29

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE:

"WHAT?!" three young voices cried, and Harry flinched.

"Oh, I knew I wouldn't enjoy this conversation," he said in an undertone to his companion, who simply scowled.

"I have a piece of Voldemort in my head?!" exclaimed a hysteric voice, and Harry turned to his younger counterpart with a frown.

"No," Harry said, "You HAD a piece of Voldemort's soul in your head."

"Like that's so much better," the boy moaned as he dropped his head into his hands.

Severus had reached the end of his patience, it seemed, for his voice was cutting as he said, "Are you quite done with the hysterics? I have better things to do with my time than coddle a child," he sneered.

"That's easy for you to say," the teenager hissed as he glared at his professor. "You don't have a piece of Voldemort stuck in you!"

An oppressive silence fell as Severus averted his face and the three students stared, finally remembering about Severus' Dark Mark.

The Gryffindor Golden Boy swallowed. "I apologize, Professor," he said in as even a tone he could, his eyes fixed on the rigid form of his teacher. "I spoke out of turn."

"It is of no matter," Severus said curtly, but his face remained averted.

"Alright, moving on," Harry said briskly, shooting Hermione a quelling look to keep her from asking about Severus' Dark Mark. He did want to discuss it with Severus, but not with the Golden Trio present. "The point is that we both had the same soul fragment in our scars, and when I underwent a goblin ritual it destroyed the Horcrux in your scar as well. Severus took care of us and now neither of us have our lightning scars anymore," he paused at his counterpart's surprised look. "You do look in the mirror occasionally, don't you?" Harry asked drily, and younger Harry fingered his forehead with a blush.

"Well, the hair usually hides it..." he protested weakly, and Harry smirked though he knew perfectly well that he rarely looked into mirrors himself. "One would have thought that you'd have inspected your forehead after you were knocked unconscious by a bleeding head," he drawled, strangely enjoying his younger self's discomfort. In an aside he said, "Severus, you were right – it's fun mocking a Potter," with a grin. His comment got a snort of laughter from his partner, and Severus finally turned back, his lips twitching.

"It took you this long to notice?" the man drawled, and Harry just grinned wider.

"Well, it's a bit hard to mock oneself, so I guess I had to go back in time to figure it out..." Severus couldn't hold back a chuckle at that, and Harry winked at him before turning back to the students.

"Anyway," he said, "the Horcruxes have all been dealt with, with the exception of Nagini, who I hope to deal with within the week. In fact, I hope to deal with Snake Face within the week as well, with the help of the Order." Raising a hand to stall their questions, he continued, "I haven't pushed for you to be included in the Order yet because of several reasons. The first reason is that I'm still too new a leader to the Order to bring in new members, especially ones that most of the other members would rather not have involved. I am hoping to get a Hogwarts professor or two into the Order, but that's mainly to boost the other members' confidence. Second point is that there isn't really any need to have you in the Order just yet – I am passing on all the information to you, and currently there's no action happening that you can be a part of. The third, and most important reason, is that I need you here at Hogwarts. Tell me," he crooned, "What do you think of Professor Umbridge?"

"Oh, that vile woman!" Hermione burst out, the boys' expressions showing that they would have used considerably stronger words.

"That's what I thought," Harry smiled at her. "The thing is that I can't get you involved in the fight against Voldemort, but Hogwarts has plenty of problems that will take longer to deal with than Snake Face. Come, let's discuss the problems at Hogwarts... Some paper, Hermione?" The girl blushed at being so easily read, but accepted the notebook and pen he held out to her. "Umbridge is only a temporary problem, and one that we'll deal with soon. But there are many more deep-rooted problems, such as Binns and his useless classes on history. Let's figure out the issues and see how we can go about dealing with them..."

That started a long discussion, and between the five of them they came up not only with a lot of problems affecting Hogwarts, but also several viable solutions. The Golden Trio seemed taken aback when Severus named himself as one of the problems, but he only gave them a level look. "Even without the Headmaster's spells I have no love for incompetent brewers, nor for children in general. I was forced into my post, and look forward to resigning." Looking pointedly at Hermione's notes he continued, "The logical solution would be to find a more suitable teacher – and I suggest not trying to recruit Potions Masters, as we tend to prefer potion development over teaching our passion to children with little interest for the subject. There are certified brewers that would be better choices than a Master." All this was added to the notebook, and Severus chose to point out that his was not the only subject that needed a new professor. "Not only History of Magic, but Muggle Studies desperately requires a new instructor, and there should be a course on magical culture. In fact, both that course and Muggle Studies should be obligatory courses from the first year on. Either can be dropped in third year, but children new to the magical world have need of such a course, and the Pure-bloods should learn about the Muggle world."

All the others nodded as he spoke, each seeing the truth in his words. Ron seemed a little skeptical – no doubt remembering his father's strange interests – but the others saw the use of the two courses. Hermione wanted more details, though, and asked who he would recommend as teachers for the two courses.

"In the beginning it would perhaps be necessary for a Pure-blood to teach the Muggle Studies course, lest the teacher be mocked and the objective completely missed... I would suggest Andromeda Tonks – born into the Black family, no one can deny that she is as pure as they come," Severus grimaced, "and as she married a Muggleborn I believe her to have been sufficiently exposed to the Muggle world. She always was more interested in it than the other Pure-bloods," he recalled, vaguely remembering the older girl from his school days and comments dropped by both Regulus and Sirius Black over the years. "As for the course on magical culture..." he trailed off in thought.

"How about we try another way?" Harry asked, tilting his head in thought. "I don't remember what jobs they have currently, but why not see if we can get Andromeda for the magical culture course and her husband as the Muggle Studies professor? I know that then it's not a Pure-blood teaching Muggle Studies, but I think this way it would be fine, and it would definitely make more sense to have Andromeda teaching the magical culture course than her husband!"

"It is a possibility," Severus conceded. "I do not know Ted Tonks, but the impression I have of Andromeda Tonks is that she would make an excellent instructor."

"Great," Harry smiled. "On the topic of professors I also have to say that I think it's a terrible idea to have the Heads of Houses teaching classes; each Head naturally prefers his or her own House, and occasionally that reflects in the points awarded. I believe that the Heads shouldn't be professors, but rather mediwitches, counselors, or something similar. Agreed?"

And so it continued, until they began slipping into unnecessary changes (though Harry appreciated Ron's suggestion of better brooms) and decided that they had exhausted the topic. Realizing that it was past lunch time they called for Dobby and enjoyed a meal where they were, appreciating the fact that a table appeared out of nowhere thanks to the Room of Requirement's unique capabilities. It hardly seemed fitting conversation during a meal, but as they ate Harry informed the three students of the Order's plans, letting them know of the missions and the fact that he needed them to keep an eye on the students using the map. "I'll send word once the missions have finished," he assured them, "since there's really no need for you to be up all night! It'll take long enough as it is, I think."

They agreed immediately, seeming satisfied that at least they would have some role to play even if they hadn't been able to persuade the two men to let them join. Younger Harry especially had seemed rather put out about being denied, arguing that there wouldn't be any danger since the house elves were putting the Death Eaters to sleep, but his older counterpart was firm about them staying at Hogwarts. It was true that they needed someone to keep an eye on the school, and he told them that while he knew that they were competent enough to do the missions the other members of the Order would not stand for it.

"Besides, questioning the Death Eaters won't be nearly as interesting as questioning Dumbledore…" Harry said with a dark smile. "In fact, I think we should do that as soon as we finish eating."