CHAPTER 8

The seventh year class that day seemed a bit confused at the change in lesson plan. Harry first told them to take out a quill and parchment contridicting the usual. There were several groans, but he ignored them.

"What's this all about?" James' rude tone rang out. "I thought we were going through review. We know everything we're reviewing, why do we need to be taking notes?" His tone suggested he knew everything he was talking about.

"Well, originally, we were just going to do review, but I thought you all might be getting a bit bored of it by now. Am I right?" There were several nods around the class. "Okay then I'm going to switch it up a bit today. Is that okay with you, James?"

"Whatever," was the response.

"Alright, continuing now. This spell won't be found in any text book or library book, so that's why you've got to write it all down. Make sure you've got everything I say written on your paper. All of it's important." He recited most parts of the spell from memory, but looked to his notebook for a few refferences to answer questions. When he was finished, he asked if there were any more questions. The majority of the class raised their hands. "Okay, I guess I didn't do as thorough job as I had thought. Er...how about Eleanor? What's your question?"

"Before we started taking notes, you said this spell wouldn't be found in any book. Why not?"

"A pretty good question. That's because it's not a registered spell, mening the minisry doesn't know about it. I'll be teaching these throughout the year." He answered.

"If the spell isn't registered, then isn't it illegal? And how do you know about it any way?" James called out once again. Harry hated whe he did this. The idea of Snape being right about his father sent chills down his back.

"Well, yes, technically this spell is illegal, but it's not lethal so there is no extreme punishment you could get from using it. And answer me a question now. If you are in a duel, and you have knowledge of a spell that your opponent doesn't, that gives you an advantage, doe it not? Now imagine you are dueling one of Voldemort's Slaves. You use it on them. No what? They don't knwo the counter curse, and you can finish the duel being victorious. And that's why I will teach you some this like this throughout the year."

"Okay whatever. But you never answered my other question. How do you know about it?"

"It doesn't matter as long as I know what I'm talking about."

"Professor," a small voice started from behind him.

"Harry," he corrected.

"Right... Harry." He turned to look at who was talking and realized it was the only other person in the class ho knew what he was talking about. "Why don't you just answer? It's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's wonderful, actually," Lily said.

"Woah, woah, woah. Evans knows about this? What, did you tell her about it in between your snogging sessions?" James smirked as he heard a low rumble of laughter throughout the room. Harry blushed a bit, but not nearly as significant as Lily.

"Very funny, James. You sure are quick to pick things up. Too bad for you though, it's not true. It's kind of an accident that Lily knows about it actually. We bumped into each other while I was practicing and making my lesson plans for today." He turned to Lily and gave her a look that said to go along with whatever he said. "The she asked what it was, and I explained parts of it to her."

"Then what was she talking about 'tell the truth'?" He gave himself a high pitched voice while imitating Lily which made people laugh again. He smiled and acknowledged tyhe laughing students. Harry rolled his eyes at his father's actions.

"I don't think that's any of you business, is it?"

"You won't find it in any book becaus ehe made it up. It's not registered because he didn't want to anyone to know about it. He's only teaching us about it becasue I accidentally found out about it." Lily said with defiance. Then she noticed Harry's defeated expression, and apologized. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry professor,"she gushed.

"Call me Harry. And it's all right." As soon as the information Lily had provided sunk in, the class was filled with conversation. "Okay, whatever. Class dismissed."

"But you never showed us the spell and how it works," James argued.

"Do you want to spend anymore time in my class today?" he asked. After seeing his face he added, "I didn't think so."

James told his friends he would meet up with them, and waited for the rest of the class to clear out of the classroom. "Just because I play a lot of pranks doesn't mean I don't want to learn a spell like this or that I'm stupid or something. I love Defense Against the Dark Arts. It's probably the only class that we really need right now during the war at least. I-"

James wasn't done saying what he needed to, and Harry knew it, but he interrupted anyway. "I know."

"I hate when teachers do that. They say something, and always expect you to know what they're talking about."

"I know that too. I was a student not that long ago, remember? I had to deal with teachers like that too." He took a deep breathe and continued. "I hated it when teachers did that to me too, so I'm going to try to explain it a bit more. What I meant was, I totally agree that you need this class more than anything, and I don't think you're stupid. And it's completely obvious that when you're here you are listening to me even though you pretend like you're not. This war is going to be going on for a long time, trust me I know. And this class is so important that people learn something from me. I'm trying thwe best that I can, I'm even giving up some of my own personal knowledge to you so you have a better chance of survival in this war."

"I know, I just hate making it look like I need to hear something someone else has to teach me. I've got this image that I'm completely independant and I don't need anyone's help. If I go to you for advice it'll be like I'm totally dependant on you."

"Is that what you think? I've got news for you then. You don't look independant at all. It looks to me that you need your friends to live. Tell me, what would you do if you didn't have them?" Harry couldn't help but think of Remus as he was saying this, but he tried to keep him mind on track. After James didn't answer, Harry replied, "Exactly, you are dependant on them."

"Yeah, but they don't count, they depend on me too."

"Yeah, I know that, and you all seem like good guys, but you won't let anyone else see that. Only they know who you really are. You should stray away-- not completely-- but let someone else see who you really are."

"You know, I really didn't want to like you. I've been completely evil to you 'caus I really wanted to hate you. I though you would take everything away from me. I mean you should have heard Mooney-- oh, sorry, I mean Remus-- talking about you the other night in the Common Room. He was saying things like you seemed like a good guy and I made fun of him for it. And now I realize I only do things like that because I didn't understand where he was coming from. I wish I could be as good as he is about seeing the genuine person behind the skin is. I guess he's kind of forced to because of his illness-- oops."

"Don't worry about it. I know all about it, probably more than I should." Harry said with a small smile, James couldn't help but give him a suspicious look.

"Thanks for this, I think I kinda needed it," James said offhandedly, but Harry knew he was being completely serious and that he really did need this. "But we gotten to the topic of why I actually stayed after class. Show me how the hell I can cast that spell!" Harry chuckled a bit at seeing his father go from being truthfully sincere to jokingly bossing his professor around.

"I'll tell you what. I can't really do it here, and you don't want me to perform it on you as an example, so why don't you meet me at my office tomorrow night at... say sevenish? You can bring the rest of your pack as well. And I strongly suggest you do becaus ei think Remus might be a little upset if you got to learn it without him." He added a wink at the end and sent him off to his next class with an excuse notice for being late. Harry was sure the teacher, whoever it was, would have a heart attack seeing James Potter walk in late and actually have a late pass.

Harry decided that since hye tyaught his seventh years one of his own spells, he would teach the rest of the students one as well. The lessons went quite well, surprising Harry. Some first years, most second years, and every student older than that accomplished his spell in the first few tries. He taught the same spell to every class throughout the next two days, which made them pass faster.

Before he knew it, it was the night he would be meeting with the Marauders. He had told Remus about it and, he thought it was a brilliant idea, and he was ecstatic to heaar Harry and his father had finally made a truce. The thing that surprised Harry the most was that he had butterflies in his stomach all throughout dinner, especially when he saw one of the four that he would be meeting with tonight. It would be difficult to be civil to Peter, but he might as well try.

Okay I know it's like super short and it was a really bad ending for a chapter, but I don't really know where to go from here. And plus I'm only working on 3 hours sleep. I'm hella tired. Just read and review, tell me what you think. I WANNA KNOW! I don't know when the next chapter is gonna be up, but there's gonna be some definate male bondage going on, who knows, maybe even some pranks (if I can think of any). Okay until next time my faithful reviewers...