Harry screamed as he sprung up on the couch. Many faces looked at him in shocked fright. Everyone was watching him. He couldn't take it, everyone was watching him. He jumped off the couch and went to his dormitory.

"Great way to start the morning," he muttered to himself. Ron and the other boys were still sleeping. He jumped into a quick shower, which quickly calmed his nerves. When he came back out, Ron was just waking up. He stared at Harry with a worried expression on his face.

"What?" Harry said annoyed at the fact that Ron was staring at him.

"Nothing," Ron said rather quickly, covering his worry with anger. "I heard you screaming downstairs. What happened?"

"Why do you care? Go run to your precious Sam," he said coldly.

With that, Ron got up from his bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. The door slammed behind him. Harry quickly got dressed and made his way down to the Great Hall. As he took a seat at the Gryffindor table, he heard whispers, especially from the Slytherin table.

"Yeah, he woke up screaming," one person muttered.

"He said something about being serious," another person said.

"No, Sirius Black, you idiot," the next person said.

"Hey Scar Head! Did you have an evil nightmare?" Malfoy yelled across the hall.

"No, I think he was dreaming about his good- for- nothing godfather," Sam said coldly.

Harry's hand shook in anger. "Don't get provoked," he muttered to himself.

"Better yet, he was dreaming of his boyfriend Cedric," Malfoy sneered. There was an uproar from both the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor table. Cho could be seen crying as she glared at both Harry and Draco. Harry whispered something and with a BANG, a white ferret replaced Malfoy.

Harry smirked. "Lookee, lookee it looks like it's the return of the bouncing ferret," he said. There was a roar of laughter throughout the entire Great Hall. Malfoy bounced along.

Sam raised her wand. "Leave him alone," she said.

"Why should I?" Harry asked. "If anything you should be up there with him."

"Then why aren't I?" she asked as a challenge.

"Because I'm the Gryffindor Golden Boy. I only attack Death Eaters and Malfoy. It's like in the rule book," he said sarcastically. He was actually asking himself the same question. At that moment, the first teacher walked into the Hall. Unfortunately for Harry, it was Professor McGonagall.

"Mr. Potter! Is that a student?" she bellowed as she walked in.

"It matters," he told her.

"What does?" she snapped.

"If a student has to be human," he commented with a grin.

"Never in my life, my own house," she gasped angrily. "The last time this happened with a student, he was in detention for the rest of the year. I thought you had more sense than your father?"

"I guess it runs in the family," Sam said as she narrowed her eyes.

Harry turned to Sam. "In your family, being a bas -," he stared.

"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall shouted. "Detention, for a month and TWENTY FIVE POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR. Now turn Mr. Malfoy back."

"But he looks so much better this way," Harry commented thoughtfully.

"NOW!" she shouted. With a flick of his wand, Malfoy was to himself. However, he looked disheveled.

At that moment, the rest of the teachers entered the Hall. They took in the scene before them. Malfoy, was disheveled on the floor, McGonagall shacking in anger, Sam cursing under her breath, and Harry smirking over at Malfoy.

"Minerva, what happened?" Dumbledore asked calmy.

"Potter here, decided to turn Mr. Malfoy into a ferret," she said at a loss for words. Clearly she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Harry?" he asked as he turned his eyes toward him. Harry tore his eyes away from Malfoy. He grinned at Dumbledore.

"I would've failed my own test. Unfortunately for me, I have a horrible temper," she said simply.

"You were provoked?" Dumbledore asked him wearily.

"Let's just say, he shouldn't be the only one on the floor," he said as his eyes flashed towards Sam. "Cedric and Sirius were mention."

A grim look appeared on the headmaster's face. "Nonetheless, I trust that you have disciplined him Minerva," he said.

"Detention for a month and twenty five points off," she said still whitefaced.

Snape suddenly spoke up. "That's it?" he said outraged. "James Potter got a year."

"James Potter made a long term plans for it, as you remember Severus. Mr. Potter lost control she answered curtly. Snape glared at her. The hall settled down and Harry settled himself beside Parvati.

"So... Parvati. Did you like the return of the ferret? I quite enjoyed it myself," he said as he flashed a grin at her.

She giggled. "Oh, it was alright," she answered smiling brightly.

From across the hall, Malfoy and Sam watched the two in disgust. Harry leaned in closer. "So are you doing anything Saturday night?" he asked as he leaned in closer to her.

"No," she said blushing.

"Would you like to join me at Hogsmeade then?" he asked as he shot her another grin.

"There is no Hogsmeade weekend on Saturday," she said with a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Exactly," he said as he got up and walked out of the hall with a satisfied grin across his face. He winked at Sam before he left.

"What a bloody bastard," she said angrily. "He's an annoying git."

"You don't even know the half of it," Malfoy replied. "He's been the bloody thorn in my side since our first train ride. Of course then I hated him for being the Golden Boy. Now I hate him more because he's a prat."

"How do you hate him more?" she asked obviously amused.

"Hmm... tough question. He is just so bloody annoying. Then he ignored me, now he turns me into a ferret. It's a lose- lose situation," he said tonelessly. He suddenly grinned. "Now, if he joins the Dark Lord..."

Sam suddenly paused. "Are you a Death Eater?" she asked as she subconsciously inched away from him.

"Not yet. I haven't decided what side I would benefit more from," he remarked s he popped in a piece of bacon into his mouth.

"Of course, Slytherin mentality," she said grinning.

"Of course. We better get to Defense, we don't want to be late," he remarked as he grabbed his bag. They made their way out of the hall and Sam caught up with Ron and Hermione, grabbing Malfoy's arm as she did so.

"C'mon Draco," she told him. "Hermione! Ron! Wait up?" Sam yelled. They paused as they two caught up with them. Ron's eyes narrowed at Malfoy.

"You guys know Draco, right," she said absentmindedly.

"Unfortunately enough, yeah," Ron said as he openly glared at Malfoy.

"Now, now boys, let's keep the testosterone level at a minimum," she said reproachfully. They continued along in silence. When they entered the classroom, Hermione spotted Harry at the teacher's desk. She quickly walked over towards him.

"The teacher won't appreciate you sitting in his seat," Hermione pointed out.

"He won't mind," he commented dully.

"And why is that, Potter?" Malfoy sneered at him.

"Be polite to the teacher," Harry reprimanded coldly as he rose from his seat.

"Wha... What?" Ron stuttered.

"You're looking at your new Defense teacher," Harry said obviously annoyed. "Old Dumbledore played the guilt trip. 'Will you let these kids go into war unprepared?" Give me a break."

Malfoy opened his mouth, gaping in a way that reminded Harry of a trout.

"You're the new Defense teacher?" Ron asked, his eyes widening.

"Unfortunately yes. Yet again I curse Dumbledore's name," Harry grumbled. "Well, at least I'm only teaching Fourth years and up."

"Why you though?" Sam asked, forgetting to be mean. Harry sent her a questioning look. It goes without saying that in return she glared.

"He saw what happened on the train and he reminded me that he's an old fool and can't teach," Harry said in a tone that suggested he agreed.

"My uncle said that?" Sam asked in doubt.

"More or less," he said with a grin. "I might have added in the word fool."

"Hermione, you haven't said anything. What's your opinion?" Ron asked. He noticed her smile ecstatically.

"This is great," she squealed and Malfoy looked at her in slight fear. "We'll actually learn something this year and we'll be ready to fight. At first I was afraid that they couldn't find a teacher but-"

Sam cut her off. "No, Dumbledore interviewed many people, but none of them had the talents and qualifications that he was looking for. And what makes you automatically think that he'll be a good teacher?" Sam asked with a sneer in Harry's direction.

"Dumbledore's Army," Ron answered. She looked at him in confusion. "The D. A was a group-"

"An illegal group," Malfoy put in.

"Well if it involves Harry it must be," Sam said. "What did this group do?"

"We set it up because Umbridge was an awful teacher," Hermione continued instead of Ron. "Harry taught us the patronus, hexes, jinx, anything that could help us in a duel."

"It gave us an automatic O in Defense," Ron said. "Harry's a great teacher."

"I thought that you didn't like me anymore?" Harry asked in amusement.

"I hate the way your acting but your still my best friend," Ron grumbled.

"Well if it helps, I'm sorry for acting like a jerk. Unfortunately as Malfoy witnessed, it's hard to keep my temper in check," Harry said brightly. "I lasted longer than my wand hand was suggesting."

Ron grinned. "Yeah well, he's an ass," Ron agreed. "At least you didn't jinx Sam."

"Umm... I'm standing right here," Malfoy commented.

"Hey, it's not my fault that his godfather was a good for nothing..." she started. Harry successfully kept from jinxing her, but Hermione couldn't.

"Petrificus Totalus," she shot the full body bind at Sam. Malfoy went to pull his wand out. "I'm not going to hurt her," she told him.

Malfoy then lowered his wand. Sam eyed her angrily. "Listen Sam, I'm only going to say this once," Hermione said. "I know that you hate Harry, but never insult Sirius again. He was a great man, one of the best that I've ever met. He was a great godfather to Harry and a great friend to us. Ron, Harry, and I all loved Sirius and I won't let you degrade his name."

She turned to Malfoy. "And you. Do you have to insult one of the only non evil people in your family?"

"Probably, he's probably siding with the woman in his family that killed him," Harry said resentfully. "Dear insane Auntie Bellatrix."

"For your information Potter, I never met anyone on the Black side of my family," Malfoy sneered.

At that moment, Hermione set Sam free. Sometime during that time, the class had filtered in. As Sam, Malfoy, Ron, and Hermione sat down, the rest of the class did too.

"Welcome to N.E.W.Ts Defense Against the Dark Arts," Harry said to the class. They all stared at him in amazement.

"Very funny Harry," Dean Thomas said. "C'mon Harry, where is our real teacher."

"You're looking at him," he said gloomily. "Today we are going to start with the basics, just to freshen up a bit since most of us are a bit rusty," he said that looking at Sam and Malfoy.

"What do you mean?" Seamus asked. "Why can't we start with something big?" he asked anxiously.

"Because, I said so Seamus," Harry said to him annoyed. "Okay, want everyone to move all of the desks over to the side of the room. Once that's done, I want everyone to stand in the middle of the classroom," Harry said in a voice that meant that he wasn't fooling around.

Everyone did what was asked of them. As soon as they finished moving the desks, they all went to the center of the classroom.

"Okay," Harry said. "We are going to start first with the disarming charm. I want everyone to find a partner and then wait for my instructions."

"Draco," Goyle called. "C'mon and work with me."

"Hey Sam," Malfoy said ignoring Goyle's invitation completely. "Want to work me?"

"Oh," she said. "Actually I'm going to work with Ron. He asked me first. I'm really sorry," she said apologetically.

Ron had walked over from talking with Hermione who was already paired up with Seamus.

"Sorry Draco, Sam and I are already partner," he said sneering at Malfoy.

Malfoy got so mad that he went over to Goyle to be his partner. When he got there, Goyle was already partnered with Crabbe. They only choice left was for Malfoy was Millicent Belstrang. When everyone finally paired together, they all went quiet and waited for Harry's instructions.

"I want everyone to turn around like this," he demonstrated. "And move five paces away from your partner. Then, I want you all to raise your wands in a position like this," he said as he raised his wand over his head, at level with his eyebrows. "Once you have done this, you are going to say the spell EXPELLIARMUSand as fast as you can before you yourself are disarmed. Is everyone ready?" he asked the class.

"Yeah," they all said and started to work.

Throughout the whole room, there were shouts Expelliarmus. Harry walked around the classroom to see how things were going. As usual, Hermione was doing an excellent job disarming Seamus. Crabbe and Goyle however, kept making each other fly into other people. Hermione of course, was disarming Seamus excellently. Harry heard someone call his name.

"Harry, Harry," Neville called happily. He walked over to Neville. Neville looked happier than Harry had ever seen him. "I disarmed Dean!"

"That's great Neville," he said unenthusiastically. Harry walked over to Ron and Sam. "How's thing's goin' on over here?" he asked Ron.

"Well, she disarmed me once, but I disarmed her three times," Ron said with a look of triumph on his face.

Harry was about to say something to her, but thought better of it. "Maybe next time," he told her. As he walked away, he noticed the look on Sam's face. She was struggling with the disarming charm.