CHAPTER 1

Teaching and Tribulations

Harry watched, with no small amount of amusement, as Professor Lowry let his seventh year students into the classroom.

The man was a rigid one, straight talking, and he could be considered fairly rude to some, but in the presence of Harry, the man seemed to lose his demeanour completely.

Harry did not encourage it. He spoke normally to him, they were going to be teaching a lesson together after all, and graciously ignored all of the professor's bumbling accidents and abashed looks.

And, so it was, that Harry was standing by the teachers desk at the front of the Defence Against The Dark Arts classroom, a position of which Harry was entirely unfamiliar, and found it very strange.

The seventeen year olds filed into the classroom meekly, an act of which Harry was almost entirely certain was abnormal for them, as Lowry was looking distinctly pleased.

They were looking around, anxiously, and it took Harry a moment before he realised that they were whispering and whipping their heads around the room wildly about one thing; him.

He still found it strange, and tiresome. He just wanted to have a life of normality in which to raise his son's a daughter. Harry did not like to use the word "normal", however. It reminded his too much and too inexplicably of the Dursley's, and he certainly did not want to think of them anymore than he had to.

Harry smiled fondly at the thought of his children. Lily, in particular, had just taken her first steps, and Harry was incredibly thankful that he was there to see them. The same could not be said for either of James or Albus, and it was at times when Harry reminisced on what he had missed of his children's early lives that Harry sometimes second guessed being an Auror.

But, then he contented himself that it was probably the only job that he would ever be contented in, knowing that if he were to be doing anything else as a job, he would not enjoy it nearly as much as bringing peace to the world.

Besides, Harry thought, the crime rates certainly had gone down since he had become Head Auror after Robards had retired, casually wishing his replacement, Harry Potter, well at the end of year Ministry ball that Harry had been forced to attend, - now, of course, he knew why.

Even after two years as the acting Head of Department, Harry still had to get Gawain Robards back for that.

Realising the fact that his mind had wandered, Harry switched his gaze back to the class, and was startled to see that most of the students were gawking at him and his forehead, despite Lowry talking about the Unforgivable Curses.

Harry tuned in to what Lowry was saying, thinking that he would probably come up in the speech at some point. Harry was not proved mistaken.

'Now, as we all know, there are three Unforgivable Curses,' Lowry said, face flushed, 'the Imperious, the Cruciatus, and the Killing Curses. And, we are incredibly luck, that the only one to have survived all three of them is right here with us today!'

Ah. There Harry was.

'Now, as many of you know from last lesson, this is probably the only opportunity to ask Mr Potter here some questions, and I'm sure that Mr Potter,' Lowry paused and looked over towards Harry half expectantly, half worriedly. Harry nodded in reply to the anxious man, and Lowry went back to finishing off his lecture with a new kind of renewed enthusiasm.

'would be more than willing to answer any questions that you may well have on the subject.' Lowry sat back on a chair that he had positioned himself that was just on the very edge of the strange sort of stage that all of the professors had in their various classrooms, and taught on.

There was a moments pause, but it was long enough to decipher that the teenagers in front of him were not going to raise their hands for a question, or shout one out to Harry. Taking slight control of the situation, Harry smiled slightly, and said, with a grin,

'I don't bite, you know.'

The tension and apprehension seemed to have been diffused, and a couple of the students gave nervous little laughs, whilst some of the braver ones raised a fairly hesitant hand.

Gesturing his hand slightly, Harry smiled genially at the Ravenclaw girl, who was nervously twiddling her tie around her fingers.

'Annie Lockerwood.' She said, looking at Harry in a stalker like, enraptured fashion.

'How many times did you face Voldemort?'

It never ceased to please Harry that finally, finally, people were beginning to say the name. It was mostly due to the younger generation's putting the older to shame, and it generally had a knock on, domino effect from there on in.

Still, it never stopped making Harry pleased, that message finally sinking in. Voldemort was gone, and he was never going to come back. Of course, it was understandable that people were hesitant to believe that he, Voldemort, really was gone. They had only just begun to believe that he was back the second time before he had held all in an iron grip of terror. And, the first time, when they had all thought that the monster was finally gone for good, he had come back again.

The fact that Lord Voldemort, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, You Know Who, Tom Riddle, was finally gone, for good, was a fact so very good and unreal to most people, that many had a hard time even believing it, even if they had seen the lifeless body before it was incinerated, so that it was impossible to be used for dark purposes.

'Seven times.'

An outpouring of whispers, and then a small moment of silence, until a more forward boy at the back of the room, of whom Harry could not see his house colours, shouted out,

'When?'

Sighing, Harry complied with answering the question.

'Once when I was one, then eleven and twelve, then fourteen, fifteen, and then twice in the final battle when I was seventeen. Your age.'

All of the students looked shocked, and some, absolutely terrified at the thought of some people fighting in a war, at their age.

Silence reigned, and then another boy at the back of the classroom shouted out, and Harry could not tell what house he was in, but could tell that he was sitting right next to the other boy that had shouted out.

'Have you ever cast an Unforgivable?'

The students looked around, at the questioner, and seemed to be looking at the boy in disgust.

People started talking together, creating a crescendo of noise, and then Lowry stood up, looking quite furious.

'Barnley! You should not ask such -'

'Yes.' The classroom turned silent, as Harry spoke. They looked at him in absolute shock, Lowry had to sit down on his chair in apparent surprise.

Harry knew what they would presume. They would all have presumed that he, Harry Potter, had won the war cleanly, and completely on the right and light side of the war. They, of course was wrong, except from the law part. Harry was pretty certain that the law stated that all of the Unforgivable's had, in fact, been made forgivable. Though, thinking back, that may have just been for the Death Eaters at the time.

Suddenly, through the thick silence, a small voice, Harry was not sure whether it was naturally small, or simply the oppressive silence pushing down upon them, spoke.

'Why?'

Harry quirked his lips slightly, and said, in a mysterious tone that would have made Albus Dumbledore a mixture of both proud and miffed;

'Desperate times call for desperate measures.'

All in the room seemed to be mulling over what they had learned. It was apparent, that it was not the answer that they were all expecting, especially not professor Lowry, who was slumped in his chair, looking forwards in a sort of daze, with misty eyes, a shocked expression on his face.

A long pause echoed around the room, until one person, a girl, in Gryffindor accented robes, said, in an awkward tone;

'How are your children?'

All burst into laughter at the attempt to diffuse the tension in the room, and Harry chuckled under his breath, before speaking once more to the students, all of whom looked considerably more happy, now that the mood had been lightened and lifted.

'Fine. Just fine. Lily's just learned how to walk.'

The girls in the room all turned to mush as they cooed and "aww"ed, and the boys sniggered as they did so. Harry was amused to see that many of the boys were then whacked none to softly on their arms, or clipped around the ear or on the back of their heads for laughing at the girls' displays of emotion.

'Sir?' Said a quieter boy from the very corner of the classroom, his face creased up behind his fierce mop of sandy, light brown hair. Without waiting for Harry to answer, the unknown boy continued.

'How did - how did you defeat Voldemort?'

A hushed silence enveloped the room. Had any other student in the class asked that question, Harry would have avoided the actual answer by a quick remark; "With a wand." immediately sprung to his mind.

However, this boy reminded him far, far too much of the deceased Colin Creevey. The boy's robes were black with Scarlet, and so it was clear, that, although his fairly weak outside portrayed a weak inside, Harry knew better than to judge a book by it's cover, so to speak.

Harry surveyed to expectant and eager face of the students before him, the very same age as he was, when he had fought in the final battle, the Battle of Hogwarts, and finally defeated Lord Voldemort.

But then, they really were not the same age as Harry, at all.

'Love.' Harry said simply, about to continue. 'When -' Harry could not finish his sentence.

The door came billowing into the room with an almighty crash, and a small, First or Second year girl almost tripped into the classroom, her face red from what it seemed, exertion or adrenaline, dark brown hair whipping all over her face.

'Professor Lowry, sir! Professor -' The girl said, placing her hands ruggedly onto her knees and leaning forwards, trying to heave back air, in a most unladylike pose.

'What is it, Harper?' Lowry said, now looking like the teacher that Harry would presume, and rightly so, was stiff backed and fairly intimidating when he wanted to be, and much of the time for the First and Second years.

This man really did seem to be a Jekyll and Hyde character, Harry thought amusedly, as he watched Lowry try to extract any sort of intelligible words from the young girls' heaving body.

'What is it, girl?'

'People - come … out of nowhere -'

'Who? Who appeared?'

'Dunno. Professor McGonagall -'

'Yes, what about the Headmistress, Harper?'

'Said to get - you, and - Mr Potter.'

'Anything else, anything at all?'

'Second floor - Angus the … uneasy,'

Nodding, Lowry released his hand from the young girls trembling shoulder, as she collapsed against the doorframe, the very same doorframe that Harry had just sprinted out of.

Intruder's in Hogwarts, Intruders in Hogwarts … the unforgiving and hateful mantra repeated over and over again as Harry sprinted around the corner that led to the tapestry of Angus the uneasy. It was just around the corner …

Harry drew around the corner, swinging by the tips of his finger around the sharp bend as he dug his fingers and finger nails into the equally unforgiving, equal to the fierce mantra repeated in his own head, berating him.

He looked at the people that were standing there, and almost fainted.

Lupin.

Tonks.

Fred.

Colin.

Dumbledore.

- Woah. It appears that I am in official Ninja mode at the moment, with this fic. Through the night, may I add. Phew. Enjoy! Read/review/subscribe.

This is dedicated to the lovely and wonderful Liz, of Page-394-Always1, who has been brilliant to talk to for both advice, ideas, and company. She is an excellent writer, too, and I can only hope that I too can reach that level. I hope that I have been as enjoyable, informative and lovely to talk to as you have been for me. I recommend that you all read her fic; 'Gone'. Though just starting, it is amazing.

- SpellMugwump97

kgryfferinclawpuff98- Thank you! Next chapter up:)

inusgirllovesmonkeys- Thanks! Yeah, I worked on Fleur's accent for a bit. I have to imagine her talking, and then see how to write it down.. it get's even more confusing when I get mixed up with other accents! Here it is, I hope you enjoyed:)

Mrh99- Here it is. Thank you, I did try to make it as intrugiing as possible:)

READINGhearts17- Ahaa, thanks!

kiwifan13- Thanks, here it is! Or, there it was..