Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. So there will be no suing!

Thank you to my wonderful reviewers I love you all –

JessicaDracoMalfoy,

Sehila – always happy to help people put off schoolwork lol. Thanks!

Bhekie,

Harry kid

A/N – Thanks to all of my reviewers you guys are the best I'm sorry I can't respond to all of them, but I really just haven't got the time right now. I really would love to but I need to be thinking up plot ideas for this story and another one or two that are in the making. So basically if you put something I feel the need to respond to then I will if not I'll put up you're name to show I'm so very thankful to you! Hope no ones mad!

A/N 2 – Short yes. Rubbish yes. Took a long time to update yes. So please don't tell me any of that. I've had some stuff I've needed to deal with and I haven't been in the mood to write, I'm still not really but I thought I should do this just to make sure you guys don't get to bored. Also I wrote this in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep.

A/N 3 – Thanks to Tracey my beta reader. Without her this story would be incredibly rubbish and make no sense at all.

Chapter 9 – The Bad News

The next Monday morning Hermione was back on her feet and ready to teach. She had the vase of flowers Anna had given her to say sorry on her desk and a whole pile of graded papers that she had been able to get done while she had been off. Her first lesson was with the first years so thankfully she wouldn't have to do anything too hard. She had just set the class off on task before Harry burst into the classroom.

"Herms bad news. Very, very bad news!" He wailed as he sat at the end of the desk. All the students held their wands still and started listening intently.

"Harry I have a class here."

"Oh." He said turning to face them. "Sorry guys. But seriously Herms this is like gut wrenchingly awful and it's happening here at Hogwarts!" By this time he had every single member of the class' attention.

"Go on then Harry, I'll never get them to work if they don't find out now so I suppose you can tell us all." Hermione said lying through her teeth, as it was plain obvious that she wanted to know just as bad as everybody else in the room.

"Ok. Hogwarts is getting another High Inquisitor!" Harry announced melodramatically. The students' faces fell with disappointment. They didn't know what a High Inquisitor was but it didn't sound at all scary or like anything that would offer a little excitement.

"What! Why?" Hermione exclaimed, forgetting she was supposed to be acting like she didn't care.

"Well, I guess it's because nearly all of the teachers have changed since Umbridge came they wanted to see what us lot were like."

"But they didn't want to check last time. Fudge just needed someone to spy on Dumbledore and make sure he wasn't spreading the truth."

"I know. But now the ministry believe it would benefit Hogwarts if the teachers were checked on regularly." Harry said with a sympathetic smile.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "How regularly?"

"Every four years I think they said. Anyway this High Inquisitor, we haven't a clue who it is yet or anything about them, but they'll be coming in a weeks time and will be staying 'till the end of the year."

"This sucks entirely!" Hermione moaned and slumped in her chair, sighing. She then realised that her class had lost interested completely and was making a lot of noise. "RIGHT, EVERYONE SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!" She yelled, and the class did very quickly and in a shocked manner. "Thank you." She smiled, her voice back to its usual volume. "Now this is a time to learn, not to talk."

"But Professor, you were talking." One boy near the back called out, earning a few laughs.

"Yes, but I've already been through school and I'm the teacher meaning I have the right to talk. And that's five points from Ravenclaw for talking back Mr Lee. Thank you. Now class can I get on with my lesson please?" She snapped as the laughs and smiles quickly disappeared.

Harry stayed in Hermione's class for that lesson watching her teach with interest. Afterwards he quickly said goodbye and dodged students as he made his way to see Ron.

He found him in the outside broom store getting out the brooms for his next lesson.

"Ron! Hi, here let me help you." Harry called and walked over to take a pile of brooms out of Ron's hand.

"Thanks Harry." Ron smiled as he handed them over.

"So how goes life as a teacher?" Harry asked as they laid out the brooms for the students to use when they arrived.

"Not so bad really, it's quite fun. Especially doing Quidditch and teaching the first years. It's so funny, I'm sure I've got Neville's double in my class. He's really hopeless."

"And how are thing with you and Hermione then?"

"Ah, not so good I'm sad to say. She stuck in the all we can be is friends rut. I really haven't a clue what to do to show her I'm never going to leave again."

"Can you seriously say you never will?"

"Well no, I suppose not, but I'd never go for that long again."

"Well, why did you in the first place? Why for so long?"

"I just needed to get away for all this. I just wanted a break for all the death and sadness."

"Ron, we all feel like that but we can't just take off for ten years."

"I know. You don't have to tell me it was stupid. I already know that."

"Well were did you go? I mean we were looking for you for ages. There was like, no traces."

"I moved abroad and stayed with Muggles. They had no idea that I was a wizard.

I kept on telling myself that I would leave but I never had the guts to come back and the longer I left it the harder it became."

"So what made you come back in the end then?"

"I fell out with the person I was living with and didn't have enough money to get a place of my own. So this was the only choice really."

"You're bulling me and we both know it."

"Yeah ok. I put a memory charm on myself, only a weak one mind I'm not that stupid, but no matter what I did I couldn't get Hermione out of my head. I wouldn't have a clue who she was until it wore off but she'd still be there. I tried everything I could to try and forget her. I even got with another woman, that's who I was living with, but she just wouldn't go. So in the end I told the woman I was living with that I was in love with someone else and she chucked me out and I came home to try and patch things up."

"But where were you living before you met this woman then? I mean, you couldn't have just moved in straight away."

"No, for the first five or so years I had a job at an inn and I lived in one of the rooms there. She started working there and we dated for a couple of years before I moved in."

Their conversation ended as the class arrived and Ron jogged up to meat them and start a game of Quidditch. Harry got bored of watching after a few minutes and grabbed a broom to join Ron, who was flying around refereeing.

"Hey Harry!" Ron called. "You wanna show them what it's like to actually be a good seeker?" Harry just laughed but said nothing, yet Ron continued. "Class you may know Harry Potter as The Boy Who Lived but did you know he was also the youngest Hogwarts Gryffindor seeker for nearly a whole century? Now Harry, show them how it done!" He looked over to Harry but he was already gone, shooting after a golden glint that must have been the snitch. The whole class cheered and clapped as Harry landed, snitch in hand; unfortunately it made many members of the class nearly fall from their brooms.

"There's another lesson for you too then!" Ron yelled happily "Never clap when

on a broom unless you want broken arms."

Harry started to fly back up to Ron and the class when something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. He turned to face it and thought he saw a shadow receding into the forest but when he looked back a second later there was nothing but trees. He shook his head and laughed.

"Come on Harry you had enough paranoid sights while you were at Hogwarts.

You don't want them again. It must just have been the light." He muttered to himself as he flew up to Ron and threw him the snitch.

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