Who: Ernie Macmillan Where: Professor Pittiman’s office When: Monday, in the middle of the day What: Ernie was intending to ask about the whereabouts of the Squid, but he got a little side-tracked by the Professor’s notes. Open/Closed: Closed.
Ernie had been planning to visit Professor Pittiman for ages now, to ask about the Squid. But despite his best of intentions, he hadn’t gotten around to it yet. But Ernie was tired of schoolwork and wanted this squid debacle properly finished, so he was spending his free block visiting the professor.
He knocked on Professor Pittiman’s propped-open office door. There was no answer. He knocked again, louder, but when there continued to be no answer, he slipped the door open more, and called, softly, “Professor?” When no one replied, Ernie decided that he would stand by the desk and wait. He didn’t want to be ignored, so being proactive would help. Besides, he was Head Boy, and nowhere was there a rule that said you had to wait outside your Professor’s door to have an appointment. He had checked.
As it was Ernie’s free block, he suspected that Professor Pittiman would be in class and he would have almost an hour to wait, and then it would be lunch. So he couldn’t be blamed for looking around the room.
Ernie didn’t remember what the office had looked like while Binns was the professor, having never bothered to visit, but he didn’t think it would have looked much different, though the current version might be a bit more modern. The decorations were uninspiring and exactly what might have been expected – bookshelves, racks for newspapers, cabinets of professorial mementoes and papers – in short, nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the desk.
The desk was covered with papers, covering more papers. It looked like something was hidden that was intended to be secret but hadn’t been left enough time to put away properly. That might explain the door too, and so, knowing he was crossing the line of acceptability, Ernie looked at the papers.
The hidden papers were hidden for a Reason, Ernie quickly decided. McGonagall would never accept this. It was a shame then that he couldn’t exactly report it to her when he had found out like this.
“The Rise of Voldemort” was the title of the first set of papers. Notes for a new book, apparently, on controversial themes which weren’t particularly historical. And while the actual content wasn’t so awful as he feared, the fact that the title didn’t include “The Fall” was rather foreboding. It seemed suspicious, uncomfortable, and altogether wrong.
The second set of hidden papers was more worrisome. It appeared to be a description of why pureblood magic was superior, and how the increased prominence of those of lesser blood was eroding Wizarding Society. It didn’t directly affect him, or Susan, he knew, but there were so many people it did affect, that it might as well have. Hogwarts without Hermione, Justin, the Creeveys, any of them; it just wouldn’t be the same.
Twenty minutes had gone by when Ernie decided to leave. He had seen enough to know that he would be in huge trouble if anyone found out. He also knew that he wouldn’t be able to look Pittiman in the eye and ask about the Squid, so calling his mission off as a lost cause, at least for now, he left.