It was Dennis Creevey, of all people, who'd come up with the idea. It was about 17 years post the Battle of Hogwarts, and they – the former DA members – had been loaning themselves out to McGonagall each on one year contracts to avoid the curse. Considering how many they'd lost from the initial group in the fighting, plus everyone who'd moved abroad to get away from the harrowing memories, they were running out of people! For whatever reason, the curse hadn't broken with Voldemort's death, and no curse breaker or adventure seeker had yet to halt it.
"Who's left?" asked Dennis wearily as he rubbed his hand over his eyes.
"Lavender and Harry… and you know why Harry won't do it."
"Yeah, yeah, little Lily practically explodes something every time he leaves for work. He doesn't want her anywhere saturated with so much magic- who knows what would happen…"
"And Lavender still doesn't go out much, due to all the scars," replied Luna.
Dennis sat, head in hand. There was no one willing to take the defense position then. It wasn't wise to try a second year long contract, as they'd discovered with Parvati. She'd barely survived that wild chizpurfle attack!
"All this nonsense over not wanting anyone else to have 'his' job. It's ridiculous." He leaned back in his chair.
With an enigmatic smile, Luna replied that it might need a ridiculous solution.
"What if… we give him his job?"
"How would we even manage that? Even his ashes are long gone."
"Call Gringotts, find out if he ever had his own account there."
He did.
Dennis made the arrangements. For 1 year, Hogwarts made regular deposits for Tom Riddle, teacher's salary, in the position of Defense against the Dark Arts. Lav was coaxed into a one year contract for a class entitled Defense Association Basics.
The next year, when Lily had calmed down some, Harry offered to be the guinea pig – he'd always really wanted to teach anyway – and as the end of term approached, everyone held their breath. But even summer came and went, and Harry was still fit to teach come fall.
When he stepped into the classroom on September 2nd, Luna and Dennis at the ready, he grinned broadly and said something that no DADA teacher had been able to say in so many years.
"Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a good summer and didn't forget what I taught you last year."