Chapter 9: Uncomfortable Truths
Hermione's source in the ministry proved right, a few weeks after Halloween, Harry was sent a letter.
Dear Harry James Potter
The staff of Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry warmly invites yourself and one other guest to come to Hogwarts from the 24th to the 31st of December of this year (1999) to hold a special series of lectures dealing with events leading up to the second rise and fall of the dark lord Voldemort. The nature of these lectures has been left to you to decided, but we expect you to hold them in the great hall in front of all four houses.
Yours sincerely Headmistress Minerva McGonagall
Harry looked at the letter and smiled, he was going back to the place he always felt the most at home, Hogwarts. He quickly told Luna the goods news, her reaction was a joy to watch.
"Were going to Hogwarts?" her expression took that even so slightly maniac look that she always worn when she was excited.
"Indeed we are, a whole week in fact" said Harry with a smile "with a large party on New Years Eve". Luna absolutely beamed.
"I wear my silver dress and we dance till ten to twelve at night!" her voice was full of excitement.
"Why only till ten to twelve at night?" asked Harry curiously, he quite enjoy dancing till dawn with her if he was perfectly honest with himself.
"Oh I need to go outside and watch for the lesser seen nimbus starfish at midnight" she started in a calmer tone.
"Couldn't you do that another time?" he asked.
"Not really Harry, there only appear every thousand years" she stated simply.
"Guess I be there with you then" he said with a smile. A perfect time to be alone with her privately too he thought.
"So how you thinking of doing these lectures then?" she asked in her normal dreamy voice.
"Seven days, seven years at Hogwarts, seem a simple enough method" stated Harry
"But HOW you going to do it?" said with a knowing look on her face. Harry though about it careful.
"You mean what I'm empathizing on?" Harry asked and Luna nodded in reply.
"How it really was, who really deserve praise and what made it happen in the first place off course, I'm hardly going to spend a week praising how wonderful I am and how much help the Ministry was in stopping Voldemort" Luna nodded.
Harry and Luna spent most of the next two months planning and talking about the lectures while they went about there Moonlions business, which was currently mostly dealing with people worried about the new millennium, it was amazing how effective Luna "realigning the mystic forces with the power of crystals" was at easing there worries.
The two of them appriated on the 24th of December not terribly far from the schools gates, were a familiar face greeted them, Snape.
"Ahh Potter and Ms Lovegood, I see you have arrived... twenty minutes early in fact, this is most unusually for you Potter, and you actually seemed too arrived without the use of an illegal artifact, in good health and early to boot" spoke the potion master.
Harry's desire to hex him to oblivion had not defused in years since Voldemort's defeat, even if the traitor had betrayed Voldemort as well as Dumbledore he did not follow the Ministry line of logic that Snape was "good" and "redeemed" Harry just knew Snape allegiances were based purely on personal gain , looking after his own skin and nothing else.
"Yes I made sure he got here ok" said Luna casually "and it's nice to see you again Snapey" Snape look was one of utter confusion, was she serous or was she playing him for a fool? Either way her thoughts kept her own, as she careful avoided eye contact with Snape or perhaps she was finding some fascinating in the distance? Either way, he wasn't going to read her mind today.
"The Headmistress will be awaiting you in the great hall, do not delay" stated Snape despite the fact they were twenty minutes early quietly thought Harry. McGonagall met them in the hall about thirty minutes latter.
"Harry" she said with a nod "Glad you could make it, I know you hate publicity and all that comes with it… but I want MY students to know the truth of the second war with he-who-shall-not-be-named and not some Ministry sanctioned version" Harry couldn't help but notice the slight hint of anger in her voice.
"It be a pleasure headmistress" said Harry.
On the first day, Harry told the school of the philosopher stone, he told them of Quirrell and how Voldemort spent the whole year possessing him. He told them of Ron chess skills and how what really happened with him, Quirrell and the stone.
On the second day he told them of the basilisk and how he feared for his sanity, he talked to them in parseltongue and saw the fear in there eyes. He told them of Ginny and how she nearly died… that was not an easy day for Harry.
Day three was a day that partially stuck in his mind…
"Right!" said Harry as he walked down the great hall, taking time to look more than one or two of the rather subdued students in the eyes. Clearly the brutal honesty of the last two days was starting to have an effect on them or maybe the parseltongue and the fact they just found out that he killed a giant snake, aged twelve, was having an effect on them. " so once you get round to the idea that time turners can really complicate things and Sirius Black was none mass murdering Aniamgus, things start to make sense".
A young boy from the Ravenclaw table (a second glance told him it was Raj) put his hand up.
"Yes Raj?" Harry asked, much to the amazement of the rest of the Ravenclaw table.
"I want to know why your Patronus is stag while Ms Luna's is a great big tiger" he asked in a rather shy quiet voice, years of being very wary of danger had thankful made Harry a good listener.
" It all comes down to what the Patronus is made off" spoke Harry, his eyes staying on Raj "Mine a stag, my father was a stag Aniamgus, so I guess when I summon mine, I'm calling on my fathers memory. Why Luna summons a tiger, I don't know, but it use to be a rabbit till sometime after her forth year, so you have to ask her yourself for the answer" Raj quickly look over to were Luna was sitting (the edge of the staff table next to Professor Filius Flitwick).
"I realized what I was fighting for at the siege of Hogwarts and a rabbit not really a fighter is it?" she spoke calmly and audibly. Silence descended on the hall for a few moments.
"Anymore questions before I let you young wizards and witches go?" asked Harry. Several hands were quickly raised.
"Can we see your stag?" muttered several different and various students. Harry nodded and put on a brave face, but knew in his heart that he was worried if he be able to cast the spell at all. A quick glance at Luna showed her face was of equal worry. Harry focused his mind on the memory of Ron and Hermione's kiss on the Burrows doorstep….
"Expecto Patronum!" the silvery mist blasted out his wand at a far higher speed than normal and the silver was not alone! Gold sparks seems to gather in the cloud and as it took its familiar stag form, it was to the eyes which the gold gathered.
Harry looked at his stag with a stunned shock, the children were delighted, but several older and much experienced eyes at the staff table were clearly as bewildered as Harry.
"I think we call it a day now children" said Harry as he quickly dismissed his shocking Patronus.
Mysterious gnomes in muggle gardens he could take, but his so familiar Patronus gaining gold eyes? What in Merlin's beard was going on!