Dumbledore's Army

Immediately after class, Harry decided to do exactly what Narcissa Malfoy had said and take his concerns about her appointment up with the Headmistress. Ginny and Neville followed in his wake as he stormed through the castle to the gargoyle which guarded the headmaster's – Headmistress's he reminded himself – office. Unusually, the stone gargoyle leapt aside the moment he arrived, claiming it had been told to expect him. Harry bounded up the stairs two at a time and knocked on the office door.

"Enter." Came Professor McGonagall's stern voice from within the office. Harry pushed through the door and strode over to the desk, pausing only to note that the Slytherin girl who helped him on the Hogwarts Express was sat in a chair opposite Professor McGonagall. "Mr. Potter, I am pleased to see you waited until after your class had finished before commencing your outburst." This stalled Harry further. He was taken aback; Professor McGonagall had expected him to come running straight to her office on the first day?

"Can you blame me?" Harry said, finding his voice at last, "A Malfoy as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher? I get that candidates must be wearing thin now, but Malfoy's mum?"

"You're not wrong that I did not receive many applicants, but the decision to hire Professor Malfoy was entirely my own. You are not the first person to challenge me on the decision Potter, and no doubt you will not be the last, but I stand by it. As I was explaining to Miss Corsica before you and Mr Longbottom, and Miss Weasley appeared, Professor Malfoy is uniquely qualified to teach the new Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum that myself and Gawain Robards have created."

"And as I have pointed out to the Headmistress," Regina turned to Harry to speak, "our house has suffered enough already. There's hardly any of us left here. Those that are left got attacked by a Dementor on the way to school. Then there's the fact that the rest of the school views us with serious suspicion, as if You-Know-Who is completely our fault. They hardly talk to us. It's not exactly great being in Slytherin, and now we're meant to be taking lessons from that bitch? No, she's exactly the type of people that Slytherin needs to distance itself from."

"Enough!" Professor McGonagall snapped. "You've just earned yourself a detention Miss Corsica, the school expects its Prefect's to know that language like that is not acceptable." Regina mumbled something about how getting a detention on the first day of school must be some sort of record, to which Neville gave a thumbs up and invited her to join the club. This was met with a severe frown from Professor McGonagall. "And I presume all three of you have already incurred a detention as well?" Harry nodded. "Well, Miss Corsica can join you. I have a great deal of administration to get through this evening, and I'm sure Professor Malfoy is more than capable. It may come as a surprise to you, but I do not require the approval of four teenagers when it comes to appointing Hogwarts staff, regardless of any past heroics."

"Professor how can you trust that woman?" Harry said, knowing that whatever he had planned to say, Professor McGonagall had nullified it the minute he had walked in. Despite everything, the Headmistress still thought of Harry as her student, and had made it plain he didn't have any authority here.

"Not that it is your place Potter, but I will indulge you a moment further; Professor Malfoy has consented to operate under strict Ministry supervision. Her wand is being traced by the Auror department, and she will attend weekly meetings at the Ministry. If," Professor McGonagall said pointedly, "my trust is abused, I will know of it almost immediately. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy have co-operated fully with the Ministry and led to a number of arrests of former Death Eaters being made. They remain under the strictest of supervision."

"Oh, I'll bet they have," Harry muttered under his breath.

"The four of you have my feelings on the matter," said Professor McGonagall pointedly, "I do not expect to have to explain myself further. Now, Potter, you are late for potions. If it is still your ambition to become an Auror I expect you will not want to fall behind in Professor Slughorn's classes."

Harry left Professor McGonagall's office with a sense of bewilderment and annoyance. Had he expected Professor McGonagall to treat him as an equal? No. Professor McGonagall had always been a firm but fair presence in his school life, but even though he was still a student he thought that given the circumstances he would be treated more like an adult. Apparently not, and his opposition to Narcissa Malfoy teaching at Hogwarts would certainly get nowhere with the Headmistress. That, he was almost certain of. He would have to explore other methods of voicing his displeasure. For the time-being Harry stalked down to the potions classroom with Ginny in tow. Neville, who was no longer taking Potions, headed for the greenhouses and arranged to meet them later for dinner. The Slytherin girl, Regina, lagged awkwardly a few meters back from them, clearly heading to the Slytherin common room which was nearby, but unsure if she was part of their group. Harry still had his suspicions and his old biases against Slytherin house, but he knew many of them had fought on his side during the Battle of Hogwarts, and Regina herself had sprung into action on the train, aiding Harry in fighting off the attack. Perhaps it was time to let go of their old rivalries, at least outside the Quidditch pitch, and help the school to become more united.

"See you around," Harry nodded awkwardly to the girl as he swung open the door to Professor Slughorn's classroom. She gave a slight wave and continued along the corridor to a blank wall that Harry new to be the entrance to the Slytherin common room. Professor Slughorn beamed at Harry's arrival, beckoning him over for a crushing hug.

"Harry m'boy, I was beginning to think you'd gotten lost," Professor Slughorn said in his usual pompous manner.

"Sorry Professor, I was having a quick meeting with the Headmistress."

"Well you'll be sure to tell me all about it at our next little gathering," Slughorn replied conspiratorially, drawing murmurs from the class. The Slug Club was the old potion masters worst kept secret, and any hopes that Harry had of Slughorn's little networking events being a thing of the past evaporated there and then. "Well, now we have a full class, so why don't we get out our textbooks and turn them to page 36."

Harry began prepping ingredients for his scintillation solution, the recipe for which, Professor Slughorn told them, was open for a little interpretation, and points would be awarded for those who brewed something creative. Harry had brushed up on his potion making over the summer, and whilst he was not nearly as good without the help of Snape's notes scrawled untidily in the margins of his textbook, he was now a much more competent potioneer. He followed the instructions carefully, crushing up a few grams of Valerian Root, followed by half a kilogram of Ginger Root, and mixed these into a paste with some dried Jewel Weed and a sprig of Lavender. He dumped the paste into his simmering cauldron and stirred three times counter-clockwise, smiling to himself as the potion turned a light purple, exactly as the textbook described. He was debating what extra ingredients to add to the perfume-like potion when he heard a small crash next to him as Ginny knocked over a glass vial which shattered on the stone floor. She muttered an apology to Professor Slughorn and repaired the vial with a quick swish of her wand. Harry vanished the spilled ingredients and snuck a peak at Ginny's cauldron, which was filled with a deep blue liquid that frothed violently.

"I think you have the burner a little high," Harry commented. Ginny gave a non-committal grunt and continued, leaving the burner to boil the contents of her cauldron. "What's the matter with you?" He prodded.

"See you around," Ginny whispered in a mocking tone.

"Come off it," replied Harry, "she's been alright so far."

"She has," Ginny conceded, "but we don't know anything about her, and I still think we should be wary of trusting any of the snakes."

"They can't all be bad, maybe it's time we gave some of them a chance."

" Are you going to give Malfoy a chance?"

"No." Said Harry sharply. "she might not have given me up to Voldemort, but she and her family carried out some horrible deeds on his behalf. I can't believe that not only have they all escaped any sort of punishment again, but now she's actually teaching children."

"What are we going to do about her?"

"What can we do?" Harry asked in return, "seems like she has the Ministry seal of approval."

"Yes," Ginny said thoughtfully, "but not the public one. Parents will start writing letters straight away, I'm sure of it. But we might be able to fight back, in a manner of speaking, more directly."

"How?"

"We don't go to any of her classes, ever. Perhaps, well perhaps we could do with someone else teaching us, someone with real experience defending themselves against powerful dark wizards." Ginny's cheeks flushed pink as she said the last part, and Harry could tell straight away what she had in mind.

"No," he said flatly, "I'm not doing that again. That was one year because of the circumstances."

"But Harry the circumstances aren't much different. We had an incompetent, racist old hag teaching us then, we have an incompetent, racist old hag teaching us now. If anything, you will be even better at it now than you were then. I'm sure Neville would be keen to help out too. We can even invite your new Slytherin pal if it pleases you."

"Now you're being childish," Harry retorted, "besides, the Room of Requirement probably got destroyed by Crabbe's Fiendfyre, so we have lost our HQ." Ginny went quiet for a few minutes, clearly pondering the rooms destruction.

"At least think about it," Ginny whispered as Harry stirred a chopped Mint leaf and two fire seeds into his potion before decanting it into a spray bottle. Despite his displeasure at Narcissa Malfoy being appointed, he wasn't sure that reforming Dumbledore's Army was the appropriate response. Hadn't Ginny just that morning urged him to stay out of trouble? He also got the feeling that Professor McGonagall would not be as accommodating with him as Professor Dumbledore had. He of course, now knew the reasons Dumbledore had allowed him to get up to so much trouble during his time at school, but perhaps Harry had become so used to it he presumed that things would be the same this year. Professor McGonagall fully supported him and cared for him, he had no doubts of that, but she was, after all, a firm but fair Professor. He would have to think more carefully when breaking the rules this year.