A nervous class stood before him, awaiting their assigned seats.

"Ok, er, people. Go spread out." He commanded in a tone that sounded hardly commanding, but they obliged none the less.

"ok, first lesson for you all. You know what? I've figured out whats wrong with you people. You all grew up in Wizarding families." He announced triumphantly. They stared, some getting angry.

"What of it?" Demanded Zachary.

"Well, its obvious, really. Think about it. What is the most important skill you need in potions?" James asked, eyes bright with excitement as he paced in front of the class. When no one answered, he yelled it out. "MATH!"

He walked to the board and wrote in large letters:

THE METRIC SYSTEM

He worked all class on it, teaching the people that stood in front of his with awed expressions the wonder of math. A few people caught on instantly. Ginny, Neville and Arabella did instantly.

"Now, class. Lets try something rather simple; a fertilizer potion."

He wrote the ingredients on the board for the few students that had easily mastered the metric system and continued to work with the others.

A half hour till their lesson was up, Neville had actually gotten the potion almost completely correct. Ginny had the potion down, and Arabella had failed her first attempt, but managed to do better a second time.

"OK, people! Come up to the front of the class and collect these worksheets. For those of you who had moved onto making that potion today, you may pick up the second paper, the other half of the class can just work on mastering the metric system. See you in a day, 'night." James said.

The class left the room in an odd, excited chatter. James had thought, though math a large step forward, that there was much work to be done. He pulled out a paper with the students names written on them and retired to his desk.

'Jesus, I have a desk!'' He said outloud to himself. "The old lady'd probably be laughing her ass off if she were here.'' He said, chuckling and shaking his head.

He looked up from his paper work and jumped at the sight in front of him. The headmaster head his hands interloping and was sitting in a students desk.

"How long have you been here?" inquired James, glancing back at his paper.

"Since ten minutes before your lesson, Proffessor Evans." Dumbledore grinned triumphantly as James deflated considerably.

"Eeehhh." James made a noise of uneasiness.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sending a letter to the minister, and I suspect he'll want to drop in and-"The headmaster was cut off.

"Hen peck his way threw the whole class and look for a good reason to expel me?" James asked, scribbling something onto the paper.

"Well, to put it bluntly, yes." Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling madly. "We'll just have to show him what a good teacher you are." James made another 'eeehhh' sound.

"Did you charm your eyes to do that?" James demanded irratedly, glaring at the headmasters twinkling eyes.

"Wow! Severus made the same comment the other day!!" Exclaimed the headmaster on his way out the door. James glared at his back, but watched curiously as the headmaster came back into the room, a look of intrigue on his face.

"Yes?" James asked uneasily, not liking the expression on the headmasters face on bit. Dumbledore conjured a chair up in front of James's desk, and look him in the eyes.

"I couldn't help but notice that you are exceptionally good at math. I think theres a story behind that." Dumbledore stated.

"Yes, sir. Well, I used to know a guy, Johnny C. I had no cash back in NYC, you understand that sir?" James warned, and Dumbledore nodded. "Yeah, well, the old lady from the library had a broken wrist, she fell, and she was broke too. So I kinda stole a ton of wiskey with old Johnny C. and sold it on the black market, or for a higher price to kids that wanted a drink but couldn't get any, since its illegal. I got deep in the business sir, and its hard to sell the stuff if you don't know exactly all the percents and statistics and things."

"I see. I don't blame you, Mr. Evans, it was a rough time. Any more confessions you'd like to make before I go?" Dumbledore asked in an understanding tone. James put on a mask of emptiness for his answer.

"I did the same thing up in Vienna during Durmstrang. When I went to the school, they sort of dragged me there and gave me no choices. Then summer came and they booted me out, telling me to be back next school year. What was a guy to do? I was stuck in a foreign country with no cash and had to survive there for two months till I could be supported by the school." James said indifferently. He turned back to his work and listened to the door close behind Dumbledore.

"That was some lesson." He said outloud and began planning the next, with a little twist of theory and some more potion making into the mix.

He retired to the Gryffindor tower some time later. Ron approached him.

"Listen up. I know what your up to with my sister! You're trying to corrupt her! Turn her evil like the scum that you are! I wont stand for it, and neither will my mother. No siree, Jack, I wont-"Ron started pompously.

"Will you save the self righteous bullshit for someone who CARES?" James asked indifferently. "Jesus! You're talking my ear off. And another thing, I am pretty sure your sister, who has a name and its Ginny, can make decisions on her own!"

James booked before a fight started and fell onto the bed unceremoniously. It had been a long day.

'Prof. Evans' echoed threw his mind and he grinned sheepishly before dropping off to sleep.