Harry awoke to the realisation that sleeping in his robes was not a good idea. He quickly showered, rubbing at the lines his robes and pillow had left on his face. He couldn't be late on his first day, and he definitely couldn't make it through without breakfast.

He managed to successfully make it down in time for breakfast in clean, non-wrinkled robes, and was irrationally proud of that fact.

He sat hesitantly at the staff table. It still felt weird, like he wasn't supposed to be up there, and it was so different. From his seat, he could see everything at all four tables below him. Before, when he used to sit at the Gryffindor table, he had just been one drop in the middle of a sea of students.

He checked his watch — a present from Ron and Hermione before he left — and started. He should probably be going now if he wanted to have time to prepare a bit before his first students. His first class was going to be Second Year Hufflepuffs, so at least he was starting off easy.

~*~

It had been easy, he supposed, compared to the other classes; but all of the classes were draining. It was all so new, and he really had no idea what he was doing. Keeping the students' attention could sometimes seem nearly impossible. The Sixth Year Gryffindor and Slytherin joint class had, in particular, had been relentless.

They would not stop making digs at each other, and asking about Harry's personal life and the war; it was an absolute nightmare. He'd had to resort to taking ten points for every time someone talked out of turn just to get them to shut up.

Apparently they still seemed to like him though, and they had found his anger funny (which he wasn't sure was a good thing). They complained very little about the points, and what little complaining there had been had been good-natured, so Harry figured he had at the very least found a way to deal with this lot.

He sighed. He should probably get started on marking all of the quizzes he'd assigned to see where the students were at. He wasn't quite sure why his past self had thought those were a good idea.

~*~

He finished marking the last one and sighed with relief. Actually, most of the students had done a pretty good job. It seemed that Professor Proteget had actually done her job, which was a relief. He stood and stretched before heading down to dinner.

When he arrived at the Great Hall, he discovered he was a few minutes late. Oh well. It was worth it to not have to go back to his office after dinner. He headed for the only empty seat left between Draco and Pomona. It was time to test that truce, he guessed.

"Hello Po— Harry," Draco greeted politely (if a little stiffly), as Harry took his seat.

"Hi Draco. How were your classes?"

Draco looked at him oddly, but quickly composed his face. Harry guessed his question did merit a bit of an odd look, as they'd never carried on (or even attempted to carry on, for that matter) such a polite conversation before.

"They were fine. And yours?"

"Tiring. They were alright though. The students mostly seemed to know what they should up to now, but they never want to focus. The Sixth Year Gryffindor/Slytherin class has been the worst so far — they just would not shut up. I had to start taking points, but I think they like me anyway though, it's weird."

"Huh. You know, if you were just strict from the beginning they wouldn't dare interrupt you."

"But then I would be like Snape, and everybody would hate my class."

"I quite liked potions, if you hadn't noticed. And I had a Ravenclaw tell me today that she much preferred my teaching to Slughorn already."

"Well, she's a Ravenclaw. She just wants all the information she can get."

"Well at least she can read; I'm not entirely convinced you even know how."

Harry rolled his eyes and started in on his dinner.