NOTE: again, revamped. I got rid of the review replies, but that should be OK seeing as most of my original reviewers have probably disappeared into the sands of time.

To everyone: Thank you so much! While I don't say 'give me reviews or I won't write', they do keep me going! Feed the plot monkey!

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Chapter 3

Harry sat at his seat in the middle of the room, beside Hermione. Ron had opted not to take Potions this year. So Harry sat, silently absorbing the faint but familiar sharp scent of the more common potions ingredients, listening to the barely discernible sound of a bubbling cauldron in the next room, and remembering his previous years in this classroom.

Before the Vale, he had seen potions as useless, more of a nuisance or a torture device than anything else. Snape's attitude, of course, had not helped – but Harry was confident that he could handle anything that Snape could possibly throw at him this year.

He was waiting for only a few moments before the Potions Master himself strode into the room, robes billowing behind him. He reached the front of the classroom and stood for a moment, arms crossed, surveying the class.

"So. You have all come for seventh-year potions. That means that you have either chosen to take your studies of the delicate art even further – " He glanced at Malfoy, who smirked. "-Or that you have failed to pass the previous year, and I am burdened with you yet again."

He glared at Harry and Neville, and Neville quaked in his seat while Harry returned the gaze coolly. He knew full well that he could make any potion in any book that Snape might have, even in the Restricted section, and that he could do half of them from memory. He smirked at Snape as the professor waved his wand, and the instructions for a particularly difficult potion appeared on the blackboard.

"You should remember how to do this from your previous year. This is a test of sorts. Pray that you pass."

Snape had a wicked glint in his eye, but Harry was not afraid. He instantly realized that the potion was a Disintegrating Draft, a potion not found in any normal textbook. Snape had not included the name of the potion, so Harry knew that nearly all of the class would not place a Shielding charm on their cauldrons before beginning.

He looked up just in time to catch Snape surreptitiously place a shielding charm on the entire room, encompassing the floor, tables, and students. Harry smiled to himself – he did care for his students, if only so that he would not be fired.

Harry put his charm on the cauldron, nothing that Snape had deliberately left out the cauldrons in his charm. He grinned as he began to chop the ingredients, and fell into the familiar almost-trance that now always accompanied his intense concentration.

He snapped out of his daze an hour and a half later as the first cry of dismay split the air. He looked over just in time to see Seamus Finnegan's cauldron dissolve out from under the bright green potion. Snape swept over to him and began scolding him, while waving his wand to clean up the mess. Malfoy's cauldron followed, then Lavender's. Soon, the entire room was in turmoil, the air filled with hazy green steam and nearly everyone's cauldrons ruined. Everyone's but Harry's – and Neville's, which now contained a gelatinous brown mess that probably could not have dissolved tissue paper.

When the haze and noise had cleared up, Snape stood at the front of the room, his arms crossed.

"I am displeased to announce that all of you have spectacularly failed," he began, but halted as Neville's hand raised tremulously into the air.

"Excuse me? Sir? Not everyone."

Neville pointed at Harry's cauldron, and Harry met Snape's eyes coolly. Snape stared at his perfect potion, unable to think of anything to say. Finally, he snapped, "Class dismissed. Potter, my office."

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Snape glared at the students' retreating backs, irritated just byu the sight of them. Potter waited until everyone left, and then walked silently into Snape's office. He sank into a chair with boneless grace that Snape could not help but admire.

Where did he learn that? Snape wondered, and then shook his head. Potter is none of your concern!

He cleared his throat.

"It seems, Mister Potter, that even though you failed to attend my class last year, you managed to successfully create the Disintegrating Draft potion on the first attempt, and cast the correct charm on your cauldron, when none of your more Potions-adept classmates could. Explain."

Potter regarded him composedly and raised an eyebrow as though he were stating the obvious.

"I recognized the potion from the ingredients and the procedure, Professor."

"But where did you learn to make the potion? You were not here for the past two years."

"I learned it from the e-from the wizard I was staying with. He knew a – a great deal about Potions, and he taught me a lot."

Snape raised an eyebrow at the boy before him.

"From what I understand, Potter, you were in the mountains with a – hermit, of sorts. Where would he procure the necessary ingredients and equipment to teach you about Potions?"

For the first time since his return, Potter began to look slightly nervous.

"He – he had a lab, of sorts, in his home. He gathered many of the ingredients, and sent out for the rest by owl."

"Ah, but I thought that no owls were permitted," Snape said, raising an eyebrow. Potter flinched slightly, but said nothing. Snape leaned over him, sneering.

"You are hiding something, Potter, and I will find out what. Even if it takes me all year. You are dismissed."

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Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he fled the dungeons. That had been close. He'd have to try to conceal his abilities from now on, or the teachers would find out about the elves.

His next lesson was Charms. They were beginning on Bubble-head charms, and Harry sobered a bit as he remembered what the last one he had seen had been used in-the TriWizard Tournament. He was grim and silent all through the lesson, although he performed it perfectly, eliciting squeaks of happiness from Flitwick.

Transfiguration was next, and it was just a basic review of what they had covered the previous year. Harry nearly slept through this class, reminding himself ever so often to slip up. He perked up, however, when McGonagall announced that they would be investigating Animagism this year, and they would find out what shape they would take if they ever became Animagi. He grinned. This was one form of magic that he could do, and he could impress McGonagall. Finally, he would be able to try out some of his animal forms without worrying about being caught!

During his time with the elves, he had learned to shape-shift. He could transform into any creature he wished, barring semi-human creatures such as mermen or centaurs. His favorite form, however, had to be the gryphon. It had taken him a long time to learn the transformation into a magical creature, but it had been well worth it.

Harry went through lunch filled with happiness, and was in a good mood when he went to Divination that afternoon. Ron had opted to take Advanced Flying instead, as many of the seventh-year classes became optional. Harry didn't mind being by himself, however. There should be plenty of entertainment.

He scaled the silver ladder with ease, finding that he was the last one there. He looked around to see Lavender, Pavarti, her sister Padma, and another girl from Ravenclaw that Harry did not recognize. It appeared that since it was such a small class, Trelawney had just taken all of the Houses into one class.

"Good day, class," she said, sweeping out of the shadows as she usually did. "This term, we will be studying the crystal ball once more. This time, we will dig deeper into the mysteries that surround it, and the portents that lay inside."

Harry sighed and settled back in his armchair. He tuned out the airy professor until the Ravenclaw nudged him, saying, "Oi, Potter, it's your turn to look into the crystal ball."

Harry stood, stifling a groan, and walked over to Trelawney's circular table, sinking down onto a pouf. He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating his powers. If he remembered how to do this correctly, he could funnel a spell through the orb that would make it a sort of seeing glass, and he could look in on his elf-masters, without anyone else seeing it.

He gathered his Will and released it onto the orb, and stared hard into its depths. He grinned as the image of Eldwyn and Llyrithen sitting together in front of their house suddenly materialized in the orb. He smiled as he watched them chat idly in Elven, taking pride in the fact that he could understand what they were saying just from lip-reading.

He jerked back to himself as Trelawney lightly touched his shoulder, and immediately wiped the grin off of his face.

Trelawney stared at him, frowning.

"Why is it that you laugh, Potter? Have you seen something?"

Harry fought to hide another grin.

"Professor, I – I only laugh…..to keep from weeping."

The Ravenclaw girl began to snigger softly, and Harry knew that she had seen the Muggle movie from which he was pulling his quote. Trelawney, however, looked fascinated.

"My dear boy, what is the tragedy which you have seen?"

Harry sighed dramatically, and wiped a hand across his face.

"Professor, it – it was horrible. I saw – I saw death, and pain, and sorrow. There will be great tragedy before the year's end, and in its wake it will leave great gashes of sorrow and despair."

He lowered his voice dramatically at the last bit, and the Ravenclaw and Padma Patil were smothering helpless sniggers, while Trelawney was staring at him with huge, sorrowful eyes. She sighed as he finished, and put a hand to her chest.

"Well class, I think that should be all for today. Harry, dear, do try not to let this drag you down into despair. You are dismissed."

Harry descended the ladder, still laughing. When he reached the bottom, he turned to face the Ravenclaw.

"That was bloody brilliant," she said, holding out a hand for him to shake. "I'm Dawn Rowland. I didn't want to take Divination this year, but my mum made me. She thinks it's important 'for my future'." She and Harry both grinned at the pun.

Harry snorted and shook his head in sympathy. "You can be my partner for the rest of the year. I was going to miss having a decent partner, but I guess this will work out after all."

Dawn smiled. "I guess so. I've got to get to Defense, so I'll see you later."

Harry smiled and waved at her as they split off in opposite directions in the corridor. Harry headed to Herbology, a slight smile on his face.

He sat next to Neville and Hermione in this class, and spent the next hour methodically popping Bubotubers. Evidently, there had been a bad outbreak of acne lately, and Mme. Pomfrey needed a fresh supply.

After Herbology, Harry had DADA. He was looking forward to this, as he would be able to do quite well. He had yet to meet the new professor, as he had been absent the previous night, talking to Dumbledore.

He was the first to arrive, and walked into the classroom cheerfully. He set his bag down on a desk in the front room and turned around to face the professor.

"Hello si-"

He stopped dead as he saw who it was.

A tall, slender woman with long, sleek, jet-black hair and eyes even greener than his own stood before him, her pale skin glowing. She grinned at him, and held out her arms for a hug.

"Adara!" he cried, running into her arms with a laugh. "I didn't know that you were coming! Why didn't Eldwyn tell me?"

He looked up into the face of his surrogate aunt, noticing that she had cast a subtle charm to conceal her giveaway ears and high, narrow cheekbones.

She smiled down at him, as glad to see him as he was to see her. They had become very close in their time together at the Vale, and she must have felt the attachment very deeply to have left her home. To his knowledge, no other elf had left the Vale for more than a brief period for over a hundred years.

"I'll have to tell you later," she said, as Harry heard footsteps approaching. She shooed him gently away, and he took up a front row seat with a widening smile.

The rest of the class filed in and sat down, and Ron passed a note to Harry, who passed it on to Hermione.

This might be interesting. For the past six years, we've had male teachers who were, for the most part, incompetent. Maybe this one will be better.

She will, Harry wrote back. Ron lifted an eyebrow at him, but Harry just nodded to the front of the classroom.

Adara cleared her throat, and every eye was instantly riveted upon this strange new woman.

"Good afternoon. My name is Adara Goldmoon, and I will be teaching the Defense against the Dark Arts class for the next year. I understand that you have had some very…..incompetent teachers in the past, and I assure you, I am nothing like any of them. In fact – " She looked at Harry mischievously. "I am not like anyone you have met or ever will meet. If you misbehave in my class, you will leave, and instantly receive a failing grade on any assignments turned in that day. Is this understood?"

The class all nodded, and she smiled slightly. "Good. Now, on to the roll."

As soon as she was done calling everyone's name, Adara set down the scroll and walked out from behind her desk.

"Can anyone tell you what you have basically covered so far?" she asked.

Hermione raised her hand, and Adara pointed to her with her rolled-up piece of parchment.

"Professor, we've done a large variety of Dark creatures, a few basic Dark curses and hexes including the Unforgivables, and we didn't do much of anything last year."

Everyone made a face at this, and Adara mentally said to Harry, From what I hear, he was an incompetent fool who was afraid of his own shadow and had them read form books all year. What a Giladrvi

Harry fought to keep from laughing at Adara's use of the Elven word for a small, useless rodent that ran around in circles from mindless fear and stupidity every time a sudden move was made. It was, he thought, a fitting description.

Adara nodded to Hermione, and Hermione sat once more, looking faintly pleased with herself.

She began to pace the room, her arms now behind her back in a way that reminded Harry strongly of the character Morpheus on some Muggle movie that Dudley had been watching.

"This year, I think, we will dig deeper into Dark curses and jinxes, and into shielding and then some hand-to-hand combat. Yes, you do need to learn to defend yourself without a wand, for there will be a time when you find yourself without it, believe me." She looked them all in the face, and Harry met her eyes grimly.

"We shall start today with the basic shielding charm."

Harry breezed through DADA. After class he was forced to rush to the other side of the castle for History of Magic, but Adara promised to meet him later. By dinner, he wasn't even remotely tired, and resolved to go out into the Forest and practice his weapons and some of his advanced magic.

He made his excuses to Ron and Hermione, who, unsurprisingly, were feeling a bit clingy. He convinced them that he was going to go talk to one of the professors, and slipped away until he was standing directly below Gryffindor Tower, out on the grounds.

He called up his Elemental magic, spinning strong cords of wind until he was lifted up into the air. He floated up to the top of the tower and peered cautiously into the dormitory, invisible to any watching eye. Seeing that no one was there, he Summoned all of his weapons and quickly moved into the forest, into the special glade that he had warded and cleared out just for this purpose.

About halfway through his workout, he felt a presence outside his shields, and he instantly broke off, whipping around to stare at Adara.

She chuckled. "Reflexes are as good as ever, I see. Are you going to let me in to help you practice or what?"

Harry laughed and let her in. She stood before him and stretched a bit, limbering up.

"You're still awfully flexible for someone who's old enough to be my great-grandma," Harry said, laughing. Adara smiled. She was currently one hundred and thirteen, relatively young for an elf.

While she stretched, Harry questioned her on her arrival at Hogwarts. Eldwyn, she said, had wanted her here both to ease Harry's transition back into the wizarding world and to keep a closer eye on what was going on in the world of politics and Dark magic. Firsthand information, he had said, was much more reliable than rumors and reports.

She finally finished stretching and stood before Harry, empty-handed. He divested himself of his arms, and joined her in the imaginary circle. They both stepped back into a fighting stance, and Harry's sharp ears caught the soft word that fell from Adara's lips.

"Begin."

Instantly, Harry closed on his teacher, ducking a swinging fist and lashing out viciously with a snap kick. She nimbly dodged and aimed a high kick at his head. Harry rolled and came up on his feet, and they broke away, circling.

Adara smiled at him, and Harry caught her eyes shifting slightly to the left. He danced out of the way just as she lashed out with an uppercut, and delivered a swift downward blow to her back, making her stumble. She turned it into a roll and came up fighting, catching Harry on the arm with a punch.

Harry came in with a feint kick with his right leg, and Adara moved to block that side. As soon as she moved, he threw his hips around and caught her in the other side with a roundhouse kick that made her gasp for breath for a second. To hold him off while she was recovering, she spun around, throwing punches in every direction. Harry waited until she was still once more before moving as fast as lightning to throw himself on top of her, pinning her to the ground. She writhed out from under him, and before Harry knew it, she had him in a headlock, grinning. He growled in frustration as she stood, dragging him with her. He managed to squirm abut until he could see her legs, and he gave her a sharp knife-hand to the back of her knees, causing her to fall over, letting go of him in her surprise. He got her in an armlock, and he thought he had her-

-and he suddenly found himself flat on his face, his arms twisted behind his back, her knee in the small of his back.

"I yield," he said, his voice muffled. Adara got off of him and offered him a hand up. Harry took it gratefully, cracking his back with a groan.

"I'd forgotten how good you were," he said ruefully. Adara smiled.

"I have been at this about seventy years longer than you have," she reminded him. Harry sneered elegantly, and then completely ruined the gesture by tripping over his bow and landing in the dirt – again. Adara burst out laughing.

"Smooth," she gasped, holding her sides. "And now to complete the utter humiliation-"

She gasped as she found herself drenched in icy water, and Harry smirked. She growled and retaliated by whipping the winds about Harry until his cloak was torn from his body and hung up in a tree. Harry called up small flames to dance around her feet, and Adara doused them with the same water spell that Harry had used on her. They both ended up laughing and exhausted, and walked back to the castle arm in arm, still grinning from the night's 'workout'.