Chapter 11 The New Teacher

A/N: Sorry for the long time between updates... it was finals and i finally got internet back on = ) regular updates now, as soon as i can get chapters edited

enjoy!

When Monday morning rolled around, they were all rather excited for the first full week of classes. They headed down to breakfast and sat with Luna. Nearly everyone was down there already, so when they were there for about five minutes, Professor McGonagall got up to address the student body. She took her fork and tapped it gently on the side of her goblet; the sound resonating through the entire Great Hall.

"May I have your attention please?" she asked politely. The crowd shifted their attention to their Headmistress. "I have an announcement to make. I will be formally stepping down as Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts, due to the fact that the workload is immense now that I am the Headmistress. I have chosen a new teacher to replace me. However, seeing as she's not here, I guess you'll just have to be surprised when you have the class." There was a mischievous smile on her face, and the six teens couldn't help but think that it was directed toward them. They had a sneaking suspicion that they would know their teacher and it would be a surprise for the good.

They all finished their breakfasts rather hurriedly and nearly ran to the Transfiguration classroom. On one was there is first, or so they thought. They took some seats near the front of the room, trying to guess who would be the new teacher. "Maybe she got Aberforth to teach?" Harry suggested.

"Nah," Ron said dismissively. "He's a barmy old git, he didn't seem to care for kids that much; his wife would have probably been happy to get rid of him though. And plus, he owns the Hogs Head, why would he give that up?"

"You're right I guess," Harry said thoughtfully. He carefully picked through the Order members in his head, mulling over which one would have his vote for the new teacher. All of a sudden Ron and Ginny seemed to hear some soft music; it was coming from the office on the side of the classroom. It was familiar to the Weasley siblings but Harry and Hermione weren't familiar with it at all.

"Hang on, I know that song," Ron said, getting up from his desk and walking cautiously toward the slightly opened teacher's door. Ginny, who was seated next to Harry, began humming the tune. It was soothing, almost like a bedtime song Harry thought. Ron inched the door open. "Er, Professor?"

"AHHHHHH!" a lady screamed. "RON!" Ron ran into the room to greet the teacher. You could tell he was giving her a kiss, by the looks of his shadow, and Hermione was getting angered. She left her seat and stormed to the door.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley, you are such a hypocrite. You get all flustered over a hug from Viktor, yet here you are kissing another woman!..." she trailed off as she pushed open the door. "Molly!" she shrieked, flying at the Weasley matriarch, taking her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Mum?" Ginny perked up out of her lullaby induced stupor. "That's why that tune sounded so familiar. Mum used to sing it for us to go to bed." She got up and ran over to the door to greet her mother; Harry did as well.

"Oh, Minerva said she had a surprise lesson for my first, I couldn't imagine that it would be you all," she cried.

"Well, how could you have planned any of your lessons if she didn't tell you what classes you would be having?" Hermione asked tentatively. She had always been a planner, and was willing to offer to help her mother figure plan her lessons for the beginning of the term in necessary.

"I have a weeks worth of lesson plans, courtesy of Minerva. I have tweaked them slightly though. I did try to accomplish a bit of transfiguration over the summer, and I'm proud to say that I have accomplished it!"

"What is it Mum?" Ron asked eagerly.

"I don't want to ruin the surprise now do I?" she said, smiling slyly.

Draco walked into the Transfiguration classroom, only to see Harry and Ginny lingering near the office door. He heard Ron and Hermione's voices from within. "Kissing up to the new teacher won't get you anywhere Weaselette. You'll start acting like the Mudblood," he sneered.

Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny left the office, and were shortly followed by Molly Weasley, looking rather dangerous. "You will not insult my family, Mister Malfoy," Molly said threateningly, gesturing to the other four teens. "Or else I will take house points and take it up with the Headmistress, is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said softly, not looking the elder witch in the eye, but concentrating intently on his feet. All five of them sat down near the front. Finally they realized that they were the only NEWT students for the class for their seventh year. Molly walked up to her desk and started to gather her notes to begin her lecture.

"As you all well know, I'm Molly Weasley, your new teacher. You may call me Mum, Molly, Mrs. Weasley, I don't really care, what ever you feel comfortable with," she was smiling at them warmly. "I do have some rules that will be followed in this classroom: One, the words 'Blood Traitor', 'Mudblood', 'You-Know-Who', or any variation except his true name will not be spoken; Two, there is no need to use unnecessary spells in this classroom; and three, there will be no fighting of any kind. Now, I know you're all capable witches and wizards, but, for the time being, we're going to go as slow as you need. The project we're going to be doing is going to take some time, unless you are really intense with your studies. We should wrap this up by Halloween."

"What are we going to be doing then?" Ron asked.

"You are all going to be learning how to become an animagi," Molly announced proudly.

"You learned how to be one over the summer?" Hermione asked in awe.

"Yes," she said simply. She closed her eyes in concentration and there was a faint 'pop' and a lion took her place. All five students applauded her, albeit some louder than others. 'Pop' and she was back into her human form. "Thank you."

"Here are some notebooks and pens; you are to use these when we take notes in this class. Your notes should be legible, as a part of your final grade – aside from the final tests – will be on your notebooks" she eyed Ron and Harry. "So you can study in your spare time. When you come to class everyday, take your pens out and start copying the notes down. The first hour, we'll do theory and explanations, the second hour we'll do practical work." The teens nodded as she passed out black marble composition books and several pens to each student. Hermione quickly explained to Draco, Ron, and Ginny how the pens worked (seeing as none them had taken Muggle Studies, or were Muggleborn/raised).

"The little black tube is essentially your inkwell. It's more than you think, when the ink stops coming out, you just throw it away."

"Thank you Hermione," Molly praised. Her husband had gotten them for her to give out to the class, claiming that Muggles used them all the time. "Now," she tapped the board, and writing appeared. "Copy down the notes, and please leave a one inch margin around the notes on all sides, just to make room for extra notes as I go over the material. Please, at any time, jot down any questions you might have, and I'll try to get them answered."

Molly heard the scratching of the pens on the paper, which was quite a bit quieter than the quills scratching on parchment. She changed the board several times when the kids were done their page. After a half hour, they were all done. Hermione's notes were prim and perfect as always, and surprisingly, so were Draco's notes. Harry, Ginny, and Ron's were completely horrible, as per usual, but at least they could read them. The rest of the class, Molly went over all the notes, answered any and all questions and gave them some homework that was due by Thursday.

"A foot long essay composition on any and all complications that may occur when inexperienced witches and wizards attempt to transform. You must cite specific examples." All five teens left the class and headed off. Hermione had to go to her Ancient Runes class, and Harry, Ron, and Ginny go to have their break period. Ron held off on doing his essay so he and Hermione could do it together. They also met up with Neville, who stayed in the Gryffindor common room with them. He went to the Head's dormitory for a bit, looking for Herbology books that would help him with his essay.

'Okay, we'll just go to the library to search for out books," Ginny said, dragging both boys off to the library to do their homework.

"Wait!" Neville cried. "Come to the Head's dormitory. We have this special book case, where, when you ask for a particular topic, you can get all the books you need." The three agreed and followed Neville to the Head's common room. They just stood there for a moment, taking in the wondrous sight, and thinking about all the fun they could have there, especially if they held a party. Neville showed them the bookcase, searching for his Herbology book. Harry, Ron, and Ginny found three exact copies of the book they needed. Ron just decided to do his homework; perhaps he would help Hermione with hers later, not that she needed it. They sat around the common room, and were about halfway through their essays when Hermione walked in.

"I just walked into the Gryffindor common room looking for you all," she said, a bit exasperated.

"Yeah, Neville showed us what you have in here, and I must say I kind of like it," Ron said.

"So, wait, you're all doing homework, voluntarily?" she asked.

"Yup," Ron said, not even bothering to look up from the sentence he was writing.

"Who are you and what have you done to my boyfriend?" she asked jokingly.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Ron replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm actually going to try to do my homework on time this year."

"Wow!" Hermione said, kissing the top of his head. They all headed to lunch, and Neville opted to sit at the Ravenclaw table with Luna and her friends.

"Ron?" she asked quietly.

"Hmm?" he replied through a mouthful of food.

"Would you like to go over the essay later, in my dormitory?" she asked, hoping that it would come off suggestively. Ron's ears turned pinkish as he swallowed his food.

"Sure, if you want," he said, implying the question.

"Yeah," she murmured before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice. Harry and Ginny were talking animatedly about two members of her family being teachers here.

After dinner was over, Neville went to the Ravenclaw common room to hang with Luna, Harry and Ginny did their Transfiguration, Potions, and Charms homework in the Gryffindor common room; Ron and Hermione were in the Head's dormitory. She gave the password to the tapestry and dropped all of their books on the oversized couch. They did their homework together, Ron giving Hermione some information that he found in the books from earlier. She wrote her essay and corrected his for grammar mistakes. There wasn't much to correct and gave it back to him with very small corrections.

"This paper was rather good," Hermione said, standing up from the couch. He made to stand up but she pushed him sharply back down. "You deserve to get something special for writing such a good paper."

"W—What?" Ron spluttered. Hermione slid back down to his lap. His bright blue eyes locked with her chocolate brown ones right before she lowered her lips to his. He just sat there at first; still trying to figure out if this was reality or just another one of his dreams; whether or not this was his girlfriend. After a moment or two, he pulled back. "What's gotten into you?"

"What? You don't like it?" she panted, passing her fingers through his thick red hair. He let an involuntary shiver pass over his body.

"No, I mean, yeah I like it," he said, running his hands up and down her arms. "I just don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"No worries, Ron," she said, bending to kiss his neck slightly. "Well, I could stop," she breathed lightly on his neck, near his ear.

"No," he groaned, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to his broad chest. She nibbled a bit on his earlobe, knowing that they were probably the second most sensitive spot on his body; it made his breath catch. She nipped her way along his jaw line and captured his delectably lush lips. He moved his lips against her, running his long fingers through her soft curly hair. She moaned when he tugged a bit on her chestnut locks; giving him ample opportunity to slip his tongue into her mouth, deepening the kiss. She pulled him even closer that humanly possible, her lips nearly bruising his in a brutal fashion. Ron tore his lips away from hers and made his way down her slender neck, grazing his teeth across her collarbone; she arched backwards, offering more of herself to the redheaded teen. His hands left her hair and settled on her hips; his large hands felt rather comfortable, and perfectly in place there. She knew that he could probably force her to do just about anything with those hands, but he wouldn't, they were too gentle with her. Hermione raked her nails down his back. She could feel a tightening of his muscles as well as in the material of his trousers.

Hermione moaned and ground her hips down onto Ron, causing him to gasp and pull away. "What?" she asked, looking up at him worriedly. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, don't ever think you are doing something wrong," he said, putting a hand on her cheek. "It's just… I don't think we're ready for us to go any further." Ron kissed her firmly on her puffy lips. "I don't want you to regret doing any of this."

"Wait, aren't I supposed to be telling you this?" she said jokingly.

"Funny, 'Mione," he said lightly.

"Okay," she whispered, resting her forehead against Ron's. "Can I ask you something?" she said after a comfortable silence.

"Hmm?" he murmured.

"Sleep in here with me?"

His eyes opened, looking down at his girlfriend. "What?"

"Just sleep, I promise," her eyes pleaded with him. "I just need to be near you right now."

"Where?"

"In my room, or here on the couch, where ever you feel comfortable," she replied hesitantly.

"Couch," he replied. "I don't really want to be tempted." She nodded in agreement. Hermione went upstairs real quick to get her pajamas on and returned downstairs. She had on flannel short bottoms and a black tank top.

"Er, wow," Ron breathed. "Why don't you wear that when you're at the Burrow?"

"Do you honestly think your mum would approve of my pajamas when there are all your brothers still always around?" Hermione asked.

"Er, that would be a… no," Ron said, sniggering.

"Exactly," she yawned, raising her arms far above her head; this caused her shirt to come up, exposing her bellybutton and a lot of midriff.

"Merlin, Hermione, I don't think I could ever get used to that," Ron exclaimed and ran a finger across her stomach, causing her to giggle girlishly. She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward her, meeting him for a kiss. He pressed his body against hers, walking her backwards until they collided with the wall. She moaned softly. He plundered her mouth. His hands pushed her hips up against the wall. Somehow Ron's nimble fingers made their way under her shirt and were now gripping her lightly on her sides. She really felt how calloused his hands really were from all the Quidditch. They carried on for a few moments before Ron pulled away, resting his forehead against hers. They just stood there for several moments, listening to each other's breathing.

"I think we should head to bed," Ron said quietly. "We have defense first thing tomorrow morning."

"Okay," she whispered. She walked over and began to transfigure the couch to make it larger, but Ron stayed her wand.

"No," he said firmly. He lay down on the couch, his back nestled firmly against the hard back of it. "Come here."

"Okay," she said in front of him. Ron pulled her down and wrapped his arms around her middle. Seeing as her back was to him, he snuggled into her, nuzzling his freckled nose into her hair. She let out a contented sign and wriggled back so there was no space between them. They fell asleep to the sounds of each other's breathing. Ron didn't even snore that night.