Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!

Rated M: For Safety Again

Updated 05/25/09

Harry De Vie

Chapter 10: Reactions

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"As a matter of fact, our current Defense teacher was among those captured yesterday bearing the Dark Mark, and it puts me in the position of finding a suitable replacement on very short notice. I would like to ask you to be that replacement?"

"Wait, you want me to be your new DADA teacher?" asked Harry in a mixture of shock and joy, not knowing if he was truly capable but loving the idea of being at Hogwarts and really affecting change on the students.

"Yes, Mr. De Vie," replied the twinkling eyed and smiling Headmaster as he studied the young wizard's reaction and found it quite enjoyable.

"Please, call me Harry sir," responded the young wizard in deep thought, "and I think I would like to try my hand at teaching. I accept, sir."

"Wonderful Harry," responded Dumbledore with a large and relieved smile thinking that he finally got his students a good teacher who could hopefully relate better with the young students, "and please, we are now colleagues, you can call me Albus."

"Thank you Albus, I'd appreciate that," laughed the young wizard who had begun calling the Headmaster just that during his sixth year at Hogwarts, and excited that the meeting had gone so well.

"Good, here is your teacher's manual with school rules and codes of conduct," continued Albus cheerfully as he handed over the decent sized book Hermione would probably kill to read, "and we like our teachers to arrive one week before start of term, so how about next Friday the 26th, a week from today?"

"That sounds perfect, but what about text books or lesson plans? Are there any requirements I should know about?" inquired Harry after pocketing the teacher's manual.

"Well, your predecessor assigned textbooks, and they went out with the book lists almost a month ago," answered Dumbledore while rummaging through his desk for the master book list. "Okay, for first year it's The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble, second year's have Protect the Unprotected also by Trimble, third and fourth year he selected Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard, fifth year's have Curses and Counter-Curses by Jillian Greshko, and for the NEWT students Defending You Life by Evagrius Pontus."

"Those aren't too bad," answered Harry with a frown, "but there's no way I'm using Slinkhard's book, its total rubbish. For third years, how about The Guide to Dark Creatures by Bennett, give the fourth years Greshko's book, and give the OWL students the first volume of Practical Defense Magic & Its Uses Against the Dark Arts by Sonnerfield."

"Interesting choices Harry, but definitely workable," responded Albus thoughtfully. "The easiest way I see it, is for Hogwarts to provide copies of those texts to the students when they arrive."

"Would Hogwarts be able to cover all those, I could always get them myself," offered Harry easily, and not wanting to burden the Headmaster so soon.

"Thank you for you offer Harry, but Hogwarts is more than capable of getting textbooks," joked the Headmaster. "Regards to your question on lesson plans, I can give you the old plans from teachers in the past, but I encourage you to plan them according to where you think the students are. And feel free to push them a little or as the muggles are saying, 'think outside the box' in your lessons. The only real requirements are preparing fifth and seventh years to sit their OWL and NEWT exams respectively."

"I can definitely live with that," answered Harry with a lopsided grin, already thinking ahead to what he could teach the students and knowing Albus still wanting to talk about something based on the seriousness of his gaze. "So, what else did you want to talk with me about Albus?"

"Actually, I was hoping to get your opinion on the masked wizards you fought yesterday?" asked the Headmaster subtly.

"You mean the Death Eaters?" clarified Harry knowingly.

"Yes, I was unsure if you even knew about them or the wizard they follow?" continued Albus in his usual secretive manner of not giving away information he wasn't sure if you already knew.

"I know more than I'd ever care to about Tom Riddle," answered Harry with a slight growl of disgust, while Albus almost had a heart attack right in his chair at the response. "Voldemort is a menace to our world that needs to be stopped."

"I couldn't agree more Harry," responded the surprised older wizard, "but can I ask how you learned so much about Tom?"

"Mr. Letum was one of his branded slaves," scoffed Harry.

"And what is your opinion of the man?" asked Dumbledore.

"If he is still a man," quipped Harry. "He has done truly terrible things to his soul."

"Why do you say that?" asked a now very interested Headmaster.

"Do you know what a horcrux is Headmaster, or how one goes about making it?" responded Harry, and from the look on his new boss' face, he knew exactly what Harry was referring to, only he hoped it wasn't true.

"Yes, and have heard rumors of Tom dabbling in soul magic for some time now, but was never able to confirm it," answered Albus honestly, and once again wondering just how this young wizard knew so much, he obviously wasn't a fan of Tom's based on his reactions but one could never be too sure.

"I do not know the number for sure, but could probably guess that he has divided his soul into anywhere from three to seven parts," answered Harry, while throwing his Headmaster a bone of knowledge that he wouldn't have figured out until Harry's sixth year of the original timeline. "It was something he said to Mr. Letum one day. 'I, who have gone farther than anyone on the quest for immortality, cannot die as long as my loyal followers guard the priceless items given to them.' At the time, he was scourging Mr. Letum's library for any information on the descendants of Gryffindor, or items the Hogwarts Founder may have left behind. I only found out through my monitoring charms I always left all over the library, because Mr. Letum did all his work and held his meetings in there."

"That is truly troubling news," replied the despondent Headmaster.

"I also know of his Slytherin half-blood heritage, his ability to speak Parceltongue, his status as Head Boy, his capabilities in wandless and silent casting, and his sick and disgusting use of the cruciatus curse," finished Harry boldly, figuring that the sooner Albus knew the better, plus it might also make him more credible by bringing information to the table so to speak and seen more as the adult wizard he was.

"Have you ever heard of the Order of the Phoenix?" asked the old wizard curiously, wondering just how much this young wizard really knew.

"I've heard whispers of its existence, mainly to fight Voldemort if I'm correct," lied Harry easily, not wanting to seem too suspicious and claim to know everything.

"We are," confirmed the Headmaster with his once again twinkling eyes measuring up the wild haired young wizard, "and I would like to offer you an invitation to join as well?"

"I'd be honored Albus," responded Harry completely honestly as he shared a smile with his former mentor.

"Wonderful," exclaimed Albus, "we are having a meeting tonight at 8 pm at the Potter Estate in Godric's Hollow. It's the house just before Godric's Manor, the big castle at the center of the small village, you can't miss it."

"Sounds perfect," answered Harry with a smile seeing as he could probably walk there in under two minutes and knew exactly where to go and was quite excited to see. "I guess I'll see you there at eight."

"Of course, and please owl me with any questions relating to school affairs," finished Dumbledore as he stood and shook the younger wizard's hand symbolizing the end of their very long yet informative meeting.

Harry's head was once again spinning on the long walk through the halls of Hogwarts, and out onto the grounds and towards the gates. If he was honest with himself, this was the best situation he could have hoped for to be able to affect change in this world, and he promised to himself not to screw this chance up. He was now in the Order, a teacher at Hogwarts and in the middle of the action, around the people whose lives he was most trying to improve and change. This really was the best outcome, and he still had a week until he had to show up for work.

He figured he would be spending most of this upcoming week in the training chamber, and could use the extra time to plan lessons and re-familiarize himself with the textbooks, some of which he hadn't read in years. His guardians were all very proud and happy for him, and excited to be back in their school again where they all felt they belonged, and so did Harry. His feet took him past the gates of the school and down the path to Hogsmead and the Three Broomsticks, where he decided to stop for a drink and maybe a bite for lunch.

The pub was much as he remembered it, and ordered himself a lunch plate of fish and chips with a butterbeer and ate alone in a corner booth. The pub was pretty empty for the middle of the day, but the quiet suited Harry just fine as he was able to think about the upcoming school year and start making plans. After his meal, he paid his bill, and used the Floo to the Leaky Cauldron, or more specifically Flourish and Blotts to buy his own copies of Protect the Unprotected and Curses and Counter-Curses, the only books on the list he didn't own his own copy of even though he had read them both before. He still had hours to kill before the Order meeting, and decided to head to Gringotts to see about other properties he could go get up and running for when school was not in session, since he didn't want to use Godric's Manor since the castle itself was a tourist attraction, nor did he want to spend all of his time at home under time spells.

Within an hour, Harry was entering one of his only other properties besides Godric's Manor and Hogwarts castle, neither of which he wanted to claim ownership of publicly. A large and completely overgrown farm that rested in the foothills of the Scottish Highlands only probably fifty miles from Hogwarts, and had a very small two room stone cottage tucked into one of the hills. Harry thought it was perfect for him, and sent an ankle high diffindo spell creating a meter wide path in the overgrown brush towards the direction of the cottage. His first thing to do, was charging the runic stone that acted as the ward's anchor, and after that cleaned out the small cottage and transfigured some furniture.

It was fast approaching 7:30, and Harry had to apparate back to Godric's Manor, and then enter the time chamber so that he would be able to have Sirki make him dinner and eat before the eight o'clock meeting next door at the Potter's. He was going to be meeting his Grandparents tonight, that thought had completely slipped his mind until now, and was getting quite anxious and restless as he finished dinner and left the time room with still ten minutes to eight. He left the Manor and walked the grounds towards the gate, arriving at the next house within minutes as he felt his anxiety build when he knocked sharply on the front door.

"Ah, Professor De Vie, right on time," greeted Albus Dumbledore with twinkling eyes as he opened the door to welcome the newcomer who probably didn't know anybody else in the house.

"Hello Albus," chuckled Harry upon seeing his old mentor and new boss in the most outrageous bright purple robe, which always seemed to make Harry wonder about the Headmaster's sanity. "I hope you enjoyed your afternoon."

"Very much Harry, thank you. Please come in and meet everyone," spoke Albus, who Harry could tell was excited to introduce him to the Order.

"Albus, are you ready to start the mee—," started a very attractive older witch, with curly light brown hair and familiar hazel eyes, who immediately stopped when she caught sight of the young wizard they had been talking about all day and could only stare.

"Of course Sarah, I'd like you to meet Harry De Vie. Harry this is Sarah Potter, I believe you met her husband and son briefly after yesterday's attack," spoke Albus introducing the two.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Potter, you have a lovely home," spoke Harry sincerely as he tried to soak in as much of his Grandmother as he could.

"Thank you Harry, and please call me Sarah. Mrs. Potter is my mother-in-law," cringed Sarah slightly at the mention of the slightly overbearing current Matriarch of the Potter Family, but with a good natured smile that relaxed Harry.

"That's another thing I should mention," interrupted Albus, "everyone goes by first names in the Order. Now, come on, we should be starting."

Harry followed his hosts to a large formal dinning room that had obviously been converted into the Order Headquarters and meeting place. The large table dominated most of the room with more chairs than Harry wanted to count, and a great majority of them filled with all of a sudden very quiet and curious Order members. Harry recognized quite a few of them from the photograph Mad-Eye Moody had shown him at Grimmauld Place, and hoped he would be able to do something about changing many of their fates.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce you all to Hogwarts new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and newest member of the Order, Harry De Vie," announced Albus grandly as they stepped further into the room, motioning to Harry with a friendly smile.

"Albus, he's barely old enough to be out of school himself, how could you just hire him to teach DADA?" asked Minerva McGonagall, still as strict as ever after sizing up the young wild haired wizard and obviously disapproving, while Harry just shrugged.

"Besting my NEWT Defense, Charms, and Transfiguration scores, makes him more than qualified Minerva," answered Albus with a slightly smug grin at everyone's exclamations of shock none more so than the current Transfiguration teacher, while Harry just rolled his eyes at the Headmaster's playing to the crowd.

"Thank you Albus, but they're just tests," responded Harry, not wanting to make a big deal of some meaningless tests in the grand scheme of things, but judging by Minerva's stunned gasp, she disagrees with that assessment. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

"Ah yes, sorry Harry," replied Dumbledore getting back on topic. "We'll go around the room starting on my left we have our Transfiguration Professor Minerva McGonagall, our Charms Professor Filius Flitwick, and Herbology Professor Pomona Sprout. Next are Rubeus Hagrid, Mundungus Fletcher, Arabella Figg, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Dedalus and Darcy Diggle, Derrick and Julie Bode, Dorcas Meadows, our Runes Professor Marlene McKinnon, Sarah and Jonathan Potter, Alastor Moody, Justin and Erin Bones, and finally my brother Aberforth."

"Hello everyone," spoke Harry again while giving a friendly wave to the room at large, ignoring the staring as per usual and finding a seat near the Prewett twins who were probably the next youngest members and eerily reminiscent of Fred and George.

Shortly after everyone sat down, Harry felt a brush against his Occlumency shields, and quickly expelled the attacker as his eyes sought them out. He met an attractive and surprised pair of dark brown eyes that belonged to the resident Runes Professor, Marlene McKinnon. Harry remembered meeting her daughter among Lily's friends easily, as the two McKinnon women looked very similar and gave her a slight smirk at her incredulous stare as Albus cleared his throat to begin the meeting of the Order of the Phoenix.

AN: I have to stop this chapter now; otherwise it'll go on forever. Happy reading!