Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or Californis Dreams. If I did, there would be more episodes. This story is going to be very strange, so I hope you like it. And if you don't know what California Dreams is... look it up.

Summary: Harry and some other students form a band as homework. But this wasn't the way any of them expected things to go. Hope you like it. R and R, please. Thanx

New Beginnings

By: Whyteroze28

Chapter One: New Faces, and Old Acquaintances

"New teacher," Ron Weasley pointed out, unnecessarily, as he and his friends sat down at the Gryffindor table, for the beginning of the year feast.

Hermione Granger's eyes narrowed as she studied the newest addition to the High Table. Then she gasped.

"What's wrong, 'Mione?" Harry Potter asked his friend, concerned.

"Professor Steiner is missing," she replied, looking worried. "He's never been absent from a welcoming feast."

Harry glanced over at her, then up at the High Table. She was right... not that he would have expected less. And the new teacher seemed to be in his seat.

"Steiner?" Ron asked, his mouth full of food, as usual. "'Oo's that?"

Harry laughed. "He's the Muggle Studies teacher. I met him last year, when I joined the advanced class after dropping Divination."

Then Harry saw Hermione inhale sharply. "What now?" he asked.

She shook her head, slightly. "Harry, that's... that's Celestina Warbeak!"

"Err... who?" Ron asked, confused.

Hermione let out an exasperated huff. "Boys," she sighed. "She was very famous a few years ago," she replied. She had her own show on the WWN."

"I remember now," Harry said, slowly. "It was playing the day I first visited the Burrow."

He turned his head to study the woman. She was very pretty, with long black hair to her waist, and a very friendly face. But she seemed kind of young for a Hogwarts teacher.

Then he heard Ron speak up again. "If she's takin' Professor Steiner's class... who's got Dark Arts?"

Harry scanned down the High table, searching for the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. But it was the murmur near the door that caught his attention. As he turned to look, he grinned. Then he gave a quiet, but joyous shout. "Its Moony!"

The announcement made its way through the Great Hall like wildfire. And when Professor Dumbledore stood for his yearly announcements, the room burst into applause at the name of Remus Lupin, who was no longer a werewolf.

Harry smiled to himself, remembering the night it had happened.

Harry and Remus had been sitting at the dining room table in 12 Grimmauld Place, when Professor Snape had burst into the room.

Harry had glared at the greasy haired Potions Master, who had actually looked slightly sorry for coming in unannounced.

But, instead of apologizing, he had gone straight to Remus' side. "Lupin, I'd hoped to find you here," he'd said, excitedly. And for Snape, that was saying something. "I think we have finally found it."

Professor Lupin had looked confused for a second, but then his face had held a look of barely restrained hope. "Are you sure, Severus?" he'd asked, hardly daring to breathe.

In answer, Snape had held out a vial of some electric blue potion, and nodded. "We've tested it extensively for side effects already, but you'll still need to go into confinement tomorrow, because we haven't been able to find out whether it will actually stop the transformation."

"Why haven't you?" Harry had asked, tersely.

"Because, we didn't finish the final testings until two days after the last full moon," Snape had snapped at him. But Harry could have sworn that the man looked apologetic again.

But the potion had worked. Professor Lupin had returned to Grimmauld Place after spending his night in quarantine... unchanged.

Everyone had been pleased. It was the first really good news that they'd had since the war. But it wasn't to be the last.

Professor Snape and his unknown assistant were working on cures for the patients in St. Mungo's, which had been Crucioed into insanity... such as the Longbottoms. When that cure had worked, Harry had been overjoyed for his friend Neville, whose long overdue reunion with his parents had been the brightest moment in the boy's life.

Harry had to hand it to Professor Snape. Whoever this new assistant he'd taken was, it was clear that they were at least as good as Snape himself. The new cures were coming in nonstop.

As Professor Warbeak was introduced, Harry noticed that most of the older girls were cheering. They cheered even harder when she announced that she preferred to be called Miss Warbeak. 'Professor' made her feel old.

He glanced around the room and stared as he saw Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, and Pansy Parkinson sitting at the Slytherin table. He'd heard that a few of the Slytherins had defected to the side of good, but they were the least likely candidates that he could have imagined.

Suddenly, as if sensing his eyes on them, they all three looked up, and he was stunned.

Pansy's face wasn't the pug he remembered. She had apparently had some changes made, because she was actually almost pretty. She smiled, shyly at him, and he smiled back.

Blaise was wearing the grin, which he'd been known for during the early years, but it didn't seem to reach his eyes. But as he stared at Harry, it seemed that he had gotten an idea, and the grin changed into a thoughtful look.

Harry's greatest surprise was Malfoy, however. As he looked at the Slytherin who had made his life hell for the past years at school, he couldn't help noticing the dark circles under his eyes, and the fact that Malfoy looked paler and thinner than he'd ever seen him.

Then the blonde smirked at him, and Harry found himself chuckling. It was almost as though Malfoy could read his mind, and was saying that Harry's concern was wasted on him.

Harry turned back to his friends, who were looking concerned.

"Harry, why are you staring at the Slytherins?" Hermione asked.

Ron glared at the table in question. "Why on earth would they come back to school. Everyone knows that they were helping Voldemort." Ron had gotten over his fear of the name completely when the Dark Lord had been destroyed.

"Everyone?" Harry asked, quietly, and his friends stared at him. "I don't. In fact, I have it on very good authority that they were on our side. At great peril to their own lives, I might add."

As he finished his statement, Harry stood up, and stalked out of the Great Hall. His friends were dumbstruck. Harry... standing up for Slytherin? What was going on?