Next Generation 2

[salemboy]

"So, what's it yer wanted ter talk ta me abou'?" Hagrid said gruffly. Damien could tell that it was a good thing he had used a stronger dose, or he would've been dead by now.

"First," Damien said. "I've heard stories about Potter and I'll bet his kids inhereted his knack for listening to stuff they shouldn't. Muffliato." That spell would make it impossible to be heard by anyone outside. "I came here, because," he took another deep breath. "You were right about me while I'd been here. I've changed though. Thing is, I need you to tell me something else."

Damien saw Hagrid finally give into the potion's calming powers, not because it overtook him, but because Hagrid wished to listen. "Hagrid, I did some bad stuff in my life, and although I didn't join Voldemort, you know it was because I'd left the Hogwarts before I had. Instead, when I had gotten to Japan, I did the next worst thing. At the time, there was a lot of Dark Wizard Gangs. When I turned seventeen, I'd joined a newly forged one and helped to terrorize Japan for a year. Eventually, the gang took the life of my mother, and that's when I finally decided to help the ministry. I helped the ministry take down the gang, and get them put in a High-security prison, a much higher security than even Azkaban."

Hagrid nodded. "I myself was put in a lower security prison for a year of my life, decreased because I had helped the Ministry. After I had helped them, I decided I wanted to be an auror, so that nobody else would die. I served my time, and, because the ministry wouldn't accept ex-convicts, I joined an auroring order independant of nationality. So I've spent twenty years as an auror, hunting down dark wizards, and sometimes helping the Japanese ministry. Well, I was just stationed at Hogwarts by my order and a few hours afterwards, that same gang just escaped from prison."

Hagrid remained calm. Damien sighed as he pulled out another potion and said, "Drink this." Hagrid obeyed without question. As he drank it, Damien saw his face harden (in the illiterate sense).

When he finished drinking it, Hagrid said, "So, yer order assigned ya here, but yer afraid they'll target the school?"

"Hagrid, it's not just the fact that my order sent me here, I just feel like I need to be here. And, yeah, I'm afraid they'll target the school."

"Then stay. It's like I always say; There ain' no place safer than Hogwarts. And if yer put up yer own enchantments aroun' the castle, I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Really?" Damien said, stunned.

"Sure," Hagrid said, showing a big smile. "I mean, we kept Harry an' everyone knew Voldemort was huntin' him. Jus' make sure you tell Proffessor Sprague your Predicament."

"I sure will, Hagrid. Thank you for speaking with me," Damien said as he got up to leave.

[Ms. Elsewhere]

Geneve rushed ahead of the others, the leaves of autumn crunching under her feet. When they finally reached the hut, the door opened and Damien stepped out, fastening his cloak around him against the cold. Geneve dropped to the floor of the forest like a stone. She hoped the others had done the same.

Laying in the leaves she watched as Damien looked around. He had heard her! Please let him think she was an animal, or the wind. Geneve chanted these things in her mind over and over, watching Damien. He looked right at her, squinting into the darkness. She could see the whites of his eyes. She stopped breathing, but before long she had to exhale. She breathed out, but as she did, Damien's expression changed. He shrugged his shoulders, dismissing what he had heard or saw, and made his way back up to the castle.

"Did he see us?" Liam hissed.
"I'm not sure..." Geneve whispered back.

[salemboy]

Damien nearly laughed. The moon was out, and they expected to get down and not be seen. He didn't care, though. They didn't hear his last discussion. Damien heard a rustle beside him. He felt beside him and whipped off the invisibility cloak from the Potter boys. Damien saw Geneve and Liam suppress a laugh. Then Damien had an idea.

"What do you kids think you're doing?" he said to the Potters. He pretended not to see Geneve and Liam. "You are SUPPOSED to be in your common room. He grabbed them by the wrist and began trotting them up towards the castle. He saw a teacher. It was an old grouchy man. "Filch," he said.

Filch turned and saw Damien coming with the Potter boys. "Father like son," He croaked. "I'll take these night wanderers to see the headmistress for this."

"Wait," Damien said. "I'll be right with you. I just have to do something." Damien walked out to the grounds and said, "Expecto Patronum." Out came a silvery white Gorilla. He sent it to Geneve and Liam, saying, "I won't let you off next time, and don't think I'm without a sense of humor."

[choki]

Nikolaus stood by the castle window, observing the stillness of the night air. He was at one of the room located in the West tower, meant for guests of Hogwarts. The reconstruction of Hogwarts would require another week or so but his business was completed over here. He had managed to trade a useless ring for a galleon saving for the school.

The other business left for him was to decide on their wedding date. Both he and Valencia had agreed on letting the school term past before the wedding but the date has not been fixed. Although it might be too early for them to decide on a certain date, Nikolaus could not help but to look forward to this special day. But lately, Valencia seemed to be busy... with things he knew none of. He had a hard time finding her ever since his recovery at the Hospital Wing two days ago. They met once or twice, during breakfast. Although they were still behaving lovely dovely, he could tell that she was preoccupied with other matters. Not wishing to interrupt her private matters, he chose to remain silent. After all, he had his own secrets and past.

Pointless to lose sleep over the ever mounting problems, Nikolaus headed back to the comfort of the inviting bed. At this point, who would have thought that the end was only the beginning...
As the saying goes, "The night is always calm before the storm...."

[DucksRMagical]

Galena yawned as she set off down the path towards Hogwarts. It had been a long day and all she wanted to do now was go to bed, with a dreamless sleep potion of course. She was temporarily staying in her old quarters due to the construction of her new office.

It was a very still night. The trees hardly blew in the wind and the moon gave enough light that Galena had no need to light her wand. She groaned inwardly as she remembered that she had to teach the next day. Galena had posted the job of Transfiguration teacher before she headed to the Hog's Head, but nobody had responded yet. She hadn't really expected to find a teacher within hours, but it would have been nice.

It's not like Galena didn't like teaching. She absolutely adored it. It was just that she had so much other work to do now that she was Headmistress and she didn't think she could cope with teaching as well. No Headmaster or Headmistress had ever taught while running the school, not even Dumbledore. Galena knew she wouldn't be up to it. But until she found a replacement teacher, she had no choice. She couldn't possibly let the students not have Transfiguration classes until she found a teacher. Yes, Galena was just in for a hectic couple of weeks until she found a teacher.

[salemboy]

Damien saw a figure going up the grounds soon after he casted his patronus. The waning gibbous moon allowed him to see it was female, but he couldn't tell who. "Filch, wait just a bit longer." He heard the caretaker mutter an obnoxious reply. He walked down to the figure, his wand held steadily at the woman. Then he saw her face in the moonlight. "Ah, Galena, I wish to speak with you." Damien noticed that Suge was asleep on his shoulder.
"Yes?" she said, yawning. Then Damien told her about everything, from the order assigning him here, to the five who'd escaped from prison.

[Ms. Elsewhere]

Headmistress Sprague had appeared from a path near the forbidden forest and Damien had engaged her in conversation. He was mid way through his discussion when he noticed Filch and the Potter brothers were still waiting. He waved them off, and continued to speak to the Headmistress.
"Oh man, those two are going to be in big trouble! And Damien kept their invisibility cloak! Thank God for that, if Filch got a hold of it, they'd never see it again." Liam whispered to Geneve. Liam and Geneve had made there way to a safer distance after Damien's patronus had warded them off. Geneve sighed.
"I wish I knew what they were saying.." she said, and stood up.
"What are you doing??? We are SO lucky we're not being carted off by Filch right now. Don't push your luck!" Liam pulled at Geneve's cloak from the ground where he was crouching.
"I bet James and Albus heard something. We have to ask them!" Geneve looked down at Liam. "They are in Gryfindor, just like you right?"
Liam stood up and stared at Geneve in disbelief. "Yes. They are also my friends! And we got them into trouble!
"I'm sorry." Geneve said abruptly. "Let's go back. I will talk to them myself tomorrow and apologize." Geneve turned and walked away.

[salemboy]

Damien noticed the kids again. When were they going to leave him alone. "Anyway, Ms. Sprague, that's what I needed to tell you."

Galena looked thoughtful, then said, "Follow me." Damien obeyed without question, noticing the kids trying to follow him as they went. In the main hall, they took a set of stairs down into the dungeons, and stepped into the potions office.

"Ms. Sprague, why have you taken me here?" Damien asked.

"Listen, Damien," she said. "Whatever I say in there, you have to agree with. Got it?" Before Damien could ask what he was agreeing to, Galena dragged him into the Potions Master's office. "Horace!" Galena said, shaking the very obese old man lying in his bed. Damien recognized him as the teacher Geneve had attacked in the previous events. "Horace!" Galena said again, shaking him even harder.

Suddenly Horace jumped awake, saying, "I'm up, I'm up. Aw man, you took away the wine?"

"Oh, shut up Horace," Galena said forcefully. "I have you a replacement."

[Ms. Elsewhere]

The Slytherin common room was somewhere in the dungeons, and as Liam and Geneve parted ways, Geneve walked passed the potions office. The halls were deserted; it was late, and all students were in their common rooms.

"What the... what are you doing out?" Headmistress Sprague glared at her through the office door. Geneve's Potions professor was sitting at his desk, and Damien was standing next to the Headmistress.

"I was.. I was, um..." Geneve stammered. If she was going to be sneaking around ,she needed to come up with excuses a lot faster.

"I expect, Headmistress, " said Damien, giving Geneve a look to silence her. "That she is returning from the Hospital wing. She had a dizzy spell in the Great Hall at dinner, and now she should go to bed. Are you feeling any better Geneve?" Damien stared at her as if he were looking into her very thoughts.

"Excellent, thank you! I think I'm just very tired." Geneve squeaked, and stretched to press the issue.

"Well, you should go to bed. Have you had any dinner?" the Headmistress asked.

"Oh.. no.. I.."

"Then I will have some sent to your room. Now if you will excuse us..." and the Headmistress closed the door.

Geneve stood on the spot and let out a long sigh. Then she bolted back to her common room, ran up to her bedroom and ate the food that had been brought there before washing up and climbing into bed for a much needed, restful sleep.

[salemboy]

Damien watched as Geneve closed the door. He could not believe it. In the proces of trying to get a job protecting Hogwarts, he was forced to be Potions teacher and Head of Slytherin House. He didn't know if this was a good or bad thing. Still, this wasn't what he had signed up for. Horace was just making his way to the door when Galena said. "Don't you want to say goodbye to your students?"

Horace stuttered, "Well, um, if it's alright with you, I'd like to leave now." Damien then realized while he was being forced to do this. Nobody remembered what happened a few days ago, so if an auror suddenly popped up out of nowhere, asking to protect the castle, after nineteen years of peace, they'd be asking questions. So, he stepped aside for Slughorn to pass, and motioned for Galena to do the same. And with that, Damien had become a potions teacher.

[Wanderful]

Sabian had stalked away from the girl when he realised she was not interested. It was no fun in hogwarts, he had to escape.
The moons illuminating features lit up the grounds of Hogwarts as he flung a rucksack over his shoulder and racedtowards the gate.
A cloaked figure was standing on the opposite side of the ate when he reached it and immediaely, they pulled out their wand and he heard a hoarse voice whisper; "Stupefy"
The last thing Sabian remembered was seeing a goblin peering down at him.

[salemboy]

Damien woke up the next morning to the sound of loud knocking. He slowly came to remember what had happened last night, and when he looked at his watch, he groaned. It was half-way into his first potions class. He rolled out of bed and crawled over to the sink. He splashed his face with cold water, and pulled on some jeans and a T-shirt. The knocking persisted. "Coming, I'm coming."

He opened the door. A little girl was standing there. "Professor- Hey, you aren't Professor Slughorn," she squeaked.

Damien rubbed his eyes as he said, "He resigned. I'm his replacement. Please, just take a seat, I had a long night." The little girl did as told. He finally looked out over the classroom. There were a bunch of children wearing Ravenclaw robes. Then he asked, "Can somebody tell me which year this is?" All of the children yelled "First years!"

"Ok, my name is Professor Nomare. I am replacing Professor Slughorn as your potions teacher. So, can somebody please tell me what Slughorn had you do last?"

The same girl who'd been knocking raised her hand. "Yes, Ms., um, Ms.-"

"Arian. Laura Arian."

"Well, Ms. Arian, can you please tell me what you studied last time?"

"Well, Professor just had us get to know everybody." Damien wasn't surprised in the least. Slughorn had not too honorable rumors about his singling out of students to put into his own personal club.

He recalled back to his first day of potions class when he himself had gone to Hogwarts.. "Ok, first things first. By show of hands, how many of you have a grudge with somebody in this class?" The entire class raised their hands. "Ok, I don't care what they did to you, what happens outside of this class stays outside of this class. Any arguing will result in loss of house points. Horseplay or actual fights will result in detention, and repeated offenses will result in Parent-teacher conference, and I'm sure that parents don't want to take time out of their busy schedules to deal with misbehaving children. Potion-making is a very dangerous art and hundreds of Japanese wizards are killed each day by incorrectly made potions."

All of the children looked ahead attentively, they obviously had thought that this was going to be an easy class, thanks to Slughorn. Damien would need to change that.

"So," he said, clapping his hands together. "Who wants to play a game." The students looked astonished as he said the word game. Some even slacked back in their chairs. "We are going to make a potion together. And we will feed it to my monkey." The class looked in awe as Suge jumped out of Damien's room and climbed up Damien's shoulder. Just because Damien was going to make the class work hard didn't mean he was going to make them hate the class. "Here's what we'll do. I'm mainly doing this because I don't know any of you. I'm going to get out everything you need to make the potion, and I'm going to write the instructions on the board. Then each of you will come up, introduce yourselves, and do a step in the potion. When it's all done, we'll feed it to my monkey."

So, Damien rummaged through the cupboards, and pulled out a cauldron, green beans, tinder, a ladle, nirnroot leaves, knives, and banana tree leaves. Then he set it all on a table at the front of the classroom, and wrote the instructions on the board. Then, "Aaaaannnd GO!" The class began following the steps on the board, and introducing themselves. Damien did his best to remember every name. Eventually, the potion was finished. Damien had been smart in his choice of potion. Every student had gotten to go up exactly once. Then Damien took a flask for every student, filled them, corked them and set them on the students' desks.

Then he took a vial and and filled it with the leftover potion. "So," he yelled. "Who wants my monkey to drink this?!!!" The class cheered. "I cant here youuuuuuuu!" The class was on its feet cheering. Then Damien gave the potion to Suge, who drank the whole vial. The class quited down as it waited for something to happen. Then Laura yelled, "Look at its fur!!!" Suge's fur had changed to a stark green.

Then Damien lead the class in an applause saying, "Congratulations. You just made green hair dye. Twenty points to Ravenclaw." The class cheered some more. "Now, take out a piece of parchment and write down the instructions on the board, titled 'Green Hair Dye.' Study it. You'll have a quiz next class. You can keep the flasks of potion on your desks. Class dismissed."

[DucksRMagical]

Galena woke up early the next morning, despite her lack of sleep. She had gone to bed as soon as she had finished dealing with the Potter boys. Well, she wound up letting them off without so much as a point taken. She warned them that she wouldn't be so lenient next time, but she just didn't feel like handing out detentions as her first thing as headmistress.

Galena got up, got dressed, and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. After a quick meal and a large mug of coffee, Galena hurried back to her classroom. She had third years this morning, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Perfect, she thought, an hour of trying to keep the two houses from killing each other while trying to teach them transfiguration. Why were Gryffindors and Slytherins always put together? Maybe she ought to change that soon.

As she was preparing for the students to arrive, Galena vaguely wondered how Damien was going to do on his first day. She didn't have long to wonder, though, because soon her classroom was filled with students.

"Settle down," she told them all, "Please take your seats and try not to duel with each other during the class."

"Professor?" a red haired Gryffindor girl raised her hand. Galena smiled, Callie Weasley was one of her favorite students, not that she'd ever let anyone know that.

"Yes, Miss Weasley?"

"Aren't you the Headmistress now?"

"Yes."

"Then why are you still teaching?"

"I have not found a suitable transfiguration teacher yet, so I will continue to teach until I do."

"Oh," Callie replied, "I'd like it if you kept teaching us even though you're Headmistress."

"Thanks, Miss Weasley, but it would be far too difficult to keep up with teaching tasks as well as running the school," Galena told her, "Now, we shall pick up where we left off last year. Please open your books to page 305."

[FawkesthePhoenix]

Valencia stumbled into her classroom, right on time to see the first of her students walk into the room. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw third years. As everyone filed in, Valencia made an effort to straighten her desk.
"Good morning everyone." Valencia greeted the students. "Morning." a few of them mumbled back. Obviously this class was not made up of morning people.
"Right then. Who would like to tell me about lethifolds?" Valencia asked as she handed out books. A tall boy with brown hair raised his hand. "Yes, Mr. Lasher?"
"A lethifold is a magical creature that looks like a cloak?" the boy answered, his uncertainty turning the end of his explanation into a question.
"Are you asking me, or are you telling me?" Valencia raised an eyebrow at him.
"They look like black cloaks." Lasher answered, firmly this time.
"Good. Now can anyone tell me why they are rated XXXXX in the M.O.M. classification?"

[choki]

The morning breeze was a gentle surprise from an otherwise hot summer. The climate was turning cooler and the change of the season was approaching. Nikolaus found himself, strolling along Hogwarts' vast grounds and eventually settled down at the garden. Most of the students were at their various classes, except for a few students, the 5th years, who had a free spell between classes.

"Mr. Herrmann, is that right?" asked a tall girl in the black robe with scarlet red tie. Several other students stood behind the tall girl, hiding shyly away from sight. Nikolaus simply nodded.

"You're a German wizard from Durmstrang, right? Can you show us for magic of yours?" she continued. Nikolaus looked at them curiously.

"Please?" pleaded the girls in chorus.

"What's so interesting about Durmstrang's magic?" he queried, with a haughty expression on his face.

"I heard they teach Dark Arts," said a squeaky voice. The comment surprised a couple of students. Nikolaus turned his attention towards a stocky boy, standing at the edge of the group.

"My dad told me so," he added nervously, looking rather intimidated by the sudden attention he drew upon himself.

"That's true... Durmstrang teach Dark Arts," a few girls at the front gasped in shock, "....but only as a defensive tactics. Need to know the common basis of Dark Arts before you can defend yourself against them. It may sound dubious but it's as simple as that!" Nikolaus stated frankly. He was rather proud of his education system. However, the faces of the student showed a different view.

"Well, other than Dark Arts, there was a special class..." He paused intentionally, waiting for them to bit the bait. The eager look on everyone's face made him continued, "... where students are allowed to teach the lesson on whichever they are good at! Of course, you must be real good for others to sit in for your lesson..." With that, Nikolaus simply waved his wand and the next moment, the stone status of the unicorn started to transform into a fire-breathing dragon.