Harry Potter

The first seed of his doubt had been planted only a few weeks after he finished his training, on a rainy afternoon when he was sitting in his new apartment with McGonagall, drinking tea and eating biscuits.

'Are you happy, Harry?' she asked slowly, giving him a biscuit, which made him smile.

'Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?' he said. After all, he'd just officially become an Auror, thus making his dream come true.

'It's just... I'm not sure you should be an Auror.'

He frowned. This was a different reaction than he'd expected, seeing as how she'd defended him against Umbridge in his fifth year. 'I thought you would be proud.'

'And I am; this is quite an accomplishment, though I never doubted you would make it. But are you sure this is the career you want?' she said gently. 'You seem a bit stressed. I'd imagined you would have wanted to relax a bit after the war, not spend your days chasing after dark wizards.'

'It'll take some getting used to, I guess.'

She didn't press the issue any further, but the words had settled in Harry's mind and refused to leave it. Was he sure this was the career he wanted?

And now, a year later, he was sat at the same kitchen table, writing his resignment letter.

He was good at working as an Auror, and he took pride in that, but the job was too stressful and didn't make him happy. He'd been forced to spend his childhood fighting dark wizards; it turned out that wasn't what he wanted to do with his life. He had been pushed into that fight without ever having asked to, and now it was finally time to step away from a career choice he'd made because of a tragic past and a childhood dream that had come to life after a compliment from a fake teacher, and which had been fuelled by his hate for another teacher and his wish to take revenge for the many friends he had lost, a decision made out of spite and restlessness. It was time to start doing something he loved, and he'd found the perfect opportunity: Hogwarts was in dire need of a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, as no one had been able to keep the position for more than a year yet, even after the war.

Harry smiled. It was time to break Voldemort's last curse.

Harry was sat at the teacher's table, pretending to listen to professor McGonagall's speech. He really tried, but he couldn't focus. It was too strange, sitting here during the feast once again, but this time seeing it all from the teacher's table. It made him dizzy.

'And now, everyone please welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, professor Harry Potter,' McGonagall said.

There was a stunned silence, followed by whispers and rumour. Harry felt hundreds of people staring at him. Neville, who was sitting next to him, kicked his ankle.

'Get up!' he whispered. Harry quickly stood up, just when the teachers started clapping. Soon, the students followed, and the Great Hall was filled with a loud applause. Harry felt his cheeks get tomato red and quickly sat down. There was cheering and some people at the Gryffindor table were chanting his name; it took McGonagall a while to get everyone quiet. Harry felt like hiding under the table.

'I hope they're not going to do that every time I walk into a classroom,' he whispered to Neville while McGonagall said the last words of her speech.

'Don't worry, they'll get used to it soon enough,' Neville said while they got up and walked to the entrance.

'Harry!' someone yelled. 'Eh, professor Potter, I mean.'

Harry turned around and found himself face to face with a Gryffindor boy, who looked like he was probably in his seventh year. An old-fashioned camera was hung around his neck and for a moment, Harry thought he was looking at Colin Creevey.

'Dennis?'

A huge smile appeared on the boy's face. He looked even more like Colin now. 'You recognized me!'

'Of course I did! Is that Colin's camera?'

'Yeah, it is. He wanted me to have it.' Dennis stared at the camera for a moment, a sad smile on his face, then pulled himself out of it and cleared his throat. 'Could I maybe interview you for the paper?'

'The paper?'

'The school newspaper, Hoggy Hogwarts. I started it last year, and they asked me to interview the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. That was before we knew it was you, of course.'

'Well, uh, sure, if it doesn't take too long – I don't want to keep you out of bed.'

Dennis nodded and took a quick look at a rumpled piece of notebook paper. 'So, uh, why did you want to be the new Defence teacher?'

Harry thought about it for a moment. 'Because I love teaching. I like helping people learn new things, giving them advice, a little push in the right direction. I've had a lot of great teachers who helped me, and I wanted to return the favour.'

'Who was your best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher?'

'Remus Lupin,' Harry said without even thinking about it. 'He's helped me so much.'

'What's your favourite spell or creature to teach?'

'That would be the Patronus charm. A very difficult spell, hard to master, but a beautiful piece of magic. Have you learned it already?'

'Colin taught me how to do it,' Dennis said shyly. 'And he learned it from you. It's not fully corporeal – it's really difficult.'

'Well, I can help you with that. I'll definitely do it with the seventh years sometime this year.'

'That would be great! Okay, next question: was Defence Against the Dark Arts your favourite subject when you were at Hogwarts? Were you good at it?'

'Yes and yes. I always liked it, though it did depend on the teacher. I started some kind of defence club in my fifth year, to teach other students – you'll remember that, Dennis.'

'I still carry the coin with me at all times, just in case,' Dennis said softly. 'Colin did, too, before he died. That's how he knew what was going on, that evening. If anything happens, I want to be there.'

'I don't think anything like that will happen again soon,' Harry said. 'But it's good to be prepared.'

'Yeah, I agree. So, last question: how long do you plan to stay here? Longer than a year?'

Harry laughed. 'For as long as I can, don't worry. Good night, Dennis.'

'Good night Harry!' the boy said while putting away his notes. Harry started walking away. 'Professor Potter, I mean!' he heard Dennis yell just before he turned around the corner. Still laughing, he went to his room, for his first night back at Hogwarts in years.

Neville turned out to be right; they got used to Harry's presence soon enough. In the first weeks, he'd got a lot of questions about the war, and people who asked for autographs.

'The only thing I'll sign is a detention slip,' he always said. He didn't want to be a second Lockhart. And soon enough, they stopped asking and started paying attention to his lessons. When someone stayed after class, it was just to ask an extra question about an essay, the exams, or just something about the subject they didn't understand or wanted to know more about. Harry quickly got used to the new sensation of being a professor. He enjoyed teaching; it reminded him of the DA meetings, and he noticed that the students enjoyed the lessons as well. He had his meals at the teachers table in the Great Hall, usually with Neville. They talked a lot, usually about normal stuff. Neville was professor Sprout's assistant and substitute, and also functioned as a counsellor for the students. They could always come to his office, get a cup of tea, talk about their struggles, and he'd do his best to help them.

Harry also talked to the other teachers, reminiscing about Harry's time at Hogwarts, and to Hagrid, about everything he could think of. And slowly, Harry started to feel more relaxed. He stopped worrying about whatever evil wizards might be out there, stopped feeling like he was constantly running from some mysterious danger. His biggest challenge was thinking of fun essay prompts, so they would be interesting to write for the students and to read for him. His days were repetitive, not filled with danger and fighting for his life. It was amazing.

After a few months, it was time for the lesson Harry had promised Dennis. He was going to start teaching the seventh years how to conjure a Patronus.

It was a double hour. He spent the first half of the lesson explaining what a Patronus was and how it worked. He asked the students what they knew about it, he told them about the uses of a Patronus and finally conjured his own Patronus, the big stag that looked like his father's animagus shape.

When the ooh's and ah's had died down, he told them to get up and grab their wand, and let them try it themselves.

Dennis managed to produce a incorporeal Patronus, that just looked like some white smoke, just like Harry had expected. None of the other students managed to do anything.

'Focus,' Harry said. 'Forget all of the scary and unhappy stuff, and just think of the happiest memory you can think of. Let it fill your mind, so that everything else disappears. You have to feel that happiness, that safety, and then use that energy to produce a Patronus.'

'It's hard,' one of the students said.

'I know it's hard,' Harry said. 'And I don't expect you all to be able to produce a perfect Patronus, especially not at first try! Okay, wait, we're going to try something else. Close your eyes.'

'Why?'

'Just do it, you'll see,' Harry said. 'Close your eyes.' He waited until everyone had obeyed. 'Okay, take a deep breath. Hold it... and slowly let it out. Take a breath... hold it... let it out. Take a breath... hold it... let it out. Just keep breathing, in that rhythm. Focus on your breathing, and nothing else.' He kept quiet for a few minutes, listening to the breathing of the class. No one talked or giggled, fortunately. 'Okay,' he said softly, 'now stretch your arms – carefully, so you don't hit anyone. Keep your eyes closed! Stretch and then relax again, so all of your muscles are relaxed. Make sure there isn't any tension in your body.' He waited again. 'Now try to think of something good that happened today, or yesterday. Do you remember how that felt? That happy feeling? Now try to think of more happy things that happened lately. Try to make yourself smile, but it has to come naturally, by thinking of happy memories.' He waited and looked at how the smiles appeared on his students' faces, one by one, while they remembered the happy things that had happened to them. Harry couldn't help but smile himself. 'Now think of the happiest memory you can recall. A moment you felt completely at peace, calm and happy. It doesn't have to be something really special or amazing; just a time you felt happy. Can you do that? Now hold that feeling. Try to remember exactly how you felt, remember what you saw, what you heard, what you smelled. Raise your wand for me. Keep thinking about that happy memory, try to relive that moment. It's just you and the memory. Hold that happy feeling. Now, say: Expecto Patronum.'

'Expecto Patronum,' twenty-one students said.

Harry saw a few whisks of white smoke. Dennis's looked like a vague shape, but it wasn't yet clear what animal it was supposed to be. After a few seconds, all the Patronuses had disappeared.

'Okay, good job everybody. Open your eyes and sit down where you're standing, I don't care if it's on the ground or on a chair.'

Some rumour while everybody sat down and rubbed their eyes or yawned.

'Do you know why I'm doing this with you?'

'Because you think it's important to know the Patronus charm?' a girl said.

'No, that's not why. A lot of older wizards can't conjure one either, and honestly, you probably won't need it much.'

'Because it's your favourite charm?' someone else guessed.

Harry laughed. 'Someone who reads the paper! But no, that's not why. The reason why I'm teaching you this, is because it's good practice. What you have to do to conjure a Patronus, is ban out all the bad feelings, to forget about all of your fears for a moment – or better even, become at peace with them. You have to be able to focus on something happy, to make yourself feel happy. And that's really hard, especially after everything that's happened. But that's also why this is so important. I want you to be happy, all of you. I want to learn you to find happiness and hope, even when everything around you is trying to push you down, when it feels like everyone is against you. My goal is not for all of you to be able to produce a fully corporeal Patronus; I honestly couldn't care less about that. My goal is for all of you to be able to be happy, despite everything that has happened. So, the homework for next class is to take five minutes each day – before you go to sleep, for example – to close your eyes, breathe slowly, and focus on something happy that's happened recently. Oh, and try to think of what your happiest memory might be.'

After three weeks, during which they'd spent some time focusing on happy memories and practicing the Patronus charm each class, seven students could produce a corporeal Patronus. Dennis had been the first. All others could produce at least some white smoke, that would stay for a few seconds. The class seemed more at peace, too, calmer and happier than before. All of it wasn't over yet, but it was a start. Harry was proud of all of them, all of his hundreds of students, and the progress they'd made over time. And the next schoolyear, he was back, in the same position. The first DADA teacher in years who'd been able to keep the job for more than a year, the one to break Voldemort's curse, like he'd broken his Avada Kedavra curses. Again, Harry defeated Voldemort, without even having to fight.

Harry Potter was finally home.