The first few days of the new school year brought only loads of homework. After such misfortune, common rooms were full of scraping and rustling noises. Tables were covered with walls of books and parchments were all over the carpet. But some talking was also heard in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, right beside the fireplace. The Dream Team were discussing their first DADA lesson with the new Professor.
"I think she is cool," Ron said with characteristic enthusiasm.
"Professors cannot be cool. They can be wise, strict, just, merciful, but cool? It's pathetic," corrected Hermione.
"But she is! She cast such curses on that guy, as she didn't want to defeat him, but to insult or humiliate. Do you remember that spell that made his tongue stick to his forehead or that curse that put worms in his hair? This was sooo cool! I'll certainly learn it!"
"It wasn't a guy. It is our training dummy, which we will use to practice our spells on."
"Oh yeh. I'll blow him up."
"Oh yes, you certainly will, but not before it blows you up.
"Me? But it is a dummy. It cannot do anything."
"By itself, yes. But if it has some help, then everything can happen. "
"Hermione, now you sound pathetic."
"I'll see who is pathetic, when you blow up to the ceiling and back."
"Ok, but you will be first."
"Guys, guys, what are you talking about! I don't want anybody to be blown up," Harry cut into the conversation. "I think this time Dumbledore found a real DADA teacher. She will really prepare us for the battle with Voldemort."
Ron and Hermione again shivered at the sound of the name.
"Only one look at her and you know that you have a worthy opponent."
Flashback
The class was a buzz, seventh-year gryffindors and slytherins were waiting for their DADA lesson to begin. And such mixture means no good. The insults were thrown back and forth, wands must have been raised to throw hexes and curses, but all shut their months at the cry, "Silence! Back to your seats!"
These were the first words which they heard from their new DADA teacher, professor Halflife. She entered through large oak doors which opened on their own accord. She wore plain black robes, which were from a soft, but strong material that made the robe to be perfectly suited for any training. She went to her table and begun her "welcoming" speech.
"Hello to everybody! I am professor Halflife and I will be teaching you Defence Against the Dark Arts. During the larger part of the lessons I will teach you to duel, because this is what you will need soon under the circumstances." She ran hers eyes over the students before her with her special penetrating look then did a movement with her wand. "Dumtraino!" After that a dummy appeared before her. "This is a dummy you will be training your spells on from now on. You can make such a dummy appear everywhere you want, preferably in your common rooms. Now I would like to show you some hexes I simply like to try on my opponents."
This was certainly an uncommon thing to say for a teacher and there was an appropriate reaction from students, but nobody commented. Then the show began: she cried some hexes towards the dummy and strange things began happening. Firstly, its knees started to tremble like it was afraid, then fingers of both hands intertwined with each other. After that, like Ron mentioned, worms started to crawl out of its hair and its tongue stuck to its forehead, and its apple eyes became much larger than they should be. The sight was really horrible or better say, disgusting. But this didn't affect the professor in the slightest. In her eyes little flames were dancing, as if she was the devil himself, then after a second, all became normal: the dummy disappeared and professor Halflife became composed and serene. Students were in shock, if not to say dumbstruck, but couldn't avert their eyes form the professor.
"I would like to check your duelling abilities, to see what spells and curses you will need to learn. Are any volunteers?"
Students looked at her as if she was crazy. Who would, in his right mind, duel with her after she showed what she liked to do with her opponents?
"I would like to," a calm voice said from the back seats.
"Ok, come here." She was a little surprised, because she didn't think that anybody would dare to duel her after her little show. She did it on purpose, like a part of a teaching strategy.
From the back of the classroom, with the sides of his robe floating behind him, the infamous Draco Malfoy began confidently walking towards her. "Always making a grant entrance," grunted Ron under his breath.
"Well, take your duel position and we can begin," said professor Halflife still surprised, but she became even more surprised when he did what she sad.
At first there was nothing uncommon in his duelling position, but if you look more precisely, as everybody did at that moment, because they were more than eager to see, how Malfoy's ass would be kicked (I mean gryffindors of course). You could see that the fingers of his left hand were a little above his head, if to be more exact his index and middle fingers were looking straight at the teacher as a second pair of eyes. After a little hesitation, Halflife took the same position and another show of this lesson began. Just before the beginning, Malfoy asked only one more thing, "May I attack you?"
"If you manage."
Challenge was seen in both their eyes as they began to walk in circles in front of the students, eyeing one another, but the purposes of their looks were different. Halflife looked at the boy in front of her and thought, what he could do if he challenged her to a duel and even asked about attacking her, but she couldn't find any answer. Malfoy only thought about hexes he can use and not get punished.
But after a few seconds of such walking, the professor made her first move. She cast a binding hex, but Malfoy said the counter spell even without looking away from the professor's eyes. 'Another tough nut, hah? Let's see, what you can do,' thought the DADA teacher, but still wasn't that sure about the outcome of the duel. After the first hex she didn't wait any longer and began a serious attack: five or more curses flew towards Malfoy, but he reversed them all.
'This is beginning to turn pathetic!' Indignation was even in her thoughts and she was really angry now. She then sent some very painful and powerful curses, but Malfoy's only reaction was to reverse some of them and ditching others with Malfoy's known grace. This was the last straw for the professor. How could he do something like this to her? This is unbearable! She sent red sparks towards Malfoy and he slightly moved his left hand, but then put a shield charm around him understanding that his opponent was angry and could do much worse. The only way for him to come out of this alive and with points was to exterminate the professor, and he did this crying "Paralisis!" which made an effect of paralysis on her wand hand. He had the opportunity to cast the spell while she was thinking of another drastic curse for him.
After such a spell, she was wholly paralyzed, but the spell was cast perfectly, and the other part of her body was paralyzed from utter shock, as were the others in the room. Nobody said a word for a few minutes, then the bell rang, and Malfoy wordlessly went out of the classroom.
End Flashback
Back in the Gryffindor common room, discussion about the DADA lesson continued.
"I still can't understand what was the duelling position that Malfoy used," said Harry deep in thought.
"Yes, rather interesting indeed. I need to research about it in the library."
"Again!" Ron was full of dissatisfaction. "How can you spend so much time in the library? You don't even see sun, only yellow pages there."
"You know, there are some black things on them too, they are called letters. L-E-T-T-E-R-S. But I am sure you don't know what these are, since you cannot read."
"Me! Can't READ? Oh, you...you...bookworm!"
"Me! A bookworm? Go and watch your sun, its sunset right now and don't be late or your girlfriend will bite your head off," she said mockingly, because everybody knew that Ron didn't have any girlfriend. But at her words, he looked on his watch and then at Hermione.
"Oh, thanks for reminding, she will really bite my head off like she did the last time when I was late." With that he stormed out of the common room.
"I didn't wash my ears today, or did Ron just say that he had a girlfriend?" asked Harry in absolute bewilderment.
"I hope you washed them alright."
Just when they sat with their mouths open, Ginny took Ron's place in the armchair.
"Hi, guys. What's up?"
"Oh, nothing. Just talking about school, you know," answered Hermione, because Harry still couldn't say a word.
But when he composed himself, he asked, "You received a letter today, didn't you?"
"Ah, I forgot about it completely!"
After that she ran to her room to read the letter. It was a white envelope with no special marks on it, just her name: 'To Miss Weasley'. She was intrigued and opened the letter. When she read it she didn't know what to do or to say about it.
Ms. Weasley,
You are welcome to attend Advanced Potions Class. If you are interested, then go to the Potions classroom today at seven o'clock sharp. Don't tell about your destination to anybody.
Professor Snape, Potions Master
The first thing that came to her mind was: 'Why me? I am not even on top of my class.' But then she thought, 'And why not? It's a high privilege to be in the Advanced Potions. Snape has his reasons. What time is it? Oh, Merlin! Fifteen minutes to seven!' She ran out of the common room, heading straight to the dungeons.
The dungeons were creepy as always. With a lot of effort she reached the door of the potions classroom. Opening it with a crack she saw that the class was almost empty. Almost...without counting Draco Malfoy, who sat behind one of the desks. 'Not a good beginning.' She entered and quietly sat behind the nearby desk. They sat a minute in silence, and then Snape entered. He looked around and saw that everybody was present so he could begin.
"Welcome to the Advanced Potions class. I see that you are both interested in some deeper learning of the Potions science. You will work together..."
"No!" Draco and Ginny cried in unison, and then looked as if surprised at each other.
"Then you can leave, because this is the only condition of your studying," said Snape with ice in his voice.
After that a very long silence hung in the room. Draco and Ginny were weighing their options.
Ginny: 'I cannot work with him. It will be pure torture. He is a Malfoy and I am a Weasley. We will argue all the time and nothing will be done properly. I am asked to participate in such an honorable class and what do I get? Malfoy of all people! Brrrr! But then it could be fun to torture him back.'
Draco: 'Snape asked me to help him. Not a problem, but with her! No way. I cannot work with her. It will be pure torture. I am a Malfoy and she is a Weasley. We will argue all the time and nothing will be done properly.'
But then he looked into the eyes of his favourite professor, and he saw there was something very uncommon – entreaty.
"Yes!" Draco and Ginny answered in unison again.
"That's more like it," begun Snape in his usual teaching tone, "follow me."
He stood up and left the classroom and they followed in suit after him. They walked for a while before facing an ancient wooden door; after they entered they found themselves in a narrow corridor or a passage, to be more precise. The passage ended with a room, which was used like a potions laboratory.
"Sit down," continued Snape. "This will be your working room. Here you will find all needed ingredients and books."
He went to a closet and took two black robes with hoods out of there. "Already?" asked Draco without even realizing it.
"No, they are not those."
Ginny looked from Draco to Snape and back, but understood nothing.
"These are your working robes. They will protect you from fire, acids and blowups. You can change the color, of course. You will study here on Mondays and Thursdays at six o'clock. Now that we have finished all these arrangements, I want to tell you the purpose of all this. I need assistants for making different potions for me, not very complicated, but still time taking. You can understand that I have a lot of work to do, especially now, so I cannot waste my time on some simple potions, simple for me, but not for you, of course.
I will give you assignments such as lists of potions, but without instructions, and you are to find them by yourselves. Maybe later you will do some research too.
The most important thing is to keep this all in secret; nobody must know where you are going and what you are doing. Top secret, understand? Absolutely nobody must know, friends, relatives, nobody. Maybe you will be absent from you average potion classes, but you can say to your friends that I gave you detention or another assignment, something of that sort. Have you understood everything?"
Draco and Ginny nodded. On this, the topic was closed. Draco and Ginny moved to their dormitories without a word.
'Will this work out? They are my last hope.' This was Snape's last thought when he entered his private cambers right next to the laboratory.