A/N: Thanks so much for reading!
Disclaimer: Nothing here belongs to me...
***************************************************
The first day of classes was looking to be a rather good one.
Harry was sitting with Ron and Hermione at the breakfast table as Professor McGonagall strolled up and down the table handing out schedules to the younger students. The sixth and seventh years already had theirs, of course, and Harry glanced down at his own. Hermione, apparently seeing him, asked what he had for the day.
"Defense, Transfiguration, break, lunch, break, Care of Magical Creatures."
"Me, too," said Ron unnecessarily since it was already known to all of them that he and Ron were taking the same classes and, therefore, had the same schedule. He glanced over at Hermione and said, "What about you?"
She read off her schedule in a clear voice. "Defense, Transfiguration, Ancient Runes, lunch, History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures."
Harry couldn't believe she was still taking so much, nor, did it seem, could Ron. "Why, Hermione?" he asked in disbelief. "What's the point of History of Magic? You're probably going to be the only person in the class!"
"And you'll probably get very bored with all those breaks," she said calmly, taking a sip of her coffee.
"I don't think boredom will be a problem."
"Fine." She shrugged. "Have fun then."
They left early from breakfast and were therefore some of the first few to arrive at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Almost immediately, though, the room filled to its capacity. As they were sixth years now, all of their classes were optional. Any student from the year, regardless of House, who wanted to take Defense Against the Dark Arts was enrolled in the same class. It was going to be the same with all of their subjects. Harry noticed that Defense appeared to be quite popular, as he'd never seen so many students in one class before; it seemed, in fact, that nearly everyone had signed up for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and it turned out to be a good thing that they'd gotten to class early because before long, every single seat was taken.
The classroom was filled with the normal early school year gossip and snickering as people caught up with each other, but they quieted immediately when the new professor entered the room, her hair now a bright purple and her cheeks a breathless pink.
"Good morning," she said brightly as she made her way to the front of the class, winking quickly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione as she passed them. "How is everyone this morning?"
A few people mumbled, "Fine," but for the most part, everyone seemed to have grown suddenly tired and unenthusiastic, as was the norm with any first class of the morning.
"Not awake, I see," said Tonks, reaching her desk and perching herself onto it, her legs dangling in front of her. "Perhaps I should take roll to see who we have, yes?" When no one gave a verbal answer, she sighed slightly and reached for a long piece of parchment, which, presumably, held the names of all the class's students. "Just let me know if you're here, okay?"
She started reading out the names of the students, and Harry saw people gradually waking up as their names were called. When she reached Malfoy's name, however, she stopped and looked up for the owner of the voice who called, "Here."
Harry watched as she eyed the Slytherin, apparently shocked to find him Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry, too, was surprised, as he had expected Malfoy to drop this class, if any. However, a smile suddenly took over Tonks's features, and she looked directly at Malfoy.
"Oh, Draco, yes, of course." Everyone stared at her curiously, and Malfoy gave her a most unflattering appraisal. She didn't appear to be fazed, though, and she kept on talking, sweetly and casually as though they were old friends. "We're cousins, did you know? You and I?"
Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her uncomprehendingly.
"Our mothers are sisters," explained Tonks, in that same sweet tone of hers.
"What's your mother's name?" Malfoy asked, sitting up straighter and speaking with a tone that was, not sweet like hers, but defiant and hateful.
"Andromeda."
Once again, Malfoy's eyes narrowed, even more so this time, and he stared back at her haughtily. "My mother only has one sister, and her name isn't Andromeda."
"Oh, yes," Tonks smiled. "You're referring to dear Auntie Bella. Tell me, have you heard from her lately?"
She was playing him. She was purposely patronizing him in front of the entire class, and Harry wasn't even sure whether Malfoy knew it or not. He was losing just a bit of the calm collectiveness that made it so easy for him to rule the rest of the Slytherins. He glanced around once, his face coloring slightly, but it was apparent that he wasn't going to completely lose his cool.
Tonks carried right on, still smiling that sickening sweet smile. "The last time I saw her, she looked a bit out of sorts. Of course, it might have just been the situation; after all, I'm sure fourteen years in Azkaban would take the shine out of anyone's eyes."
The mention of Azkaban apparently sealed the deal with Malfoy, and he shoved his seat backwards, stood up, and grabbed his bag.
"Oh, Draco, where are you going?" Tonks raised her eyebrows at him.
"I'm not taking this damn class," he spat out furiously. And with that, he slung his bag over his shoulder and stalked from the room, leaving the class in stunned silence.
It was suddenly very evident to everyone what had just happened. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had just upset the ever-so suave Prince of Slytherin and had actually made him lose his cool in front of the entire class. And the vast majority of that class seemed to have come to a single conclusion.
The new professor was fucking brilliant!
There were the oddities, of course, the few other Slytherins who had opted for the class and a couple of others, who appeared more than taken aback at the outcome of the roll-taking. Pansy Parkinson, who Harry was sure had only joined the class because Malfoy had, was looking about as if she were wondering whether she should stay or follow him. In the end, she opted to stay because Tonks returned almost immediately to taking attendance; Harry was pretty sure, though, that she would not be attending the next class or any of the ones following that. He glanced around at the others, though, and saw that most of his classmates were looking suddenly extremely interested in the class and especially in the new professor.
When she finished the roll, Tonks set the parchment aside and scooted backwards on her desk a bit, drawing her knees up to cross them beneath her. "Well, now that I know who all of you are, maybe I should tell you a bit about me." She paused for a moment and then, obviously not coming up with anything to reveal, said, "Anything you might want to know?"
"What's your first name?" The question had come from Seamus Finnigan, who had wasted absolutely no time in asking. His eyes danced merrily as he watched the new teacher.
Tonks eyed him for a moment and then pursed her lips and primly said, "Dora."
Ron almost broke down into sniggers, but Tonks caught his eye immediately and sent him a look so warning that he immediately shut up. Harry could just imagine what would happen if she revealed to a room full of sixteen year olds that her name was Nymphadora...
"How old are you?" This time, Terry Boot had asked the question.
"I'm twenty-four," she answered, not pausing this time to make up an edited answer, as she had for the last question.
"Are you married?" Several people snickered as Seamus once again stole the moment to ask a question.
Tonks twisted her lips in a way that made Harry believe she was hiding a grin before she drew in a breath and calmly said, "No, I'm not. Why? Is that supposed to be a proposal?"
Seamus turned red as nearly every single student broke into laughter at her response. Not to be intimidated, though, he simply shrugged and sent her the same sort of inviting look that he normally reserved for Lavender. Lavender, oddly, was one of the few people who did not seem to find this little exchange humorous.
Tonks finally laughed and rolled her eyes. "Anybody else?"
And suddenly it seemed as if everybody in the class had a question for the new teacher. The boys all tried their hand at flirting with her, hoping to get the same response that she'd given Seamus. They asked everything from, "Do you have a boyfriend?" to "Do you ever give private tutoring?" Sometimes she blushed and other times she just rolled her eyes, still other times, she actually graced their questions with answers meant to embarrass them. The girls, too, seemed quite interested in her, though their questions were a bit different. "How do you get your hair like that?" and "Can you teach us how to do it, too?" were the most frequently asked, and Tonks humored them all with a show of just how easily she could switch from pink hair to gold hair and from a long nose to a short nose.
Pretty soon, the whole class was gabbing away in a way that none of the other teachers had ever dare let them do. Tonks finally sighed and said loudly, "Okay, okay. Enough questions. We should do something productive."
There was a general consensus that this was not a favored idea, and a loud groan echoed through the room as they all looked at her pleadingly.
"Do we have to?" asked a Hufflepuff named Laura Langerton.
Tonks, though, put on a pretend sad face and nodded. "I'm afraid so. I can't afford to be sacked from two jobs in one month, now can I?"
Oddly enough, this had been one question that had not been asked, and it was Zacharias Smith, who finally asked it. "Aren't you an Auror?"
"Was," she corrected. "But then the Ministry got their knickers in a twist and decided I had to go. And so here I am." She shrugged her shoulders with the last sentence.
"God bless Cornelius Fudge," said Seamus loudly, his eyes twinkling mischievously. Immediately, the entire class started laughing again, and Tonks stared at him in disbelief for a moment before finally blushing and laughing.
"Now, if you're finished, Mr. Finnigan-"
"Oh, please, call me Seamus." He winked at her, and she sputtered for a moment before grinning and rolling her eyes.
"Okay, Seamus," she said sarcastically. "But if you are quite finished, I think we have some reviewing to do."
He shrugged nonchalantly, and everyone straightened up in their seats, apparently no longer finding the prospect of actually doing work so awful.
"Now, what did you learn last year?"
"Nothing," several people answered at once.
Tonks appeared taken aback for a moment before realization took over her features. "Oh, yes, I forgot. Dolores Umbridge."
The mere mention of the name had most of the students scowling.
Tonks, though, carried right on as if she didn't notice. "Okay, then. What did you learn the year before that?"
"We learned about the Unforgivables," said Lindsey Lopez, a Ravenclaw that Harry could hardly remember ever speaking to. "But I don't know if we were really supposed to."
"Did you find the information useful?" Lindsey nodded. "Did you find it interesting?" Again, a nod. Tonks nodded her own head. "Well, then, I don't see why you shouldn't have."
"What are we going to learn this year?" asked Terry Boot.
"Anything you wish to, I suppose," said Tonks with another careless shrug. "After all, you'll only really absorb things you're interested in, so I suppose I shouldn't even try to teach you the boring things. What has been the most interesting thing so far?"
"Boggarts," answered Dean Thomas almost immediately.
"You've already done Boggarts?" Tonks seemed impressed. "Which year was that?"
"Third."
"You learned about Boggarts in your third year? You must have had a good teacher."
"Professor Lupin," Hermione spoke up for the first time all lesson. "He was the best."
Tonks grinned at the mention of the name. "Of course. Come to think of it, I believe he did mention something about Severus Snape in a frock once."
All of the Gryffindors burst into immediate laughter, though the other Houses seemed a bit confused.
"You know Professor Lupin?" asked Dean.
She smiled again and nodded. "Oh, yes. I'm quite fond of him."
"Do you fancy him?" Once again, it was Seamus.
Tonks, like the rest of the class, laughed at his randomness. "No, actually," she said, though she did turn a bit pink. "He's a bit older than me."
"Not too much." Harry, like everyone else (including Tonks), looked at Hermione curiously as she spoke up again, but she didn't seem to notice. "He's very nice, you know."
"I know, Hermione," said Tonks with a forced smile. "But, alas, this is not the time for you to be playing matchmaker, now is it?"
Hermione frowned slightly, but she didn't say anything else.
"Now, if we may please leave the subject of my love-life alone for a few minutes, I would like to hear what else you're interested in."
The rest of the class went on, and before long, the bell signaling the end of class was chiming. Several people groaned, though, and it was obvious that no one wanted to leave the classroom for another lesson.
"Oh, I'll have you again on Wednesday," said Tonks brightly before she grinned and added, "No homework."
As the class finally filed, the corridor was filled with excited chatter.
"She's so cool!" said Padma Patil as she linked arms with one of her Ravenclaw friends, Rachel Banks.
"Forget cool," said Michael Corner to Terry Boot. "She's hot!"
"Oh, honestly," said Hermione with a slight roll of her eyes. "But she is quite good, isn't she?"
"She's awesome," agreed Ron.
Harry nodded, too. "Yeah, she's great." And he wasn't lying, either; Tonks seemed to be a natural with the students.
The next class they had was Transfiguration. This class was slightly smaller than Defense had been, though they were once again joined by Malfoy and a few of the other Slytherins who had apparently thought Defense Against the Dark Arts to be below them.
Of course, Professor McGonagall was already present when they entered the classroom, so there was no hope of a late start with her. She looked up when so many of her students entered laughing and apparently in very nice moods.
"Good lesson?" she asked, looking up from the stack of parchment on her desk.
"It was wicked!" said Seamus, sliding into a seat between Harry and Dean. "Professor Tonks is so cool!"
"How very enthusiastic, Mr. Finnigan," said McGonagall, sounding completely unenthused herself. "Now, if you'll all please quiet down, we can get started with the lesson."
Everyone present knew well enough not to delay when she gave instructions, so they went silent immediately. She stood up and gathered the parchment. "Miss Abbott, please pass these out."
Hannah got up and started rounding the class with the handouts while Professor McGonagall continued talking.
"This is your course syllabus. As this is a N.E.W.T. level class, your work expectancy is much higher, and you'll need to follow this in order to keep up. The pace is going to be much quicker than anything you've done in the past, and the level of difficulty is going to be much higher."
There was a quiet grumble at this news, though Hermione seemed strangely excited as she looked over her copy of the syllabus. Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"If you are not prepared to meet this challenge," she continued, "then I would suggest that you speak to your Head of House immediately and arrange a schedule change. I will not tolerate anything below your personal best, and if you are not willing to give me this, then I would like to direct you to the door." At this, she held a hand in the direction of the exit.
No one moved.
She nodded after a pause and walked back to the front of the classroom. "I assume that all of you have purchased copies of Advanced Transfiguration. Please open to page six." The familiar noise of people rummaging through their bags was heard, and pretty soon, a copy of the text was in front of each student. "Turn to the first chapter, and Miss Granger, if you will, please give us a summary of McKlellan's theory on human transfiguration."
It surprised no one that Hermione answered immediately and confidently, giving some elaborate explanation that meant absolutely nothing to Harry. When she was finished, Professor McGonagall, instead of commenting, turned her attention to another student.
"Mr. Malfoy, did you read the lesson?" Malfoy nodded. "Do you concur or disagree with Miss Granger's explanation?"
Malfoy scowled slightly and shot a look of disgust in Hermione's direction before mumbling, "Concur."
"Miss Parkinson, do you concur or disagree?"
Pansy raised her eyebrows slightly and then said, "Concur."
"Mr. Goldstein, concur of disagree?"
"Concur."
"Miss Patil?"
Padma glanced up and quietly said, "Concur."
Continuing through the class, McGonagall passed Ron's desk. "Weasley, concur of disagree?"
"Concur."
"Mr. Macmillan?"
"Concur."
"And Miss Abbott, concur or disagree?"
"Concur."
Professor McGonagall walked back to the front of her classroom and faced the students. "Okay, so all eight of your class Prefects have agreed. Is there anyone here who would disagree with the theory that Miss Granger presented?"
No one said anything.
"Alright," she nodded and once again started questioning the students. "Miss Parkinson, did you concur simply because Mr. Malfoy did?" Everyone looked around at Pansy, who had turned slightly pink.
"No, ma'am," she said uneasily.
"Mr. Weasley, did you agree only because you trust Miss Granger's intelligence?" Ron looked slightly confused, but the teacher went right on with her questions. "Miss Abbott, did you agree so that you wouldn't appear any different from the others who had already concurred?" Hannah bit her lip and looked as if she didn't know whether to answer or not. "How many of you," said Professor McGonagall to the class, "decided that Miss Granger had to be correct because she had a reputation for being intelligent?"
No one said anything, and Harry could tell that Hermione was getting embarrassed.
"No one will answer me," she continued coolly, "because many of you know that you did exactly that. While Miss Granger was right with her explanation, not all of you would have given the answer she did if I had asked you the same question. My point in this, though, is not to teach you anything about McKlellan's theory, as we will have plenty of time for that later. My point is to get you to think for yourselves."
She leaned against her podium and studied them over the top of her wire-rimmed glasses. "You are no longer young children. Many of you will turn seventeen this year, and when you return next year, most of you will be legally able to use magic outside of school. This is not something to deal with lightly; being of legal age is a great responsibility, and if you are not able to think and make decisions for yourself, you could find yourself in many unfavorable positions and even in danger. You will find yourselves facing things that give off one appearance and have extremely different properties. You cannot always trust what you see." Here, she picked up her wand and scanned the room. "Miss Patil, Miss Patil, please come up here."
Padma and Parvati glanced nervously at each other, but both rose from their seats and joined the teacher at the front of the classroom.
"Please remove your ties and take down your hair."
Everyone in the class seemed thoroughly confused, but none as much as Padma and Parvati, though they followed her instructions and both removed their House ties and then undid their hair until they were standing side by side and, with the absence of different hairstyles or House colors, looking entirely identical.
Just as everyone was wondering what was going on, Professor McGonagall raised her wand and pointed it at the twins, saying something that caused them to suddenly go into spins around each other. Everyone watched wide-eyed as they spun in circles, making all the other students dizzy as well. Then, just as suddenly as she had performed the spell, McGonagall lifted it, and Parvati and Padma stopped spinning in their tracks, neither of them, surprisingly, looked dizzy in the least.
"Who can tell them apart?" Professor McGonagall eyed the class curiously, her eyes floating over the faces of the students in front of her until she, at last, rested on Lavender. "Miss Brown, can you distinguish between the two?"
Lavender nodded and pointed at the twin on the left. "That's Padma, and that's Parvati."
The professor held up a hand to halt any words from the twins themselves before she looked around for someone else. "Miss Bones, do you agree or disagree?"
Susan, who Harry had never seen have any sort of real conversation with either of the Patil twins, looked very much on the spot and opened her mouth soundlessly at first before finally saying, "Agree?"
"Is that a question or an answer, Miss Bones?"
Susan turned pink and mumbled a very unconfident, "Answer."
"Do you have any reasons behind your answer?" questioned the teacher curiously. "Or are you simply following Miss Brown's lead?"
"Uh," Susan didn't look like she knew what to say. Finally, though, she just shook her head and said, "I don't know."
Without replying, McGonagall turned her attention back to Lavender. "Are you certain of your answer, Miss Brown?"
Lavender nodded confidently.
"And what are your reasons?"
"Padma's an inch shorter, and she has a freckle under her left eye; Parvati's is under her right eye."
Harry had not known any of this, but he trusted it, simply because he was sure Lavender knew what she was talking about. Apparently, this was the entire point of Professor McGonagall's lesson.
"How many of you knew this?" she asked, surveying her students. A couple of the Ravenclaw girls raised their hands, as did Hermione, but for the most part, the class didn't move. "How many of you believe it?" Everyone raised their hands, and Professor McGonagall turned back to the twins. "Was Miss Brown right?"
They both nodded, and McGonagall seemed satisfied. She reached onto her desk for their House ties and handed them over. "You may return to your seats."
Parvati and Padma sat back down, and Professor McGonagall then addressed the entire class. "The tiny details that Miss Brown recognized were correct, and those of you who knew for certain that she had her facts straight, knew this. However, the vast majority of you had no idea which girl was which, and yet you all trusted the testimony of one person." She raised her eyebrows. "Do you always trust what people tell you?"
Harry thought about all of the things that had been said about him over the years and how much of it had been true, and he realized exactly where this lesson was heading. Even though he himself had been a victim of vicious lies and rumors, he was still likely to believe what he heard, without ever seeing proof for himself. It was strange, really.
And then he realized that Professor McGonagall was a brilliant woman.
This lesson had nothing to do with Transfiguration. It had to do with real life.
And that was what made him realize that even strict, stern professors knew that there were some things more important than books and facts. Hermione knew it, and so, it appeared, did their Head of House.
Harry decided that this year was definitely going to be interesting.
And he wasn't even through his second class yet...
*******************************************************
Reviews are appreciated!!!!
