Summary: What would happen if Harry Potter went back in time? Not to be a student but to teach? This story is about Harry, at 19, going back in time to his parent's 7th year and teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA). What secrets would be found out? Find out all this and more.  

A/N: THIS HAS NOT BEEN EDITED! I REPEAT THIS HAS NOT BEEN EDITED! If you find mistakes I'm sorry and I will fix them later.

Disclaimer: As you all know, I don't own these characters. All I own is my idea and unfortunately my homework.  

Days Gone By—Are They Really Gone?

Chapter 11: Flying, Disbelief, and Complications

By: Someone2

     "Hey Harry, wait up!" Sirius and James yelled. Harry put his arm out to stop Ryan and turned to wait for the group of students. Sirius and James raced over there and reached the two men, out of breath. Lily and Remus just rolled their eyes, laughed, and walked calmly up to the group. Harry looked over at Ryan with a small smile.

     "What is it, boys?" asked Ryan. Harry had to bring a hand to his mouth to stop them from seeing his smile. Ryan was acting so pompous. He shot a warning glance at Harry, but Harry just gave him an innocent look.

     "Harry with everything you've done, we've never seen you fly," Sirius said with a sly look. "You can fly, can't you?"

     "Are you kidding me? Can Harry fly?" Ryan had a look of disbelief on his face. "The kid is bloody brilliant on a broom. Youngest seeker in a century, he was. Could have played professionally, if he wanted to. Some teams are still asking for him."

     "Ryan, shut it, would you?" Harry said, rolling his eyes. "Sorry, about that. The man tends to exaggerate in his old age."

     Ryan smacked him on the back of the head and Lily giggled.

     "So do you want to fly with us or not?" James asked.

     Harry shrugged. "Sure, but I didn't bring my broom with me. Ryan, don't look so outraged, I left it in good hands. Ron would never use it to sweep floors like Hermione did."

     "That's okay, you can use mine," Remus said, shoving the broom into Harry's hand. Harry frowned, he hadn't even noticed they all carried brooms. "My mom just doesn't understand that I like to keep both feet planted firmly on the ground."

     After Harry thanked him, they all walked down to the Quidditch pitch. Ryan sat up in the stands with Remus. Harry looked at the broom in his hands. The boom was a deep golden oak color, with green bristles. The broom was in pristine condition. It was a Shooting Star model 15. Those were antiques! There were only 5 of that model ever sold. Harry looked at it in awe. James noticed the look and misunderstood it.

    "Yeah, a Shooting Star. The newest broom in the market. Remus' mom is a nut for the game, gets him the newest broom that comes out every year. They stopped making them a while back though, not many people were buying."

    "There were only five sold. Ever. These are the hardest things to find. Apparently they were too fast and lost control easily, but that could be easily…" Harry noticed the look James was giving him. "And I'll shut my mouth now."

     "You are a Quidditch nut aren't you?" asked Lily.

     Harry nodded guiltily. "Yes, I'm afraid so. I have a friend who is more interested than I am, still is actually. He's a bloody good keeper, plays professionally. I lost interest when I had more important things to worry about."

    "What's more important than Quidditch?" Sirius asked, outraged.

    "Living," Harry said bluntly. "Now can we fly? I'm a bit rusty, haven't been on a broom in ages."

    The others agreed and they all kicked off. Harry's spirit rose with the broom. His face broke into a big grin. He shot toward the goalpost and then spiraled down in, and then rocketed to the other end only to go into a steep dive. When he leveled out, his feet skimmed the grass. He shot back up and stopped next to the three others. They all looked at him with shocked expressions. Harry's eyes seemed to light up from within as he sat on the ground getting his breath back.

    "Merlin, that was fun. I should have done that a lot sooner. Would you all talk? It feels as though I'm talking to trolls."

    "Bloody hell, you're good, Harry," Sirius said completely awed.

    Ryan smiled proudly. "Told you so."

    "Harry, you're even better than James and he's brilliant on and off the field," Lily said smirking, knowing what James' response would be. James didn't disappoint.

     "Lily! I can't believe my own girlfriend would say that someone is better than me!" James said this all with a very outraged expression. Harry burst out laughing.

     "You do know that she said you were brilliant, don't you?" Remus said chuckling slightly. James looked at him oddly before turning to Lily with a questioning glance. She nodded and James leapt into the air with a whoop.

     "My girlfriend said I was brilliant!" he chanted, jumping around. He picked Lily up and spun her around, kissing her quickly. Everyone laughed when he set Lily down and she nearly fell because she was laughing so hard.

     Ryan looked at everyone, with a slightly evil grin on his face. "Anyone want to play Quidditch?" They all nodded their agreement. Ryan's grin became bigger. "Then I'm on Harry's team," he said laughing at the looks on their faces.

     The Quidditch game had gone wonderfully.  Harry's team, consisting of Ryan as the Chaser and Remus as the Keeper, managed to win each game by a very small margin. Remus was a horrid Keeper, he fully showed his terror at being above the ground, and Ryan wasn't much better as a Chaser. The only reason they didn't lose was because of Harry was an amazing Seeker. James' team consisted of Lily as the Seeker and Sirius as the Keeper. Sirius wasn't much better at being a Keeper than he was at being a Chaser. (Ryan had said later that he was much better at being a Beater than he was at being a Keeper, Chaser, or Seeker.) However, that hadn't mattered in the end. James had managed to keep the quaffle in his possession almost all of the time and he was the only reason Harry's team almost lost a few times. They were now gathered in the kitchens enjoying glasses of hot cocoa with marshmallows and a plate overflowing with frosted Christmas cookies.

     "What do you call a mix between an elephant and a rhino?" Sirius asked out of the blue.

     James shrugged. "I don't know."

     "Close, but no cigar! Anyone else want to take a crack at it?" he asked eagerly. Harry and Ryan looked at each other and groaned—they knew this one, but they weren't going to tell. The rest just shook their head and Sirius was practically jumping up and down in excitement. "You guys don't know anything! The answer's elephino! Get it? 'El if I know," Sirius was laughing. "Hell if I know… That one always cracks me up."

     Harry looked at Ryan to see if that was still true, and Harry could see him sniggering silently. Harry shook his head and laughed quietly. He marveled in how much fun he had been having over the Christmas holidays and wished that it would never end… But good things always end, no matter how much you want them to last forever. And for Harry, that was the saddest thing yet, knowing the few good things would end and everything would happen at once. Ryan noticed Harry's expression and patted him on the back a few times, not enough for anyone to wonder what was up, but enough to show that he cared. Harry looked at Ryan in appreciation and smiled crookedly.

     "Would you pass me another cookie?" Harry asked Lily with a smile. Things may end, but he might as well enjoy them while they lasted.             

     Harry sat cross-legged on top of his desk and held up a hand to get his class' attention. "Okay, class, settle down." Not one of the seventh year Gryffindor or Slytherin students paid him any mind. Harry rolled his eyes and decided to take a leaf from Dumbledore's book. "SILENCE!" he bellowed and everyone stopped dead in their tracks and stared at him. Grinning sweetly, he told them all to sit down. The class hastily moved as Harry leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees and settled his chin on his two-handed fist.

     "So you can all hear me… I was beginning to wonder. Now I want you all to pile—neatly, understood—your assignment on my desk and then we all need to have a talk." The class hurried and did as he said, except for Snape who sauntered to the desk and lazily put his essay on top. Harry picked it up and quickly read it through. He nodded. "Good job, Mr. Snape. Well written and the topic was researched to the right degree. Five points to Slytherin." He sat the paper back down and turned to the gaping faces.

     "I know you were all rather shocked when I gave you this assignment but I had a certain realization when I was," he smiled, "detained. But first I want to tell you a story. Some of you may know this and some of you won't. However you need to know.

     "A while ago, I'm not exactly sure when, a witch married a muggle man. She didn't tell him she was a witch and as some of you may have guessed that was not a good thing. She ended up getting pregnant. When she told him about what she was, the man disowned her and her unborn child. Now the woman ended up dying at childbirth, living only long enough to name the child after the father. The boy was then sent to an orphanage where we can only assume he was mistreated. He ended up getting the letter all of you received and he went to this school. He was a Slytherin, and ended up being Head Boy. Quite good looking, or so I've been told. He was popular and all that wonderful stuff. However, after he got done with school he went and he murdered his only living family. His father and his paternal grandparents. He went into a forest, or something of that sort and underwent so many Dark Art spells that when he resurfaced he wasn't recognized. He took up a name that was an anagram of his own; it had been a nickname at school. In fact, the name was 'I am Lord Voldemort' which came from Tom Marvolo Riddle. Cheers, huh?" He smiled at the attentive students.

     "What you need to know is that as evil as Voldemort is, he is doing it because of his father. Or at one time was, I do believe he has forgotten the real reason behind everything. Someone told me, 'There is no such thing as good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to see it.' I disagree. Power can be used any way you wish to use it. For good, for evil, for getting revenge, for love, for money… The thing is that power can corrupt. Lord knows it's happened to the best of us, me included," Harry winced. "But that story isn't for today. People do things for reasons we don't understand. I'm not saying that we should allow people to kill others, but they most likely had a reason. Tom Riddle was human, he made mistakes and they changed him. Voldemort, however, is trying to gain immortality. Something, I am proud to say, he will not accomplish. But as I said, that story isn't for today.

     "I don't mean to bust your happy bubble, but your life is going to be hell for a while. People you know and love are going to die. You may die. Then again you may join his side and betray those you used to trust. You will never be entirely sure as to who is loyal to you and who is willing to rat you out. Some of you may join the fight against him and bad things may happen because of it. Always remember that it is your choices, rather than your abilities that shows who you are. A wise man told me that. And never be afraid to fight for what you believe is the right thing. I know I sound like an annoying prat who should stop telling you right from wrong. Though I haven't really done that, have I? But this is what Defense Against the Dark Arts is for. You need to be prepared for what you are going to meet. And let's face it, real life is going to be one great big kick to the arse. Don't be afraid to be paranoid. Don't be afraid to second-guess everything. Don't be idiot enough to put yourself blindly into hands that haven't proven themselves. And, least of all, don't be afraid to live life while you can. Go out there, live, love and all that wonderful bull shit."

     Harry cleared his throat and sat up straight. "Within a week, everyone—forth year and up—will be taught dueling. They will learn about curses they shouldn't know. Like the Unforgivable Curses, as much as I hate teaching about them. I know I said at the beginning of the year that you would not be given homework, but I think that may be changing. The idea is still in the works. In other words you may want to be really nice to me." Harry wiggled his eyebrows and the class laughed. "Okay, we now know a bunch of crap about Tom. Can anyone tell me one of the main forced behind his army?"

     No one raised their hand.

     The green eyed man sighed. "If nobody volunteers then I'll have to just pick one of you."

     A red haired girl raised her hand. Harry smiled at her. "Yes, Lily?"

     "Dementors?" the girl asked hesitantly.

     "Two points to Gryffindor. And because I'm feeling generous, what are dementors?"

     Quite a few people raised their hands. Harry pointed to one that hadn't volunteered. "Go ahead."

     The boy started to stutter and Harry smiled encouragingly at him. "They suck the happiness out of places. And can suck out your soul."

     "Bravo, Peter. Three points to Gryffindor. Dementors are hooded creatures that feed on the happy emotions of humans. They guard Azkaban. What counters it?"

     "Chocolate?" a Slytherin girl piped up.

     Their teacher nodded. "Two points. Even though it was already explained, what's a Dementor's Kiss?"

     "A fate worse than death: your soul gets sucked out," someone from the back row called out.

     "Two points to Gryffindor, Mr. Longbottom. Almost had that happen to me once.  It is truly a fate worse than death, leaving only an empty human shell. Now can anyone tell me what spell protects you from them?"

     "Expecto patronum," James said quietly. "A patronus."

     "Three points. Exactly right. A rather handy spell, if I don't say so myself. In order to complete the spell you need to focus on a happy memory. It won't work if you don't. Now can any of you complete the spell?"

     A handful of people raised their hands. "Okay, I want you all to practice the spell. The people who can do the spell will help you. Remember to focus on the happiest memory you can and then say Expecto patronum. If all else fails you can make one up, but that's rather hard to do. You'd need to imagine every detail of the memory. Well, what are you waiting for? Get to it."

     Harry jumped off the desk and went up to Peter tapping him on the shoulder. "Mr. Pettigrew could I speak to you for a moment?"

     The boy nodded and Harry led him out into the hallway, gazing intently at him. Peter glanced back nervously. Harry's eyes were reassuring, even though he was fighting the desire to shake some sense into the man who had ruined his life. Or made it interesting, whichever way you wish to look at it. "Don't worry Peter, I just wanted to ask you something. Is everything all right with you and your friends? I've noticed you haven't been with them as much as you usually are."

     Peter shrugged. "They've been busy, I guess. They've been trying to figure you out, sir." Harry winced at the word. "I reckon they haven't had time for me."

     Harry wasn't going to let this small chance of changing things go unused. "Peter, I doubt that's the case. I'm sure the others have been wondering where you are. You haven't been around lately." Bugger, bugger, bugger… Reassuring, Harry, say something reassuring. I wonder if this was the year he went traitor. Maybe he already has. Okay, now say something reassuring to yourself. Bugger, time is nasty to figure out. That wasn't so hard now was it?  "They seem to be pretty close to you." Oh, that was lame.

     Peter shrugged again and his teacher smiled. "Well, I'll just have to tell you something about me that they don't know… Er, now I just have to think of something," he winked and the boy that would become Wormtail looked at him in awe. "Oh, I've got it! My patronus. It's a stag, rather handsome thing." Merlin, don't say too much. This is going to get back to James. Too bad I don't dare show Peter, but he knows James' form…  "I know it isn't much, but that's a bit more than they know. Well back into the room, I don't want to know what they've been up to," he said ushering Peter into the room.

     Harry went back to sitting on his desk and watched the progress. It was hard to teach them something that he couldn't show, but he wasn't willing to risk James seeing his patronus. It was odd that his father wasn't that suspicious of him, in all honestly he should have been. Though, maybe he was. Harry would have been if a man who looked like him, had a mysterious past, was only a few years older than him, said Voldemort's name, escaped from Voldemort within a day became his teacher… Oh dear, Harry was becoming suspicious of himself.  Who knew? Maybe this was all an act in order to find out what he was hiding. That was something Hermione, Ron and him would have done and had. Oh well, showing his patronus was out of the question. 

     "Job well done, class." Everyone had at least gotten wisps of silvery stuff to come out of their wands. Even Peter. "It took me a while to learn it, too, so don't be discouraged if you didn't get it right." Harry looked at the class oddly. "Well, why are you just sitting there? Class dismissed."

     The class scrambled out of the room, once again giving him odd glances. How did this man know so much about You-Know-Who? Why did they need to know the spell against dementors? And the occasional, I didn't even know there was a spell against dementors. What did this man know that they didn't?  There was even a lone, what did he mean "him included"? Not to forget the, I did the spell!

     Harry sighed when the last of the students trickled out of his classroom, thankful that none had caught his slip up. He picked up the reports and started leafing through them. The corners of Harry's mouth quirked up when a certain clacking noise came from the back corner of the room.

     Without lifting his head, he said, "You can come out now, Professor." 

     The clacking noise became closer and with a slight pop Albus Dumbledore appeared to the left of Harry.

     "How did you know I was here?"

     "I have my ways," he said mysteriously, looking at the man. His mentor looked disbelieving. Harry smirked. "I heard you walking."

     "Lovely discussion in class today. I believe you scared half of them out of their wits," Dumbledore said, eyes glinting merrily.

     "Only half? I must be loosing my touch." Harry's carefree voice cut to the chase. "What is it you wanted to know about, Albus?"

     "Alas, hiding things from you is useless. Please tell me what you meant when you said power corrupted even you."

     "You are aware that you will have a timed memory charm placed on you, correct? And anything you may write down won't be readable?"

     "And pensives will not work. I know and yes, I understand."

     Harry led him into his office and settled into a leather chair, motioning for Dumbledore to do the same.

     "When I told you about getting caught and how I became immune to two of the Unforgivables, didn't you wonder how I got caught the second time? In all honesty, it was the least likely thing to happen: I was young and nothing could touch me. But that's what got me caught. I got cocky and I was taken the old-fashioned way—one swift knock to the head. You see, as immense as my powers are, normal methods can be used. Usually I can block people from getting too close, but as I said I was invincible," the sarcasm hung. "Now while I was 'out' I was given a potion that put a lock and key on my power. Without that cushion, I was tortured again."

     Harry stood up and started pacing in the warm room. He rubbed his forehead and plopped back into his chair. "Pain is a great deal of mind over matter. I'm not saying it wasn't the worst few weeks of my life, but you can always refocus the pain. Even if it is nearly impossible to do. Anyway, I was able to focus the pain enough to break the block that was placed on me. And of course I did what any normal person would have done, I got the bloody hell out of there. Understand that I am human, lack of blood will kill me," he smiled in a way that made the room cool a few degrees, "and it nearly did. When I got out the pain was still enough that I couldn't completely focus, so when I appeareated I landed between Hogsmead and Hogwarts. The lane that students use. I wasn't able to walk and it wasn't a Hogsmead weekend, so no one was really on the road. I lucked out though, aside from passing out, I was only there for 3 days before someone found me. I can just imagine the sight. A boy in the middle of the road so battered and bruised that he was in a puddle of blood. And that boy happened to be one that had been missing for 2 months. The school carriages nearly ran me over. I can't even try to imagine my friend's faces when they saw me, but, Merlin, I remember what happened when I woke up.

     "I wouldn't let anyone come near me. I wouldn't tell them what happened. And most of all, I wanted to die from the shame. I knew that I had been the reason I was caught, and I was embarrassed. When I had gotten caught the first time, I was terrified that someone was going to hurt me. My friends and family tried to get me to talk but I wouldn't hear of it." Harry smiled. "They ended up locking me in a room with them until I would talk. I was scared for a while but I finally talked. Knowing that I could protect myself helped a lot though. I knew that I could rely on myself if I needed to. So, of course, it was a huge shock to my system when I got caught the second time. That time my pride was also damaged. It took me almost a year to trust people again. Well, trust them enough with my life. I knew they loved me and that helped more than you could ever know. Now, I'm not saying I never doubted it, but their actions spoke of it loud enough. It wasn't until a while ago that I realized that a person couldn't have that much power and not change. I just needed a good shock to the system to get myself back on track. I know as horrible as it sounds, I needed to be shown I could die."

     Harry shook his head and smiled weakly. "Enough about that, how about a game of Wizard's Chess?"

     "Only if I can be white," came the old man's reply.

     "Can do."

     "Come on, Harry. Just once?" Ryan said eagerly.

     "Ryan, I told you. No, you cannot dye the Slytherins blue."

     "How 'bout red?"

     "No. Too cliché, anyway."

     "Orange?"

     "No. Interesting though."

     "Purple?"

     "No." Harry didn't even look up from the paper's he was grading.

     "Yellow?"

     "No. Would that even show up?"

     "Magenta?"

     "No. Didn't you do that one before?" Harry said, still not looking up.

     "Umm…" Ryan rocked on his heals as he thought about it. "I don't think so. I think Remus and the rat did that one."

     "Oh."

     "How about pink with orange and purple spots?"

     Harry tossed his quill on top on his desk and glared at his godfather. "If I say yes, will you shut up?"

     "Umm… Maybe?"

     "Fine, I'll help you dye the Slytherins. Will you go now?"

     "When will you help me?" he asked, ignoring the boy's question.

     Harry rolled his eyes. "Later?"

     Ryan shook his head.

     "Tomorrow?"

     "Nope."

     "Let me guess. Now?"

     "Since you insisted…"

     "What did I do to deserve this?"

     Ryan grinned. "You're just lucky, I guess."

     Harry snorted. "Luck, yeah, if that's what you want to think, go ahead. I won't disillusion your illusion."

     "Should I be offended?"

     "Only if you want to be," he shrugged, looking back at his papers.

     "Oh, okay."

     Ryan walked over to Harry and stared at him. After a few minutes, Harry faced his godfather. "What?"

     "Come on," he whined and his godson groaned.

     "Do I have to?"

     Ryan didn't answer, he just grabbed Harry's arm and bodily hauled him up. Harry reluctantly followed him, mumbling. "All I wanted to do was grade my students' papers, one would think that's a good thing. But no, I get a godfather that discourages responsible behavior. Why me?"

     "Didn't you ask that already?"

     Harry shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe. Are you sure my father was in his right mind when he named you my guardian?"

     "Would you rather Voldemort be your guardian?" Neither man had noticed two people coming up behind them.

     "Oh, of course," he said deadpan. Ryan even looked at him twice. James grasped Sirius' arm and gave him a significant look. Sirius nodded and they dropped back enough to spy on the two men without being seen.

    "You know how much I detest Muggles and such," he continued dryly. "The two of us would have gotten along splendidly." He rolled his eyes. "Come on, if you want to do this, we have to hurry. I don't want to be late for dinner."

    "I knew you were more like your dad than you acted," Ryan said triumphantly. "No one can get in as much trouble as you did and not have a bit of a marauder gene."

     "You discovered my secret. The horror, the horror." Harry's fake look of dismay sent both men into hysterics. The two slipped out of James and Sirius' hearing range. The two boys looked at each other.

     "James, do'y know what that was about?" Sirius asked, voice shaking.

     James swallowed, looking at where the two men had disappeared. "It could have been just a joke. We have to give him the benefit of the doubt…"

     "But he was so serious." He looked at his friend, scared. There was a lot they didn't know about Harry Larson. A lot they probably didn't want to know. He seemed to be good enough… But then you add in all the infrequencies and secrets…

     "James? What do we do?"

     James turned to his best friend. "I don't know…" he said softly.

     Later that night the whole school was gossiping about what happened during dinner. The Slytherins mysteriously turning florescent pink with orange and purple spots and the Marauders (as they were so reluctantly christened) looking like they never knew about it. The doubt that had been planted in James' head started to fester and take over. He was beginning to notice little things about Harry—the way he talked about Voldemort like he was nothing, how he knew thousands of curses and counter-curses, how he sometimes slipped and called Professor White by another name, how he faced Voldemort and escaped… But the main thing happened the day they practiced dueling and learned about the Unforgivables…

     It was a day like any other. The sun was just a bit brighter and it was a bit warmer but that was normal for this time of year. The students sat in Harry's classroom, all talking eagerly. They were going to get to practice again. They had been dueling at least once a class since the discussion on, well, You-Know-Who. It was turning out to be an interesting experience… All the students were banding together to see if one of them could beat Harry. As you could probably tell, that meant no one had been able to do it yet. Not to say they hadn't tried.

     Harry walked into the classroom smiling sadly and sat on the desk. Everyone looked at him in confusion and he forced the smile to be a bit bigger. Needless to say, no one was reassured.

     "Okay, listen up. We'll be dueling at the end of class, just to see if anyone has come up with anything to beat me," Harry just loved teasing them about that. His face turned solemn. "But first we have to talk about the Unforgivables… Can anyone name one?"

     Lily raised her hand and Harry nodded at her. "The Imperius curse."

     "Good, two points. Can you tell me what it does?"

    "Um, it controls the user?" she said hesitantly. Nobody like her likes to talk about someone getting hurt… Harry sighed and took out a jar with a spider in it. He really didn't want to do this, but how else were they going to learn?

    "Yeah. Okay, everyone see the spider?" the class nodded. "Good."

    He took it out of the jar and said the spell quietly. The spider started doing cartwheels and jumping jacks, which was actually quite hilarious to watch. What… haven't you ever seen an eight-legged thing do a jumping jack? Harry glared at them and cut the spell.

     "You think it's funny. You actually think it's funny. Let's picture this: You're sitting at home with your family, let's just say a spouse and two kids, and suddenly the door is blown open. You thought you were safe, the wards were supposed to protect you but the monster broke them. He comes and singles you out. He casts the curse on you and you can't fight it, you want to, but you can't. Guess what? You just got to witness yourself murdering your family and not being able to do anything about it. Tears are streaming down your face; your hand is shaking from trying to stop yourself. He tells you to go grab a knife and kill them slowly. And then he leaves you. You're alive but you just did the worst thing you could ever imagine… And you have to live with it for the rest of your life. Not so funny now, is it?" The class was staring at him. He had never been this emotional before. "You need to grow up. This isn't fun and games anymore. This is real and it hurts. Damn it, people are going to die and you're sitting here laughing at something that's forbidden. Who can tell me another curse?"

     James shakily raised his hand. He had never been more afraid in his life, but… "Cruciatus curse, pain lots of it."

     "Five points. I'm going to tell you something right now. This hurts, any pain you've felt in your life is nothing compared to this. I knew a boy whose parents were in a hospital because they were subjected to this too long. He never had a chance to know them—they went completely insane. It's no picnic knowing your parents don't have a clue who you are. I couldn't even imagine what he went through." He coughed and looked at them sheepishly. "However we're getting off topic. This curse hurts. Anything you think could come close doesn't. As an old teacher did,"—he reached into the jar, gabbing another spider, and casting a spell to enlarge it. "It works better on a larger scale." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Crucio," he muttered. The spider started shuddering, convulsing in pain. Its eight legs were twitching uncontrollably when Harry looked at it. He quickly snapped his eyes shut and broke off the spell.

     The class watched as Harry, with shaking hands, shrunk the victim and placed it back into the jar.

     "Next and last spell?" he asked quietly.

     A lone hand was raised. Peter Pettigrew. "Avada Kedavra. The killing curse."

     "Yes, the killing curse. Five points, Peter. As the name states, it kills. There is no counter curse and as of yet no one has survived it,"—except me—"unfortunately or fortunately. Whichever way you want to think about it. You can't fight it, unlike the Imperious curse. This is permanent. Though, right now if any of you tried casting it on me I doubt I would get much more than a bloody nose. Well, there isn't much else to say so…" he reluctantly trailed off and went to grab another spider. This one was a bit different from the others. It was larger and appeared to be bleeding slowly. Harry set it down on the desk and pointed his wand at it.

     "Avada Kedavra," his voice shook slightly as the green light went bursting from the wand and hit the suffering spider. He picked it up and held it in his palm as he stroked it softly with his thumb.

     The class watched as he put the spider back into the jar gently. They heard him quietly mutter to it "I'm sorry, so sorry" over and over again. When he looked back at the class, they all nearly gasped in shock. Some didn't manage to control themselves and the sound echoed through the classroom. Their teacher, Harry, the one that had always had a grin on his face and that never really took anything seriously, had such a haunted look in his eyes. As if… As if he had seen all that was horrible in the world. All that was evil and he had seen it first hand. The sparkling green turned into s muddled muddy color and there were lines around his mouth that said he had been this way many times before. All the class wanted to run away screaming and at the same time comfort this strange man. This strange young man, not quite three years older than themselves. It wasn't until then they realized that their teacher had seen so much and done so much more then they could ever dream about. And by dream I mean nightmare. Horrible nightmares that would leave a person shaking in bed, sweating profusely, eyes wide with the fright that they did that…

     "To those that have morals, unlike Tom Riddle, using that curse is one of the hardest things you could ever do. I have only used that curse to seriously kill twice. Well twice that I had planned to use it before hand. Once with my parent's murderer and once with that spider." Let's not tell about the hundreds of Death Eaters you killed in battle, Harry. Or the ones you had to kill to escape. Remember we don't talk about that. No one does… "However the class is far from over. We have just enough time for one of you to duel me. Whose turn is it today?" Harry forced a grin on his face and his eyes lightened a few degrees.

Snape raised his hand, triumphantly. He had a spell up his sleeve that no one was going to expect…

     "Very good, Mr. Snape. Come up then." Harry gestured as they both stood across from each other. "Remember to bow, even Voldemort bows, and on my mark. One, two, three go!" With a flash of light the duel began. When Harry fought you could truly see that he had been trained to within an inch of his life. He moved fluently, dancing more then jumping out of the way. The curses rolling off his lips… However today, he had a semi-worthy opponent. Well, one who had a few tricks…

     "Tarantallegra," Harry said rolling out of the way of a curse. Snape jumped out of the way. "Good job so far," Harry was barely winded.

     "Same to you," Snape said as he fired off another curse.

    "Thank you," he said putting up a shield. "Though will you please do whatever it is you're saving until last? It's rather bothersome not to win right away and I have been putting off winning for a while."

      Snape practically growled. Put off winning? How was he so sure he was going to win? We'll see how he does with this—"Serpensortia!" he yelled as a large snake slithered out of his wand and toward Harry. At the last minute it veered off going toward the students.

     Harry's eyes widened and he yelled out. "Don't attack the students!" but all that came out was a series of hisses. He turned quickly back to Snape once he was sure it wouldn't attack with a glint in his eyes. The scared student didn't have a chance as Harry summoned his wand and won the duel. Once done with that he raced over to where the snake was sitting and picked it up. He started to talk to it. The classed watched unnerved.

     Their teacher was a Parseltongue.

     Harry looked up at the class. "Oh bugger."

A/N: *Does jig* I did it! I did it! Finally, huh? Okay, I am honestly really sorry about the wait. I wish I had a reason besides I didn't have time but I don't. So I'm going to say sorry and hope you all forgive me.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you have no idea how much it meant to me, what it means to me. This was an immensely difficult chapter to write. I restarted it about five times before I finally copied and pasted parts together. ;)

Special thanks to my betas Katrina Skyfrost, Pumpkin Hatching and Krazy Kris—I don't know what I'd do without you. I'm sorry I had to post without giving it to you first. Also to Sophia Black who translated my story into French.

And a few shout outs:

Krazy Kris has put a song fic up onto our account. Take a look, it's pretty great. Don't forget to check out her story Harry Potter and the Dragon of Magic under the name Phalanx Dragon. That's awesome also.

I am going to be putting a stand-alone fic up, take a look if you want.

There is an awesome two-part fic out, completed, by The Frog called Scars of War. It wonderful.

Thank you all for sticking with this story for so long, don't forget, I promise it will be completed!

Remember to review and thank you all!

TTYL,

Someone2