Two weeks had passed, and everyone had gotten back into a rhythm. Ron and Ginny attended their classes, while Harry and Hermione taught theirs. Slowly, the students in Harry's second year Defense Against the Dark Arts class had been released from the hospital wing until finally they were all back in class. There were a number of scratches and bruises to remind everyone of their first class with Harry. At night, Harry and Hermione would prepare their lessons for the next day and still find time for Hermione to teach Harry a little. Ron and Ginny complained some that Harry and Hermione didn't have much time to hang out with them, but they seemed to understand.

Perhaps the brightest spot in Harry's life was that he finally was getting to play Quidditch again. Although that was one of the things about Hogwarts he loved the most, he really hadn't gotten to play much at all since his third year. During his fourth year, Quidditch had been cancelled because of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Fifth year, he had been "banned for life" by Umbridge. Sixth year he had become captain but was injured during the second game and in detention for the third game. Finally, now, he was the captain of the Gryffindor team again and playing Seeker. Ron was back in his role of Keeper. And Ginny, who was a pretty good Seeker, was playing Chaser again, the job she really liked. Ginny loved to throw the quaffle through the goal hoops and score points. Somehow, they all managed to find time to practice, and Hermione showed up for all of the practices. Hermione still didn't quite get why they loved to play Quidditch so much, but she would sit in the stands anyway and cheer them on.

Harry was standing in front of a class of third years. Next to him was a cabinet. All the students were staring at it, wondering what was inside.

"Students," said Harry. "Today we will begin to study boggarts. Who can tell me what a boggart is?"

A girl in the front row named Jacquelyn Jones raised her hand.

"Yes, Ms. Jones?"

"A boggart is a shape-shifting creature that takes on the form of the viewer's worst fear."

"Correct. And what is the spell to fight a boggart?"

"It's ridd...riddi…something."

"That is correct," said Harry with a smile. "It is indeed 'riddi something'. Can anyone help Ms. Jones?"

A boy in the back row raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Sanford?"

"It's Riddikulus."

"Very good, Mr. Sanford. Five points for Ravenclaw. Mr. Sanford is right that Riddikulus is the correct incantation. But the incantation and wand movement alone will not affect a boggart. The correct way to perform Riddikulus is to push past your fear, and concentrate on something that will make the boggart look amusing. The spell doesn't actually repel the boggart. It just changes its appearance into something funny.

"Now line up in front of the cabinet, starting about 20 feet away. When it is your turn, look at the Boggart, push past your fear, say Riddikulus loudly and clearly, wave your wand like this, and think of the funniest, most ridiculous thing you can think of. Once the boggart changes, step aside and give the next student a chance."

One boy raised his hand. "What if it doesn't change, Professor Potter?"

"Then work harder and concentrate more," said Harry. Harry realized he was starting to sound like a real professor. He wondered if he was being too tough.

The students lined up in front of the cabinet, Jacquelyn Jones in front of the line. "Are you ready, Miss Jones?" asked Harry.

Jacquelyn held up her wand, stared at the cabinet, and sort of nodded.

"Don't be afraid, Miss Jones, just concentrate."

Harry opened the cabinet, and a large lion leaped out of the cabinet, opened its huge mouth baring its teeth, roared, and started charging toward Jacquelyn.

"Now, Miss Jones!" yelled Harry.

Jacquelyn waved her wand, yelled 'Riddikulus" and, all of a sudden, there was a small kitten standing in front of her, wearing a little diaper and drinking milk out of a little baby's bottle. The whole class laughed. "Good work," said Harry. "Next."

A boy took Jacquelyn's place and immediately the kitten disappeared and was replaced by a Hungarian Hornback. The dragon pulled back its head and stretched back its neck, coiling itself to spring at the boy. "Now!" yelled Harry.

The boy waved his wand, yelled "Riddikulus" and the dragon disappeared and a second Jacquelyn was standing there, except this Jacquelyn was dressed like a clown with a big red nose and orange hair. The whole class laughed, except Jacquelyn who scowled.

"Not nice," said Harry. "From now on, no doing real people. Next."

Another boy turned a giant bee into a bear standing on stilts and eating an ice cream cone. A girl turned a howling wolf into a large pink frog with purple polka dots. Voldemort appeared a bunch of times. One boy turned him into a monkey wearing yellow short pants and a pink tutu playing the flute. Another boy turned him into a Death Eater hanging upside down with his underwear showing. "I said no real people," said Harry sternly, although he thought it was kind of funny. Finally, the last girl on line stood there and watched the Death Eater turn into a cute yellow duck. The girl whimpered for a second, then waved her wand, cried ""Riddikulus", and the duck turned into a purple penguin doing a jig. Before the boggart could change again, Harry waved his wand, the purple penguin flew back into the cabinet, and the doors of the cabinet slammed shut.

"Class," said Harry. "You did great. Every single one of you. I'm very impressed. You've all made so much progress over the past two weeks that I think you're ready to start dueling lessons in our next class. Have a nice lunch."

As the students began to file out of the classroom to head to lunch, clearly excited about starting dueling, Harry noticed some of the boys still had their wands out as they headed to the door and seemed to be a little too eager.

"Gentlemen!" yelled Harry from the front of the room. "Remember, no spells are allowed in the corridor. And no dueling is allowed anywhere without the supervision of a faculty member. Put your wands away!"

Harry smiled to himself at the thought that he was the one enforcing the rules, when he still enjoyed breaking them himself. "Ms. Frank," he called to Gladys Frank before she left the classroom. "May I have a word with you."

Gladys walked back to the front of the room to where Harry was standing. "Yes, Professor Potter."

"Can I ask you a personal question? In general, most people don't find ducks to be especially scary. Especially, cute, little yellow ducks. Can you explain to me why the boggart changed into a duck for you?"

Gladys smiled. "Well, I know it's unusual, and it's a bit embarrassing. But, you see, when I was two years old, I had a favorite teddy bear. I slept with it every night. I carried it everywhere. And then, as a joke, when my parents weren't looking, my older brothers turned it into a duck. Ever since then, I've been terrified of ducks."

Harry couldn't believe his ears. He just stared at her. Then he smiled. "I understand, Ms. Frank. Have a nice lunch."

At lunch, Ginny, Hermione and even Ron had a good laugh over the duck story. Then Ginny said, "Guys, it's been two weeks. When are we going back to the Chamber of Secrets?"

"I guess we can go tonight," said Harry. "After dinner, and Quidditch practice, and my class with Hermione. How about if we all meet in the common room at say, eleven?"

Hermione hesitated. "I really should spend the time preparing my lessons for class tomorrow."

"Hermione," said Ginny. "You've only got a little time left at Hogwarts. You can't just work. Seventh year is supposed to be the most fun. You've got to make time to play a little."

Hermione smiled. "Okay, I'm in."

Ron mumbled something unrecognizable with his mouth stuffed with a gigantic bite of a hamburger. While he mumbled, a piece of hamburger and some pickle fell out of his mouth onto his plate.

"Nice, Ron," said Hermione, rolling her eyes.

"What did you just say, mate?" asked Harry. "We couldn't understand you through all that food."

"Wait a second," Ron mumbled, shoveling a handful of French fries into his mouth with the hamburger that was already there. "These fries are great," he added, although with his mouth so loaded up with food it sounded more like "Rees rise are rate."

Hermione whacked Ron in the shoulder. "Ow," he said, "what was that for?"

"How can you be this hungry all the time? And when are you going to get some table manners?"

"When are you going to learn how to play Quidditch?" responded Ron, shoving another handful of French fries into his mouth. Some of the ketchup oozed out of his mouth and down his cheek.

"Why do I even bother?" said Hermione, rolling her eyes again.

"Hey Ron," said Harry, "what is it you were trying to say in the first place?"

"I said 'I'm looking forward to the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw this Saturday'," said Ron.

"Wow. You're actually looking forward to a Quidditch match? And without my even giving you a Felix Felicis placebo? This is a real change," said Harry.

"Hey," said Ron. "I helped destroy the Dark Lord. Stopping a quaffle doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore."

"That's the attitude, mate. I hear the Ravenclaw chasers are pretty good this year."

"Yeah," said Ginny, looking at Ron. "I've been watching them practice. They throw the quaffle harder than I've ever seen anyone throw it before."

"Yeah," said Harry, "and they are so accurate. I've never seen one miss the hoop."

Ron started to look nervous.

"We're just kidding," said Harry.

"Yeah," said Ginny. "I've seen them play. They're fine. But nothing special."

"You guys were actually trying to make me get nervous about playing Quidditch?" said Ron, looking startled. "That's a major change."

"We're just not used to seeing you so confident," said Harry. "It seemed a little weird so we tried to get our old Ron back for a second."

"Well, this is the new Ron," said Ron, "so get used to it." And he shoveled some pie into a mouth that was still filled with French fries and a little hamburger.

"At least we can be thankful that some things about you aren't new," said Hermione. "See ya later, Won Won." And she got up from the table to prepare for her next class.

Hermione was standing in front of her first year Transfiguration class, with the young students listening to her every word. "You can cook food. You can move food. You can increase the amount of food. You can eat food. You can change food from one form to another. But you cannot create food out of nothing. Can anyone explain to us why?"

A hand shot up in the front row.

"Yes, Miss Eldridge," said Hermione.

"Because food is one of the the five principal exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration," said Myrna.

"Very good," said Hermione. "Five points for Gryffindor." Hermione stared at Myrna for a second. Myrna reminded Hermione of someone. Not the way she looked, but the way she sounded. There was something about her that was so familiar, but Hermione couldn't figure out what it was. "Oh well," Hermione thought.

"Class," she continued. "Today we will work on transfiguring food. Each one of you has a raw potato in front of you. Your job is to transfigure it into a French fry." Hermione laughed to herself. Ron loved French fries. She missed him during the day, now that they weren't in any classes together, so she had decided to work on French fries.

"Point your wand at the potato, move it like this, flick your wrist like that, and say "patata frigere," said Hermione.

She began walking around the room as wands flew amid a chorus of "patata frigere." She didn't see any French fries. One student turned the potato into a rock. One student's potato now had a face on it with a mustache. "Neat trick," said Hermione to that student, "if you could figure out how to do that on purpose. Try again." One student's potato grew whiskers. She worked with each student on their wand work, their pronunciation, but still no French fries. Finally, she said: "Class, stop." And she went back to the front of the room.

"Class, as I've told you before, Transfiguration is more than saying the right incantation and moving your wand correctly. The power of Transfiguration comes mostly from your mind. Did you taste those delicious French fries at lunch today?"

The class nodded.

"I want you to think about them. Taste them in your minds. Imagine their salty, potatoey, crispy flavor on your tongues as you crunch them in your mouths and chew them up. Now, try again."

Wands started to fly, and the room filled again with a chorus of "patate frigere" but this time potatoes started to change into French fries. Within five minutes, every single student had changed their potato into a hot, crispy French fry. Hermione herself was amazed. She never imagined the class would have done so well. She figured that maybe one or two students would be able to make French fries, and maybe a few others would have made some kind of a strange looking cooked potato, maybe a cross between a boiled potato and a tater tot, but this was really amazing. An entire class of first years had just transfigured perfect French fries.

"Class. That was amazing. You all did really, really, well," said Hermione.

"Can we eat them?" asked a boy from Gryffindor.

"Sure," said Hermione. She waved her wand, and little dish of ketchup appeared on each student's desk next to the French fry.

"Thanks, Professor Granger," said the boy.

The students gobbled down their French fries just as the class period game to an end.

"See you tomorrow," said Hermione.

As the class started to file out of the door in the back of the classroom, Hermione noticed Ron standing in the back of the classroom next to the doorway. She wondered what he was doing in her class, but didn't say anything while her students were in the room. They both just stood there, looking at each other while the students walked out the door. When the last student had left, Ron shut the door, walked over to Hermione, and said, "You're the one who's amazing, Hermione."

Hermione blushed.

"Seriously, Hermione. I heard the way you explained it to the kids. It was really amazing. My mouth started watering just listening to you."

"You're always hungry, Ron," said Hermione, still blushing.

"Seriously. McGonagall never even taught a class like this one. When we were first years, did you ever see the entire class transfigure ANYTHING correctly? You are a natural teacher."

"Thanks, Ron," said Hermione. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Since we don't have any classes together, I don't get to see you for most of the day and I miss you. I had a free period, so I decided to poke my head into your Transfiguration class and watch you teach."

"I miss you too, Ron," said Hermione. It was good the door was closed. The students walking down the hallway were spared the sight of one very long snog.

At dinner that night, most of the students were talking about the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw Quidditch match, which was just two days away.

"Do you think you can take them, Harry?" asked Neville.

"No problem," said Harry. "Especially with the best Chaser in the school on my team," he added, looking at Ginny.

Ginny blushed. "I'm not THAT good," said Ginny.

"Not that good?" said Harry. "You are one of the toughest players I've ever seen. You never get knocked off your broom no matter how hard you get hit. I've seen guys twice your size get knocked off their brooms by bludger shots that don't even slow you down. You get whacked hard and you just keep flying."

"Well, you kind of need to learn to be tough when you have a lot of older brothers," said Ginny.

"What's your strategy going to be, Harry?" asked Neville.

"No strategy," said Harry. "I'm getting used to operating without really great plans. It seems to work. We're just going to go out there, play our best, have fun and see what happens."

"If Oliver or Angelina could hear you now," said Neville, "they'd be pulling their hair out."

"You're probably right," said Harry. "But after this year, I just can't get all that worked up about a Quidditch match. I just want to have fun. And I guess, maybe, crush Ravenclaw at the same time."

"That's the spirit, Harry," said Neville.

"Guys," said Ron. "You should have seen Hermione in Transfiguration today. She was amazing!"

Hermione was blushing again. "Okay, Ron. That's enough. You don't need to go on and on about it."

"Yes I do," said Ron. "You should have seen it. Hermione taught an entire class of first years to turn a potato into a French fry. Every single kid did it. Then they ate them. I'm serious. She's even better than McGonagall."

"Ron, are you just trying to get her to…."

"…snog me?" said Ron. "No, Harry. She did that already."

Hermione elbowed Ron as if to say, "you don't need to tell everyone at the table about our snogging."

Ron went on. "I'm just very impressed with our Hermione's teaching skills."

"I know what you mean," said Harry. "I'm really learning quickly in the classes she's been giving me. I'm starting to think that with Hermione as my teacher, I might just be able to handle the N.E.W.T.s."

"Enough already," cried Hermione, blushing a deep shade of pink. "Stop talking about me."

"Suit yourself," said Ron, shoveling a large spoonful of mashed potatoes and gravy into his mouth which was already stuffed with meat loaf.

"Oh, brother," moaned Hermione watching the gravy dripping down his chin.

"She loves me," mumbled Ron almost incomprehensibly as he pushed a large spoonful of peas and carrots into his overloaded mouth.

At eleven o'clock, the four of them met in the Gryffindor common room. This time they had all brought their broomsticks.

"Do your thing, Hermione," said Ron, as Harry took out his invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map.

Hermione flicked her wrist and their legs disappeared. "Non-verbal," said Ron. "Very cool."

"Thanks for noticing," said Hermione.

"Wait a second," said Ginny. "What about our broomsticks? We'll never be able to fit them all under Harry's cloak."

"Good point," said Hermione. With another flick of her wrist, the broomsticks all disappeared.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,"' said Harry, looking at his map. "Good. Coast is clear. Team, let's head out."

The four of them slipped under the invisibility cloak, and headed into the corridor. Pretty soon they were standing in front of the girls' bathroom.

"Now we have to deal with Myrtle," said Hermione. "Might as well get it over with."

They pushed open the door and walked in. "Who's there?" shouted Moaning Myrtle, flying in a big circle around the room.

"It's just us," said Harry as they slid off the cloak.

"Why did you have to bring THEM again?" moaned Myrtle miserably.

"Sorry, Myrtle," said Harry. "We have some more exploring to do."

"Aaaaaah….You didn't even come to see me…Again…just because I'm dead…Aaaah…" Splash. Everyone was dripping wet again.

"Okay, Ron, you're on," said Harry.

"Hermione, are you going to try to teach me Parseltongue again?" asked Ron sarcastically.

"I'll try to keep quiet this time," she said.

Ron walked over to the sink. After a little hissing, the sink sunk into the floor, and the four of them were sliding down the pipe. They got to the main chamber, and took the tunnel to the right of Slytherin's statue, their way lit by their wands. Again, they followed the tunnel, left and right passing little dead animals along the way. Finally, in the distance, they saw a second door. They broke out into a run. When they got to the door, they saw it was identical to the first door. A wooden door, framed in the stone tunnel with no door knob. This door also had writing scratched into it near the bottom. They knelt down to read it.

No Secrets Here. Try the other one.

A/N: Let me know what you think. More chapters coming.