(A/N: As I have forgotten to do this, please consider this the disclaimer for this chapter, all chapters following, and all chapters preceding. I don't own Harry Potter, never will own Harry Potter, and am not writing this to earn money of any kind.)
Waking on the morning of September 2, I was equal parts excited and terrified. I'd felt much the same before the first DA meeting.
I was thinking about my 'special defense class' (which needed a better name). I figured about two weeks to figure out who I wanted, another two weeks to recruit them all, and then I wanted to have them trained and battle ready for the start of Easter break. I had plans for Easter, and I would need help pulling them off.
Anyway, it was about seven o'clock, so I woke Teddy up and got him and myself ready for the day. Today I wore a set of plain robes (similar to the ones the students would wear) in a nice leaf green. Underneath, I wore a pair of Muggle jeans and a green t-shirt. I had placed my hair in a simple French braid (after about twenty minutes of trying) and used only a little touch of mascara. There was a time and place for makeup, and this wasn't it. I dressed Teddy in a set of plain blue robes that he picked out. After he was wearing them, he switched his hair to match them and his eyes the same green as mine.
At about eight, we went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. I watched as the Heads of House (Filius, Clair, Minerva, and Horace as I was now calling them) passed out the timetables.
"Nervous?" asked Clair when she returned.
"Terrified," I admitted.
"You'll do fine," she said, patting my hand in a comforting manner. "You have sixth year Slytherins and Gryffindors first, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, you'll get your most difficult class out of the way first, then," she said cheerfully. Funnily enough, this didn't make me feel much better.
After I finished breakfast, I returned Teddy to Miza's care and headed up to my classroom. I quickly surveyed the room, just to make sure that Peeves or the Marauders hadn't come and rearranged my furniture.
I'd spent two weeks setting up my classroom to my satisfaction, and cursing the fact that I couldn't use the Room of Requirement for lessons. The desks were set up in only the front half of the room, where my blackboard and desk were. In the back half of the room, I'd placed mats with a charm that would make them soft to land on, but firm to walk on. I'd spent hours carving runes in that would keep all spells in that area of the room.
At the front of the room was a rather special seven compartment trunk. In each compartment was enough training dummies for each of my students to have their own. They would only be able to fight against the student they were keyed to and would know the strengths and weaknesses of that student.
Those had been what had really taken the bulk of my time.
I pulled out my sixth year textbook (The Dark Forces and the Weaknesses Behind them by Alexandra Murphy) and the parchment with notes on what I wanted to accomplish this period. There weren't many, this would be a question and answer period mostly, along with keying students to dummies and going over what I wanted to accomplish with them this year. I nervously perched on my desk while I waited for the students to arrive.
As the warning bell rang, students began pouring in. Predictably, Lily Evans and her friends Alice and Frank were first and sat in the front row. They were followed by a mixture of students from both Gryffindor and Slytherin. Conspicuous by their absence were the Marauders.
Just as the final bell rang, the four boys ran in. "Sorry we're a little late, Professor," said Remus apologetically.
"Not to worry, we haven't started yet. Take your seats," I said with a smile. They moved to the middle of the class. I got the feeling that they normally sat in the back, but were willing to sit a little farther forward as a show of support for James' long-lost relative.
Taking a moment to center myself I faced the rest of the class. This was a small class, like all of my NEWT classes. There were only twenty, about half girls and half boys and the same for the Gryffindor/Slytherin ratio.
"Alright, let me just start with attendance. If you could raise your hand when you answer, that would be very helpful."
After taking attendance (I was unsurprised that Severus Snape had also made it into the class - he may have been my least favorite professor, but he did know what he was talking about when he'd taught the course), I stood and began.
"Welcome to NEWT level Defense against the Dark Arts. As you heard last night, my name is Alexis Potter. This is when most of your teachers will tell you about the importance of your NEWTs and how hard you will be expected to work." I paused, "I'm not going to do that.
"If you are in this class, I expect you to do your best. You are expected to be here every day. Nothing short of being in the Hospital Wing will excuse you from my class. And don't worry, I'll check with Madame Pomfrey to make sure that you were actually there," I smirked a little. "As far as I'm concerned, House or Quidditch rivalries don't exist in this room. If you have a problem with that, I'll be happy to demonstrate some spells on you." I smiled a smile that had struck fear into Voldemort himself. "As long as you don't cause problems with me or your fellow classmates, we'll get along just fine. If you don't, well… I'm sure that Mr. Filch has some toilets that need cleaning."
After I made my threat, I smiled a genuine smile. "Now, I'm not a believer in homework, so I won't assign much," there were a few titters and the Marauders grinned, "but what I do assign I expect to be done well.
"So," I said clapping my hands, "I'm sure you're all curious about me, so I have a few things to explain to you, and then I'm going to answer questions that you ask me."
"In this trunk," I pointed, "is a training dummy for each of you. They will be keyed to you alone and will only fight you. You are not allowed to use spells against anyone except myself and your dummy. Offensive spells are only to be used on the blue mats at the back of the classroom. The area has been warded so that no magic will escape into the rest of the room.
"You'll notice that I said 'offensive spells'," I grinned. "You'll want to make sure that your wand is accessible at all times during this class because you never know when I might decide that you're a good target for a tickling jinx. Blocking my jinx will result in House points. Failure to block will result in nothing more than a loss of breath, but you will want to remember that our society is at war and the failure to block an unknown spell could result in much worse."
The mood was a little solemn now, so I decided to lighten it. "On another note, much of this class will be physical as I teach you to stay alive in a duel or other fight. Therefore, I expect you to be wearing clothes you can move in. They need to be tight enough that they are not in your way, but loose enough that they don't restrict your movement. Robes will not be sufficient. Something like this," I pulled my robe off, "will be more than adequate. Ladies, I expect your hair to be tied back." Many of the Purebloods were scowling at this, but some looked like they thought it made sense.
"Let's see, I've covered that, and that…" I said as I trailed my finger down the list of things I needed to say. "Alright," I looked up, "that covers almost everything. So, even though I said you wouldn't be getting much homework from me, I'm going to assign some tonight. Don't worry, all my classes are getting the same homework. Well, except first years, but they'll have a slightly different assignment. I want you to write down all the things you've already learned and everything you want to learn this year. I can't promise we'll cover everything, but I can definitely try."
Lily's hand was in the air. "Yes, Miss… Evans, right?"
"Yes, Professor. How long does this need to be?"
"Ah, my essay policy. It needs to be as long as you need it to be." I saw some confused looks. "Let me explain. If you need a paragraph to accomplish the task, then that's how much you write. If you need twelve rolls of parchment, then take twelve rolls of parchment. It's completely up to you, I mark on quality instead of quantity. And yes, this is going to be for marks. Now, we have half an hour left in class, so if you have any questions, now would be the time to ask them." I noticed Sirius had his hand up. "Yes, Mr. Black?"
"A couple of questions. First, how do you know my name? And second, how old are you?"
"Sirius, that's disrespectful!" hissed Remus.
"Don't worry, Mr. Lupin, I don't mind. As for the first, I was warned about certain… troublemaking students," most of the class laughed as I gave them a pointed look. "And I'm twenty-one." Lily's hand shot up. "Miss Evans?"
"How do we know that you know your stuff? I mean, I've read the book and it's really good, but you're so young!"
"Ah, well, my school years were not as uneventful as yours have been. From mountain trolls to Voldemort himself, I've seen a lot and nearly died more times than I care to count."
Peter raised his hand. "How are you able to say his name? Only powerful people can say his name - like Professor Dumbledore."
"When you've met him as many times as I have, you realise he's really not as powerful or scary as he wants us to believe. Also, Voldemort," flinches, "isn't his real name. But," I said with a raised hand to forestall the questions, "that's a lesson for another time.
"Mr. Greengrass?"
"How many times have you faced Death Eaters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? And how did you survive?"
"Well, let's see… Death Eaters would be about… eleven or twelve times." There were gasps of astonishment. "As for Voldemort," flinches, "it would be around eight times." There was shocked silence. "As for how I survived, well that was a combination of luck, good friends watching my back, and I suppose my own skills came into play a little."
"Will you tell us those stories some day? And can you show us your dueling skills?" asked Alice (I found out her last name was Stone) excitedly.
"Maybe one day for the stories and I'm planning a demonstration for our next class," I said with a small, sad smile. "Yes, Mr. Lupin?"
"Who was with you at breakfast this morning?"
"Oh, that's my godson Teddy. His parents are dead, so I'm looking after him now."
"Why was his hair blue?" asked Frank Longbottom.
"He's a Metamorphagus," I answered easily. "Now, we've only got about three minutes left, so if you left a little early," I winked, "I won't mention it to anyone."
Most of the class left, chattering excitedly about their 'lesson'. The only people who stayed behind were the Marauders. "Hey, Professor," started James, "you told me last night that you lived in France, but Voldemort hasn't tried to do anything on the continent yet, so how could you have fought him and the Death Eaters?"
Dammit! I needed to keep better track of my lies! Part if the problem was that I didn't want to lie more than necessary, as lying all the time could be easily found out, but some facts would still need to be altered a little. Now, how to reply...
"My parents lived on the continent. I came here for holidays to visit my best friend's family during the summers and we had this nasty habit of running into Death Eaters while we were here. Most of my friends were killed by the time I turned 17 and I wanted to exact some vengeance on the Death Eaters. So, I moved here permanently. My parents were here visiting, and were killed by chance," I explained.
"Oh, said James as the bell rang. "We better get going. Thanks Professor!"
"Mr. Potter," I stopped him (he was behind his friends), "I've never really had family that didn't resent me before. If you want, in private you're welcome to call me Alexis."
James grinned. "Only when you call me James, Professor."
"Alright, James," I said with a grin. "I'll see you around. You have another class to get to."
"See ya, Alexis!" he called behind him.
I slumped behind my desk. This teaching organized classes thing was harder than it looked.
(A/N: So, here's this week's update a day late. I have no excuse, other than I forgot. Sorry. Thanks to all those who have reviewed/favorited/followed my story and new readers are invited to do so as well. See you next week!)
