Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco
Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James
Potter, Lily Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Neville
Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Hedwig, Fred Weasley, George Weasley,
Voldemort, Ginny Weasley, Lucius Malfoy, Dobby, Winky, Fawkes, Cedric
Diggory, Cho Chang, Ollivander, Hogwarts, Diagon Alley or anyone or
anything that appears in the Harry Potter books written by J. K. Rowling.
However, the rest of the story is mine.
Author's Stupid Note: I like Iris Rose and Jack Towers. Especially Jack. This has nothing to do with anything.
Chapter 6: The new classes
Harry was sitting on a throne in a dark room and some words came out of his mouth.
"So, you tell me that Towers has been around again, right?! The fool, he will die."
A small silhouette in front of him shivered.
"Would you like me to take care of him, master?"
"No, Wormtail, the man is too smart and powerful for you. I will do it myself. He reminds me of somebody I have encountered in my past. No, we have to attack him with something else."
"What, master?"
"I will tell you when the time will come."
The dream melted away and Harry slept until the morning.
The sixth year Gryffindor woke up that morning wondering what he should do about this dream. He'd probably tell Dumbledore as soon as possible. He got up and put his robes on. Ron wasn't in the bedroom.
Harry was less concerned about this dream than the others he had had, but still he knew he should go to Dumbledore. He knew that Voldemort would probably take his time to plan something very well, so it wasn't urgent. And he instinctively knew that Voldemort would need some time to think of something, since he had no clue what to do.
He went down, finding Hermione there with Ron.
"I had a dream last night" said Harry, calmly. Hermione and Ron looked at him panicked.
"What about?"
"Voldemort. He said that he will take care of Towers."
"Oh, Harry, you have to tell Dumbledore, Towers might be in danger!"
"No, not really, Voldemort didn't have any good plan, he's only thinking of one now and it will take time."
Hermione stared at him.
"How do you know?"
"I. I just know." Harry said. Right, how did he know?
"You must take some more Occlumency lessons, mate. This is not good."
"Ron's right" said Hermione. "Go now to Dumbledore and tell him."
"He's probably at breakfast, isn't he?" asked Harry and the two nodded. "Then we'll go together."
They went down to breakfast, almost running on the corridors. Amala was there, chatting with Ginny.
"How dreadful! Did he?" they heard Amala say.
"Yes, he did. I haven't spoken to him all morning."
"I'd have done the same. Oh, hi, guys!" Amala said towards Harry, Hermione and Ron.
"Hi!" they answered in unison and Ron and Hermione sat down next to the two girls and started eating. Amala was listening to Ginny's stories. Ron's younger sister started to like her. Hermione and Ron were looking at Harry with looks that said 'go NOW'. Harry nodded and went to the teachers' table. Amala was talking to Ginny now about happenings in classes, not noticing him. Good, the last thing he needed was the hyperactive girl to bug him with questions.
"Um, Professor?" he said towards the old man.
"Yes, Harry?" he asked, his eyes twinkling.
Harry felt miserable. The whole Great Hall watched him closely, including Snape and Malfoy.
"I. had a dream last night" he said and just then he realized how awful it sounded. Snape raised an eyebrow.
"Yes?" asked Dumbledore and the twinkle in his eyes disappeared. "Come with me."
Snape raised his eyebrow even higher. The Headmaster lead him to the room in the back of the teachers' table where he had been at the beginning of the fourth year, when he became a school champion.
"Tell me about the dream, Harry" Dumbledore said.
"I was Voldemort. and Wormtail had just told me that Towers was around again and Voldemort said he'll have to die. He didn't want to send Wormtail after him. He said that he'll take care of him himself. And he also said that Towers reminded him of somebody he once knew."
Dumbledore looked serious at Harry, who knew that everything sounded awful.
"You wouldn't happen to know what Voldemort has planned for him?"
"I'm afraid not, Professor, but it will take him a long while to put his plan in practice."
"How come you know this?"
"I don't know. I just." Harry started wondering why everybody was asking him this.
Dumbledore looked sad at Harry.
"This is not good, Harry. It means that you and Voldemort had started sharing emotions. I'll think of something. Now, go back to breakfast. It shouldn't be a reason for you to miss the first day of school."
Harry left the old man alone in the room with his thoughts. He didn't want to share anything with Voldemort! Especially emotions and thoughts!
When Harry got back to the table, Ron, Hermione, Amala and Ginny were having a conversation about teachers. Harry sat down and took something to eat too, although he felt he couldn't eat. Instead, he turned his attention to what the others were talking about.
"That's nothing", Amala said. "In my school, the History teacher fell asleep during his own lesson. But only a few students noticed, the others were asleep."
Ginny gave a small chuckle.
"An hour later, the Transfiguration teacher came and woke us all up, yelling something about lazy students and irresponsible teachers and asked who put the sleeping charm on us."
Everybody nearby giggled.
"And when we told him it was no charm, the Charms teacher, who happened to come around to see what happened, had to be carried to the hospital wing and wasn't back until the next day."
"Why?" asked Dean.
"Because he laughed like crazy. But that could have been also because of a Cheering charm 'accidentally' put on him by one of the students."
Everybody nearby was laughing. It seemed that Charms teachers were predisposed to danger almost as much as History teachers were predisposed to being boring to death. Flitwick had been floated around the room by Neville, once. And Binns was the most boring History teacher, dead or alive.
A small chuckle attracted their attention. Professor McGonagall was sitting behind Amala.
"Here are your timetables" she said passing them some. "Poor teacher, your Charms professor. I myself had some trouble with some Slytherins once. They tried to vanish me."
The table erupted into laughter and Professor McGonagall moved towards the teachers' table.
"And teachers at Muggle schools complain!" Said Harry, still trying to get awful thoughts out of his head. "At Muggle schools, you trick the teachers; at Magic schools you jinx them."
Some giggled and everybody started looking on their timetables.
"Oh, no!" said Harry bitterly. Hermione had convinced him to go to every class he could go to and he had quite a lot of classes. More then he had expected, anyway.
"Double Potions, what a way to start the week!" said Ron. "With the Slytherins!"
"As usual", said Hermione. "And double Charms. That's o.k."
"Herbology and Transfiguration." Added Harry.
"It's gonna be great!" Amala said smiling widely. "I'm good at Potions and I like Charms and Transfiguration. I'll manage."
"Yeah, well, try to stay this optimistic after meeting Snape, too." said Ron.
They finished breakfast and went towards the dungeons. Draco Malfoy was there without Crabbe and Goyle. Shortly after they entered the classroom, Snape himself entered, looking even more nasty than usual.
"You're probably wondering why I accepted people who only got 'Exceeded Expectations' at the O.W.L.s Potions. It is because this year the truth was not showed by the grade. I must say that some idiots got 'Outstanding', while some very intelligent people got 'Exceeded Expectations'."
Harry grinned. Draco got an 'E', it was obvious.
"And besides", the Potions Master added, "only four people got 'Outstanding'. Now start making your potions, the ingredients and method are on the blackboard, the ingredients in the store cupboard."
As he said these, waving his wand, writing appeared on the blackboard. Most people in the room gulped. That was a difficult potion and they would probably need two weeks to finish it.
Suddenly, the door to the dungeon opened and Neville came in.
"Sorry I'm late, Professor, I."
"I don't care what happened, Longbottom, you shouldn't be late from your first day!" Snape snapped. "Twenty points from Gryffindor!"
As everybody gaped at the scene, Neville took his cauldron and started preparing his ingredients. Ron and Harry shared a surprised look. Neville, at Potions?
Everybody started working quietly and, out of what Harry could see, Amala was doing as good as Hermione. He was following the instructions as good as possible and at the end of the two classes when the potions were supposed to be dark brown, his was almost as dark brown as Hermione's and Amala's. And that was something, because Snape was breathing down his neck all the time. When they got out, they started talking.
"We'll have to work on them a long time. It's going to be difficult." Said Hermione.
"I wish I never took Potions" mumbled Ron.
"We have to, if we wanted to be Aurors." Said Harry. "Hey, Neville, how come you're here?!"
"I.I got an 'E' at my O.W.L.s. I worked hard. Now I'm thinking of becoming an Auror, like my parents."
Harry smiled slightly and noticed that Amala stood quietly next to Hermione, thing which hadn't happened yet. In fact, she seemed down, not her usual hyperactive self. Not that he would have known her for a long time, but still.
"What's the matter?" asked Ron, who also noticed. "Snape got to you? And you were optimistic at breakfast!" Hermione was looking at Ron, distracted.
"I'm o.k.", Amala answered, looking sad.
Before anybody else could ask her anything, they made it to Charms and took their seats. Professor Flitwick entered the classroom and said joyfully:
"Welcome back, welcome back, class! I see we have a new student amongst us". Amala smiled and blushed. "Nice to have you!". The girl mumbled a 'thanks' and Professor Flitwick continued: "Today we learn about the Illusion Charm. With this charm, you'll make an illusion of an object or a person very life-like. This way, you can confuse people around you." He said, winking. "The incantation is 'Dublo Aspectus'. Everybody repeat, please!"
"Dublo Aspectus" chanted the class.
"Good, good!" the Professor said jollily. "Now, you make this wand movement", he said moving his wand and the class followed. "Good, good! Now, I want you to point your wands at the rocks you have in front of you and combine the move with the words."
The class started trying to make the spell. By the end of the class, only Hermione and, surprisingly, Neville, had managed to make a somewhat good illusion of their rocks, but not even those didn't look life-like, they looked rather ghostly.
"Oh, well", sighed Professor Flitwick, "You'll make it next time. Five points for Gryffindor for Ms. Granger's illusion. It is, indeed, a ridiculously difficult spell. Especially until you get the hang of it."
The class went out, everybody talking about the failures. However, when Ron pointed out the fact that not even Hermione, who was the best of the best, managed to make a perfect illusion of the rock, everybody cheered up and Hermione smiled widely.
They all went towards the Great Hall for lunch and then went out for some air. Amala stuck to them, asking questions about Transfiguration and Defence and everything that came to her mind. When Harry thought he couldn't stand any more, they had to go to Herbology. Thank God!!!
They had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and everybody was starting to gather around. Neville came to them and grinned.
"I got an 'Outstanding' O.W.L. here", he said proudly.
Neville's best subject was Herbology and he had a great passion for plants. He had a plant called mimbulus mimbletonia that Harry remembered too well. It covered him in Stinksap only last year.
The Herbology lesson was acceptable and they survived the man-eating plant easily. After getting out of class, they moved towards the castle again for Transfiguration and managed to shut Amala up.
Professor McGonagall was already inside and immediately after they got in, she gave them a small speech and added at the end:
"As all of you know, everybody here has got at least 'Outstanding' in their Transfiguration O.W.L., so that means you should be good at my subject. That is why this year we move on to human Transfiguration. Please get in groups of two."
Harry got with Ron and Hermione with Amala. After Professor McGonagall gave them the instructions, they started trying to transfigure each other. The poor Professor had her hands full. Accident after accident, they made it to the end of the class. Hermione managed to transfigure Amala's hand into a chimp's, like they were supposed to -also getting twenty points for Gryffindor-, but the rest of the class was nowhere near that level. As the bell rang, Professor McGonagall said with a tired voice:
"It's the same every year. You have done well, good-bye."
They moved out of the classroom, talking, as usual, about how bad they did in class. They heard a sigh and a sound of someone crashing on a chair from the classroom.
"At least something happened." Said Ron.
"Yeah, but I really don't like having hair all over my body.", responded Harry grinning.
"Why do we have to practice this on ourselves, Hermione?" asked Ron curiously.
"Who do you want to practice on, McGonagall?" she answered. "But I think she'll be back to everybody on himself."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry.
"She used to tell students to point their wands at themselves. I guess she tried another thing now."
They moved towards the Gryffindor tower and threw themselves on some armchairs. Overall, the day had been alright. Kind of. If you didn't count the Snape classes and the failures in Charms and Transfiguration and the fact that Amala bugged them all the time. Which meant that 90% of the day had to not be counted.
After a good dinner and a good night sleep, Harry was expecting to feel good on Tuesday morning. But that night, Sirius came in and out of his dreams, sometimes accompanied by his parents. A shadow was always moving around, seeming to look over something. When he woke up, he only remembered the shadow starting to look like a man and giving its hand to Sirius, who grabbed it.
Overall, he was pretty depressed in the morning when he woke up, still blaming himself for Sirius's death.
But after breakfast, things cheered up, as they had Defence Against the Dark Arts.
They entered the classroom and sat down quietly. Unfortunately, this class was with the Slytherins, so Harry didn't feel too well at the beginning. In a very short while, Professor Rose came in, smiling happily.
"Well, I hope you're all prepared for this Defence class. 'Cause we're gonna have some work to do. I'd like to make some revision with you. Check out how you've been doing so far."
Her smile was contagious and half the class started to feel excited for no reason. Something weird surrounded her like nobody else around. He looked at her closely and it struck him: Love. Love was her power and Harry was sure that she could even melt Snape's heart if she wanted to. There was something weird there.
"Who's the best in this class?" she asked looking around, her voice sounding pleasant as water running downstream through a forest.
"Harry Potter" answered a few Gryffindors, while the Slytherins said "Draco Malfoy"
"Well, Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, come here" she said ant the two looked at her surprised and got up and went up to her. "Take out your wands, please." They stared at each other and at her, but followed the instructions. "Since there are two of you, I'm going to take you one by one. Who's first?" Harry and Draco looked at her for a second and then both said, pointing at the other:
"Him!"
"So, it's up to me!" she said grinning. "Well, Slytherins usually have great skills at Dark Arts -I wonder why?- so Mr. Malfoy, come here."
Draco gulped. Was she going to duel him?
"Mr. Malfoy, I'll do something and you have to react as quick as possible. Got it?"
She was going to duel them! Quickly, Professor Rose took out her wand and Draco yelled as fast as he could "Impedimenta!", but to everybody's surprise, the Professor yelled "Protego!". Draco, who didn't expect such a move got hit by his own spell that jumped off the Professor's shield. The Gryffindors laughed and the Slytherins mumbled something that could not be understood.
"Expalliarmus!" she said and Draco's wand flew away. "As you can see, Mr. Malfoy thought that I would be attacking. Well, I might have. You see, it is important to know your opponent. Mr. Malfoy here is a Slytherin and will rather attack than protect himself. A Ravenclaw would probably protect itself, because they'd know it's safer. Thank you Mr. Malfoy" she added and released the boy. "Now, Mr. Potter. I'm going to do something. You should react. But be careful!"
Harry took his wand and waited. Should he use a defensive charm, or a jinx? But before he could decide, Professor Rose opened a box and got out of his way. A Dementor came out of it and Harry stood with his mouth opened just for a moment. Something happy, something happy. "Bow to death, Harry". He yelled: "Expecto patronum!" He looked around and saw Professor Rose surprised."It might even be painless". The Dementor was closing in. "Expecto Patronum!" This time he succeeded, the stag charged at the Dementor making it go back. Wait, something was wrong, Professor Rose was still surprised and the Dementor tripped. "Riddiculus!!!" he said imagining the huge cloaked figure falling and turning to dust.
To his surprise, it worked. Almost. The Dementor disappeared, but in its place appeared a huge spider. Ron's worst nightmare. His stag disappeared.
"Riddiculus!" he heard somebody say and saw Professor Rose going towards the spider. She somehow got it in the box from where she took it before they could see what it was and said to Harry, trying to smile:
"Well, that was good! Unusual, but good. How did you know it wasn't a Dementor?"
"I.I saw you surprised. And it tripped"
Professor Rose gave a huge smile and said:
"And you're not in Ravenclaw? Very good, Harry, very good! Thank you!"
Harry went to his seat. The whole thing hadn't taken more than thirty seconds, but it seemed like forever.
Somewhere behind, he heard Draco saying "His worst fear are Dementors! How pathetic!", but he didn't care.
"Quiet, class!" Professor Rose said. "Now, as you can see, Mr. Potter has no problem with Dementors or Boggarts. By the way, ten points to Gryffindor. As you could see, I chose different ways of dealing with the two 'best in class'. You are good for your level, considering the fact that your first year was lost because the Professor was stuttering and nobody understood a thing, the second because. oh, well. You could have learned a lot about hair-dews and smiles from Mr. Lockhart. He never thought you the only magic thing he knew, the memory charm, did he? No, I guess he didn't. The third year was good, out of what I caught. Professor Lupin showed you a lot of creatures. Too bad because of the werewolf-thingy, though. People judge things by their reputation, even if it's wrong. Mr. Moody was, out of what I understood, not quite himself, but he did teach you about curses. Very useful, indeed. Professor Umbridge. you totally wasted the year. I mean, no, wait! You learned a lot about how to trick Professors and make the school a huge chaos. Not that it would have anything to do with what we're supposed to teach you at Defence. Useful stuff, though. But this year it's going to be different."
Everybody in the class exchanged looks.
"And I do want to stay here for more than a year. And I will, I hope, although nobody seems to last here more than that." She grinned. "This lesson you won't need any wands, it's going to be an introduction lesson." She took a serious face, lifted her head and gave a small cough "Hem, hem. I hope we can all be friends", she said in Umbridge-imitation and students didn't know if they should laugh or not. "But not as friendly as you were to the ex-teacher. I will try to teach you everything I know" she said dropping the Umbridge-imitation. "And I'll start with the beginning. This Defence class is even more important than it used to be, with the recent events. In order to defend yourself from everything that is dark, you need to know something about darkness itself and you should get to know yourselves."
The students looked at each others. This was weird. Learn about darkness itself? And they knew themselves! They didn't have to study to know that!
"Darkness itself is represented by fear, cruelty, the I-don't-give-a-damn- about-the-others idea, love for what hurts the others. But above all in the dangers for the common person is fear. Fear got to an extreme state can get you in pain like the Cruciatus Curse. It can make you lose your head, it can make you give up when you still have a chance, it can make you obey somebody who you fear."
The class was watching her amazed. Fear could do that? She talked like that looking a bit afraid herself.
"I'm talking about giving yourself in to fear. If fear rules you, you will be very hurt sooner or later."
Yes, it seemed logical, but it also seemed somehow not real.
"That is darkness's greatest power. To make people fear and give in to their fear. Some Death Eaters are what they are because of their fear of He- Who-Will-Not-Be-Named."
Harry thought of Pettigrew.
"I will tell you more about this later. But now I will tell you why it is good to know yourself before you go to face darkness."
The class was looking at her curiously and she sighed.
"You can be extremely white, if you understand what I mean. And then you will always know that whatever happens, you'll be o.k. You know you'll manage with anything that will happen and you'll be able to accept the events and try to make things good for yourself. I myself like this way to treat things better than the other ways. An extremely powerful person that chose this way won't even be attacked. The dark senses that it will have help from everywhere in such a case and retreats. If you think it helps, imagine a Patronus-like person. Pure happiness and no fear. And having the same effect on Dementors. But such people are very rare, it is hard to ever see one."
Harry looked at her amazed. A human Patronus? Not even attacked by the dark? That could be of great help. But they were extremely rare. What if he could be one? Then he'd have a huge advantage over Voldemort.
"But not everybody is the same." Continued Professor Rose. "And it is wrong to choose a way that is not yours, just because it sounds good. No, there are different ways. One of them is exactly the opposite: frighten your enemies, convince them that they should serve you, to fear you beyond measure. Such a person is not necessarily on the dark side, but it seems so and may give you the chills if you meet it when it acts like that. But it is not evil."
Harry widened his eyes. So you could be dark, and yet not evil? How?
"I know such a person, myself", she continued. "A great guy, but I wouldn't want to be his enemy. To choose such a way, you need to have great power, or you'll never impress your enemy."
Harry looked at Draco, who was grinning. The blond Slytherin was definitely considering for this choice.
"And then there is the common group. Where you just fight it and you are neither, neither. And that is what almost everybody here is. You will need to know how to not lose your heads in dangerous situations and how to stand tall and accept what is to come, like the extreme white one and survive."
Yep, this was their category.
"This way means you are ready to go forward as most wizards do. And for this path I shall train you."
She continued telling them about people who lost their heads in dangerous situations and were defeated and about people who kept their heads till the end, even if no hope was there and won. She somehow made it sound great and when they left the class, they were all happy. Professor Rose had a way of cheering everyone up that they could really use more often.
Harry wondered if he'd manage to do anything next class, at Charms.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/
Author's note: Oh, I'd like to say that I was trying to be funny when I wrote the disclaimer and the author's note at the beginning. If I didn't succeed, then it turned out just as I expected. (
Thank you's:
To: Naomie: Thank you for reviewing! You're a great fan! And I'm glad you like it. :::looks around::: Do you know what? My favorite part is starting just now, with the first DADA lesson. Hope you enjoy it.
To: the Red Dragons Order: :::grins deviously::: Yes, old friend! Kya, my dog, should be back here with him any second now! Mwahahahahahaha! Ahahaha! Ahahaha!
:::suddenly realizes that she is acting like an idiot and coughs::: Oops, sorry about that, got carried away. Yeah. well. You can't be always sane, can you? Don't answer that!
Really?! Your name is Jane? Well, then, I think that Jane Chase should get a role in this fiction. I'll think of something. I hope you enjoyed your movie!
***The door bell rings and she goes to open the door. A weird man around his forties enters.
"Well, hello, M., need my help? What is it? A spider on the ceiling?"
"Actually, no, but there is a huge one in the bathroom, now that you mention it."
He glares murderously.
"Actually, that's not why I called you." She says, deciding it's not a good idea to joke. "Look at this! Got any ideas?"
The man looks at the screen of the computer.
". What, you haven't kept writing?"
"Yes, I did, but I don't like threats. and that's why I called you."
"You're loosing it! Because, I used to threat you every time we meet, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah, I meant I called you to teach them a lesson."
He raises an eyebrow and then looks again at the screen.
"Oh, well.." he raises an arm with an 'I got an idea" move and straightens his position and, in perfect super-hero imitation, he says: "This is a job for."
She raises an eyebrow.
"Someone else! See ya, I'm going." He says, rushing towards the door, shaking his head.
"Akvar, wait! What would you like in return?" she asks, smiling.
He turns on his heels, smiles and says:
"Now you're speaking my language!"
"Well???"
"Free hand. You're not to criticize my work. Not unless someone gets hurt. Jack's horse, Navasil, should be at my disposal. I think I'll need it; and an unlimited period of time to do this; no bugging from you; and you should tell me what you heard about the Lord of Light."
"Well, the last one's simple. He's Harry Potter. Yes, one of the Red Dragons. And the last are approved."
"Wait, I also want a house in Jamaica, a Mercedes, a holiday in Majorca."
"Don't push it, demon."
"M., M., I was just kidding. Bye!"
He goes out, she waits for him to Apparate and then she rushes to the window.
"Kya!!! I meant Mayhowl, the wolf, Kya, our old friend, not Akvar the demon!!!"
The dog looks surprised.
"Jesus! I ended up with a goddamned powerful demon! I wanted a few pranks played on the Red Dragons! Oh, boy."
She goes to the computer and sits down.
"Damn! Next time I'll tell that dog the name of the old friend."***
Author's Stupid Note: I like Iris Rose and Jack Towers. Especially Jack. This has nothing to do with anything.
Chapter 6: The new classes
Harry was sitting on a throne in a dark room and some words came out of his mouth.
"So, you tell me that Towers has been around again, right?! The fool, he will die."
A small silhouette in front of him shivered.
"Would you like me to take care of him, master?"
"No, Wormtail, the man is too smart and powerful for you. I will do it myself. He reminds me of somebody I have encountered in my past. No, we have to attack him with something else."
"What, master?"
"I will tell you when the time will come."
The dream melted away and Harry slept until the morning.
The sixth year Gryffindor woke up that morning wondering what he should do about this dream. He'd probably tell Dumbledore as soon as possible. He got up and put his robes on. Ron wasn't in the bedroom.
Harry was less concerned about this dream than the others he had had, but still he knew he should go to Dumbledore. He knew that Voldemort would probably take his time to plan something very well, so it wasn't urgent. And he instinctively knew that Voldemort would need some time to think of something, since he had no clue what to do.
He went down, finding Hermione there with Ron.
"I had a dream last night" said Harry, calmly. Hermione and Ron looked at him panicked.
"What about?"
"Voldemort. He said that he will take care of Towers."
"Oh, Harry, you have to tell Dumbledore, Towers might be in danger!"
"No, not really, Voldemort didn't have any good plan, he's only thinking of one now and it will take time."
Hermione stared at him.
"How do you know?"
"I. I just know." Harry said. Right, how did he know?
"You must take some more Occlumency lessons, mate. This is not good."
"Ron's right" said Hermione. "Go now to Dumbledore and tell him."
"He's probably at breakfast, isn't he?" asked Harry and the two nodded. "Then we'll go together."
They went down to breakfast, almost running on the corridors. Amala was there, chatting with Ginny.
"How dreadful! Did he?" they heard Amala say.
"Yes, he did. I haven't spoken to him all morning."
"I'd have done the same. Oh, hi, guys!" Amala said towards Harry, Hermione and Ron.
"Hi!" they answered in unison and Ron and Hermione sat down next to the two girls and started eating. Amala was listening to Ginny's stories. Ron's younger sister started to like her. Hermione and Ron were looking at Harry with looks that said 'go NOW'. Harry nodded and went to the teachers' table. Amala was talking to Ginny now about happenings in classes, not noticing him. Good, the last thing he needed was the hyperactive girl to bug him with questions.
"Um, Professor?" he said towards the old man.
"Yes, Harry?" he asked, his eyes twinkling.
Harry felt miserable. The whole Great Hall watched him closely, including Snape and Malfoy.
"I. had a dream last night" he said and just then he realized how awful it sounded. Snape raised an eyebrow.
"Yes?" asked Dumbledore and the twinkle in his eyes disappeared. "Come with me."
Snape raised his eyebrow even higher. The Headmaster lead him to the room in the back of the teachers' table where he had been at the beginning of the fourth year, when he became a school champion.
"Tell me about the dream, Harry" Dumbledore said.
"I was Voldemort. and Wormtail had just told me that Towers was around again and Voldemort said he'll have to die. He didn't want to send Wormtail after him. He said that he'll take care of him himself. And he also said that Towers reminded him of somebody he once knew."
Dumbledore looked serious at Harry, who knew that everything sounded awful.
"You wouldn't happen to know what Voldemort has planned for him?"
"I'm afraid not, Professor, but it will take him a long while to put his plan in practice."
"How come you know this?"
"I don't know. I just." Harry started wondering why everybody was asking him this.
Dumbledore looked sad at Harry.
"This is not good, Harry. It means that you and Voldemort had started sharing emotions. I'll think of something. Now, go back to breakfast. It shouldn't be a reason for you to miss the first day of school."
Harry left the old man alone in the room with his thoughts. He didn't want to share anything with Voldemort! Especially emotions and thoughts!
When Harry got back to the table, Ron, Hermione, Amala and Ginny were having a conversation about teachers. Harry sat down and took something to eat too, although he felt he couldn't eat. Instead, he turned his attention to what the others were talking about.
"That's nothing", Amala said. "In my school, the History teacher fell asleep during his own lesson. But only a few students noticed, the others were asleep."
Ginny gave a small chuckle.
"An hour later, the Transfiguration teacher came and woke us all up, yelling something about lazy students and irresponsible teachers and asked who put the sleeping charm on us."
Everybody nearby giggled.
"And when we told him it was no charm, the Charms teacher, who happened to come around to see what happened, had to be carried to the hospital wing and wasn't back until the next day."
"Why?" asked Dean.
"Because he laughed like crazy. But that could have been also because of a Cheering charm 'accidentally' put on him by one of the students."
Everybody nearby was laughing. It seemed that Charms teachers were predisposed to danger almost as much as History teachers were predisposed to being boring to death. Flitwick had been floated around the room by Neville, once. And Binns was the most boring History teacher, dead or alive.
A small chuckle attracted their attention. Professor McGonagall was sitting behind Amala.
"Here are your timetables" she said passing them some. "Poor teacher, your Charms professor. I myself had some trouble with some Slytherins once. They tried to vanish me."
The table erupted into laughter and Professor McGonagall moved towards the teachers' table.
"And teachers at Muggle schools complain!" Said Harry, still trying to get awful thoughts out of his head. "At Muggle schools, you trick the teachers; at Magic schools you jinx them."
Some giggled and everybody started looking on their timetables.
"Oh, no!" said Harry bitterly. Hermione had convinced him to go to every class he could go to and he had quite a lot of classes. More then he had expected, anyway.
"Double Potions, what a way to start the week!" said Ron. "With the Slytherins!"
"As usual", said Hermione. "And double Charms. That's o.k."
"Herbology and Transfiguration." Added Harry.
"It's gonna be great!" Amala said smiling widely. "I'm good at Potions and I like Charms and Transfiguration. I'll manage."
"Yeah, well, try to stay this optimistic after meeting Snape, too." said Ron.
They finished breakfast and went towards the dungeons. Draco Malfoy was there without Crabbe and Goyle. Shortly after they entered the classroom, Snape himself entered, looking even more nasty than usual.
"You're probably wondering why I accepted people who only got 'Exceeded Expectations' at the O.W.L.s Potions. It is because this year the truth was not showed by the grade. I must say that some idiots got 'Outstanding', while some very intelligent people got 'Exceeded Expectations'."
Harry grinned. Draco got an 'E', it was obvious.
"And besides", the Potions Master added, "only four people got 'Outstanding'. Now start making your potions, the ingredients and method are on the blackboard, the ingredients in the store cupboard."
As he said these, waving his wand, writing appeared on the blackboard. Most people in the room gulped. That was a difficult potion and they would probably need two weeks to finish it.
Suddenly, the door to the dungeon opened and Neville came in.
"Sorry I'm late, Professor, I."
"I don't care what happened, Longbottom, you shouldn't be late from your first day!" Snape snapped. "Twenty points from Gryffindor!"
As everybody gaped at the scene, Neville took his cauldron and started preparing his ingredients. Ron and Harry shared a surprised look. Neville, at Potions?
Everybody started working quietly and, out of what Harry could see, Amala was doing as good as Hermione. He was following the instructions as good as possible and at the end of the two classes when the potions were supposed to be dark brown, his was almost as dark brown as Hermione's and Amala's. And that was something, because Snape was breathing down his neck all the time. When they got out, they started talking.
"We'll have to work on them a long time. It's going to be difficult." Said Hermione.
"I wish I never took Potions" mumbled Ron.
"We have to, if we wanted to be Aurors." Said Harry. "Hey, Neville, how come you're here?!"
"I.I got an 'E' at my O.W.L.s. I worked hard. Now I'm thinking of becoming an Auror, like my parents."
Harry smiled slightly and noticed that Amala stood quietly next to Hermione, thing which hadn't happened yet. In fact, she seemed down, not her usual hyperactive self. Not that he would have known her for a long time, but still.
"What's the matter?" asked Ron, who also noticed. "Snape got to you? And you were optimistic at breakfast!" Hermione was looking at Ron, distracted.
"I'm o.k.", Amala answered, looking sad.
Before anybody else could ask her anything, they made it to Charms and took their seats. Professor Flitwick entered the classroom and said joyfully:
"Welcome back, welcome back, class! I see we have a new student amongst us". Amala smiled and blushed. "Nice to have you!". The girl mumbled a 'thanks' and Professor Flitwick continued: "Today we learn about the Illusion Charm. With this charm, you'll make an illusion of an object or a person very life-like. This way, you can confuse people around you." He said, winking. "The incantation is 'Dublo Aspectus'. Everybody repeat, please!"
"Dublo Aspectus" chanted the class.
"Good, good!" the Professor said jollily. "Now, you make this wand movement", he said moving his wand and the class followed. "Good, good! Now, I want you to point your wands at the rocks you have in front of you and combine the move with the words."
The class started trying to make the spell. By the end of the class, only Hermione and, surprisingly, Neville, had managed to make a somewhat good illusion of their rocks, but not even those didn't look life-like, they looked rather ghostly.
"Oh, well", sighed Professor Flitwick, "You'll make it next time. Five points for Gryffindor for Ms. Granger's illusion. It is, indeed, a ridiculously difficult spell. Especially until you get the hang of it."
The class went out, everybody talking about the failures. However, when Ron pointed out the fact that not even Hermione, who was the best of the best, managed to make a perfect illusion of the rock, everybody cheered up and Hermione smiled widely.
They all went towards the Great Hall for lunch and then went out for some air. Amala stuck to them, asking questions about Transfiguration and Defence and everything that came to her mind. When Harry thought he couldn't stand any more, they had to go to Herbology. Thank God!!!
They had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and everybody was starting to gather around. Neville came to them and grinned.
"I got an 'Outstanding' O.W.L. here", he said proudly.
Neville's best subject was Herbology and he had a great passion for plants. He had a plant called mimbulus mimbletonia that Harry remembered too well. It covered him in Stinksap only last year.
The Herbology lesson was acceptable and they survived the man-eating plant easily. After getting out of class, they moved towards the castle again for Transfiguration and managed to shut Amala up.
Professor McGonagall was already inside and immediately after they got in, she gave them a small speech and added at the end:
"As all of you know, everybody here has got at least 'Outstanding' in their Transfiguration O.W.L., so that means you should be good at my subject. That is why this year we move on to human Transfiguration. Please get in groups of two."
Harry got with Ron and Hermione with Amala. After Professor McGonagall gave them the instructions, they started trying to transfigure each other. The poor Professor had her hands full. Accident after accident, they made it to the end of the class. Hermione managed to transfigure Amala's hand into a chimp's, like they were supposed to -also getting twenty points for Gryffindor-, but the rest of the class was nowhere near that level. As the bell rang, Professor McGonagall said with a tired voice:
"It's the same every year. You have done well, good-bye."
They moved out of the classroom, talking, as usual, about how bad they did in class. They heard a sigh and a sound of someone crashing on a chair from the classroom.
"At least something happened." Said Ron.
"Yeah, but I really don't like having hair all over my body.", responded Harry grinning.
"Why do we have to practice this on ourselves, Hermione?" asked Ron curiously.
"Who do you want to practice on, McGonagall?" she answered. "But I think she'll be back to everybody on himself."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry.
"She used to tell students to point their wands at themselves. I guess she tried another thing now."
They moved towards the Gryffindor tower and threw themselves on some armchairs. Overall, the day had been alright. Kind of. If you didn't count the Snape classes and the failures in Charms and Transfiguration and the fact that Amala bugged them all the time. Which meant that 90% of the day had to not be counted.
After a good dinner and a good night sleep, Harry was expecting to feel good on Tuesday morning. But that night, Sirius came in and out of his dreams, sometimes accompanied by his parents. A shadow was always moving around, seeming to look over something. When he woke up, he only remembered the shadow starting to look like a man and giving its hand to Sirius, who grabbed it.
Overall, he was pretty depressed in the morning when he woke up, still blaming himself for Sirius's death.
But after breakfast, things cheered up, as they had Defence Against the Dark Arts.
They entered the classroom and sat down quietly. Unfortunately, this class was with the Slytherins, so Harry didn't feel too well at the beginning. In a very short while, Professor Rose came in, smiling happily.
"Well, I hope you're all prepared for this Defence class. 'Cause we're gonna have some work to do. I'd like to make some revision with you. Check out how you've been doing so far."
Her smile was contagious and half the class started to feel excited for no reason. Something weird surrounded her like nobody else around. He looked at her closely and it struck him: Love. Love was her power and Harry was sure that she could even melt Snape's heart if she wanted to. There was something weird there.
"Who's the best in this class?" she asked looking around, her voice sounding pleasant as water running downstream through a forest.
"Harry Potter" answered a few Gryffindors, while the Slytherins said "Draco Malfoy"
"Well, Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, come here" she said ant the two looked at her surprised and got up and went up to her. "Take out your wands, please." They stared at each other and at her, but followed the instructions. "Since there are two of you, I'm going to take you one by one. Who's first?" Harry and Draco looked at her for a second and then both said, pointing at the other:
"Him!"
"So, it's up to me!" she said grinning. "Well, Slytherins usually have great skills at Dark Arts -I wonder why?- so Mr. Malfoy, come here."
Draco gulped. Was she going to duel him?
"Mr. Malfoy, I'll do something and you have to react as quick as possible. Got it?"
She was going to duel them! Quickly, Professor Rose took out her wand and Draco yelled as fast as he could "Impedimenta!", but to everybody's surprise, the Professor yelled "Protego!". Draco, who didn't expect such a move got hit by his own spell that jumped off the Professor's shield. The Gryffindors laughed and the Slytherins mumbled something that could not be understood.
"Expalliarmus!" she said and Draco's wand flew away. "As you can see, Mr. Malfoy thought that I would be attacking. Well, I might have. You see, it is important to know your opponent. Mr. Malfoy here is a Slytherin and will rather attack than protect himself. A Ravenclaw would probably protect itself, because they'd know it's safer. Thank you Mr. Malfoy" she added and released the boy. "Now, Mr. Potter. I'm going to do something. You should react. But be careful!"
Harry took his wand and waited. Should he use a defensive charm, or a jinx? But before he could decide, Professor Rose opened a box and got out of his way. A Dementor came out of it and Harry stood with his mouth opened just for a moment. Something happy, something happy. "Bow to death, Harry". He yelled: "Expecto patronum!" He looked around and saw Professor Rose surprised."It might even be painless". The Dementor was closing in. "Expecto Patronum!" This time he succeeded, the stag charged at the Dementor making it go back. Wait, something was wrong, Professor Rose was still surprised and the Dementor tripped. "Riddiculus!!!" he said imagining the huge cloaked figure falling and turning to dust.
To his surprise, it worked. Almost. The Dementor disappeared, but in its place appeared a huge spider. Ron's worst nightmare. His stag disappeared.
"Riddiculus!" he heard somebody say and saw Professor Rose going towards the spider. She somehow got it in the box from where she took it before they could see what it was and said to Harry, trying to smile:
"Well, that was good! Unusual, but good. How did you know it wasn't a Dementor?"
"I.I saw you surprised. And it tripped"
Professor Rose gave a huge smile and said:
"And you're not in Ravenclaw? Very good, Harry, very good! Thank you!"
Harry went to his seat. The whole thing hadn't taken more than thirty seconds, but it seemed like forever.
Somewhere behind, he heard Draco saying "His worst fear are Dementors! How pathetic!", but he didn't care.
"Quiet, class!" Professor Rose said. "Now, as you can see, Mr. Potter has no problem with Dementors or Boggarts. By the way, ten points to Gryffindor. As you could see, I chose different ways of dealing with the two 'best in class'. You are good for your level, considering the fact that your first year was lost because the Professor was stuttering and nobody understood a thing, the second because. oh, well. You could have learned a lot about hair-dews and smiles from Mr. Lockhart. He never thought you the only magic thing he knew, the memory charm, did he? No, I guess he didn't. The third year was good, out of what I caught. Professor Lupin showed you a lot of creatures. Too bad because of the werewolf-thingy, though. People judge things by their reputation, even if it's wrong. Mr. Moody was, out of what I understood, not quite himself, but he did teach you about curses. Very useful, indeed. Professor Umbridge. you totally wasted the year. I mean, no, wait! You learned a lot about how to trick Professors and make the school a huge chaos. Not that it would have anything to do with what we're supposed to teach you at Defence. Useful stuff, though. But this year it's going to be different."
Everybody in the class exchanged looks.
"And I do want to stay here for more than a year. And I will, I hope, although nobody seems to last here more than that." She grinned. "This lesson you won't need any wands, it's going to be an introduction lesson." She took a serious face, lifted her head and gave a small cough "Hem, hem. I hope we can all be friends", she said in Umbridge-imitation and students didn't know if they should laugh or not. "But not as friendly as you were to the ex-teacher. I will try to teach you everything I know" she said dropping the Umbridge-imitation. "And I'll start with the beginning. This Defence class is even more important than it used to be, with the recent events. In order to defend yourself from everything that is dark, you need to know something about darkness itself and you should get to know yourselves."
The students looked at each others. This was weird. Learn about darkness itself? And they knew themselves! They didn't have to study to know that!
"Darkness itself is represented by fear, cruelty, the I-don't-give-a-damn- about-the-others idea, love for what hurts the others. But above all in the dangers for the common person is fear. Fear got to an extreme state can get you in pain like the Cruciatus Curse. It can make you lose your head, it can make you give up when you still have a chance, it can make you obey somebody who you fear."
The class was watching her amazed. Fear could do that? She talked like that looking a bit afraid herself.
"I'm talking about giving yourself in to fear. If fear rules you, you will be very hurt sooner or later."
Yes, it seemed logical, but it also seemed somehow not real.
"That is darkness's greatest power. To make people fear and give in to their fear. Some Death Eaters are what they are because of their fear of He- Who-Will-Not-Be-Named."
Harry thought of Pettigrew.
"I will tell you more about this later. But now I will tell you why it is good to know yourself before you go to face darkness."
The class was looking at her curiously and she sighed.
"You can be extremely white, if you understand what I mean. And then you will always know that whatever happens, you'll be o.k. You know you'll manage with anything that will happen and you'll be able to accept the events and try to make things good for yourself. I myself like this way to treat things better than the other ways. An extremely powerful person that chose this way won't even be attacked. The dark senses that it will have help from everywhere in such a case and retreats. If you think it helps, imagine a Patronus-like person. Pure happiness and no fear. And having the same effect on Dementors. But such people are very rare, it is hard to ever see one."
Harry looked at her amazed. A human Patronus? Not even attacked by the dark? That could be of great help. But they were extremely rare. What if he could be one? Then he'd have a huge advantage over Voldemort.
"But not everybody is the same." Continued Professor Rose. "And it is wrong to choose a way that is not yours, just because it sounds good. No, there are different ways. One of them is exactly the opposite: frighten your enemies, convince them that they should serve you, to fear you beyond measure. Such a person is not necessarily on the dark side, but it seems so and may give you the chills if you meet it when it acts like that. But it is not evil."
Harry widened his eyes. So you could be dark, and yet not evil? How?
"I know such a person, myself", she continued. "A great guy, but I wouldn't want to be his enemy. To choose such a way, you need to have great power, or you'll never impress your enemy."
Harry looked at Draco, who was grinning. The blond Slytherin was definitely considering for this choice.
"And then there is the common group. Where you just fight it and you are neither, neither. And that is what almost everybody here is. You will need to know how to not lose your heads in dangerous situations and how to stand tall and accept what is to come, like the extreme white one and survive."
Yep, this was their category.
"This way means you are ready to go forward as most wizards do. And for this path I shall train you."
She continued telling them about people who lost their heads in dangerous situations and were defeated and about people who kept their heads till the end, even if no hope was there and won. She somehow made it sound great and when they left the class, they were all happy. Professor Rose had a way of cheering everyone up that they could really use more often.
Harry wondered if he'd manage to do anything next class, at Charms.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/
Author's note: Oh, I'd like to say that I was trying to be funny when I wrote the disclaimer and the author's note at the beginning. If I didn't succeed, then it turned out just as I expected. (
Thank you's:
To: Naomie: Thank you for reviewing! You're a great fan! And I'm glad you like it. :::looks around::: Do you know what? My favorite part is starting just now, with the first DADA lesson. Hope you enjoy it.
To: the Red Dragons Order: :::grins deviously::: Yes, old friend! Kya, my dog, should be back here with him any second now! Mwahahahahahaha! Ahahaha! Ahahaha!
:::suddenly realizes that she is acting like an idiot and coughs::: Oops, sorry about that, got carried away. Yeah. well. You can't be always sane, can you? Don't answer that!
Really?! Your name is Jane? Well, then, I think that Jane Chase should get a role in this fiction. I'll think of something. I hope you enjoyed your movie!
***The door bell rings and she goes to open the door. A weird man around his forties enters.
"Well, hello, M., need my help? What is it? A spider on the ceiling?"
"Actually, no, but there is a huge one in the bathroom, now that you mention it."
He glares murderously.
"Actually, that's not why I called you." She says, deciding it's not a good idea to joke. "Look at this! Got any ideas?"
The man looks at the screen of the computer.
". What, you haven't kept writing?"
"Yes, I did, but I don't like threats. and that's why I called you."
"You're loosing it! Because, I used to threat you every time we meet, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah, I meant I called you to teach them a lesson."
He raises an eyebrow and then looks again at the screen.
"Oh, well.." he raises an arm with an 'I got an idea" move and straightens his position and, in perfect super-hero imitation, he says: "This is a job for."
She raises an eyebrow.
"Someone else! See ya, I'm going." He says, rushing towards the door, shaking his head.
"Akvar, wait! What would you like in return?" she asks, smiling.
He turns on his heels, smiles and says:
"Now you're speaking my language!"
"Well???"
"Free hand. You're not to criticize my work. Not unless someone gets hurt. Jack's horse, Navasil, should be at my disposal. I think I'll need it; and an unlimited period of time to do this; no bugging from you; and you should tell me what you heard about the Lord of Light."
"Well, the last one's simple. He's Harry Potter. Yes, one of the Red Dragons. And the last are approved."
"Wait, I also want a house in Jamaica, a Mercedes, a holiday in Majorca."
"Don't push it, demon."
"M., M., I was just kidding. Bye!"
He goes out, she waits for him to Apparate and then she rushes to the window.
"Kya!!! I meant Mayhowl, the wolf, Kya, our old friend, not Akvar the demon!!!"
The dog looks surprised.
"Jesus! I ended up with a goddamned powerful demon! I wanted a few pranks played on the Red Dragons! Oh, boy."
She goes to the computer and sits down.
"Damn! Next time I'll tell that dog the name of the old friend."***