"You won't loose your child to the war, I'll make sure of it, I promise," Harry put a hand on either friend's shoulder, he drew them into a hug and he felt Hermione start to cry. "Okay, we'll have the baby, for sure," Hermione nodded and Ron smiled at her. "Good," Harry smiled at them.
8 8 8 8
A knock sounded against the door, it opened and there stood a very sweet looking woman. She gave a soft smile and stepped in.
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt but I'm Professor Tains, everywhere is overwhelmingly full and I thought perhaps I could share a compartment with you. Do you mind at all?" She asked, her hair was auburn and she had large green eyes.
"Oh, not at all, of course you can sit with us. What are you teaching Professor?" Hermione asked, she took her seat next to Ron. "Divination," she smiled and sat next to Harry.
"Oh," Hermione looked down fallen, she'd hoped she'd teach something better.
"Professor Trewalney refused to take the position back, she sent me the applications for the position and Dumbledore hired me on the spot. Frenz returned to the Centaurs you see. He was uncomfortable at Hogwarts as a teacher. Sybill is my aunt by the way," Tains said, she smiled and folded her hands in her lap.
"How interesting, Ron will be taking Advanced Divination, what will you be teaching"
"Some Tarot cards, some amount of attempting visions, since it is advanced class for you. We'll also be working with smoke imagery and flame fortunes. It's a bit of a woolly subject but if you can see through the logic of normal reasoning, things make an ounce or two of sense sometimes," she smiled. Hermione jerked her head up and went wide eyed, she'd said the same thing about the subject three years ago. Tains suddenly went silent and her eyes misted over slightly.
"Professor? Are you all right?" Ron asked, shaking her slightly.
She snapped out of her daze, she shook her head and nodded. "Your child is a girl by the way, very sweet child, she'll come out smiling," Tains gave a smile at Hermione who looked stunned. Tains stood and touched the door. "I really must go find Professor Duran, he's got some chocolate I believe. Good-bye," she waved to them as she left.
"Oh my god, was that a real vision she had"
"I think so," Harry shrugged. "Seemed tame if you ask me"
"It did," Ron nodded. They sat the rest of the way in silence. They arrived at Hogwarts about an hour later and just in time for the Welcoming Feast. Inside the Hall was buzzing with gossip and laughter. Harry took his seat across from Ron and Hermione, on one side sat Neville and on his other sat Ginny. Everything would be okay. Up at the Head Table sat the usual professors including two new people. Tains and a gray haired man with heavily lidded turquoise eyes. He must have been the new DADA teacher Duran. The First Years walked in and the hat sang to the school, the 11year-olds were called up one at a time and sorted. A range on whispers floated through the school with each student.
"Students, students, please, calm down. Now, there are two new teachers I would like to introduce to you. Professor Amelia Tains will be taking over Divination for us," Dumbledore motioned to her, she stood and gave a polite wave.
"And Frederique Duran will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts," Dumbledore then motioned to the gray haired man. The students clapped for him. He gave a bow and then seated himself. Harry then noticed a small group of two other people sitting at the Head Table, he recognized none of them.
"The final order of business is that there are a few new courses being offered this year. For Fourth Years and above you may take as electives; History of the Dark Arts, Wizarding World Religion, Wiccan Magic and Study of Human-Like Creatures. For Sixth and Seventh Years we are offering Combat Classes, MediWizard Training Courses and Pre-Auror Training. These will be taught be various teachers. History of the Dark Arts, MediWizard Training, and Wizarding World Religion will all be taught by Professor Cole," a very young man with curled brown hair and sparkling brown eyes stood and waved to the students.
"Wiccan Magic and Combat Classes will be taught by Professor Tains and then Study of Human-Like Creatures and Pre-Auror Training will be taught by Professor Quest," an older woman with raven hair and black eyes stood at her name, she looked bored. "If you wish to sign up for any of these classes there are sheets posted in your Common Rooms, and your time tables will arrive tomorrow at dinner. Sign up for no more than four please. Be sure to sign up before bed tonight," Dumbledore sat down and dinner started.
When classes started it turned out that Harry was taking History of the Dark Arts without either of his closest friends. Mostly Slytherins were in the class, a few Ravenclaw and the only Gryffindors in the class were himself and a fifth year he didn't know. Cole walked into the room and dropped a thick file on his desk. He smirked at them and lent back against his desk.
"Attendance, if you're not hear I don't give a damn, let's move on. Who knows jack squat about the History of the Dark Arts?" Several Slytherins raised their hands.
"You don't count Malfoy, your family lived it, anyone else?" He looked around.
"Sir? Isn't that what we came here to learn?" a Ravenclaw asked.
"Shut-up, I hate smart asses. So, let's get on with it. So Voldemort is "descend" from the house of Slytherin's founder. Right? But, what people don't know is the Slytherin family has never been involved in the Dark Arts, ever. Salazar himself was actually one of the most brilliant minds ever, he did a lot for the wizarding world. More on that later. We'll talk about the evolution of fighting techniques for a while this year. How the original wars compare to the last one we had. How much of a wimp Voldemort is compared to the havoc reeked by past Dark Wizards. Actually how wimpy he is compared to some current Dark Wizarding Families. We'll also talk about who created many of the Dark spells and why. We'll also talk about Dark Wizarding Families," Cole turned to the board and started to write up what they would cover.
Harry found himself fascinated by it and wondered if Ron and Hermione were having as much fun in their classes, Hermione was in Arithmacy and Ron had managed to wind up in Advanced Divination.
Once class ended he headed off to Double Transfiguration and found Ron and Hermione on the way.
"Wow, I can't believe how cool Professor Tains is, she's wicked amazing and she's funny too. I can't wait for Wiccan Magic tomorrow, or Combat Classes later today," Ron smiled. Harry had never seen him this excited about classes.
"While you boys are fighting I'm going to be in Wizarding World Religion, what's Cole like Harry"
"He's really smart, and he's really cool too, you'll like him," Harry said as they entered McGonaggle's classroom. She was sitting at her desk smirking which was a scary sight. "Sit class, sit. I want you to partner up, according to my list. Then you'll choose one of these topics," she pointed to the board. There was a list of transfigurations.
Human to Human- Polyjuice Potion Or the Transistuce Spell
Human to Object- Nimivererto
Human to Animal- (Anamigi) Suranvertori or the Anijuice Potion Object to Object- Transtucion Spell
NOTE Object to Human and Object to Animal Transfigurations are impossible as objects do not have the proper structure or ability to become human or animal.
Animal to Animal- Reveranturo Animal to Object- Veraverto Animal to Human- Not recommended except perhaps for Ms. Granger and her unlucky partner.
"Your partners are as follows. Bulstrode and Longbottom. Brown and Patil. Crabbe and Thomas. Goyle and Finnagin. Granger and Parkinson. Malfoy and Potter. Moon and Perks. Nott and Vigian. Weasley and Zambini," now Harry knew why she had been smirking the way she was.
The projects would be absolute chaos, Snape must have taught her a thing or two. "Now, move to sit with your partner, go on now," McGonaggle watched class rearrange itself. Harry stood and walked to the back of the row, Malfoy was sitting with his feet on the desk in front of him and he was flipping through a magazine. He looked up as Harry sat down. He looked up at the board and groaned. Removing his feet his chair came forward off its two back legs and landed on the ground.
"What do you want to do?" Harry indicated to the board.
"Human to Animal? Most people with go for either Human to Human or Animal to Animal as they're easiest. We should strike above them," Malfoy said, he closed the magazine and set it aside. It was a copy of WQ or Wizarding Quarterly, on the cover sat Malfoy in a leather chair with a cigarette in one hand a glass of brandy in the other, wearing a pinstripe vest, matching pants, a tie, leather shoes and a white dress shirt. Harry was staring at the picture of blonde, a trail of white smoke was escaping from his lips. He nodded mutely and made no further movement. Malfoy had taken out a book and was reading as could be expected.
"So if we brew a batch of Anijuice then we can transform into animals, we should also study the manual way of becoming an Animgus and include that in-Earth to Potter, are you out there?" Malfoy noticed the raven-haired boy staring at the magazine cover. Harry made no response and the blonde frowned, he waved his hand in front of Harry's face but still nothing. Malfoy noticed what he was staring at.
"I look better naked you know," Malfoy said, turning back to his books, Harry snapped out of his daze and turned a shocked face towards the blonde.
"Wh-what"
"If we brew a batch of Anijuice then we can transform into animals, we should also study the manual way of becoming an Animgus and include that in the project. It'll get us a higher mark," Malfoy said offhandedly. "Oh, yeah, sure," Harry nodded and started taking down notes. The entire morning he felt himself attempting to drift his attention back to the picture. When class ended and they left for lunch.
WOOT!! Review please!