Newly hired Professor Brad Turing was busy down in the Hogwarts kitchens making some of his famous chocolate chip cookies. He had recently joined the Astronomy department here at Hogwarts at the request of his friend Dax, and he and the PA team had a bit of a rough start. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, they obviously missed the former Co-Astronomy professor Benn. But Brad was not one to give up. He was often marvelled for his baking skills, while enjoying the activity as well, so he was making the team some of his amazing chocolate chip cookies - to start with.

He had just put the cookies in the oven, a house elf had offered to do it for him, bless its little heart, but he had declined the offer, when Dax burst into the kitchens. All of the house elves immediately began bowing, they had done this upon his own entrance, in a very revered sort of way owing no doubt to Dax’s prestige as Head of House for Hufflepuff. Brad looked up at his friend and colleague’s entrance, he looked almost distressed, “What is it Dax? You look worried.”Pausing for a moment to catch his breath, Dax thrust a hastily scribbled note into his hand. Unfolding it he found that it said:

Taking the note from Dax, and quickly reading it, Brad felt his hands shake a little. “Dax, the girls...they need us”. Dax was pacing around the kitchen now, trying to come up with something that might help. The pacing obviously annoyed Brad and every now and then he would tell Dax to calm down. That didn’t help as Dax continued pacing even faster.

“Those girls mean everything to me, Brad!” Dax started sternly.

“I know but we need to come up with a solid plan, figure out who took them and why.” interjected Brad. Calm as always, he moved over to the oven and took out the now charred cookies, thinking he would have to make some new ones for the girls. He nodded to the house elf standing nearby, who had been eyeing him ever since he had come into the kitchens and ran after Dax, who had dashed off to his office in search of clues.

The tower appeared eerily quiet as both of the men headed up to their main office. “The girls sure livened up the place, its so quiet in here,” Brad had muttered to Dax on their way up the stairs. Dax was too worried to think about what Brad had just said and instead tried focusing on ways he could save the girls. 'Was it the death eaters again, or is it some other foe this time?' Dax half wondered.

As they reached their office door, to their horror they saw the knob and lock had been blasted away and inside the entire place looked ransacked. All of the girls grading papers and pranking things like glitter and posters were torn and sprawled across the floor. Quills were broken and their ink sprayed all over, inkpots overturned, chairs overturned. The office looked every bit like Dax’s worst nightmare. As he stood frozen at the doorway, Brad put his hand lightly on his shoulder, as a way of assuring his friend and said, “We’ll find them. Don’t worry” before taking out his wand and muttering spells that fixed up the room just as it had always been.

That was when he saw it, laying underneath the table in the middle of the room. As a chair righted itself a crumpled piece of parchment flipped out into the open. At first, Brad thought it was just some grading notes, but that’s when he saw the word “Help”. He crouched down and picked the ball of parchment up and began unwrapping it.

“What? What is it?” Dax said finally detaching himself from the doorway to stride forwards. “I’m not…” Brad began before finishing and pocketed the note so Dax could not see it. He couldn’t bear to see his friend getting agitated. Not now, he thought. As Dax had moved to where Brad now stood, he noticed a glint coming from the corner where his magnificent telescope stood. The girls had always called it ‘Big Bertha’, reminisced Dax, chuckling softly. “My girls”.

Brad had turned away from Dax now, and took the crumpled piece of parchment out. This time, he wanted to see more, once he had smoothed it out on the nearby table, he began to read and as he read his eyes grew wide and his hands shook with fury.

Whomever had managed to write this had obviously evaded capture for a brief moment, and hurriedly crumpled the parchment up. Suddenly the team’s pet cat Dumbledore appeared around the corner of Brad and Dax’s office and gave a soft, “Mew” hopping over to rub against Brad’s leg. Brad gave the cat a stroke, asking him, “Did you see something, you crazy animal?” Obviously not expecting an answer but talking to the cat just the same. To that, Dax now snapped out of his reverie looked from Brad to the cat. “Anything?” he asked.

Brad, simply shrugged. “Nope… seems like this one didn’t see anything”. He stroked the cat once more, and looked over to Dax with a half grin. What he had said seemed to have helped calm him down a little. “Thanks Brad, I don’t know what I would do if you were not here to help me out”.

Brad nodded, then pulled a piece of parchment and ripped it in half, then scribbled two identical notes; 'Astronomy team kidnapped by deatheater’s, come to Astro tower. Dax half out of his mind with worry. -Turing.' He sent them off with a flourish of his wand. Dax gave him a questioning look. "August and Julius," he provided.

Dax nodded. "That does make sense," he sighed. Brad could see that the man was very worried, and he put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. "We're going to find them. Now, let's start."

Shrugging out of their robes, the two men got to work. Before they could do so, they heard a knock on the door and turned to see who it was…

--

Meanwhile…. off in some dark cave….

“Let us go!” Karelin shouted as she squirmed trying to get free, she gave a half glance to her right, seeing that Veela was still unconscious.

“Quit your squirming and stay quiet,” one of the burly deatheaters shouted back as he tied a piece of cloth around Karelin’s head and in her mouth. Others proceeded to do the same to the other girls. Rani of course bit the hand of the deatheater who came at her with the gag, causing the man to withdraw his hand teeth marks indented into it and bleeding. She spat the blood that had accumulated in her mouth back at him and received a quick backhand before the gag was put in her mouth and tied behind her head.  

The girls had been tied up in pairs (back to back); Lucy and Rani, (both squirming, but suspiciously quiet other than defiance- perhaps they were planning something..), Karelin was tied to Mina, Hannah to Apolline, and Scarlet was tied up with Rachel. Veela was tied separately, possibly because she was a Polgara.

The Deatheaters started filing out of the cave, and one turned to the girls and said "Alright, now don't you try anything, we're going to sit right at this entrance, and the second I come back from my little trip, -with or without the girl's father,-" this last part was accompanied by a gesture at Veela. "-we're going to want information. And you are going to give it." She snarled a creepy smile and gave them each one last glare, then stalked out of the cave. Seconds later, the girls heard a loud, echoing 'CRACK!' as a few of the deatheaters disapparated, and the muffled voices of the remaining deatheaters settling down.

There was silence in the cave, until Hannah managed to squirm her gag off. Once she had, Hannah started squirming and trying to get loose and, by proxy, Apolline as well, “Once I get free, I’ll get you guys free as well,” she hissed. She had just about slid her small hands out of the ropes when her foot bumped the side of the cave wall and knocked a rather large, solid rock off of its small perch. The rock came tumbling down to the cave floor with a rather large *SMASH*, the girls all cringed as the female deatheater came vaulting back into the cave, “What in the name of Merlin!” she shrieked her eyes bulging as she stared around at the girls sitting in their places.

That was when she spotted Hannah, her gag laying against her chest and out of her mouth. “You!” she shrieked at Hannah as she stomped over and forced the gag back into her mouth. She reached behind her, between Apolline and Hannah, and checked the ropes making sure to pull them tighter. “Now,” she said an evil grin on her face as she stood back up and crossed her arms over her chest. “How will we teach you a lesson?” she finished staring down at Hannah menacingly. “Ah I know……” she paused before shouting, “Crucio!” pointing her wand at Hannah, causing her to writhe in pain and scream into her gag. “Now perhaps you’ll be good little girls and stay quiet, still and not try to escape,” she said staring around at each of them in turn, locking her gaze into each of their glaring eyes. She laughed and after waving her wand threateningly at each of them (including unconscious Veela) in turn she laughed and turned on her heel for the entrance of the cave.

--

Meanwhile back at the castle……

“Dax… Dax!” Brad said as he shook his friends shoulder, as he had been staring at the desk his head in his hands for the past ten minutes. Headmaster Rubedo and Professor Dowler had been by not long ago having only left about fifteen minutes ago to go owl some sources and consult some references for some ideas the men had come up with. Dax raised his head and looked into his friend’s eyes, “Brad….. what are we going to do? How will we get the girls back?” he said his voice strained.

Brad stared at his friend for a moment before replying, “We will. That’s all you need to worry about, old friend… now the cave idea you had, where do you think such caves would be?” he asked Dax trying to keep his mind focused on idea generation. “Right.. umm… well given the girls number, and that they took them all…” Dax trailed off.

“Unwillingly, I’d wager,” Brad supplied.

“Yes, yes. The girls would fight tooth and nail,” Dax confirmed. He looked at some maps laying in front of him while Brad leaned on the desk beside him. ”Yes, its the only conceivable location,” Dax muttered, Brad leaned in, “Where?” Dax looked up at him, “Caves .. overlooking Hogsmeade, its the only thing that makes sense.” Brad nodded, standing up and crossing his arms, “Well then, that’s where we go, and as quick as we can.” Dax nodded, “We have to save the girls.”

Both men swung long, thick, warm travelling cloaks over their shoulders. After writing quick messages about their suspicions and sending them once again off to Professor’s Dowler and Rubedo the two friends pulled up their hoods and quickly departed the tower.

--

Back in the cave ……..

As Dax and Brad set out for where they hope to find the girls, the girls were sitting tied back to back in one of said caves. Hannah, having just received a rather sizable jolt from a Cruciatus curse, is hanging somewhat limply from her binding’s, her head lolled backwards on to Apolline’s shoulder. Apolline was doing her best to comfort her by resting the side of her head against Hannah’s in as comforting a manner as her current position would allow. The gags were biting into all of the girls cheeks, as they each thought of how they could possibly get out of this.

Veela, having been tied up separately from the rest of them finally managed to make her way out of unconsciousness. As she opened her eyes and adjusted to the light she looked around to see her teammates and friends bound and gagged virtually in front of her (she was leaning against the cave wall about 5 ft away). She suddenly panicked realizing she was tied up and gagged as well, and started thrashing around. Karelin seeing her panic started to try to wiggle her gag off finally settling on metamorphizing herself into a slightly smaller form, enough that she was able spit the gag out.

“Veela, Veela!” she hissed at her friend. Having not so great hearing, Veela did not hear this so throwing caution to the winds Karelin said firmly, and possibly a little louder than intended, “Veela!” That got the girls attention and she stopped wiggling and thrashing and stared at Karelin who said quickly (she could hear the rustling sound of someone standing up outside), “Its ok, just be calm someone will come for us soon.”

Almost as soon as she had finished speaking a shadow cast itself across her, Karelin slowly looked up and gulped (she still looked smaller than she had previously). The woman snorted and said, “Ah, so the Hufflepuff is a Metamorphmagus, is she?” she said this eyeing Karelin’s changed features. Karelin’s eyes happened to flick over to where Veela sat awake and this caused the woman to look around and notice her, “Ah, and the Polgara girl is awake. Excellent.”She seemed to have momentarily forgotten Karelin and her missing gag as she moved to stand in front of Veela. Crouching down she pulled the gag roughly out of Veela’s mouth. Veela just stared back at her, hatred in her eyes. “Now, perhaps you can save us some time and tell us where your father keeps the Astrolabe,” she asked Veela  staring down menacingly at her.

Defiantly Veela spat back, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” The woman deatheater growled and, pointing her wand at Veela, shouted, “Crucio!” pouring so much malice and hate and intent into the spell that Veela screamed aloud. She wouldn’t let up and Karelin couldn’t take it any more shouting, “Stop it! Stop it!” The women relaxed her wand, pulling away from Veela who rolled over on her side panting. After giving Veela a kick with her toe, she turned to face Karelin, “Oh?” she said to Karelin, “What? Don’t like seeing your friend hurt? Perhaps you will tell me what I want to know then. little Hufflepuff,” she queried Karelin, malice in her eyes.

Karelin gulped and said confidently, “It’s like Veela said, we don’t know what your talking about, we don’t know anything about  any special astrolabes.” The women didn’t seem to like this answer and spat back at her, actually spraying Karelin and Mina with spittle, “Oh, but I think you do know, I think you know for than you're letting on… Crucio!” she shouted the spell her wand aimed in such a way that the spell went into Karelin and Mina. Both girls sharing the same metamorphmagus ability suddenly had their hair flashing various colours as Karelin screamed audibly in agony and Mina screamed into her gag. The screams reverberated around the cave, bouncing off the walls, surely someone would hear this?

"Oooo, TWO metamorphmagi, how lucky am I?" the woman sneered down at them all the while Karelin and Mina grunted and screamed in pain. “Yes, yes, this should be fun…..” she sneered as she pulled her wand up from the girls. Both Mina and Karelin panted heavily from the curse used upon them.

The female deatheater wandered over to where Veela was laying on her side and roughly pulled her upwards. Veela, in true Polgara fashion spat her, “Ow, you don’t have to pull so hard!”

The women ignored her and shoved the gag back in Veela’s mouth, careful to avoid putting her fingers anywhere near after Rani’s biting incident. Once she had done so, she stood up and, keeping her wand trained on Veela, she turned to Karelin and Mina and said, “Alright, you two little shapeshifters, we’re going to have a little fun with this girl’s father,” she said, gesturing at Veela. When Mina and Karelin just glared back at her, she laughed maniacally and said, “You two are going to make yourselves look like your little Polgara friend here,” she finished with a rather creepy smile.

Mina shook her head frantically, and Karelin, whose gag was still off said, “Not… a…. chance,” dragging out every word as she said them. The women sneered and said, “Oh? Really now? Maybe this will change your minds…. Crucio!” she spat, aiming the curse at Veela, who screamed into her gag, every muscle in her body tensed up. Karelin shouted, “No!!” as Mina’s eyes opened wide in horror. Raising her wand and turning to face the girls, the woman said, “Oh? Are you ready to cooperate?” Karelin turned her head as far to the side as she could and could just make out Mina (who had done the same) nodding her head, seemingly saying ‘We don’t have a choice’, which was exactly what Karelin was thinking.

“Ok.. fine.. we’ll do it,” Karelin replied for the two of them. With that, both Mina and Karelin scrunched up their eyes in concentration and “shapeshifted” into the form of Veela Polgara - twin braids and all. “Excellent.. “ the women said, “And now to set the scene…” she trailed off before shouting, “Herbert! Chowley! Get in here!” When two deatheaters had stumbled to their feet and stumbled into the cave, she said, “I want that Polgara,” she pointed at Karelin-Veela, “Tied to her,” she pointed at Apolline. “And I want that one,” she pointed at Mina, “Tied to the her,” she pointed at Lucy. “Finally we will put the real Polgara with…..” she trailed off looking at the girls, “You..” she said looking into Scarlet’s eyes. The pair of men did as they were told and re-tied everyone, finishing by tying Rachel to Rani, and Hannah to Apolline and Karelin-Veela.  

--

As the deatheaters enacted this new twist to their plan, Dax and Brad were clambering up the slope to the cave. Dax was slowing down however, finally collapsing onto a boulder emotionally and physically drained. Brad realized his friend had stopped and turned, saying, “Dax? Are you alright? Come on we must be nearly there,” looking up the path as he finished speaking. Dax looked up at his friend with his piercing blue eyes and said, “I know.. I just.. need a minute to .. collect myself.. you go on ahead and I’ll cover you.” Brad rubbed at the back of his hair for a moment before clasping his friend on the shoulder and looking into his eyes and saying, “I won’t let anything happen to them.” Dax nodded saying with a small smile, “I know you won’t, I’ll be right behind you... now go!”

Brad continued up the slope, and when he heard voices around the next corner, he crouched low - pulling out his wand as he went. There were only two shadows outside the cave. Brad aimed carefully at the one sitting with his back to the side of the cave entrance and sent a silent stunning charm towards him. As the jet of light left Brad’s wand and struck the unknowing deatheater, causing him to slump further over, Brad quickly ducked and moved behind a nearby rock from the bush he had previously hidden behind.

“Who’s there!” the second deatheater shouted, moving towards where Brad had previously been hiding. He quickly stood up and shouted, “Petrificus Totalus!” taking the deatheater by surprise and catching him in the chest. Brad then hurried forward, pausing just long enough to look down at the man’s frozen face.  

“I have to go get Dax, now,” thought Brad, and so he moved back to where he had last left Dax. When he reached the hillside, a knot in his stomach tightened, Dax was nowhere to be seen. He looked around frantically, running around in circles. “Great, Dax, the one time I leave you alone and you disappear on me” Brad muttered to himself. He was now worried for not just the girls but his best friend, and so began thinking of a new plan. He suddenly wished that August and Julius would hurry now. But as of right now he could search for Dax, or wait for August and Julius to turn up, but that could put the girls in even more danger. Brad made up his mind, “The girls first…” and hurried on.

When he reached the cave again, after creeping past the two deatheaters he had dispatched earlier, he slowed his pace, creeping slowly into the small entrance. He could now distinctly hear a voice from within, a woman’s voice, “Yes, and tie those two together, then we just have to wait for Polgara to show up.” Brad raised his wand, realizing that the cave was quite narrow and dark, and had looked like it just opened into one room, with nowhere to hide, he would just have to make his presence known, and go with it. Taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling, he stepped out into the open, “Release those girls,” he said confidently.

The woman spun around, her wand raised, and stared at Brad before asking with a sneer, “You're not Polgara! Just who are you to be giving orders?” she snapped. Brad smiled, “Turing,” he half smiled, “Brad Turing, Co-Astronomy Professor at Hogwarts,” Brad introduced himself with a mock bow for good measure. As he bowed, and stood back up Brad took note of the girls Veela and Apolline, Hannah off to the side, Rachel and Rani, Veela and Scarlet, Veela and Lucy.. wait what? He did a quick count three Veela’s? His eyes quickly scanned the girls again, “Where were Karelin and Mina?” That’s when he realized, three Veela’s - Karelin and Mina conspicuously missing, the missing girls must be two of the three Veela’s.The woman cackled,” Ah! I see you’ve noticed our three identical friends here,” she said gesturing at the three Veela’s. Brad smirked, “Clever, but even if I was Dax, do you really think that he would sacrifice any of these girls for his daughter? You clearly haven’t been paying attention,” he jibed at her, continuing to smirk. This caused the woman to shift slightly, which made Brad think, “Good...she’s going to be an easy one”. He moved forward, wand ready.  

--

Down on the floor, each of the girls were surprised when Professor Turing stepped out. What was he doing here? Where was Professor Polgara? Those thoughts were running through each of their minds. Karelin, whose gag had been re-tied around her mouth craned her neck trying to see around him, no one. Then suddenly, Turing winked, barely, although not enough to draw attention, but Karelin thought that perhaps it was because of her sharp seeker eyes that she had indeed seen it. When the woman had mentioned the “three Veelas”, Karelin got an idea and so, as Professor Turing’s eyes roamed over her again, she briefly made her braided hair turn purple. Just long enough for him to give his small, barely noticeable wink and then changed it back to Veela’s brown.

--

As Brad scanned the girls, and his eyes glanced over to the Veela tied to Apolline and Hannah, he distinctly saw one of the girl’s braids turn a dark purple. The kind of purple Karelin generally wore. “Ok” he thought “That one is definitely Karelin, now which one is the real Veela and which is Mina?” he said after twitching his eye  in a half wink towards Karelin.

Mina was too scared to do anything all this time, she had not seen Professor Turing enter and couldn’t catch Karelin’s hair change. Her gag had been tied tightly into her mouth and she could barely understand the commotion. When she tried to wriggle out of her ropes, something caught her attention, Karelin had definitely changed her hair to purple. “What is she doing?” Mina thought, “Wait...she is baiting someone... Who?”, Mina tried scootching over to see what Karelin was doing, she knew how great Karelin was at quidditch and this was her trying to strategize. Finally, Mina saw to her relief, Professor Turing standing at the far end of the room and Karelin at the opposite end, her hair now changed back to Veela’s brown.

It was then that Professor Turing had turned to where Mina was. He obviously still couldn’t decide who was who, between Mina and the real Veela. He nodded gently to Karelin, signalling to her to try and distract the woman as he figured the Veelas out.  

--

The woman sneered at Brad, watching his eyes roam around across the girls, back and forth. “Come now, surely you can tell which is the real Polgara?” Just then, a foot shot out, kicking her hard in the calf and she backed up towards the girls. This taunt had given Karelin the chance to strike, although it hadn’t gone exactly as Karelin had planned. She had reacted a bit too quickly and kicked a bit too soon. Instead of the woman falling over, she had spun around and shouted, “Crucio!” her wand pointed into the middle of the group, causing Karelin, Hannah and Apolline to scream into their gags - and Karelin’s hair to flash colours again.  

--

The act instantly alerted Brad who, wand ready, had dashed towards the screaming girls, knocking the woman to the side as he ran. “Not so fast”, screamed a second voice. This voice was calm and cold, Brad didn’t turn around, he wanted to save the girls, it was now or never. As he ran, he saw flashes of sparks going everywhere, he whipped around every now and then, shouting expelliarmus to deflect the curses. At last, he skidded to where Karelin, Hannah and Apolline were tied. Hurtling a quick glance over to the two Veelas on the other side, who now seemed to have resorted back to their thrashing about, “Oh...those two need to stop doing that so I can figure out who they are”, thought Brad. He calmly told the three girls in front of him, “I’m here...don’t worry...I’m here” and began loosening their ropes. Apolline and Hannah could just barely see him through their tears, but it was Karelin who managed to speak once Brad had carefully taken off the gag. He could see the bruises and gashes over her face. Karelin was now speaking, gasping as she and the professor ducked the spells being hurtled at them from beyond, “Veela is tied to Scarlet and Mina to Lucy!” Brad could barely make out what Karelin was saying and kept telling her to calm down… “Which one is which...again?”  

Karelin closed her eyes, and began again slowly reverting back to her own form as she spoke, “Mina is tied to Lucy and Veela is tied to Scarlet!” Sighing, okay. Looking around, Brad could now make out a panicked Veela tied to Lucy. “That’s Mina!...Remind me to tease her about this when we get out”, Brad snickered. Even in this difficult situation, he fought hard to stop himself from chuckling. The three girls looked bewildered at him. “Um… Professor...we’re trapped…” Karelin tried to remind him.

--

Mina couldn’t stand it any longer. “Where were they?” She had looked down at the woman who was stunned by the Professor earlier, and muttered “What’s taking them so long?”. She began panicking as more spells were hurtled at the group and shrieked through her gag. She turned around to see the Professor, who was now muttering instructions to Karelin. “Was that a grin?”, Mina thought, glaring at them. She tried to get their attention as she believed they had not seen them yet. Freeing herself a little of the gag, she spoke to Lucy, “Lucy...Lucy...wake up...Turing is here.” At that, Lucy had snapped upright and pushed Mina to the back of the rock, “Ow!... Lucy…” Glasses askew, Mina tried to stop Lucy as she thrashed about, “Luce! …. Lucy! Stop.. moving so we can get free!”

--

Professor Turing had, by now, finished untying Karelin, Hannah and Apolline and was giving them instructions on how to escape. “You girls hug the wall of the cave, it’s dark so you will need to be careful and get outside quickly. Dax.. I mean Professor Polgara should be right outside.” Brad thought to himself, “Well I hope he is.” Shaking his head, he gave each one of them a quick nod and said before turning “Okay...I’ll cover you girls...go...NOW!”  

Karelin pulled Apolline and Hannah up and hissed, “Come on!” leading the way to the cave wall. Once there, all three girls put their hands to it and started creeping along, making sure that they didn’t trip over anything as they went. They were nearly there, Professor Turing had just reached Mina and Lucy and begun to untie them, when suddenly the woman the professor had knocked over popped up in front of them, “Going somewhere girls?” she sneered.All three girls shrieked in surprise, backing up several paces, holding each other’s hands in fear.

Freeing Mina from her gag, the Professor immediately regretted it, for Mina had started babbling nonsense, “Prof...these big guys... us...we...I...knocked over...and Veela...I had to turn into Veela!!...why do you have cookie crumbs on you?...did you make cookies without us?” Shaking his head, “Mina...stop!” Brad had said, almost shouting and began untying the two.

That was when Brad heard a shriek coming from the direction he had told Karelin, Apolline and Hannah to go. Wheeling around and still crouching, wand in the air, he could just make out the three girls being advanced on by the woman he had knocked over earlier. “Okay...you two.. Lucy..." he snapped his fingers, “Lucy...wake up! Mina...take Lucy and go”. “Where?” Mina interjected. “Not now Mina… GO!”. Mina took Lucy over to where Scarlet and Veela were tied, “Guys...get up” Mina had said as she untied Veela and Lucy did the same to Scarlet. Free of their ropes, all four girls now crouched to the nearest rock and motioned Karelin and the others who were frozen with fear and did not see them. “What do we do now?”, Veela asked the other three. “I don’t know” Mina said, and added “Did you guys know the Professor was making cookies?”. The three girls simply glared and shook their head. “No!” they said.

--

Brad had stood up and was just aiming his wand at the woman advancing on the three girls when a voice from the entrance shouted, “Expelliarmus!” causing his wand to go flying through the air towards whomever had just cast the spell. Without a second thought, Brad took off running towards the woman instead and tackled her to the ground. The outright brashness of this action surprised the woman, whose wand went flying out of her hand and out of sight. It landed where Mina, Lucy, Scarlet and Veela had been hiding. Mina tried to grab the wand but instead caused it to roll further away. “Sorry guys”, she said. The others were relieved that Mina hadn’t gotten the wand. The thought of glitter and a mad Professor would not have helped.

Brad got up and straightened his robes and posture. “Never mess with a Hufflepuff!” and motioned to the girls who now stood at the other end of the room. “Whatever are they doing…” he thought before he shouted, “Get out...all of you! Now!”. He waved his hands, gesturing them towards where Karelin, Hannah and Apolline now stood. Mina, Veela, Lucy, Rachel and Scarlet now ran to them. Panting, they reached the spot where the other girls were standing. “Okay...we need to wait for the Professor to come…” said Hannah and they all turned to search for him.

--

Brad watched the girls scurry over to Karelin, Hannah and Apolline and when they turned to look at him, he shook his head, held up one finger telling them to wait a moment. He then got into a football player stance and ran headlong into the man standing at the entrance. Dodging spells as they were fired at him from his sudden movement, he appeared not so lucky when a curse or two grazed his arms a couple times, leaving small gashes through his robes. He ran right into the large man, who raised his arms in an attempt to deflect him. This resulted in a wrestling match where both men attempted to push the other off. Finally, he managed to shove the man backwards with one big push, causing him to trip over his robes and fall head over heels.

Standing over him, Brad sternly said, “Get out of here! And if I ever catch you going after my girls again, you will answer to me!” He glared at the man as he scrambled backwards, forgetting about the wand he had dropped as he fell, as well as the woman Brad had knocked out cold with his tackle.  

Brad turned to the group of bruised, battered and recently tortured girls. Holding out his hand he said, "Come on now, ladies, let's get you back to the school" in a very soft and reassuring tone. The girls hesitated, still in shock over all their new professor had just done for them, but then moved one after the other towards him - inching out of the cave.

Once the group of girls had reached him, Brad put his arms as far around the whole group as he could to hug them. Karelin and Hannah blurted out in unison, "Thank you, professor!" Brad just smiled as he hugged each girl in turn before saying, "Not a problem ladies, no one messes with Team Space Stuff and gets away with it!"

As they all started to make their way out of the cave, Veela piped up, "Where's my papa, professor? Is he ok?" No one knew, but Veela was worried because she and Dax alone knew about a special - per say, Astrolabe. They had just come around the last corner and exited the cave revealing Professor Polgara looking up at the stars as though transfixed, and Professor Dowler and Headmaster Rubedo standing nearby. Seeing this Brad smiled down at Veela before pointing at her papa and saying, "He's right over there, my young Polgara friend." Mina had chuckled as she saw Professor Dax before she moved to join the others.

Veela looked around before spotting her papa and shrieking, "Papa!" and running over to him. Dax looked down and around at Veela's shriek before exclaiming, "Veela! Girls!" and opening his arms wide to embrace his daughter as she came hurtling into them. The other girls hesitated for a moment and then, led by Karelin, they ran to embrace their team leader; knocking him over in  the mass of hugs he received.

Brad meanwhile addressed Rubedo and Dowler, "There's at least one deatheater knocked out cold in there, I think the other fled...." He began before noticing the man tied up behind Julius, "Ah, fled right into your waiting arms I see" and gesturing to the man.

Headmaster Rubedo smiled, "Yes, he scrambled over backwards right into our arms, isn't that right, Julius?"

Dowler smirked before saying, "Quite right August, right into our arms, seemed quite glad to be out of that cave to be honest, you give him the ol' badger one - two, eh Brad?" and laughing.

Brad rubbed the back of his neck,"You could say that I suppose" he said with a very Polgara-like chuckle. Karelin had wandered over after hugging her papa-badger and now held a wand which she offered up to Brad saying, "I noticed this lying there just before we came out of the cave, professor, thought you might prefer to have it rather than tackling everyone - and... thanks for rescuing us", before giving Brad a tight hug. After being momentarily surprised, Brad returned the hug, she was a Hufflepuff like himself, he should have expected such a sentiment. After they broke apart Brad accepted his wand back, stowing it away in the pocket of his robes, and saying "Why thank you - you adorable puffling," with a smile, and a tweak of her nose.

The headmaster clasped his hands together, "So! What say we get these ladies back to the school. They all look like they could use some medical attention!" in a very official manner.

Dax, who had finally managed to stand up, exclaimed "Yes!" as he clutched his daughter to his side, "They could all do with some rest as well I think."

Rani piped up, "Rest? I don't need rest!" Which was followed by all of the girls jabbering about not needing to rest, that they were "fine" (regardless of how they looked). Brad cleared his throat which caused them all to look around at him, "Well if you don't need rest, how about some delicious chocolate chip cookies?" he said with a smile.

"Cookies?" Mina asked, eyes wild with excitement.

"Ooo, you bake, Professor Tonton?" Apolline asked just as excitedly.

Brad smiled at them before laughing and saying, "I'm a Hufflepuff! I bake, I cook! I live for food!"

Karelin nodded, still hugging Brad, "Oh, that's right! You are a Hufflepuff uncle!" Brad looked down at her questioningly, "Uncle am I?"

Karelin nodded matter of factly, "I've got a papa badger and now I have TWO amazing uncle badgers!" she said with a smile at Professor Dowler, who returned the smile, “How lucky am I!” she exclaimed.

"Well alright then! Cookies on Uncle Badger - Tonton, whatever you ladies want to call me!" Brad said with a chuckle. “Ptutuing would work too…” snickered Mina and he gave her a questioning look all the way back to the castle.

--

Back at the castle…

The cookies were in the oven, and the entire Astronomy team was seated around one of the low wooden tables in the kitchen, the house elves hurrying up to them, frequently asking if they needed anything. Mina had been whispering to one of them, asking them to grab some parchments and ink from the office later, to which Professor Polgara had shaken his head and smiled before sitting down. Brad was wearing a very interesting outfit as he busied himself making various baked goods and chatting occasionally with Dax and the girls. The girls had been physically healed in a trice by the school matron, but they were all still a little shaken emotionally and mentally. “Nothing some delicious chocolate chip cookies won’t fix,” Brad had said to try to cheer them up, followed with his brightest smile.And so they sat in the Hogwarts kitchens for a whole day. Brad in his old, ceremonial Hello Kitty Quidditch outfit, and the girls all leaning at various degrees against the table. Apolline, Lucy and Hannah were busy playing with Dumbledore at one end of the table, Scarlet and Rachel were deep in conversation in the center, Mina and Rani were planning their next prank on the professors, Karelin was busy fixing her purple hair and Veela was curled up with her head on Dax’s shoulder, the latter with his arm around his daughter’s shoulders, as if afraid something would happen if he let go of her.

All of the girls had warmed right up to Brad after his daring rescue and he was glad for it, glad he had “proved himself” to them, and been accepted into such a close knit group - no family.  

There was suddenly a loud *DING* from the oven timer which made all of the girls jump in alarm. Brad and Dax chuckled and Dax said, “Relax ladies, its just the cookies.” They all laughed.