The next day, the Hogwarts students got their schedules. Harry, Hermione,
and Ron eagerly opened theirs up. Ron's face broke into a grin.
"Check it out, Harry! Defense Against The Dark Arts this morning! Right after Transfiguration! I bet we'll be one of the first classes with the new teacher!"
"Yipee," said Hermione in a bored voice. She glanced at Harry and Ron's schedules. "And you've got Divination in the afternoon. Looks like it's going to be an exciting day, doesn't it? Two new teachers to 'test out.'"
"Oh come on, Hermione," Ginny said. "It is kind of fun. And look, I've got Defense Against The Dark Arts in the afternoon. Tell me about Harkinian at lunch, kay?"
"Sure," said Ron. He glanced at his sister's schedule. "As long as you tell us what we'll be studying in Care Of Magical Creatures."
"No problem. See you guys, then. Don't want to be late for Herbology." Ginny picked up her bag and headed off to the grounds, after smiling at Harry.
"Why don't we get going?" Ron suggested. "We may be a bit early, but better safe than sorry with McGonagall."
"Good idea," Harry grunted, picking up his bag as well. The three of them set on down the corridors to Transfiguration.
"You know, sometimes I have to wonder..." said Ron thoughtfully.
"About what?" Harry and Hermione asked together.
"You know, about Ginny," Ron said uneasily. "Sometimes she seems just so... I don't know, TAKEN with you, Harry. I thought she'd gotten over you, but I guess now that her boyfriend's gone, she's turning back."
"Shut it," Harry mumbled, going slightly red. He hadn't forgotten the valentine Ginny had sent him during his second year. Oh, how humiliating that had been!
"Well, maybe Ron has a point," Hermione said slowly.
"And maybe he doesn't," Harry snapped. He accidentally ran into someone who had been walking in the other direction.
"Watch where you're going!" Harry shot at them, getting to his feet. His heart plummeted when he realized that he'd just run into Cho Chang.
Michael, supposedly Cho's boyfriend, stepped in front of her. "What d'you think you're doing, asking her watch where she's going, Potter?!" he spat at him, shoving Harry's shoulders.
"I didn't...it was just an acc..."
"I don't care if it was an accident you caused!" Mike barked. "If you don't apologize right now to Cho, I'm going to--"
"Michael, it's really all right," Cho said, grabbing his hand away from Harry's face. "We just accidentally bumped into each other; no more his fault than mine. C'mon let's go, we'll be late for Charms..."
Before being dragged away by her boyfriend, Cho gave Harry one last fleeting look, mouthing "bye." Harry was stunned. She had spoken to him, though her face was very red from embarressment.
"Potter! Weasley! Granger!" The three friends' attention had been grabbed by McGonagall, who was waiting impatiently for them at her doorway. "Don't make me take off points for tardiness." They hurried over.
Harry took a seat next to Lavender Brown, who was staring rather doubtfully at her wand. He gave her a confused look, causing her to say,
"My little brother broke my wand over summer vacation. I had it replaced, but I doubt it'll be half as good..."
"All right everyone," McGonagall said, throwing a look at Harry and Lavender (who sank down slightly in their seats from guilt). "Today we will be learning a spell that will transfigure the creature in front of you to turn into its predator."
Ron looked down miserably at the mouse in front of him, reminded of his pet rat Scabbers. He imagined Scabbers turning into Crooshanks, and shivered. Thinking so deeply on the topic, he had missed the incantation as McGonagall had presented it. All he knew was that a fluffy bunny rabbit had taken the place of a green grasshopper on her desk. He gulped.
"Now that you know the incantation," said the professor, "I would like you all to practice it. Remember to jab your wand, don't flick it. Start, please."
Ron leaned over to Harry. "What's the incantation?" he asked quickly.
Before Harry had a chance to answer though, McGonagall walked up to them. "Having trouble, Weasley?" she asked suspiciously.
"Of course not," Ron stammered, sitting straight.
"Good. Why don't you show me how you're coming along with the spell?"
Gulping again, Ron slowly raised his wand. He jabbed it at the mouse, and opened his mouth--only no words came out. The mouse playfully grabbed the end of his wand and licked it in form of greeting.
"I see your wand and the mouse have a nice relationship. Good start," Professor McGonagall sighed sardonically. "Weasley, perform the spell! You can at least TRY it, can't you?"
Ron glanced over at Hermione, who was successfully turning her dragonfly into a large toad and back again. But before Ron could raise his wand again, a loud crashing noise came from the hallway.
McGonagall marched over to the door, enraged that someone would dare interrupt her lesson. She opened the door, the whole class' eyes following her.
In the hallway, Snape was pointing his wand at a seemingly undaunted Link. Snape immediately lowered his arm as McGonagall angrily approached.
"SEVERUS!" she cried in anger, marching right up to him. "How dare you try and place an attack on dear Professor Koke?!"
"Forgive me, Professor," Snape said in a flat voice. "I...I merely thought that I had misheard something he said." At this, Link coughed slightly, rolling his eyes.
"If it is your wish to have some sort of duel, Severus," McGonagall drawled. "I cannot stop you. However, you are not to conduct them during class hours in the hallways!! Am I clear?!"
Snape stared at Link for a moment, then his gaze drifted to McGonagall. "Transparently." He now turned back to Link. "Professor Koke, how does a duel sound to you?" He talked as if Link were a stupid oaf that didn't understand English.
"How's seven tonight?" Link sneered back. Harry was even impressed at this act of bravery. But being a new teacher, how could this Koke person know how dangerous Snape really was? "Shall we play with seconds, Professor Snape?"
"Without them, there would be no duel," Snape snarled. "Though I'm sure I will hardly be needing mine."
"And who would that be?!" McGonagall roared, apparently not wanting to be left out of the conversation.
"Temper temper, Minerva," Snape whispered, laughing quietly. "I'm sure Filch would be glad to be my second." Mrs. Norris, who had just been slinking by, seemed to bob her head and vanish out of sight.
"And who, may I ask, will be your second, Professor Koke?" Snape asked.
"I will," came an exasperated voice. It was Professor Harkinian, walking towards them out of her classroom. Harry was almost sure he could hear both Ron and Neville's hearts beating.
"You?" Snape asked, as if trying to supress a laugh. "A wom..." He wisely stopped talking, after seeing the icy glare McGonagall had thrown him. "Very well then. Don't be late, Koke." Snape turned on his heel and marched back down to the dungeons.
McGonagall came back to her classroom, shutting the door behind her. "Honestly, you'd think a new one would have more sense," she muttered to herself. "Getting themselves stuck into a scrape with Snape, BOTH of th..." McGonagall stopped whispering to herself when she noticed all the students were trying to catch her every word. "Don't eavesdrop!" McGonagall barked at them. "Back to work!"
"Phew, that was close," Ron breathed. "Looks like she forgot about me. Now, what's the incantation, Harry?"
*********
Once Transfiguration was over, Harry had finally managed to turn the squiggling worm on his desk into a blue jay. Ron however, kept on turning his mouse into a gecko instead of a cat.
"I'll never get Transfiguration," Ron muttered miserably, as they waited outside of Zelda's door. "I'll never be an Auror!"
"You'll get it eventually, Ron," Hermione consoled him. "I think your problem was that you kept on poking the mouse's eye with your wand. I mean, you ARE supposed to jab the wand, but not directly into its eye socket."
"Well don't talk like I did it on purpose!" Ron defended. "Is it my fault the stupid thing wanted to slobber all over the tip of my wand like some love-struck maniac?!"
But before the two could continue to bicker, the Dark Arts room opened, and students started milling out.
"She's awesome!" George and Fred Weasley's friend Lee told Harry. "She's got to be one of the--"
"Go on Lee, you'll be late for class!" called out Zelda from her room. Before walking out of sight though, Lee winked at Harry and Ron.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were the first inside the classroom. At first, Zelda did not seem to have noticed their presence. She was bent over a scroll of parchment, trying to stop strands of hair from falling out from behind her ear and into her face.
"Excuse me, Professor," Hermione said quietly. Zelda looked up. She was wearing small half-glasses, and quickly put away the quill she'd been using. Ron couldn't help but stare at her beautiful blue eyes.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I just got rather caught up in...something. So, are you the first three here?"
"Yes," Ron blurted, before Hermione could answer.
"I'm not sure what's keeping the others," Harry added. "They should be here with us; we all came from Transfiguration..."
Suddenly, a steady stream of students billowed into the room. They all took their seats, most of the girls being forced to sit in the back rows.
"Good morning everyone," Zelda greeted them warmly. She stood up from behind her desk. Instead of long billowing Hogwarts robes that most teachers wore, this professor was wearing a dress that reached down to her knees.
"Good morning," everyone automatically said back.
"As you know, I am Professor Harkinian, your new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher."
Ron raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Are you going to be staying here for more than a year?"
"Um...I'm not really sure...why do you ask?" Apparently, Professor Harkinian hadn't heard about the trend of DATDA teachers all only staying a year.
"Well you see," said a Ravenclaw girl from the back. "There's been this thing lately where Defense Against The Dark Arts teachers last for only one year."
Deciding not to push the subject, Zelda shrugged. "All right then. However, seeing as how I am not your new Divination teacher, I do not know how long my job here will last." She rolled her eyes, picking up a piece of parchment. "Role Call..."
Everyone was slightly astonished when she reached Harry's name. There was no gasp of amazment, no stare at the scar...she simply acknowledged Harry as just another student. An ordinary, every day student. She moved on down the list.
"All right then," she said, after every student had been marked present. "I'm not sure what the others in my first class said today, but I wasn't planning on actually doing an magic today."
Ron and Harry exchaned glances. They were quite confused, as was Hermione.
"I'd just like to know what your previous Defense Against The Dark Arts teachers did that you liked and didn't like."
To most people's surprise, Neville's hand shot in the year.
"Okay, Neville. What would you recommend?"
"Th-that you shouldn't make us read out of textbooks all day."
"Oh, don't worry," Zelda laughed. "I know what reading out of a book all day is like. I'd never make any of you do what I hate doing myself. Anyone else? Yes, how about you, Patil?"
"I suggest that you don't become a maniacal tyrant and try to take over our school and present system of government."
Zelda laughed along with the students, confusing some of them. "Oh, I know all about that Umbridge woman," shetold them. "The Headmaster told me about her. So what are things you've done before that you actually liked?"
"The Boggart!" Dean shouted, excited.
"No, not a Boggart!" Neville cried. "That scared me half to death! Why not something like a Patronus?"
"We didn't do Patronuses yet," sneered one of the Ravenclaws. "Stop being such a prat, Neville." Apparently, this particular student hadn't been a member of the D.A.
"Patronuses do sound rather interesting," Zelda thought aloud. "Maybe we should try to conjure them this year. I have heard from the Headmaster that...some of you have already been able to do so..." She looked at Harry for a moment, before moving on.
After the class was done, Hermione was the last of the students to be able to leave. Then she noticed her teacher searching through desk drawers, peering into them.
"Erm...have you lost something, Professor?" Hermione asked in a small voice. Zelda straightened, and Hermione noticed how young she looked--as if she hadn't gotten out of school too long ago.
"I seem to have misplaced my wand, I'm afraid," the professor confessed. "And I'm so terribly afraid of a...well, I assume that you heard what Snape is doing with Koke tonight, haven't you? Professor McGonagall left the door wide open..."
"Yes, I heard that he challenged Professor Koke to a duel, and you're going to be his second."
"You see...Professor Koke starts these things up so fast, it's not even funny," Zelda grunted, still looking around in desk drawers.
"Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if Snape had started the argument in the first place," Hermione said quickly. "None of the students here like him very much...except for the Slytherins. He's the head of their house, and he only likes them."
"I see," Zelda muttered, lifting up a book with her hand to see under it.
"Oh look," said Hermione. "Is that your wand, Professor?" She pointed to a thin piece of wood sticking out from beneath a stack of parchment.
"Why yes, it is!" Zelda laughed, thinking she was so stupid to have misplaced such a simple object. "Thank you Hermione, ten points for Gryffindor!"
Beaming, Hermione walked out of the room to follow Harry and Ron to lunch.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
That okay? Plz review!!
"Check it out, Harry! Defense Against The Dark Arts this morning! Right after Transfiguration! I bet we'll be one of the first classes with the new teacher!"
"Yipee," said Hermione in a bored voice. She glanced at Harry and Ron's schedules. "And you've got Divination in the afternoon. Looks like it's going to be an exciting day, doesn't it? Two new teachers to 'test out.'"
"Oh come on, Hermione," Ginny said. "It is kind of fun. And look, I've got Defense Against The Dark Arts in the afternoon. Tell me about Harkinian at lunch, kay?"
"Sure," said Ron. He glanced at his sister's schedule. "As long as you tell us what we'll be studying in Care Of Magical Creatures."
"No problem. See you guys, then. Don't want to be late for Herbology." Ginny picked up her bag and headed off to the grounds, after smiling at Harry.
"Why don't we get going?" Ron suggested. "We may be a bit early, but better safe than sorry with McGonagall."
"Good idea," Harry grunted, picking up his bag as well. The three of them set on down the corridors to Transfiguration.
"You know, sometimes I have to wonder..." said Ron thoughtfully.
"About what?" Harry and Hermione asked together.
"You know, about Ginny," Ron said uneasily. "Sometimes she seems just so... I don't know, TAKEN with you, Harry. I thought she'd gotten over you, but I guess now that her boyfriend's gone, she's turning back."
"Shut it," Harry mumbled, going slightly red. He hadn't forgotten the valentine Ginny had sent him during his second year. Oh, how humiliating that had been!
"Well, maybe Ron has a point," Hermione said slowly.
"And maybe he doesn't," Harry snapped. He accidentally ran into someone who had been walking in the other direction.
"Watch where you're going!" Harry shot at them, getting to his feet. His heart plummeted when he realized that he'd just run into Cho Chang.
Michael, supposedly Cho's boyfriend, stepped in front of her. "What d'you think you're doing, asking her watch where she's going, Potter?!" he spat at him, shoving Harry's shoulders.
"I didn't...it was just an acc..."
"I don't care if it was an accident you caused!" Mike barked. "If you don't apologize right now to Cho, I'm going to--"
"Michael, it's really all right," Cho said, grabbing his hand away from Harry's face. "We just accidentally bumped into each other; no more his fault than mine. C'mon let's go, we'll be late for Charms..."
Before being dragged away by her boyfriend, Cho gave Harry one last fleeting look, mouthing "bye." Harry was stunned. She had spoken to him, though her face was very red from embarressment.
"Potter! Weasley! Granger!" The three friends' attention had been grabbed by McGonagall, who was waiting impatiently for them at her doorway. "Don't make me take off points for tardiness." They hurried over.
Harry took a seat next to Lavender Brown, who was staring rather doubtfully at her wand. He gave her a confused look, causing her to say,
"My little brother broke my wand over summer vacation. I had it replaced, but I doubt it'll be half as good..."
"All right everyone," McGonagall said, throwing a look at Harry and Lavender (who sank down slightly in their seats from guilt). "Today we will be learning a spell that will transfigure the creature in front of you to turn into its predator."
Ron looked down miserably at the mouse in front of him, reminded of his pet rat Scabbers. He imagined Scabbers turning into Crooshanks, and shivered. Thinking so deeply on the topic, he had missed the incantation as McGonagall had presented it. All he knew was that a fluffy bunny rabbit had taken the place of a green grasshopper on her desk. He gulped.
"Now that you know the incantation," said the professor, "I would like you all to practice it. Remember to jab your wand, don't flick it. Start, please."
Ron leaned over to Harry. "What's the incantation?" he asked quickly.
Before Harry had a chance to answer though, McGonagall walked up to them. "Having trouble, Weasley?" she asked suspiciously.
"Of course not," Ron stammered, sitting straight.
"Good. Why don't you show me how you're coming along with the spell?"
Gulping again, Ron slowly raised his wand. He jabbed it at the mouse, and opened his mouth--only no words came out. The mouse playfully grabbed the end of his wand and licked it in form of greeting.
"I see your wand and the mouse have a nice relationship. Good start," Professor McGonagall sighed sardonically. "Weasley, perform the spell! You can at least TRY it, can't you?"
Ron glanced over at Hermione, who was successfully turning her dragonfly into a large toad and back again. But before Ron could raise his wand again, a loud crashing noise came from the hallway.
McGonagall marched over to the door, enraged that someone would dare interrupt her lesson. She opened the door, the whole class' eyes following her.
In the hallway, Snape was pointing his wand at a seemingly undaunted Link. Snape immediately lowered his arm as McGonagall angrily approached.
"SEVERUS!" she cried in anger, marching right up to him. "How dare you try and place an attack on dear Professor Koke?!"
"Forgive me, Professor," Snape said in a flat voice. "I...I merely thought that I had misheard something he said." At this, Link coughed slightly, rolling his eyes.
"If it is your wish to have some sort of duel, Severus," McGonagall drawled. "I cannot stop you. However, you are not to conduct them during class hours in the hallways!! Am I clear?!"
Snape stared at Link for a moment, then his gaze drifted to McGonagall. "Transparently." He now turned back to Link. "Professor Koke, how does a duel sound to you?" He talked as if Link were a stupid oaf that didn't understand English.
"How's seven tonight?" Link sneered back. Harry was even impressed at this act of bravery. But being a new teacher, how could this Koke person know how dangerous Snape really was? "Shall we play with seconds, Professor Snape?"
"Without them, there would be no duel," Snape snarled. "Though I'm sure I will hardly be needing mine."
"And who would that be?!" McGonagall roared, apparently not wanting to be left out of the conversation.
"Temper temper, Minerva," Snape whispered, laughing quietly. "I'm sure Filch would be glad to be my second." Mrs. Norris, who had just been slinking by, seemed to bob her head and vanish out of sight.
"And who, may I ask, will be your second, Professor Koke?" Snape asked.
"I will," came an exasperated voice. It was Professor Harkinian, walking towards them out of her classroom. Harry was almost sure he could hear both Ron and Neville's hearts beating.
"You?" Snape asked, as if trying to supress a laugh. "A wom..." He wisely stopped talking, after seeing the icy glare McGonagall had thrown him. "Very well then. Don't be late, Koke." Snape turned on his heel and marched back down to the dungeons.
McGonagall came back to her classroom, shutting the door behind her. "Honestly, you'd think a new one would have more sense," she muttered to herself. "Getting themselves stuck into a scrape with Snape, BOTH of th..." McGonagall stopped whispering to herself when she noticed all the students were trying to catch her every word. "Don't eavesdrop!" McGonagall barked at them. "Back to work!"
"Phew, that was close," Ron breathed. "Looks like she forgot about me. Now, what's the incantation, Harry?"
*********
Once Transfiguration was over, Harry had finally managed to turn the squiggling worm on his desk into a blue jay. Ron however, kept on turning his mouse into a gecko instead of a cat.
"I'll never get Transfiguration," Ron muttered miserably, as they waited outside of Zelda's door. "I'll never be an Auror!"
"You'll get it eventually, Ron," Hermione consoled him. "I think your problem was that you kept on poking the mouse's eye with your wand. I mean, you ARE supposed to jab the wand, but not directly into its eye socket."
"Well don't talk like I did it on purpose!" Ron defended. "Is it my fault the stupid thing wanted to slobber all over the tip of my wand like some love-struck maniac?!"
But before the two could continue to bicker, the Dark Arts room opened, and students started milling out.
"She's awesome!" George and Fred Weasley's friend Lee told Harry. "She's got to be one of the--"
"Go on Lee, you'll be late for class!" called out Zelda from her room. Before walking out of sight though, Lee winked at Harry and Ron.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were the first inside the classroom. At first, Zelda did not seem to have noticed their presence. She was bent over a scroll of parchment, trying to stop strands of hair from falling out from behind her ear and into her face.
"Excuse me, Professor," Hermione said quietly. Zelda looked up. She was wearing small half-glasses, and quickly put away the quill she'd been using. Ron couldn't help but stare at her beautiful blue eyes.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I just got rather caught up in...something. So, are you the first three here?"
"Yes," Ron blurted, before Hermione could answer.
"I'm not sure what's keeping the others," Harry added. "They should be here with us; we all came from Transfiguration..."
Suddenly, a steady stream of students billowed into the room. They all took their seats, most of the girls being forced to sit in the back rows.
"Good morning everyone," Zelda greeted them warmly. She stood up from behind her desk. Instead of long billowing Hogwarts robes that most teachers wore, this professor was wearing a dress that reached down to her knees.
"Good morning," everyone automatically said back.
"As you know, I am Professor Harkinian, your new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher."
Ron raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Are you going to be staying here for more than a year?"
"Um...I'm not really sure...why do you ask?" Apparently, Professor Harkinian hadn't heard about the trend of DATDA teachers all only staying a year.
"Well you see," said a Ravenclaw girl from the back. "There's been this thing lately where Defense Against The Dark Arts teachers last for only one year."
Deciding not to push the subject, Zelda shrugged. "All right then. However, seeing as how I am not your new Divination teacher, I do not know how long my job here will last." She rolled her eyes, picking up a piece of parchment. "Role Call..."
Everyone was slightly astonished when she reached Harry's name. There was no gasp of amazment, no stare at the scar...she simply acknowledged Harry as just another student. An ordinary, every day student. She moved on down the list.
"All right then," she said, after every student had been marked present. "I'm not sure what the others in my first class said today, but I wasn't planning on actually doing an magic today."
Ron and Harry exchaned glances. They were quite confused, as was Hermione.
"I'd just like to know what your previous Defense Against The Dark Arts teachers did that you liked and didn't like."
To most people's surprise, Neville's hand shot in the year.
"Okay, Neville. What would you recommend?"
"Th-that you shouldn't make us read out of textbooks all day."
"Oh, don't worry," Zelda laughed. "I know what reading out of a book all day is like. I'd never make any of you do what I hate doing myself. Anyone else? Yes, how about you, Patil?"
"I suggest that you don't become a maniacal tyrant and try to take over our school and present system of government."
Zelda laughed along with the students, confusing some of them. "Oh, I know all about that Umbridge woman," shetold them. "The Headmaster told me about her. So what are things you've done before that you actually liked?"
"The Boggart!" Dean shouted, excited.
"No, not a Boggart!" Neville cried. "That scared me half to death! Why not something like a Patronus?"
"We didn't do Patronuses yet," sneered one of the Ravenclaws. "Stop being such a prat, Neville." Apparently, this particular student hadn't been a member of the D.A.
"Patronuses do sound rather interesting," Zelda thought aloud. "Maybe we should try to conjure them this year. I have heard from the Headmaster that...some of you have already been able to do so..." She looked at Harry for a moment, before moving on.
After the class was done, Hermione was the last of the students to be able to leave. Then she noticed her teacher searching through desk drawers, peering into them.
"Erm...have you lost something, Professor?" Hermione asked in a small voice. Zelda straightened, and Hermione noticed how young she looked--as if she hadn't gotten out of school too long ago.
"I seem to have misplaced my wand, I'm afraid," the professor confessed. "And I'm so terribly afraid of a...well, I assume that you heard what Snape is doing with Koke tonight, haven't you? Professor McGonagall left the door wide open..."
"Yes, I heard that he challenged Professor Koke to a duel, and you're going to be his second."
"You see...Professor Koke starts these things up so fast, it's not even funny," Zelda grunted, still looking around in desk drawers.
"Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if Snape had started the argument in the first place," Hermione said quickly. "None of the students here like him very much...except for the Slytherins. He's the head of their house, and he only likes them."
"I see," Zelda muttered, lifting up a book with her hand to see under it.
"Oh look," said Hermione. "Is that your wand, Professor?" She pointed to a thin piece of wood sticking out from beneath a stack of parchment.
"Why yes, it is!" Zelda laughed, thinking she was so stupid to have misplaced such a simple object. "Thank you Hermione, ten points for Gryffindor!"
Beaming, Hermione walked out of the room to follow Harry and Ron to lunch.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
That okay? Plz review!!