A/N--Ok. So. I don't own Harry potter or anything so yeah. And I have read ootp and I did not like it but hey what are you going to do. I am not going to use my story to rant about it. But one change I made is that Sirius did not die. I didn't change anything else. Now on with the show.
"Now class, the Boggart may seem exceedingly easy to defeat but once faced with your worse fear it can be difficult to come up with a humorous aspect so you can laugh at the scenario. However, that is why we are going to prepare first. I want to remind you that in real life you will not have the luxury of saying `time out' while you try to think of something funny. You must always be on your feet. But now, take a few minutes to think of what you most fear and how you are going to make it amusing," The tall raven-haired teacher concluded with a clap of his hands signaling the class to commence thinking.
A gangly ginger haired boy near the front raised his hand immediately after the teacher stopped talking. "Professor Potter, can you demonstrate for us?" The third year student asked.
"Not this time Alex. I will finish the Boggart off but I would prefer to see what you guys are capable of," Harry responded.
Alex nodded and sat silently trying to think of what he most feared. Most of the students sat thinking while muttering directions under their breath. Some students even started laughing at the mental picture in their head. Finally most students looked up at the teacher expectantly, satisfied with their visions.
After a few minutes Harry rose his voice to address the assemblage, "Are you all ready class?" All the teenagers in the room nodded their heads solemnly. "Alrighty then, everybody out of your seats."
The students complied as he magically pushed all the tables to the side making room for a small wardrobe that was teetering on its legs from all the banging that was going on inside the chest. "Lets begin with Nikko."
A stout teen with black spiky hair and dark complexion stepped forward from Alex's side and took a deep breath to try to calm his shaky nerves. Potter wordlessly opened the wardrobe to release the Boggart which turned into a vampire. Nikko immediately raised his wand confidently and stated in a strong voice "Riddikulus". The vampire instantly changed. Instead of a pale face the vampire now had layers upon layers of make up and was dressed in drag. Harry even had to admit the sight was pretty funny.
Nikko stepped back, obviously pleased with himself and rejoined his best friend Alex. Harry called the next students up, Chloe. The petite blonde stepped up and the Boggart barely turned into a snake before it was all chopped up and immobile.
Alex went up after her and the Boggart took the appearance of a report card with all `F's on it. The paper was burned to a crisp immediately. Harry had to laugh at the thought of who that reminded him of.
Students were called on one after another. The last student to go up was Alana, another good friend of Nikko, Alex, and Chloe. When Alana went up to face the Boggart, it surprisingly changed into the famous Muggle horror movie icon from Scream. At first Alana shrieked and looked as if she might faint when the guy came after her with a bloody dagger but she finally got her wits about her and raised her wand to cast the spell. Soon the head was severed and the guy was stumbling and tripping over his own head.
Harry took that as his cue to put an end to the boggart. When he came close to the creature it immediately took the shape of Hermione. She had a huge diamond engagement ring on her finger and started talking kindly. "It's about me and Ron, we have finally decided to tie the knot between us."
Shocked, Harry did not pause for a minute, not wanting the class to witness the scene any longer. The final spell escaped Harry's lips as the Boggart disappeared. Dazed from what he had seen, Harry stumbled towards his desk. Remembering he still had a class to teach, he turned towards the curious gazes of his students, also wondering what had just occurred. Luckily, time ran short and the class was dismissed with Harry's assignment of a 6 inch essay as to why Boggarts can be very dangerous and where they can be found.
Knowing that he had no more classes to teach for the day, he slouched behind his desk and his mind wandered to how that could be his greatest fear now. Last time he checked it was Voldemort coming back, not Hermione telling him she was engaged. It didn't make sense. They haven't even seen each other in years, for good reason. For the first time in ages he let his mind replay pieces of his past and how he had come upon his job as the Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Like expected, The Trio graduated from Hogwarts with honors and headed off to be Aurors. They succeeded in training and were placed together as a team. Many knew how well each of them worked with the others and they each were a valuable portion of the trio. The three of them worked tirelessly in fighting Voldemort, trying to defeat him once and for all.
Finally, after about 3 years they succeeded. Harry squared off with Voldemort and came out victorious. The good side prevailed but at a cost. Many casualties occurred during the dark time of the second war including, Hagrid, Mad-eye-moody, Cho Chang, Ginny Weasley, and Draco Malfoy.
After finally winning the war for the light side, Harry left his life as an Auror. He had seen so much death and was tired of what it took from his life, so he packed up and left after a large blow out with Hermione and Ron. Both felt that Harry should stay and that he was deciding on snap judgments and emotions. But, Harry made up his mind and angrily left that part of his life behind him.
A few weeks later while talking to Proffessor Dumbledore, it was slipped that Hogwarts was still in need of a DADA teacher. Harry jumped at the opportunity. He couldn't help remembering how much he had enjoyed teaching D.A. and how rewarding it had been. Dumbledore seemed pleased in the proposition and happily gave Harry the job.
And the rest in history. Harry had indeed been a natural at teaching and proved to be the favorite of most students. Surprising many, the DADA spot seemed to permanently be filled since Harry survived numerous years of the job. However, Harry never did have contact with Ron or Hermione since the fateful fight. Now, he was 26 and in good health. He enjoyed his life and did not regret his choice for an instant.
Harry thought back to the incident with the Boggart. Harry had no idea why that happened. He knew that years and years ago he had a silly crush on Hermione, but had gotten over it quickly enough after the feud he had with Hermione and Ron. It had been an infatuation that had occurred, but had disappeared quickly enough without much problem.
A confident knock on the door brought Harry out his deep thoughts. Trying to think of who it could be he called out, "come in." Harry was sure that his jaw was threatening to fall from his face if it dropped any further. He had no idea as to why Hermione was standing in his doorway.
She had changed over the years but for the better. Instead of a petite figure she now looked stronger and very capable in taking care of herself. However, Hermione's trademark bushy hair was unchanged. Not surprisingly, Hermione had on no make-up yet she still looked quite pretty without it.
Harry was having difficulty thinking of a coherent thing to say. Finally, he came around to spitting out, "What the hell are you doing here?"
Hermione looked fazed by the greeting, only for a brief second before she put a calm façade upon her face. "Isn't that a lovely way of greeting your best friend which you haven't seen or had contact with for over five years."
"No fault of my own," Harry spoke coolly.
"I believe it takes two people to stop talking to one another," Hermione stated matter of factly.
"But, I think you kissed friendship good-bye when you yelled something to the effect of `If you leave us and all that we have done then you might as well never try to talk to us again, because we are through. You broke the trio up,'" Harry declared.
Hermione changed the subject not so subtly. "Well, I didn't come here to fight or open up old wounds. I was hoping we could start anew and fresh."
Harry gazed at the women now sitting in front of him. "And you just suddenly had to the urge to come and see how I am doing?"
"My my, you have become a suspicious fellow," Hermione laughed.
"Just what being an Auror had done to me. But, now we are escaping the question. Why are you here?"
"Well, um, I kind of need your help."
Even though Harry knew he should be angry with her, he instantly went into worry mode. "What? Are you ok? What do you need?"
Hermione looked into Harry's eyes and knew he was willing to help her out, but he didn't have any idea at the way she needed help. "Well, I know this is going to sound weird, but, well, I need you to marry me."
Harry leaned his head back and let out a deep full laugh. After getting it out of his system he lowered his head to face Hermione straight on. "Seriously, how do you need me to help you?"
"I am perfectly serious. I need you to marry me," Hermione said.
This time Harry did not laugh but instead he looked bewildered at what she said. "Why in gods name would you need me to marry you? After all these years you come back and ask me to marry you!!! How can that help an Auror out any?"
Hermione took a deep breath, readying herself to explain her situation, "Well, it happened about a month ago when I was on an undercover mission. I had stumbled across a dangerous creature. Not knowing what it was, I killed it in self-defense. That hadn't been the smart thing to do however. Because I killed one of its kind a whole clan of these creatures came after me. Later I found out that they were, a very exclusive clan of wizards. The small number of them that are left have now devoted their time and energy in finding me and taking revenge. I thought if I went into hiding they would stop looking for me. However, that only seems to make them more impatient to find me. While they have been on this quest to find me they have terrorized villages and cities killing many. They will not give up until they get me or find out there is no possible way of obtaining me. That's where you come into play. If I get married to one of the most celebrated and watched over person, then by default I will equally become as famous. Thus, this gang of wizards will see there is no chance that they can even get to me."
Harry looked like he was in deep thought, trying to comprehend all that has been told to him. "How come we can't just pretend to be married?" He asked.
"Because, this has to be real legally since the media will obviously go poking around, and they would find out if it was real or not."
"What about just go marrying some famous author or something?"
"Because, If I am going to do this I would rather it be you or Ron and since Ron isn't famous, well, that leaves me with you."
"Why not just plant information into the media. I know the ministry will do what is necessary to keep its Aurors safe." Harry obviously trying to find a way out of it.
"Although that could be done. The coverage would not stay in the papers as long, and the papers don't like reporting stuff the Ministry is forcing them to print. So, what better than the real thing?"
Hermione paused looking at Harry's face. He had grown up over the years. He looked stronger and more stable than he had ever looked, more content. Feeling bad for Harry, she continued more softly. "Listen, I have thought of everything I could think of. This was my last resort. I didn't want to interfere with your peaceful life away from Ron and I, but with is all that I could think of, and I really need your help in saving all those innocent lives."
"Do we get to tell anybody about what we are going to do?" Harry asked quietly, not able to refuse Hermione.
"Yes, I thought Dumbledore, Sirius, and Ron. I don't want too many to know since that would jeopardize the secrecy of the whole thing."
"Ok then, I will do it."
"You will?"
"Yeah," Harry said half-heartedly, knowing he was getting himself into something big.
Hermione jumped up from her chair and started hugging Harry even though he was still sitting down. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. You can not imagine what this means to me."
"Yeah, yeah, no problem." Harry stood up to meet her hug, earlier events pushed out of his head.
A/N-This story is completed ff.net, however it really needs a thorough looking through, fixing typos and stuff. So every day I will post a new chapter to this story and I will hopefully add one of my one shots on top of that.
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