DISCLAIMER: JK Rowlings Owns Everything about Harry Potter except my characters and my plot.
Summary: This was originally supposed to be a 5th Year book so now it is going to be an AU story. Harry loses what family he has left and reunites with his godmother, who happens to be Hermione's biological parents. Ron is no longer part of the trio but Virginia joins the trio. H/Hr all the way, some Fluff, Ginny/Dean.
Chapter 7 1st Defense Group Meeting and Tryouts
Harry next flying lessons were a lot better for all. Harry stood in front of his students and said, "First of all I want to apologize for the last few weeks of my lessons. I had not intended on being such a grouch, that is Professor Snape's job, but I sort of went into serious depression and it took some of your fellow class mates and my extended family to finally get me back on track."
After that he spent the time helping some of the students get the hang of flying. At the end, Ramen came to Harry and said, "I am glad that you are back to your old self. It was so hard for me to see you head the way you were heading with your depression. It is good to know that everyone takes the students health in focus when dealing with their depression and all."
Harry nodded and said, "I agree with you on that hopefully we can get some things done before the tryouts in a week or so."
After taking the brooms to the broom shed, Harry and Ramen walked to Hagrid's Hut and met up with Hermione. There was a few minutes left of the class so Harry and Ramen decided to sit and listen. Hagrid smiled at the new comers and went on to talk about Unicorns. At the end of the class Harry, Hermione and Ramen walked back to the castle. Ramen went to her next class, which was Charms while Harry and Hermione walked down to the dungeons for the Potions Class.
Harry and Hermione were the first 6th years outside the potions classroom and had to wait for the 5th year Gryffindor/Slytherine Potions class. The bell rang and the potions classroom door banged open and people started filing out. Harry and Hermione were across the hall from the door and Malfoy and his goons caught sight of them and sneered.
Malfoy said, "Well if it isn't the Golden Duo. What you two finally smarted up and got rid of the low life…"
He didn't finish his statement before Harry pulled his wand out and silenced him. He then went up to him and said, "Malfoy, you are lucky that I don't hex you to Mars and back for that comment. We didn't get rid of Mr. Weasley. He chose his jealousy over our friendship. I suggest you get to your next class Mr. Malfoy before I will be forced to take off points for preventing your fellow students from getting to their own class."
Professor Snape came out of the classroom and saw what was going on and said, "Mr. Malfoy, I would suggest that you get to your next class or I will personally double Mr. Potter's point deduction and give you detention for not being in class on time."
To say that Malfoy was shocked was an understatement, Harry performed the Finite Incantatem on Malfoy. Professor Snape saw this and asked Hermione, "Ms. Durrani, pray may I ask what Mr. Potter just counter cursed?"
Hermione responded by saying, "Mr. Malfoy was saying a few choice comments about Mr. Weasley and instead of causing any further words that would have been responded with physical action, Harry performed the silencing charm on Malfoy to prevent him from saying something he would regret."
Professor Snape nodded and understood that what Harry had done had prevented both houses from losing points from their being a fight in the hallway. He turned to Malfoy and said, "Why are you still standing here Mr. Malfoy?"
Malfoy hurried off to class while Harry and Hermione made a discrete entrance to the potions classroom with out being told to do so. The other students followed suite after being yelled at to do so. Harry and Hermione were sitting in their usual spot that they had started taking this year. Professor smiled at seeing that they had already put their homework on his desk and had their stuff out ready to go. He knew that they had probably done it in a coordinated effort but didn't care since he knew that they were ready.
"I am glad to see that the only Gryffindor students here are ready to do their work. I can not say much for my house. Today we will be working on the healing potion found on page 105 of your text book. You all should have the ingredients to in your standard potions supplies for 6th years. Get started and I expect it to be done by the end of class." Severus said.
Harry and Hermione started working on their potions. They were getting better at their work since the help they had gotten in the past summer from the potions master. Harry especially was more confident with his work then before. At the end of the class, a few of the Ravenclaw students and Harry and Hermione were the only ones able to do the potions correctly. Professor Snape was not a happy teacher. This was a very easy potion to make and his own house couldn't even make it. He made this known to all.
"How is it that the only Gryffindor students here are able to get this potion correct and my own house can't? This is a third year potion that you just attempted to make. For those that didn't get the potion correct, please give me a 3 foot long parchment on how you messed up your potion. For those that did get their potions correct 10 points each and I would like a 2 foot parchment on other healing potions and their different uses for different situations. I want the others to also have the same essay turned in by next class. Both essays are due at the beginning of the next class."
Harry and Hermione and the other ones that got the potion correctly took their potions to Professor Snape and bottled some more for them knowing that they would need it later. They cleaned up their mess and left the potions classroom. They went down to lunch and were met by none other then both Malfoy and Ron. It would seem that they were fighting with each other again.
Harry went up to them and separated them. After making sure that neither of them would attack each other he asked, "Now what is the reason for breaking one of the main rules of no magic in the halls?"
Ron spoke up and said, "That git was making fun of my family saying that you and Hermione decided to not be my friend because we are poor. I was defending my family honor."
Harry turned to Draco and said, "Mr. Malfoy, all the wealth in the world is not worth a Galleon if you don't have a loving family. Mr. Weasley here has a very wealthy family and it isn't measured in the amount of galleons in his family vault or what he and his brothers and sister wear as clothing, it is the measure of love that their family shows to them. I spent the last 9 years with a family that hated me with a passion. Until I returned to the magic world I had nothing. I would strongly suggest you get out of our faces now or I will be taking 50 points from you for using magic in the hall way and for that matter I might as well take 10 points from each of you. I am sorry Ron but I can't take points off of Malfoy with out taking points from you for doing the same thing. Now either go to lunch or the hospital wing or your next class depending on what you need."
It would seem that both Malfoy and Ron were needing some attention and headed to the hospital wing. Harry looked at Hermione and said, "I wish those two would grow up, they are 15 years old and in the old days that was considered coming of age."
Hermione nodded and said, "I was going to take off more points for the fighting but it would not have served any further purpose to stop the fighting since it wasn't going to prevent them from fighting."
Harry nodded and told the onlookers, "The show is over everyone, go on with your business."
Just then Harry turned toward to Great Hall to only run into Minerva. She didn't look happy at either Hermione or Harry and told them to follow her to her office. They looked at each other and shrugged and followed her to her office. Once they were in the office, Minerva pointed toward two seats in front of her desk and took the seat behind her desk.
"Harry and Hermione I really would wish that you would both take more strong actions between the two groups then just meager point reductions. Would either of you like to explain your actions?" asked Minerva.
Harry looked and Hermione and said mentally, "Let me handle this for now. If I look to desperate then but in."
Hermione mentally said, "Ok it's your call Harry."
Harry turned to Minerva and said, "To be honest Minerva, Hermione and I thought that this bickering between Ron and Draco would get worse and as the Sorting hat said on September 1st we need to be together and all to get through this dark times. I didn't want the Slytherine to say that we were taking off points because supposedly Draco was defending himself and vice versa with the Gryffindor and Ron."
Minerva thought about this and said, "Ok I guess that does make sense. Professor Snape told me that you only took points off of Malfoy earlier for blocking the door way for the potions classroom while students were either trying to get out of class or in your case get in. Ok, both of you have made a valid point and justified your lack of point taking for the great good of the rest of the school. We should go down to lunch now. I will talk to the other head of houses and let them know what is going on with you two."
Harry and Hermione nodded and said their goodbyes. They went to the Great Hall and sat at the head table. While eating, Professor Snape turned to Harry and asked, "I hope I didn't get you two into trouble. I spoke to Minerva before I saw you this morning. I now understand what you are trying prevent from happening."
Harry smiled and said, "Don't worry, we told her what we were doing and she relented saying that what we were doing would be more productive in pushing for future cooperation between all the houses."
Snape nodded and said, "I agree with you fully, that is a good plan. Let us hope they can fine common ground and stop fighting.
After Lunch, Harry was approached Angelina Johnson, the new Captain of the Gryffendore Quiditch team, and said, "Harry we would like to use the Pitch on Saturday for tryouts for both Primary and Secondary teams."
Harry nodded and asked, "How long do you need it for?"
Angelina thought for a moment and said probably the whole day because they wanted to get some practice in that day also.
Harry nodded and said that it was fine and he would let Professor McGonagall and that they would be there to judge the candidates.
Angelina nodded and went to her next class. Harry and Hermione finished their Pumpkin Juice and got up at the same time as Minerva and followed her to her class for Transfiguration class.
When they got to the classroom Harry and Hermione took seats in the front as usual.
Harry spoke with Minerva, "Angelina came to me and requested the whole Saturday for tryouts and practice. I told her that it was fine and I would let you know and see if you will be at the tryouts."
Minerva nodded and said, "No problem with that. I usually like to be there during the tryouts so I know who are trying out and to make the comments. Thank you for asking me. Since you two are already Animagus you can help the other students get their forms."
Harry and Hermione nodded and said they would be happy to. Minerva then asked, "Have you got your final list of people that can join your defense group and when is your first meeting?"
Harry pulled out a list of the volunteer students that had filled out the forms at the beginning of the year, which was shortened by the both of them to include those that had need to brush up on their Defense Against the Dark Arts skills and those that had families that were threatened by the rise of the dark lord. The list was still long but not as long as it was before. Harry gave the list to Minerva after making a copy for both him and Hermione. "Minerva these are the ones that we felt need a strong support in learning defense for both their families sake and their education sake. We didn't base their acceptance on only their family status since some of the students are in Slytherine but we also based the acceptance on their need to get their Defense Against the Dark Arts grades up and that is what the club is partly there for."
Minerva smiled and said, "That was what Albus and the governors were hoping you would do and I know they would approve of it."
Both said thank you and said that tomorrow, Wednesday, was going to be their first defense meeting. As they were just finishing talking, the rest of their 7th year class walked in the door. The rest of the class was spent working with the students in trying to lengthen their hair. It was amusing seeing some of the students falter and instead of lengthening their hair they shortened their hair. At the end of the day they had about half of the class being able to lengthen and shorten their hair at will while the rest were only half way through with being able to lengthen their hair. At the end of class Minerva stood up and said, "What you have accomplished today was really good. Most of you if not all of you should be able to become Animagus by the end of the year. Keep practicing on lengthening your hair and we will see you next time."
Everyone left the classroom with different motions on their faces. Harry and Hermione made their way to the Great Hall and took their seats at the head table in anticipation of the announcements about the defense group. After everyone was seated Albus stood up and said, "May I have everyone's attention please, thank you, I would like to make on announcement before we start eating. I have been informed by Professor Potter that the first Defense Club will be starting tomorrow after dinner in the Great Hall. I will let Professor Potter tell you more. Harry."
Harry stood up and said, "Thank you Professor Dumbledore, I would like to say that we would have wanted to have all those interested in the club join the club and that was the original idea behind it but because of the extremely large number of elective members that have applied for the club we had to choose. The reason for this is because we just do not have enough teachers to teach a realistic teacher to student ratio. With the loss of Ms. Cho Chang we lost that possible chance. For those of you that have not been allowed for the club, do not fear we will likely have a enough teachers by the end of Winter Break. At that point we will be allowing all the students that applied in and will reevaluate if we can take more if there is more interest. Those applied will receive owls in the morning to let them know the decision. Thank you."
Harry sat down and the meal started. Hermione turned to Harry and said, "You should be a politician instead of a teacher. You made everyone feel that you didn't just leave them out of the group because you didn't want them in the group, you were compelled to because you felt that if the student/teacher ration was to high it would make teaching somewhat strained."
Harry nodded and said, "I have a few ideas for teachers I wanted to talk to you about. I was thinking about asking either Alicia Spinet or Angelina Johnson to start working with us on the side and maybe we can get someone in the teaching position so we can let more people into the group."
Hermione nodded and said, "Good idea, when I talked to Professor Lupin this summer he said that those two were one of his best students he had. We should talk to them tonight and see."
Harry said, "I am going to go and talk to the two right now and ask them to come by my office after dinner, be right back."
Luckily the two girls were sitting next to each other at the Gryffindor table across from the twins. Harry got up and walked down the Gryffindor table and started to speak to the two girls.
"Angelina, Alicia is there any way you two can meet Hermione and I in my office after dinner? We wanted to discuss something with you two before tomorrow's defense meeting," asked Harry.
The two girls said they would be happy to meet them and Harry said his good byes before returning to his meal. Minerva turned to Harry and asked, "Do I need to know why you wanted to talk to the two girls?"
Harry smiled and told her what they were planning on doing. Minerva smiled back and said that she had no problem with it but that they needed to pass the idea along with the headmaster when they have decided on which of the two girls is going to be helping them. Harry nodded and said he would by tomorrow or when they had decided on who was going to train with them to help teach the others.
The rest of the dinner went on quietly till the twins pulled a prank on the Slytherine students. There was a bang and a lot of gold and red smoke coming from the Slytherine table. The next thing they knew the Slytherine hair was in Gryffindor colors and their robes were also. Snape was seething and all the other teachers were trying their best to keep from laughing. Harry turned to Hermione and mentally said, "Figures Forge and Gred would do that you want to add anything to it?"
Hermione thought for a minute and thought, "No we can't because we would be caught. Next time."
Harry nodded and then helped Professor Snape reverse the effects of the pranks.
After dinner, Harry and Hermione left the Great Hall and met up with the two Gryffindor chasers and headed to Harry's office. They all sat down and Hermione decided she was going to do the talking while Harry pulled out a few things from his desk.
"Alicia, Angelina, thank you both for coming. What we wanted to talk to you two about is to see if either of you were interested in joining our teaching team or helping us help the others in the group. As Harry said we are hoping to get someone up to speed and able to help us before the start of spring term," said Hermione.
Harry pulled out the outline he had and said, "This is what we are planning on doing with the students to get them situated with what they are going to learn. Also we are hoping to be able to help them with their understanding of Defense Against the Dark Arts stuff that they had not been able to grasp in class. Sikandar and Sarah are also going to be around but they do not want to be involved in the practical teaching of the course. They wanted us to deal with it."
Harry handed copies of the outlines to both girls and let the information sink in. He then said, "Angelina I know that you are the Gryffindor captain and all but I was hoping you would consider this opportunity. I will not force either of you to make a decision but the sooner we start the better. I was hoping for only one of you but seems that maybe we are better off with both of you that way we can lower the student to teacher ration in the class."
Both girls looked at each other and then back to Harry and Hermione and said, "We would love to help you two. Who else is going to be teaching?"
Harry said, "Virginia Weasley or Ginny for short will be helping us. She is right now working on the notices to all the students that were excepted into the program."
The girls nodded and said that they would do it. Harry smiled and stood up and shook both girls' hands and said, "Welcome aboard then. I will let Professor McGonagall that you have both accepted the position. Good evening to you and we will see you tomorrow."
Harry and Hermione made sure that they had their homework done and went to bed themselves.
The next morning they got up early and met Ginny and Ramen in the Gryffindor common room. Harry and Hermione said hello to the two of them and told Ginny about having Alicia and Angelina help teach as soon as possible. They had not been to Minerva yet but they were going to tell her before breakfast. Ginny told them that she had sent out the notices before they came so everyone should get their letters at breakfast.
They all went down to breakfast and went to their separate tables. Harry and Hermione approached the head table and sat down next to Minerva.
Harry turned and spoke to Minerva, "Minerva we talked to Alicia and Angelina last night and we came to another conclusion at the spur of the moment. We decided to have both of them help us since they both are equally gifted in both Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. I told them I would get back to you incase you had any problems with it before letting them know if it was official yet or not. Either way we will still not be accepting everyone into the group till we are certain that everyone is up to par."
Minerva said, "Albus said that a smaller student to teacher ratio would be a better source of learning and he didn't care how you did it as long as you let some students from all houses join."
Harry nodded and said, "We were surprised to see quite a few applications from Slytherine youth in the mix and we have about 10 of them joining the first group with another 10 in the stand by list. With the two other teachers we will be able to drop the ratio down to about 10 to 1 instead of 20 to one like it is now."
Minerva nodded and said that she would let the headmaster know of their plans. Harry went on to eat his breakfast and before Alicia and Angelina left the Great Hall he went to them and told them, "Its official as far as Professor McGonagall is concerned. See you both tonight after dinner."
Harry and Hermione went on to their first class of the day which was Charms class. Today they were covering the disillusion spell that will act like a invisibility cloak with out having to worry about losing the cloak.
Professor Flitwick stood up on a pile of books as usual and started speaking, "The disillusion spell is performed by pointing your wand at yourself and saying, 'Disillus' and is countered with 'Reillus' again done by pointing wand at yourself. You can also do the spell while pointing your wand at the person or thing you are trying to use the spell on. I want you all to pair up and start practicing."
Harry and Hermione paired off and started practicing the spell after two tries they both were able to perform the spell and got 10 points each for their success. Professor Flitwick told them to help the others get the spell down right and they spent the rest of the class helping others to get their charm right. Unfortunately there were a few still not able to do the charm right and it took them longer to work on it.
At the end of class Professor Flitwick got everyone's attention and said, "Those that still haven't gotten either the charm or the reversal of the charm correct need to spend the time between now and the next class practicing. I want 2 rolls of parchment on the Disillusion charm by next class with points on its history and its uses."
Harry and Hermione went on to potions in the dungeons after making sure that they had everything for the class. They were of course the first one there since they knew the short cut between the charms corridor and the dungeons. Just as they got to the door to the classroom there was a large explosion from inside and Harry and Hermione looked at each other and rushed into the classroom to find that about half the class starting from the center outward were lying on the floor unconscious. Professor Snape was one of them unfortunately because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Harry noticed that Ron was in the corner of the room smirking at the scene and Harry didn't like the look he was seeing. Harry turned to Hermione and said, "Hermione get who ever isn't hurt out of here except Mr. Weasley. I will try to find out what they were working on and see what happened. Send one of the uninjured students to Professor Dumbledore's office to get him and then send another to the Hospital wing."
Hermione nodded and started shepherding the uninjured out of the classroom and sent Lavender and Seamus to get Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomphrey respectively.
Meanwhile Harry turned to Ron and asked, "What potion were you doing in here when this happened?"
Ron just looked at Harry and didn't say a thing. This was not going very far. Usually Harry would have gotten the information off the black board but for some weird reason the board was ruined by the potion explosion. The only thing that they could do was to wait and see if Ron wasn't going to say anything then he had to wait for another teacher to open up Professor Snape's office to get his plans.
Meanwhile Harry spoke to Ron, "Ron why aren't you helping us. Not only are Slytherine hurt but so are the Gryffindor students. Are you not concerned about your own house mates?"
Ron angrily spoke and said, "Like you are concerned about them. You should be glad that you don't have to have Snape…"
Harry corrected him and said, "Professor Snape."
Ron continued and said with the emphasis on Professor, "Professor Snape teaching next class."
Harry was now angry and said, "Mr. Weasley for that comment you have lost 15 points from Gryffindor. If I find out that you were the reason why the explosion happened I will personally send Molly a owl about this."
Just then Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall came into the classroom with Madame Pomphrey close behind. Harry told them that Ron was not giving him the information needed to determine what may have been added to someone's potion to cause the explosion. "Professor Dumbledore we need to get into Professor Snape's office and get the lesson plans if they are in there because there isn't anything left of the black board and the desk to make heads or tails of the potions they were working on without asking one of the surviving students that were not hurt. I can hazard to say that they would be too traumatized to recollect clearly what was being brewed."
Albus nodded and said, "Come with me Harry and we will get the notes. I know where he keeps them. Mr. Weasley please go with Minerva to my office and we will speak with you as soon as we get this sorted out. Minerva, could you send Hermione in to help Poppy?"
Minerva nodded and escorted Ron out of the classroom while Harry and Professor Dumbledore went to Severus's office. Both Harry and Albus spent the next 5 minutes going through the notes that were on the potion master's desk and found the ones for the 5th years and found out that they were working on a healing potion for Madame Pomphrey. Harry pulled out his notes from the summer that he had always kept and found the information he had written down from what Severus had told them and told them about different reactions at different times. Harry told Albus he had a basic idea at what caused the explosion and suggested that he kept Ron in his office for questioning because the only thing to add that kind of ingredient into a potion is the use of a fire cracker that the twins use.
Albus nodded and said, "I will deal with Mr. Weasley while you deal with the antidote. Will Severus be able to teach his next class?"
Harry shook his head and said, "No sir, they are going to be out for the next two or three days. Even the potion absorbed through the skin is still potent. Hermione and I will have to get started on the potion to counter act the effects as soon as possible. We may need the 6th years to help us if you allow us to."
Albus nodded and said, "Go ahead and use them, meanwhile I ask if you and Hermione please take Severus's place as instructors for the time Severus is out."
Harry nodded and said, "Not a problem sir. We will get the potions done as soon as possible. They only take about 45 minutes to do and all the ingredients are in the standard potions supplies we get at the start of term. I will order replacement ingredients for the students to compensate them."
Albus nodded and said, "Have them charge the school for the replacement ingredients. Good luck."
Harry nodded and said good day to
Albus. He then turned to Severus's bookshelf and pulled out a rather large
tomb and started getting all the right ingredients written down and the
instructions they were going to need to follow. After putting the tomb back on
the shelf he grabbed Severus's notes for the other classes and closed his
office door, making sure it wasn't locked incase they needed something and went
into the classroom.
Hermione had just come back from helping Madame Pomphrey with the injured and came up to Harry and asked, "Did you find out what was wrong? I could tell that the potion was also able to be absorbed through the skin. We had to clean up the mess before we could touch the injured."
Harry nodded and said, "They were working on the Flu remedy potion, Vaporus and were in the final stages of the potion when someone, I believe to be Ron, through one of the twin's crackers in a cauldron. Most of the ingredients are harmless but the twins use dragon's scale in the crackers they have and it caused the potion to revert to a more toxic form instead of a helpful one. Albus wants us to work on the remedy of the problem and use the 6th years to help since we have to make several batches for the injured. I believe that the injured will be out for at least a few days. Oh and Albus wants us to teach potions for the next few days till Severus returns."
Hermione was shocked because she didn't think that they would get the job. What she didn't realize is that Harry wasn't far behind her in the shock but had gotten over it while looking for the notes and ingredients they would need.
Hermione said, "Ok I guess we were the best bet and Albus did say that we would be the backups for the other teachers if necessary. Do you have the instructions for the potion we need to create?"
Harry nodded and gave her the notes he had. She immediately made copies and put two on each work bench for the students to follow. Harry meanwhile took his copy and pulled out his cauldron to start working on the potions while waiting for the other 7th years to show up.
After everyone was seated Harry had just finished his potion and bottled it up and put a cleaning charm on the cauldron to clean it out before turning the burner off. He turned to the class and said, "Good morning everyone, as you all know I am Harry Potter and this is Hermione Durrani. There was a accident earlier by one of the cauldrons exploding. Several students were hurt and so was Professor Snape. The eventual potion that was created during the explosion is a bit poisonous but not deadly. It is similar to the Draught of the Living Dead but the recovery takes about a week. We have been asked by the headmaster to produce the counter potion for the injured. Hermione and I will be teaching Potions till Professor Snape returns. You are all going to be graded on this potion and because this potion is going to be used by the school and wasn't supposed to be done this year you will be compensated with the ingredients at the earliest possible time. I have already sent out the owl to Apocracy to get the ingredients for you. You will find the instructions for the potion we need to create on the side of your work bench. I just finished a potion in 20 minutes so take your time because we don't want to make mistakes. Let's get down to business, we will come around to make sure everything is going well."
Harry actually turned to Hermione and said, "I am going to take this to Poppy so she can get it to Severus, I will be right back."
Hermione nodded and watched as Harry apperated to the hospital wing. Hermione turned to the rest of the class and started walking around checking on the progress of the students.
Meanwhile, Harry had apperated just outside the hospital wing to prevent the patients and the matron to be shocked at his entrance. He went to the door only to be stopped by one of the 5th year prefects from Slytherine. "No one is allowed in the hospital wing Potter, not even the golden boy himself."
Harry spoke in reply to this evenly and in a sort of cold voice, "Mr. Andrews if you do not step aside this very second, you will lose your prefect badge for insulting a teacher and for that matter 50 points for insulting a teacher. Oh and I am sure Professor Snape will love to find out that one of his prefects are preventing a teacher with the potion to help cure him from entering the hospital wing. Now step aside Andrews."
Andrews had no choice but to step aside remembering that Harry was the Flying instructor and if he was carrying a possible cure for his head of house and he was preventing him from delivering it he would be in a lot more trouble with Professor Snape then he planned on doing so.
Harry walked past the student and went into the hospital wing to be greeted by a stern looking, yet worried looking Madame Pomphrey. "Mr. Potter I presume that is the antidote we need for these students?"
Harry nodded and said, "I made this one and there will be more coming by the end of the current potions class. I suggest you give that to Severus first and then the others."
Poppy nodded and said, "You are right. That way if we need more potions we can get him to help. Unfortunately we will still be without a potion master for at least 4 days."
Harry nodded and said, "Albus has me and Hermione running potions till Severus wakes up. I've already had a run in with a over active Slytherine covering the hospital wing and I have already taken 50 points from Slytherine for insulting a teacher and preventing the care of others. I better get back to the dungeons and help Hermione out. We will bring the rest of the potions by the end of class."
Poppy nodded and said she would be waiting.
Harry said he would probably apperate back into the hospital wing only because he didn't want to deal with the idiot on guard right now. With that said he apperated back to the dungeons just outside the potions classroom and entered the room. It looked like a few of the students were done with their potions and were bottling up their batch. Harry walked over to them and looked at the potion. After taking his wand out and running the tests necessary he had given 10 points to each student that got it right and pointed out a few changes that the ones that got it wrong would need to do to fix the problem. They still had enough time to redo the potion and Harry asked if any of the ones that had already finished wanted to do another batch for another 10 points. He told Hermione to give them all full marks for the ones that got it right. The ones that didn't get it right said they wanted to try again and all the ones that got it right also said they would do theirs again.
At the end of the class they had about 30 vials of the potions done. It would be enough for the rest of the year since the potion could be used for other purposes other then just this poison. Harry put unbreakable charms on all the potions and with the help of Hermione took the batch to the hospital wing. Hermione insisted on walking their since this was their last class for the day. The other classes had been canceled because the potion that Severus had assigned for that class was too dangerous and unknown to either Hermione or Harry.
Harry and Hermione went to Harry's office and worked on assignments for the day and grade the potions essays that were given in. At the end of the day they went to the Great Hall for dinner taking with them the needed material for their first defense club meeting. During dinner, Sikandar and Sarah turned to Harry and asked, "You two ready for this evening?"
Harry nodded and said, "As much as we can be, Hermione will be getting Angelina and Alicia up to speed on what we are doing and Ginny and I will be working with the students."
Sikandar nodded and said, "If you don't mind, Sarah and I want to be around for this class. I would love to see what you, Hermione, and Ginny came up with this summer."
Harry smiled and said, "You and the rest of the staff are welcome to come by. Albus and Minerva are going to be there. We are going to basically work on the disarming charm this evening. The disarming charm is the first basic charm that is the greatest for everyone to learn. After that we will work on the shield charms and so on. If you and Sarah have anything that your students need to work on let us know and we will work on them in class."
Sikandar nodded and said, "What about the Patronus charm?"
Harry shook his head and said, "We are going to wait till we are fully staffed for it because it is easier to teach it in smaller groups."
Sikandar thought about it and said, "I think you are right about that. Good thinking."
Harry said thanks and finished his dinner and sat back to watch the rest of the students and staff finish their dinners. After dinner Harry stood up and said, "For those that either have been excepted to the Defense club or are mandated to do so will need to be back here in 15 minutes, the rest of you are asked to head back to your dormitories or the library. Since there are no Quiditch teams formed yet there isn't any reason to be outside after dark. Good evening to you all."
Harry sat back down and took out his notes for the first meeting. Ginny came up to the head table and greeted the rest of the teachers that had decided to stay behind and watch the meeting. At 7pm exactly Harry stood in front of the students and teachers that were there and started his welcome.
"Good evening and welcome to the first defense group meeting of the year. Those of you here today are either required to be here or are have been accepted to the group. Teachers are always welcome to come by and watch and in some cases participate in the group activities. I would like to formally introduce your primary instructors and our two instructors in training. Starting with my self, as you all know I am Harry Potter, a. k. a. The boy who lived, sitting behind me from left to right is my girlfriend and second primary instructor Hermione Durrani. Next to her is our final primary instructor, Virginia Weasley, a. k. a. Ginny Weasley. The two in training instructors are Alicia Spinet and Angelina Johnson. I would like to remind you all that everyone 5th year and above are required to take this class and will receive grades for it, this will not be a slack off course for anyone. The heads of your houses have informed me that at least two of them will be here for each meeting and will make sure that everything is done fairly. For those that are afraid that one of them will cause problems I have made provisions with the headmaster that none of the teachers other then the ones I have introduced will have any say so in the running of the club. Today we will be working on the standard disarming charm."
With that Harry took the 5th years out of concern for Hermione's safety and half of the 6th years while Hermione took the other half of the 6th years and the 7th years. Ginny, Angelina, and Alicia took on the rest of the group.
By the end of the evening the only group that was giving them the most trouble was the Slytherine house students. Harry went up to the podium and said, "Well that was an interesting class. Slytherine, for your lack of participation and your continual disruption during class you have lost a collective 200 points. That will be the last warning in regards to your behavior, next time you will be failing this course and will be forced to spend time in detention. Good day everyone. See you on Monday."
Everyone made their way out of the Great Hall except the head of houses, Albus, Sikandar, Sarah, and the 5 teens. Harry sealed the Great Hall when the last student left and then turned to the others and said, "Professor Snape, I would appreciate it if you have a little talk with your Slytherine about their behavior tonight. This evening was the inexcusable, even for Slytherine."
Severus said, "I will do that and I have no plans on protesting the point loss. Not only have they embarrassed their house but they embarrassed me in front of the rest of the school."
Albus nodded and said, "You handled the situation admirably Harry and that is good to note. Today's lessons went well and I have all the confidence that this group will do well for the students. Alicia, Angelina, you both have shown us that you are well on your way to being prepared to teach and I have no doubts you will be ready by Christmas if not earlier. I wish you all a good night and see you in the morning."
The rest of the week went by really quickly and the weekend and the Gryffindor Quiditch Tryout's came up.
Saturday came around quickly for everyone who was interested in joining the Gryffindor Quiditch team.
Activity was widespread throughout the dorms in the early morning, even though try-outs were at 9am.
Harry and Hermione as usual were the first ones to breakfast in the morning. They went to Harry's office and got a clipboard and then went to the Gryffindor common room and got the list of interested students after breakfast.
Harry and Hermione met up with Minerva and Alicia at the entrance hall and headed out to the pitch. There was already quite a few students on the pitch practicing including the current members of the Quiditch team. Harry gave both Minerva and Alicia a copy of the people that signed up for the tryouts. Harry then got on his broom and flew up to the middle of the field. Alicia with her clipboard flew up to where Harry was a few minutes later.
"Harry I was wondering if you could take care of choosing your replacement. It would be easier to get that out of the way before going through our keeper positions and then the backup players," said Alicia.
Harry nodded and used the sonorous charm on himself and said, "Good morning Gryffindor students. Alicia, Professor McGonagall and I would like to welcome you to the tryouts this year. The first position we are going to be holding tryouts for is the Seeker position since I am no longer playing seeker it is necessary to replace me. Alicia Spinet is the captain this year so please if you have any questions regarding the teams after the the tryouts please see her. Before you ask, you may try out for more then one position. If you are trying out for seeker and chaser then it will be easy. If you are trying out for chaser and keeper or beater then it will be a bit harder but we will try to get you to try out for both. I will turn over the tryouts to your captain, Alicia and will be watching over the seekers. Seekers please mount your brooms and fly up to where I am. I have the snitch with me and will release it on my whistle."
Since there were only 5 people trying out for the seeker position. They didn't have to separate the tryouts into groups. Alicia flew up and signaled that she was ready. Harry had the students trying out form a circle around him and when they looked ready Harry released the snitch. After giving it a customary 15 second head start he blew his whistle and flew off to the center of the field and started watching the game. There were a few of the students that were spotting the snitch really quickly but not able to move fast enough to get to it before losing it. After about 20 minutes Renee Rodriguez and Albert Anulley looked like they had seen the snitch and were on its tail. Harry looked in front of Renee, who was in the lead, and saw that they were in fact in full capture mode for the snitch. Both players were on Nimbus 2001s and were equally powered for their work.
To Harry, Renee showed the most confidence with the maneuvers she was making and was making tighter turns then Albert. Albert wasn't that far off but he was not primary team material. He would make a good back-up seeker because he had a good eye for the snitch but he wasn't fully confident on his broom.
After chasing the snitch for about 5 minutes, Renee caught it barely. Harry blew his whistle and said, "Good job Ms. Rodriguez, same to you Mr. Anulley. Seeker candidates head to the stands and take a rest. Keeper try outs are next."
Harry flew to Minerva and sat down. He spoke to Minerva while Alicia was gathering the keeper tryouts together. "Minerva, Rodriguez is a shoe-in for primary team and Anulley for secondary. What did you and Alicia think?"
Minerva smiled and said, "We thought the same thing. Those two have similar skills that you have in the game and I think with a bit of work Anulley will be close to Rodriguez."
Harry smiled and said, "I agree with that, I think that they are the seekers for sure. Looks like Alicia is ready to choose the keepers."
Minerva nodded and they watched while 15 students tried out for keeper. Ron was one of them. Even though Ron had caused a lot of problems with the rest of Gryffindor for the last few weeks, Harry persuaded Minerva to let Ron try out for keeper for the best of the team.
After another hour they had chosen the keepers, Ron, primary, and Alexander Mayhew, backup. The same thing went through the beaters and chasers. In the end of the tryouts they had gotten the following teams:
Primary: Keeper: Ron Weasley
Chasers:
Alicia Spinet (Captain)
Katie Bell
Angelina Johnson
Beaters:
Fred Weasley
George Weasley
Seeker: Renee Rodriguez
Secondary: Keeper: Alexander Mayhew
Chasers:
Ginny Weasley
Constance Mallow
Heather Finnigan
Beater:
Dennis Creevy
Collin Creevy
Seeker: Albert Anulley
Harry verified that all students were approved for playing Quiditch from their files and then after confirming the players; Harry went up to the center of the field and announced the students that were selected. Angelina joined him and said, "Everyone chosen for the team please meet back here for our first practice after lunch."
******* End of Chapter *******
(A/N: I am sorry it took me 2 months to write this chapter but I have been in the hospital and a few other misfortunes the last few months that I haven't had the chance to finish the chapter till now. I had planned on going further but I thought 8K words is a lot for now. Till next time. Alex.)
Thank you all for reviewing my last chapters and I hope you like this one.
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