AN: Written for The Houses Competition: Round Three

Gryffindor - 5th Year - Standard - [Setting] Room of Requirement - 1,208 words

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Harry Potter Universe.

Thank you to my wonderful beta: whitetiger91.

Harry paced back and forth in the Room of Requirement.

He had no idea what he was going to say to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, but Minerva had asked him to come in, and so here he was. He had arrived at the school early so he could set up; the only problem was that he did not know what he was going to set up.

Harry glanced up as the doors to the room opened and saw Neville walk in.

"How's it going, Professor?" Harry asked, smirking.

Neville groaned as he walked over and sat down on the sofa near where Harry was standing.

"Don't call me that, Harry, it's just weird."

Harry laughed as he sat down next to his friend.

"Really though, how are you?"

"I'm good, Harry. How's your planning going?"

Harry grimaced as he ran a hand through his hair. "Heard about that, did you?"

Neville chuckled. "Minerva told me you agreed to come in. Nothing else needed to be said."

Harry let out a sigh. "I just don't know what to tell them, Nev. They're kids - I don't want to traumatize them."

Neville looked seriously at Harry from his spot on the couch. "We were kids."

Harry glanced over towards him. "That's my point, I don't want them to become us."

Neville snorted, gaining a raised eyebrow in turn from Harry. "War heros?"

Harry smiled slightly. "People who know too much bad."

Neville nodded in understanding and the two Gryffindors fell into a comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

"What if you told them the good?" Neville suggested.

"What good, Nev? We were in the middle of a war," Harry asked, confused, as he stood back up and began pacing again.

"Tell them why we fought. Tell them how we won. You don't have to tell them how we felt like we were going to lose or—" He cut himself off. "Has anyone ever told you that you're going to wear a hole in the floor?" he asked.

Harry stopped pacing. "Only a few times," he said, grinning slightly. "That might work. Thanks Nev."

"Anytime, Harry." Neville smiled and went to leave.

"Wait - Nev, do you have a class next block?"

Neville turned back around. "No, why?" he asked.

Harry smirked. "Want to help?"

Neville laughed. "Sure, Harry."

The two wizards quickly came up with a plan and Neville went down to collect the seventh years from the Defense classroom.

Harry forced himself not to pace as he waited for them to come back. He hoped that what he and Neville had planned would work, otherwise this could become very awkward.

He looked up to the sound of footsteps approaching. The door opened and the seventh year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws filtered into the room with Neville closing the door behind them.

"Hiya, Harry!"

Harry waved at his godson. "Hi Teddy," he said as he watched the students look around.

Harry allowed them a moment to stare around the room in awe before he called their attention to what they had made the front of the room.

"Hello everyone, just take a seat wherever."

The students quickly scrambled into the hammocks suspended around the room.

"Why the hammocks, Mr. Potter?"

Harry smiled at the Ravenclaw who had asked the question. "I'll explain in a few minutes," he said. "For those who I haven't met before, please just call me Harry. The headmistress has asked me to come in and speak to you about the war, and Professor Longbottom here has agreed to help me out."

There was a slight cheer that went up and Harry laughed slightly. "Yes - I am glad for his help as well. In fact, I am going to let him explain the hammocks."

Neville stepped up to where Harry had been standing, making sure he could see all the students.

"Hello." He waved.

A chorus of "Hello Professors" answered him, causing him to smile.

"This is what this room looked like in my seventh year," he started. "We used it as a safe haven from the Death Eaters who were running the school at the time."

The students looked around the room in confusion.

Teddy looked over at his Professor. "You lived in here?" he asked.

Neville grinned slightly. "I did," he said. "A lot of us did. We took care of each other. When you are living in the kind of situation we were - as cheesy and awful as this will seem to you lot - you learn to love one another, regardless of anything that may have happened before."

The students looked towards him.

"Can anyone guess how we won the war?" Harry asked from where he was leaning against the wall.

One of the Ravenclaws scoffed, "You're probably going to say 'love' or something dumb like that."

Neville shot the student a look but Harry only smiled.

"Exactly."

Everyone shifted nervously and Harry continued. "We won because we were fighting for what we loved. For who we loved."

The students sombered up quickly.

"If we didn't love anything, why would we have fought?" Harry asked.

He looked around, making eye contact with every student in the room.

"If we were going to the extreme end we could say that love itself could win against anything. Hear me out," Harry said as he saw the students' faces.

"To start, let's look at Voldemort. He was conceived under a love potion. He was incapable of feeling love, or understanding it. If he had loved something, would he have taken so many risks? Probably not. HE would have been calmer. Planned more, become more methodical and therefore more dangerous."

Harry paused and glanced at Neville who gave him an encouraging look. "Then let's look at me. I only survived the killing curse because of my mother's love for me. I fought for the things I loved, and in the end I let myself get hit with another killing curse for the things I loved."

The students stared at him in shock.

Harry smiled at them from where he was standing. "So maybe love is a dumb thing," he said glancing at the Ravenclaw who now looked abashed. "But it is what we do with it. It is what it does for us that gives us strength and allows us to overcome whatever we need to."

Seeing the understanding dawn on their faces, Harry decided he had talked enough. "So," he asked, "any questions?"

Neville laughed behind him as almost every student's hand shot up.

When it came time for the next class, the students all wandered out, thanking him on their way out.

Harry was about to turn back to Neville when he was ambushed by the turquoise-haired Hufflepuff. "That was great, Harry!"

Harry laughed. "Thanks Teddy. I'll write later okay?"

"Alright!" Teddy agreed, smiling, before he ran to catch up with his friends.

Harry sighed and sunk into one of the hammocks and looked at Neville.

"That went alright," he said.

"It did," Neville agreed. The he smirked. "Now just do it all over again with the Gryffindors and Slytherins."

Neville's laugh floated down the hallway as Harry dropped his head into his hands and

AN: Thank you for reading, hope you liked it! Reviews make me smile :)