Chapter 9: First Class and More Werewolf Memories
A/n: Hey, all you Grey's Anatomy fans, see if you can spot the "quote" from Grey's even though it was a little manipulated to fit the characters in the story! Actually it's more of a "moment" than a "quote". An online chocolate chip cookie to the winner who can spot it first!!
P.S. And I just wanted to thank my beta, Sage05, she does an awesome job!!
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Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
- `At the Beginning' by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis from the movie Anastasia
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Harry rushed down the corridor, his black robes billowing behind him. He glanced at his watch, and picked up the pace of his walking. The bell signaling the beginning of class rang, causing Harry to swear under his breath. He was not off to a good start that morning, first class of the day and he was already running late. He reached his classroom, and stopped a minute to catch his breath before entering the classroom. With his hand grasping the door handle, he took another deep breath and opened the door, and stepped inside. His seventh years were all congregated around each other's desks talking with each other. When their teacher entered the classroom, however, they stopped talking immediately. Harry moved to the front of the classroom, not looking back at the students that he could feel staring at him.
"Alright everyone, take your seats, let's get started," Harry said when he got to the front of the classroom. "Welcome to seventh year Defense Against the Dark Arts. As you know, I'm Professor Potter, and I look forward to working with you all this year." Harry began handing out the syllabus, continuing to talk as he did so. "I hope we'll have a good year this year, and I know that you and I are only a year apart, but I want you to remember that I am your teacher, and I am not going to put up with any nonsense this year. Any distractions will result in detentions and/or points being docked from your house. Even though I'm not a traditional teacher, that doesn't mean that you don't show me the same respect you would any other teacher," Harry looked from face to face, making sure his point was getting across, his gaze lingering a little on Malfoy and Ginny. Ginny was giving him a smug look, almost as though she thought she was above such rules since she used to date the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
"Oh we'd better tread carefully class, this one's a tough one," Draco said sarcastically. Harry ignored his comment and addressed the class.
"Are there any questions?" About eight hands rose. "Any questions about this class?" Seven of the eight hands went down. "Yes, Miss Davis?"
"Professor, sir, since You-Know-Who is gone, why do we have to take Defense Against the Dark Arts still?"
"Well, first of all, in this class, there'll be none of this You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named rubbish. And in answer to your question, since this is an advanced Defense class, you're all here because the professions you're looking into are still requiring this class for their applicants. And even though Voldemort is dead and gone, doesn't mean that another won't try and take his place," Harry glanced over at Malfoy, whose smug look was replaced by an angry one. "So you'll want to be prepared." The rest of the class went by smoothly, and Harry was feeling confident about how the class was going to be for the year by time the bell rang to signal the change of classes. Harry began getting things ready for his next class when he saw someone standing in front of him out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to see Malfoy standing there, the same angry look he had worn all throughout class.
"What the hell are you trying to say here, Potter?"
"What do you mean Malfoy?"
"I mean you're implying that if another Dark Lord were to rise, that it'd be me."
"Where would you get an idea like that? I never said anything of the sort."
"Imply, Potter, imply!" Malfoy said, raising his voice.
"Well, old habits die hard, Malfoy, you can't deny that."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Malfoy said, raising his voice even more.
"That means, that once a person treats you a certain way and continues to do so; it's hard to change what you think of them. You have given me every reason to believe that you haven't changed, even though the war is over. You want respect, to be seen as who you are, rather than what you were, give me a reason to do so." Malfoy didn't have an answer. "And remember Malfoy, during the battle last year, Ron, Hermione and I saved your hide twice, so don't you think you owe us something in return?" Again Malfoy didn't reply, just turned and left. Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He was about to get up and head to his office, when he saw a red head turn the corner and come into the classroom. It took all Harry's willpower to not roll his eyes and groan in frustration. He did not want to deal with Ginny at the moment. She walked in with a sly smile on her face, and stood blocking the door to Harry's office.
"Hi, Harry. Oops, sorry, Professor."
"What do you want, Ginny?"
"I just wanted to chat, you know, talk."
"Well it better pertain to classes, because I am your teacher."
"Well, I suppose it does pertain to classes, just not this one."
"What then?"
"Hermione didn't seem her usual bossy self yesterday. She seemed a little flustered. Particularly around me. What happened yesterday?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I know something happened yesterday between you two, Harry, otherwise she wouldn't have been so anxious."
"I don't know what you're talking about Ginny, and if I did, it wouldn't be any of your business. Things have changed."
"Things don't have to change, Harry. Professor." Ginny said smoothly, stepping a little closer to Harry.
"They have Ginny, even if I wasn't your teacher, I wouldn't be stupid enough to get involved with you again." Ginny's smile and sexy demeanor disappeared and she looked as though she'd been slapped.
"So that's how it's going to be, Harry? After all we've been through, you're just going to throw it all away like that? Over something silly as a baby and a bushy haired friend?"
"For the last time, this has nothing to do with Hermione, Ginny!"
"Stop trying to deny it, Harry, I'm getting sick of you lying to me, telling me that it has nothing to do with her."
"I'm not trying to deny it, Ginny, I'm telling the truth. And either way, it shouldn't matter to you anymore."
"But it does, Harry. I don't want to see you get hurt when she uses you like she used my brother."
"Get out, Ginny. I'm tired of arguing with you about this. It's none of your business; I am your teacher, not your ex-boyfriend. Please leave now." Ginny rolled her eyes and turned and left.
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After Harry's classes that day, he had some time to kill before Hermione got done teaching so he could tell her about his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with the seventh years. So giving Winky the rest of the afternoon off, he took Teddy to McGonagall's office with Remus's memories in hand to watch with the baby. After getting permission, they poured the memories into the pensieve and stuck their hands in. The first memory they came to was when the Marauders were seventh years. Remus was sitting out on the grounds with Sirius, James and Lily under the tree that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would sit so many times in their days at school. Both Lily and Remus were studying, James was pretending to study, but wasn't really reading anything on the page, and Sirius was scoping out dates.
"Look, Teddy, there's your dad," Harry said, pointing at Remus. Teddy smiled and reached a hand out to the memory of his father as a seventeen year old.
"Prongs, Moony, I need a date for this weekend, it's a Hogsmeade weekend and I don't want to go alone," Sirius said, looking around at the student body congregated outside, enjoying the nice spring day.
"Why do you need their help? Has the list of girls you haven't dated in this school run out of names?" Lily said, looking up from her book.
"No, there'll always be at least one girl on that list, unless you want to fix that, Lily, and go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend," Sirius said, winking.
"Nope, sorry, Sirius, I've already got a date for this weekend."
"Yeah, I know, and your date would kill me if I tried to take you away from him." James grinned.
"I refuse to believe that you've run out of girls to date that you have to ask my girlfriend, Padfoot."
"I know, which is why I am not asking your girlfriend, Prongs, and which is also why I need your help." Just then, two girls were walking by, one blonde, one brunette. Sirius said, "Wait, never mind, I might not need your help, hey, Hailey, Renee, come here!" The girls looked at each other and scowled, but came over anyway. Sirius grinned.
"Good morning ladies."
"No, don't do that. Don't smile at me," Renee said, pointing a finger at Sirius.
"Don't smile at her, don't smile at me either," Hailey said.
"We're on to you."
"Yeah, we've compared notes."
"Compared notes? Really?" Sirius said, slightly confused.
"Compared notes, pick up lines, techniques."
"Techniques," Sirius said, a saucy grin replacing his confused look.
"Identical," Hailey and Renee said at the same time. "And we've formed a club. Seventh Years Against Sirius Black." Sirius looked thoughtful, trying to make it look like the club didn't worry him.
"Are there any club activities?" Both girls scoffed and turned and left. Sirius looked at his friends, who were trying their best not to laugh.
"Darn, too bad they left so soon, I wanted to know if I could join," Lily said, unable to keep from laughing any longer. Sirius threw her a dirty look.
"Seventh Years Against Sirius Black. Sounds interesting, I wonder how fast that'll spread around school," James said, beginning to laugh too, joined in by Remus. Sirius looked dejected.
"Maybe you do need our help after all, Padfoot," Remus said, elbowing Sirius's arm.
The memory changed, Lily, Sirius and Remus were sitting at a small coffee shop in Diagon Alley. They were older than they were in the last memory, but there was only a couple years difference.
"I want to ask you two something. I couldn't decide which one to ask so I'm asking both of you. Since my parents are dead, there's no one to give me away. And I know you're already doing something in the wedding, but I was wondering-"
"Say no more, Lils, we'd be honored to give you away," Remus said. Lily smiled, and tears started to form in her eyes.
"Thank you so much, you have no idea what that means to me."
The next memory was another from seventh year, the Marauders minus Peter were sitting in the common room with Lily and her friend, Holly. They were just sitting around talking, about anything and everything, whatever came to mind.
"Ok, Lils, James, if you two ever have kids, what would you name them?" Holly asked. Lily and James looked at each other and shrugged.
"We hadn't really talked too much about it," James said.
"Knowing James he'll want a James Jr. for a boy or Jamie for a girl," Holly said, smiling at James.
"You say it like that's a bad thing."
"Well, just so you know," Lily said, pointing at James. "I am not naming my son James Jr."
"Why, what's wrong with James Jr.?"
"Everything."
"Why would she name her son James Jr. when the father's name is Sirius? Now Sirius Jr. would be much better," Sirius said, stretching in his chair smugly and then leaning away to dodge a blow to the arm from James.
"Oh yeah," Lily said sarcastically. "That's exactly what I want."
"See Prongs, you gotta give her options she'll like, I mean, who would name their kid James? I mean, come on." James was going to say his comeback, but Lily spoke first.
"Actually, I have thought about this, if we were to get married and have kids I was thinking that if it's a boy, we'd maybe name him Harry James, and if it's a girl, Faith Gabrielle."
"Harry James Potter," James said, trying the name out, "I like it."
"Wait, wait, who said his last name would be Potter?" Lily said with a teasing grin at James. James shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, James, what if his last name was Black or Lupin or something?" Holly said.
"Yeah, what if it is?" Both Sirius and Remus grinned and put their arms around Lily, and stopped quickly when they realized that they both were going to do the same thing. They stared at each other, as if saying, `We can't both have her.'
"Rock paper scissors," Sirius said. Holly laughed.
"Ah, rock paper scissors, the solution to all the Marauder's decisions."
"Damn straight," Sirius said, nodding.
"Yeah, works about thirty percent of the time," Remus said. "Alright, Black, ready?" He and Remus put their fists into their palms.
"One, two, three." Sirius had rock, Remus had paper.
"How do you always win?"
"You always pick rock."
"Ok, best two outta three."
"Nope, I won," Remus said smugly, putting his arm around Lily.
"Fine, then I get Holly."
"No thanks, Sirius," Holly said, and grinned as a thought came to mind and she went and sat on Remus' other side.
Sirius and James looked at each other and Sirius said, "This isn't right."
Teddy squealed and clapped his hands as the memory changed making Harry laugh.
"I take it you're having fun." Teddy clapped his hands and kicked his feet and his hair turned orange. The new memory was another one from after the Marauders plus Lily were out of school. James, Sirius and Remus were seated around a table, empty plates in front of them, apparently waiting for dinner. Lily came from the kitchen carrying a big bowl full of pasta. She set it down in the middle of the table and took a seat between James and Remus. She then dished up the Chicken Fettuccini for everyone and looked around expectantly, waiting for someone to take the first bite.
"Well? Aren't you guys going to eat?" Sirius looked down at the pasta on his plate.
"I can't, I'm scared. This is a Lily Evans cooking concoction. It might be fatal." Lily rolled her eyes.
"Just give it a chance, Sirius, you might like it." James looked at the pasta warily, and picked at it with his fork.
"Hmm, it looks like food," He leaned down and took in the scent. "Smells like food…"
"And if you taste it, you'll find it tastes like food," Lily said as though talking to a two year old.
"I'm going to have to agree with Sirius," James said, setting his fork down. "I'm too scared to try it."
"I thought the Marauders were fearless."
"We may be fearless, Lils, but we do stay away from potential death."
"Yeah right," Lily scoffed.
"We do, seriously," Sirius said.
"Hmm, and what would you call wandering around the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade every full moon?" The three Marauders grinned.
"An adventure." Lily rolled her eyes. Remus decided to be the brave one and take the first bite. He spun the pasta on his fork and looked at it cautiously.
He looked at his friends and said, "I want a nice funeral." Lily smacked him on the arm and rolled her eyes again. Remus took a bite, and when he swallowed, Sirius reached over for Remus's wrist and took his pulse.
"I think he's going to be ok. Surprisingly."
"Wow, you guys' confidence in me is overwhelming," Lily said sarcastically. Soon after, James and Sirius began eating too.
"Wow, Lils, this is really good. Where did you learn to cook?"
"My mother has been teaching my sister and me how to cook over the last few summers. She said that since we're going to be on our own soon that we needed to know how to cook. One of my specialties became Chicken Fettuccini."
Sirius took another bite and said with his mouth full, "James, marry her." James laughed.
"I might do that."
"Seriously, if you don't, I will."
"Yeah, like that'll happen, Sirius," Lily said with a laugh.
"Why not, with me you'd be ten times more satisfied than with Prongs here."
"Eh, I don't know about that."
"Have you ever talked to a girl I've dated where she hasn't been satisfied?"
"No, but then, I try to make it a point not to converse with your old girlfriends, because I don't want my I.Q. to drop a few points, because they'd have to have pretty low intelligence to want to date you-" Lily had a hard time finishing what she was saying for her laughter was beginning to be too much to hold in, and so was Remus and James'. Sirius threw Lily a dirty look.
"You just don't know what you're missing, Lily."
"Well, I just have to take your word for it, Sirius."
Harry looked down at Teddy as the next memory was changing. The child would blink slowly, a sign that he was getting sleepy. Harry held tight to Teddy as they rose up out of the pensieve, and by the time that they reached Harry's apartment, Teddy was fast asleep. Hermione was sitting in the living room when Harry and Teddy came in, and she smiled when she saw them.
"Someone's worn out. What were you two up to?"
"We were watching more of Remus's memories," Harry said as he put Teddy down in his crib. "There were some good ones. Did you know that my grandparents on Mum's side died before she and Dad got married, and so Remus and Sirius gave her away?"
"Really? That's sweet."
"Yeah, and Sirius used to catch a lot of hell from the rest of the Marauders and my mum. And in their seventh year, all the girls formed a club called Seventh Years Against Sirius Black."
"Ouch," Hermione said, laughing. "Poor Sirius. So how'd today go?"
"It went alright. I had a couple conversations with two students that I could've done without."
"Let me guess, Malfoy and Ginny."
"Yep. Malfoy accused me of implying that he'll become the next Dark Lord, and Ginny was trying to pour on the charm for me. She also wanted to know why her Transfiguration teacher seemed so flustered yesterday." Hermione shifted uneasily in her chair.
"What did you tell her?"
"I avoided the question, telling her that it shouldn't matter to her, it wasn't any of her business. Which it isn't." Hermione nodded. Harry went on saying, "I think we need to talk about yesterday morning."
"Yeah, I think so too."
A/n: And…end chapter. :D Don't you just love me for leaving it there? *Ducks behind chair* Don't worry, chapter 10 is in the making, I finally figured out what else I'm going to put into the chapter after Harry and Hermione have their conversation. So hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you thought!
Husker_fan_2006
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