Hey guys! Here's a new chapter for you, so please read and review.

AN: Harry Potter, unfortunately as much as i have wished upon shooting stars and all, still does not belong to me. Ugh! Life sucks :(

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

LIFE AT HOGWARTS

Meanwhile back at Hogwarts…

It was the first day back at Hogwarts for Hermione, Ron and Neville who were now fifth year students. As they made their way to the Great hall for the start of the year feast, Hermione went on about the classes that she wanted to take while her friends tried to ignore her.

After the first year students had been sorted into their various houses, Dumbledore got up. He made a speech, welcoming both new and old students alike, he then introduced the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Hang on! Did he just say, Professor Lupin? As in, the Remus Lupin?" Hermione asked in a loud whisper.

"Yes he did!" Ron gasped excitedly.

"Does that mean that Dumbledore finally knows where Harry Potter is?" Neville asked, trying and failing to hide his excitement at the thought of Harry Potter coming back to the Wizarding world.

"Blimey! Do you think he is here?!" Ron exclaimed as he began to look around the Great hall.

Meanwhile, Snape was looking at Remus with a look of deep loathing. Once again, he had applied to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts class and once again, he had been declined. This time, to add insult to injury, the job had gone to one of his childhood nemesis.

"Let the feast begin!" Dumbledore announced with a smile on his face and his arms spread wide.

Soon, the golden plates and goblets before them filled suddenly with food and drink. As he ate, Ron excitedly kept on looking for Harry.

"He is not here…I don't see him anywhere" he said, dejectedly with a full mouth of food.

"Ron! Say it, don't spray it" Hermione scolded.

Meanwhile, Neville had also been looking around for Harry hopefully, but just like Ron, it finally dawned on him with disappointment that Harry Potter hadn't come to Hogwarts, only his guardian had.

"I hope he is at least better than all of the other DADA professors that we have had so far" Hermione said.

"You thought professor Moody was brilliant though" Ron pointed out as he bit into a chicken.

"Well yeah but he turned out to be an impostor, a death eater…but he did teach us some cool things" Neville said.

Snorting, Hermione replied "Teaching us about the Unforgivable curses…I still can't believe we were taught that"

Soon, dinner was over and the students were led back to their various houses.

As Remus began to leave the Great hall, he was greeted and congratulated by the other professors and as he walked past Snape who wore a rather nasty sneer, he was taken aback by the look of hatred that was being levelled at him.

"Hello, professor Snape" he greeted with a smile, to which Snape responded coolly before walking away. Obviously, Snape hadn't gotten over the grudge that he held against the Marauders.

With a shrug, Remus headed to his private quarters which he had been assigned to. Once he got there, he fetched the two way mirror that he had brought along with him to communicate with Harry and Sirius as they did not trust Dumbledore enough to use the Floo network head only transport, as it could be monitored.

As the other one of the pair was with Sirius, he called out his name and soon Sirius' smiling face appeared.

"Hey Moony, or is it professor now?" he greeted with a cheeky smile.

"Hey Padfoot…how is it going back at the Manor? And how's Harry? Is he with you?"

"One question at a time Moony…things are fine here and we miss you greatly and Harry is fine. He is here with me"

Soon Harry was given the mirror and Remus could see him.

"Hey cub…how are you?"

"Hi Moony…the Manor seems dull without you here…we miss you!"

"I miss you too…how did your training with Mad Eye go today?"

"It was great…I was able to disarmed and knock him out twice" he replied, proudly.

"Well done! And don't forget to write a letter to the headmistress about your response to the letter from Merlin. And keep me informed on that…will you?"

"Jeez! Moony, I will make sure he does all that…we can manage without you for a few months you know" Sirius was saying now as he stood behind Harry.

"Sure you can…but I just wanted to make sure that you don't forget. And Harry please keep practicing and training, ok?"

"I will and Lucas says hi too" Harry said as Remus heard Lucas in the background yelling out a greeting.

He chatted with them for a little while longer before deciding to turn in for the night as he had an early class to teach the next day. As he lay down in his bed, he thought of his family and how much his life had changed in the last couple of years from being alone and secluded to having a family, a boy that is pretty much his son and his best friend, and now a job that he had always dreamed of having. With that thought in his mind, he fell asleep.

The next day, as Ron, Neville and Hermione walked to their Defence against the Dark Arts class, they wondered excitedly what they were going to be taught and the kind of teacher, Lupin was going to be.

"I was talking to Fred and George earlier and they told me that he was really great when they had him this morning" Ron said, as they made their way down the halls of the North tower towards their classroom.

As they entered the room, they found their teacher standing the middle of the classroom with all of the chairs and tables pushed to the back of the room.

"After going through your syllabus from your first year, it has come to my knowledge that most of the lessons you've been taught are mostly theory except some things from last year…so we will be starting with a few basic defensive spells just to assess how much you know and I will then decide where to go from there."

With that, he began to call out each student to perform certain spells he called out.

They did this for the duration of the class period, after which he assigned them a page from their textbook to read up on for the next class.

As the trio made their way up to their common room, they conversed about the class and their opinion of professor Lupin.

"He was really great…did he see how he slyly hit Malfoy with the Petrificus Totalus spell when he tried to hit you with a spell from behind, Nev...that was bloody brilliant" Ron gushed excitedly.

"Yeah, or when we got to try out the Riddikulus spell on the Boggart…who knew that professor Snape could look that ridiculous…" Neville replied as he doubled over laughing.

"I, especially loved practicing the Freezing spell…I have read about it but never actually tried it" Hermione said. "You know, I just realised that with him as Harry Potter's guardian, he must be teaching him all of these defensive techniques and with Sirius Black, a well-known and rather good Auror as his other guardian, Harry Potter must be well trained"

"Yeah, a combination of those two as one's personal teacher…bloody hell! Voldemort might not even stand a chance if he ever had to face Harry Potter" Ron said.

As Hermione and Ron discussed and imagined how skilled Harry Potter must be, they were oblivious to the look of pure sadness and envy that had shadowed Neville's face as he had also began to imagine that Harry Potter must really be well skilled, as he had people that actually cared enough to teach him while he was stuck with a private instructor who seemed to gain pleasure from mocking him and embarrassing him instead of teaching him.

He really needed to talk to Dumbledore again about talking to Snape to treat him better at their private lessons or maybe find him another instructor because he hadn't learnt a single thing from those private lessons.

"You okay there, Nev?" Ron asked as they waited for Hermione to tell the Fat Lady the password to their common room.

"Yeah, I am fine" replied Neville as he made his way into the now open room.

The next day, after a hearty breakfast and a little chat with the friendly groundskeeper, Hagrid, Lupin had made his way to his classroom and was beginning to get ready for his first class when a slight chubby student around Harry's age with dark hair made his way into his classroom.

"Ha, morning Mr. Longbottom" he greeted the student pleasantly as he gestured for him to have a seat.

"Good morning, professor" the boy replied, almost timidly.

"What can I do for you?"

"Well, um, you see…" Neville stuttered as he tried to explain his reason for coming to see the teacher.

Understanding, how terrifying it can be for students to sometimes approach their teachers outside of class, Remus offered him a kind smile and gently asked him what he wanted.

"Well, you see…Professor Dumbledore has professor Snape tutoring me privately in DADA but…" he stopped as he wondered if he would get in trouble if he told the professor about how much Snape bullied him.

Understanding what the boy was trying to say and feeling pity for him, Remus helped him finish his statement, "He scares you and is rather tough on you…am I right?"

"Yes sir…and I was wondering if you could give me private lessons instead"

Remus gazed at the boy, causing the boy to fidget nervously as he thought about how he was being taken advantage of by Dumbledore.

He thought to himself, "This is what Harry had escaped from but we hadn't thought about who had been used as a replacement…poor child. What the hell is Augusta thinking letting Dumbledore get his claws into her grandson"

Thinking that he could at least help the boy with this, if not anything else, he made up his mind to tutor him.

"I will tutor you as long as you agree to put in time and effort" he said to the boy, completely surprising him.

"Yes, thank you professor" Neville replied excitedly, as he nodded his head vigorously.

"See me after class today so that we can make plans on when and where we would meet…I've got a class in about five minutes"

"Thank you professor" Neville repeated as he headed towards the door.