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Disclaimer: Harry Potter and other canon characters belong to JKR I'm only having some fun
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and other canon characters belong to JKR I'm only having some fun



Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review my story and encourage me. Now on with the tale.



Chapter 15 Classes Begin.



Gryffindor Common Room



As the Staff were meeting in Dumbledore's office, the Lion's Den (officially the Gryffindor Common Room), was in an uproar, Harry had had his back slapped so many times he could feel his muscles begin to protest, everyone from second to seventh year wanted to congratulate him on the way he had stood up to Snape. The first years had been told some highly colourful (but fairly accurate) tales of Harry's adventures at Hogwarts and some of the Muggleborn were starting to wonder if they'd made the right decision in saying yes to their invitation to attend Hogwarts.



The Creevey brother's hero-worship of Harry was noticed by the first year boys, who on the whole found it to be a bit strange, that and a mishearing of them being introduced, led to Colin and Dennis being nicknamed the Creepy brothers, when one of the older students overheard the first years talking about them.



In all the hubbub Harry and Hermione had spotted a first year girl sitting in a corner on her own, she looked terrified by all that was going on around her, they slipped from the group and went over to sit by her.



"Hi, I'm Hermione and this is Harry." She made the introductions. "What's your name?"



The girl blushed deeply and spoke hesitantly. "I'm Fay, eh, I'm new here."



"Yes, we know" said Harry. "We were new here once, it seems a long time ago now. I was really scared when I came here, I didn't know anything about magic, or Hogwarts when I came."



"But, but, but you're Harry Potter, everyone says you're very brave and a powerful wizard and that you can do anything."



"Well maybe not anything, but I know lots of magic now, but when I first came here I was a scared little boy. All I had ever done was some accidental magic, and my guardians punished me for it."



"I don't know if I'll be able to learn anything. Some of the people on the train said I was a stupid Mudblood and stupid Mudbloods didn't deserve to learn magic and that I'd be better off not coming to Hogwarts. They said the Dark Lord would get me." At this point Fay started to cry, big tears formed in the corner of her eyes.



Harry pulled her onto his knee and let the little girl cry while he cuddled her, telling her not to worry and told her to tell him or Hermione if anyone called her a Mudblood again. Hermione meanwhile had gone up to her dorm and picked a sleeping Crookshanks off her bed and went back downstairs.



"Fay," she asked, "Did you bring a pet with you?"



"No, mummy is allergic to animal hair and feathers, so I couldn't get a cat or an owl."



"Well this is my cat, his name is Crookshanks, I've told him to sleep on your bed tonight to keep you company, if you want to speak to me, tell him to come and get me."



"He's lovely." Said Fay as she petted the half-Kneazle, "Will he really understand me if I ask him to get you?"



Crookshanks purred and moved his head until Fay was stroking the bit he wanted stroked and then settled himself on her knee.



"Yes," said Hermione "He is a special type of cat called a Kneazle, well actually a half-Kneazle and he will understand what you say to him."



Just then the prefects announced it was bedtime for the first and second years. Harry gave Fay another hug and said he would see her in the morning. The next thing he knew was that another first year girl had hugged him followed by another and before he knew it all the first and second year girls had hugged him goodnight.



Lavender Brown walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Harry, if I cry because I'm homesick, will you give me a hug too?" she asked trying but failing to keep a straight face and humour from her voice.



"Only with Hermione's permission and if you sign a disclaimer." Replied Harry.



Lavender mock pouted, "She'll never give permission, I wish I was a firstie again" she said and stamped her feet in a mock tantrum.



Ever with an eye for an opportunity Dean spoke up. "I'll hug you anytime you want" and raised his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.



"Oooh, I might just take you up on that" she flirted back.



Some of the boys looked at each other and very soon after bets were being taken as to which one of them would seduce the other first, rumours of the active 'social' life they both were supposed to lead were rife round the school.



Colin and Dennis had watched Harry comfort the first year girl and had both been extremely jealous, and had cursed the fact that they were male and too old to have been included in the hugs. They had however taken photos of the hugging session.



Harry had been aware of the camera flashes and had planned on dealing with it. When Colin and Dennis wandered off to their new darkroom he told Hermione about what had happened.



First year girls dorm.



Fay suddenly found that the other four girls in the room wanted to speak to her, they wanted to know about Crookshanks, who was basking in the attention of the five young witches, but most of all they wanted to know about Harry Potter.



Fay didn't say much, only that Harry had told her about how frightened he'd been on his first day at Hogwarts and that he'd hugged her when she'd cried. She got ready for bed and crawled beneath the covers, Crookshanks rumbling purr eased her and her new friends off to sleep.



The Darkroom.



As part of their spying deal Dumbledore had organised a darkroom in Gryffindor Tower, all the Gryffs were welcome to use it, but the reality was, most of the other students preferred to send their film off to be developed.



The Creepys (sorry Creeveys) finished off printing their photos and hung them up to dry, they were thrilled by the results, each photo showed Harry giving one of the first or second years a goodnight hug. There were also several of him sitting comforting Fay.



Ten minutes after the Creeveys (sorry Creepys, no, I was right the first time) left, Harry and Hermione entered the room after checking it for detection wards. They had found one on the door, recognising the ward was one that would only pick up human forms, they had changed into their wolf forms and entered the room, immediately changing back to human.



They inspected all the photos and got to work, each one was permanently charmed to show Harry speaking to each first and second year girl, the hugs were edited out. They knew that Harry had done nothing against school rules but also knew that the photos could be manipulated to cause trouble for him.



Sixth year girls dorm.



When Hermione entered her dorm she was confronted by her room-mates.



"Okay, Granger, spill the beans, what's he like"



Hermione just smiled as she walked over and started getting ready for bed. As she slipped her clothes off, she heard the other girls gasp as they saw no tan-lines and turned to them and said "Abso-bloody-lutely fantastic, and his tan matches mine"



She pulled on one of the silk nighties that Harry had bought her and said "Goodnight girls, sweet dreams"



Gradually her room-mates got ready for bed, all of them envious of her tan and her luck at snagging Harry Potter, but vowing to uphold the Gryffindor Girls code.



First day.



The next morning at 06:30, Harry was standing outside the main doors going through his limbering up exercises, at 06:45 he was running round the Quidditch Pitch, at 07:45 as he re-entered the main doors he was confronted by Snape.



"Potter, fifty points off for being out of bounds"



"Excuse me, sir, but when was I out of bounds?"



"You were out of the Castle before breakfast."



"But, sir, I wasn't out of bounds, there is nothing in the rules that says I can't go running outside before breakfast, is there? I'll check with Professor McGonagall if you don't mind, if you're correct I'll accept my punishment."



"Oh forget it" snapped Snape and marched off with his robes billowing behind him.



'I really need to learn how to do that' thought Harry as he hurried upstairs to shower before breakfast.



When he got back to the common room after his shower, he was surprised by the scene that met him, all the first year girls were waiting for him with Hermione.



Hermione gave him a quick cuddle and a peck on the cheek and whispered. "We may have created a monster"



Harry just smiled and asked Fay to introduce everyone to him. "This is Megan, Rose, Dilys and Gita, they're all new as well."



"Hi, I'm Harry and this is my girlfriend, Hermione." He looked down at Crookshanks who was weaving in and out of everyone's legs. "And the furball down there is Crookshanks, in case you haven't met him."



Before he had finished speaking Crookshanks had ran up his robes and cuffed him on the ear.



"As you can see he doesn't like being insulted, now who wants breakfast?"



Harry and Hermione led the girls down to the Great Hall for breakfast and they sat together at the table. If they had been looking round at the other tables they would have seen the jealous looks that the other first year girls (and a good proportion of the older ones) were sending the way of the first year Gryffindor girls.



A murmur of excitement passed through the room followed by the sound of flapping wings, the Owl Post had arrived. Hedwig swooped down and landed on Harry's shoulder, she had no mail, but as was her habit, had decided to pay her master a visit.



The five girls looked on in amazement as Hedwig preened at Harry's hair and nibbled on his ear. Harry fed her some bacon and let her drink some of his pumpkin juice.



Hermione spoke quietly. "This is Hedwig, girls, she's Harry's owl, and she's the smartest owl I've ever met. She used to turn up at my house when I had a letter to send to Harry, if Harry is writing a letter she shows up as he finishes it. Most post owls wait in the Owlery for you to go to them."



Hedwig seemed to puff herself out at Hermione's words of praise, Harry handed each girl an owl treat and told them how to feed them to Hedwig, who graciously accepted each one and softly nibbled the fingers of each girl.



Professor McGonagall watched the interaction between Harry, Hermione and the new Gryffindor girls and smiled wryly to herself. /"They may not be prefects but they're still doing the job" /she thought to herself, then putting on what she called her 'battle face' she went off to hand out the students timetables.



As she passed down the table handing out the timetables she whispered her thanks to Harry and Hermione as she passed them. Then loudly enough for everyone sitting around them to hear said.



"Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, please meet me in my office straight after breakfast." And with that strode back to the Head table.


McGonagall's Office.


Ten minutes later Harry and Hermione found themselves being invited to sit at the coffee table in Professor McGonagall's office and being offered a cup of tea. While Harry cast a silencing charm on the painting hanging on the wall, Hermione cast a detection charm on all the liquids in the tea service.



McGonagall stared at them but before she could speak Harry spoke first. "Ma'am, I'd like to apologise for our actions, but Professor Dumbledore has been trying to manipulate us all summer. He has tried to cast tracking charms on us and has sent members of the Order of the Phoenix to anywhere we have been reported to have been seen. It's made us a little cautious."



"Cautious, hmph, if I didn't know better I'd say you've been hanging around Mad-Eye for too long, if either of you starts drinking out of a hipflask, but that's beside the point, why did you turn down the prefect's posts? They are yours by right, don't think I didn't notice you taking the first year girls under your wing, I expect the boys will have joined them by lunchtime."



Hermione answered. "Professor Dumbledore has treated both of us quite badly this summer, he more or less told me if I didn't break up with Harry I'd never be Head Girl, his price was too high."



Harry continued. "I found out early this summer that he had placed me with the Dursleys against my parent's wishes, and that he'd known that Pettigrew was their Secret Keeper, not Sirius. He knew that Sirius was innocent and let him rot in Azkaban."



"He also withheld knowledge of my father's Will from me, only some ancient law prevented me from having him in front of the Wizengamot for breaching the terms of it. He also put his own place-men in charge of my Family Trust and tried to con me out of what Sirius left me."



Minerva McGonagall was not an easy lady to shock, over her eighty plus years she thought she'd seen it all, but to have the few remaining illusions she had about Dumbledore be torn down left her reeling, but still not sure about who to believe.



"Professor, as you know the memories in a Pensieve can't be altered, although they are subjective as they are from the point of view of the person sharing the memory. I would be happy to share my memories with you, but only if you take an oath not to share them with anyone without my permission."



"Let me think about it for a few days, Mr. Potter, I can see I'll need to use my Occlumency skills to hide the information you've given me."



Harry went as pale as a ghost, "You know Occlumency?" Professor McGonagall nodded. "Why didn't Dumbledore get you to teach me instead of Professor Snape?"



Minerva frowned, "Professor Snape was teaching you Occlumency? I thought he was giving you remedial potions?"



"That was a cover story they dreamt up to explain why I needed to visit Professor Snape in his classroom outwith school hours, all that happened was that Malfoy and company had something else to use as a weapon against me."



The conversation was drawn to a close as they heard the bell signalling the end of the period. Minerva certainly had plenty to think through as she made her way to her classroom for her first encounter with her first year class, Gryffindor/Slytherin, why did Albus insist on pairing up these two Houses.


Defence Classroom.


As his first lesson of the year drew to a close Professor Snape allowed himself a self-satisfied smile/, 'it has been a wonderful start,' he thought to himself 'The fifth-year Gryffindor/Ravenclaw class, two Ravenclaw girls had fainted and the Creevey brat had pissed himself, at this rate I'll have all the first years passed out with fright.'/



He started planning for his next class, sixth year D.A.D.A., he had raised the bar trying to keep out as many students as possible by setting an entry standard of an Outstanding grade in O.W.L. level Defence. He was highly disappointed to realise that a large proportion of the class came from the other three Houses, only Nott and Zabini had qualified from Slytherin. He was even more disappointed when he realised that a few others, none Slytherin, had achieved the necessary grade but had opted out of his class.



He watched as the students made their way into class, he had determined to bring the Potter brat down a peg or two right at the start of the year, so far it was 2 - 0 Potter, he would even that out a bit.



As Harry entered the class he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, he saw, as if in slow motion, Snape draw his wand and start to fire a curse at him, he pushed Hermione one direction and rolled the other way watching as the curse flew out the door and ricocheted down the corridor. He heard a scream echoing through the castle and immediately exited the classroom to see what had happened.



Half way down the corridor he found a third year Hufflepuff surrounded by some of his housemates lying nursing a bleeding arm. He got two of them to escort their injured friend to the Hospital Wing and made his way back into the class, his wand tucked up the sleeve of his robe, ready for instant use.



"Potter, twenty points from Gryffindor and one night's detention with Mr. Filch for leaving a class without permission, and that one is in the book" smirked Snape. "Oh and another twenty points off for your pathetic display of defensive technique."



"Now everyone, what did Potter do wrong when I cast a curse at him?"



Hands flew up, but Snape was shocked, Granger's hand stayed down.



"Well, Ms. Granger, no words of wisdom to impart? Have we found something you don't know the answer to? Speak up, girl."



"I don't think Harry was wrong in how he acted." She replied. "you fired a curse in our direction, he didn't know what it was or who it was aimed at and therefore couldn't guarantee shielding against it, so dodging it was the most effective defence."



Snape looked round and saw that apart from Nott and Zabini everyone seemed to be in agreement with Granger.



"Well, let's see who's right, Potter, Nott, front and centre. Five minutes duelling, nothing that will cause permanent injury, Potter, no shields, dodging only. Nott, use shields."



The two boys faced off against each other, Nott with the archetypal Pureblood sneer on his face, Harry looked relaxed.



"After three, gentlemen, one, two,"



On two, Nott fired his first curse as he had been told to when the duel had been set up the previous night. The plan was to probe Potter's skills to allow them to report back to their Master.



Harry's reflexes were razor sharp, during his training with the Unspeakables he had been expected to be prepared for curses, jinxes and hexes to be cast at him without warning and in the most innocent of settings. He reacted without hesitation and rolled out the way coming back to his feet with his wand already moving as he cast his first spell. "Lumos Maximus" and aimed it at Nott's eyes.



Nott raised a Protego shield but the Lumos blasted through it but for some reason it was deflected away from his face at the last second. Sitting on the front row of the classroom Blaise Zabini felt the tip of a wand pressing against his neck.



"Drop it quietly, pretty boy" hissed Hermione "or you'll be the last of the Zabini line."



Blaise looked round, what he thought was Granger's wand was being held by what's her name? Braun? No Brown, and Granger's wand was pointing between his legs. Discretion being the best part of valour he dropped his wand to the floor, he heard a snapping sound and heard Longbottom say "Oops, clumsy me, I'm sure some Spellotape will fix it."



Meanwhile Harry continued to dodge increasingly more vicious spells from Nott, some of them verging on being outwith the terms of the duel, Nott was tiring but Harry still had energy in reserve, he had been pulling his spells, even his first one. When he saw the next hex coming at him he ran toward it and flipped over it landing behind Nott. As he landed he cast a Stupefy followed by an Incarcerous as Nott fell to the floor. He bent down and picked up Nott's wand and handed it to their Professor.



The rest of the lesson went smoothly, apart from Neville being handed a detention and being docked points when he admitted 'accidentally' breaking Zabini's wand. He lost more points when he pointed out that if Zabini hadn't been clumsy and dropped his wand it wouldn't have been broken.


Dumbledore's Office, Lunchtime.


Professor Sprout and Madame Pomfrey were facing off against Dumbledore.



"The man's a menace" shouted Sprout, "He endangered a student by firing a curse through a classroom door, he could have killed someone. Do something about him or I'll take it to the Board."



"If that curse hadn't lost energy by hitting off the walls Mr. Costello could have lost an arm, or worse. I can re-grow bones but I can't re-grow limbs, rein him in."



Professor McGonagall entered. "Albus, our so-called Defence Professor cast a silent Diffindo at a student as he entered the Defence classroom, it's only by sheer luck it didn't hit him. If it had we could have been looking at a serious injury or even a death."



"Who reported this?" demanded Dumbledore.



"The entire sixth year N.E.W.T. class except Potter, Granger, Nott and Zabini. It was fired at Potter or Granger by the way, it was so badly aimed that no one could tell which of them it was aimed at."



Dumbledore felt a migraine coming on especially as he saw Professor Flitwick enter his office.



"Dumbledore, do something about that poor excuse for a Defence Professor pdq. Two of my fifth year girls were so scared in his class they fainted, and sorry to bring this up, Deputy Headmistress, but one of your fifth year boys, Creepy, the one with the camera, was so scared he pissed himself. Either he goes or I'll withdraw my entire House from his classes and teach them myself."



Dumbledore felt the tic start in the corner of his left eye, his world was collapsing in about him, he'd always managed to keep his staff a little wary of each other, convincing each one that all the others favoured their own Houses, now they were uniting and it looked like it was a choice between Snape going or an inquiry by the School Board, not wanting to lose his pet Death Eater he tried to reach a compromise.



"I'll talk to Severus and tell him to tone it down." He said. "now is that everything? Can we go to lunch now?"



"I don't think that will work," said Sprout. "Mr. Costello's father is a journalist with WWN (Wizarding Wireless News), if the story got out it would be bad for the school if you took no action."



Dumbledore's tic went into overdrive, the Prophet he could manipulate, or rather had been able to manipulate, but he had no hold over the WWN.


Flashback


The day following Harry's visit to the editor of the Prophet, Dumbledore looked at the headline of his newspaper.


Rita Skeeter Guilty of Defamation.


The Editors of the Daily Prophet would like to apologise to Mr. Harry Potter for the scurrilous articles written by former Investigative Reporter Rita Skeeter.



An in depth investigation by our Editor-In-Chief has discovered that Ms. Skeeter used her abilities as an unregistered Animagus to spy on Mr. Potter and his friends during the Triwizard Tournament and also used a Quick Quotes Quill which she had charmed to misquote anyone she interviewed.



We have also discovered that she was paid by someone from Minister Fudge's office to write defamatory articles about Mr. Potter when he tried to warn us that Lord V***t had returned.



Ms. Skeeter has been fined by the D.M.L.E. to a sum of twice the amount of money she received for writing her articles and has had her Animagus ability suppressed for a period not to exceed five years.



While she will continue to work for this newspaper she has stated a desire to write a good housekeeping column.



Once again we apologise to Mr. Potter for any distress caused by our reporters less than professional conduct.


End Flashback

The Great Hall.


Severus Snape sat at the Head Table and wondered where his fellow Head's of House were, although staff weren't obliged to eat lunch in the Great Hall, they usually did unless they were setting up special lessons for afternoon classes, it was really unusual for all three of them to be missing.



He looked round the room and as usual his eyes fell on Potter and Granger, there they were, surrounded by first years, it had been bad enough at breakfast when a group of idolising girls had been sitting with them but now they had been joined by a group of boys as well, disgusting, what perversion was Potter up to with those gullible young students?



He was suddenly aware that Potter's eyes were on him, and tried to break eye contact but found he couldn't, he wasn't aware of it, but very subtlety Harry was probing his mind. Harry found the information he was looking for and withdrew his probe, Nott and Zabini were Voldemort's spies, the other three were set up to distract him.



Harry turned to the first year boys and joined in the conversation, he suppressed a laugh when they referred to the Creepy brothers but didn't bother to correct them, someone else could do that later.



The three missing Heads of House made their way to the Head table, as she passed him the Deputy Headmistress whispered in his ear. "Severus, please go to the Headmaster's office immediately."



He took a last drink from his glass and swept out, his robes billowing behind him.



/'I really, really need to learn how to do that' /thought Harry.


Dumbledore's Office.


After his four colleagues had left Dumbledore had poured himself a glass of Ogden's tension reliever and planned his course of action, somehow he knew Potter had a hand in the morning's events, /'I need to get something on that boy so I can get him back under control.' /His train of thought (a very slow goods train) was broken by Snape entering his office.



"Severus, my boy," he said gravely "I'm very sorry but I've had several complaints against you this morning."



"Potters a liar" started Snape.



"It wasn't Potter, it was the three other Heads of House and Madame Pomfrey. All the sixth years in your Defence class apart from Nott, Zabini, Granger and Potter complained to Minerva about you, two fifth years complained to Flitwick. The third year you hit with the curse is the son of a journalist on the WWN, if I don't remove you, the Board will, and me along with you. Please pack your things and leave by five p.m. tonight."



Snape hung his head, he had let Potter beat him, it was all that brat's fault, well at least he had the money from when he was on the Potter Trust, knowing that it came from Potter made it all the sweeter.



The remainder of the school day went smoothly, after dinner Harry met up with Filch for his detention. They spent the two hours discussing Snape's dismissal and Filch said he would alert the Unspeakables to the fact. Meanwhile in Dumbledore's office he was having a discussion with Kingsley Shacklebolt.



"Well, what do you think," said Dumbledore. "You've taught at the Auror Academy, do you think you could handle Hogwarts students?"



"No problem." Replied the large Auror. "Anyway, I owe Potter one, and now I get my chance, and I'll make sure I don't make Snape's mistakes, I know how to cover my back."


Gryffindor Common Room


When Harry got back into the common room he found himself being congratulated again, he had heard the story of Lavender and Neville's intervention but hadn't got a chance to thank them. Those who hadn't heard the whole tale suddenly gathered round the two new heroes questioning them about what had happened.



Colin and Dennis were missing, Colin because the tale of him wetting himself had spread as fast as the urine stain on his trousers, and Dennis because the two of them had decided to sort through last night's photos. When they looked at them they were truly puzzled, but put it down to them not remembering what they'd shot, never thinking that their work had been tampered with.



With five minutes to spare before their bedtime Harry joined Hermione and the first years, he caught the end of her speech exhorting them to study hard and play hard as well. Harry sat down and agreed with her, and both agreed to tutor anyone who wanted some help. That night the first year boys all got a hug from Hermione as the girls hugged Harry.



When the common room eventually emptied, Harry and Hermione had some time together, they really missed the close contact they'd enjoyed most of the summer and agreed that they needed to find a way to get have some private time.