Disclaimer: me did not steal, just borrow.

Beta:gallandro-83

Chapter 5 All that matters

Harry didn't sleep well that night. He had too many things going through his mind. Among them Susan, the student body, Alice, and the reason why he was there in the first place. He crawled out of bed early to shower and dress. Fully awake now, he found that it was six o'clock. Harry reasoned, even the girls would not be up this early but casted the illusionment charm on him self anyway. He walked around the halls to stretch out his legs and let himself think. Professor Dursley needed to have someone to pick up Alice. It couldn't be him. Susan was out of the question. He was tempted to wake the headmaster, but he must have been up as late as Harry since he had a mass of girls to settle down.

Harry scratched his head and was almost knocked over by one of his own students. She fell down hard looking quite shocked. Harry immediately cancelled his spell and knelt next to the girl. "Miss Johnson are you alright?"

Pam looked up at him and yelled in surprise forgetting a moment ago she ran right into him. "Sorry, I just been looking for Alice all morning she didn't come back last night. And its my fault that those stupid rumors got so bad-"

Harry interrupted her there. "Nothing is a single persons fault. Especially when it concerns rumors. Did you spread a lie about Alice?" Harry didn't believe for a second that she did. When she shook her head, Harry continued. "Well then it is not your fault. You can't stop what another person says, all you can do is choose to do is believe it, or choose to look into the matter and see what is truth and what is rumor." Harry started walking and Pam followed. "Can you please tell me what occurred yesterday? Miss Bones and I were very surprised to see so many young ladies out and about past curfew."

Pam flushed at the little lecture and took a deep breath. "Sorry. A little frantic. O.k., I took your advice and all the class were aware to be alert except for Alice. She was in lala land after whatever you said to her." She raised an eye brow at that.

Harry thought back and said, "I don't think I really said anything of significance, I told her of my spell to be invisible and that I had been using it just to gain a memory I can use for each of the student when we start Occlumency in a few days. But after seeing you all yesterday I might move that up a little."

"Well, anyway after a few hours I walked with Alice. As soon as we left the warded area of the hall one of my friends found me. I think she was on the on the floor for a half hour running in circles. Any way, She let us in on a big secret that you and Miss Bones went out on a date." She paused there to get a confirmation.

Harry didn't look to her but said, "Although its none of your business, we went to a friends house. But yes I would like to think we are together."

Pam smiled and shook her head. She couldn't imagine this man being shy about anything. "After the news, Alice said she didn't really care what went on with you, which surprised me, I thought she was quite infatuated with you." Harry grunted a response. "Sorry again, guess this doesn't make you feel exactly comfortable does it?" Harry mutely nodded. "Well what she said surprised me. She must have been the only girl who didn't care. We decided to head up to the common room when we ran into a few unsavory ladies. The three started making snide remarks to Alice. I actually stopped it from escalating to violence but Alice just gave back as she good as she took. She admitted some stuff about you." Alice looked down at that but continued. "Then we went up to the common room. After some discussion and I asked Alice if I could tell my friends. It was really funny after all. Alice gave the go ahead and I was retelling the story word for word. Well, one of my ex-friends," She added with a very hard edge. "Started on downstairs and with a few other angry girls made an elaborate story. By the time me and any of the class could refute anything it was too late and there was an angry girly mob just running around. They actually found Professor Delacour and started asking her questions. I don't think I have seen an angry veela before. Man that was scary. I wonder where she hides her wings…"

Harry stopped in midstep. He looked over to his student and asked. "Was she ok?"

"Yeah. She scared off the girls, then promptly left the infirmary saying she needed to get away from the crap the girls were giving her. Well, after a bit I lost track of Alice. I asked the girls in her dorm but they started talking indignantly about Alice not saying anything about you and her." Harry just looked at her. Pam nodded at that. "That's what I did, they heard what really happened. It sucks that a few rumors can change so much."

Harry looked at her then continued to walk. A small curve formed at his mouth. "You have no idea."

Pam smiled appreciatively, remembering what she told Alice. "Professor do you know where Alice is? I would think you would be more concerned than I would be."

"She was in my classroom when I went to go clean up late last night. I talked with her until she calmed down and allowed her to sleep there." Harry lead her down the last hall. "I would have woken her up and lead her to the dorm or somewhere else, but as this whole thing started because of my apparent attention to her, I don't think I can do that. Could you please attend to her?"

Pam nodded numbly. She was still upset for not stopping her friend when she had the chance. She would do anything to help Alice.

Professor Dursley turned back the way he came from. "Had he come here just to escort me to the classroom?" Pam let out a sigh, "That's so sweet!" She stopped her self knowing things like that is why she was here. She said the password and entered the class room. She saw Alice on the bed and the room was unnaturally warm. She sat on the bed next to Alice and said, "Hey Alice, wake up. You have your classmates worried." She gently shook the girl and was rewarded with a mumbled 'one more minute'. Pam laughed and bounced on the bed. "Get up! Professor Potter wants you up and about. I think he wanted to talk to you but left so maybe he is eating an early breakfast before the female population wakes up."

Alice peeked out from her sheets and saw Pam sitting next to her beaming. "Professor Potter give you "its not your fault" lecture to?"

Pam's smile broke into a confused glance before she laughed. "You think he has to do it a lot?" Pam dragged off one layer of blankets. "Get up! I am sure everyone is concerned about you. Specially Owen, he was beside himself yesterday."

Alice felt guilty at that. She had not spent much time with her best friend. "O.k. I am getting up." Alice yawned. She had slept well considering everything that happened last night. She looked up at her new friend and asked almost embarrassed. "How long had you been running around until you ran into Professor Potter?"

Pam stuck her tongue out at her and said, "An hour. And I literally ran into him. He was invisible when I hit the ground. I wanted to look for you earlier, Me, Kelly, and Bruce were all worried when you didn't come back. But they were still asleep so it was up to me too look for you."

Alice yawned and stretched now that she was out of the bed. As she got off the bed it disappeared. Pam was still sitting on it when he vanished and fell onto the hard floor. "That's what you get for waking me up." Alice countered sticking her out her tongue. "Breakfast sounds good, you think I can hide back in here till class starts?"

"I don't know, I kinda got the impression that Professor Potter wanted to hide in here." They left the class room when the heat in the room cooled.

"That's not fair, he has his own bed room." Pam blushed at the thought. "Oh please don't do that."

Pam laughed. "He can't hide in his room, the girls would just mob the entrance to the staff hall."

"Well he has that invisibility spell, he could go anywhere else." Alice pouted.

"Do you want to see him again? You sound as if you don't want to be in the same room as him." They passed the wards around the floor and were heading for the great hall.

"Its not that. Er- I'll tell you later. When I know no one can over hear us." She whispered back. "I really hope none of my friends are up. I do not want to talk to them right now."

Pam nodded sympathetically. The two girls entered the hall and found a few people up and eating. They noticed Professor Dursley talking to the headmaster. He waved to the two girls before he left. No one was at the Griffindor table when they began to eat a very early breakfast. "You know I ran across a book that details our teachers' life in Hogwarts." Said Pam around a mouthful of sausage. "Want to go to the library with me and see how he came up with all those speeches?" Alice laughed but nodded.

TLTLTLTLTLTLTLT

Harry made his way down to the infirmary to check on Susan. When he creaked open the door he found her already wondering around filing paper work. She just finished rolling up another scroll when she saw him and smiled. "How are you doing Susan?"

She walked up to him and gave him a kiss. "Fine, I just had a conversation with Fluer. She wasn't happy about yesterday."

Harry nodded. "I heard from one of my students this morning that some of the rumors circled around me and her. Is she o.k.?"

"She was only as mortified as me. At least she was able to keep most of her temper in check, though she did feel bad that she started to throw flames at her students." Harry took her hand and led her to her office.

"I thought it would be best if we have breakfast here. Is that fine?"

Susan nodded, but then asked, "Do you mind if we bring Fluer over too?" Harry nodded. Susan got some powder from a small pouch on the fireplace. She threw some of the powder into the fire saying, "Professor Delacour's office."

Fluers' face appeared in the fire. "Hello Suzan, James. Are you two alright?" Fluer didn't look like she had a good nights sleep either.

"We could be better. We wanted to know if you would like to join us for breakfast this morning in the infirmary." Susan sat down on a couch that sat directly in front of the fire.

Fluer smiled and said, "That would be grand. I really want to talk to you two anyway."

The flames died and rekindled as the face of Fluer disappeared. Harry conjured a table and seats in the clearing near the couch and a house elf promptly filled the table with food.

Susan changed into some more comfortable robes and had just entered the office as Fluer walked in. "I could have killed thoze inzufferable girls lazt night." Harry flinched as more of Fluer's French accent leaked through.

"Well, lets sit down to eat and we can talk afterwards. Albus said he wanted to make an announcement but suggested none of us be their for it."

Susan looked alarmed. "Did he say what he was going to do?"

"I am actually hoping that he will just cast a peace charm on them to calm them the hell down when I walk around. This is getting really bad. Was there this much of a problem when we were here Susan?"

Susan thought back. She was as busy as Harry in their final year. She was stuck taking over the D.A. a lot of the time with only Hermione as support. She took a sip of orange juice to clear her throat. "I am not sure. If there was, then we really didn't pay attention to it. Remember we had more important things to worry about than just rumors. It is kind of sad how we are so easily effected by them now." Susan looked over to Fluer who sighed.

"But itz not az though we can simply ignore. Even when I was a student teacher here. You all azked me to help and I did it with out worrying about the consequenzes." She finished her toast and started on her eggs.

"Well we just have to move on. So what did they ask you Fluer? I only heard about two questions dealing with you before they tried to ask questions about Alice of all people."

Fluer nodded. "I got some of those too. Did you do anything besides rescuing her? I know she admitted that she like you, but so does the rest of the school." Susan elbowed her friend to be quiet.

Harry wrestled with talking about this with his friends. Finally he cupped his hands together and several wards weaved through the room. Both girls set down their food. They new this was important. Harry took several tries before he started with, "You both know Albus asked me here to teach this class." Both girls nodded. "But you don't know why." Harry was still deciding if he should tell them that it was Alice he was here for or just a nameless student. "Albus has been teaching long enough to recognize several patterns in his students. One is that of an approaching dark wizard." The two girls gasped.

"You mean one of the students here might be like Voldemort?" said Fluer sadly.

Harry looked at the two girls. "Or students that may take a path like me, Yes. I have seen the underlying bitterness with this student myself. So I took steps to talk to them about some issues they had. I didn't expect that the extra time would be noted when I made time to discuss about this persons family. We talked about their family, their own problems, and what and why they think about some things." When Harry heard himself talk about this, he realized this was much as what Sirius would do and later Remus did. Harry suddenly felt a little better about being in a role of a father instead of a leader or teacher. "I helped this student in a predicament and that's what most likely started the snowball these rumors are based off of."

Susan was the first to recover. "Alice… She is the one Albus is worried about." Susan looked incredibly sad.

"Yes, And I am worried about her too. I ran into her last night when I went back to my class room to clean up. I was too wide awake to sleep. She was sitting there meditating. We talked for a bit and I allowed her to sleep there. She hasn't had much of a parenting figure before, so she told me something before she fell asleep. That during her meditation that she finally realized why she felt kinship to me. She saw me as a father." Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Harry didn't look at the two girls for a moment. Susan spoke first. "What did you say?" She had a tear coming close to leaving her eyes.

Harry scratched his head and said, "I said thank you. I meant it. I never been a father before and when she said that it, it felt kind nice. I asked her if there was anything I should do. She didn't seem that she needed me to do anything but talk to her. But she was smart enough to say that her birthday was in October."

Susan and Fluer laughed at that. Susan asked, "So what are you going to do now?" The food disappeared from the table and Harry and the girls stood up and dissolved the table and chairs. The three moved to the couch and got comfortable before Harry said anything else.

He leaned over and placed his head in his hands. "I have no clue. I am going to continue what I planed to do. I planned that with the meditation and the Occlumency she would look at her mind and see what her tendencies were. Maybe she would allow me to guide her through the process. But last night threw all those plans out the window. And not in a good way. I don't have any experience in this aspect of a relationship. I am way over my head now."

"Its going to be ok Harry. Just relax. I am sure if she sees you as a father, then all you have to do is be you. You didn't do this on purpose so you shouldn't try to do anything you wouldn't ordinarily do." Susan laced her fingers through his.

"She iz right you know." She blew out a breath of air. "I guess this makes me venting kinda dumb right?"

Susan let got of Harry's hand and gave her best friend a hug. "Of course it doesn't. I was a wreck last night. I wouldn't know what I would have done with out Harry, and here you are with no support while we were gone. I am sorry." Fluer hugged back beginning to cry now that her mental barriers were caving around here with her friend there to support her.

Harry gave them a group hug before he left the room and placed the illusionment charm on himself. He was glad the two girls would be fine. Now he wanted to see what was going to happen to the rest of the students. Albus said that the three shouldn't be there, but Harry got the impression that he should just not be seen. It was ten o'clock now, and breakfast would be in full swing.

LTLTLTLTLTTLTTL

Alice and Pam walked in comfortable silence. They saw a few students skate circles around Alice which made both girls sigh at once. They both looked up at each other and giggled. Alice grabbed the older students robes and dragged her to a nearby classroom. Alice waved her wand and said, "Silencio" Then closed and locked the doors. She sat on a desk and Pam sat on another one across from her. "Sorry but I really wanted to talk to you in private about last night." Alice looked down biting her lip.

Pam just smiled and nodded. She patiently waited, seeing that her friend was building up the courage to talk about it.

"I was meditating in the class room last night since everything went to hell. During my meditation I was trying to figure out why I wasn't acting like the other girls or why I wasn't even bothered with hearing Professor Dursley was going out with Miss Bones, when just a few hours before we heard the news, I was giggling like the rest of them. I went through all the conversations I had with our professor, and had an epiphany. I didn't give a damn about him like that." She said cheerfully. Pam looked confused but Alice just kept talking. "When ever I laughed it was because he made me happy. He helped me work through some stuff that I has having problems with. I felt as if I was at home when I talked to him."

"Sounds like you have a crush to me Alice." Said Pam still slightly confused.

Alice reddened but said in a rush, "I realized I see him like a father."

Pam just looked at her as if she said that muggles were rulers of the world. "Wow." She said after a moment. "Does he know?" She was grasping for something to say and wanted to yell at herself for asking that.

"Yes, I accidentally told him last night after he did a good fatherly thing and talked to me." Alice smiled while swinging her legs under the desk she sat on.

"So, how did he react." Pam was still in shock.

"He said thank you and asked if he should do anything."

Pam smiled, "Sounds like he would say that. But this is fast Alice, I mean you met the guy what? Not even a four days ago."

Alice nodded, "That's why I was kinda anxious to be around him. I never had a father before Pam. My parents died when I was several months old. Then I was just stuck with my aunt." She stopped swinging her legs and looked at her feet.

Pam mulled over the situation and finally said, "For one, you can stop worrying about it." She hopped off her desk and looked over to the second year. "He already said that he didn't mind you think of him that way. So congrats, you got yourself a dad." Pam messed up Alice's hair. "For a second thing, he opened a door for you to discuss problems with him, if you got stuff that you can't discuss with me go to him then. I am sure he would be more helpful than me anyway."

Alice smiled at her friend, "I don't know about that you were down right helpful yesterday and right now."

"I am glad to hear it. Feel better now?" Alice nodded and hopped off her desk. "Good cause I really want to go back and ogle at our professors' picture in a book that I found." Alice repressed a laugh she could almost see the drool coming out of Pam's mouth.

"Hey! I thought we were going to look up to see how he got so fatherly."

Pam grinned, "How do you think I found the book about his history here at Hogwarts?" Alice laughed. They grabbed each other's elbows and walked to the library. One girl to find more about her surrogate father and the other to drool over his picture.

TLTLTLTLTLTTLTL

The father himself looked around and noticed that many of his students were there but looking none too pleased with themselves with failing to stop the girls last night or with finding Alice Niete whom many thought was still missing. The girls who attacked him and Susan were back to normal and chatting about anything they wanted too since Harry wasn't there to distract them. Harry briefly wondered if he missed what ever was going to happened when he looked at Albus. He simply looked right back and smiled a weary grin. Harry walked to a wall to lean against it to watch. He saw the Griffindor table was actually divided. One side grouped many girls from all seven years at one side of the table. The other side was the rest of the house. Harry smiled that his students in Griffindor that were on the mixed side. Harry looked around and noticed that Miss Johnson and Miss Niete were not in attendance. Of course they would not be, They were eating in here three hours ago when I spoke to Albus. He briefly wondered if they were o.k. but stopped when Albus stood up to address the student body.

"I would like have everyone's attention!" The chatter slowly died. Every student looked to several groups of girls in each table. It was obvious that what happened last night was well circulated by now. "I would like to address some issues the students have with a few members of my staff."

Everyone's suspicions were confirmed. The students looked around and a few noticed that both Miss Bones and Professor Delacour were not in attendance. They had already noticed that Professor Dursley was gone.

"I have never seen such blatant display of misconduct over one teacher much less three." The headmaster started. Several girls looked away from the staff table. "I met with several students over the incidents that occurred last evening. I know what really occurred from the initial rumors. And the extent of the individuals who started the rumors after Miss Niete's explosion to several seventh years." Two girls in Ravenclaw and one girl in Griffindor looked away from their headmaster. "I have disciplined them for their actions. However that does not excuse the other students whom harassed Professor Delacour, Professor Dursley, and Miss Bones. For these actions, each student will loose twenty-five house points each." There was a large rumble as it was only the beginning of the school year and all four houses started off with minus house points. All the girls sank into their seats. "I expect to never have to do this again. Passion is one thing, but inciting a riot is certainly a different matter." Harry smiled, it was certainly a light punishment for the girls. But it was a good public demonstration that this was unacceptable behavior and would be swiftly punished.

Harry walked around the tables listening for reactions. Several girls were mad that they should be punished for passion, until another student pointed out, "You heard Professor Dumbledore, passion is one thing, but what you guys did was mob a few professors. After hours! It's a wonder he didn't take more house points or place the whole house under detention for not stopping any of you. Now shut up and eat." Harry moved to another table. He saw similar reactions. He was happy to see that many of the girls seemed dejected.

Harry left the hall feeling good and decided to take another walk. He stopped by to tell the girls what Albus did. They raise wine glasses. "Isn't a bit early for that Susan?" asked Harry slightly amused.

"Of course not. We deserve to commiserate Fluers lack of boyfriend. No get out of here. It's a girl thing." Harry laughed as they were both already tipsy. He locked the door to her office before he left.

He stopped by Albus' office. "Albus," The headmaster set down the letters he received and waved for Harry to come in.

"It is good to see you. I have had quite a time with parents this morning."

Harry flinched. "How bad is it?"

"Well the a few students owled their parents about your alleged relationships. I had a conversation with the School Board last night. They agree that the rumors had no real basis, and could not force you to leave." Harry was then surprised he didn't think he could loose his job over this. "I spoke with Mrs. Malfoy. She asked that you submit a testimony over the incident." Harry grunted. Mrs. Malfoy was not one of his most favorite people. Her husband died in the last raid the Order of the Phoenix made. And Draco escaped and his most likely hiding somewhere. "And I believe that the howlers I received will stop coming by the end of the day."

"I am sorry Albus." Harry felt bad that he could cause so much trouble in such short time.

The headmaster just waved his hand. "Nonsense I am the one who brought you here. Besides its been very quiet after you left its almost refreshing to be so busy."

Harry didn't quite believe that. Harry grinned remembering why he came up. "I came up here to tell you Susan is not quite up to working today. She is spending some time with Fluer."

"Of course. I'll have one of Susan's old students form her healers class take over."

Harry left the office and walked a wide circle around the fourth floor until he neared the astronomy tower. He walked by it and felt that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to fly outside someday. He no longer owned a broom since his Firebolt was destroyed when he was fighting death eaters on it. But that was six years ago. Six years was a long time without a broom he decided.

He walked into the library to look up some things about Legilimency since he hadn't been properly trained. He was just a natural Legilimens. He entered the restricted section and looked for a book on the subject. He found three but none of them looked very promising. He picked up all three and sat at a table just outside the restricted section. Harry propped one book and began reading from the beginning. "Professor?" Alice stood next to him. He looked at her and was please to see that she was accompanied by Miss Johnson.

"May I help you?" He said innocently.

"I was about to ask you that. Your still invisible."

Harry turned beat read, placed down the book and canceled the charm. He looked up at the two still slightly embarrassed and said, "Thank you. How are you two ladies doing?"

Both girls took a seat, "We are fine, we were looking up recent history." Said Pam giving Alice a sly look. Alice simply laughed.

"I am glad to hear it. It never hurts to get caught up on current events." Said Harry oblivious to their motives.

Pam joined Alice in another round of laughter before saying, "Sorry private joke. What are you reading?"

"Legilimency. Its what I will be using to enter your minds while you defend with Occlumency." Harry passed the easier to read book to them.

"Only Alice, Owen and Bruce were able to make heads or tails of the last book you gave us I am afraid." Pam flipped through the book and muttered not knowing what a few of the words meant.

"Sorry about that, It was an old book and written in a different form of English." Harry picked up the three books and headed for Madame Pince. "I need to check these three books out." Madame Pince gave him a shrewd look but check them out. Harry left with Alice and Pam trailing behind. "I doubt that you heard since you were not there but the girls who started yesterday's rumors got detention and the girls in the mob last night lost twenty-five house points a piece."

Pam laughed. "Serves them right! After all the crap they did." Alice gave an affirmative 'mm'.

"I am glad that you think so. I am going to give house points tonight in class but I believe that I am going to change the time of weekend classes so you all won't be going to bed late. Is that fine with you two?"

Both girls gave a cheer. Harry laughed.

"Tell the class to come into the class room when they feel like it today, we can start class early if everyone is there. Then we can decide on a time to have class on a regular basis for the weekends." The girls ran ahead of him to find their classmates. Harry was glad to see that Alice had a good friend. He had briefly wondered what happened to Alice and her friend Owen, but most likely thought that it hasn't been much time since school has started. He headed down to his class room and saw that there were a few students already there. Some students began to use the class room as a study hall and had a few other books with them that they were reading. Harry nodded at them and placed his three books on his desk and pulled out the Occlumency book again. "Please don't go anywhere today, I have asked Miss Johnson and Miss Niete to round up the class so we can have an early class today. So you won't have to be here late tonight." Some of the guys gave an approving hollers. A few girls moaned as they had plans but said it wouldn't matter anyway with what Professor Dumbledore did today. They reasoned that their friends wouldn't be in a talkative mood.

It was another hour when all the students appeared in class. Harry reverted back to being Harry Potter and looked at the class. They all sat around him eagerly awaiting for the class to start. These students were not effected by what happened with the rest of the school. They even tried to prevent it when they found out. For the first time, Harry felt fortunate to be teaching these students. "First I would like to ask if any one has a time they would like to have class on the weekends other than the normal time after dinner." Several students gave times. Harry laughed at the jokes when some people said that was too early or too close to lunch. Several students commented that it would be nice to have the weekend classes longer so they can really try to meditate for a long time. But others said that the class was open all the time and any one who wanted to mediate that long could simply walk in and do it. Harry saw the group of students in his class. Although he didn't speak to many of them personally he knew all their names. "Mr. Dent what do you believe would be a decent time that is not to early or too close to a meal?"

The young man who was a seventh year looked up from his reading. He had the Occlumency book at his seat and had been reading it. He smiled and said simply, "Why not just have it after lunch?" With that he looked back down and continued to read the book. A few students supported the idea. The a vote of thirteen to ten for Dent's suggestion and it was decided that all classes during the weekends would happen after lunch.

"Alright now since that is out of the way, I want to award house points for exemplary actions to a few students in this class. Owen Yellow, Bruce Dent and Jessica Lee for aiding in the delay of the group of girls from finding Professor Delacour for several hours. Ten points each. Thirty points to Pamela Johnson for her unwavering support to a fellow student." There were shouts and thumps at this. "And finally to Alice Niete for standing up to her attackers and defending herself well without raising a wand or a fist, forty points." Everyone cheered. They all new that Alice telling off a older student was once in a lifetime event for the meek girl. After the cheering Harry had the class meditate and Harry would provide distractions through mental probes to each student.

The students soon learned that they can use the meditation to organize their thoughts and defend to some extent from Harrys gentle probes. Harry smiled as the class ended and no one looked exhausted or even tired from his lesson. "Homework besides meditation! During meditation try and find a way to organize your thoughts in a way that works for you. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another. Come back tomorrow with an idea to share in class on how to organize your mind. We have started the basics for Occlumency today, but I'll start a lecture on it tomorrow. If you think you have time, take a look through this book." He clapped his hands and several copies of the book appeared. "These books will be around for a few days before they fade so take the opportunity to look through them. O.k. A few hours till dinner so your welcome to stay or get out of here and waste your time on something pointless." Several students started to leave but Owen, Alice, and Pam stayed and looked through the books.

Harry smiled at the three and started through his own books. He really had to learn to be more subtle than Professor Snape when he taught Harry. Harry wondered how he ever learned from Professor Snape at all. True he didn't need to use Occlumency for almost another year since Voldemort had basically been burned when he possessed Harry at the ministry. But that just meant that Harry had to work harder to learn it two years later. Harry rubbed his temple. He was getting a headache thinking about it so he stopped and continued to read.

It was at dinner time that he realized that he hadn't shown himself since last night to the rest of the school. Professor Dursley stopped just outside of the dinning hall. He was the last one out the door in his class room and was naturally late.

Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and tensed until he saw it was Susan. "Hello, you and Fluer have a grand time this morning?" Susan glared at him but smiled before kissing him quickly.

"I've been good. I heard that you had an early class today."

Harry snorted. "Damn news travels fast." He grinned before he said quietly. "I heard that a few students were wondering why you and Fluer were singing an old pub song when you two were locked in your office."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." She said with a shrug. Harry openly laughed, then started walking with Susan.

"Well, we will cause a ruckus tonight I believe." He offered his hand to hers.

Susan smiled. "Lets get this over with so we can have a quiet evening." She took his hand and they walked from the entrance hall all the way to the staff table. All of the girls glared daggers at the couple who were both smiling and chatting quietly. Harry spotted Alice and she waved and giggled. It was not lost on any of the girls who had been chasing after the young professor. Harry suppressed a laugh. The quick exchange would stop the rumors about Alice if she openly approved of Susan and him as a pair. When they found their seats, the girls resumed their meals but their chatter was certainly more subdued.

Remus looked at Harry before he said, "How do you do it James?"

Harry began to eat smiling benignly. "Hmm?"

"You literally cause several riots, two man hunts, an angry mob that takes Albus to calm down, all of that and in one afternoon the whole school changes. I didn't think Albus would have made such an impact with his speech." Remus took another swig of his butter beer.

Harry ate his meal then finally said, "Its no big deal, I just had to show everyone that I am clearly not interested in what they do." Harry smiled at his surrogate father who laughed. "Besides this is nothing." Harry looked over to his class several of them looked back. "Susan, and my class is all that matters."

"Why is that?" Remus ate slowly waiting for Harry to speak.

"When I left, I didn't have high expectations. The students in my class give me hope." Harry looked around the hall and slowly all his students looked up to him. "That is enough for me." Remus smiled then went back to eat his plate. "I haven't really spoken to you yesterday, how were the first few days of class?"

Remus took a drink and said, "Not so bad for me. Although it was hard to get the girls to concentrate."

Harry smiled, "So anything else keeping you busy?"

"Nope, someday I'll get a personal life. But I don't see that anytime soon with me teaching here." Remus didn't sound regretful.

"You know there is still a single teacher here." Said Harry. His eyes took a rare twinkle.

"Huh? Who?" He choke a second that caused Fluer to look in his direction. She smiled and continued to eat. "Fluer?"

Harry smiled, "Its not like your that much old than her, only twelve years. That's not long for a wizard. If anything, you two could use the company. " Harry finished his dinner and stood, then calmly walked up to Susan. "Are you free this evening?" Harry extended his hand. Susan blushed but accepted his offer. They walked out the main entrance arm in arm. Harry heard several of his students cheer. Susan was red when they left the Hall. She kissed him much the same way she had kissed many years ago. When she broke away she whispered, "I love you."

Harry felt his heart beat through his chest when he kissed her again then said, "I never stopped loving you." Susan led Harry to his room. They sat together the rest of the night, neither one of them cared what others thought. All that mattered was them that evening.

End part 1, one week of women hell

:-.,,.-:'':-.,,.-:'':-.,,.-:'':-.,,.-::-.,,.-:'':-.,,.-:'':-.,,.-:'':-.,,.-:

Yay! Part one done in a week! That was nuts! Part two is being written but I won't post part-two for a week. Me and the beta Gallandro,are both going to be going on thanksgiving vacation. But that doesn't mean I haven't stopped writing.

But if you all behave or by some strange miracle, I'll see what I can do.

Wadeva: Harry is still trying to keep a low profile but as with everything that happens to the poor man, he will probably have to deal with the wiz. World soon.

Gallandro-83: thanks for another beta. Have fun on vacation.

Lap: While the situation is mostly resolved here, there will be instances where he will be dogged throughout the year. But those may be just from his own students. Sorry about the week hiatus, but I also wanted to plan something along the way during thanksgiving break. If I can get some stuff done fast, you might be pleasantly surprised with the next update.

Zero-skills: thanks for the review! I am glad that I am not doing anything too um bad with the story to make you just stop reading in disgust.

If you can't wait for good writting, go check out Gallandro's C2. the id is 5418 there are a alot of damn good stories there. "Change of Heart" is damn good by Lplus. It seems to stop abruptly until u realize the focus of the story was revolving around Harry and Ginny getting together. But its a damn good long read. 170k words. its a few pages in, you'll have to look, or do a quick search.