Author's Note: Sorry about the wait, I was gone for Spring Break and uploading this just never really crossed my mind. I should have a good bit more coming in the next few days from this story and the Albus POV. I'm just waiting for my proofreader to finish with the chapters I sent him.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter, yet.
Harry looked at the scene in his living room, taken aback by the sheer number of people there. The entire Weasley clan, Luna, and Kingsley were there. Everyone stopped moving when he stepped out of the fireplace. "Took you long enough, mate." Ron said, "It's a mad house here."
"I can see that," Harry said, "What is this?"
Everyone seemed to get very uncomfortable at this question, Ginny finally answered him. "We may have a bigger problem than we thought." She said, pausing to look for someone else to finish. When it was apparent that no one else was going to take over the story, she continued. "Last Night, when we had our little run in with that, um, thing. I may have done more than just attack you."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, intrigued. Ginny led him into the kitchen, where he saw exactly what was making everyone so uncomfortable. A small boy, no more than six or seven years old, was laid across their table. Harry recognized that he was dead instantly, but it took him more than a few moments to realize what it all meant. Ginny had killed him. "No.." Harry started. "are we sure that you did this?"
"Well you know I can't remember any of it while I wasn't in control, and I did cast more than one killing curse at you. We can't be sure, but it seems likely." Ginny said, forcing herself to stay calm.
"Wouldn't you know if you, you know, wouldn't it damage your soul like it did Tom's?" Harry asked, still in shock at the whole situation.
"This is new territory for us, Harry," Hermoine chimed in, "It could be that, even though her body cast the spell, she didn't have control so it may not have damaged her soul like average, every day murder would." Ginny, having apparently avoided using or hearing the word 'murder' for the length of the conversation, broke into tears at this. Fleur and Molly moved more quickly than Harry and corralled her into the living room. Harry, having been beaten to the punch, turned to Ron and Hermoine.
"What's going to happen?" he asked, primarily speaking to Hermoine.
She smiled sadly at him, "Being friends with the Minister of Magic does have its perks, since I know what happened last night, I can keep an investigation from being opened, at least until we catch whoever really did this."
"Why would he kill a kid, I mean I don't even recognize this one. What was the purpose?" Harry asked. Usually when he encountered a murder as an auror, it at least had an obvious purpose. This just seemed random, apart from the proximity to his house. Before his friends could even attempt to answer his question, he asked another. "Can we tell when, exactly, the spell that hit him was cast?"
"Not without bringing him in to the Department of Mysteries," Hermoine said, "and with how suspicious they were about the Americans and you, I wouldn't think you'd want to go to the Unspeakables." She was right, of course, the Department of Mysteries was the last place Harry wanted to take a situation like this. Putting Ginny in a position to have the Unspeakables questioning her was simply not an option. Having Snape in her Occlumency lessons was going to be bad enough.
"No," Harry and Ron said simultaneously, they looked at each other for a moment and Harry continued, "That isn't an option. We'll have to figure this out on our own."
"Wouldn't have it any other way, mate." Ron said, smiling sadly. "Should we tell our yank friends about all of this?"
"I don't think so, at least not yet." Harry said, "I don't want to involve them any more than they already are. They've been through enough already."
A few hours passed before the Weasleys started leaving, in pairs. Finally, at nearly one in the morning, Ginny and Harry sat alone in their living room. "Why does everything happen to us?" Ginny asked quietly.
"I don't know, Gin. But you have to admit, we'd be really boring otherwise." Harry responded. A few minutes later, Ginny was asleep, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts. Hermoine and Percy had taken the body to a place far enough away that it was unlikely anyone would find it, they preserved it magically, in order to give the family some sense of closure when the time came. At least he would get a proper burial. He determined that the child must have been killed as retaliation for Harry and Ginny surviving the attack. That was his final thought, before he fell into a restless sleep.
Harry walked into his classroom the next morning still half asleep, and began preparing for his first class. He had decided to start with something he knew that he could teach his students, because he had taught the subject before. He looked at the clock he had charmed to disappear when the lesson began, he couldn't have the students looking at the clock during his lectures. It was five minutes until his first class, seventh year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. He walked into his office to wait for class to start.
After a few minutes, he heard the first sounds of students walking into the classroom. He waited for the sound of chairs scraping the ground to stop for a few minutes before he cast a silent Patronus charm, and sent it into the class ahead of him with a message.
The Patronus charm is a difficult, but very effective charm. Primarily used to ward off dark creatures, a powerful patronus can take a corporeal form and even deliver short messages. Today, you will attempt…
Harry walked into the back of the class unnoticed and watched the final part of his message, before finishing the sentence for his stag patronus as it dissipated. "…to cast a Patronus charm, it can take some time to get it right, but I believe a class of seventh years should have no problem getting it right by the end of class. How many of you are familiar with how the charm works?" Every hand in the room shot up, Harry knew that the theory of casting the charm was talked about in the fourth year classes. "Can any of you cast the charm?"
Most of the hands went down, only a few remained raised. Harry pointed out a Slytherin girl in the back of the class, he hadn't had the chance to learn all of their names yet, but he thought it started with an L. She stood, and nearly shouted EXPECTO PATRONUM. A small cone of white light appeared from the tip of her wand, and spun twice before disappearing.
"Very good, not many students at this school could cast a patronus that large with no instruction. Ten points to Slytherin." He next poined to the Hufflepuff, who he knew was a muggle born whose last name was Murray. "Let's see what you can do, then."
Murray, who was a petite girl with short, jet black hair and rimless glasses, pointed her wand and, without muttering a single word, cast a fully formed corporeal patronus, a lioness that prowled around the perimeter of the classroom before deciding that everything was safe and dissipating with a roar. "Well done, well done!" said Harry, truly surprised. He had expected a few of them to be able to cast a weak patronus, but not a fully formed one on the first day. "50 points to Hufflepuff, and you can be excused from tonight's homework."
"Now, for the rest of you, as you know, the incantation is expecto patronum, the hardest part of casting the patronus charm is finding the memory that it can draw its power from. Try to remember your happiest moment, and hold on to that when casting the charm. I also have something special in mind for those of you who are able to cast anything more than workable patronus by the end of class today."
After nearly an hour of practice, only seven of the students had managed to cast anything at all. Three of them had actually cast corporeal ones, though, so Harry thought it was a successful class. He was admiring the lioness that was prowling around his classroom once again, when the clock reappeared on the wall, signaling the end of class. He gave the students who had cast a patronus instructions to come back to his classroom the next day after lunch, which he knew to be the free period for the NEWT students.
He repeated this process with each of his classes, and at the end of the day he had seen a total of thirty-five patronus charms, leaving him thirty-five students for his first project as a Hogwarts teacher, he was going to revive the dueling club.
The next day after lunch, Harry stood in front of the students that had managed the task the day before. "Good afternoon, and welcome to the first meeting of the new dueling club. A teacher of mine, during my second year in school here, started this club. It stands to this day as the only thing I ever agreed with him on. You should all be able to defend yourselves when you leave this school, and I'm not sure lectures and homework are going to prepare you for what's out there." Victoire raised her hand, "Yes, Victoire?"
"Professor," she smirked, "If we all need to defend ourselves, why only invite certain students?"
Harry had expected this, "Each of you was able to cast a patronus, in some shape or form. Since it takes considerable skill to do that at your ages and with so little instruction, I brought you into this club before opening it to the rest of the students so that when I bring the rest in, you all can help me teach and demonstrate."
Harry had the group pair up with someone from a different house, hoping to get all of the students acquainted with each other. They practiced stunning, disarming, and the patronus charms for the duration of the meeting, and by the end of the session almost the entire group could cast a shield patronus and nearly half of them were casting corporeal ones. He let them go, telling them to be at the same place next week.
Later that day, Harry was reading in his office when he heard a knock on the door. He looked up and to his surprise, Draco Malfoy stood before him. "Good evening, Potter." He said, drawling.
"All right, Malfoy?" Harry asked, a blank stare on his face. Why was Malfoy visiting him?
"I heard you started a dueling club," Malfoy said with a smile, "I hope it wasn't as eventful as our first duel second year."
"Not at all, no snakes this time." Harry said, laughing. Was Malfoy trying to make small talk? "You can't be here to relive old times though, what do you need?"
"I want to help, with the dueling club." Malfoy said, "I have dueling experience, even if most of it was against you." Harry was taken aback, Malfoy wanted to help? That was new, Harry was just about to decline, when he remembered that he had defended Malfoy's position at the school to his wife.
"Sure, I could use the help," Harry replied, flashing a half-forced smile at his old nemesis. "I assume you know when and where?"
"I'll be there," Malfoy said, turning to walk out of the door before looking back over his shoulder with a mischievous grin, "maybe we can give them a demonstration. That is, if you're not scared, Potter." He shut the door behind him before he could hear Harry's reply.
"You wish."