Update: I am an idiot.
So I wrote this chapter and published it and was all happy, etc, and then I got two different reviews that say I posted the second chapter twice. So I had a moment of 'I didn't, did I?'
I did.
So now here's chapter three and my sincerest apologies.
"Proooooooongsss! Prongsies, Jaaaamess!" Despite Sirius' insistent yelling, his absolute tosser of a best mate would not wake up! But then he got an idea. "Aguamenti!" he whispered, and a stream of water shot out from his wand, soaking James. The latter gave a shriek and jumped out of bed, fumbling for his glasses. Once he found them and put them on, he saw Sirius' 'innocent' face, and grabbed his wand. "You'll pay for that Padfoot!"
Harry walked into the Great Hall on a fine Friday morning in a good mood. He sat down and started eating breakfast, but not without subtly checking for pranks in his food, his wand up his sleeve. Nothing, he was safe. He glanced over to the Gryffindor table, and noted with some confusion that James Potter was smirking at a purple and orange Sirius Black. He deduced that his father was the one to have done that. He chuckled quietly to himself, sipping his tea.
When breakfast was over, he headed off to his classroom, ready to teach the fifth years. His first class!
As they filed in when the bell rang, he searched their faces for anyone he knew, while greeting them at the door. He recognized one Ravenclaw boy. Barty Crouch jr. He kept his face blank as he calmly greeted him. Crouch was innocent. Just one of his students. Once they were all in and had seated themselves, he walked to the front of the class. "Hello class. I'm your new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. My name is Harry Privet, you may call me Professor Privet." He spoke softly, but firmly. "As I am new, I have yet to learn your names, so bear with me if I forget or get it wrong. Now, as I understand, your education in this subject has been rather fragmented, so could one of you tell me what you have covered so far? Yes Miss Hookums?"
"We've covered minor spells, jinxes, and creatures, as well as shield charms." Harry nodded, then said "Right, have you worked on dodging, or curses?" When the class collectively shook their heads, he sighed. "So today we are going to work on curses. What do you know about them?" A sandy-haired Ravenclaw raised his hand. Crouch. Harry called on him, and the boy answered. "Curses are Dark Magic, worse than hexes or jinxes. Dark wizards use them, and the worst three are called the Unforgiveables."
"Alright, so these are a list of curses, I want you to write what you think they do, if you know them."
Harry sat at his desk, completely exasperated. He was teaching the third years. If he had thought that Gilderoy Lockhart was a bad teacher, he was an even worse student. Eager to prove his 'abilities', and yet hopelessly incompetent, putting himself and his fellow students in danger merely by waving his wand. He had set the class a simple exercise on banshees to be able to have a break.
"Professor, what would happen if you frightened a banshee and she screamed?"
Harry groaned. Lockhart was back at it again.
'Maybe you should try it and find out!' He really wished he could say that out loud.
"Goodbye Professor!"
"Goodbye Miss Chittock."
Harry let himself wear a relieved grin as he shut the door to his classroom after the last third-year exited his class. The grin didn't last long however, when he remembered his next class. Seventh-year Gryffindors and Slytherins. Whoever made the classes was sorely mistaken if they thought that was a good idea. He'd see the Marauders, and his mother. His stomach seemed to do a sort of flip just thinking about it. He checked his watch, and he had two minutes until the students would be lining up outside the door. He flicked his wand to rearrange the desks into two U shapes, one inside the other. He shuffled some papers around his desk, not really knowing what to do.
"— I don't see what is so hard about this Marlene. I. Do. Not. Like. James. Potter." Lily glared at her friend, who was wearing a mischievous grin.
"Sure you don't."
Lily sighed, she was impossible. She decided to change the subject. "What do you think Defense is going to be like?" Alice just looked at her with one raised eyebrow, but went along with it.
"I dunno, the new teacher seemed kind of young. But the Headmaster wouldn't employ someone that didn't know their stuff."
They arrived in front of the door and lined up, waiting. Lily considered Alice's previous statement. While it was true that Dumbledore wouldn't employ someone substandard, maybe he'd had to lower his standards, either because of the curse on the position, or because good fighters were needed for the war. She voiced her thoughts out loud to her friends. Marlene looked thoughtful for a moment, then replied, "Maybe, but it goes both ways. We need to be taught Defense now more than ever because of the war against You-Know-Who." More students were arriving now, it was almost time for class.
Remus cursed under his breath as he ran with the absolute prats he called his friends. They were going to be late for Defense against the Dark Arts. This was not going to make a good impression on the new teacher. He glared at Sirius.
They arrived at the door just as bell rang, and skidded into the line, trying to make it look like they were there the entire time.
Harry took a deep breath, then opened the door and greeted his students as they entered the room, taking in the clear line between the Slytherins and Gryffindors as they sat down. He took in the Marauders' disheveled appearance and concluded that they had arrived just on time. He raised an eyebrow at them, and Remus at least had the decency to look abashed.
Once they had all filed into the room, he shut the door and went over to sit on the corner of his desk. He repeated what he had said to all the classes he'd had previously. "Hello class. I'm your new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. My name is Harry Privet, you may call me Professor Privet. As I am new, I have yet to learn your names, so bear with me if I forget or get it wrong. Now, as I understand, your education in this subject has been quite inconsistent, so could one of you tell me what you have covered so far?"
Remus and Lily's hands were the first to shoot up into the air, he called on Remus. "Yes, Mister Lupin?"
"We've covered jinxes and hexes, some creatures, the shield charm, offensive spells, some physical fighting, and a bit of theory of the Dark arts."
Harry nodded, taking it in. "Alright. Before we jump into lessons, I'm going to take a moment to ask you what you know about the war. Have your previous Defense teachers, or any other teachers, mentioned it?"
The class collectively shook their heads, and Lily's hand went up again.
"Miss Evans?"
"All we know is that there is a war against You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters, and they're dark wizards. The teachers wanted to shelter us."
Harry looked at his mother, disappointed. "You-Know-Who, really? Even muggleborns buying into that idiotic superstition?"
Lily at once looked outraged. "Well I would say his name if I could! But as it is I can only call him You-Know-Who because everyone else knows who but I DON'T. I DON'T KNOW WHO! No one would ever tell me his name!" Shouts of "Yeah" and "It's not fair!" from some of the muggleborns in the class supported her.
Harry looked at her in shock. He had never considered that no one would have told them upon their arrival at Hogwarts. It made sense now though. "I apologize. I never realized that no one ever told you. The name of the so called Dark Lord is Voldemort." He turned around and wrote it in big letter on the black board. One girl started laughing, he believed her name was Juliana Lewis. He turned towards her, "Something funny?"
"But that's just bad French! It has a couple of things it could mean in French, but everyone's seriously that scared of that?" Another boy turned towards her.
"It has several meanings? I thought it just meant flight of death." She shook her head.
"In French, 'vol' and 'de' are fairly ambiguous. Voldemort could mean flight of death, or flight from death, but it could also mean theft of death or theft from death."
Harry just sat back on his desk as he listened to his students debating the meaning of Voldemort, while some of the Slytherins and purebloods looked at them, stricken. He may not be teaching, but they were still learning a lesson. They wouldn't have a problem with Voldemort's name now, and they'd probably spread it around. After about five minutes, he cleared his throat, and the class fell silent.
"As fun as it is to debate the meaning of Voldemort's name, I should probably move on to actually teaching you something. Now, to quickly review things that you've done in the past, here is a little quiz. It's alright if there are things that you don't know in there, I just want a good grasp of your knowledge."
Remus said goodbye to Professor Privet as he walked out the door, then turned to James. "That was a great class! The new professor seems, to be really good." James grinned at him.
"I completely agree. I really hopes he stays."
Sirius came up from behind them. "Come on, let's get to lunch, yes the class was good but I'm hungry!" The other marauders chuckled, and Remus teased, "That's our Padfoot, always thinking with his stomach."
When Sirius protested, Remus just smiled at him. "Don't ever change."
"Don't worry, he won't." James assured him.
As Lily walked to lunch, she thought about the class they'd just had. She had been mortified when she started ranting about 'You-Know-Who', but the professor didn't mind, and he had told her what it actually was. And then they'd had a mini debate over Voldemort's name! She grinned, and Alice noticed.
"From the look on your face, I take it you liked the lesson?" Lily nodded, and Alice smirked. "You know, I noticed the professor looked a little like Potter. Maybe the reason you liked the lesson so much was because—" Lily didn't let her finish the sentence, stopping and turning around to glare at her with her arms crossed.
"You were saying?"
"You know, I think I'll just shut up now."
Harry smiled as he made his way to lunch. The class had been excellent, and he had seen that he obviously got his temper from his mother. He reached the head table and sat down next to Catherine. He greeted her, and she grinned at him, before asking, "How was your first day of teaching? Were the students all right, or did they misbehave terribly?"
"It was great, and the students were good too. I just had a first-rate lesson with the seventh year Gryffindors and Slytherins." Minerva raised an eyebrow at him from Catherine's other side.
"A first-rate lesson with a class that includes the Marauders? You'll have to teach me your secret." Harry laughed.
"They were quite well-behaved, actually. We also had a lively debate over the meaning of Voldemort's name, it was quite interesting." Had Minerva been drinking, she would have spit out her pumpkin juice. Harry cheerfully continued on, "Apparently it has four different meaning in French, as both 'vol' and 'de' could mean different things."
He then proceeded to finish eating his lunch, as the teachers who had heard what he said all stared at him. When he was done, and the others seemed to have decided that he was mad, he bid them adieu and walked out of the Great Hall to get ready for the second years.
As he walked back to his classroom, he smiled as he recalled the looks on their faces. He would tease definitely Minerva about this when he got back. She'd never live it down.
So that's chapter three! Tell me what you think of it if you want, feedback is always appreciated! :D