On the next day, James fully intended to do nothing until at least two o'clock. At that point he might just find his way out of bed. If the school was particularly unlucky, he might even make it to a couple of the demonstrations taking place but that was unlikely. This was a rare day off and he meant to make the most of it. Therefore, he was not impressed when someone knocked on his door at ten o'clock in the morning.

Not caring what he looked like, he went over to answer it in the shorts he slept in, pausing only to apply a concealment charm to his scar. It wouldn't work for long, but it would last until he went back to bed. It was Severus.

"Evans," he said politely, appearing to be ignoring his colleague's state of undress.

"What in Merlin's name is it Severus? I was sleeping."

"This late? I beg your pardon then, I had assumed you were awake as everyone else appears to be. Professor Dumbledore.."

"Which one?" James asked grumpily.

"Aberforth, asked me to remind you that you're giving the duelling seminar in the Great Hall at 11 o'clock this morning."

James swore violently. The meddling, conniving….. Severus raised his eyebrow but didn't appear to be shocked. James hadn't expected him to be.

"Had you forgotten about it, perhaps?"

"I never signed up for any damn lecture! I was intending to sleep all day. How do you sign up for one?"

"I believe you summon the house elf in charge of the timetable and select a free slot."

"Excellent."

James snapped his fingers and a house elf appeared, clutching a clipboard to his chest.

"How may I be helping you, Professors?" he asked with a deep bow.

"Are there any times for lectures free this afternoon?"

"The lesser study hall is free at two thirty this afternoon sir. Would sir like to sign up for this time?"

"Not for me; put down Aberforth Dumbledore."

"And a subject sir?"

"Uses and care of Muggle animals, particularly the goat, and the meaning of inappropriate charms on an animal."

"Very well sir, will that be all?"

"Yes, thank you."

The house elf dissolved into the air and James smirked.

"There. Severus, could you possible 'remind' Abe of his own lecture and tell him not to be so hypocritical as to tell me when he had forgotten his own."

"I suppose I could…"

"Would you, please?"

"Certainly. You had best prepare your lecture, unless you want to be embarrassed. You only have an hour remaining."

With that last parting shot, he stepped out. It was only a fancy really, but James could almost hear his old teacher's yells through the three metre thick stone walls.

After hastily dressing, James went in search of Draco. He knew his friend was there, it was just a question of locating him. He caught up with the Malfoy couple chatting to Ron and Hermione Weasley in the Entrance Hall.

"Excuse me for interrupting," he said with a slight bow of apology. All the etiquette lessons he'd been given at University hadn't been a complete waste of time. "Draco, could I have a word?"

Moving a bit away, James explained this situation. Draco found it hilarious.

"You didn't think to block your name from being signed up? You? If I'd known that, you'd be doing far more than one measly session. You extracted a suitable revenge, of course?"

"Naturally."

"So, what can I do?"

"My subject is duelling. Unless you object, it would probably be easiest to just run through a training session with you."

"It's a good thing I like you, James. Fine, I'll do it. Eleven o'clock, you said? Then we still have forty minutes. Have you met the Weasleys?"

"I met Ronald this morning."

"I'll introduce you then."

Oozing charm, Draco sauntered back into the little circle.

"Business sorted," he announced with a smile. "I'm assisting with a duelling lecture at eleven. Now, this is James Evans, a friend of mine from University. He teaches Defence here now. James, these are Ron and Hermione Weasley."

Shaking hands with her, James looked at Hermione. She had grown up too, was no longer the girl with frizzy hair and a permanently vexed expression. She had matured into a beautiful woman, her head level with her husband's chin, with quietly stylish clothes. She was giving him the same careful examination. James nervously ran his fingers through his hair, brushing it forwards in case his scar was showing. At that, her eyes narrowed slightly.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr Evans. Is this your first year of teaching then? I feel sure I would have remembered had I seen you before."

"As I would certainly have remembered meeting such a radiant beauty as you. Yes, this is my first year," James said cautiously. He knew how intelligent Hermione was and how she noticed little things that most others missed. It would be unwise to underestimate her. He would have to be extremely careful. "I've just completed my university course and when I heard the position here was open, it seemed to suit my needs."

"Did you have much experience before coming here then?"

"I've coached a fair amount and taught small groups, but nothing on quite this scale. I've never had to do any written work either. Its much harder work than I expected. I've heard of your reputation of course, so I don't imagine you would have any problem with the organisational side of things."

"James, stop flirting with Hermione, you wouldn't want to break her heart when you don't take it seriously, would you? Hadn't we better go change?" Draco interrupted, glancing down at his own expensive, tailored robes.

At precisely eleven o'clock, James was standing on a platform that had been erected at one end of the Great Hall. Casting a Sonorus Charm on himself, he began to address his large audience. Practically the entire student population seemed to be present at a good number of adults too. He wondered how many people besides Albus would attend Abe's lecture.

"Silence please! I was asked to give you a demonstration on duelling. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could think of besides what is already covered in duelling club. Therefore I've decided to show you a standard training session. When I was on top form, I would train in this way at least five times a week, usually more. When training it is, for obvious reasons, easier with a partner. While he was at University, Mr Malfoy was my training partner. A session consists of three main parts. This first is when any new spells are practised but we won't be showing you that today. The second is a warm up and the third a training duel. Mr Alderton, do you have any idea of what exactly that is?"

"Is it just a duel when you aren't trying to defeat each other, more trying to learn?"

"A good thought, but not exactly. A training duel is one when each person's movements and spells have been planned out beforehand, in other words, you know exactly what your partner is going to do and how you have to block it. Its good practice when you're varying the strengths of spells and making your motions fluid. I believe the training session itself will be self-explanatory, so I won't be giving you a running commentary. I would just like to request that you remain quiet to allow us to concentrate."

The low murmur died away and the two men took off their jackets. Standing now in shorts and t-shirts, they were ready to begin. They faced each other and James raised his wand.

"Stupefy!" he said. Draco dropped like a stone. He woke him up and the process was repeated the other way round. This continued for a while with other minor level hexes and charms.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" James said, carefully moderating the power of the spell. Draco rose slowly, touched one of the roof beams and dropped gently to the ground. He turned to James with a smirk.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

James rose up a bit, then Draco twirled his wand and he began to spin uncontrollably. After a minute, Draco let him down. James' face was a sickly green as he sprinted for the door nearest a bathroom. A few minutes later, he was back, a determined set to his features. Draco lost the smirk.

They stood twenty paces apart and bowed to each other. Despite the fact that he was limited in which spells he could use, James had realised that he was able to get his revenge by putting just a bit of extra power into each of them. Since Draco wasn't quite as powerful, he'd be working much harder than normal to shield from them. Flicking his wand idly as he sent each charm speeding along the platform, he watched with a certain satisfaction as Draco leapt about his end, frantically blocking all he could. The final spell of the sequence was an Expelliarmus. James channelled twice his usual amount of energy down it and it hit Draco on the chest, his shield collapsing under the pressure. Just as younger duellers were apt to be knocked backwards by the force of a charm, Draco went flying about five metres backwards, landing heavily on his front.

During the loud applause from the audience, James went over and helped Draco up, returning his wand to him. They shook hands and bowed to the audience. Draco winced as he climbed off the platform.

"I suppose that was my fault for making you sick. Did you actually throw up this time?"

"Yes," James said grimly, "and I'd rather you didn't do that in front of my students. I'm meant to be infallible."

"You are, Jamie-boy, if you'd tried you could probably have broken a simple charm like that, and if you were trying, it wouldn't even have hit."

"I suppose. A right pair we are, aren't we?"

"Maybe. We might as well change while they prepare the Hall for lunch."

Separating when they reached the Entrance Hall, James heard running footsteps behind him. He turned, dropping instantly into a duelling stance, wand at the ready. It was Hermione. The look on her face did not bode well.

"I think we need to talk, Mr Evans."

James winced.

"You could come to my quarters this evening at seven, I suppose. Any house elf can direct you. I'd rather you didn't bring Ron, if that's okay. Tell him we're going through an Egyptian manuscript - he doesn't know Egyptian hieroglyphs, does he?"

"No. I'll see you later then. You have a lot of explaining to do."

James sighed as he watched her go. There was no stopping her when she wanted to know something. Now he'd just have to survive the questioning, maybe by playing to her emotional side, making sure she knew he was okay, happy, back, pleased to see her………

That evening, just before seven, James knocked on Abe's door. It wasn't to ask for sanctuary, though the possibility had crossed his mind. No, he was going to discover for himself whether his mentor had known of his identity or not. Mad or otherwise, he was an extremely intelligent man and had spent a lot of time alone with James. He answered the door almost immediately.

"Jamie, what can I do for you?"

"How much do you know about my life before I came to Uni?" James asked bluntly.

"Quite a lot," Abe said blandly. "It took me a while to figure it out, but your paperwork was somewhat incomplete and there were a few things that gave me suspicions. You coming here now has just confirmed them."

"Well, Hermione Weasley figured it out, and I sort of wondered if, since you already seemed to know, you could perhaps come and uh…"

"Protect you from her? Really, one would have thought a duelling champion would be capable of protecting himself. Of course I'll come, I want a full explanation. Now?"

"If possible sir."

"Oh yes, fine, but I thought you were calling me Abe now, hm?"

James grinned self-consciously. When he was nervous, he always had had a tendency to drop back into the more formal forms of address. They met Hermione coming down the corridor, Dobby at her side. Stopping outside the portrait of Salazar Slytherin, he whispered his Parseltongue password and led them in. As soon as the portrait was firmly closed, Hermione turned to him.

"Right Harry, I want answers. Start off with telling me who the man in the portrait was and why you look like him."

"That's Salazar Slytherin, I'm surprised you didn't recognise him. I look like him because of the magic I've been using, it's changed my body slightly. Do you remember how I killed Voldemort?"

"How could I forget? It was like a blinding white light and both of you vanished inside it."

"That's pure magic, I discovered it not long before the final battle. The book I found said only that it was extremely difficult to use safely, most users who attempted it died and that it required an extremely powerful wizard to harness it. It didn't mention that it was the type of magic that Salazar Slytherin was famous for. Anyway, when I released the energy, it completely destroyed Voldemort's body and soul. I was sick of my life and had already made plans to leave. I had money in a Muggle bank account and I'd made a few contacts in the area around Southampton. I Apparated - they taught me over the summer, remember - despite my injuries and ended up lying in the street. I was taken to hospital and spent two months there recovering."

"What was wrong with you exactly?"

"I was burnt all over. When I recovered, I left and set myself up. Since I'd lived with Muggles all my life, I already had most of the documents that I needed at the Durlseys, and it was easy enough to find them. I signed up then to do some studies at a college, Muggle subjects. It took me three years to get my A-levels - I took five subjects. After that, I gradually worked my way back into the wizarding world."

"How did you hide your scar?"

James grinned.

"Oh, that. Easy really, simple Muggle concealer works perfectly well. What was even better was that no one would think of looking for it. So long as I didn't get wet, I was absolutely fine."

"Only you… Keep going."

"I visited the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley, went to Hogsmeade, watched Quidditch matches and met various people. Once I thought I had enough contacts, I applied for the University."

"But if you didn't have any NEWTs?"

"Its not as uncommon as you might think, Mrs Weasley," Aberforth interrupted. "A number of children are home-schooled, as James claimed to be, and hadn't sat any exams. All applicants do an assessment and then if the Sorting Cauldron accepts them, they are accepted to the University. Needless to say, he passed easily."

"I was Sorted into Merlin House and the Cauldron matched me with Abe. After that, I had four years studying. Then I came here."

"So who knows?"

"You, Abe, as far as I know, that's it."

Hermione looked at him for a moment, trying to match this tall, confident, silver-eyed young man with the scrawny boy she'd known. Something in his face must have convinced her because she threw herself at him.

A few moments later, he asked,

"So how did you figure me out?"

"I lived with you for five years. It was little things, the way you flattened your fringe over your scar when you were nervous, that you were gay, the way you moved, your power, the fact you were teaching Defense."

"I'm that obvious?"

"Not really, Ron didn't notice, after all, and I don't think any of the other Professors have."

"And how about you, Abe?"

"Well Jamie-boy, your act wasn't quite so good when you first moved in with me. The concealer I found in the bathroom might have had something to do with it and how uncomfortable you were discussing the battle against Voldemort. I was never entirely sure though, so I kept you away from events like this festival and trained you as well as I could."

"So Harry, I can still call you Harry, can't I, or would you prefer James?" Hermione asked.

"I'd prefer James, if that's okay. I'm used to it now, and I'm not really Harry any more."

"Fine, but don't think you're running off again. You're coming to dinner soon and you're going to write to me."

"Yes 'Mione."

"Have you met Draco's son? He's named him after you."

"I'm little Harry's godfather actually, one of them."

"You? Well, better you than Ron. Who's the other?"

"Severus."

"Snape? Hm, well, I guess he's not so bad once you get to know him. I'm never sure when he means something or not."

"Slytherin trait," James said, smirking.

A/N: Damn, I didn't manage to fit the Quidditch in. It was going to go there, but then my sister suggested (ie insisted) that Hermione would figure it out and she'd need explanations. I hope what James was saying answered a few of your questions too. If there's anything else you think you need to know, put it in a review, and I'll answer it so long as it isn't critical to the story.