Title: Deadly Love

Written by: oopsiesgrl

Rating: PG - Parental Guidance recommended (some swearing)

Chapter Six: The New Professor

--------------------------------------------------

Harry and Ron quickened their steps. They had already wasted some time talking about Snape, and this class, they wanted to get to on time, especially Ron. Hermione tagged behind. It wasn't very often she didn't enjoy a class, but she was dreading this one.

When they came to the door, the others were already seated and Professor Fitz was waiting by her desk. She smiled at them, and Ron smiled back sheepishly while Hermione nodded as politely as she could. Ron made towards three empty seats at the very front. Hermione pulled at his robe to make him go to the back of the room. Ron ignored her and began sitting down. Hermione pulled at his sleeve again. The two fought silently for a while as the rest of the class watched amusingly. Professor Fitz pretended not to take notice. Harry finally nudged the two and led them to three seats in the middle. He made them sit next to each other while he took the seat behind Ron. Hermione was blushing furiously as she took out her books and parchment.

"Okay," said Professor Fitz. "Good afternoon. I hope you have already heard a little about my class from your classmates. I want to make it as enjoyable as possible while teaching you as much as possible. This year, I believe, this class may be especially useful. Therefore, with Professor Dumbledore's permission, I will go into more advanced materials. Today, however, we'll begin with something simpler. Oh, you won't need your books today."

The students put away their books gratefully. Harry thought Hermione had muttered something like, "Rubbish! Don't need your books my foot!"

"Have you all heard of a memoria?" Professor Fitz was asking.

Harry could tell Hermione knew what it was by the way she was biting her lips. In order to spite Ron, she was refusing to become friendly with Professor Fitz in any way.

"Harry, do you know?" asked Professor Fitz.

"Huh? Oh...um...not exactly..." stumbled Harry. Ron turned around and shrugged. From the looks on the faces of most of the other students, they didn't know either.

"Miss Granger, how about you?" Professor Fitz turned to Hermione, who was now gripping her hands on the edge of the desk, still refusing to raise them.

When hearing her name called, she looked up and said in a nonchalant voice, "A memoria is a collection of one's memories. It works similar to a pensieve, but is more advanced. You can go back to a memoria and relive everything."

"Very good," said Professor Fitz approvingly.

Placed at the front of the room was an oval mirror-like object. It was about two meters in height and one meter at its widest point. The front was made entirely of glass, with a wooden frame encircling it. Engraved into the wood at the top was the name "Mariana Fitz."

"This is a memoria," the professor pointed to the object. "You walk through the glass and you can enter one of my memories. Like Miss Granger said, what's different about a memoria from a pensieve is that you can relive your memory in a memoria. In a pensieve, you are only a spectator. The person who enters my memoria becomes me. Also, a pensieve is more a collection of thoughts rather than memories while a memoria is literally a collection of memories. However, contrary from what you may think, you cannot change the events that happened because you're not traveling back in time. It still seems very realistic, however. You can see and feel and hear everything. The only unfortunate thing about this is not being able to move and speak freely. At first when you enter a memoria, you may feel like a puppet. You have to move exactly the way the owner of the memoria did and speak when he or she did. Today, I want you to enter my memoria. Why?"

Parvati Patil raised her hand.

"Yes...your name is Parvati Patil?"

"Yes. Is it to experience some hardships you've experienced?"

"Well, not quite. Let me give you a hint. You will be entering a few of my memories of fighting Dark Arts. Harry? Do you know?"

"Um...to have us experience fighting Dark Arts."

"Right. We are miles away from some of the most dangerous places around the world. Later this year, I will ask Professor Dumbledore if we may visit some of them. But for now, this is our only option. I have fixed my memoria to only reveal memories of fighting Dark Arts, so you won't be entering other memories. Let's see. What else? Oh, yes. I want you to be thinking in your mind what is the best spell to use before the memory says it out loud. After all, this is a Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I want you to feel the emotions of facing your enemy, yet be quick enough to think about how to deal with it. Okay, any questions before we begin?"

Neville asked nervously, "What kind of creatures will we be - be facing?"

"It will be a surprise. I want to see how well you face the unknown." Neville whimpered at the thought of the unknown. "Don't worry. This is a review, so it won't be hard. Most of these you've probably faced before. The next time we meet, we'll begin something more difficult. Do you need to refresh your memory about a few spells before we begin?"

"No," the class chorus, eager to start.

"Alright. Who wants to go first? How about you, Harry?"

"Uh...me?" Harry looked around the room. Several others had raised their hands and he hadn't, but she still picked him. "Sure." He walked slowly to the front of the room.

"All you have to do is walk through the glass," assured Professor Fitz. She pointed to the smaller oval mirror-like object on her desk and said, "I will be able to see what's going on through the eyora. After this first memory is over, I will tell you to come out. All you have to do is say, 'unmemorion,' and you will feel something pulling you back. Of course, if you want to come out before my signal, you're welcome to. Okay. Do you want to begin?"

"Okay."

Harry walked toward the glass. It looked solid, but when he touched it, the glass melted away. The classroom behind slowly disappeared and the scene in front was pitch black. As soon as Harry's left foot vanished into the memoria, a strong force pulled his body forward. He went falling face down into the blackness and whirling wind rushed past his ears. Slowly, swirls of colors began appearing around him. The colors formed distinct pictures as Harry's feet landed firmly on the ground.

Before Harry could take a good look around him, his face was positioned forward and his feet were forced to move rapidly ahead. All around him, people were running and screaming incessantly. The doors and windows of every store and house were tightly shut. Further down the road, malicious laughter and threatening yells echoed off the walls. The air was filled with terror.

It didn't take Harry very long to figure out where he was as he wove his way through the crowd, every step he took being forced into Professor Fitz's movements. The narrow cobblestone road was lined with intricate shops. Out of the corner of Harry's eye, he saw wooden signs with the words "Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions," "Flourish and Blotts," and "Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C." Ahead, Harry saw the magnificent white brick building. Above the tall, wooden doors were the golden letters, "Gringotts."

Outside the doors of the wizard's bank, wizards, standing face to face in two lines, were pointing their wands at one another. Spells shot back and forth between the two groups. The spells they used looked more advanced than what Harry usually saw at Hogwarts.

'What's going on here?' thought Harry. 'What's happening at Diagon Alley?'

As Harry continued to run toward the scene, his eyes were on the people. On one side, the wizards wore long black cloaks that trailed the ground and a dark hood. A grotesque mask left only holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth. The wizards and witches on the other side wore grim expressions on their tired faces. Their robes were dirty, as were their faces and hands. There were many more of the masked than the other group. Their posture seemed easy and their cloaks immaculate. Harry could hear the cold laughter emerging from under those ghostly masks as a man on the other side fell down in pain from the spell that had just hit him. A chill ran down Harry's spine. This wasn't a duel. It was a battle.

Harry was near the scene and his steps slowed down. He felt a force move his hand into his pocket for his own wand, or rather, Professor Fitz's wand. He gripped it tightly and walked toward the unmasked group. Inside, he was not so certain about his move.

'Why did Professor Fitz send me here? What's going on anyway?'

His heart was pounding in his chest.

'She said I could leave any time I want to. Should I?'

Harry scolded himself for the mere thought.

'This isn't even real! What am I, a coward?'

A blinding flash of light shot toward him. Harry saw it out of the corner of his eye. An invisible force pulled him back, dodging the spell. He fell roughly on the ground.

"Mari!" Harry heard someone call.

'Mari?'

His face forced itself to turn toward the source of the sound. His eyes looked into the face. When Harry saw who it was, his heart beat even faster. Many emotions rushed into his body - love, amazement, confusion, surprise.

The person who had called him "Mari" was a young woman, around 19 years of age. She had an oval face, framed by rich brown hair that fell to her shoulders. Her cheeks were a rosy red, but currently spattered with dirt and soot. But what had caught Harry's eyes the most were her eyes. A pair of bright green eyes watched Harry with worry.

"Mari, are you okay?" she shouted over the noise. Behind them, the fight was still continuing fervently.

Harry wanted to call out to her, to tell her who he was, but he couldn't. Instead, Professor Fitz's voice emerged from his mouth.

"I'm fine, Lily. What's happening? I heard Death Eaters were at Diagon Alley."

Lily Evans helped her friend up from the ground. Harry felt the friendly warmth of her hand.

"They're trying to break into Gringotts!" she shouted in answer. "The goblins are not reliable enough. They'll turn to Voldemort in a flash if he is able to give them what they want. We're trying to hold the Death Eaters off, but we can't much longer. There are only a few of us, and it's mostly new Hogwarts graduates. Dumbledore and most of the Ministry were lured by Voldemort into Spain with false alarms, and they can't get back!"

"What can I do?" Harry felt himself speaking again.

"Come! Take out your wand!" Lily led Harry to the group of fighters. Most of them Harry didn't know, but a few, he did. There was Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, a man that resembled Neville Longbottom, and James Potter. Harry took the position next to his father and lifted Professor Fitz's wand.

"Mari, you're here!" James said to him.

"Of course I am," Professor Fitz spoke again through Harry's mouth.

Lily came up and stood next to Harry.

'My mom and dad...next to me,' thought Harry.

Harry muttered a spell. What was it? He didn't know. His mind was too full of other thoughts to think about what spells were being used. Harry had seen his parents only two times since their death. Once, it was through the Mirror of Erised and the other time when a vision of them appeared from Voldemort's wand during his and Harry's duel. This was the first time Harry had been so close to them. Never before had they seemed so real. He wanted so desperately to talk to them.

'I'm your son!' Harry shouted in his mind. 'I'm Harry!'

He wanted to turn and take a better look at them, but the memoria forbid him from moving freely.

Under his breath, Professor Fitz's voice continued to mutter spells. Curses shot at him every few seconds and he moved with Professor Fitz's body carelessly to dodge them. In front of him, the Death Eaters laughed coldly. Every now and then, another on their side fell, some even dying after being hit by the Killing Curse.

'I should care more about what's going on here! This is serious! What I keep thinking about isn't. I can never be with my parents. I have to get out of my dream. I won't let this take over my life. Voldemort is back now. I should pay more attention to how to defeat him rather than linger on my dreams.'

Harry listened intently to the spells that Professor Fitz muttered through his mouth and watched how the other wizards faced the challenge. He tried to not think about his parents again, but now and then, and mind wandered back to them.

'No, Harry! Concentrate!'

After a few minutes of Harry's battle, the scene around him began fading. Harry was freed form the memoria's controlled movements.

"No!" he shouted. Harry grasped wildly at the fading images of James and Lily. He wanted to remain with them, but the memory was ending, and his parents were leaving again. "No!"

"Harry, you can come out now," he heard Professor Fitz's voice say.

Harry sighed. 'I can't live in a memory...' In a shaking voice, he said slowly, "Unmemorion."

He felt his body being pulled backwards, out of the darkness that now surrounded him. Soon, the classroom reappeared. Harry saw all of the eyes on him as he stepped out of the glass. Ron had an expectant look on his face and Hermione too seemed curious despite herself.

'Should I tell them who I saw?' wondered Harry. 'No, not yet. At least not until the three of us can talk alone.'

Harry walked to his seat.

"How was it?" Ron whispered to him.

"It was okay," answered Harry. "Pretty - pretty exciting."

"Thank you, Harry," said Professor Fitz. "Now, who wants to go next?"

Most of the class raised their hands.

"Miss Brown, how about you?"

Just as Harry did, Lavender Brown disappeared into the glass of the memoria without a trace. Several minutes later, Professor Fitz called her back. As soon as she came back to her seat, Lavender began whispering excitedly to her friends about the exhilarating experience she had battling a vampire in Transylvania. After Lavender, Ron went into the memoria. He came back talking about surviving the attack of a werewolf in Spain. Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom, Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Parvati Patil each took their turn. Their enemies were either annoying Red Caps, misleading hinkypunks, runaway mummies, or, the most serious, Voldemort wannabes. Neville Longbottom came back shaking, refusing to say what he had battled. Hermione, who couldn't keep herself away from the memoria any longer, came back disappointed about only facing a boggart.

"I wanted to have something more difficult," she said to Harry, still not talking much to Ron. "Harry, guess what Professor Fitz fears the most."

"What?"

"A pair of eyes! At least, that's what I think the boggart turned into."

"That's weird," Harry said absently, not really hearing what Hermione was saying. His thoughts were somewhere else.

'Why am I the only one who faced Death Eaters?' he wondered. 'Why was it me?'

"Okay, class." Professor Fitz stood up. "Now that everybody has had the review, we will begin something more difficult during our next class. Our discussion will include more of Dark witches and wizards from now on rather than the creatures that you've learned before. More difficult spells - "

"Brrrrriiiiiiiing!!!" The bell broke her sentence.

"The class is dismissed. Harry, will you stay a moment?"

Ron turned around and shrugged his shoulders. "Wonder what that's about." Hermione too looked confused. "See you in the common room then, Harry." The two of them left the classroom.

Harry gathered his books and walked up to Professor Fitz's table.

"Professor?"

Professor Fitz looked up at him smiling. She extended her hand for him to shake.

"Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Mariana Fitz. Nice to meet you."

"Uh...hello," Harry responded, slightly confused. "Professor, we've already met. At the infirmary?"

"Not personally though. Just as professor and student. Harry, I went to school with you parents, did you know?"

"No."

"I was in the same year as them and Remus, Sirius, and...Peter. I knew them quite well, in fact. You probably already sensed that from the memoria."

Harry nodded.

"They were wonderful people, your parents. I left England to learn more about the Dark Arts a year after I graduated from Hogwarts and haven't come back until now. I regretted so much that I didn't see them before Voldemort..."

She was the first professor at Hogwarts besides Dumbledore and Remus Lupin Harry had heard say Voldemort's name out loud.

Professor Fitz wiped away the tears that were trickling down her face and continued. "I'm glad you're their son, Harry. Your parents would have been so proud."

"Thank you, Professor." Harry was very grateful he was able to meet another of his parents' friends. It was the best he could have after not having really known his own parents.

The two sat in silence for a while. Several minutes later, Harry broke the silence. He asked the question that had been plaguing his mind since he entered the memoria. "Professor, why did you send me to that first memory? Why was I the only one who faced Death Eaters?"

"Because you're the only one, maybe besides Ron and Hermoine, who could have handled it. If I had let someone else enter that memory, they would probably freak out and have their parents accuse me of emotional abuse."

They grinned at the joke.

"Besides, your parents. I knew how much you wanted to see them and feel what their lives were like. That was the only memory germane to this class of them that I had saved into the memoria."

"Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me, Harry." Professor Fitz sighed. "Harry, and I don't want you to misunderstand. I don't feel sorry for you. In fact, it's the opposite. You're amazing. Your talent at Quidditch and your wizarding skills are beyond a normal fifth-year's abilities. Keep it up. I know your parents would have wanted you to be great."

Harry nodded gratefully.

"Oh, and by the way Professor," he said. "What happened with Gringotts afterwards?"

"Well, Professor Dumbledore and the Minister officials came back in time. They defeated the Death Eaters and at least Voldemort didn't get control of the money. Many died that day. I was one of the lucky ones. Those were hard times. I can't believe it might come back now."

Harry looked down. He didn't want that to come back either. What kind of terror will exist if it comes back? How many innocent people will die?

"Well, I won't keep you any longer," said Professor Fitz. "Your friends are probably waiting for you."

"Well, bye, professor. I'm glad we talked."

"So am I, Harry."

Harry left the classroom and made his way up to Gryffindor Tower.