The Lecture'

The excitement in Hogwarts was almost electrifying. The feelings were the same for everyone in the whole school, except perhaps some of the teachers who had met Harry Potter before and knew what he was like, even trained him to do what he did. There was a feeling in everyone's stomachs of nervousness and yet they had no reason to be nervous. Perhaps only because it was the first school on Harry's list of places to lecture or perhaps it was because it was the first time since the death of Voldemort that Harry was going to speak in public.

Louisa, Renne and Micca all ran down to the Great Hall and scoffed down their breakfasts, hoping that they would be able to sit right near the front of the hall, the nearest possible seats to Harry but they were disgruntled to find that they would still have to go to their first hour of class, with was Potions, instead of Double Potions.

The three of them slowly moved their way to the dungeons and heard Professor Malfoy cursing to himself about something or other, though every one that was cueing outside the classroom could guess that it was something to do with Harry Potter.

Come in, Professor Malfoy growled as he open the classroom door and let in the row of students. Today you will carry on with you Draft of Peace, though some of you should clearly not bother by the states that your potions were left in last lesson, never the less I shall enjoy giving you all fails. Begin.

The lesson predictably went very slowly, Renne managed to perfect her potion and when she presented it to Malfoy he simply tapped on the glass phial that it was in and the whole class watched it bubble away to nothing.

Malfoy said with a vicious smile. Renne looked around and rolled her eyes to Louisa and Micca and then sighed and walked back to the table.

All my hard work! She whispered. Grouchy so and so.

And so with that the bell went and everyone stood up quickly and ran out of the classroom, Malfoy's shouts of slow down, you'll do someone an injury,' were not heard.

There was a huge crowd of people already waiting for the Great Hall doors to open and yet somehow, Louisa, Renne and Micca managed to push their way to the front and reached the doors just in time for them to open. They were pushed in to the hall by the surge of people and all of a sudden everyone went quiet. It was as though they had just walked in to the room where the King of England was standing.

The what? Asked Renne after she heard this comment whispered by someone.

I'll explain later, said Micca and everyone slowly and surely made their way to the front of the hall, where the four long tables had been moved to the sides of the hall and instead rows of benches were placed so as they were facing the teachers table.

There he is!! Screeched Louisa as quietly as she could but it soon became apparent to other people as well and their were cries of surprise and comments on how handsome he looked and how well he looked, and not at all like they expected he would look.

Silent, silent please, asked the headmistress of the school, Professor Davis, I know you are all excited by please be calm and be seated. She smiled to the whole school of Hogwarts and then turned to Harry Potter and smiled and nodded, Over to you then.

At that point Harry Potter stood up and gave a gentle wave to the year. His eyes were a bright green colour and his pitch black, James Potter hair, was still as messy as ever, though there were slight signs that he had tried to tidy it and been unsuccessful. He was a fairly tall man and yet not extremely well built, as though all the years he spent at the Dursley's and being underfed, were finally showing in his later life. He wore a black cloak that was trimmed with maroon and gold material, which everyone in Gryffindor immediately noticed as there house colour, along with his glasses frames.

Then nervously Harry looked around everyone in the hall and then looked behind his to a young Witch whom he was sitting next to. Everyone in the hall followed his gaze and realised that the young Witch was indeed Hermione Granger. She smiled and nodded to Harry and then winked and gave a thumbs up. Harry then turned to look at the rest of the hall again with a smile on his face.

Well, it has certainly been a long time since I was here last and I can remember my dread of perhaps never coming back here, year after year, wondering it I would be around, people in the audience gasped, But there is of course no need to fear that any more he paused for a minute, And I suppose that is why I am here to today, through a mixture of fear and determination, and lets face it, it's taken a lot of both to get me up here to give you this talk today, and by no means- Harry paused as the doors to the Great Hall were swung open. He looked to the miserable looking person that was walking down the hall and heading toward the teachers table and then watched the person take a seat. When everyone in the audience saw Malfoy come in they all groaned to themselves and sunk back in their chairs; he was by far the worst teacher they had. But Harry eyes widened as he saw the blond haired blue eyes man take his seat at the teachers table. Obviously he had not been informed that his old school enemy was going to be at the school on the day he gave a lecture.

Don't mind me, Malfoy said snidely, with a grin on his face. Harry shook his head,

No, no, not at all, how are you Draco? There was a significant hint on sarcasm in his voice as he spoke but Harry noticed that no one noticed except Malfoy. Malfoy's face twisted in to a half smile but he didn't answer.

Harry began, As I was saying, the only reason I am here is because of fear and determination. It's a self driven motivation beyond belief. He then stopped again and had the strangest feeling that no body was listening to a word that he was saying. He did have a long speech planned out but then he remembered that when he was at school he didn't want to listen to one person drone on about something for two hours and so he sighed, smiled, crumpled up his bit of paper that was in his hand and then began to talk freely.

Well, perhaps you aren't listening but instead staring in admiration at the man that killed Yet again he managed to bring himself to talking about Voldemort. Well, I must ask you to stop because this is your chance to find out stuff that your teachers won't tell you, He took a deep breath, I'll answer whatever you want to ask me, there was a murmur of excitement, And then I would love to come around and meet some of you face to face, find out what you get up to in this place. Hands were already shooting up in to the air. Harry smiled and felt more comfortable.

he said pointing to a third year Ravenclaw near the back. What's your name?Miranda Bella, um, Hi, I'm sure we've all read your autobiography many times but how did you actually feel when in your first year you came face to face with Voldemort?Ah, well, how would you feel, I would have felt exactly the same, I knew that if I didn't stop him from getting the Philosophers Stone then he would have come to power and so I did what I could functioning on the feeling of determination, I knew I had to do something. Miranda nodded and smiled and blushed. Okay, you, Harry pointed to a Hufflepuff in the front row, sitting next to Louisa, who's hand was also up.

The questions about how Harry felt about fighting evil with so little experience went on for about an hour, but then a Slytherin put their hand up and Harry pointed to him,

Yes, and you are?Robin Paylin, I just wanted to ask what it was like for you to see your old school friend, or not, Professor Malfoy. Harry's smile that had been on his face all through the question and answer period faded slightly and Malfoy's face seemed to give an involuntary twitch as though he was desperate to shout something at Harry, or indeed the boy who had asked the question.

Harry glanced around and looked at Malfoy who quickly looked away.

began Harry, everyone was quiet in the hall, and not even the teachers made a sound, Of course I understand that you all know that we never greatly got along with each other, though matters of difference in what we believe and the way we behave but I am of course glad that he is alive and well, after all with what happened during thesecond wave and ultimately the worst wave, we were lucky to keep as many Wizards and Witches alive as we could. I didn't expect that he would be working as a teacher, though it was obvious that he looked up to his Potions teacher and I have no doubt in guessing that he is your Potions teacher? People were shocked and everyone nodded and said yes to Harry. Harry smiled and nodded gently to himself and Professor Dumbledore always used to do when he stood at the front of the hall. Malfoy snorted to himself.

Any more questions? No one had any more, so Harry nodded, Well then I suppose you may talk amongst yourselves and I will come around and meet you, if that is okay? He turned to look at Professor Davis, for confirmation, who nodded. And don't worry if I don't speak to you today, I will be here for the rest of the week. He smiled and then stood down from the raised platform on which the teachers table stood. Hermione caught his eye and then he stood up straight.

Ah Hermione, come with me, I'm sure they'd love to meet you too. There was a cheer from the audience, especially noticeable from all the young males. Hermione blushed and then nodded and stood down from the platform as well and they instantly started to mingle with the pupils who were so greatly full of admiration that some were in fact crying.

To Be Continued

If You Want