Part Three- Something New, Old and Blue
When Harry arrived at the Great Hall the next morning, Draco was already at the Slytherin table reading the Daily Prophet and munching on a bit of toast. To be as inconspicuous as they had been for last few months last year, both didn't acknowledge each other except for the occasional insult. A few people including Ginny sat at the Gryffindor table; she had her head in arms and looking almost asleep.
"Hey," Harry said, smile broad on his face. He sat opposite the redhead and grabbed for a large muffin.
"Mmm, mmm, mm." Ginny mumbled and didn't look up.
"What's the matter?" Harry touched her shoulder, she looked up. She looked like someone deprived of sleep for days. Worn, although nothing could take away her own bronze-ruby beauty.
"I didn't sleep at all last night, annnd I still feel like I'm gonna puke."
The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher approached the Gryffindor table; he noticed his sister and sat down.
"What's wrong, Ginny?"
Percy smiled a smile between care and pompousness. It was a different Percy than Harry remembered. The third oldest Weasley had always been arrogant, but he lacked a quality of confidence that few people couldn't mask with other traits and created bravado. This was a whole new confident Percy. He was also wearing robes that accentuated his new self-assurance, and the expensiveness. There was not a crease in the dark red and black robes, and they looked extremely expensive.
"Hey Perce," Ginny looked back up and grabbed the goblet in front of her. She took a sip of the orange juice. "Nothing just a bit of a stomach ache that's all."
"It's Professor Weasley for the year. Well if it gets too bad don't hesitate to go to the hospital wing. This may be your first N.E.W.T. year, but you don't want to kill yourself over it." She held up an okay sign.
"Lemme catch a few minutes of sleep okay?" Percy squeezed her shoulder lightly.
"I'll see you later today, and Potter I guess I see you first thing." If Percy hadn't been standing there, a loud groan would have been very audible. He walked to the teacher's table, head as high as it could get before he'd hit the ceiling.
"I don't know what's worse," Ginny mumbled, "Perce as the Dark Arts teacher, or the fact that it's N.E.W.T.S. He's going to kill us with homework, and I know I'll get double the load."
"I'll probably always get the triple load. I'm sure he still thinks I'm a nutter and that I'm just seeking attention." Harry dropped his voice. "What do you think happened to Professor Marley? I mean she wasn't as good as Lupin, but she did a million times better than Umbridge."
"I don't know, that's what I was thinking about last night. Oh, speaking of last night, did I miss anything eventful?" She gave a small, sneaky smile.
"Nah, we just talked about the dumbass he was raised by and I talked him into eating something. When we got down to the kitchen he started eating, a lot." Ginny laughed through her nose a bit.
She then yawned but didn't put her head down again. She seemed to be making a very big effort to paint a smile and feign a good mood, as everybody made his or her way into the Hall.
"Hey Ginny!" A voice cried. Harry thought his name was Barry Higgins, a sixth year Hufflepuff, with hair a color of light brown that resembled peanut butter. He'd gotten in the habit of stalking Ginny towards the end of last year.
"Hey Barry, how was your summer?" Ginny smiled, Harry saw that it was an attempt to hide her gritting teeth.
"Great, my family went water-skiing a couple of times. How was yours?"
"Fine, Harry and I must have walked all around the villages surrounding my home." Barry gave an ugly look that was a cross between hate and intimidation, but he didn't say anything about it.
"What N.E.W.T.S classes did you take?"
"Nearly all. I've got all the requirements to train to be a Healer, but I need the classes first." Her smile was beginning to fade.
"I guess I'll see you in all my classes. I got a few O's and I signed up for N.E.W.T.S stuff too. Bye."
"Bye." Then she said through tighter gritted teeth when Barry was out of earshot. "Get outta here or you'll be on the receiving end of a cruse that'll make you even uglier." Harry suppressed a snicker.
After Ron and Hermione showed up Professor McGonagall started passing out schedules. Ginny looked at hers with a faint smile. Ron moaned a bit. Hermione scanned hers with fervor. Harry looked at his; sure enough Double Defense Against the Dark Arts was first, then Double Potions ending with Double Charms.
"Hmm, looks as though Harry and I have similar schedules. Only I have Runes and then Arithmancy after Herbology tomorrow." Hermione slipped the schedule into her bag.
"Well other than the lack of Potions, Harry and I have the same schedule." Ron gave one last look at the parchment then stowed it away as well.
Ginny spoke next, "oy, I've got as bad a load as Harry and Hermione. It'll be worth it though." As a true smile crossed her lips, her face lit up, erasing the wiriness that had just been there.
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Harry walked to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with Ron and Hermione. Draco was there, submerged in a thick volume bound in burgundy leather. Percy was sitting behind a desk in the front of the room, scribbling on a small piece of parchment. Next to enter the classroom was Neville and Seamus, then the Patil twins, and Lavender. The last Slytherins entered the class, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, they held each other's hands until they sat in the desks behind Draco. The pair tried to talk to him but he was so engrossed in the book, he didn't say much. The last few made it in before the bell rang Ernie Macmillan, Michael Corner, Zacharias Smith, Justin Finch-Fletchley and then Hannah Abbott with Susan Bones and Sally-Anne Perks.
After the bell rang, Percy didn't get up or say anything yet. He finished the letter and tied it to Hermes' leg, who then flew off. He then stood and tapped the blackboard with his wand. His neat handwriting scrawled upon the board. Everyone got the hint and pulled out quills and parchment.
"N.E.W.T.S Defense Against the Dark Arts Syllabus:
First quarter: Dark creatures and how to counteract them with Charms and Potions.
Second quarter: Dark jinxes and counterjinx theory and practice
Third quarter: Origin of the Dark Arts and the history of the Unforgivable and other curses.
First few weeks of fourth quarter: N.E.W.T.S review
All students are required to stay with the rest of the class, NO EXCUSES. If you fail to keep up, I will reserve the right to dismiss you from my class."
Harry smiled a bit. By the syllabus, this wasn't going to be as much an Umbridge-like year as he'd could have thought. Percy waited five minutes before speaking.
"Everyday, I will have the notes for the day upon the board as you enter class, on top of the notes you should be taking every time I am speaking. This is a class I expect to be the best. I heard how much of you participated in a certain Dark Arts defense group, thus I expect the best, and apparently if I don't get the results I desire, you would have wasted much of your time." The old members of the D.A. remained silent.
"Have you all copied the syllabus? I hope so; nobody is to ever ask me what we did in the last class. You better hope to get well done notes from someone, because in my class, one day behind makes a great difference."
Percy glanced over the room; most everyone was finished copying the board. He tapped the board again and two pictures of a very beautiful woman at first glance. But when Harry stared at her again he thought twice about the first picture. In the first photo she was half-naked with the lower body of a great serpent. In the next she was beautifully robed and standing on two legs.
"We will be starting with the Lilith. Now, who can tell me what the Lilith is?" Hermione raised her hand of course, so did Draco and Blaise Zabini. "Yes, Miss Zabini?"
Blaise's faux sweet alto voice spoke, it reminded Harry too much of Bellatrix's. "A Lilith is a woman who is much like a vampire, only she feeds upon the blood of children and their mothers. If a Lilith feeds upon an expecting mother, the mother herself becomes one. She can also assume the shape of a normal woman."
"Correct a point to Slytherin. The Lilith is a woman of serpentine origin. In her natural state she is half human, half snake. What is the myth behind the Lilith? Miss Granger."
"The Lilith was supposedly Merlin's first wife. She was cursed to never bear children and in her rage she promised that if she could never bear children, what right did other women have. In an attempt to contain her Merlin cursed her and she became a great half snake, though she escaped and started the spread of the Lilith's Kiss."
"Excellent a point to Gryffindor. Another monster similar to the Lilith is the Succubus."
Percy lectured on about counteracts on a Lilith and some of the potions you can make to stop a woman from becoming a Lilith. He went over some of the precautions to stop a Lilith from entering homes and how to recognize one in public. "Most Liliths migrate to warm, wet climates, like the Mediterranean but sometimes you see then here in Britain or Ireland. Succubi on the other hand prefer colder climates. You will also review the Succubus on your own time."
"Now, I will leave the rest of chapter one in The Dark Arts: Origin and the Present, to your study and I want a two and a half-foot essay on the countering of the Lilith's Kiss and the Succubi Allure." Not a groan was audible. "Begin reading."
Harry checked chapter one in his book; it was almost three dozen pages long. The heading mentioned the monsters they were covering: Succubi and Liliths. Then he thought about the assignment: two and a half-foot essay. One could only wonder what Potions had in store.
Again when Harry stole a glance at Draco after arriving in the dungeons, he was submerged in the same book. Snape glanced over the N.E.W.T.S class, gave the same look to Harry as he had done nearly every class last year, bewilderment and hatred mixed together, and then proceeded to lecture.
"We will be starting an involved transfiguration potion similar to the Polyjuice Potion, although this potion is meant for animal transformation. The Manimal Potion is fairly complex and if you let the brew go array, you will end up in the hospital wing if you don't wish to face embarrassment. You will be working in pairs...that I assign."
Snape went around grouping pairs together. Hermione moved towards Hannah Abbott but Snape paired her with Blaise, the dark headed, thin lipped, girl smiled.
"Potter you will be working with Malfoy." Harry stole a glance at Draco; the Slytherin was grinning maleficent. He knew it was a disguise, the glint in his pewter eyes gave it away.
"Potter, you better not mess up in this potion, or you'll be in the hospital yet again." Draco said aloud, then in a barely discernible whisper, "I'd hate to think of Madam Pomfrey walking in on us." Harry tried to hide his smile.
Within minutes the dungeon was the temperature of an oven, since the potion needed to stay at hot temperatures.
"Okay Potter, did you stir in the vole whiskers?" Harry nodded. "Time to add the powdered bicorn horn, and turn up the damned heat." Draco wasn't even looking at his notes as he followed the next steps.
"How do you know the recipe?" Harry whispered.
"Snape showed me the lesson plans. I read ahead." Draco's lips barely moved when he whispered causally. "Time to let it simmer for the next fifteen minutes. I'm glad this stuff doesn't take as long to make as the Polyjuice Potion." The liquid bubbling in the cauldron was a sky blue with the occasional wisp of midnight blue streaming through it.
Snape stood at the head of the classroom after his most recent sweep. "I have several samples of animal skins, hair, etcetera. Pick one and you will add it to a sample of potion you will drink as well as your partner. You will remain at your seat, I don't want animal byproducts all over my classroom."
Draco walked up to the front of the room and brought back a grey and white feather and several dark hairs. "Pick one." Harry grabbed for the feather, in the process deftly stroking Draco's open palm.
Snape began speaking again. "Now other things you need to write down about the Manimal potion before you drink your concoctions. Manimalizing yourself for long periods of time can have deadly consequences. Others not so deadly but you may never regain or shed certain body parts again. I have antidotes up here so that you can return to normal and then clean up."
Within minutes there were birds, dogs, cats and even a few reptiles moving around the classroom. Draco was crouched on the stool, and if Harry could snicker through a falcon's beak, ferret toes drummed in irritation. The clear antidote potion lay in a bowl for each person; Draco immediately reached for it. Harry scanned the room though falcon eyes. There was a mouse in the far corner, it was Hannah. The bird within wanted to jump on the mouse; tear claws in to the tiny body, and fill a hungry stomach.
"Potter ya better get your already bird brain back into reality, cause I'm not cleaning up this mess by myself." Draco still looked irritated from being a ferret again.
Harry dipped his beak into the bowl and drank the awful antidote that tasted how India ink smelled. The next half-hour was spent cleaning, in which Snape slid in a request for a foot long essay on other animalizing potions, how they differ from Animagi abilities and spells.
At lunch Ginny still didn't look good. She took a bite of an apple then pushed it away and took a sip of pumpkin juice. Harry tried to goad her into eating more but she just pushed him away.
"I'll be fine Harry, it's just my nerves."
The Boy Who Lived shook his defeated head.