On The Tightrope 8/10
Title: On The Tightrope ~ First Class (8/48)
Author: Lire lire_casander
Pairing: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy
Rating: PG this chapter. NC-17 overall.
Word Count: 1568
Beta: Lovely gurliemoviegeek. Any mistakes left are my own fault.
Disclaimer: I do not own in any form or shape these characters, JK Rowling does. Just playing with them for my own amusement and yours.
Summary: Harry Potter has saved the world, and now the world has left him out. When desperation becomes too much to bear, he finds solace in an unexpected act of salvation committed by an unexpected hero.
Warnings (overall): Angst. Intents of suicide. Dark themes. Fluff. DH-compliant, including epilogue. Takes place between the final chapter and the epilogue.
Warnings of this chapter: Angst.
Author's Note: Written for 100quills's prompt table using prompt 21. Resolution.
The main table was full of empty plates when Harry reached it. He glanced briefly at the spot where Snape used to sit, now occupied by Slughorn; his heart leapt. Even though Snape had always had his preferences, Harry knew the reasons why the teacher never gave up on him, and the shared love they both felt for Lily Potter - romantic or familiar - was a link he didn't have with anyone else.
"Harry, did you want something?" he could hear Slughorn asking, and knew he must have been staring.
"Erm... yes, sorry. Professor McGonagall, may I have a word?"
She smiled and nodded. "Do you need somewhere more private?" she offered.
"No, thanks, here is fine. I'm sure you are aware of Professor Snape's intention towards the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
McGonagall chuckled. "Do you call his sending a letter to you intention? Because I call it fact."
Harry smiled. "Whatever. I'm here just to tell you that I accept, but that we should talk about timetables if I'm to teach the whole school."
McGonagall stood up. "I'll explain on the way to your first class. Morning," she said to the rest of the table, and left the Great Hall with Harry. He waited respectfully until she started talking again. "Harry, this is a great sacrifice for you, I'm sure you know. Having to give up part of your education to teach others, I mean."
"It's not harder than other things I've had to endure, Professor."
She sighed. "Right now, I'm your equal, since you've accepted Severus' offer. So call me Minerva. And as I was saying, you'll have to decline some privileges any student in your year will have. In order to adjust your timetables, you will not have study sessions as is supposed to be obligatory in one’s S eventh Year. You will be teaching."
Harry nodded. "I never used the study sessions to actually study, I always plotted my next move to stop Voldemort. I hadn't planned to break my tradition this year."
"I don't think a It's good to know is in order, but well, given the circumstances..." She patted his shoulder. "For your first class with the Seven Years you must review theory and explain the basics of a good Patronus. You'll find what's mandatory in OWLs and NEWTs in the red sheets on your table."
They had reached the classroom; Harry grew nervous within seconds, his hands sweating and shaking slightly. "Everything will be fine, Harry. They know you, and you already know all of them. As you surely noticed, there's no house division in the classrooms this year, so you'll teach members of the four Houses at once, a class per year. Good luck." She left him alone in front of the closed door, and his resolution broke a bit, fear of failing slowly flooding him.
He took in a deep breath and opened the door at the same time as the bell rang.
When he stepped inside, all the students looked at him curiously. However, when he searched for Draco Malfoy - out of habit, he told himself - he found out that the blond was stubbornly staring at his table.
"Hello," he said simply, waving his hand towards the class. "Welcome to your last year of Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"What does this all mean?" Zacharias Smith questioned.
"Haven't Ginny and Neville told you?" Harry looked at the back of the class, where he spotted a grief-stricken Ginny with red eyes and the memory of tears still on her face. Something inside of him ached at the sight, since it was the first time he had seen her crying. "I'm your new teacher."
Hermione and Ron smiled widely at his words. "Do we have to call you Professor, then?" Hannah Abbott asked.
"Of course not! You may call me Harry, and I mean it. No more Potter, we will be on a first-name basis in this class. That also applies to you all; you may not refer to your classmates by their last names, at least as long as you are in this classroom. We don't need the animosity provided by the lack of trust a surname brings within. It was a name that helped us in the war."
"How so?" Smith called out. Harry decided right then that Zacharias’ questions were going to give him more than one headache that school year.
"I called him Tom, not Voldemort. That was the beginning of the end, and that's how it should have been. There's nothing to fear in a name - if we're afraid of naming something, then it will overpower us."
Everyone grew silent for a moment, which Harry used to open his book and find the correct page. "Today, we will be reading the paragraphs about Patronuses; if we have time left, we will practice a bit."
He took the red papers on his table to read. He looked briefly at his class, amazed that he had been given such a gift, and found Draco Malfoy still staring at his desk. Frowning, Harry approached him.
"Draco," he said. "Why aren't you reading? Where is your book?"
He expected a witty reply; he could have stood something in the line of I won't follow your orders, Potter. but he as sure as hell wasn't expecting Draco Malfoy to shrug and keep looking down.
"Draco, what happened?"
The blond shrugged helpelessly, and this time Harry didn't miss the trembling in those shoulders. "Draco? Please look at me."
The blond shook his head, but Harry wasn't going to give up so easily. He crouched down besides his student and sighed. "Draco, what happened?" he repeated.
The blond mumbled something unintelligible; Harry stretched out a hand and lightly touched his forearm. "What was that?"
"My textbooks have all disappeared," Draco confessed reluctantly. "I had them yesterday, and this morning they were all gone."
"You can use mine today," Harry offered. "I'll provide you with some new books for the rest of the year, or until you find yours."
The blond accepted the book with shaking hands; Harry looked around the class and found Ron and McCormack snickering. He approached them and asked them to accompany him out of the room. Once outside, Harry crossed his arms over his chest and demanded an explanation.
"About what?" McCormack said. "Is it a crime to have some fun?"
"It is when you're having fun by making someone else's life miserable. Where have you both hidden Draco's books?"
"Nowhere," McCormack replied.
"Why are you so fond of calling that snake by his given name, Harry?" Ron asked. "Have you already forgotten all the times he tormented us?"
"No, Ron, but I'm resolved to leave the past behind just the same way I left Voldemort behind. Why are you so afraid of Draco?"
"I'm not---"
"Of course you are!" Harry interrupted. "You are afraid of the person who saved your life!"
"He never did such thing. He may have saved yours, and even that's questionable, but he never moved a finger to save mine!"
"Remember that day at Malfoy Manor, when he could have easily recognized us but he lied? He saved your life then."
"They tortured Hermione!"
"We all survived because he didn't tell them right away that I was Harry Potter! He saved not only my life, or yours, or Hermione's, but also the lives of the children you may have with her. I'm not saying that you should be best friends with him, Ron, but he's back just like everyone else, and you should see past the hatred to find how brave he is."
"Brave?"
"Do you see anyone willing to accept him in their House? He is the only Slytherin left, and even us Gryffindors had to be forced to take him in our tower. That doesn't say much about our bravery and chivalry, right?"
Harry waited for Ron's outburst, for him to yell, but he witnessed as his friend became quiet. McCormack was also silent; Harry could hear the mechanisms in their brains working, and was startled when the younger wizard spoke.
"In the changing room at the Quidditch pitch."
"Fine. You'll go there right now and retrieve the books. If any other teacher questions you, tell them Professor Potter has sent you."
"Harry," Ron said once Michael McCormack had turned a corner. "I cannot be his friend, but I can try to tolerate him."
"That's more than I can ask for."
"But tell me, why? Why him?"
Harry sighed. "I just feel like it's only fair to have a second chance. Everyone deserves them."
"Is that all, Harry?" Ron frowned at him. "Ginny says you've changed. She told us you dumped her, and I have to side up with my sister, Harry, but I can't conceal my worry. Last year you wouldn't have reacted like this."
"Maybe killing Voldemort has changed me, Ron."
"Maybe."
Ron shrugged and entered the classroom again, leaving Harry alone in the corridor. Before the door closed behind his friend, Harry could have a glimpse of a defeated Draco Malfoy, bent over a book and trying to hide what looked like a glistening tear.
Harry wondered when the tables had turned and he had become a defender of lost causes. Maybe he had never stopped being the devil's advocate.
Or maybe it was a new resolution trying to form in the back of his mind.
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Author: Lire lire_casander
Pairing: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy
Rating: PG this chapter. NC-17 overall.
Word Count: 1568
Beta: Lovely gurliemoviegeek. Any mistakes left are my own fault.
Disclaimer: I do not own in any form or shape these characters, JK Rowling does. Just playing with them for my own amusement and yours.
Summary: Harry Potter has saved the world, and now the world has left him out. When desperation becomes too much to bear, he finds solace in an unexpected act of salvation committed by an unexpected hero.
Warnings (overall): Angst. Intents of suicide. Dark themes. Fluff. DH-compliant, including epilogue. Takes place between the final chapter and the epilogue.
Warnings of this chapter: Angst.
Author's Note: Written for 100quills's prompt table using prompt 21. Resolution.
The main table was full of empty plates when Harry reached it. He glanced briefly at the spot where Snape used to sit, now occupied by Slughorn; his heart leapt. Even though Snape had always had his preferences, Harry knew the reasons why the teacher never gave up on him, and the shared love they both felt for Lily Potter - romantic or familiar - was a link he didn't have with anyone else.
"Harry, did you want something?" he could hear Slughorn asking, and knew he must have been staring.
"Erm... yes, sorry. Professor McGonagall, may I have a word?"
She smiled and nodded. "Do you need somewhere more private?" she offered.
"No, thanks, here is fine. I'm sure you are aware of Professor Snape's intention towards the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
McGonagall chuckled. "Do you call his sending a letter to you intention? Because I call it fact."
Harry smiled. "Whatever. I'm here just to tell you that I accept, but that we should talk about timetables if I'm to teach the whole school."
McGonagall stood up. "I'll explain on the way to your first class. Morning," she said to the rest of the table, and left the Great Hall with Harry. He waited respectfully until she started talking again. "Harry, this is a great sacrifice for you, I'm sure you know. Having to give up part of your education to teach others, I mean."
"It's not harder than other things I've had to endure, Professor."
She sighed. "Right now, I'm your equal, since you've accepted Severus' offer. So call me Minerva. And as I was saying, you'll have to decline some privileges any student in your year will have. In order to adjust your timetables, you will not have study sessions as is supposed to be obligatory in one’s S eventh Year. You will be teaching."
Harry nodded. "I never used the study sessions to actually study, I always plotted my next move to stop Voldemort. I hadn't planned to break my tradition this year."
"I don't think a It's good to know is in order, but well, given the circumstances..." She patted his shoulder. "For your first class with the Seven Years you must review theory and explain the basics of a good Patronus. You'll find what's mandatory in OWLs and NEWTs in the red sheets on your table."
They had reached the classroom; Harry grew nervous within seconds, his hands sweating and shaking slightly. "Everything will be fine, Harry. They know you, and you already know all of them. As you surely noticed, there's no house division in the classrooms this year, so you'll teach members of the four Houses at once, a class per year. Good luck." She left him alone in front of the closed door, and his resolution broke a bit, fear of failing slowly flooding him.
He took in a deep breath and opened the door at the same time as the bell rang.
When he stepped inside, all the students looked at him curiously. However, when he searched for Draco Malfoy - out of habit, he told himself - he found out that the blond was stubbornly staring at his table.
"Hello," he said simply, waving his hand towards the class. "Welcome to your last year of Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"What does this all mean?" Zacharias Smith questioned.
"Haven't Ginny and Neville told you?" Harry looked at the back of the class, where he spotted a grief-stricken Ginny with red eyes and the memory of tears still on her face. Something inside of him ached at the sight, since it was the first time he had seen her crying. "I'm your new teacher."
Hermione and Ron smiled widely at his words. "Do we have to call you Professor, then?" Hannah Abbott asked.
"Of course not! You may call me Harry, and I mean it. No more Potter, we will be on a first-name basis in this class. That also applies to you all; you may not refer to your classmates by their last names, at least as long as you are in this classroom. We don't need the animosity provided by the lack of trust a surname brings within. It was a name that helped us in the war."
"How so?" Smith called out. Harry decided right then that Zacharias’ questions were going to give him more than one headache that school year.
"I called him Tom, not Voldemort. That was the beginning of the end, and that's how it should have been. There's nothing to fear in a name - if we're afraid of naming something, then it will overpower us."
Everyone grew silent for a moment, which Harry used to open his book and find the correct page. "Today, we will be reading the paragraphs about Patronuses; if we have time left, we will practice a bit."
He took the red papers on his table to read. He looked briefly at his class, amazed that he had been given such a gift, and found Draco Malfoy still staring at his desk. Frowning, Harry approached him.
"Draco," he said. "Why aren't you reading? Where is your book?"
He expected a witty reply; he could have stood something in the line of I won't follow your orders, Potter. but he as sure as hell wasn't expecting Draco Malfoy to shrug and keep looking down.
"Draco, what happened?"
The blond shrugged helpelessly, and this time Harry didn't miss the trembling in those shoulders. "Draco? Please look at me."
The blond shook his head, but Harry wasn't going to give up so easily. He crouched down besides his student and sighed. "Draco, what happened?" he repeated.
The blond mumbled something unintelligible; Harry stretched out a hand and lightly touched his forearm. "What was that?"
"My textbooks have all disappeared," Draco confessed reluctantly. "I had them yesterday, and this morning they were all gone."
"You can use mine today," Harry offered. "I'll provide you with some new books for the rest of the year, or until you find yours."
The blond accepted the book with shaking hands; Harry looked around the class and found Ron and McCormack snickering. He approached them and asked them to accompany him out of the room. Once outside, Harry crossed his arms over his chest and demanded an explanation.
"About what?" McCormack said. "Is it a crime to have some fun?"
"It is when you're having fun by making someone else's life miserable. Where have you both hidden Draco's books?"
"Nowhere," McCormack replied.
"Why are you so fond of calling that snake by his given name, Harry?" Ron asked. "Have you already forgotten all the times he tormented us?"
"No, Ron, but I'm resolved to leave the past behind just the same way I left Voldemort behind. Why are you so afraid of Draco?"
"I'm not---"
"Of course you are!" Harry interrupted. "You are afraid of the person who saved your life!"
"He never did such thing. He may have saved yours, and even that's questionable, but he never moved a finger to save mine!"
"Remember that day at Malfoy Manor, when he could have easily recognized us but he lied? He saved your life then."
"They tortured Hermione!"
"We all survived because he didn't tell them right away that I was Harry Potter! He saved not only my life, or yours, or Hermione's, but also the lives of the children you may have with her. I'm not saying that you should be best friends with him, Ron, but he's back just like everyone else, and you should see past the hatred to find how brave he is."
"Brave?"
"Do you see anyone willing to accept him in their House? He is the only Slytherin left, and even us Gryffindors had to be forced to take him in our tower. That doesn't say much about our bravery and chivalry, right?"
Harry waited for Ron's outburst, for him to yell, but he witnessed as his friend became quiet. McCormack was also silent; Harry could hear the mechanisms in their brains working, and was startled when the younger wizard spoke.
"In the changing room at the Quidditch pitch."
"Fine. You'll go there right now and retrieve the books. If any other teacher questions you, tell them Professor Potter has sent you."
"Harry," Ron said once Michael McCormack had turned a corner. "I cannot be his friend, but I can try to tolerate him."
"That's more than I can ask for."
"But tell me, why? Why him?"
Harry sighed. "I just feel like it's only fair to have a second chance. Everyone deserves them."
"Is that all, Harry?" Ron frowned at him. "Ginny says you've changed. She told us you dumped her, and I have to side up with my sister, Harry, but I can't conceal my worry. Last year you wouldn't have reacted like this."
"Maybe killing Voldemort has changed me, Ron."
"Maybe."
Ron shrugged and entered the classroom again, leaving Harry alone in the corridor. Before the door closed behind his friend, Harry could have a glimpse of a defeated Draco Malfoy, bent over a book and trying to hide what looked like a glistening tear.
Harry wondered when the tables had turned and he had become a defender of lost causes. Maybe he had never stopped being the devil's advocate.
Or maybe it was a new resolution trying to form in the back of his mind.
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