Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I have not recently read the books thoroughly, so I do apologize for any mistakes.
A/N: Okay, so this story is about four years in the making. This is not the first Harry Potter story I have written, though the ones I used to have up have been taken down. I've never seen a plot done like the one I've come up with, though I surely haven't read every Potter fic on this site. Then again, I did come up with this idea about four years ago and still haven't seen an exploding trend of this plot the way the 'summer's at the Malfoy's' and 'Slytherin loves Gryffindor' stories have. So maybe no one has done it yet. This story has been modified with the release of the later books of course since I first started it, and has been picked apart with proofread after proofread. I'm hoping my idea is an original and properly executed one. I won't lie, I'm usually confident in my writing and my ideas, but this one does have me worried, mainly because this fandom can be a harsh one. But here goes nothing. Takes place following Voldemort's demise, where Draco returns to Hogwarts to finish his final year. A picture of my OC is in my profile.
When You're Taught Through Feelings
Prologue
Aradia Mercer had lived in England her entire life, though for a twenty-one year old witch, she was well traveled. The spawn of a wealthy pureblood family, Aradia was very learned, having been privately tutored at home, her proud father unwilling to allow her to be taught at Hogwarts, despite it's prestige, simply because Albus Dumbledore was a muggle-lover. She was also privileged enough to experience first hand the teachings of many wizards around the world who authored the very books most students were forced to read for classes.
Though Dia loved the traveling, she had never minded the home schooling, especially since her tutor was a young man by the name of Lucian Scott. The twenty-five year old wizard also derived from a pureblooded family, having graduated with highest honors from Hogwarts years prior. He was also a Death Eater, along with Aradia's father, Martin Mercer, and many of his friends and colleagues.
Things hadn't gone as planned as far as the tutoring went though. For years, it was a very normal situation, until Aradia hit her pubescent peak. Once she began to develop the mind and body of a young woman as opposed to a little girl, Lucian began having trouble concentrating on the texts, much more distracted by the way Dia would arch her back in a stretch or cross her legs, robe falling open to expose her bronzed thigh.
It didn't take very long for the then sixteen year old to notice all the sideways and lingering glances from her tutor's alluring green eyes. Lucian was a handsome one, with a strong jaw and long brown hair he kept pulled in a loose tie at the back of his neck. So naturally, a naïve, young girl would think nothing negative of advancing on his clear signals. Lucian, being a mortal man, was unable to reject the object of his desires when she was so willingly offering herself, disregarding age and the guidelines for a conventional student and teacher relationship all to indulge in the throes of passion.
Though he may have been foolish to trust the young man alone with his developing daughter, Martin was no fool, and caught on to their inappropriate relationship soon enough. The loss of her purity completely voided the betrothal he'd had arranged for her since she was a toddler, and this infuriated the older man.
Martin abruptly sent her to study abroad once again, flooing her off to Romania first, followed by Spain and Hungary to be trained by world-renowned wizards. Mere weeks had passed since her departure form England when Lucian's owl stopped bringing her the daily parcels and letters where she stayed in Bucharest, and only two weeks later, she was sent a letter from her father, the ink only able to be read by his daughter's tear filled eyes, explaining the deceit of Lucian against the Dark Lord and his inevitable execution.
Needless to highlight, Aradia never saw her beloved Lucian again, and though she had no real evidence, nor a desire to come to terms with this dreadful truth, she knew her father had taken part in having Lucian murdered. Once you betrayed the trust of a Death Eater or the Dark Lord, you were condemned to death.
Of course, those were different times; times when it wasn't okay for Aradia to express that she really had no preference to pure or muggle blood; times when she would cry herself to sleep with the overwhelming guilt of her lover's death; times when her father wasn't serving the remainder of his sorry life in Azkaban.
Times before Harry Potter ultimately defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort and saved the entire wizarding world from destruction.
Aradia was now a healthy, young witch, living life on her own, about to enter the line of work for the first real time, without being labeled an apprentice of some sort. She had applied and been granted the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The success in receiving the position at the famed school came as quite a surprise to Dia, as she was positive there would've been other applicants more experienced and qualified than she. There was a rumor that the Defense Against the Dark Arts position was cursed, no teacher lasting very long, but Dia just believed it to be schoolyard tales. But after being told in a letter from the Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall that no one else had applied for the job, Aradia was beginning to worry.
Cursed or not though, Dia was determined to try her hand at teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts to the students of a renewed Hogwarts. It was an opportunity far too rare to pass up without at least an attempt. Besides, she was probably just being foolish. After all, from what she understood, some of the more recent professors under her new title didn't hold the position because of pre-Potter's victory circumstances.
A pulse of excitement ran through Dia's veins as she imagined being able to have Harry as a student. After all, because of the war, most students did not complete their years. Imagine being able to interact with Harry Potter, the boy who, not only lived, but saved the entire wizarding world?! She imagined perhaps he would teach her better than she could him at this point though. The thought made her giggle and wonder why the school wouldn't have Potter himself teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, of all subjects.
This idea made her nerves return once again, the potential realization of her students seeing her as a joke, all having gone to school with the Great Harry Potter. What use was she when a seventeen-year-old boy could take down the most evil man in the history of magic? Aradia inhaled deeply, telling herself that she was over analyzing this situation. The students were sure to still be shaken up and distracted, trying to settle back in to their school after the brutal battle at Hogwarts. And the new students were sure to be too frightened themselves to haze and harass the new professor.
She stood from where she sat on the edge of her bed, the bed she would be leaving behind when she went to Hogwarts in… fifteen minutes according to the enchanted wall clock! The limited time she had left to mentally prepare herself sent another wave of panic through her nervously quivering body as she looked at her reflection in the floor length mirror before her, straightening her hair, robes and make up… anything that seemed even the slightest bit out of place.
'This is ridiculous. Pull yourself together girll.' Blinking her blue eyes, Aradia took a calming breath, straightening her back and shoulders, as she would when she arrived and approached Professor McGonagall. She was relived when she saw that she looked very confident and professional, and this gave her the drive she needed to move away from the mirror and get going.
"Okay. Let me just double check…" Dia spoke to no one in particular as she opened her trunk to be sure everything she needed was inside. Going through a quick mental checklist easily ate up ten minutes before the overly stressed woman was satisfied and shut the lid of her Candice Kissings designer engorged trunk. You can't blame a girl for enjoying the finer things in life when she had been raised with all the lavish luxuries a wealthy wizarding family could afford. Taking her twelve inch holly, ashwinder ash core wand, a feeling of absolute determination settled in, she pointed it to her trunk and cast the spell to shrink the luggage to a portable size. "Reducio."
With a satisfied sigh, she turned back to her clock and her face fell. "Oh shit," Dia hissed, realizing she'd better get a move on. There was a portkey ready for her in the backyard of her house that would transport her right into Hogwarts, so McGonagall had assured her in a letter received last week.
Lifting her, now, small load of luggage, Dia rushed downstairs and performed a quick spell to lock up the house, also setting a magical alarm for any intruders before she made it outside, rushing over to the cracked, stone plant pot in the garden.
Securing her belongings and exhaling a held breath, Aradia reached out and touched the weathered stone, feeling the familiar tugging sensation at her navel and knowing there was no turning back now.