Chapter 10 – The Temporary Teacher
The next morning, Adam and Aaron headed down to breakfast together, the other three boys still being asleep. When they arrived, they were surprised to find Professor McGonagall standing up, ready to give a speech. They hastily took their seats at the end of the table.
"Now that the majority of the students are here I shall begin. As some of you older students will have noticed last night, we have had no luck in finding a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher yet. Therefore, on a short term basis, we have hired Harry Potter as a lecturer." At this, there was a standing ovation from the majority of the hall, but when he looked at Aaron, he shrugged. He didn't know who he was either.
The man they seemed to be talking about looked only just old enough to have left school, with messy black hair and astonishing green eyes. He looked vaguely embrassed at his reception from the school. As Professor McGonagall took her seat and began to eat her own breakfast, Hermione took a seat next to Adam. Evidently students weren't separated by houses at mealtimes.
"Er, Hermione, who is that guy?" Aaron asked, watching Professor Potter deep in conversation with the headmistress. Hermione looked mildly surprised at their ignorance.
"That's Harry Potter. He's one of my best friends and the person who defeated Voldemort, the dark wizard." Adam was highly surprised that this scruffy young man had defeated a powerful dark wizard.
"It's understandable that you two wouldn't know," Ginny had taken a seat opposite beside Aaron, "being muggle-born's. We'll introduce you in a minute." Aaron blushed slightly as he began helping himself to some toast.
"You don't have to do that."
"Oh we will though," Luna had sat on his other side, "he'll come over and talk to us I'm sure."
Just as Luna had predicted, Professor Potter left the staff table about five minutes later and came and sat down at the Ravenclaw Table. Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows slightly. Obviously teachers didn't usually sit with the students.
"Hi guys," Harry briefly hugged Hermione and Luna and kissed Ginny, "how's the summer been?"
"Not bad. How's work at the Ministry?" Hermione asked
"It's OK, but it's different to being here. After the battle Kingsley has so many Aurors that he was glad I took some time off to work here. I think it'll be fun. Just like being in the DA again." The three girls all giggled and exchanged looks.
"Er Harry," Ginny looked as though she had only just remembered the boys were there, "these are Aaron and Adam, two new students."
"Oh hi," Harry smiled at them and shook each of their little hands in his own, helping himself to a bit of toast out of the rack, "looking forward to your lessons today?"
"Yeah." Aaron mumbled slightly, looking down and fiddling with his toast.
"Aw, he's just shy," Ginny ruffled his hair making it look even messier than usual, making Aaron smile weakly.
At that moment, Professor Flitwick coughed behind them, breaking up the conversation. He had been moving down the table handing out timetables to the students. They hadn't seen him moving down as the students had obscured him. Even sitting down, any first year could have hidden the tiny man from view.
"Granger, Weasley and Lovegood," he muttered to himself as he conjured up timetables for the three girls, "and Mawson and Black." He handed two of the timetables he was carrying to the boys. Something in Professor Potter's face seemed to have changed at the mention of Adam's name.
Ginny appeared to have noticed Harry's expression.
"We've already asked. We'll talk later." He looked at her meaningfully, but dropped it all the same. The six of them proceeded to have a very enjoyable breakfast, the girls comparing their timetables and telling the two boys about the lessons they were having today: Potions, Herbology, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts.
"You have Charms with Professor Flitwick, they're the most important form of magic and the most common, and Harry can tell you about Defence Against the Dark Arts." Professor Potter sat up in his seat, looking important.
"You'll learn some good stuff with me. I'm only here for this year, but I already have most of my lessons planned out. Today, you'll just be learning about the differences between curses, jinxes and hexes."
As the six of them continued to chat, Aaron seemed to become more and more vocal around Harry, similar to how he had been acting on the train. It emerged that Adam and Aaron had in fact arrived very early for breakfast, such that they had a long time before lessons even started. After the initial shock of owl post, where the owls flocked in through the open windows to deliver their parcels to their recipients, though nothing came for either of the boys.
An ancient grey owl delivered a letter to Ginny from her mother and Luna received a copy of a magazine called the Quibbler, from her father, who she announced proudly was the editor. In order to whittle away the time waiting for lessons, Adam began to practice using his Metamorphmagus powers for the groups entertainment. His hair had been black since the trip to Diagon Alley, a trip which seemed to have taken place a long time ago.
In the hour that he spent at the breakfast table, his hair had gone from pink, red, blond and even multi-coloured like a rainbow to what he had finally settled on for the day. To commemorate his new house, Adam had set his hair to the colour of a midnight blue with dark bronze streaks throughout, matching the colours of Ravenclaw's house symbol. The group parted ways, the girls heading off to their various NEWT classes while Harry, the boys had been told only to address him as such when alone, guided them to their Potions class as he didn't have any lessons that morning.
