Archive of Our Own

DELETED SCENE 1

Takes place between Shedding Lights and Honest Harbingers (Saturnine Illuminations)

            There were few, and very defined situations that would see the four Heads of House gathered around a table other than the one in the Great Hall. Among them, there were the meetings before the start of each term, the post exams gatherings during which they would go over the results and decide whether or not students had to repeat a year, in case of important decisions regarding a change in the school policy, and for a drink at the Three Broomsticks on some weekends.

            Another of those defined situations was when a student had been acting out wildly enough for their misbehaviour to grant them the attention of every figure of authority.

            The gathering of a disciplinary board was seldom necessary. They often preferred to deal with problems at a smaller scale, and it was therefore mostly up to the Heads of House to deal with the students of their own house however they saw fit, within the rules set by the Headmaster. The four teachers only met for two reasons. Either an expulsion was possible – even probable – and the Headmaster wanted to hear from everyone before making such a life-wrecking decision. Or the Heads of House were running out of means and ideas for a repeatedly misbehaving student.

            The latter case was at play this morning.

            Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter, in their formal uniforms, were sitting on the other side of the table. They looked nothing as worried as students were meant to be when under the scrutiny of such a gathering. Will, as often, was looking at the ceiling, tapping on his lap with the tip of his fingers, creating a rhythmic sound that was filling the silence. Hannibal was readjusting his cufflink. Unlike his friend, Hannibal was wearing some kind of blazer version of his uniform, that was closer to what students had been asked to wear half a century ago, but the teachers had long given up on putting an end to all the small modifications this student would always make to his mandatory uniform. He was wearing his house crest and a correctly tied tie; it was how low their standards had dropped on the matter.

            And that negligible detail was actually very telling of the whole situation. It wasn't so much that Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter had committed the unforgivable. But every teacher had grown incredibly tired of them. For nothing ever worked.

"We are gathered here to talk about the incident of the night, involving Mr Will Graham of the Gryffindor House and Mr Hannibal Lecter of the Hufflepuff House. As members of the committee, have been gathered the four Heads of House. I will preside over the meeting, in my capacity as Deputy Headmistress, in the absence of the Headmaster."

            That last sentence had its importance as it was letting everyone know that expulsion – the only form of punishment that could solely be decided by the Headmaster – was off the table.

            After her opening statement, Minerva McGonagall took the time to detail each of the two students.

"The facts are as follows," she continued after having let enough time to insist on the solemnity of the moment, "during the night, and well after curfew, Mr Will Graham and Mr Hannibal Lecter left their room and dormitory respectively, without any authorization and without notifying a teacher or a prefect. They left the castle and, once in the park, they decided to create a luminous sphere of a hundred feet in diameter, along with several dozens of carbon gemstones before making them levitate above the Black Lake. They then remained outside until they were found by Professor Flitwick."

            Professor McGonagall, who had opened a file to read the summary even though she most likely knew it by heart already, closed it and turned to the two young men.

"Do you disagree with that recollection of the events?"

            Will simply shook his head, having little to say about it. Hannibal considered the question more carefully.

"Actually," he said after a moment, "the levitation came before the formations of the spheres, not after."

            In the silence that followed his objectively useless nuance, he added:

"Just for the sake of accuracy."

"Your dissent has been noted."

            And it must have meant mentally noted, for Professor McGonagall didn't bother to write anything down on her piece of parchment.

"What interests me more than the chronology," she resumed, "is to know why in Merlin's name you would do such a thing."

            Once again, Hannibal took some time to think about this question, as if it was the first time he was wondering about it. Will frowned, opened his mouth as he was about to say something... Then he closed it again and shrugged.

"You know..." was the answer he ultimately gave.

            And, as he stopped his sentence there, he must have thought that those two words had explained everything that needed to be explained.

"We do not," Professor Flitwick said. "There is the problem, Mr Graham. You will need to give us more than that."

"Was it a bet?" Professor Sprout asked. "Did someone talk you into doing this?"

"No," Will responded, and it was the first clear answer from him.

"Then why?" Professor McGonagall asked again.

            Will shrugged for the second time, and it was Hannibal who tried to give his own version.

"Because it looks nice," he said with as much confidence as his friend had said 'you know'.

"It... looks nice," Professor Snape repeated. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You wouldn't agree? We are open to criticisms if they are constructive. But it is a completed piece, therefore no change will be made."

"Now is not the right time for your wit, Mr Lecter," Professor McGonagall lectured.

"Duly noted."

            It was followed by a moment of silence, as the teachers had yet to be given an answer and the students had yet to find one. After a while, and understanding that nothing would come of it, Professor Flitwick tried another approach.

"Who cast the spell exactly?"

"Both of us," Will swiftly answered, before Hannibal could say anything else. "We're both responsible."

"Is that true, Mr Lecter?"

            It had been obvious to anyone that Will had rushed his intervention to talk over his friend, which was rarely a sign of honesty.

"Yes," Hannibal answered. "A motivation, an execution, it was a work for two."

"Was it planned?" Professor Snape asked.

"Didn't happen by accident...," Will said.

"Not the spell. Going on a walk in the middle of the night."

"No, just an impulse."

"I find it interesting. Do you want to know why?"

            If anyone wanted to know why, no one let Severus Snape know. Not that it prevented him from continuing.

"Because I can't help but wonder how you, Mr Graham, who is supposed to sleep on the Seventh Floor, and you, Mr Lecter, who is supposed to sleep in the Hufflepuff dormitories, were able to find each other at 2 a.m., on an impulse."

            Will, who had been the one who had spoken of impulse, was taken aback but quickly got over it.

"I fetched Hannibal in his dorm. Then we went outside."

"You did. So, if there was a Hufflepuff student up at that hour – a prefect maybe or a late worker – and I went to ask them, they would remember seeing you passing by the Common Room. Same result if I were to ask Podric Batworthy, whose portrait is hung not far from the entrance of the Common Room."

"I guess. Though it has to be said that I'm very forgettable."

"Are you now…"

            Will wasn't impressed by Professor Snape's disbelief. He didn't hold the teacher's gaze but only because, once again, the ceiling seemed that much more fascinating to him.

"I am not sure you realize how dire your situation is, here," McGonagall resumed after a moment.

"I have to admit, I really don't," Will said, with a frown. "What's so bad about it? Like, breaking the curfew, I get it. I see the problem. But the whole moon thing? Is there really a rule that says we can't be creating moons in the back garden? It's not hurting anyone, is it?"

"Firstly, there are ministerial rules against the creation of outrightly magical objects of a certain size in the public place."

"Well... I'd say Hogwarts as a whole is a pretty outrightly magical object of a certain size. And the Scottish Highlands are kinda public. Muggles won't be fine with talking portraits, flying broomsticks and ghost social clubs just to draw the line at a moon too many."

"That is not for you to decide, Mr Graham. This is against the law, no matter your thoughts on it. The only reason why you are speaking with us currently and not agents from the Ministry is because it happened on Hogwarts ground and the Headmaster and the Minister agreed among themselves to let us handle it internally. An agreement for which you should be infinitely grateful."

"We are," Hannibal assured them. "Infinitely grateful. We have been told previously that an arrest does not look good on a record. Not that it has prevented Will or I from moving forward with our education of course... But for the principle of it."

            He had successfully though smoothly reminded all the people gathered in this room that the two students already had much more damning stains on their records and that this added incident wouldn't change much to their overall look.

"We understand that what Will and I did was against the rules," Hannibal continued. "It is very regrettable, really. We wouldn't dare to argue against that."

"Thankfully, it technically happened on Hogwarts' grounds," Flitwick stated. "I have checked, it is still covered by the concealing charms. Undetectable by muggles."

"Then..." Will began with the obvious intent to add 'who cares'.

"... it's a relief," Hannibal finished for him, cutting him off.

            McGonagall, as his Head of House, flashed a warning glance at Will but then she continued for both students:

"Now, we've tried detention. They remained ineffective. We have added homework, deducted points, removed privileges. You have been suspended and expelled before. Nothing leaves any long lasting impression on you. So I am asking you, what must we do to make you understand what is proper behaviour and what is not?"

            It was a question that felt a bit too rhetorical for Hannibal or Will to answer it and they simply waited for what would come next.

"We did notice an improvement," Sprout said, to mitigate the reproaches. "Efforts were indubitably made. Mr Graham, we have all been able to appreciate the bigger investment you put in your work. And Mr Lecter, we are not seeing you in detention quite as much as during your first term with us. You mustn't feel discouraged and believe we only see your faults."

"But better and enough are two very different matters," Snape concluded.

            No question had been asked, and therefore no word came from the two students.

            For a moment after that, everyone remained silent for no one wanted to move further with the conversation. Each of the teachers was already busy with their different thoughts.

            Severus Snape couldn't help but think of the bigger picture and how infuriating it was that the outcome of the looming war between the Dark Lord and Professor Dumbledore was so heavily influenced by two immature teenagers that couldn't find it in them to respect a curfew and to keep their powerful magic for more important aim than messing around in the park. He knew the boys wouldn't get expelled. First of all, no one had been endangered indeed, and one needed to do a bit more than that to truly risk an expulsion. But also, Professor Dumbledore would never let Lecter and Graham out of his sight, free to roam the world. They were too important for that. So, they would stay at school, mostly unscathed, and Severus and his colleagues were left to deal with their nonsense.

            Minerva McGonagall, on the other hand, was more annoyed by the profound waste of potential. Hannibal was a ridiculously brilliant student, and Will an incredible wizard. They both had skills, means and endless perspectives for their future. That was why she was so bothered by the fact that both of them were so often deciding to use their great abilities for utter foolishness. She was barely able to get Graham to hand his homework on time, but he spent his night walking the school and creating giant shiny balls with his boyfriend? What was she meant to do with them? How could she inspire them – force them – to take their life at school as seriously as they were taking their extracurricular idiocies.

            Pomona Sprout, as for her, was wondering about another matter. According to her, there was something between Lecter and Graham that neither she nor her colleagues really understood. She didn't know what it was, but she could tell it was important. She had been a teacher for decades now, and she had seen a plethora of teenagers in love. But rarely had she seen two teenagers as influenced by each other as those two were, and never, in the rare cases where she had seen it, had the couple stayed together for so long, with such a steady, solid relationship. It was in those moments that she regretted the lack of dedicated counsellor at Hogwarts because she sometimes feared they had a case of co-dependency going on here. Lecter and Graham seemed happy, and it mattered to her, but they also seemed profoundly opposed to the idea of listening to anyone but each other, and she couldn't help but believe it was a dangerous situation. That was worrying her much more than an added moon to Hogwarts' sky.

            Filius Flitwick, at last, wasn't thinking about much else than the incredible act of magic that had been needed to birth such a sight. Actually, it had been his continuous thought ever since he had been able to observe the celestial objects a bit more closely. He knew he was a teacher, and he knew he had to be firm and lecturing. He thought he was doing a good job, at that... But Merlin did he wish he could ask the boys a couple of questions. Did the spheres have a significant mass? When at that size, a lighter object would be easier to levitate, but also harder to keep in place, when a heavier one wouldn't be bothered by the wind and the frictions as much but would be terribly difficult to get off the ground. Also, what was the part of Charm and what was the part of Transfiguration? Had the boys first created the pure matter and had then only enhanced it with some enchantments, or did some of the magical features of the celestial objects came directly from the conjuration? And what astronomical model had inspired them for the system? What was the period of revolution of the stars? Were their orbits elliptical or circular? Were they attracting each other? They had to, if they had a mass. But then, how long had it taken them to calculate the needed speed to counterbalance the weight and keep everything stabilized? Especially considering the size of the moon. Flitwick was dying to see those calculations.

            But of course, he kept his reproving face on, and showed nothing of his vivid interest in the matter. Maybe, in a few weeks, when things would have settled down, he would be able to question the two boys about it.

"The first thing that you will do," McGonagall resumed when they all realized that they had been so deeply entranced with their thoughts that they had let the silence settle far too comfortably, "will be to vanish what you have conjured. Then, we will talk about adequate punishment for..."

"I fear we have a problem, Professor McGonagall," Hannibal said, and he appeared to be genuinely sorry about that state of affairs. "Our moon will not be vanished."

"I beg your pardon?"

"We can't."

            Will had rushed to answer, speaking over Hannibal in a fashion that was not dissimilar to how Hannibal had talked over him earlier to prevent him from alienating the teachers further.

"We would love to, that goes without saying," Will continued, speaking noticeably faster than he had so far, "but we didn't quite know what we were doing. We somehow created all that, but we have no idea how to make it disappear... Sorry. We can't."

            Hannibal looked at Will as he was delivering his excuse. Then, after the few seconds of silence that followed the apology, he looked at McGonagall.

"Actually, I can."

            Will closed his eyes and sigh. Deeply.

"Hannibal..."

"I could vanish it," Hannibal reaffirmed, not looking away from the Deputy Headmistress. "Please, forgive my partner's white lie. He is simply trying to protect me. A laudable instinct. Will's biggest flaw is indubitably his generosity of spirit. But the truth is that I am able to vanish it, and I would like for it not to be doubted."

"Then where is the problem?" Sprout asked, failing to see what had prompted Hannibal's refusal.

"The problem is that, even if I can, I won't."

"You won't... You mean you won't vanish it?"

"That is what I mean, Professor Flitwick."

"Why won't you?"

"Mainly because I don't want to. Secondly because it wouldn't be right."

            He had stated his reasons with aplomb, as if anyone with good sense would come to the same conclusions he had just reached.

"Wouldn't be right?" McGonagall repeated, genuinely baffled by Hannibal's nerve. "What is this nonsense?"

"The landscape looks better with two moons. It brightens the surroundings. It would be cruel to deprive the world of it."

"That is not for you to decide, Mr Lecter," McGonagall said, looking as taken aback as her other colleagues.

"No indeed. You are obviously right, Professor. But if we want to be basely pragmatic about it, we will have to acknowledge that the ones for whom it is to decide are the ones who would be able to dispel the conjuration. Presently... no one but me."

            For a moment, the teachers didn't know what to say, taken by surprise that a student could so blatantly and openly oppose them when the situation was already so dire.

"I hope you are joking, Mr Lecter.""

"I am always more or less joking. I have a facetious disposition. But it doesn't take away from the truth of the statement."

            Will seemed to have given up on helping, and, his eyes still closed, he looked incredibly tired of his boyfriend.

"You have no idea in what kind of situation you're putting yourself, Mr Lecter," McGonagall warned him, and rarely had her face been so menacing.

"Maybe not," Hannibal conceded.

            And that was the thing, with him. He would attract much more trouble and would be much bolder in his disobedience than the most misbehaving students, yet the teachers had seldom met teenagers as accommodating and respectful as this one.

            Hannibal was extremely receptive to authority. It was really such a shame that it was solely to the decorum of it, and never to its substance.

"We won't leave you a choice on the matter," Snape said.

"How do you intend on proceeding in order to strip me of my choice?" Hannibal asked and he was more curious than he was defiant.

"Do you truly want to be at war with us for the rest of your schooling, Mr Lecter?" McGonagall asked. "For it would be relentless."

            Flitwick and Sprout remained silent. Flitwick because he couldn't deny his desire to see the astronomical structure stay in place long enough for him to thoroughly inspect it. And Sprout because she was still somewhat moved by how both boys had at least once in the conversation tried to cover for the other. She wished more people could find it in them to be that dedicated. Though she still wasn't sure Hannibal and Will were a good example as a whole. They still had some real values, and she couldn't deny Hannibal was a proud addition to her house and Will would have had his place as well.

"There is nothing I would want less than that, Professor McGonagall," Hannibal said. "Or, to be more accurate, there is one thing I would want less and it is to destroy the beautiful piece Will and I created together."

"It is not a question of beauty," Sprout decided to intervene, no matter her fondness for the students. "It is disruptive."

"How so?" Will frowned.

"It distracts students. For starters. I can only imagine what we will have to do to prevent them from staring at the windows."

"The first few days, maybe," Will admitted. "But they will grow used to it."

"You don't get to disrupt the whole school, even for 'a few days'," Snape snarled. "You are not so important that we must all cater to you."

"I would argue he is…"

"If you really wanted focused students," Will continued before his boyfriend could get in trouble for his comment, "you'd do something about that poltergeist that screams made up songs in the corridors and makes chandeliers fall on the heads of the students. I'd say that having your head split in half and having to go to the Hospital wing is much more disruptive than being able to see a moon."

"The difference is that Peeves cannot be kicked out of that school. You can."

            Snape had made a point, and the two students didn't answer.

"I am also worried about the well-being of the fauna of the Forbidden Forest," Sprout tried an argument that, she thought, may have a bigger impact on the boys. "It's a very sensitive one, and a lot of the species are rare and don't have any other habitats."

"Those species live inside the Forest," Will said, having apparently already thought about that. "The sunlight doesn't pierce through the trees. That new moon is nothing in comparison. That won't change a thing for them and it's not high enough to reach the clearings so..."

"How do you know what the light is like, in the Forbidden Forest?" Snape interrupted him.

"A guess," Will answered without being fazed.

"An educated guess?"

"Just your regular ol' guess."

            There was a moment of silent confrontation between Will and the Potions teacher and it was finally Flitwick who interrupted it and put an end to the tension.

"And the Black Lake..."

"I will talk to its inhabitants," Hannibal promised. "If they are bothered, we will come up with accommodations."

"That is not what we are telling you to do," McGonagall insisted. "We are telling you to dispel it."

"I know."

            But knowing apparently didn't mean doing or thinking anything about it.

            They had reached a dead end, there was nothing left for them to try.

"Mr Lecter, Mr Graham, you can wait in the corridor. We will talk among ourselves."

"Of course."

            Hannibal stood up and extended his hand for Will. Though the help was not really needed, Will accepted it and the two young men exited the room.

            The moment the door closed, an exhausted sigh left the lips of several teachers.

"What will we do with them," McGonagall lamented.

            And it was true that, whatever their thoughts were on the recent event, the whole situation was profoundly discouraging.

"Detentions don't have any impact on them," McGonagall continued. "Lecter has spent his first term here in nearly constant detention without seeming to mind it in the slightest."

"And what about Graham?" Sprout asked. "I don't remember ever having him in detention. Maybe they are more impactful on him."

"He doesn't really do them, actually," Flitwick said. "I had him a couple of times and it always ends with him getting lost in his thoughts and simply staring in the void until the end of the detention. I don't think he is having that bad of a time."

            The teachers took a few seconds to contemplate the issue at hand.

"Our options are limited," McGonagall said aloud what they were all thinking. "Detentions don't work. Lectures don't work. Expelling would be too much, even if we couldn't. Suspension would be fitting, but I don't believe Albus will allow it."

"Notifying the parents and hoping their lectures are more efficient will do no good, here," Sprout added. "Graham's father didn't strike me as someone who would really lecture his son. And Shikibu is not Lecter's mother. Now that he is seventeen, I don't even know if she is his guardian anymore."

"And she already knows. I saw her coming back from the park that night."

            Once again, there was little to say, for there was little to do.

"Detentions it will be," McGonagall concluded, though it sounded like an admission of defeat. "Daily, until Lecter gives in and deals with what they have conjured."

"I don't think Graham is able to do anything about it," Flitwick said. "He must have played some role but, the way Lecter hinted at it, it sounded like his role was not in the actual casting. And Lecter stated clearly that he is the only one magically able to modify their creation. We would be punishing Graham to force him to do something he may simply be unable to do."

"If Graham is willing to take the fall for his friend," Snape groaned and the vivid dislike he had for the boy was obvious in his tone, "I say we should let him. That will only be nothing more than the consequences to his actions. And maybe that will motivate him to talk some sense into Lecter."

"Yes, but..."

            Something was bothering Sprout, his colleagues could tell.

"What is it, Pomona?" Flitwick encouraged her.

"It is simply that those boys are less than a month away from their final exams. Arguably the most important weeks of their schooling, if not their life. I am not saying they shouldn't be punished. They should. But punishment is meant to help them be better persons. We must be mindful not to sabotage their life in the process. I fully believe that Lecter will be able to manage those detentions. But Graham... We have all seen how much effort he puts into his studies, and all the work he is doing to give himself the means to pass his NEWTs. I believe that giving him that many detentions, so close to the exams, would be a bad move on our part. We have spent a year trying to get him to take school seriously. He is finally doing it. We cannot punish one bad behaviour by preventing him from doing one good one."

"So no consequences for him?"

            Snape was not hiding his profound reprobation for that idea.

"That is not what I am saying," Sprout tempered. "But I am sure you can understand my point."

"We can give both boys a moderate amount of detention," McGonagall said, though not happy with the idea. "And make an example out of Hannibal as he has a bigger history, and he is the one who refuses to clean up what they have done."

"How is it fair?" Snape asked. "We have no proof that Graham would dispel it if he was able."

"We have no proof he wouldn't," Flitwick pointed out.

"The thing is," Sprout concluded her own argument, "that if we destroy the chance of a student to be successful in their future life and to follow the career that they want, I will not forgive myself. Whatever we decide to do, it must affect them now, not when they are adults and out of here."

            Flitwick nodded along, and McGonagall seemed receptive to that argument.

"That is what we will do. Some detentions to both for the curfew and the excessive conjuration. And we will let Lecter know that his daily detentions will end the second he repairs what they have done."

            None of them were truly happy with the decision, but it was the only one they could really afford to make in their situation.

"Graham is having it easy," Snape still argued.

"Maybe he is. But Pomona is right. Better be lenient now, than harsh for the rest of their life. Now..."

            McGonagall tidied up the scrolls that were in front of her.

"... I think we all know that Lecter is unlikely to give in. Has he ever? So, the question is, by the end of the year, if the conjured objects are still there, what do we do about them?"

"Can Albus vanish them?" Sprout asked.

"I haven't been able to ask him. We briefly met and he only had time to tell me he would be away today. I hope he can, but we may have to recruit some professional Dispellers as well. If such is the case, do we send the bills to Lecter and Graham? Lecter is well off, but Graham isn't. And I don't want to reinforce the financial dependency Graham has developed to Lecter."

            That was worrying Sprout as well and she didn't think sending them the bill was a good idea. Using money as a means for punishment only served one goal, forcing indifferent and unconcerned parents to acknowledge the existence of their children when they could use a little more attention. It was rarely used, and only if the circumstances were specifically right. This time, they weren't.

"Yes. I don't believe that would be a good idea either."

"That being said..."

            This time, it was Flitwick's turn to hesitate to voice what was on his mind. He took a second to make sure he wanted to continue with it then said:

"Are we really certain we want to dispel it?"

"What do you mean by that, Filius?"

"Well... Maybe that structure is meant to stay."

            His colleagues were not catching his thoughts, so he elaborated on it:

"It is normal for a school to keep a trace of its students' time here."

"We are not talking of a Yearbook left on a shelf in the Library, Filius."

"No, no, of course not, but don't we still have Merlin's runes engraved on the walls of the Astronomy classroom and his throne in the Forbidden Forest? We have Delfina Crimp's tapestry in the Dungeons. And the Gargoyles on the third floor? I believe it is Albus himself who gave them a voice, when he was still a student. It is not just Hogwarts. Mélusine built a gazebo in Beauxbatons' gardens for her dates. And Munter created the duelling hall before his graduation. The schools have always been changed by their students. After enough time has passed, it's not property damage anymore, it's an historical cachet."

"When it comes from Merlin or Mélusine, maybe," Snape argued, "but Lecter and Graham?"

"Only years will let us know the place they will take in the world. And surely, I am not the only one who wouldn't be surprised if they turn out to be names written down in books. All I am saying is that maybe, in a few decades, Hogwarts will be known for the moon over its lake and its sight will let the students feel the legacy that comes with this place."

            It sounded wild to all of them that one of their current students could one day reach that level of renown. But they knew every figure of wizarding history had been a student or an apprentice at some point. And Lecter had already achieved much. As for Graham, he had been born exceptional.

"Albus will be the one deciding what is to be done about the structure, if it has not faded away by the end of the year. That will not be our responsibility."

            That conclusion put an end to the debate, as nothing was left to add.

"So detentions?"

"Detentions."

"I am sure that will do wonders..."