The Teacher Who Would Not Teach Fear
Chapter One: The Cabinet That Learned Every Name Jesus prayed before the first bell ever sounded in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Dawn had not yet reached the high windows, and the torches along the stone walls burned low and blue in the old castle draft. The desks sat in crooked rows as if they had been pushed into place by nervous hands. Above the empty blackboard, someone had scratched the words Jesus at Hogwarts as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher into the wood frame with a wand point, not as vandalism exactly, but as a dare left behind for whoever came next. He remained still beside the teacher’s desk, His hands folded, His head bowed, His dark coat plain against the strange room. On the shelves behind Him, cracked skulls, bottles of dried beetles, old spell charts, and dented silver instruments waited like relics from teachers who had loved power more than children. A locked cabinet stood in the corner under a gray cloth, though the cloth shifted once...