Chapter 11
The next day was filled with classes and excitement. At breakfast Neville asked about how their new class was going. Hermione excitedly told him about it all. While Ron tried to avoid some of the Gryffindor girls who all wanted to feel the baby kick. Ginny and Harry was engrossed in conversation with Fred and George. No one noticed a tall man in robes enter the great hall. Everyone else turned and watched the man approach the table and shake hands with Professor Dumbledore and gently embrace the new professor. It was Dean Thomas that finally brought the groups attention to what was going on in front. They stared as the man kissed Professor Manger gently. When they finally separated she smiled and if Harry wasn't mistaken he thought he could see a slight blush.
Professor Dumbledore then led the two into the room just behind the Great hall. He asked them to please be seated.
"Have you had a good Journey Blake?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes quite uneventful. Albus I'm sorry I couldn't bring any one with me to help fight. I just could not convince any one to come and help. As you may have heard the American Ministry of Magic is having a few difficulties of their own. They seem to have a mentally challenged wizard running around and every one is in search of him. Of course no one believed me when I said that he could be connected to Voldemort. So I decided that I must come and join my wife and fight even if no one would come with me."
"I know you tried your best. Now I would like to offer you a teaching position here at Hogwarts. I have been teaching Defense of the Dark Arts myself but that is proving to be to much for me with being a member of the Order plus headmaster of this school. I would like for you to take over for me. Of course Christiana will be teaching a parenting class and I have hopes that she will remain with us next term."
"I would be honored to do so. And please let me know if I can do anything more for the Order." Blake said shaking Dumbledore's hand.
"yes but of course. Now shall we go eat some breakfast." Dumbledore said leading them back to the teacher's table. He quickly introduced Blake Manger to the other teachers and announced that he was the new Defense teacher. Snape glared at the newcomer with barely hidden anger. Again he was overlooked for the position he wanted most. Dumbledore stood before the school and before anyone could leave he made the announcement of the new teacher who would start that afternoon.
Harry and Ron along with Hermione and Neville walked that afternoon to DADA together. As they entered the room they saw the man who had entered the school that morning sitting behind the desk. They quickly took their seats as they waited for the rest of the class to sit down. The man stood up and introduced himself.
"Good afternoon My name is Professor Blake Manger. Some of you have met my wife Professor Christiana Manger. I will be teaching you defense of the dark arts. I have been an auror for many years in the United States. But have decided to come here to England to be with my wife. Now I have been told that you are now learning some protective spells this year. I will continue these lessons. I believe you have learned Expellomus, and Stupify. Today we will be working on Reducto which is more of an attack but is extremely useful. And if all goes well we will be onto patronus' next week. Now please put your books away and take out your wand."
While the students excitedly put everything away and helped move the desks out of the way, Professor Manger conjured dummies for them to practice on. As well as one for himself. He then paired the students with a dummy and showed them the wand movement. Soon the cry of Reducto could be heard around the room. Hermione was the first to properly cast the spell followed quickly by Harry. Ron soon followed suit. Neville however was one of the last students to finally accomplish the feat.
"Neville you did very well but you would do much better if you tried doing this with confidence. That is the only thing holding you back. You can do this."
"Thank you sir." Neville said in shock. No one except Lupin and Dumbledore and Harry had ever shown any confidence in his ability. Everyone seemed to think he was inept at everything he tried to do.
A hour and a half later they all left the room buzzing with excitement. Professor Manger was the best teacher since Lupin. The rest of the year was going to be awesome. Harry and his friends quickly said good bye to Neville and the others as they headed off to their parenting class. As they went down the hall to where their class was held they found Ginny outside the door waiting for them.
"I didn't want to go in by myself." She said as she opened the door. Inside they found it just the way they had left it. Professor Manger sat smiling waiting for them.
"Good afternoon please take your seats. How was your DADA class today?"
"Awesome. It's going to be so fun. And we are actually learning spells." Ron said at once.
"That is good. Ok first I'm going to have you go make your formula and put them into the bottle warmers. While I go make the dolls come alive. Today you will not only be feeding them and changing diapers but you will be learning to bathe them. When you are done with your bottles please come take a seat and we will begin our discussion on managing time."
The four went to the kitchenette while Christiana went to each crib and waved her wand over them. She turned to see all the students sitting in their rockers talking in quiet tones to the baby's they carried. She smiled at the sight.
"Good I see you all have started to talk to the baby." she said as she joined them. "Time management is very important. Of course for the first few months you will be doing nothing but caring for the baby's. But come September you will be coming back to school with a tougher amount of classes and more responsibility. And how you deal with the pressure will decide how happy your children will be. Harry and Hermione for you it will be doubly hard. But with a daily plan you should be able to do well. On your table is a daily planner. You can write down your schedules for class and extracurricular and any appointment you may have. When I had my children they were indispensable to me. Now what do you all see as your biggest challenge?"
"Quiddich I want to play again if possible. But I don't know if I can juggle two babies and practice plus my homework." Harry said.
"If you couldn't play could you do anything else for the team.?"
"I don't know I don't think so."
"Well if you wanted to how would the captain feel about shorter practices?"
" I don't think that the captain would like it very much. But I think I will talk to them when the time comes."
"I do realize that you will have nannies but I would think that you will not want to use them extensively. You should try if you can to complete all your assignments during your free periods during the day. Go to the Library if you can not concentrate in your dorm. Then you can spend all evening with your children without feeling guilty of course you will have a Nanny staying with you to help you even then."
"These daily planners really do help?" Ginny asked.
"Yes they do. Then you know what all you have to do everyday. Of course you have to be flexible even then. You never know when a little one may become sick or you may have an unexpected accident."
They were discussing it at length when the cries went up through the class room. The teens all went to pick up their baby and retrieved Bottles. They all started feeding the little ones when the door opened slowly. Professor Dumbledore entered and asked if he could observe the class for a bit.
"Yes Professor Dumbledore of course you don't have to ask."
Dumbledore conjured up a chair for himself and watched as the teens fed the babies and burped them. Harry and Hermione soon got up and switched babies. And came back with baby and bottle in tow. Ron and Ginny rocked their little ones as they drifted back to sleep. Professor Manger continued her lesson on time management and giving pointers to Harry and Hermione on different burping techniques. Dumbledore smiled at the sight of them doing so well. Soon all the baby's were asleep. And put in their cribs. They continued talking while waiting for the inevitable cries to go up.
"So you all have learned to make bottles the muggle way and change diapers. What new will you be learning today?" Dumbledore asked.
"It's Bath day." Professor Manger answered with a smile.
"I see"
Lily was the first to cry so Harry rose and quickly changed her diaper and got her back to sleep. He just got sat down when James let out a cry and he returned to the crib and changed his diaper. By then two more cries went up and the parents went to change their diaper. Harry soon sat back down and watched as Hermione finally had to get up and change one of hers. Ron was still having difficulty and was sprayed again right in the face. Dumbledore roared back with a great laugh as Ron's ears turned red. Ginny got up and helped her brother clean himself up after he finished changing the diaper.
"Ron don't get discouraged you'll get the hang of it." Professor Manger said. Ron looked at her appreciatively.
"Ok every one follow me to the sink nearest Hermione's crib. I will show you how to properly bathe an infant and then you will do so with your baby's. Now you want to have everything at hand that you need. You will need this infant body wash, a washcloth and a towel for drying the baby." She set every thing at arms reach. Then she went and picked up Heath and took him to the closest changing table. She quickly undressed him and carried him back to the sink where the baby bath was set up. With one hand she cradled the baby and with the other she adjusted the water that was slowly filling the bath part way. She checked the temperature of the water and seeing that it was perfect. "now feel this water it is perfect. Not to hot and not to cold. Now your going to put the baby in just like this. Be careful to make sure the baby's head is completely above the water. Like this now you will take the washcloth and dip it into the water and put a small amount of soap on it like this then rub it into the fabric. Then we wash the baby like so."
She washed the baby completely and showed them how to safely rinse the baby off. She then picked the baby and put the baby on her shoulder and put the towel over him. She carried the baby to the changing table and put him down. She quickly showed them how to dry the baby and put lotion on it. Then quickly put the diaper on the baby and dressed him in a new clean sleeper. She carried the baby back to the bed and told the students to get to work.
Harry quickly went to work with James. He found it quite easy to give him a bath. But dressing him was a different story. James wouldn't stay still even when Harry soothingly talked to him. Finally after several minutes he managed to get the squirming baby into a sleeper. He laid him in the crib and picked up Lily and undressed her. Her bath went as well if not better than James. She even allowed herself to be dressed. But she would not settle down back to sleep like James had. So Harry sat down with her and softly sang to her as he rocked her to sleep.
Mean while Ron had just finished giving Jonathon his bath and was putting his diaper on. This time with no mishap. Ginny had finished a few minutes before Ron did and was putting little Madison back in her crib. Hermione was finished with Hope and had joined the circle. Ron finally joined them. Harry was having no luck at all getting Lily to fall asleep. Every one was quiet while He sang to her and rocked her. After several minutes she finally started to fall asleep. Soon he was able to put her back into the crib and Professor Manger went around to turn them back into dolls again.
"You all did very good today. Tomorrow we will talk about the different pressures you will be under. Like pressures from friends and family and school. You are all dismissed."
The teens all left leaving Professor Manger and Professor Dumbledore alone.
"You are doing a fabulous job Christiana."
"Thank you Professor Dumbledore."
"Do you think they will be ready for parenthood by the time the babies come?"
"As ready as any teens can be. I feel so sad for them. I don't think I could have done it at their age. They seem so much older than their age."
"They have all been through things that would make anyone grow up fast. If any of my students can handle this it is them."
"From what I see that is probably true."
"Well I will leave you now. I will see you in the great hall for dinner." Dumbledore said as he left the room.
Happily she cleaned the classroom and left to join her husband in their quarters. She entered her chambers to find her husband sitting on their Sofa smiling. She put her things down and joined him happily. He put his arms around her and asked how her day had been.
"It was very good. The kids are learning fast except poor Ron can't quite get the hang of changing diapers. He got sprayed again in the face. Of course Dumbledore had stopped by and seen it. He couldn't stop laughing of course it was contagious that laugh of his."
"I wish I could have seen it. So Do you think they will accept us as members in the Order?"
"I do believe that it may be too early for that but I'm sure they will."
"So when are you going to tell Dumbledore your connection to Sirius and his family? Some of them are death eaters."
"I know I'm just afraid it may cost us our jobs. And they may not allow us to become order members. I'm so scared. But I guess tomorrow morning I will ask to meet with Albus and talk it over with him."
"Do you want me to be there?"
"No I think I should face this myself."
"Why not ask him to talk tonight during dinner instead of tomorrow? I'm sure he would be more than willing to make time for you. Besides I'm sure you won't sleep until it is taken care of."
"I guess I could."
"And I'll go with you. You shouldn't do this alone."
"Ok but only if you want to. I don't want you to feel pressured into anything."
"Darling you are my wife I never feel pressured into making sure you are ok."
An hour later the pair entered the Great Hall and approached Dumbledore who was talking to Professor Flitwick.
"Excuse me Professor Dumbledore, I am so sorry for this intrusion but I need to ask you for a meeting after dinner today if it is at all possible."
"Yes I have time and do not concern yourself with interrupting me when ever you need to don't be afraid to approach me."
"Thank you sir."
The meal seemed to go slowly for everyone. Blake coaxed Christiana to eat some of the delicious food in front of them. She even giggled a little to see her four students eating so fast. "They must be really hungry" She whispered to her husband with a giggle. An hour later they were led to the Headmasters office for their meeting.
"Do have yourself a seat. Now may I ask what this meeting is all about? I certainly hope that you are not unhappy with your teaching positions."
"Oh It's nothing of the kind I assure you. This is a bit more personal of nature. It seems that I need to tell you of some connections of mine that may cause you some concern and may effect my ability to teach and that of my husband."
"All right I'm listening."
Christiana started her tale. "As you know I was not raised by my parents. In fact very few people know who my parents are. But I know you know my half siblings. We are all purebloods. But I am not recognized by most of them only two has ever tried to keep in touch."
"Who are these half siblings you keep referring to?"
"I'm almost afraid to tell you. Regulus, Sirius, Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa are all my half siblings. I am the child of Sirius' mother and Andromeda's father. Sirius and Andromeda has been the only one to try and keep in touch. Of course after Sirius' being sent to Azkaban I never heard from him since. But Andy has wrote me at least once a year."
"Oh I understand but I fail to see where this would effect your ability to work here."
"But I have family who are death eaters" She said quietly.
"Christiana you are not one. You want to be a member of the Order. Your family has nothing to do with who you are. You make your own decisions based on who you want to be. Now why don't you and your husband go back to your rooms and rest tomorrow is going to busy like usual."
"Good night Professor Dumbledore and Thank You." Christiana said gratefully.
"you are quite welcome. Good Night."
The two returned to their rooms and finally curled up together and fell asleep holding each other.
