So, it's been over a week since my last update, and while I'm pretty certain that this chapter is crap, I'm sick of working on it and very few people read it, so here you go. Enjoy, and don't pinch me, those of you who do such things. As always review, and let me know what they should learn in class, because they need to learn stuff.

The Reason

Ch. 7: Telling the School

"Are you sure you want to inform the rest of the school, dear?" Professor McGonagall asked. She, Professor Dumbledore, and Liz were all standing in Dumbledore's office late Wednesday night discussing sharing Liz's identity.

"Yeah, I'm sure. In order for them to trust me, in order for them to trust what I teach them, they need to know who I am. It's not like it's that big of a deal, my father just happens to be the evilest man alive. Oh fuck it is a big deal," Liz grumbled as she dropped lower in her seat.

"Liz, I would suggest watching your language around the students. You wouldn't want to encourage them," Dumbledore advised, meaning don't cuss around him. "They may take some convincing, but I applaud of your spunk. Would you like me to tell them when you're not around?"

"No. If you do that, they'll think me a coward. I need to be in the room," Liz shook her head.

"Alright, then I will tell them in the morning. For now, I suggest that you some rest. It would do you no good to be tired as well as stressed tomorrow," Dumbledore said. "Would you like some lemon drops?"

"Albus, really, why do you offer these outrageous Muggle sweets?" McGonagall asked.

"Actually, I'll take some. Thanks," Liz said, taking a few lemon drops out of the bowl and getting up to leave.

"Dear, you definitely have courage. I can understand why you were placed in Gryffindor," Professor McGonagall said, watching Liz turn and smile, then walk out the door. "Do you believe this is wise?"

"Minerva, I knew that one day the truth would get out. I'm glad she's initiating it and not the rumor mill. It will be to her benefit."

"Albus, you know best, even if I don't always agree with you."

"Goodnight Minerva."

"Goodnight."
Liz couldn't look up from her plate. Once again, if someone was so inclined to drop a pin in the great hall, you could have heard it. Professor Dumbledore stood at the podium overlooking the student body, who all were looking at the young teacher with a mixture of expressions on their faces, from wonder, to bewilderment, to disgust, to confusion among the Muggle born first years, to shock. Liz finally summoned up the courage within her to look up at them. Immediately, her eyes swept towards her new Gryffindor friends. Harry gave her a reassuring smile making her feel slightly better. Slowly, she took a breath and stood up. As she walked over to the podium, Dumbledore moved out of her way, deciding it would be best to let her say what she wanted.

"I know that my father isn't the best man," she started, "but I'm not him. I never will be him, and I will never become anything like him. Despite what some of you may be thinking, I'm not here to spy or infiltrate, I'm here to teach. I could very easily have kept my parentage a secret, but I decided to tell you this now. You've all had at least one class with me up to this point, and so you know that I am capable of teaching you Defense Against the Dark Arts. Let me teach you, and if you decide to hate me, let it be because I'm not your favorite teacher or person, but not who my father is." Liz let the echo of her last words die down before turning and walking out the side door of the Great Hall. They would come to their own conclusions about her in their own time, and by her walking out, it gave them some time to talk. As for her, she had to prepare for today's lesson, and it would do no good to procrastinate any longer.
"Professor Riddle," Ron interrupted, walking into Liz's office about 15 minutes before the first class of the day. "May I speak with you?"

"Sure Mr. Weasley. Have a seat," Liz gestured, looking up from her lesson plan. "Now what's going on?"

"You're... I had this all planned out in my head but now it just sounds stupid. I'll just go..."

"No, just tell me. Please?"

"Alright then, here it goes. I don't trust you. You come in here and you say you aren't your father, but you know all this shit about the dark arts, and then you keep saying you're not him over and over so much that, well, someone once told me that if someone keeps saying they're not something over and over, they probably are. Then, you're getting closer to Harry, your father's enemy, and don't think I wasn't able to tell since the moment you saw each other that you like each other, at least a little. He may trust you, Hermione may trust you, but I don't. I'll be watching you, and don't you dare try to hurt them. Yeah, that definitely sounds stupid. I guess I'll just be going then," with that, Ron stood up and began walking out the door.

"Ron, wait. You're a good guy, something that I'm definitely not used to dealing with, but I'll try. I understand that you're worried. Chances are, if I was in the same position, I would be too, but I need you to trust me. It's the only way that what I'm teaching you will really sink in, look at what you learned from Professor Snape. Had you trusted him more when you were still taking your class, chances are you would have learnt more. And because of the trouble that you seem to get in, you really need to get the most out of this class, and if you trust me, trust what I'm teaching you, trust that I'm only trying to do good for you, then you'll get more out of it and it may just save your life. So, hate me if you will, which I really don't want you too because I need friends and you'd make a great friend, but please, trust that I'm not going to hurt you or your friends."

"Why should I?"

"I haven't tried anything yet. Ok, bad reason, but... Look at it this way, people aren't always like their parents. Look at half the people that follow my father, they were from good honest families, and yet they're horrible people. If it helps any, even though my father isn't the best man on the planet, my mother is. She's one of the world's greatest healers. People come to her for advice and healing and all that. I could have just as easily inherited her disposition as my father's."

"Your mom is Alanna Sweet? I thought she was an Indian."

"She was adopted by a Native American family. How do you know of her?"

"My mom has her books. She uses them all the time when we get sick. Her potions taste horrible."

"I grew up having to take them whenever I so much as sneezed. I know."

"How did your parents ever get attracted to each other? They're so different."

"Yup. There was an accident, they fell in love, opposites attract I guess. Speaking of opposites... I know this is going to sound terribly hypocritical of me, but if you like her, go for it. You'll resent it later if you don't."

"How do you know?"

"What, that your attracted to your best friend? The way you act, the way you protect her, the way you two look at each other. Just try it. She'll return your feelings."

"Thanks. Maybe they do have a reason to like you."

"You ever doubted it?" Liz smiled. "Do you really think he likes me?"

"Yeah." With that, he walked out of her office and over to where his friends were sitting, waiting for class to start.
"Ms. Patil, please put away that orb. As fascinating as the future is, I'm certain it's not showing you what will happen in class today. Only I can show you that," Liz said as she walked out of her office and to the front of the class, following Ron's steps. "If everyone would stop comparing notes and pass your assignments to the front of the class, I would greatly appreciate it. Mr. Longbottom, would you care to share your symbol? From the looks of this paper it has to be interesting," Liz noted, looking down at the top paper in her hand, the one that just happened to be Neville's. It had the crest of an upside down tree with bats falling out of it drawn on it.

"It was Eric Lanther's, the black duke of Whales during the 1300's. He thought it would be different and interesting, as well as remberable."

"Nice job, Mr. Longbottom. It definitely is different. 5 points to Gryffindor. How about yours, Ms. Bulstrode?" Liz asked, flipping to the next one in the pile.

"It's my family crest," the Slytherin girl in the back of the room said, looking up from talking to her friend.

"I asked you to try to be creative, but it does serve purpose. You talking with your friends however doesn't. Please stop your chat," Liz reached into the middle of the pile and pulled out a paper, the mark on which she recognized almost at once. "Ms. Boot, would you care to share what yours is?"

"It's a Native American symbol for health and the maintaining of sanctuary," the girl from Ravenclaw said.

"Right you are. 5 points to Ravenclaw. This seems like a good place to start. As we learned in our last lesson, symbols can be good or bad, sometimes neutral, and have many uses. This symbol," Liz drew it on the board, "is useful in many places. The story behind the origin of it was that there was a young man who was on his spirit quest. He was being chased by a bear and ran into a cave, which may I add is not a good idea when being traced by an angry animal. So, imagine this guy's shock when he found that the bear, as soon as he entered the cave, had become as placid as a, I don't know, worm. After trying to figure out why this occurred, the man came across a carving in the rock, not human, completely accidental in the way the rock was formed, and that carving made everything safe and placid. Nothing could be touched or hurt when under the protection, and they couldn't even have bad thoughts. Certain magical symbols are formed in nature while others have been created through the human mind. Now, Mr. Finch-Fletchley, is there another class at this school that focuses on symbols?"

"I don't know, ma'am," the Hufflepuff boy said.

"Alright, is there anyone who does know?" Immediately Hermione's hand shot up. "Ms. Granger?"

"Ancient Ruins."

"Yes. For as long as humans have been around, they've used symbols, magical or not. Look at the cave drawings, and the hyroglyffics on the pyramids and such. This is a topic that we could spend years on, but we're not. So, does anyone know any other example of natural occurring symbols?"

Almost an hour and 3 pages of notes later, Liz finally wound down. "Ok, that is about all we're going to cover on symbols. Based on that, and the fact that your hands are probably all cramped up by now, I'm going to ask if any of you have any questions, and you're going to raise your hands and ask me them. Then I will answer, and everyone will be happy. So, any questions?"

"Why are you here?" Mandy Brocklehurst, a Ravenclaw, asked.

"I am here to enlighten those little minds of yours on how to attempt to defeat evil. For those of you who don't think that evil is wrong yet, I am here to teach you that as well, because the world would be a much nicer place if everyone wasn't evil."

"How old are you?" someone asked.

"15. I'll be 16 next month though," Liz added, sitting down on her desk.

"Are you qualified to be our teacher?" someone else asked. Liz decided she needed to spend some time with the class roster.

"Yes. I took the equivalent of your NEWTS last year, and aced them. Every government around the world considers me an of-age witch and the people who taught me were some of the most brilliant people in the wizarding world."

"Then why didn't you go to Rockwall?"

"I made a mistake when I found out who my father was and was in a dark place for a while. I got out of it and am now perfectly fine, but because of some of the things I did during that time they decided I was too much of a risk. My mother took it into her own hands and she and some friends of hers trained me to be a witch."

"Have you met Voldemort?" Draco Malfoy sneered.

"No, I haven't," Liz said bluntly. It was true. She had never come across her father's alter-ego, she had only spoken to Tom Riddle, her loving father.

"Are you single?" a boy named Blaise Zambini asked.

Liz couldn't help but laugh. He was exactly the type of boy she had dated for so long: a player who liked to party and always thought of getting in her pants. "Yes, but dating students would be highly unethical," Liz said, knowing exactly where this was going. "This isn't the type of questions I had in mind. Does anyone have any questions about symbols?"

All at once, every hand in the class went down.