Harry awoke to Ron's gruff voice: "C'mon Harry! Did you sleep through the alarm?" Ron peered at Harry through the hangings surrounding his bed, then began to shake him a little. "I'm sorry Harry, I thought you were pretending!"
"Huh?" Harry picked up his watch, and was suddenly wide awake when he took in what the time was. Harry jumped out of bed, and clambered into his robes. The house elves must have draped them over the foot of his bed, because he definitely didn't remember putting them there.
They're first lesson was double defence against the dark arts with Ravenclaw, and Harry didn't want to be late for his first lesson.
He rushed out of the bathroom, and the two companions rushed through the deserted common room, along numerous corridors and up and down a lot of stone steps, till, puffing and panting, they reached the classroom.
"One minute to spare!" Ron breathed triumphantly, as they caught their breath. They then walked into the DADA room, and took the two remaining seats, at the back, next to Hermione and a Ravenclaw girl who they didn't know.
"I was wondering if you were going to turn up at all!" Hermione sounded extremely displeased with both of them. "Though I don't suppose you really cared which seats we got, I thought we should get somewhere near the back, you know, incase the new teacher was anything like, um, certain other teachers."
"I can assure you, miss Granger, that I am nowhere near as easily phased as Guildroy Lockhart, as I must assume it is him you speak of."
Professor Trewlawny would have greatly awed the entrance made by this stout and odd-looking man, if, indeed, that was what he was.
He floated down, in a meditative position, and landed on his desk, without the slightest disturbance of air in the room. This intriguing creature had a greeny-blue tone of skin, and wore long, billowing robes, a shade even blacker than that of Snapes, and, believe me, that is a hard thing to have.
"That's a goblin!" Ron exclaimed in an eager whisper.
"A goblin?" I asked. "I remember them being a lot shorter than that and Gringotts."
"Harry, there is actually more than one species of goblin!"
"Please continue." Said the new teacher before them.
"Sorry professor." Hermione was immediately shy.
"No, no. You, at least, were speaking of something slightly relevant to my class. Please repeat it to the class." Though his face bore no expression, his voice was showing the smallest hint of encouragement.
"I…I said that there is more than one type of goblin." Hermione tried. "Twenty-seven of which have been recorded in The Friendly Goblin Hand Book, of which they have a copy in the school library." She looked at the professor for acknowledgement. His face told her both that she was correct, and that she may sit down.
"Very good." He smiled, "However, first things first. I am Professor Gimellworth, and I am your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Professor Gimellworth smiled crookedly at the class. "Now, I am fully aware that many teachers will begin with an exciting lesson, trying to spark your interest for the long term ahead, I am, however, unlike many teachers.
"You are expected to learn about the topic at hand from the text books, and then, usually the following week, you will test out the defensive charm, or what have you. In other words," He spoke mainly for those like Ron, who understood none of what had just been said, "You will need to earn my trust and respect, and then I shall give it to you."
Professor Gimellworth was tall and thin, with slender arms and legs, but a much shorter torso. Harry thought he looked suspiciously like the type of thing found in martian films on muggle TV, though perhaps one of the older, wise ones. His head was bowed slightly, and hooded at the back, though he appeared to have human-like eyes, a nose that stuck out a rather long way, and long, thin lips. These were the characters that, if prior asked, Harry would have drawn as evil incarnate, but now that he could see them, on a complete face, they seemed almost as friendly and normal as those of Ron and Hermione.
The class sat in silence as he told them what to study from their text books, Useful Defensive Skills, which were part of the year's book list, and was then relatively quiet through the rest of the lesson, hoping he would think them good enough to try out the skills they were learning next week.
The new professor certainly seemed to be in tune with his senses, as when Parvarti passed Lavender a note from the table behind, even though the goblin had his eyes closed, and was floating a metre or so over his desk, legs crossed, elbows sitting upon knees and hands, with those long, singly knuckled fingers, perched thoughtfully below his chin, he noticed.
"I admit, it has a good likeness to me Parvarti, apart from the daydreaming cloud branching from his head; but I see not how it helps you with your studies?" He questioned, opening and eye, and, with it, raising and eyebrow.
Parvarti got back to work quickly.
He even managed to explain everything to Nevilles perfect understanding, which, these days, seemed to be very, very, rare.
"That was excellent!" Harry was thoroughly pleased with the lesson they were just retreating from. "He was really, well, cool!" Harry seemed against using the word, but I doubt anyone could have put it better.
"Tell me about it!" Ron seemed just as thrilled. "Come on Hermione, you're not just mad because he made fun of your precious Lockhart are you?"
"Oh yeah! The pain it caused me!" Hermione couldn't resist retaliating to Ron's teasing, after a while of having it full on, I think it would be too much for anyone. "I thought he was good to, it's just, he seems to have an entirely different approach to teaching us the curriculum, I was almost expecting to have Snape teach us too." She sounded relieved. "Nah, he's good."
"Yeah, gotta' say that I worried about that and all," Ron grinned. "Gimmelworth's absence from the welcoming feast was most unappreciated."
They walked out to herblogy, which they were sure to enjoy sharing with Slytherin.
Later on, in the evening, they decided to stop by at Hagrid's, they hadn't seen him yet really, in fact, he had been missing from the celebratory feast too.
"Hagrid?" Harry banged on the door of his broken down, though rather tall, cottage, at the foot of the Hogwarts grounds, next to the Dark Forest.
"I'm coming!" He exclaimed, putting down some sort of clattering metal object inside.
Hagrid opened the door wide, an annoyed look on his face till he took Harry in. "Harry me boy! C'mere!" Hagrid brought all three of them into a hug, before shutting out all of the cold air. "How's your first day goin' then eh?" Hagrid was pottering about at his old fashioned stove, preparing them some tea.
"Thank you Hagrid." Said Hermione as he passed her a 'cupa'', as he referred to it. "I thought it was really good, have oyu met the new DADA teacher?"
"I, *(/ a/n: as in the Scottish for yes¬),* I certainly have. I was the one oo' recommended 'im as a matter o'fact." Hagrid spoke, full of pride. "He's good, in' he?"
"He was brilliant!" Ron said through a mouthful of rock cake they were all too polite to say no to. "How come he can float around with his eyes closed, and still know everything that's going on around him?"
"Ah, well, see, he's a goblin." Hagrid said matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, but that don't normally mean they're super powerful does it?"
"If I may," Hermione intervened. "I believe he has past the test of, well, I can't speak goblin, but once they reach a certain age, they are given the chance to compete against a range of different magical creatures in a kind of, trial to test their skills, strength, brain power, and magical abilities. I heard that most fail it, but, if you do pass it, you no longer need anything to concentrate your power all the time, because it greatly increases, and you can tap into resources other than your own." Hermione spoke every word with great respect, and awe.
"And what that means," Hagrid simplified all of the language for them, "Is that he's one of the most powerful ranks of wizard-goblin that there are."
"Do they really die if they fail?" Ron asked.
"Not so much anymore, if a participant shouts enough, stop this, or loses the ability to speak, the trial is stopped, but they fail."
"Well, there's nothing wrong with that, right?" Harry asked to sceptical faces.
"Not to you or me, but a goblin would be banished if 'e took it, and failed. When they died, it was honourable, but now that they get to live, they don't think there's no honour in that." Hagrid corrected him
"But what if someone used those powers wrongly?" Harry asked, surely they would also be tested on the goodness in their hearts?
"They already have Harry me lad. It's not just goblins who can take the test, the reason we call it a goblin test is that they invented it. 'He-who-must-not-be-named' took the test, and he passed. That's how he got so close to immortality," he paused. "That's why he's so dangerous."
Harry felt a kick in the stomach, that was why Voldermort had so much power, Because it was granted to him by the goblins, because all they cared about was power, never stopping to think about whom they were giving it to, not stopping to think of Harry, or wizards, nationally, or anyone in the world.
How did he know that his new DADA teacher could be trusted any more than Voldermort? How could he go back to his class, when there was such a strong possibility of evil intent.
How could he never before have known?
