A/N Exams snuck up on me again. I've had this for the last couple of weeks, unable to put the finishing touches on it. On the other hand, I have a couple of thousand words of the next chapter written up. On the other other hand, there's a few family issues that may delay the chapter after that.

Disclaimer: As I write this, it is more than 40 degrees Celcius (104 Fahrenheit) outside. I don't think that's the sort of temperature in either Britain or Austin right now, where the writers of Harry Potter and RWBY live.

Chapter 10:

Days of Peace

The world's just fine,

Team BRKN entered their first class of the year. About half the other students were already there, scattered about the classroom, in pairs or on their own. Harry and Kaos took seats near the front, and Raven and Nyx sat in the row behind them.

Seconds before the bell rang, Qrow rushed into the room, followed by the rest of his team, all clearly just woken up. Tai was desperately trying to flatten a cowlick, and Neo was yawning silently and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Qrow relaxed when he realised the teacher hadn't arrived yet. He spotted Harry and his team and walked over. "Mind if we sit with you guys?" he asked, indicating the desks beside them.

Harry shrugged. The other team slid into their own spots, Qrow next to his sister, Summer next to Harry and Tai on the other side of her. Neo sat a couple of desks down, isolated.

They all say patiently for the professor to arrive.

"What do you think he's going to be like?" asked Summer.

"Dunno." said Tai, "Old? Fat? Eccentric? All of the above?"

Both Ozpin and Amber had told Harry stories about the other professors at school. A lot of them were, as Tai put it, eccentric. They would have to be, to become teachers at a Hunter school like Beacon. But, somehow, Harry didn't think that they would be incompetent.

Finally, the teacher entered the class from a door behind the center podium. He wore a half untucked shirt and a very loose tie. He gave the impression that he had dressed himself as quickly as possible, and then refused to tidy himself up. His dark green hair was all over the place, and he wore opaque white glasses that hid his eyes.

This, assumed Harry, was going to be one of the eccentric ones.

The professor stood straight as a board at the front of the classroom, and took a sip from his coffee mug. He almost vibrated with an inner energy.

"Goooood morning students!" he said excitedly, almost shouting. A couple of students jolted as they woke up.

Whoosh.

Suddenly he was on the other side of the room. Harry blinked.

Was that teleportation? Or was he just really fast?

"Welcome to your first class of History. My name is Doctor Oobleck!" He took another swig of coffee. "In this class, you will learn of History! The past!"

Whoosh.

Everyone's head swivelled to the teacher's new position. Maybe he was just really caffeinated?

"One topic will be on Ancient History! That is, all that we know of the civilisations that came before, and the remnants they left us."

Whoosh.

From behind his desk the professor- sorry, doctor -used his pointer to indicate several pictures of ruined buildings that might have once been temples. Harry realised some of the pictures were of temples in the same style as the bridge they had recently demolished via Grimm. Whoops.

Whoosh.

Oobleck took another sip of what Harry was quickly beginning to suspect was highly caffeinated rocket fuel.

"But for now, of course, we will be more focused on modern History! That is, the history of the prosperous kingdoms of Vale, Mantle (now Atlas of course), Vacuo and Mistral, their formation, and the wars that followed."

"But first!" Oobleck said excitedly, "A short refresher! What is the definition of a Kingdom?"

Summer put her hand up. "A Kingdom is the area based around the four main cities of Remnant. The border extends around each city, and serves as a way to know which area is which Kingdom's to protect. The border towns however-"

"Yes, yes, that's quite enough, Miss Rose." said Oobleck. "Please wait for me to choose a student to answer before interrupting in the future. We all know the names of the four Kingdoms of course, but can anyone name the four Lands?"

Summer put her hand up again, but Oobleck ignored her, this time pointing at Harry.

"Uh-um." he stammered, trying to remember. The definition of the Lands in Remnant: A Record was the four highest concentrations of Grimm in the world, where it was just suicidal to enter.

"The... Aurora," he started. That one was easiest, as it was the weirdest. In the ice lands in the north, above Atlas, technology just broke beyond a certain point. Signals scrambled, circuits fried. Even simple things like batteries imploded when they got close. You knew you had gone too far when the metal in your guns and armour started to rust before your very eyes.

"The Depths," he continued, more confidently. The most unknown, the deepest point of the ocean, west of Mistral, where the largest of the Grimm gathered. Unburdened by forces like gravity, they were free to grow as large as they wanted. How could you possibly kill something like that, when a spear was no more than a splinter? Fortunately their great weight meant they couldn't get out of the ocean either.

"The Wastelands," This desert was filled with nothing but irradiated craters and cockroach-like Grimm. A channel of poisoned water separated the island from mainland Vacuo. It was theorised that at some point in the past, kingdoms had descended into all out war, using weapons of mass destruction the technology of which were not known today. Anyone who stayed in the desolate plains too long left with only years to live.

"And, um..." Harry looked sideways at Summer for help for the last one.

Before Summer could answer, Oobleck finished the list. "The Lost Kingdom of course. Thank you, Mister Black."

Damn, how could he have forgotten? The fabled fifth Kingdom, destroyed all those years ago, now home to the most destructive of Grimm, feeding on the eternal despair of the dead. Or so the legends went. No one was exactly sure why Grimm were so powerful in that particular spot.

As Oobleck turned to ask more questions to the rest of the class, Harry relaxed some of the tension he hadn't even realised he had in him. He had subconsciously been fearing a slip up of some kind, some way for the rest of the year to label him as different, ignorant, or just plain stupid.

"This is dumb." said Nyx, not bothering to keep her voice down. Half the class turned to face her. Summer frowned and shushed her. "He's just rehashing old stuff." Nyx continued. "And he looks like he has a drinking problem." she added snidely.

Whoosh.

"Is there anything else you'd like to get off your chest?" asked Oobleck, suddenly standing in front of her. He checked his clipboard closely. "Miss ... Nightshade, is it?"

"What's the point in this subject?" She asked, gesturing around the room. "Why spend time learning about dead people when we can learn how to save the living? Entire villages disappear off the map as we speak! And the inside of the city is no better. The slums, the criminals-"

Oobleck was shaking his head. "Miss Nightshade," he interrupted, "You seem to be forgetting one thing. As a professor, I am a graduated Huntsman. In fact, I was in the same team as Headmaster Ozpin."

Harry's respect for him rose a few notches.

"As such, I know what it's like outside the Kingdoms." Oobleck continued, brandishing his coffee mug, somehow not spilling a drop, "And all I've learned is this;"

He leaned forward, looking over his glasses at Nyx's sullen face. His sapphire eyes twinkled. "Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Foresight however, is not. The only way to focus it is with knowledge. And that is why I teach history; so that my students can avoid those same pitfalls that have doomed Hunters all around the world time and time again."

Nyx opened her mouth to speak again, but Oobleck cut her off.

"Now, Miss Nightshade," he said, leaning forward, "I can promise you that by the end of the year, you will find that my subject is one of, if not the most important subjects taught at Beacon."

He zoomed back to the centre of the room, facing the rest of the students. "The refresher is over! Our first lesson will cover the very basics of Second Great War, typically known as the Faunus Revolution or, colloquially, as the Second Crusade."

Kingdoms in peace

"And so, with the declaration of peace, with the promise of toleration and acceptance, mankind was finally able to unite and fight against their common enemy! Grimm!" proclaimed Oobleck.

Harry's head slipped off his propped up arm and he woke with a start.

He looked around, bleary eyed. Raven had drifted off too, her head resting on her uncomfortable brother's shoulder. Qrow gave him an awkward wave with the other hand. Nyx was busy carving her name into the desk and Kaos was just browsing the Net on his Scroll. Summer was the only one of their two teams still concentrating, and she actually had a whole page of notes written down.

Quite a few people around the room had nodded off too. Probably the exhaustion from the initiation catching up with them. At least, that was what Harry's excuse was, if anyone asked him. Certainly not nightmares about an psychotic green-eyed boy, no!

"What did I miss?" he hissed at Summer quietly. She rolled her eyes and ignored him.

He frowned. Was she deliberately ignoring the problem, in hopes that it would go away?

"The walls of cities, no longer having to defend against daily airship attacks, were finally able to grow taller." droned Oobleck in the background. Harry ignored him. "This in turn attracted many villages and nomads to them, no doubt drawn by the relative safety, compared to being out in the open. Does anyone know the consequences of this migration?"

What did she hope to accomplish? He wasn't going to reveal her secret unwillingly, or even accidentally.

"With less nomads outside the cities," a student said, with a slightly squeaky voice. Harry spared her a look and then did a double-take. Oum, was her hair red! She actually looked like a candle, with the pale waxy face and the flaming hair. It was really quite impressive. "The overall death toll of Grimm attacks went down."

Harry tore his eyes away from the strange hairstyle and glanced back at the white cloak covering Summer's shoulders. It wasn't his fault he could see through it. And chances were, if he could see her wings, someone else would too.

"Correct!" said Oobleck. "Thank you Miss. Vita. Today's death toll is nowhere near the death toll of sixty, even thirty years ago. With this decreased pressure on Hunters like yourselves, it became easier to respond to individual distress calls or attempts to wipe out major threats as they surface, or even take preventative action, such as the kill-on-sight list. Anyone else have another such consequence?"

And she knew his secret too. Wasn't it better to work together?

Harry started as Summer spoke up.

"With the influx of skilled and unskilled labour into the cities," she recited, "The economy of all the kingdoms prospered, resulting in an even more peaceful world."

She could even help him with his patchy knowledge of the world, if she had stuff like this memorised. Being cooped up in Beacon for a month with nothing but books to read couldn't possibly be good enough to learn about what was going on in the world.

Speaking of which, what were they talking about again?

Oobleck nodded thoughtfully. "While not strictly true, Miss Rose does bring up a valuable point. The global economy was indeed boosted, but that doesn't necessarily equate to peace. In fact, quite the opposite. Most kingdoms were still in that wartime frame of mind, putting their newfound wealth directly into military funding. Atlas developed its standing army, Mistral has its fleet, and Vale of course invented the Bullheads. Vacuo, interestingly enough, put their money into protection, both from Grimm and the other kingdoms."

Ah, of course. War.

"Unfortunately, one of Miss Nightshade's earlier points is also valid in this situation." Nyx looked up, her penknife halfway through a H. "This sudden influx of people created Vale's first slums. The crime rate tripled, and with that, came more organisation, the mafia bosses and so on. Fortunately, a new extension to Vale is being constructed, in hope to alleviate the situation."

Somewhere without a history behind it, without background, thought Harry. A blank slate. That would be... nice.

"You may have noticed a construction during the initiation, to the south west." Oobleck said, indicating it on the map. "In fact, it is due for completion in only four years, and it is extremely likely that you, young Huntsmen and Huntresses, will find your first job to be protecting... Mountain Glenn!"

Inside, the darkness ending

"One last thing, before the end of the lesson." said Oobleck, practically teleporting in front of Nyx. "Miss Nightshade, have I made enough points to refute your claim that my subject is" -he air quoted- "dumb?"

"What points?" asked Nyx brashly.

"What points?" repeated Oobleck. He shook his head in mock wonder. "Let's address your complaints one by one, shall we?"

"One; The dead are less important than the living. This is, strictly speaking, true, but dead people are valuable because they are the best type of people to learn from."

Nyx raised a questioning eyebrow.

"If we can spot their mistakes," explained Oobleck, "We can learn from them, and in doing so, become better people ourselves. Take for example General Lagune and his attempt to raid a Faunus Camp at night, not taking into account their night vision. His mistake cost him his freedom, and then his arrogance cost him his life. What would you have done instead, knowing the true extent of the situation?"

"Not attacked the Faunus camp?"

"Exactly! Now onto complaint B; Villages being wiped off the map?" He laughed. "A bit of hyperbole there! Of course, a hundred years ago this was an almost common occurrence. Nowadays, it is exceedingly rare. Any town would have Hunters assigned to it, who can call for help if needed."

He gestured at the rest of the class. "Some of you will be assigned to these villages after your time here at Beacon, while others will remain in the city to deal with Miss Nightshade's third point. Over the years, crime rates have incrsased dramatically. This is hardly surprising, given the rising population density of Vale, from both nomadic migration and increasing birth rates."

Oobleck's face turned pensive here. "Unfortunately there is also one other major factor at work here." He gazed up at the wide windows at the back of the classroom. To Harry's surprise, he actually put down his coffee mug.

"There exist people who never start or complete their Hunter training, through injury or no fault of their own. These people sometimes have to steal to survive, using these skills in conjunction with their Aura."

Was it his imagination, or was Nyx shifting uncomfortably in her seat?

"But even worse are the graduated Hunters, who find themselves adrift from their jobs of protecting people. They turn to crime, maybe for a profit, maybe even just for fun."

A few seconds of silence passed, only broken by Tai's snores.

"Anyway!" Oobleck straightened up again, the life returning to his blue eyes, "Where were we? Ah, yes, overpopulation. Imagine if the leaders of Vale sixty years ago realised just how bad the situation would get. A Mountain Glenn that could have been built right at the beginning, using the money gained by the population boom!

"Ah, alas, alack, it was only built as a response, rather than as a precaution. We must pity the fools of the past, and work together to make sure the people of the future don't view us as such."

The bell rang, and Raven wasn't the only person to wake with a start.

"Homework is a two thousand words on the end of the Second Crusade! Have it done by next week. Dismissed!" said Oobleck. "And Miss Nightshade, in regards to your assignment and your behavior in class, see me after your next class."

"Are you going to piss off the next teacher too?" asked Kaos dryly as they exited the classroom.

Nyx glowered at him. "I just prefer actions to words."

"Obviously."

"Lunchtime!" interrupted Harry cheerfully, heading the conversation off. He had found the only way to stop his teammates fighting was to kill the conversation before it picked up any steam and turned into an insult match. It was sad that he had figured this out by the second day.

"Already?" asked Raven, checking her watch. "Huh. I didn't realise History was two hours long."

"Yeah. Next up, we got Grimm Studies for an hour, then Combat for two."

"Finally! Something useful." grinned Nyx, cracking her knuckles.

Kaos opened his mouth, no doubt to say something derogatory, but closed it at Harry's pointed look.

They got their food and sat down at the table.

"I hear we're going to be fighting in the first lesson." mentioned Nyx hopefully.

"A second year told me they would just put all of us into a pit and throw random items in." said Kaos. "See who survives the longest. They said it was called 'Beacon Royale'."

Raven frowned. "I'm pretty sure they were lying."

"Pity." sighed Nyx, leaning back in her chair. "That sounded awesome."

The world's just fine
Kingdoms in peace
Inside, the darkness ending

A/N As a teaser for the next chapter, who would win in a fight between Tai and Neo? Or Raven and Summer? A few new semblances are coming.