16

Chapter 16

-o-o-o-

Today Harry was back in the regular classroom, away from the open air and sun of the small field he'd used for his NEWT classes. It was the day that he'd actually been rather dreading. The first time he would be dealing with the first year students, his parent's class.

"Welcome to Defense against the Dark Arts," Harry stated simply as he looked over the various children looking at him with wide eyes, Gryffindors and, thankfully, Ravenclaws. "I am Professor Potter. That is the only name you will address me by."

He made the statement with a pointed look at Sirius Black, who had the decency to blush and look away.

"Over the course of this year we will be covering a small breadth of subjects, where you will be expected to learn a number of facts, theories and spells," he stated calmly and simply as he swept his gaze over them all. "I will also be assigning you to different teams for various in class assignments. There will be one, more often than not, over the course of the year and your participation will be counted towards your grades."

When no one made any immediate comments, he nodded his head. "To begin with, we'll start with the most fundamental basic of this class. What is the point?"

Numerous hands went up.

"Mr. Snape?" he asked calmly as he nodded his head to the boy.

"To learn how to defend ourselves against the dark arts." Snape stated with a remarkably flat tone that made several of the students stifle giggles.

"One point to Ravenclaw for your cheek, Mr. Snape," Harry stated with the slightest smile on his face. "Close, but not quite correct. It is called Defense Against the Dark Arts because it certainly sounds more engaging than 'Surviving the Dark Arts.'"

They stared at him and he smiled a bit more.

"It is a sad fact that not all people and things are equally talented in all areas," Harry stated simply as he looked at the class. "And unfortunately, there are some things that are frightfully good at hurting people. My goal is simple. To teach you not how to defeat them, but how to escape them."

"But-!" The protest was, of course, from James Potter.

"Manners, Mr. Potter. No speaking out of turn," Harry admonished James softly and shook his head before looking at the rest of the class. "For those of you that know what I am called other than Professor Potter, you are probably hoping I will teach you grand and powerful spells and mysterious magics that will grant you wondrous and untold power."

When he got a variety of sheepish nods of agreement, he smiled again and shook his head. "Chance and circumstance allowed me to learn a specific subset of magic that I am uniquely suited to. Unfortunately, those circumstances also preclude me to being able to teach said magic."

The look of disappointment on so many young face was almost enough to melt the heart, but Harry shook his head and still smiled. "However, the thing about power and magic is that it is a wonderfully multifaceted thing. You can find it in a great variety of things."

Shaking his head, he smiled at them. "That's the thing about magic, you can do so very much with it. That being said…."

He made a vague sweeping gestures. "One of the things you will learn this year is how to work with others. Friends can help you out in more ways than you would believe."

There was more in their eyes, including a great deal of doubt. "If it wasn't for my friends, there were so many times that I would've died before I even finished school it's not even funny. So, what you'll be learning in addition to the base curriculum is how to work together as a team."

He paused a moment, his lips quirking slightly. "We'll start with simple three person teams, from there…"

After they were divided up into teams, he gave each team three items: A soft rubber ball, a wood shield and a baseball glove. "Now, anyone have an idea of what the point of this exercise is?"

They looked at one another before shrugging a bit.

"We're going to play a bit of a game," Harry stated simply and smirked at them all. "You won't need your wands for this, so leave them on your desks. Each team has three positions. A thrower…"

He tossed the ball towards the wall, where it bounced before hitting one of the shields and bouncing towards the wall again. "A blocker..."

Then he caught the ball with a glove. "And a catcher."

He looked at them all. "The rules are simple. Only the thrower can throw the ball. Only the blocker can block it, and only the catcher can catch or retrieve the ball. The objective is simple; you follow the rules and try to hit one of your opposing teams with a ball."

"How does this have anything to do with magic?" one student demanded with a look of angry disappointment on his face.

"Because if you get used to dodging balls, it becomes much easier to dodge spells," Harry stated simply. "Ready to start?"

-o-o-o-

When the class had almost ended, Harry spoke up as he looked directly at Sirius who was packing up his things into his bag. "Now, Mr. Black, where exactly do you think you're going?"

"Um… to my next class?" Sirius stated hopefully as he shifted about nervously.

"Of course," Harry agreed smoothly before gesturing to the scattered balls, shields and gloves that had been haphazardly thrown together in piles. "As soon as you organize and clean up the equipment."

"But… couldn't you just… magic it back organized?" Sirius asked after a moment of confusion.

"Why, yes, I could," Harry agreed with a nod of his head. "Why should I, though, when you already volunteered?"

"But, I didn't…" Sirius started to protest before a polite cough came behind him.

"I believe Professor Potter made it quite clear about his expectations after you addressed him on the train," Severus Snape stated pointedly as he looked at Sirius with half a sneer. "Again during the Welcoming Feast."

"But, I didn't think he was serious!" Sirius complained loudly, eyes wide.

"Really, Mr. Black?" Harry asked with a brow arched up. "Name puns on top of everything else?"

"I… wasn't?" Sirius said with a blink of confusion as he mentally rewound his statement then winced. "Right, I didn't think you meant it?"

"And now you know better," Harry stated simply with a nod of his head before looking around and seeing James staring at Lily, whose mouth was opening up to say something he guessed to be protest.

"And since Ms. Evans appears to want to assist, I'm sure she and Mr. Potter and Mr. Snape wouldn't mind joining you in your activities."

"… You're mean," Lily stated with a huff as she glowered back at him.

"And a detention for each of you on top of it," Harry stated simply with a nod.

"Why am I getting dragged into this?" James complained with a frown. "I didn't do or say anything!"

"All for one and one for all, Mr. Potter," Harry said in response as he smiled faintly at the boy. "I did tell you that I expected better of you. And would you really leave behind your friends to suffer through things alone?"

"But, but, but…" James visibly struggled with a way to answer that before scowling. "That's not fair!"

"Imagine that," Harry agreed with a nod as Lily scowled at James, Sirius looked resigned and Severus looked, frighteningly like Sirius.

"I suppose that nothing I say will sway you against this?" Severus asked bluntly.

"Would you rather leave your friend behind to deal with the two of them herself?" Harry asked as he arched brow questioningly at the boy.

"… I don't believe I should answer that." Severus noted as he glanced worriedly at Lily.

"I think you just did," Harry noted dryly as Lily could be seen scowling at her friend.

"Professor Potter, you don't have to make them stay, I'll put everything away," Sirius stated with a slight frown on his face and a look of resignation. "I'll get everything put away now."

"You will not," Lily declared firmly as she gave Harry one last glare. "If the Professor is going to single you out for no reason-!"

"There was a very good reason, as you might want to recall, Ms. Evans," Harry corrected her with a faint grin. "Which Mr. Black should have been quite aware of."

"I'm fine with him doing it himself," James volunteered easily before glancing at Snape. "Severus?"

"He is the one that put his foot in his mouth," Severus agreed with a curt nod of his head.

"Fine, I'm going to help," Lily declared firmly as she gave them both a glare. "Even if you two won't."

"… We're going to regret not helping if we don't, aren't we?" James asked as he looked at Severus.

"…Possibly," Severus admitted with a slow nod of his head.

"Definitely," Harry informed them cheerfully. "Best hurry though; you're already losing time to get to your next class."

-o-o-o-

"Professor Potter," Dumbledore noted as he watched the last four students finally leave the man's class. "Holding them behind for extra work?"

"Mr. Black did volunteer his services on the Express," Harry stated simply. "The rest ended up volunteering themselves to help him."

"So I see," Dumbledore noted with a faint frown. "You do not feel you are inappropriately singling them out?"

"I think it best to set examples so that everyone knows what is and is not acceptable, and how I will react accordingly," Harry stated with a faint shrugging of his shoulders. "Of course, considering the fact that I find myself rather expecting more from those four might factor into things."

"I can even understand why that might be the case, Professor Potter, or, at least in the cases of Messers Black and Potter, but Ms. Evans and Mr. Snape?" Dumbledore asked, a hint of warning in his tone.

"… Wait, what?" Harry blinked a moment as he looked back at the man in confusion about exactly what he was implying before his eyes narrowed into slits. "You would not be implying that my actions had anything to do with blood status."

It was not a statement so much as a warning as he glared back at the man.

"You do realize how it looks then?" Dumbledore pressed as he gave him a level look. "You are affording them no small amount of attention."

"Yes," Harry agreed through gritted teeth and clenched jaw. "Because they were the ones that decided to slip in and take the seats in the compartment I was on in the train."

"… Pardon?" Dumbledore stated with a blink of confusion.

"They are a group of first years that approached and made themselves at home in the cabin on the Express I was having my ride in," Harry stated with a bland irritation. "They rather interrupted the nice nap I was enjoying."

"A nap is a terrible thing to waste," Dumbledore admitted with the faintest bit of a smile on his face.

"Quite. And I had to break up an argument before it could even begin with the young Mr. Snape being quite keen on extolling the virtues of Slytherin House to try and convince Ms. Evans to join him there," Harry agreed with a sharp nod of his head. "I'm sure you can imagine how that might go."

Dumbledore winced slightly but shook his head. "The House system…"

"Would be fine, if it hadn't been corrupted by bloody arses," Harry snapped back with a grunt of displeasure. "And I'm not about to let something as stupid as a muggleborn go into the snake den with the way it is right now."

"Horace does a fine job of keeping them under control, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore reprimanded him quietly.

"With the way things have been going outside of the school? I have to wonder how much he can keep things under control," Harry countered before sighing and giving Dumbledore a helpless look. "What exactly do you expect me to do? Take a chance with a new student's life like that?"

"I had hoped that you had more trust in us to ensure that our students are taken care of," Dumbledore stated with a look of disappointment.

"Does it really look like I've seen enough examples of that to really believe that?" Harry shot back with a sigh of irritation. "I understand you're trying, but…"

"And while there are attempts to recruit and further lines of bigotry, we are aware of them, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore stated sternly. "And we are combatting them. I would advise you to not allow your prejudices about certain families blind you to things."

Harry bit the inside of his mouth for a moment, before taking a long, slow breath then letting it back out. "I can see why you might see things that way. And if I didn't know that Voldemort has been actively infiltrating and recruiting the house through his supporters' children, I might not be so quick to advise as I did."

"Be that as it may, I can assure you, that none of his followers are among the staff here, and that we will not stand for such actions," Dumbledore stated firmly as he gave Harry a look. "And while there might be some division, I can assure you that…"

"That you can be everywhere at once and monitor every students' statements even when none of you are present?" Harry asked with a snort and a mild glare before sighing. "Perhaps it is simply because it's been so much longer for you since you were that age, but I can quite remember how children were when I was one. And how clever they could be at making sure they only acted when there was no one else around."

He paused for a moment, taking a slow, deep breath, before letting it out, "Or, perhaps you've forgotten how just a look can hurt as a child. I haven't. I can't. But, either way, such an argument is moot. The Hat put Ms. Evans in Gryffindor, where she has demonstrated she rightly deserves to be."

Dumbledore sighed softly as he shook his head sadly. "I do not know what happened to you to leave you so… jaded towards those who are supposed to be responsible for your care, Mr. Potter, but we are not them."

Harry snorted at that and shook his head. "I think on this, we'll simply have to agree to disagree, Headmaster, because I find more similarity than difference. They too thought themselves more in control of things than they were. And they too under estimated the things that could be done when they weren't watching."

"I see that I won't be able to convince you of things being different," Dumbledore stated as he continued to look at Harry with a look of pity. "To look at the world with eyes only able to see through the tint of your tribulations is no way to live."

"Funny, I was thinking about how looking at the world only through the view of what you wish to believe is truth is just as blinding," Harry shot back and shook his head. "Wishing the world to be a different place does not remove its dangers. Children can very easily be those dangers."

"They are still children, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore stated with a narrowed gaze.

Harry stared back at him unblinking before tilting his head to the side. "And if they weren't capable of being a danger, then there wouldn't be a ghost in the girl's bathroom, now would there?"

Dumbledore actually flinched at that before his face hardened. "That was hardly a fair statement. You cannot…"

"I would be very, very careful, Headmaster," Harry stated softly as he looked back at the older man in front of him. "Seeking redemption for yourself through the redemption of others will only lead you down a path to hell."

And Dumbledore went absolutely still at that, his breath caught as Harry's words struck him, "And from what I've seen of you, Mr. Potter, you show little interest in seeking redemption. So excuse me if I find myself taking your statements with a grain of salt."

"I spent most of my childhood seeking redemption for the sins I was accused of, Headmaster," Harry said after a lingering moment of silence. "Because someone else wished to spare me the truth of matters because to them, I was simply a child and they saw only the child, nothing else.

"In my experience, no child is just a child."

"Nor are they monsters," Dumbledore stated firmly with an almost sharp rebuke.

"Most, no, they are not," Harry agreed with a nod of his head in agreement. "But that does not mean that they are incapable of being monstrous. Simply that they do not understand just what they do can inflict."

Dumbledore sighed heavily and shook his head in resignation. "They are still children, Mr. Potter."

"And how will they learn that it's wrong to be such if we don't teach them?" Harry snapped back as a bit of fire hit his eyes. "Actions have consequences, Headmaster. Inaction can have even more. You trust them and believe inaction will let them find the right path. I see them learning entirely different lessons."

"And what lessons would those be, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked with a narrowing gaze.

"That they cannot trust, or that they can hate and torment without repercussion," Harry stated with a shake of his head. "That they are alone beyond their friends because the idea that another child can ostracize and drive another to despair is something that cannot happen, because the teachers say so, so there must be something wrong with them."

"You're exaggerating, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore stated as he shook his head. "And I would kindly ask you to not bring that kind of paranoia to the students.

Harry just looked at Dumbledore for a long, cold moment, his fingers clenching into his palm, before he forcibly relaxed them. Words were already on the tip of his tongue. Sharp, vicious things that he knew once said, he could not take back.

Words invoking the sister that Dumbledore had long since lost. The relationship between him and Gellert Grindlelwald. The "greater good" he had helped propose.

Words that would strike at the wounds that the man in front of him had spent a lifetime trying to heal.

Words that the man had no idea that Harry could wield.

Instead he released the breath he held and shook his head. "It is your choice to believe that, Headmaster. As I said, we will simply have to agree to disagree. If there was nothing else?"

Dumbledore frowned at him. That was obviously not what he had been expecting. "And the issue with the students?"

"As far as I can tell, there is none, Headmaster," Harry stated pointedly as he gave the man a long look. "Unless you're trying to show favoritism and prejudice you had previously claimed to not hold."

For a long moment, Dumbledore just stared back at him, eyes glinting dangerously. "I had thought that after your experience with the Board of Governors you would be more amenable to compromise, Mr. Potter."

"Then you weren't paying attention to things, Headmaster," Harry stated softly as he shook his head. "I am who I am. I take care in how far I will push my students, but I will push them. And I will not apologize for seeing that a student does not suffer needlessly when I have the opportunity to correct that."

"Ms. Evans hardly seems the type to need your protection, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore reminded him with a look of irritation.

"And you're the one that's assuming she was the one I was protecting," Harry responded with a shake of his head. "Because I can assure you, Headmaster, out of all of the students present in that compartment, she was the one I was protecting the least."

"Explain, please," Dumbledore stated with a deepening frown.

"No," Harry said with a shake of his head. "We've already seen where that leads us, an endless loop of going nowhere. And, unlike you, Headmaster, I can learn and change my approach to things."

When he frowned and then simply left, Harry had little illusion that he had lost a good deal of the respect and leeway he'd previously been granted with the man.

Though, in turn, he wasn't sure if the man had realized he had done much the same with him.

He wasn't sure exactly if the man truly did not understand or was simply deluding himself by refusing to face reality. But, he hadn't grown up in the same household as Dudley Dursley. He hadn't seen the casual monstrosity that a child could be capable of, simply because they didn't understand what the problem was.

And he hadn't seen what it sometimes took to make them realize exactly what they were doing.

He sighed wearily and shook his head. At least the class was over with and he could move on. Hopefully the remainder of the day would not be as engaged and frustrating.

-o-o-o-

"Hello again."

The voice behind those words made Harry groan softly as he froze stiffly in place as his hand rested on the knob of the door to his room. "Ms. Black. I thought that we already had a discussion on all this? Do we really need cover it once more?"

"I was thinking we did," Bellatrix agreed with a much more relaxed tone that he wasn't quite used to from the girl. Of course, his last two encounters could best be summarized as traumatically terrorizing her and her overly stiff attempts to get him to "court" her of all things.

Sighing softly, Harry released the knob from his grip and slowly turned around. Then he blinked a moment. A slight tilt of his head a moment later and he was arching a brow behind his glasses.

Bellatrix grinned back at him, her hands resting in a soft leather jacket over a simple black v-neck shirt with gold trim as she cocked her hips slightly to the side, showing off how the denim of her bellbottoms clung to her hips and down her thigh.

"I had a feeling we could actually have a talk this time," she stated, grinning at him with an uncharacteristic predatory grin, her dark eyes sparkling.

He was used to the predatory look of Bellatrix Lestrange, demented mad woman wanting to spill his blood as violently and painfully as possible. The predatory look of Bellatrix Black was the look of a woman who didn't want to spill a single drop. It was a look he vaguely remembered seeing on the faces of more than a few women over the years, though rarely with such intensity.

"I hope that you understand that a change in the way you dress isn't enough to make me suddenly leap forward and sweep you up into my arms and confess my eternal desire, Ms. Black." he stated evenly as he calmly crossed his arms about his chest.

"Well, I heard that you needed someone to help you… demonstrate the practicality of muggle outfits for defense," she stated simply as she shifted just a bit, crossing her leg across the other as she leaned back just a bit into the hallway's stone wall. "And what do you know, I've learned that myself."

"That's also what I have your sister for, Ms Black," Harry stated with a sign and a shake of his head. "Which it sounds to me she's trying to get out of."

"She is," Bellatrix agreed with a nod of her head, still grinning at him. "Doesn't mean that I don't want the position anyway."

"Sadly, I'm afraid she earned hers fairly and thoroughly," Harry stated with a tone of clearly faked regret. "I'm afraid she'll just have to get used to it."

"And in all the classes that she's not in?" she asked with a faint smirk on her lips as she pulled one hand out of her jacket and rested it on her hip. "You wouldn't be planning to deprive her of her other classes, would you?"

"No, but I would deprive her and Mr. Tonks of their snog time," he responded easily enough as he crossed his arms about his chest "Which means she can make up her classes with her other teachers."

That made her blink as she looked at him incredulously for a moment before sighing and shaking her head. "You can't honestly expect that to work."

"You will find that I learned long ago that you can make even the most insane and illogical things work, if you present it properly," Harry countered calmly with a shrug of his shoulders. "Wizards and witches just seem to need far less logical acrobatics to convince them."

Bellatrix just stared at him, one brow fallen incredulously as she tilted her head forward. "There is a limit to what people will just accept. And you keeping my sister for demonstration for every one of your classes is simply not going to be one of them."

"It wasn't the original plan, but what can I say? I'm good at improvising." Harry stated simply as he shrugged his shoulders. "I have to thank you for giving me the push I needed to take her 'reward' to the next level."

For a moment Bellatrix stared at him with a faint frown on her lips before tilting her head slightly to the side. "… Can I watch then?"

That made him blink slightly as he focused his attention back on her. "Why?"

"Well, if you're going to do it anyway, I figured I might as well watch and see how it was done. The whole 'get me to take over her punishment-as-an-excuse-to-try-and-seduce-you' idea was hers, after all," Bellatrix stated simply as she lifted and then dropped her shoulders in a shrug, making her chest shift noticeably beneath her shirt. "Might as well stick around to watch the fallout."

Reaching up, Harry pinched at the bridge of his nose. "Why won't you just give it a rest, Ms. Black? I have already told you, I don't want to pursue a relationship with you."

"And last time, your reasoning was my laughable lack of knowledge of the muggle world," Bellatrix pointed out with a shake of her head. "Which, I as you can see, I've rectified."

"You call some new clothes rectifying that?" Harry asked with a look of sheer disbelief. "You can't just… you…!"

"Now you're just assuming its only clothes," she retorted, before pausing and reluctantly admitting. "Though, I suppose I can't blame you for thinking that's all I thought it would take. I did, at first."

That made Harry blink in surprise and arched a brow.

"I won't deny that you didn't have a point," she told him with a faint nod of her head. "I didn't know much of anything. Not really. I only had what I'd always been told was the truth. How muggles were beneath me, and then here you were, talking about them and placing them on a higher pedestal than witches and wizards."

"That isn't exactly the point I was trying to make, merely pointing out that I don't think you understand why I am so very much different from what you assume I am," he corrected with a sour mutter.

"I went home and almost broke down, trying to figure out how I could fix things," she continued, ignoring his muttering as she forced herself to continue her train of thought. "And I found out that she wasn't as ignorant as I was. So she agreed to help me."

She sighed and slumped. "Then the incident happened and I was useless. Utterly and completely useless and having to rely completely on my sister and her muggleborn boyfriend. When it was over and done with, I left St. Mungo's and had no idea what I could do with myself."

"Went for a walk a bit back, after everything had finished falling apart," she stated easily enough, shrugging her shoulders a bit. "Was feeling sorry for myself and figured I'd mope a bit to clear my head. Then when I was I ended up having a talk with a bobby. It's funny what they call their aurors, isn't it? I thought policeman was odd enough at first, then…"

She paused her ramblings before shrugging and sighing a bit. "One thing I did learn is that, for the most part, muggles are dreadfully peaceful. At least compared to wizards. Not quite what I was really expecting, but…"

Harry snorted at that. "Try watching a game of rugby or football sometime and tell me that again."

"Did catch a game. Football, at least," she admitted with a shrug. "Sorry, not much on quidditch that. Interesting, but not enough action. And cricket was… ugh. Still. There were some nice plays and movies to watch."

There was a pause as she watched him stared at her in dumb looking shock, his mouth hanging slightly. "Though it's a bit sad how most of them are all about those yank colonials. I do wonder if they're really that much more violent than we are here."

Harry snorted at that. "No. Not more violent. Just like their bloody guns and weapons. They didn't much care for finding out that when you confiscate people's weapons, the people that still had them could and would run rough shod over them if they didn't do what they wanted. They argued with the crown and parliament, crown and parliament decided their counter-argument would be more convincing with soldiers and intimidation. It didn't work out like they thought."

"Ah." She frowned a bit at that. "I suppose that seems a bit… different. Most wizards and witches are rather… lacking when it comes to taking action unless forced to. Part of what drew me to the knights to begin with."

Harry's look darkened at that and she flinched a back a bit, but her back straightened up and she refused to be so easily intimidated. She had seen far, far worse from him before, and she would not quail under such a lesser display from him now. "And what draws me to you. You don't just talk; you take action, you fight, you…"

"Kill," he stated flatly, his eyes flat and hard as he gave her a glare as he looked back at her with a cold, sharp glare.

"Well, yes," she admitted with a nod of her head and a helpless shrug of her shoulders before snorting sadly. "Not like I'm ever going to be any good at fighting, though."

That… He blinked a moment at that as he struggled desperately to reconcile the resigned creature in front him with the Bellatrix he'd been terrorized by as a teen. There was an air of defeat hanging around her as she leaned back onto the wall. "I'm not sure exactly what you're saying, Ms. Black."

She laughed, a hollow, empty sound before shaking her head a bit. "I have no place on the battlefield, apparently. I am, after all, useless at it. You, Andromeda and Ted showed me that."

He snorted softly at that and shook his head. "Ms. Black, trying to compare me to yourself…" There was a moment of silence as he paused before sighing. "Do you know what the difference is between yourself and myself, your sister and her intended?"

There was a pause as she blinked rapidly before slowly shaking her head. "I… You're all just better than me?"

"Where you want to fight, where you want to prove yourself, where you seek the fight, we don't. The fight isn't what we want, but to live past it. We want to survive. And we know that to do that, we have to do whatever it takes." He slowly shook his head and sighed. "I would happily live a life of peace if I could."

"But, but…" Confusion consumed her face as she stared at him, her mouth hanging open. "I… everything… You.. fighting and…"

"I fight, I kill. I do not back down. I do not run. I claw my way through everything in my path. I kill. I steal. I lie. I destroy and ruin," he stated as he stepped towards her, his words soft, dark and sharp, "because I've seen what happens when no one stands up to those that want to do those things. Because I've watched families driven to ruin, entire societies driven into despair and crushed by fear by those that want to fight, want to kill want to see people suffer."

He looked at her hard in the eye. "When I see you, Ms. Black, what I see is a young women who seems to want to become the kind of thing that I hunt. I can see the hunger to fight, to battle, to kill, in your eyes. And when you look at me, I can feel the kind of monster you think I am."

She shuddered a bit under his stare and looked away her voice breaking and stuttering. "T-t-that's not true, I…."

"I have seen it in your eyes, Ms. Black. I have seen that look before. And I can tell you quite simply, no matter how attractive she might be, I will not be with anyone who looks at me with such eyes."

He shook his head, a sudden weariness running through him as he turned away. "Now, I have a class to teach, and if you have nothing further to do here, I would suggest you leave the school grounds."

With that said, he turned and quietly walked away, leaving her trembling and staring blankly ahead behind him.

-o-o-o-

Bellatrix had found herself staring at a bottle of fire whiskey as she sat in a darker corner of the Three Broomsticks inn and pub, a goodly amount of its contents already having found the way from its mouth down into first her glass, then down her throat.

Today… had not gone how she'd intended. Again. She had thought she was finally, finally making headway in everything, that she was finally going to actually make some progress with him.

Instead she found herself further back than she ever imagined she could be.

She stared at the amber liquid in the glass in front of her and felt her shoulders slump down in resignation as she lifted the glass up a bit towards her lips as she could practically hear her aunt and mother's voices flitting through her mind. Calling her worthless, foolish, a blood traitor. She would sneer at the last no matter what truth might be in the rest of it.

Bloody well fuck blood superiority as far as she was concerned. That much she had learned clearly. Bloody well fuck her mother and aunt for all the stupid bloody shite they had subjected her too as well.

None of that mattered in the end as far as she could tell. Power wasn't about blood, wasn't about heritage, wasn't about breeding. Power was about something that she was convinced she would never really have.

So she could do a few things to muggles, make them scream, hurt them, leave them helpless before she killed them. She'd have found it easy just a few months ago. Only, now when she thought about it, she thought about the policeman who'd taken the time to speak to her, to try and cheer her up. She thought about stupid, silly things like the workers she'd seen and the people at the theaters.

People. Actual people. Months ago they had just been people shaped things, less than animals, really, just there to be tortured and slaughtered. Now, though, now she had to admit, seeing them as they really were made her sick at the thought of what she'd have done before.

So she certainly couldn't start making a life like she'd originally intended.

Now she had to figure out what the hell she was going to do.

She didn't realize she'd actually said her last thought aloud, until a silken, familiar voice hit her ear. "Why, my dear Ms. Black. You come with me."

Turning fearfully, she saw one burning crimson eye before a single word froze her and shattered her world. "Imperio."