See prologue for warnings and disclaimer.
Moonlight and Shadows: Chapter 11
Reluctantly stepping into his khakis and dress shirt, Harry groaned to himself about the day to come. Maybe he had just one more day to prepare... He wouldn't actually have to open the doors of the Great Hall and see those hundreds of faces he had to teach... But he knew it was a lie before he'd even opened the doors. He could hear the chatter from all those students, and even saw some coming down the stairs toward him. He hurriedly found his seat and chomped on a piece of toast, not really being able to taste it.
Professor McGonagall handed him a stack of paper to pass out to all the Gryffindors– their schedules– and handed Malfoy the Slytherins'. Malfoy got up at once to distribute his, but suddenly Harry wasn't too keen on going down to the students who were once his fellow classmates. But Flitwick and Navarro (the new Muggle Studies professor, who was Head of Hufflepuff House) had already set out to their tables, and he couldn't delay.
Silence fell among the Gryffindors as he stood at the top of their table, and nearly everyone was looking at him with rapt attention. But he didn't need to give a speech just to hand out class timetables, so he quickly moved along the large number of first years. He stumbled with all of their names and didn't look anyone in the eye (By now they must think I'm scared of them, worried Harry). The second years were slightly more familiar, and in each year in knew more classmates and grew more comfortable.
By the time he got to the sixth years, he was getting pats on the back and being welcomed almost like a fellow student. Most people called him Harry, which he found substantially more comforting and less awkward. Near the seventh years, he was actually forced down on a bench between Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas and fed some eggs and bacon. Across from him was Ginny, who grinned and called him Professor Potter. She got catcalls from people who thought she and Harry were still a couple, and she laughed.
Harry looked up at the staff table to see if anyone had noticed or cared that he was missing. Hermione was frowning a little at him, but Ron had a wistful expression that clearly stated that he wanted to be down at the Gryffindor table as well. Hermione must have given him permission, because he bounded down from the platform a moment later and joined the crowd of seventh years, all of whom were happy to see him.
Malfoy had returned to his spot at the staff table, and Harry wondered why he hadn't stayed with his classmates as well. Most of the staff, then, left the table and Harry realized his first class started in five minutes. He said a hurried good-bye to everyone and dashed off.
He hadn't even set foot in his classroom since he'd moved in to his office, but someone had come along and cleaned it for him, so the desks shone brilliantly and his desk had a neat stack of parchment, a quill, and ink laid out on it. He took out his textbook for the first years and glanced at the first chapter: Bond with the Wand. Good place to start, he supposed... but surely very elementary? He tried to remember back to when he didn't know how to do any magic, when he'd never even seen any performed. These students would know more than he did, surely?
At that moment, his first class ambled in, unsure whether to be excited or fearful. They were a mix of new and old first years, of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. So he didn't have any students he knew in his first class... that would soon change...
"Just... take any seat..." said Harry feebly. If he didn't start being authoritative, they might never take him seriously. But he couldn't have them thinking he was mean... Everyone was seated before the bell rang, and Harry perched awkwardly on the corner of his desk, holding the list of names, which he read off steadily, looking up to see who was who, even though he knew it wouldn't do any good.
"I won't learn your names very soon, because I'm horrible at that, so just... be patient." The shiny-faced first years said nothing, but some smiled a bit. "So," he continued. "How many of you have never seen magic done before?" No one raised their hands at first, then a few timid hands went up. Harry quickly backtracked; he would not be accepted very readily if the first thing he did was humiliate them. "Ok, well don't feel bad. When I got on the train I hadn't seen or done any magic, and it was fine. No one expects you to be able to do anything right now." Some students visibly pouted.
"Professor Potter?" said one Ravenclaw girl boldly from the second row. He turned to her.
"What's your name?"
"Abigail Tressa."
"Ok. What was your question?"
"Is it true that you stabbed You-Know-Who with Gryffindor's sword while flying on a hippogriff?" Suddenly the class was wide-eyed and alert, nodding and looking curious.
"Er... I was hoping to teach today, actually." No one bothered to hide their disappointment.
"But Professor?" asked a stout boy in the back who reminded Harry of Neville, except that Neville would never contribute anything on the first day of class.
"What's your name?" asked Harry, determined to learn their names sooner, rather than later.
"Steven Falgren. No one ever tells us the truth. But you could." Everyone nodded again and Harry sighed.
"My friends helped me a lot. It was everyone's battle, not just mine." Ignoring him, the room erupted with questions.
"Did You-Know-Who actually commit suicide?"
"Don't be stupid, Professor Potter killed him with the sword!"
"Did all the Death Eaters stand in a circle and try to kill you?"
"Did you actually die and then come back to life?"
"Are you a ghost?" someone gasped.
"Enough!" Harry shouted. He wasn't particularly mad, just incredulous that these poor students could be fed such lies. Well... in a way it was true that he'd come back to life... but still. "You all need to stop repeating what you hear, because it's just making more rumours. Not everything you hear is the least bit true, especially if you didn't hear it from someone who was at the battle." He took a deep breath. "In the end, Voldemort's curse backfired. But he didn't commit suicide. And really, I wasn't the one who killed him. So, there you go. There was no hippogriff. There was the sword, but my friend Neville, Professor Longbottom, was the one who used it. He killed Voldemort's snake. Other than that, these are lies."
The class was silent, but still looking curious and eager.
"Now, there's a lot to learn, so we'd better get started now." The students shuffled a bit, looking slightly disappointed. "How long have you all had your wands?" They mumbled answers, ranging from three days to a few months. "But none of you have used them, correct?" The class nodded. "Ok, so essentially, you need to learn to trust your wand, and your wand will learn to trust you."
"Sir?" asked a girl to Harry's right.
"Name?"
"Jane Vernot. You talk like wands have feelings." Harry couldn't help but smile a bit.
"Do all of you have Ollivander wands?" They all nodded. "Well, I know Mr. Ollivander, and everything I learned about wands I learned from him. I said the same thing to him once about wands having feelings. It's true, in a way. You have to bond with your wand. Like, er... like the first chapter in your books. Does anyone not have their own wand?" Two boys raised their hands. "Ok," he continued. "Not having your own wand makes it a little harder to bond with it, but it's possible. So for now, let's all just stand up–" there was a scuffling and scraping of chairs as they all stood, "– and just wave your wands a bit."
"What do we say?" asked Abigail Tressa.
"Nothing. Just think of putting energy in your wand."
They all did similar jerky movements in the air. One boy's wand emitted a few orange sparks, another's let out a stream of smoke. Most, though, did nothing. They tried over and over again until the end of class, when Harry hurriedly assigned them the first chapter of their textbooks to read.
His next class was mixed of Gryffindors and Slytherins. They were fourth years, and Harry knew a few of them, including a few members of each Quidditch team. They were substantially less curious than the first years. Especially the Slytherins seemed to be very uninterested and bored with him, and Harry found this extremely refreshing. Of course they wouldn't want to know how exactly Harry defeated their Dark Lord. And the Gryffindors just had more tact than to ask Harry to relive it.
By the time Harry's fellow seventh years walked into the room, Harry was flustered with a mixture of wanting to hide in his room and have fun with the rest of the students in his year. Seamus and Dean were the last to walk in, hastily saying goodbye to Ginny, so smiled briefly at Harry before turning out the door. Everyone got settled and looked expectantly but confusedly at Harry, wondering how he would treat them. Harry sighed and sat on the edge of his desk.
"Hey, everyone," he grinned. The Ravenclaws and Gryffindors laughed in relief and the class passed exactly like D.A. meetings. Harry had decided to work on Patronuses, which were, conveniently, seventh year work. So many of the former D.A. members set out to assist the other students. Harry thought it went as smoothly as could be expected, with only a few students who weren't able to master the spell by the end of the class. He kept an eye on Seamus and Dean most of the time, without trying to be too suspicious. He still felt like he needed to watch out for Ginny as a brother, and he couldn't help wondering why she was spending so much time with the two guys.
As the class ended Seamus smirked and whispered something to Dean, who blushed slightly. Seamus laughed and threw an arm around Dean's shoulders as they left, chuckling. Harry was immensely glad that he'd finished with the last class of the day. He still had to head down to dinner, but he could relax until tomorrow, when he had to start all over again...
"...Poor Neville," Ron was saying as he sat down.
"What?" asked Harry.
"Oh, hi Harry. Well, the second years thought they'd pester Neville for stories, since Hermione didn't give them any. He ended up having to tell them all about the snake, and by the time they left, they'd invented this huge story of Neville's head getting eaten."
"What?!"
"So now most of Slytherin thinks that Neville's head is just barely hanging on, like Nearly Headless Nick's." Harry groaned. Hermione wasn't eating anything.
"I feel so horrible. If I'd just told them some short little story..."
"They would still have gone on and pestered Neville. Come on, Hermione. It isn't your fault, it was bound to be like this. One kid swore he'd drop a dozen Dungbombs if I didn't tell him about the dragon."
"What did you do?" asked Hermione, looking alarmed.
"I confiscated everything he shouldn't have had in his trunk."
"You went through his trunk?!" she exclaimed. Ron quickly backtracked.
"Well, no, I mean, I kind of... well, yeah, a bit... not really, though..." Harry tuned out the conversation and turned to Malfoy, who was eating hurriedly and looking preoccupied. Harry decided to throw caution to the wind... what did he have to lose?
"So, how were classes, Malfoy?"
"They were about as good as how it would feel if I punched you, Potter," answered Malfoy without looking up from his dinner. Harry threw one hand in the air as a surrender. He attempted to turn back to Ron, but he found Ron and Hermione still deep in their argument. Finally, he decided to simply get up and go back to his room. He ended up standing exactly at the same time as Malfoy, who turned and raised an eyebrow at Harry. Harry shrugged and followed Malfoy off the staff platform, walking slower and looking around the Great Hall. As he watched the Gryffindor table, Ginny, Dean, and Seamus all got up and walked toward the doors. Ginny was in the middle of the three, and Dean and Seamus both had their arms around her. Harry's eyes narrowed.
He had always trusted Seamus and Dean, even if Dean was famous for dating younger students and Seamus usually got Dean's leftovers. They were always good guys to be around, on the whole. But Harry didn't understand why the both suddenly had an interest in Ginny. Or maybe she had an interest in them? But, at the same time? Of course, Ginny had already dated Dean, but that was really no reason to not be interested in him again. But for the three of them... Harry's stomach churned as he thought of what might be going on behind closed doors. He supposed that he didn't really mind threesomes on principle, but for three people he knew very well... the idea just made him cringe. It didn't look like Ginny was being forced into anything, but Harry still felt uneasy about the situation. What was going on?
Ron had asked for the Marauder's Map before the start of term, pointing out that it would do more good in his position than in Harry's, but Harry would not give it up. He therefore got it out sleepily and pondered the corridors, empty except for a few scurrying dots. Then he spotted the three he was looking for. Ginny, Seamus, and Dean's dots were together in an empty classroom on the sixth floor. They were stationary, but that wasn't necessarily good news to Harry. He made his decision.
It still felt odd to not worry about Filch's footsteps behind him or Mrs. Norris lurking behind the next suit of armor. He was perfectly entitled to being out-of-bed, which was even stranger than knowing he wouldn't get caught if he was wearing his Invisibility Cloak. He headed towards Ron's room, which he still tended to call "Filch's Office." Rather than sneaking up on Ginny, Seamus, and Dean, and risking catching them in an embarrassing situation, he'd decided to go see Ron first.
Ron took a while to answer the door, but Harry knew from the map that Ron wasn't asleep. He blearily opened the door and Harry hurried in without waiting to be invited.
"What is it?" Ron asked in a bored voice.
"I've been watching the map. And I've seen Ginny with Seamus and Dean several times. They've been around each other a lot. D'you... d'you know what's going on?" he finished, watching Ron rub his eyes.
"Harry, mate, why do you care? She's not with you. You don't have to get jealous. And if you are jealous, you should do something about it, because–"
"I'm not jealous," Harry said quickly. "I just don't know what's going on. They weren't particularly good friends before."
"Look, you don't have to be worried about her. She's my sister."
"Ron, I know. But don't you think it's a little odd..."
"No, I don't! You have to think everything is odd so that you can solve every mystery! Well, do some research before you try to solve things that don't have to be solved. Ginny isn't in any danger at all. And how I know that, is that Seamus and Dean would never hurt her. They would never take advantage of her. And how I know that is that Seamus and Dean are gay. They're a couple. And how I know that is because Seamus told me a long time ago that he had a thing for Dean. So now they're together. And they would never hurt Ginny, because they just don't care about women. I mean, in that way. I don't know why Ginny's good friends with them, but it doesn't really matter, because they're safe, Harry. So just... give it a rest!"
Harry was stunned into silence. Ron sighed and looked away. His eyes were fierce, but Harry knew he was still sore about his row with Hermione, and that it really didn't have anything to do with Harry or their conversation at all.
"Oh... ok..." was all Harry could think of to say. Ron was silent, still staring at his fireplace. "Sorry, then. I'll just... I'll just... go back then, shall I..." Harry faltered and stood, walking to the door. Ron said nothing, and Harry closed the door quietly behind him, coming face-to-face with Malfoy.
"Er... hi..." he said lamely. Malfoy raised an eyebrow in derision. For some reason, this gesture, which Malfoy performed almost every time he looked at Harry, made Malfoy's cheekbone particularly noticeable. Though the skin was pale, there was a dot of pink right on the bone, as if someone had pinched Malfoy's cheek. At the same time Harry thought this, he felt a stinging in his own cheeks as if someone had pinched his as well, which led him to the realization that he must be blushing slightly as well, for no apparent reason.
He folded his arms to cover up this peculiar sensation.
"You do realize, don't you Potter, that you are still a student?"
"And you are what, then?" asked Harry. Malfoy stared at him for a second, then chuckled slightly and walked off. Harry raised a hand to one cheek, noting its warmth, contemplating how in hell Malfoy could possibly think he was on a higher standing than Harry; that somehow he was exempt from student rules that Harry was not. If Malfoy intended to turn into Snape, well... Harry would have something to say about it. Besides, knowing what he knew about Snape now, Malfoy probably wouldn't want to have to fall in love with someone like Lily Evans to be exactly like Snape.
Harry lost track of his own thoughts, so he went to bed. Aberforth was either hunting or at the owlrey, so Harry didn't have anyone to say goodnight to as he put his pajamas on. His thoughts drifted back to Seamus and Dean, and he wondered when this had all come about. When had Seamus started being gay? He'd dated a few girls here and there... or was he always gay, and he'd just pretended to like the girls he dated? And what about Dean? He'd dated Ginny even... surely he couldn't have been gay then? Harry pondered the situation, musing that it must be hard for Seamus and Dean in some way, even if they looked so happy.
And how had they known? Had they always known they were gay? Or had Seamus always known he'd liked Dean? Harry couldn't stop asking himself questions he couldn't answer. He couldn't help it... he'd known this... what did they call it? Alternate lifestyle? Well, he'd known it existed, but had never really considered it... had never really thought about it in relation to his friends. He didn't really feel any differently toward Seamus and Dean, just confusion. He couldn't stop question after question from entering his brain.
His last unanswered statement left him wondering, What would it feel like? As his last thought before he drifted to sleep.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A/N: A little short, again... but still progress, right? I promise I will try to update every weekend from now on. School is in full force and luckily, I've got my inspiration back with this chapter and I can pull forward with it... But I'm just not very fast with classes and homework and everything else.
THANK YOU again for the lovely reviews :) AND here are some shoutouts for my most recent reviewers:
ninjaofthedarkness: Yes! They will get together. They're slow movers! And I'm very against sudden, unexplained changes. Even I have to be patient with this one!
emeraldwolf: Kind as always! Thank you very much for the compliments, I will try very hard to keep it up.
Robin-no-ouji:I hope Teddy is adorable. I want him to be mine! Just kidding. Svala will take her NEWTS at Hogwarts and be in the graduation ceremony, but in the meantime she will be with Teddy.
sordid:Well, you redeemed yourself with that review. Thank you!
animelover120: Svala will stay a minor character, no matter how much we love her. Harry wasn't focusing very well on his apparition (cough), so he splinched himself. Thanks :)
Jane Austen Girl: I totally agree!!!! That "Professor Potter" sounds very strange. Unfortunately, that is now his title! Luckily not everyone calls him that. And incidentally, have you seen "Becoming Jane" yet?
Sarah: Lol youre special since I actually know your name, I guess. You are amazing, thank you for the compliments. You meant the Sorting Hat's song, right? Yeah the rhyme was better than I thought... but I still think JKR could do it better. Well duh, it's JKR. lol.
AND THANK YOU ALSO TO: Miss.DeBlanc, feuerfliege, faerylark, and shuichi'sgirl.
More soon, I hope. In the meantime, review, review, review (yes, YOU! Everyone who is favorite-ing my story without leaving a review!) Thanks :)