Chapter Eleven:

Mad Professor

Harry woke up, around 5:00 the following morning, this was normal for him, he liked to start his days with a run and some defense practicing, it was something he had become accustomed to doing since he began his training at the beginning of his sixth year.

He splashed his face with water, he had not had many nightmares last night, yes even though Voldemort was gone did not mean that the memories were and being back in a place with a living Voldemort did not help the matter.

He put on his old trainers, and ran a hand through his hair out of force of habit and readied himself for the day a head. Nobody was up yet, not even the sun.

He headed out to the quidditch pitch and ran its perimeter five or so times before deciding to sit down and catch his breath before he would start his defense warm up. The sun was just rising now and Harry enjoyed watching it do so, back in his time it some how gave him satisfaction that no matter what came his way he would still keep going just like the sun.

He took a few deep breaths and started his vigorous Defense workout. Shifting his arms and legs and wielding a sword while throwing curses at an illusion-based opponent. He worked this way until the sun was fully in the sky and he could hear small chatter making its way from the great hall, where he then headed.

James woke up on the third day of his last year of school, to a huge book being thrown at the back of his head James could not help but yelp as the thick book, that must have belonged to Remus seeming Sirius did not read and peter couldn't.

"Padfoot, you bloody git, just wait till tomorrow"

"Yeah I will wait till tomorrow when I get to that again my aim has gotten really good over the summer"

James answered by tossing his pillow at his best friend and grunting as he got out of his bed, to soon for his liking.

By the time the marauders had finished primping for the day, they headed down to breakfast were they had ten minutes to eat before their first class, potions with Professor Kayla if she was not a witch already that would be the exact term for her.

As always, James scanned the teachers table, He saw McGonagall in deep discussion with Dumbledore, while Professor Kayla sat as always in secluded silence, and Flitwick chatted happily away with Hagrid, the games keeper. He then saw an empty seat that should belong to their new defense teacher where was he?

His question was answered a minute later as Professor Granger, trotted into the great hall using the side entrance made for the employees, he was wearing sweats and trainers, and James could hear many of the girls of surrounding tables suddenly sigh as one. Professor Granger himself did not seem to notice this though, or he did and was just used to it.

James turned back to his food, just as Sirius and the others noticed the arrival of their new professor.

Sirius instantly put on a mischievous face as he looked up at the man that had "no clue" what so ever that they were the "biggest" pranksters of all time, this would be good or so he thought.

James knew this face all to well as he himself held it, most of the time.

It was time that their new professor learnt who the marauders were, but that would have to wait as Defense was their last class of the day, oh well it meant that they would have more time to plan a better prank that would really teach their teacher good.

Lily absentmindedly was watching the marauders as Sirius face turned to one of the major prankster that he was, and she looked in the direction that their faces stared to find the victim of their next prank.

She found who it was a moment later, and was not pleased, how those boys could prank the new teacher. Lily did not usually mind pranks all that much as long as they did not hurt anyone and were not completely humiliating but there had been times when the marauders went to far and she hoped that this would not be one of those times.

Harry sat at the teachers table, and was quietly eating his breakfast devouring the taste of the food that he had not tasted for just over two months ago, though it felt like twenty years.

As he ate, he thought about his classes for the day.

He had a free period first and then he had the second year, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. That would be easy enough he would first review what they had learnt the year before and give them the criteria for the upcoming year.

Then following the second years he would have the fourth year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, once again review and such.

Then he would have another free period before he had the Ravenclaw and Slytherin sixth year NEWTS class.

Followed by the Gryffindor and Slytherin Seventh Year NEWTS class, in which he would have to watch out for, if he knew Sirius he would probably be planning a prank, well he would be getting a shock there.

Harry could not help but anticipate the end of the day; he would finally get to meet his parents.

Not to mention his 17 year old future godfather, and friend and of course the ugly fat stupid brain dead traitor, whom he was sure only past his classes because the other marauders were good enough friends to help him out, too bad that he did not return the same courtesies.

Soon breakfast was over and Harry's musings were cut short as he went back to his chambers to take a shower and get ready for his first class of the day.

James and the marauders sat in the back of the history of magic classroom, one class away from Defense and their prank.

Their prank was the current discussion, what would they be doing?

"We could… no we could…" Peter kept saying having an extraordinary amount of trouble thinking of something to do, but that would probably come by the fact that his brain was more hollow than smart.

"I've got it!" Sirius said though loud enough to draw the attention of a select few surrounding him. After the others had turned back to their work or their sleep in most cases Sirius laid out his plans to the group, all whose faces turned up with a mischievous grin plastered on their faces?

This was going to be good.

Lily, was one of those select few who were sitting in close vicinity and had heard the whole thing, it was pretty harmless, it was nothing that would distract the class for to long and while there was no sense in pranking a teacher in the first place she pretty much classified this prank at a lower class level, which was good because nobody would know what could happen if they went over the top.

The bell rung twenty minutes later and Sirius raced upstairs to the dorm to get the object that would be used for their first prank of the New Year.

Five minutes later, everyone was sitting in the Defense classroom, through out the day they had heard from other students that this teacher really knew his stuff and they were surprised to find that he was only eighteen or so they had said.

They were all waiting for their new teacher now wondering where he might be, usually new teachers were always exactly on time in order to make a good impression but five minutes more had past and there had been no sign of the teacher.

Harry sat in the back of his classroom, disillusioned from view watching his class carelessly walk in, with no sense at the fact that even in such an environment they could be attacked.

He looked over at his father and his friends sitting there patiently waiting for the arrival of the teacher that was already their unbeknownst to them. He then looked at his mother who sat in the front row with a blonde girl that he had never met before but as sure that he had seen a picture of over the years.

He waited one more minute before deciding to reveal him in a more enthusiastic manner than usual.

As quietly as he could he whispered "stupefy" he could have done so wordlessly but he wanted to see if anyone had any vigilance at all and was to hear it, unfortunately no one did.

The spell connected with peter, purely by 'accident' with no time to realize that a spell had just headed his way he went down and hit his round and large head on the desk, knocked out.

The other marauders, lily, and Snape were on alert now with their wands out staring absent mindedly around the room for the attacker.

Harry was glad that some had the sense to do so as others either sat their with confused or scared faces, or simply did not see what had just occurred.

Wordlessly this time Harry cast the spell again, trying to see if this time any of those standing with their wands had the sense to recognize the direction.

This time it connected with a girl that he had yet to know the name of, who had previously looked confused as to what had happened, well now she to was slumped over her desk.

Those standing happened to have the sense to recognize the direction in which the new spell had come from and had all cast various different jinxes and charms at the invisible attacker.

Harry always had a shield around him and as easily as they had they left the wands that had bounced off of him.

The curses than deflected towards their casters who ducked out of pure instinct, causing their spells to hit various people around the room.

With a large portion of the class knocked out, Harry decided it would be a good idea to reveal himself before their was no class left to teach.

With only a thought he broke off the disillusionment charm and exposed his presence to the class.

Those standing dropped their wand arms immediately seeing that it was in fact their teacher that had cast the spells, and reflected the ones they had thrown his way.

"Well I believe Five points for everyone who had the sense to stand up and take up defense, excellent job, and if you please will sit down now" Harry said feeling incredibly old and excited at the fact that his parents were a mere 15 feet from him.

Those standing took their seats with confused expressions as to why their teacher would attack them.

"Many of you are probably wondering why it was that I attacked you unannounced, well I did so for several reasons

" I wanted to know how alert you all were, Voldemort," he rolled his eyes as shudders past around the class, he would teach them that later, " and his supporters will not volunteer in telling you if they are going to attack or not you need to be alert, my old professor made good to store in our heads CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He yelled, causing half the class to jump.

"Another reason I did this was to test your reaction, those that sit around in befuddlement are those that will be easily brought down, and those that fight have a much better chance of survival. I intend for you to leave at the end of the year with the skills and will power to defend yourself, anyone can do it but it takes sense and practice to accomplish any goal"

The class sat and listened closely to the words that their young professor spoke, in the silence a bang could put the silent class in a stupor, and that is exactly what happened.

After finishing his small speech, everything was quiet for a moment while he let the class take in his words.

With his fine tuned hearing, he could hear a small whizzing coming from the base of a cup sitting on his desk; he knew that this was the prank he was expecting. Honestly fireworks they could do better than this.

Harry picked up the cup and quickly tossed it at the marauders desks, was it exploded with rapid colors.

When the smoke and such cleared, you could make out behind black dust and dust the face of four boys, peter had been revived along with the rest of the class, with shocked looks on their faces, their plan had backfired.

Harry smirked, "I believe that was yours, and May I suggest that next time you put a silencing charm over it, you know it makes it much less obvious"

The marauders sat there stunned had their professor just managed to overthrow the marauders and then give them advice on how to better their pranks, this would definitely need looking into.

Lily and her friend, whom Harry now knew as one of lily's best friends by the name of Marie, were sniggering into their books, at the ordeal that the marauders had landed themselves in.

Harry felt like doing the same , he could not wait to tell his godfather that he had showed his 17 year old self up by rebounding his prank, his face would be priceless.

"Now then, now that the fun is over with, I only have a few rules in this class and then you may ask me a few questions before you are dismissed, tomorrow we will start on a small review before heading for the new curriculum

"Okay then, first off you are never to call me Professor it makes me feel as old as Dumbledore himself, no offence of course," he said as some of the class sniggered.

"you can call me Harry instead, secondly I don't care for house rivalries at all it is despicable that there is such discrimination between houses, through experiencing it my self I have learned that not all Slytherin's, lets say, are bad and not all Gryffindor are good. I will not tolerate it in this classroom and If I catch you in here or the hallways than there shall be consequences" he put on a dark face while he said this to emphasize that it was not to be messed with and to hopefully scare them right out of their shoes so they would not even attempt to do so.

The effect of this was pretty good as most of the class shuddered and others just nodded.

"Good then let's see anything else, ah yes if anyone uses any name that fits under prejudice actions than you can expect to see a very angry professor at your heel is that clear."

Once again the class nodded though some of the Slytherin's hesitated, but then realized that they could get away with it on other occasions, even they did not want to mess with an angry Harry 'Granger'

"Good then now we have ten minutes left are their any questions that you would like to ask me"

A good portion of the class raised their hands.

"Okay then how about Mr. Long bottom"

"How old are you"

Harry had been expecting this question right of the bat, " I turned eighteen a month ago" he watched as many mouths opened slightly and the rumors going around were confirmed to his class he then added, " but power and skill does not come by age, as many of you shall learn this year, next"

The questions continued for five more minutes until Harry called on James,

"Um, Harry why it that you say You-Know-whose name is?"

"What Voldemort?"

The class shuddered and Harry once again rolled his eyes, "tell me James do I have a reason not to say his name"

One small girl spoke up, "he will come after you and k-kill you"

Harry was suddenly becoming very accustomed to rolling his eyes, " listen closely class, A fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself, saying Voldemort would no sooner send a 'dark' lord after you than say Harry Granger, besides after a while the whole I'm coming to kill you thing gets a bit old"

With that said, the bell rung he dismissed a very shocked class and sat down at his desk rubbing his eyes clean of tiredness and sadness.

Out in the hall talk instantly broke, they had learnt that their defense teacher had fought against You-know-who, said his name and everything, and to top it off he was only eighteen.

What was his story, well most including the marauders whose faces were still quite black decided that they definitely wanted to know more about this teacher.

Sometimes things are far to interesting and unexplained that a person can not help but want to know more, and the marauders decided that they definitely wanted to know more, but would they find out what they wanted to or unravel Harry Granger and in turn find something's that could haunt them for the rest of their lives? They decided the risk was worth it.

A.N. Wow I think that was my longest chapter yet so what did you think? Good, Bad, so-so? Tell me what you think in a review, you know you want to.

Love to all the readers and reviewers

Petroleumjellydotone.