Chapter Nine: Back to Hogwarts
September 2nd
8:22pm
Hogwarts, Scotland
Harry
The revelation that Snape was going to be the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor was met profoundly with negative commentary and discourse. Perhaps the only people happy about the shift in staff was a minority in Slytherin and the man himself. Thus, when faced with potions first thing in the morning, the sixth year Gryffindors weren't having a good start to their day. Breakfast was a solemn affair, Harry had time to come to terms with Snape's appointment, but the others were grieving the death of one of their most enjoyable subjects.
"Look on the bright side," Harry said to Neville and Hermione at the Gryffindor table. "After this year he'll be dead, brain fried or sacked."
"As much as I appreciate your optimism, I think I'm going to fail DADA this year," Neville replied dejectedly. His confidence had risen but the very bane of it was the former Potion's master creating an awful dilemma.
"Nev' mate, I've seen you progress really well over last year, all you needed was a little self-love and a new wand. You've got the wand, the rest must come from you," Harry countered, unwilling to let Neville's hard work be undone by one bully.
"Harry's right Neville, you may feel like you have a lot to prove and that's fine but none of it is to Professor Snape," Hermione interjected kindly.
Neville's cheeks seemed to be brought back to life, the colour returning to them signalling the return of his courage. They finished their breakfast, courtesy of the house elves but neither mentioned that to Hermione again, and took off towards the third floor for D.A.D.A. The line-up for the class was filled with nothing but frowns and intense last-minute reading in case Snape tried to pull a last-minute quiz on the first day. The three of them stood outside in silence for the most part, unwilling to make themselves a target for a lurking Snape.
At 9:00am the classroom door swung open with a loud bang, spooking those that had their heads in books. The class filtered into the D.A.D.A room in trepidation and took their usual seats. Snape strolled in the second everyone was seated with his cloak billowing behind him as expected. He came to a stop at the front of the class and dramatically spun to face them and spoke. "Your books will not be necessary for this lesson, I expect your full attention and silence, unless you are called upon."
The class hastily put their books away and many sat a little straighter in their chairs, fearful of a vengeful Snape. Once everyone had given the man their attention he continued, "the instruction in this subject has been nothing if not subpar in these past five years, as such, it astounds me that any of you managed to scrape an O.W.L and will be even more surprised should you all be here at the end of this school year." As he spoke, he glided around the room creating a palpable tension amongst the students who dared not break their concentration on his words.
"The Dark Arts," he started back at the front of the room, "are a forever changing entity. To oppose them is to oppose infinity itself for they are timeless and indestructible. To kill one branch is to birth two more, much like the Hydra's heads."
'Bloody hell Snape, it's one thing to respect them or even use them but to speak of them so lovingly is right creepy,' Harry thought.
"Therefore," he said louder, "your defences must too be adaptable, malleable to every situation you may encounter." He strode to the middle of the room and waved his hands to the walls lined with photos of men and women in various states of suffering. "The cruciatus curse, of which, you all have experience," he said, indicating to a witch whose face was stuck in a constant state of agony. "The Dementor's kiss," he continued pointing to a man slumped against a wall drooling and staring off into nothing.
'I'm sorry you suffered such a fate on my behalf Dudley,' Harry remembered sadly.
"Finally, the aftermath of a wizard who provoked an inferius' aggression," he said, indicating a large puddle of blood and human remains which made some of the students green in the face.
Parvati spoke up and asked, "has a Inferius been spotted? Has you-know-who started using them?"
Snape's face turned sour at the interruption, and he replied, "the Dark Lord has employed the use of inferius before, it is no stretch of logic to imagine he will use them again. Now…" he walked briskly back to his desk and turned to the class once more, "you are, I believe, all complete novices in nonverbal magic. What are the advantages of such a skill?"
Hermione's hand burst into the air as expected but Snape and, ironically Harry, weren't having any of it. As Snape's gaze shifted across the class for someone other than Hermione, Harry kicked Neville in the shin and indicated for him to answer. Neville's negative went unnoticed though as Snape had heard his surprised gasp and zeroed in on the sound.
"Ah… Longbottom, I shouldn't be surprised that your association with Potter has inflated your ego, perhaps you can tell us three advantages of non-verbal casting?" Snape questioned menacingly, fully intent on putting Neville in his place. "Stand and tell the class, now."
Neville gulped but did as he was told, "uhh well one advantage would be that it can be much faster than verbal casting e-e-especially for long spells like petrificus totalus."
Snape, dissatisfied with Neville's success, sneered, and said, "correct, two more Longbottom."
Neville turned to Harry who gave him a thumbs up which, coupled with his first correct answer, seemed to allow him to gather his courage. He stood straighter and he lost his stutter as he replied, "right, another one would be that it gives you an advantage in duels because the enemy will have to resort to colour and wand motion to predict your spell which can be unreliable."
Harry figured the surprise that Snape was feeling was felt by the whole class. Here was a boy they remembered as a no good, nervous nelly who couldn't remember his own robes half the time, let alone duelling technicalities. But Harry was proud of him for managing to stand up to his biggest fear and his ability to remember his lessons.
Snape however did not give anything away by saying, "an answer no doubt read out of the Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six just before class, but acceptable. The final advantage?"
'The DA struggled with this one too, I have faith though,' Harry thought as he saw Neville in deep concentration, likely trying to remember one of his last classes.
Suddenly, he lifted his head and his eyes lit up and Harry knew that Snape had failed. "The silencing charm is not effective against you if you can cast silently anyway," Neville said confidently.
Snape's face twitched but other than that he made no motion to further embarrass the boy. "Correct Longbottom but do not bother sitting," he said then addressed the class. "You will divide yourselves into pairs and one of you will attempt to jinx your partner wordlessly and the other, in equal silence, will attempt to repel it. Begin," he ordered.
Harry, who had plenty of experience casting silently because of both his magical and mind training, figured he'd best partner up with Neville and help him. When they had found a spot in the room to practice, Harry suggested Neville defend first as a shield charm was more likely to save his life than any non-verbal curse or jinx. About ten minutes into the class, Snape had wandered over to their side of the classroom and lingered to watch their attempts.
Harry flicked his wand and silently cast a jelly legs jinx to which Neville partially shielded wordlessly but not fully which resulted in one of his legs losing its integrity and he fell to the floor. Harry walked over to undo the jinx as Snape spoke.
"Pathetic Longbottom, and you Potter, of course you'd choose to bully a clearly inferior opponent, just like your father. Watch Longbottom, this is how you cast silently." As he said this, he raised his wand to curse Harry in the back. Too stunned to speak, Neville didn't think to raise a shield in Harry's defence, but as the curse streaked towards him a shield sprung to life whilst he turned to face Snape. Harry caught a glimpse of a pale hand, blonde hair, and a familiar wand behind Snape to whom he owed his gratitude.
Neither Snape or Harry spoke as they stared at each other, the class had come to a stand still, many surprised to see Snape try and curse a student from behind. Harry was about to insult the man when he felt a small pain near his temple. He recognised the pain as a mental intrusion and, despite nearly being cursed in the back, was surprised that the man would so brazenly attempt a legilimency probe on him.
"Have you forgotten," Harry said quietly so that only Snape and Neville could hear him, "you can't use that on me anymore. But I wonder, what were you looking for?" Snape didn't reply so much as sneered in his direction and turned to continue surveying the class, but Harry didn't let him get far. "Snape, I believe you wanted to show Neville how to cast silently, why not make it a class demonstration?"
Harry knew the man was intelligent, he knew Harry was baiting him, but Harry also knew that he wouldn't, or rather couldn't, back down for his reputation's sake. Snape didn't accept immediately, likely weighing how much trouble he'd be in if he killed the chosen one from both Voldemort and Dumbledore. His decision made, Snape waved his wand and the students, save for Harry, were pushed to the sides of the room, behind wards preinstalled for duelling in the D.A.D.A room.
He turned to Harry and said condescendingly, "very well Potter, if it is your wish to be the laughingstock of the school, who am I to pass up such an opportunity?"
"Rules?" Harry asked.
"Rules?" Snape questioned, "there are no rules where the dark arts are concerned but we will both be limited to casting silently for the sake of this class, if but one of your spells is verbal it will be an admittance of defeat."
If Snape was expecting Harry to back out at this stipulation, he wound up to be sorely disappointed. "Fair enough, want to get someone to call it?"
Snape nodded and barked, "Mr Malfoy, you will count us in." Draco, who looked only mildly interested in the contest, agreed.
"Three." Snape through off his long robe to reveal more compact robes underneath more suitable for duelling
"Two." Harry crouched slightly and prepared to go on the offensive.
"One." The sixth year D.A.D.A class were practically frothing at the mouth, ready to watch the climax of a six year long antagonistic relationship.
Before Malfoy could say go, a dark purple curse flew from Snape's wand towards Harry. The screaming of some in the class drowned out Malfoy saying go as Harry narrowly avoided the spell by hurling himself to the side.
'I guess he did say no rules,' Harry thought bitterly as he shielded the follow up spell. Harry dropped his shield and saw two more spells racing towards him which forced him to dodge again. Snape's grim smile was fitting as he pressed the advantage by sending a blasting curse at Harry's feet. Harry jumped back just in time for the curse to hit the floor, ripping up stone and a dust cloud.
Snape did what could be barely recognised as a smile as he assumed the chosen one was defeated, and his dignity shattered. He swished his wand and cast evanesco to remove the cloud of dust to see Harry's prone form on the floor. He savoured his victory for a moment then turned to the class, "another lesson for those of you who think they are better than others, talent always prev–"
He was unable to finish his sentence as he was blasted across the room into his desk, passing out on the floor where he landed. A stunner followed the trajectory of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor as well as an accio for his wand. The wand flew through the air and was on its way to fly into a group of students who started to panic, however a hand materialised in front of all of them and caught the wand. The body that the hand belonged to materialised as well, revealing a victorious Harry Potter in possession of their professor's wand.
For good measure he stunned the downed professor again before saying to the students there, "as the good professor was trying to say before he was interrupted, talent always prevails. As it seems, his defences were not as adaptable as they needed to be so another lesson that would go well with today's class would be that you can always improve and to never be too sure of your superiority. Class dismissed."
With that Harry dropped Snape's wand and left, with Hermione and Neville in tow. When he had turned the corner in the corridor outside, he managed to hear the start of what sounded like pandemonium in the classroom which gave him a smile. The small pleasures of his life sometimes made it all worth it.
September 3rd
6:22am
Hogwarts, Scotland
Daphne
"Don't lie to me Potter, how good did that feel?" Daphne asked in the room of requirement. They had just finished their daily sparring session and she was dying to ask him about their first D.A.D.A lesson.
"I'm quite sure I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied coyly, glad to finally have something on her for these verbal contests.
"You know Goyle failed a levitation charm five times trying to get him to the hospital wing? He showed up with a much more severe concussion than what you gave him," she said, the image of Snape's body being tossed around by that neanderthal was highly amusing. She knew the knowledge would be too much for him to resist spilling the beans.
Harry scrutinised her, likely not believing such juicy information about Snape's suffering to be real. His face went from squinting to cracking a smile as he said, "I can cast a patronus thinking about Snape flying across the classroom. Mum's oath, I tried it this morning."
Daphne smirked at getting what she wanted and laughed at the revelation. "He's not been seen since being let out of the Hospital Wing," she remarked. "I'd watch my back if I were you."
Harry was worried for a moment, but he remembered the whole catalyst of this drama in the first place and intently rebutted, "I think my back is fine, seems I've got another secret admirer."
'Ah he noticed that then, of course he did,' she thought, mildly frustrated by his observative skills and her own inability to remain completely hidden. The hastiness of her reaction had hampered her ability to go unnoticed, already having been approached by Hermione who gave her thanks.
Daphne inspected her wand and half-heartedly asked, "truly?"
Harry clocked what she was doing, and he continued, "oh yes, blonde hair, pale skin and a wand most similar to a friend of mine's."
"What a coincidence."
Harry stared at her as she acted nonchalant and vacant until she looked at him. "Thank you," he said sincerely. She allowed a small smile and nodded at his gratitude.
'Who knew protecting people give's you such satisfaction. No wonder he always comes to the rescue,' she mused.
"He tried to use legilimency on me," Harry divulged. Her alarmed gaze seemed to spark the sense that he should elaborate, "but he didn't see anything so don't worry."
"Good," she replied. "I'm assuming that's why you didn't let him go?"
Harry looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his neck, "ah yeah, I figured he'd been doing it to everyone so I thought someone should bring him down a few rungs."
"He had it coming," Daphne agreed. "Besides, falling for that projection was pure idiocy anyhow, and not checking if you were truly down and out reminds me of our first duel."
"Look how far we've come since then, partners in crime, slayer of death eaters and defying Voldemort. The Ice Queen has moved up in the world," he joked knowing she couldn't stand the name.
"Oh gods, not you too," she lamented. "It wasn't even my spell; I prefer fire for Merlin's sake."
"The perils of fame, you don't get to choose your name unless you're a Dark Lord apparently."
"Maybe I should switch sides," she mockingly considered.
Harry shook his head, "too late now, you'd just be the Rogue Ice Queen or some other such nonsense. That name is stuck with you now."
She sighed and caved in, "it's not such a terrible name, at least it gives me royalty status."
"Exactly, I'm going to be 'the boy who lived' well after being a boy I imagine," Harry pointed out.
'You're more of a man now than most of the spineless purebloods I'm unfortunately related to,' she thought, in no way ready to say that out loud. "Alright I get it, you've got it worse in the name department."
"Thank you," he said smugly before they lapsed into silence. Daphne tried to keep intrusive thoughts out, but it was a losing battle for a sixteen year old girl. Thanking the gods for a distraction, she remembered her interaction with Horace Slughorn in the halls yesterday.
"By the way, Professor Slughorn wants to invite you to a little get together on Sunday. Says it's strictly for the gifted students to get together and network before they leave Hogwarts," she recited.
'A good opportunity for both of us if what Dumbledore said about him was true, getting to that information first would be beneficial in more ways than one,' she schemed, excited to start doing what she was best at. Duelling professors and uncovering sinister plots was his world but subtlety was hers.
"I wondered when he would do that, I imagine his little collection will be overwhelmingly pureblood heirs but what's necessary is what's necessary," he said displeased with having to attend a function filled with people so high on their horse their head was in the clouds.
Daphne figured she'd tease him a bit and replied, "you've a problem with pureblood heirs?"
The question was posed innocently enough but Harry could sense a Daphne trap fairly well now. "Oh yes, you didn't know? They're all stuck up ponces with no idea how the real-world works, at least that's what I hear."
Daphne mockingly glared at him and arrogantly said, "well whoever said that is playing with fire by so openly attacking their betters."
"Fire… or ice?" Harry quipped. The two stared at each other for what felt like an eternity until Harry went to take a drink from his water bottle. Daphne drew her wand so fast that he barely had time to blink before he was ducking behind the chair he was sitting on and scrambling for his own wand. Of course, in his desperation to get behind cover he spilled water all down his shirt.
'That'll teach the prat,' she thought humorously. She put her wand away and Harry stood up from behind the chair warily, the front of his shirt and pants completely soaked. "You look ridiculous, go get yourself cleaned up Potter before I start a rumour that you wet yourself."
"Oi!" he called out at her retreating back, but she paid him no mind, you can't win them all, but she wasn't exactly going to let anyone win either.
A/N: Alright, chapter nine, back at Hogwarts with all the pros and cons that bring. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, especially Neville's courage and ability to prove himself. I can't stand Snape defenders purely because of how Neville was treated. The love for a dead woman or realising terrorism is bad isn't an excuse to bully a random kid to the point that his greatest fear was a professor and not, idk, the people who tortured his family into insanity? Or a healer? Or his uncle who dropped him from a window? Snape is trash so his comeuppance was a long time coming as Daphne says.
The banter between Harry and Daphne is always a blast to write. I try hard to make it organic, especially in this one. Daphne isn't used to doing nice things for others. Protecting Harry when he was vulnerable was a knee jerk reaction which cost her the ability to do so completely unseen. Because caring about the wellbeing of someone else is a new realm for her, she uses humour to deflect Harry's sincerity until it is impossible to do so (cause Harry straight up says thank you). In the banter I tried to make it seem like their comfortability with each other has never been higher. Bringing back old jokes such as the secret admirer thing but also being able to joke about each other with the Ice Queen stuff.
On that note, yes, the Ice Queen is being taken the micky out of, sorry if you don't like that. I figured the way I've done it is more of a satirical take on the whole trope of Daphne being a cold-hearted loner. Which of course she is but kids aren't giving her nicknames for it, that would defeat the purpose of being in the shadows and improving herself. A reputation for not being personable generally doesn't net you school wide mysticism and fame, rather it is more the case of 'this person likes to keep to themselves so let's respect that.'
Anyway, this week's recommendation is 'Teleology' by Liberty1Prime. One of my absolute favourites in the Harry/Daphne pairing. So good that I spent like two hours looking for it when I wanted to read it a second time. Big 'my love for you is more important than the world' vibes as Harry's identity as the hero of the second blood war is challenged. Post-War 7th year AU
Hope you all enjoyed :)