Changes Made
Chapter Nineteen
As the last remnants of dessert faded from everyone's plates, Professor Dumbledore rose from his golden chair at the centre of the teacher's table. The students all fell silent as Dumbledore raised a hand and smiled.
"I hope you have all been fed and watered to your satisfaction. I would like to remind all students now that the Dark Forest is still completely off-limits. Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to remind you that magic is not permitted in the halls. For a full catalogue of items and behaviours not permitted in the school corridors, please see the list provided on his office door." Dumbledore paused and looked around the room. "Now, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you our new Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts." He clapped his hands once and the doors at the rear of the Great Hall swung slowly open.
The person that began walking slowly up the aisle appeared stranger than even Mad-Eye moody, or rather, Barty Crouch Jr., had been. He? She? Whoever it was had the oddest face any of them had ever seen.
"I can't help feeling I've seen this person before," Hermione muttered to Ginny. When the figure reached the front of the room, it spun around and faced them, throwing back the hood of its cloak. The students took a collective breath and waited apprehensively. Then there was a sort of gasp as the figure began to change. The huge twisted nose melted away and the hump in the new professor's back disappeared. The students could tell it was a 'her' now. Her eyes changed colour, as the people nearest her could tell, and last of all, her hair began to grow shorter and shorter, changing colour from muddy grey to bright pink.
"I knew I'd seen her before!" Hermione crowed triumphantly under her breath.
"This," said Professor Dumbledore, "Is Professor Nymphadora Tonks."
The Great Hall burst into applause, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny cheering loudest. Professor Tonks smiled and took a bow. At the teacher's table, Snape's scowl was deeper than ever.
In the morning Hermione met Harry and Ron for breakfast outside the Great Hall. The huge room smelled wonderfully of sausages and hot rolls, and Ron's stomach growled audibly, making him blush. Professor McGonagall handed out schedules as they ate, and Hermione received hers with interest.
"We've got Defence Against the Dark Arts first!" she cheered. Harry and Ron quickly opened their schedules to look, too.
"We've got Potions second," Ron said, sounding disappointed.
"Nah, mate," Harry said, with a wink at Hermione. "We've got some stuff to tell you about that. He might not be as bad this year, what with giving Hermione private lessons and all..."
Ron looked as though someone had just force-fed him one of Hagrid's rock cakes.
"He's what?"
"We're just working together in the afternoons to make up some Veritaserum. Nothing major," Hermione answered blithely, sipping her juice. "Honestly, Ron. You get so worked up."
Harry grinned.
"That and we've been reading his thoughts several times a day."
By now Ron looked as though the Hogwarts Express had just run him over. "You're joking."
"No. We're pretty good at Occlumency by now, and Snape was ever so co-operative when we wanted to know about his childhood."
"He had a childhood?" Ron looked rather incredulous. "I never imagined him as a boy before. Tell me, did he pick that overlarge nose of his?"
"Ron!" Hermione looked rather angry. "That's enough. You can't talk about him like that anymore. I won't hear of it."
Ron backed down, looking at her strangely. "All right, all right, calm down." He looked at Harry questioningly. Harry grinned.
"Don't worry about it," he told his friend. "I think she fancies him a bit." Ron looked disgusted. Hermione scowled.
"I don't," she told them firmly. "I'm just trying to be nicer to him. I think we all should. Especially since he's helping me make an illegal potion." She looked pointedly at Ron.
"Oh yeah," said the redhead thoughtfully. "It is illegal, isn't it? Why is he helping you make something illegal? Shouldn't he be docking Gryffindor points for you even thinking about breaking the law?"
"He really doesn't seem to care," Hermione said going back to her roll. "I think you should forget about it and eat your breakfast. May I read your paper? I haven't renewed my subscription yet. Thanks." She unfolded Ron's copy of The Daily Prophet and began to read, ignoring Ron and Harry who began to discuss what had happened in the past week.
"Has she been acting this weird all the time?" Ron wanted to know.
"Yeah," Harry answered under his breath. "Still bugged me about my homework, though, so it can't be too serious."
The Gryffindor sixth years sat excitedly in their first Defence Against the Dark Arts class of the year, buzzing with excitement. They didn't have long to wait. Seconds after the bell rang Professor Tonks entered the room, smiling cheerfully at them all.
"Good morning," she said. "I'm Tonks. Don't bother with the 'Professor' stuff... it makes me feel old." In front of Hermione, Seamus Finnegan raised his hand.
"Yes..."
"Finnegan, ma'am. Seamus Finnegan"
"Seamus, then," she waited expectantly.
"How did you that stuff last night? Do we get to learn that this year?" He looked very disappointed when she answered in the negative.
"No, that's something I was born with. But I will be teaching you the most effective means of camouflage and things like that, though. You've heard of glamours, I expect?"
There was a general murmur of assent.
"Oh, good. Ever used them?" Most of the students turned to look at Hermione, who went pink and nodded.
"Excellent. We'll be practising with those, and with some of the more complicated spells, but I want you to learn the simpler ones, too. Sometimes the best answers are the simple ones." From beneath her desk, Tonks pulled a stack of paper, alternating black and white. She passed it up and down the rows. To each student with black paper Tonks handed a stick of artist's charcoal, and to each student with white paper, she offered a white crayon. "Now," she said with another cheery smile. "Draw a picture. No magic! And you will receive a grade for participation." The class looked round at one another as their pink-haired professor went back to her desk and sat down, pulling out a book. Several of them pressed their charcoal and crayons tentatively to the paper, but each had no effect.
"What do we do now?" Ron whispered to Harry in an undertone. Harry shrugged and tried his charcoal again. Hermione looked down at her crayon, then up at Tonks, who continued to read. A sudden idea caught her and she turned to Neville Longbottom on her left. The same thought seemed to have stricken him, because he was already holding out his charcoal to her. She offered him her crayon in return, and each began to draw. The rest of the class quickly followed suit, and soon the room was filled with the sounds of satisfied students scribbling busily away at their papers. Tonks stood up fifteen minutes before the end of class, just as everyone was putting the finishing touches on their pictures.
"I wondered how long it would take you all," she said, smiling around at them. "There are two things I want you to gain from this activity." Her expression became more sombre. "Where defence against the dark arts is concerned, teamwork is essential. There are many things one cannot do alone that one may accomplish with the aid and support of others. Also, you must realise that unless you break free of the boxes you have been entrapped in since childhood, you will be at a severe disadvantage all your life. Don't ever take only what is handed to you... look around and utilise all of your resources, even if you think it means breaking rules. Who here was the first to realise the solution and act upon it?"
Hermione shot her hand into the air. "Neville was," she said with a grin. Neville turned pink. Tonks walked over to Neville's desk and looked him straight in the eye.
"Well done, Neville. Well done, indeed."
Neville looked as though he'd burst with pleasure.
Snape sat at his desk, waiting patiently for the bell to ring. He drummed his fingers absently on the dark wood, thinking about nothing in particular. He'd be teaching double potions next, Gryffindors and Slytherins. The Potions Master wasn't looking forward to it. The only person worth watching during his classes was Hermione Granger. A butterfly spread its wings in the pit of his stomach, flapping about unnecessarily, Snape thought. He rose from his seat as the bell rang and flicked his wand at the classroom blackboard. Precise instructions in brewing an Elixir of Shadows appeared on the dark surface. Students began trickling in one or two at a time, taking their seats noisily.
When the bell rang again, Professor Snape turned around sharply to face the expectant students. The hook-nosed man was not surprised to see that Draco Malfoy was up to his usual antics, sneering nastily in Miss Granger's direction. Snape cleared his throat sharply, startling the blonde boy in his seat. Snape began the lesson.
"The Elixir of Shadows is one of the more complex potions you will make this year. Can you, Mr. Malfoy, tell me what it is used for?"
"The Elixir of Shadows," began Malfoy smarmily, "Is used to produce invisibility in humans."
"Miss Granger," said Snape sharply, noticing her stiffen slightly at Malfoy's answer. "Can you correct Mr. Malfoy's answer?"
"The Elixir of Shadows is used to produce only a half-invisibility. One who has taken the Elixir of Shadows appears wraith-like, thus the potion's name. In addition to this, the Elixir is highly dangerous, as unmeasured amounts can produce nearly irreversible effects."
Professor Snape nodded in her direction. Hermione looked taken aback for a moment, then rather pleased. Malfoy looked murderous. Snape continued with his lesson.
"Miss Granger is entirely correct. Any mistake made whilst brewing this potion renders it one-hundred-percent useless. None of you will ingest any of this potion unless you wish to be in the Hospital Wing for several months in a state of agony. The instructions are on the board. Read them carefully and follow them exactly. Anyone found not doing so will immediately have ten points deducted from their house. You have been warned. Now, partners for this activity are..."
Snape read off a long list of names and watched as the students separated into their assigned partnerships. He strode up and down the rows, peering at his students' work surfaces and growling instructions at them every now and then. Neville Longbottom shrank a little as the black-clad professor paused to examine his work, but for once, Snape could find nothing wrong with the clumsy boy's procedure. He said nothing and continued on his 'rounds'. He watched Malfoy flicking beetles eyes at Hermione for a moment, but she seemed to be ignoring the Slytherin git entirely. The only move she made was when one of the eyes fell in amongst her other potion ingredients. She carefully removed it and set it aside. Snape decided to intervene when Malfoy began flicking Demiguise dung pellets at her.
"Mr. Malfoy!" snapped Snape. With his most imperious look, Snape commanded that the blonde boy sweep up the pellets he'd been tossing so casually about the classroom. He also delivered a detention for wanton squandering of expensive and rare potion ingredients. Malfoy looked rather shocked, his cheeks tinted pink in anger and embarrassment, but he said nothing and did as he was told. Snape noticed that while Hermione continued to work as if nothing had happened, Potter and Weasley were looking at each other with something akin to amazement.
"Something bothering you, Potter? Weasley?" Snape asked coldly.
"No, sir," they stammered, and returned their work. Snape felt quite satisfied. He returned to his desk and sat again, watching Hermione from the corner of his eye.
A/N: Again, sorry it took so long! My computer decided that bits of my files must taste good and ate them as I wrote. Anyways, I hope you like this.... not much 'action', I know, but next chapter we visit our hero and heroine once more stuck together over a complicated potion, so more of that delicious tension we like so much. I'm beginning to relaise just how much I use the box metaphor.... muses Oh well.
IMPORTANT The line in the Sorting Hat's song (which is in fact my own original work) that talks about pride in one's house.... I don't mean that one shouldn't be proud of the house that they're in, just that one shouldn't put too much importance on it and set themselves above others because of it. Remember in the first book when everyone is saying that they hope they aren't in Hufflepuff? Hermione says that "...Gryffindor sounds by far the best, but Ravenclaw doesn't sound too bad...." and of course there are the Slytherins who go around all pompous because they get to dress in green and silver. Each house has equal good strengths and equal weaknesses. Remeber also, that not every Slytherin goes bad, just most of them! Other Hogwarts students seem to forget that sometimes. :-(
I'm so Hufflepuff. :0)
I just realised that I put that important note -- in the A/N of Hardest Thing. oops. Story confusion! Ack!
Thanks for all the reviews, guys! It really makes me feel good. (pfft, pfft head swelling.)
As always, thanks to my triple-fab betas, Aindel S. Druida and Kerichi!
Stay safe, everyone!