Raised By Wolfstar: Slytherin Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

Chapter Seventeen: In The Hog's Head

Theodore made no mention of Harry giving Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons for two whole weeks after his original suggestion. Harry's detentions with Umbridge were finally over (he doubted whether the words now etched on the back of his hand would ever fade entirely); Quidditch practices had been going well, Harry was impressed by how quickly the new teammates were improving in their positions; and all four of them had managed to fully vanish their mice in Transfiguration (Terence had actually progressed to vanishing kittens), before the subject was broached again, on a wild, blustery evening at the end of September, when the four of them were sitting in the library, looking up potion ingredients for Snape.

'So Harry,' Theodore said suddenly, 'have you give any more thought into Defense Against the Dark Arts?'

'Course I have,' said Harry grumpily. 'Can't forget it, can we, with that hag teaching us—'

'I'm talking about what we proposed a couple weeks ago,' Theodore specified. 'How we think you should be teaching us?'

Harry did not answer at once. He pretended to be perusing a page of Asiatic Anti-Venoms, because he did not want to say what was in his mind.

The fact was that he had given the matter a great deal of thought over the past fortnight. Sometimes it seemed an insane idea, just as it had on the night his four friends had proposed it, but at others, he had found himself thinking about the spells that had served him best in his various encounters with Dark creatures and Death Eaters—found himself, in fact, subconsciously planning lessons...

'Well,' he said slowly, when he could not pretend to find Asiatic anti-venoms interesting much longer, 'yeah, I—I've thought about it a bit.'

'Well?' said Tracey eagerly.

'I dunno,' said Harry, playing for time. He looked up at Allison.

'Don't look at me if you want to back out,' she said with an uncharacteristic smirk. 'I think you teaching Defence is a wise choice.'

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

'You did listen to what I said about a load of it being luck, didn't you?'

'We did, Harry,' said Tracey gently, 'but you can not deny that a lot of what you have done also wasn't luck, you have practiced very heard, learned everything you could, you got private lessons from Lupin who was probably the best DADA teacher we ever had. At the age of fourteen you held your own against a sixth year and two final years and all the challenges the tasks held.'

'Will you do it Harry?' Theodore asked in a hopeful voice.

'Just you guys, Terence, and maybe Canini, right?'

To Harry's surprise, Theodore suddenly became quite sheepish, 'Er, not exactly. We aren't the only ones getting a poor education from Umbridge, so I think anyone who finds her lessons inadequate should join. Outside of Hogwarts we're all vulnerable to You-Know-Who and his forces, so we shouldn't be the only ones with a slight advantage.'

Harry considered this for a moment, then said, 'Yeah, but I doubt anyone except you guys would want to be taught by me. I'm a nutter, remember?'

'I think you're wrong,' stated Allison, 'I think many people at our school would like to listen to what you have to say, but you won't believe us until you see it so let's put it this way, we spread the word to those we think would be interested and see how many show up.'

Harry gave a sigh of defeat, 'Alright then. Show up where by the way?'

'Well, since Umbridge probably wouldn't approve of a bunch of kids meeting to discuss how to undermine her attempts at re-educating us, I think we should have our first meeting during the upcoming Hogsmeade trip. Depending on how it goes we can try and find a better meeting spot later,' Theodore explained.