Hey, sorry for the long wait but I'm sure I mentioned this is in my last author's note, I am a college student and have lots of homework. But after taking 4 midterms last week I figured I could reward myself with writing this weekend, so here is the next chapter.
Harry soon found himself helping practically the whole class of first years, or so it seemed. It had started with the Slytherins, once he helped them they continued asking him for help when he was in the study area or they talked with him in the hallways.
But it slowly spread from there. Or, Harry thought, it began to spread once he helped students from other houses as well.
After the Slytherins, he had helped a first year Ravenclaw girl Faye, find some books in the library. It was a couple of days after helping the Slytherins that he had come upon her in the library looking completely lost and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Harry had asked if she needed help and after a moment of what looked like a serious internal debate she shyly nodded.
Once he had shown her the aisle the topic she wanted was on, and pointing out a few suggested titles, Harry told her about how the library was set up. He stuck around for a bit in case she needed any help. After a bit he started asking her some general questions about her likes, how the school year was going, and other questions aimed at seeing how she was adjusting to Hogwarts.
Then once Faye was settled and close to being finished Harry left, going back to his own homework. But just a few days later while he was finishing an essay for potions Harry noticed out of the corner of his eyes two Hufflepuff boys poking at each other and pointing at him. He focused on writing the last few words of his essay before looking towards them, waiting for them to notice his gaze.
They stopped poking each other in short order and after a few heartbeats of silence moved towards him. When they didn't speak and just continued looking at each other and then at him Harry finally spoke, since it seemed as if they never would.
"Can I help you two?" asked Harry with a quizzical look on his face.
They nodded and explained that they were having trouble with a spell in charms and would he mind terribly mind maybe helping them with it. Harry was glad to help them and in short order they were soon able to cast Wingardium Leviosa without any explosions or feathers being set on fire.
Seriously, why does that happen, he wondered. I am going have to research how closely those words are tied with fire because I don't think any of the fire charms I know sound anywhere close to wingardium leviosa. Or maybe it was the wand movements that caused it. Either way Harry was sure that Hermione would find it interesting as well to know.
Since he had to explain the charm's theory to the two boys, Harry was sure that they hadn't really read about it, so he encouraged them to read the required reading before class. It helped to with understanding the theory lecture and with the practical portion as well. He did tell them that if they were still struggling even after reading the text then they could still come to him since he knew how confusing the textbooks could be sometimes. The Hufflepuff first years, Daniel and Phil, nodded and promised to do that before they scurried off back to their common room.
Next Harry came upon a lone Gryffindor boy, sitting in a window in an empty area of Hogwarts, on his way up to the common room. Seeing as the boy looked very gloom and broody like, he sat next to him and asked how he was. It took a bit of work to get Alan to confide in him, it wasn't something too serious right now though it could turn into something serious over time.
Alan was having trouble in Defense Against the Dark Arts and he was getting some slight teasing from his class mates over it. He was a muggleborn and had to study more than most of his housemates to keep up and was finding DADA particularly hard. So far it wasn't anything too serious, but it still hurt Alan's feelings and Harry knew that it could become serious bullying overtime if it wasn't checked.
Harry offered to help with the theory or practical work in the common room or the study area with him. Telling him that lots of the students were having difficulties in various subjects and that everyone had different subjects that they excelled in or had troubles in. Alan accepted his offer and they moved to the common room where Alan got out his book and Harry went over some of the basics with him and offering tips that had helped him when he was a first year.
After sending him up to bed, Harry sat staring into the flames of the fire for a while. Thinking about how little guidance the students had from adults. He knew that the professors were very busy teaching, one teacher per subject for the whole school, and wondered if there shouldn't be more professors in Hogwarts.
The professors did their best but Harry felt that they were being spread a bit thin, especially as the number of incoming students increased after the years following his first year. There was a bit of a baby boom after Voldemort's defeat and probably in another decade there would be a similar increase in Hogwarts students.
But there wasn't really anything he could do to change that except maybe to bring it to McGonagall's attention. Then again, he and Hermione were planning on introducing some education reforms when he took his seats in the Wizengamot. Never too early to start working on those he thought.
Somehow Harry was almost always approached by the students he helped again whenever he was in the study area or library and eventually the rest of their classmates started approaching him as well. Harry didn't remember approaching anyone this much for help on his homework, though he never really approached the professors either, and when you were friends with Hermione you didn't really need anyone else for help. Then again he didn't even know who the Head Boy and Girl were for his first couple of years and almost none of the prefects so it was unlikely that he could have approached them for help. Perhaps the reason they asked for his help was because he was Harry Potter or maybe because he was making an actual effort and trying to help the first years, and other years as well.
Still it took a while for students to approach him if he was helping someone from a different house than them. There were some mixed groups beginning and he was working on them not caring who they worked with if he was already busy helping someone. But mostly everyone was sticking to their own house and not really mingling, even if they knew them from before Hogwarts. Harry knew he had to work on that if he wanted to fix some of the underlying issues in the Wizarding world and was slowly making students interact with other houses.
The first time there was a mixed house study session was when Harry had been working in the study area. The first two Hufflepuffs, Daniel and Phil, he had helped were asking him a question about DADA. Apparently this was a hard topic because shortly after the Ravenclaw Faye and then the Gryffindor Alan also came up to listen to his explanation on the topic. Evidently the difficulty of this subject overrode the barriers between the houses.
Then Harry noticed that all the first year Slytherins were at a nearby table and they all looked confused, Nickolas looked up and saw Harry. He grinned and got up to come ask Harry for help until he froze once seeing the other students already around Harry asking for help. Harry worried for a moment that Nickolas wouldn't come to him for help but Nickolas still approached him after a moment once he had straightened his spine.
"Harry can you help us with something?" Nickolas asked, ignoring the stares of the other students asking for Harry's help. Harry noticed how the other four students looked at Nickolas suspiciously and then back towards him hopefully. Harry knew that he'd be crushing their hopes.
"Sure, I'll be right there Nickolas." Harry said smiling Nickolas smiled in return before walking back towards the table claimed by the first year Slytherins, though it was an almost jaunty walk. The other Slytherins brightened as he approached, glad that Harry soon would be helping them.
Looking back to the four students he had previously been helping Harry found a range of looks from puppy eyes to pouting to are you crazy. Holding in a laugh Harry told them "You're welcome to come join us at the table, I'm confident that I'll be continuing the topic I started with you and probably even helping with the homework or practical. Now I won't hear one bad word about the Slytherins and if you want my help you'll have to learn to work with other houses." With that he turned and went to sit in the middle of the table of first year Slytherins. Harry knew this was a risk and that maybe they wouldn't follow him, but he felt that the time was right to start getting them used to working with students from other houses, especially with Slytherins.
Shortly after he began helping the Slytherins the other four students from the other three houses also sat down together at the edge of the group. Harry was pleased that they had decided to join in the tutoring session. Sparing them a smile Harry continued on, making sure that everyone got along and even helped each other before leaving once he had gone over everything. There wasn't much of a practical though there rarely was this early of the year in DADA, at least for first years, and the theory could be hard without a practical portion with it.
Though he did count them lucky professor wise the current DADA was pretty good compared to some of the ones in previous years. Harry even shared some of the horror stories of Quirrel, Lockehart, and Umbridge. They laughed at his shudders and could hardly believe some of the things he mentioned. Who would wear a garlic turban? And really a stutter that bad? Or a professor who made them act out scenes of their book and had cupids? Or was obsessed with pink, kittens, and sounded like a sick toad.
Once the laughter had subsided the first years shuffled awkwardly for a bit and Harry wondered if this was the end for tonight's studying. But Faye had something to ask him.
"Are you going to start up a study group or something? I think it'd be really helpful since we all come to you anyways." She looked so hopeful and the others did as well once they heard her question. But Faye was too shy to look him in the eyes while asking and was playing with a loose thread on her sleeve, though some of the other students had some serious puppy eye action going on.
"Well I am thinking about it, though it wouldn't just be led by me, Hermione the Head Girl would certainly help, and we're thinking about getting the prefects to help as well or perhaps students who do really well in a certain subject. But we haven't discussed it with the professors yet and nothings certain until then." There were some worried looks at this and Harry continued, "Anyone who helps will be nice and even if the professors don't agree, which I don't see why they wouldn't, I can still help you whenever you ask me to."
Funnily enough all of the first years had a similar mutinous look at that and there was some fidgeting and mumbling under their breaths.
Harry watched them as they avoided his eyes and finally he asked "What? Is there something wrong with the prefects? They haven't been abusing their position have they?"
There was some more fidgeting before Alan decided to answer him since he was supposed to be a brave Gryffindor after all. "They haven't been doing anything wrong but they always seem too busy to approach."
"And they're not as nice as you are." Phil chimed in. Most of the group nodded in agreement or had agreeing looks on their faces.
Humming thoughtfully Harry just sat there with them for a bit, thinking about what they had said and the implications of it. He himself had never really approached the prefects either, he never really knew them or felt comfortable going to them and if he didn't do it then how could he expect others to do it. Something had to change, the professors were too busy to help everyone and the students had to have someone to go to. In the next prefect meeting he would bring it up and see if they could brainstorm some strategies to make the students more comfortable with going to them.
"Well, I can see how you would think that, I certainly did during my first couple of years here. But I know that most of the prefects are generally nice people, some of them I don't know well enough to say for certain but they were picked by the professors. Even if they seem busy just approach them nicely, even if they're busy they might have a tip or know someone who would be willing to help right then." Harry told them. Though they still didn't look very happy about that so he continued, "I will still be able to help even if a prefect is unable to and if they're mean tell me and I will speak to them about their conduct and responsibilities as a prefect."
His group of first years seemed happier after that and Harry cheerfully sent them off to their dorms since curfew was approaching for the first years. After completing some of his own work he headed back to the common room to meet up with Hermione and Ron.
~~~~~~~~ (What do the other students think? )~~~~~~~~
It was well known that Harry was a great teacher and that he enjoyed helping students. Or at least it was well known to his house mates and the members of the DA. But even with the rumors of him liking to teach it was a shock to see him helping Slytherins.
At first it seemed like the Head Boy was just doing his duties and helping some first years but then they noticed the color of their robes, green and sliver of the Slytherin house. How could he be helping Slytherins? Didn't he hate them and weren't they evil? Everyone knew that, though it was odd perhaps to be evil at 11 but still they were in Slytherin. So they had to be, right?
But still he helped them and was nice to them. He laughed with them and made them laugh. There were no cold but polite brush offs, no glares, no sneers or snide remarks, there was only a kind smile and friendly presence. If was as if actually liked them, but how could that be? They were Slytherins and he was the Golden Boy of Gryffindor, symbol of the light, and defeater of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Some would think that perhaps they had hexed Harry but how could first years hex the one who defeated the Dark Lord. If he couldn't kill Harry then how could they have hexed him? Surely they didn't know the Dark Arts well enough to do something that the darkest Dark Lord of the past several centuries couldn't even manage to do.
As the student populace watched, they saw that Harry did genuinely like the Slytherins. And they then began to see something that Harry already knew, that the Slytherin first years were just kids just like the other houses. They weren't evil and they certainly weren't planning on taking over the world.
It was slow to happen but slowly the thought spread. The first years Slytherins weren't evil. Then some thought, were the second years evil? Or any of the other years? Just when did Slytherins become evil, they had to at some point right? Then some rumors of some people who did horrendous crimes but weren't in Slytherin, and it was true the history books said so. There were people who committed atrocious acts that weren't from the famed evil house.
So did that mean Slytherins weren't evil by nature after all?