Harry stood out in the middle of the school's Quidditch pitch, surveying the progress on his obstacle course. Tomorrow his students were going to face it and he looked it over with a critical eye. He was rather proud of the initial obstacle, a fifteen-foot wooden wall. It was slick on the side the challengers would need to go up and sticky on the side they'd need to go down. Following that, they would need to enter the hut full of Devil's Snare and manage to get out of the other door.

"Devil's Snare, eh? Remember how Hermione was on us for days for not knowing how to get around that one?" Ron had said, shaking his head as he'd helped him set up the hut in the field. "She still brings it up."

"I'm not surprised. Heading back tomorrow, yeah?" Harry asked, sending his stag to Sophia to let her know the hut was ready for the plant.

"Yeah. I need to get home. Hermione's summer holidays are coming up and we're going to start looking for our own place." Ron wiped his brow, frowning at the hot afternoon sunlight.

"You don't have to. You can stay in the flat."

"I know, but it's not our place, is it? Besides, how're you going to pay for that place you just bought if you don't sell the flat?"

"Suit yourself. Just make sure you have all your shit moved out by the end of the month. I hear the owner of that place is a real arsehole." Harry grinned and dodged Ron's half-hearted swipe at his head as Sophia approached with the Devil's Snare.

"That's it?" Ron asked as she set the medium-sized pot down. The plant was completely covered by a thick black cloth.

"Oh, don't worry, this is just a cutting. It'll spread out and fill up that little house you two have built for it. May I?" she asked, gesturing toward the hut.

"Of course." Harry stepped aside and watched as the Herbology teacher went inside and shut the door. She came out a few moments later and nodded happily, picking up the potted Devil's Snare and taking it back inside.

"There. I've set it in the farthest corner. I'll take a peek at it in the morning, but please avoid opening the door until you need to," she said, dusting off her hands.

"Thanks for your help, Sophia. How, uh, how's the neighborhood watch?" he asked, giving Ron a shake of his head at his questioning look.

"Oh, the neighborhood has calmed down considerably with the latest news. Thanks for asking." She shook Ron's hand and gave him a brilliant smile. "It was so wonderful to meet you. You should bring Hermione with you next time you come. I would love to meet her."

"Well, this trip came up a little out of the blue, so she wasn't able to come with me. I'll be heading home tomorrow, but I'll definitely bring her next time. You can have a long chat about Devil's Snare." Harry coughed, covering his laugh at Sophia's confused expression as she nodded and waved goodbye. "What was that neighborhood stuff about?" Ron asked, coming to stand next to him.

"Sophia's dad is Muggle-born, so when Weatherbee was rabble-rousing, she formed a group to sort of keep an eye on things," Harry said, smiling as she went into the Transfiguration classroom.

"Initiative," Ron grunted.

"Indeed." Harry turned back to the obstacle course. "How about you take a run through those paintball guns and see how they work?"

Ron had left that morning, eager to be home now that it looked like Ginny was going to make a full recovery and suffer no obvious ill-effects from the possession incident. Molly had taken a lot of reassuring, including a very brief international Floo call, but she had finally stopped threatening to come out there herself.

Harry watched the rust monster settling down for the night in the wooden pen constructed for it. He was very much looking forward to seeing how his students dealt with that. He'd thought about putting the Boggart in the course, but they were so accustomed to it by now that it wouldn't really be a challenge. Besides, he didn't really want to chance it going rogue and escaping; he'd have a hell of a time getting a replacement.

He had just exited the enclosure that hid the course from the sight of curious students when he saw a tall figure walking across the field toward him. Harry shaded his eyes from the setting sun and saw that it was Jacob. Hands in his pockets, he waited for Jacob to make his way across the field. "Jacob, good to see you up and around," he said once the man had joined him.

"It's good to be up and around," he said with a trace of his usual joviality. "How's Ginny?"

"She's doing well, thank you," Harry answered, wondering how much Jacob knew about what had happened that night. "How about you?"

Jacob flapped his hand and shook his head. "I'm fine. A couple of Blood Replenishing potions and I was right as rain." He stood there and looked at Harry and he was just starting to wonder if he had something on his face when Jacob spoke again. "I want to thank you, Harry."

"For what?" Harry asked, surprised to hear him say it.

"For saving my life. For trying to warn me off of Ignatius. For risking your life, and Ginny's, for mine," Jacob said with a shrug, eyes looking off into the distance behind Harry's left shoulder.

"It's apparently what I do," Harry said quietly, drawing a faint smile from Jacob. "What happened after Gin and I left you at the gala?"

Jacob nodded, meeting Harry's eyes briefly before looking away again. "It's all jumbled up together. We were there, looking at the art and right after you left, there was this tremendous banging and clamor. Then before I really knew what was happening, he'd Apparated us to his basement." He was quiet for a moment and Harry let him gather his thoughts. "It was all so strange, you know? He was like a man possessed and completely different from the way I'd seen him before. He had that little portrait and was just … ecstatic? Delirious?"

"Unhinged," Harry supplied.

"Yes," Jacob said, looking back at him. "Unhinged. He was rambling about how he was going to bring forth the spirit of an ancestor of mine, of Cornelius, and then somehow take it over. I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. Said I was just a pompous, rich playboy that didn't know what real power was. Talked about how he would show us all real power."

"So he knocked you out and took your blood?"

"He didn't knock me out. Paralyzed me and made me watch as he cut me. Then he took that portrait and said a bunch of Latin and just let my blood run all over it." Jacob's voice grew more and more distant as he described the ritual. Harry was searching his memory for something that sounded similar, coming up empty.

"And then what happened?" he asked gently after Jacob had been silent for several moments.

"It was the strangest thing. This smoke started coming out of the portrait and as it did, I started to feel like I was being almost … drained. Like some vital essence was leaving me." He took a deep breath and shook his head. "And then I just passed out. When I came to, Ignatius was dead and I was on the floor of the basement with Archimedes yelling at Evelyn."

"Where is Evelyn?" Harry asked, eyes sweeping the grounds for her.

"She's at the house. She figured I'd be all right coming here to see you."

"I'd better make sure to not disappoint her, then." Harry grinned at Jacob, glad to see him grin back. "So, Weatherbee," he asked, cocking his head to the side. "Why?"

"Why was I his friend? His campaign manager? How come I didn't believe you?" Jacob shook his head, mouth quirked to the side. "He wasn't always quite so … militant. Or at least not as obvious about it. I've known him for years and he's always been a very droll fellow, good to have at parties. You say he was one of your … Death Eaters?"

Harry shrugged. "A minor one. He managed to evade capture by coming here before anyone thought to catch him up."

Jacob grunted and nodded, hands deep in the pockets of his trousers. "Anyway, he really changed about a year or so before you came here. Started talking more about things like how it was a shame that Muggle-borns were taught alongside Purebloods and how he'd seen the bloodlines in Britain weaken and didn't want to see it happen here."

"Was that about the time he started flashing that coin around?"

"Yes, I think it was, now that you mention it. I noticed immediately that it was old and very valuable, but he wouldn't be parted from it and didn't say where he'd acquired it from. I'm assuming there was something special about it?" Jacob asked, curiosity in his eyes.

"There was. He stole it from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office," Harry said, deliberately failing to mention the awareness Cornelius had imbued into the coin with his dying breath.

"Ah. The change was subtle, though. I didn't really even realize how much he'd changed until he started advocating to restrict the scholarship to Purebloods."

Jacob fell silent again, looking down at the grass. "How did you acquire the portrait?" Harry asked, giving voice to a question he'd wondered for a long time.

"Ignatius alerted me to an estate auction, said there should be some interesting things in it and we went together. When the portrait came up, we were both determined to have it, but I outbid him. I really felt there was something special about it, you know?"

"Do you know what it was?"

"Archimedes told me it was a Horcrux, created by Cornelius Maxwell. How did you know what it was?"

Harry gave a rueful smile. "Gin and I did a bit of snooping during your Halloween party and I saw it in the library. I thought it was very striking and I was drawn to it." He shook his head, remembering the strange impulse to touch it. "When I touched it, it literally knocked me flat on my arse."

Jacob's eyes went wide with realization. "Ah! So at Thanksgiving when you were asking about it and got me and Guy to touch it—you were looking to see if we knew what it was?" He shook his head and wagged his finger. "Sneaky, Harry! Very sneaky!"

Harry merely shrugged, hoping he wasn't completely red in the face. "I didn't know you well at all and I didn't really want to just come out and ask you what a Horcrux was doing in your house."

"Just in case I turned out to be an evil mastermind, bent on ruling wizardkind?"

"One can never be too sure," Harry said, thinking of how much pain could have been avoided if he'd just spoken up. Seems I've taken a few too many of Dumbledore's lessons to heart.

"Well, it's all water under the bridge now," Jacob sighed, looking toward the setting sun. "I want to apologize to you."

"For what?" Harry asked, surprised at his words.

"The scholarship in your parents' names. I thought I was doing you an honor, that you would be pleased by having them remembered like that. You left in the middle of the party so suddenly and I thought you were just overcome with emotion, but Evelyn explained to me later that maybe I should have spoken to you about it first." Jacob looked at him, genuinely contrite. "I can't rescind it, but I can change the name."

Harry was genuinely touched at Jacob's admission that using his parents' names without permission was maybe not the best idea he'd ever had and he shook his head. "Well, I was very surprised and keep in mind that I had just discovered a Horcrux and then there you are in full Slytherin regalia."

"It is my ancestral house."

"Yeah, I know that now, but that night I seriously thought someone was really taking the piss," Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck as memories of that night flooded over him.

"I didn't even think about that, to be honest. They thought I was crazy at Madame Malkin's when I ordered it. A fully-grown adult ordering a Slytherin school uniform to run around in and American to boot. I'm sure they talked about me for months," Jacob said, his face turning a bit pink.

"No doubt. The ladies there are the worst gossips," Harry said, remembering when he and Ron had gone to get measured for first their Auror Cadet dress robes and then their Auror dress robes. Both experiences had been quite memorable. "But no, leave the names, yeah? It is an honor."

"I can make it for Muggle-borns or Half-Bloods only?"

"No. Open to everyone who applies. It's what they fought for." What they died for.

Jacob nodded and looked away, leaving Harry to his thoughts. "So, show me this obstacle course I've been hearing so much about. Old Grigsby never did anything like this."

Harry smiled and opened the gate, ushering Jacob into the enclosure. "Sure. Feel up to taking a run through it?"

"You've got a big day today," Ginny sang as she piled bacon onto his plate.

Harry picked up a piece and snapped it in half. "Perfect," he said, crunching down on it with a smile. She smiled back and sat down next to him with her own plate. "Yeah, first group through the course today. I hope they like it."

"Artemis give you a hard time over any of it?"

"Not really, no. He wasn't too happy with the rust monster or the Devil's Snare, but he said he trusted my judgement."

"He didn't say anything about the poison?" Ginny asked, slathering strawberry jam on her toast.

"I know, surprised me, too!" Harry folded a slice of toast around his egg and a couple of pieces of bacon, biting into it with satisfaction. "I offered to have him take a run through it, but he declined." He finished his improvised breakfast sandwich and drank down the rest of his tea, putting his dishes in the sink when he was done. "Thanks for making breakfast, love," he said, kissing Ginny on the cheek.

"I've got start my boy off strong, don't I?" she said, giving him a playful smack on his arse as he turned to go into the bedroom.

"Hey, now! That's a very sensitive area," he said, leaning in close to her ear.

"Aw, shall I kiss it and make it better?" she asked with an impish smile.

"Hmm, maybe I have something else that needs a kiss, yeah?" he whispered, nuzzling her ear and smiling at her squirming attempt to get away from him. He was incredibly relieved that she seemed to have recovered her energy after her harrowing ordeal. She still had some trouble sleeping and Harry was helping her with some meditation techniques.

"Don't you have to get ready for work?" she asked pointedly, kissing him on the nose.

"Indeed I do! So I'll thank you to leave me in peace, all right?" He gave her a cheeky smile and disappeared into the bedroom, quickly pulling on a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a navy-blue polo shirt. Since he was going to be outside all day, he'd managed to get Artemis to agree to let him dress more casually. He slipped on his trainers and grabbed the Cal baseball cap he'd recently acquired.

He stepped dramatically into the kitchen, arms spread wide for Ginny's approval. "Are you really going to work dressed like that?" she asked when she looked up from the newspaper.

"I am. I have permission from the headmaster," he said loftily, sweeping his hair back and settling the cap on his head.

"Do you have permission to blind everyone with those white legs?" Ginny asked, hopping down off the barstool.

Harry looked down at his legs. "They won't be that white for long. Unlike some people in this room, I can tan." He tapped the tip of her nose as she adjusted his collar, making her snort.

"Keep talking, mister. I know where you live."

"Indeed you do," Harry said, pulling her into a hug and kissing the top of her head. "What are your plans for the day?"

"Hmm, well, my last final was yesterday, so I'm pretty much done with school," she said, voice muffled against his chest. "I thought I might do some more organizing in here or maybe I'll just sit on the sofa all day watching the telly?"

"Eating bonbons, no doubt."

"Of course." She grinned up at him and he felt his heart soar at being together with her in this place. Something must have shown on his face because she scrunched her eyebrows and asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Harry said, shaking his head. "I love you."

"I love you, too. You'd better get going. You don't want those kids to run through your obstacle course without you!"

"No, I suppose I'd better be there to time them and grade them and all that other stuff." He kissed her again and gave her a final squeeze. "See you tonight. Think about what you want to do for dinner."

"What if I'd rather think about what I want to do with you after dinner?"

"I suppose I don't have any objection to that."

"Excellent. Now scoot!" she said, slapping him on the bottom again, this time hard enough to actually sting a little.

"Hey, what is it with you and my arse this morning?" he asked, shaking his head at her enigmatic smile. He slung his satchel over his shoulder and Apparated out of the condo, holding on to the feeling of her goodbye kiss.

Harry clicked his stopwatch as Thomas crossed the finish line, stumbling to a stop in front of him. He was covered in a rainbow of paint splotches and Harry raised his eyebrow at him. "I'm sorry, Mr Potter, I was completely rattled after that Devil's Snare and forgot about the Shield Charm. I just tried to run through as fast as I could."

"Quite all right, Thomas. Coming out clean is just worth some extra points. You're fine."

"What's my time?"

"Five minutes, thirty-seven point four five seconds."

"Is that good?" Thomas asked with a frown.

"It's not bad. Richard is next. Want to watch?" Harry looked over at the rust monster. It seemed to have recovered from the Stunning spell Thomas had used and was waving its antennae around. He reset the stopwatch and took out his wand, sending a flurry of green sparks up into the sky.

"Can I? Awesome!" Thomas sat down on a nearby bale of hay, eagerly anticipating watching his best friend run through the challenging course.

Squinting through his sunglasses, Harry saw red sparks shoot up from Juanita's wand and he started his stopwatch as the small figure of Richard approached the first obstacle, the fifteen-foot-high wall. As they watched, Richard paused and cast, a thick rope shooting from the end of his wand, anchoring at the top of the wall.

"That's not going to work," Thomas snorted, arms crossed. He was proved right when the slick surface of the wall left Richard unable to use his feet to help himself ascend and he quickly lost any of the progress he'd made. They watched as Richard stood, looking up at the top of the wall for a few moments before he cast a spell, causing a column of earth to rise up underneath him, carrying him to the top.

"Ha!" Thomas crowed as Richard tried to use the rope to rappel down, promptly getting his feet firmly stuck on the sticky side of the wall. Harry winced as he watched him get his feet unstuck and slid down the rope, shaking his hands and jumping up and down at the bottom. "That had to hurt," Thomas remarked.

"Indeed," Harry murmured, glancing at the stopwatch as Richard entered the hut; he'd cleared the wall a bit ahead of Thomas's time. Thomas tried to look nonchalant, his grin widening as Richard took longer than he had with the Devil's Snare. Harry knew the hut was pitch black inside and the plant was very hasty to react, quickly ensnaring intruders. He looked at the stopwatch again, brows furrowing at how long he'd been in the hut and was almost ready to throw down his clipboard and run over when the door opened and Richard stumbled out.

"That took a while!" Thomas said, wiping his brow and Harry felt his heart settle down as he watched his student contemplate the zig-zag corridor formed by bales of hay. Richard bent over and picked up a rock, tossing it toward the closest bale. When nothing happened, he took a step in, jumping back when one of the hidden nozzles shot a blue paint ball at him, narrowly avoiding it.

They saw him cast and then run forward, bright colors smashing against his Shield Charm. "Dammit," Thomas swore under his breath, glancing at Harry to see if he'd heard. Raising his eyebrow at his student's language, Harry turned his attention back to Richard as he approached the pen with the rust monster.

Terry had assured him that the rust monster would be perfect for his purpose. "He's slow, but territorial, so he'll definitely go after anyone who comes into the enclosure. He'll take his sweet time about it, but he'll be hard to stop."

"But he will stop, right?" Harry had asked, watching as the giant beetle-like creature rooted around in a bin of metal scraps.

"Eventually," Terry said with an enigmatic smile.

Now Richard entered the enclosure, closing the gate firmly behind him. The rust monster stood between him and the exit, antennae questing toward the intruder. It made an odd sort of hissing whistle, a sound Terry told him it made by forcing air through its spiracles and started slowly trundling toward Richard. He tried to dodge around it, but the size of the pen didn't leave a lot of maneuvering space, forcing him to deal with it directly.

Richard stood confidently and Harry recognized the wand movement for the Full-Body Bind charm, but the creature didn't even stumble, forcing Richard to scramble backwards, lest he be stepped on. He recovered quickly, casting a tripping jinx which did cause the creature to lose its footing and careen to the side. "Nice," Thomas grunted, arms crossed over his chest.

Another cast and the rust monster's feet were moving uncontrollably, rendering it unable to control its direction as the hissing whistle turned into a high-pitched whine. "Dancing Feet. Good," Harry murmured as Richard turned toward the final obstacle, a table with three flasks of potion. A sign said simply, "Identify the poison."

Harry was rather proud of this one. A very simple Revealing spell would indicate the poison, but coming at the very end when the students were rattled made them tend to think it was harder than it actually was. Thomas shook his head as Richard picked up the first vial and uncorked it, taking a cautious sniff before setting it back down. He held the second vial up to the light, squinting at the sun through it. The third one he tasted and Harry groaned.

"Oops," Thomas whispered and Harry dug in one of the pockets of his cargo shorts for his flask of antidote to common poisons. Clutching the vial he'd drank from, Richard sprinted toward them, Harry clicking his stopwatch as he crossed the finish line.

"Time?" Richard gasped.

"Six minutes, fifteen seconds flat," Harry said, handing him the flask of antidote. "Have a sip of that."

"I was faster!" Thomas exulted, jumping up and down. "I win!"

"This is the poison, right?" Richard asked, handing Harry the vial and taking the flask from Harry.

"Yes. You're not supposed to drink it. All you had to do was use Reveal."

"That's it?" Richard asked, wiping his mouth.

"That's it. All right?"

Richard nodded, shooting a dirty look at Thomas who was still dancing madly around. "Okay, you can stop now. At least I don't have paint all over me!"

"Yeah, but you poisoned yourself!"

Richard raised his wand at his best friend and Harry shook his head. "That's enough, you two. Take it outside, yeah?"

"We are outside," Thomas said, sounding confused.

"Look, here comes the Headmaster and Ms Okefor. They don't need to see you two playing up. You both did very well, now get out of here, all right?"

"All right," Richard said. "I didn't fail because I drank the poison?"

"No, you did correctly identify the poison, after all. You're not the first one today and you won't be the last one. See you tomorrow, yeah?"

"See you, Mr Potter," the two boys said, both flipping him lazy salutes.

"Good afternoon, boys," the headmaster said, nodding at the boys. "Did you enjoy Mr Potter's practical final exam?"

"Yes sir. I had a better time than Richard," Thomas boasted, dodging the punch Richard aimed at his arm.

"You watch, I'll beat you next year," Richard said.

Artemis laughed out loud at the boys' rivalry. "I'm sure you will," he said, patting Richard on the shoulder.

Harry grinned at Juanita. "Thanks so much for helping me out today. I didn't quite fully realize that I'd need someone riding herd at the entrance."

"Just wait until it gets out that a humble history teacher had to bail out the great Harry Potter," she said, returning his grin. "It was no trouble. Just remember, you owe me one now."

"The thought of owing you a favor is somehow more frightening than having the Dark Lord on my arse," Harry said after making sure the boys were well out of earshot as they left the course, still bickering back and forth.

"I'm sure Juanita won't be too demanding of you, Harry," Artemis said, giving her a mock severe look as she shrugged noncommittally.

"Be on your toes, Potter. You never know when the call will come." She patted him reassuringly on the shoulder and nodded to Artemis. "I'm off. One more week and then freedom! Well, after graduation. Then freedom!"

"All right. See you tomorrow, yeah?" Harry said, taking off his blue-and-gold Cal baseball cap to wipe the sweat from his brow before settling it back on his head. She gave them both a jaunty wave and headed off the course, humming a tune Harry couldn't quite identify.

"So you've been very busy this year," Artemis said, looking over the course. The dancing legs curse had worn off and the rust monster was back to trundling around its pen, using its antennae to look for any stray bits of metal.

"Indeed I have." Harry looked at the headmaster, wondering if he knew more than Harry thought he did.

"Starting a new career, teaching high school students the Patronus charm with real Dementors—"

"Chaperoning a school dance," Harry interjected with a smile.

"I'll get you for prom next year, just you wait."

"Gin will be delighted, sir."

Artemis chuckled and was quiet for a moment. "You've certainly pushed us in ways we didn't quite expect. Word of your methods has gotten around and our enrollments are up. Parents from all over the western states want their children to be taught by you."

Harry felt a wash of heat that had nothing to do with the hot sun wash over him. "I'm flattered, sir. Is that going to be a problem?"

"It's a good problem to have," the headmaster said with a grin before falling silent again. "Looks like you got your wish."

"Pardon?" Harry asked, a warning tingle shooting through him.

"Ignatius Weatherbee is no longer on the school board," Artemis said, looking at him with a sad smile.

"Ah, yes. Well, I certainly didn't want him dead. I just didn't want him to have any say in how the school was managed."

"He definitely had some different views." Artemis shook his head. "I wasn't looking forward to trying to oust him from the board, but I didn't want it to end like that."

"No one did, sir." If we'd managed to catch him red-handed rather than watch him be killed, that would have done him in right there, Harry thought. Doesn't seem like Artemis knows more than he ought to, though.

"I understand congratulations are in order. You've bought a place in the City?"

"Yes, yes we have!" Harry hesitated a moment before realizing that he had absolutely no reason to not tell Artemis where he lived. In fact, he reminded himself that he needed to give Lucinda his new address. "It's a lovely condo over at Fillmore and Marina," he said, amused as the headmaster's eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

"My ketch is berthed at Marina Green. You and Ginny should come sailing with Diana and me sometime."

"We'd love to," he said, reflecting that he didn't know whether Ginny got seasick or not. He supposed he'd find out sooner or later.

"Any plans for the summer?" Artemis asked, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Oh, well let's see. My godson is going to stay with us for the summer, so we'll be heading back to England to pick him up. I'm sure we'll have a few adventures with him." Harry looked up at the blue sky, envisioning Teddy's eyes full of mischief as they got up to summer adventures. "I want to learn to surf, check out that Mt Tam everyone's on about. I might even finally go tour Alcatraz," he said, looking back at Artemis with a wide grin.

"Now why would an ex-Auror want to visit an old prison?"

"That's what I keep saying, but you're the only one that gets it!" Harry clapped Artemis on the shoulder and started walking off the course, clipboard tucked under his arm. "Come on, I've got to actually record these scores and figure out final grades."

They walked off the course, chatting companionably about summer plans and sailing. Artemis waved his goodbye as Harry secured the gate to the obstacle course, thinking of the younger students that were slated to run through it tomorrow. Everyone that had already run it was under strict orders to say nothing of what was involved in the course. "I'll know," he'd said, standing at the front of the classroom as he fixed his seniors with his best teacher glare. Privately, he hoped that the threat was enough because he hadn't actually devised a way to alert him if someone did talk; he didn't feel like explaining to parents why their child's face was emblazoned with the word "SNEAK".

He walked back to his classroom, enjoying the warm sun on his back and shoulders, eyes searching out the oak trees that studded the golden hills surrounding the school. When he'd first arrived, the sight had looked quite foreign to him, but now it was just the way hills should look. Megan Peterson came out of her classroom and locked the door, returning his wave.

"One more week," she said, falling into step next to him. "How did you like your first year teaching?"

"It was very different from being an Auror, I'll tell you that much!" he said with a chuckle.

"But not nearly as dangerous, am I right?" she said with a bright smile, laying a hand on his arm.

"Well, not always, but there were a few times!" Harry shrugged his shoulders, subtly disrupting her touch.

"I'm sure you'll find your second year much easier. We are going to see you next year, aren't we?" she asked, her expression hovering around a pout.

They arrived at his classroom and Harry looked at the worn number 35 on the door, remembering the day he'd taught his seniors about Blood Seals and how they'd all stood outside, utterly puzzled as to why they couldn't get inside and the thrill he'd felt as they gradually figured it out. He unlocked the door and swung it open, the now-familiar scents of chalk dust, paper and ink washing over him. "Yeah, I think so," he said, giving the Charms teacher a wide grin.