"So then—you can tell me what's brought you both here—"
After bringing them two steaming cups of tea, setting one down in front of each of them on the table, Bryan didn't sit down himself to join them on the sofa. Instead, he returned behind his desk and began tidying the scattered sheets of parchment piled in front of his seat.
A Comprehensive Proposal on Admitting Foreign Wizards as Permanent Residents of the British Magical Community
Observant as ever, Hermione caught it at once—the red-ink title of the document Professor Watson had inadvertently flashed toward them in the course of his tidying, visible for just a moment before he moved it aside—and her mind went entirely, briefly blank at the sight of it
After several seconds passed with neither of them saying a single word, Bryan looked up from his desk toward the sofa, sensing the sudden silence.
He saw Harry anxiously making frantic, urgent faces at Hermione, clearly trying to signal something without speaking, while Hermione herself sat frozen still, staring down at the parchment now resting in her own hands.
"Ah—you saw it, then—"
Bryan raised the sheet of parchment in his hand and smiled at the two of them.
"Oh—I'm terribly sorry, Professor Watson, I didn't mean to pry into the Ministry's top secrets!"
Hermione's cheeks flushed a deep scarlet, and she stood up abruptly from the sofa in mortification.
"Hardly a top secret, Hermione, don't trouble yourself—"
Bryan laughed warmly at her reaction and set the document back down on the desk, coming out from behind it now to join them. He gave a small, reassuring gesture toward Hermione, urging her to sit again, and walked over toward the sofa himself.
"At a certain stage of economic development, you see, how to break through the natural limits of population becomes the central issue facing any community, magical or otherwise. So, I've been trying to find a proper way past that particular obstacle for our own community here.
That said, it really wouldn't do at all for this specific document to get out prematurely—the other Ministries across the wider European magical world would certainly have rather strong opinions about it if word got loose too soon, so—"
Bryan smiled simply as he looked between the two of them, his manner was warm and entirely untroubled.
"I hope you won't go spreading this around to anyone."
Population growth and economic development, weighed against each other on a national scale.
The subject was simply too advanced, too abstract, for either of them to engage with—not something a young witch or wizard still working through the school could really grasp in a moment's explanation.
Both Harry's and Hermione's gazes went a little glassy at the sudden turn toward policy, but catching the flash of gentle helplessness that crossed Professor Watson's eyes, Hermione snapped back to herself, realizing with a fresh jolt that she ought to actually state why they'd come here in the first place.
"It's about the Exchange Delegation, Professor Watson—"
Hermione drew two steadying breaths, and with Harry beside her doing his level best to suppress a look of utter, lingering bewilderment at everything that had just happened, she said, evenly and deliberately.
On hearing that this had to do with the Exchange Delegation, Bryan's expression grew noticeably more serious.
"It's Roya, Professor—"
Hermione said quickly.
"She came to find me. She wants to put together a proper Quidditch team to enter the House Cup this year. Oh, and she wants every single member of the team to come from the Exchange Delegation specifically, but I don't actually know whether that's allowed under the rules, Professor Watson—"
"Put together a team to enter the House Cup, of all things?"
Bryan raised his eyebrows at that, looking genuinely somewhat taken aback by the scope of the request.
"I'd have thought Roya had never so much as touched a broom before coming to Hogwarts at all—wasn't that the case?"
Hermione gave Harry's ankle a quiet nudge with the toe of her shoe under the table, and Harry, still rather muddled by the earlier document, snapped back to attention at the contact.
"Oh—Yes, that's right, um—"
Harry gave an affirmative answer without quite thinking it through fully, then, hesitating a few seconds as the rest caught up with him, went on, "Roya's actually got a real, strong gift for Quidditch, Professor. I'd actually hoped to get her onto the Gryffindor team, but she said she'd rather have a team of her own to lead instead."
"That's more or less the shape of it—"
Hermione said, watching Professor Watson carefully as he sat back and considered the matter,
"I don't know whether it's even allowed, Professor Watson. Nothing in the management guidelines you gave me actually says one way or the other whether Exchange Delegation members can join the Hogwarts House Cup competition—"
As for Quidditch itself, a sport the young witches and wizards around him adored so fervently, Bryan had, in truth, paid it rather little of his own personal attention over the years.
He scratched thoughtfully at his chin.
"Well then—can Roya actually scrape together enough willing members to field a full team, numbers-wise?"
"If you'd allow the goblins to play alongside the human students, there'd be enough—" said Hermione, having clearly already done the calculation herself before coming here.
Harry pressed his lips together at that exchange, finding the whole conversation stranger and stranger by the moment, further and further from where he'd expected it to go.
Hadn't they actually come here tonight to warn Professor Watson that someone might try to break into his office while he was away leading the study field trip? How had they ended up discussing broom rosters instead?
"Has this year's Quidditch season started yet, Harry?"
Bryan asked, turning his attention toward him now.
"Gryffindor and Ravenclaw have already played one match—"
Harry, still half in a daze from the whiplash of subjects, answered without missing a single moment.
"I don't know a great deal about this side of things, Harry—you're the real expert here, not me—"
Bryan shook his head at his own ignorance, turning to look at Harry now, giving him the floor.
"If a new team were added into the mix now, partway through, would it affect this year's existing schedule? And—more importantly—are you genuinely, honestly convinced that Roya could put together a team good enough to compete on equal footing against all four existing Houses?"
Though the conversation had gone nowhere near where Harry had originally expected or planned for it to go, that single note of direct praise then question from Professor Watson was enough to set him grinning outright, and he perked up at once, sitting straighter.
"Not much effect at all, Professor—only the one match's been played in the House Cup so far this year, so we can easily rearrange the order of the remaining matches around a new addition. As for your second question—"
Harry hesitated a moment before giving his answer.
"I think Roya's genuinely, fully got the level for it, honestly. But I can't be entirely certain."
Bryan nodded at that, understanding what Harry meant by the hedge.
"Here's my view on the matter, then—"
After a moment's further thought, Bryan looked between the two young witches and wizards seated before him.
"I have no grounds myself to simply organize the Exchange Delegation into forming a team by decree. But whether this team can actually enter the House Cup properly ought to depend entirely on their own level of play, Harry, not on anyone's say-so from above—"
Bryan said.
"I'll leave that particular judgment to you. If you decide the Quidditch team Roya's put together is genuinely up to standard, competitive standard, then I'll let Madam Hooch and the various Heads of House know myself, and see about adding another team to the competition this year."
Though this wasn't really, in the end, what they'd originally come here to say at all, Harry couldn't help feeling genuinely glad for Roya all the same at the news—and at the same time, a faint, pleasant sense of anticipation stirred to life in him.
At the very least, judging from their private matches together so far, Roya's raw skill was no less than that of any Seeker currently playing for the four existing teams.
He longed to face a formidable opponent on the pitch.
"Well then, that's settled, I think—"
Bryan picked his teacup back up and took a sip, then asked, lightly, almost as an afterthought tossed in passing,
"So—what is it you two actually wanted to ask me tonight? I don't imagine you came all this way just about the Quidditch roster."
Harry's stomach gave a sudden, nervous lurch at the direct question, and he shot Hermione a quick, anxious glance, unsure how to proceed now that the moment had actually arrived.
Hermione, though, seemed to have seen this turn coming all along, already composed for it.
She only flushed slightly, bit her lower lip once, and said, "We—um, well, it's like this, Professor, we wanted to ask—"
Hermione gripped the strap of her bag tightly where it hung against her shoulder, watching Professor Watson's face carefully for any reaction as she spoke,
"Have you found the person—the one who tried to break into your office, that time? Um. That thief, whoever it was?"
"Oh—"
Bryan smiled simply at the question, entirely unbothered on the surface.
"Not yet, no. Why—have you two come to offer me some clues, then?"
Professor Watson's laid-back, almost dismissive manner in answering made both Hermione and Harry frown inwardly—was it possible he simply wasn't all that concerned that someone had broken into his office?
"No, Professor, we just—"
Hermione bit her lip again.
"Just—we were wondering whether the school might have someone hiding inside it—"
She drew a breath, and, summoning up courage for the question, looked Professor Watson directly in the eye.
"A spy for Voldemort, Professor. Like Quirrell was, once, and like Cliodna as Professor Moody turned out to be. If one really does exist somewhere in this castle, whoever it is would certainly want to find out what you're planning, wouldn't they—"
Hermione glanced meaningfully back toward the papers sitting on Professor Watson's desk.
"Thank you for the warning, Hermione, Harry—"
Bryan's tone stayed light, almost trifling.
"But I believe the students and staff of this school, just like myself, stand firmly against Voldemort's tyranny."
Even Harry, not usually the sharpest at reading such things, could tell there wasn't a great deal of real conviction sitting behind Professor Watson's smooth answer.
If everyone here truly stood against Voldemort without exception, then why had someone tried to force open his office door in the first place?
But there was nothing more either of them could really say on the matter—not unless they could actually produce some strong, concrete evidence to expose whoever it was they suspected, rather than simply naming a name with nothing behind it.
"Oh—sorry, Professor, the list of Gryffindor students joining the study field trip won't be ready for Professor McGonagall until tomorrow morning, I'm afraid—"
Just before Professor Watson could see them both out of his office for the evening, Harry was still racking his brain desperately over how to make Professor Watson see that Malfoy was suspicious.
Hermione, as if suddenly remembering something useful, spoke up first instead.
"No need to rush—apart from Professor Snape's, Professor Sprout's and Professor Flitwick's lists won't be ready until tomorrow morning either—"
With an air of idle curiosity, Hermione blinked once and added, as though the thought had only just occurred to her,
"Will all the Slytherin students in fourth year and above be going on the trip, then? Um—sorry, Professor Watson—Ron and Lavender probably won't actually be joining this trip—"
"Oh, that's quite all right, Hermione. Considering that not everyone has quite the same capacity or interest for this sort of thing, the school isn't making it compulsory for anyone.
As it happens, Mr. Malfoy and Miss Parkinson don't seem particularly interested in the study field trip either. Apart from the two of them, though, the whole of Slytherin will be attending as planned."
Bryan's smile never wavered once through the whole exchange.
"Now then—is there anything else, Hermione, Harry?"
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