For Harry, the first day of classes was usually the sign of life returning to normal. Normally, the pall of the previous summer would slowly fade away as he once more immersed himself in the magical world that was his real home. And in some ways, that was still true this year. There was something very comforting about waking up to the sound of his housemates stumbling about getting dressed. Their cursing and grumbling was a welcome change to Aunt Petunia's shrill commands. Here there was no one to bang on his door or yell at him. Instead there were friends who either ignored his groans or joined in with him. Here there was the comfort of a long hot shower and the relief of knowing that the clothes he wore today would look exactly like everyone else's clothes and no one would comment on how poorly something fit or that there were holes in it. It was the little things that made the morning so much better.

And his first class of the day was DADA. For once, he wouldn't have potions first thing in the morning. He'd still have to go, which was punishment enough, but at least he'd be wide awake and maybe better able to handle whatever Snape and the Slytherins threw his way. By some trick of fate, Harry had managed to sneak through his Potions O.W.L. enough to keep him in Potions classes. Apparently he wasn't as helpless in the subject as Snape proclaimed. It was hard to guess who was most surprised: Harry, Snape or Hermione. But at least two of them were happy. It had been a great surprise, but it was also dreadful. He desperately needed Potions if he wanted to be an Auror but it meant two more years with Snape, and somehow he had a feeling Snape was going to be even less pleased with the idea of still having Harry in his classes than even Harry was.

"Good summer?" one of the seventh year Ravenclaws asked him as they all shuffled into the Great Hall for breakfast. Friends from different houses were calling out to one another and catching up briefly before the rest of the day took them in different directions. It was a bit odd for Harry to be one of those people these days, but it seemed like every year his circle of friends and people he was friendly with grew bigger and bigger.

"Alright," Harry answered automatically, his voice carefully neutral and not interesting. Because that was what he was used to saying after coming back from the Dursley's. There normally wasn't anything else worth sharing. He usually didn't want to explain that his summers had been spent doing chores or sneaking around to get his school reading done. But this year had been a bit different, hadn't it? He smiled suddenly. "Pretty good actually." He didn't need to go into the grittier details but it was kind of nice to be able to brag a bit. "Did a bit of traveling. Got to go camping." And okay, Sasuke had described it as survival lessons, but Harry figured it counted.

"That's great. Say, are we still meeting for, you know, extra practice?"

It took Harry a moment, but then he laughed. "I think we can just call it DA now. No Umbridge."

"Thank Merlin for that. See you there then!"

Harry waved bye, turning slowly to Hermione. "I guess we're still doing DA club?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course we are. Our participation rates are going to be fantastic."

"Oh. That's good. I guess." He was going to get a lot of practice in this year if he was going to be leading DA and still working with Sasuke on magic and chakra. Between that and classes and Qudditch, there wasn't going to be a lot of time left for anything else.

Since Hermione liked to arrive for class early, and since it was DADA and they were all a little curious about their new teacher, the three of them made quick work of their breakfast and headed out as soon as they could. DADA class was in the same room it always was even if the teacher kept changing on them. Except this year the desks had been rearranged so that half were on either side of the room, arranged in long rows set up to face each other with a one wide walkway running down the middle of it.

"Brilliant," Harry exclaimed quietly upon seeing the set up. When Ron glanced at him, he grinned and whispered. "Dueling." That was the only explanation for such an arrangement. Maybe they wouldn't need DA. Already it looked like this teacher knew what the hell he was doing and planned on really teaching them. Though if the class really was going to be that hands on, then maybe they'd need the practice even more, and hopefully there'd be less essay writing to waste their time. Poor Hermione in that case, she'd be heartbroken.

"Come on in and find a spot," the new professor rumbled as he came walking by. "Don't block the doorway," he grumbled. It wasn't the friendliest of greetings but the three of them were happy to quickly claim three seats in the middle. On the other side of the room a knot of Slytherins had picked out seats and both groups eyed each other silently across the distance. Harry hadn't realized this would be a joint class with the Slytherins. That could make dueling more…interesting. Malfoy wasn't there yet and Harry felt his gut clench up and his attention focus in the way it did when he was trying to catch the snitch. Well, he had wanted practical experience. There wouldn't be anything more practical than dueling with Malfoy. Because with Harry's luck, there was no way he'd be fighting against anyone else.

The room slowly filled up and Harry tried to distract himself with going over DA plans with Hermione instead of looking around nervously waiting for Malfoy or Sasuke to arrive. Sasuke hadn't been at breakfast but he was supposed to be in all of their classes.

"Settle down!" the teacher barked as the time to start drew closer. He had his desk positioned at the head of the walkway on the far side from the door and he leaned against it now, impatiently tapping his wand against his leg and watching the floating clock. Dumbledore said the man had been an Auror but he didn't look much like one. He was round in the middle the way some of Uncle Veron's work colleagues were (but of course nowhere near the rotundness that was Vernon and Dudley). His hair was grey and thin and combed over and he didn't seem to have any eyebrows any more they were so pale and thin. He didn't look like he moved very fast and the annoyed expression on his face didn't bode well for them. But Harry knew well that a pleasant smiling face, like the ones Lockheart and Umbridge had had, could be just as unpleasant in actuality.

All of the seats seemed to be full, but the professor seemed to still be waiting for something. At the last moment, the door cracked open and Sasuke slipped in. He didn't look rushed and didn't seem to care that the entire room turned to look at him. He didn't even flinch at having to get around half the class to claim the last free seat on what had become the Gryffindor side. He passed Harry's seat without comment or any greeting and Harry had to stop himself from reacting.

Professor Northstein flicked his wand and the door slammed shut. "Now that we can start," he drawled. "I am Professor Northstein. This is the Sixth level DADA class so I expect you lot to be able to tell one end of your wand from the other. As I understand it, your education up till this point has been haphazard at best. Our approach will be more systematic. I do not expect all of you to meet the standards I would expect out of a group of fresh Auror trainees, but you will be graded on your progress. There will be no show-boating in my class. You will limit yourself to the spells and task at hand. Any outside work or spells not covered by our syllabus will not be permitted during practicals."

Hermione's hand shot up. The interruption seemed to confuse Northstein for a moment before he waved his hand for her to hurry up. Hermione didn't waste any time. "Practicals, sir?" she asked.

The man scowled. "Well, you don't expect to quote the material at a dark creature, do you, miss?"

After last year, it was hard not to feel a thrill of excitement at that. Hermione flushed though, as the Slytherins tittered, and Harry supposed it was a little unfair. Hermione had probably known full well what the Professor meant but she liked to confirm things. And it might have been Harry who led DA last year, but it would always be her idea. No one who really knew her could accuse her of not wanting to do a few practicals. She just also wanted to write 14 inches about it as well.

Northstein flicked his wand at the board behind him and a stream of information started to scrawl across it. Hermione started writing it all down while everyone else read through it. "There will be reading examinations," Northstein explained. "Do not fail to be prepared. Writing assignments will be due every other week and will cover both the material in the book and the material discussed in class. Failure to include both will result in lost points. This is your syllabus," he said as pieces of paper flew off of his desk and to each student. It was the kind of casual magic that had astounded Harry during his first years. Now, having seen just how much the spell was used by the Ministry for boring paperwork tasks, it had lost some of its impressiveness. The paper that slipped onto his desk was covered in small print, most of it one long list of what he realized were spells that ranged from the most basic hex to the Patronus Charm at the very bottom.

"These are the spells you will be expected to know by the end of this semester. While in this room, you will only use these spells. Anyone caught using something else will either lose points, receive detention or worse. Most of these are basic and I expect you to already know them. We will work on your execution and application, as well as filling whatever sizable gaps there may be in your education."

"Well, we know what to focus on for DA," Harry muttered. The three of them had their heads bent over the list, going down each item. A few were unfamiliar to Harry but he'd bet they'd covered at least half of the list in DA already. So maybe they hadn't done too badly in picking out what to study last year. It had been hard without some kind of structure to follow. Maybe he could even get his hands on a copy of the seventh year list and see what was covered there.

"First up!" Northstin bellowed. Everyone jumped slightly and stared at him in confusion. He gestured impatiently before pointing at Jordan Lee sitting on the very end and the Slytherin girl sitting across from him. "In the center, wands at the ready and demonstrated the first spell." Both of them scrambled out of their seats and there was some confusion as they both tried to stand at the same end. Northstein shoved Lee towards the far side and he had to hurry to get down far enough before a spell came zinging at him. Harry immediately looked straight ahead. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were probably going to go down the line. Crabb stared back him blankly, looking confused about why everyone was suddenly now focused on who was sitting across from them, as everyone (or almost everyone) had the exact same thought as Harry. Not so bad. The day Harry couldn't dance circles around Crabb in a duel was the day he gave up Quidditch. But while the person on Crabb's left was another one of the Syltherin girls and probably not too bad of an opponent for Ron, Draco was on Crabb's right and lined up with Hermione.

Well damn.

They moved through the spells quickly. The beginning of the list was simple hexes and charms common in duels. Some of them they had even learned in first and second year. Only a few were less familiar. There wasn't much time to prepare as Northstein had the next student hopping out of their seat almost as soon as the current pair up managed a solid representation. Harry had a basic blasting hex. No problem. But Hermione had Impedimenta. It was a bit complicated to land right but at least it was relatively painless if you got hit by the other party. Still, this was Malfoy. "Don't let him catch you off balance. I've seen people fall bad from that," Harry whispered to her frantically as she was pushing herself up. She nodded grimly and headed down the line with the best look of single minded focus she could manage. Hermione had great accuracy, but Draco was fast. She was only going to have one chance.

Draco didn't wait for her to finish clearing the last desk. It sure as hell wasn't sporting, but it was also reckless on his part. Overeager. The students' desks were solid wood and had withstood so many spells over the years that they were probably immune to even the worst curses. Hermione yelped but kept moving. She knew a sitting target was a dead one and she scrambled to the far side of the aisle, not hesitating to crowd up by the Slytherin side. Harry was actually a little surprised to see Draco hesitate to fling a curse that close to his housemates. The look of focused fury on his face was maybe one of the worst Harry had seen from the other boy and it reminded him of their most bitter arguments. Draco wasn't pulling his punches this year. It was the first day of classes and he was already out of blood.

Hermione was smart though and used his hesitation to get her own curse in. Draco managed to deflect it, however, and this time didn't hesitate to fling the same one back at her strong enough to knock her off her feet. Harry jumped to his feet but there were four students and their desks between him and her. Dodging like that had been the only option, and using the Slytherins as a screen was a good idea, but it meant that there was no one to help her when she went down. Malfoy raised his wand again but Northstein was barking at the next pair to take their places and shoved Malfoy along. "Yes, yes, well done," he muttered. "Next person's turn. Back to your seats." Northstein canceled out the spell and waited only long enough for Hermione to stumble her way back behind the desks before waving on the next set.

Harry snapped out the spell as soon as his feet hit the deck. He didn't wait to check to make sure it had worked, he could hear enough to know that Crabb had gone down like a bag of bricks. He grabbed Hermione's arm and helped her back to her seat, passing Ron on the way.

"I'm fine," she whispered. "Just my pride."

Ron came back with a numb hand but at least he'd kept his feet under him. The Slytherin girl had been better than he had expected and he was scowling. One look at Hermione, however, had his attention focused more on cursing about Malfoy than worrying about his own less than spectacular performance.

And then it was Sasuke's turn. Calcifer wasn't exclusively a dueling spell. It was also used for burning paper or certain potion preparations. It made a small controlled flame, heatless but effective against non-living things. The irony of Sasuke having a fire spell was not lost on Harry. The fact that Northstein was watching them all closely and wouldn't allow anything not on the syllabus meant that there was little hope of Sasuke sneaking in his own offense. Harry gritted his teeth. The flame wouldn't hurt him. Harry knew that, he'd seen it used before and it was more of a distraction technique than a full attack.

Sasuke took his time walking down and eyed the Slytherin across from him like he was thinking about stabbing him. Which was generally how Sasuke's face looked, but no one else knew that. Zabini hesitated, however, caught off guard and uncertain. If it had been anyone else down there, that would have been enough to win the duel. But Sasuke didn't move. He couldn't cast the spell. He hadn't been able to cast any spells, and Calcifer required even more focus than normal. Too much and you could start a real fire. Too little and it wouldn't even catch.

Watching Sasuke stand there and wait for the other boy to finally stutter out the spell was painful. Sasuke didn't even flinch however. He raised his wand as if to ward off the spell but no incantation passed his lips. The fire caught on Sasuke's shoulder spread quickly to his sleeve. Even knowing that the flame wouldn't burn flesh wouldn't have been enough to stop Harry from flinching away from a fire that close to his face. But Sasuke stared at it like he was more interested in studying the after-affects than learning the spell. He patted it out calmly when it started to damage his robes.

"Do make some effort," Northstein ordered. "Again!"

Zabini had already turned away, grinning at his housemates, pleased with his performance even if it had had a rocky start. He jerked to a stop, however, at the Professor's command. "Sir?" he asked. No one else had been asked to do a spell twice if they'd managed a successful hit.

"That was pathetic," Northstein explained. "Again. Mr. Uchiha, a bit more effort on your part, if it would not be too much to expect. I won't have coasting in my class. A thing like that will get you killed in the real world. Again."

Harry grimaced. He couldn't really argue with the Professor's impression. It had been pretty pathetic and it certainly looked like Sasuke wasn't really trying at all. No one else had seen Sasuke burn down half a field in one deep breath. It would be so easy, but it wouldn't be magic and they hadn't figured out how to fake it yet.

"So sorry I'm late!" a cheerful voice interrupted as the classroom door slammed loudly against the wall. Kakashi-sensei, or rather, Professor Kakashi paused dramatically in the doorway. He was sloppily wearing dark blue robes but Harry didn't doubt for a second that he had his normal nin attire on underneath. He'd never seen the man without his armor and tools. And the more Kakashi acted like he didn't have a care in the world the more paranoid Harry felt.

In the silence of the room, Sasuke's sigh sounded particularly loud. For a moment, his eyes locked on Harry and Harry imagined he could almost hear the expletives Sasuke wanted to call the man.

"This is a class, Hatake," Northstein barked. He started for the door, impatiently waving Blaise back to his seat and shooing Sasuke out of his way. "It starts at a specific time and is conducted according to schedule. Failure to do so is not only disrespectful to everyone involved but also prevents the group from accomplishing the task on hand." The professor came to a stop in front of Kakashi and crossed his arms over his chest, wand once more bouncing in his hand like the angry swish of a cat's tail. "I will speak with you afterwards." It was a clear dismissal.

Kakashi grinned. "Great. Looking forward to it. That should make up for you ignoring me all morning. I'll just be over here then, doing my job." It wasn't hard for Kakashi-sensei to sidestep the man. Harry had expected him to come join the Gryffindor side, maybe check in with Sasuke, but Kakashi instead honed in on the Slytherins, waving at all of them and moving to lurk behind them, bending his tall frame over their shoulders to look at the lists on their desks as if he expected to find something different on each one. Even after seeing that the first two were identical, he didn't stop making his way down the line, theatrically and obnoxiously inspecting each one.

Northstein's face was red when he turned around and his wand was no longer bouncing but instead clenched tightly in one fist. He turned his glare from Kakashi to the rest of the classroom. "Well? Move along!" he ordered. The next set of students hopped to their feet.

Class managed to both drag by and fly by quicker than they could keep up with it. Harry didn't have time to worry about Sasuke or Kakashi-sensei or how they would fare in their first class. If Northstein kept to the same pattern then Hermione would be going up against Malfoy again, and this time it would be a more advanced spell. A stinging hex. It wasn't one they commonly ran into, generally considered a bit too vicious for school yard duels and prone to causing tremors afterwards. Nothing permanent, but it would be enough that Hermione would be feeling it the rest of the day if she couldn't outdo Malfoy.

"I know, I know," Hermione grumbled as both Harry and Ron tried to offer advice on how to get the first hit in.

Harry hadn't given much thought to the fact that Sasuke's addition to the Gryffindor side left their class size uneven. He was so used to the houses seeming to always be perfectly matched, he hadn't thought about what they would do when they got to the end of the Slytherin line and still had one more Gryffindor to go.

"Mr. Hatake!" Northstein suddenly called out. He had waved the Slytherin girl who was at the front of their line back into her seat. She has already started to move into position, clearly assuming that Northstein would just start at the head of the Slytherin line when it became clear that they were one short. But it appeared Northstein had another plan. "You are here to assist, are you not? Well, then, I'm sure you can manage to give Miss Brown a hand.

"Not fair," someone grumbled on the Gryffindor side. Teacher's didn't normally duel against students. And normally Harry would have agreed (having dueled a couple of teachers himself) but he also knew, and knew Northstein knew, that this duel was going to be unevenly matched in the opposite way. Why the other teacher would do such a thing, Harry couldn't imagine. Sure, he seemed annoyed with Kakashi-sensei. A lot of people frequently were. But that seemed like an odd reason to put him in such a bad situation. Surely the Headmaster had explained. Right?

Kakashi-sensei smiled serenely when he stepped forward. He muttered something to Northstein as he passed the man, something quite enough that no one else seemed to hear it, but the older man's face went tight again as if he'd smelled something unpleasant. Kakashi never lost his pleasant look and he made a show of bowing to Lavender. That set off some giggling in the class and had Northstein demanded silence. Kakashi-sensei twirled the pale white wand in his hand as if it were merely more showmanship. It was as if he had heard Northstein's stern opening speech about no showing off and was intentionally mocking it. Knowing Kakashi-sensei, it was entirely possible. It was also just as likely that the man was just naturally annoying.

"Come now, Miss Brown, show me how it's done!" Kakashi-sensei crowed. "I won't even dodge!"

Lavender laughed and that seemed to be exactly the reaction Kakashi-sensei was going for. She took her time lining up the spell. It was one Harry knew she was familiar with, but now that Kakashi-sensei had seemed to encourage her to go slow, she seemed to want to make it perfect. It was a variation of the Confundus charm. Efficient and hardly the worst thing Kakashi-sensei could get hit with. Demeaning, maybe, but as far as hexes and curses went, it was very mild.

True to his word, Kakashi-sensei didn't try to avoid it. He even held his arms out loosely at his side, not even pretending to use his wand. The spell hit him full on. It wasn't as flashy as some of the others. The point was more to create an opening for a more effective second spell. But instead of just looking lost and sleepy, Kakashi-sensei pin wheeled his arms dramatically and fell flat on his back with a thud that seemed to shake the floor.

Lavender gasped and looked moments away from fainting dead away herself.

Suddenly one of Kakashi-sensei's hands shot into the air and he waved it around like his wrist was some kind of ball joint and the wand only loosely attached. The man giggled.

Harry dropped his head into his hands and despaired. A giggling Kakashi-sensei was perhaps the most disturbing form of Kakashi-sensei. Apparently Professor Northstein agreed because he came stomping over, casting a counter charm and complaining loudly about disruptions, unruliness and poor form.

Kakashi-sensei stumbled back to his feet, looking more drunk than confounded and Harry had to wonder how much of it was an act and how much of it was real. He hadn't really tried casting spells on the nin. Other than the few Harry had used to defend himself the night Sasuke's house was attacked, they hadn't tested what the reaction would be between magic and chakra. He hoped the man was okay.

"He's not very impressive," Ron muttered.

"He's awful," Harry agreed even though he knew they were having two very different conversations. Ron probably saw yet another failed teacher. Harry saw one of the scariest people he'd ever met acting like a buffoon.

"Go stand over there," Northstein ordered the man. "And try to stay out of the way, for Merlin's sake. I don't need you bollocksing things up."

It was probably the first time Harry had ever heard a teacher use that kind of language but he couldn't really appreciate it. The Slytherines were not bothering to hide the fact that they were laughing at Kakashi-sensei and making fun of him. Even some of the Gryffindors were muttering to each other about rubbish teachers. Which wasn't fair. Kakashi-sensei might be a weirdo and annoying, but Harry knew he was great nin.

There wasn't time to worry about that, however, as Jordan was back up and it wouldn't be long before it was their turn again. Hermione managed to hold her own the next time around, the trickery bit of spellwork was harder for Malfoy to fire off and Hermione's attention to detail gave her the edge. The second time around they both got off good shots, but the electric shock only caused Hermione's hair to curl a bit more. The Slytherine girls laughed uproariously about that but Hermione managed to shrug it off with gritted teeth. "It's not like it was straight before," she muttered and Harry squeezed her shoulder in encouragement.

They managed to get through the first half of the list before students started running into spells they couldn't cast. Things slowed down after that as Northstein asked for volunteers before moving on to the next spell. When it came time for the Patronus Charm, he ended up having two Gryffindors face off since they were the only ones to raise their hands. Harry was proud that nearly all of his housemates were willing to give it a try.

"Chapters one and two by the start of next week!" Northstein demanded as class broke up. Which seemed like an awful lot of reading for the first week and Harry hoped it wouldn't always be that much.

Hermione looked worn out by the end of class, but she was in one piece. Malfoy looked even more enraged than he had at the beginning of class and Harry was tempted to hex him on the way out and claim it was an accident. But he hadn't gotten much further than gathering up his own stuff before Northstein was calling his name. "A word!" he ordered, waiting for Harry to come up to the front of the class. Hermione and Ron immediately started fumbling about with their own things but it was the quick startled look Sasuke gave him that had Harry shaking his head and waving his friends on. If they hovered nervously then Sasuke would think something was wrong and freak. Better for them to go on without him. Technically, there wasn't any reason to suspect the worst and even if there was, there wasn't much they could do about it.

"Yes, sir?" he asked carefully.

Professor Northstein finished what he was doing and turned to face Harry. Up close the man was a bit more intimidating. Maybe twenty years ago he had been more like what Harry thought an Auror should be like, and standing this close to him it was easier to see the shadow of what the man must have been like. His hands were big and calloused and he stood with his feet shoulder width apart, the way Harry was used to seeing Quidditch players stand when taking pictures. It made him look bigger.

"Mr. Potter, I've heard mixed things about you from your previous teachers."

Harry wasn't sure exactly what that was supposed to mean, but he had some idea what some of the bad parts might be. "Yes, sir?"

The man snorted. "Don't look like I'm going to ream you out, Mr. Potter. You're not being disciplined. The Headmaster mentioned that you helped organize an extracurricular practice group."

"Ah, yes, sir. Though we, um, never actually had official permission. It's – more of a study group?" That was maybe something Harry should have checked on. He had sort of assumed it would continue quietly as a student run thing, conveniently ignored by all of the adults and left to their own devices. For the new DADA teacher to already know about it and start digging around about the topic made Harry very nervous. They weren't going to stop, not as long as the others wanted to keep meeting, but he really didn't want to already cause trouble with one of his professors – at least not until he had good reason to. Class had been a bit rough, with Hermione having the bad luck of facing Malfoy over and over again and Sasuke's own repeated failures, but it hadn't actually been that horrible of a class. Harry felt like he'd gotten some good practice in, even. It would be kind of nice to have a half-way decent instruction for once.

Professor Northstein snorted. "Relax, Mr. Potter. You're not in trouble. It's surprisingly good initiative for someone your age. You'd be surprised how many Auror trainees we'd get who'd never worked outside of a classroom."

"You used to train Aurors?" Harry asked excitedly. McGonagol had given him some brochures on the issue, but most of what they talked about was what you had to do to get into the training program. Not about what came afterward.

"Been a few years, but I did my time." The man stared at Harry for a moment. "Thinking of applying are we?" he finally asked.

Harry nodded, trying to look respectful and calm about it.

"Guess that should be expected. We'll see what your grades look like, Mr. Potter. In the meantime, I don't want you lot getting overly ambitious and maiming someone in the process."

"We wouldn't-"

"You have a med-wizard on hand then?" the man cut him off gruffly.

"No, but-"

"And who's spotting these practice duels, hm? Who's on hand to undo anything that goes awry?"

"Well, I try-"

"One half trained wizard for a group of how many?"

This was not going well. "It's not just me. There's a group of us and we all help each other out depending on what your strengths are. And I don't know how many." Sure, he had an idea based on last year's numbers and a couple of maybes that would likely join this year now that there wasn't the threat of expulsion hanging over their heads. There'd been a number of people who probably would have benefited from it but that hadn't been trustworthy enough to approach last year. But maybe now they could, since the group sort of kind of had permission to meet. Or at least weren't outright forbidden.

Professor Northstein snorted. "I stand corrected. A collection of half trained wizards. Find a teacher, Mr. Potter. I don't care which one."

"But-"

"That was an order, Potter, not a suggestion. Figure something out. Dismissed."

A teacher? Harry cringed but tried to keep it off his face. They didn't have the best track record with teachers. He could maybe ask McGonagol, but that was really going to put a damper on things. Harry didn't really know the other teachers all that well. Except for Kakashi.

Harry grinned. "Alright," he agreed. He could make this work if it meant keeping the club going.

Professor Northstein had started to turn away, but he paused and looked back. "You have someone in mind?"

Harry shrugged and tried to look both confident but also like he didn't already know the answer. "I thought I'd try asking the new exchange Professor. He seemed like he might be interested."

Northstein jerked back in surprise before frowning so heavily it was like his eyebrows swallowed up half of his face. "Absolutely not."

Harry flinched back in surprise himself. The man sounded livid at the very idea. He'd been a bit curt through all of class but not angry like this. "Why not?" Harry challenged, maybe not keeping the indignation out of his voice as much as he should have. Sure, Kakashi-sensei had looked a bit silly today, but he definitely knew a thing or two about surviving a fight.

"He doesn't qualify."

"But isn't he helping you this year?"

"Clearly not," Northstein snapped. "Mr. Hatake is not an acceptable option. Find someone else. That's an order, Potter. Dismissed."