When unable to find anyone else to do the job Dumbledore reluctantly asks his granddaughter to return to Hogwarts to teach DADA. Very AU sixth year fic started before I read HBP.
Rating: K or PGish for now but that is subject to change later on, you have been warned.
A/N: I started writing this story back in June before they release of Half-Blood Prince as a sixth year fic that I thought maybe I could turn into a seventh year fic depending on the events of HBP. Obviously that wasn't possible and so I abandoned this story for a while only to come back to it because I liked the plot so I'm posting it anyway and I hope you all enjoy this now very, very AU story.
Chapter 1: Gryffindor's and Slytherin's
There's an unwritten law in Hogwarts that states that Gryffindor's and Slytherin's can never get along and will always hate one another. No one ever talks about it, but everyone knows it's there. If I were to listen to my father then I'd know it's because all Gryffindor's are noble wizards who defend the innocent from dark wizards and other evildoers, and Slytherin's are all dark wizards.
My father is a muggle born and this indoctrinated so you can imagine what it's like for pure bloods or half bloods whose families have always been sorted into one house. I mention this because often family are sorted into the same house, which I believe has to do with the fact that the parents bring up the parents in a fashion that contributes to their children having the traits of the house that the parent grew up in. But that'll never change my father's opinions about the different houses since he groups everyone from each house into one group that can only end up becoming one thing.
My view – partially because my father's is so rigid – is very different. I've studied my history, I know that members from each house have been Headmasters of Hogwarts, or Ministers of Magic, or Order of Merlin recipients or professional Quidditch players or just about anything else you can think of. Now it's pretty much a given that because of the traits of each house that people from that house generally end up as certain things after they graduate Hogwarts. For example; Hufflepuff's normally make up the core of hardworking wizards while Ravenclaw's tend to be behind all of the great inventions every year. Now that is a generalization, and I know it, but the real worry is people who don't know it, who live and die by those kind of generalizations.
Which brings me back to Gryffindor's and Slytherin's.
Back when I was very young I used to question my father about why there were only dark wizards in Slytherin. After all it makes sense that the great defining traits of every house could lead to evil. Loyal Hufflepuff's could become fiercely loyal to the wrong side, ingenious Ravenclaw's could invent dark spells and daringly courageous Gryffindor's could be excellent fearless troops or masters of espionage.
I remember when I was a very young child, about five or six, and just starting to structure this idea how I decided to run it by on my grandpa on one of his visits. My very young self sat on his knee as I explained my idea in what I thought was excruciating detail. Once I was done Grandpa smiled and told me never to stop thinking because those were the kinds of ideas that we needed at Hogwarts and the very ideas that could change the world we lived in. I replied; "well I can think of idea's but only you can change the world".
Needless to say Grandpa wasn't too popular with my father who thought he was a bad influence on me and wanted him to stop coming around so often. Mom simply reminded him that he should consider himself lucky that Grandpa liked different ideas because without them my muggle born father would never have been able to marry my pure blood mother.
My so called "different ideas" stayed with me when I entered Hogwarts and caused me to ask the Sorting Hat to place me in Slytherin so I could prove to my father that not all Slytherin's were evil. The hat however told me that my work would best be accomplished in Gryffindor. When I told Grandpa about this disappointment he simply told me that for once he was glad I had not succeeded in my plans because at the moment Slytherin was not the safest place for me because of certain influences on the purebloods at that time.
To put in plainly I was put out by the fact that my greatest supporter thought it was a good thing I had failed in what I thought was a great plan to show the wizarding world why they shouldn't stereotype people by house. Because at eleven years old you don't understand that your Grandpa is keeping a close eye on trouble starting to brew around a former student of his. At eleven you can't hear the worried whispers between certain adults about mysterious events that have started taking place with increasing frequency. At eleven you only understand that you have a victory over your father because Sirius Black – one of the infamous Blacks who always end up in Slytherin – had been sorted into Gryffindor, and that was worth an owl home to gloat.
All this was on my mind as I approached Hogwarts for the first time in years answering my Grandpa's summons to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. And I found myself wishing for the innocence of an eleven-year-old mind once again.
A/N: so what does everyone think, does it seam like a good idea anyway?