Refusing was out of the question. For Marvolio, the chance to escape the dull, tedious Joint Operations Office was already exactly what he wanted.
Besides, becoming a Dark Wizard again and dealing with Death Eaters was practically his specialty.
So, after receiving his new assignment, Marvolio very decisively handed the Joint Operations Office and the Hunt Project over to Tver. Then, after giving himself the standard gloomy face of a Dark Wizard, he happily went off to play with the Death Eaters.
"So, Dumbledore wants you to take them to King's Cross Station later?"
In the kitchen of the Black family home, Sirius stood before a wide full-length mirror, repeatedly inspecting the velvet suit he was wearing.
Tver, meanwhile, sat at the long table, bored out of his mind.
He and Sirius were supposed to serve as security today, protecting Harry and the others until they boarded the Hogwarts Express safely. They even had to make sure the train reached Hogsmeade Station without incident.
Normally, there was no need to make such a fuss. A task like this could have been handled by sending one or two Aurors. Sending Tver was simply overkill.
But ever since Dumbledore learned from Snape that Voldemort had shifted the focus of his plans to Hogwarts, he had been doing everything he could to protect the students there.
After all, the only thing Dumbledore cared about now was the students' safety. If anything happened to them, an enraged Dumbledore might very well storm straight up to Voldemort and kill him himself.
So Tver understood his concern.
Like hell he did.
If Tver had not been genuinely busy with matters outside the school, the overly cautious Dumbledore would have dragged him off to Hogwarts to work as a security guard.
Tver had escaped that fate, but Sirius, who had been staying in the old house, was not so lucky.
Of course, for Sirius, this was not exactly a bad thing.
"A green suit is far too strange. Besides, it's not as if the students have never seen you before. Do you really need to make it this formal?" Tver said, utterly speechless as he watched Sirius prepare to dress himself up like a peacock.
Yes, the new Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts Dumbledore had found was none other than Sirius Black.
With Fudge out of office, all the charges against Sirius had naturally been dropped.
Although the announcement clearing his name had not caused much of a stir in the current panic-stricken wizarding world, for Sirius, it was the first step toward reclaiming his life.
"But Lockhart always liked dressing up properly, and he even bragged to me about how popular he was at Hogwarts."
Sirius stared anxiously at the comb in his hand. He had already combed his neatly flattened hair countless times, but he still wanted to go over it once more.
He kept feeling that being this well-groomed somehow did not feel real.
As for Lockhart...
He and Sirius had been cellmates for a year, but when the Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban, he had disappeared without a trace. No one knew whether the flames had burned him to nothing or whether he had seized the chance to escape and gone into hiding.
But the problem was...
"He's a cautionary tale. Are you planning to learn from him and get yourself thrown into Azkaban?"
Jokes aside, Tver knew perfectly well that Sirius was only so flustered because years of injustice had finally been cleared away, and because he was about to officially become a professor.
"You already look fine. Besides, there haven't been many normal professors in recent years. If you behave too normally, the students might not know how to react."
Tver thought back over his colleagues from the past few years: Quirrell, Lockhart, Lupin the Werewolf, Moody disguised by Barty Jr., Karkaroff, Umbridge...
There really had not been many normal ones at all.
No, it would be more accurate to say that not a single professor had been completely normal.
Only then did Sirius reluctantly set down the comb and straighten his already immaculate suit.
"Fine. I ran into Karkaroff in Diagon Alley a few days ago, but he seemed awfully nervous, as if he didn't want anything to do with me."
"Obviously. You're a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and he's a former Death Eater. Who else would he hide from?"
Seeing that Sirius was finally dressed, Tver did not hesitate any longer and simply pulled him out the door.
If they delayed any more, the time they wasted would be enough for Voldemort to swallow Harry whole.
However, when the two of them arrived at The Burrow in the Ministry of Magic car, the house was still in a flurry of activity.
"Professor Fawley!"
Standing by the door, Ginny spotted Tver in the driver's seat at once and called out excitedly.
"Good morning."
Tver greeted her warmly, but Mrs. Weasley, who was helping carry the luggage, wore a rather complicated expression.
The matter with Percy had only just settled down, and now the Weasley twins' business had come up again.
Especially since, when she had visited the Weasley twins' workshop a few weeks earlier, she had accidentally seen the magical bombs being tested in the basement...
"I thought Dumbledore had sent you to arrange the security. I didn't expect you and Sirius to come in person," Mrs. Weasley said, her tone a little stiff.
Tver gave an awkward laugh. After all, he had originally assured Mrs. Weasley that George and the others were only developing prank toys.
Still, bombs used against Death Eaters could barely be counted as pranks too...
Sirius knew nothing about what had happened between them. He simply helped Harry and the others move their luggage into the car trunk with practiced ease, then asked curiously, "You still haven't finished packing? We're on a tight schedule today."
"I told them to pack last night, but you know how children are. They never really listen," Mrs. Weasley said pointedly.
Tver coughed lightly, greeted Harry and Ron, and smoothly shifted the blame onto them.
"Looks like the D.A. leak didn't teach you lot much of a lesson. I'll have to ask the new professor to teach you some discipline."
Back then, if they had not given Fudge an excuse to come looking for trouble and delay Dumbledore, Voldemort might not have been able to take the Death Eaters from Azkaban so smoothly.
And compared with the hardships Harry and the others had endured in the original course of events, things had gone much more smoothly for them here, so naturally, their mentality was not as mature as it had been then.
So Tver's words were not without purpose. Dumbledore had appointed Sirius as the Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts partly because he intended to put Harry through some proper training.
After all, there were some things Harry would always have to face on his own.
In the end, the two of them completely missed the point.
"A new professor?!" Harry and Ron exclaimed at the same time.
They exchanged excited looks, while Ginny and Hermione also turned curious gazes toward them.
Sirius had wanted to surprise them by announcing his new position at tonight's Opening Night Banquet, so he had not told them yet.
"You'll find out when the time comes!" Sirius said, pushing the two of them forward with a large hand. "You've wasted more than enough time already. Get in the car unless you want to miss the train!"