Chapter 7
Teaching
6 September 1977 0800
Katja woke up at 8:00 that Tuesday, after an uneventful Sunday and Monday. It once again started to feel like her normal routine again. She went and woke Lily, and they got dressed and went down to breakfast together. She had to start her First Years today. This year, they would be doing basic hexes, disarming, and tactical usage of magic learned in other classes.
After breakfast, she went up to the Defence classroom, where she started to get ready for the class. When the class came in, so did Auror Williamson. She pretended he wasn't there, as she started to give a speech similar to the ones that Harry and Snape had given in her fifth and sixth years.
"Hello, class. My name is Assistant Professor Wagner, and I am going to be teaching first year Defence Against the Dark Arts. If any of you are not First Years, please exit now. To be able to teach you Defence Against the Dark Arts, you must answer one question. What are the Dark Arts? Dark Magic is Magic designed specifically to harm or kill another witch or wizard. One of my old professors said once that 'The Dark Arts are many, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time sprouts a new head even more powerful than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, and indestructible'."
At this, she paused for a moment, and saw very nervous faces on the first years. She continued, "My job this year is to teach you minor jinxes, protective spells, and how to use things that you learned in other classes in a tactical situation." She paused again, but continued on with, "You must not let Dark Magic catch you off-guard. You must be ready, on the lookout at all times!" Once again, she paused, and let her students be lulled into a false sense that the lecture was over. She then shouted, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Katja went on to explain that the first spell that they would learn would be the Disarming Spell. "You must focus your magic on the task at hand. Anyone can say the words, and as long as they have a wand, something might happen. If you are focused, though, your magic will respond to the incantation and do the required task. I'm sure that Professor Flitwick has told you about the importance of speaking an incantation clearly and correctly. Break off into pairs, now. You will be trying to disarm your opponent—that is very important—disarm only. No Gryffindor/Slytherin pairs, I know the rivalry between your houses. All right, everybody's got a partner? What you have to do is twirl your wand, like so," she did the motion, "and say Expelliarmus. OK, now start."
She walked around the room. She soon saw a Gryffindor that seemed to have mastered the spell. She went over to the girl. "What's your name?" she asked the girl.
"Leanne Johnson, I'm a Gryffindor."
"You're doing well, Ms. Johnson. Ten points to Gryffindor." Katja then saw that a Slytherin boy was getting the hang of the spell, so she awarded ten points very begrudgingly to Slytherin.
By the end of class, five students had earned points for their houses by Disarming their opponent. Before she dismissed them, she said, "You are doing a good job. Just keep on working, and sooner or later, you'll get the spell. When I went to school, I didn't even learn this spell until my second year. Homework, one foot on the Expelliarmus spell, with emphasis on what else the spell can do. It should be noted in Chapter One of your textbook. I want it next Tuesday, but don't procrastinate, because I am planning to assign more homework on Thursday."
After the students left, Auror Williamson came up to her. "Katja, you're doing a great job. I can tell you've done this before. I especially liked the line about 'Constant Vigilance.' One of my Auror buddies, who's moving up the ranks pretty quickly, Alastor Moody, he always says that. I think I know the answer to how you are so well informed—you are not a student, but someone sent from the future to change the past."
"Actually, yes, I am from the future, but even in the future, I am only a couple of days away from my nineteenth birthday. But really, whenever a couple of mates and I were doing secret Defence lessons, it was Harry who did most of the teaching."
"One question I have though. After Ms. Johnson successfully disarmed her opponent, why did you not make sure that she kept on task? Continue practising, I mean."
"I thought that was obvious, professor. The girl was helping out those who hadn't gotten the hang of the spell yet. I even saw her helping out a couple of the Slytherins. I found that to be much more instructive than just making her be bored."
"Good reasoning, Ms. Wagner. I can see that the Headmaster made the right decision in selecting you. I notice that you seem to have traits of all of the four houses. You're determined to defeat a certain dark wizard, you have excellent reasoning skills, you seem to be loyal to your friends, and you seem to have a tremendous amount of bravery and courage. One question, though, why did your friends have to set up a secret, and probably illegal, Defence Against the Dark Arts group?"
Katja told him a basic version of her fifth year, leaving out all references to Voldemort, including the fraud of a Defence teacher the Ministry stuck them with. She then told him about how she came up with the idea for the AD or "Association pour la défense." She knew that obviously she couldn't tell this Auror the real name of the group, because that would seriously compromise her cover. Katja told her professor about how there was a secret room that they used for the meetings. Williamson seemed to be very interested in this, but told her to go to lunch, and that he expected to see her at precisely 12:45 for the Defence class that she was taking. As she was walking to lunch she realised what the Professor had said, "One of my Auror buddies, Alastor Moody, says that." So Alastor Moody knew Auror Williamson? That's logical, she thought, they are both Aurors. She wondered what else she would learn about her teachers and family in this time period.
After she ate lunch, she went back up to the Defence classroom for her own Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Like Sirius said, they were learning about the Unforgivable Curses. The Auror had a demeanour similar to Alastor Moody, Katja realised.
"Ms. Wagner! How many Unforgivable Curses are there, and why are they so named." the Auror asked of her, right after he reintroduced himself to the class.
"There are three, sir. They are so named because the use of any one of them on another human being automatically earns the user a life sentence in Azkaban Prison."
"Mr. Malfoy," the Auror started. "Can you tell me one of the Unforgivable Curses?"
"Yes, sir. The Imperious curse."
"Yes. The Imperious curse. Let me demonstrate." With this he took a spider out of a jar, said "Engorgio" and then, after the spider grew, said "Imperio!" Katja watched as the spider did all sorts of tricks that it normally wouldn't be able to do.
"The Imperious curse gives a wizard complete control over the victim. Many witches and wizards have claimed that the only reason they went Dark was that they were under the Imperious curse. You, there, Longbottom! Another one, please."
Frank Longbottom hesitated for a second and then said, "The Cruciatus Curse."
"A particularly nasty one, Mr. Longbottom. The pain curse." He pointed his wand at the spider and said "Crucio!" The spider was squealing in pain. "You don't need pins and needles to torture a wizard. Mr. Potter, please give me the last curse."
James looked like he was going to faint, and quietly said, "The Killing Curse."
"Yes, of course. The worst of the three, and the one that no spell can block. It causes instant death. Not a single wizard has or will ever survive the Killing Curse at full power." The spider, seemed to know what was coming, and started running away. Williamson pointed his wand at the spider, and contorting his face with rage, bellowed "Adava Kedavra!" at the spider. Katja recognised the signature green light of the curse as she laughed to herself. She wasn't laughing about the lesson; she was laughing because in four years a certain boy would prove Williamson wrong.
After Defence, she made her way down to the dungeons for Potions. Katja was a little taken aback, but not surprised to see the teacher. It had completely blown her mind that Professor Slughorn was still a professor here. He took roll, and when her got down to her name, he said "Katja! You should hear the way the other professors talk about you! Williamson thinks that you're brilliant," before going further down the list. Then, he explained what potion they were going to be brewing today would be the Amortentia. She paired up with Lily, and soon they were adding the ingredients in handfuls and stirring the cauldron. Katja was happy because there was no Draco Malfoy or Severus Snape to make her life miserable—people would leave her alone her, because they knew that she was a Half-Blood. Soon, Katja could tell that they were brewing the potion correctly. She could see the mother-of-pearl sheen and the characteristic spiralling steam. Katja soon smelled freshly mown grass, new parchment, spearmint toothpaste, and (oddly) Sirius' hair.
When he was inspecting the cauldrons, Professor Slughorn saw Lily and Katja's potion and nearly fainted. "This potion is absolutely perfect girls! Take 20 well-earned points to Gryffindor. I don't even think Severus could have made a potion this well!" Turning to the girls in a lower voice he said, "I would like to invite you both to the Slug Club. Expect my owl." He then continued on with the rest of the class, declaring most of the other potions "passable." Severus's potion, he declared was, "near perfect," and he gave Slytherin 15 points. By the time Lily and Katja left the room, Katja could tell that Severus was giving her one of his signature sneers.
After Potions, Katja went to the Defence classroom. Professor Williamson was there waiting for her. "I found a boggart," the professor said. "If you want to start them on boggarts, you can go to the Faculty Lounge. The password is 'Spider-man, Spider-man.' It is in the wardrobe."
"Of course, professor. This should be a fun first lesson. We did boggarts the first day of my third year, if I remember correctly."
The professor went to his place at the back of the classroom. Soon, the students started to come in. After taking roll, Katja introduced herself. "My name is Katja Wagner, and I will be your teacher for this class. My task this year is to arm you against some of the foulest creatures known to Wizardkind. Please put away your books and quills. As the Muggles say, 'We are going on a field trip.' So please, follow me quickly and quietly up to the Faculty Lounge."
So the class made their way up to the Staffroom, with only a momentary delay as they had to deal with Peeves, the poltergeist. In an odd tribute to the last time that she learned about boggarts, she used the Waddiwasi spell on the poltergeist, causing the gum he was stuffing into the keyhole to shoot up into Peeves' nose. Soon, they got to the Staffroom.
"All right," she said to the class. "Today we are going to be studying boggarts. Can anyone tell me what a boggart looks like?" One student put up her hand, and Katja pointed at her.
"Nobody knows, professor. It changes form to whatever a person fears the most" said the Gryffindor girl.
"Five points to Gryffindor. Yes, it changes form to match what a person fears the most. So, lesson one, when dealing with a boggart, bring company. Lesson two, what finishes off a boggart is laughter. You must force it to change into a shape that you find to be comical. There is a very simple spell to cause it to change into such a shape. The spell is Riddikulus. The spell alone will not force it. You have to imagine your boggart changing into something comical. Let's practise saying the incantation, without wands, please. Say it nice and clear Ri-dik-oo-lus." The class imitated her. She then asked the students to form a line, then she asked, "Ready?" and flicked her wand at the wardrobe door, causing it to open. Over the course of the period, she saw many boggarts of Lord Voldemort, but an almost humorous version of him. Then she remembered that not many people had ever seen the Dark Lord, so they would have no clue what he looked like. She also saw the usual spiders, snakes and other dark creatures, but what interested Katja the most is one of the girls had a boggart of Professor McGonagall telling her she had failed everything. As the line wound its way back to the first person, Katja decided to get in front of the boggart. In the years since her last go at a boggart, it had changed. It was now a full moon. She was sure that had to do with the fact that she was now a werewolf. She said Riddikulus, and the boggart turned into a balloon, which she banished back into the cabinet.
"Class dismissed. For Thursday, I want one foot on the boggart. And don't try to make your writing big. I have a charm that automatically corrects a person's handwriting to the proper size. I would also like your essays to be legible; if I can't read them, then I can't grade them. If I can't grade them, you get a 'zero' in the grade-book, OK? We are back to the normal classroom on Thursday."
After the students left, Auror Williamson said to her, "Your boggart pretty much confirms what I guessed about you, Katja. Don't be afraid. I have no prejudice against werewolves."
"Professor," Katja started, "I'm not afraid of the full moon, per se, but what it will do to me. This month will be my first transformation. I'm afraid."
"Fortunately, Ms. Wagner, you have 3 weeks before it happens. I suggest you use them well."
Katja/Hermione considers both Ron and Harry family, and by extension, The Marauders, the Weasleys and Lily. In a lesser way, she considers the Longbottoms to be family, because of the way that Ron, Harry, Neville, and her worked together in the future.
I made their be a certain dark irony for those who answered the questions in DADA. Hermione answered the first question in the book, Malfoy claimed to be under the Imperious curse to avoid Azkaban, Frank Longbottom gets tortured into insanity by the Cruciatus Curse, and James gets killed by the Adava Kedavra (which his son survived at least twice). I slightly changed Katja's Amortentia to match her current relationship.
