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!

Tim – Thank you for your comments and compliments. You are a most wonderful and enthusiastic fan and I hope that you don't go too crazy!!!!! :-D :-D :-D :-D

Manateegirl524 – I'm so glad that you all like it!!!!!! I hope that I can keep your interest! :-D :-D :-D :-D

Kyntor – Welcome!! and thank you so much for your critique of my work. I truly appreciate you candidness…. and I have to say that though it is probably not reflected well in chapter 6 and won't be throughout the rest of this fic, I totally agree with you. I would like to point out to you one point in chapter six, where it says "Harry turned to say something to Norbert, when a weird sort of hissing emitted from Draco. Harry almost laughed when he heard what Draco said in an odd sort of botched up mixture of Parseltongue gibberish and English, "Me…. Draco…. You…. Ignorant… serpent." " What I meant by this statement was essentially the same thing. My thoughts when I wrote this part was not that one could actually learn how to speak Parseltongue but in fact that one could not learn it. This part was actually more to show Malfoy's impertinence and trying to show Harry up. Though I never directly indicate this, I tried to imply it, which I obviously did not do well enough. For this I apologize, however I must say that everything into my writing is there for a reason, and is well thought out far in advance of putting it down on paper. I hope that I have not turned you away from my writing because of this and I hope that you will continue to come and read. Once again thank you for your candor and bringing something to my attention that I need to address in the future!

CHAPTER EIGHT – THE ADVANCED CLASS

The rest of the week seemed to drag by, though Harry got through it by picturing that smile that always brought a soft smile to his own lips. No amount of taunting or homework brought him down, though it did seem that for a while anyway Malfoy had stopped taunting him. Harry assumed that it was because of his association with a very playfully dangerous dragon. Not to mention all of the questions Harry left unanswered in his mind, he had pushed so far away that they had not resurface.

Not even Snape upset him when he sneered at Harry in his fist day back in double potions lab, where they were to make the Concealing Potion. The Concealing Potion was one that spewed a fog like substance effectively masking your location from an enemy. Once brewed, it needed to sit for about three months in a small vial in order to be effective. It was activated by the vial breaking on impact with the ground, the broken glass enhancing the effect. It was a very complex potion to brew and required full concentration by all.

Before they began brewing the potion though, Snape collected the summer essays. Snape couldn't believe that Harry turned in an essay that was longer than what he had required them to write. He was about to accuse him of cheating until he realized that Harry had in fact witnessed Veritaserum at work at the end of the previous year. Snape snatched the essay out of Harry's hand and mumbled something incomprehensible under his breath that sounded suspiciously like he would find another way to fail him this year.

The rest of that class Snape sneered at Harry and picked on Neville worse than usual. Each time he passed Neville he tried to startle him. The last time that he did this Neville dropped the vial of beetles' eyes, which he had been trying to pour just the right amount into his measuring spoon, into the caldron. Instantly the caldron began bubbling over and turning a nasty blue-black. "Mr. Longbottom, if you cannot keep a firm grasp on the vial, might I suggest that you do not hold it over caldron while you measure out its contents," Snape seethed.

Neville, visibly shaken, nodded and tried to salvage what he could of his potion, fearing that Snape might try to feed it to his toad, Trevor, as Snape usually threatened when he made a mistake like that. He tried desperately to fix the potion without help, as he had practiced with his Gran in the summer to get potions correct, especially when mistakes were made.

His Gran, a very formidable witch had softened a bit and was extremely worried that Neville would not pass the O.W.L.s, so made sure that she tutored him all summer long. And though he was still very nervous and timid about everything, feeling that he was a squib, he did seem to be better than before, though not by much. The rest of the class went by without any further incident.

Even Divination wasn't as bad. Professor Trelawney still carried the same sad worried look she had always had when she looked at him, but there was a new aspect to her look as well. She now carried a hopeful look that said that she was ready for his next prediction as an oracle. Harry, on the other hand, went to the room prepared…. He had made an agreement with Ron that if he started looking like another prediction was coming on that Ron would jab him with his quill or something else sharp. Not to mention he decided that since his pin seemed to help trigger what happened, that he would not wear it on the days that he had Divination. Thus far he had not regretted that decision.

But luckily Ron never had to do anything, as the situation never arose. Though Harry's boredom with the Tarot cards, found him staring out the window at the cold, rainy, drafty days that left a chill in the air, even in the little room that they had Divination in. Not to mention that Trelawney would shudder and shake her head sadly whenever Harry drew the Death Card.

"Old Bat…. Doesn't she even read the books that she assigns to us? If she did, she would know that the Death Card doesn't necessarily mean death…. It means that something is coming to an end," yawned Ron.

When Thursday evening finally rolled around, Harry was excited at the prospect of seeing Professor Clovis again. When he, Ron, and Hermione had gotten to the classroom they had a huge surprise in store….

Professor Clovis was not the only Professor standing in the room. There was also Professor Fletcher and Professor Figg, but Professor Figg looked different to Harry and he knew why. After the three months that he had spent at her house during the summer, he knew that it was in fact Amelia that was standing there not Arabella.

"Amelia, what are you doing here? And where is Arabella?" asked Harry excitedly.

"I'm here too!" came a voice from the dark corner at the back of the room. Arabella stepped into the light.

"What?! Are you both teaching this year?" said Harry utterly confused.

"Yes," they both stated simply at the same time.

"Why?"

Arabella and Amelia looked at each other. Harry knew there must be something, a secret that they knew and weren't telling him, and by the looks that they shared, they seemed to be trying to communicate something without everyone else knowing. Amelia nodded and then they turned back toward Harry.

"We will explain everything with time Harry, but right now we need to wait for the rest of the class to come. So no more questions for now," answered Amelia.

A few moments later a confused looking Neville Longbottom and the rest of the Weasley children, who currently attended Hogwarts, entered the room. As they approached Harry, Hermione, and Ron, Hermione leaned over to Harry and muttered, "That's weird."

"What?" asked Harry softly.

"Never in the history of Hogwarts had there been a class that has had more than one year in it…. I wonder why they are doing this now."

"How do you know?"

Hermione just looked at him with at him with a look of frustrated disbelief.

"Oh, never mind I'll answer that one for you, 'Don't you ever read?' Right?"

Hermione nodded.

"What was that in Hogwarts a History, too?"

Again Hermione nodded.

"What's in Hogwarts a History?" Ron had come over to hear what they were talking about, but had missed almost the entire conversation.

"Never mind, Ron. I'll be asking about it if they don't explain it in a bit," she said.

"Oh… okay."

The Rest of the Weasleys and Neville had finally reached Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "What's going on? What are we here for?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Didn't you have the special Phoenix symbol on your schedule?"

Fred and George looked at each other and said, "Yes."

"Then you know all that we do at the moment."

"I didn't…," stated Neville.

Hermione looked confused, "Then how did you know to be here now?" She suddenly got a horrified look on her face. "You didn't follow us did you?"

"No…. I got a letter with the phoenix on it, yesterday. It took me a whole hour to figure out what to do to make the message reveal itself."

"Oh."

Fred looked over his shoulder at the four professors at the front of the room. "Does anyone know what we're waiting for?"

"Professor Figg just said that we were waiting for the rest of the class to arrive…. When you four showed up I thought that maybe we were all here now, but it would seem that not everyone is here, as they haven't started yet," stated Harry.

Just then two more people walked into the room. Harry took in a deep breath when he saw who they were…. Cho Chang and Nicholas Rockley, the boy whom Harry thought looked like a young Lupin. They were followed in by Dumbledore. Dumbledore nodded to Professor Clovis.

"Okay, everyone if you would please take a seat here." Professor Clovis whipped out her wand and summoned nine chairs and four tables. They all moved to the chairs and sat down. Once they were settled she began, "I realize that all of you are wondering what the purpose of this class is… I believe that the only one who qualified to tell you that is Professor Dumbledore."

"Thank you, Lina. I wish to explain to you a little bit of why you are here. I cannot however tell you everything, as the purpose for you being here is part of the goal of this class. What I will tell you will be this: you are here to discover what all of you have in common. You will have to work closely to one another, as the training that you will receive in this room will be both highly difficult and highly reticent. You must exercise discretion when discussing this training outside of this room. I would suggest that you come in here nightly to practice what you are taught, as many of you will need the extra practice time…."

"But, sir, what about Quidditch practices?" interrupted Harry and Cho at the same time. They looked at each other and shared a shy, sad smile and then looked back at the headmaster, waiting for a response.

"Yeah," chimed in the Weasley twins.

"Not to worry, Mr. Weasleys, Miss Chang, and Mr. Potter," stated the headmaster formally, "There will be plenty of time to practice." He looked at their confused faces. A soft smile spread across his lips and the twinkle in his eyes grew brighter and more mysterious. "You do, after all, have a Prefect in your group," he said nodding at Hermione. Everyone turned and looked at Hermione. She blushed slightly and Ron beamed at his girlfriend. "The other Professors have been made aware of the fact there will be a group of students that have a late evening class on Thursdays and that they may be out late on other nights for the purpose of practicing…. Now then, are there any other questions?"

Neville very timidly raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Longbottom…."

"Professor Dumbledore, why am I here? I mean, I'm obviously not as talented as the rest of these students. I practically a squib…."

Professor Clovis leaned over to the Headmaster and whispered something in his ear. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and shone with pride for the boy. Smiling he said, "Neville." Neville jumped, never expecting the Headmaster to address him by his first name. "You are not a squib. It has always been my belief that you were blocking your talent, whether intentionally or not, I am not certain. However, I feel that you have begun to show the true wizard that you are. I assure you that you have just as much of a reason to be here as all of the others."

"What about me?" asked the very timid first year. "I've just begun to learn magic… How could I have possibly shown enough talent by now to be here?" Nicholas swallowed hard and licked his lips nervously.

"And me, Professor?" asked Cho. "Why am I here? I'm the only one who is not a Gryffindor here."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled mischievously and he smiled again at the three who had asked the questions. "Again, I will say that it is up to you to discover the true reason that you are all here. You will be taught many difficult things here. And I have every confidence that you are up to the challenge of learning them. Now, if you will excuse me I must return to my other duties." He turned abruptly and left the room, smiling at each of them as he passed them along the way out.

"Okay, now," Professor Clovis summoned several books to land in front of each student. "These will be your texts. They will be blank to anyone other than yourselves. You will have to tap them with your wands to reveal the information stored within their pages. Once you tap the book you must say 'Profero Evolutio'. It is a very advanced spell that will only show what is written there to you. So even if you were to sit in your common rooms and read them, no one would know what was written there."

Hermione raised her hand and Professor Clovis pointed at her and nodded. "Would they appear blank to others or show something different altogether?" asked Hermione.

"Very good, Hermione. Excellent question. I was just coming to that. When you say your charm, you must also be thinking about something that you would like to read, for that will be what anyone who happens to look over your shoulder and see. So please choose wisely, as it will reveal anything that you are thinking about when you say your spell." Professor Clovis looked directly at Ron with a knowing smirk on her face. Ron's eyes flew open wide and face turned bright red up to the very tips of his ears. He looked down at the floor as his cheeks amazingly got almost brighter red than his hair.

Fred and George took note and started chatting amongst themselves briefly.

Professor Clovis continued, "Now, as you can see, there are four of us at the moment who are going to teach you. The advanced techniques and knowledge that you will learn in this room will be from a wide range of subjects. Now you all know me already, but the rest of the Professors have not been formally introduced to you, so without further adieu, I will step aside so that they may introduce themselves to you and what you are to learn from them…."

Professor Fletcher stepped forward. His raspy, but very authoritative voice boomed across the room, "I am Professor Mundungus Fletcher. I will be teaching you advance potions and how to combine certain potions with certain charms to obtain a greater yield and outcome with them.

"I am aware that Professor Snape has stated that there is no need for a wand when brewing potions, however that is not altogether true. There are some that benefit from a charm enhancement. I will be teaching you every fourth week starting next week. And Mr. Longbottom, while I am aware of you history in Professor Snape's potions lessons, I believe that you will be able to conduct yourself well here…."

It was Neville's turn to turn bright red, as Professor Fletcher stepped back.

Amelia stepped forward, "I am Professor Amelia Figg. Now while I am aware that you all met my sister during the welcoming feast, and not me, there is a good reason for that. As you can see we are identical twins. Only those who know us well can tell us apart." She turned and winked at Harry, who smiled. "My sister is the more experienced witch. This is why she is the known professor and I am not. I realize that not much of this makes sense right now, but as the year progresses, everything will become clear to you as to why this arrangement is important. Now, if you see me outside this room, you will address me as if I am Arabella, my sister. Is that clear?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good. I will be teaching you advanced charms and help you to fine tune the control of your magic…."

She glanced at Harry, whose eyebrows just raised. It had only been a few days that she had had her new wand. How could she possibly know everything that she needs to know to teach that subject? he thought.

"Those of you that know me will wonder why I'm teaching that particular subject. That will all be revealed in time. I will be teaching this subject every fourth week starting the third week of classes." She smiled broadly at the confused look on Harry's face

She stepped back as her twin stepped forward. "I am obviously Professor Arabella Figg, as my wonderful twin so eloquently pointed out…."

She smiled at her sister.

"Now I have perhaps the most daunting and difficult task of teaching you how to expand your minds. This talent is used to tap into many different talents, particularly with the mind's eye and divination."

Hermione rolled her eyes thinking, Oh great, that will be a colossal waste of time.

"Actually, Miss Granger, I think that you will find that it is not a waste of time at all…."

Hermione's jaw dropped and she turned red, "H-how- how d-did you know…?"

"Quite simply, my dear. It will be something that you will learn this year. Now I will teach you every fourth week starting in the fourth week."

She stepped back and Professor Clovis stepped forward again, "Now, I know that it only says Thursday nights on your schedule. However, we will be adding evenings to the class schedule." She saw that Harry, Cho, and the Weasley twins were about to protest. She continued quickly, "And before you worry about Quidditch practices, we will work around them."

All the Quidditch players in the room relaxed. Professor Clovis continued, "I will be teaching you advanced techniques in defense, which will begin tonight… So without further adieu I think we should start." The other Professors silently left the room as she began the lesson.

"One of the most advanced types of defense is the ability to shield oneself from a spell. You will learn in your regular Defense Against the Dark Arts class about how to dissipate and deflect unfriendly spells, with a wand. This magic is flawed however, because you can only dissipate or deflect one spell at a time.

"The ability to make a shield is a much higher magic. It can be used to deflect many spells at once. Thus, while it is more difficult to do, it uses less of the magic in you, thereby giving you an advantage over someone who does not know how to protect themselves with a shield. Only the basic shields can be made with a wand. The more advanced shields are a combination of casting the initial spell with the wand and maintaining the shield without the wand…"

"You mean to tell us that you think that we are good enough to do wandless magic!" stated Neville in disbelief. Nicholas started shaking his head. He still didn't understand how he, a first year, could have been chosen for this group.

"Yes, Mr. Longbottom, that is exactly what I'm saying…. Though not many of you will master it completely. And what you will be learning in this class, this year will be basic wandless magic. Nothing too extensive. The more advanced techniques will be next year. But you are the most likely candidates of all in the school."

"Sure if I make it through this year that is," muttered Neville.

"What was that, Mr. Longbottom?"

"Erm… surely we're not as good as some of the seventh years, or at least I'm not…. They are far more advanced than we are," said Neville. The others in the room who really knew Neville were shocked by his forthright comments, as he had never been that assertive before. "I don't even know what I'm doing here…." He went to get up and leave, but was quickly knocked back into the seat as the chair moved forward.

"Neville, just as Dumbledore said, we are all here for a reason, and that includes myself and the other Professors…. We have not yet discovered the reasons for our being here either. But we have, all of us, been drawn here for a yet undisclosed purpose. So just as none of us are going to get out of this, neither are you. You are a very strong wizard if you would just let yourself be…. You need to look inside yourself and find out why it is that you feel that you are not."

Neville looked hard at Professor Clovis with his mouth open. He couldn't believe that she had that much faith in him. All he ever did was screw up. She didn't even know him. But sitting there looking into her eyes, something suddenly dawned on him. "It's because of my parents," he said softly more to himself than to anyone else. Everyone continued to stare at him. All but Harry had confused looks on their faces. Harry knew the truth about what had happened to his parents.

Professor Clovis not missing a beat and hearing what Neville had said, continued to keep eye contact with Neville. She gently prodded him to go on with why his parents were holding him back, with her mind.

"My father was an Auror. He was very successful at his job and was able to get many of the unwilling Deatheaters to be brought out of the Imperius Curse that had been placed upon them. He even brought in several of You-Know-Who's highest regarded and most trusted Deatheaters. When You-Know-Who was destroyed by Harry, the Deatheaters, who were vindictive and wanted information and revenge, chose to grab my father and mother coming out of a restaurant on their anniversary. They tortured my mother and father, for both satisfaction and the information that they thought my father possessed…." Neville's voice faltered a little and quivered as he continued. "My mother was tortured the worst. The Deatheaters felt that if they tortured my mother in front of my father that he would give up the information sooner." His voice softened still more. "I was with my Grandmother at the time. And that is where I stayed. I visit them and see the blank stares that show me that they are trapped in their own minds by pain, torture, and torment. They don't even recognize me…. I vowed that I would not ever be in a place where someone would suffer by my success. I do not blame my father, I just don't want to be like him…."

Neville spoke in a single stream of consciousness as if he were in some sort of trance. He barely took a breath the whole time that he spoke. But when he finished he looked around with wide eyes full of confusion, and yet wisdom. He sat back and seemed to be trying to take in what he had just said. In fact, every person in the room seemed to be shocked and in a state of disbelief. Suddenly questions burst forth from the others about Neville's parents. Neville looked around at them trying to figure out what to answer first.

There was only one person in the room that was left silent. Harry had been hit strongest by Neville's words, even though he had known the basics of what had happened to Neville's parents. He had found out about it in the previous year. He had had a particularly bad vision where Voldemort had hexed Wormtail and had woken up in Divination to a burning in his scar. As he had been told by his Godfather, he went directly to the Headmaster, where he had interrupted a conversation between the Minister of Magic, Fudge, Barty Crouch the intruder disguised as Mad-Eye Moody who had helped to deliver Harry into the hands of Voldemort, and Dumbledore.

When Dumbledore had invited him into his office, then Dumbledore and the others took their conversation elsewhere, leaving Harry alone in the room. While Harry was alone in Dumbledore's office, he had noticed a glowing light. That light had turned out to be a Pensieve, a shallow stone basin that kept within it Dumbledore's memories and thoughts.

It was there in the Pensieve that he had heard about whom young Barty Crouch had been and the fact that he had been caught subjecting Frank Longbottom, Neville's father, to the Cruciatus Curse, though young Crouch denied it completely. When Dumbledore had brought him back out of the Pensieve, Harry asked Dumbledore about what he had seen. Dumbledore conveyed that what had happened and that it was indeed Neville's father that had been referred to in the memory that Harry had visited.

However Harry had not heard the version of events that Neville had just spoken about, all he had known was that the Deatheaters had taken Neville's parents, that they been tortured, and were now in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. With this new version of events, he felt in some way responsible for what had happened.

Harry put his head down in his arms on the desk. It was the first time since the middle of the summer, that Harry's feelings of guilt at everything that had to do with Voldemort overtook him. He squeezed his eyes shut to keep the tears that were burning in his eyes from emerging. Hermione and Cho, who were sitting on either side of Harry, placed their hands gently on his arms. Harry did not realize that all talking had stopped in the room and all eyes were on him. He felt as if his chest was about to burst open, and he didn't care if it did.

He swallowed hard against the growing lump in his throat. He was determined not to give into the emotions that threatened to take over his whole being. He knew logically that he was not to blame for what had happened. But on the other hand, if he had never caused the downfall of Voldemort, then Neville's parents would not be where they were today.

Harry became aware of the gentle weight of the hands that were resting on his two arms and a voice broke through his thoughts. "Harry?" said Professor Clovis. Harry tried one last time to blink back the tears before he slowly lifted his head up to look into the concerned eyes of the beautiful Professor. "Are you alright? You seem a little pale."

"I-I'm n-not feeling that well right now…."

"Would you like to go to the hospital wing?"

"No, I'll be all right. I just need to put my head down for a minute." Harry gave her a soft, strained smile.

She smiled. "All right, Harry."

Harry put his head back down and tried to listen to what Professor Clovis was saying to get his mind off of what was running around in his head, but ever her flamboyant voice was not enough to keep his mind on what she was saying. His mind wondered back to the pain that he had caused Neville, Cedric Diggory's parents, Hermione, the Weasleys, and, most of all, the woman who was sitting next to him, the woman that he had seen crying after Cedric's death the previous year, Cho. He thought about the fact that his parent's had died to protect him. All of this began to overwhelm him again.

He found his eyes wet. He told himself what he knew was true, that it was not his fault that this had happened. But his heart ached so much for the pain that had been inflicted around on the people in his life. Why?! his mind screamed. He closed his eyes again and a couple of tears fell onto his glasses. He took several deep breaths and pushed all of the pain and sadness away.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After Harry put his head back down for a bit, Professor Clovis continued. She had given the entire history of how shields were developed, by the time Harry felt that he was ready to lift his head and face the rest of the class. Professor Clovis looked into his emerald eyes as he lifted his head, and smiled at him. She saw that his face and glasses were slightly damp. But he seemed to be a little better. He smiled weakly in return.

"Okay… now that you understand the history of shields, I would like to take the next half an hour of this class to demonstrate how to do the most basic of them. Then for the last half an hour, I would like you to pair up and try them. I would like you to choose someone that you have never worked with before and keep them as your partners until our next class. You will be quizzed on the reading that I assign and the shields that we work on tonight."

She took out her wand. "Neville would you care to help me demonstrate again?" Neville nodded, still in awe of what he had figured out, and came to the front of the room. "Okay, now, throw that a simple spell, if you please, once I indicate that I am ready. Now, for the most part, the incantation to make a shield appear is going to have the word 'Castraorum' in it, which means temporary fortification in Latin. There will be other words in it to explain the size and purpose of the shield. For instance…." She lifted her arm and held it straight out in front of her. She nodded at Neville. "Minimus Castraorum Diffundo!" A small piece of what looked like clear looking film formed in front of her head and upper torso.

Neville yelled, "R-rictusempra!" Emboldened by his success in Professor Clovis' other class, he attempted to do a spell that he had never tried to do before.

As the spell left Neville's wand the strange clear film seemed to expand to cover the entire front of Professor Clovis. The spell sped toward her, but as soon as it hit the film in front of her it seemed to begin to spin and the spell broke up and disappeared.

Excited chatter started up all over the room. Even Harry was able to enjoy the demonstration in fact it had effectively pushed the last remnants of what had been bothering him completely from his mind.

Professor Clovis showed them two other shields before she asked them break up into pairs. No one moved, they just looked around the room trying to figure out whom to work with. Professor Clovis sighed and said, "Alright, since most of you know each other well, I'll make this easier…. I will break you into pairs. But first, who would be willing to work with Nicholas, as he is fairly new to the magic world?"

Harry instantly shot his hand in the air. He had been looking for an opportunity to talk to the first year since he had seen him get sorted. This seemed to be the perfect chance to do so.

"Good, thank you, Harry. Now, let's see. There will have to be one group of three so… Hermione, you and Ron should team up with one of the twins and Cho, you, Ginny, and Neville will be a group. Please get into your groups and try to perform these simple shields."

Nicholas stood there in awe for a moment as Harry approached him and held out his hand to introduce himself, "Hi. I'm – "

"Harry Potter," Nicholas finished for Harry breathlessly. "I'm honored to work with you." He grabbed his and hand shook it enthusiastically.

"Why's that?"

"Well, because your Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. I've been wanting to meet you since I was sorted into Gryffindor, but you've never been around in the common room when I have."

"Really? I was think the same thing about you…."

"You wanted to meet me?" Nicolas asked incredulously.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Well, because…. You're Harry Potter!"

"Just because I'm Harry Potter, doesn't make me better than anyone else…."

"And so humble too…. So why did you want to meet me?" he asked breathlessly.

"Well, because you remind me of some one I know…. I was just wondering if you could tell me bit about yourself," Harry said mysteriously.

The boy flamboyantly began to explain about his history in complete awe of the fact that Harry had shown such an interest in him. "I was raised with my mom and step dad. I never knew who my real father was, but my mother still loves him very much and still weeps for him, at times late at night when she thinks I'm sleeping. My step dad is great. I never knew I was a wizard until I got my letter…." He continued for several minutes this way, barely stopping to take breaths in between phrases.

Harry was interested, because it seemed that there was a possibility that he could be right about this boy being Lupin's son, especially since he had no idea whom his real father was. Nicholas then began to bombard Harry with questions about his past, between the time when he became famous and when he came to school.

"To be honest there's not really much to tell. But I think I should wait until some other time to tell you, because we should be practicing the shields."

"True. Okay." They practiced together. Harry spent a lot of time teaching Nicholas the finer points on how to hold his wand commandingly and casting viable charms. Harry tried to cast the shields a few times and Nicholas tried to do a charm, but it didn't seem to work. Harry patiently and gently tried to explain what the first year had done wrong. All the while the boy looked at Harry with Hero worship in his eyes, still in disbelief over the fact that he was working with Harry Potter.

When the end of class finally came, Professor Clovis drew her attention back to the front of the room. "Now, I want you to all to be able to demonstrate the ability to do these shields when next we meet in four weeks…. That should be ample enough time to get the basic idea of how to get one to stay long enough to protect you from basic charms. Dismissed. Oh, Harry would you stay behind for a moment?"

In Harry's mind a debate was going on. He really wanted to stay alone with the beautiful teacher. But he also had thought since his chat had gone so well with Nicholas, that he would try to talk to Cho to see if there were any way that she could forgive him for what had happened at the end of the last school year. He finally decided that he should listen to his Professor and stay. So in a half-hearted way he said, "But what about curfew?"

"I'll circle back for you, Harry," said Hermione.

"Okay. Thanks."

He stepped up to the front of the room. "You needed to see me?"

She summoned two chairs and sat down in one of them. Harry followed suit. "Harry…. I wanted to talk to you for two reasons."

"Okay…. One?"

"One, I wanted to say thank you to you for taking Mr. Rockley under your wing. There are not many fifth years who would have had the patience and understanding with him that you did…." She looked at him and there was something about the look that seemed almost inviting.

After a few moments passed between them Harry realized he was staring at her and blushed profusely. He glanced at the floor and muttered, "It was nothing really."

"No, it wasn't nothing, Harry. I think that you could make a very good teacher one day."

"I don't know about that…." He looked up at her again, blushing again, and changed the subject. "And two?"

"Oh, yes, two…. Are you sure that you are all right?" she asked with a very concerned look upon her face.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"I'm sure that you have noticed that I seem to know each of you very well, correct?"

"Well, yes."

"I have the abilities that you will be learning from Arabella this year. I know many things about most of you because your minds are open and easy to read, but, I must admit, I can't always read them." She glanced at him again with the same look as before.

"Oh?" asked Harry trying not to blush again. He had to admit that he was a bit curious where this conversation was leading, because if she had been able to read his thoughts she would know that he was feeling better.

"Yes. There are but a few, in this school who seem to have the ability to block out any interference. And you seem to be one of them. And I just wanted to offer to you an unbiased person to talk to, if you ever need to…. Because I know it is hard to find a person here that doesn't know who you really are." She placed her hand on his arm. Her touch though gentle and light seemed to send electricity through to his very core.

"Erm…th-thank you," he stammered. He looked into her eyes and smiled. She smiled her genuine warm smile that made him feel like his legs were made of jelly. He was almost afraid to stand up for fear that his legs wouldn't hold his weight.

He managed to stand up and walk out of the room, turning back at the door and smiling at her once again. He leaned on the door for a few seconds trying to make himself leave, but unable to take his eyes from her face he just stood there.

Hermione opened the door and Harry nearly fell through the doorway and onto the ground, but he caught himself at the last minute. Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Are you ready to go now?"

With one final glance back over his shoulder he said, "Yes." They made it back to the common room in record time, and Harry immediately decided to go up to bed, seeing the two lovebirds cuddling on the couch in front of the fire. For a moment Harry had a pang a jealousy, when he looked at them. They are so lucky to have each other, he thought. He walked sadly up to his room, muttering words of good night to his two best friends, who were almost too wrapped up in each other to notice him leaving for bed. Looking at them, Harry began to feel so alone. And though he knew he was being irrational about it, he couldn't stop himself thinking that he was suddenly just the third wheel.