Chapter 13: Classes Begin
Harry's first class of the day was double Defense Against the Dark Arts; Harry had decided that the best way to start his classes would be to tell the students exactly what qualified him, for the position. He knew this would be emotionally draining for him but he was also very well aware of the fact that they would not be able to concentrate on lessons until their questions had been answered.
When it was time for lessons to begin, and Harry could stall no more he opened the door and let the excited first years in the room. "You may put your wands away, you won't need them today, but please come prepared to use them next class. Today I am going to tell you what has prepared me to be your professor and about why it is important that you learn what I have to teach you. I hope that none of you ever need to call on the knowledge that I hope to impart, but I want you to be prepared to defend yourself if necessary." Harry took a deep breath and began his tale, it took him the entire double period to describe the events that had honed his skills in the subject and that was without discussing the Triwizard tournament or the events inside the shrieking shack. They did not need to hear about his first meeting with his godfather and he did not think he could manage to tell the tale fourteen times anyway it was just too painful.
Harry almost wished after that first lesson that he had not agreed to teach the class at all, almost, but not quite he new deep down that this was what he was meant to do. If he made it through this war, he would not want, as he and Ron had often discussed, be an auror, he would be ready to stop fighting and see the happier side of life, see people growing and learning, Harry knew that Hogwarts was where he was meant to live out his days. But still, his friends would be having their morning break now, having just finished Care of Magical Creatures and Harry did not have a break until lunch, he had two more sessions of Defense classes before than, first he had his seventh year N.E.W.T. class, and then the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Merlin fifth years, and they were preparing for O.W.L.s. He suppressed a groan, and let in the seventh years, the N.E.W.T. classes combined all of the houses into one class, so it cut down on the number of classes Harry had to teach a little and for that he was grateful.
By the time Harry let the fifth years into his room he was not sure he could tell the story again, but Ginny caught his eye and gave him a quick smile and he felt like he could do anything, and he launched into the story one more time knowing that when it was over he would be able to walk down to lunch with Ginny, Luna, and Tuesday.
When the bell rang Harry dismissed his class and sank down into his chair, exhausted, he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, feeling slightly better he opened his eyes to find the girls waiting for him. He flashed them a smile as he got to his feet, "Let's go get some lunch." They all murmured their consent and set off. When they entered the corridor they found it deserted, all of the other students having hurried to the great hall.
Not concerned about a lack of food at their table, because Ron had to walk in from the Greenhouses, they walked slowly. As they approached the steps in the Entrance Hall Tuesday turned to Harry and said, "I really admire you for allowing others to benefit from your misfortunes, even though it is clearly painful for you to relive those experiences." Ginny remained eerily quiet and Harry wondered how hearing about the Chamber of Secrets had affected her.
Feeling that now was not the time to ask her about it, he responded to Tuesday, "I could not think of a better way to make them understand just what Voldemort could do." He stopped talking as all three girls shuddered. They entered the Great Hall and walked over to their table, when they had finished filling their plates to see Ron and Hermione coming through the doors, Draco was no where to be seen.
Harry let them sit down and fill their plates before asking, "Where's Malfoy?"
Hermione glanced up and sighed, "He should be here soon, he fell behind on the way up. He seems to be having a tough day, though, all of the Slytherins are refusing to talk to him and I have heard rumors that they have been hexing him from behind."
"Well, that explains it then, I wondered how Goyle managed to pull off a perfect tripping jinx, but if he was aiming at Malfoy and not at Justin Finch-Fletchely…" Ron said through a particularly large mouth full. He swallowed and then continued, "But, it's Malfoy, he deserves it, the stupid git."
"Ron, no one deserves that," Hermione said quietly.
Harry rose intending to go find the other boy, but he was spared the trouble when Malfoy entered, hands shoved into his pockets and head bowed. Harry felt his heart lurch, but sat back down, not wanting to add to Draco's embarrassment. Harry tried even harder to include Draco in the conversation, than he had at breakfast, but was met with the same resistance. However, he could not help but notice in the few moments when the former Slytherin let his guard down that the blond-haired boy seemed to be waiting for them to crush what was left of his dignity. Harry decided not to push him and let Malfoy lapse once again into silence.
The rest of lunch passed to quickly, and the sixth years were soon headed to potions, as much as Harry wanted to avoid time in Snape's company he was glad to be headed down into the dungeons and not back up to his classroom, he was not anxious to repeat his saga again.
Snape's foul mood seemed to have increased ten fold. It seems that Harry becoming a Professor and Head of House was more than he could handle, and to make matters worse his favorite student was now in Harry's House. Snape watched Harry like a hawk, hoping he would mess up his Mandrake Draft; Harry ignored him as best he could and managed a prefect potion. Although he did come dangerously close to losing his temper with the Professor, when he vanished Malfoy's potion, claiming he had forgotten a vital ingredient, however Harry had seen the other boy add it.
The rest of their afternoon classes and dinner passed without incident and they found themselves headed up to the common room, as a group minus Ginny, who had gone to meet the, in Harry's opinion, rather slow, and obnoxious, not to mention ugly Dean. Harry flopped dejectedly into a chair by the fire, Malfoy stormed directly into his room slamming the door shut behind him, Ron and Hermione put their bags away and left to go for a walk around the lake, and the remaining two girls and Neville sat down at the table to begin studying. Harry sat and brooded for several minutes staring at the pair of double doors opposite the entrance, he suddenly remembered his plan to find out where they led.
Harry got to his feet and crossed the hall and threw them open. The doors swung open to reveal, another hexagonal chamber, this one much smaller than the common room. Each wall, housed one door, Harry turned to his right and opened the first door, his mouth dropped open as he stepped into an exact replica of the Library, the only thing missing was Madam Pince, he walked over to what was normally the restricted section of the library and pulled the book he recognized as containing to instructions to make the polyjuice potion. He braced himself, and opened the book, expecting it to begin screaming, but nothing happened, he relaxed and closed the book, returning it to its shelf. He could not wait to tell Hermione about this! He moved out of the library, and onto the next door, the huge room behind it was a muggle gymnasium, except that the machines did not plug into anything, Harry sat down to test one and found that they ran on their own, without any apparent source of power, he shrugged, stranger things had happened. He closed the door, and continued on to find a dark dungeon-like room, he looked around hoping to figure out what its purpose was, then he noticed the shelves of potions ingredients and several cauldrons on tables at the front of the room, well that could come in handy, they had their own potions labs, they could have used that in the past. He turned and walked out, wondering what could possibly be in the next two rooms, he opened up the next door to reveal a small windowless room, the walls were painted a pale, pale blue and seemed to be the source of the dim comforting light, in the room, in one corner there was a stack off thick cushions, just the right size for sitting on cross-legged, and practicing occlumency. Harry decided to find out what was behind the last door and then go get the others, and show them these rooms which seemed to be custom designed for them to train for the fight against Voldemort.
As Harry stepped in to the hexagonal hall way and then the flaw in his plan, Ron and Hermione had gone out for a walk, he had now way to know when they would be back and Ginny had gone with…no, he couldn't think about it. He strode to the next door and flung it open, it was the most impressive yet, the ceiling was a high as the Great Hall's, and the room itself was nearly twice its size, it was completely empty except for a red ring on the floor, leaving only four feet between the wall and the ring. Harry had never seen anything like this room before but, he knew instinctively what it was for. He stepped over the red line and into the dueling ring, just to test his theory he threw a curse across the ring, it disappeared when it reached the ring.
"Care to try it out, Potter?" Harry turned to see Malfoy framed in the doorway, and wondered how Draco had managed to enter the room without Harry noticing him.
"I don't have time for your games, Malfoy."
"Scared? I mean, you just might lose and then what would happen to the legend of the great Harry Potter."
"I just don't believe in preying on wizards who are less powerful."
"Just as well, now you can go dream about Weasley's sister."
"Alright, you want a duel, you got it."
Malfoy skirted the edge of the room and entered the ring directly across from Harry, they bowed to each other. Malfoy shot of a curse before Harry even managed to straighten all the way. Harry blocked it in the nick of time with a shield charm and immediately shot a bat boogey hex at his opponent, the blond boy dodged easily. They exchanged spells for twenty minutes before Malfoy managed to disarm Harry, immediately shooting a stunner in his direction, Harry dove out of the way, extended one hand toward Malfoy and shouted 'Expeliamus' and to their surprise both Draco and Harry's wands went soaring through the air, although they landed about half-way to Harry. Malfoy started running to retrieve his wand, Harry arm still raised shouted 'Petrificus Totalus,' and Malfoy went stiff as a board and toppled to the floor.
Harry got to his feet, retrieved the fallen wands, and walked over to the fallen boy; he preformed a quick counter curse and extended a hand to help Draco up, Harry tried not to let his surprise be to apparent when Draco took it and allowed Harry to help pull him to his feet. Harry handed Malfoy his wand back and they walked out of the training area and back to their dormitories in a companionable silence. Once they had shut the door to their foyer behind them Malfoy turned to Harry, "That was an impressive bit of magic in their, Potter. Who is teaching you wandless magic?"
"No one, that was the first time I ever did wandless magic intentionally, I was kinda surprised it worked."
"Well, I think I will have to challenge you to another duel when you have had a chance to practice more. Just promise you won't hold back any."
"You don't have to worry about that, you gave me a run for my money, which is not something I will take lightly." Harry turned to go into his room, but paused when he heard Draco speak again.
"I won't tell anyone about the Weasley girl if you don't tell anyone that you beat me in a duel."
Harry blushed and was glad he had not turned to face Malfoy, "You've got a deal."