, I think I’m alone.”

As Penny nodded in understanding, Jessamyn hummed thoughtfully and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “What’s it like playing with McGonagall?”

“Well… when we’re playing, it’s like she can read my every move,” he sighed. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose. I wonder if I should just —“

A presence standing behind him, shadowing his entire body, made Ash pause and look over his shoulder. Snape, even as his and Jessamyn’s Head of House, was… decidedly not their favorite professor at Hogwarts.

He imperiously looked down on him with his ever present sneer, “What Minerva McGonagall respects more than anything, Z, is people who don’t quit. She and I have that in common. I suggest you stop whining and wallowing… and rise to the occasion. Lest you embarrass our entire House by failing to make a proper presentation for our honoured professor.”

And, with that, he swept away. His cloak already floating slightly above the ground behind him as though he hadn’t even stopped to give such an offhand comment.

Ash scowled, “Well, that sounded like a threat.”

When he looked at Penny’s and Jessamyn’s faces, however, they were both open-mouthed with awe.

“What?” he asked.

“To me,” Jessamyn stated slowly, “that sounded like an attempt to motivate you… like he actually.. believes in you.”

His eyebrows furrowed in thought, “You think so?” Her nod only prompted him to turn to Penny, “What do you think?”

But Penny was no longer focused on them. She grabbed her bag from beside her and rummaged through it, pulling out ink and parchment paper. “Respect people who don’t quit,” she muttered under her breath on repeat until she found her quill and began writing it out.

Jessamyn smirked, pointing her thumb at Penny as she told him, “I think you’ve already lost the topic Snape gave you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ash sat across from Professor McGonagall again the following day, still at a loss for how to continue forward. And the sour look that had just crossed her features wasn’t making his nerves any less strung.

“So, how am I doing?” he asked.

Expression still contorted, she replied, “I must say I’m surprised by your most recent move.”

“Why?”

“That was to be my question. You moved your rook, then clearly just sacrificed your pawn… did you not?”

“Well, yeah…” he admitted. “But I’ve learnt sometimes it takes sacrifice to get what you want.”

“And what exactly do you want in this moment?”

“I…” Ash paused to think further about how he wanted to respond. The last thing he wanted was for anything to offend her, however it seemed like he’d already done so with his sacrificial move. “I just want to understand you better. And seeing your strategies through this game has been… exciting, to say the least.”

His response, thankfully, gave her cause to smile warmly. “A kind goal. And a worthy one. I applaud you for coming right out and saying it. Though I’m still perplexed. Is your strategy to lose to learn more about me? Because that would be quite disappointing.”

“I just —” he tried to find a reason to retort, but she couldn’t have been more right. “It’s true. I’ve been trying to find out more about you, but I haven’t been able to think of a topic to suit you. I sacrificed the pawn to see how you might expo — expleet — ex —“

“Exploit?” she offered.

“That’s it, thanks,” he nodded appreciatively. “And, in a sense, I suppose it does give me something to work with. You saw the sacrifice clear as day, but you didn’t go after it. That means Hogwarts’ guest of honour is, as you should be, honourable…. Because I stopped playing at my best, you didn’t want to make your best moves anymore. Honestly, I envy how easily you did that.”

Though her smile widened as he explained, her lips took a downturn at his final sentence, “Nothing in life worth earning comes easily…”

“It does seem that way sometimes though. You’re so skilled with Transfiguration. When you’re teaching us a new spell, you always cast it so naturally flawless. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be that skilled, too. Or if I have what it takes…”

“To wonder is to waste time. Only through action can one find the answer within.”

“But to sacrifice is not the right action?” he asked curiously.

She shook her head, “Mr. Z… our choices can affect who we are. Every move you make during our chess game has ramifications… And the choices you make very soon… will determine exactly what you’ll say at your presentation, and how I’ll be represented.

“Sacrifice in a game of chess, or in life, while it may help you get the outcome you desire, should only be a last resort. And even then, I would never recommend such a decision. You have much to learn about the journey of life, but I hope that from here on you understand this lesson I am imparting to you.”

“I do, I think,” Ash replied slowly. “Don’t sacrifice unless it’s necessary.”

“No more needless sacrifice,” she reiterated.

“I understand,” he nodded. And he rather appreciated her point of view on it, as it added even more to what he needed for a proper presentation. She was more than honourable — she wanted to win against an opponent only when they could perform at their best. There was no doubt in his mind that he was still going to lose, but he could at least lose gracefully.

McGonagall nodded back in mild satisfaction. “Promise me you’ll do your best. Now, consider your next move wisely.”

“Of course, Professor.”

#ash z #jessamyn mcphee #penny haywood #severus snape #hp12mom #mcgonagall #minerva mcgonagall #harry potter fandom #hogwarts mystery #life’s a witch #billingsley #yes I had to give billingsley a place in my hogwarts mystery world #we always hear about him but NEVER see him

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