Chapter 39. Peeves and Incarcerous
Percy reacted first.
He frowned, patted his chest, and his face changed at once.
"My prefect badge!"
There was a trace of panic in his voice. He jerked his head up and saw that what Peeves was dangling in his hand was indeed his prefect badge.
"Looking for this?" Peeves tittered, deliberately tossing the badge high, then catching it neatly between two fingers just before it hit the floor.
"Give it back, Peeves!" Percy said, his face taut. "Do you want me to fetch the Bloody Baron?"
"You're in a hurry!" Peeves burst out laughing, ignoring Percy's threat.
Although he feared the Bloody Baron, he had already checked—at this time the Bloody Baron was still in the Great Hall.
Percy, face dark, drew his wand.
Seeing this, Peeves laughed even louder. He spun in place, flailing his arms and legs in an exaggerated way.
"Spells don't work on me!" he said in a mocking tone, pulling a face at Percy. "What are you going to do, Mr Prefect?"
Percy's expression grew even uglier.
He knew Peeves was right.
When dealing with spirits, ordinary spells were of no use at all.
Just then—
"Ah, what are you all doing?"
A puzzled voice came from the back of the line.
In the line, Harry suddenly found the tone and cadence familiar.
When he turned his head—sure enough, Adrian Wesson was strolling over at an unhurried pace.
"The corridor is not a place to rest," Professor Wesson said mildly as he walked. "What's happened?"
When Professor Wesson reached the front, he saw Percy and Peeves facing off.
"It's you again, Peeves. What tricks are you up to now?" Wesson put away his smile and looked sternly at Peeves.
He had no fondness for Peeves.
This fellow spent all day doing nothing but pranks and more pranks; he did practically nothing else.
When Peeves saw Wesson appear, he suddenly froze, and the grin vanished from his face at once.
"It's you!" he said in horror.
Wesson noticed Peeves's nervous look and smiled slightly, his tone unhurried: "Looks like you still remember me."
Peeves went deathly pale in an instant and began drifting backwards, clearly wanting to run.
"Hey," Percy said quickly when he saw this, "Professor, he's still got my property."
Wesson nodded. Almost in the same instant, a wand had already appeared in his hand.
"Incarcerous!"
At the incantation, a rope that looked perfectly ordinary shot from the tip of Wesson's wand.
Almost at once, the rope had coiled round Peeves's form and bound him fast—
and even finished with a neat bow.
Peeves struggled, trying to rid himself of that seemingly plain rope.
"Let me go! Let me go!" he shrieked, panic in his voice.
He couldn't understand why Wesson's spell could affect him—so it had been before, and so it was now.
Moreover, the rope around him didn't just bind him; it left him unable to muster any strength at all.
This familiar feeling—as if he had gone back six or seven years.
Back then, Wesson dealt with him exactly like this!
.....
In fact, Incarcerous was the only spell Wesson could use against Peeves.
Compared with true masters of spellwork, his level in other charms could only be considered average.
But when it came to Incarcerous—
Wesson felt no one in the world knew it better than he did.
It could be said that Incarcerous was the spell he was most confident in.
He was a bona fide master of binding.
Ordinary people's Incarcerous could only summon a single rope.
But Wesson was different.
He could summon all sorts of bindings—
chains, ropes, thorned vines...
and even a rope that could restrain a spirit!
During the earlier fire-dragon test, he had used this very trick to conjure a great length of magical chains and subdue a dragon produced by Transfiguration.
At last, bound tight, Peeves gave up struggling, sank to the floor ashen-faced, and Percy's prefect badge fell to one side.
"I yield, sir—do as you please," he said.
However, Wesson couldn't truly "deal with" this lawless nuisance.
After all, Peeves couldn't be killed.
All Wesson could do was keep him tied up with rope.
But that would cost Wesson a great deal of magic—all pain and no gain.
So every time Wesson caught Peeves, he would only tie him for a few hours, to teach him a lesson.
Unfortunately, Peeves's love of mischief could not be eradicated.
No matter how many times Wesson tied him up, he never learned.
.....
Having sorted Peeves out, Wesson picked up the fallen prefect badge and handed it to Percy. "This is yours—the prefect badge. If you truly value it, you'd best keep it properly."
"Thank you, Professor Wesson."
Percy let out a breath and took the badge quickly. He looked a little embarrassed, but more than that, grateful.
Fortunately, with Wesson's help, he hadn't made too much of a fool of himself.
When Wesson had finished all this, applause suddenly rose from the first-years' line.
First one person, then a group, and finally everyone.
"Ah, thank you," Wesson nodded, bowed to the crowd, and said with a smile, "But I must be off. If Peeves bothers you again, you can come to me—I can tie him up for you for a few hours more."
Wesson pocketed his wand and walked off in the opposite direction of the line—his office lay the other way.
As he passed Harry, Wesson ruffled his hair and said quietly, "Thank you for the applause, Harry."
"You're welcome." Harry looked positively thrilled.
.....
After fixing Peeves, Wesson headed for his office.
Hogwarts provided each professor with a set of quarters, and Wesson's quarters happened to connect to his office.
Of course, it was not yet time to rest.
When Wesson opened the door, he found two extra sheets of parchment in his office.
It looked like Professor McGonagall had prepared them for him.
One was his timetable; the other was the list of all students who had chosen Care of Magical Creatures.
Among all the Hogwarts subjects, Care of Magical Creatures counted as one of the easiest to teach.
After all, it was an elective with not many students, and only those in the third year and above could choose it.
In fact, generally speaking, few fifth-years and above continued with Care of Magical Creatures—this year there were none at all.
For most students, taking Care of Magical Creatures was for the O.W.L.s in fifth year.
After the examinations, unless they especially liked the subject or needed to continue to sit the N.E.W.T. in seventh year, they would drop it.
This meant that Wesson's timetable was not tight.
Compared with the other core subjects, he had a good deal of free time.
Which also meant he could spend more time on his own research.
After confirming the timetable and the student list, Wesson's first day of teaching at Hogwarts came to an end.
A smooth day.
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