Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Original A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven

Too Many People

Harry tapped his foot against the floor as he cross his arms. He had agreed to be a tutor of sort, but he didn't mean it like this. He'd figure it would be just the Infinite Light group that he would be helping out, maybe Lee and Hannah would join as they seemed to be doing a lot lately. But then Hermione said that it might be good to tell other people and didn't listen to the protest that Harry made. Still, he didn't think anyone would actually listen to her. Now he was standing in the Room of Requirement, it changed itself into a big room with everything one would want to teach, learn, and practice Defense spells. It had to be such a big room because it seemed that at least twenty people were there with people still coming.

Hermione had told him that more people would show up, but he didn't think it would possibly be this many. He hadn't been so surprise that the Hufflepuff of his year were there, he had spent time with them occasionally and they were Neville's friends. He was surprised, however, that a good number of Hufflepuff Seventh years had shown up, especially since the only person of them that he knew was Cedric.

Harry watched the students come into the room and mill around in groups or sit on the seats and couches the room had provided. Everyone seemed to appear as uncomfortable as Harry felt.

"Hey Harry," Cedric had said, going up to him unlike most of the others that came in the room. "This is an interesting idea you have here."

"It's not my idea," Harry sighed and shrugged his shoulders, looking at the room that had thirty people in it at that time, "not all of this at least."

Cedric looked behind him noticing the room, "I supposed this could be very overwhelming."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Overwhelming."

"It looks like Cho's here," Cedric said and then took a step away from Harry before say, "Let me know if you want any help."

"I will," Harry said, thinking that would probably come in handy if he was really going to go through with the whole teaching thing. He watched as Cedric walked over to Cho and was surprised. His stomach hardly seemed to squirm at all. He still thought she was very pretty, but he didn't feel that familiar longing he had when she was around. Nor the shot of jealousy.

He looked away from the couple and noticed that there had been even more people coming in the room. That's when he scowled again and crossed his arms and got really annoyed. What the bloody hell was he going to do with so many people, a good number of them that were a few years older than himself?

"I think this is everyone," Hermione said.

"Oh you think so, do you, not any other people coming?" Harry hissed back to her, making sure to keep his voice down so the many people in the room couldn't hear him.

"Well, this is everyone we asked," Hermione said, deliberately ignoring his sarcasm and anger, "so I don't think so."

"Oh, is this all," Harry continued to grumble.

"Why don't I explain what our aims are and you can continue to pout," Hermione said as his glare at her intensified but she turned to talk to the other people. Hermione did explained about what they were trying to do, leaving out their thoughts about what the Defense classes would be like if Sirius was forced to leave. Hearing that, Harry wondered why so many people had come. It wasn't like they were getting bad lessons right now, so why did people show up to have him teach them something.

He did notice that everyone was looking at him and he felt like this was some sort of show. They had come here to see him, he was sure of it. Mostly this year he had tried to ignore the whispers about him but he knew that it hadn't quiet down since the beginning of the term. If anything it had only increased, what with Dumbledore still putting it out there that Voldemort was back and the Ministry trying to deny it and him being in the middle of all that.

"If anyone is here to hear me talk about what happened last summer, then know that I'm not going to be doing that," Harry started.

"Of course we're here for that," Justin called out. "It's only natural to be curious, but we want to learn other things too."

"Thanks, Justin," Harry said making a face. He turned back to the room, "though that might not go for everyone here. For now this is going to just be a tutoring like thing …"

"What do you mean for now?" someone asked.

Harry smiled, "Oh well, you know."

"For someone that doesn't want to teach so many people, he's very good at getting people interested in it," Fred said loudly.

Harry smiled more, okay maybe Fred had a point, he was already feeling more comfortable with this and he's only said a few words. "The curses and spells that we go over here aren't going to be advance one, and I expect many of the older people would have already learn them. Some spells everyone in the room might already know. But there is a difference between knowing a spell and being able to do it without thinking about it. Again, if that's not something that you're interested in …"

"Stop trying to make us leave," someone in the crowd said, and there were murmurs of agreement.

"Okay," Harry chuckled; he did feel more comfortable now. "Well, I figured for today it would be best to go for the basic. The Disarming spell."

"Expelliarmus!" a few people snorted, or said in disbelieve.

"I did say that we would be doing basic spells," Harry pointed out to them, not adding that it was a good way to see where their fundamentals were at. "Break into pairs."

There was a lot of talking going around as everyone went into pairs, Harry was just glad that he didn't have to pair up with anyone because he really didn't have time to do so now. He spread everyone out and then they started. He walked around watching but he barely got through half of them before he realized that this wasn't going to work. It would take him too long to be able to actually watch and if he wasn't going to do that there was no point of them coming together like this.

Then there was the fact that not everyone seem to have a good handle on the spell, or weren't so great with aiming. Also it seemed more times than not that people where hitting the person, sending them flying instead of the wand. Harry knew that this could often happen, but the more skill you had, and control over your magic, the less likely that the opponent would be effect. All that was supposed to happen was the wand to be taken away.

"Alright everyone," Harry said only after twenty minutes of this, trying to work a way around his problem but he couldn't. Everyone stopped and looked at him, "I think that's enough for today."

"But we've only been here for forty minutes," someone complained and there were murmurs of agreement.

"I know, and I'm sure the next meeting will be longer, but I think that's enough for today," Harry said. There were more protest but Harry just answered back calmly. He wondered if anyone was going to decide that this was indeed a waste of their time. After all, he hadn't really shown that he was any good at this. If he were them, he wouldn't come back.

"That's was an interesting start Harry," Cedric said, as most of the people left the room, though Harry saw that his friends were all staying behind gathering around some of the couches that were now reappearing after the dueling session.

"Don't you mean lame," Harry sighed.

"I don't know about that," Cedric said, "half the reason I asked my friends to come with me is because I know they're content with their spell work. Once they learn a spell, they don't really care to know how to get better at it. It never used to bother me, I like working so I got better but I thought my friends could do what they wanted."

"You're worried about them," Harry said, realizing what Cedric was trying to get to.

"Aren't you worried about your friends too," Cedric said looking over to the others, "isn't that the whole point of this."

"Basically," Harry agreed, "the problem is I can't handle all of these people here, well at least not if I want be effective in helping anyone." Harry looked at Cedric closely, "You know, maybe you can help me with that, if you helped me walk around … there wouldn't be so much chaos going on."

"Me?" Cedric questioned. "Why would you want my help, wouldn't one of your friends be better."

"Not really," Harry said. "You were a school champion too …"

"So I know how to face a dragon … doesn't mean I know much about … well it's not like I have your experience," Cedric uneasily.

"Hmph," Harry said, "well it's not the same, competing in the tournament and facing another wizard," he had to agree, "but you've still had to think on your feet."

"Er … if you need the help, I guess I well," Cedric said, with a determined expression and Harry had a feeling he was thinking about his friends again.

"Thanks Cedric," Harry said and after that they said goodbye and Harry walked over to his friends.

"I thought we were going to do more things than that today," Ron said to Harry once he joined him.

"Yeah, and maybe if someone warned me about having more than thirty people," Harry said, "I would have been more prepared. I thought maybe ten or fifteen people would be coming, not this many."

"Don't look at me, all I told was Dean and Seamus, and they already knew about it before I got to them," Ron said.

"So basically you told no one," Harry said and Ron shrugged.

"I'm surprised that there's so many Ravenclaws," Harry said thoughtfully, thinking about the two groups of Ravenclaws, the bigger one was the one in his year, but there was a fair amount of sixth years too, all of which Harry was sure were Cho's friends.

"Well Parvati talked to her sister, Padma, and she got the other fifth year girls interested," Hermione answered. "After they wanted to go, they boys agreed to come as well … well at least that's what Parvati told me happened. And there were only thirty four people; it's not that many …"

"I'd doubt you'd say the same thing if you were the one that was trying to teach them … and trying to keep them from destroying the room," Harry complained. "I'm going to have to figure out a better way to handle everyone. I just asked Cedric if he'd help me keep things in order while everyone is practicing …"

"Cedric! Why are you asking that git when you have us?" Fred complained.

"Because everyone would willingly accept his lead," Harry said. "It's not easy to be taught by your pier … that's why I'm surprised that so many people are here wanting to be helped by me …"

"You're Harry effing Potter, you're not a pier … or not just one," Ron pointed out.

"Unfortunately," Harry nodded his head. "Well, Cedric was a Champion, no one is going to be too annoyed if he helps … even his friends wouldn't be too annoyed."

"That does make sense," Hermione said though none of the boys looked like they agree with him.

"I'm glad it did," Harry said sitting down and picking up a quill and parchment that had appeared before him. Now if you don't mind, I have to work on my next lesson. Maybe I should pair everyone up, instead of letting them pick their partners … no that should wait until I've seen them work for a while …"

"Er … Harry?" Ron asked and he looked up. "Are you talking to us?"

"Huh?" Harry said and then shook his head, "no, I wasn't … I was just thinking out loud."

"Right," Ron said lowly and Harry made a face at him. "I guess we should leave you alone."

"That would be nice."