Disclaimer: Many of the characters, thoughts and ideas that are in this fan fiction are not of my own design. Though this story is from my imagination, I realize that this is the property of Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling. This is not J. K. Rowling's work. I also read many FFs and if you see something similar to another work it is entirely unintentional. I have posted this on harrypotter.com as well…. There it is complete and filled with cliffies… hence my screen name Princess of cliffies on the Harry Potter boards I go by the name of rebcschult in case you would like to read it in it's original form…. Also this was written preOotP hence the name…. but I decided after much deliberation and coercion from my on line friends who wanted me to post it here that I would finally do so! I am also writing a year six to follow this year five on the boards, which when I'm finished over there and done editing it I will post here as well…

Becky(rebcschult and PrincessOfCliffiesRCS)

P.S. Please read and review! Thank you for your comments and compliments, Tim, Lilly, HongMing, and Manateegirl524!!! I'm so glad that you all like it!!!!!! Welcome Lord Master Omega and thank you for your comment!!! I'm so glad you like it!

CHAPTER SEVEN – PROFESSOR CLOVIS

As they walked back up to the school the Gryffindors were all chatting excitedly not only about their lesson that had just ended, but also about the class that was about to start. Most of them were still recounting the dragon incident and laughing about it. But there were some groups of boys who were talking excitedly about having the class with the New Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Ron and Harry were no different, though Ron kept getting venomous looks shot at him from his girlfriend.

"What do you think that she'll teach us this year?" asked Ron excitedly.

"Well, what have we learned so far? Not much. We are already in our fifth year and we barely know about anything that would be useful in the real world. If she is half as good as I've heard she is, then we are in for a very eventful year," said Hermione, trying to get the boys' minds back onto the class and not on the teacher.

They walked into the classroom and tried to get a seat as close to the front as possible. Just as the class was slated to begin, Professor Clovis breezed into the room, carrying a small briefcase. She put it down on the desk and opened it. She reached into it and pulled out the class list. She looked down the list.

As she read each name silently to herself, she looked up at each corresponding student. She seemed to pause midway down the list. Instead of looking up at one particular student she looked up and glanced around the room as if searching for something or someone, much as she had done the night before at the welcoming feast.

When her eyes reached Harry, she stopped. It felt as if her eyes were boring straight through him to his core. Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Despite his discomfort though, he found himself wishing he could drown in those deep blue pools full of life and light. Finally a twinkle, not unlike the one that Dumbledore often had in his eyes when he was looking at Harry, entered her eyes before she returned to the list and continued on as she had before she had looked around for Harry. When she had reached the end of the list, she folded it and put it back in her briefcase before closing it up and placing it on the floor under the desk.

She pulled out the chair, drew out her wand, and banished the desk and everything on it and around it to the corner of the room. She pushed the chair up closer to the front student desks. She sat down and made eye contact with everyone before she even opened her mouth to speak.

"Good afternoon, fifth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws."

"Good afternoon, Professor Clovis," said everyone with zest.

She smiled. "I know that I am the stranger here, so I thought that I would start off today by telling you a little bit about myself, before we begin the lessons."

The room was so quiet but full of tension that a pin drop would have been heard and made everyone jump. They hung on her every word as she continued.

"I am from the Boston area in the little state of Massachusetts. I went to the Salem Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry for most of my school career, which was comparably shorter than most witches and wizards in my community.

"Once I had reached the twelfth grade, which would be the equivalent of the seventh year here, I decided to further my education at the Waldenpond Intense Training College for Higher Education in Sortilege, in other words the W.I.T.C.H.E.S. College near Concord Massachusetts. This was a highly intensified training period where I learned many advanced techniques of magic, including Defense Against the Dark Arts. I went into the American equivalent of the Aurors here in England. For three years of intense service, I used my young age to my advantage. After that I was asked to train new recruits, which enabled me to be here with you now.

"Now I won't lie to you, this will be intense training. But if I understand correctly that the Dark Lord, Voldemort (most of the class winced at the mention of his name) has returned, then intense is exactly what you need. Can anyone tell me what you have learned up to this point?"

To no one's surprise, Hermione's hand instantly shot into the air.

"Yes, Miss Granger…." Hermione was a little startled by the fact that she knew her name without taking traditional role. Professor Clovis simply smiled at the girl as if to reassure her.

"Um… In our first two years we learned the basics. In our third year we learned about most of the Dark Creatures, their tricks and how to counter act them. Last year we learned all about the Unforgivable curses and how to counter the ones that we can."

Professor Clovis' smile had faded. "Anything else?"

Seamus raised his hand with a smirk on his face.

"Yes, Mr. Finnigan."

"We also learned to have CONSTANT VIGILANCE." He yelled the last part effectively making everyone jump out of their skin, except for Professor Clovis.

"I see…." She sat thoughtfully for a few moments and then had them all stand up. She pushed all of the chairs and tables against the wall with the wave of her wand. "From what you are telling me, you really haven't learnt all that much defense. You've just learned to recognize what the dark arts look like. Is that about right?"

Everyone shared looks and most nodded.

"Okay then I guess that I have my work cut out for me…. Would someone be so kind as to participate in a demonstration with me?"

Most of the boys in the class shot their hands into the air, including Ron and Harry. The girls looked extremely put out. Hermione crossed her arms over chest and glared angrily at her boyfriend. Professor Clovis looked around the room and seemed to be about to choose Harry when she suddenly changed her mind. Her eyes landed on Neville.

"Mr. Longbottom…." Most of the rest of the boys groaned and found a place to lean while waiting for the demonstration to start. Neville timidly approached the front of the room where Professor Clovis was standing. When he got there, Professor Clovis leaned in and whispered something to Neville. He looked absolutely terrified, but determined to do well.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to have Mr. Longbottom here, attack me with a simple spell. When he does, I'm going to make it dissipate before it reaches me…. Neville."

Looking extremely nervous he stuttered out, "P-p-petrificus T-t-totalus."

Before the spell had even completely left the wand it went up into smoke. Everyone thought that it was a typical Neville blunder, that he must have done something wrong, but after what happened next, it was clear that there was no blunder involved.

"Very good, Neville. Now do you remember what I did?"

Neville nodded.

"Good. Now just do exactly what I did and you'll be fine."

Neville lifted his arm, nervously and pointed it at Professor Clovis. And though very nervous he nodded his head to tell her he was ready.

She yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!" Instantly the spell left the wand and sped toward Neville. Neville just stood there with his arm out stretched and his wand pointing straight up. He shut his eyes as he saw the spell come at him….

The spell dissipated the moment that it came within two inches of the upturned wand. Neville cautiously opened one eye, then the other. He smiled when he realized that he had done it.

"Very good, Neville. Now, before I tell you how this was done, I wish to explain why I had Neville come up here and demonstrate. I chose Neville for this because most of you believe that he cannot do too much correctly, an image that is unfortunately perpetuated by a few select Professors here. In reality Neville has a lot of potential that he has not learned how to tap into yet, as proven by what you have just seen. This protective charm may seem simple on the surface, but it takes a lot of strength of character and quite a bit of talent to be able to perform this. There is also an element of fear needed. If you are too brazen you will not be able to perform it. That is why I knew Neville would be a good candidate for success. While believing that you can perform this charm is good, if you are overconfident that you can do it, it will not work.

"Now, this charm was one of the most basic of all protective and defensive charms. I wish for you all to practice this as soon as I am finished explaining how to do this, so partner up and please make it with someone from the other house. We don't want you to be with your friends, because that might give you a disadvantage. You need to be unaware of what they could throw at you. Thank you, Neville, you may rejoin your classmates."

She waited for everyone to find a partner and for Neville to return to the group. When she was satisfied that everyone was settled and paying attention to her again, she began. "Okay, now, the movement is all in the wrist…." She showed how her wrist was loose and flexible. "Your wrists must be very mobile. You twist and flip and raise the wand at the end, but you must wait until your partner, or opponent in a real world situation, starts speaking their incantation.

Now, for a little background on the spell. This charm is one of those rare charms that you need not say anything in order to perform it. It was discovered by Oliver the Ostracized in 1749. As his name suggests, he was an outcast. He decided to go to the United States to escape his reputation as the wizard with the most outrageous views of how the wizarding community at large should be run. When he was on the ship to America, he had a run in with a very burly Muggle. Before he was able to defend himself with his wand the Muggle took out a knife and sliced out Oliver's tongue.

"From then on the poor wizard had to try to make his way as a mute Muggle. After several years however, some of the old gang of people who had ousted him from England, went to America too. Oliver, having made a very good life for himself as a magical supply shop owner in Salem, was surprised to see one of his old enemies come in, the man thought it was humorous that Oliver could no longer perform magic due to his inability to speak. So he cursed the poor wizard several times and stole from him.

"This continued for quite some time. Everyday that particular wizard would come in and curse him and steal from him. Finally after about a week where he was constantly being robbed, he took out his old wand and tried to use it, but to no avail. Even so, the next day when that same wizard entered the shop again, Oliver took out his wand and pointed it at the man. He just laughed and taunted him by pointing out the fact that there was no way he could do anything to him, because Oliver couldn't speak. He shot a curse at Oliver just as he had the other days. Oliver, frustrated, started making frantic movements with his wand. He felt a slight surge run through him after a particular movement and found that the spell dissipated before it reached him.

"Disbelieving what had just happened, the other wizard blinked and threw another spell at him and another and another. Each time Oliver used that same motion that he had used before and each time the curse disappeared. Finally, when the other wizard was thoroughly worn out from throwing so many curses at the man, he left and didn't return.

"So this has been passed down through the years through his family. About 50 years ago when Grindelwald was at his strongest, just before his defeat, this family secret was shared with the Wizarding world. So here it is. Now, please in the remaining 30 minutes I would like to see you all through simple curses only at your partners and you will try to dissipate the spell."

They moved off in their paired up groups. Harry was with a tall boy with brownish hair and a quirky smile, named Terry Boot. Hermione was with Lisa Turpin, a short well built girl with blond hair and blue eyes. And Ron was with Mandy Brocklehurst, a girl with purple eyes and auburn hair that was taller than Ron himself. Ron gulped loudly when he realized that she had not been standing at her full height when he agreed to partner with her.

The curses then began to fly in the room and most of them weren't able to have success with dissipating the curses before they reached them. Chaos seemed to break out as various things were erupting from those that were cursed. Several students fell to the floor in the full body bind. Professor Clovis scanned the scene shaking her head at the writhing students upon the floor.

In one corner she noticed that there were four groups that were still standing however and holding their own. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Neville had agreed to be the first to receive the curses. Each time they successfully blocked the curses. That is until Ron let his guard down and let himself get overconfident. Suddenly Ron found that he couldn't perform the charm. And then the chaos finally enveloped that corner of the room.

Ron had not been able to block the full body bind spell and found himself falling backwards. He knocked into Hermione, who was pushed right at Lisa, just as she had let off a curse of her own. And like a domino effect the rest of them went over.

Professor Clovis came down into the room and walked past all of the groups, shaking her head. She came to the back corner where Ron had been and shook her head at him as well. She stepped to the center of the room and said, "Do you see, why you must believe that you can do it without getting overconfident?" She shot a look where Ron was lying flat on the floor next to his writhing girlfriend. "If you had just tried to do it, without believing that you could do better than Neville, thus making you all overconfident, then you would have done just fine. But you chose to believe that because Mr. Longbottom was able to do this that you would have no problems performing this. This is the result. Not one of you is standing, though I must say that I am most impressed with the groups in the back corner. They held out the longest and part of those groups fell not because of their own design, but because of someone else's carelessness. Finite Incantatum."

The group of students on the floor stood up. They all looked guilty.

"Let us hope that you have all learned a valuable lesson by all of this!" said a very disappointed Professor Clovis. "Now, we have a few more minutes. I would like you all to try it again. One time each. And let's try to do this with a little less pride involved. Shall we?"

They all tried it again, a little more humbled this time, and most of them were able to get it. There were a couple of students who didn't believe that they could do it at all and so were not able to produce the desired effect. The bell rung and those who had been cursed were left behind.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the last to pack up and leave. They watched as the very gentle Professor Clovis used the counter curse of each curse and spoke to each of the students quietly and reassuringly. Just as they were about to leave, Professor Clovis called out to them. They walked to the front of the class and waited while she finished with the last petite Ravenclaw girl that had had the leg locker curse put on her. She was in tears and Professor Clovis hugged the girl and walked her to the door, muttering words of encouragement. When she reached the door she closed it and turned back to the three Gryffindors.

"So, I understand that you have a special class on Thursday evening…," she began.

They all looked at each other with surprise.

"I must say that I'm very impressed with your performances here today. You all did very well." She glanced at Ron, who had a guilty half-smile on his face. "Yes, even you Ron. You may have gotten a little too confident there at the end, but you all performed very adeptly. As well you all should. Now, I'm teaching the first part of the class on Thursday. So I expect you here at 7pm sharp. Is that clear?"

They all nodded.

"Dismissed. Good night." She smiled a brilliant smile. Harry felt a little weak in the knees and smiled goofily at her as he turned around to leave with his friends. He turned back and waved at her with a bit more zest than he meant to show. Hermione grabbed his arm and hissed in his ear, "Come on, lover boy." Harry didn't hear a word of her comment, as he let that smile remain plastered firmly in his mind for the rest of the evening.

That night in the common room Harry never even noticed the stares that he was getting from several of his fellow Gryffindors. Harry had completely put the incident in Professor Trelawney's room out of his mind. He sat by the fire seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

Fred and George came into the common room and dropped a pile of mail in front of Ron. "What's this?" Ron asked his brothers.

"Your mail from this morning. You weren't at breakfast when the mail came, remember?"

"Oh right." He opened his mail, saving the Daily Prophet for last. When he opened up the headline on the front page made him drop the paper. "Harry! Come here!"

Being drawn out of his reverie by hearing his name, Harry turned toward his friend. Ron ushered him over. Harry got up and meandered to the table. Ron picked up the paper again and spread it open for Harry to see. Harry gasped and grabbed the paper out of Ron's hands as he read:

MUGGLE TRAIN ATTACKED!

Early evening yesterday a Muggle train was attacked by the recently Azkaban liberated Dementors. It is reported that there were several Ministry officials that were on that train with their families. Very few were injured, however there were a several "deaths" by Dementor's Kiss. Only a few were able to defeat the Dementors. Though there was a strange report about a ghostly figure of a boy who was fighting off the Dementors fairly successfully at first, but quickly losing ground and being pinned to the back of the train before disappearing. No one could describe the boy as he was seen to be "shimmering", though most felt that the boy was familiar. As many were interviewed the question about the authenticity of this report cannot be totally confirmed and questions were raised by most about the numerous Officials on the train.

The reason for the Ministry officials and their families being on the train? There has been an increasing threat of You-Know-Who attacking Ministry officials and their families. As it is well known, this past summer the Weasley's proved to be the first of many attacks on the families of minor Ministry officials. And when his colleges received threats to their families, Arthur Weasley told his colleges to take the threats seriously. Many of these officials went to the minister himself for help and protection.

Despite the increase in attacks and threats, Minister Fudge, however, still refuses to acknowledge that You-Know-Who has returned, thus denying his officials and their families the protection that is so desperately needed at this time. Consequently, those who heeded Arthur Weasley's warning were on the train, as they were trying to get their families to safety the conventional way so as to not rouse any suspicions in the enemy's camp.

Ministry officials are baffled by how the secret information about the migration to safety got out. It is thought that somehow this information got leaked by somewhere in the ministry because the attack on the train found only ministry officials and their families targeted. The Office of the Minister refused to comment. For a list of Officials and/or their families who were victims of this tragic situation see the Obituary section of this newspaper. – Special Assignment Reporter, Rita Skeeter.

Harry's mouth dropped open. This sounded exactly like his dream from on the train and the time would have been right…. Could he have really been there?

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione who had just read the article over his shoulder. Both of them seemed to be in as much shock as he was. Harry folded up the paper and took it up to his room and put it in his trunk. When he came back down, he realized that it was quite late and the common room was empty except for Ron and Hermione.

"Can we continue our discussion now, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"What discussion?"

"The one that we were having in the Prefect's Bathroom…"

Harry thought about it. "I can't talk about this right now. I need to figure some things out first before I tell you what happened." He turned on his heel and walked back up to the dorm room. He heard Hermione call after him, but he ignored her and kept going. He got into his pajamas and climbed into bed, pulling the curtains around his bed closed.

He lay there in the dark recounting all of the day's events. "I think perhaps this is the strangest day I've ever had here at Hogwarts," he muttered to himself. When his mind stopped going through everything that had happened, he found that he was seeing the smile that had occupied him most of the evening. He too smiled, pushed all of his questions and uncertainties out of his mind, and turned over, momentarily falling asleep.