The next morning, Lily and James were very excited to see Harry teach. After breakfast, they immediately followed Harry to his office. The office was on the third floor; or rather, the classroom was on the third floor. The office was in between the second and third. To get to the office you had to go through the classroom and down a spiral staircase that you found behind a secret door on the right hand wall of the classroom.
From the top of the stairs, you could see the entire office below. It was big and comfortable and the ceiling rose high from the bottom of the room. Along the walls were bookcases as high as the walls and Lily and James soon realised that the small ladder leaned against one of the bookcases had to be magical if there were to be any hope of getting to the books higher up.
A big desk stood in the centre of the room. It was surrounded by three chairs “ two in front of the desk and one big chair of leather behind the desk. Other furniture in the room was a lounge suite, containing a sofa and two armchairs situated just in front of the large fireplace.
As they descended into the room something odd caught their eyes. In one of the corners of the room was cupboard that relative to the other furniture looked oddly out of place. It was large and bulky, yet compared with the huge bookcases stretching from floor to ceiling it looked very small and forgotten. It seemed very old and worn and although it looked like it had been opened a million times there was no handle or keyhole or any other visible way of opening it. While still watching the strange cabinet they heard Harry make his way up the stairs and realising that it was time for his first lesson, James and Lily headed after him.
When they entered, Hufflepuff students were already beginning to fill the classroom, happily chatting about their summers. James and Lily took a good look at the students. They looked to be in the early teens, and James and Lily found themselves to be a bit disappointed that they weren’t first years. They both remembered what Eddy had said about Harry answering questions on the first lesson, and they had been hoping to get some answers themselves today.
The sound of Harry gently clearing his throat was enough to get the students to stop talking and give their full attention to their teacher. James and Lily watched him intently. Maybe this wasn’t the first years, and maybe they wouldn’t get all their answers, but seeing their son teach was still a treat.
“Welcome back to Hogwarts,” Harry started. “I hope that all of you had a nice summer and that you are all relaxed and ready to face school again. You will need your energy this year, because this is the year when we leave the theoretical parts of Defence against Dark Arts and start dealing with the more practical ones,” he then continued with a slight smile when he noticed the exited looks on the student’s faces and the many arms shooting up in the air. “Yes, Mr Gibbons, you had a question,” Harry added nodding towards a boy sitting in the back of the classroom.
“Does this mean we get to do more spells and stuff, like the Expelliarmus Spell we learnt last year?” the boy asked.
“I don’t know about “stuff”, but we will definitely learn a few spells. More importantly, you will learn how to handle dark creatures like Boggarts and Hinkypunks. We will start at the beginning of your book and move along as the year progresses,” Harry responded with a smile. Another arm was raised as he finished. “Miss Martin, go ahead.”
“Will we look at werewolves as well? They are addressed in the book,” a thin pale girl said. Harry looked at her and smiled before answering.
“Yes, Miss Martin, we will.” Several more hands shot up in the air and James and Lily couldn’t help but to smile when they saw the interest so clearly visible in the students’ faces.
“What should you do if you come face to face with a werewolf?” a round faced boy asked.
“That depends, Mr Larsen, would that be a werewolf in his human form or a werewolf just hit with the light of the full moon?” Harry asked with great amusement in his voice.
“The second one, sir!” said the boy smiling.
“Well in that case, running comes to mind, Mr Larsen,” Harry said calmly, causing the whole class to break out in laughter. A slight clearing of his throat and the class was once again quiet as the Larsen boy raised his hand again.
“What should I do if I were faced with a werewolf in its human form?” he then asked. Harry smiled obviously quite amused by the discussion.
“Then I would recommend you to stay and have a bit of a chat,” he then said. “Who knows you might just get a new friend, and besides running away would seem rather rude, don’t you think?” he added with a smile causing additional laughs from some of the students.
James grinned, happy to see that his son did not have any prejudice about werewolves. Suddenly he found himself wondering if Harry had ever gotten to know Remus. He hoped so, but with Sirius’ suspicions of Remus being a traitor he couldn’t be sure. He shook the thought of; Remus wasn’t a spy anymore than himself, Sirius or Peter were. It was ridiculous to think that. He had agreed to Sirius request not to tell Remus about changing who was going to be secret-keeper, but he never really believed that one of his best friends would ever betray him. Surely Sirius had realised with time how silly he had been.
“But aren’t werewolves devious and not to be trusted?” asked a small brown haired girl when the sniggers and laughter once more had been silenced by Harry.
“No, not more than the rest of us,” Harry answered with at gentle smile. “Someone who is a werewolf is just someone who has been unfortunate enough to be bitten by one. Last time I checked werewolves don’t do personality checks before they bite people,” he added before finishing the discussion. “Now I think it would be best if we leave the subject of werewolves alone for a while, until we actually are meant to deal with them. Now who can tell me something about Hinkypunks?”
James and Lily watched with interest as Harry steered his class in the direction he wanted. He was obviously a very good teacher. The students hang on to every word he said and although there was a lot of laughter in the classroom, the slightest sound from Harry could still bring the class back to order.
James and Lily had so much fun watching Harry teach that they completely forgot about time and when the lesson was over and the students headed out the door they were both surprised and a bit disappointed that the lesson was over.
When the students were out the door, Harry turned to his desk and looked through the parchments lying on top of it. He still had his back turned when the door opened.
“Uncle Harry?” the girl James and Lily now knew as Belinda asked. Harry let go of the parchment he was reading, turned around and gave the girl a warm smile.
“Hello, Belinda. I noticed that your class is next,” he then said still smiling. James and Lily twitched and looked at each other. Belinda was a first year. They would actually get a few of the answers they were craving.
“Actually, I came early because I have something to ask you,” Belinda said as she went up to her uncle and gave him a hug.
“Then by all means ask,” Harry smiled.
“Well I wanted to know what I should call you, I mean in school…should I say Uncle Harry or Professor Potter?” she asked a bit hesitantly.
“Ah, that is always a tricky question, isn’t it?” Harry answered gently. “How about you call me Professor Potter in class and Uncle Harry anywhere else? Would that be ok?” he then asked. Belinda’s smile widened.
“Ok!” she said with a huge grin.
“Good, then I suggest you go and get yourself a seat,” Harry said giving her a pat on the shoulder as the other students in the class started to fill the classroom.
James and Lily looked at the first years filling the room. They were a lot quieter than the class before them and many of them threw nervous looks in Harry’s direction. Harry turned to the desk and picked up the parchment he had been looking at earlier. Holding it in his hand, he turned back towards the class, leaned back on the desk and started calling out the names of the students.
After Harry checked off the names of the students he put the parchment back on the desk behind him and bid them welcome to Hogwarts and Defence against Dark Arts. The students however did not seem at ease. Most avoided to look directly at Harry, several shifted anxiously in their seat and some glanced nervously at Belinda. Harry looked out over the class, letting his gaze drift from one student to the next. He then turned towards Belinda just as she raised her hand.
“I see they’ve asked you to ask the question this year,” he said smiling. The students looked at him with surprise.
“How did you know...?” Belinda started.
“First of all, only speak when I allow you to. Second, I have been a teacher for 10 years now and every year one student in every class has always been chosen to ask the first question. So let me guess the question. Is it really true that you may ask any question you want during your first lesson?” Belinda nodded in response.
“Yes, you may,” Harry affirmed with a nod causing excitement among the students. “I do, however, have one demand,” he continued in the same calm tone of voice. “Whenever your questions deal with Voldemort, I want you to use his real name.”
The students flinched and one of the girls shrieked when Harry mentioned the name. Nervous looks were exchanged between the students. Several started to shift uncomfortably in their seats once more. Finally, a brown-haired boy hesitantly raised his hand.
“Mr. Graham, am I right?” Harry demanded as he checked the parchment behind him. The boy nodded. “What is your question?” Harry asked.
“Why do we have to say the name?” the boy asked, apparently very discomfited by the idea of saying Voldemort’s name.
“A very wise man once told me that the fear of a name increases the fear of the thing itself and that you should always use the proper name for things. I happen to believe that he was right,” Harry said smiling. “Now let me ask you a question, Mr. Graham. Why do you fear the name Voldemort when the man that went by that name has been dead longer than you have been alive?”
“I dunno,” the boy said shrugging his shoulders obviously not prepared for the question.
“Could it have anything to do with your parents fearing the name?” Harry asked.
“Maybe, I mean…” the boy trailed of.
“Yes, go on,” Harry encouraged him.
“Well, everyone knows your not s’posed to say the name,” the boy concluded.
“And why do you think that everyone knows that, Mr. Graham?”
“Because, they learnt it sir?” the boy asked tentatively after thinking for quite a while.
“Precisely! Very good, Mr Graham, that’s two points for Gryffindor.” The boy lit up in a huge grin and received a pat on the back from the boy sitting next to him. “Now, Mr. Graham, do you dare give it a try?” Harry asked. The boy swallowed and bit his lips as the faces of the students around him all turned to look at him.
“V…Voldemort,” the boy said with a deep breath. Some of the students still flinched at the sound of the name, but most of them just looked at the boy with the utmost admiration. Even James and Lily thought that this was very brave of the boy. Harry on the other hand just smiled as if this was something he had expected.
“That’s two more points to Gryffindor, Mr. Graham,” he said calmly. “Now shall we get on with the questions?” he demanded. The students hesitated for a few moments before a girl raised her hand. James and Lily immediately recognised her as the girl that had told the story of Harry and Voldemort to the other first years the night before when Lily had refused to go on.
“Miss Shaw I believe?” Harry checked, before he nodded at her to ask her question.
“I was wondering…what really happened the night Vol…” she stopped and took a deep breath; “the night Voldemort killed your parents?” she then finished quickly.
Without even thinking, James and Lily drew closer to each other. Even though they knew, what happened must’ve happened a long time ago, they still remembered Voldemort crashing through the door wand in hand coming for their little boy as if it happened only a few weeks ago. Now they were looking at that same boy, a grown man, older then themselves, gently looking out over his students as he began his answer by awarding Gryffindor two points for the girl’s effort to speak the name.
“As I’m sure most of you are aware of, I was only a baby when my parents were killed. I have no memory of what happened, and what I do know is mostly information I received from Voldemort. Now don’t be so surprised, he was a bit of a bragger. Besides, he always imagined that telling me things about my parents’ deaths would somehow make me weaker, unfocused. He was, of course, wrong as he so often was when feelings were involved. But then feelings, and especially love, was the one thing he never could understand,” he added with a slight smile.
“Now, the one Voldemort was after that night was neither my father nor my mother, but me. And before you ask why, we can get to that question later,” he said as two students started to raise their hands. “My parents knew that Voldemort was after me, and so they had gone into hiding. Yet Voldemort managed to find out where we were, and came for us.”
James who was listening intently still found himself to be relieved that Harry didn’t mention further how Voldemort had found out where they were hiding. He could only imagine how Peter must have fought to keep his secret. He didn’t even want to think about how much torture Voldemort had put him through before he killed him.
“When Voldemort attacked, my father tried to buy my mother and me enough time to escape,” Harry continued. “He told my mother to get me and run, and stayed behind himself. This didn’t help, though. Voldemort killed my father immediately and cornered my mother in the bedroom, demanding of her to hand me over.”
The classroom was now so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop. Lily shifted a bit; gripping James’ hand tighter as images of Voldemort, standing in front of her ordering her to give him her son filled her mind.
“My mother, of course, had no intention of doing so. She refused, and when she did, Voldemort killed her. Now that was Voldemort’s big mistake. Because he resented and underestimated the power of love so much, he failed to realise that my mother’s sacrifice, made out of love, provided a very powerful protection for me. When Voldemort turned his wand on me, his spell backfired, leaving him alive, but with no powers or even a physical body left. So he did the only thing he could, he ran and waited for his supporters to find him so that he could return to power, although I seriously doubt he thought it would take 12 years before they did,” Harry finished.
James looked at Lily and pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head. She had been the one to save their son, she was the sole reason he was alive. Never had he loved her more than he did at this moment. As he looked down on her, he could see traces of tears in her eyes, telling him that he wasn’t the only one who was moved by what they heard.
“Now, if I am not mistaken, you wanted to know why Voldemort wanted to kill me in the first place, am I right?” Harry asked and waited for the students to nod their response.
“Well then, the answer to that lies in a prophecy, made shortly before I was born. It said that the only person who would have the chance to conquer Voldemort would be born…”
James and Lily watched Harry talk about the prophecy they had so hated. They had never been able to understand why their son had to be the one, why he couldn’t just have been a normal boy, without the burden of a prophecy like this.
“…a necessity. I was not the only child that this prophecy could have referred to. There were two of us, born in the end of July, by parents that had three times survived Voldemort. Myself and a boy named Neville Longbottom…”
James noticed a change in Harry’s face at the mentioning of Longbottom’s son. It lasted less than a second, but James was sure that he had seen the signs of pain when Harry said the boy’s name. He wondered why as he listened to Harry tell the class about the impact of the prophecy.
“Who has another question?” asked Harry. A small, pink-faced and rather frighten-looking blonde girl raised her hand. “Yes, Miss Archer, go ahead,” beckoned Harry.
“What happened the night V…” she swallowed, took a deep breath, and tried again. “…the night Vol…” she stopped herself again, breathing rather hard. She strained herself once again but by now she was nearly in tears. With only a few steps Harry was by her side. He placed his hand on her shoulder and bent down to face her.
“It’s quite alright miss Archer, no need to get upset. I’m sure someone else in here can ask the question for you if you cannot master it today,” said Harry soothingly to the girl.
“So I won’t lose points, then” sobbed the girl.
“Not at all, miss Archer. Don’t worry, you’ll make it sooner or later” he added with a gentle smile. “So who can ask Miss Archer’s question?” he asked the class while he rose, still holding his hand on the little girl’s shoulder. Miss Shaw’s hand flew up in the air, and Harry nodded in her direction.
“What happened the night Voldemort came back?” she asked. Harry looked down on the poor little girl by his side, as if to see if this indeed had been her question. She nodded.
“That’s another 2 points for Gryffindor, Miss Shaw,” said Harry as he walked back to the front of the class. “The question is however more complicated than you might think. To tell the whole story correctly would demand more time than we have here today, and since I have a feeling that you have other questions that you want to ask, I’m going to give you the short version,” he continued.
“As I said it took 12 years before any of Voldemort’s supporters decided to return to him and help him back to power. When they finally did, however, they came up with a very clever plan to bring Voldemort back to full strength and kill me, at the same time.” Harry paused and looked out over the class before he continued.
“This was in my fourth year, and that year there was a Triwizard Tournament held at Hogwarts. Voldemort and his servants used the tournament to lure me into taking a portkey, bringing me to the graveyard where Voldemort’s father was buried.”
“There was a reason why he chose the graveyard, and why he wanted me to be there “ alive,” Harry went on. “There is ancient dark magic, very powerful and very dangerous. Correctly performed and used this dark magic would allow Voldemort to return to a body. It required three very special ingredients to work “ the bones of the father, unknowingly given, the flesh of a servant, willingly given, and the blood of an enemy, forcibly taken. At the graveyard, Voldemort had access to his father’s bones, his servant was already with him and by getting me there he had his enemy and so could use my blood to bring himself back to life.”
James and Lily looked at each other very uncomfortably. The magic their son was talking about sounded very dark and dangerous, and they wished that their son would never have been forced to witness such a thing, let alone be used as a part of it.
“Once the spell was performed and Voldemort was returned to full powers, he had of course every intention of killing me. Nevertheless just killing me while I was tied up to his father’s tombstone without any way to defend myself wasn’t enough for him. I told you he was a bragger; well he was also a show-off. He called his Death Eaters to him and untied me, demanding that I duel with him so that he could show the Death Eaters that a mere 14-year-old was no threat to him.”
Lily gasped at the thought of her 14-year-old son in a duel with Voldemort, casting a glance at her fully grown husband thinking of where such an attempt had led him.
“What Voldemort didn’t know was that our wands were brother-wands, meaning that they had the same core, in our case the feathers from the same phoenix bird. Brother-wands are not meant to do battle, and when they are forced to a very rare thing happens. The wands lock together until one of the wands force the other to echo the spells it had made, creating shadows of the spells coming out of the wand, newest first, then older ones in the order they have been made.”
James and Lily stared at each other “ Harry’s and Voldemort’s wands, brother wands? How on earth had that happened?
“Luckily for me it was my wand that got the upper hand and the shadows coming out of Voldemort’s wand both confused and scared him. They made it possible for me to escape, and as soon as I broke the connection between our wands I ran, grabbed the portkey and was transported back to Hogwarts.”
Harry waited for the students to take in the story and come up with new questions. He didn’t have to wait long. A tall stringy boy with brown hair raised his hand.
“Mr McKenna, go ahead,” said Harry.
“I wanted to know about the final battle,” the boy said.
“And what did you want to know about it?” asked Harry.
“Well, what happened,” answered the boy. Harry smiled.
“Very clever, Mr. McKenna, but I think I told you that all questions concerning Voldemort must include his name,” he then said. The boy frowned but seemed determined.
“What happened during the final battle with….Voldemort?” he asked with his eyes closed.
“That’s better, and another two points to Gryffindor,” Harry began. “The last battle with Voldemort took place here, at Hogwarts in my seventh and final year. Voldemort had since long wanted to attack the school but never dared, since the Headmaster in those days, Professor Dumbledore, was one of the most powerful wizards the world have ever seen. He was also the only one that Voldemort truly feared.” Harry paused as if thinking carefully of what to say before he resumed.
“There were two things that made Voldemort finally decide to overlook his fear of Dumbledore and attack the school. The first was me. He didn’t know the entirety of the prophecy, but he knew enough to fear me becoming a fully qualified wizard. As long as I was still in school, I was not. The second thing that made him decide to attack Hogwarts was knowledge. Knowledge that no one else had about the protective wards that surrounds Hogwarts,” he proceeded.
“I know that most of you are not aware of all the magic protecting this place, but one of the many spells that protects Hogwarts keep wizards and witches from apparating or disapparating inside Hogwarts grounds, keeping it safe from surprise attacks. The protection is not complete however, house-elves, who have a very special magic of their own have the ability to apparate and disapparate freely within the castle. They have to in order to perform their duties here.”
James and Lily were fascinated. They guessed what Harry was about to say although it had never occurred to them, that wizards could use house-elf magic themselves. Their hunch turned out to be right when Harry continued.
“Voldemort found a way to tap into that magic, thereby allowing himself and his Death Eaters to apparate into Hogwarts. They chose evening-time, when the whole school was collected in the Great Hall for dinner, using their knowledge of how Hogwarts is handled during a crisis,” said Harry.
“You see, when Hogwarts students are in danger the procedure is always the same. Prefects are told to lead the younger students back to the safety of the dorm, while the staff handles whatever danger it may be. Voldemort not only knew this, he counted on it. He also counted on me knowing that he was here, refusing to abide by the rules and demanding to be a part of the fight. He was very right. That was exactly what happened.”
James looked at his son, seeing his own stubbornness and inability to follow rules in his son. He smiled, although wishing that Harry had been allowed to use those sides of himself to more fun practice than to fight Voldemort.
“Voldemort wanted to attract attention, enough attention to lure the staff, me and my friends outside. To do this he picked one of his servants and tortured her. The scream was easily heard into the Great Hall and as he had foreseen the staff sent the students to their dorms. I said before that Voldemort counted on me knowing he was there and you might be wondering why. Well let me answer that for you before I go on.”
“I got this scar…” Harry said pointing to the lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead, “…the night my parents died. But it was not only a scar. It was also a connection to Voldemort, warning me when he was close, letting me know what he was feeling and sometimes even letting me see into his mind, or he into mine,” he added watching as the students flinched at the thought of Voldemort having a direct access to your mind.
James and Lily weren’t too thrilled by the idea of it either. A connection to Voldemort could never be good, no matter how useful it might be to be warned when he was close. They shuddered as they found themselves wondering how many times Voldemort had used that connection against their son.
“I would probably have known that Voldemort was at the school even without him torturing someone, but while the others heard the screams of the woman being tortured, I could feel her pain. I did of course tell my teachers and Headmaster Dumbledore about what was going on, and I did, as Voldemort had anticipated, demand to take part in defending the castle.”
“Surprisingly enough, Dumbledore didn’t seem to object to this as much as I would have expected him to. He knew that he would not be able to stop me, and somehow I think he knew that they couldn’t win without me. The other teachers objected very much of course. Claiming what I would claim today, that the students should not be exposed to such dangers,” Harry said enticing the students into laughter even at a serious matter as this.
“Now I was hardly the only one prepared to fight Voldemort. In my fifth year I had together with my friends started a Defence against Dark Arts group called Dumbledore’s army or the DA for short,” Harry said. James remembered the group being mentioned the night before and he couldn’t help but to grin at the unusual choice of name for the group, thinking that it was very appropriate for a Defence against Dark Arts group.
“In the beginning we had been 28 students, but by the time of Voldemort’s attack we were nearly twice as many and we all wanted to help defend the school. The teachers mostly wanted all of us to return to the safety of the dorms. I however, hot-headed as I always have been, wanted to take the entire DA and storm outside. Granted I was never a good strategist and had I gotten my way the final outcome of the battle could very well have been a different one,” Harry said smiling slightly at his own youthful folly.
“But while I wasn’t a good strategist, my best friend, Ron Weasley, was. Still is, by the way,” Harry added. “It was Ron who came up with the plan. The staff would go out to meet Voldemort first. Then I and a few friends that were always by my side and that Voldemort would expect would follow, making it look like we disobeyed the teachers’ orders. When we felt the time was right we would call for the others, giving us the element of surprise,” said Harry.
James and Lily were surprised. They both remembered Ron from the birthday party, and neither one of them would have taken him for a strategist. He just didn’t seem to be the type, to easy-going, to ordinary. Yet the plan they now heard had all the elements of a very good plan. Easy enough for everyone to remember, but still clever enough to turn the tables on the attacker. They were without doubt impressed.
“The plan worked like a charm. Voldemort had been expecting both the teachers and us, and when we were there he let his trap slam shut, surrounding us. Had we not had the backup we needed in the castle we would have been lost, even with Dumbledore on our side. We were helplessly outnumbered, or so Voldemort thought; until we called out and the rest of the DA stormed out from the castle,” continued Harry.
“The fight actually swayed fairly swiftly to our favour. Dumbledore took on Voldemort, and I duelled with one of his most loyal Death Eaters “ Bellatrix Lestrange. I had my back turned to Dumbledore and Voldemort, and so I didn’t see when Voldemort killed him, or when he turned his wand towards me. I heard Neville Longbottom call out a warning and by luck more than skill I managed to temporarily disable Bellatrix from further fighting and turned around to face Voldemort. I was however too late, Voldemort had already cast the spell and for a fraction of a second I was convinced that I would die.” For a moment Harry halted. The students sat as on needles hanging on his every breath, waiting for the continuation. With a very sad smile and a deep breath Harry picked up again.
“If Neville hadn’t thrown himself in front of me I would have surely died, but as it was his sacrifice gave me the opportunity to kill Voldemort. Voldemort hadn’t expected it, and it took him by surprise. He didn’t even try to shield himself against my spell, and when he died it was with a look of confusion on his face. His Death Eaters were beside themselves by their master’s death and many of them were captured only because they were too nonplussed to act. Most of them however, Bellatrix Lestrange among them quickly disapparated and avoided capture.” Harry finished.
James and Lily were amazed. They couldn’t really take in all the information they just received. Looking at her son and husband, Lily’s thoughts went to Frank and Alice. How distraught mustn’t they have been when informed of their son’s death? Lily and James knew them well through their work in the Order and Lily remembered how happy she and Alice had been to be pregnant at the same time. Frank and Alice had looked forward to the birth of their child, only to lose him so young.
Another student had now raised his hand, but even after being permitted to speak, he seemed reluctant to do so. Harry waited patiently as the boy began to speak.
“Well, uhm, you see, I was wondering…about…” he trailed of biting his lip, not really knowing how to continue.
“I did say that you could ask anything, Mr White. I won’t be upset, and you won't be asking anything that I haven’t been asked a number of times before,” said Harry, although James thought his voice sounded a bit more strained than it had before.
“Ok, well I was wondering about the big Death Eater attack, the one that killed…”
“My daughter?” Harry filled in.
Lily shrieked and pulled her hands up to cover her face as the boy nodded his response. James felt his insides go cold. For a few horrible moments when they first arrived in the house he had thought that he had lost Harry. He remembered the shooting pain, still knowing that what he had experienced had lasted only a little while and that it could never be compared to the pain that his son must have felt when his daughter was killed.
“I think I must start by explaining to those in here that are not raised in the wizarding world, that Voldemort’s death by no means meant the end of the war. Many Death Eaters were still at large, on the run, and many managed to worm their way out of the courts claiming they had been forced or put under spells. I trained after I left Hogwarts to become an Auror, so that I could help in the search and capture of these Death Eaters.”
“Once my training was complete I went to work gathering evidence and searching for clues. My main target was the Malfoys, whom I knew to be Death Eaters, even though they cleverly managed to convince the courts of their innocence. Draco Malfoy, turned out to be a lot smarter than I had given him credit for when we were both at Hogwarts and to acquit himself and his wife Pansy, he blamed everything on his father, who had been killed by Voldemort after a failed attempt on my life.”
James and Lily now listened with great interest, thinking about Millie. If Harry was so convinced that her parents were Death Eaters, why had he taken her on?
“Convincing the courts that he would never associate with a man that had killed his father, Malfoy managed to get away scot-free. I wasn’t about to allow that to happen, and so I spent the better part of the next eight years, if you include my Auror-training, to collect evidence against Malfoy and his wife. As I said, Malfoy was smart; he never let anything lead back to him. His wife however, was a bit of a fool, and it was through her folly that I finally got the first solid evidence against them,” Harry took a deep breath before he carried on.
“It was when Malfoy realised that I had real indisputable evidence against him that he decided to attack me. He chose the time and place very carefully. The Burrow, my wife’s childhood home, since it was a lot less protected than mine was and he chose Christmas eve since that was the one time when he could be absolutely certain that I would be there,” Harry again paused for a while before going on.
“Malfoy requested that all Death Eaters still free would help him in his attack. They placed an anti-apparation spell on the house and rerouted the floo-network so that anyone trying to floo out of the house would end up in a dungeon in Malfoy Mansion. Luckily we were warned. Knowing the floo-network wouldn’t work we did the only thing we could, we tried to leave the muggle way.”
“They were waiting for us outside, the house was surrounded. Those of us that could; got out our wands, but with so many children to protect not all of us could aid in the battle, and Malfoy had been thorough. Every Death Eater that ever alluded capture was there. I ended up duelling Malfoy, and I had gotten the upper hand in the duel, actually managing to de-mask him so that he would never again be able to pretend not to be a Death Eater.” Harry looked out over the class of very silent pupils, taking in another breath of air.
“It probably would have worked out, if I didn’t have such a stubborn daughter. You all met Lily last night; you’ve might have noticed already that she is headstrong and a bit reckless. Well she was no different at five than at fifteen. Her mother was holding her by the hand during the attack, but she was also busy holding our son, Sirius who was three at the time. Lily managed to wring her hand out of her mother’s grip and went right out into the battlefield to tell of the Death Eaters to stop being mean to her daddy and uncles.”
James and Lily looked at each other with alarm. They couldn’t even imagine a five-year-old little girl walking straight out into a battlefield.
“When I heard my wife calling out for Lily, I made a horrible mistake,” Harry continued. “Thinking as a father, not an Auror, I turned my back at Malfoy in order to get my daughter out of harms way. Malfoy could’ve easily killed me then, but he decided to torture me first.”
“You mean he did the Cruciatus Curse?” asked a girl in the class, forgetting all about raising her hand before asking a question. Harry however didn’t seem to mind her outspokenness and answered her question without reprimanding her.
“No what he did was far worse than that. He placed an Irretitus Curse on me. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it is a netting curse. It traps you under an invisible net, and for every movement you make you get more tangled up and less able to move.”
“Why did he do that?” asked another girl.
“You don’t see it yet?” Harry asked. “Well then, I will tell you. When Malfoy had me in his grip, he alerted Bellatrix Lestrange to my daughter’s situation, or should I say my wife’s and daughter’s situation. You see my wife of course saw what happened, and so she handed over our son to her mother and ran after Lily. By the time Bellatrix got to them it was to late for my wife to bring her back to the others, so instead she chose to protect Lily with her own body.”
“But your wife is still alive, right? She didn’t kill her, did she?” one of the boys asked in horror.
“No, she didn’t kill her. Bellatrix was never a fast killer; she enjoyed torturing people far to much for that. No she put the Cruciatus Curse on her, laughing together with Malfoy as they tortured us both. Bellatrix by putting the curse on my wife, and Malfoy by making me watch it, powerless.”
James thought he was going to get sick. Just the thought of being forced to watch someone do that to Lily made him shake with anger, and he pulled her in close feeling oddly grateful that their deaths had at least been shift and painless.
“I felt rather than heard someone telling me to duck. It was about the only movement I could still do, and I did, not reflecting twice about it. The spell hit Malfoy only a fraction of a second later, setting me free and allowing me to rescue my wife. It is the only time I have ever used an Unforgivable Curse without being forced to do so. A stunning spell would have been enough to stop her, yet I chose to kill her.” Harry paused.
”No one ever objected about it, of course, the situation seemed desperate enough, and as an Auror I had the right to use the Unforgivable Curses in extreme situation. Still, I could have and should have used another way to stop her, the Unforgivable Curses are after all forbidden for a reason,” said Harry seriously. He almost looked surprised when the muggle-born James and Lily remembered as Sarah raised her hand.
“What happened to your daughter? I mean I know Lily is alive but Leo mentioned something about her dying, I don’t understand,” she said looking very confused.
“No, you are right, Lily was very much alive and apart from being shaken up about what happened, she was unharmed. My wife had successfully protected her. My wife was however also seven-month’s pregnant at the time, and the impact of the Crusiatus Curse made her go into premature labour. Molly, our daughter, only lived for a few hours, long enough for us to christen her but not much more.” Harry said quietly. Slowly the girl they knew was Miss Shaw raised her hand. Harry nodded in her direction.
“Was that why you quit being an Auror?” she asked hesitantly. Harry nodded.
“I didn’t want my family to be in any more danger because of my work. Besides it felt rather pointless when most of the Death Eaters were caught,” he said.
“So they were caught” asked one of the boys.
“Yes they were!” said Harry as the bell rang for lunch. Harry looked up at the class, all still in their places, seemingly reluctant to go. “Unless I am mistaken,” Harry said in his normal tone of voice this time, “…that bell means lunch-time, and end of class. For our next lesson I only want to remind you that there will be no more asking questions, we do have lessons to take care of as well,” he concluded making it very clear that question-session was over.
As the students got up and started to leave the classroom, Harry moved behind his desk and sat down. He looked up, at the class and as the little girl that almost started crying before drew closer to the door, he called her back. He waited until they were alone together before he addressed her.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why I held you back, Miss Archer,” he said.
“Have I done something wrong?” the girl asked. “Is it because I couldn’t say…”
“No, no, Miss Archer, you have done nothing wrong, nothing at all,” Harry smiled at her. “Your father, he is a muggle right?” he asked. The girl nodded in surprise.
“I guessed as much, your mother wasn’t too fond of the magical world last time I saw her,” he smiled. The girl looked at him with big eyes, causing Harry to smile wider.
“You really shouldn’t be all that surprised, I knew your mother quite well once, and you look very much like her,” he said. “You did know that I knew your mother, didn’t you?” he asked. The girl nodded. “And she told you about Voldemort, didn’t she? About the last battle?” he demanded. Once again the girl nodded.
“Your mother lost more in that fight than any of us. We lost friends, a mentor and the best Headmaster Hogwarts is ever likely to see “ your mother lost her heart,” said Harry quietly. “I’m glad to see she found it again,” he added, gently lifting her chin so that her eyes met his.
“You will tell her I said hello, won't you?” he asked being answered with the same nod as before. He smiled at her once more, before telling her that she could go. She turned before she left the door.
“Do you think I belong in Gryffindor?” she asked.
“Why wouldn’t you miss Archer?”
“Well I was the only one who couldn’t say…and mum was Hufflepuff, and I kind of thought that maybe...”
“The sorting hat made a mistake” Harry helped her out. She nodded.
“Miss Archer, may I call you Cassandra?” Another nod. “Cassandra, the sorting hat looks to the potential within us. It doesn’t make mistakes. If the sorting hat placed you in Gryffindor, it is because you belong in Gryffindor, whether you are aware of it yourself or not. Do you understand?” Cassandra looked at him and smiled before she nodded this time. Half a second later she had left and closed the door behind her. Harry took a deep breath before he flicked his wand at the parchments on his desk, making them vanish. He rose and headed for the door.