Chapter 7
Back To Work
Harry woke up to the sun blaring in through his curtains. He reached over to get his glasses, put them on and got out of his bed. 'It's good to be back' he thought to himself and got dressed and went down into the common room.
"Hi guy's, waiting for me?" Harry said coming down the stairs.
"We have to get started on this lesson plan," said Hermione.
Harry's smile faded, "let's just get some breakfast first."
When they all sat down and started tucking into their breakfast, they all checked out their class schedules.
"Great!" exclaimed Ron, "We're starting the week with Defence Against The Dark Arts and finishing the week with it as well."
"I haven't got DADA this year!" exclaimed Harry.
"Neither have I." stated Hermione.
"Why have I got it then? I'm in the advanced class aren't I?" asked Ron worriedly.
Hermione started rummaging around in her bag and brought out the DA's membership list. "Here, there you are. You're still on the list of DA members."
"Ah, Mr Weasley," said Dumbledore, "you'll be attending both classes. I've excluded Harry and Hermione from those classes in order for them to prepare the advanced class. However, they will still be attending their Defence Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T's next year."
"Oh, thank you sir," Ron replied as Dumbledore walked away.
"It's okay Ron, you can keep us informed as to what that class is doing. We could use that for our lessons plan," Hermione told him.
"Yeah Ron, you can be our spy," replied Harry smiling.
"That's not what I meant!" scolded Hermione. Both boys laughed.
The first bell rang for the start of the first class. Ron got up to go to his lesson and left Harry and Hermione alone in the great hall.
"Shall we go to the library to research some books we could use for the class?" asked Hermione.
"No need," said Harry getting up, "the room of requirements will have whatever we need."
"Oh," said Hermione following Harry out the door.
When they both entered the room of requirements, the room had changed. It was no longer a large classroom fit for thirty students but a small common room fit for six.
"What's happened to the room Harry?" asked Hermione.
"Well, this is a first!" laughed Harry.
"What are you talking about?" scolded Hermione.
"This is the room of requirements! I didn't 'require' a big room, I only 'required' a nice area to work." Harry explained.
"Oh," was all Hermione replied.
The two sat down together and listed everything they, or rather Harry, wanted to teach the class and then went through each one moving them in priority order. After several minutes of arguing they finally finished it. The new class schedule for this term would include learning basic Occlumency for mind control, Summoning, Banishing and Defence Tactics.
"Is that it?" asked Harry.
"I think so," replied Hermione checking the list. "Some of this stuff is really advanced, I'm not sure what the headmaster will think of it and if we finish teaching that, we'll just come up with some more topics."
"Well, we'll give him the list and find out," said Harry just as the end of lesson bell rang.
"Best get off for class, see you later," said Hermione as she set off for her Arithmancy class.
Harry went off to his first lesson, Divination with the Hufflepuffs, taught by Professor Firenze, a Centaur who helped out when Umbridge sacked Trelawney the year before.
Harry joined Ron at the back of the class, neither two took any notice of the class knowing full well they shouldn't even be there due to them failing this subject last year. They just happily talked about what they will be doing in the Advanced Defence classes, or AD classes as they now called them, and what Ron had done in DADA. Before they both knew it, the end of class bell rang and everyone went off for their lunch.
Harry wasn't at all looking forward to his next lesson. Three hours with Snape in the dungeons. When Harry began his potion's lesson he found out why it was for three hours at the end of the day. They would be learning extremely complicated potions this year that could take up to five hours to brew. The thought of spending five hours with Snape and the Slytherins nearly made Harry vomit, especially as two of those hours will be in their time, not school time. Thankfully, the extra long lessons would only be a couple of times per term.
Harry was so pleased when that last class had finished that he ran all the way back to his dorm. Harry had gotten changed and was just about to leave his dorm when Ron came bounding in out of breath.
"What's… the… rush… Harry?" Ron spluttered out, collapsing on his bed.
"Off for a run. Want to join me?" Harry replied.
Ron didn't answer.
"I take it that's a no then," and Harry went down into the common room, where Hermione stood at the bottom of the stairs.
"Where's Ron and what are you doing with shorts on?" she asked.
"Ron's collapsed on the bed and I'm off for a run," replied Harry.
Hermione tutted and went upstairs to find Ron ; Harry went out for his run. He was half way to the quidditch pitch when a voice entered Harry's mind, 'Harry, wait for me!'
Harry turned around and noticed Ginny running towards him. He waited a couple of minutes for her to catch up.
"What's up Ginny?" asked Harry, then noticing Ginny's running outfit.
"What's it look like? I'm joining you for a run if that's okay with you?" exclaimed Ginny more than asking.
Harry went up to Ginny and hugged her, "Of course it's okay Gin."
They carried on towards the quidditch pitch, went once around it and began running back to the castle.
On their way back to the castle, Ginny asked, "Have you heard what's happening with quidditch this year?"
Harry slowed down, stopped and turned to Ginny, "no, actually I haven't. Did Dumbledore mention anything at the welcome feast?"
"No," replied Ginny simply.
"I'll have to ask Ron. I'm surprised he hasn't mentioned it!"
"I'll mention it at the prefect's meeting tonight," replied Ginny.
They started running back to the castle again.
When they got back to the castle, Ginny went straight to the prefect's bathroom to take a shower and Harry just waved his hands over himself to banish all the bacteria and transfigure all the sweat into deodorant again like he did at Grimmauld Place. Harry smiled, he was getting better at wand less magic. Harry entered through the portal to the Gryffindor common room and sat in his spot in front of the fire.
No one was around in the common room. Harry thought they were either getting ready for dinner or in the library studying. Harry put his hand out to the fire absentmindedly and a flame floated into the palm of his hand. He sat there playing with the fire when Ginny walked back in through the portal.
"Harry!" exclaimed Ginny, "You'll burn yourself!"
Harry sighed, held his hand out to the fire again and the flame floated back down to it.
"You can control fire?" asked Ginny amazed.
"Yeah, Elemental Magic, just been practicing," Harry replied, "shall we get ready for dinner?"
"Yes, I'll just be a couple of minutes. Where're Ron and Hermione?" asked Ginny.
Harry shrugged, "Don't know. I haven't seen them."
They both went up to their respective dorms.
Harry entered his dorm and nearly fainted at the sight, "Ron! Bloody hell mate, you're reading a book!"
"Ha, ha, very funny!" replied Ron sarcastically.
"What you reading?" asked Harry as he got changed for dinner.
"Oh, just transfiguration, nothing too advanced. Hermione's been badgering me all summer. I've never been very good at it, as Hermione keeps reminding me!"
"You two seem to be getting quite close," Harry said, now sitting down next to Ron.
"Yeah, you know I've always liked her," he replied, blushing slightly.
"Well, let's go down for dinner," Harry said, getting back up.
Harry walked back down into the common room, followed by Ron, and joined Hermione and Ginny who were talking in front of the fire where Harry was sitting earlier.
"All ready?" Ginny asked.
"Yes," they all replied and left the common room for the great hall.
Dinner was short lived. Ron, Hermione and Ginny had a prefect's meeting and Harry had to meet Dumbledore about his lesson plan. As soon as Dumbledore left the great hall, Harry bade the others good night and left to follow Dumbledore.
When he got outside the great hall, he took a look around and couldn't see anyone. 'Strange', he thought and apparated outside Dumbledore's office. He knocked on the door, not expecting an answer, but, "come in" came Dumbledore's voice. 'mmm', Harry thought, 'how did he get back here so quick?'
He entered Dumbledore's office, gave him the lesson plan and sat down waiting for Dumbledore to comment on it. A moment later Dumbledore looked up at Harry, "Are you confident you can teach these subjects Harry?"
"Pretty sure sir," Harry said.
Dumbledore looked back down at the lessons plan then looked back up at Harry over his half moon spectacles, "I seem to remember you having a problem with Occlumency."
"I only want to teach the basics of Occlumency, specifically for strengthening the mind against the Imperius curse and blocking out pain such as the Cruciatus curse sir," replied Harry.
"I see," said Dumbledore taking another look at the lessons plan, "I already heard from Remus about your summoning and banishing charms." Dumbledore looked up at Harry again smiling. "Tell me, what defence tactics will you be teaching?"
"This will be the main part of the lesson, incorporating all the knowledge gained from the basic Occlumency, summoning and banishing charms to learn to defend ourselves against Voldemort's werewolves, vampires and most importantly his death eaters."
"I see, you think Voldemort will be recruiting werewolves and vampires?", asked Dumbledore.
"Although I would hope not, I do think it's possible sir."
"I see," said Dumbledore, "go on."
"Well, sir, we won't spend too much time on the werewolves and vampires as they are easy to ward off with the right summoning and banishing charms. We will spend most of our training on shield charms, both personal and group shields, and organise ourselves into small attack groups to fight back the death eaters in an organised manner. I've noticed death eaters tend to fight in an 'every man for himself' sort of way and I think we should be able to use this to our advantage."
"I see, excellent," replied Dumbledore, "What about surprise attacks?"
"Sir?" replied Harry.
Dumbledore suddenly got up, "crucio!" he shouted.
Harry was knocked backwards off his chair completely unprepared. Harry felt an overwhelming anger rise up inside himself and slowly got up off the floor unperturbed by the curse. Dumbledore looked at Harry with a worried look not usually associated with Dumbledore and took a few steps back when he saw that Harry's eyes were no longer emerald green but yellow. Dumbledore was still pointing his wand at Harry and by this time the portraits of the previous headmasters of Hogwarts were all awake and watching the conflict intently. Harry waved his hand, Dumbledore's desk being smashed against the wall, and walked slowly towards his headmaster ; he stopped just in front of him.
Dumbledore changed his tactics, "impero!" he shouted. It had no effect on Harry, he just stood there. "Incarcerus!", Dumbledore tried tying Harry up with ropes but Harry transfigured them all into snakes and commanded them to surround him. "Incendio!" Dumbledore cried out making the snakes burst into flames.
The door to Dumbledore's office swung open and Snape, followed by Remus, ran in just as Harry took control of the fire and transformed it into a fire demon.
Dumbledore lowered his wand and Harry banished the fire demon.
"Incredible!", Dumbledore exclaimed, "You have indeed grown stronger over the summer."
"Headmaster?", asked Snape, "What has been going on in here?"
"It's okay Severus, Remus. Harry was demonstrating his advanced defence abilities," replied Dumbledore bowing to Harry, who returned the bow. "Harry, welcome to the order of the phoenix."
"Sir?", Harry wasn't sure what just happened, but most of all, he couldn't believe his ears. Did Dumbledore just say he was now in the order?
"You have just proven yourself as a worthy member of the order Harry, please don't mention this to anyone. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to fix my desk," Dumbledore replied in an amused tone.
Harry bowed again to Dumbledore, nodded to both Snape and Remus, and left the office. As soon as Harry closed the door behind him, he apparated to the room of requirements.
"How did it go headmaster?" asked Remus.
"Harry had me worried for a while, but he has a good heart and never once attacked me," Dumbledore answered, now sitting at his repaired desk.
"Professor Lupin didn't explain to me why I had to come up here, and I'm still not sure why," said Snape shortly.
"Severus, I was testing Harry to see how far his training has progressed. You may or may not know that Harry has been training all summer in various advanced arts and has now moved beyond our normal teachings here at Hogwarts. I'm starting to wonder whether this has anything to do with Harry's ancestry," Dumbledore wondered.
"Harry's ancestry? You mean James?" asked Remus.
"No Remus, I mean Godric… Godric Gryffindor," replied Dumbledore, "We must keep an eye on Harry and guide him whenever he needs our help. Voldemort will be at full strength soon and Harry must also be at full strength if he is to defeat him."
"Has there been any word on Voldemort's movements?" asked Remus.
"No Remus. It appears as though Voldemort has gone to ground," replied Dumbledore.
"Well, is there anything else we can do?" asked Remus.
"Not tonight. Thank you for coming," Dumbledore replied standing, "I will call a meeting for the members of the order next month, until then, please do not mention anything that transpired here tonight to anyone."
"Yes headmaster," both Remus and Snape replied.
Harry smiled as he walked slowly up to one of the sofas in the room of requirements. Ginny laid fast asleep. She looked so peaceful lying there. Harry squeezed in behind her which made her stir but not wake up. They laid there together and drifted off to sleep.
A couple of hours later Ginny woke Harry up, "When did you get back? I've been waiting for you for ages and must have dozed off."
"Uh… oh… I came here straight from Dumbledore's office. What time is it?"
Ginny looked at her watch, "It's just after one in the morning."
"We'd better get back to the common room before we're missed," stated Harry.
"Okay, where's your cloak?" asked Ginny.
"In my trunk," Harry said casually.
"What?" exclaimed Ginny, "How are we going to get back?"
Harry sighed, touched her arm and apparated to the Gryffindor common room.
Ginny giggled and Harry looked at her affectionately and pulled her into an embrace. After a couple of minutes of holding each other, Harry kissed the top of her head and bade her good night.
"Come on mate, we're late for breakfast!" Ron exclaimed, shaking Harry awake.
"Uh… right…" said Harry getting up, "Kreacher!" Harry shouted.
"Why..." Ron was cut off.
POP, Kreacher appeared in front of Harry. "Get me a coffee!"
In a flash Kreacher had gone away and brought Harry a coffee and disappeared again.
"Whoa, I can't believe you just did that!" exclaimed Ron.
"Just don't tell Hermione! I had a bit of a ruff night last night," Harry replied.
"I hope you're not talking about my baby sister!" exclaimed Ron.
Harry narrowed his eyes at Ron, "No I'm not, and she's not a baby anymore! I'm talking about my meeting with Dumbledore."
"What happened?" asked Ron.
Harry finished his coffee, "I'll tell you later" and left their dorm for the great hall.
Breakfast was slightly rushed as they were late and had to finish so they wouldn't be late attending their first class of the day.
"What's our first lesson?" asked Ron.
"Charms with Flitwick," replied Harry rushing out of the hall. Harry stopped Ron, looked around and apparated himself and Ron to the corridor outside the Charms classroom.
"Cheers Harry," Ron said, entering the room.
"Just in time gentlemen, please take your seats," said Professor Flitwick.
Harry and Ron had to sit in the front row, as they were the last to enter the room.
"This lesson will be spent recapping all the charms learned in the previous five years." Flitwick then magically handed out a list of charms to try against their partners for the rest of the lesson.
"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Ron, "I don't remember half of these and we've only got just over an hour!"
"I'll do them all on you first and then help you do them, okay?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, okay."
The next hour was spent with everyone flinging various charms at each other. Harry finished 'charming' Ron in record time ; Ron didn't know what hit him. Professor Flitwick found it all amusing and spent the first twenty minutes watching Harry and chuckling at Ron. Despite Harry managing to finish practicing five years worth of charms in twenty minutes, the end of the lesson arrived and Ron was only half way through performing his charms.
The bell, signalling the end of the lesson, sounded and Professor Flitwick told everyone that they would continue practicing the rest of the charms at the next charms lesson.
Harry was giggling inside himself whilst holding Ron up. Ron noticed Harry was amused, "It's alright for you, none of my charms worked on you, well except my tickling charm!"
"Err, no Ron, that didn't work either!" replied Harry, laughing out loud now. Hermione, who had just joined them, also sniggered at Ron.
"Oh shut up!" said Ron.
The three of them made their way to their Transfiguration class, with the Ravenclaws. It took them all their break time to make it to the class seeing as Ron was still wobbling around. They both entered the class room and sat down near Hermione. As soon as class was ready to begin, the cat sitting on McGonagall's desk jumped off and transformed into McGonagall.
McGonagall started her lesson; "Today, we're going to take a look at what the stages are in becoming an animagus."
'Oh God,' Harry thought, 'here it comes.' Harry knew what was coming next.
"To my knowledge, besides myself, there is one other person here who is a trained animagi." Everyone started looking around the room, except Harry. "Mr. Potter, would you care to join me at the front of the class?" asked McGonagall politely.
Harry rose up and walked slowly down to the front of the class.
"Mr Potter here is the only one I know of who can transform into a magical creature. Everyone I know of, except Mr Potter here, who has tried, has failed." McGonagall turned to Harry, "Mr. Potter if you please."
Harry immediately transformed into his Animagus form, a golden griffin. The whole class gasped and applauded; Harry changed back.
"Thank you Mr. Potter, you may sit back down."
When Harry had sat back down, Hermione turned to him, "I can't believe she made you do that in front of the class."
Harry didn't reply to Hermione. He spent the rest of the class in a daze, not taking any notice of it. The secret he only wanted his close friends to know was out in the open, before long the whole school will know.
"Just to save Mr Potter from idle gossip, I'm going to perform a little charm on you all to stop you from mentioning anything about Harry's Animagus form unless he specifically allows you to," and with a wave of McGonagall's wand, the privacy charm was cast on the whole class.
"Harry? Are you okay?" Hermione asked as they walked to the great hall for lunch.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said shortly.
"Did you take any notice of the class? It looks like McGonagall is trying to find out who else can train up to be an animagus." Hermione said. Harry took no notice as he sat down to eat his lunch. Although McGonagall cast the privacy charm on the class, he still didn't like the idea of being shown off like a circus animal.
Care Of Magical Creatures was right after lunch, with the Slytherins, taught by Professor Weasley. The class was over far too fast for Harry. They had started learning about dragons, how to care for them, and defensive techniques for keeping out of harms way. To Hagrid's delight, Charlie had brought four dragon eggs to the school to be raised and hatched by the sixth years.
Before he knew it, he was on his way to Herbology with the Hufflepuffs in greenhouse six. Neville was in his element as this was his favourite class. Harry partnered up with Neville and was trying to talk to him about Luna as Harry suspected Neville having feelings for her, but Neville kept changing the subject back to Herbology.
At the end of the class they all went back to their dorms to get ready for dinner.
As Harry was still upset about what happened in his Transfiguration class, he didn't stay long for dinner, and when he'd finished, he excused himself and went back up to his dorm to read.
The following day, Harry didn't particularly want to get up. He knew his first lesson would be History Of Magic with Professor Binns, but he forced himself out of bed with the thought that at least he could get some more sleep in that class.
Ron, it seemed, had a similar thought, "What are you getting up for? It's only history!"
"I just don't want to miss breakfast," Harry replied simply and, with that, Ron got out of bed and got dressed.
The two went to breakfast and met up with Hermione. "Come on you two, you'll be late for class!" Hermione scolded them.
They both replied, "it's only history!"
Hermione tutted and walked off. Harry and Ron shrugged their shoulders and finished off their breakfast. By the time they reached their History Of Magic classroom they where twenty minutes late, but Binns didn't notice.
At the end of the class, Hermione smacked both Ron and Harry round the back of their heads and woke them up. "You're supposed to be a professor now," she said looking at Harry, "and you," she smacked Ron again, "are supposed to be a prefect!"
Harry and Ron groaned and got up to leave. Both of them felt the same way about history and their next class, Divination.
After their break, Hermione went of to Arithmancy and Harry and Ron went off to their Divination class.
Again, the pair didn't bother taking any notice of the class. They just discussed what was going to happen in tonight's AD class. Before they knew it, the end of lesson bell rang and off they went to lunch.
Hermione spent all lunch excitedly talking about what she thought McGonagall was going to be doing in their next class, Transfiguration, but Harry wasn't listening. Instead he decided to ignore Hermione and talk to Ginny.
When lunch had finished, Ginny went off to her Potions class and Harry, Ron and Hermione went off for their Transfiguration class.
The class began with McGonagall sitting on her desk in her cat Animagus form, and Harry had a thought about changing into his 'cat' Animagus form to chase her away, but thought better of it.
McGonagall continued on from their last Transfiguration lesson, explaining the stages of becoming an Animagus and getting everyone to try the first stages. Only one other person besides Harry could accomplish this and of course, it was Hermione. Harry noticed this before McGonagall and whispered, "Don't let McGonagall see you do that, pretend you can't do it and meet me tomorrow night in the room of requirements. I'll train with you." Hermione nodded and from then on pretended that she couldn't do any of the tasks.
After a short while, when McGonagall thought that no one could do the Animagi transformation, she stepped up the pace of the class and just explained the rest of the stages of becoming an Animagus. She didn't bother wasting any more time to see if anyone could perform the tasks. Harry thought she looked down heartened by no one showing any Animagus ability but paid it no more attention.
After class had been dismissed, Harry raced up to his dorm, got changed for dinner and headed back down to the great hall.
Harry was getting quite anxious as tonight was his first AD class. He finished his dinner quickly and left for the room of requirements to get ready for his class. He got there an hour before the start of the class and Dumbledore was waiting in the room for him.
"Ah, Harry. I just wanted to tell you how impressed I was with you on Monday and wish you good luck on your first advanced defence class," said Dumbledore.
"Thank you sir, that means a lot to me," replied Harry.
"Don't be too hard on your students Harry, especially with performing the unforgivables," Dumbledore said and left.
"Right," said Harry to himself, "where to start?"
Harry conjured up some large cushions and placed them around the room for everyone to sit on. He would begin his lesson with mind control. His students would have to learn how to block out the Cruciatus curse and Imperius curse. Most of his students would have started to learn this during Harry's fourth year when the Mad Eye Moody impostor was teaching at Hogwarts, but Harry had a different way to teach his students and wouldn't start cursing anyone until they have mastered the mind control techniques.
Harry still had ¾ of an hour left before the beginning of the lesson so he decided to clear his mind and meditate until the class started arriving. He sat down, closed his eyes and cleared his mind. Almost immediately he got another vision of Godric Gryffindor in his mind. This vision was different than before. Godric seemed to be showing Harry techniques for throwing off the Cruciatus and Imperius curses. Harry watched the vision intently and when Godric had finished he bowed to him ; Harry opened his eyes and saw his students entering the room, so he got up to great them.
"Welcome, welcome, to the first advanced defence class, or AD for short. Come in, sit down."
Harry waited for everyone to make themselves comfortable and began his lesson.
"Is everyone here?" asked Harry.
"Yes Professor Potter," they all said in unison.
"Ha, ha, very funny!" replied Harry. They'd obviously had planned that greeting before coming up to the room.
"Now, we will be learning mind control techniques that will enable you to throw off any curse designed to instil pain on its victim, specifically the Cruciatus curse. Once you learn to throw off the Cruciatus curse, all other 'pain' curses won't affect you either. This mind control technique will also strengthen your mind against the Imperius curse. Some of you may know that Voldemort," a lot of the students gasped at his name, "now, now, how are you to fight Voldemort and his death eaters if you are afraid of his name?" Harry paused but not really expecting an answer, "Now, as I was saying, some of you may know that Voldemort and his death eaters use the Imperius curse on people who Voldemort wants to recruit and become death eaters but who refuse him. He uses the Imperius curse on his victims to do his bidding until such a time as they receive the dark mark or they give up fighting the curse and start following his commands on their own. Once you have mastered this, Voldemort will not be able to use his cowardly way of recruiting new death eaters on you."
"Now, please make yourselves comfortable, close your eyes and clear your mind. This technique is called Occlumency, which is the art of concealing your mind. Not generally used for blocking the Cruciatus curse but if used properly it can be quite effective."
Harry walked around the room looking at all his students. He could tell some of them hadn't managed to clear their minds and helped them with the help of a little Legilimency. He walked around the class once more, now confident that all his students had now cleared their minds.
"Now, concentrate and try to distance yourselves from your physical body, try to make your mind float out of your body and above your head." Harry waited a short while, "Make your mind look down at your body."
Harry walked around the room again, entering all their minds, and was surprised to see everyone, including Ron, had managed to master this technique so soon, in just one lesson.
Harry turned to Hermione and entered her mind, he told her that he was going to curse her and she must try to stay focussed on keeping her mind out of her body.
"Crucio," Harry said and hit Hermione square on in the chest. He smiled when she didn't respond and lowered his wand. He gave it a few seconds and tried again, "crucio!" he shouted and hit her again. This time Hermione's face contorted and then she collapsed back. Harry immediately lowered his wand and went up to her.
Harry said quietly, "It's okay Hermione, you did really well. That's it for tonight for you," and dismissed her from class.
Harry made his way around everyone in the class, hitting them with the curse and then dismissing them. Most of the students crumpled on the first hit but a few of them, like Hermione, managed to block the first hit.
Ginny was the last one left. Harry entered her mind and created a perfect world for her inside her mind. When she was enveloped in this perfect world, Harry hit her with the curse. "Crucio" he said, she didn't flinch, he tried again "crucio!" he said more forcefully. 'Excellent' he thought to himself. He drew himself up to full power, drawing every ounce of strength he could and tried again, "CRUCIO!". She still didn't flinch.
Unknown to Harry, Ron was standing near the door watching with Hermione. Ron was standing open mouthed and Hermione put her arms around him as Harry walked up to Ginny and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. Ginny's eyes opened wide, "I did it!" she exclaimed.
"Yes you did!" Harry exclaimed back, holding back tears of joy as he hugged her.
"Wow," was all Ron could say.
Harry turned around to see his two best friends staring at him in amazement.
Harry put his arm around Ginny and led her to the door and all four of them walked back to the Gryffindor common room together.
"Wow Harry, that was brilliant!" exclaimed Ron when they got back to their common room.
"Yeah, it went really well. Better than I expected," replied Harry looking at Ginny, "I didn't expect everyone to master the mind control so quickly."
The four of them tried talking to each other but kept getting interrupted from other Gryffindors who where in the class. It seemed that Harry's first class was a big success.
The next day, Harry went down to breakfast with a big grin on his face, and everyone who was in his class exclaimed their views on how it was the best class they'd ever had.
Hermione joked, "If anyone else comes up to you like that, your head won't fit through the door!"
"Very funny," replied Harry sitting down at the table.
"Has anyone noticed that Malfoy hasn't been his usually pain in the arse?" asked Ron.
"Actually, I'd forgotten about him ! " replied Harry, now looking up at the Slytherins table. "Anyway, what's happening with quidditch ? " Harry asked changing the subject.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you! Tryouts for the teams will be next week. Our first game will be in November against Slytherin," said Ron, "oh, and, erm, I've been made captain," he finished off quickly.
"Captain! That's great Ron, well done," replied Harry genuinely happy for his friend. "Erm, am I still on the team?"
"Course you are mate, I don't care whether Umbridge banned you and I doubt McGonagall does, besides Ginny, you're the best seeker we've got!" replied Ron, "We've more or less got to find a whole new team this year though, most of the team left school last year. I hope we can get the cup."
"I'm sure we will," replied Harry, finishing off his breakfast.
The rest of the day flew by as Harry was still on a high from his first lesson. He helped Ron finish off performing his charms. Talked some more with Neville in Herbology, who now seemed to be opening up to Harry a little. Even potions and astronomy seemed to pass by faster than usual.
"Ah, tomorrow's Friday, the best day of the week," said Ron. Harry nodded in agreement still with a mouth full of mashed potatoes.
"I prefer Monday's," Hermione replied.
"You would," replied Ron.
"Ah, but, Hermione, over the weekend you can study what ever you want to your own schedule," explained Harry.
"You know what? I believe you're right Harry," Hermione replied with a smile. Harry turned to Ron smiling who just rolled his eyes.
After dinner, Harry went up to the room of requirements again to wait for Hermione, while Hermione took Ron up to the common room explaining to him what she was going to be doing on the way.
When Hermione entered the class room she noticed that Ginny was also there.
"Ginny? I didn't expect to see you here," Hermione said.
"You don't think I'd let you be alone with my boyfriend do you?" asked Ginny playfully.
Hermione smiled and walked up to them both.
"Hermione," Harry began, "you already know, from our Transfiguration class, the stages of becoming an Animagus. Can you practice over there on the first stage while I go through with Ginny and explain what those stages are?"
Hermione nodded and went into a corner to practice growing her fingernails while Harry took Ginny to one side and explained the first few stages into becoming and Animagus.
Harry asked her to try and grow her finger nails. She couldn't do it at first but Harry told her to clear her mind and stay focussed. After a few attempts she managed to grow her fingernails by about two millimetres. Only Harry and Ginny would have noticed, being seekers, but it was a start. Harry stayed with her until she could grow them more than ten millimetres and then went over to see how Hermione was doing.
Hermione was doing a little bit better than Ginny, but she had been practising more. Harry thought they were learning at the same pace as each other. He asked them both to continue while he practiced transforming into his Animagus form.
After an hour, he told both of them to practice for an hour every night, no more, before going to bed and come back to the room of requirements every Thursday night at the same time. Both girls agreed and they all went back to their common room and up to their dorms.
When Harry entered his dorm, he noticed Ron on his bed reading a book again. He sniggered, "I'll never get used to that!" he said.
"Oh shut up!" replied Ron, now closing the book.
Harry sniggered again, "I'm having an early night so I'm not tired out over the weekend. See you in the morning."
"All right mate. Good night," replied Ron.
Friday arrived at last. With them arriving at Hogwarts on a Sunday they never had the chance to relax before starting school. Both Harry and Ron got dressed and walked down to the common room. Hermione and Ginny were waiting as were Parvati, Lavender, Neville, Dean and Seamus.
"What's all this then?" asked Harry.
"Ginny was just telling us how you cursed her," Parvati said.
"Oh," Harry said simply, a little embarrassed. Harry turned to Ginny, "Shall we go to breakfast then?"
Ginny smiled and off they went, hand in hand, with everyone following behind.
When they reached the entrance to the great hall, who should be standing there but none other than Malfoy, Crabb and Goyle.
"Well, little potty's got himself a little girl friend," spat Malfoy.
"Grow up Malfoy!" spat Ginny back.
Malfoy was just about to say something when Hermione stepped forward, "You know, for a prefect I expect better behaviour, ten points from Slytherin."
Hermione pushed past into the great hall, everyone followed her smiling.
"Wow, you took points off Slytherin!" exclaimed Neville, "You should do that more often!"
"You know, maybe I will. Especially after what they did last year," replied Hermione.
Everyone sat down together and had their breakfast. They all left, one by one, leaving only the three best friends. "Well," started Harry, "Transfiguration again. I wonder whether McGonagall is going to move onto something other than being an Animagus or Animagi forms?"
"I'm sure she will. She didn't look happy when no one in class showed sign of being an Animagus," replied Hermione.
"Come on then, let's get going," said Ron.
"Bloody hell Hermione, what've you done to Ron?" Harry exclaimed. He got a slap on the back of the head from both Hermione and Ron.
The Transfiguration class was better than it had been. McGonagall did move on from the Animagi transformations and moved onto advanced transfiguration.
The three friends went off to the courtyard for their break after their lesson. Hermione spent most of the time telling Ron he should keep up and pay more attention in class and then went onto their Charms class.
When everyone arrived in class, Professor Flitwick announced that he'll be posting a notice to all fourth years and above for a duelling tournament to be held the first Thursday in October. Everyone started whispering to each other. When Professor Flitwick had calmed everyone down, he started the lesson which included defensive charms such as shield charms. Harry took notice of this as he was going to be teaching the more advanced group shields in his AD class.
The class flew by and everyone made his way to the great hall for lunch.
"I take it you're going to enter the duel?" Ron asked Harry.
"I'm hoping everyone in the AD class will be entering!" Harry exclaimed.
"Well, I don't know whether to..." Hermione was cut off.
"It will be a perfect opportunity to put your skills into practice," Harry told her.
"Well, okay. But I don't know how well I'll do."
"We'll all start practicing from the next AD class. We'll only have four lessons but we should be able to show the rest of the school what we can do," said Harry.
"You'll be fine Mione," said Ron getting up to go to his DADA class.
When Ron had left, Hermione asked Harry, "Seeing as you're a professor now, can you get into the restricted section in the library?"
"Don't know, shall we find out?"