2. School starts.
Harry and Hermione, as the new Prefects, gathered the new students after the feast to lead them to the Gryffindor tower. Harry felt uncomfortable as the younger students looked at his scar in awe, he didn't think he would ever get used to that. Fred and George snickered.
"He gives out signatures if you ask him nicely," George said.
"Let me warn you, don't believe anything either one of those two tells you," Harry told the first-years smoothly. "And also, don't eat any sweets they offer."
"Aw, don't tell them," Fred complained.
"Serves you right," Ron grinned.
"We came up with the greatest ideas this summer, wait 'til you see some of this stuff!" George said enthusiastically.
"It better not be anything illegal," Hermione cautioned him.
"'course not!" Fred seemed affronted.
"It can't possibly be on Filch's list, we just invented it," his brother put in.
Of course, that only meant the list would be a little longer yet, as soon as Filch found out. But Harry didn't mind too much, the Weasley twins could be exasperating but they were never malicious. He grinned. "Now that you've all met the Weasley twins, let's go to the dormitory. The castle is pretty big, pay attention so you don't get lost!"
He walked out into the hall, followed by the first-years.
They climbed the first stairs, then turned a corner, only to be greeted by small pallets pelting them. Peeves hung in the middle of the corridor, using a blow pipe to shoot tiny balls at them. One exploded on Hermione's robes and a bright yellow stain showed. Paint balls!
"Stop that, Peeves!" Hermione exclaimed, annoyed.
"Whee-hee, more little newbies, what fun."
Another paint ball exploded on a first-year's chest.
"Peeves, go away," Harry said darkly.
"Or what? You'd do magic in the corridors, as a Prefect, in front of all these ickle firsties? That'd be a great example."
Harry shrugged. "Maybe. Wanna find out?"
"You really are no fun." With a look of disgust on his face, Peeves swooped over the group and took off. From behind them, Harry could just hear him as he targeted some other unfortunate students. Hermione and Ron looked at him, startled.
"That's Peeves," Harry explained to the startled first-years. "Watch out for him, he can be a real pain. He loves to cause trouble and he doesn't listen to anyone but the Bloody Baron."
He was really glad Peeves hadn't called him on his bluff, for he didn't think it would have been a good start to use magic against the poltergeist on the very first evening of the school year. But he was learning how to handle Peeves. The spirit was just a big bully and as long as he wasn't impressed, Peeves would go off to pick on someone else who was an easier target.
They continued down the hall and soon arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady. She greeted them friendly.
Harry had changed the password, as was usual at the start of the year, and now told the group the new one, 'Hoky Poky'. The Fat Lady swung open and the entire group clambered in through the hole.
Once the first-years had gone to their rooms, the fifth-years and a number of others gathered around Harry.
"So what happened, how'd you end up here before the year started?"
"What'd you do to Peeves that made him back off?"
"Did Death Eaters try to kill you?"
"Did Death Eaters attack your cousin?"
"Did you really spent all your summer having detention with Snape, what'd you do to get that?"
Harry sighed. That was the problem with rumors, they were hardly accurate. He hadn't had much time during the feast to tell everything, in between the Sorting, the food, the new students, and the few snippets that he'd told had already started a life of their own.
"Hold on, okay, I'll tell you all," he said as he pulled up a chair.
He started to tell all about the incident, his uncle and his cousin. He also described arriving at Hogwarts, but once again he didn't go into much detail about how he'd helped Snape every afternoon. Most of his classmates seemed absolutely horrified at the idea, as if it had indeed been three weeks of detentions. Harry realised he'd probably have reacted the same if it'd happened to anyone else.
Finally the curiosity of his house-mates was sated, and he hoped the most outrageous rumors would be stopped.
"I still don't know how you managed, three weeks with Snape," Neville said, shuddering.
"You must have learned a lot, I'm sure you will get a better grade in Potions this year," Hermione commented.
"That's all you think of, 'mione," Ron exclaimed. "Grades! Harry was stuck with the greasy git for three weeks and all you're thinking about is grades!"
"It was okay, Ron, really," Harry said. He yawned. "And now, I'm gonna go to bed, I'm really tired."
Harry woke up the next morning and grinned as he realised the school year had started. He'd missed his friends. And he was eager to find out their schedule. He got dressed quickly, then went to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Once everyone was seated, Professor McGonagall handed out the time tables.
"Oh, we got Defense against the Dark Arts first thing!" Ron exclaimed.
Hermione frowned a little. "I hope Professor Figg is any good as a teacher."
Harry remained silent, he couldn't really imagine Mrs Figg as a teacher and knew he'd just have to wait and see.
They filed into the classroom and Mrs Figg entered, looking almost as Muggle as she had while living in Little Whinging. Harry figured she was probably used to Muggle clothing after all those years.
She started with a roll call, taking the time to study everyone for a while as she called their names. When she reached Harry she did not pause, merely nodded at him and went on.
"As you all know," she started off as soon as she was done taking roll, "You-Know-Who has returned and all classes this year will include various defense techniques. This class, of course, will be especially important. I hope you have paid attention in the previous years to the dealings with such small annoyances as Red Caps and Kappa's, for this year we will have little time for such. I will teach you how to defend yourself against Dark Magic cast by humans, by far the most dangerous 'creatures' on Earth."
"I hear last year you have already seen the Unforgivables, and tried to resist the Imperius curse. By the end of term, I want everyone to be able to resist this curse. And yes, that means casting it too, for you will practice in pairs, if only in class. Anyone who as much as says 'Imperio', even in jest, outside this classroom will receive a month's worth of detention."
Lavender and Seamus gasped audibly, and even Ron looked uneasy. Hermione merely nodded thoughtfully, and Harry shuddered. He knew he could throw off the curse already, although it was far from easy, but he strongly disliked the idea of casting it on anyone. Even if it were only to help his friends learn to fight it.
"Won't we get into trouble for casting it, even in class?" Lavender asked, nervously.
"The Headmaster and I take full responsibility. Still, I would advise you not to tell anyone outside of Hogwarts, or even the younger students, what you learn in this class, Unforgivables or no. There are enough children from Death Eaters in this school that most I teach will get back to You-Know-Who, but anything he doesn't know can work in our advantage. He is more dangerous than the Ministry will ever be."
Lavender nodded, looking quite white in the face. Harry had to admit that so far, he was impressed. Mrs Figg –Professor Figg, he reminded himself, he'd have to think of her as Professor Figg- seemed to know what she was doing and went straight to the point.
"Will we be.. covering the other two, too?" Parvati asked next, shifting in her seat.
"You mean if you will learn to cast them. No. I believe you have covered them last year, I will go over them, but there is no known defense against them and thus nothing to practice. We have not yet reached a point where we require students to learn these curses to cast them for any other reason."
Harry took note of the fact she said 'yet'. Damn, things were more serious than he'd realised. He nodded.
Professor Figg continued to give an outline of the things she meant to cover this year, shielding spells and curses. While she spoke, Lavender and Parvati whispered about You-Know-Who and the Imperius curse. Harry threw them an irritated glance as he tried to concentrate, but they ignored him. Professor Figg hadn't even looked in their direction. Hadn't she noticed or didn't she care? She just kept talking and didn't look around. Before he could be sure, the first period was over.
Their next class was Herbology. Professor Sprout started them on poisonous plants and their antidotes, and plants with natural healing properties. She didn't seem overtly bothered at the changes in the lesson plans, but neither was she as cheerful as she had been.
Neville was clearly relieved there would be something he was good at, Harry thought it was strange how his friend wasn't nervous around even the most dangerous of plants. He himself walked carefully among the various large tentacula's and the more innocent looking flowers of which a single petal could kill a dozen men, but Neville moved almost as easily as Professor Sprout and seemed to know which plants to avoid and which to ward off with a small slap, before she even told them.
After their tour through the greenhouse, the only one they hadn't entered any of the previous years, Professor Sprout gave them various plants, seeds and leaves to identify, lecturing them on the many beneficial plants which had poisonous look-a-likes.
In the afternoon they had History of Magic, their last class of the day. Binns floated into the classroom looking more distressed than Harry had ever seen the ghost, even that one time when Hermione had asked him about the Chamber of Secrets.
"I, ehm, I, I regret we will not be covering the wars of the Giants, as would normally be done in the fifth year. Instead, the Headmaster has ordered me to, ehm, to jump ahead to the early twentieth century and speak about, about Grindelwald and You-Know-Who." Distaste and disapproval were clear in the ghost's thin voice.
"I have filed an official protest, and I hope in time the Board of Directors of the school will see it fit to let me continue my usual curriculum, as these changes will leave a serious gap in your education. In the meantime, please open your books to chapter, chapter 28, 'The, ehm, the Rise of Grindelwald in the 1920's'."
For the entire period, Professor Binns lectured on the Wizarding world and the events that led up to Grindelwald's reign of power. Instead of his usual, droning voice, he spoke hesitantly. He frequently halted, pursing his lips and shaking his head, as if it was a physical effort to speak. Or whatever the equivalent of a physical effort was, for a ghost. If he'd had a body, Harry was sure he would've had beads of sweat on his brow.
Harry had several questions he wanted to ask. This material was more interesting than anything they had covered in this class before, and, if you asked him, much more important as well. He paid close attention and it was easy to remain awake, even though the halting tone was hardly an improvement over the old, toneless drone. But he didn't dare raise his hand and cause even more distress for the poor Professor. He glanced at his friends and noticed even Hermione kept her hand down, although she wrote lots of notes and frowned frequently.
The lesson wound to an end, and not a moment too soon. Harry thought Professor Binns was getting fuzzy around the edges. Could a ghost get a heart attack?
Once they were out of the classroom, he asked Hermione.
"I don't think so," she frowned. "But he sure was distressed, wasn't he? If he really became a ghost getting up to teach as he'd always done, even though he had just died, then breaking that routine could be a serious problem for him. I should look it up in the library."
Harry smiled, at least some things hadn't changed. No matter how bad things were, Hermione would still find her answers in the library.
They made their way back to the Gryffindor tower, and soon went downstairs for dinner. The students were quiet, speaking in subdued tones. The new lesson plans had clearly impressed almost everyone. Only most of the Slytherins seemed unaffected. No doubt they considered it good news that the situation was so grave.
The next morning they had their first Potions class of the year. Even though Harry knew it wouldn't be anything like the summer, he'd been looking forward to it.
Professor Snape held a similar lecture as the other teachers, giving them their new curriculum –healing potions, poisons, and antidotes. Then they made a restorative draught.
Harry had known this one was coming –he'd helped prepare some of the ingredients for it- and thus he had an easy time. He still made sure not to be careless, it would never do to mess up on his first day back in class.
Professor Snape stalked through the classroom as usual, taking points from Neville when the boy dropped his ladle and making scathing remarks at Hermione when she tried to help Neville, but Harry was no longer intimidated by the Potions Master's manner and simply kept his attention on his own cauldron.
After lunch came Charms, and to Harry's surprise and delight, Professor Flitwick started them on several tests which, he told them, would determine if they'd be allowed to learn how to Apparate. After the other classes, Harry hadn't thought it would be long, but he hadn't expected to start in the first week either.
He was eager to learn, and while he knew he would be learning no matter how he did on the tests, being who he was, he tried to do well. He earned his first five points of the year by the time the period was over.
Hermione, of course, did well, and even Ron worked hard this time. Only Neville was so nervous he dropped his wand twice, and they weren't actually Apparating yet.
Transfiguration was also exciting, Professor McGonagall showing them how to transfigure people into animals, with once again the admonishment that anyone caught doing any such thing outside the classroom would be in serious trouble. She always was stern, but seemed even more serious this year. Harry hoped even the Slytherins wouldn't be about to try using her lessons against him and the rest of the Gryffindors.
The only two classes that were barely affected by the new curriculum were Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Apparently even Dumbledore wouldn't let Hagrid use the nasty creatures Voldemort might use in his lessons, and Professor Trelawney's predictions of impending doom were hardly worse than other years. Of course if you believed her, they all were about to die; Harry just didn't think her particular predictions were any more accurate than before.
Thursday evening Harry had his first shift patrolling the halls. Every evening, a fifth-year, a sixth-year and a seventh-year Prefect made the rounds through the castle, early in the evening helping anyone who might have a problem or question, later checking all the students made it to their respective towers in time for curfew.
After some consideration, he decided to take his Marauder's Map. Harry was sure the Headmaster was the one who had returned it to him, just days after the summer had started, although it had come in an unmarked envelop and was delivered by an owl Harry hadn't recognized. Now he was using it for a quite different purpose for which it was created, and Harry felt a little guilty as he spoke the words to activate it.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." It was a lie, and Harry didn't like lying, even to a thing. But while the Map seemed to have a mind of its own –even now he didn't hate Professor Snape anymore, he still grinned as he remembered how the Map had written insults at him, that had been too funny- it didn't work any different on his Prefects rounds than it did when he'd been sneaking around.
He kept the Map out of sight, of course, but used it first to break up a group of second-years Slytherins and Gryffindors who'd been arguing in the hallway near the Transfiguration classroom, then intercept a sixth-year Hufflepuff on his way to the kitchens. No one argued when he sent them to their respective dormitories. This was going to be a snap.