Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!
Rated M: For Safety Again
Updated 05/25/09
Harry De Vie
Chapter 12: September First
The morning of September first, found Harry already up and going through his morning exercises of running, martial arts, and sword fighting out on Hogwarts' expansive grounds. He had taken to getting up before the sunrise in order to have the time to complete his workouts before reporting to the Great Hall by eight for breakfast, a schedule he was hoping to keep up throughout the year. When he arrived, he met Argus Filch and Rolanda Hooch who had both arrived for the school year as the caretaker and flying instructor respectively, not that he didn't already know that.
Everybody was relatively anxious and excited for the new school year to begin, but after breakfast Harry had to get away from all the talking teachers and the Prophet's morning spread detailing another muggle neighborhood destroyed by Voldemort and his sycophants. Harry was angry with himself for forgetting at times that he was sent back to change others lives as much as to destroy Voldemort who was only getting bolder and stronger, and felt he was letting opportunities to face Tom go until he was more prepared. He knew that he could probably give Tom a really good fight right now, but wasn't really ready to test that theory, knowing that if it wasn't enough he wouldn't get a second chance. The risk was still too great, so instead he went to the Room of Requirements to continue his training, knowing he would have to risk it and go out and fight Voldemort and those Death Eaters very soon.
He decided to just tire himself out; figuring fatigue would be the best way to burn off the nervous energy he had waiting for the students to arrive and thinking about the war. He started with several dueling dummies, and after every successful round, would increase their number until he was fighting over two dozen automatons simultaneously. He was cut up, bruised, and panting when he finally decided to call it quits and almost freaked out when he realized he only had forty minutes to get back to the Great Hall for the arrival of the students. He rushed to his quarters, took a quick shower, healed his small cuts and bruises and dressed in standard dueling robes with his dragon skin vest and pants on underneath before sprinting to the Great Hall with only minutes until six.
"We didn't think you were going to make it," started Will gladly upon seeing his fellow professor quickly make his way to the head table, "where have you been all day?"
"Sorry, I was training and completely lost track of time," answered Harry apologetically as he took his seat between his best friend among the staff and his greatest dissenter Marlene, who just glared at him disapprovingly. "I didn't think I'd get many opportunities to train once the students arrive."
"Where do you train?" asked Will curiously having looked around a good bit of the castle trying to find his friend after he missed lunch.
"This great training room I found on the seventh floor, it's brilliant," responded Harry with an easy smile.
"I don't remember a training room anywhere," spoke Marlene from Harry's other side as she watched him carefully.
"Why, would you like to join me Marlene? I could really use a live opponent," offered Harry with a lopsided grin that only made Marlene further narrow her eyes at him before she turned back to the Great Hall doors to await the students. "No, I didn't think so."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped, suddenly turning her glare back on the young wizard threateningly.
"That you wouldn't willingly spend time with me if we were the last two people on earth," responded Harry quickly as he returned her glare with a slight smirk that seemed to aggravate her even further.
"You got THAT right," she retorted back smugly and before he could respond, the Great Hall doors were thrown open as students began piling in for the start of term feast and breaking up their usual banter as their attention became focused on the new arrivals.
A great many of the students entering noticed the new young teacher, and the girls especially seemed quite interested in the wizard with the long wild black hair with the golden streak and powerful green and silver eyes. A few remembered him from the summer's attack on Diagon Alley and subsequent Daily Prophet articles which proclaimed the unnamed young wizard as a hero, and were eager to take his class which could only be Defense Against the Dark Arts since they seemed to have a new teacher for that class every year. Harry ignored the girlish giggling, pointing, and staring and instead watched the students enter and interact with their friends and housemates as many of the teachers did the same.
He was easily able to spot the group of Junior Death Eaters led by the LeStrange brothers who were given a wide berth from the other students, and sat at the head of the Slytherin table which he knew meant they were top dogs in their house. They were both fairly broad shouldered and muscled, and looked every bit the men they were to become, with permanent angry glares and sneers on their faces. He also noticed a few other Slytherin's who were apparently not a part of the pro-pureblood group or at least not associating with the Junior Death Eaters, including Severus Snape, Bellatrix Black, Theodore Nott, Selena Sinistra, and two other older couples that appeared to be the Zabini and Greengrass parents by their resemblances to their future children. They all sat a good bit down the table from the lead Slytherins, but didn't seem to be a group themselves but more a collection of persecuted individuals.
Neither Severus nor Bellatrix had even bothered looking to the head table that Harry noticed, and therefore the young teacher had not got a very good look at either of them, but kept glancing back at them every few seconds anyway. There were quite a lot of other familiar faces around the hall, although Harry only knew their kids. They were easy to pick out with their common familial traits and looks as he studied the students from the different houses carefully, seeing if he could place them all.
Easily the loudest group to arrive, and the one attracting the most attention was the four Marauders who were among the last students to enter the Great Hall and find prominent seats among their fellow Gryffindors. The famous pranksters looked just as Harry remembered from pictures, and Remus and Sirius looked so much happier then he could ever remember seeing. They all noticed Harry, and immediately put their heads together either talking about him or planning to prank him. Harry could care less, since he was a tough person to prank according to Fred and George and now knew even more about self awareness and foiling attacks against him to be truly bothered by their exploits. He also noticed Lily among the same friends from the bookstore and ice cream parlor, and talking excitedly about being back at school and had to suppress a smile at her enthusiasm.
There seemed to be a good deal more students than when Harry went to Hogwarts, since over a fourth of these students weren't alive in Harry's time, and had even less kids. He was surprised to see so many siblings of a lot of the students, something almost unheard of in his time unless you were the Weasleys and was surprised at the full house tables and large group of nervous and tiny first years. A shock of bright red hair among the smallest students caught Harry's attention, and was surprised and happy to see Bill Weasley entering Hogwarts looking very much like a shorter version of Ron from Harry's sorting. He clapped politely as the sorting hat was placed on the stool by the usual straight faced Minerva and began to sing its yearly tale.
Harry made mental notes on all the new student's names and houses hoping to help himself learn them better throughout the year, and was quite hungry by the time that Bill was sorted into Gryffindor as the final student of his year. The feast was spectacular as usual, and Harry could tell that Sirki the house elf was involved in all his favorite foods appearing on the platters nearest him. When most had stuffed themselves on desserts, and dishes were slowly being cleared away and finished, a hush fell over the students as Albus Dumbledore stood to make the start of year announcements.
"Welcome everyone to another year at Hogwarts," he began grandly and with bright twinkling blue eyes scanning the faces of his clapping and cheering students over his usual half moon glasses. "I have a few announcements to make before you can all retire to your dormitories. First of which, is that the Forbidden forest is strictly that …forbidden to all students unaccompanied by a teacher. Our caretaker Mr. Filch tells me every year to remind students that magic is not to be performed in the hallways and corridors. Also, we have a new teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Harry De Vie. Since tomorrow is Friday, we have decided to not start your lessons until Monday, so please enjoy a little time to catch up with friends and make yourselves comfortable for another wonderful school year."
"Now," started Albus a few minutes later after the cheering students finally calmed down enough to hear him, "let us sing the school song before you are all sent back to your dorms."
The talk all around Hogwarts that first weekend centered on the new young DADA teacher and those few who had seen him during the Diagon Alley attack where asked often to recount his exploits. The Marauders enjoyed the attention as always and were eager to tell anyone of their new teacher's skill between their usual planning of pranks. Sirius and James were happy to tell everyone about meeting him at the ice cream parlor the day before the attack, while Remus was more interested in how the new guy would be as a teacher since none of them doubted his skill at taking down dark wizards, having seen all the evidence they needed for themselves.
Lily and her two best friends Alice Green and Natalie McKinnon were constantly fielding inquiries of fellow females wondering more about their new hot young teacher, and by Sunday night were ready to start hexing people that continued asking and speculating about it. Natalie had heard plenty of complaints about the new teacher from her mom, who claimed to have the misfortune of sitting next to Harry at every meal, but it didn't dampen her interest, only her tolerance with others asking about it. Lily and Alice didn't care as much, Lily because the idea of dating a teacher no matter how attractive they were, was just plain wrong to the strict rule abider and Alice only had eyes for her Frank. The Gryffindor House in general was quite excited all weekend as they enjoyed the Marauders many pranks, and discussed their favorite new topic, Harry De Vie.
Down in the Slytherin Common Room, the mood was very different, but the same topic was still being discussed almost constantly. Rudolphus and Rabastan knew exactly who their new teacher was in regards to them, the man who killed their father, and likewise had little tolerance for any of the talk coming mostly from the female population. They had hexed the seventh year Prefect Damien Greengrass severely after trying to protect his friends and girlfriend when they were found speculating favorably on the new teacher, and were given an even wider birth from those not in their immediate clique for most of the weekend. Unfortunately, for those on the outside of the power struggle, Professor Slughorn was only able to welcome the new students momentarily before returning to his bed for the rest his leg would need, and the large group of Junior Death Eaters was able to run the common room as they saw fit.
Severus ignored the politics of Slytherin as per usual, and immediately upon arriving back at school went to the library to research some of the new spells and potions he had started developing. It had been a hobby of his for years, to first try to tweak spells and potions, but now had developed into so much more. He really enjoyed creating new potions and spells that nobody had thought to try, and was constantly looking for more ways to better understand his crafts. He loved the library because very few Slytherin's willingly spent time there, and the Gryffindor idiot Marauders probably wouldn't even know where it was in the castle.
He was a little worried about Slughorn's injury since he was an admirable potion master and favored Severus greatly both in class and within the Slytherin House and feared that protection might disappear if Slughorn ever decided to step down for health reasons. Slughorn's brief greeting of the new students this year did little to quell his fears, and had actually been looking up ways to improve the Skelegro bone re-growth potion that could one day help his favorite Professor. Severus was rather skeptical of all the DADA teachers he had over his first five years here, and the new young teacher was no different. He hoped this De Vie character actually knew something about defense and dueling since their instructions in that class had been a joke to date.
Severus knew he had never met the new professor before, but there was something about him, or maybe the way he looked at him that bothered the young Slytherin sixth year. Most of his house absolutely loathed the guy despite never meeting him, or at least followed the LeStrange's lead in whatever they thought and subsequently belittled their own self-worth for a chance to be in with the arrogant, rich, and popular purebloods. He was quite surprised to notice in the back corner of the library sat his fellow housemate and even bigger loner than him, Bellatrix Black for most of the weekend buried in a table of books but made no effort to wonder what the smart but very closed off and hot tempered witch was up to.
For the first time in her relatively privileged pureblood life, Bellatrix Black was scared for her life and sanity. The summer holidays were her worst ever since her family discovered her older sister Andromeda's recent birthing of a baby daughter to the no good muggleborn wizard she disowned her family over and ran off with. Her parents were livid all the time, and took out their frustrations on her since the baby Narcissa was 'too precious to her Daddy' despite being a sixteen year old pureblooded and bitchy princess. Her parents and family Patriarch, Uncle Orion were in talks with the LeStrange patriarch wanting to marry her off to the revolting and bull headed Rudolphus despite the fact they were second cousins. Then came the attack on Diagon Alley, and despite how brief, the imperius curse her future Father-in-law Romulus put her under terrified her to the very core of her magic.
She had felt completely powerless under the unforgivable curse, almost in a euphoric state of ignorant bliss and would have done anything he even slightly suggested. Despite how brief, his suggestions were numerous and utterly revolting. Had he managed to escape that day, he would have controlled her through the unforgivable curse for as long as he desired, and would have made her do simply terrible and terrifying things for him and his sons. The two minutes under that frightening curse let her get the tiniest glimpse of how most pureblood wizards and especially supporters of the Dark Lord would always see her, a sex-toy and never an equal.
Just when she thought her life would no longer be her own, she felt a backlash of magic and felt her mind and body once again reconnect and become her own. When she finally risked opening her terrified eyes, she looked around a damaged Diagon Alley and a small group of wizards and aurors standing only ten meters away questioning a young wizard with long wild black hair that whipped in the wind and appeared to have a small golden streak in it. He was definitely a good looking man, and she recognized him as the one Romulus ordered her and the others to attack while under the imperius curse. When his striking green eyes with bits of silver running through them found her scared dark blue eyes she thought she was going to be in trouble for a moment and ashamedly looked downward and then noticed the headless body of her future Father-in-law lying at the young wizard's feet.
In that moment she knew that the young wizard had saved her very life, and she could feel her magic agreeing that she now owed this stranger I life debt, and could hardly look him in his intense eyes. After she gave her statement to the aurors, she went home to find her parents demanding answers to the attack they seemingly already knew about, and went ballistic when they heard of Romulus LeStrange's death to the unknown wizard. Without Romulus as the Head of the Family, the LeStrange Family would take a real step back in the scales of influence throughout the Ministry and community now that Rudolphus would have to take on the mantle as LeStrange Family Head of House as barely an adult.
Bellatrix had no reservations in thinking that Rudolphus would still push for the Marriage Contract between their two families since he was one of its strongest supporters from the beginning, but now felt she might be able to get out of it if another more suitable candidate could be presented to her family. Not that she ever had many suitors being a loner in the Slytherin House and having a sort of reputation for being a headstrong bitch didn't help matters much. Nobody outside of Slytherin would date one, and within the house everyone was so afraid of Lucius while he was here, and now Rudolphus, the Black sisters had been pretty much off limits to all.
Finally getting to Hogwarts this year was one of her happiest moments, and was quite unusually overwhelmed when arriving in the Great Hall for the Start of term feast. Her emotions had been getting stronger ever since being under that dreadful curse, and she was beginning to get worried that it had done more damage than previously thought. All of those thoughts stopped though when she saw the familiar intense green and silver eyes up at the staff table, and her body gave an involuntary shudder as she remembered the debt she owed him and thought he looked much younger and more relaxed sitting at that table than he did that day in Diagon Alley.
She quickly ducked her head when his eyes swept towards her feeling a slight twinge of concern she couldn't identify, and tried to avoid looking at the wizard she had to admit was very good looking when he wasn't covered in dirt and blood. After finally learning her mysterious savior's name, she had spent almost every waking hour inside the Hogwarts library researching the young teacher and thinking of options to avoid the life her parents seemed to have planned for her. She was more worried though at the moment, by the overwhelming sense of powerlessness she felt while under the imperius curse, and had been researching ways to combat it or understand it better so she could fight it off most of Sunday. She couldn't wait to start classes and see if any of her teachers would give her a pass to the Restricted Section to keep researching the imperius curses effect on her since the regular library had very little on the unforgivable curses, and she hoped to be able to better understand the overflow of emotions she had been feeling since arriving at school for her final year.
The whole school was seemingly waiting for classes to begin, as by Sunday night shortly after dinner most students and teachers had turned in early. The school was through speculating on what would come, and simply wanting to be ready for it, and the first day of classes tomorrow. Harry went to bed too excited about finally getting his start on teaching, since he had been planning for almost a year inside the time distortion after finding out and could hardly wait to begin.
AN: Classes start next chapter, yeah! Had to try and introduce the other student characters that will play bigger roles in this story, hope you enjoy.