Disclaimer: I own nothing. This isn't my sandbox, I just play in it.
Chapter 10
"You know I would pay to know how you keep getting in here," Remus said sleepily as I bounced on his bed with excitement after the class that night. He and Sirius were curled up together and mildly annoyed at being woken up.
"And here I came to tell you that I'm following in your footsteps Uncle Moony, and you sound unhappy to see me," I said in a pouting voice.
"So you're going to break the ministry decree," Sirius said sitting up, "Molly's in the middle of having kittens and writing you a letter to discourage you. On the other hand I'm all for it."
"Hate to disappoint you," I said teasingly, "But it isn't breaking the decree."
"And how did you manage to pull that off?" Remus asked from his position laying down, with his eyes still closed. I thought to myself what would Wise Girl do, and I did that, I thought to myself sadly.
"It doesn't fit the criteria," I said proudly, "They can't give her the authority to stop a class. At the most she can inspect me, and then I'll just be boring for a day. I teach Survival 101."
"And what exactly is Survival 101?" Sirius asked curiously. I then proceeded to tell him the two lesson's I had given and the idea's I had. They both sat up intrigued as it bubbled out of my mouth.
"And they wanted me to teach them again the next night even though we aren't doing anything interesting yet," I said brightly, "I teach after dinner on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's and all day Saturday at their request."
"They're really that interested?" Remus asked in wonder, "And there are three Slytherin's participating to? How many are there?"
"About thirty to forty," I said counting in my head, "And the come and go room makes an awesome classroom because it can become whatever you need."
"Are you going to pass your OWL's while doing all this extra work?" Sirius asked me, surprising me actually.
"Hermione really wants this, and I really want this so she'll make sure we pass our OWL's with flying colours or die trying," I said seriously, Ron had been completely right with what he'd said about Hermione. She's a bit scary sometimes, completely brilliant, but scary. "Oh, not to mention these," I said holding out a gallon.
I told them that Hermione, Ron and I had charmed them. They warmed if activated, so we can cancel class or change the date. They can be activated if one of the 101's are in trouble. The writing will change to say whose coin's activated and where they are. A few drops of blood and the equivalent to a magical GPS and we were all set.
"These are brilliant," Remus said in awe, "All of this is so amazing."
"You can't tell anyone," I told them, "Not the order or Dumbledore, nobody."
"Then why did you tell us?" Sirius asked quietly.
"What do kids do when they think that they've done something amazing, who do they tell?" I asked them, "They tell grownups, they tell the people that they want to be proud of them. Lacking mum and papa, who's the first person I'd tell?" I was suddenly swept into a tight and meaningful hug.
"We are so, so proud of you," Sirius said as they attempted to crush me. I was okay though, this didn't compare to one of my half-brother Tyson's normal hugs, let alone the one I got from him when I was found after Hera stole away my memoires. Now that put Hagrid to shame.
"Cool, so it's three in the morning and I have class to teach all day can I crash here for three hours?" I asked with puppy dog eyes. Remus snorted and Sirius held open the blankets. I slid in the pre-warmed space, happy to see that they were both wearing pants.
"Best godfathers ever," I said happily. When I woke up to my alarm I quickly shut it off and gave the two sleeping forms a hug and a kiss on the cheek, leaving them a note telling them I'd gone. Teleporting to the empty bathroom in my dorm, I threw on some new clothes and had a quick IM with Tyson, realising that I hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time that wasn't a god. I thought about going to visit tomorrow but the state of my homework made me cringe, and be thankful for another little side effect of Gaia's nasty little trick. My dyslexia was gone. Like it had never been.
I'd gone and waited in the common room and after breakfast I set up the room. The stadium was there for our run, which had started to get easier, and then I taught them a few basic hex's and jinxes. Correcting them where I could and inspiring confidence where necessary.
There was a bit of muggle first aid and how to light a fire without magic after that and then… the tower. The tower was actually something that we had from camp. It was a tall tower that you had to climb up, jumping over spinning pieces and standing on poles that someone could pull out from under you if they tugged at the one that you were standing on from the other side.
"This is more for fun and physical training, in case you get stuck having to climb up or down somewhere tricky," I said motioning to it once it had appeared, "I want everyone in two even teams. Mix it up a little and try being with people that you don't know so well, or haven't met before. Two people from each team get to climb up one of the four sides, if and when you fall, you're out. Next team member gets a go. First to get to the top and pull their teams coloured disc wins. Losers do another three laps running."
"So we just have to climb up there and get the disc?" Dean asked looking up.
"Yep, everyone pick teams and then have your team pick a colour," I said watching them look at it again, nervousness clouding their faces.
"What if we fall?" Luna asked me. Despite her general craziness or perhaps because of it, I actually liked the girl quite a lot.
"There are cushioning charms on the floor," I assured her, "But we will eventually get rid of those as you all get better. If you fall you get up, if something's wrong we'll fix it."
"And I suppose that you're going to stand and watch," Hermione said her fear of heights coming out.
"I've got to put the disc's up there don't I?" I said to her, "I get to go first. They have one of these at camp though so I have practise. On the down side, no cushioning charms and that hurts like a bitch. Warning, if someone pulls from the other side, those poles up there can go right from under your feet."
They finally picked teams colours. One team was silver and the other was purple. I colour charmed the bits of metal and nimbly worked my way up the tower. Grabbing the wooden platform and jumping to swing myself up I placed the discs in the holes waiting for them and jumped down. Using my momentum and the outcropping objects I landed on my feet in front of them, with them clapping and cheering for me.
"Thank you, thank you," I said waving them away and blushing, "But now it's your turn. On your marks, get set… go." They ran at the spiralling tower and I found myself wishing for a working stereo. Much to my surprise a working stereo did in fact appear. I flicked it on and music blared through the room, upbeat.
It took three rounds of everyone falling before the silver team won. Hoisting a surprised Luna Lovegood on their shoulders and cheering. I let out a small laugh and they disappeared into the showers.
"Alright purple team, three laps and you're free," I said joining them for the run. This was a lot more fun than I had thought.
Ouch, these people are crazy and irrational. They're also scared and competitive and determined, and as such they can and will become lethal. Voldemort is most probably screwed.