Advanced Summoning || Lesson Four

It was a gorgeous day at the school. The sun was shining through the windows, casting a cheery mood on every student, professor, or being in the castle or on the grounds. Birds were singing their joyous tunes, chirping back and forth to their companions almost as if to say a pleasant greeting. For once, it was a good day.

Surprisingly, it was even a great day for the predators on this patch of land. There were ample flocks to ruin, ample targets to snatch and devour. Everyone was out, and it was a perfect time to begin the daily hunt.

Stalking from the top of a tree lied a hawk, his eyes wide and his beak itching to kill. Naturally, it picked some bug from its wing, honing in on today’s fresh catch: a lone dove, contrasting against the bright green lawn of the grounds. His mind plotted. The deed could be done in a minute at best.

Not wanting to waste a moment, the hawk soared into the air, diving beakfirst toward the helpless dove. Scared, the dove saw the hawk at the right moment, flapping its wings frantically to propel its small body into the big blue sky. The hawk, not seeing this coming, narrowly scraped its talons on the grass, flying directly upward toward the food source. It was a tense aerial battle with speed, agility, and in the hawk’s case, hopefully guts.

The dove flapped faster as the hawk reached out and snatched a few feathers from the dove’s behind. Noticing the predator nipped too close for comfort, the dove flapped faster, hoping to gain a little bit more speed. The two birds whipped around the astronomy tower, curving and soaring over the dome. Some students laughed, seeing the two birds fly over where they were supposed to observe, much to the dislike of their Professor.

Trying to lose the predator on its tail, the dove wove past the main section. Surprisingly, the hawk kept up. It was almost as if a smile beamed across the dove’s beak as it had a sudden revelation. Clutching its beak tight, the dove flew out, away from the castle. It froze, letting the hawk catch up to it and then flew right towards the second floor corridors. A window stared right back at the two birds, almost beckoning them to come closer.

That was exactly the dove’s plan when it flew right towards the window and the giggling children inside. The boy inside took a sudden breath as the dove was about to hit the fragile pane of glass, but turned left at the right second.

Not expecting this, the hawk hit the glass with a loud thud, splayed across the window like a piece of modern art. The boy inside laughed louder, covering his mouth with glee as gravity began to peel the injured bird off the glass, it falling to the ground, supposedly holding onto its dear bird life.

Oddly enough, the struggling hawk seemed to...morph out of whatever shape it was in before, into one longer and huddled in a fetal position. The new figure, apparently human, was clutching his arm. ”Bloody…” He clenched his eyes shut, trying to block out the tinges of pain flooding his system. His eyes were like magnets, drawn toward the blazing sun. He was on the brink of tears when he rolled over, spotting an open window with a putrid stench emanating from it. It sparked a single ember of curiosity in the man…

Like a wounded soldier on the battlefield, the 31-year-old pulled himself towards the ground-level window, using the glass on it to first check his reflection. He smirked, noticing he appeared well-off and rather attractive.

Beyond his appearance, however, he noticed a fleeting shadow in the room with the strange stench. It certainly couldn’t have been a warden or some sort of staff, could it have been? The man, cloaked in a trenchcoat, inside was perusing the room anyways, almost investigating for some sign of life in the miniature dungeon. Suddenly, the man turned his face toward the former hawk outside, and they recognized each other. The animagus jumped back, trying to hide himself at first as the one inside called out his name. ”Dorian? Is that you?”

Dorian, the hawk animagus, laughed to himself as he changed his posing. ”No, it’s totally not me, Mr. Max Avery…” He was now reclining on his side, injured in the hot summer sun.

”Come on, you idiot, get inside. It’s hot as the devil out there.” Max, brushing his hair to the side, tried to pull his old friend through the window, and after a bit of struggle, the two of them were now in the dark, dripping, dungeon together. ”Now, Gray, what’s your case. I’ve got to know why you’re here. Not everyone wants to come back to Hogwarts just because they can.” Max’s sinister smirk hadn’t changed a bit.

Dorian replicated the young man’s smirk, knowing that anything he did would be as a joke. They had grown close. ”Well, I was soaring outside, coasting on the wind, pursuing a dove on animal instinct and then I banged head-fir---”

”You hit that window? Oh, so that’s what that loud splat was. I should’ve known.” Max elbowed Dorian playfully with a smile. ”I’m expecting you’re going to ask me what I’m up to here, so I’ll go ahead and fill you in. My company was formed to investigate situations like this: dingy classrooms and lurking suspicions w--” Max began to pace, pivoting on his heel to stare at Dorian, who was holding his phone screen up to his face like some sort of model. He cut himself off. ”For the love of God, Dorian, what are you doing? Quit modeling.”

The dark-haired animagus was now posing on the desk, swinging one leg off of it. ”How does one quit what they have even yet to start? I’m clearly trying to get my phone to work. Yes, I’m well aware that this is Hogwarts and Muggle devices don’t usually work here, but I swear I saw a flash of brilliant digital light.”

”’Kay, Shakespeare.” Dorian just grumbled in reply.

Max sighed, rotating his head to stare down the hall as a group of students precariously paraded down the dangerous corridor. They flooded into the makeshift classroom, some more observant of their new...substitutes than others. ”Oh dear Lord. So they weren’t lying when I got my briefing.”

”What?”

At that moment, an adorable little Ravenclaw girl came up to Dorian and tapped him in the shin. ”Excuse me, Sir? Who are you? And where’s Anthill?”

Dorian tossed his hair, putting his phone down as he eyed Max, confused. ”Why, sweetie, I’m Dorian Gray, and that is Max. We’re here to…”

The man in the trenchcoat snickered. ”I’d like to reflect that question back to you. Do you know where Anatole Evans is?” His eyes stared at the little girl, razor-sharp. The girl just shook her head and raced back to the desk. ”Dorian, watch and learn. You’ll catch on easily. I’ll just go ahead and tell you these students aren’t supposed to be in here.” Max raised his voice, ushering Dorian off the desk as he weaved through the rows. ”Do any of you mind telling me what Advanced Summoning is?” He was hazy himself on this definition, and surely these students, no matter how anxious they were, could answer.

A Hufflepuff raised his hand and read directly from his notes. ”How to make Hogwarts Professors appear right before your eyes. You do this by using a ph--”

The other students laughed as Dorian, who pumped his fist once his phone turned on for some odd reason, continued to model, making strange and gorgeous faces as he hit different poses. ”I swear I’m devoting my attention to what you’re doing, man.”

Max snatched the phone out of Dorian’s slender hands. ”Something like this?” The students nodded, and the model instantly snatched his device back, putting it away for once and paying attention to this intriguing investigation. ”Just to be sure, none of you have any idea where Anatole Evans is?” All the students agreed. They had no idea where Anatole had departed off to. ”Well, okay then.”

He leaned back on the desk, deep in thought. He knew Anatole, yes, where could he have gone? What puzzled him even more is that a shy, quiet, frequently nervous kid had transformed into a “Professor” of...whatever the heck Advanced Summoning was? Clearly Dorian had no idea, but he might have a single lick, considering he went into Transfiguration and was now an animagus. His briefing had told him that the logistics of Advanced Summoning was loosely related to Transfiguration…

”I’ve never heard of Advanced Summoning, by the way. I suppose I’m just along for the ride?”

”Yeah. I told you, it’s easy to catch onto.” Max didn’t care to lower his voice when he was addressing Dorian. ”Who have you all summoned so far?”

A cacophony of conflicting voices listed out some names about who they had summoned, and most of them were correct when they discussed Professors, and like a conductor, Max silenced them with his hands, going back into a state of thinking.

Behind him, Dorian’s eyes enlarged. He had a sudden revelation. ”Wait, Max, grasp that thought for a second. Anatole teaches this course of…’Advanced Summoning’, right?” Max nodded, his eyes tracing Dorian’s features up until he reached his lips, spitting out a bit of wisdom. ”If he teaches a class at Hogwarts, then he is a Professor...and we could summon him, however you students do it.”

The classroom remained quiet, and out of the blue, Max responded. ”He isn’t a registered Professor in the system, but...I’m sure we could try. It doesn’t seem like too bad an idea for once.” He reached out to Dorian for a fist bump, which he happily accepted. Max stumbled upon the bag of phones from ages ago, taking two out and tossing one to Dorian. ”Kids, come up and do whatever you normally do. Single file, I guess. While you’re doing that--you little brats better be good at multitasking--tell me how you’d summon someone.”

A Slytherin girl rolled her eyes at Max, commenting, ”You summon someone by picking up on their little quirks and pointing them out to them. Usually, it’s by provoking them to appear by your side because of something they love, hate, or just something weird like Sergei and his eye emojis.” Max and Dorian exchanged puzzled, laughable looks. Sergei had a quirk for eye emojis?

”Well, thank you on that note. What do you think would summon Anatole? I’m sure he has many quirks, but I haven’t seen him in approximately twenty years. Have you seen him anytime after seventh year, Max?”

Max shook his head. ”Nope. Been twenty years here too. No clue.” He peered out the window at the sliver of sunlight entering the room, but when he looked back, the students were hysterical because Dorian had taken his shirt off to model for his phone. ”Dear God, Dorian!”

”What? It’s hot in these dungeons…” Max squinted, giving the same sinister look he had given to the Ravenclaw girl earlier to the shirtless animagus. He mouthed, ‘They are children.’ ”Oh, right, fine.” Dorian put his shirt back on.

”Well, if no one has any ideas, let me just do what I do best.”

”Bully people?”

”No, that was forever ago. Spam him. He’ll be bound to pop up if I bug him enough. The one thing I remember is that he has the attention span of a fruit fly.” Max took the phone, proceeding to read out what he typed in all caps. ”’Hey Anatole. Anatole. Anatole. Anatole. Anatole. Anatole. Anatole. ANATOLE.’”

”WHAT?” The Professor of Advanced Summoning appeared just like that, angry that someone summoned him. Clearly, he had left for a reason. ”I thought you noticed I didn’t want to return he---oh hi, Max and Dorian. Been a while. BUT ANYWAYS, I wanted to leave.” Anatubby appeared to be a wreck, dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep and his clothes stained with substances Max and Dorian didn’t know.

Dorian crept up beside Max, smiling like a madman with awe (and a little teary-eyed) at what Max had just done. ”Oh em gee, you summoned him? I caaaaaaaaaan’t even!”

”Because of you idiots, I can’t be un-summoned. My attention span is that of a fruit fly, so for all you know, I will be here and never fade out, unlike most Professors. Hence why I had to hike all the way away from here.” Anatole turned toward the class, grumbling and fuming. Like a volcano, he was about to explode. ”For you students, more Evans Principle at work.”

Rumbling footsteps were heard upstairs, thundering like an army about to charge into war. Hustled, racing. They were coming down the stairs, growing louder by the second. Everyone in the Summoning classroom whipped their heads toward the sky in fear, and yes, they did have a reason to be fearful once the ratty wooden door slammed open to reveal Ackerley and a miniature army of Prefects, including Edie Knaggs. Denise sat there on the man’s shoulder. His face remained calm and chiseled, but his brows were furrowed. ”What, in the name of Merlin, is this? No chairs, dark magic, technology, a crude blackboard, not to mention whatever the heck is dripping from the ceiling! My God, Evans, look at this utterly atrocious reputation you have created for me and the rest of this school!”

The students gripped to their seats, watching this confrontation with wide eyes. Everything was quiet, once again. And A Pole tried to speak up, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. With a grievous sigh, Max took the reins. ”Students, you are dismissed.”

Anatole’s breaths grew heavy, and instead of facing the issue, he grabbed a can from the flurry of panicked exiting students and used it to pry himself out of the window, running off again before Ackerley could cast a spell to stop the man in his tracks. ”Anatole!” Dorian called, concerned about his old friend’s safety.

Ackerley stormed toward the window, running out and shouting after the young man, ”Anatole Evans, you are hereby banished. You must never, ever return to Hogwarts again!” His voice was like a god’s, thunderous and powerful as he decreed his order. Slowly, he descended back into the classroom. ”As for you two, Dorian, Max, you are not escaping unscathed.”

When Max looked back at Dorian, his shirt was off again. He sighed, growing more serious. ”Mr. Blackburn, it would please you to know my occupation. My duty is to rat out places like this and their darkness, I--”

”Quiet.”

”Mr. Blackburn, please hear me out.” Max began to protest, keeping his wand clenched by his side. He preferred not to use it.

Meanwhile, Dorian slid underneath the desk, shutting his eyes, grasping his wand, and carefully transforming back into his Patronus. Slowly, he hobbled out, fluttering up to the window while Max had Deputy Headmaster Blackburn distracted. His senses came into play, eyeing the man carefully in order to strike at the perfect moment.

”Mr. Avery, for the last time, I do not care about your occupation. You, and apparently your organization were involved and had some knowledge of this forbidden program.” Almost...almost…

”Yes, that is true, I did come in knowing…” Almost…

”See? Yes.” Ackerley slid out his wand as well. Go.

Dorian took flight, soaring through the classroom and diving right towards Ackerley’s shoulder. Crunch.

The prefect army gasped as Dorian flew out the open window.

Denise no longer remained on Ackerley’s shoulder, but instead, dead in Dorian’s beak. Professor Blackburn’s eyes grew wide as he felt the nipping and collapsed to the floor, watching the bird fly out. His heart had broken. Denise...his beloved spider...dead. The Professor began to sob uncontrollably, unable to contain his grief for his now dead best friend. His wand rolled across the floor as he wept. ”D-D-Denise…”

Max stood there, kicking Ackerley’s wand back towards him as the army comforted the Professor, scowls on their little faces. ”I’m sorry…” He somberly exited, pushing himself out of the window, shutting it behind him, and looking for the hawk. Instead of a hawk, Max found a shirtless 31-year-old in the grass, hunching over in disgust. ”Dorian? Are you alright?” He wrapped his arm around the young man, caring about how he was after that last battle.

”I...I...Max, that was terrible.” Dorian buried his head in Max’s lap, smiling a faint smile.

Then, he puked Denise’s guts into the grass, leg by leg until every single part of her was out.

”I’m okay.”




[This was an excruciatingly long lesson, so I will not give much homework. Once again, doing my homework is not necessary and will not give you anything but satisfaction from me. Owl it if you would like, and read the quote at the top.]

One. What differs Anatole from other Professors when it comes to summoning him [Hint: Evans Principle]?

Two. What is the formal definition of Advanced Summoning, and what Hogwarts Subject is Advanced Summoning most closely related to?

Three. Write me a roughly 150 word RPG post about your character in the AS universe in twenty years. There is no wrong answer.