TITLE: Double Back
DISCLAIMER: All things Harry Potter belong J K Rowling... basically, if you recognise it, it isn't mine... Please don't sic the Aurors on me, I'm just here for the fun.
Monday, 16th September
Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Highlands of Scotland
James grinned to himself as he walked into the classroom first thing on Monday morning, seeing the first year Gryffindor and Slytherin class already there and chatting eagerly amongst themselves. "Alright everyone, settle down." He chuckled as he walked through the door, everyone falling silent immediately and dashing back to their seats as he led the way through the students with Tonks following him, the curious students looking up at them both as he walked to the front of the classroom.
"Right, this is Tonks," James explained aloud as he reached his desk, shrugging off his coat and throwing it over the desk casually, leaving him in comfortable jeans and shirt for now. "Otherwise known as She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." He added on with a smirk, drawing gasps from half the students, laughter from the other half, and a strangled sound of shock from the metamorph in question that he happily ignored. "She'll be covering lessons here and there, helping me out, Professor McGonagall's dumped her on me as an apprentice, but she's basically a trainee professor type deal alright?" He asked, looking around the class before smirking at Tonks to show he was kidding. "She's good enough to get into the Aurors at her age. Think about that for a second before you say anything stupid." He added, spotting a few doubtful glances at Tonks' bright pink hair and unusual dress sense.
"Wotcher," Tonks grinned, giving the class a cheeky wave.
"Her office is next door to mine, so if you need something and I don't answer the door, try there alright? Anyway, introductions over with." James clapped loudly. "The knockback jinx." He said loudly, drawing his wand from his pocket and writing out in the air, causing 'Flipendo' to hang in fiery lettering for them all to read. "Typically a duelling jinx, it'll knock your opponent back about two or three feet, depending on how strong you cast it. If you put enough oomph into it, you can knock them off their feet entirely." He explained, looking around to make sure everyone was paying attention.
As he looked around the class he had to grin as his eyes settled on the front row, seeing Neville and Hermione sat there and sharing a desk happily with Daphne and her brunette friend from Slytherin. It was also rather amusing to see Draco Malfoy without his usual bookends, instead now he was sharing a desk with Pansy Parkinson, with neither of them looking like they wanted to be in the classroom at all.
"It's a pretty simple jinx really, but if you're quick with it you can knock an opponent down, giving you those extra few seconds to cast something else like a body bind or a stunner, taking them down completely." James explained with a smile. "We've got a few people here familiar with it, so who can tell me what it feels like?"
He wasn't at all surprised to see both Hermione and Daphne's hands raised first, with Neville putting his hand up a few seconds later, leaving Daphne's friend to give all three of them a questioning look.
"Daphne?" James grinned, flicking his wand to her.
"Like being pushed in the stomach really hard." Daphne explained firmly.
"Hermione?" James asked, flicking his wand to the next at the table.
"It felt like something heavy crashed into me." Hermione said, trying to put the strange sensation into words.
"Neville?" James asked again, flicking his wand to the last person with their hand up.
"Like... like being kicked in the chest," Neville explained with a wince.
"Three descriptions, all pretty much the same really." James explained, nodding in thanks to the three friends as he stepped away from his desk. "Tonks is going to shield against me casting it, just so you can get an idea of what to expect."
"Great, one crash test dummy coming up." Tonks muttered, causing a few of the class to laugh at her comment as she readied her wand.
"Ready?" James asked with a grin, waiting for Tonks to nod at him before casting, verbally casting aloud for the first time in a very long time. "Flipendo!"
The loud bang that echoed his casting caught most of the class by surprise, though everyone saw the yellow spell leave his wand and clash against Tonks shield, her grimace as she stumbled back a bit had everyone's attention before James continued on.
"As you heard, it's not the stealthiest spell around, making it pretty useless for a surprise attack unless you're particularly quick with it." James explained. "But since Tonks here doesn't want to be our crash test dummy anymore, we'll have to get you lot practising on something else." He said, drawing a smattering of laughter from the muggle-born students in the class as he grabbed a book from his desk and tossed it into the corner of the room before transfiguring it up into a standard duelling dummy on wheels.
Heading over to the dummy he gave it a once over to make sure it was how he'd wanted it to be, before he pulled it a few feet away from the wall and motioned for Tonks. "Give it a test?" He asked, stepping away from the dummy as Tonks readied her wand and cast loudly towards the dummy, the accompanying bang causing the classroom to jump again before a blue light shot out of her wand and crashed into the dummy, sending it skidding back on it's wheels into the wall.
"Alright, now..." James paused, noticing Hermione's hand was raised up. "Hermione?" He asked curiously.
"Professor, why was your spell yellow, but Professor Tonks' spell was blue?" Hermione asked curiously. "It was the same spell, shouldn't they have been the same colour?"
"You'd think so," James nodded thoughtfully. "The spell colour shifts depending on power and intent, you'll find that with a lot of spells. It's not something you're really going to worry about until third year when you get into the intent of casting and how to change the effect of certain spells on the fly." He explained, seeing the curious look on Hermione's face that demanded answers. "Like with a cushioning charm, you have to decide how large you want the area, how soft, things like that are all affected by your intent on casting. Five points though for noticing the difference." He added with a smile down to her. "For now, I just want to focus on getting you lot to cast the spells. We can work on intent and variable spellwork once you've got the hang of casting the basics."
"Tonks, you want to walk them through the wand motions?" He asked, dispelling the fiery writing with a wave of his hand as he walked past, heading towards his desk and leaning back on it as he watched Tonks move to the middle of the front of the room, slowly and rather grandly showing the class the tick and flourish motion for the spell, walking everyone through it as they were practising it silently at their desks.
It was an amusing sight, watching Tonks' hair colour flick from pink to pale blue as she helped a few students with the flourish of their wand motions, crouching down next to them and going through the motions with her own wand next to theirs until they got it.
He spotted a few of the first years being distracted by Tonks' hair, whispering amongst themselves as they were obviously trying to figure out why her hair was changing colour like that.
Once he was satisfied that she'd made her way around the entire class, he happily grinned at her as she came back to join him by the desk. "Right, you all know the drill. Line up and take a shot at the dummy." He explained with a laugh, stepping forwards to stand a few feet in front of the dummy where he wanted the line to end.
He didn't have to wait long for the entire class to surge forwards, apparently all of them now more familiar and comfortable with his 'hands on casting' style of teaching, and before long there was a nice, if not orderly, queue leading back from him with a few Gryffindors at the front before it descended into chaos and crowding half way down.
"Go on then, lets see what you've got!" James grinned as Fay Dunbar stepped forward and flourished her wand, casting loudly and perfectly as the blue spell shot out and smashed into the dummy in question. "Great stuff!" He grinned proudly, wandlessly summoning the dummy back the few inches it had been knocked back. "Back to your seats when you've done." He said with a smile over to Fay as she headed back to her seat with a proud smile on her face. "Next up!"
And with that, the practical session begun.
It was an hour and a half later as the Gryffindor and Slytherin class left the room, everyone in high spirits after the fun class and chatting amongst themselves as they left, all eager to read up on the Full Body-Bind Curse ready for Thursday's lesson.
"That's bloody tiring," Tonks breathed out as the last of the students left the room, leaving her alone in the classroom with James as he laughed at her and relaxed back against his desk.
"They're not that bad," James chuckled, hopping up to sit on his desk as Tonks grabbed a seat at one of the students desks, flopping into it and sliding down to relax for a bit.
"Yeah right," Tonks snorted, shaking her head. "I kinda feel sorry for my teachers now, never realised how much hard work this stuff was."
"Come on, we're only one lesson in." James smirked over at her. "Fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins will be here in half an hour. Double lesson before lunch."
"Oh yay," Tonks muttered dryly, rolling her eyes over to James. "What's with the three at the front? Two Gryffs and a Slytherin?" She asked curiously. "They got their form down nearly perfect, never seen Gryffs friendly with a snake like that before either."
"Hermione, Neville and Daphne." James nodded over. "They've been practising this stuff already, they're all friends with Harry so they're a bit ahead of things, probably will be all year until I start teaching them something they haven't come across in the books yet."
"Daphne's the Slytherin right?" Tonks asked curiously.
"Daphne Greengrass," James nodded over. "She's... it's complicated." He admitted with a frown. "She's Julia's daughter. I'm... I think I'm dating Julia, and Amelia."
"Think you're dating?" Tonks smirked over. "Hows that happen?"
"Honestly I'm not sure either," James grimaced over to her. "Something about line continuance and Amelia wanting to share in a betrothal and... whatever..." He admitted with a shrug. "I know she was dating Amelia before me, but... we haven't exactly gone on a date or anything yet, so... I've got no clue." He admitted, ruffling his hair in confusion. "Somehow I've ended up in a threesome and I've got no idea what's going on with it."
"Not many wizards'd be complaining at that. So, she's going to be family then, if this betrothal thing works out?" Tonks asked curiously, smirking at how the infamous James Potter was apparently utterly clueless when it came to the fairer sex.
"Yeah, pretty much." James nodded over, wondering how he'd actually got into this situation in the first place. "Neville Longbottom, he's my godson."
"Right, that's easy enough. So the third?" Tonks nodded back.
"Hermione, friends with the rest, muggle-born and probably the smartest student in the classroom." James said with a grin. "Seriously, she's sharper than a piercing charm. She'll have read the entire first year book by now, and probably attacked the library already and moved on to the second and third year to keep up with Harry and Susan at this rate." He explained with a snort of laughter. "Expect regular questions from her about everything under the sun, and probably a few things that aren't."
"Right, brush up on everything so I don't look like a total idiot then." Tonks grimaced, thankful for the warning at least. "Anyone else worth keeping an eye on?"
"Blonde, pointy face and slicked back hair, attitude coming out of his arse? Pouting at the back of the classroom and sneering at everyone else? That's Draco Malfoy." James explained.
"Ahh my baby cousin," Tonks rolled her eyes at that one.
"Right," James nodded back. "Ginger Gryffindor at the back left, not paying attention, didn't even bother to get his books out? Ron Weasley."
"Gotcha," Tonks nodded. "Not taking points from him for that then?"
"Not worth it," James shook his head with a shrug. "He'll do the reading or he won't, either way it's going to be his own damn fault when he fails the course this year. When I start handing out homework, I'll be specifically mentioning that I don't want anyone to help each other, solo assignments only. That'll give me a good idea of how bad things actually are."
"Good luck with that," Tonks snorted, shaking her head in amusement at his plan. "So, what now, just hang around until the next class get here?"
"Ask a house elf for a coffee or something if you're bored," James nodded back. "I want to get the fifth years onto their Patronus work today so they can clean out on their OWL exams, so it's going to be a lot of one on one."
"Patronus, for fifth year?" Tonks whispered in shock. "You're serious?"
"As a killing curse," James smirked back.
"Blimey," Tonks muttered, frowning at that. "I can't even do that now, how the bugger are you going to get fifth years casting that sort of stuff?"
"You can't?" James asked, looking at Tonks in surprise now. "I thought you'd have been able to since you were looking at the Aurors?" He asked curiously, now wondering if Dumbledore had had Remus give everyone special lessons on Patronus casting when the war kicked off, in Tonks had learnt it from Remus instead of in Hogwarts or anywhere else, that might have been where she started to fall for him.
He already knew that Dumbledore had refused to give him any special training or lessons to help him defeat Voldemort, why would he when he was planning for him to commit suicide over it anyway? But cottoning onto the fact that Dumbledore had apparently given his Order of the Phoenix members extra training themselves, while denying it to him, was something that rankled deep inside of him and brought that grudge further to the surface.
"Never had anyone to teach it," Tonks shrugged. "Defence teachers were crap when I was here, I only got through on my own study. Think barely a handful of Aurors can too, the rest don't want to learn it so they don't end up settled with Azkaban guard duty like the rest who know it." She explained with a grimace at the thought.
"Probably," James muttered, rolling his eyes at the thought. "Alright, we've got half an hour, lets see what we can do." He said, hopping up off the table and bringing out his wand to start teaching Tonks how to actually cast a Patronus.
Potter Manor
Honley
West Yorkshire
"Sirius?" Amelia called out as she stepped through the fireplace into the Potter living room, looking around curiously for any sight of the wizard in question. "Sirius Black?" She shouted, louder this time.
"'Melia? That you up there?"
"Where are you?" Amelia called out in response, happy that she actually got a response that indicated Sirius was at the manor and not off gallivanting around somewhere.
"Downstairs, behind the spiral staircase." Sirius' voice yelled back.
Amelia nodded at that, gesturing for Julia to join her as she headed over to the spiral stone staircase that led up and curiously looked around it before finding the stairway that led down to the basement of the manor.
Heading down she had her wand out ready to cast a lumos readily, before another shout from Sirius told them to go down the next flight of stairs as well to the level beneath where they currently were.
Thankfully as Amelia led the way down to the lower level basement, a lumos wasn't needed at all, rather the opposite actually, causing both Amelia and Julia to use their hands to shade their eyes from the bright light that came from the enchanted ceiling above displaying a rather beautiful blue sky, along with a few wispy clouds and colourful parrots flying randomly around in the harsh midday sun.
"Well, I didn't expect that." Julia muttered, blinking as her eyes tried to adjust to the tropical daylight she'd just stepped into from the gloomy basement level above them.
"What brings you two lovely ladies down to my little basement paradise?" Sirius grinned over as he approached the pair, dusting down his casual clothes from where he'd been working over in the corner of the basement and smiling over at them from behind a pair of muggle sunglasses.
"A discussion actually, though..." Amelia cocked her head to the side, looking around the basement in curiosity. "James told me what you had planned for down here, but I didn't expect you to be going ahead with it so soon." She admitted, actually impressed with the work Sirius had managed to do on the enchanted ceiling above them.
"Getting there," Sirius nodded, looking around proudly. "Me and James... Prongs I mean... um..."
"It's alright Sirius, she knows." Amelia interrupted, cutting Sirius off with a nod.
"Right, good." Sirius nodded, giving a small breath of relief that he hadn't messed up there. "Me, Prongs and Remus, we figured out the Hogwarts enchanted ceiling back in sixth year." He admitted with a grin. "Just had to find Prongs' old journals upstairs and then recreate it down here." He explained with a shrug. "Haven't got the day and night cycle sorted out yet though, sunsets and that sort of stuff are a pain in the arse. So I'm stuck with a sunny tropical day down here for the moment, whatever the time is." He explained with a shrug.
"It's... I'm actually impressed," Julia admitted, looking up as a particularly colourful parrot flew overhead. "This is some beautiful enchanting work. You have a gift for it." She said with an appreciative nod.
"Thanks," Sirius grinned over, strutting around the room proudly. "Enchanting was always something I was pretty good at. Got into it after working on my motorbike, it's all sorts of fun." He admitted. "Working on designing a hot spring over here, flowing out to a larger pool with a sandy beach going down to it. Maybe a waterfall coming down somewhere, haven't decided on that yet though." He explained, gesturing to the corner of the room. "Smaller pool with the hot spring, up on the rocks a bit, somewhere for the adults to relax with a few cocktails while they watch over the kiddies." He explained with a grin.
"You've planned this out rather thoroughly," Amelia nodded, impressed with the work Sirius was putting in here. It seemed James was right and that giving Sirius a creative project to take his mind of things was exactly what the man needed right now.
"Mostly what Prongs wanted actually," Sirius admitted. "We used to spend hours talking about it, what Prongs wanted to do and how creative we could get with it." He explained with a grin. "Honesty sure he spend most of it imagining Lily in a swimming costume though, so it was down to me and Mooney to actually plan things out and dream about what we could do with the place." He explained with a chuckle.
"That does sound more like the Ja... Prongs I knew." Amelia admitted with a smirk, catching on that Sirius was calling the real James 'Prongs' to separate the two in his mind.
"Anyway, you two aren't here for the sunbathing, which isn't quite done yet, unless you don't mind lying on a damp stone floor?" Sirius laughed, tapping the heel of his shoe against the cold stone floor underfoot. "What do you need?"
"Actually, your help." Amelia said, moving back to the real reason she was here.
"Alright, what can I do?" Sirius shrugged, walking back over. Always more than happy to help Junior and his ladies.
"I'm working on some changes that James wants to get pushed through the Wizengamot. Equal laws for muggle-borns, removing the muggle-born business restrictions, stamping out as much of the bigoted laws as we can." Amelia explained. "I know James is focused on Voldemort right now, but if we can make a start on these while his popularity is at it's peak, it'll save us a lot of campaigning later on."
"Politics then," Sirius groaned in disgust, shaking his head. "What do you need? Money for campaigning? Stuff like that?"
"You actually," Julia said, looking at him with a small grin.
"Me?" Sirius blinked in surprise at that, looking between Julia and Amelia in shock. "Alright, I'll bite... why me?"
"We need you to take your seat on the Wizengamot," Amelia explained bluntly. "Sirius, we need this!" She said firmly, talking over Sirius' objections. "The Black seat is one of the oldest in the chamber, and it's been empty ever since your father died, despite Lucius Malfoy trying to take control of it several times."
"Good riddance," Sirius muttered, more than happy that that bigoted old bastard had finally keeled over.
"If you take the seat, you can align the Black votes with us, it'll rewrite the blocs in the Wizengamot completely." Julia explained. "The light families are already coming over to us from Dumbledore's corner, now that he's been ousted, they don't have anyone to lead them and are looking to people like Amos Diggory instead."
"Don't know him," Sirius shrugged.
"With your vote, along with a few others that are joining us, we'll be able to push through to get the Potter seat finally recognised." Amelia pointed out to him, catching the smirk on his face when she mentioned that. "It'll be a kick in the teeth to the old bigots sitting there, and counter their votes in a single move."
"That'd be worth it," Sirius muttered, pulling his long hair out of his face for the moment as he pulled off his sunglasses to consider what they were talking about. "Flea always did want to get the family recognised, he just didn't have the votes to get it done."
"With you, we think we will." Amelia pointed out. "Black, Bones, Greengrass," She explained with a small gesture to each of them. "We've also got Augusta Longbottom on board already, and I can pretty much guarantee there'll be a swoop of others voting for it as soon as James' name is mentioned."
"No surprise there," Sirius snorted, shaking his head as he slid his sunglasses onto the collar of his grimy t-shirt. "They'll just attach themselves to whoever's the most popular or whoever throws around the most galleons."
"Exactly," Julia pointed out. "With our four families working in concert, they won't be able to deny James his seat."
"Does he know about this?" Sirius asked curiously. Not having heard Junior mention anything about political leanings before, and after spending time with him, he couldn't imagine Junior asking to be part of the Wizengamot any more than he wanted to.
"Not yet," Amelia admitted. "He knows the laws we need to change and knows my plans for them, but not that we'd need his seat to actually affect the changes he wants to champion."
"Oh he's going to hate you for that," Sirius barked out a laugh as he realised what Amelia was playing at. "You seriously think we can get all the muggle-born laws scratched off the books?" He asked curiously.
"It's what we're aiming for," Amelia nodded back. "You've seen his memories. We've already removed Dolores Umbridge from The Ministry, but adding some laws to stop that Muggle-Born Registration future from ever happening is high on my list right now." She said firmly. "I can't do anything to help James with Voldemort until he pops his head up again, but this? This is something I can do to help him prevent that future from ever coming to pass."
"Alright," Sirius nodded, clapping his hands together. "Doing this for Lily, that... that's something I can do. It's something she'd want me to do." He admitted with a nod. "Prongs would be laughing his arse off right now, you know that? Imagine, the Black family championing for muggle-born equal rights." He said with a wide grin. "Merlin, that alone would have the rest of the Blacks spinning in their graves." He explained with a bark of laughter.
"There's a sitting on Thursday morning," Julia pointed out. "If you walk in and claim your seat, park it in our bloc with me and Amelia, we can start working on pushing through the changes before the dark families have any idea of what's going on."
"And Junior doesn't know what's going on?" Sirius asked hopefully.
"Not yet," Amelia nodded over to him. "If we can get this done, I'll tell him once we get the Potter seat recognised." She explained.
"Oh let me, please." Sirius laughed over. "Getting one over on the Wizengamot and Junior in one go? This is like a dream of mine." He explained with a wide grin. "He's going to go crazy when he figures all this out."
"Probably," Amelia admitted with a small smile. "But he'll have to know it needs to be done if he wants those changes pushed through. I just don't think he's realised it means he'll have to be front and centre for all of them to give them even a chance of passing."
"Alright, I'm in." Sirius grinned happily as he started plotting to reverse all those horrible laws that his father was so proud of bribing through. "Thursday morning?" He double checked.
"I'll come here first and walk you through it," Amelia nodded back, with a glance over to Julia to make sure she was on board with that as well.
"My dad never bothered talking to me about the Wizengamot crap," Sirius admitted with a shrug. "Regulus was the one he was priming to take over, guess he did better than me at hiding who he really was." He explained with a sad frown as he thought about his brother must have gone through. With Junior telling him the truth about how his brother had really died, he hadn't really thought about how that must have been for him growing up. "Alright, oh, and how did the talk go? With you two and Junior? I mean, I'm guessing it went alright since you know what's going on with him now and everything right?" He asked, glancing towards Julia.
"Surprisingly well actually," Amelia smiled over. "Things are still in the early stages, but we will be looking at a betrothal announcement soon enough." She explained with a happy smile at the thought.
"Definitely," Julia confirmed. "Both Daphne and Astoria were happy at the idea. I'm reasonably sure both of the girls will be happy to take the Potter name after we get married."
"Good for them," Sirius grinned over. "So Junior will be dad to a whole litter of kiddies soon enough." He explained with a laugh. "Good on him, he deserves a decent family after all the crap he's been through."
"Susan was more than happy with the arrangement," Amelia explained with a small laugh, remembering how Susan and practically tackle hugged Harry when she'd figured out they were really going to be brother and sister. "I think she's always wanted more family herself, growing up alone she made pretty good friends with the Abbots, but growing into a real family would really help her come out of her shell a bit more."
"Planning a party to celebrate the betrothal then?" Sirius asked with a wide grin, picturing all the mischief he could get upto in a big party like that.
"Probably next year sometime," Amelia said thoughtfully. "Or maybe we could hold off on that until the betrothal passes into an engagement?" She asked with a glance towards Julia.
"Oh! We could hold an engagement party here," Sirius beamed, bouncing a bit at the thought. "Over the summer holidays, a big marquee outside, music, fireworks, the whole thing." He planned out, picturing how amazing it would be in his mind. "Junior would love that, getting engaged in the same place Prongs and Lily did, it'd be like they were watching him."
"That's certainly something worth thinking about," Amelia mused on the idea thoughtfully. "This place is certainly bigger than the Bones manor." She admitted thoughtfully.
"A lot bigger than my place too," Julia nodded in agreement. "More grounds too, so the kids can have fun out on their brooms or doing whatever else they wanted."
"Still, something to consider for next year." Amelia said, putting that thought on the backburner for now. "We have a lot to do before we can even start thinking of something that far ahead."
"Right, work first, fun later." Sirius grimaced, it had always been the other way around in Hogwarts for him and Prongs, but as he was quickly coming to learn, Junior had a firm grasp of wanting to get things done first before doing anything fun with his life. "OK, politics." He said aloud with a groan as he gestured for Amelia and Julia to follow him back upstairs so they could talk without the bright sun beaming down from overhead and giving them a sunburn. "What do I need to know?" He asked hopefully as he slowly trudged up the stairs.
Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Highlands of Scotland
As the bell rung for the end of the third year Slytherin and Gryffindor double defence class, James watched with a smirk as Tonks practically sagged against the classroom wall while the class enthusiastically bagged up their books and parchments and filed out of the class.
"Wicked stuff Professor Prongs!"
James grinned over to the pair of the Weasley Twins that were left in the classroom as everyone else filed out of the classroom.
"Glad you two are enjoying it," James chuckled over. "How's potions going with Professor Tonks?" He asked, noticing how Tonks' ears quite literally perked up at this as she focused her attention on the conversation going on.
"Wicked!" Both twins breathed out at once.
"She's got us mixing all sorts of stuff!" One of the twins clarified.
"Fancy stuff really, never knew a Professor could mix that sort of stuff!" The other twin added on.
"Much better than Snape was, a hundred times better." The first twin nodded enthusiastically.
"Oh brother of mine, I do think you're underselling the wonderful Professor Tonks." The second twin shook his head. "Who else would have taught us how to enchant a transfiguration into a potion like that?"
"Too true, too true indeed," The first twin sighed theatrically.
"A thousand times better than Snape!" They both declared in tandem with beaming grins to match their enthusiasm.
"I'm sure she'll be happy to know that," James laughed, shaking his head at the twins antics. "Just remember to stay on her good side, her cousin is Padfoot after all. So if you behave with her, she might bring him along sometime and introduce you two."
"That... that would be a day of the ages," The first twin breathed out reverently.
"A day to surpass all others," The second twin confirmed.
"You two keep it up, and I'll see what we can do." James grinned back.
"Yes Professor Prongs!" Both twins nodded enthusiastically as they grabbed their bags and dashed out of the classroom, both now talking very quickly to each other about their plans for future Weasley products.
"You foisted those two out on mum?" Tonks whispered in horror, looking at James in surprise as she hobbled over to one of the student seats and practically collapsed into it.
"Actually I think Andromeda loves having them around," James explained with a laugh as he hopped up onto his desk and got comfortable sitting there. "They're damn good at what they do, mixing potions and coming up with creative stuff. They just needed a teacher that was willing to let them go a bit, rather than keeping them trodden down and buckled into the straight and narrow."
"Blimey," Tonks muttered, shaking her head as she tried to imagine her mum teaching those two. "I'd get a headache just being in the same room as them for too long."
"You get used to it," James chuckled to himself.
"Quite so,"
Both James and Tonks looked up at that, Tonks craning her neck around as she recognised Professor McGonagall stood in the doorway of the defence classroom and looking on.
"Surprisingly, actually both the Weasley twins have shown a remarkable change this past week." Minerva admitted as she came into the defence classroom. "Both in the quality of their essays, and their focus in the classroom." She explained. "I had a closer look at their work after our last discussion, I trust I have you to thank for that?" She clarified, looking at James.
"Probably," James shrugged from where he was still casually sat on his desk.
"I had assumed as much," Minerva nodded thoughtfully. "I also witnessed several sixth year students on the grounds practising their Patronus shields. More work of yours?"
"Yup," James nodded, popping the 'p' proudly as he grinned over. "I'll have all the NEWT students casting it by the end of the year, probably at least half of the OWL kids too."
"Such advanced spells are not normally taught until students apply for their mastery programs." Minerva said with a small frown over towards James as she considered what he was saying.
"It's stupid," James shrugged. "They need to learn it, now more than ever." He said firmly. "If Voldemort breaks into Azkaban, they'll join him, and we'll have Dementors to deal with as well as Death Eaters." He explained bluntly. "Don't know about you, but I'd feel a hell of a lot better with fifty or a hundred more Patronus' flying around than I would with just a few."
"You... you really think he'd attack Azkaban?" Tonks asked, looking over to James now.
"Why not?" James asked curiously. "Half his inner circle are locked up there." He pointed out. "Breaking them out would double the Death Eaters loyal to him, not to mention the rest of the crazies and killers in there and the chaos that would cause." He explained. "You think he hasn't figured that out?" He asked as he looked at Tonks.
"You're right, of course." Minerva winced as she considered the fallout of Voldemort attacking Azkaban. "It is certainly something he would attempt to do in order to bolster his forces." She explained with a sigh. "I trust Amelia has already been told?"
"She knows," James nodded thoughtfully. "I think she's working on bolstering the guards there, but with the dementors around, it's a pretty hard sell to offer that as a job." He explained with a snort of laughter, shaking his head at the thought. "Nobody's going to want to work somewhere like that."
"Aurors that can cast a patronus are rare as a goblins smile anyway." Tonks pointed out. "Not corporal anyway, most of them can manage a shield, nothing like him." She explained, pointing towards James with a smirk.
"Yes, both James and Sirius, Lily and Remus as well to that point, were all rather prodigious with their charms work." Minerva admitted with a sigh. "And... has Albus been in contact at all?"
"Nope, not in person anyway." James shook his head. "He sent Shacklebolt to try and talk to me instead. That's his usual style, I don't expect to see Dumbledore poke his head above ground until he's sent more of his little toadies to do his work for him."
"James," Minerva groused, frowning over at him.
"Oh you know it's true," James shot back, matching her frown. "It's what Dumbledore does. He uses people, gets them indebted to him, or lets them think they are, and manipulates them into doing what he wants so he can just sit around on his arse." He explained bluntly, remembering reading through Rita Skeeter's 'Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore' book in his future.
"Remember the war with Grindlewald? Who did he manipulate to go and do his dirty work there? Newt Scamander, only a few years out of school and still under Dumbledore's thumb because he stood up for him when he was expelled." James explained with a sigh. "Who did he send to Godric's Hollow when Voldemort attacked? Hagrid. Think about that, it's somewhere he literally knows Voldemort has been, and probably could still be there, but who does he send? Someone who can't even use a wand to defend himself. Seriously, was he just trying to get Hagrid killed or what?"
Minerva frowned at that, but couldn't deny either of James' points.
"And Dumbledore's Order in the first war, all kids either in their last years of Hogwarts, or only a few years out of school and still believing he's the master of everything." James explained, rolling his eyes at the way Dumbledore had manipulated things. "It should have been Aurors and trained War Wizards fighting Voldemort, not kids that are barely out of school."
"The first war?" Minerva asked, raising her eyebrow at that seemingly out of place comment.
"You think a second one isn't about to start?" James replied quickly to cover up his mistake during his rant before moving on so Minerva couldn't press the point. "So no, I haven't seen the old fart, and I have no intention of breaking that streak of good luck any time soon. He'll get what he deserves, but I'm not spending time running around after him when I've got other more pressing things to deal with." He explained bluntly, changing the track of the conversation back to where it had originally started.
"As you wish," Minerva frowned but nodded curtly, knowing by now that James had rather strong and antagonistic views towards Albus for several reasons, nearly all of which she couldn't refute in the slightest. "I assume your day went well then Miss Tonks?" She asked, looking over at the witch in question.
"Pretty wicked," Tonks nodded. "Tiring, but yeah, it was fun Professor."
"Minerva, please." Minerva gave a thin lipped smile back. "At least when we are away from the students."
"Um, that's going to get some getting used to." Tonks admitted, looking at Minerva and trying the name out in her head for a few times, wrinkling her nose at how strange it felt to attach a first name to someone who'd been her professor for the last seven years.
"It gets easier," James explained, looking over at Tonks and smirking at her expression.
"Miss Tonks performed admirably during your lessons then?" Minerva asked, looking to James now for his appraisal of his new apprentice.
"Yeah, she did alright." James nodded over with a shrug. "Give me a few weeks to get her upto scratch on the higher level stuff and she'll be set." He mused aloud.
"It was fun, you know, after he introduced me as She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and probably scared the knickers off of half of the firsties." Tonks explained with a mock glare over towards James.
"I see James' sense of humour remains as much of a problem as ever then," Minerva sighed in frustration, rubbing her temples as she imagined the scene and catching James smirking over at them both. "Very well then, I shall see you both at the evening meal."
"Sure," James replied before Minerva headed out of the classroom, he didn't really have any plans to head out of the castle tonight anyway, so unless Amelia got in touch with anything, he was planning for a relaxing night of it.
"You really get used to calling Professor McGonagall that?" Tonks asked once she was sure Minerva was out of earshot range.
"In a few months," James admitted as he hopped off the desk, moving over to grab his coat and the pile of parchments he'd collected today from the assignments last week. "Come on, lets get out of here." He said with a grin as Tonks practically bounced out of her seat to grab her own coat from the coat-rack at the rear of the classroom. "You got anything planned for tonight?"
"Dunno," Tonks shrugged as she followed James out of the classroom, watching as he flicked his wand to lock it behind him. "Mum asked me to run down and see her in the dungeons, guess she wants to know how today went."
"Probably," James mused aloud as he led the way down the third floor corridor towards their living areas. "Say hi from me and Sirius, I'll have to prod the old dog and see if he's actually written back to her yet."
"Mum'd like that," Tonks smiled as James opened the door into his office, leading the way in and dumping down the stack of parchments on his desk. "Wow, yours is much bigger than mine." She breathed out, looking around the office and then poking her head through to investigate and living room beyond. "You get a floo too?" She demanded, catching sight of the fireplace before heading back into the office area.
"Yup," James grinned over at her as he took off his jacket and threw it over his desk chair.
"What's with the huge mirror?" Tonks grinned, walking past the big mirror that was on the wall by the door, overlooking the entire office. "You can't tell me you spent time in front of that every morning making sure your hair is just the right amount of messy?" She asked with a small smirk.
"Smart arse," James smirked back, thumbing the parchments on his desk. "Read the course books first, Minerva's probably already put copies of them in your room. When you've read them, you can start marking some of these too." He said with a small nod towards her.
"Ugh, do I have to?" Tonks whined over, eyeing the parchments with disgust. "I thought homework was over now that I'd finished here."
"Well, now you're marking it instead of doing it." James responded with a grin before leaning back and sitting on his desk. "So, what's the real reason you wanted to do this thing then? And don't give me that story about finding a job at Malkins, we both know you could do pretty much anything you put your mind to." He said with a firm look towards her.
"I still want to get into the Aurors," Tonks shrugged back. "But I didn't get the scores to get into the academy this year."
"So?" James asked, raising an eyebrow at that.
"When mum mentioned being your apprentice, I figured it'd be worth it." Tonks explained. "Teaching isn't my thing I guess, but learning from you? Getting to know all those Dark Lord killing tricks you've got up your sleeve?" She said with a grin. "Mad-Eye signed off on me at the academy, he's always been the best but the last month or so he's been off about everything, you know, even more than usual for him, but any Auror in their right mind would jump at the chance to learn the stuff you're throwing around. Merlin, you're already teaching me how to cast a Patronus. I'd have trouble finding someone to teach me that sort of stuff outside of paying through the nose for it."
"So you'll do the teaching thing for a while, until I've taught you what you need to know, then try for the Aurors again?" James mused aloud.
"Probably," Tonks shrugged back. "I know mum doesn't want me to join up, but it's what I want to do. Take the fight to the dark bastards, show them that they can't just do whatever they want without someone standing in their way." She explained with a grin over to James. "Since that's what you're doing, I figure helping you is just as good as being in the Aurors anyway."
"Probably," James parroted back, piecing together now why Tonks would have joined up with Dumbledore in his old life. Since back then The Ministry were six shades of useless, it was clear she'd have run straight to Dumbledore as he was the only one seen as actually doing anything. Between that and Dumbledore's 'in' with Moody, it was easy to see where he would have been able to get his claws into her. "Alright, I was just curious."
"That alright then?" Tonks asked.
"Yeah, do whatever you want." James nodded over. "Auror is a tough life though, you'll get a lot of bad with it if you join up, and nowhere near enough good to balance it out."
"Kinda want to figure that stuff out for myself," Tonks said with a small shrug.
"Fair enough," James nodded thoughtfully. "Alright, read through the course books and write down anything you want to learn and brush up on, I'll spend some time teaching you what you want when we're free from the classroom."
"Thanks boss!" Tonks beamed happily at that.
"Whatever," James shook his head with a grin, standing up from his desk and wandlessly summoning one of his more advanced defence books from the shelf and handing it over to Tonks for her to read. "I'll want these back in decent condition alright?" He said firmly, making sure Tonks was listening to him as he handed over the book.
"Sure thing," Tonks nodded very quickly as she accepted the book reverently. "You going to teach me that too? The wandless stuff?"
"I'm actually pretty crap at that," James admitted with a small grimace. "Really, I learnt about five spells wandlessly, that's about it." He explained, ticking them off on his hand as he thought about it. "Summoning, banishing, dispelling, lumos, and a weak shield that a first year's sneeze could probably break. That's it."
Sadly wandless magic was something he'd never been able to get a good handle on, unlike Hermione who had started practising wandless magic in her sixth year and continued on right through until she'd left the magical world behind.
"Bet that takes tons of power," Tonks frowned thoughtfully. "Wish I could do it."
"It's actually more about skill and practice than magical power," James explained. "Add it to the list of stuff you want to learn and we'll see what we can do."
"Sweet!" Tonks nodded enthusiastically at that. "I'll stick this in my room then go find mum then." She said with a grin down towards the book in her hand. "Thanks again boss!"
"Call me James," James muttered, waving lazily as Tonks headed towards the door.
"Not Master?" Tonks asked back cheekily.
"There's no way I'm having you call me that with your mum and Amelia around. You'd end up twisting it with enough innuendo to get me in trouble every time you opened your mouth." James shot back with a small smirk.
"Bit too kinky for you old man?" Tonks laughed over as she opened the door with a wicked smirk on her face.
"And you're little miss vanilla?" James snorted, shaking his head at the younger witch.
"You wound me!" Tonks grinned, happy that James was someone who could keep up with her verbal sparring. "I'm a metamorph, some of the stuff I've done would make you blush I'd bet!" She said with a wide grin.
"I'm a Parselmouth, ever been with a man who can vibrate his tongue whenever he wants?" James shot back with an equal grin. "Didn't think so." He laughed at Tonks' violently shocked face with eyes that she'd obviously used her metamorph talent to make inhumanly large. "Go and see your mum and try to keep that thought out of your head all night." He explained with a laugh as Tonks just stood there, staring at him in awe. "Go on, shoo!" He muttered, shooing Tonks towards the door with his hands before watching as she opened it in shock, leaving him to gently nudge her out of the room and close the door behind her, with her stood in the corridor, dumbly holding the book he'd given her as various extremely adult thoughts rampaged through her mind.
"Mum is never going to believe that!" Tonks whispered to herself in shock as she shook herself back to reality and walked off, still imagining a lot of very fun things that could be done with a gift like a vibrating tongue.
AN: With regards to Wandless Magic, there's no way it is as rare and powerful as most fanon makes it out to be... we know from JK that there are magic schools in the wizarding world, like Uagadou, were wandless magic is the normal thing and wands are ignored completely.
We know from Order of the Phoenix that Harry IS capable of wandless magic at 16, as he uses a Lumos wandlessly without issue, despite never having practised it before.
So it's my belief that wandless magic is very similar to wanded magic, it might require more focus, but there's no real difference between the two. If it was drastically more powerful or gave a bigger advantage than wanded magic, then students with the money would transfer to a school that taught it rather than staying at Hogwarts.
The only massive advantage wandless magic seems to give is that you can't be disarmed, and it's easier to get away with magic without breaking the statute of secrecy... that's about it really.
