Chapter 90, everybody! Sorry for missing last week but FFN wasn't wanting to play ball. :\
I've mentioned more than once that I was partially inspired to write this because of Saphroneth's fic Harry is a Dragon, and That's Okay and the Gameboy scene definitely has those vibes. Granted, it also bears asking the question of if one of the original Gameboys would be all that bothered with being dropped in a moor considering up to the GameCube and DS was made of Nintendium—Nintendo Switch? Yeah that's not surviving that encounter.
In other news, functionally Harry's doing apprentice work and Remus is having to answer all those awkward questions that come with being a werewolf. The bit on the dating, meantime, was written well ahead.
Fredrich, thanks for the review! Yeah, it's been a bit of a trick figuring out how book 6 goes with the whole canon plot functionally nuked. X'D
Spicyanimechick, thanks for the review! Glad you like it, writing about the classes has been one of my favorite parts of this fic. :D
Friendlyferrets, thanks for the reviews! Yeah I had that happen to one of my other fics here too, I think FFN is going through another one of its hiccups. :\
Harry Potter © 1997 J.K. Rowling
Harry's meeting with Dumbledore was interesting in that they spent a chunk of it going over old memories relating to Voldemort's family.
"It occurs to me, Harry, that the axiom know thy enemy may avail us here," Dumbledore said. "For starters, this will serve as a reminder that, for all his pomp and circumstance, Voldemort is still a man much like the rest of us. In addition, it might give us a clue or two as to the identities of the final Horcruxes, if not the locations."
"I recognized the ring, sir," Harry agreed. "He eh...didn't have much luck with his family either, did he?"
"The difference is, you gained a new family and were willing to embrace it; even if he had such an opportunity, I doubt he would have done the same, as we shall see in future meetings," Dumbledore said. "Incidentally, Harry, have you been keeping up with practicing your Occulmency?"
"Snips has been testing me every night," Harry said, indicating the familiar sitting on his usual spot on Harry's shoulder and eyeing the whole situation with narrow, beady eyes. "Granted, most nights I'm too preoccupied, but I'm hoping that if Voldemort sees anything it's just stuff he learned when he was attending."
"Possibly, although I do confess that Occulmency has helped me to fall asleep faster," Dumbledore said, eyeing Harry a moment. "The library imagery is quite apropos, I must admit."
"I spend all my free time there, the detail work has to get better," Harry admitted.
"Ah, but someday you'll look upon these years with fondness. Oh by the way, before you go, might I ask if you and your friends would indulge me on a project?" Dumbledore said, tugging a drawer open and pulling a Gameboy out. "I recently purchased this on a stoop sale as I was wandering through London contemplating architectural styles; the young man who sold it to me told me he had dropped it in a moor on accident and had to buy a new one, but it was nothing a little Scourgify and Reparo couldn't fix."
"So what do you want us to do?" Harry asked.
"I was rather hoping you'd do a variation of what you did with the Muggle camera; I confess I've gotten into the habit of playing on this while waiting for meetings to start, and it would be a mite tedious to apparate every time I wish to play on it. I would be willing to ask your professors to consider this an extra-credit project if you're willing to accept."
"Sure, Professor," Harry said, taking the Gameboy. "I'm sure Hermione will love the challenge."
"Ah, excellent—I would have asked Ronald and Hermione last Thursday, but it didn't seem an appropriate topic for a Prefect meeting."
Harry agreed that it probably wouldn't have been, as did Hermione when Harry told them afterwards.
"Okay so how is this different from the camera?" Ron asked, turning it over. "This goes in here so it's like the tape, right here is the screen, they both have buttons." Tapped on it. "Feels like it's made of the same material."
"Probably the main difference is the intended purpose," Hermione said. "The camera is for recording and playing back video—a Gameboy is for playing a game that's programmed into the cartridge here," she said, tapping the game cartridge. "Will we have to do a rune sequence for the game separately, is the next question."
"We did for the tapes, but that was also because we were recording stuff that's unplottable," Ron mused.
"So say we do, and we have to include something in the sequence for having the game work with the cartridge."
"Dumbledore also said we might be able to count this as extra credit if we get it working," Harry added.
"Excellent," Ron said, grinning. "I'll bring it in to Muggle Studies Monday and get the information we need, and then you two can start on the runic sequence needed to work it. Should go a little better considering we've already got the general idea of what to do."
"And we don't need it to film something unplottable."
"That always helps."
Ron made good on his promise Monday, and the intent Tuesday was to work on the runic sequence in-between dying under the weight of their homework, although Harry got detained after breakfast.
"Mr. Potter, may I see you for a moment?" Professor McGonagall called.
Oh boy. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it," Harry told her as he came over.
"Oh, pup, you never say that," Sirius said, grinning. "That's the fastest way to paint you as the most suspicious person on earth."
"Don't think I wasn't onto you by second year," Professor McGonagall told Sirius, eyeing him over her glasses. "Moving on—Mr. Potter, I was discussing our career meeting last year with Professors Black and Lupin and was wondering if you might be amenable to our suggestion."
"Which is?" Harry asked.
"Teacher's assistant," Remus said.
"Technically teacher's assistant assistant," Sirius pointed out.
McGonagall rolled her eyes at that before focusing on Harry. "You have a few free periods that coincide with Defense classes for the lower years; we were wondering if you'd be interested in assisting with these classes, so you have a better idea of what's expected of you as a teacher at Hogwarts."
"I—yeah! Brilliant!" Harry said, grinning. "When do we start?"
"Let me see your schedule."
Which was how Harry found himself in the Defense classroom, standing near the back of the class and counting heads.
"So since today's more focused on the theoretical and what's in your books, I'm taking point," Remus told them. "We're going to be focused on the differences between hexes, jinxes, and curses today, and why they aren't exactly interchangeable despite us sometimes using the terms as such. Any questions so far?"
One of the first-years raised her hand. "Yes?" Remus said, pointing.
"Are you really a werewolf?" she asked.
"Yes," Remus said, expression saying he had answered this question already for a different class.
"Do you know Dracula?"
Remus' expression said he had not answered this question already for a different class. "Uh, no—you're thinking of the Wolf-Man, werewolves are different."
"Smooth," Sirius mouthed at him, flashing the OK sign.
"How are they different?" a different first-year asked, hand up.
Remus' expression was now very clearly saying I did not plan for this. "Okay. So. The Wolf-Man is always a Wolf-Man, he doesn't switch back and forth like werewolves do on the full moon—"
"When you change back, do you still have pants?" a girl in the back row asked.
Remus looked right at Sirius, expression saying he fully expected for Sirius to go down silently wheezing. "No, but the werewolf community is looking into magic pants for that."
"Do you like turning into a wolf?" a boy in the front asked. "Is it like a superpower?"
Harry wasn't sure how to translate that particular expression. "Okay, out of curiosity how many of you here are muggleborn?" he asked, raising his hand; several students raised theirs. "So the important thing you need to realize is that the reality of being a werewolf isn't like on the Muggle shows, I don't suddenly get really good at sports, it's actually very debilitating. Like—Professor Black back there can turn into a dog, but it's whenever he wants to; being a werewolf is knowing that inevitably, your entire month is centered around a handful of days that you have to plan for and around, and that handful of days is horrible, and it's every single month."
"Like how Mum says her time of the month is!" a boy in the middle row said.
Harry had to take point after that, considering Sirius was howling and Remus had to take a good ten minutes, sitting in the teacher's chair with his red face buried in his hands.
Odd and potentially embarrassing questions aside, Harry actually enjoyed helping Sirius and Remus with the classes. He was fairly certain that yes, between this and the HAG meetings, he liked teaching, and also enjoyed the fact that he could spend time with Sirius and Remus and chat about random things. Some more random than others.
"So, Harry, any considerations on dating?"
"I don't know," Harry said, reading his copy of Advanced Potion-Making while hanging upside-down on a chair. "I'm not so sure about dating just yet—and if I do, I kind of want to date someone who doesn't see me as the boy who lived or the chosen one or whatever."
"Alas, Remus," Sirius said, sinking into the other chair with a hand on his heart. "We've come too late—Harry, your teen years are when you make all the messy dating mistakes."
"That you look back on and kind of cringe at," Remus added.
"And make pacts with your friends to never speak of those incidences again. Remus."
"I don't know," Harry said, putting his book on his chest to look at Sirius. "I just—you'd know, right, if you met…you know, the one?"
"No," both adults said in stereo.
"No such thing as love at first sight," Remus said. "Unless there's a love potion involved."
"You get kind of attracted to them, test the waters with dating, find out they're not your type, drift apart, wash, rinse, repeat, until you find the one who knows you inside out, and you know her inside out, and you still have the things that drive you nuts but you learn to love each other and the collective flaws and it's really very messy," Sirius told him. "I mean, your mum and dad were great together, but when they met Lily couldn't stand James. 'Course, James fell head over heels for her, and we, as good friends, teased him mercilessly for this."
"Mum couldn't stand Dad?" Harry asked, righting himself on the chair—this he hadn't heard before.
"Yeah…looking back on it, it might have been because we were all prats growing up."
"Speak for yourself," Remus sniffed.
"Remus hid his pratness better. She thought we went too far with our pranks, didn't like it when we pranked Snape—he and her were friends and neighbors growing up."
"She also didn't like your nickname for him," Remus added, glancing at Snips, hanging from the chandelier and growling at Sirius.
"Yeah," Sirius said. "I mean looking back on it…and with him dead it kind of puts the whole thing into perspective so…yeah, we were prats. Lily didn't really bother looking James' way until we were almost out of Hogwarts and he had his head deflated a little."
"The thing is, Harry, most people make quite a few mistakes in their teenage years," Remus said, tone reasonable. "We make mistakes so we can learn from them. James, Sirius and I grew up, matured, realized that while we thought it was all good fun, we went too far sometimes. Now, it might be too late to make reparations, but we still carry that lesson in our hearts. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Sirius nodded. "You got a little philosophical towards the end there."
"You're saying don't judge someone for past mistakes?" Harry guessed.
"Exactly," Remus said. "You'll be understandably cautious, but people can change." Pause. "Sometimes monthly."
Sirius slapped his hands against his legs before pointing at him. "See? See? I wasn't going to go there because I'm your friend!"
"I figured if someone didn't say it you'd burst," Remus said drily, smirking at Harry's laughter.
