Summer seem to pass in a blur for Harry, Hermione and Draco. It felt like no sooner had they left at the end of fifth year, then they were starting to think about heading back in sixth year. Of course, it helped that they'd been busy practically all holidays. After Voldemort's party, they'd spent some more time with Draco's friends, getting to know them. Harry in particular had spent some time with Daphne, and even though nothing had happened between them, their attraction was bubbling nicely. Harry and Severus had also moved into their new house with Rosmerta, although both still had rooms at home and Harry still spent nearly all his spare time at his grandfather's house. As for Draco and Hermione, when they weren't with Harry and his other friends, they were spending precious time together as a couple.
With such busy a busy summer, it did mean that the trio had been a bit neglectful of their parents. They knew Severus had been appointed Headmaster, but it wasn't until dinner at the manor a few weeks before the start of term that other staffing was even mentioned.
"Did you get rid of Trelawney?" Harry asked his father.
"Why would I get rid of Sybill?" Severus asked.
"Because she's on old fraud," Harry replied. "Plus, she keeps telling me I'm going to die in all sorts of nasty and gruesome ways."
"Seriously?" Rosmerta asked in concern. "She tells you that you're going to die."
"All the time," Harry confirmed with a nod. "The bloodier the better in her opinion."
"That's awful," Rosmerta tutted. "Who would tell a young boy that they were going to die a bloody death? The woman has to be stopped."
"I wish you'd mentioned this before, Harry," Severus sighed. "I've never really believed she had the sight, but I always thought she was harmless. I would have sacked her if I'd know about this before. But it will look as though I'm going back on my word, if I sack her now. I need to keep the staff onside, but I will talk to her and warn her off. If she does it again, you come and tell me and I'll deal with it."
"Will do," Harry promised.
"So what new Professors do we have to look forward to?" Hermione asked. "I know you need a new Defence Professor, and we did tell you how awful History of Magic is."
"We have a new History of Magic Professor," Severus told his sister. "An old friend of the Minister's will be taking the job."
"Let's hope he's more interesting than Theo's father," Draco muttered to his girlfriend and best friend.
"Draco," Narcissa scolded, overhearing her son. "That's no way to speak about the Minister, and a good friend of the family's."
"Sorry Mother, but you know it's true," Draco said. "Mr Nott is extremely dull, and what's worse is that he makes Theo boring as well."
"Draco has a point," Lucius said with a sly smirk. "Bernie really does need to loosen up a bit."
"Apparently this friend of his is very good at his job, and he makes learning about history fun," Severus said with a shrug. "All I can do is try him."
"And what about Defence? Have you sorted a new Professor yet?" Hermione pressed.
"Actually, it won't be Defence, it'll just be the Dark Arts," Severus explained.
"You're going to teach everyone the Dark Arts?" Hermione questioned, shooting a worried look at her father. "You're basically preparing people to fight against you if you do that."
"Have some faith, Hermione," Voldemort chuckled. "Just because the lesson is changing, doesn't mean we're equipping people to fight against us. We've thought very carefully about what we're going to teach people. Besides, we can also get a look at just what certain people are made of."
"You're expecting the new Professor to report back to you?" Hermione asked.
"I know he will," Voldemort replied with a smirk.
"So it's a he," Hermione said with a grin. "Do we get any more details?"
"Severus?" Voldemort raised an eyebrow at his son.
"I can say our new Dark Arts Professor is also taking over as head of Slytherin," Severus announced.
"Does that mean Slughorn has left as well?" Harry asked. "I would have thought he would have taken the position as he used to do it before."
"He's gone," Severus confirmed. "So we've also got a new Potions Mistress starting as well."
"Mistress?" Draco asked. "Our new Potions Professor is a witch."
"Women can make potions, Draco," Narcissa snapped, slightly annoyed at her son's obvious surprise.
"I know that," Draco replied with a roll of his eyes. After all, he would have to be stupid not to recognise that a witch could make Potions as well as a wizard as his mother was an expert Potions maker. "It's just that Potions is a very male dominated area."
"Unfortunately, that's true," Narcissa admitted with a sigh. "It's as though the magical world thinks you can only mix a potion if you have a penis."
"Mother," Draco gasped, almost choking on his roast potato.
"Just pointing out the sexism at large in our world," Narcissa replied with a sweet smile.
"There's no sexism at my school," Severus said. "I've hired the best person for the job, right Beth?"
"Indeed you have, Severus," Beth replied with a grin as her daughter and grandson both looked at her in total shock.
"You," Harry spluttered. "You're our new Professor?"
"I am," Beth answered. "And the pair of you better behave, I don't expect to give my daughter and grandson detention."
"When was this decided?" Hermione asked, still stunned by the revelation.
"Last year," Beth replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But we thought we'd surprise you."
"You did that," Hermione muttered.
"I think it's great," Draco said, amusement written all over his face. "Just think, now the pair of you both have parents at school. How brilliant for the two of you."
"I'm glad you think so son," Lucius piped up. "Because you'll also have a parent at school. Only not only will I be your Professor, I'll also be your head of house."
"No, you can't," Draco gasped in horror. "Please tell me this is a joke."
"Afraid not," Lucius replied with a smirk. "You're now looking at your new Dark Arts Professor and Head of Slytherin."
"Bloody hell," Draco muttered, as he dropped his head to the table.
"How brilliant for you Draco, having your father teaching at school," Harry mocked.
"Three of you, there's going to three of you," Draco grumbled as he looked back up. "How will we ever get away with anything?"
"Like what?" Beth asked, eying up her daughter's boyfriend and wondering what sort of trouble he was wanting to get into.
"Anything," Draco replied with a shrug. "Do you know how difficult it will be to sneak around in the middle of the night with three of you there?"
"Pfft," Lucius snorted. "If you can't sneak around and avoid three members of staff, you're not a very good Slytherin, Draco. I raised you better than that, son. Have some faith in your ability to outwit the staff."
"Lucius, dear, I don't think you're supposed to be encouraging them," Narcissa said as the adults all chuckled at the three teenagers and their still shocked faces.
"Perhaps not," Lucius conceded. "But I can still remember what it was like to be young, and sneaking around Hogwarts in the dead of night. Do you know, Narcissa and I were once almost caught getting up to no good by Dumbledore in the Great Hall? We had to hide behind one of the curtains until he went away again."
"I don't remember that," Narcissa said with a frown.
"Of course you do, it was the day after we'd been to Hogsmeade in the storm and nearly got stuck down in the village," Lucius replied. "Although, I still say we should have hung around in the village for longer until we had no choice but to stay in one of the pubs."
"That wasn't me," Narcissa said with a slight snarl. "That was Natasha Hendrie, the Ravenclaw witch you were dating before me."
"Are you sure?" Lucius asked his wife. "I could have sworn it was you."
"It wasn't," Narcissa repeated in a frosty voice.
"Now he's in for it," Draco whispered to Hermione and Harry as Lucius tried to pacify his wife.
"He'll charm Narcissa before the end of the night," Harry predicted.
Sure enough by the end of the meal, Lucius had managed to make amends to his wife for his slip up. In fact by the end of the meal, Lucius had worked his magic so well that everyone made an early exit as it was clear just how the Malfoys were planning on spending the rest of the evening. Unfortunately for Draco, he had to go to bed on his own as Hermione had to leave with her parents. However, they'd be back at school soon and Draco had plans for them to spend the entire night together, sooner rather than later.
C.O.T.D.
A week before they were due to go back to Hogwarts, the trio headed to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. They'd made arrangements to meet up with some of the Slytherins while they were there, so they did their shopping with Theo, Blaise and Daphne. Predictably, Harry and Daphne spent their entire trip chatting and laughing together, and even Blaise and Theo commented on their closeness.
"So what do we think?" Blaise asked Draco and Theo in the bookshop. "Christmas?"
"That's a bit fast," Theo said with a slight frown. "I'm going for the end of year."
"A year?" Draco snorted. "Look at them, they're all over each other, no way is it going to take them a year to get together."
"Okay then genius, what's your best guess?" Theo said.
"First Hogsmeade trip," Draco replied with confidence.
"That'll barely be a month into the school term," Blaise pointed out. "That's pretty fast, considering they've only started to get to know each other over the summer."
"Yeah, but the attraction's been there for ages," Draco argued. "Harry's fancied Daphne since third or fourth year, and she was drooling over him at the Yule Ball. I'm telling you, it won't take them that long to get together properly."
"So be it, I still say it's too fast," Blaise replied with a shrug.
"We'll see," Draco remarked with a sly smile. He was confident Harry would have things sorted with Daphne by the first Hogsmeade weekend, but if not, he wasn't opposed to giving love a helping hand.
"Just what are you three up to?" Hermione asked as she appeared behind the Slytherins trio.
"Just gossiping about your nephew's love life," Blaise answered with a cheeky grin. "Wow, now that is weird to say. I can't believe Harry is your nephew."
"You get used to it," Harry said as he and Daphne arrived in time to hear Blaise's last remark. "Isn't that right, Aunt Hermione?"
"Don't call me that," Hermione snarled as everyone else laughed.
"She's sensitive about her age," Harry joked as the group headed back outdoors.
"I'll give you sensitive," Hermione promised as he raised her hand to playfully hit Harry on the arm. Unfortunately, just as she swung, Harry ducked away and she ended up batting her boyfriend on the backside.
"Cheeky," Blaise laughed as Draco turned to look at Hermione with wide eyes, not knowing that she'd hit him instead of Harry.
"Sorry," Hermione said with a smile as she gave her boyfriend a peck on the cheek. "I meant to get Harry."
"You meant to feel Harry's backside?" Draco frowned, as the group laughed even harder.
"No, I meant to hit him and he moved," Hermione clarified. "I never meant to whack your bum."
"And here was me thinking you were being affectionate," Draco joked as he slung his arm around Hermione.
"If I was being affectionate, I wouldn't slap your bum," Hermione retorted.
"And just what would you do?" Draco asked in a challenging tone.
Coming to a standstill, Hermione leant up and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's neck. "Something like this maybe," She replied, before connecting their lips in a searing kiss.
Blaise and Theo immediately began to whistle and clap, and before the group knew what had happened, they found themselves with an audience. In amongst the audience was a photographer for the Daily Prophet, and he got himself a couple of juicy shots of the Dark Lord's daughter snogging the Malfoy boy. Even though word had broken about Voldemort's family, pictures of them were still pretty scare, so the picture of Hermione kissing Draco was gold dust. Not only did the photographer have a perfect candid picture of the young witch, but he also had a story to go with it. After all, the wizarding world might just be interested to know that Voldemort's daughter was having a relationship with the heir to one of the biggest fortunes in the wizarding world. Together, they could be nigh-on unstoppable, and could potentially be an even bigger threat to the wizarding world than The Dark Lord himself.
