This was not Wesley's day. He'd been late to dinner. Then he'd only eaten half a bowl of stew before one of his housemates had kindly reminded him that he had detention with Darkfall at 7pm. Detention, with Darkfall, in the Dungeons! It sounded like a game of Clue he'd lose. He shot out of his seat, running down the halls and down the stairs.

He flung open the door at 7:10pm, out of breath, with a spot of stew on his wrinkled tie. Wes looked around. Had Feliks remembered? He should have grabbed him! But where was the professor?

Wesley sat on one of the tables, legs swinging in the air, listening to the water trickle from the gargoyle's mouth in the corner of the room.

7? No... no, he was sure it wasn't 7pm.

One of his housemates was either mistaken or had purposefully, rightfully tricked him, assuming that he'd forget. The professor had said 7:30. Blast! He groaned and put his head in his hands, considering running back to the Great Hall, but then he'd have to run back to the dungeons all over again.

He stayed there for a few minutes, then started looking around the room. Wesley tapped on the glass specimen jars. He made faces at the gargoyle. He paused in front of the locked cabinet in the corner for a good two minutes. He tried opening it. Locked.

As he turned, he noticed the professor in the doorway.

His expression brightened. He wasn't that upset about the detention, or the professor, who still reminded him of a hero from a storybook. He did feel embarrassed though, about Elaine's hurt reaction and his cauldron almost exploding. Wes hadn't meant to hurt her feelings, or to laugh so hard, or to wave his wand with such spirit. He didn't know why he did half of the things he did.

"I'm here," he announced, sauntering over to the front of the room. The detention could start now.

"I should tell you," he started, then paused. For a moment, his eyebrows slanted downward. "Feliks really had nothing to do with it. He just sorta laughed. I'm the one who flicked the fang particle."

Particle? Oh science.

"The thingy, Professor," he clarified.

Wesley clasped his hands behind his back and gave Professor Darkfall an earnest look. His stomach sounded its agreement with a loud, long rumble.

Sebastian finished his meal, he had decided to not eat in the great hall tonight. He had tired of the sound and took it in his room. He was glad to have a room not to far from the potion room, to often student in his student days had tried to break in as a dare and steal things. Sometimes they grabbed things that were dangerous.  This was part of the reason he had gotten the new cupboards, specially made to withstand unlocking charms. He was enjoying a book by his fire, a glass of warm cider in hand. The day had gone well. He had felt the  students were doing well in the classes, and so far he had only handed out one detention.

 That thought me him look at the time, just a few minutes after seven. He had told them to show up at 7:30. That would give them enough time to have a dinner and not so much they would get wrapped up in something else and arrive late. He gathered up his bowls and plates and rang the bell for the kitchen. a house elf appeared right away bowing. "Yes Professor Darkfall?" The elf said in a squeaky voice. Sebastian  smiled at the elf "Thank you for being so prompt. I am finished with my meal. Would you please take these away and thank the entire kitchen staff for me? It was wonderful."

 He made sure the dishes were stacked so as to not fall and handed them to the elf. "Of course Professor Darkfall, many of the elves here remember you as a student. They all say you were a very kind lord.' Sebastian's smile brightened "I am glad they think of me so fondly. If I am not mistaken you are one of those elves. You are Vodly correct?" The elf nodded "Yes! It is so amazing to be remembered by a wizard!" He bowed again and vanished before Sebastian could say anything else.

Sebastian shook his head. "They never do spend much time talking to me." He chuckled and sat back down, picking up his book. He heard the sound of feet running down the hall. He checked the time and saw it was only 7:10.  He thought about it for a moment and put the book down, he grabbed his robes and put them on, checking them once again for stains and seeing none he tapped the wall and the hidden door to his room opened. He walked out and down the hall only a few steps to the Potions room.

 He watched Wesley as he tapped on jars and made faces at the water spout gargoyle. Sebastian wasn't shocked to see him try the cabinet. Sebastian waited for Wesley to notice him, it didn't take long. he was mildly surprised to see his face take on a almost glad expression wash over his face. He listened as he admitted to throwing the sliver of fang, and wasn't shocked to hear him try and save Feliks from punishment. He smiled at the muggle science word and gave a chuckle.

"I am glad to hear you admit who did it. However, Mister Spectre could have also said something about you doing it, or alerted me to the fact that you had done something. He made his choice and will face his punishment as well." He heard Wesley's stomach grumble. With a sigh he pulled his wand and summoned some food from the kitchen. "I can't have you starving because you are in detention. We still have about twenty minutes until that starts. You can eat while we wait for Mister Spectre." He sat the tray of food down and took a seat at his desk.

His face lit up at the sight of the feast he'd missed from the Great Hall.

Wes held out for a few seconds before picking up the tray. "Thanks!"

The professor had a good sense of humor and a good heart, despite all the trouble Wesley had caused in class earlier. Darkfall reminded him a little of his uncle, with a much more refined exterior. No matter what Wesley or his younger siblings did, they always had a place at the kitchen table, clean sheets on their beds, and their names displayed in capital letters on the chore chart in the morning. They knew they belonged.

Once the professor sat down at his desk, Wes followed, and set the tray on one of the large tables in the front of the room. While digging into his food, he thought about whether Feliks would agree with the idea that he was guilty by association. Feliks hadn't acted mad or upset like several of their peers, but still, Wesley wondered. He even worried a little.

"Did you want anything?" He belatedly held up his last bread roll. The professor didn't look like he'd eaten dinner. No crumbs or spots of food marred his robes.

As Wesley finished up, he stacked the plates and bowls on the tray with care, much like he did when picking up after guests at the inn. He stood, holding the tray.

"I can take this back to the elves?" He said hopefully, wanting to see them up close.

Feliks had eaten two servings of stew, two bowls of mash, three dinner rolls and two slices of pumpkin pie much to the amusement of his housemates. He had not yet gotten tired of being able to eat as much as he wanted, as much as it took to make him feel full. It helped that today had been a tiring day - and more still ahead of him. There was just enough time for him to change into his most raggedy sweater and jeans before he made an appearance in the dungeons.

            "I can take this back to the elves?" Wesley was saying, when Feliks arrived.

Did Wesley have his dinner here? Did Darkfall make him eat in the dungeon?! Was Feliks supposed to have done the same? He stood awkwardly at the doorway for a moment.

"Good evening professor." Feliks entered, looking around at the room they would have to clean. He was used to cleaning things - they had to do their own chores where he grew up.

His gaze settled back on the Hufflepuff boy who had landed them in trouble. Poor Wesley. He probably didn't know how dangerous the fang was when he threw it. Feliks hadn't either. "We are using, um, cleaning... tools?" he asked, wondering if the normal broomsticks at Hogwarts could also be used to fly.

Sebastian shook his head. "No need to worry about the dishes. They will gather them in a few with out us needed to trek across the school. Just leave them out side the door" He said as he saw someone coming through the door. Seeing that Feliks had arrive he checked the time, 7:29. "Perfect timing mister Spectre, Mister Wold arrived so early he forgot to eat, now that you are both here I will get the supplies we need and we shall begin," He stood up and headed for the supply closet he had made sure was stocked to his specifications.


While in there he also took off his robe and put on his cleaning robes. Making sure there wasn't any severe stains or tears and seeing none he came back out with several buckets, scrub brushes, gloves, and bottles of cleaning potions he had created for his  time running his emergency hospital back in Ireland

He set them all down in front of the two. "Gentlemen, we will be cleaning this room, it will be easier than it perhaps should be cause I have been cleaning it for a few days now myself and I will be cleaning as well.  I want it to be up to my standards though, and I have high standards, I was running a small hospital for a few."

He pulled out some small cleaning robes and handed each of them a set. "Put these on, I see no reason to punish you by ruining your clothes. You can start by cleaning the basin of the gargoyle. It should be completely free of any colors and stains." He took out his wand and tapped the gargoyle and the water stopped flowing and the basin drained. Sebastian hand them a light purple potion and some brushes and gloves. He then turned and taking another potion and headed for a troublesome stain he had been working on since he took the job.

"Hey Feliks, you got the time right!" Wesley smiled as he carried the tray outside the classroom and set it on the stone floor.

He'd always wanted to do that, just once in his life. At least he didn't leave any strange surprises on his tray, unlike the guests at his uncle's Bed and Breakfast.

As he reentered the room, his eyes widened at the sight of Professor Darkfall in full cleaning robes, adorned with cleaning regalia. Helga's hairy lip, this looked like serious business. Wesley tried not to laugh, but a chuckle escaped as he joined Feliks and donned a pair of rubber gloves.

His hands made funny sounds as he opened and closed them.

Wesley only then noticed that Feliks had thought to change his clothes, and wondered if he should have done the same. He shrugged. It didn't matter now that they both wore cleaning robes. Wizards had robes for everything.

Uncapping the purple potion, he took a sniff, and thought it smelled like citrus. He poured a little on the brush, handed the bottle to Feliks, and set about scrubbing the inside of the gargoyle basin, using both hands in a flurry of energy.

Wes could not believe the professor was actually cleaning with them! He should write to his aunt. She often supervised as he did his chores, since he never seemed to do them to her standards, and after a few minutes she'd throw her hands in the air as he started talking about whatever was on his mind that day. When she was standing right there, he couldn't not talk.

There was the professor, just a few feet away! He couldn't not talk.

"You ran a hospital, professor? Where? Were you a Healer?" Wesley paused in his scrubbing, looking up.

Sebastian looked up form his stain and nodded. "Yes Wesley, I ran a small emergency Hospital back in Ireland. I had my gave my house over to becoming a temporary hospital with the Ministry's approval during the Second Wizarding war. While I mainly used potions I am noted to be a healer too yes." He said as he went back to the stain. "In fact it is because of that hospital that I ended up becoming a professor here."

He gazed at the spot where the stain had been with a critical eye, and finally deemed it gone at last. He quickly took his bucket and moved to a desk and started scouring it removing potion stains and returning it to the proper golden oak color. "Once you are done with the gargoyle, each of you take a desk and remove any stains still on it. I want them to look like they haven'r been used."

Quietly, he accepted the supplies they were given and joined the other boy at the gargoyle basin. Feliks grinned at Wesley - detention was not fun but Professor Darkfall was being nice by giving them cleaning robes. They got to work but it didn't seem like Wesley was the kind to work in silence. He was glad. It would be boring otherwise.

            "You ran a hospital, professor? Where? Were you a Healer?"

Feliks continued to scrub at the most stubborn stains at the bottom of the basin, the purple cleaning potion bubbling up with a pleasant scent. He listened to his head of house explain how his home had become a hospital. It must have been a big home or a small hospital.

"Are you a pureblood, sir?" Feliks asked, using the back of his forearm to brush curls out of his face before examining the gargoyle to see if they could move on to the desks. He did not know if it was polite or impolite to ask - he knew only a little about the war. It seemed like lots of Slytherins were purebloods. "Did you have friends in the war?"

This time Feliks did pause, glancing at Wold and then at Darkfall curiously.

Sebastian looked over at the both of them. "No I am no pureblood. My father was a wizard, but my mother was a Veela. As for friends, I had people I thought were friends among the death eaters and and opposing them as well. I opened that hospital to help take care of some of the injuries that occurred during the war. A few of those I thought were friends ended up being caught with a little of my help in Ireland." He said, and went back to work.

Seeing he had cleaned all the stains on this one he stood and went to the basin they were working on. "Well, despite pausing to ask me questions I see you have done well on this. I don't mind talking during cleaning but remember this is detention. I expect you to work while doing so. In fact instead of the desk, we will scrub the floors" He said, giving them a stern look to make sure they understood, before heading back to the closet and pulling out long handled deck brushes with rough bristles to work on the floor. "Start moving the desks to the wall and grab a deck brush."

Wesley grinned back at Feliks, and held his arms out at his sides for a moment, demonstrating the length of the robe's sleeves that came over his knuckles.

He hurried to shove the desks against the walls, starting with the smaller desks, and then helping Feliks move the larger tables. The tables made lots of noise as he moved them, much to his delight. He felt a little like he was at the grocery, pushing his siblings in the trolley down the aisle, and running as fast as he could as they screeched with joy and his uncle bellowed at him to behave.

No screeching, no bellowing here. Not yet.

He managed to remain quiet as he grabbed a brush and swept the floor, starting on one side close to the clustered desks. Professor Darkfall was part veela! One of his older housemates had wondered if that were possible, calling the professor 'dreamy', and though Wesley had wrinkled his nose, he'd have to tell her it was true.

He thought about how hard it must be to have friends who turned out not to be friends, and glanced at Feliks, wondering if he was thinking the same thing. Professor Darkfall had even opened a hospital and taken care of people during a war that Wes only remembered his parents speaking of in hushed tones. He'd been born after the war, but his parents had acted like it had never ended, worrying whenever the children ran off too far from the farm, and forever looking for snatchers behind them.

"Professor?" Wes paused and wiped his brow. "Does it still matter to people what someone's blood is?"

He looked at Feliks curiously, recalling another student saying that there were a zillion purebloods in Slytherin this year. "Do they look at Feliks and me any different?"

Sebastian's eyes darkened as he worked. Remembering his own childhood tragedy. "Oh yes. To some the blood is more important than the vessel. Muggle born are snubbed simply for not having a having a single wizard parent, half blood is forgiven for having a muggle in family if they are from the right family or are powerful enough." He hissed out as he took a deck brush and started pouring a deep green potion on the ground over large dark stains. "Despite the fact that Syltherin has changed at long last and allows anyone in it. That doesn't change how people were raised, how they think."


He took a moment to calm down and looked at the two students and sighed. "Yes Wesley some people will look at you as a lesser to Feliks just because he is a pureblood and you are not, but it doesn't matter in the end. I have seen purebloods who can barely light a candle, I have known muggle born that I wouldn't dare challenge in a duel. It is more about the person than the blood." He placed a hand on his shoulder. "If you apply yourself I expect  you will become a amazing wizard."

Not wanting to go over the same floorspace twice, Feliks got down to his knees across the classroom so that he could star scrubbing the floor from the other end - they would meet and finish in the middle. He had to keep pushing up the sleeves of his cleaning robes as he scrubbed away at the dark flagstones but listening to Darkfall talk about purebloods and the war made their work seem less tedious.

            "Do they look at Feliks and me any different?"

Feliks, sitting back on his ankles, met Wesley's gaze without expression. The Almasys and squibs he knew were all purebloods. But Johann was a half-blood, and Johann was amazing. It couldn't really matter, then, what they were.

The Potions Professor rested a hand on Wesley's shoulder, reassuringly. "If you apply yourself I expect  you will become a amazing wizard."

That seemed like a great statement, to Feliks, who only recently thought about his future. He paused in his work to consider Wesley with just a bit of envy. Maybe Darkfall was right. Wesley got into trouble but many good fairy tales start with heroes who do what they're not supposed to. Feliks wondered if he would be a wizard like his father. Or like Johann. But not like his mama.

A serious line set into his brow and he returned to scrubbing the floor, harder than before.

"Professor. Are you more like your father or your mother?" Feliks asked, though he did not know what the Veela were like. He wondered what Wesley's parents were like too.

Wesley watched the professor scrub at the floor, the handle of the brush loose in his hand. He related the tone of the man's voice and the unhappiness in his eyes to distant, hazy memories of his own parents, and more recently, to his uncle's expression whenever he fished for information about his mother.

He rubbed at the back of his neck, worried now about how people in the wizarding world perceived him. Feliks did not seem worried. Then again, he was a pureblood, wasn't he? Wes wished he were more like Feliks.

As the professor patted him on the shoulder, Wesley glanced at him in surprise. The professor thought he was going to be amazing? Him? The fang-flinging, fart-referencing, cauldron-shaking troublemaker?

The 'if you apply yourself' flew in one ear and out the other.

Wesley could only offer a grin, silencioed for a moment. He pushed the deck brush once more, pouring bits of potion on the stains. He resisted the urge to whistle.

At Feliks' question, he glanced at the professor and poured a little too much potion on the floor. Maybe Professor Darkfall had learned to like potions from one of his parents. Or even cleaning!

Scrubbing at the flagstones, the suds bubbled up and the sharp citrus smell tickled his nose.

"ACHOO!"

Wes let out an amazing sneeze.

Sebastian blinked a few times before answering. "I am not like either of them. My Father was an Auror, ad my mother was simply mom. I lost them both when I was really young. They never saw me attend school. And my brother never got to attend at all." He  looked up and the loud sneeze and saw that the amount of potion on the ground was extreme, he pulled his wand and produced a handkerchief with one wave and reduced the pool of potion with the next.

He looked at Wesley. "Pouring a bunch of potion on the ground won't make this go any faster. Use less and don't get distracted, that is what will cause you more failure than anything else."

He felt bad for asking the professor about his parents. Feliks thought he would never have any - but it was still better to gain papa at this age than to lose him or Johann after knowing them all his life. Something in his chest fluttered nervously at the idea. Balfour had a dangerous job. He hoped they were both careful.

           "ACHOO!"

Feliks looked up from the floor in surprise. "Bood' zdorov,[1]" he exclaimed without thinking and rubbed the tip of his nose in unconscious sympathy. Darkfall was already helping clear up the spill of potions.

His shins were sore from kneeling on the stone floors, so Feliks sat back and crossed his legs - hunching forwards to scrub at another section of the potions room.

"But why did you become a teacher instead of a Healer?" Feliks brushed his hair back as the curls flopped into his eyes for the umpteenth time, and then, with a gesture of impatience, his hair grew much shorter. "And why didn't you want to become an Auror like your papa?" he glanced at the older wizard and tried to imagine him in red robes like the ones they sometimes saw in the Prophet.

He hoped he wasn't asking too many questions. But Feliks had never met many adults, at least not ones who didn't tell him to shut up after the first few.

1.	One of many Russian responses to somebody else sneezing.