Heir Of Gryffindor
Chapter 11 - Tess Welding

The next morning, when Harry woke up, he had a surprise waiting for him. An owl had opened the window, blowing a blast of cold air into the room. Shivering, Harry got up, wrapping his blanket around him when he noticed the owl. Closing the window for the moment, he turned to the owl who waited patiently, then held out his foot, the letter secured waiting for his removal. "Sorry, still rather early for me." yawned Harry. The owl held out the leg with the letter attached and Harry took it off. With a soft flutter of wings, the owl went to the window and Harry opened the window to let the owl leave. It was a cute fluffy little owl, he thought, closing the window after and took a look at the letter sent to him.

Dear Harry,
Was just letting you know that I am the new - I find that funny, as I was once before a teacher here - Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. I was wondering if you would come to Dumbledore's office. There's someone he would like you to meet and we have much to discuss with you. Oh, but get breakfast first.

Sincerely,
Professor J. Lupin

Harry grinned. Ron and he, since the first of the year, had suspected of it, but here was the proof. So, he shook Ron awake, who groaned but refused to wake up. So he thumped Ron hard on the nose, which made Ron jump, waking instantly, clasping his hands to his nose. "OWW! What the bloody hell was that for Harry!?" asked Ron, looking angrily.

The spell had healed his nose, but it was sensitive now. "Cause the only other way to wake you up was to dump you into the bath and run cold water on you. And since its the middle of winter and almost christmas, I didn't think you'd appreciate that. Or, I could see what Snape has in his cauldrons - perhaps we could change you into a frog - then again, that wouldn't wake you up." teased Harry and Ron grumbled something about nasty Slytherins. Harry raised his brows, not about to argue, but headed downstairs.

Ron had woken him after he'd finished his rounds to tell him what had happened, but to Ron's chagrin, Harry agreed with Hermione that it'd been close. However, Harry had smirked whenver Ron cursed him. "Nice going mate." he had said.

"Anyways, take a look at this." said Harry, handing him the paper. Ron rubbed his bleary eyes before reading it. "Someone to meet and lots to talk about. Oh! Lupin! Ha, I was right!" said Ron happily and grinned at Harry, who grinned back at him. "Anyways, better go." said Ron and Harry nodded. Dudley was still asleep. He'd made a lot of progress, and Harry was thinking of tutoring him when he got the chance.

As suggested, Harry dressed, grabbing his warm winter cloak, the weather being about right for it as it was starting to turn cold, and went downstairs where they saw Lily and Hermione. It seemed that Lily had talked Hermione into a chess match while they talked. "Oh hey Harry." said Lily, and Hermione smiled. "Hey Harry." she greeted. Harry grinned, happy to share the news with them.

"Guess what Mione? Lupin's the teacher of Defense Against The Dark Arts again!" Harry said happily and Hermione's brows rose. "Yeah, I saw him in the hallway yesterday. It appears he returned to Hogwarts late. Probably another . . . well, you know." said Hermione and Harry nodded, leaving Lily confused. "I'll explain later." promised Hermione.

Harry figured that Hermione would tell her a lie to cover up what Lupin really was, but he had no time. "Gotta go, I've got to start working on the Quidditch rosters and Professor Lupin wants to see me." he said, leaving out the part about Dumbledore. For some reason, almost every time that he saw Dumbledore, it usually had to do with secrets. If this one did not, then he would tell them. And the quidditch roster was true. Demelza Robins needed to be replaced - she left the team and Hogwarts after her mother had fallen ill.

Downstairs, Harry grabbed some eggs and smoked sausage with a stack of pancakes, eating his share before leaving to go to Dumbledore's study when he realized he didn't have the password. Since he was on the ground floor anyways, he headed towards McGonagall's office, where she was grading homework. With a knock on the door, she ordered him to come in and he entered the room. "Ah, Professor, do you know Professor Dumbledore's password? Professor Lupin has asked me to go to Dumbledore's office." he said, showing her the note.

Was it him or were her eyes damp? He decided not to pry. "O-oh yes, Potter, the password is Canary Creams." said McGonagall, and Harry grinned. Fred and George would get a kick out of that, he thought. "Thank you Professor. Is there. . . something wrong?" he asked. McGonagall shook her head. "No Potter. You should go directly there." she said, but still looked disturbed, and he left, feeling that she hadn't told him the truth.

Harry went to the third floor, finding the corridor he needed before spotting the statue. "Ah, here it is. Canary Creams!" he called and the statue sprang to life, moving sideways and revealing a staircase. He climbed it quickly and then, with a quick inhale of breath, knocked on the door.

~*~-~*~

Professor Lupin opened it, his brown hair brushed neatly, but astray in some areas. His brown eyes widened and he grinned in delight to find Harry here. "Harry, there you are. Come on in, the Professor will be here in just a moment." said Lupin and Harry nodded, walking in. "Sorry, where is Professor Dumbledore?" he asked and Lupin smiled, but there was sadness to it. "Professor Dumbledore left to fetch someone. But enough of that for now - there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Is it why you haven't been here from the start of term?" asked Harry and he faltered a little. "Perhaps. . . well, yes and no. I've been gathering as many friends and allies as I can from the werewolf side, and I've had problems. . ." said Lupin, lifting up his arm. Large bite marks decorated his forearm. "It is not without risk of course - and the full moon was a few nights ago." he said. Harry nodded. "No, what I wanted to discuss with you was -"

There was a flash. A bright red bird, an old man and a girl about Harry's age. The bird was obviously the phoenix Fawkes, the old man Dumbledore, but Harry didn't have an inkling to whom the girl was. "I hope we're not interrupting. Professor Lupin, I'm afraid our guest is quite thirsty and hungry. While Harry and I speak, would you kindly take her to the kitchen?" he asked and Lupin looked a little off-kilter but then nodded. "Of course."

Dumbledore waited for them to leave then turned his bright blue eyes on Harry. "Ah Harry my boy. There's two things I'd like to discuss with you." said Dumbledore. "Firstly, I was wrong to pair you with Professor Snape for occulmency lessons. I should have known his wounds would not have healed - a grave misfortune on my part. I had hoped that forced to see each others past, you two would become to at least have a grudging respect towards each other. But alas, it did the opposite. So, this year, you will have it with me."

Harry groaned audibly. It was terrible the year before last in Occulmency lessons with Snape. Of course Dumbledore as a past teacher and much kinder than Snape would be a much better teacher, and therefore a better experience, but his experiences so far was horrid. "Alright. . ." he said and Dumbledore gave him a kind smile.

"We'll start off slowly, I promise. The second thing I wanted to talk to you about is future planning. I have suspicions on what Voldemort has done in the past, but we will be needing to discover if these are concrete or not and plan accordingly. He has begun to move. Slowly, he is reaching out for followers. And a few days ago, he killed a woman who had -"

"That girl. . . she was from my dream." he said. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Do tell." he said. "Well, its a little foggy, but . . ." he said, telling Dumbledore the story from the dream. "That's precisely what happened. It seems as though you saw it happening through his eyes. Which is precisely why you need to study occulmency." he said. "That girl - she's Voldemort's daughter!?" Harry yelped, his green eyes widening. Then he saw the old man wince.

"What we were born, Harry, is not nearly as important as our decisions." he said, and smiled. "Just like you were nearly sorted into Slytherin until you pleaded with the hat that you wanted to be in Gryffindor." he said, and Harry's eyes bulged. "How did you know that sir?" he asked and Dumbledore chuckled. "Well, what happens to be in the office everytime you've come?"

The phoenix, of course, the silver spindley objects, but nothing that would really direct him towards that answer. Then he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. A faded, patched and frayed hat - indeed it was the sorting hat. "That hat. The sorting hat. It makes sense now - that's why the hat says its so smart - its not only that it can talk but it can think too."

Dumbledore beamed at him. "Clever indeed! Yes, it was the sorting hat that told me. It keeps the headmaster's secrets and helps whenever needed. Always nice for a second opinion, and the best part is, no one can overhear you if you don't speak outloud." he said with a chuckle. Then it simmered down a bit and Dumbledore seemed sad. "Listen Harry, Tess is a lot like you. Therefore, I think that you could be that positive influence that she needs. The decision however is up to you." finished Dumbledore just as Tess and Lupin came in with a light knock, not waiting. Harry grinned - apparantly, Lupin was still miffed at being interrupted. But Dumbledore merely smiled. "Welcome back. Now, I do believe your class starts in five minutes, right Remus?" asked the headmaster and Lupin nodded. "Plenty of time to finish what you needed to speak to Harry about then." he said and waved goodbye to the three of them.

Once out in the hallway, Harry peeked over at Tess. She had flowing, slightly wavy black hair and green eyes - almost like his. Her skin was pale, like Tom's were and Harry couldn't help but think that this girl was almost the spitting image of Tom, besides the eyes and the button-like nose. But besides Ginny, no one had ever seen Voldemort when he was young. Harry supposed it was a good thing. But he was almost afraid to get close to the girl. What if she followed in her father's footsteps?! What if they betrayed them all?

A chuckle escaped Lupin, which brought Harry back to the real world. "Well, it seems as if Dumbledore has your mind elsewhere. He's good at that. But I need to discuss something with you. And we don't have long. I have never been prouder of you - starting up your own defense against the dark arts class when you were forbidden to do spells! Very risky Harry, but also," Lupin said and grinned, "very, very brave and clever. I'm guessing Miss Granger helped you to think of it? I heard Neville and some of the other students talking about it, hoping that there would be more D.A. meetings. Therefore, I came up with an idea."

Harry flushed bright pink, and noticed that Tess was paying attention now. "It was mostly Hermione. You know how brilliant she is. And she practically pushed me to do it. But, it was a lot of fun. What was your idea, Professor?" asked Harry and Lupin grinned. "I propose that you, after dinner, come to my office to help me plan out things and be my student teacher. Sort of like a prefect over the class. And, if you still want to do your DA studies, I could find an empty classroom I'm sure, instead of using the Room of Requirement. Perhaps you could help younger students with simpler spells as well. And I know you were wanting to become an auror, but what about becoming a teacher? I think you would be a wonderful teacher."

Harry's eyes widened. Lupin had even found out about that. . . and the idea of becoming a teacher was appealing. "And," said Lupin with a grin. "To teach here at Hogwarts, you must pass your N.E.W.T test in the subject you'd like to teach with an O. Which, due to your experiences and work in the field, I'm certain you'll do well." said Lupin. Harry grinned. If he worked hard, he could do that and possibly do his studies for being an auror during the summers. Ron wouldn't be happy, he was sure, but then, this was his decision. And an auror at Hogwarts would be interesting.

"I bet Lockhart didn't have that. He couldn't cast any spells if he tried, besides the memory charm." said Harry. Lupin smirked. "Dumbledore had to have a replacement, and since the job was cursed, he had no choice. But I've come here twice now to teach. So maybe, I'll be the one who breaks the curse."

"But what about the students knowing your a - you know." said Harry, suddenly remembering Tess was there. "Ah, that. Well, after I came back to Hogwarts, Dumbledore decided to do some digging and came across the potion that could cure werewolves - but the items to do the potion with is difficult to aquire, even with Severus' help. And that is another reason I've been away. It won't be finished for a fortnight."

"Amazing! That's really wonderful Professor Lupin." said Harry and grinned. This was going to be a great year he couldn't help but think. Then Harry had an idea. The shrieking shack would no longer be needed for Lupin. But it might be a good idea to use for defense from Voldemort. "Hey, Professor Lupin, do you know who owns the shrieking shack?" asked Harry. Lupin looked surprised. "No, I don't." he said and Harry grinned. "I'll catch up with you shortly!" he called, the dark green-black cloak flapping behind him as he ran down the steps to the headmaster's office again. "C-canary creams!" he called, and was soon out of Lupin and Tess' sight. . .