[FFML] [FANFIC][HP][SPOLIERS] Harry Potter and the Defense Against the Dark Arts, Chapter One: "The Request"

[Kevin Callahan]

S P O I L ER  W A R N I N
G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!













Thar
Be
Massive
Spoilers
Of
The
Final
Book
Here










Please take care to only read if you have finished book seven or want
to know what happens. This takes place about two months or so after
the fall of Voldemort. It will cover some of the clean up efforts at
the school, at the ministry, and the world in General. It will show
the relationships between H/G and R/H and how they grow. I intend this
to be the most ambitious project I have ever taken on. I will produce
36 chapters per year between the time of the Fall and the birth of
H/G's first child (roughly seven years). Each chapter will come out
weekly.

Enjoy!

Harry Potter and the Defense of the Dark Arts
Chapter 1: "The Request."

"I don't know if... Well, it is an unusual request, Mr. Potter,"
Minerva McGonagall said before folding her hands. "Or, I suppose I
should say Harry." She took off her glasses and set them down on the
desk in front of her, as she rubbed her temples. The recently promoted
headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry looked
older in that moment than Harry had ever remembered in his years as a
student.

"Teaching," she continued, "ar such a young age, especially when a
number of your friends are still enrolled at Hogwarts... Well don't
you think that might be construed as a conflict of interests?"

Harry almost sputtered. "Professor, you know I'd never-"

McGonagall held up hand. "I know you'd never intend to, but your one
major flaw is that you take risks based on your desire to be
selfless." She raised an eyebrow. "You've never been one for rules,
Harry."

"Professor..."

She held up the hand once more. "You graduated with Distinction,
Harry. We are no longer student and professor. We are colleagues, and
I daresay, perhaps also friends." She smiled a smile Harry had seen
few times during his school days, a smile that had become increasingly
rare as Voldemort's rise to power continued. "You may call me
Minerva..." The smile faded a bit. "I have been thinking on your
request to fill the position of the Defense Against the Dark Arts
professor... As it happens, you are not the only former student to
request such a position." She lifted her head. "Come in, Neville!"

Neville Longbottom came in wearing long crimson robes and carrying a
crowling cactus. "Hiya, Harry."

"Neville!" Harry exclaimed, clasping Neville's hand tightly. "How have
you been these past few months?" *Since the end of the war* was left
unsaid, but Neville's eyes told Harry the it had been heard
regardless. It was still too painful to really speak of unless the
situation absolutely required it.

"Oh, Gran is doing great, says I'm so much like my parents. That's
she's proud of me, and says she's always known I was a good judge of
character," Neville said.

"Harry," McGonagall said, " Neville has asked to replace Professor
Sprout as herbology instructor until she can recover from her wounds
at St. Mungo's. Now, I have addressed the same concerns with him as I
have with you, but after speaking to Professor Sprout, it appears she
has every confidence in Neville's abilities. So I am granting him the
title of Acting Herbology Professor."

The look on Neville's face told Harry that he had not yet been
informed and this was the first he had heard of the acceptance of his
request. "Now, Neville, I need to speak to Harry alone. I suggest you
go set up your nursury," McGonagall said. Neville pursed his lips and
nodded, closing the door to the headmaster's door, as he had never
really gone much into the office beyond the doorway.

"Harry," McG- No, Minerva- said, "are you sure this is what you want?
Most students go on a world wizarding trip after they graduate to
better understand where they fit in."

Harry shook his head. "No, I already know where I fit in. Hogwarts is
my home. Even more now... now.." he breathed, closing his eyes. It had
been too much. "One day I'll go back to Grimmauld Place, but for
now..."

Minerva fiddled with her glasses. "I'll be frank. How much of this has
to do with young Miss Weasley?"

Harry's eyes blazed, but his face flushed. "I love her, and I don't
intend to be seperated from her. Not for another year, another month,
or another day... But that *isn't* why I ask you to consider me for
the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Although, I
admit, it is a reason I do not intend to travel abroad. As long as
Ginny is here, I will not leave England." His eyes became hard. "I can
promise you our relationship won't be a problem."

"While I am sure that is true, it wouldn't do to have even the
slightest appearance of impropriety or wrongdoing. However, there is
another option. Minister Shacklebolt informs me that a special
dispensation and exemption is available to certain underaged wizards
that fought the Dark Lord. Among them are a number of deceased
students, such as the much mourned Mr. Creevy." The pain in Minerva's
eyes was evident. She genuinely loved each and every Gryffindor that
passed under her tutelage. "Two names that are also on the list are
Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley." She let Harry take a moment to
consider. "Should I," she continued, "as Headmistress grant it, they
will no longer be considered children. They will be adults in all
ways. As you are aware, students that reach the age of 17 before or
during their final year at Hogwarts are free to disenroll themselves.
I have a feeling that if you left, Miss Weasley would make just such a
decision. As you did. So instead, I shall grant her emancipation as I
confer on her graduation with Distinction from Hogwarts. Is that
enough for you? Can the two of you find happiness outside of these
walls?" Minivera glanced around the Headmistress's office, as if she
could take in the whole of the castle by doing so. Maybe she could.

"Yes, we can," said Harry firmly, "but it is not Ginny's location that
is the reason for my request, Professor. And it is not just because
this place is my home. It is because of what Dumbledore's Army
accomplished. How I took the lead, and we all learned together." Harry
placed his hands on the desk in front of him. "Tom Riddle is not the
only young wizard that becomes a problem later in life. He was not the
first Dark Lord, and history tells us he won't be the last. I owe it
to all the people who died to help stop him to train those who can
stop such dark wizards in the future, and to do my best to prevent any
young witch or wizard from ever feeling the dark path is the right
choice." He leaned over the desk. "Please, Professor, let me do my
part so that this never happens again."

Minerva McGonagall clasped her hands together. "Very well, Professor
Potter, you may assume the role of Defense Against the Dark Arts
professor. Ginny Weasley will be assigned as your adjunct. I will
continue to teach Advanced Courses for fifth, sixth, and seventh years
to allay the fears of the board and the Ministry. Once they see your
skill, I am sure the the situation can be... modified." She stood up
and walked around the desk, taking Harry into an embrace. "Hogwarts
will always be your home, Harry, and its students, past and present,
will always be your family. And I may I say how very, very proud I am
to have been your Head of House these many years?" She blinked at her
eyes and broke the embrace. "Yes, well, you best go set up your
office, and tell Professor Longbottom and his companions that
listening at the door should have been cured out of them as first
years!" She pointed her wand at the office door. "Alohamora!" she
cried and Neville, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione collapsed into the office.
"Now, get, the lot of you, before I change my mind!" But the smile on
her face served to ruin the effect of the sternness in her voice.

"Thank you, Prof- Minerva," Harry said sheepishly. "I won't let you
down." He turned away from his former Head of House and walked towards
his friends.

They scampered out the door and down the spinning steps of the
Headmisstress's office, and down into the corridor below. As soon as
they were at the bottom they all started speaking excitedly at once.
Ginny reached up and pulled Harry into a kiss while Ron and Neville
exchanged high-fives.

"Good job, Harry!" Hermione said. "Professor at 18! And no one more deserving!"

"Except her o' course," Ron said slyly, earning an elbow in the
stomach, which he grabbed from long practice and pulled its owner
close to him. "Yeah, seriously, good job, mate."

"So that just leaves figuring out how to keep you two and Luna here,"
Harry started excitedly, but quickly lost his cheer when his
girlfriend and three compatriots exchanged glances.

Hermione struck at Ron again. "RONALD Weasley! You didn't tell him!
You promished you'd tell him!"

"Allright, allright... Mate, we're not staying. Me and 'Mione-"

"Don't call me 'Mione!" Hermione struck again.

"Ow, devil woman. HERmione and me are heading to Australia to go get
her parents... And well we're gonna stay a while and then take a tour
of East Asia and North America on our way back to England. I hear
America is starting a Quidditch League, and I wanted to see that in
action."

Harry blinked. He couldn't imagine more than two or three months
without Ron or Hermione. They were more than friends, and they were
more than family. They were... well had been, inseperable. He was sure
they wouldn't be gone for that long, considering most young wizards
only took a year or two to travel the world but still... He looked at
Ginny and felt an ice cold stab of guilt. What he felt for her was
indeed true love, but... Although he could not explain it, she lived
in a different part of his heart han Ron or Hermione. Ginny was in the
process of becoming part of him, and he a part of her. But Hermione
and Ron were as much a part of him as any organ or bone. He imagined
the hole thier absence would leave in him would be the emotional
equivalent of when he had lost all of the bones in his arm that day on
the quidditch field so many years ago. Just not at all comical, and
not something that could be healed by Skele-Gro. He would be beside
himself if something happened to them while he was so very far away.
He had fought so hard to save them, and they, he, and the realization
that any of their deaths might be accidental and senseless was like a
punch to the gut.

Hermione must have read it on his face, because she pulled him into
the embrace. "Well always be with you, Harry, and you always be with
us. You had to know a time would come when we could no longer be as
three in the way we have een these past seven years." She looked down.
"While your feelings for me have never been romantic, Harry, moving
towards Ron has meant invariably moving away from you. We are no
longer a perfect triangle." Her glance at Ginny told Hermione she did
not think she and Ron were the only ones who had moved away.

Ron's head also hung low, and the trio looked like they were engaged
in sports strategy, instead of sorting out the evolution of their
relationship. "I'm not good at words, Harry, you know that," Ron said.
"And how we feel about you *is* different than how we feel about each
other but that doesn't mean we care any less about you, mate."

Harry looked over at Ginny, engaged in nervous conversation with
Neville, well back from the huddle. The two had stepped back, giving
the three privacy, but Ginny looked over and caught his gaze, eyes
worriedly peircing into his soul. He turned back to Ron and Hermione.
"I understand. Perhaps moreso that I ever expected to."

"Come on, then Harry," said Ron, slapping him on the back. "We've all
got some moving to do, don't we?"

END CHAPTER ONE




-- 
Very Respectfully,
Kevin M. Callahan

"It takes strength to be gentle and kind." - The Smiths, "I Know It's Over"

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