A/N: This has now been updated.
Chapter Fourteen
The Return
Harry stared up at the star spangled ceiling of the Hogwarts' Great Hall and sighed a little. It was so confusing to be back at school after having decided at the end of the previous year not to return. For what may have been the one thousandth time since sitting down to watch the first year class be sorted, Harry's eyes darted to the staff table and rested on Professor McGonagall, who was sitting in the centre, in the high backed chair that had once been reserved for Dumbledore. It was so strange to be sitting in the Great Hall with mountains of food before him, but unable to eat because his stomach jumped and rocked at the thought that he would never see the former Headmaster ever again. Dumbledore was gone. Harry sighed again.
"Is something the matter?" Hermione asked gentility as Ginny and Ron also turned to from their plates to look at Harry.
"No," replied Harry quickly, not wanting to share his melancholy thoughts and ruin his friends' meals as well.
"You're not eating, mate," Ron pointed out between massive bites of his meal.
"Not everyone thinks with their stomachs, Ron," sighed Hermione in frustration.
"I don't either! In fact you said I thought with my-"
"Ron!" cried Hermione, blushing a little as Ron grinned at her.
Harry chuckled a little and took a bite of his potatoes, hoping that that would satisfy Hermione and Ron both.
"Attention!" called McGonagall from the staff table, standing as the food faded from the plates. "I have a few announcements to make!"
The students in the hall all went silent, wanting to hear what their new Headmistress had to say. "This year we would like to welcome Professor Brookes to Hogwarts. She will be taking over the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." McGonagall waited while the scattered applause and open whispering about the small, blushing blonde woman died down. "Secondly, we have made a few changes to the Head Boy and Girl system this year. There will be two additional students filling the roles this year, so that more patrols and supplementary defence lessons can be offered. This year's four will be Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. Professor Hagrid is now head of Gryffindor. You may all go now."
As the school filed out, the four newest head students were the topic of conversation everywhere, most particularly the youngest of them. People from every house debated the appointment of the sixth year student, and the fact that every one of the four was in Gryffindor. Hermione, Ron and Ginny pretended that they didn't hear the loud whispers as the herded the students to their common rooms, but Harry just plodded slowly to the Head Student quarters. He muttered the password to the stone that guarded their new rooms, and walked in to find that Ron and Hermione were already standing together at the top of one of the two staircases that flanked the cozy common room. There were two doors at the top of each set of steps that led to what Harry assumed were bedrooms. Across from the main door was a large fireplace surrounded by couches, chairs, desks and tables. Several bookshelves lined the walls, though most were empty. Odd tapestries and paintings covered the stonewalls at random intervals, but what first caught Harry's eye was the elaborate rug that covered the ground between the door and the first couch in front of the fire. In the centre was the Hogwarts crest, and the background was the house colours, but switched so that the colours were behind the opposite quarter of the crest.
Harry glanced up from the rug to find that though Ginny stood at the top of the right hand staircase, her trunk was still at the bottom with his. He went to carry it up the stairs for her, and Ginny rushed to take the other end. "So, do you suppose that it will occur to Hermione and Ron that you girls were probably supposed to have one set of rooms with us boys the other?" Harry asked with a grin.
"Not likely. Think about how long it's taken to occur to them that they are in love with each other," Ginny said it as she dropped her end of the trunk to open the first door.
"Have they noticed that they're in love with each other yet?" asked Harry curiously.
"Weren't you paying any attention this summer?" responded Ginny as Harry hoisted up the trunk on his own and walked in behind Ginny to drop the luggage at the foot of her four-poster bed, hung with deep purple curtains that matched the ones at her window.
"I was busy paying attention to more important things," Harry reminded her as she inspected the desk and the wardrobe, both made of the same red tinged wood as the bed.
"Well, if you put it that way, I'm more than willing to fill you in," Ginny said, "Ron and Hermione have no idea that they're in love. Sometimes they're caught kissing each other, but they're not dating as of yet. So things pretty much stand where they did two months ago."
Ginny and Harry inspected the room together, looking over the desk, bed and dresser again. There were two windows flanking her bed and a small table between the massive furniture and the inky dark porthole to the night sky.
"Wow, this room would be perfect, if only there was a door that lead to yours," Ginny said with a teasing grin.
"What the lady wants, she gets," Harry declared as he created a door then hid it behind a tapestry.
"Perfect!" Ginny said. "Now if only you had your trunk up here so we wouldn't have to leave these rooms until morning!"
"Don't think that every time you say 'if only' that I'll drop everything and arrange things so you get what you want!" protested Harry with a grin.
"Won't you?" asked Ginny with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, but you aren't supposed to know that," Harry said just before he hurried down the stairs to get his trunk. He was in such a rush to get back to Ginny that he only took enough notice of his friend who were still on the opposite landing to make sure he went into his room instead of Ginny's. Had he looked closer, Harry might have noticed that they were sharing another snog, this one coming about when Hermione brought up plans for re-launching her SPEW campaign. Ron had just meant to distract her, but that mission had quickly flown from his mind…
Harry dumped his trunk in his room, barely glancing around to see that it looked much like Ginny's before hurrying through his newly created door. "That was a wonderful idea on you're part, love," Harry said as he let the tapestry fall to hide the door again.
"I'm brilliant, we both know it, now kiss me, Potter!" Ginny demanded.
Harry complied, and then had the initiative to go much farther.
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Loud pounding at her door the next morning woke Ginny from her sleep in her new four-poster bed. She stumbled out from behind the purple curtain and threw it shut behind her. On her way to the door, Ginny stooped to pull Harry's black t-shirt from the previous day over her head while shoving the rest of the clothes that littered her floor behind the door. "Who are you, what do you want, and you better come bearing a gift of coffee!" Ginny called just before opening her door to reveal a stressed looking Hermione.
"Does no one but me wake up on their own!" wailed the bushy haired girl who was the only one of the occupants of the Head Student's dorm to be fully awake and dressed.
"Breathe, Hermione, breathe!" Ginny soothed. "You go wake up my brother and I'll take care of Harry."
"Make sure you're both ready in fifteen minutes or we'll all be late!" Hermione ran down the stairs, still nearly hyperventilating.
"Alright!" Ginny called, shutting the door and hurrying to her bed. "Harry, love, wake up!"
"Gin, let's lock the doors and never leave!" Harry cried, pulling Ginny back into bed with him.
"That might tip someone off that we're dating," Ginny pointed out, standing up and flooding the room with light by flicking her wand at he curtains.
"If we never leave, that wouldn't matter," argued Harry as he ducked into his room to grab clothing. As he came back, he asked, "Did we ever find the loo last night?"
"Nope, we were a little busy," Ginny, pointed out as she stuffed things into her school bag, still wearing Harry's shirt and nothing else.
"Did we try either of the doors on the wall that connects our rooms?" asked Harry, going to investigate the one on Ginny's side.
"Nope!" Ginny called out as she pulled clothing from her trunk.
"I found it, but I also found this annoying thing called a clock. This clock tells me that we have barely five minutes before we need to be in the hall to get our time tables!" Harry said, coming back in and tugging on his shirt and then his robes.
"No time for a shower, then," Ginny sighed regretfully, pulling a baggy black t-shirt over her head.
"Hey, that's mine!" complained Harry, noticing the big red lettering on the front as she pulled up her plaid skirt and shook out her thick waves of red hair.
"Well, if you're really good, then I'll let you have it back tonight. If of course, you can get it off me!" Ginny said as she shrugged on her robes, buttoning only the first few buttons. "Ready?"
"Sure. I'll go back to my room and you can come to the outside door and knock like you're getting me up," said Harry as he kissed Ginny and left.
With a sigh, Ginny prepared herself for another day of lies and subterfuge by concentrating on the reward that would come after the others had gone to bed.
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"Ginny, I'm ta tell ye that Professor McGonagall wants to see ye right away." Hagrid said as he handed Ron, Hermione and Harry their timetables.
"Great!" exclaimed Ginny as she went off to meet the Headmistress.
"Do we know what that's about?" asked Ron, stuffing bacon in his mouth.
"Haven't a clue," Harry said, trying to not to let on that he wished that Ginny were sitting with them. Hermione shook her head.
"Right then, potions first," Ron said, having finished off more food in the few minutes they had been sitting at the table than most students who had been on time for breakfast.
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"Miss Weasley, I would just like to tell you that your first patrol will be tonight from seven until nine. You will be allowed to use the library after everyone leaves to give you time to complete you're homework. Mr Potter will patrol with you and Miss Granger and Mr Weasley will take over at nine. You four will be splitting all the patrol duty until you can meet with the Prefects and make a schedule to have them help you," Professor McGonagall said, observing the student who stood on the other side of the desk she had commandeered in the closest classroom to the great hall. "Please tell the others for me."
"Not a problem, Professor," Ginny said, feeling that the teacher would carry on because there had to be a reason she had decided to talk to only Ginny about this, and in private.
Ginny was proven right when McGonagall spoke moments later. "Miss Weasley, you are younger than the others. I want you to be sure that this will not be in the way of you're school work, or that if you don't want to be Head Girl for some other reason, you don't have to."
"In other words, you just found out that Harry and I broke up and you want to know if I can handle working so closely with him," Ginny guessed shrewdly, "Either that or suddenly decided that you only want three Head Students for no particular reason."
"Well, your first guess might not be far off the mark," admitted the teacher.
"I can handle it," Ginny said, "In fact, it's kind of nice to not have the responsibility of being the one that Harry confesses everything to anymore. He had a lot of weight on his shoulders, and it's hard to take on some of it and still remember that Harry is the person you're supposed to be in love with. I think I was in love with Harry so long as a little girl, that I didn't really know what to do when I finally got to be his girlfriend. I think I need some one that I can just be around with out worrying about upsetting him so much that it will affect the rest of the world."
"Alright, Miss Weasley, you may go," said the Professor.
Ginny murmured a quiet goodbye and headed out of the classroom, both saddened that she had been forced to lie to a teacher she liked and respected and elated that she had been able to pull it off. It occurred to Ginny that that was how she had felt almost since the moment they had started this plan. Elation and sadness made for a giddy combination, Ginny was finding.
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"Alright, class, take out your books. We can start with chapter one, by reading about modern dark arts. Later we'll start countering curses," said the timid Professor Brookes as she surveyed one of her seventh year DADA classes. She had two, because her classes had just been made mandatory for every student. This class combined the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw houses, and was the second she had taught. Her last class had been an unruly lot and she had nearly had a few snotty Slytherins walk out. Yet, by taking away a few house points, she had managed to rein them in. It surprised the young woman that the students could care so much about a stupid inter-house competition when a war was being waged around them.
"Professor, we will be doing actual spell work won't we?" asked a bushy haired girl sharply.
"Of course we will," said Professor Brookes, wondering how else she could be expected to teach the class.
"So you're not planning to follow the Ministry's curriculum?" asked the same girl, who had all eyes on her.
Before Professor Brookes could reply, a tall, dark haired boy came to her defence. "Lay off, Hermione. She's not Umbridge," he said, "She's not even British."
"I just wanted to make sure-"
"Hermione, give her a chance. So," the boy continued, "Sorry about my friend. She just takes her education seriously."
"That's quite alright, Mr…?" trailed off the teacher, not sure if the boy sprawling so casually in his chair was being sincere or not.
"Potter," said the boy wearily, "Harry Potter."
"I see," said the Professor, purposely not reacting because the teen seemed to be expecting so sort of embarrassing scene, "Well, I'll assure both you and Miss…?"
"Granger," the girl said promptly, and the teacher nodded in thanks.
"I assure you both that there will be a practical aspect to the course, but only for those who do their homework. I have to know that you understand the concepts before I let you try to use them. Now, chapter one, please," said Professor Brookes, hoping that the students would start working and that this class would go better than the one with the pug-faced girl in it that she had taught earlier that morning. She nearly sighed when Miss Granger spoke up again, though she had at least managed to raise her hand this time.
"Where exactly are you from? I can't quite place the accent, though it sounds vaguely American…"
"I'm Canadian," said the newest Hogwarts professor explained. There was the slightest murmur of interest through the class, though some students remained staring out the window. "Well, get to work," said Professor Brookes quietly, very glad when the class did just that, with only a few groans and sighs in protest.
"Next class we'll take up the homework and decide whether its time to put what you learned into practise," Professor Brookes said just before the bell rang. Suddenly an owl swooped through the window and the quiet teacher sprang to her feet, nearly ripping the letter from the bird. She scanned the letter quickly, then sighed and sank back into her chair. "You gave me a scare, Alex," she scolded the owl as the students filed out, "Just see to it that you keep brining more news like this, and I'll forgive you."
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"That is one odd teacher," Ron said as they walked into the transfiguration classroom.
"She seems nice enough. Very serious about the work," Harry said, trying to be fair.
"Odd beats Umbridge any time," Hermione pointed out.
"She has you there, Ron," Harry said, shaking off his dark thoughts, "Though I wish she wouldn't waste so much time on book work. A little I can understand, but who knows when Voldemort will strike next? We need to be ready now."
"Thank you for that cheerful note, Potter. Now, unless you have more optimistic outlooks to share, could we perhaps start the lesson?" asked McGonagall dryly.