Anyone who read this story before will note a bit of a discrepancy at the beginning of this chapter. Doesn't make sense, does it? Well, that is because, if you look back to chapter 24, you will see: I took out about half of the chapter. I realized that what I had written was actually notes for another story I am writing. Consequentially, I had to take it out. I promise you, that part of the chapter will pop up again, probably in a few months. I can also promise you that I will attempt to make the rest of this story as riveting as everything before it.

Ah, screw that. I'm going to write the same crappy way I always do!!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry decided to fly to school. The train would not be arriving with the students for another week, so Harry had to make his own travel accommodations. Unfortunately, flying was just as uncomfortable as it had been every other time he had flown long distances; it made him cold, wet, and tired. It was raining.

He ran up the stairs to the warmth of the castle.

After the sorting was finished, Dumbledore stood to make his yearly announcements. "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Firstly, the Forbidden Forest is just that; forbidden to all students. Other than that, you are free to roam the school grounds. Second, I would like to introduce your new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Potter."

Harry nodded slightly to acknowledge Dumbledore.

"We are sure that Professor Potter will last longer here than some of our other Defence professors." Dumbledore smiled like the old man he was, amused by his own joke. A few people chuckled along with him. There were hushed whispers around the room. None of the students could really believe that Harry was going to be their teacher, especially since the majority of them had been at the school when he was head boy. Many of them had been there for many of Harry's most embarrassing moments, and most glorious. Many of them had been there that day when the entire world thought he had died, and he flew grandly into the school. Some of them had been there for the horrible happenings in Harry's fourth year, and many had even had him as a teacher before, when he taught in his final years.

But that was all in the past. He was no longer a hero to them. He was no longer a peer, a fellow student. He was their teacher.

The first few classes he had went well.

"Good morning, class," Harry said, walking out of his office to see a room full of third year students. Harry looked them over. They did not look particularly intimidated. He didn't really care. He didn't want to be scary. "Put away your wands, you won't be needing them." He said.

The class groaned. They all knew that putting away their wands was code for 'doing absolutely nothing except reading.'

But Harry did not want them to read. He wanted them to discuss. "I want everyone to tell me something they know about dark magic. I want to know encounters you may have had with dark magic, acts of it you have seen performed, acts you may even have performed yourself. You don't have to say who it was that did it; I don't really care. I just want to know what you have all seen." He looked around at the apprehensive class. "Take a moment to think," he said, "then we will go around the room."

A few minutes later, the class was deep into a discussion about the dark magicks. Harry sat back and listened to them, slowly drifting off into thought as they all talked. He thought about Cho, about how Ron was doing on his assignment, about how everything would work in school.

Without him noticing, the class had stopped talking.

"Professor?" Someone asked.

Harry sat up quickly. "Sorry, what was that?" He asked, embarrassed that he had zoned out in class.

The students looked at him apprehensively. "Is there anything else we should do?" Some one asked.

Harry nodded. "Yes, of course! Few of you have experience with the dark magicks, is that correct?"

The students nodded. Harry smiled. "Well then, I guess I should explain my qualifications, unless you are not interested?" He looked around at the students. All eyes were on him, everyone wanted to know.

Harry stood up and walked around his desk, leaning on the front of it. "I guess I should start from the beginning," He said. "I was attacked by Lord Voldemort when I was one." Even now, three years after Harry had killed him, people were still scared of Voldemort. "I encountered him many times over my Hogwarts career..."

He told them his story, and he knew that had done it. Not a student in the class doubted his skills or his knowledge after he spoke about it for half an hour. He only finished moments before the bell rang. "I would like a two inch paragraph about what the Dark Arts are!" He called out, as the students left.

Whatever came next in life, Harry was ready for it.

-----

Maybe he was wrong when he thought that he was ready for whatever came ext. maybe he had jinxed himself, maybe someone had been listening in on his thoughts. Or maybe life just wasn't meant to work out for Harry. Since Harry started at Hogwarts, a DADA teacher had been killed, two had become insane, one had been sacked, one had been kidnapped. Lupin, the second time he was teacher, had quit in order to pursue politics, but other than him and Dumbledore, Hogwarts had not had such good luck with DADA teachers.

Was Harry to be next on the list of teachers whose lives were ruined by Hogwarts? Or was Harry different – the next step; the newest link. He didn't know for sure. When he thought about it, every teacher that had been ruined after Hogwarts had been driven out at least partially because of Harry. Quirrel was taken by Voldemort in order to be near Harry; Lockhart had been driven mad when he turned on Harry and Ron after they led him into the Chamber of Secrets; Lupin had been sacked after being reckless with his lycanthropy while trying to help Harry; Moody had been set as a teacher to protect Harry, but had been kidnapped so that Crouch could get near Harry himself; Umbridge had been driven mad as well, after following Harry and trying to get him in trouble. There was not much left for him.

Harry tried to keep his mind off of his imminent doom by talking to his friends. He had his own room, with his own fireplace, so he could speak with Cho every night, but that was not enough. He had not been able to contact Ron since the day he left on his assignment, though the Ministry insisted that he was alive and well, and he had not been able to get a hold of Hermione, she was so busy with her last year in training as a healer.

Other than the risk he was sure existed, Harry loved being a teacher he loved being able to come and go as he pleased, being able to help students, being able to be the teacher he had always wanted to have teach him.

One day, as he was teaching his third year class about boggarts, Harry heard a sound outside. "Please continue. If you cannot control it, someone step forward so that it will switch forms. If you cannot control it at all, please come and get me." He said distractedly, stepping quietly into the hall. There was nothing there.

He walked slowly towards the window on the other side of the hall. The hallway was open, with great stone windows on the other side – they were on the fourth floor. Harry moved closer, peering over the edge. There was nothing there, either. What had he heard?

Suddenly, a student burst into the hallway. "Professor, I think you should see this!" He cried, and Harry quickly followed him into the room.

Hovering in front of the window in the classroom was a giant dragon's head. The entire class stood, staring at the dragon that was hovering outside. Harry took a step forward. "Class dismissed." He said clearly. "Please go straight to your dormitories." He did not avert his eyes from the dragon. He did not blink. As students filed around him, he slowly reached into his pocket and felt for his wand. When it was comfortably in his grip, he stepped forward to the window. The dragon was still staring at him, complacently. He walked forward until he was at the window, then swiftly pulled himself up onto the sill, still maintaining eye contact with the dragon.

Suddenly, a shape came hurtling from the sky and collided with the dragon. It cried out softly, looking to see what had struck it. More shapes flew from the sky, not hitting the dragon, but flying around it, as Harry realized the first one had done. He tried to focus on the objects. They were moving quickly – and they were yelling.

They were people on broomsticks.

"Oy, watch for the tail!"

"Be careful – it could snap at any time!"

"Stun it!"

"Don't let it attack him!"

"Harry, get back inside!"

Harry stood on the sill, staring out at everything that was happening. He wished he had a pair of Omnioculars to slow everything down. Who were these people? Why were they here? Why was there a dragon here? Why did they all know who he was?

They all seemed to think that this dragon was planning on attacking Harry, but he could see that was not the case. There was something wrong. It looked sad – it was pained to be captured, not angry – and it appeared to be going down with very little fuss. It did not try to hurt anyone, only to make it so that it could still watch Harry.

Moments later, it was completely subdued, and six men, holding it in a net, turned away and flew back over the Forbidden Forest.

Harry stared at them, incredulous. One of the remaining men flew down and landed on the sill, his cloak covering his face. Harry saw him struggle to stand up straight on the sill, though he was tall enough to grab hold on the lintel above him.

"Well, it's good to see you, mate!" He said cheerily, pulling back his hood.

Ron Weasley was staring at Harry.

Harry stared at him. "What in bloody hell are you doing here?" He asked.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Some way to greet you best friend!" He said, punching Harry, then almost losing his balance again. "Aren't you going to invite me in? This sill is a bit precarious!"

Harry nodded and jumped down from the sill, leading Ron up the stairs into his warm office.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked again.

Ron grinned. "Saving your back, what does it look like?"

Harry frowned. "You were not saving me. That dragon was doing nothing wrong."

Ron looked at Harry seriously. "Harry, you know how dangerous they are. They must not come out like that! They don't belong here!"

Harry shook his head. "It's not that it was here; it is that it was not dangerous at all. It looked like you could have just walked up to it and pulled a leash around it's neck, and it would follow you."

Ron grinned. "That doesn't matter now." He said, settling down with a cup of tea that Harry had just handed him. "What have you been up to? I didn't know you were teaching here, what I surprise I got when I saw you standing there!"

Harry nodded slowly. 'Yes, I got the letter about a week after you left," he said. "I didn't get an assignment, so I took it."

Ron shook his head, grinning. "And you said you'd never do it, mate! We said you would come back to Hogwarts!"

Harry grinned. "Enough about me, I'm boring! Where on earth have you been?"

Ron shrugged. "I can't really say..."

Harry frowned. "I am your best friend and also an auror. Tell me!"

Ron looked uneasy, but spoke. "We have been working with these dragons. They have been leaving their natural habitats and coming to England and Scotland, as you can probably tell." he added sarcastically. "We have been studying them, trying to figure out why they are here. They wanted aurors because we knew how to deal big spells."

Harry nodded, perplexed. There was something indeed wrong with these dragons. They were quieter, lamer, focussed on something. Suddenly, Harry realized what was wrong with them, why they came so willingly into cities without getting nervous and destroying things, why they did not attack Harry.

They were domesticated.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ooh! That can't be good! So someone has made pets of our lovely dragons...ooh! I want one for my very own! Well, this can either be very bad, or very good. I am not quite sure which. This is why I should really write outlines. I have been stalling since I came up with the first dragon sighting, because I didn't know what I wanted to do with them.

Argh!

Rubber Duck: eh, I was just stalling. I am really running out of things to do with Harry...it is difficult when I have written thirty seven chapters in these two stories, and an entire other story (though it's not all posted). I am rereading the books and hoping I get something (I have also lost the writing style, I have noticed... I have spent so long writing Tamora Pierce that I am trying to write like her... and wow, I left a bit from talking to you, didn't I! Sorry bout that!

Bloomz-baby: of course!

Slimpun: they are going out... Harry is just away at Hogwarts now, so it is a bit of long distance... but yes, they are going out again.

FSI: HELLO OF COURSE I WILL I AM DONE TALKING NOW!!!

WhiteWizard101: dude, it's not over!

Fifthflame: cool...yay signage! Yay...I love having this massive list of people who put me on their favourites list...yay!

Acknowledge: dude, you review a lot. So much to say! It is true, description is a good filler, but I am HORRIBLE at it. I totally know what you mean about the sleep thing...I used to read a lot of fictions, but now I just write them. When I did, I would stay up all hours of the night to read them (they are more entertaining then) eh, sometimes I just end it to get it out and keep people happy. And dude, what ending are we talking about? I always have one or two spelling mistakes...but I think I do pretty well! Yay for Lupin indeed! I understand short reviews (you sure give a lot of them...whew!) Hmm... I never thought of that. I usually think; how would that work, I realize, of course, that it is magic, but I usually would rather have them be people first, wizards second in some cases. Some it is important for them to be wizards first, but I don't think this is one. But it is a great idea; if I had thought of it, I would not be on this rant defending my writing!

Wow...it has been such a long time since I updated....wow!

"If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr. Brave man, I guess I'm a coward."

-unolimbo