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When they arrived at Hogwarts Harry was met by the sight of the now not so horseless horseless carriages.
Thankfully he'd been saved from having a panic attack by a spacey blond girl a year under him who he'd met on the train.
Luna was... odd. But she was nice and rather pretty in her own unusual way.
He wasn't particularly superstitious but she seemed almost fae with her light colouring and waist-length, ethereal pale gold hair and faint eyebrows.
Her large grey eyes always seemed to be starring out into space as if gazing at things other people couldn't see, dreamily distracted.
Eccentric didn't cover the half of it but he found himself liking her.
The strange skeletal horses turned out to be thestrals, creatures that could only be seen by someone who had seen death.
Looking at them he couldn't help but wonder what else normal people might not be able to see, suddenly Luna's creatures didn't sound nearly so outlandish.
Though he still didn't think Fudge baked goblins in pies... though Sirius had been singing those Stubby Boardman song's an awful lot...
No he refused to think about Sirius leading a secret double life as the lead Singer of a popular band.
Why was everyone looking at him strangely!
Oh right they were supposed to be getting out of the carriage not just sitting there while everyone else shifted uncomfortably waiting for him.
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To their undying horror Defence was being taught by the Ministry Toad from Harry's hearing. She turned out to be an even worse teacher than Lockhart and that was saying something. Most of the school bar a few had united in hating her in an unprecedented show of inter-house unity. The teachers seemed to hate her just as much as the students and she had taken to auditing their classes.
Hagrid still hadn't returned from his mission for the Order which only compounded onto Harry's misery.
He'd quickly learnt to keep his mouth shut around Umbridge lest he be given another half dozen detentions where he would be forced to cut his hand up with her quills.
He wished Carmilla was there to put Umbridge in her place, she'd no doubt have some very nasty curses she'd have used on the toad by now. Carmilla wasn't known for tolerating things that annoyed her and just about everything about Umbridge would have pissed her off, it did everyone else.
But as it turned out Harry's wish ended up coming true.
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Stuck at Hogwarts they only got the occasional bit's news about the Order, smuggled in via the two-way mirror Sirius had given Harry before they left Grimmauld Place.
It was nearing the Christmas holidays and Professor McGonagall had been called away at breakfast. to tend to the rather spectacular mess that had resulted from what according to the Hogwarts rumour mill had been a rather wild seventh year party. The wild exploits of the party goers had allegedly involved several chickens, firewhiskey, a cat and a reindeer smuggled in from Siberia. There were also rumours of an orgy and several veela thought such claims where unsubstantiated much to every male's disappointment.
Needless to say by the time their fifth year Transfiguration class rolled around she was still bogged down in several feet of feathers mixed with a liberal mixture of spilt alcohol and various potions and bodily fluids.
They entered the Transfiguration classroom to find no one there but an absolutely massive black panther sitting there with a smaller normal sized house cat sitting on top of its head.
Remembering their first Transfiguration lesson when professor McGonagall had sat there as a cat they all hurried to their seats as the giant cat pinned them with a stare that had them sweating nervously.
With a huff the massive black cat stood as its smaller companion leapt from its head to settle on the desk next to it.
Their suspicions were confirmed when the great cat shifted into the form a woman.
Carmilla stood with a bored expression on her face and let out a great cat like yawn that flashed... were those, fangs?
Her sudden appearance startled some of the jumpier members of the class who'd had been rather intimidated by the giant black cat she had transformed from.
Waving her hand lazily at them she introduced herself after telling them that she'd be covering for McGonagall for the day as a favour seeing as she was still trying to untransfigure some of the poor sods who'd thought drunkenly transfiguring themselves into animals was a good idea.
She was just as they remembered her and her lackadaisical attitude to teaching and life in general was an enjoyable contrast to their usual teacher's strict way of doing things.
From what Sirius had told them Carmilla and Laura had left Grimmauld Place after September rarely returning to check in and for occasional meetings. No one was quite sure what they were up to but since neither of them was from Britain and Carmilla was apparently 'old friends' with Dumbledore no one questioned it too closely. There was also the fact that Carmilla was likely to curse anyone who stuck their nose in where it wasn't wanted and most people enjoyed keeping their buttocks intact and firmly attached.
Harry had wondered how she could be 'old friends' with Dumbledore but Sirius had clammed up when he'd brought the subject up. He'd rather delicately skirted the topic by telling him to ask the old man himself.
The lesson was rather laidback but it was extremely interesting as professor Hollstein; as they were to call her for the day, taught them about the advanced subject of Human Transfiguration they would be touching on this year before really getting into to it during their final years if they continued with the subject.
A lot of the lesson was spent learning about the Animagus transformation in particular; something that the class found very interesting. Carmilla or professor Hollstein as they had to call her confounded all traditional notions on Animagi by turning into a bat, a wolf, and then a crow before once more taking the shape of the giant black cat.
Swishing her tail her form blurred and she was once more human.
Ignoring their stunned faces she dismissed them with a lazy smirk as the class ended.
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An: Luna Harry probably has to be my favourite pairing for HP. Laura's form is a house cat.