Disclaimer: Not mine, I just like to play with them for a little while.

Sort of Not-Disclaimer: I picked the names for all the clan-masters years ago, quite a while before actually starting to write the fic. At that time I'd never read any Neil Gaiman book, so the Catar Stardust is not a tribute to the novel Stardust ... Then again can I make him a tribute anyway?

Notes: My computer died last week and though it's repaired now I've lost all the e-mails in my inbox. I've saved your reviews and thanks to the hard drive surviving they are fine, but with all the other things that need reinstalling and sorting I just don't havethetime to sort through them and figure out which ones are new. So sorry, no review responses this chapter. 

Chapter 26: Hogwarts Under Attack

"What's gotten into Ron?" Lavender Brown asked Hermione when she arrived in Religion class.

"Who cares?" Hermione returned a little grumpily. Religion always put her into a bad mood.

"He is acting a bit odd," Neville agreed. "Being nice to the first years, helping Parkinson of all people pick up her books when she dropped her bag ..."

And now Ron was happily handing out songbooks while humming Saint Aignon's favourite version of the Pater Noster only slightly off key.

"He probably slipped a mouse into her book bag," Harry suggested. "Or maybe he's trying to seduce her so she'll tell him all the Slytherins' secrets."

"That doesn't explain being nice to our own first years," Neville said. "He's never accused them of being demons before."

"I'm sure he'll reveal his great master plan soon enough," Hermione shrugged it off. "Right now I'd much rather know where Saint Aignon is. He's never been late for class before."

"Well, he's the only priest in the castle," Harry pointed out. "The lesson can't start without him."

It did start late that day however as Sir Saint Aignon rushed in about fifteen minutes late his boots and mantle wet with snow. Throughout the lesson he seemed distracted and actually forgot what he'd been talking about at one point. If it had been anyone else, Hermione would probably have assumed he was just having a bad day, but she'd never before seen Saint Aignon be anything less than impeccable.

What ever could have unbalanced him this much? And what had he been doing outside? Between classes, Masses, meals, patrolling corridors and prayers Saint Aignon rarely seemed to find time to leave the castle. In fact the only time Hermione remembered seeing him outside had been when he'd fetched Ron out of Flying class the day before.

Maybe Ron's odd behaviour was relevant after all? Or perhaps he knew something. Hermione decided to have a little talk with him during dinner.

Raven and Greypony set out just before dinner. They'd be missed at the meal, but Raven wasn't on duty and most likely the other teachers would assume they'd gone out to eat in the village.

"You four will stay inside the castle until we return," Raven told the kittens sternly.

"But I want to come along and see!" Rascal argued. "I've never actually seen a water elemental before."

"I'd like to see the water Lady," Loki agreed.

"Not this time," Raven declared. "We don't know how they'll react. It might be dangerous."

Luna mewed and shifted closer to Firewheel who already had her arm protectively around her.

"We've got claws," Draco reminded them. "We can protect ourselves."

"Claws are useless against elementals," Greypony informed him. "You can only hurt them with magic."

"And that's not easy either," Firewheel confirmed. "They're so fast." She shuddered.

"You," Raven repeated with an almost canine growl in his voice. "Are staying here. This is high priests' business. Little kittens will only get in the way. You're not ready to learn this ritual anyway."

It wasn't the full truth. A priest should know how to summon the water Lady, though they usually weren't required to actually do it, and Firewheel was certainly advanced enough to be taught the chant. Summoning simple air and earth elementals would be a fine next step in her training as well, though and would be safer.

Little Luna of course ... But then neither Luna nor Firewheel wanted to be anywhere near the ritual in the first place. The attack of the elemental was still too fresh in their memories. Raven could only hope their fear would diminish over time. Both kittens could make fine priestesses someday, but they'd have to master the magic of all four elements first.

Now wasn't the time to address that, though. Loki and Rascal had disobeyed him before and neither showed any understanding of the danger involved in this summoning. Foolish, curious little kittens!

"I expect you to use this evening to catch up on your homework," he informed the kittens. "If I return to find that all your assignments for next week are complete, there might be the possibility of an overnight stay in the forest this weekend."

Probably not the best idea he'd ever had as he'd have to explain Luna's absence to Filius somehow, but then both Firewheel and Loki had to work hard to write proper English essays and Rascal always let his homework pile up. It was unlikely they'd manage and then there'd still be the Transfiguration homework Minerva tended to set over the weekend. They'd have to do that on Friday evening to have the weekend free.

Rascal scowled at him, the girls nodded eagerly, Loki resignedly. Yes, they'd do it and that meant they'd have to stay inside.

They left the castle strolling companionably down the path that led towards the village and only slipped off into the forest once they were sure they could no longer be seen from any of the windows. Raven felt more confident once he could transform and feel the ground under his paws. It was beginning to thaw, he realised, the first signs of spring with its new life and the promise of summer and rich food to raise strong kittens on.

An amused purr escaped him when he remembered that his kittens would be well fed at Hogwarts no matter what the season. Ah, this was a good place for a clan despite the presence of the Templar. After all they'd been carrying on right under Saint Aignon's nose for most of the school year so far and he didn't suspect a thing. How dangerous could it be to send well prepared kittens to Hogwarts, if even Firewheel hadn't raised any suspicions?

Sir Fulko frowned at his white mantle. How had those long ago Templars managed to keep it clean when they'd spent most of their time outside and on horseback? He'd only been out in the forest for a few hours and it looked filthy and wet.

Ah well, he house elves would deal with it easily enough, but he'd better get changed before going down to dinner. Not enough time left for a bath, though. Nevertheless it had been worth it. One good day's work and the school was safe from werecat intruders.

Five minutes later he decided that he once again looked presentable. A Knight of the holy order of the Temple had to keep up certain standards of course. One last check whether his mantle sat correctly and he turned to go.

He was a little late, but surely not so much as to offend or seem negligent and ...

A sudden buzzing sound filled the air and for a moment Saint Aignon froze. Then he broke into a run.

"I can't believe Saint Aignon assigned so little homework today," Hermione commented to Ron as she reached past him for the soup bowl. "It's not at all like him."

Ron frowned at her as he usually did when thinking hard about something.

"You're right," he concluded finally. "We should do more for our Lord. How about charity? We could start collecting for war orphans."

Hermione stared at him. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Well, it doesn't have to be orphans," Ron conceded. "Do you think the elderly need it more? War victims in general? Injured aurors? St. Mungo's? Maybe it'd be best to give it to the church itself. Surely the Grand Master will know who is most in need."

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. "Are you sure Ron?, " she ventured cautiously. "You want to do charity work? What happened to fighting demons and death eater plots?"

"Every little good we do helps to fight evil, Hermione."

Something wasn't right. Positive as this change seemed it just wasn't like Ron. He sounded as if he'd been brainwashed. So far it might not seem dangerous, but it would probably be safest to get him checked out. Surely Madam Pomfrey would know how to restore Ron to his usual annoying self.

Unless of course this was an actual imperius curse. As far as Hermione knew that could only be treated in St. Mungo's and required an extended stay in the hospital. That would probably cause Ron to fall so far behind in his classes that he'd have to repeat the year. After all he was already struggling in several subjects. He'd never catch up after a month of missed classes.

No, Hermione forced herself to stay calm, there was no reason to think this was imperius. Who'd want to imperio Ron out of all the students at Hogwarts? Surely whoever could get their hands on Ron would also be able to get to someone more competent or likely to overhear secrets. Harry or Neville for example. It was probably just the result of another magical accident. Ron was just the type to mess with personality altering magic and test it on himself.

"Why don't we go up to the hospital wing and see Madam Pomfrey," she suggested.

"Oh, that's a brilliant idea," Ron beamed at her. "We can help tend the sick, wash out bedpans ... What's that sound?"

There was a strange buzzing in her ears as if a large fly were circling around her head, but there was no insect to be seen and clearly she and Ron weren't the only ones affected. People were looking around everywhere in the great hall. Even over at the Syltherin table Draco Malfoy was covering his ears with his hands trying to get rid of the annoying sound.

Her next thought was an out of tune radio, but everybody knew radios didn't work at Hogwarts and who'd be stupid enough to turn one on in the great hall right under the noses of the teachers?

"Maybe it's some sort of spell?" she suggested.

"An attack?" Ron gasped sounding a lot more like his normal self.

"Or some kind of alert or timer," she decided. "Perhaps the house elves set the spell to alert them when the food is ready and forgot to limit the sound to the kitchens."

She'd almost convinced herself that it was completely harmless when the side door slammed open and Saint Aignon burst in panting.

"Quick," the Templar shouted. "Get the students to the common rooms! Activate the defences! We're under attack!"

Too late Sir Fulko realised that he'd made a mistake. He should have manually activated Hogwarts' alarms instead of rushing into the great hall and yelling out his warning in blind haste. The teachers already inside would have known to execute the agreed upon and well rehearsed emergency procedures at the sound of the alarm and quickly and efficiently evacuated the students.

Now that he'd caused the children to panic however their commands were being ignored as the entire student body rushed blindly for the doors screaming and crying. Sir Fulko barely managed to press himself against the wall next to the door he'd entered through in time to avoid being run over and trampled underfoot.

A few metres away, but unreachable against the stream of running and pushing bodies, he saw Minerva McGonagall attempting to physically arrange random students into orderly lines. Hopefully she'd at least be able to get the first years to stay in larger groups where they'd be less likely to be overlooked and crushed between the taller students.

If only the aurors posted by the main door had decided to help her they might have made a difference, but they'd rushed outside to protect the castle in accordance with the usual emergency plan.

Professor Sprout was shouting uselessly to watch out, her fear for the children too obvious to do anything other than feed the panic while Sybil Trellawney was clinging to her chair shrieking about death and destruction. Above her the headmaster had climbed onto the head table and amplifying his voice with a sonorus charm was ordering the students to assemble by house and year. If only he'd done that before the rush for the doors had started, it might have saved the day, but by now it was too late and nobody was listening.

Sir Fulko wondered vaguely where Filius Flitwick was, but of course the Charms teacher was too short to be seen in the mass of students. Hopefully he was still standing. Where the hell was Severus Snape, though? If anyone on Hogwarts' staff was able to control a panicked mob, it had to be the Potions Master. Alas it looked as if he'd skipped the meal.

Saint Aignon clung to the wall sending silent prayers to God and every saint that came to his mind that the students would reach their common rooms safely or at least with only minor injuries and that the forces they currently had outside the castle would be enough to hold back the enemy until the staff could organise themselves enough to provide backup.

"Um ... Sir?" Auror apprentice Nymphadora Tonks addressed Auror Shacklebolt without taking her eyes or wand off the empty road that led towards the gates of Hogwarts.

Shacklebolt had to give her credit for obeying regulations despite her obvious confusion.

"Yes, Apprentice Tonks?"

"Er ... What do we do now?"

Auror Shacklebolt sighed and leaned his back against the gate. "For the moment, we wait and keep an eye on the path and forest. Maybe the death eaters are assembling just out of sight."

On the path nothing moved except a shadow that crossed a patch of sunlight as a cloud drifted past. A raven or crow cawed in the forest. A cat stalked though the snow towards the trees probably in search of small rodents. There was no sign of anything larger moving in the forest, no sound of spells being exchanged. No alarm flare from any of the other aurors positioned around the castle.

The apprentice stared out at the peaceful landscape for another minute before asking: "Do you really think they're out there?"

Shacklebolt cast a quick look up at the boar sculpture on top of the pillar to his left. It remained still as a statue. "If so, they haven't set off the perimeter alerts and I've never seen a large force sneak past an alarm system as complex as Hogwarts' without triggering at least one of them in all my years on the force. Nor are they good at assembling quietly. We can't let our guard down, though."

"You think its just a small group then," Tonks summed up visibly relaxing. There weren't enough of them posted here to deal with Voldemort's entire army and even the apprentice knew it.

"Most likely," he confirmed. "Never take anything for granted, though. Dark wizards are just full of surprises."

Tonks nodded eagerly.

"And keep a good eye on the forest," he recommended. "The smaller the force, the less likely they are to attempt to rush the gate. They might try to sneak past us."

Tonks nodded again and let her eyes wander up and down the fence, but there was nothing to be seen there either. Shacklebolt secretly started to count the metal spikes on top of the fence.

The Water Lady had been surprisingly agreeable and had assured them that her subjects were nobody's hired killers even if one of them had required a reminder of that fact. Raven had not asked what exactly she had done to Dustcloud's unfortunate tool. Instead they'd thanked the Lady, hunted down some dinner and were now on the way back to Hogwarts much earlier than he'd expected. Yes, things were going really well for them for once.

"What are they doing out here?" Graypony asked suddenly nodding towards the gate.

Raven didn't see what he meant at first, but as they came closer he noticed the two figures as well. "Students?" he asked. "They shouldn't be outside the grounds." Though these two were only just. "They aren't our kittens."

"Not students," Greypony informed him. "They're wearing Auror uniforms."

His eyes were better than Raven's.

"Aurors? But that means ..." Raven broke into a run.

Though Aurors were posted at the gates during the day once everybody had returned to the castle for dinner they only guarded the school's doors. From the inside during the winter months. If they were out here now the school was either expecting an attack or a student had gone missing.

"Hold!" the Aurors exclaimed almost simultaneously and pointed their wands at them.

Raven and Greypony slowed down, but didn't stop. "It's us, Kingsley. We're just returning from the village. What's going on?"

"Severus. Thank God," Auror Shacklebolt sighed with relief. "There was an alarm. Well, at least Saint Aignon said it was an alarm. It wasn't one I've ever heard before. Some strange buzzing sound, but we never saw any enemy and about a minute ago it stopped. We ... um ... Well, I think it might have been a false alarm, but we can't let down our guard on an assumption."

Severus nodded. "I'll see what I can find out."

Hogwarts did not have an alarm that sounded like a permanent buzzing. They were simple enough to cast, but could get rather annoying and even distracting, if left to go on for more than a minute or so. If it had been Saint Aignon that had identified it as an alarm, though, it might have been added by the Templars. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Maybe his best course of action was to find the Templar and demand an explanation. Under the circumstances surely that wouldn't be interpreted as lack of respect for the church. As head of Slytherin he had a right and duty to be informed about any security issues in the school.

Now where might that cursed Templar be?

As it turned out Severus didn't have to look very hard. Almost the entire staff of Hogwarts and several Aurors were standing on the castle's steps and right in the middle of the group Albus Dumbledore was looking sternly at his Religion teacher.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Well, the ward only reacts to being crossed," Sir Fulko explained. "It can't differentiate between individuals or directions."

"So every time somebody goes for a walk and steps across your wards they'll start buzzing?" Filius Flitwick said with so much contempt in his usually friendly voice that even proud Saint Aignon wilted a little.

"The ward only reacts to werecats," he explained. "I saw traces of them in the forest yesterday. It was the best I could do in such short time."

"Fulko, we've put out word that we're looking for Catar," Albus reminded him. "Those traces are a good sign. Clearly they've heard we're looking for them and are trying to assess the risk of responding to our call."

"An' now ye've prob'ly scared em off," Hagrid added sulkily.

"So, we've either had one Catar come close to the grounds and leave again, or we have two sitting somewhere near the fence wondering why their ears were buzzing?" Severus sneered at the Templar. "Brilliant investigative work, Sir Saint Aignon. Perhaps you'd better get back to your praying and preaching and leave the spying to the spies."

"I am a knight of the holy order of the Temple!" Saint Aignon barked back at him. "I have a holy mission!"

"Of course you do. A holy mission to read us our Mass and teach our children Religion. That's your area of expertise and I wouldn't dare to intrude," Severus snapped. "I on the other hand have a not at all holy mission to gather information on the enemy and his movements and the Aurors here have a mission to protect the school. Now if we all could trust each other to see to our areas of expertise, maybe we could do so without being distracted by false alarms."

Maybe he shouldn't have said it. Saint Aignon looked murderous, but then realising that he could no longer leave the school without setting off the Catar alert hadn't put him in the best of moods either. How long until somebody realised that he always happened to be absent when the alarm went off?

The hospital wing was in chaos. It was built to handle all sorts of injuries, magical or otherwise and it had coped with large numbers of patients during many an outbreak of the flu or dragonpox, but it was not a war hospital.

With flu and dragonpox you got a lot of patients, but they arrived in the hospital wing over the course of several days or even weeks. Even when twenty people came down with the flu on the same day they'd come in one or two at a time and Poppy usually had them dosed with pepper-up and tucked into bed by the time the next new victim required her attention.

To cope with twenty wounded and scared students at once, Poppy thought, she'd need a couple of assistants. Someone to assess the extent of each individual's injuries quickly and determine which were the most urgent cases, calm and organise the students and maybe heal the most minor scrapes and another to perform first aid on those who had to wait for her attention. Maybe a third to fetch and carry bandages and potions, but then that didn't require any medical training and the house elves were only too willing to help out.

By the time the number of victims approached fourty she realised that even assistants and student nurses wouldn't be good enough, what the situation called for was another nurse or two, maybe a fully trained healer.

And then the second wave started coming in bearing the good news that it had been a false alarm. But if this was the result of a false alarm, whatever was she going to do in case of a real attack? By now she'd probably have battle injuries on her hand and possibly another panic among the students, hysteric children that might need to be physically restrained so they didn't endanger themselves or others ...

She couldn't waste time thinking about it. Back when she'd realised she didn't have the time to assess each individual student before starting to treat them, she'd decided to assume that the youngest were the ones most likely to have suffered the worst injuries and started on the first years. She'd been halfway through the first wave's second years when the first students of the second wave had come in.

"Flopsy, please check, if there are any more first years I haven't treated yet and tell them to wait over here," she ordered the house elf handing her a neatly rolled up bandage. The second wave had all come in under their own power, though, and apparently been well enough to wait in their dorms until now so maybe she ought to finish the first wave first? But there was no telling them apart anymore as the new arrivals had joined the groups of students already waiting.

"Yes Madam Pomfrey, Miss," Flopsy replied, but her eyes were wide and sorrowful. "We is out of calming draught, Madam Pomfrey, Miss."

And Firewheel was shaking and sobbing almost as badly as poor little Luna Lovegood whose arm had almost been crushed when she'd been shoved into a doorframe in the desperate rush out of the great hall. Not to mention all the other students she hadn't had a chance to look at yet.

"That's too bad, but we'll probably need less of it now that we know it was a false alarm. Luna will calm down on her own once the pain reliever kicks in, won't you, dear?"

Luna sobbed and nodded bravely.

"There bes not much of that left either," Flopsy reported with a worried look at all the waiting students.

That was really grave news. She could treat frightened students with calming words and cheering charms, if she had to and in an emergency a sleeping draught or numbing potion could be used to help a student in pain, but the sleeping draught wasn't healthy and neither should be given to a hysteric patient or one suffering from shock.

"Right," Poppy decided. "You go find those first years, Flopsy. I'll just finish bandaging Miss Lovegood's arm and then we'll let her lie down until the pain reliever kicks in. You won't be able to use the arm for a day or two, but once it stops hurting you can go back to your dorm. Fiona!"

Firewheel started and stared at her wide eyed. She didn't look hurt except for a few scrapes, though and since there was no medicine to give her distraction might be best.

"Be a dear and floo Professor Snape for me, won't you? Ask him to bring me any calming and healing potions he has left in his stores even if they are inferior student work as long as they will have the desired effect. A weak potion is better than nothing."

Firewheel nodded and after a last fearful glance at Luna raced off to the office. For just a moment Poppy worried whether she even knew the difference between floo travelling and floo calling but there was no time for that as with Flopsy busy sorting students she had to find a free bed for Luna herself and then the broken nose and fingers of Mr. Creevey demanded her full attention.

She only vaguely registered Firewheel darting back out of the office and instead of coming to look for Luna as Poppy had expected rushing straight for the door and out into the corridor. There was no time to worry about it now.

"Miss!" Flopsy shrieked at the top of her lungs just as Poppy was about to magically straighten Mr. Creevey's nose back into shape. "Sir bes bleeding to death!"

Poppy dropped Mr. Creevey's chin and jumped up. "Where? Get me blood replenishing potions. Now!"

"Here!" Poppy heard Flopsy's shriek and then a pop as the house elf jumped to the potion stores for the blood replenisher. She hastened in the direction the sounds had come from and luckily the other students parted to let her through.

The Sir was a small Hufflepuff fourth year who was in no condition to explain what had happened to him, but then the very visible footprints on his robes didn't really require an explanation. A quick diagnostic charm revealed internal bleeding. How he'd managed to drag himself to the hospital wing apparently unassisted Poppy had no idea, but there was no friend with him and he obviously hadn't had the strength to get her attention in the chaos around him on his own. Thank God for Flopsy being able to recognise an emergency despite having no medical training. Or thank the Gods, or maybe the elemental spirits Raven occasionally mentioned. Did it actually matter? Thank whatever entity had given her such a capable helper today.

For a while all her attention was focussed on the boy and stabilising him and everybody else faded into the background until finally she was sure that he would survive.

"Shock potion," she requested wishing she had one brewed with garlic. Then she wouldn't have to keep shaking the boy to half consciousness.

"No shock potion left," Flopsy said sadly.

"Didn't Professor Snape send any?" He liked to keep that on hand. Some claimed he needed it for students that fainted in his class, but Poppy suspected that he'd just seen too many order spies return torn up and bleeding. It couldn't hurt to be prepared.

"Professor Snape Sir not send anything Madam Pomfrey, Miss," Flopsy reported shaking her head.

Poppy sighed. Where was Raven? She cast a monitoring spell over her patient instead hoping that it wouldn't go off. Please let him get better on his own! Mr. Creevey still needed his nose fixed and then the rest of the second and maybe some first years needed her attention.

She was just dabbing some anti-bruising salve onto the next second year's eye when the door opened and Raven finally arrived carrying a motionless sixth or seventh year girl and followed by Firewheel and three Slytherin students all carrying potions.

"Where ..." Poppy started, but then she realised just how pale and still the girl in his arms looked. "Is she ..."

"As far as I can tell she merely fainted," Raven explained. "Not that surprising considering the circumstances, but I'd prefer, if you have a look at her as well. Where do you want the potions? I'm afraid I used up most of the calming draught and anti-bruise on the Slytherins."

"You ..." she gasped only now noticing Rascal's bandaged hand. "You've been treating them!"

Raven glared at her. "I may not be a trained nurse, but I know as well as any pathetic little housewitch and mother how to stop a nosebleed or vanish a bruise. Not every little scrape requires a healer and under the circumstances I thought you'd be grateful I kept them from running in your door over scuffed toes and bent nails."

Judging from the bandage and potions he'd used up he'd done more than that, but then bandaging spells were taught in every simple first aid course and a Potions Master had to know his healing potions. With his past it shouldn't surprise her that he'd apparently taken the time to learn first aid at some point. Hell, some of the other teachers probably had as well, just to be prepared for any student accidents that might occur in their classes.

"Right, put the girl on a bed, if you're sure she isn't in any immediate danger and I'll see to her later. Then," She pointed at the bed she'd left the Hufflepuff boy in. "He needs a shock-potion, if you have any and if you could send the ones with the most urgent looking injuries to the front of the line, ..."

Raven turned out to be an efficient assistant, though his intimidating presence didn't exactly help the lack of calming draught. Then again he didn't spread panic either, moving through the room calmly and quickly and assessing the students' conditions with diagnostic charms that Poppy hadn't expected to be taught in first aid courses. Well, wherever he'd learned them they assured that she really did get the worst cases sent to the front and not just the worst looking ones. There was little back talking or whining when he told a student that his injuries could wait. One just didn't disobey Professor Snape.

Relieved to finally have someone competent in charge of sorting the students Poppy concentrated on healing the students he sent to her and only looked up again when she heard Raven snap: "And get me a clean towel. This absolutely won't do."

Apparently he'd moved on to cleaning and bandaging wounds again and this one really didn't look like an amateur should be fooling around with it.

"Severus ..."

"I'm merely stopping the bleeding, Poppy," he snapped. "Then you can unpack and treat them properly whenever you're done with the more urgent cases."

She really did need the help, but the consequences of a single miscast medical spell could be terrible.

"If you're ever in any doubt you can cast the spell ..."

"I won't even fetch that student out of the line. I know my limits, Poppy."

"You're not trained for this and it's delicate work," she tried to explain.

"I might not be trained, but I've had enough practise with battlefield patch up magic," he returned. "This is similar, though less bloody."

Oh, nothing to do with student emergencies at all then. On second thought she wouldn't put it past Voldemort to insist that his potions expert act as healer rather than allow injured death eaters to seek help at St. Mungo's where they ran the risk of discovery. Hopefully there was a trained healer among the death eaters somewhere, though and Raven really had done no more than bind wounds to keep until the patient could be transferred to a field hospital.

Sir Fulko spent the next morning removing all his hastily cast alarms. The headmaster had insisted on cancelling all Religion classes until he had fixed his mistake, much to the joy of his students, those ungrateful brats.

Then again almost a quarter of the student body had been sporting either bandages or bruises at breakfast so maybe it was more a feeling of their injuries receiving just punishment than a dislike of Religion itself.

Feeling guilty and disapproved of he'd excused himself early from breakfast and decided to skip lunch. This, he thought, had to be what Ron Weasley felt like whenever another of his harebrained plans ended in disaster and detention. At least the headmaster hadn't come along to supervise him like a delinquent student. He wasn't sure he could have handled the shame of that.

Then again he also felt under-appreciated. Yes, so he had neglected to inform people and acted too hastily, but he'd only had the best of intentions and he still thought that the school required anti-Catar wards. Maybe something a little more advanced than the spells he'd used, yes, definitely something less showy, but the order ought to be aware of any dark creatures moving around this close to its headquarters.

Why both Lupin and Snape had been in favour of removing the wards without any replacements he really didn't understand. How could they be so careless when the students' lives and souls might be threatened, if the werecats' intentions were less friendly than Dumbledore hoped?

Was this too a feeling Ron was familiar with? This terrible fear that he was the only one who saw a deadly danger and nobody would take him seriously? He was a fully trained knight of the holy order of the Temple and a teacher in the name of God! He should not be treated like a lackwit student!

Besides, now his spare mantle was as filthy as the other one.

It was a very wet and grumpy Templar that reported to Albus Dumbledore right after the end of lunch break.

"I have removed all my spells as you requested, but I feel I should remind you that we are now once again without any protection against a werecat attack from the forest. I recommend that you replace my wards with something more suitable as soon as possible."

Albus Dumbledore smiled benignly and nodded. "Thank you, Fulko. I am aware of your concern, but please remember to bring any security issues to my attention rather than take action yourself from now on."

"Of course, headmaster," Sir Fulko forced out between clenched teeth. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I ought to take a bath and change before my next class."

"Indeed, we don't want you to catch a cold after all," Dumbledore agreed with his usual annoying twinkle. This was not an amusing matter! "One thing before you go, though."

"Yes?" He turned around already at the door and glared at the headmaster.

"In the interest of the continued peaceful coexistence of the staff I suggest that you stay out of Madam Pomfrey's way for a few days. I hear that she isn't too pleased with you right now."

"Isn't too pleased?" Sir Fulko repeated slightly confused.

"Well, I've been told that she has rather unfavourably compared your effect on the students' health to that of playing Quidditch today."