Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
A/N: Thanks to PenguinLord0029, who beta this story.
Chapter Fifty-Three
New Professors
Though Harry's stay at the Burrow was only a few days, he still enjoyed every minute of it. His favorite part of it was that they could all play Quidditch out in the field in the backyard. That was the worst part of living in a Muggle community, he was never able to fly but here, where no one could see them, he was final able to get back into the air where he always felt at peace. It wasn't until after lunch on the first day there that Harry asked again if Ginny wanted to play.
"Hey Gin, why don't you join us?" Harry said after he had stuffed down his lunch just like the rest of the Weasleys. Ginny didn't answer, caught off guard by the question.
"Argh, come on Harry, it would make the teams uneven if she comes," Ron groaned and Ginny glared at him. "Well, it's true."
"I'm sure we could work things out," Harry shrugged.
"I don't think that's such a good idea," Molly said, again before Ginny could say anything.
"I'm not a kid anymore, Mum," Ginny grumbled, her anger, that she never seemed to feel whenever Harry was around her (since she too busy being nervous), flared. "I know how to fly …"
"I'm sure you do, but there's a difference between flying and playing Quidditch with your brothers," Molly said sternly.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said, "Gin's a lot tougher than she looks."
"She better be," Fred laughed, for as soon as Harry ended talking Ginny turned bright red and looked anything but tough.
"Yeah, honestly Mum, I think you should be worrying about the rest of us," George said wrapping his arm around his sister.
Molly still looked at Ginny warily, but she allowed her to play, though she spent a good half hour looking out the window making sure nothing happened. However, her worry seemed to be totally unneeded. Ginny, despite having to use the oldest broom, had complete control over it and flew with such skill that all of her brother gaped at her.
"How did you learn to fly like that?" Ron demanded.
"Come on, isn't it obvious little brother, she a natural flyer like the rest of us Weasleys," Fred said chuckling. "I'm just sorry we didn't ask you out here sooner, the game would have been more interesting with more players."
"Thanks Fred," Ginny smiled, not used to getting praised by her brother, it was nice to hear. "However, that's not really how I got so good at flying. The truth is, I've been sneaking out to the broom shed since I was six and flew on my own."
"That's even better," George laughed clapping her on the back, "a chip off the old block."
"That is rather impressive," Harry smiled and again Ginny blushed; however, she looked smug too.
"Thanks Harry," she said shyly.
After that, they tried to come up with teams that were even and found that the best way of doing that was just using Ron as the Keeper and partner up the others. They had decided to have the twins as one team and Harry and Ginny as the other and most of the matches were close. They had played different types of games after that too, all of which were very fun.
"You know Ginny, I think we should talk to Oliver and see if we could add you as another reserve player," Fred said at dinner the last night that they were going to be staying at the Burrow. "You really have the makings of a good Chaser with that arm of yours …"
"Not to mention your agility is quite good too," George said. "I'd like to see what you could do on a real broomstick, not the piece of junk that we've got here."
"Do you really think I'm that good?" Ginny asked.
"There are a few things that we don't joke about," Fred said in a serious voice. "And the Quidditch team is one of them. I think that you really will be good. You need some training up, you're still rough around the edges, but you could be really brilliant one day."
"You definitely have the best shot out of everyone here," Ron added, his voice was natural and Ginny could tell that he meant it, but there was something about the way that he was picking at his food that make Ginny think there was more he wanted to say. However, Ron didn't offer any more comments and she didn't talk to him either, too happy about the way that her brothers had told her that she was good. She had dreamed about playing Quidditch every since she had seen her first match, the Holyhead Harpies, an all women team, win against a team that was all men. That night had been the first time that she had snuck down to use one of the broom and fell in love with the feeling of weightlessness she had while she flew.
O
"So what do you think is going to go wrong at Hogwarts this year?" Ron asked, it was the next day and a few hours had pasted in their journey on the Hogwarts's Express. The compartment they were in was full, Harry and the Weasleys had found Hermione and Neville talking in the last compartment of the train and soon after they got settle down, Luna had joined them. The twins had left not long after the train started, going to find all of their other friends and had just gotten back when the woman with the food trolley had come. They were all eating the sweets that they had bought when Ron had asked this question.
"Hopefully nothing," Harry answered. "I have a feeling that Sirius will pull me out of school if I have another life threatening end of term situation."
"I'm also hoping that no outside pressure will threaten us, because I think we've finally got to a point in our Transfiguration lessons that we can actually make some headway in our Animagus transformation," Hermione said.
"And this headway you're talking about can't be achieved if there is some kind of mystery that we have to solve?" Neville questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, that's not completely true, but it does take a lot of time and effort trying to figure out all the weird things that go around Hogwarts," Hermione shrugged.
"Are you sure that Luna and I are ready for this next step of yours?" Ginny asked Hermione.
"Well, it's true that you're a year behind Harry, Ron, Neville and I …" Hermione said.
"And about four years behind George and I," Fred added and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"However, we've gone through our lesson plans until about halfway through fourth year, which are essential to becoming an Animagus, and are now prepared to start actually working on the next step … after a few weeks of reviewing of course, and then we should probably take some preparatory tests to make sure …"
"Hermione," Ginny said firmly. "My question!"
"Right," Hermione smiled at her sheepishly. "You and Luna are almost finished going over your third year lessons and I predict that with a little extra effort on your part, by the time the rest of us are ready to move on so will you."
"You make this all sound so simple," Ron muttered.
"Well it's not going to be," Hermione said. "The prep work is necessary of course. However, the hard part is the actual transformation. It's probably going to take us a long time before any of us get it and each one is going to take a different amount of time. Each person that had gone through this transformation has described it differently so it might take different attributes …"
"Did you talk to everyone that has gone through this transformation?" Ron asked.
"Of course not," Hermione rolled her eyes. "Its part of the registration process, you have to fill out a detail account of what the process was like. I really wish I could have read the unedited version of Sirius's transformation because I think that would have been the most useful with our own transfiguration, but of course most of what he wrote was fabricated."
"I bet you're dying to ask him in person," Harry chuckled. "But I'm sure you realized that even if it's you, the girl that wants to know everything about everything, he would realize that you wanted to hear about this for a more practical reason and we can't make him suspicious of us."
Hermione made a face at Harry's comment but had to admit that he was right.
After this discussion they brought up happier things and the rest of the train ride past without commotion. In fact, the only thing worthy of note was that it was now raining hard and that they were all looking forward to getting to the feast. Before they could get there however, McGonagall had asked to see Hermione.
"As you know from your class list that I have approved you for all of the classes that you have signed up for," McGonagall said. "There are a few options that we need to discuss. First, I want to make sure you understand how difficult it will be to take all of these classes."
"I know I can handle it," Hermione said and McGonagall gave her one of her rare smiles.
"Very well, now to tell you about the difficult part," McGonagall said, pulling out a necklace. "This is a time turner."
Hermione didn't say anything; she never heard of a time turner before and had no idea what it was. She listened patiently when McGonagall explained that it could be used to travel back in time for up to three hours, which was necessary because several of the classes that Hermione wanted to take had to be schedule for the same time.
"I'll warn you now that it is dangerous to use a time turner," McGonagall ended the explanation with a warning. "It is vital that you are not seen, even by yourself. If I find that you are misusing the time turner, I will have to take it away from you. I would also like to say that you must keep this a secret … even from those that you are closest to."
"So I can't tell Harry or Ron," Hermione sighed as McGonagall nodded her head.
"I'm sorry, but it's important to keep this a secret," McGonagall said and then added, "and to make sure that you don't abuse the time turner. Now to make sure you know how to use the time turner, I'm going to ask that you to head to the Gryffindor command room, the Password if Fortuna Major, and in about," McGonagall then looked at the clock, "about fifty minutes from now, turn back the time turner one full rotation. If everything works, you will be back here just as I finish talking."
"Okay," Hermione said leaving the room and waiting until the time had come and then did as she was told. It was an odd feeling, she had a sense of falling backwards and everything seemed to become blurry around her. When the sensation stopped, she found that she was in McGonagall's office again, the door was closing and she had a feeling that it was she that had just left.
"It seems that you have worked it properly," McGonagall said approvingly.
"Yeah," Hermione said still looking at the door. "Will I always be moved like this whenever I use the time turner?"
"Yes," McGonagall said. "As I understand it, you are taken to the exact place that you were the time that you send yourself back to. There is a lapse of time so that you never will appear in a time when you can see yourself; however, your past and future self will be extremely near each other. I again must stress that you should try to avoid seeing yourself.
"And now, I think we should get back to the feast, I have a feeling that you'll find it interesting," she finished and Hermione thought she saw amusement in the older woman's eyes but couldn't be sure. When she got to the Great Hall, she sat next to Harry, and avoided the questions her friends asked about what her meeting with McGonagall was about. She could tell that it was going to be difficult not to be open with her friends and it had only been a few minutes with her secret. Thankfully, Dumbledore had announced it was time for the meal and they were all sidetracked.
"That's weird," Hermione said halfway through the meal. She was looking up at the head table and she noticed that there was an empty seat. "Where's our new Defense Professor?"
"I don't know," Harry said, "we were discussing that before you got here … but obviously seeing as none of us could know anything it didn't really go anywhere."
"Do you think Dumbledore wasn't able to find someone to teach us?" Hermione asked worried.
"I hope that's not the case," Harry said. "Then again, having no teacher would probably have been better than whatever you call the last two professors we had."
"They weren't that bad," Hermione said halfheartedly, not sure which one of them was right.
"Not that bad? Come on Hermione, what have we learned in the last two years about Defense?" Ron asked and Hermione grimaced. "And I'm not talking about the things that you've taught yourself."
Hermione made a face at him but couldn't find any answer to that question. Her argument that Quirrell had taught them a few things in their first year that was useful seemed pointless because then they would only point out that he was working with Voldemort. "I still wish the new professor was here."
Ron looked smug when his attention went back to his meal, and they ate in silence until the food vanished. Dumbledore got up to make his start of terms announcements, which were the normal remembers of the banned joke items and that no one should go into the forbidden forest. Then he made a few announcements that were quite shocking to them.
"And now I would like to welcome two new professor to our ranks this year," Dumbledore said and there was some whispering at that, wondering what subject the second new professor would be teaching. "First of, I'm sorry to say that Professor Kettleburn, our previous Care of Magical Creatures professor, has retired in order to spend more time with is remaining limbs. However, I am glad to say that Rubeus Hagrid has agreed to take his place."
There was silence for a split second after Dumbledore had said that, just long enough for Harry to look at his friends, all having shook expression before they all started cheering for Hagrid. Harry couldn't help but be very happy for his friend, knowing that Hagrid would love being a professor.
"We should have known," Ron said laughing. "Who else but Hagrid would assign a biting book?!"
"True," Harry laughed.
"As for our other new professor," Dumbledore said after the cheers for Hagrid's new appointment, mostly from the Gryffindors, died down. "I'm please to say that Remus Lupin is willing the fill our ever needed post as Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor."
At these words Remus seemed to appear out of nowhere and walked to the head table, smiling at the students and their lukewarm applause for him. He didn't look at Harry though, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stop himself for laughing at the expression that must have been there.
"What?" Harry's mouth dropped when he saw his godfather sit next to Professor McGonagall.
"This is fantastic!" Hermione squealed in excitement. "Harry, why didn't you tell me …?"
"I … he never told me!" Harry said annoyed and still in shock.
"He probably didn't want to spoil your surprise," George said laughing.
"I can't believe this, we're going to be taught by a Marauder," Fred said laughing too. "This is bloody brilliant!"
"We're finally going to have a good professor," Hermione said, unable to control her excitement. "I hope that he'll be able to stay here more than just the one year."
"No, the job is curse," Ron said to her.
Harry was not listening to his friends; he was looking up at the head table with a mixture of feelings running through him. He knew that Hermione was right, that they were finally going to have a good Defense teacher and that was nice because he really wanted to learn about that subject for years now. He also likes the fact that he will be able to see Remus more often; he missed his godfather and uncle whenever he had to leave. Still, it was going to be odd having Remus there, as one of his professors. In addition, he was going to have to act like he doesn't know Remus. That was going to be difficult, but not impossible to do. He wondered vaguely if Sirius was here too, but knew that he probably wasn't. Sirius was probably all alone at their house and Harry was sure that that would sadden his uncle.
"Harry?" Hermione said and he noticed that everyone else had gotten up to go to their common room, so he got up to join his friends. "What's the matter … are you not happy that Remus is here?"
"Professor Lupin," Harry corrected. "That's who he has to be to us."
"Right," Hermione sighed, she was going to have to remember to call him that, but she was sure that wouldn't be too difficult. She looked at Harry, waiting for him to elaborate about what he was feeling.
"I don't really know how to feel about this," Harry said. "Ask me again in about a week."
"Fine," Hermione chuckled and they all headed for their common room.
