A/N: I'm still taking votes on the title for my sequel, the contenders are:
Harry Potter and… The Door Unlocked
The Secret Within
The Final Key
The Unspeakable Power.
Let me know what you think. Thank you!
In the weeks that followed the announcement of Professor Potter’s name change the whispers had followed Harry through the corridors as they had for many years. For the first couple of days the ridiculous rumours spread, as they had done when she was announced as Professor Dumbledore, certain members of the student body believed that Harry had married their defence teacher. It wasn't until Ellie confirmed that she was in fact his cousin that they eventually stopped, although Harry had heard someone whispering that it was a cover up because they knew there would be outrage if a teacher married a student. Those who believed her set their tongues in motion with a fresh wave of gossip, what amazed him was that they all seemed to know her life story; everywhere he went he heard the whispers.
“Parents were killed by you-know-who”
“Her grandparents too”
“Even her aunt and uncle”
“She was exiled to Italy”
“Apparently she came back because of Sirius Blacks death”
“Professor Lupin’s her godfather”
Harry was baffled as to how they all could have found out this information. Hermione reliably informed him that a vast majority of it could be found in the Library. She told him that there were several books that detailed the events leading up to the deaths of his Aunt and Uncle, Grandparents and eventually his parents although she did comment that in most of the books his cousin had a date of death beside her name. The students of Hogwarts couldn’t help but talk about an apparently resurrected teacher.
So life proceeded for Harry and his friends, Hermione and Ron had argued very little of late making life in the Gryffindor common room very quiet. Harry and Ginny’s relationship was blossoming quietly but quickly in its own little way. They were often found sitting in front of the fire curled up together in companionable silence. There were many times when Ginny had snuck up to the boys’ dormitory to talk to him. They would sit cross-legged on the bed facing each other, Harry would place a silencing charm on the curtains and then they could talk late into the night or early into the morning.
They spoke of many things, often drifting between differing conversations seamlessly. They seemed to have an understanding that went beyond words, Harry had told her about his childhood with the Dursley’s and of the moment he found out that Sirius was his godfather and the conflict of the emotions that followed, he told her about duelling with Voldemort and watching Cedric die, he even spent many evenings talking through the things that happened at the Department of Mysteries. She would ask him questions but never rushed the answers, she understood his desire to move on and to look to the future but also recognized the times when he needed to hold on to the past just a little bit longer. His heart felt lighter without its many burdens.
Once she had allowed him to free himself he asked her about her childhood, he knew little bits and pieces but she filled in a lot of gaps. She would talk for hours on end about how it could be so suffocating to have six older brothers but would follow it by telling some story that made a light glow in the back of her eyes that explicitly told him she wouldn’t know what to do with out them. She had cried when she spoke about her time down in the Chamber of Secrets, during these times Harry had held her and allowed her to express her feelings of loneliness, fear and insecurity. She conveyed her anger and frustration at being kept out of the loop last year and Harry could understand that feeling from the summer before his fifth year when he felt like he had been in Privet Drive forever without any contact with the Wizarding world. He felt close to her in a way that he had never felt with Hermione and Ron.
He had continued his occlumency with Professor Dumbledore his skills had developed sufficiently to block the headmasters entry into his mind but it took a great deal of energy and he had returned from his sessions thoroughly drained and headed straight to bed after many of them. The DA sessions had continued and the new members had caught up fairly quickly, everyone was continuing to develop at a steady rate with the exception of Neville whose transformation came in huge leaps and bounds. Ellie and he worked closely together; the pride was evident in her eyes every time she watched him master a new spell, which he was doing with increasing regularity. As each Defence lesson went on Neville was getting almost as quick as Hermione when it came to answering questions.
Elizabeth’s lessons were still brilliant. They were surprised when they arrived at class one Tuesday morning to find her chatting with Moody, Kingsley and Tonks. Harry noticed that Draco paled dramatically, an achievement in itself considering how pale he normally was, when he saw Moody. Ellie remained chatting with them until she knew that all of her class had arrived.
“Good Morning class.”
“Good Morning Professor Potter,” a majority of the class chorused back to her the exception of course, lay with the Slytherins who thought themselves above such issues of respect.
“You are all in for a very special treat today. You all will recognise at least one of the people stood behind me but I am aware that others of you know all of them,” she glanced at Harry, Ron and Hermione out of the corner of her eye. “For those of you not acquainted let me introduce our guests for today. Firstly we have Senior Auror Kinglsey Shacklebolt,” Kinglsey waved at them all.
“Those of you interested in becoming Aurors might want to pay particular attention to what Mr. Shacklebolt has to say as he is currently in charge of recruitment, so he would be the person to impress. Next is Junior Auror Nymphadora Tonks,” Tonks screwed up her face at the use of her first name.
“Ms. Tonks is relatively new to the department having only been qualified for two years is it?” at this Tonks nodded. “She’ll be giving you some insight in to the tests which you’ll have to pass to join the department and also the training which you will have to participate in. Last but by no means whatsoever least, former Head Auror Alastor Moody,” Mad-Eye merely nodded. “Mr. Moody is the most successful Auror to have passed through the division and was hugely successful at catching Death Eaters during Voldemorts first rise to power. Many of you know Alastor in some form, his impostor taught you during your fourth year. He will hopefully be regaling some of his most important captures for you.”
“They’re all important,” he interrupted.
“Of course, I apologise. So why don’t we start with you first Mr. Shacklebolt, could you perhaps tell us what it is you look for in future Aurors? We have many in this class who aspire to the position…”
“This is ridiculous,” had it been some other class where the professor could not invoke silence just by entering, or had there not been three Aurors in the room then there might have been sufficient noise to disguise Draco’s whisper. As it was Ellie managed to silence a class just by leaving her desk and with so many of the students wanting to be Aurors the noise level in the class had dropped so low that a pin dropping in the classroom above would have caused a disturbing echo. Ellie immediately moved towards his desk.
“You don’t approve of the subject of today’s lesson Mr. Malfoy?” she said with forced politeness.
“Not everyone wants to be an Auror?” Draco answered wearily.
“I am aware of that. How many of you are considering a career with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?” she momentarily turned her attention to the rest of the class. Every hand went up apart from the four Slytherins who surrounded Draco. “As you can see over three quarters of this class are considering it. Therefore I think it is appropriate that we discuss the things that they are likely to encounter in their progression. It also leads us nicely into our next topic of study, which is what Mr. Malfoy?” he looked at her blankly.
“Can anyone tell Draco what it is that we’re studying next?” several hands shot into the air. “Ms. Abbott?”
“We’re looking at duelling next,” Hannah answered.
“We certainly are. But if you do not find that this is appropriate for you Mr. Malfoy, you may leave,” she walked back to the front of the class and approached her desk; she pulled a piece of parchment and quill towards her and wrote quickly. She rolled up the parchment, sealed it and advanced on Malfoy once more. “Gather your things Mr. Malfoy, You are to take this to Professor Snape, I will leave it to you to explain to him why I have removed you from my class today,” Draco was sat unmoving in stunned silence.
“I asked you to leave Mr. Malfoy.”
“Wait till I tell my father!” he hissed.
“You can tell the Daily Prophet or the Minister for Magic for all I care, I will not have you interrupting my lesson and insulting our guests. You’re father is welcome to visit the school and speak top me about my decision, that is of course if he dares,” she added with malice. Draco swept his books from the table, grabbed his bag from the back of the class and stomped from the room. “If anyone else is unhappy with my teaching then they may also leave,” she paused for a second and looked at those who had been sat with Draco.
“Very well, I apologise for the interruption. Mr. Shacklebolt please impart your wisdom on my willing subjects,” Ellie perched on the edge of her desk and listened carefully to Kingsley, every now and then her eyes swept around the classroom to check that everyone was listening.
Kingsley told them all that they would need their five NEWTs with nothing under an E, Defence, Charms and Transfiguration were absolute musts and while Potions was much preferable they would consider those without it, so long as they showed enough aptitude at recognising poisons and anti-dotes. He emphasised the importance of passing the skill assessments in practical defence, perseverance and dedication, and their reactions to stress. This was where he passed over to Tonks; the male members of the class paid much more attention to the attractive young Auror. She spoke for several minutes on her experience in the tests and told them all that she had cut it very close as far as passing was considered
“… But you didn’t have much trouble did you Ellie?” everyone gasped.
“‘Course she didn’t,” Mad-Eye responded with the faintest hint of pride.
“Did you train to be an Auror?” Harry asked eagerly.
“Not quite. I did the tests and passed them all…”
“With flying colours no less. I scored her myself. She did particularly well in perseverance and determination,” Kingsley interposed.
“But when my granddad had so much trouble finding a new defence teacher he asked me and I couldn’t refuse.”
“It’s a damn shame too. You would have made a fine Auror, would have put the wind right up the Death Eaters robes,” Mad-Eye added.
“I doubt anyone here would have too much trouble passing them, it’s all stuff we’ve been through with the DA.”
“The DA?” Moody asked.
“Dumbledore’s Army, a practical defence group set up by a student to combat the abysmal theory based curriculum imposed on the students by the Ministry’s interference last year.”
“Let me guess. Potter,” Moody grinned. “Well, well Potter Senior would be pleased not only taking Defence Against the Dark Arts hell of a serious but breaking a few rules in the process.”
“I believe it was around two dozen school rules, not to mention the law Alastor.”
“Some rules are made to be broken Elizabeth. Another Auror in the making I take it?” his normal eye was looking at Ellie but his magical one was staring straight at Harry. It gave him the shivers.
“Definitely, we have several on the way here. Misters Longbottom and Weasley are particularly good as well; Ms. Granger shows a great deal of promise, as do Ms. Abbott and Ms. Bones.”
“Well we may need their help before too long,” Moody eyed each of them in turn.
“Perhaps you would like to tell them of some of your more notable captures. The Lestranges for instance,” Elizabeth carefully noted the hardening of Neville’s features, as did Moody before he continued with his story. The class ended too soon for most people’s liking. They heartily thanked their guests with a vigorous round of applause. Afterwards Harry overheard Moody questioning Ellie about choosing the Lestranges.
“He needs to know Alastor. You haven’t seen the change in him these past few months, knowing this is only going to feed the fire and he needs that. He is determined that he’s going to catch Bellatrix,” her face contorted with rage at the name of Sirius’s murderer.
“Do you think he can do it?”
“Only if he gets to her before me or Harry, it could be a close call. I have had a few interesting dreams where dear Bella happens upon a room with me, Harry and young Neville in it and without an escape route,” she wore a somewhat wistful smile.
“You’re not the only one.” Moody answered as they left the room.
One morning, towards the end of November a bright green envelope landed in front of Neville at breakfast.
“Wow Neville, go on open it!” Ron urged.
“What is it?” Harry had never seen a green envelope like this before.
“It’s like a howler but good,” Ginny informed him as she reached across to steal a slice of his toast. How could anything like a howler be good?
“Yeah, instead of telling you off it usually praises you,” Ron added upon seeing Harry’s rather confused look. Neville watched the envelope with trepidation before reaching towards it, before he could pick it up it soared into the air.
“NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM!!” the voice crackled throughout the hall. Everyone had stopped their eating and chatting to look for the source of the commotion.
“PROFESSORS POTTER AND MCGONAGALL WROTE TO ME AND TOLD ME HOW WELL YOU’RE DOING IN DEFENCE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS AND I WAS SO PROUD! DEAR ELIZABETH SAID THAT THERE COULD BE A FUTURE FOR YOU IN THE AUROR DIVISION AT THE MINISTRY, SHE EVEN OFFERED TO WRITE A GLOWING RECOMMENDATION TO KINSGLEY SHACKLEBOLT FOR YOU! SHE TOLD ME THAT IF YOU KEPT GOING AT THIS RATE YOU’D BE CAPABLE OF HEXING MOST DEATH EATERS BACK TO AZKABAN; SHE SAYS THAT YOU’RE LEARNING QUICKER THAN MOST OF THE CLASS. I WISH YOUR PARENTS COULD HEAR THIS, THEY WOULD BE SO PROUD. PROFESSOR POTTER IS GOING TO KEEP ME UPDATED ON YOUR PROGRESS. WELL DONE YOU, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!” with that the letter exploded into flames exactly like a howler. Neville turned up to the head table completely gob smacked he found that both of the Professors were smiling at him proudly. He rushed up to the table.
“Professor Potter?”
“Yes Mr. Longbottom?”
“Did you really write all that to my gran?”
“Yes I did,” she was gently laughing at Neville’s expression.
“Did you mean it?”
“I most certainly did. As far as your progress in my class is concerned you are well deserving of some praise and perhaps fifty points for Gryffindor,” Neville’s jaw dropped to the floor, he had never won that many points for his house in one go. The whole of the house table cheered, “NEVILLE, NEVILLE, NEVILLE.”
“Thank you Miss.”
“Keep up the good work Neville,” McGonagall added as he returned to his seat.
Really Harry should have known that things were going a little too well. His life seemed to be just a little too perfect. Something had to go wrong and something did.
A/N: Sorry but poor Neville needed something to give him confidence!
Next chapter is In the Open.