Chapter five – classes again!
Harry thought that his life at school was over when he left but he was wrong, here he was sat in the defence against the darks arts classroom, waiting to teach his first class ever as an official Hogwarts member of staff, with a sense of dread he had barely felt before, even before the triwizard tasks.
As the children began to enter, the feeling mounted and he began to run through his plan again and again in his head; first half, questions and answers second half, disarming
Or so he hoped.
The first class of the day would be first years, so he felt they were both starting on a fresh plain. He went to the door, feeling himself shaking and saw the first years looking as scared as he was, waiting for him outside. His nerves were quashed and he told them to enter and sit down
"You wont be needing them" he said, indicating the books, and thinking he could impress them closed all their books with a wave of his hands. He got the impressed "oohs" he wanted and he thought this a good place to go.
"Well I thought as I'm new to this and you are; we'd have a little question and answer session? What do you think?" he said to the class, and moved around the desk, to sit on the front of it, towering over the front few rows. "Right then, shoot"
He had expected the very first question "are you the Harry potter?"
And it went on from there…
The session ended up lasting all lesson, and by the time he had the seventh years, who had been first years when he had left, he finally got to do some teaching, he decided to cover the shield charm, his speciality and a spell that had served him well many times over. By the end of the day, he was exhausted, mentally as well as physically and he collapsed into a chair after he had made the short walk to his house near Hagrid's hut on the edge of the forest. Only a second later dobby appeared with tea for him and just after that Ginny came in carrying Annie who was drinking from a bottle and blinking sleepily, she had grown quite a lot over the summer, and Harry had noticed her face was changing, freckles were appearing around her nosed and cheeks and her hair, was getting brighter by the day, growing a darker red than her mothers, and it was obvious now she would be the spitting image of Lilly, Harry's mother.
It was only a few minutes until Dobby had cooked dinner, Harry now could se why people had house elves, but he was making a mental note not to do wrong by his small friend, he had known what it was like to do thankless work.
Just as the couple sat down to eat dinner, there was a knock at the back door, strange, Harry thought, if anyone was coming from the castle, they would knock at the front surely, Harry drew his wand from his robes and went to answer. He looked out of a small window on the door and saw the naked torso of a black haired man, looking down he saw the body of a horse, a centaur was his caller, and he breathed a mental sigh of relief and opened the door.
"Harry potter, I am Orpheus" he said, holding out a hand which Harry shook.
"Come in, please" Harry asked the handsome centaur and he did so, looking around as he walked into the living room Harry asked him
"Would you like a drink?"
"No thank you I haven't long to stay Harry, I am here to warn you, you are in grave danger again, the second war may be won, but the battles are not over, there is someone you must be cautious of, we centaurs know not who, but we know he will be someone who you have not seen for a while, not an old friend, but an old face"
"Erm, thank you Orpheus, I am grateful for the warning" Harry replied.
He watched the centaur go back into the forest, then went to the coat stand at the side of the front door, put on his cloak kissed his wife and in a swirl of material he was on his way back up the castle.
As he paced Dumbledore's office, reciting the warning in his head, Harry became more and more angry, why him? He thought why was it always him? It wasn't really anyone he was angry with, he was just angry. He knew it wasn't his fault, Dumbledore's fault Ginny's fault or anyone's. He was angry. He was angry for his fate.
"I really really don't know Harry; I'm not sure who it could be"
"No professor, nor am I, there isn't anyone who I can think would turn up from my past"
Harry went to leave, just as he grabbed the handle of the door the headmaster said "Harry, the staff always go for a drink on the first weekend back, a tradition I am pleased to say I started we will meet at the three broomsticks at seven o'clock on Saturday night, Ginny is welcome to come too, if she would like"
The weeks classes passed with Harry not so much teaching as training, he had the students learn spells in theory lessons, then in the last lesson of the week, they would have some war games, split into teams the teams who won would be recorded and at the end of the year, Harry told them they would receive a prize, these lessons went well, as Harry had asked hagrid to make a type of war zone, with tall hedges around the sides, Harry had conjured a house, complete with gardens and fortified positions around it, he decided they would need these for a capture the flag type of activity, or Harry had thought, more capture the person.
"Father, it is tomorrow, our best chance of getting to him"
"Yes, I am sure it is"
Harry opened the door to the three broomsticks and Ginny walked inside, putting her jacket on the coat peg to the side of the door she walked in and ordered the drinks, Harry went to sit with the rest of the teachers. His wife came to sit by his side and the cool late summer winds entering through the window lifted her hair, and in the sunset it glowed, she must be an angel, he thought to himself, there's no other way she could hold such beauty. She had been sat about a second, when Harry saw something in his head, his was not day dreaming, he knew he wasn't, this was the future, and the very near future. What he saw was an explosion, outside the pub he was in, they were attacking, this was it, he thought
"Professor we need to…" BOOM the glass of the windows shattered spraying everyone with glass, before Harry knew what he was doing, he was outside, wand drawn and ready for battle, in a matter of seconds the rest of the teaching staff were there too, in a line, the most powerful wizards in England, ready for all the forces of evil could throw at them. Harry realised when the dust settled it wasn't a curse that blew the hole in the side of the small tavern, but a flaming rock, then before he knew it, another, the size of a horse came hurtling toward the ground, right at them, Harry was about to run, as a figure came from behind the buildings, seeming to have jumped them he landed as the rock was about to hit them, but to Harry's amazement he caught it, it must have weighed two tons at least, then to Harry's utter disbelief, he threw it back, the giant chunk of rock hitting a tree as it came to earth with a thud.
"ALBUS!" the man shouted to Dumbledore "they've got a catapult, it's the giants"
"Yes, very good, we need to stop them before they destroy the whole village, Baldur, take Harry and Neville they will be able to help as much as we can, we shall stop them attacking the village" he said, pointing to the crest of the hill into Hogsmeade where about twenty death eaters could be seen running into the main street.
As Harry Neville and the man who Harry supposed was called Baldur ran towards the source of the rocks, Harry shouted the man
"I'm Harry potter this is Neville Longbottom"
"Hi" yelled Neville, not knowing why they were shouting, as they were quite near to each other
"Good for you!" replied Baldur "look, I don't mean to sound rude but can we leave the introductions till after the fight?" he said, not even turning around.
They saw another giant piece of masonry fly high over their heads,
"Were getting close" Baldur screamed, and threw Harry and Neville something, Harry undid the loose wrapping to see a glorious sword, with a dark ebony handle and a gleaming steel blade. Neville had caught one much the same, but his was slightly shorter than Harry's, but it seemed to be wider. Looking slightly like a roman gladius. As Baldur went to draw his sword, Harry realised that underneath his thick cloak, with its fur lined hood hanging at the back, he wore chest armour, like that of a knight, the giants and their artillery was close now, but they still hadn't seen them, they were too busy loading and firing the machine, Harry was now watching his new comrade closely, he had his sword in one hand, and as he lifted the other, it seemed to be on fire, Harry was stunned and Baldur saw his look and gave him a broad grin, then with a look of immense concentration drew back his hand and seemingly threw a ball of fire at the giants, it hit the one just about to put a stone into the arm of the catapult and he was hit, he threw the stone but it just went up in the air and hit him in the face as he looked for it, it face exploded in a shower of blood and he was dead, Harry knew the look of death enough to know, they continued running, all three knowing that using magic would be useless, they were too strong to be effected much by them. They couldn't have been fifty metres away from them when Baldur disappeared from Harry's side, looking wildly around Harry finally caught sight of him, he was sailing through the air, limbs flailing, towards the giants, the three surviving monsters looked at him in shock as he flew towards one of their faces, jabbing the sword into his eye until he was up to his elbows, blood gushing from the wound he fell to the floor with the massive man, who lay in the crater he had made upon impact screaming in agony as he bled slowly to death hands clutching his eyes and face. The other giants not knowing what was happening stated to try and stamp on their foe, by this time Harry and Neville were there, dodging and weaving around the feet as they came down, making massive craters in the ground, and shaking the countryside all around them. one such stomp was so powerful it knocked Harry to the floor, and the giant, screaming stupidly tried to bring his foot down on Harry, just as it was looking the fight was over for Harry a sword penetrated the underside of the giants foot, he screamed even more, and Harry taking the hint thrust the point of his sword into the sole of the giants foot, making him positively howl in agony, then, as Harry withdrew his weapon from the giants skin, receiving a full body covering of blood he saw Neville being picked up the only other giant, as his last enemy had fallen to the floor Baldur shouted "help your friend, ill sort this big bastard"
"NEVILLE" Harry screamed and jumped at the giant's leg, clinging to his trousers he climbed making slow progress as he lone could use one hand. The giant was just about to drop his fellow teacher as Harry thrust his sword deep into the giants thigh, the hilt stopping Harry going deeper, he hung from it, feeling it tear the wound more and more until the giant fell to his knees, wailing and shouting curses at them in a language he couldn't understand. Neville, who had freed himself from the massive hands grabbed his sword from where it was laying, pulled back his arm and threw it at the massive shape in front of him, hitting it in the neck it stuck in and the giants blood was all over the ground before he knew it had hit him, it was obvious he had struck an artery, as gallons and gallons of the red liquid stained the grass around him. He fell to the floor, clutching his neck, not saying a word.
As Harry panted, one hand resting on his knees, he looked for Baldur, seeing him stood on the face of a giant, jamming the sword repeatedly into his face he shouted
"I think we'd better go to see if we can help at the village"
"Yeah, sure mate, good idea"
So the three apparated back to the village, not before pointing their wands at the giants catapult and shouting
"Incendious" setting fore to the giant structure and making sure it wouldn't harm them again