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Chapter 12 - Lessons
Harry sat down at breakfast the morning after the sorting and helped himself to bacon, from the dish immediately in front of him. Hermione, Dawn and Ron also began to help themselves to breakfast. Dawn waved at Buffy at the teachers table, as Professor McGonagall came round handing out timetables. This year saw the start of the NEWTs course for Ron, Hermione and Harry, and Harry had opted for DADA, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology, as he hoped to become an Auror one day. He had five hours a week of each of these subjects, giving him some free lessons, where the sixth years were supposed to study, but many just relaxed. Harry knew he wouldn't have that luxury as he would have an hour of Occlumency extra a week, and an hour of attacking and defensive magic, with Moody. Fortunately though Ron had opted for the same subjects as Harry, and Hermione had chosen all of them except for Herbology, she had chosen Arithmancy instead.
"Oh no," Ron said consulting his timetable, "We've still got Potions with the Slytherins, and we've got Charms with them now as well." Harry groaned, NEWTs were going to be hard enough, without the possibility of Draco Malfoy being in his classes.
Dawn was surprised to receive a timetable as well, and she looked it over.
"I've got Potions, Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts with you guys," she announced, "Buffy said she, Xander Willow and Giles will also be in the DADA lessons. But they have got their own private ones, and I'll be with them for Transfiguration and Charms."
"We'd better go," said Hermione standing up, "We've got potions first thing, and you know what Snapes like if you're late." They all got up and made their way down to the dungeons. To Harry's discomfort, he saw Draco Malfoy standing outside the classroom.
"Damn it," Ron complained, "We've got Malfoy." Malfoy noticed them as they neared the classroom.
"Well if it isn't Saint Potter and the Weasel King," he sneered, "And who could forget the mudblood? But look they've made a new little friend." Harry glared at Malfoy.
"Dawn, you've had the pleasure of being insulted by Draco Malfoy," he said sarcastically, "If he could fly as well as he sneers, Slytherin might win occasionally." They Gryffindors present sniggered, including Dawn, who had heard all about Quidditch and the House Cup from Harry last night.
"So you're the slayers sister?" Malfoy said, looking at Dawn, "American as well I suppose." He gave her a dirty look, "Dumbledore really is scraping the barrel nowadays, first mudbloods, then American muggles. Don't think he could go any lower, though the Weasleys might be. "
Harry and Hermione grabbed Ron's robes to stop him attacking Malfoy.
"Who's your new friend?" a cheerful voice said from behind them. Harry turned and saw Buffy strolling up to the group.
"Thought I'd come and see how you're getting on, say hi to Professor Snape," Buffy explained, "So who's the new friend?" Dawn grinned at Buffy, knowing that Buffy had caught on.
"This is Draco Malfoy," she said in a sweet voice.
"Why it's nice to meet you Draco" Buffy said, also in a sickeningly sweet voice. She extended her hand to him. Harry stifled a laugh, torn between being seen shaking this girls hand, and facing the slayer. HE chose the latter, and shook her hand briefly, dropping it as soon as he could.
"Well that's nice to see," Buffy said brightly, turning to go, "Play nice now kinds," she said warningly to Draco before departing.
Harry and friends burst into laughter.
"You scared of the Slayer then Malfoy?" Ron asked, between guffaws. Malfoy went bright pink and turned away, heading into the classroom as Snape had just arrived.
The class went as before, Snape curling his lip at the sight of Harry in his sixth year class.
"Some of you have been lucky to get through to this level," he said, shooting a venomous look at Harry, "Any fool can do OWL level potion, it takes real skill to perform well at NEWT level." He set them an immensely difficult potion which took all of their concentration to get right. To Harry's satisfaction, his potion turned out quite well and he bottled it and placed it on Snapes desk.
The next lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts, which Harry was particularly looking forward to. He, Ron, Hermione and Dawn took seats at the front of the class and waited eagerly for the lesson to start, wands out.
When everyone had arrived Lupin cleared his throat loudly.
"This year, you have twp teachers as you have been told, for Defence Against the Dark Arts, he said, " This is mainly due to the fact that Dumbledore feels it is imperative that you are all able to defend yourselves against the new threat that has arisen from Lord Voldemort. A shudder ran through the class.
"We will also have some guest teaching," Sirius continued, "As you can see at the back of the room, we have some visitors from California, a vampire slayer among them. They will be assisting in their lessons, showing us some practical defence, and telling us about their experiences with vampires, demons and apocalypses, as well as learning magical defence in theses lessons." The Scoobies raised their hands in greeting at the rest of the class. Dawn vaguely heard Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil discussing how cute Xander was.
"We will also have some other guests," Lupin announced, "Firstly some more visitors from America, among them a vampire, a demon and a seer. Members of the ministry will also come in to help out, as Minister Fudge feels that defence is important also this year."
"Right," Sirius said, "Now on to work. Wands out please, we are going to start with some basic jinx work."
For the rest of the lesson, they practised in pairs a variety of curses, such as the jelly legs jinx, disarming, stunning and slowing enemies down, among others. The scoobies were able to pick up the work very quickly.
After lunch, Harry had a free lesson, where they retired to the common room to relax after the gruelling morning. Ron showed Dawn how to play wizards chess which she was delighted with. The finished the day with Transfiguration, and Herbology for Ron and Harry, and Arithmancy for Hermione. Transfiguration was difficult as they had expected, Professor McGonagall was stricter than usual, lecturing them about the importance of NEWTs. Herbology was better, the good natured Professor Sprout not over pushing the importance of NEWTs, though she couldn't resist a little. By dinner they were exhausted, getting back into the school routine was really tiring, and they ate a great deal at dinner, while discussing what Harry was going to do as captain.
"Well of course I'll need try-outs," he said, "We've got me as seeker, you as keeper, and two average beaters. But we need chasers, Ginny should get one spot, but we still need two. And I'd like some reserves, we were stuck last year when we got kicked off the team." Ron nodded in agreement.
"You going to try out?" he asked Hermione.
"Me?" she said incredulously, "I'll just watch you two thank you very much. But how about you Dawn?"
"Well I've never flown before," Dawn admitted.
"I could teach you,2 Harry blurted out, then blushing.
"That would be great, but do you think you could teach Buffy too? She asked, "And Xander and Willow and maybe Giles? I know they'd love to learn."
"Sure," Harry said, a little alarmed at the amount of people, "Maybe I'll ask Sirius to help, he can help me teach all of you. And Ron, you come too. We'll do it this weekend, on Saturday, then I'll hold try-outs on Sunday."