Chapter 11: The First Day
Another chapter for you lovelies. Sorry that you all have to wait odd amounts of time.
Bright and early the morning sun rose over Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers, begging with the utmost urgency to be seen. The many students who had forgotten to pull the curtains around their bed groaned and tried to roll over to hide their eyes, to no avail. Slowly, the student body awoke, readied, and went to breakfast in the Great Hall.
Lily and Albus met up in the Common Room and headed to breakfast together, not bothering to wait for James, who usually slept in as late as he possibly could. They talked about their classes for the day. Lily had Transfiguration. Unfortunately for Albus, he had double potions with Slytherin first thing.
As they entered the Great Hall, Lily and Albus could smell the aroma of eggs and toast. They went and sat down at their usual spots and dug right in, not quite noticing the young boy who was approaching them from the Ravenclaw table.
"Uh, hello."
Lily and Albus paused eating and turned to see who it was.
"Oh," Albus said. He held out his hand for the boy to shake. "Hi there. I'm Albus Potter. This is Lily, my sister."
"I'm Gemini." With a blink, Gemini's turquoise eyes changed to one blue, one brown.
Lily jumped slightly, then stared at his eyes curiously.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Gemini began to back away, eyes going navy.
"No, it's alright. I just wasn't expecting it." Lily explained to a confused Albus, "His eyes are like Teddy's hair. Look."
Albus and Lily watched as Gemini's eyes went from a mid-blue back to turquoise, smiling at each other and the boy.
"That's wicked!" Albus complimented. "I wish I could do that without a wand and a spell."
Gemini's lips perked up at the corners. "Really? It's not weird?"
"Oh no," Lily added. "It's brilliant."
"Thanks," Gemini's cheeks and eyes grew a rosy pink shade. "I, uh, met your dad yesterday on the train. He was awfully nice to me. Got me a bunch of sweets and told me some stories."
Albus smiled and nodded. "Yeah. That sounds like him. Did he tell you the story about the hippogriff?"
Lily giggled, "Oh, I love that one."
"Uh, no," Gemini replied nervously. He'd never gotten this far in a conversation with someone before. Well, at least not when he started the conversation. "He told me the one about Tom Riddle."
They both nodded knowingly.
"He used to tell us that one every time we were angry at each other," Albus added. "Which was a lot of the time." Lily nodded in agreement.
There was a moment of silence before Gemini pulled two chocolate frog cards from behind his back. "I had chocolate frogs for the first time yesterday. I got these cards, but I don't know what to do with them."
Albus and Lily looked them over with astonishment. "You got Ignotus Peverell? On your first try?"
Gemini suddenly began to examine his card, as if it might've been made of gold and he hadn't noticed before. "Why? Is it a rare one?"
The man on the card was thin with straight, ear length black hair and an old fashioned hat with a feather sticking out the top. His mouth, though rather thin and emotionless, gave a small bit of a smirk. In one moment, he was there, and then the next-perhaps during Gemini's blink-he was gone.
"Oh yes." Albus, though he dared not take the card out of the boys hand, began to read the back of the card.
"All three of the Peverell brothers are super rare," Lily explained. "I don't know a single person who has even one."
Gemini glanced between the two as their fascination for the card grew. He wasn't quite sure he valued it as much as the apparently should. "Do you want it?"
"Heavens, no!" Lily was shocked.
"How much?" Albus asked as he stood up, ready to pull out however much he needed to pay.
Gemini shrugged. "Nothing. I don't have a collection, and I'm not sure I could start one even if I wanted to. You can just have it. And, uh…" he looked at the other card. "Helga Hufflepuff, too."
Both Lily and Albus's eyes widened.
"Are you serious?"
"No," Lily laughed, unbelieving. "He must be mad."
"Uh, here. Go ahead." Gemini handed the card to Albus, who took it with great care.
"Oh, wow." Albus glanced around the room, seeing if anyone noticed their exchange at all. If word got out, he'd have people stealing it for sure. "I'm going to run to my room to put this in a safe place. I'll catch you guys later."
Lily smiled and shook her head. "He'll be suspicious for weeks, I'm sure." She looked over at Gemini and patted the bench on the other side of her. "Have you had breakfast, yet?"
Gemini awkwardly made his way to sit next to Lily, not sure of what he was supposed to do. "Uh, no. I don't normally have breakfast."
"Really?" Lily gave him a puzzled look before asking, "Do you not like it or just never up early enough to have any?"
He shrugged. "Neither. Never had anyone to make it for me."
"Oh," Lily looked about the table for something small but delicious for him to try. Nothing was particularly portable. He would need a plate. "Here, try some eggs, then." She grabbed a small spoonful of eggs and put them on the empty plate across the table from where he sat. "They're pretty good." She pulled the plate towards him and smiled.
Though Gemini watched the eggs questionably, as if they would move, he stuck a fork in and pulled a bite out for him to taste. "What is in eggs, again?"
"Uh…" Lily wasn't quite sure how to answer, or if she even know that right answer. "Just eat 'em."
He put the eggs in his mouth and kind of squished them around with his tongue before deciding he liked them. He nodded at Lily and took another bite.
Lily smiled. She liked this boy; he was very kind and brave for not being a Gryffindor.
"What's your first class? I've got Transfiguration."
Gemini swallowed his second bite of eggs. "Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Oh good!" Lily beamed. "You can say hi to my dad first thing every Monday morning."
Gemini took another heaping bite of eggs and nodded. He liked this school so far.
As Albus was coming back from his room, he heard an oh-too-irritating voice behind him shout, "So, Potter, I hear your father's here to keep tabs on his babies."
Albus sighed and begrudgingly turned to find Scorpius Malfoy and his gang blocking the way to the Great Hall. "Seriously, Malfoy? Aren't you the one who always says 'My father will hear about this'? You are the epitome of dads watching over their babies."
Around him, Zabini and Parkinson did an overdramatic "Ooooooooooh."
"You hear that vocabulary, Pavo?" Amril Zabini remarked.
"Ooh, yes. Sounds like someone ate a dictionary for breakfast and is spitting it up everywhere," Pavo Parkinson replied.
"Like a baby." Scorpius gave a wicked grin.
"Why do I have to have potions first thing with you every Monday morning," Albus mumbled to himself, rubbing a hand on his forehead. "I don't have time for this. You all are giving me a headache."
"Why don't you run to daddy? I'm sure he can give you some formula and that'll tide you over 'til lunch." Zabini and Parkinson laughed and the group all high-fived.
As much as Albus wanted to hex them right then and there, he had better plans for them that evening. Of course, there was never any harm in a slippery floor spell, now was there?
"Labi Pavimento!"
Suddenly, their shoes slipped and they all fell flat on their butts. Albus watched, giggling, as they tried and failed to stand on the floor that was as slippery as ice.
"Well, see you guys in class." Albus ginned and walked the other way towards the dungeons for their Potions class.
Harry startled himself awake. He had fallen asleep on his book in the library. Again. He rubbed his eyes and checked the enchanted grand-father clock in the far corner of the room.
"Bloody hell, it's almost time for class."
Rushing to get things together, Harry accidently hit himself in the arm with the book he had been reading. He hadn't checked out the book or anything, so he just left it on the table as he rubbed his arm where he had hit it and left the library, rushing over to his classroom near Gryffindor Tower. He looked at clocks on the way, making sure he wasn't going to be late. What kind of example would he set if he arrived late on the very first day of class with the first years?
He needed a watch.
As he turned down the hallway the room was in, he slowed his pace to a reasonable walk and watched as students filed into his classroom. He smiled and took a deep breath, excited. If he was not mistaken, he was set to teach Ravenclaw.
He entered the room and the it fell into a great hush (not very much like the Gryffindor students had ever done). He glanced around, nearly suspicious as to why, almost forgetting that Ravenclaw students were oh-so eager to learn.
"Hello, class. I am Professor Potter." He saw Gemini, sitting eagerly in the front row with purple eyes, and smiled. "Yes, I am the Harry Potter, before you all begin asking. Now, no need to gasp or gape. I am here to teach. Today's lesson," he began, "is about the purpose of this class. Do any of you have questions?"
The class sat in silence a moment before one girl in the back raised her hand.
Harry gestured at her. "Yes, you there. What is your name?"
She stood nervously and said, "Rebecca Smith."
"Alright, Rebecca. And what is your question?"
Rebecca glanced around at all the eyes on her and managed to speak up just barely, "What are the Dark Arts?" before sitting back down in a flash.
"Excellent question, Rebecca." Harry smiled. "Five points to Ravenclaw." Harry turned to pull up a large barstool-like chair over to his spot and sat in it. "The Dark Arts are everything bad and evil about magic. There are wizards and witches, and even creatures, in this world that learn powerful, dangerous things, and try to use these things to get what they want. Now there are a lot of things we can do with magic, but things that cause harm to others, or do things that are unnatural to ourselves, these are things we must protect ourselves and others from." Harry pulled out his wand. "Each of you has one thing that can be used as protection against these terrible things: your wand. The spells you can learn through it can protect you, your friends, and your loved ones. Now," Harry stood and walked a bit. He felt like he was getting into a good zone with this lesson. "I have been through a lot in all my 38 years of life; withstanding curses, defying villains, battling creatures of all types, and I have learned one very important thing through it all." He stopped and stood, glancing around the room. "It's the most important rule in anything you do in life. Defense is always better than offense. Can anyone explain why?"
Many hands shot up at once, and Harry gestured to one boy off in the middle. "Yes, stand up. Say your name."
"Stuart Wittle."
"Alright, Stuart. Why is defense always better than offense?"
"Well," he began, "you can have a strategy defending. You can see the different moves of your opponent and gauge where their weaknesses are."
Harry nodded. "Correct. Any other reasons why defense is always better than offense? Yes, you there."
"I'm Claire Baker. And defense is better than offense because you can utilize whatever resources you have that the attacker doesn't have by going to attack you."
"Hmmm," Harry thought. "Like in war, you mean? When one army goes to attack another, the defending army has a home-advantage."
"Yes, sir."
"Excellent. That is also correct. Now, I'm sure you can all give me thousands of factual reasons as to why defending is better, but I've got one particular thing in mind I'd like you all to know and learn from." Sitting back down, Harry continued, "When you are defending something, or against something, you have something the attacker wants. Now, this something could be something valuable like a jewel, or metaphorical like their family honor, or plainly literal as a clear path between them and what they really want. When you are defending against powerful dark magic, you have to remember that you don't want anything from the battle. No matter how much you feel in danger or at risk, what makes you better than the attacker is that you are willing to drop your hatred and your pride in order to stop the attacker. Sacrifice, not just of yourself, but of ideas and things you once knew." At their confused looks, Harry went on. "Let me tell you a story about a boy named Tom Riddle."
"Ten points to Slytherin. Well done." Theo wrote on the board. "Antidote to poisons. Very useful."
At that moment, Scorpius, Pavo, and Amril came in to class.
"Severely late on your first day, Malfoy, Zabini, and Parkinson. Unacceptable. Detention, all of you. This weekend. With Sandal."
The trio groaned and sat in their seats. Albus tried hiding his mischievous smile.
"Now, we were just discussing the uses for the type of potions I assigned you to read about this summer. Malfoy, name me one."
Scorpius read over the board (lucky for him there were only two out of the five possible uses on it). "Mild sedative."
Theo gave a nod. "Correct," he said as he wrote it on the board. "Parkinson," he could tell from the over-confident look on Pavo's face that he had not read anything over the break. "Name another."
Pavo, Theo knew from his last two years here at Hogwarts, was flamboyant, outgoing, and completely unmotivated to learn anything potions related, barely passing his class at all. He was sure Pavo's mother, Pansy, had everything to do with it.
"I don't know." Pavo smiled. Was he chewing gum? "Can it color my hair purple?"
Sometimes Theo wished he was as intimidating as Professor Snape had been.
Theo picked up the trash bin and held it out for Pavo to spit his gum into. "Every time you chew gum in this class from now on, I will give you detention and take twenty points from Slytherin. Do I make myself clear?"
Pavo seemed offended, but spit out his gum peacefully.
"Zabini. Name one more use."
"Doesn't it have some kind of cleaning thing in it?"
Theo sighed. "Yes, cleaning product." He wrote that on the board. "Anything else? Anyone?"
Scorpius raised his hand, as did Rose. Why did none of his students do their work over summer?
"Yes," he said, slightly exasperated, "Weasley."
"It helps thin out blood and works as a perfume."
"Thank you." Theo wrote those items on the board. "Now, honestly, I don't give you all much homework. I know you don't think this is a serious class, but I suggest you get serious really soon because I am having you test all your own potions this year." Theo looked around the room at all the scared faces and hoped that would motivate them later on. "Now, I want you all to read about antidotes in the next chapter for Wednesday. Class dismissed."
"But professor, it's much too early for class to be over." Rose looked sad.
"I know. But I also know that there is nothing else in this lesson to teach. I've dismissed class early." Theo shooed her towards the door as all the other students filed out of the room.
Once the room was empty, Theo sat behind his desk and groaned. Why was it that he enjoyed the Ravenclaw students over his own? What did those damn pureblood lovers teach their children? He figured they were probably all spoiled rotten to the core, just like they always have been. He sighed. Theo used to be one of them.
It had been a longer day than Harry had expected, but it was finally coming to a close as his last class for the day came in. However, Harry was more than sure that it would not be an easy one.
Slytherin seventh years came in clumps to class. When they glide over to their seats, robes floating around their feet, they take their seats with smirks naturally on their faces. Harry didn't know what they expected of him, or even what to expect of them, but he would play it by ear, reading the signs they gave him. As the last few took their seats, Harry glanced at his clock and noted that none of them were on time; they were all at least five minutes early. He could respect that.
"Hello, class. As you know, I'm Professor Potter, and this is Defense Against the Dark Arts, N.E.W.T. level." Harry scanned the classroom. "But the point of this class, specifically, is not for me to tell you how and what to do, but for you all to learn how and what to do. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What have you forgotten over the summer?" Harry smirked along with them. "Think of this class more as a training camp for whatever you will be doing in the future." He paused. "Come to think of it, what do you all want to do after graduation?"
One guy raised his hand.
"You really don't expect me to call on you like a first year, do you?" Harry remarked.
There were muffled giggles as the guy put his hand down, red trimming his ears. "I'm going to be an auror."
Harry smiled. "Fantastic. This class will definitely make sure you are ready for that. Anyone else?"
"I'm going to travel the world," one girl said.
"I want to go into the Ministry."
"Spell-maker."
"I'm going to write the textbook."
The excitement in the room made Harry even more ready to challenge them. "Alright. This class will most certainly be useful to all of those occupations. What about those of you who don't know?"
There were a few who looked down at their hands.
"What can you do with Defense Against the Dark Arts? Why did you take this class? Did you like it? Does it come naturally to you? Did a professor or parents tell you to take it?" He glared pointedly, seeing if anyone would say. "Raise your hand if you don't want to be here. Come on, be honest."
After a few moments hesitation, a few unsteady hands rose up into the air.
"Not something you all are interested in, then?" He waited for then to shake their heads, and nodded. "Well, I won't drop you from the class, but you all can pick if you want to participate in training or if you want to help me in planning and carrying out each lesson. This class will need a lot from both sides, trust me. Now," Harry grabbed his wand, "tell me what you've all learned in six years of Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm not talking about theory, like the difference between a werewolf and whatever, I mean something really fun that stuck with you."
"We learned to paralyze pixies!"
"Ooh. Nasty little things, pixies. Alright," Harry flicked his wand at the board and the words seemed to write themselves in chalk. "What else?"
"We learned quite a few hexes."
"Always fun." The word appeared on the board.
"We met a werewolf."
Harry, confused, looked to the student. "You what?"
"We met a werewolf. He took special potions to keep from changing. He told us about what it was like."
Slowly, Harry nodded. "Okay, but that one isn't really something you learned to do."
Each of the students fired off one thing after another, from patronus charms to counter-curses, and before long the board was full, but Harry saw one thing on there he couldn't let them miss.
"Oh…" he said, incredulous, "no one's learned about animagi?" His eyes lit up.
"We learned about animagi in third year Transfiguration," said one guy, near the back, "it just wasn't fun."
"Yeah," piped up another, "It was just theory."
"Theory, of course. I'm talking about the real deal. Have you ever met one of those? Figured out how it's done?" They all shrugged. "No? OH, then first we are having a lesson on this."
"I thought you said this was training camp."
"Oh, right," Harry said. "Training lesson, then," he corrected. Putting his wand down and pulling off his robes, he began his transformation, speedily growing from man to stag.
The class, though impressed, did little other than gape.
Stag Harry pounded the ground with his front hoof and held up his chest high. He remembered the fateful day in training at the Auror Academy, realizing he was a stag just like his father. The memory brought peace to him for a moment as he reveled in it.
The board behind him erased itself and wrote, Explain the transformation.
"You went from being a person to being a moose."
Stag Harry made a small bellow and shook his antlers.
I'm a stag, clearly not a moose, the board wrote.
"Your body just…" a girl, still quite surprised, "morphed into…a stag."
With a bow, Stag Harry shrunk back into normal Harry. "Brilliant." He straightened his crooked tie and dusted off his pants. "If you do want to become an animagus, I suggest wearing commonplace clothing when you do so. Otherwise you may find that pieces of your clothes may not transform with you."
"What do you mean if we want to become an animagus?"
Harry smiled. "That was just a showing. Now, obviously I can't force you all to become animagi, and I'm not going to take up class time trying to get you to learn something when we have other things to do, but," he looked around at all the faces before him, "if you want to become an animagus, I'll see if I can get special permission from the Headmistress to have sessions where we go through the process. We'll talk about this more next class. As for this class," Harry picked up his wand. "we've got some training to do."
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