"Hey Tonks," Harry called as he walked up to the pink-haired auror when he spotted her lazily leaning against a wall inside a school corridor. "how are you doing?"
"Alright, Harry," Tonks nodded to him before letting out a small sigh. "fine, I suppose. So far l'm just really bored, no sign of Black or any other illegal activities, which is good. But still, I'm kind of hoping that something happens."
"I'm not," Harry admitted honestly. "I've seen far more action than
I'd like. Anyway, I'm glad I found you, I got something for you." Harry smiled before he reached into his school bag and pulled out a small box of chocolates and handed them to her.
"Oh, thanks, what's this for?" Tonks smiled as she took the box from him.
"It's just my way of saying thank you, you know, for helping out with Malfoy," Harry explained. "it's been really irritating the last few years seeing him get away with nearly everything because he has his dad and Snape backing him up, I think you probably made a bigger impact against him than anybody else has."
"It was very much my pleasure," Tonks grinned as she opened the box and took one of the chocolates before popping it in her mouth, she let out an appreciative moan. "hmm, that's good, try one." She took one and tossed it to Harry who easily caught it and dropped it in his mouth.
"Hmm, that is good," Harry agreed.
'Definitely,' Venom spoke up. 'ask her for another.'
'No.' Harry refused.
'But I'm hungry!' Venom whined.
' have more chocolates back up in my room, these ones are for Tonks.'
"I'm glad you like them," Harry said. "now, I've got to go or McGonagall will skin me for being late."
"Yeah, the old girl's not one to mess with," Tonks pretended to shiver before transforming her face into Professor McGonagall's face and imitating the Professor's voice. "Miss Tonks, if you do not wish to spend the next year in detention with me then you had better return Professor Snape's wand."
"Wait!" Harry blinked as he stared at Tonks with wide eyes. "You stole Snape's wand?!" Harry gasped and stared at her with the same reverence most wizards would reserve for Dumbledore.
"That's not the worse thing I ever did to Snape," Tonks chortled.
"remind me to tell you about the pink dress incident and that time I transfigured his hair. He still blames me for both of them, he doesn't have any proof though, and he's never managed to prove it." She looked quite proud about that fact. Harry goggled at her for several long seconds before he dropped to one knee and grabbed her hand.
"Tonks, will you marry me?" Harry asked as seriously as he could manage.
"Easy there, boy wonder," Tonks laughed before she pulled him to his feet. "you're not that lucky. Now, off to class, while I go and enjoy these delicious chocolates that I've rightfully earned." She grinned before walking off with a bright smile, though the walkway was somewhat ruined when she tripped and nearly fell over, almost dropping the chocolate. "Damn it!" She hissed before turning the corner.
Eventually, Harry managed to shake himself back to reality before he walked off with a smile on his face.
'Aw, does Harry have a crush? Venom asked.
'No, I don't, and are you teasing me?'
'A bit.' Venom admitted.
"You think you're so smart, Potter! Don't you?!" Malfoy spat angrily as he along with Crabbe and Goyle stormed over to the Gryffindor table at breakfast the next day.
"Malfoy, it's far too early in the morning for you." Harry sighed before dumping a large amount of food onto his plate.
"You think it was fun getting me into trouble?!" Malfoy demanded.
"Yes," Harry nodded simply before he began eating.
"You better watch yourself, scar-head!" Malfoy warned. "I.."
"Malfoy," Harry interrupted. " really don't care," He said in a tired voice. we get it. You'll make me pay, you'll do this and that, you'll probably go and cry to Professor Snape and/or your dad, we get it.
Frankly, your whole thing is so old it's gone stale."
"True," Ron snorted in amusement. "I'm surprised he hasn't told us that his father will hear about this."
" think he was probably getting to that later." Hermione guessed in a mock-thoughtful way.
"Shut it!" Malfoy growled. "..."
"Is there a problem here?" A voice asked, Malfoy looked to his right and saw Professor McGonagall standing next to him.
"No, Professor." Malfoy lied through gritted teeth.
"Well, in that case, I'm sure that you have no issue with returning to your seat, yes?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Malfoy, for a second, looked like he was ready to argue with her, but evidently thought better of it and gave her a stiff nod before he walked off back to the Slytherin table. Professor McGonagall gave the Gryffindors a nod before she walked off to the staff table.
"Looks like Professor McGonagall has still got it." Ron grinned.
"Yeah," Harry nodded in agreement before remembering Tonks's words. "the old girl's not one to mess with."
"Hmm," Hermione hummed and nodded in agreement. "you two should hurry up and eat, we've got defence against the dark arts today, and I want to see how good Professor Lupin is."
"Hopefully he's better than the last two." Harry sighed.
"To be fair, mate, the bar's not that high," Ron replied.
"True," Harry hummed. "so we just got to hope that he's not completely useless or has Voldemort sticking out the back of his head
"Or both." Ron grinned.
"Or both," Harry grinned back.
Professor Lupin had already proved himself to be far more likeable than the others by starting off with a practical lesson, having brought the class to a room where he had a boggart waiting in a cupboard for them. Unfortunately, Snape was there when they arrived, though thankfully for Harry the man had left quickly, though not before insulting poor Neville.
"Now, can anybody tell me what a boggart looks like?" Professor Lupin asked.
"Nobody knows," Hermione's voice spoke up, startling Ron. "a boggart is a shapeshifter."
"Where did she come from?!" Ron hissed into Harry's ear. Harry didn't answer and instead stared at Hermione with narrowed eyes as she continued to explain that a boggart would shapeshift into a person's worst fears.
'Venom, she wasn't here before, was she?' Harry asked, knowing how observant his alien friend was.
'No, she just showed up a few minutes ago.'
'Curious.'
'Indeed.'
"Miss Granger is correct," Professor Lupin said with a small smile.
"boggarts are indeed terrifying, but they are not invincible. To some skilled wizards, they can be nothing more than highly frightening pests, now let's begin on how to combat these creatures. The boggart wants your fear, you need to do your best to not give him it. What a boggart really hates, what really finishes him off, is laughter. You will have to change the boggart into a form that you find funny, it can be anything, but it must be funny to you. Now, let's start with the incantation we need to repel a boggart, the incantation is 'Riddikulus'. Repeat it for me class." He waited patiently for the class to repeat the incantation.
"This class is ridiculous." Harry heard Malfoy whisper to Crabbe and Goyle, the two gave him a small laugh in return. Harry frowned, this class had only gone on for about a little while and it was already the best class they had so far, Harry was positive that Malfoy just hated Lupin because of how the man dressed.
"Now, Neville, how about you come up here?" Professor Lupin said kindly to Neville who looked like he'd rather not move at all, still, the Gryffindor boy did do as he was told. "Now, what frightens you the most?" He asked. Neville didn't immediately answer, and instead mumbled something whilst staring down at his feet. "I'm sorry?"
"P…..Professor Snape." Neville managed to look up as he answered, many students laughed at that. Harry found it amusing as well, but another part of him couldn't help but be upset by it. Neville, while clumsy and frightened of everything, was a fairly decent guy, all things considered. He didn't deserve to be terrorised, he shouldn't have to be afraid of his teacher either, what does it say about Snape that he's literally a student's worst fear? Not for the first time, Harry couldn't help but wonder why Dumbledore had hired the man.
"Yes, Professor Snape, frightens all." Professor Lupin joked. "Why don't we make him a little less frightening?" He suggested before moving forwards and whispering something in Neville's ear, Neville stared at Professor Lupin with disbelief but eventually nodded and pulled out his wand. Professor Lupin smiled before flicking his wand in the direction of the cupboard, a second later the boggart stepped out in the form of Snape.
'Wow, it got the big nose down perfectly.' Venom's comment almost caused Harry to laugh but thankfully he was able to restrain himself.
"R..riddikulus!" Neville yelled, jabbing his wand in fake Snape's direction. A few seconds later the Gryffindors in the class erupted with laughter when they saw Professor Snape dressed in a green dress with a red handbag and a hat with a stuffed vulture on it.
Harry barely remembered that that was the same way Neville's grandmother dressed, as it was, he was too busy holding up Ron who looked like he was about to fall over with laughter. The majority of the Slytherins, especially Malfoy, were less than happy about the disrespect to the head of their house and main backer.
"Nicely done!" Professor Lupin smiled at Neville who beamed back at him. "Now go to the back of the class, the rest of you form a line and we'll take turns dealing with the boggart."
Quickly the students formed a line and each took their turn with the boggart, it was interesting to watch. The boggart turned into a variety of things such as a large snake, a zombie and even a clown Ron ended up dealing with a spider but he was able to make it fall over by attacking roller skates to each of its legs. Eventually, though it was Harry's turn.
'Your worst fear will be a dementor,' Venom told Harry as he stepped up.
'Are you sure?' Harry asked, he'd been through a lot of stuff and fought a lot of creatures. But now, as he thought about it, he realised that Venom was right. The dementors made him relive his worst memories, and for someone like him, that was pure torture.
'Actually, yeah, I can see that'
'As soon as it transforms, quickly cast your spell.' Venom advised him. 'Don't wait, do it as soon as possible.'
'Got it. What do you think I should transform it into?'
'I have one idea.' Harry felt like he could see Venom's grin, a second later Venom let Harry know what he was thinking.
Harry took a deep breath as he finally stopped in position, the boggart saw him and quickly transformed into a dementor. The dementor barelv had the time to move forwards when it was hit b
Harry's spell and quickly transformed.
"Um.Mr Potter," Professor Lupin said as the whole class stared at the boggart. "you do remember the point of the lesson, right?"
"You said to turn it into something funny," Harry pointed out before gesturing to the boggart which was now in the form of Draco Malfoy. "so I turned it into the biggest joke I could think of."
Harry finished, earning another round of laughter from the Gryffindors while a red-faced Malfoy tried to glare a hole into the back of Harry's head.
"Mr Potter, ten points from Gryffindor for disrespecting a classmate." Despite Professor Lupin's words, Harry could see the small smirk on the corner of the man's lips and was able to detect the amusement in his voice. Harry gave him an apologetic look before he walked to the back of the class, ignoring the death glare from Malfoy.
"What class do we have next?" Ron asked as they walked out of their defence against the dark arts classroom.
"Charms," Hermione answered before turning her attention. "I still don't understand why you did that in class." She said disapprovingly.
"Excuse me, I seem to remember you laughing as well." Harry reminded her.
"I'm not saying it wasn't funny," Hermione defended. "but I am saying that it was..
11
"Oh lay off it, Hermione," Ron interrupted. "it was bloody brilliant."
"Thanks," Harry grinned.
"Still, I don't know what got into you, Harry." Hermione persisted.
" don't know, what's got into you?" Harry asked defensively
"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione frowned.
"It means, why don't you tell us how you're able to take so many classes at once?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "Apparently you're taking divination which is at the same time as ancient runes, how the hell does that work? And I can't help but notice that you've been coming late to classes since we got back, very unlike you.
Huh?"
'I don't know what you're talking about," Hermione said quickly, avoiding Harry's eyes before she rushed off.
"What the bloody hell was that about?" Ron blurted out.
"I'm wondering the exact same thing."