Chapter Fourteen

"Well that changes things." Hermione said, taking a deep breath, "Are you sure?"

Harry nodded, "Yep. His mother's maiden name was Prince, here see. 'Property of the Half-Blood Prince'. It was the name he used when he didn't want James finding out something was his and wrecking it."

"Ron was right, there's barely a page in here not scri… written on." Pansy said, flicking through.

"I'll be fine, and I can always get Mum to send me a new one." Harry pointed out, "I just wanted to have it. Now come on, we're running out of time."

Harry turned to the potion he was working on. He paused though, he wasn't sure whether or not to follow Severus's notes or the same recipe that everyone else was. He couldn't imagine Severus suggesting anything dangerous and there was no way he was beating Hermione or Draco in a fair fight.

Severus's notes it was.

Hermione was looking very flustered, her hair sticking out at strange angles even more than normal. She kept glancing over to Harry's cauldron and scowling at the fact his potion was at least two steps ahead of hers.

"Time's up!" Slughorn declared, "Please put your stirrers down and do not add anything more to your cauldrons."

He walked around the room, most people had made a good attempt although several were still at the deep black pool stage rather than the pale pink that Harry had managed. Ron's looked like thick tar and Ernie's had gone green for some reason.

"A clear winner!" Slughorn said, slapping Harry on the back, "An effort I would be very pleased with myself! Well done boy!"

Harry smiled, tucking his father's book subtly out of sight, "Thank you Sir, that means a lot, especially coming from you."

Slughorn beamed at him and handed over the shining, golden little bottle of potion.

"Use it wisely." Slughorn advised him, "And for the rest of you, better luck next time."

Harry tucked the potion vial into the top pocket of his robes and started to pack up his things.

"How did you get your potion so far along?" Hermione asked, as they headed to the Great Hall for lunch.

"I followed the instructions that Dad had written in the book." Harry shrugged.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped, she looked a strange mix of worried and outraged, "You basically cheated."

"How?" Harry demanded, rolling his eyes.

"Well… you… it could have been dangerous!" Hermione huffed.

"Hermione," Neville said gently, "don't be a sore looser."

Hermione glared at Neville, "It could have been dangerous!"

"Hermione, did your potion take longer than expected? Longer than our potions usually take?" Pansy asked, trying not to grin to much.

Hermione frowned, slightly confused by the question, "Well… yes. A little I suppose."

"And did you ever see Dad write out a potion from a book in the last five years?" Harry asked.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, before taking a deep breath, "You mean Professor Snape was always using his own recipes? That's… that's…"

"Look, agree or disagree with what Harry did he did win the potion." Daphne said frankly, "And if Professor Snape was still teaching, it would be with the recipes in that book."

"And it's not like Harry was following recipes that he didn't know who they were from." Draco pointed out.

"Exactly!" Harry nodded, "I'd never be stupid enough to do that."

"Fine." Hermione said, letting out a sigh, "I suppose I might be a little upset that I didn't win the potion."

Harry gave her a playful nudge, earning a small smile from her, "Don't worry Granger, you're still the smartest."

Hermione grinned and picked up the book. It was very much worse for wear. Nearly every page was stained or torn, and every page was written on. The cover was torn and cello-taped back together, which was better than the back cover which had been torn in half at some point.

"Slughorn is going to wonder why you have a crappy old book rather than a new one." Daphne pointed out.

Harry had thought of that, "I'm going to get mum to send me a new copy, two new copies actually. I'm going to swap the covers on one of them, so it'll be a new book in the old cover that goes back into the cupboard. I'll copy the notes into my new one and then this one can go somewhere safe."

"Where is somewhere safe?" Draco asked.

That Harry wasn't sure of but he was sure there must be somewhere in Hogwarts that things could get lost in. For now it would live in the Come and Go room, not that they would be using that for DA any more.

Professor McGonagall had agreed to over see the lessons, she seemed to think it was a wonderful idea to teach the students extra defence, as long as it didn't take up to much time and no student was allowed to let their school work suffer as a result. She had also allowed them to have the lessons in her classroom.

Something told Harry that keeping the Come and Go room relatively secret would be a good idea.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Neville asked as they finished their lunch.

Harry smiled, "Not sure they're worth that much."

"Tell us anyway." Pansy said.

"Just wondering if we should start planning the next DA session sooner rather than later. People will be pretty rusty after the summer." Harry informed them.

"We're also going to have some total newbies." Hermione said thoughtfully, "Is it worth splitting them up a little, maybe have a few different ranges of… ability."

Harry nodded, "Yes… if we had the time. But we don't not with all of our school work as well. One group and people will just have to catch up."

Two days later, they were standing in the cleared Transfiguration classroom. Professor McGonagall was sitting on the single remaining chair in the corner reading a book, completely ignoring the large gathering of students.

There were about twice as many as there had been last year, all staring eagerly at Harry. Harry looked over them, he was sure that many of the new members wouldn't be there for very long. Marietta, Cho's friend almost certainly wouldn't be coming back, she looked annoyed to be there even now.

"So… welcome to all of you. Dates and times of these lessons will be put up on the house announcement boards like they were this time." Hermione informed them, "Please make sure that you have written your name on this sheet of parchment, we just need to keep a record of who's here. And it's just a list, nothing more." Hermione said, trying to reassure them that this one wasn't cursed like the last members list had been.

She couldn't exactly just come out with the fact she had secretly cursed a couple of dozen students into silence with Professor McGonagall sitting right there.

Harry looked around the faces and took a deep breath. He flicked his wand, muttering the spell and a large stag burst forth galloping twice around the room before fading.

There were many impressed noises and a few claps for Harry's display.

"We'll be learning that, sooner or later but to start with we need to work up to such a high level." Harry explained, "Those of you who are new to us, don't worry, we're not going to leave you behind and those who were with us last year, well, more practice will do us all some good."

Zacharias Smith rolled his eyes "But we've already learned loads!"

"Fear not the man who has practised 10,000 spells once, but fear the man who has practised one spell 10,000 times." Hermione glared.

"Where did you get that from?" Harry whispered to her, "It sounds familiar."

Hermione waved her hand dismissively.

"Hermione is right, there is no such thing as to much practise. But, as it was last year Smith if you don't want to be here you know where the door is." Harry smiled, loosing his train of thought briefly as Cho smiled at him, "So… umm… we're… we're starting on blocking charms. Those of you who have already practised them, feel free to move to the next level, non-verbal spells."

The room quickly paired up and Harry made a beeline for Cho. He'd not had the chance to talk to her much since they'd been back.

"Hi Harry." she said with a smile, her soft Scottish accent melting him completely. He could feel the blood rising in his face.

"Hi Cho." Harry grinned, "How are you doing?"

Cho shrugged, "I'm OK, it's a busy year, a very busy year for me. What with my N.E. happening."

"How are they going?" Harry asked.

Cho let out a tinkly laugh, "As I expected them, confusing, overwhelming and stressful. You know, normal school work stuff. I think we should be practising really? Don't you?"

Harry shrugged, "You're really good at this stuff! Definitely held your own at the Ministry." he pointed out.

"No such thing as too much practise." Cho repeated back to him with a smile.

Harry ran a hand through her hair, he wanted to kiss her but thought better of it in a room filled with people. He wasn't sure that she'd thank him for such a public display of affection, or if they were even at that level yet.

"Harry I can't get this!" Ron moaned, breaking Harry's thoughts about Cho.

"I'm coming." Harry sighed, leaving Cho to practice with a young Hufflepuff.

The lesson went well, by the end of it there wasn't a single person who couldn't produce a shield charm and over half of the class could produce the charm without making a sound. Including Harry who was looking forwards to the next Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson and being able to show his father how much he had improved.

"See you next time!" Harry called to them as the students left the classroom in twos and threes.

Cho was taking her time getting ready and Harry had been walking over to her when she got caught up in a group of her friends and was dragged from the room, giving Harry a small smile as she went.

"I'm impressed, Mr Potter." Professor McGonagall said, she flicked her wand and the desks appeared in their normal places, "You are a fine teacher. And it was impressive to improve so many students so quickly."

"Thank you, Professor." Harry said, "When are you free for me to organise the next meeting?"

"I'll give you a list of dates." Professor McGonagall said promptly, "And Mr Potter, don't forget to put this teaching experience on any future job applications. It will look most excellent."

Harry grinned and thanked her again before leaving with his friends.

One of the few annoyances he had with Hogwarts castle was the fact that there was no joint common room. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in his favourite chair by the fire with a hot chocolate and start on his homework, or possibly the next DA lesson plan but that would mean that Hermione and Neville would have to go somewhere else.

They could go to the Great Hall but the benches were uncomfortable for long periods of time and the Library would mean they couldn't freely talk to one another. They settled in the end, for the Great Hall.

There were several other groups of students sitting around, the rules heavily relaxed as it was after meal times and a normal school day. It didn't stop Professor Flitwick from giving them a strange look and muttering something about it never being allowed back in his day.

"You seemed pretty smiley at Cho." Daphne smirked.

"She really likes you, you know." Neville pointed out with a grin.

Harry knew that, he really liked her as well but it was complicated. There were still moments were Cho would look over to the Hufflepuff table and sigh or she was look suddenly behind her, her head snapping round sending her dark hair flying over her shoulder and then she would get sad, like she thought she'd heard his voice or seen a flash of him.

Harry didn't want to push it, it wasn't fair and it certainly wouldn't end well. He wasn't sure she would ever totally get over Cedric but for now the ball was in her court. When she was ready, she could come and tell him she was ready and until then he would be the best friend he could be to her.