The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom was empty. The soft hum of enchanted lanterns floated above, casting dim gold light on the rows of woden desks. Most of the students had already shuffled out, their voices echoing faintly as they disappeared down the stone corridor beyond the door. Ethan remained behind, seated in the second row, his hands folded in front of him as if they had nowhere else to be.
At the front of the room, his mother was tidying her notes from the lesson, an advanced overview of jinx-breaking and detection spells. Her robe sleeves were rolled up, her wand laying on the desk next to her. She didn't seem surprised that Ethan had lingered. In fact, she didn't say anything at all until he finally stood, then took a slow step toward her desk.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked. His voice was quiet, not accusing, but neither was it gentle. "That you were going to be teaching here, at Hogwarts?"
She paused with a sheaf of parchment in hand, then set it down to turn to him. Her expression was unreadable at first, but then she sighed, soft enough that it was nearly a whisper.
"I wanted it to be a surprise."
Ethan tilted his head slightly. "Well. It worked."
"I didn't think you'd be upset," she said gently. "You didn't seem the type to mind a little change."
"This is a little more than a little change," Ethan said, trying to keep his tone even. "This is… not a small thing. What happened with your other job at the Ministry? Did you get fired?"
She came around the desk and leaned against the front of it, arms crossing over her chest. "After the trial, there was som complications. Some of it political, some of it becoming personal. I had a few unpleasant letters sent to my department, and soon, even home. Not threatening. Just… bitter. I was told to take a break. Unofficially. Until the all the backlash died down."
Ethan frowned. "Backlash? There are that many people still on Lockharts side, even after the trial? And Dumbledore just happened to reach out too?"
She smiled a bit. "You are a bit too smart for your age. He sent me an owl. Said he'd heard about what's going on and that he happened to need someone to fill the Defense Against the Dark Arts post for the year. He said it would be temporary, just until he could find a long-term candidate."
"I didn't think you'd want to teach," Ethan said.
"I didn't think so either. But this… it's Hogwarts. I didnt know it when I was here, but I miss this place. It's not the Ministry, not the bureaucracy. I wanted a year to breathe. And honestly, I thought it would be nice to be near you again, even if I wasn't going to tell you ahead of time."
Ethan's gaze dropped to the floor. "I get it. Sort of. I do."
She watched him a moment longer, then added, "The Department gave me the year off. There will be a job waiting for me when I return. So I didn't burn any bridges."
"That's good at least," Ethan muttered, but his voice lacked relief.
She didn't miss it. "What's really bothering you?"
He hesitated. The weight behind his thoughts was too heavy to voice aloud, not without saying things that couldn't be unsaid. He couldn't tell her that the position she had taken was cursed, actually cursed. That every person who'd taught the subject since before he was born had been run out, driven mad, exposed, cursed, or worse. And Dumbledore knew this. Ethan was sure of it. Dumbledore knew and still reached out. Still invited her.
That didn't sit well with him.
"It just feels like… bad timing," Ethan said finally, avoiding her eyes. "After the trial, after everything. I thought things were going to calm down."
Chloe stepped closer and brushed his shoulder with her fingers. "It's only a year. After this is another five tears here."
"A lot can happen in a year."
"I can handle a few ambitious second-years with wands that backfire more often than they cast correctly," she said, almost teasingly. "Besides, I think it's healthy for you to see me in a different setting."
"Yeah, but you weren't my professor."
"And now I am," she said with a soft shrug. "Nothing's really changed, Ethan. I'm still your mother. And I am also your professor. They are seperate things."
Ethan nodded once, but the tightness in his chest didn't ease. It was true. Nothing outwardly had changed. But in truth, he had changed everything. He was the one who had convinced her to investigate Lockhart in the first place. He had been the one to ask. She'd listened to him, for some reason. And now she was here, in a cursed position that Dumbledore had no right offering, even temporarily. All because Ethan had rewritten the stpry
He could see the throughline too clearly. His decision had nudged her from the Ministry to Hogwarts. From a place of status and security to one of risk and instability.
And what made it worse, he had no idea how that risk would unfold. The Chamber of Secrets should be be forever closed. The diary had been intercepted and sent to the Ministry.
"By the way, what happened to that Diary?"
"I sent it to the ministry." But then she frowned. "How do you know it's a diary?"
His thoughts froze, now trying to find a correct explanation to cover that up. How could he had slipped up like that?
"There were... no marking, no title, nothing. Just took a guess, but I need to get to my next class. Bye." He finished with a turn .
"Have a good rest of your day." She said as he walked out of the room.
"You too!" He said, turning slightly to wave at her.
He vanished from her sight and had to begin wiping sweat from his brow.
The only thing which allowed him to keep most of his cool was easily the system. He hadn't interacted with it much, but at any moment he could go back to the white room to take a breather.
However, there was one thing he just thought about as well. Could he do something like reset this reality, starting over again? Or was he stuck to this single Harry Potter world, unable to travel to others?
Suddenly, he felt like he had made some bad decisions in this past year.
Hopefully, the system could answer these things for him.