Important Note: I have made some changes to the previous chapter. Please re-read it before continuing the story.
Chapter Five: Boggarts and Werewolves
Harry woke up to find daylight streaming through an open window. Ron was in the bed next to him, still sound asleep, but the other boys were gone from the dormitory. He looked at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, and noted that the clock read 1:00PM. He got dressed, and walked over to Ron's bed.
"Wake Up, Ron. It's one in the afternoon."
"Whassat? Goway," Ron muttered sleepily.
"Ron, it's time to get up. We need to go meet Dumbledore."
"Ok, Ok, I'm coming." Ron rolled over, and fell out of his bed. After they took five-minute showers in the shower room, which was at the bottom of the boys tower, they went down into the common room.
"Where's Hermione?" Asked Ron.
"I don't know. She's probably getting ready by now." replied Harry.
They began to play a game of exploding snap, waiting for Hermione to arrive. At one thirty, she walked down the stairs.
"I can't believe I slept that late," Hermione said. She looked well rested, considering that she had gone to bed as the other students were waking up.
"I was amazed when I saw the clock." Harry agreed.
They began to walk to Dumbledore's office, and arrived there fairly fast. The stairways seemed to be in a good mood today, because the first one they got to took them straight to Dumbledore's office.
"Skiving Snackboxes," Harry said to the gargoyle. They stepped onto the moving staircase, and knocked on the door. Dumbledore called them inside, and they sat down.
"I'm glad to see that you are well rested." Dumbledore began. "I have been thinking about your schedule, and decided that you should continue spending time with Tonks in the evening. Because of the time spell the Room of Requirement provides, you will have no problem finishing your homework, as well as preparing for your NEWTS."
"What about our normal classes?" Hermione asked.
"For now, you will remain in some of those classes. Since you were not at breakfast, you haven't seen your schedules yet." Dumbledore said, handing them each their schedule.
Their schedule was fairly typical, but there were a few major changes. In the morning, was physical training, in the Room of Requirement, with Remus. In the afternoon, Ron and Hermione had apparition and portkey lessons with Dumbledore. At night, they all had NEWT preparation with Tonks in the Room of Requirement.
Dumbledore surveyed them as they read over their schedules. "When Professor Lupin is occupied, Harry, you will skip all of your classes except for your special training."
"What about the level of the classes?" Ron asked. "Won't a lot of the stuff be too easy for us?"
"Yes, after your summer training, a lot of it will, but you should at least pretend to have some trouble."
"I guess that's because V-Voldemort will have spies at Hogwarts, trying to see how much we know." Hermione said.
"Exactly," said Dumbledore. "The prefect meeting will be at three thirty, after most classes have let out. Harry, you should meet me here to go over your responsibilities as a part-time professor. Anyways, you three have missed breakfast and lunch, so I bet you're starved. I trust you can find your way to the kitchens." Said Dumbledore, with a smile on his face.
Hermione, Harry, and Ron all looked at each other. Dumbledore laughed, and they walked down the stairs towards the kitchen. Before long, they arrived in the room under the Great Hall. After tickling the pear, they stepped into the kitchen.
A waist high blur shot across the room, and collided with Harry, nearly knocking him over.
"Mr. Harry Potter, Sir. I is being so honored that you has come to visit Dobby. What can I do for you? Are you hungry after last night?"
"Dobby," Harry said, "please call me Harry, and yes, if you wouldn't mind, we would like some lunch. Why don't you eat with us?"
"I would be honored. Harry Potter is being such a great wizard." Dobby snapped his fingers, and a table appeared. He scurried to get it set. Since the food was already cooked, in ten minutes, they were enjoying lunch.
"How's freedom?" Hermione asked.
"Freedom is great miss, but many house elves don't want to be free. To many, it is a dishonor."
"Why?"
"House elves exist to serve a master. When most elves have no master to serve, they will go mad."
"Go mad?"
"Yes. The shock of being freed is enough to kill most elves."
"So maybe S.P.E.W. isn't such a good idea."
"Exactly. It is making many of the elves nervous. If an elf wants freedom, Master Dumbledore will give it to them. Many like serving their master. Dumbledore is being a kind master, and many is more than willing to serve him."
They talked about school, and what was happening, until they looked at the clock. It was almost three thirty, and after thanking Dobby and the other elves, they hurried out of the kitchen.
Ron and Hermione ran towards the prefect lounge, and Harry teleported to the staircase just past the gargoyles. He knocked on the door, and entered the circular office.
"Lemon Drop?" asked Dumbledore.
"No thank you," said Harry.
"Down to business, then. The next full moon is coming up on Tuesday. You will be teaching on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning." Dumbledore handed Harry a notebook. "Here is the syllabus for the entire year. It will update itself, and to get the suggested lesson plan, just tap the box for that particular date once with your wand."
"Thank you. Is it required that I follow the lesson plan?" Harry asked.
"Not at all. Feel free to teach any which way you want to, as long as the students learn something."
"Thank you. I don't think that I will make any changes to the first lesson, but that might be good to know for future lessons."
"That's all I have. Any questions?"
"No Sir."
"See you at dinner."
Harry walked back to his dorm. Consulting the notebook Dumbledore had just given him, he saw Remus didn't have any more classes today, and he decided to walk to the Defense classroom to talk to Remus.
After getting lost many times, he finally found the defense classroom. It was just as he had remembered it. A large desk stood at the front of the room, next to the blackboard. Tanks with various magical creatures lined the walls, and various dark detection instruments were on the shelves behind the desk.
"Good afternoon, Harry. I heard about the incident last night. Can't say that I'm surprised. I bet most of the Slytherns will join the dark side."
"Especially Malfoy and company."
"Anyways, I want to show you a few things before I transform. The full moon is tomorrow night, so I only got a few classes in. You will have some of the first classes of the year, so you won't be doing a whole lot."
"I guess I could do Boggarts for the third years," said Harry, motioning to four suitcases, which were on the shelf at the back of the room.
"That makes for an exciting first lesson," Lupin agreed. "By the way, you might want to use the blackboard. There isn't any chalk. To write something, just think about what you want to write, and it will appear. Give it a shot." He motioned to the blackboard
Harry tapped it with his wand. Text started to appear on the board.
Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.
Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.
Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a Professor.
Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.
Remus started laughing. "That was one of our better ideas. You were lucky I bailed you out then," he laughed. "I wonder if he ever did find out about the map."
"I don't think so. You were very convincing."
They talked for almost two hours, and then it was time for the feast. They walked down to the Great Hall, ignoring the stares that they got on the way. Remus proceeded to the staff table, but Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table with Ron and Hermione.
"How was the meeting?" Harry asked.
"Interesting," said Hermione.
"Boring," said Ron at exactly the same time.
They all laughed. Food appeared on the table, and they began to eat.
"When is your first lesson?" asked Hermione.
"Tomorrow, actually. I have all the third and fourth years."
"Will you do boggarts, like Re—Professor Lupin did for us?"
"Yes, I think so."
After dinner, they headed up to the Room of Requirement, to meet Tonks for their nightly lesson. Since the others were busy, she would be tutoring them in all subjects, every night. While it was only three hours (8:00 to 10:00) outside, inside the room, it was seven and a half days inside. The time spell prevented the people affected by it from getting any more tired than they would normally be, but it was still a bit disorienting.
They spent that session focusing mainly on Hermione's animagus transformation. Her form was a brown owl. Since she had been studying the theory over the summer, and all the important potions were brewed, by the end of the time in the room, she had completed one transformation. After several days in the room, they walked back to the Gryffindor tower. Harry was tired, and he needed to rest before he taught tomorrow.
The next morning, Harry woke up, took a quick shower, and got dressed. Then he headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. A few minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined him, and they talked about their first lesson with Professor Lupin.
"—and that was so cool when he shot the gum up Peeve's nose," said Ron.
"Remember Neville's boggart? I wonder if Snape still does?" continued Hermione.
"I don't see how he could forget," Harry replied. "I'm going to head up to the classroom, so I'll be there when the others arrive, but I'll see you at lunch."
Harry stood up, and walked out of the Great Hall, ignoring the stares he was receiving from the other students. Once out of the Hall, he began to walk to the classroom. On the way, he came across a painting he had never seen before. There was a phoenix, which had an aura of power surrounding it. It was unlike any phoenix that Harry had seen before. The caption under it read "Protector of the Light." Harry took one more look at it, and then continued to his classroom.
After getting his parchment in order, Harry sat down and waited. A few minutes after the bell rang, students began to file in, many looking nervous.
"Hi, I'm Harry Potter, but I guess most of you probably know that. Please don't call me professor, or anything like that, because I actually am still a student here. Unlike a certain professor we all know," he stared at a bottle of a blue potion, "I do not favor any one house. Now that that's out of the way, we I can take roll."
Harry went through the roll, clearly marking if each student was present, then he tapped it with his wand, as he had seen many teachers do in the past, and watched it disappear. The class had been completely silent, and Harry seemed to grab their attention.
"Does anyone know what a boggart is?" asked Harry.
One of the Ravenclaws raised her hand. "A boggart is a shape-shifter. It will take the form of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."
"Precisely," Harry replied. "Five points to Ravenclaw "Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces. I believe that this one was discovered in the broom closet on the second floor, by some seventh years who were trying to get away from the crowds."
The class laughed.
"I think they are still in the hospital wing from shock when they discovered the boggart. That is why you need to learn how to defend yourself against a boggart."
"It's always good to work in pairs," said Harry, "because the boggart will get confused. It won't know what to transform into. Any questions so far?"
A third year Hufflepuff raised his hand. "What is your boggart?"
"I honestly don't know. It used to be a dementor, but I haven't faced one for a while. Any more questions?"
No one else raised their hand, so Harry continued. "The charm that is used to repel a boggart is fairly simple. The main ingredient to the charm is force of mind. What really finishes off a boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing."
Harry tapped the board with his wand, and the word Riddikulus appeared. "The charm to force the boggart to change shape is Riddikulus. Go ahead, try it without your wands."
"Riddikulus," the class echoed.
"Good. Now everyone needs to think about what their worst fear is, and what they can do to it to make it amusing. Who wants to go first?"
A Hufflepuff boy raised his hand.
"Patrick, come up here to the front of the room." Harry said.
The boy got up and walked to the front of the room. Harry summoned a large chest from across the room, which was shaking slightly.
"Are you ready?" asked Harry.
The boy gulped. "I hope so."
"Three, Two, One." With a wave of his wand, the trunk flew open.
Out of the trunk emerged a vampire, with blood dripping from its fangs.
"Riddikulus," the boy said.
There was a crack like a whip, and the vampire turned into a bat without wings, which promptly fell to the floor. The Hufflepuff let out a burst of laughter, and the boggart faded slightly. Harry called all of the students up one by one, and they all managed to face the boggart, but the class did need to use three boggarts to get through everyone. Since the last one was still alive, Harry walked up to it to force it back into its container.
Harry was thinking about how a boggart knew what a person's worst fear was. He decided to try to use his occulmency shields to fool the boggart. The boggart morphed into Professor McGonagall, who was telling him that he was expelled from school. She never finished her sentence. With a wave of his wand, the boggart was forced back into the trunk it came out of.
A few members of the class laughed at his boggart. Harry did actually think it was rather funny, but he could have made it even funnier, but having a Boggart-Voldemort dancing the hula in the classroom was not a good idea.
"We only have three minutes left, so I guess I'll give you your homework for next class. Just read the chapter on boggarts, and summarize it on one foot of parchment."
The class packed up, and filed out of the room. With a quick cleaning charm, all the spilled ink and scraps of parchment were gone, and Harry sat back for the Gryffindor and Slytherin third years. That lesson got off to a rough start, and Harry actually ended up taking points from both houses.
"Stupid Mudblood," a Slytherin said to one of the Gryffindor girls as they walked in the door. "I bet you haven't even seen a red cap before."
The Gryffindor was too quick for the Slytherin to react. In a flash of red light, he was knocked over, and fell to the ground. Harry instantly intervened, and put both of them in a full body bind, and revived the Slytherin.
To the Slytherin, he said, "I will not tolerate that language in this classroom, and neither will Professor Lupin." He turned to the Gryffindor. "What you did was wrong. You should have come to me, and let me take care of the situation. Thirty points from Gryffindor for attacking another student. Thirty points from Slytherin for harassing another student. You will both serve detention here tonight at seven thirty pm sharp. By the way, we aren't studying red caps, we will be studying boggarts."
With that incident resolved, the rest of the lesson went smoothly, and Harry felt that he had made his point. In the end, both houses earned thirty points by answering questions, and it all balanced out. After that class had left, it was time for lunch. Harry walked down to the Great Hall, and met Hermione and Ron at the Gryffindor table.
"How were your classes?" Hermione asked.
"They were great! Everyone got their boggart on the first try."
"That's awesome," said Ron. "What kind of boggarts did you see?
"A vampire, Voldemort, a werewolf, Snape again, a phoenix—"
"A phoenix?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, I know. That's not a good sign. Whose was it? A Slytherin?"
"Malcolm Baddock, and yes, he is a Slytherin."
The fourth year classes proceeded smoothly, and after dinner, Harry, Hermione, and Ron proceeded to the Room of Requirement.
"You're not going to be here tonight," said Tonks. "Since you are animagi now, you will meet Professor Lupin at the Shrieking Shack. He will be tame, but he could use some company. Dumbledore says to stay in your forms at all times, and be in by eleven o'clock. Remus will be fine."
"This will be awesome," said Harry.
They transformed, Harry into a wolf, Hermione into an owl, and Ron into a giant German shepherd. They ran through the halls and out the door. By the time they got there, Remus was already transformed. They played tag for a while, then, they played catch with small pebbles. At eleven o'clock, Harry, Hermione, and Ron transformed, and walked back up to the castle.
"That was fun," said Hermione. "He was perfectly tame."
"It was," agreed Ron. "We need to do that more often."
"Definitely," Harry agreed.
The moon rose above the lake, and Remus looked up at the Gryffindor tower, and saw the last light go out for the night.
A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out. I lost it once, and had to completely retype it. This chapter may seem a bit random, compared to the title of the story. More about that will be explained in future chapters. Anyways, thank you for reading so far. Please Review!
Review Responses:
Milky Neon: Thank you for reviewing, as always. I think I have found the balance between fanfiction and school, and it seems to work out to be about 3,000 words a week, or so. Maybe I'll be able to write more over the holidays...
Athenakitty (Chapter 1): Thank you for reviewing! Yes, the prologue is actually a flashback to the time when Hogwarts was being created. That would be an early member of the Trelawney line, and if you are up on Greek mythology, I'm sure you know exactly which character our crazy divination professor is descended from...
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