The
next morning at the end of breakfast, Dumbledore stood up and quieted
everyone. "Yesterday there were now Defense Against the Dark
Arts classes because the professor was not available. She is,
however, here today, and the classes will begin as scheduled."
Everyone started to leave for class. As Harry headed for his class,
Professor McGonagall stepped in front of him and handed him a
note.
"This is from the Headmaster. There are directions
written inside." She stepped around him and headed in the
opposite direction. Harry opened the note and read it. Dumbledore
wanted to talk to him, at five o'clock on Sunday evening. Harry
wondered what he wanted to talk about. Maybe it had something to do
with Occulmency...
The first few
of Harry's classes went just as they had the day before, except that
neither Snape or Malfoy said anything to him. They're probably
planning something, Harry thought. He walked into the library and
sat down with Ginny. "Who do you think the new professor is?"
she asked.
"Dunno, but it's a woman again. Hopefully a better
one than last year."
"Yeah really." Harry read a
book on quidditch for the rest of the period.
After lunch, Harry,
Ron, and Hermione headed for the DADA classroom. When they came in,
no professor was there. They found their seats and looked around at
the room. It looked almost exactly as Lumpin's room had looked three
years ago. Then the classroom door opened, and a very old woman came
slowly to the desk and set her book down.
"By the time she
finishes, the period will be over." Hermione whispered. The old
woman stood up straight and turned to them.
"Hello
everyone." she said. Then she turned into a younger woman with
purple hair. "My name is Professor Tonks, or just Tonks would be
fine." Hermione giggled, and Ron and Harry smiled. Finally a
DADA professor who wouldn't be bend on hurting them. Tonks picked up
a roll of parchment on the desk and began reading it. "Hmmm...
well let's see... wow you didn't get very far until you had
Professor Lupin, did you?... uh hu... and 'Professor Moody' seemed to
get you along well... and last year..." her eyes got very big.
"Well anyway, I think this year we will pick up where Moony left
off, and then head onto a few upper level things." She looked
right at Harry and winked. "Now if you'll all get out your books
and turn to chapter four. We will review the Unforgivable Curses
first." It had to have been the best DADA class ever, or at
least the best since Lupin had left.
On
Saturday night, Ron, Harry, and Ginny headed for the quidditch pitch,
so that the new captain could be voted on. They joined the other
three players left from last year, and they all sat in the stands to
wait for Professor McGonagall. Harry felt weird sitting with the
newer players. He had never played with them before. In fact, he was
the only one left on the team he had first played with. Finally,
Professor McGonagall walked out of the castle and joined them in the
stands.
"Alright, now normally I choose the oldest and most
experienced member of the team to be the captain. This year that
would be Mr. Potter. But he has informed me that he does not want to
be the captain, and the next person in line, Mr. Weasley, has also
said that he doesn't want to be the captain. And since none of you
want to be the captain, we are going to vote between Mr. Potter and
Mr. Weasley." Harry and Ron looked at each other. Ron turned red
and looked scared. A table appeared near McGonagall. "Each of
you will come up here, write who you want to be captain on the paper,
fold it, hand it to me, and then sit back down. Got it?" They
nodded, and the first person went up. Harry watched them all walk up
and write their choice. He hoped that they weren't writing his name,
and he knew Ron was thinking the same thing. Harry was the last to go
up. He wrote 'Ron' on the paper, folded it, and handed it to
McGonagall. She took all of the papers back to the table, opened
them, and set them in one of two piles. Harry wondered which pile was
his; they both looked like they had the same number of papers.
"Well... the winner by one vote is... Mr. Weasley." Ron's
jaw dropped.
"No!" he said. "No I can't be the
captain! I don't know anything about making plays or any of
that."
"Ron apparently we want you as our captain."
Ginny said.
"But I... I can't..."
Harry stood up. He
didn't know what he was doing, but maybe it would save Ron some of
his breath. "Look Ron if it makes you feel better then I'll be
the captain."
"That's very nice Mr. Potter, but the team
voted for Mr. Weasley." McGonagall said.
"Well..."
Ron said. "Maybe... we could both be the captain."
"The
rules say that we're only allowed one." McGonagall said
"He
can be the captain and I'll be co-captain." Harry said.
"Well...
I guess that could work... I'll have to ask Albus though."
McGonagall said. "I'll lave it up to you two to schedule the
practices." she turned and walked back to the castle.
"Okay...
well..." Ron began "umm Harry and I will think about it,
and then post the practice times in the common room." Harry
nodded, and the whole team stood up and headed for the castle.
Once
they were back in their dormitory, Harry lied down on his bed and Ron
stood against the wall. "So when are we going to have
practices?"
"I have to talk with Dumbledore about...
some things." He had almost said Occulmency. Harry wasn't sure
if he could tell Ron about that yet. "You know, like the DA. But
after we get all of that scheduled, then we can schedule
practices."
"Alright." Ron said "When are you
going to talk to him?"
"Tomorrow afternoon. He wants me
to come to his office for some reason, so I'll just ask then."
Ron
nodded and looked at his watch. He sighed. "I was supposed to
meat Hermione a half hour ago. She's gonna kill me." he ran out
of their dormitory and down the hall.
The
next afternoon, Harry was walking up the stairs to Dumbledore's
office. He knocked on the door and went inside. Dumbledore was
sitting at his desk. "I'm glad you came. I have someone here who
really wants to talk to you." he said. Remus Lupin was sitting
in a chair on the other side of the desk.
"Remus..."
Harry began
"Harry I must explain everything that I did over
the summer. I know it must not have been all that great of an
experience -"
"It's alright. It wasn't your fault."
Harry interrupted
"But I still must explain it to you. You
have to understand. Sit down, please." Harry sat down in a
chair. "Alright now, Harry, we were going to wait for the
Weasley's to take you from the Dursley's, but the Order was sent in
because... Voldemort was seen in London. We had to make sure that you
were safe. And the day after you left, he was seen on Privet Drive by
Mrs. Fig." Harry's jaw dropped.
"He didn't hurt anyone,
did he?" Harry asked
"No. The ministry was there in five
minutes, and by then he was gone. We had to stop at that building
because he was spotted again, that time even closer to you. We were
going to keep moving, but after the demons attacked you, we were
afraid that if we moved you and Voldemort attacked... you wouldn't be
able to defend yourself..." Harry noticed that he had been
saying 'Voldemort', not 'You-Know-Who'. "So you see Harry, we
had to leave you there. But when you were in that building you were
in no danger at all. We had every auror in the country guarding that
building and looking for Voldemort."
Harry nodded. "I
understand."
"And then Molly came in and took you away.
I can understand her concern, but you'd think that she'd want you to
be somewhere safe. Well anyway, you know the rest of the
story."
Harry nodded. He noticed that Remus looked very weak
and pale. "Remus, are you alright?"
"Yeah. It's
that time of the month."
"Oh... well thanks for telling
me." Harry said
"You needed to know. Just be careful
Harry. He's still out there." Remus turned to Dumbledore "Well
I should get back. Good day Headmaster, Harry." He walked out of
the office and down the stairs.
"If that answers all of your
questions, then you may leave." Dumbledore said.
"Umm...
actually I did want to ask you a few things."
"Go
on."
"Well, do I really need Occulmency?" Harry
asked
"Yes. Especially since the recent sightings of
Voldemort."
"But I haven't had a dream all
summer!"
"That doesn't mean that you can't have one now.
I can schedule your classes with Professor Snape-"
"No!
Please! Don't let him teach me. I didn't get anywhere last year, and
all he did was yell at me."
Dumbledore was quiet for a
minute. "Very well then. I suppose I could teach you, but with
everything that's been going on in the school... there are so many
first years that the school can barely hold all of them... but I
suppose I could teach you Sunday afternoons."
"Thank you
sir. And I also wanted to ask about the DA..."
"Do you
still want to teach it?"
"Yes if I have time."
"I
would suggest you talk to Professor Tonks, but if you still want to
tutor your friends, then it would be alright with me."
"I'll
talk to her. Thank you sir." Harry headed for the door, when
something caught his eye. There was a mirror in the corner of the
room. Harry stopped and looked at it. It was the Mirror of Erised.
"I brought that back to add to my collection."
Dumbledore said. Harry nodded
