Sorry for the huge delay, I had a serious problem with my fanfiction account, so bad that I almost thought of deleting it and making a new one but luckily I was able to work out the kinks with the site help. No more delays on the story now! I have new chapters waiting eagerly to be read!
Thank you to PrincessBetty01, Mad As A Bloody Hatter, Tearfullpixie, and SevLoverKat for reviewing!
Harry stood at the front of the room smiling nervously as his first class filtered in and took their seats at the benches. His first class was first year Ravenclew and Huffflepuff, so he was thankful when he saw a familiar tall brunette walk in. Cadvan smiled at him warmly and Harry returned it as he watched Cadvan be pulled to a seat by other Ravenclaws eager to get to know him. Harry wondered if it was always going to be this way for Potter's now. Harry turned and moved behind his desk to grab his wand. With his head down he thought about Reason. He wasn't sure what class she had now but he was worried about how she was doing. Having two kids now at Hogwarts, Harry couldn't understand how parents did it. Harry chuckled quietly at himself and how over protective he was being.
Harry turned his head up and looked at the classroom and they all watched him attentively. He took comfort in the fact that it was their first class here at Hogwarts as well and he took a deep breath before he stepped around his desk and leaned against it awkwardly, hoping to appear casual.
"Hello class, my name is Professor Potter" – a few students gasped loudly as he began. "I am your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Who is ready to start waving their wands and causing some trouble?" All the Ravenclaws hands went up while a few tentative Hufflepuffs raised their hands and Harry laughed as he began his first lesson as a Professor at Hogwarts.
Draco's first class had been exhausting. Fourth year potions was a tedious subject, the first of the worsening years for the class. Most of the students hated potions and only a few made it to O.W.L. level in the subject. The first 3 years were bearable because the students still had some respect for the class but something changed when the monsters turned fourteen. Draco didn't know what it was that caused the change but every year, when a new set of fourth years was going to arrive, Draco dreaded facing them. The blonde man pushed the windows open and cast a light breeze through the room to try and air out the smell of Girding potion as the fourth years poured out of the room rapidly.
As Draco took his place at the front of the room again, he checked the class list. Next was First year potions, probably Draco's favorite class next to the second years. Draco dragged his finger over the parchment to Monday and noted the two houses that would be attending the class - Gryffindor and Slytherin. Of course. Draco looked up as the first Slytherins poured into the room. They eagerly took seats in the front on their side, struggling to sit as close to Draco as possible. It was probably Draco's favorite thing about being Head of the Slytherin house, being adored by the young boys and girls in silver and green. He noted Emory Drabbe, a young black haired boy that stared at him in awe. Draco flashed him a sly, half smile and the boy blushed.
Only after the Slytherin side was almost full did the Gryffindors file in. They weren't late but most of them were obviously not excited to be there. Among the first Gryffindors to arrive was young Emma Weasley and strangely absent from her side was the Potter girl. Draco searched the mass of cloaks cramming through the door for the young girl's silvery hair but as the crowd thinned and the small bell tower on Draco's desk chimed, the girl was still absent.
The Weasley lost a battle to save a seat next to her and she glanced anxiously at the door as Draco began to step down from the front of the class room. Just as he began to speak, the door burst open loudly and a young Gryffindor crashed in, breathing heavily.
"Mr. Malfoy, I am so sorry I am late, I got lost. I am – "
"Take a seat Miss Potter. 5 points from Gryffindor for Potter's lateness and 5 more for her continued disturbance." The Gryffindor side moaned and glanced sourly at Reason as she searched for a seat, trying to avoid their eyes. Her face fell slightly as she saw the seats next to Emma were full and Emma stared back with an apologetic look.
"Ms. Potter, you will find a vacant seat on the Slytherin side that should suit you. Please get there quickly before I take another 5 points from your house." Before Draco even finished the word take, Reason was dashing, as quietly as she could, to the open row of seats in the back of the enemy house side.
"Now that everyone is here, we can begin. My name is Draco Malfoy and you will call me Professor Malfoy, understood." The room resounded with a chorus of "Yes sir, Professor Malfoy." Draco smiled, satisfied.
"Now, in many of your classes you will find you will review some things for the first couple of classes. I believe in learning by experience so today we will start with a simple potion. Now, don't take simple to mean easy, you still must be exact. Potion Making is an art as well as a science. You will find that many of you will not appreciate it, it isn't for everyone, but you must respect it or risk hurting yourself and/or others. Now, get together in groups of two with the person next to you and open your books to the Forgetfulness Potion."
Draco knew the potion very well but he still turned and grabbed his worn potions book as the class murmured and shuffled to pair off. He heard them 'ooh' and 'awe' as their cauldrons appeared before them magically. As he turned around, past the pairs he saw the Potter girl sitting alone and he glanced at the students noticing that there was an even number of Slytherins and an odd number of Gryffindors. Draco felt a bit of sadness for Reason as she tucked her arms close to her body and stared at the table.
Emma Weasley glanced back unhappily and quickly her face turned to defiance. She looked back up at Professor Malfoy and raised her hand, looking eerily like her mother when Hermione would do that. Draco nodded his head at her, calling her name.
"Yes, Professor Malfoy, can Reason work with us since she does not have a partner?" Emma asked hopefully and Reason's head popped up, smiling widely at her friend. Draco glanced at the two, and although he wanted to see Reason happy, for whatever reason that was, he wanted to study her on her own. Draco put on his stoic gaze and, mimicking his godfather as closely as possible, responded with a monotone hiss.
"Missss Weasley, did I say groups of three? I believe I said pair up the person next to you." Draco spoke and the Weasley's back lost its straightness and she glanced down at the table. The Slytherin side giggled and Draco glared at them, quickly shutting them up.
"I apologize sir," Emma replied meekly. Draco nodded and continued instructing them to choose one partner to get up and gather the supplies which were located on the long table in the back of the classroom. There was vague speaking as the pairs settled on the runner and Draco double checked his own ingredients. As he heard the footsteps settle, he turned around again and his eyes immediately locked with Reason's defiant gaze. Draco was stunned to see such venom in the green eyes and he was reminded of his years of conflict with Harry Potter during his school years and his heart sank. Although he detested this spawn of Harry and some woman, he couldn't help but feel some sort of softness toward the girl and it reminded him of the part of his past that he regretted most as he stared into the seething green irises.
Draco turned his head away and cleared his throat, "now, boys and girls, begin. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. Most of you will probably fail at this but don't worry; I just want to judge your skill with reading recipes and making measurements.
As the students began eagerly, Draco wove his way through the front of the room, moving slowly toward the back. He cringed at some of the mistakes they were making but also smiled when they fretted over their potion. Many of the potions were ruined before they even made it to the extended brewing portion of the instructions and Draco had them throw it out and write a response on what they did wrong and how they would correct it.
As a few pairs of students settled in to wait the 45 – 60 minutes for their potion to brew, Draco made his way to the back where Reason was setting her small alarm clock. He watched her as she glanced at the potion and then the recipe. She seemed so lost in what she was doing; she didn't even notice Draco walk up behind her as she gathered her ingredients for the mortar mixture. Unlike many students, she did not immediately rest as her potion began brewing. She began crushing her ingredients with the pestle and set the mixture aside. Draco glanced up and saw the Weasley girl doing the same. However, where he saw a studious, concentrated look on Emma's face he saw a pleasant smile and look of enjoyment on Reason's. As she settled into her seat, Reason pulled her Potion's book to her and began to read the rest of the recipe as well as the history of it and its uses. It was only when Draco began to move around her did she notice he was there. She jumped back slightly and nearly dropped her book.
"Professor," Reason stammered with shock. Standing this close to him she forgot her anger with him for embarrassing Emma and she could only stare into his silver eyes. He looked so familiar and she remembered suddenly a photo of a young man in a slytherin robe, scowling at the camera, in one of the pages of the Order book. Her gaze traveled to his hair and she marveled at how similar it was to her own. They were practically the same shade but his hair was long and straight, pulled back into a leather band behind his head – Reasons hair tumbled wildly out of a bun she pulled back before she started making her potion.
"Ms. Potter, I see you seem to be enjoying potion's making." Draco questioned and the girl nodded. Draco turned his head and looked down in to the cauldron; the little ripples on the surface were continuing the motion Reason had cast them in. Draco smiled because the common response to "wave your wand over the cauldron" was to do just that with no magical instruction behind the motion. Draco smiled at the girl and suddenly her eyes turned defiant at him again.
"Why did you embarrass Emma, she was only being my friend," the small girl demanded quietly and Draco raised an eyebrow. It was becoming more and more obvious to him that this truly was Harry Potter's daughter.
"She was speaking out of turn, Ms. Potter. Not listening to instructions. As a professor I must hold all my students to the same level of conduct and that includes following my instructions."
Reason did not seem satisfied with this answer but her face relaxed a little and she seemed to be letting it go. A voice from the front of the room called out to Draco and he reluctantly left Reason's side to help the poor child who's cauldron bubbled goo violently. Draco felt a refreshed need to find out more about this Potter girl; something about her stirred a part of Draco that he thought he had lost when he ran away. Stop this Draco, what do you hope to accomplish by becoming close to Potter's daughter. He is married and you are a fool. Focus on something else, this will only get you hurt. Draco submitted silently to the voice in his head and he pulled out his wand to fix the mess. As he willed away the mess, he willed away his curiosity for Reason Potter.
The class was almost over when Emma Weasley's alarm went off and she began to add the final ingredients to her potion in the appropriate manner and order. When she finished she smiled down at her brew and her partner, a wizard with a last name she had never heard before, called over Professor Malfoy.
"Professor, we are done. Did we do it correctly?" Emma asked eagerly and the man leaned down, sniffed the potion and analyzed its color.
"Ms. Weasley, hand me your alarm," Draco requested and held out his hand. The young girl placed it curiously into the blond man's hand.
Draco dropped the alarm into the cauldron and immediately it screamed and exploded into vile smelling liquid before disappearing in a violent series of tiny eruptions. Emma stood stunned and her partner shrugged, turning back to his friend to his left. Draco waved his wand over the mixture and it disappeared.
"On my desk by next class will be a paper from you two about the destructive effects of adding more than two pinches of the mortar mixture to a brew that was left standing too long," with that Draco returned to the aisle. The last person preparing the potion was Reason so he headed back there as she dipped in her wooden ladle and slowly stirred the mixture 5 times anti-clockwise. She rested the ladle in the hook on the side of the cauldron and picked up her wand. The rest of the class seemed to notice she was the only one left and they all stared back at her as she swept her wand in a subtle whirl-pool shape, the spiral descending into the cauldron and moving the thick mixture lazily.
Reason looked up and Draco looked back at her in fondness; he knew he didn't have to tell her she did it right, she felt it. He knew the look in her eyes to be his own when he completed a potion. When you perfectly mix a potion, you can feel it. As you follow the recipe it is like sliding down a slide, snuggled safely in between the two sides. Many people are not sensitive enough to feel the gently path and they fall out of the slide and hurt themselves and wreck their potion but for those who do feel it, when your feet gently rest on the ground and you slowly stand up to face what you've just accomplished - you know.
Reason beamed as Draco took a spoon full of the potion and poured it in to a tiny flask. "I want to congratulate Reason Potter for being the first First Year this year to successfully make a potion." Draco handed the brown flask to the young Gryffindor and she held it close to her chest as she smiled at him. Draco reminded himself that it was no good getting emotionally involved with the young Potter and reluctantly he turned away from the beautiful face of the overjoyed girl. As he made his way to the front of the room, Emma Weasley darted past him and he heard her loudly congratulate her friend. The bell tower on Draco's desk rang and the students grabbed their things and left. Out of the corner of his eye, Draco watched Emma help Reason put her ingredients away and will away her cauldron and just as the two were about to leave, he caught Reason staring at him. He pretended to be busy and when he turned around again, the girls were gone.
As Draco entered the Great Hall for dinner, he saw Harry at the end of the Gryffindor table with Reason and her brother. Reason revealed the flask and Draco narrowed his eyes as he saw Harry's eyes widen. Harry seemed to recover and smiled broadly at Reason. Draco shook his head as he made his way past the Slytherin table and up to his seat at the Head Table. Harry seemed to be doing that a lot with Reason, seeming to be wary of every move she made. Draco wanted to ignore Reason and the other Potter, Cadvan, and even Harry himself but the more he tried to convince himself to stay away, the more he curious he became.
Snape entered the Great Hall and Harry quickly hugged his kids before ushering them to their tables. He met the Headmaster in the aisle and the two made their way to the Head Table. Harry glanced over at Draco who seemed to be staring intently at something and as he followed the silver eyed man's gaze, he saw his daughter swatting playfully at one of the Weasley Twins as they toyed with her hair.
"Harry, are you feeling alright?" Snape asked as they walked around the table.
"Oh, me? Yes, Severus, I'm quite alright, just feeling a bit homesick," Harry replied absent mindedly and parted with the raven haired wizard as he took his seat at the table. Severus shrugged but didn't totally dismiss Harry's behavior, noting to keep a closer eye on the wizard as the year went on. Severus turned to the students and began his nightly oration. The food appeared and everyone began eating jovially except for two men at opposite ends of the Head table, picking at their food, lost in thought.
Fred dangled the chocolate covered cherry over George's mouth, pulling just out of reach as he reached for it eagerly with his lips. George darted for the cherry again and Fred popped it impishly into his mouth. George, understanding the only solution, grabbed his brother by the back of the head and crashed their mouths together. His tongue darted into his brother's mouth, tasting the already melting chocolate and seeking out the illusive cherry. Knowingly, George bit his twin's lip, causing Fred to gasp and the cherry rolled into George's mouth. George pulled away and smiled at his physical manifestation of his reflection as he chewed and swallowed his prize. As the identical brothers lay back on the bed, they heard the door of their shop open carefully, followed by a wet cough. The two men tensed and strained to hear more. They knew Verity had gone home to see her Grandmother and wouldn't be back until next week. Whoever was down in the shop tripped and stumbled clumsily, coughing violently the whole way.
"Stay here, Fred," George commanded as he quickly got off the bed. He grabbed a spare shirt off the ground and put in on quickly. Fred reached to the edge of their bed and grabbed his brother's wand.
"Georgie," He whispered and George thanked Fred as he took his wand from the half-naked man. George quietly made his way to their door to the store and disappeared. When George was out of sight, Fred's throat constricted and his heart began to pound hurriedly, violent and painful, against his ribs. He quickly grabbed his wand and disregarded putting on a shirt as he darted to the door.
George had already made his way halfway down the stairs and as he slipped in to the display alcove there, he cast the lights on. As the shop flooded with light, the intruder gasped, causing them to cough more violently then before. George heard a creak and glanced up at the door the see his brother's face peaking from behind the entry way. He was about to shoo Fred back in to the loft when they both heard a feeble voice ring out between coughing fits.
"Geo- cough – or – cough – orge?" the voice called and George stepped out from the alcove. Collapsed in the middle of his shop was an old friend of his whom he'd met when the man brought his family to their shop. He was an Auror and often visited the shop when he was on break, bringing his three daughters with him.
"Fitsgerald Agrothorp?" George called out doubtfully. The bloody man nodded and reached out bloodied hand with a small box. George was stunned but Fred rushed past him to the injured man. Already Fred had cast a call to a healer and was waving the clutter away with his wand as he eased the man into a more comfortable position.
As George regained his senses he rushed to his lover and their injured friend and grabbed the man's hand with the small box in it. As Fred cast a soothing spell over the man's chest, Fitsgerald Agrothorp ominously reported in his strained and blood dampened voice, "Georg-eh, we heh-ve a proh-he-blem."
SO WHADDYA THINK? Time to move on to the next chapter, right? Well go ahead, you. Enjoy. Again, for those of you following the story, sorry for the wait and thank you for being so patient.
S.