Disclaimer I do not own Harry Potter and everything recognisable belongs to J K Rowling.

Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers. Here's the next chappie, enjoy!

Chapter Four

The first few days went by very quickly in Harry's opinion. Before he knew what was happening, it was Thursday morning and Harry was making his way to his first Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Damien had attended his first Defence class earlier that week and had told Harry that their dad was actually quite a good teacher. He was surprisingly strict, something that Damien found rather annoying as he wasn't used to his dad being stricter than his mum. Harry was quite eager to see his dad in action. It was going to be an interesting class.

He walked into the Defence classroom and sat down with Ron and Hermione seated next to him. He spotted his dad standing in front of the class, looking quite calm and collected. His hazel eyes lit up as they landed on Harry but he didn't say anything. Harry pulled out his books and the new wand that James had bought him in Diagon Alley. Harry liked his new wand. It was black, eleven inches with a phoenix feather as its core. But try as he might, he couldn't stop himself from mourning the loss of his own wand. His original wand had been taken from him when he went to the Riddle Manor. Harry had a strong suspicion that Voldemort had Harry's wand on him when he went to Hogsmeade that day. Harry had destroyed his wand along with Voldemort, without meaning to.

He looked up as Hermione gently elbowed him. Her brown eyes were filled with concern. Harry realised that he was still holding his new wand and had been looking at it for the last few minutes or so. He quickly put the wand down onto the desk and gave Hermione a look that clearly said, 'I'm fine, stop staring at me!' Hermione looked away, still looking concerned.

"Good Morning."

James' voice cut through the whispering class and everyone settled down and turned their attention to their Professor.

"For those of you who don't know who I am, a short introduction is in order." James continued addressing all of his students.

"My name is James Potter. I am an Auror and have been working with the Ministry for the last twenty years. Professor Dumbledore asked me to fill the position as your Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor this year, seeing as Professor Snape had to take temporary leave." James finished, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly as he resisted the urge to smile.

Harry knew that he was also having the mental image of Snape lying, sun bathing on a remote island somewhere.

"Now, I have a note of what was covered last year but I think a refresher course should be done. It has been a long break for all of us." James tried not to look over at Harry but it was hard to ignore him. His eyes met Harry's briefly and James was relieved to see that he didn't look angry or annoyed at what he had said. Everyone knew that it was partly Harry's fault the school had closed last year. Thankfully, this didn't seem to bother Harry in the least.

The class went on with James going over some of the basics of last year's N.E.W.T.S level Defence material. He was quite good at explaining the hexes and jinxes in more detail without making it sound dry and boring. Harry was secretly thankful that James didn't single him out as he feared he might. James didn't ignore Harry but treated him just as another student. As the class made its way out at the end, James asked for the three Gryffindors to wait behind. As soon as the door closed, James turned to face them, his mask fell away to show how excited the Auror was.

"How was that? Did you guys think it went okay? I wasn't boring was I?" he asked, eyes sparkling with excitement.

"You did really well, Mr Potter. Sorry, I mean Professor Potter." Hermione said with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, I didn't daydream even once." Ron said, obviously thinking that he was giving the best compliment ever.

James' face split into a grin very reminiscent of Damien. James turned around to face his eldest son.

"Harry?" he asked.

Harry fought to keep his expression neutral. With effort, he shrugged his shoulders and kept his eyes fixed on his father before answering.

"You did okay, except you mixed up two of the hexes. You got a bit muddled up I guess, but as long as it doesn't come up in the exams, no one will know."

James looked mortified.

"I did what! Oh God. I knew I was going to mess up something. Which two did I mix up? Great, that's all I need..." James stopped talking as he spotted Ron trying to stifle his laughter and Hermione's disapproving look directed at Harry. Relief flooded him as realised that Harry was only winding him up.

He turned to look sternly at Harry who was also fighting the urge to laugh. Harry gave James an innocent look before his face split into a grin.

"There is a time and a place to pull pranks, Harry." James said, but couldn't help smiling at how well Harry had freaked him out.

"You're right." Harry said as he headed towards the door.

"But as a Marauder, you would have to agree that the place is Hogwarts and the time is any time." Harry gave James a cheeky grin before leaving with Ron and Hermione.

James couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.

xxx

"Hey, how was it?" Damien asked as his brother and friends sat down at the Gryffindor table for lunch. He was referring to the Defence class they had that morning.

"Good. It's going to be so much fun, freaking him out." Harry answered as he poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice.

Damien laughed as Ron told him what Harry had done.

"That was not funny. You had Professor Potter really worried." Hermione said, wearing another disapproving look on her face.

"Lighten up, Mione. Dad's got a good sense of humour. Besides, what Harry did was nothing compared to all the pranks dad and the rest of the Marauders pulled on the Professors when they were at Hogwarts." Damien told her.

Harry was distracted as a group of giggling girls walked past the Gryffindor table. They looked at Harry and gave him the sweetest smiles they could before greeting him. Harry rolled his eyes and looked away, completely ignoring them.

Harry had known that he was going to get some attention when he came to Hogwarts but he hadn't quite realised how much attention he was going to get. He was surprised that most of the students greeted him and tried to be on speaking terms with him. Girls usually giggled when near him and kept giving him adorning looks, while the boys tried to act like they were best friends with him. The only exception was the Slytherin house. Most Slytherins just ignored Harry or tried to at least. They weren't stupid to actually come out and fight with Harry but they did make their feelings regarding him clear.

Harry, as usual, just ignored all of them. The people trying to be friends with him bothered him more, since most of these people were trying to be friends with him for only one reason, because of what had happened in Hogsmeade between him and Voldemort. It was frustrating to know that most if not all of these very same people had wanted him arrested and thrown in front of Dementors less than six months ago. It wasn't the most comforting of thoughts. In any case, for Harry he had enough friends.

Harry turned his attention back to the two bickering couple that was Ron and Hermione. They only needed the smallest of excuse to start arguing. Damien was tuning them out as well and leaned over the table to talk to Harry.

"Do you know what I heard in the common room this morning?" he asked.

"Probably a load of rubbish" Harry answered as he reached over to take a second helping of chicken casserole.

"I heard that there's going to be a change in the Duelling class. Apparently they are going to be bringing in professionals like Aurors to give a more thorough training." Damien told him.

"Well, it was about time they realised how pathetic their training was. At least they're doing something about it." Harry answered, not bothered in the least about the Duelling club.

Damien just grinned back at him and finished his lunch. He agreed with Harry. After seeing the kind of duelling Harry could do, the duelling class at Hogwarts really seemed to fall short.

Damien was about to ask Harry something when he saw a boy from his year running excitedly towards them.

A small mousey haired fourth year arrived to stand next to Harry. A slightly nervous giggle escaped him, catching Harry's attention. Harry turned around to look at him, frowning slightly at the look of excitement on the boys face.

"Hi Harry! How are you?" he asked.

Harry didn't reply and turned away from him. This was the third time this week this particular Gryffindor had tried to talk to him.

"Hi Dennis." Damien answered for Harry, hoping that Harry would be nice this time.

Dennis Creevey looked at Damien and quickly greeted him before turning his attention back to Harry. Damien had tried to tell Dennis to leave Harry alone but the boy wouldn't listen to him. He was so excited to see Harry. Damien even had to wrestle a camera away from him and his older brother, Colin, to save them both from being beaten by Harry. Both boys were muggle born and to them Harry was a hero. The threat of Voldemort was more terrifying for the muggle born witches and wizards, as they were the ones targeted the most by Voldemort. With Voldemort defeated and destroyed, the muggle born witches and wizards could live in calm and peace again. To the Creevey brothers and most of the students with muggle backgrounds, Harry was nothing short of a God.

Unfortunately, Harry wouldn't see their worshipping as anything short of annoying, so Damien was trying to keep them away from Harry, to save their own necks.

"I was wondering, Harry. Would you be attending the Duelling club this year?" Dennis asked.

"Why?" Harry asked, still not looking at the fourth year.

"Well, I remember you coming last year and that brilliant duel you had with Malfoy. I was just wondering of you were planning on coming again." Dennis asked, excited that Harry was talking to him.

Damien cringed as Dennis said Malfoy's name. That was the last thing Harry needed. Harry had not heard from Draco since the blond haired Slytherin had left. It was clear to see that Harry missed him, especially since he was at Hogwarts and Draco wasn't.

Damien threw Harry a pleading look as Harry turned around to face Dennis.

"I can't see that being any of your business." Harry answered coldly.

"Oh! I didn't mean to offend you! I'm sorry. I just meant…" Dennis started to say, looking upset that he had annoyed Harry.

"Dennis, I just remembered. Professor McGonagall wanted to see you before the afternoon classes started. You better go and see her." Damien said quickly.

Dennis looked crestfallen as he turned away from the Gryffindor table and walked out of the Great Hall. Hermione started on Harry instantly.

"You didn't have to be so cold with him. He only asked you a question."

"I repeat. I can't see how that is any of his business." Harry said without looking at Hermione. Harry didn't seem angry, just a little annoyed.

"He's only trying to be friendly. You shouldn't push him away like that." Hermione continued.

Ron gave her a warning look but she just brushed him away.

"You were like that with us as well. It took you ages to accept us as friends. You should place your trust in others, Harry." Hermione said.

"Who said I was friends with you?" Harry asked, finally lifting his head and looking at Hermione, a smirk firmly on his face.

"Call it an intelligent assumption." Hermione responded, not liking the smirk on Harry's face.

"Are you sure the word intelligent is the right word?" Harry teased as Hermione began to go red in the face with annoyance.

"You're hopeless to talk sense to, you know that?" she huffed.

"Then why do you even bother?" Harry asked, laughing at Hermione's expression.

At that moment, Ginny joined them at the table and the topic of discussion changed. The rest of the day went by and Hermione didn't bring up Harry's attitude problem.

At the end of the day, Harry had just walked into the boy's dormitory when he spotted Neville. He was taking something out from his trunk. Harry and Neville had been in the same dormitory for the last four days now but still hadn't spoken to one another. Neville rarely made any eye contact with Harry and seemed to ignore him most of the time. Harry couldn't care less. He didn't expect to hear anything from him anyway.

Ron watched warily as Neville took his clothes and left the room quickly.

"He's not said anything to you yet, has he?" Ron asked as he took his own pyjamas out from the trunk.

"No" Harry answered, taking off his robes.

"Jerk!" Ron huffed angrily.

At Harry's peculiar stare he went on.

"He needs to apologise to you for all the rubbish he said! He hasn't even thanked you for saving his brother and his parents!"

Harry shrugged as he got into his bed.

"I don't need his apologies or his gratitude. I didn't do anything for him." Harry answered.

"Still, its decent courtesy to at least acknowledge you were wrong about something. He said all that awful stuff to you, holding you responsible for Nigel and Ginny's capture. He should feel awful about that!" Ron said as he sat on his bed.

"Your famous Weasley temper is flaring up again." Harry said as he stared at the red haired boy.

"I just don't like the way he's treating you. It's just downright rude." Ron said as he climbed into his bed.

Harry smiled to himself at hearing Ron getting so worked up on his behalf.

"Ron, seriously, I don't care what Neville does. It doesn't bother me. Don't get worked up about it." Harry reassured him.

Ron and Harry talked about other things before the room gradually fell silent. Once Harry was sure Ron was asleep, he pulled out his wand from behind his pillow. He cast a quick 'Silencio' around his own bed before settling down. His nightmares were getting worse. With the exception of his first night at Hogwarts, he suffered every night with the same nightmares of Voldemort.

Harry turned to his side and was awake to hear Seamus, Dean and Neville come back into the room. He was still awake when the room filled with the sounds of the other four boys soundly asleep. Harry knew that his mind wasn't switching off for fear of what he would see. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't relax enough to fall asleep. Harry lay awake in his bed until the early hours of the morning, when his exhausted mind finally drifted off to sleep.

He woke up only two hours later with a start, body drenched in cold sweat, his breathing erratic and his whole body trembling. He couldn't help but shake in terror as the image of Voldemort's accusing stare burned into him. Harry lay in his bed, trying to calm his heart to its normal pace. He couldn't even have a few hours of sleep. Harry lay awake until the morning and got up with the rest of his dorm mates to start another day without hardly any sleep.

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I know this chappie was short but I will make up for it in the next one. Promise. Please review! Cheers