Chapter 3

Author's Note: Harry Potter and co. still belong to JK Rowling. The plot still belongs to me.

I hope this chapter's a bit more interesting. My betas say it's OK so far, but I still think it's lacking something...

"Harry? Harry!" On the first day of lessons, Harry was woken by Ron. "Wake up!"

"What, I'm awake, I'm awake..." Harry mumbled, rolling over and reaching for his glasses. "What is it?"

"It's fifteen minutes to breakfast, mate, you might want to get up about now," Ron explained. "I think the others have already gone..."

Harry forced himself to get up. "So, what's happening today? I mean, we can't have lessons until we've done that consultation thing, can we?"

Ron shrugged, as Harry began to get dressed. "I guess not. D'you know what subjects you want to do?"

"Think so," Harry replied. "Wonder what Hermione'll be like, she'll want to take everything under the sun, it'll probably take McGonagall hours to sort her out..."

They both laughed, and headed down the staircase to the common room, where they found Hermione and started the walk down to the Great Hall.

It turned out that the whole day was free of lessons, while students spoke to their Heads of Houses about their subjects. The actual interviews did not take all day, but timetables could not be drawn up until afterwards, and anyway, it transpired that Dumbledore had decided through choice to give the Sixth Years the rest of the day off. None of the students questioned this; they knew better than to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

The interviews, which took place in the Great Hall, were to commence directly after breakfast, when the other years had gone off to lessons with the remaining teachers. The interviews were not supposed to take long, but it still felt to Harry like an age before, at last, Parvati Patil left and it was his turn. He approached the table apprehensively.

"Take a seat, Potter," Professor McGonagall said briskly, and he did so. As she saw the look of mild nervousness on his face, her own expression softened slightly. "How are you feeling?"

Harry knew she was referring to the events of that June. In response, he simply said, "Oh, not bad, Professor..."

"So," Professor McGonagall avoided the preamble and launched straight into the matter in hand, "what subjects were you thinking of taking?"

"Well," Harry began, "I need Potions, Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, if I want to be an Auror. I was planning on continuing Herbology, because it might help with Potions..."

"And what else? You need a sixth subject."

"I, um, I'm not quite sure. Perhaps History of Magic? I've never really got on with Astronomy, and I failed Divination..."

"I wonder perhaps, if you would take Divination even if you had passed the OWL," McGonagall remarked, a hint of a smile appearing on her face. She cleared her throat. "Well Potter, those choices seem quite in order. You should receive your timetable at breakfast tomorrow, and the trip to Hogsmeade for books and such will be this weekend. You may go."

Harry exited with a vague feeling of relief. Another thing over and done with. Now all he had to do was wait for Ron to be interviewed, and then the rest of the day was theirs to do as they pleased.

"So, what are you two taking?" Hermione asked as the trio left the Great Hall and headed for the lake.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology," Harry ticked them off on his fingers, "and History of Magic."

"Ugh," Ron pulled a face. "What are you taking History of Magic for?"

"Well, what else would I do?" Harry asked. "We have to take six, and anyway, if I need at least five NEWTs to be an Auror, I need a backup. How about you?"

"Same here, except I'm picking up Muggle Studies," Ron answered. "Instead of Potions. No way Snape'd let in someone who got an 'E'. Anyway, glad to be shot of the stupid git."

"Ron!" Hermione hissed, her eyebrows disappearing into her bushy hair. "You know when you say something like that, he'll probably be about three paces behind you!"

"Whatever," Ron said in response. "What subjects are you taking?"

"Same as Harry, except I'm taking Arithmancy instead of History of Magic."

Ron and Harry looked at each other in panic.

"Guess we'll have to take our own notes this year, mate," Ron whispered to Harry, who grimaced. This piece of news had brought home just how much they relied on Hermione in Professor Binns's lessons.

The three of them spent the afternoon lazing by the lake, idly watching the water ripple as the giant squid swam below the surface. They hardly noticed when lessons finished and other students began filtering out to join the Sixth Years. Harry did notice, however, when Cho Chang came over to say hello.

"Um, hi," She said shyly. "Did you have a good summer?"

"It was OK," Harry shrugged. He was a little colder towards her than he had been last year, not least due to his thoughts over the summer.

Cho shrewdly decided to leave at this point, and shortly after, all of the students began heading back to the Great Hall for dinner. Most of them were deliberately early, as the seat of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had been empty the previous night. Everyone was eager to find out who had been stupid enough to take over the post this year. It was a toss-up as to which of the previous teachers had had the roughest deal out of possession / death, complete memory loss, getting the sack for being a werewolf, being locked in a trunk for the best part of a year, or being widely hated then attacked by a poltergeist with a walking stick and a sock full of chalk.

No more than a minute after seating themselves at Gryffindor table, Harry, Ron and Hermione got the shock of their lives.

"Hang on, isn't that..." Harry trailed off as he stared at the staff table in amazement.

"It is!" Hermione squeaked, equally surprised.

The person seated in the DADA teacher's seat was thinner, greyer and more haggard looking than when they had seen him last, but it was still, unmistakably, Remus Lupin.

Author's Note: OK, this note is halfway between being utterly pointless and being a demonstration of my terrible sense of humour. Today's top typing errors are:

...they knew better than to look a gift-gorse in the mouth

...Defence Against the Dark Ages

These are so not funny, I know, but I just had to share them.

I'm done with formalities now, so Chapter 4 should be more interesting. And by the way, the way these chapters are getting shorter is not done to take the mick out of the way the books are doing the opposite. Therefore, you can hopefully believe me when I say that Chapter 4 will not follow this pattern (that's what they said before Order of the Phoenix).