Update 2 of 2

Happy Holidays!

Chapters 62 – 64

Older students went into the Great Hall and took their places at the four tables as first year students followed Professor McGonagall to the front of the Hall, with their backs to the Professors and facing older students, while Flich took out the Sorting Hat. It could be seen from their faces that the new students were very curious about this ragged hat.

As usual, the Sorting Hat first sang a very long song before it had the mood to sort the new students. This year, Slytherin had 35 new students, a bit more than usual.

Then, Dumbledore made his usual speech, which included school rules, and directed the students and staff in the school song. "There is one more announcement I would like to make."

Other than Voldemort, whose face was dark and gloomy, the other three Heads of House all looked happy and excited.

"With the Goblins attack on August 15th revealing many problems with our students' ability to use magic outside of school, all the professors and myself had a long discussion," Dumbledore's smile seemed very kind, but Harry had the feeling that Dumbledore was planning something he wouldn't like. "All of us believed that it is necessary to increase your practical use of magic. Therefore, it is decided that starting from next week, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night from 7:30 to 9:00, a special Defence Against the Dark Arts tutoring session would be held. I must warn everyone, within these sessions, the three Unforgivable Curses will also be taught."

Even before Dumbledore finished talking, the entire Great Hall was filled with chattering. The Unforgivable Curses had always been a restricted part of any magical school, not one headmaster had the courage to face the wrath of the public by having students learn them. Dumbledore dared to make this suggestion simple because of the high number of underaged wizards and witches that died during the Goblins attack, which was directly correlated to the small amount of attack magic that were able to cause harm taught to the students in school. The students were very excited, the Unforgivables were something underaged students only heard about, but never experienced with, just like Knockturn Alley. Students were always interested, but under the pressure from the parents, they could only stay away from them. Now, they had the chance to study it in the open, everyone seemed like a mouse who just stole a piece of cheese right under a cat's nose, they were all grinning like crazy.

The Slytherin table remained quiet, they realized that something was off from the look on their Head's face. This special Defence Against the Dark Arts tutoring session may not be just a simple tutoring session. In theory, the Goblins attack had been resolved, then that should be the end and everything should return to normal; but Dumbledore was acting very different, deciding to open a special tutoring session, tutor them on Defence Against the Dark Arts, what exactly was he planning?

"To help those constantly dreaming Gryffindors increase their magical abilities? So their death tolls won't be so high when the war starts?" Lucius traced the lines on his wand.

Snape shrugged, "Maybe. Slytherin's performance that night was pretty good."

"Headmaster Dumbledore isn't finished yet." Harry put an end to the whispers on the table. Just a special Defence Against the Dark Arts tutoring session or learning about the Unforgivable Curses wouldn't cause Voldemort's face to look so terrible, Dumbledore hadn't told everyone the most important part yet.

Dumbledore chuckled and lifted his hands, the students slowly started to quiet down. "This special tutoring session is required for fifth years and up, fourth year students are allowed to listen in on the sessions by signing up with their Heads of House, third years and under, it would be best for you to focus on your studies." A couple of younger students let out anger protests, but Dumbledore ignored them, "The location is the Great Hall. As for the person teaching this session, all the professors had their own opinions, but they all thought that because they are professors, there may be some obstacles when communicating with all of you and that would not be beneficial. Therefore, we decided to have top students teach everyone.

The entire hall was silent, everyone's eyes secretly turned towards the Slytherin table.

"His goal is you, Harry!" Snape and Lucius finally understood why Voldemort was so angry. Having Harry tutor the other three houses' students, the kind and selfless Harry would probably teach the students everything he knew, increase the enemy's strength.

"Mr. Harry James Potter, Mr. James Potter." Dumbledore called out.

Harry paused a little, James Potter? As Harry stood up, he glanced at James, he was also confused.

"Mr. Harry James Potter would be teaching you this Defence Against the Dark Arts session, Mr. James Potter would be his assistant." Even before Dumbledore finished, loud applauses rang out through the hall.

"Ah! That's Harry James Potter?" "He seemed like the powerful kind!" "So handsome!" Most new students looked up to this fellow schoolmate who saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

"I have another piece of good news to announce." Dumbledore motioned for the two Potters to sit down. "December 15th is the date that Mr. Harry James Potter would be awarded his Order of Merlin, First Class, and the unveiling of his statue, the ceremony would be held at Hogwarts. At that time, officials from the Ministry of Magic would be at Hogwarts, the headmaster and headmistress of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would also bring some of their students to attend the ceremony." He paused, waiting for the students' excited shouts to die down, "A banquet would be held that night, all students are welcome to attend."

Immediately, the Great Hall was so loud with excitement that it seemed like it was August 15th all over again.

*****

No matter how amazing the Welcoming Feast was, it could not catch the students' attention, students at the three tables will all talking loudly about the upcoming tutoring session. The Slytherin table was filled with quiet whispers discussing how they could achieve the maximum benefits from this tutoring session.

"Harry, why not teach them things that are really hard, so none of those idiots would be able to understand." Lucius gave James an angry stare.

Snape didn't agree with Lucius, "Those people's basics aren't so good, why not start from the simplest, this would show better results."

Even though Harry understood that Snape's suggestion did not come with good intention, he still agreed. From the D.A. meetings, he could tell that the students did not have a good understanding of the knowledge taught in school; everything was just to pass the exam, when they came face to face with the enemy, death would be their only option. "We'll start from the basic spells and go from there."

After dessert, all the food disappeared from the long tables. Lucius stood up and said to the first year students seated at the end of the table, "First years, follow me, I'm prefect Lucius Malfoy."

Snape grabbed Lucius's hand, "What's the password?" Did he expect everyone to spend the night outside?

Lucius realized his mistake and said quickly, "Meeting Inferi."

"What kind of password is that…" Harry frowned, in the five years he had been in Slytherin, none of the passwords had been normal, they were all either bloody or cocky; completely different from the sunny or funny passwords Gryffindor had.

After the prefects led the first year students out of the Great Hall, the older students started to leave. Harry looked at the High Table, Voldemort wasn't there anymore.

"Professor Voldemort must be waiting for you in the common room." Snape said what both of them already knew.

The Slytherin common room was brightly lit with many lights, Voldemort's bright red eyes were dark red, showing off how angry the owner felt right now. Immediately after he returned to Hogwarts, he was called to the headmaster's office by that Dumbledore bastard. One headmaster, three heads of house, together put pressure on him, saying that it was for the students' protection, but in reality, they were after Harry's strange, but powerful magic; they wanted to use this "special tutoring session" to understand more about Harry's magical powers, analyze them, find a solution to overcome them, thus decreasing Harry's threat to the Order of the Phoenix.

But it could also be good, Voldemort had originally planned on having Harry tutor Slytherin students, but he was afraid that Harry wouldn't agree and had delayed the plan. Dumbledore's suggestion came at a very good time, the Order of the Phoenix wanted to decrease Harry's threat through learning about his magical theory and abilities, he could also use Harry's magical theory and abilities to increase the Death Eaters' strength.

Dumbledore very well understood that this was a double edge sword, seemed like Harry really disturbed him. He had handed over a very talented wizard to the enemy just like that, that damned old fool must be in deep regret right now, he was probably pulling his beard out in anger. It was his own fault! That old fool had always been very pleased with his ability to hide his discrimination, this time, he lost a great opportunity! Just thinking about Dumbledore sitting behind his desk that was covered with weird silver instruments, regretting his heart out, Voldemort immediately felt much better, his original anger was all gone.

When Harry walked in, he saw Voldemort speaking to fourth to seventh year students with a bright smile on his face. "All fourth years are to go and listen, sixth years all of you work hard during the lessons, Lucius and Severus, the two of you will hold a review session the night after each session to help them review everything that was learned." The two whose names were called, bowed to accept the task. "Fifth years and seventh years, you're going to be busier with the exams at the end of the year, but Harry's tutoring session would allow you to have a better understanding of your studies, so you must focus during the sessions." He turned his head, saw Harry and stood up to leave, "Harry, walk me back, I have something to say to you."

He said he had something to say to Harry, but until they reached Voldemort's bed chambers, Voldemort still hadn't open his mouth.

"Just tell me what you want to say, is it that you don't want me to teach the other houses anything useful?" Harry was very annoyed and just let out everything.

Voldemort showed a surprised look, "How could I hope for you to do something that's against your morals? Teach them anything you want."

Just like that? Harry curiously stared at the wizard; why was this man, who would never lose on anything, being so generous today? There must be something!

"Of course, it would be much better if you could give the Slytherins an extra session each Wednesday." Voldemort told Harry his plan with a bright smile.

He's still Voldemort. "That might be too hard on the Slytherins, it would be better if it was once every two or three weeks." Harry wanted to punch himself, why did he agree to this so easily?

"Then once every two weeks it is." Voldemort was getting happier and happier.

*****

Gryffindor's atmosphere was much different from Slytherin's, many students were very doubtful at whether Harry would seriously teach them any useful things. It was no secret that the two houses did not get along; Gryffindor students picking on Harry and Snape was not a rare event either.

Some one asked James uncertainly, "James, do you think Harry Potter would teach us something really difficult to make a fool out of us?" A large number of Gryffindors nodded in agreement. They were going to have the sessions with the three other houses, it was the best time to make a fool out of them, Harry Potter was a Slytherin, it would be normal for him to do something like that.

James frowned, "What exactly are all of you thinking? Harry Potter saved six Gryffindors from the giants during the Goblins attack, just from that, Harry Potter is not that kind of person. He's very forgiving, if it was any other Slytherin, we might not be able to make it out of the session alive.

Sirius agreed, "If it was that greasy Sniv…oh, if it was Snape, then the entire Gryffindor might be forced to jump into the lake.

"Then what if he's not serious about teaching us?" Another asked, "I don't believe Professor Voldemort would be so generous to let his hard to come heir teach any one else magic, other than Slytherins."

That was true. James waved his hand handsomely, "I believe that Harry Potter is not that kind of person. Even if he did use this method, he wouldn't be able to just teach us useless things and get away with it, it's always better to practice more."

This made everyone nod in agreement, "That's right, there's four houses, we'll at least be able to learn something."

James stole a glance at the section where the girls gathered, it seemed like Lily was speaking with Emily, but her eyes were also stealing glances at where James was sitting.

There's hope!

*****

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, not only were they good friends, they were also roommates; many things were only talked about within the dorm and forgot about once they were outside.

"James, when did you change your attitude towards Harry Potter?" Remus felt very confused. This was too weird, James and him continued to see each other everyday after August 15th, how come he didn't know when James changed his attitude towards Harry Potter from thinking that he was a cold and ruthless Death Eater to thinking that he was a righteous and kind young man?

"Change?" James sneered, "Harry Potter is the enemy, I don't think that he'll ever stand on Dumbledore and the Order's side. A Death Eater is a Death Eater, all of them are evil."

Peter was shocked, "But you just…" A few minutes ago, he really did thought that James had changed his attitude, or at least really thank that powerful person for saving their lives.

"That's just for show." James lazily fell back onto his soft bed. "Dumbledore wanted me to work with Harry Potter, I couldn't let him down in front of all the students. Not only would it not show his faults, it would only show that I'm still just a naïve kid who doesn't know to look at the big picture." He smiled, very pleased at himself, "I'm going to let everyone know that I am now a mature and composed wizard, not just a kid who only knows how to play pranks." He winked at Sirius and asked as if he accomplished something great, "Did you see Evens's reaction?"

Sirius nodded and smiled very cockily, "A bit confused, that girl. But, I could tell, she liked what you said and the way you acted."

James shook his head as if he didn't agree with his past actions. "You should know, she never looked at me like that before, those beautiful green eyes were always filled with anger and annoyance." He paused a little, "I'm not sure whether she looked at me like that because I changed my attitude towards Harry Potter or that I changed the way I act, but it doesn't matter, I'm confident that I'll win her heart." He fisted his hand and muttered his promise.

Remus was filled with deep thoughts; looking at his two best friends, who were so happy right now, he felt utterly annoyed. James still looked at Harry Potter as the enemy, how was he able to assist Harry Potter during the tutoring session?

"James, are you planning on doing something during the tutoring session?"

James rolled his eyes at him, "Remus, who am I? I'm James Potter, do you think I would do something so low? I have a much better plan."