"Wow. That's pretty messed up. How many of those things does Voldemort have?" Neville asked as he pulled his head out of the Pensive. Harry had exited it a moment before and was now stretching his back. They had just binge-watched Dumbledore's memories, up to where he and Ron had first discussed Horcruxes. It was the first week after school ended and the two boys were upstairs, sitting on the floor in Harry's room, perched over the pensive. Lily was finishing up administrative things at her school and James was at work, so they had the house to themselves.
"I don't now. Maybe the answer is somewhere in here," Harry gestured at the box of unwatched memories. He had respected Dumbledore's wishes and not shared the knowledge of Horcruxes with anybody other than Neville. "I think we have time for one more before you have to go."
Which is when there was a knock on the front door. "Or maybe not." Though it was unlike Daphne to be early. Or to arrive at the front door.
After the Battle of Hogwarts, as it was coming to be called, Neville and Daphne had reconciled. The fact that they had gone back to exchanging letters even before that made it less of a surprise. Or it would have, if Harry had known about it.
"You know, you didn't have to keep it a secret that you were writing to Daphne." Harry commented as he pulled over the box of memories and loaded the bottles of watched memories into their (chronological) slots.
Neville shrugged awkwardly. "With all the drama going on," mostly courtesy of Ron and his inability to keep it in his pants, "I didn't want to add to the chaos." Or to have Harry think he was some spineless dweeb that followed Daphne on a leash.
"Go let her in – I'll finish cleaning up here." Harry scooped the final memory back into its flask and shrank the pensive, putting both on the bottom shelf of his bookcase before dumping a loose handful of old homework on top for camouflage. He was just doing a quick charm to get his hair to be less of a disaster than usual when Neville called up. "It's for you," and Ginny walked in.
"Hey, knock first!" Harry protested. Though given how she had already come by twice this summer and it had been barely a week since school ended, maybe she had gotten confused and thought that she lived here.
"I'm bored. What are you guys up to? You have some secret project going?"
Harry just gave her an exasperated look, to which Ginny replied, "Don't give me that! You know Neville can't keep a secret."
"Yes I can!" Neville retorted.
"Aha! So you are doing something!"
"All we're doing is going into London with Daphne," Harry replied, a slightly put-upon smile on his face. Because Ginny was 100% correct. The most surprising thing about Daphne and Nev getting back together was not that it happened, but that Nev had managed to keep it a secret for almost a month.
"I'll come with!"
Neville was about to protest when the floo chimed. And this time it was Daphne.
In the end, all four of them apparated into the city, with Harry side-alonging Ginny. He wasn't supposed to – his parents didn't want him taking passengers until he'd been apparating for at least a year - but what his parents didn't know about they couldn't yell at him for.
"So, those two are a couple again?" Ginny asked as she and Harry trailed behind the others. Daphne had grabbed Neville's arm and pulled him towards a muggle music store of all places.
"Yeah, they got back together at the end of school." Harry shrugged. "It's weird. I would have thought that they had nothing in common. Daphne is cold and calculating and Nev wears his heart on his sleeve." Harry was interrupted by a cackle of laughter from Daphne as the couple staggered into the store, not really looking where they were going.
"You were saying?" Ginny asked as they followed the other two in.
As Harry and Ginny navigated around the other shoppers, mostly other teens, Ginny snorted, "I bet we look like we're on a double date".
"Yeah, I guess." He glanced over to where Neville and Daphne were at the listening station, sharing (and almost breaking) the headphones as they listened together to the song being promoted.
"So why not make it for real, then?" Ginny blurted out, not looking at Harry.
Harry stopped in the middle of the aisle, caught completely flat footed. He had noticed that Ginny had been acting differently around him for a while, but he had thought she was just uncomfortable with him because he had killed a Death Eater in the Department of Mysteries, and then his fighting at Hogwarts. He himself certainly wasn't certain that he was comfortable with who was becoming, it's just that he didn't have a choice if he wanted to keep the people he cared about safe.
"Um, ok." Because on the other hand, she had been coming over every other day this summer, and they had had fun. A smile slowly spread across Harry's face as his brain tried to process what had just happened. Maybe this was unexpected, but maybe it shouldn't have been.
"Ok, in that case let's blow this joint and go look at brooms," Ginny figured that if Daphne could drag her boyfriend around, then she could do the same. As soon as she thought that, the enormity of what she had just done came crashing down on her.. 'I am DATING Harry. I am dating HARRY!' She didn't say anything as Harry let Neville know that they were splitting off. 'AM I dating Harry?'
When Harry put his arm around her in the hidden spot behind the truck to side along back to Diagon Alley, Ginny tensed up, not certain how to react to the physical closeness now. They landed badly, but thankfully nobody got splinched.
As the duo approached Quality Quidditch Supplies, Ginny took Harry's hand, "So, um, we're dating now?"
"Didn't you just ask me out?"
"Yeah?"
"So, yeah?" The two teens stopped and looked at each other. "For the record, I think it's a great idea." But Harry wasn't certain where to go from there. He was an excellent leader when it came to Defense or Quidditch, but this was a situation that he didn't know how to navigate. He stood, looking at Ginny and waiting for something to happen. But she seemed happy to just stand and look back at him. "Um, let's just do what we normally do?"
"Ok."
\*/
"Harry, can I talk to you?" James sat down on Harry's bed. By his tone, Harry could tell this was something serious. Harry covered the notes he had been working on and turned around in his chair.
James sighed, "This is awkward".
"Um, if it's 'The Talk', you don't need to – the book you gave me back in second year was sufficient."
"No, it's not that. Well. Not quite that," James gave a sardonic grin. "Remember the marriage contract? It turns out that when your mom tried to cancel it, it didn't quite work like she had thought." He handed Harry a parchment. It took him just a moment to read it, as there was only one line on it:
"When HaroldJames Potter completes his education or on July 31 1998, whichever comes first, he must marry Somebody." The italics looked like they had been filled out on a blank form.
Harry looked up, shocked. "That's just a year from now." When his father just nodded, he added, "So what do we do?
James rubbed his face as if trying to clear away the cobwebs. He was working 10 hour days, trying to track down Voldemort's movements, plus overtime for the Order. "Your mom did some research. Over winter break, we can take you and a female friend to the United States, to Las Vegas. You can get a marriage license there and the same day get a divorce. You just need to find somebody who's willing to go along with this."
"What happens if I don't get married?"
"We don't know. It might act as a compulsion, making you act erratically, or it may make your magic not work right. I think you agree that we would rather not find out."
Harry nodded. 'I wonder if Ginny will go along with this?' She probably would, but it would be weird (though honestly, dating her after they had been friends for so long was pretty strange as well). But this wasn't the sort of thing you could bring up on a second date 'Oh, hey, you want to get married, but just for a day? It'll be fun!'
Yeah, no.
He would hold off on asking her until they had been dating for a while longer.
"That sucks."
"Don't worry. We'll work something out. You're not alone in this." James awkwardly gave his son a one-armed hug. He had never been good with displays of affection.
\*/
"So, what's going on with you and Ginny?"
"We're dating?" Harry had intended for it to sound like a statement, but it came out closer to a question because having a girlfriend was just so unexpected (yet cool). It would never have occurred to him to ask her out. 'I still need to tell her about the marriage contract at some point. Later.'
"Are we going to tell her about the Horcruxes?"
"No – we agreed to respect Dumbledore's wishes. We don't tell anybody."
"Yeah. Those things are as Dark as it gets." Neville sighed before scooping the latest memory back into its bottle. They had watched all of them now, staying up late to finish off the last one. The advantage of being of majority was that mom & dad weren't enforcing a curfew anymore. They could wait for their parents to go to sleep and then explore the memories in private. "Maybe we should skip Seventh year and go look for them right away."
"Mom will kill us if we drop out." Harry paused and added, "And I think she'd be right to. We're not the only ones fighting Voldemort, and school is important."
"Yeah, I guess," Neville reluctantly agreed. "I guess I can wait until after graduation."
"But let's prepare our go-bags, just in case."
"In case what?"
"I don't know. Like maybe Voldemort takes over the school."
They exchanged looks. As unthinkable as that was, it was less unthinkable that it had been a year ago.
\*/
For the first half of summer, Harry and Neville threw themselves into research on Horcruxes. They viewed most of the memories a second time and took notes. Well, mostly Harry took notes. Neville kept getting distracted. But at least he was a good sounding board.
"So what have we got so far?" Neville asked as they wound up another research session. It was after midnight again, and Neville was having a hard time concentrating. He'd spent most of the afternoon with Daphne – they had gone to a muggle amusement park.
"It looks like Voldemort – Tom – was obsessed with antiques and stuff associated with important people, like the Founders. We also know that Slytherin's seal was a Horcrux," Harry pointed to the ring that he had in his pocket. "And that he was also interested in Slytherin's locket, the Hufflepuff cup and Rowena's diadem."
"So that makes four, except we don't know for certain if Voldemort ever did find the diadem – nobody has seen it in centuries." Neville paused, letting ink drip from his quill. It pooled on the paper for a moment before the enchanted blotter laying next to it sucked it up with a slurping sound. "Didn't Ron say that Voldemort was planning to make seven? There's no way we can find all of them. We need to ask for help. Let's ask dad."
"There was also the book – Dumbledore said that was probably one as well."
"Ok, so that makes two confirmed, and three possibles. We are still in over our heads."
Harry sighed and nodded. "I guess you're right. We can tell dad. But nobody else." After a moment, he added, "and don't mention the ring. There's something weird about it, and I want to do a little research on it myself before I give it away." Harry's ability to see magic wasn't as intrusive as it had been when he first awoke in that muggle hospital, but he could still see it, especially if the room was dark. And magical items had a faint glow as well.
What was odd was that the stone in the ring didn't glow – it was pure black. It was so black that he could even see it at night. And in some hard to define fashion, it also looked like the new wand he had taken from Dumbledore. The one that was unnaturally powerful. He wasn't the sort given to flights of fantasy, but he had grown up reading the tales of Beadle the Bard...
Obviously these weren't two of the Deathly Hallows, but maybe somebody tried to recreate their own versions of the mythical items.
And what if they actually were? That would be so cool.
He wasn't ready to let the ring go quite yet – being the Master of Death would be awesome.
"Ok," Neville agreed amiably.
\*/
James pulled his head out of the Pensive. "I'm going to need to look at all of these memories. This could be critical to stopping Voldemort." He had joined the boys in Harry's room after dinner at their request.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, that's what we thought too. Just don't tell anybody else about them. If word gets out that it's possible to make something like this, another dark wizard is going to try duplicating them."
"Yeah. I will just tell the Order to look for any objects that Voldemort had an obsessive interest in. I'll make up some excuse for it. The only people I'll tell about Horcruxes will be those that I personally know and trust." James was thinking of Alistar, Sirius, Remus, Tonks and maybe Bill.
"No!" Harry shook his head vehemently, "That's how word gets out. Nobody other than us can know about these."
James considered it. He didn't like keeping Sirius in the dark, but his son had a point, "Since when did you become so grown up?" Harry just shrugged and looked uncomfortable, "Does anybody else know already?"
"Just Ron," Neville volunteered.
"And you haven't told your girlfriend?" James asked.
"No! Of course not!" Neville replied.
"She'll be pissed when she finds out that your keeping secrets from her."
"Daphne will understand about keeping some things secret. She's a Slytherin."
James nodded, "And are you certain she's not keeping secrets from you, you know, as a Slytherin?"
Neville blushed luminescently. "Not about anything important. Or at least, not having to do with us."
"Dad, she's not leading him on, if that's what you're asking." Harry interjected. "She's completely different around him than her school persona."
James nodded. That wasn't necessarily a guarantee of anything. It could actually be the opposite, as at some point she would have to make a decision as to which 'Daphne' she wanted to be.
But he would have to let his son make his own mistakes.
"I'll talk to the Order, and have them start digging."
\*/
Lily looked around the group of chatting Order members. It was the first meeting since the passing of Dumbledore, and nobody seemed certain what to do. They were talking quietly in the Grimmauld Place dining room. "Ok, Let's all settle down," she rose to her feet. "I call this meeting to order. The first order of business – do we know anything about this Entil'Zha?" If nobody else was going to take charge, then she would – she had plenty of experience managing both children and adults, so child-like adults should be no problem. And while the identity of Entil'Zha might not be critical, it was something that was piquing her personal interest.
But the Order members just shook their heads. "Whoever he is, he's laying low," Kingsley finally summed up, before turning to Snape: "Is Voldemort worried about him?"
"What, as the second coming of Dumbledore?" Snape snorted in derision as he quoted the newspaper headlines from the start of summer. "The Dark Lord considers the Daily Prophet as nothing more than Fake News. He is more concerned with the losses that his Death Eaters suffered than some wizard who got in a couple of lucky shots." Snape scowled before adding, "Besides, Albus had not been in his prime for over a decade before he passed. The Dark Lord's fear of Dumledore was always irrationally exaggerated." Due in no small part to his own skillful manipulations.
"How high were his losses?" Lily pressed Severous.
"Two Death Eaters killed, one severely injured and almost a dozen captured, though most of those were raw recruits. But the most stinging loss was the capture of Fenrir Greyback – that has fractured the Werewolf packs. It is not clear how many will continue to support The Dark Lord."
"But will that change his plans any?" Remus, usually quiet, asked from the back. "My sense was that he wasn't relying on the Werewolves for much beyond terrorizing muggles anyways."
Snape shrugged. He wasn't privy to this part of the Dark Lord's plans, and he didn't feel obligated to answer anybody (other than Lily). Especially not a werewolf.
As the meeting moved on, James made a note of who he would ask to keep an eye out for the 'Founder's items'. He didn't want to ask the group as a whole - he didn't trust all of the members. Snape's only loyalty had been to Dumbledore, and with him dead he was a wild card. And Mundungus was a crook (albeit an extremely incompetent one, which made him almost honest), so the only information that he could be told was something that he couldn't make a profit off of, out on the street.
\*/
The summer continued in its unhurried way. Terry and the some of the other Rangers came over a couple of times, and they played a pick-up game of quidditch, and once Hermione came by, looking all awkward.
"Hey, how are you doing?" Harry asked, opening the door.
"Good." Hermione had her hair magicked down so it wasn't so frizzy, and she had a small necklace on. She looked really very nice, but Harry didn't know if it was ok to comment on something like that when he had a girlfriend. "So, um, have you finished your summer homework?"
"Most of it – I am doing a little extra research for the Arithmancy paper. I want to do a good job on that." She followed Harry into the kitchen, where Harry pulled out a tin of cookies and a pitcher of iced tea. She wanted to ask if what Luna had said was true – that Harry and Ginny were dating. But she wasn't certain how to go about doing it, especially since if they were, they were keeping it a secret.
Unlike back in school (like when they had talked for hours after the Slug party), the conversation quickly became very stilted, as Harry wasn't certain how to act around another girl now that he had a girlfriend, and Hermione wasn't certain what she could ask about. Or whether she really wanted to know. They both stuck to school topics like homework and professors, avoiding anything personal. Hermione ended up staying for a half hour, chatting about nothing, before leaving, much to Harry's relief.
Meanwhile, Neville was almost never home, spending more and more time with Daphne. It was clear that Lily was working hard to repress her need to pester him for details (and ask if they should be reserving a date). But her modern sensibilities outweighed her motherly drive to make sure that her little boy was happy and (emotionally) safe, so she limited herself to asking after just the basics. "So where did you go today?" Lily asked at dinner one night. With both Neville and Daphne being old enough to apparate, it could literally be anywhere in England.
"Nowhere, we just hung out," Neville replied nonchalantly, not looking up from his food.
Lily looked askance at Harry (James had floo-ed to say that he wouldn't be home until late). She knew what 'just hanging out' could entail.
Harry just shrugged. If Nev didn't want to talk about it, he wouldn't rat him out.
After dinner, Harry continued working on the Horcrux problem, like most evenings. He also floo-ed to the magical library in the Tower of London several times a week, spending several hours going through old news articles trying to find any mention of the items on their list.
But every weekend he would get together with Ginny (and once during the week, when the Appleby Arrows were playing the Falcons. Neither team was in the running for the World Cup this year, so they were able to get tickets at the last minute). Most of their dates involved either quidditch or flying.
\*/
"Don't tell my dad about this ok?" Ginny asked urgently as they made their way down towards the shore from Mallaig, carrying their brooms. Harry had purchase a commercial portkey all the way here from London. They were planning to fly out to the Isle of Skye. "My dad will freak out if he finds out that I'm flying over open ocean." Her dad would also freak out if he knew that she had portkeyed half way across the country with Harry. She still hadn't told him that they were dating. Because it was none of his business. And because Ron would make an ass of himself once he found out.
"Don't worry, I won't." It's not like Harry ever saw Arthur – Ginny never wanted him to pick her up directly from the Burrow. Sometimes they would meet at Luna's, and other times outside the post office in Ottery St Catchpole. "Let's go!" He mounted his broom and took off – the countryside here was empty. Not even any sheep in sight, just rolling hills and awesome cliffs.
\*/
"Diagon Alley is weird. Daph was the one who noticed it." Neville complained. "We were hanging out at Fortescue's, and tons of people were rushing by, like normal. But while they all looked cheerful enough, not a one of them actually stopped to chat or window shop. It's like they were faking it while they ran for their lives."
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Everybody is waiting for Voldemort to make his move. And the longer the wait, the worse it's going to be." Harry was helping Neville revise his summer homework (because unlike SOME people, he had finished his before going out with his girlfriend). Of course, the fact that his girlfriend was still only 15 also meant that she was much more closely supervised, and couldn't just skiv off whenever she wanted to and go wherever. Or possibly it was just her father. Arthur was pretty strict about chores.
And a touch over-protective.
Before Neville could reply, there was a knock and the door opened to reveal James. "I've got some news." It was the first time he had arrived home before nine all week. "Mundungus Fletcher – one of the guys from the Order – got word that Helga's Cup was deposited in a vault at Gringotts about 20 years ago."
Harry exchanged a look with Neville, "It must be with one of the most ardent Death Eater families – the Malfoys or the Lestranges." The number of people that Voldemort trusted was vanishingly small.
Ie each time he Crucio'ed another of his followers, the number decreased by one.
"Not that it does us any good," Neville added. "There's no way we can get into Gringotts."
"And there is no reason you should even try!" James reprimanded. "Leave this for the Order and the Aurors. We're trained at this sort of thing. I am just telling you because you gave me the original lead, and I figured it would be respectful to keep you in the know." James was conflicted. He absolutely did not want his kids involved with this war, but their interest in Auror work - his life calling - made him want to share it with them. And he was proud of what they had accomplished. He felt that it deserved recognition.
"Here," he pulled a small folded bundle out from his pocket. "This is my invisibility cloak, the one that Harry 'borrowed' when he chased after Ron on his disastrous escapade to the Department of Mysteries," (because James wasn't going to blame his kids for that. Not when Ron was available as a scapegoat. Ron was growing up to be a stuck up prick in the same mold as Fudge.) "I want you boys to take it with you when you go back to Hogwarts, just in case."
Nobody said in case of what, but everybody had different ominous scenarios that were passing through their imaginations.
"Thanks, dad." The two boys boys beamed happily at James at this show of trust.
"There's more," James pulled out a slightly dog-eared parchment. "The Maruaders' Map. It will let you move around the school without running into Filch or anybody. If you need to." He gave the two boys a stern look, "I am trusting you to not misuse it." James then spent the next half hour explaining how to use the map, and showing all the exits out of the school.
"You're really worried."
"Yeah. The Ministry has been keeping a lid on it, but there was a large breakout from Azkaban. The Dementors defected – they all left their posts, allowing a small group of Death Eaters to free their compatriots." Harry and Neville exchanged glances. This wasn't just dad worrying – this was actually really bad!
"Voldemort is planning something big. We don't know what, and we don't know where." James shrugged, "But we can't spend our lives hiding. We have to keep living as best we can. But with safety precautions." James pulled his sons in for a hug.
\*/
September first dawned cool but clear. Harry found the trip to Kings Cross station… odd. On the one hand, it was very familiar, but on the other, it was the last time he would ever start a year of school and it felt strangely nostalgic.
Both Harry and Neville had brought their usual school supplies and trunks, but each had packed a 'go bag' as well – an easy to carry bag of necessities that would last them a week or two, including food and toiletries.
This year, platform 9 ¾ was sparsely populated. Parents made sure that their children boarded the train and left promptly. Nobody dawdled on the platform. The train itself had a pair of Aurors stationed in each compartment, bringing home the situation even to those most heavily in denial.
Harry and Neville arrived to find that Ginny and Luna were already in 'their' compartment. "You guys got here early."
Ginny nodded, "Dad wanted to get here as early as possible, just in case."
"And I came with the Weasleys," Luna added. "Is Daphne going to be joining us?"
"No, she's Head Girl, so she has to stay up with the Prefects."
\*/
The trip to Hogwarts was emotional for the Potter boys, but uneventful. The welcome feast, on the other hand was not.
"Snape is Headmaster?!" Neville choked out. "McGonagall was the Deputy Headmistress - I thought that meant she would take over."
"You thought wrong, Fatbottom," Malfoy sneered from the next table over. When the Aurors had showed up to investigate Dumbledore's death last spring, he had been nowhere nearby, and Snape swore that he had spent the night in the Slytherin dorms. No explanation was given for why he was badly enough bruised that he had to be taken to the nurse's office. And with who his father was, no explanation was requested.
It was all Harry could do to restrain his brother form flying over the intervening furniture to confront the Slytherin boy. "We're not 12 anymore, Nev. We're in seventh year. We have responsibilities, and we also need to set an example for the younger students." He spared a glance to the far end of the Gryffindor table, where Ron was stewing as he glowered at Draco. For his part, the Malfoy was seated as far from Ron as the Slytherin table permitted, and he avoided looking in his direction, pretending that he didn't exist.
"Ah, crap!" Malfoy shot to his feet as the bottom of his cup disappeared just as he raised it to take a sip, spilling pumpkin juice across his lap.
Ginny leaned over conspiratorially, "I'm not a seventh year." Harry gave her a grin, which prompted her to lean over and give him a peck on the cheek.
Neville smirked at the show of chaste affection. 'They're acting like third years.' Not that he and Daphne had done any more than make out. The one time he had had 'Roman hands' Daphne had pushed them away quite firmly.
Snape stood up once the sorting was finished, "I don't plan to give an amusing welcome speech, as you may have been expecting. This will be a trying year for all of us, and I do not see any need to sugar coat it by giving a light hearted introduction or singing a silly song. You are here to study, and we, the faculty, are here to teach. We will do the best we can to do so, but we have to rely on you to uphold your end of the implicit contract and do your best to learn." He gave the assembled students a look that implied that he expected them to fail at this simple task. "Your Head of House will give you any additional instruction that you may require. The school rules are in the handbook, and are posted outside my office door. Now enjoy your meal."
"As if I could," Neville mimed gagging. "And who's that sitting next to Slughorn – is that the new DADA professor?"
"It must be – that's Dawlish, from the Aurors office. Dad pointed him out to me a couple of years back."
"I hope he's better than the last 'Auror' that we had." Neville scowled.
"Fake-Moody was pretty decent," Harry replied.
"How can you say that? He tried to murder you!" Ginny cried out loudly enough to draw the attention of the surrounding tables.
"No, that was Bellatrix. He was just an accessory before the fact. But he was still better than Lockhart. Or do you disagree?" Harry leaned past his girlfriend to ask that last part of Hermione, who blanched.
"I was twelve!" She had hoped people had forgotten her fondness for the creepy.. creep, "I think that as a young child I can be forgiven for being hoodwinked!"
"Um, ok" Harry smirked as she squirmed. He decided to be nice and not ask what her excuse for liking Ron was. Hermione had taken to sitting with Harry and his friends for all the meals, but he still didn't know where the boundaries where when it came to teasing her. Especially since he was dating Ginny.
But it was worth it anyways - she was very cute when she was flustered.
\*/
The following afternoon was the first NEWT level DADA class, with Auror Dawlish. As the students came in, they were surprised to find that seats were assigned alphabetically. "What, does he think we're little kids?" Ron asked incensed. "We're practically grown ups!"
Harry and Neville exchanged a glance. Ron would never qualify as a 'grown up'.
As they took their seats, Dawlish began taking roll, making a production out of it, having every student stand up and say their name. As a result something that should have taken less than a minute took fifteen.
"Professor," Hermione's hand shot up. As soon as Dawlish looked in her general direction she started speaking. "With assigned seats, you do not need to take roll – you can just mark down which seats are empty." Hermione wanted to be respectful to the professors, but she was tired of having professors who were an impediment to her education. Maybe if she could educate the professor how to teach, things would go more smoothly.
"Five points from..." Dawlish looked at his clipboard, flipping through a couple of pages before he came to the correct name, "from Gryffindor. I am an Auror with twenty five years of experience, and I have been authorized to teach you children the basics of Defense Against the Dark Arts. I would like you to show me the respect that I am due. This year, we will be focusing on concealment. We will be working on both concealment charms as well as looking at creatures that conceal themselves naturally, like concealment gnomes. Concealment is a very effective way of keeping yourself safe if faced with a dark wizard."
Harry rolled his eyes. Yes concealment was useful.. until the dark wizard cast 'Revelo Homonim'. Then you had to know how to fight.
"We will be learning not only how to cast the most common concealment spells but also how they work," Dawlish lectured. His voice was a dead monotone as he described in great detail what he would be teaching and when. 'Merlin, it's like reading the table of contents.He's worse than Binns!' Several students were starting to fidget as the class approached the 45 minute mark and no useful information had been imparted as yet.
"Sir, speaking of school procedures, do you know why Snape was appointed as Headmaster, he really didn't look happy about it?" Ernie interrupted without raising his hand. If Dawlish wasn't going to teach, he might as well amuse the class.
Dawlish pressed his lips together and surveyed the class. He considered taking more points from the boy that had interrupted him, but he could see that he was losing the children's attention. Maybe a small digression would help them regain their focus. "Several members of the board of directors were not happy with the direction that the school had been taking lately, and wanted a more traditional headmaster."
"So they appointed one who is muggle-born?" Harry blurted out.
Several Slytherins turned to look at him incredulously. "That's not true!"
"What, you didn't know? My folks went to school with him. He grew up in a muggle neighborhood."
Neville interrupted, "I don't think that's right – I think he is a half-blood, actually."
"Children, you need to pay attention.." Dawlish began, but nobody heard him as the class broke into rambunctious gossip.
Finally the bell rang. Before the students could get up Dawlish roared "STOP!" In his Auror voice, casing the student to freeze like rabbits, "You have an assignment – two feet of parchment on the similarities that all concealment charms have to each other." He stood up as straight as he could (which was considerable, given his six foot four height) and pronounced, "NOW class is dismissed."
The bewildered students spilled into the the hallway. Harry looked around him to see if anybody else had more of an idea what the homework entailed. "Two feet on similarities that concealment charms have? I can give that in three words: they hide people." The cluster of students around him – mostly his Rangers - nodded in agreement.
"I pre-read the book over the summer," Hermione added (because of course she had), "And I can sort of see where he's going with that question, but I would have to do some signification additional research – this is the sort of thing I would expect for a final project."
"Maybe if we all work together.." Harry started.
Hermione nodded, "He never said that we couldn't and given how he felt the need to describe all classroom procedure in minute detail, we can assume that any omission is intentional."
Neville sighed in frustration "Another year with a worthless teacher. I say we keep training on out own." There were multiple nods all around, and not just from the Rangers.
"I'll see what I can get from Sirius for training materials." He didn't really have time, but Harry felt obligated to help his fellow students.
\*/
It was the following Friday and Harry was putting together his lesson plan for Sunday's dueling club when Lavender came racing down the stairs from the girls dorms. "The Ministry has fallen! I was just listening to the Wireless, and an emergency message came through – Voldemort and his supporters have attacked the Ministry." She stopped in the middle of the room, at a loss as to what to do next. "It's all over."