Defense with the Hufflepuffs was Harry's first period on Tuesday. The room had been stripped of Lockhart's portraits and photographs—probably about five minutes after the rumor got far enough around that Dawlish no longer saw fit to pretend that he was just substituting. The man himself had taken off his trench coat but was still wearing his red auror robes. "Ah, Potter's gang, must be the second-years," the man in question nodded from the now-Spartan desk at the front of the room, as he shuffled parchments to find the roll. "Bones?" he seemed surprised.
"Present, sir," Susan raised a hand, a little confused why her friend Hannah Abbott hadn't been called first.
"Right. Yes," he nodded at the redhead, before explaining, "I just didn't realize you were already at Hogwarts. Last I saw you was at… the office Yule party with your aunt when you were half as tall."
"Been a minute, sir," she smiled at the eccentricities of adult memory.
"Guess so," he nodded, clearly drowning in the new responsibility. "Is that everyone? Looks about right, numbers-wise. Abbott, I think I recognize. Bones, obviously. Brown?"
"Here," Lavender acknowledged.
It only took him a minute to get through the list, and Harry thought it was interesting which students he recognized. He still remembered Harry, Ron, and Hermione, obviously, but he also seemed to know several of the purebloods in the class. Harry figured their family must work at the Ministry. "Okay. Second-years. I don't really know if there's a curriculum for this class. I fear to ask, but what are you covering this year?"
"We were getting into Wanderings with Werewolves, sir," Hermione explained, after he pointed at her raised hand.
He couldn't contain the eyeroll, admitting, "I skimmed it. Lockhart doesn't know much about spells or werewolves. The homorphus charm works on animagi, not lycanthropes. About all you can do with a werewolf on a full moon is hit 'em as hard as you can or lock yourself behind a really solid door. And hope it can't get in through a window." He considered, "And at your age, you're not going to be able to hit hard enough so you should just hide. That's basically everything you need to know about them at this point."
Hermione was furiously taking notes, and her hand shot up as soon as she finished recording that information. As soon as he pointed again, she asked, "But shouldn't you try to contain them? They are people, the rest of the month." She'd been doing her own research about werewolves, since they found out that Remus was one.
"Barely," the auror shrugged. Harry frowned at the casual hatred that was evident on Dawlish's face. "The thing you need to know, even if you want to be a friend to all of mankind, is that when they're a wolf and they're after you, they're out to kill you. And them killing you is the best case scenario, since if you survive, you'll be one yourself on the next moon. It's no way to live. The responsible werewolves register, lock themselves up on full moons, and take Wolfsbane Potion if they can afford it. If you're seeing one, that means it's someone that wasn't willing to inconvenience himself for your safety. Or a vicious killer that enjoys it. The laws are clear that full force is justified for self defense, just as much as if someone comes after you with the Killing Curse."
By this point, the entire class was actively jotting down notes. This was more practical information than they'd gotten across the entirety of their previous defense classes. Harry joined in the note-taking, since everyone else was, though he could just check his chat log later. As much as he wanted to stick up for Remus, he couldn't discount what Dawlish was saying: Remus had made similar points, the little Harry had been able to question him about being a werewolf.
"How do we know it's not just a normal wolf?" one of the Hufflepuff boys, Finch-Fletchley, asked after being pointed at.
"Well, if a normal wolf is coming after you on the full moon—or even just a big dog—you should go all-out, too," Dawlish shrugged. "There's nowhere in Great Britain, even in muggle courts, that you'd get in much trouble for putting down a dangerous animal that was attacking unprovoked. But, yeah, let's see if we can find a picture in this mess." He started flipping through Lockhart's book and scoffed when he found an illustration, snapping the book closed. "Useless. I'm going to see if we can't get you refunds on all of these so you can buy a real textbook.
"Ignore the pictures in that book, they're wrong. Truth of it is, you're only going to mistake a werewolf for a regular wolf at a distance. Face is all wrong: short snout, human eyes. Tail is weird. I'll try to find a real illustration. But find a picture of a real wolf, and if it doesn't look like that, don't take chances."
"Have you fought a werewolf, sir?" Parvati asked.
"More times than I'd like," he nodded. "Citizens are supposed to call the creatures department when they see one. Those gents've got better armor against teeth and claws, and practice the more effective spells. But everyone calls the aurors when something's wrong, unless it's clearly a wild magical beast. Sometimes even then."
"And you killed them?" Ron asked, eyes widening. He wasn't as far along on approving of werewolves because of Remus as Harry and Hermione were. It turned out magical families had a lot of generational prejudice against them that the Weasley Marauders were having to work through.
"More times than I'd like," Dawlish repeated. "It's a whole stack of paperwork, even if you aren't worried about ending a life." He leaned back and considered, "But werewolves aren't something we need to spend this much time on, especially in your year. Run, hide, call the Ministry—preferably the creatures department and not the aurors. Once you're capable of throwing some stronger spells, we can talk about standing and fighting. And even the minor dark creatures I think are more of a third-year topic.
"No, what I want to know is how you're coming along with your basic, defensive spellwork."
There was a general pause in the class, before it was Harry that broke the embarrassed silence with, "We haven't learned any spells in this class yet. Last year or this year. Lockhart tried to teach us a fake spell for pixies before he let them loose on us, and if some of us hadn't already known immobulus…"
Dawlish muttered so quietly to himself that Harry would have barely overheard, except for the chat log explaining that the auror was convincing himself, "One's dead. The other's going to be in prison for a long time." Taking a deep, centering breath, Dawlish said, "Right. Of course. I'll have to get with Flitwick and see what spells he's not teaching you in charms because he expects you to learn them here. That doesn't help us today, though…"
"What about the disarming charm, sir?" Harry asked, still very keen on that one.
"There's a thought," the press-ganged professor nodded. "Okay, let's move the tables back against the wall and form up in pairs. The incantation is 'expelliarmus' and the wand motion looks like this." As he demonstrated, he insisted, "I had better not see anyone casting it until I tell you to go…"
It didn't take Dawlish long to settle into teaching the class like they were just a bunch of auror trainees, and everyone was getting some level of results from the spell by the end of the period. Harry was getting it to work every time, with a competent instructor there to correct the minor mistakes made. The spell had filled in fully in his Spellbook, ready for him to start getting mastery levels in it. All in all, the auror was pretty pleased with himself—if he could just keep these twelve-year-olds acting like small adults, maybe this teaching gig wouldn't be as bad as he'd worried.
He realized he was fooling himself, but, only seven class periods in as a teacher, he still held onto hope.
It did seem like he was having similar luck with all of his other classes, as students starved for actual information for years forwent their usual lack of classroom discipline at the novelty, at least for the moment. By the end of Tuesday, he'd had over half the school through his classroom, and the general gossip was that everyone was very impressed.
Well, Parvati and Lavender had heard from Megan Jones who'd overheard Susan Bones telling Hannah Abbott that Dawlish wasn't the most liked auror at the Ministry. The rumor was that he was more interested in currying favor with the Minister than in respecting his own bosses. Percy overheard the girls explaining that to the Gryffindor common room and told them, "That is only good sense. While you would ideally please your entire chain of command, one has to please the Minister to advance out of a department."
"Prefect Percy, already angling for department head," George mocked.
"Youngest Minister ever!" Fred added.
"Perhaps if I set a good enough example, you two will at least get dragged to basic decency," their old brother clapped back.
"Ooooooh," Ginny grinned at them, actually distracted from the black book she was often writing in these days. "Point for Perce."
The twins nodded in acceptance, Fred pointing out, "Hey, if we're finally teaching him to make a decent comeback…"
"...then we'll take getting dragged into respectability by his shining example," George concluded.
"Do your homework," Percy ordered while rolling his eyes, moving off to the other side of the common room while he was still ahead.
Before they could have another chance to learn more combat spells in defense class, they had to get through Harry's least favorite class: potions. Under any other instructor, it still might not be his favorite, but history and astronomy would probably beat it out for least favorite. But, unfortunately, they had Snape, who hated Harry.
At least Wednesday's class was just a single period of lecture, and they got to go to lunch afterwards.
They'd barely all gotten seated (with Snape slamming the door closed behind him as he swept in like a giant bat) before Harry began to feel like lunchtime was going to be a long way away. "Potter," the professor loomed in front of the classroom, staring him down, "since you're so keen to fight them, perhaps you can tell me the antidote to basilisk venom?"
He knew this! Snape was trying to trip him up with the same test from the last year. "A bezoar, sir!" he answered confidently, meeting his nemesis' eyes. As he did, a message popped up:
MENTAL FORTRESS ACTIVATED
Just like with the headmaster, Snape blinked in confusion. He recovered quickly, snarling, "Five points from Gryffindor! You'd have swallowed a bezoar and died all the same, as basilisk venom is one of the poisons too potent to be cured with one. Not that I expect you took one with you, anyway." He glanced past Ron and settled his gaze on Hermione. "Granger! Correct your housemate."
Surprised at being called on, since she didn't have her hand up (she barely bothered to raise her hand in Snape's classes anymore, since he never called on her when she did), Hermione explained, "No one is sure, sir. There's been speculation that extremely potent healing agents like phoenix tears may work, but there are so few basilisks and their bite victims die so quickly that I didn't find any information about anyone proving there's an effective antivenin." Hermione had, of course, done the research.
Having met her eyes, Snape nodded with a slight twitch of his mouth in satisfaction. Since he'd never been satisfied by Hermione's answers, Harry got the intuition that he was just confirming that whatever the Mental Fortress was blocking still worked on other students. The professor explained to the class, "Granger is correct. Should you have the misfortune to be bitten by a basilisk, any of the common poison antidotes you might be carrying have proven ineffectual. The best you could do for science is be carrying an unusual antidote so we can add more to the list of solutions that don't work. You may even be fortunate enough to be the first person to ever survive a basilisk bite."
"You're more likely to get petrified than bitten, anyway," Ron muttered. It was fairly loud in the classroom, regardless.
"Another five points from Gryffindor for talking out of turn," Snape gloated. "And yet, Weasley makes a fair point. A basilisk has many ways to kill, and only a group of manifestly stupid children would seek to fight one. They'd only survive the encounter through sheer dumb luck."
The Slytherins in the class gamely chuckled at their head of house turning the rumored act of Gryffindor heroism into one of foolish good fortune. Ron was turning red next to him, Hermione looked indignant, and the rest of their roommates were in various stages of holding their tongues for Gryffindor pride. But Harry was distracted from the seething rage at the bullying teacher by wondering what he had done to him and Hermione.
If only there was some kind of combat log or similar that said what actions people were taking. Somewhat unconsciously, his eyes flicked down to the chat log, which gamely displayed a new tab and flipped over to it. Sure enough, the last couple of lines read:
Severus Snape uses wandless Legilimency on Harry Potter: Failure (Mental Fortress)
Severus Snape uses wandless Legilimency on Hermione Granger: Success
Seemingly thrilled by dunking on Harry and his friends, Snape eased off and began his lecture on that week's potion. Harry half-listened while scrolling back up through the combat log. It looked like it had captured casting attempts in the last two transfiguration classes, most of the plays from the last evening's quidditch practice, and all of the attempts to cast the disarming spell in Dawlish's class. It would probably capture charms class practice, too, but they hadn't had that class yet that week.
Finally, what he'd been expecting popped up at approximately the spot he expected to find his meeting with the headmaster.
Albus Dumbledore uses wandless Legilimency on Harry Potter: Failure (Mental Fortress)
Worried he'd get himself, Ron, and Hermione in further trouble if they were obviously distracted from the lecture, he tried to focus on what Snape was saying for the rest of class. But as soon as they were heading to the great hall for lunch, he risked a guild-wide message.
[Marauders] Harry Potter: Does anyone know what "wandless Legilimency" is? I think Snape used it on me and Hermione in class. And maybe the headmaster used it when I met with him on Sunday?
Sirius Black replies: That absolute wanker! That slovenly git! I'll kill him!
Lee Jordan replies: Sounds kind of familiar…
Since she was physically with him and Ron, Hermione said aloud, "I can look it up. But I guess you asked the adults, too?"
Harry nodded. They were seated at the dining table before he got the reply he was hoping for.
Remus Lupin replies: Sorry. Had to grab Sirius before he went running to find a boat to sail back over and kill Severus.
Reply to Remus Lupin: You and Sirius are together?
Remus Lupin replies: Oh, yes. Thought we told you. He made it to Europe and found me. We're going to go looking for Peter.
Remus Lupin replies: Anyway, legilimency is basically mind reading. Was he making eye contact? We always wondered why we could never get anything past Dumbledore. Doesn't surprise me Severus learned it too.
[Marauders] Harry Potter: Snape and Dumbledore are reading our minds when they look us in the eye!?
That elicited the proper looks of shocked outrage from the Marauders at the lunch table, who had all bunched up near Harry so he could convey the results of the conversation. He was clearly getting useful information from Remus.
Sirius Black replies: As soon as Remus lets me go… that total bastard! It's illegal!
Remus Lupin replies: Not knowing how you reached that conclusion, I can't be sure. But… maybe. If I recall correctly, wandless is only surface thoughts, at least.
Reply to Remus Lupin: Can we… stop it?
Remus Lupin replies: Don't look them directly in the eyes. That still might not stop it if they cast the spell actively, with their wands. For that, you'd need to learn occlumency.
[Marauders] Harry Potter: Don't look them in the eyes and learn occlumency, got it, thanks. Sirius, please stay with Remus, we're fine. And we have John Dawlish teaching defense so we're finally learning something. Maybe he can teach us…
Sirius Black replies: Fine. But tell me if Snivellus does worse! Dawlish is a bit of a berk, but he knows his stuff.
Once it was clear that Sirius and Remus were done talking with Harry, Hermione groused, "I can't believe that the headmaster is reading our minds!"
"We can," George frowned.
"He always seems to know what we're up to," Fred confirmed.
"The game system!" Hermione realized. "Do you think Professor Snape knows?"
Harry shook his head, "Remus said it was surface thoughts only. You were probably just thinking about the answer to his question. But, yeah, definitely nobody look them in the eyes while you're thinking about the game."
"We should just tell the headmaster," she argued.
"Before he pulls the information out of our heads without asking?" Harry countered, his childlike belief in the one adult he'd thought he could trust falling a couple of notches. "Sirius says it's illegal."
"I'm… I'm sure he has a good reason," she sighed, without much force behind it. She'd read enough science fiction to have an inkling of the slippery slope of using telepathy to secretly read minds. It was not a good look.
"If it's illegal…" Ron mused, "...maybe we can get Snape arrested."
The entire group shared a collective smile at that happy thought. Even Hermione.