A/N: Sorry for the lack of uploads. I've been out of the country and getting back into the flow of school. Hope you enjoy this chapter. As always please review.
Harry was halfway back to Gryffindor tower before the idea struck him. He knew that he could translocate inside the anti-apparition wards at the Burrow, but he had no idea how it would work inside of Hogwarts' ancient wards. Concentrating briefly, he disregarded the laws of physics and slapped them around to his will. With minimal extra effort he was able to punch a hole from the second floor hallway he was in to the hallway just outside of Gryffindor tower, giving the Fat Lady quite a shock.
He grinned at her and gave her the password, sending his magic forward to widen the passage behind the portrait so that he could walk the entire way through. There were a few other sixth and seventh years still awake but he ignored them and joined his friends by the fire. "How was your meeting with the Headmaster?" began Hermione, "Professor Snape looked really mad when he followed him out of the hall."
Harry laughed at this, "Greasy git wanted the job and was pissed off that I had been chosen over him. He tried to break into my mind and in the process learned the error of his ways. He should be a bit more tolerable in class from now on."
Hermione's eyes grew wide at the implications, "Harry James Potter please tell me you did NOT attack a Professor." She was burgeoning on a full-blown rant but Ron snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her back down to the couch and onto his lap, effectively quieting her.
"Hermione all I did was defend myself against an attack from a fellow professor. All I used was some very advanced Occlumency with more than a touch of psionics. I gave him an unabridged look at my childhood and he finally seems to get that I'm not one to bask in my fame. We both agreed to help one another with our teaching techniques in a cordial manner, which reminds me." He pulled the stacks of parchment from his robes and enlarged them before handing them to Hermione, "Would you mind helping me sort out an effective lesson plan? Those are Remus and the real Moody's lesson plans from when they were here."
Hermione greedily scanned the documents before nodding to herself, "Oh its really quite self explanatory but I know how you are about scheduling things. I'll take a few minutes before breakfast tomorrow and at least get your first week done, then I'll have the rest to you by start of class next Monday." Harry grinned at Ron over her shoulder, who was happy as a clam to have the petite witch on his lap.
"Thanks 'Mione, I really appreciate it. Now if none of you mind I need to be getting to bed, I have a busier day than the rest of you tomorrow, twice as many classes but thankfully I only have to learn in three of them. 'Night." He gave the girls tight hugs and slapped Neville and Ron on the shoulder before trudging up the stairs and into his dorm room.
He got ready for bed and climbed into his four-poster, surprised at how similar it felt to the bed he had at the institute. That train of thought led him into thinking of his friends there and soon he was bringing all three into a conference chat, discussing his new title and how they were coping with life without him. This led to some jokes about his ego which he took good-naturedly before signing off and promising to keep them updated, with a private promise to Mark to keep an eye out for his Aunt.
As he gave up his fight against sleep one thing was rattling through his brain. The flash of jealousy hit him again as he relived the memory, tending to the organization of his mind before he drifted off to sleep. It was a mystery for tomorrow or the day after, he needed as much sleep as he could manage, this was already proving to be an interesting year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Harry was up early the next morning, fully intending to keep up with the exercise plan that his friends had set up for him. He returned to the dorms by seven, nudging Ron awake before he trudged into the shower. A quick flash of a body tight shield and he was dry and toweling his hair. He dressed in jeans and his dragon hide boots. He put a tight black t-shirt on over top and slid his side arm into its holster at the small of his back. His wand found its way into the holster strapped to his right forearm before disappearing from sight. His combat knife was clipped to his hip pocket and he strapped his bright orange dive watch to his left wrist. He left his robes shrunken in a pocket because his first class of the day was Fifth year Hufflepuffs and Slytherins for DADA.
Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny all joined him on his trek down to the Great Hall but they got separated with Professor McGonagall pulled Harry away from the group upon entrance. "Professor Potter, since you'll be teaching first thing today Filius and I thought it would be a good idea for you to sit with us at the staff table, give you a head start as far as your authority is concerned. Slytherins first thing of the term is nothing to scoff at." Harry nodded and gently tapped his friends, letting them know of their Head of House's plan. They all smiled back at him from their seats at the Gryffindor table and he climbed the three short steps up to the stage where the staff table sat overlooking the students.
He gave brief nods to the other Professors, only eliciting a raised eyebrow from Snape. As soon as he had his plate filled with eggs, bacon, and toast he was pulled into an animated conversation with Professor Flitwick about what he planned on teaching in class. The diminutive professor nearly bounced out of his seat when Harry explained that he hoped to have sixth and seventh years able to point cast levitation charms in order to intercept unforgivables. McGonagall broke into their conversation here from her position on the other side of Harry. "And what if there is nothing for them to put into the line of fire Harry?"
He was slightly thrown by her use of his first name, but he shook it mentally before turning a smiling face to his Transfiguration professor. "Well, Minerva," he paused and gave her a look that said 'two could play at that game', "I would hope that they would remember their transfiguration lessons and conjure a small bit of marble to take the force of the blow. However you know as well as I do that transfiguration, especially transfiguration at the rate at which combat demands, is tiring on the best of wizards, which is why I will be focusing on the levitation charm."
The elderly professor nodded her head at his explanation and returned to her tea, which allowed her to survey the student body over the rim of her teacup. Twenty minutes before the start of class he excused himself and made his way down the stairs closest to the exit, tapping Elena and informing her that her presence would be appreciated for the first few minutes of class for those students fifth year and above. "Of course Harry, I will be there shortly." Came the smooth reply of his colleague.
She arrived only a few minutes before the students began to filter in. He thanked her and continued pacing his classroom. When all the students were seated he scanned the room, feeling a few tugs of apprehension and quite a bit of contempt from the students with silver and green badges. He quickly took roll and set the parchment into a drawer. "Welcome to your Fifth Year of Defense Against the Dark Arts. During your time here you've had a Fraud, a Death Eater, a crazed Ministry Lackey, and a Werewolf. Common opinion says that Professors Lupin and Crouch were the only competent professors you've had. My class will be much different; it will be mostly practical with theory being assigned for homework. I won't assign many essays but you will have a short answer assignment each week for me, but I will be giving you seven days to complete it. Professor Smith here will have you once a week to work with you on Occlumency. Since Legillimency is one of Voldemort's" the class hissed, half in fright, the other in contempt, Harry stared them down and continued.
"Voldemort's most useful weapon. He can use it to learn the information he needs while seeding terror and doubt throughout our population. What she is teaching you may save someone's life some day. What I'm teaching you WILL save your life someday. I'm going to hand out a syllabus of spells that I expect you all to have at least ninety percent proficiency with by the end of September so that we can move onto harder stuff. If you are having any prolonged trouble with these spells please consider joining me on Saturday evenings when I will be running the DA in the Great Hall." His eyes scanned the classroom, nobody dared interrupt, his stance was imposing and he was twice the size he was when they last saw him in June.
He passed out the syllabus, which consisted of many of the spells they had learned over the first four years at Hogwarts and had three separate check boxes next to each spell. "Proficient" "Silent" and "Point". "Does anyone have any questions as to the Syllabus?" A few of the Hufflepuffs weren't sure what he meant by 'point' and he explained, "Point casting means that you've mastered the spell enough that you don't need to use the wand movement to achieve the proper result. Incantations and wand movements help you focus your magic and will power into your desired effect. With enough practice you can drop the incantation, and with even more you can drop the movements as well. I only want you to have ninety percent of the proficient boxes filled in by October, the rest we will work on when we have time and in the DA. Now are there any spells that anyone would like to specifically work on today?"
For the rest of class he separated the class into groups of two, having them practice shield charms. Elena excused herself when they got to the practical portion of class and he waved a quick goodbye before returning his focus to the class. He was almost daring the Slytherins to try and pull something but something about his demeanor must have gotten across that he wasn't going to be very nice if he got interrupted. By the end of class all the students that hadn't had the shield charm checked off had become proficient with it, and those that had it down already were able to cast it silently most of the time. He had copies of the syllabi he handed out and they updated themselves with the student's name and what they had filled out.
He was perusing these when Dumbledore wandered into his classroom, hands clasped behind him, his gray-blue eyes scanning the room. With a quick thought Harry had the desks back in their proper places and the scorch marks cleaned from the wall. Grinning his Headmaster conjured a paisley armchair opposite Harry and took a seat. "How was your first class Harry? I saw no points being shifted from you, nor did any detentions come across my desk so from a disciplinary angle it seems to have gone smoothly."
Harry raised an eyebrow at the old man before answering, "I didn't really give the students an opportunity to earn any points, though that might be because I'm used to teaching in the DA where I couldn't award my students with anything but praise. I will try to ask more questions in the future to elicit discussion and perhaps spawn opportunities to award students who are quite obviously paying attention." He went on to explain his idea about the proficiency syllabus and handed across one of his Hufflepuff's sheets.
Dumbledore scanned the sheet and nodded, noting that nothing on the sheet was out of line and that Harry's expectations weren't impossible. "How many students do you expect to learn point casting Harry? It is a very difficult thing to do but once you manage it for a few spells you can do many wondrous things with magic."
Harry shrugged, "Not too many, it isn't something I will be grading on, perhaps extra credit. I've been working on it myself and I agree, once I got my stunner, shield, and levitation spells down the rest of them came easily because I understood exactly what my magic was doing. If I can get them to practice that they will be learning theory despite their best efforts." He grinned and Dumbledore joined him in a quiet chuckle.
"It seems that you have everything in hand, will you be continuing the DA? I don't mean to push more responsibility on you…" Dumbledore trailed off.
Harry nodded, "I do plan on keeping the DA going but in a supervisory role. I was hoping to get Hermione and Ron and the others to step up and take a leading role. Would you be okay with Mark, Simon, and Coggy coming in to take part? I have been training Mark in magic and I want Simon and Coggy to do some one on one training with Ron and Neville. They have potential for Psy Warriors."
A bell chimed and Harry jumped up, pulling his robes out and expanding them in one movement, throwing them on over his clothes. "I've got to run to Transfiguration, can we catch up after my first week?" He stopped long enough to hear Dumbledore give his ascent before he ran out of the classroom and down the hall, making his way towards McGonagall's classroom.