Within the space of a week Lupin’s lessons had become the most popular lessons in the school; students were heard to be chatting excitedly on their way to his classes. The thought of who would cover his lessons during the period when the full moon was up, was one of the most talked about topics of conversation. It also played heavily on many of the N.E.W.T students mind’s, they weren’t happy with the fact that their classes would be disrupted in such a way.
A few weeks later, just a couple of days before the full moon was due, Lupin called the class to a halt to make an important announcement. “As many of you know, my condition dictates that I must take three days and nights off every month, starting tomorrow.”
There was an outbreak of muttering at this comment.
“During this time,” Lupin continued, ”I want you to know that the class will be taken by a substitute teacher, who, I assure you, knows the subject as well as I, and were it not for his other career he probably would have been offered the post full time.”
As soon as this announcement was made the class erupted into a frenzy of gossip with nearly every student offering his or her opinion as to whom the teacher could be. As for Ginny, she couldn’t come up with many likely candidates; maybe another teacher from the Ministry was the potential substitute she could come up with.
Lupin spoke again, “I appreciate that this is an important subject for you to discuss, but if you please, let us continue with the lesson.”
As Ginny found her way into Defence Against the Dark Arts the next day, she looked around to see that there wasn’t any sign of Professor Lupin, or any sign of his replacement. She was not the only one who had noticed this, as many of the class were messing about, or doing homework for other lessons.
Seeing the opportunity, Ginny took out Harry’s old notebook, and began to read it again. She had just begun to read some interesting notes on how to counter the Imperius Curse when a voice from the back of the classroom called, “Sorry I’m late.”
The class was suddenly in a flurry of motion, quickly stuffing books into bags, and sugar quills were quickly disposed of. Then the class all turned to look at who had spoken, and no sooner had they laid eyes upon the figure at the doorway, than they had taken a collective gasp. Ginny felt her heart leap into her throat, as Harry Potter began to walk to the front of the classroom. The rest of her classmates watched in stunned silence.
“Right class,” Harry started. “As Professor Lupin has told you, he will be off for three days a month. During these three days, I will be teaching this class. More specifically, I will be teaching you how to duel. We’re going to start off with duelling in pairs, using verbal spells, then we will move onto duelling in pairs with non-verbal spells. Finally, we will progress onto duelling using more advanced magic.”
“But Harry,” Luna Lovegood had started to speak, but had stopped as some other students began to laugh at her calling a teacher by their first name.
Harry merely smiled at the outbreak of laughter. “Yes, Luna?”
“Harry, surely some of us are more advanced than others at duelling?”
Harry gave a little laugh. “I did think of that. That is why those of you who have already benefited from my …previous lessons -” Harry’s eyes moved from Luna, to Colin and lingered on Ginny a moment longer, he gave her a smile. “- will practise together, so no-one has an unfair advantage.”
The class began to giggle at the mention of Harry’s previous lessons, he knew why. After all, the D.A had achieved somewhat of a legendary status at Hogwarts.
“Professor Potter, sir?” said a voice.
Harry looked taken aback at being addressed in such a manner. It took him a moment to wipe the mild amusement from his face as he surveyed the rather skinny Hufflepuff boy who had spoken to him.
“Yes?”
“What are you doing here? I thought you were an Auror now?”
Harry laughed, “The students here were never so nosey when I was one of them.” The class laughed. “You’re quite right. I am an Auror. But the Ministry has given me the time off to teach this class when Professor Lupin is dealing with his furry little problem.”
Another hand went up, this time a wiry Slytherin boy spoke. “Why aren’t you looking for the Malfoys?”
The smile vanished from Harry’s face, “That’s no business of yours Mr…” Harry paused, waiting for the student to answer him.
“Lucas, Colm Lucas.” The boy replied.
“Well Mr Lucas. As I said, it’s none of your business. I feel that my time would be better spent here, unless of course you would rather not have a teacher for three days during your N.E.W.T year? Harry fixed his green eyes upon Lucas, and seemed to be trying to bore a hole right through him.
Lucas was quiet after that and looked at his desk. He seemed to realise that Harry was not the sort of teacher that you goaded.
Harry continued to stare at Lucas, satisfied that he was going to cause no more trouble he turned to the rest of the class. “Ok that’s enough chat, separate into pairs. Luna, Colin, Ginny, you’ll be practising as a trio in this lesson.”
Harry gave a little flick of his wand and a mound of cushions appeared out of thin air. “Just in case. Stunning might not hurt, but falling onto the floor will. Okay class. Let’s begin.”
Soon enough the classroom was filled with various coloured flashes of lights, and bangs of varying volume. Harry walked around the class, offering advice to those who needed it.
Lucas was on the receiving end of a number of curses from most of the class, who seemed angry by the fact that he was trying to cause trouble for Harry. They only left him alone once Harry had told them to stop it.
Ginny was easily besting Colin and Luna in her duels, but when Harry came over to watch, she found herself with a temporary case of memory loss, and promptly found herself hit by a well placed stunning spell from Colin. She tumbled backwards and Harry rushed to catch her in his arms, he pointed his own wand at her and muttered “Enervate!” A beam of light shone upon Ginny and she woke up, gazing up at Harry, he met her gaze and then stood up, looking away quickly.
“Nicely done, Colin. Ginny, be careful, pay attention.” he scolded, giving her a little smile.
Her memory came flooding back and she smiled at him and promptly hit Colin with a stunner of her own.
The lesson went on for the better part of an hour, before Harry called it to a halt.
“Okay class, that’s enough,” called Harry, projecting his voice just enough to be heard over the shouting of the students.
The class stopped and turned to look at him. Pleased that he had their attention, Harry spoke again.
“Okay, that was a good lesson. You should all be pleased with yourselves. Before we go however, I would like to see who is feeling confident about duelling, please raise your hands.”
All the class raised their hands.
“Good, good,” Harry continued, “Now, who here feels confident enough that they could incapacitate me?”
All the hands went down.
Harry laughed. “Okay, here are the rules, once you are incapacitated or you lose your wand, you are defeated. I will use only defensive spells, which I will cast verbally, you may use any spells you wish to try and incapacitate me. Would anyone like to try now, I am offering you a chance to duel with me, and really, who here hasn’t ever wanted to jinx a teacher? I know I used to want to.” Harry flashed a smile.
The class laughed, and slowly, some hands went up, Harry chose a trio of nervous looking Ravenclaw boys to be the first up. He turned to speak to them.
“You may attack one at a time, or all at once, I will give you a couple of minutes to talk through your plan.”
The Ravenclaws huddled together and started whispering, and eventually, nodding in agreement turned to face Harry.
“Ready?” he asked?
They nodded.
“Excellent. Would the rest of you please give us some room?”
The rest of the class moved out of the way, standing by the walls watching eagerly as Harry and the Ravenclaws took their positions.
“Then let us begin. Ginny, why don’t you do the honours?” Harry said, conjuring a whistle out of thin air and handing it to her. Ginny reached and took the whistle, her hand brushing against Harry’s, sending a pleasant jolt up her spine.
Harry moved back to position and raised his wand in salute to the boys standing opposite him. Ginny blew the whistle and almost immediately, one Ravenclaw lost their wand as Harry shot out of the blocks and hit him with the disarming charm.
The other two Ravenclaws looked taken aback by the speed of Harry’s attack, and decided to go at him together. One of the Ravenclaws shouted “Stupefy!” And a jet of red light shot towards Harry, the other Ravenclaw pointed his wand at Harry, and said, “Expelli…”
That’s as far as he got as Harry whirled towards him and bellowed, “Expelliarmus!”
The student’s wand went sailing out of his hand and before it hit the floor, Harry had spun to face the other student. As he was turning, he had extended his wand and effortlessly deflected the stunning spell, before firing his own disarming spell at the lone Ravenclaw, who tried to block it but was too slow.
The three Ravenclaws stood in front of Harry, wandless and looking very uncomfortable. Harry raised his wand and gave it a flick; the three wands flew from the floor and landed in his hand. He passed them back to the Ravenclaws.
“Nice try, good practice. Next time though, remember to act as soon as possible, it’s the difference between winning and losing. Okay, I think that’s enough for today.” The class all groaned in complaint, “No, no, that’s enough. I shall see you all again tomorrow.”
As the class were filing out of the room, Ginny could hear some of them murmuring,
“Did you see that? How is anyone that fast? I wouldn’t have liked to be have been You-know-who and facing him,” Said one Hufflepuff boy.
“I know, it was like watching a master swordsman fight boys with sticks, I don’t look forward to it being my turn,” replied another.
“He’s nothing special.” Muttered a very bitter Colm Lucas.
“Oh shut up Lucas. You’re just jealous of him.” Piped up a rather small Ravenclaw girl.
“You shut up, you dirty mudblood!”
“What are you talking about Lucas? She’s a pureblood you idiot.” Said one of the Ravenclaw boys that had challenged Harry. “How cool is he?” He said, turning to the other two Ravenclaws that had challenged Harry.
“Very cool.” Said one of them
“That’s the best lesson I’ve had in a long time.” Said the other.
Ginny, Colin and Luna were the last to leave the classroom.
“You coming Ginny?” asked Luna, watching Ginny with interest.
“Oh…yeah, I’ll be along in a minute.”
Luna shrugged her shoulders, “Come on Colin, lets go.” And they turned and headed out of the door, Luna gave Ginny a knowing smile as she disappeared into the corridor.
Ginny hung back to take one last look at Harry; but to her disappointment, he had slipped out of a side door. She then realised that she was still holding the whistle that Harry had given her. She looked down and saw that there were scratches on the side of it; she looked a little closer and saw that on one side were the initials ‘H.P.’ and on the other side were the initials ‘G.W.’ After discovering that, Ginny allowed herself a small smile as she headed back to the Gryffindor common room for the night.