September 1, 1996

Harry stomped up to Hogwarts, ignoring the sound of Tonks laughter behind him.

"You know, if you wouldn't spy on people, you'd have supper by now." Tonks reminded him. Harry scoffed.

"You know if I told Remus about this…" Harry started.

"He'd lecture you for an hour." Tonks finished. "Even though he and his lot got up to a lot worse when they were in school."

"Haha. Speaking of, where is Remus? I haven't seen him in a couple of days." Harry asked, turning back to Tonks.

"Oh, you know, around." Tonks laughed again.

"Thanks. You're so helpful." Harry rolled his eyes and went back to stomping away.

Tonks laughed as she delivered him to the front doors. Professor McGonagall was waiting for them, disappointment evident in her face.

"We were held up." Harry offered as a way of explanation.

"Held up by what?" McGonagall asked, eyebrow perfectly arched.

"By hormones." Tonks laughed. "I'll see you lot inside."

"You'd better get to the Great Hall. Provided Mr. Weasley has left some food behind, there should be something for you to eat." McGonagall directed her adopted son through the doors and to the Gryffindor table. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny couldn't help but laugh at him.

"You've literally just missed all the food, so sad." Ginny giggled. "We'll just have to sneak out. But first, you should take a look at the professor's table. Tell me, does anyone look familiar?"

"Oh no! Why is Remus here?" Harry lamented, grabbing his hair and leaning on the table.

"Maybe because he's the new History of Magic professor," Hermione smirked.

"How?" Harry blurted out, then he realized how the question sounded. So, he added, "I mean, between Binn's and the Ministry of Magic, how is this possible?"

"Guess we'll just have to ask tomorrow," Hermione said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"But we're not taking NEWTs level History of Magic like some overachievers." Ron pointed out.

"Well, you'll just have to do something about that, won't you." Hermione sniffed primly.

"Like what? Take another class?" Ron asked around a bite of pudding.

"That would be one way to solve the problem, brother-mine." Ginny giggled.

"That's not the point. The point is, Tonks is whispering to him and now he's going wring my neck." Harry said, face lighting up in embarrassment.

Sure enough, Remus was glaring at Harry while Tonks laughed in the seat next to him. Harry knew he was going to answer to his godfather before the week was over.


September 2, 1996

"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall shouted down the corridor.

"Hey, Minnie, how's it hanging?" Harry asked, laughing at the fools rushing to class. There was nothing like having a free period first thing in the morning.

"I assume you and Mr. Weasley are still interested in pursuing the Auror track?" McGonagall asked, ignoring Harry's horrible grammar.

"Well, yeah, but you have to have an O in potions to take NEWT level. And we only received E's. We can't take it." Harry said, a mock pout on his lips.

"That was with Professor Snape. Professor Slughorn is more than willing to take E's. You and Mr. Weasley now have Potions first period. Go, before I find another class for you hooligans to take." McGonagall shooed her adopted son away.

"C'mon, Ron, we have Potions now," Harry said, grabbing his friend's sleeve and leading him to the dungeon.

"But how?" Ron asked, following anyway.

"One word: Slughorn. He, apparently, doesn't have the same standards as Snape." Harry shrugged, entering the potions classroom, noting that it was a bit less dreary with the change of professor.

"Ah, Mr. Potter! You've decided to join my class! How wonderful!" Professor Slughorn greeted the pair jovially. "And who is this you've brought with you?"

"Uh, this is Ron Weasley," Harry said, gesturing to his left. "Thing is, Professor, we don't have books. We weren't originally in this class."

"It's perfectly fine, my dear boy. You didn't know I was your professor. It's a perfectly understandable mistake," Professor Slughorn chuckled. "Wallaby, will you be needing a book as well?"

"It's Weasley, and yes, yes I will." Ron glowered at the professor.

"Yes, yes, an understandable mistake, you know." Professor Slughorn waved Ron off. "I have spare potions books in that cabinet over there. Grab a couple and return them after your parents owl your new books."

Harry and Ron nodded, then walked over to the cabinet. When they looked inside, they saw two books. One was a new book, never been opened; the other was a beat up textbook at least 30 years out of date. They looked at each other for a split second before trying to shove each other out of the way so they could get the better book. Ron, having a keeper's build, got the upper hand and shoved Harry a little harder than necessary. He grabbed the good book, leaving Harry with the old one.

"That's amortentia, Sir," They were able to catch Hermione saying. "It smells like the things a person loves most. For instance, I smell…"

"No one wants to know what you smell." Ron cut in. "I've smelled Fred and George's room. Honestly, it's a wonder either of them can get girls."

Hermione glared at him as Professor Slughorn continued explaining the love potion to the class.

"And this last one, can anyone tell me what it is?" Professor Slughorn asked, pointing to a murky looking potion. Harry and Ron couldn't help laughing as Hermione blushed a deep red and glared at the duo. "Mr. Potter, you seem to have a history with this potion. Can you name it for the class."

"It's Polyjuice, Sir," Harry said, controlling himself. "Add a human hair, toenail, whatever, and you'll turn into that person for up to an hour and a half. It's what Crouch Jr. used to impersonate Mad-Eye two years ago. At the end of the day, we're all familiar."

"Ah yes, I forget that," Professor Slughorn said, bowing his head and taking a moment. "Now, for today's assignment. Turn to page 56 and begin brewing Draught of Living Death."

Harry flipped through his book, disgusted to see that the text hadn't changed from the 70s. The class started on the potion, following from their textbooks. Harry noticed suggestions added in the margins of his ancient textbook; then he noticed something about those notes.

"Oi, Ron," Harry whispered. "Do these directions look familiar?"

Ron stuck his head into Harry's work, then he said, "Yeah, they do. They look like Snape's notes from when he taught us when we were young."

"Oi, Hermione," Harry said, leaning to his other side. "You may want to look at this."

"Harry, I'm in the middle of something." Hermione bit out.

"You're doing it wrong," Harry said, knowing this would catch her attention.

"And how would you know that?" Hermione lashed out, whipping her head around to glare at him.

"Because we've never used a textbook in the past. Snape's always given us the directions on the board. And now, my ancient textbook has similar directions."

Hermione started flipping through Harry's book, finding Polyjuice Potion. She read, then re-read the directions with notes. "Well, this would have saved us half the time. Why didn't you two take better notes."

"One, because we were nine, and notes weren't our strong suit. Two, because he didn't teach nine-year-olds how to brew Polyjuice." Harry whisper yelled.

"Fine." Hermione conceded. "But you better share that book."

"Why?" Harry asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Because we all know Slughorn is too lazy to actually teach correctly. I want to beat him with Snape's instructions. It will stick it to both of them."

Ron laughed and Harry smirked. "Let's do this."


Defense Against the Dark Arts was altogether different, which was hard to pull off given the list of former teachers in the subject. The one thing the students noticed was that drab interior from the Potions room had followed Snape into the Defense classroom.

"It's a wonder any of you made it this far in your education," Snape said in way of introduction. "If you manage to survive the next year, you will be able to survive anything any test was thrown your way, academic or otherwise."

Harry could feel Snape's eyes boring into him. Snape held eye contact for a few moments before continuing. "Today, we will be working on non-verbal spells. Who can tell me what the advantage of casting non-verbally is? Put your hand down, Miss Granger. We all know you know the answer."

Hermione glared at their professor while everyone else struggled to come up with an answer. Finally, Draco had the gall to raise his hand. Harry booed while Ron sent a silent stinging hex his way. Since Ron was still unpracticed with non-verbals, the stinging hex barely did anything.

"Thank goodness, Draco. Educate the minds of these…people." Snape didn't even bother to look at his step-son.

"It gives the caster a split second advantage. Mostly used socially, but also keeps you from dying." Draco shrugged, glaring at Harry.

"Perfect answer," Snape congratulated. "Fifteen points to Slytherin."

"Fifteen points?!" Ron exclaimed. "He's a fucking murderer! He should be in Azkaban, not in our class! And he really shouldn't be getting points for anything!"

"Mr. Weasley, if you need to see someone about your grief, I suggest you remove yourself from my classroom. Otherwise, do not insult my teaching style or we shall be seeing more of each other in detention than we've ever wanted."

Ron glared at Snape, then left the classroom in fury. "I'm going to talk to someone about my grief. I'm going to see if Headmaster Dumbledore is really willing to let a heartless bastard teach his students. You of all people should know better than to insult war orphans."

Snape let the class sit in a moment of silence before he muttered, "At least there's only two of them this year."

Hermione scoffed as Harry added his own glare. Snape ignored them and said, "I'll pair you up, then you'll practice non-verbal spells. Jinxes only, no hexes, no curses. There will be no need for you to speak for the next half hour at minimum."

Hermione glared at Snape when she was paired with Pansy Parkinson. Neville shook with anger when he was paired with Theo Nott. Harry, however, thought about getting himself expelled when he was paired with Draco Malfoy.

Harry did everything in his power to not out and out hex the blonde menace standing across from him. It became apparent very early in the session that Draco had some tutoring over the summer. He was doing much better than Harry, and it was pissing Harry off.

"Reducto!" Harry finally shouted after getting stung for the seventh time.

"Mister Potter, what part of 'non-verbal' is so difficult to understand?" Snape asked, turning on him.

"Your son, Professor, is hexing me. I believe you said no to hexing. Why haven't you done something about that?" Harry shot back.

"He is being silent about it. That would be the whole point of this exercise." Snape rolled his eyes. "Since you seem to require extra work, you'll duel me."

"No, thank you." Harry bit through his teeth.

"No, thank you, 'Sir,'" Snape corrected.

"No need to call me 'Sir,' Professor." Harry shot back, mentally congratulating himself.

"Detention, I believe, Mr. Potter." Snape's glare seemed to bore through Harry's head.

"Seems inevitable." Harry glared back.

"Watch your tone, Potter, or we'll make it all day Saturday next. Can you still be Quidditch captain if you can't even make it to try-outs?" Snape threatened.

"No, Sir," Harry said through gritted teeth. "I'll see you tonight."

"Don't worry, Potter, I'll keep the little Weaslette warm," Draco smirked. Harry turned on his former friend and finally managed to get his non-verbal jinx correct.


"'Little Weaslette'? You do realize that Hermione is in that class as well, don't you?" Luna questioned in the abandoned classroom.

"I know, I know,

3479999" Draco said, pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes.

"She already hates you. Don't make it worse." Luna advised. "Especially since you still want her back."


Gabs: So… yeah…. We went radio silent. Oops.

Kat: #ourlivessuck. Please forgive us.

Gabs: We would love to say we won't go MIA again, but we're not willing to make promises.

Kat: We do have the next chapter started… So that's a plus.

Gabs: Review and hope our schedules clear up enough we can start to write again.

Kat: We own nothing. Please forgive our mistakes.

XOXO

Gabs & Kat