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The next day was Quidditch. Harry, who had, due to the Triwizard Tournament in his fourth year and being given a lifetime ban fifth year, had only played one game in the last two years, and so he was eager to get back onto the pitch. No one had dared challenge Harry for his position at Seeker, so he was left to begin searching for the snitch on his own while the Beaters tried out for the two spots on the team. While Harry flew Katie admired Ron’s new broom, which was designed with features that made the life of a keeper much better. Among other things, it was sturdy, and could be balanced without a hand on the handle. Eventually the beaters were finished, with the spots going Seamus Finnegan and, surprisingly, Colin Creevey. Harry landed to watch Ron tryout, and was a bit interested to see how his best friend would perform. He had played terribly for the majority of last year, but had ended the season spectacularly. Harry hoped that confidence would continue this year, and was pleased to see Ron save nine out of ten goals, easily beating out Cormic McLaggen, who saved six of ten. Finally it was time for the Chasers to begin their tryout. Harry was less concerned about this tryout, as Ginny was too good of a flyer not to make the team. As he expected, Ginny performed outstandingly. Harry was putting his broom away he heard Katie fawning over Ginny’s new Firebolt.


“You were together for 5 weeks and he gets you a Firebolt?” said Katie disbelieving. “He’s a keeper, are you sure that you don’t want to share?”


“Yes, I’m certain. I already have to fend off Remilda Vane. I was ready to hex the twins when I heard they sold her a love potion. Apparently they didn’t know who the intended target was until after they made the sell,” said Ginny.


“I know now not to eat or drink anything that has been left unattended, but if she finds out how to get into the kitchens I’m in trouble,” said Harry, joining the conversation. “The twins are brewing me an antidote, but that won’t be ready for a couple of days. I have Dobby keeping an eye on my food until then.”


The rest of the first week back at Hogwarts was relatively uneventful In Potions they started brewing Veritserum, which took a month to complete. In Defense they finished working on the Patronus Charm. Much to McGonagall’s pleasure, Harry was still finding human transfiguration to be relatively easy. In Care of Magical Creatures Hagrid was wrapping up his unit on the care of Phoenixes, and in Charms the class was soon to begin learning how to animate objects, a skill Harry was most interested to learn after having seen Dumbledore put it to good use in his duel against Voldemort. On Monday morning Harry nervously paced the Defense classroom as his first class, the sixth years, entered. Once the large class was settled in Harry sighed and began.


“I only have a few rules for when I’m teaching. First, when speaking about Voldemort,” started Harry, pausing to allow the students to gasp at the name. “You will use his name. If you do not feel comfortable saying Voldemort, then use his birth name, Tom Riddle. If I hear anyone call him You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named they will lose five points. Anyone who calls him the Dark Lord will lose ten points.”


“That’s unfair. You’re being biased against Slytherins,” protested Malfoy.


“I have more of a reason to be afraid of him and his name than anyone else in this room, so if I can say the name than you all should be able to as well. Those who call Voldemort the Dark Lord will receive a harsher punishment because that is how the Death Eaters refer to Voldemort. And, for the record, not all Death Eaters were in Slytherin. In fact, the one man who repulses me more than Voldemort was in Gryffindor, though I have no idea how, as he represents the exact opposite of everything Gryffindor stands for,” said Harry.


“Who’s that?” said Dean Thomas. “How could anyone be more repulsive than him?”


“A man by the name of Peter Pettigrew. I find him more repulsive than Voldemort because he betrayed his closest friends in order to protect himself. This led to the deaths of two people who trusted him with their lives and who would have undoubtedly died before they even considered betraying Pettigrew. On top of that, he framed another one of his close friends for his own crimes. But, that is a personal vendetta of mine, so I don’t expect anyone else to find him more heinous than his master. However, if I teach you nothing else this year, I want to impress upon you the importance of friends and family. If not for my family, both those related to me by blood and those who are my family in everyway but blood, I would be dead several times over. They are the strength of our side, Voldemort’s biggest weakness is his inability to understand that fact,” said Harry.


“The Dark Lord has friends that are as close as family,” argued Malfoy.


“Yes, I was there when Voldemort said that his Death Eaters are his true family. Any guesses as to what he did immediately afterwards to a member of his “family”?” asked Harry. No one answered. “He used the Cruciatus Curse on one of his Death Eaters. You see, he does not know the meaning of the word family. Love is one of the few things we have that Voldemort cannot hope to posses. Voldemort has no friends, no family, only servants. By the way, Draco, that’s ten points from Slytherin for using the term Dark Lord”


“You can’t do that!” disputed Malfoy.


“Actually, I just did. By all means protest to your Head of House. I’m sure he’ll be most sympathetic. However, you will both find that I am entirely within my rights to remove points,” said Harry. “My second rule is that I will not, under any circumstances tolerate any prejudice against those of us with muggle heritage. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of certain epithets, or alluding to someone being unworthy to study magic. Anyone who insults someone because of that person’s heritage will lose a hundred points and serve a weeks worth of detention. Are there any questions?”


“How many times have you faced Riddle?” asked Terry Boot.


“I have seen Voldemort in one form or another five times, not counting the night my parents were murdered,” answered Harry. “Anyone else?”


As there were no further questions, Harry had the class pair up and begin dueling. They reviewed the Stunning Spell, Impediment jinx and various other spells. Next Harry had the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years, who seemed a little in awe of their teacher. He had them all practice the Body Bind and Leg Locker curses. After the first years came Hufflepuff and Slytherin third years. Every class he had pair up and duel after he had reviewed some basic spells and given a demonstration, usually with two students, though for his sixth and seventh years he had asked a student come up and test their skills against him. His last class of the day was with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff fifth years. That time, he had Ginny duel him for the demonstration.


“First, we bow,” instructed Harry. The couple exchange spells in a duel that ended with Harry desperately trying to fend off a hoard of Bat Bogey’s, which Ginny called off once he conceded the duel.


The class ended eventually, and so Harry went down to the Chamber, where he watched his other classes thanks to Hermione, who had put them into his Penseive. He just barely got done with this in time to get back into the common room before curfew, only to remember that he was a teacher and needed to go on patrol that night. Harry opened up the Marauder’s Map, which would allow him to keep watch over Trelawney and Malfoy. He also could use the map to see if there were any students out of bed at night, but decided that it would be a terrible insult to his father and Sirius’s memories if he used their invention to catch rule breakers as opposed to aiding them. That night, Harry was to patrol the area around the Whomping Willow and the Forbidden Forest. Harry removed the intruder charm from the tunnel under the willow, since Lupin would be using it on Wednesday. Once that was done he paced the area, keeping an eye on his map. Harry soon stopped pacing and focused his attention on the Divination Professor, who was walking rather erratically down the halls. The Professor left the castle and went towards the path that the students took on Hogsmeade weekends. Trelawney had no idea of how much danger she was in, and judging by the way her dot was staggering across the map she was much too drunk to defend herself anyway, so Harry used his map to ask Fred and George to keep an eye on the intoxicated Seer. The rest of the night passed uneventfully. Harry was able to finish his patrol at about one, which allowed him to catch some sleep before his classes the next day.


“When I call your name for roll, I want you to tell me what, in your opinion, if Voldemort’s greatest weapon,” said Harry to his Sixth Year NEWT class the next morning. Harry received a rather narrow range of responses, which included all three Unforgivable Curses. Hermione, unsurprisingly, had the most well thought out response, answering that Voldemort’s mind was his greatest weapon.


“Those are all good answers, and Voldemort does indeed use all of those to great effect. Hermione, you came the closest. Voldemort’s greatest weapon is fear,” said Harry.


“What? Sure the man is frightening but it’s not like he can scare you to death,” said Zacharias Smith incredulously.


“Do you doubt that Voldemort uses fear to his advantage? Why do you think the Ministry was so reluctant to admit that he had returned at the end of the Triwizard Tournament? There is a reason Voldemort waited to begin killing people. When he first returned to his body Voldemort couldn’t fight the kind of full-scale war he is fighting now because he didn’t have the manpower. Fudge had the chance to cut Voldemort off at the knees, to severely limit his capacity to create the terror that we are seeing everyday. Why didn’t he do it? Because Fudge was afraid of what Voldemort’s return would mean for his administration. Voldemort used the fear people have of him to scare the Minister into inaction. Once the world was presented with two scenarios, one where Voldemort had returned and another where he didn’t, they chose to believe the latter because, again, of the fear Voldemort’s name brings to us,” lectured Harry. “Another thing to consider; why do you think so many people join Voldemort? They don’t do it out of loyalty and while almost all of them do believe the muggleborns are scum that is not the main reason. Most of them do it because they believe that Voldemort will take over and are afraid that if they do not ally themselves with him they will be killed. These are the Death Eaters that claimed they were under the Imperious Curse when the first war in ended and then came running back when Voldemort returned.”


“Are you saying that we shouldn’t fear him?” asked Susan Bones.


“Of course not. You would have to be insane not to fear him. The key is how we let that fear affect us. We can either let that fear lead us into decisive action to reduce the threat and punish those responsible, or we can let the fear bread cowardice and allow Voldemort to manipulate us with the fear we have of him. Things like being afraid to say his name plays right into Voldemort’s hand,” clarified Harry.


With his Ministry bashing speech out of the way, Harry again paired the class up and had them review shield spells. They began with the basic Protego and eventually moved on to some of the more powerful shields that Harry had learnt over the summer. Overall Harry’s classes were a hit and students were often heard discussing, among other things, how it was that Harry had acquired his knowledge of Defense and if it meant that he was the Chosen One and was gearing up for a battle with Voldemort. Harry was pleased with his classes progress and proud to say his students rarely flinched when they heard the name, though they hesitated to say it and generally felt more comfortable referring to him as Tom Riddle. While Harry enjoyed teaching, he was glad when Lupin returned that Saturday night. Between duties as Professor, keeping up with his other classes in his Penseive, Quidditch practice as well as running the New Order Harry’s time was being stretched very thin. Thankfully, he was not forced to completely cut off his time with Ginny, as usually she would sit with him while he worked on homework and occasionally joined him in the Penseive while he watched his classes.


“Your classes have caught the Ministry’s attention, Potter,” informed Professor McGonagall after Quidditch practice Sunday.


“How so?” asked Harry.


“Apparently they’re concerned that you’re slandering the Minister. They are trying to convince Professor Dumbledore to rein you in some,” said the Animagus.


“Fudge isn’t going to interfere ate Hogwarts again is he?” said Harry, rubbing his hand where one could still clearly read “I must not tell lies.”


“He might try, but he’d never be able to get away with what he did last year. That plus he seems afraid of you. I would imagine that he would be little more than a nuisance,” said McGonagall. “I’ve heard very positive reviews from the students about your teaching. My only hope is that you don’t fall too far behind in your other classes. I’ve been impressed with your work so far.”


“Learning is a matter of life and death for me now,” said Harry, blushing slightly. Praise was never something he was used to.


“I should head to my office. Good practice, Potter. I look forward to seeing the Quidditch Cup in my office once more,” said the Head of House.


As Harry was no longer able to wander the halls at night, he again had to cast the Intruder Alarms on the tunnel while the twins cast the same charms on the Shrieking Shack. Harry worked on the homework that he had missed and when he was done with that helped Ginny with hers. Eventually, Neville and the rest of the New Order entered the Chamber, where they discussed their tasks for the coming weeks.


“Did you get the antidote?” asked George.


“Yeah, but I need to use it sparingly or I’ll run out,” confirmed Harry. “Any news on Malfoy?”


“No, we haven’t seen him anywhere near Trelawney,” answered Ginny.


“I’m sure he’ll make a move before too long,” said Harry. “If I’m right, Voldemort assigned this task to Malfoy as a kind of test. I’m actually a bit surprised that he didn’t ask Snape to do it by now. That tells me that he doesn’t completely trust the greasy git right now.”


“What do you want us to do?” said Ron.


“We’ll keep an eye on Trelawney and Malfoy still, I’m going to try to get into Malfoy’s mind again and see what he knows. Fred, George, have you been able to overhear anything in the Hogs Head?” inquired Harry.


“Nothing other than that You-Know-Who wants to attack Hogwarts eventually. That’s the rumor at least, I don’t think he has any concrete plans,” said Fred.


“Any ideas on how we can figure out Snape’s loyalty?” asked Harry.


“Other than Veritserum I don’t think there’s anyway we can magically force the truth out of him,” said Hermione. “He’s too good of an Occlumens to try Legilimency, and those are really the only for sure ways we can know whose side he’s on.”


“Why can’t we try Veritserum?” asked Ron.


“Because if we did and he turned out to be on our side we would be in huge trouble,” said Hermione.


“Not to mention that he probably takes an antidote everyday,” said Harry.


“I’m still inclined to believe Dumbledore on this one, Harry,” said Hermione. “I think he’s just vindictive, I don’t see any reason not to trust him. When it matters he has chosen to aid our side. After all, he very easily could have not warned the Order that we were going to the Ministry, which would have made the retrieval of the Prophecy much easier.”


Harry winced as he always did when Sirius’s death was mentioned. “It is possible that he simply was too cautious to assume that we would all die. If he had ignored our warnings and we survived his cover would have been blown. Also, we wouldn’t have been running off to the Ministry in the first place if he had taught me Occlumency like he was supposed to do. He was vile enough to willingly join Voldemort at one point. He wasn’t blackmailed or bewitched; he joined because he wanted to. To me, that’s something that can never be forgiven. The fact is we can’t be sure about his allegiance, and the consequences of trusting him and him being a Death Eater are greater than the consequences of not trusting him and him turning out to have really been on our side.”


“I guess you’re right on that last point, but he doesn’t seem biased against Muggleborns. That is to say hat he doesn’t treat Muggleborns any worse than he does others,” argued Hermione.


“Did you ever wonder why he stopped giving Occlumency lessons last year?” asked Harry.


“I just assumed it was because he didn’t think you could learn it, not that he was teaching it right,” said Hermione.


“He stepped out one night and left Dumbledore’s Penseive on his desk with his memories. I had just asked him about the Department of Mysteries, so I assumed the memories would tell me about it,” explained Harry. “It turns out they were of an incident during his youth.”


“Involving one or both of your parents, I assume,” said Hermione.


“Correct. It was the day of his Defense O.W.L. The Marauders taunted Snape and he ended up hanging in the air by his ankle. That’s when my mother showed up. She told my father to let Snape down, that he was big headed and wouldn’t sooner go out with the Giant Squid. When he let Snape down what do you think he called my mother?” said Harry.


The debate over Snape continued for some time before curfew neared and the teens went to bed to dreams of red-heads and Quidditch. The first game of the year was that Saturday, and Katie had been working the team hard. He was ready for the season to start, and wondered briefly if he might actually get to play the entire season without suspension or injury.