Is this how you seduction?

"Defense Against the Dark Arts is a class that will teach you how to survive!" Declared Professor Griffiths as the class was seated, this time Gryffindor with Slytherin. James wandered if pairing the two houses in Defense was an attempt to have their nature as rivals drive them to do better. It was better than pairing them for Potions, as it was an unsafe environment where sabotage and loss of concentration could lead to disastrous results.

"You are not here to learn how to win glory in battle, or even duel properly. You are here to learn how to survive. The Dark Arts is a misnomer for the course, as we will cover both Dark Magics and Dark Creatures. The designation for Dark in these cases is different to the political designation of Dark families. Dark Arts are any spells designed with the intent to cause harm at their core. Though remember these aren't the only spells that can cause harm, as creative use of almost any spell can."

"When facing an opponent that is aiming to hurt you, one of the best actions you can take is to get away. Do not look at me like that! You may be Gryffindors, but do not confuse bravery with foolishness. Even those who had graduated from Hogwarts with an Outstanding on their Defense NEWTs are untrained and unprepared when faced with real danger. You are not trained as aurors or the like, do not seek danger! Confronting hostile foes should be your course of action only when all else fails."

"For this lesson we will cover how to create sparks and shoot flares with your wand, in order to attract attention to your location and indicate distress."

After lunch the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had a free period before double history, so the group, Narcissa excluded, found themselves enjoying the outdoors for a bit, sitting under a tree by the Great Lake.

James found himself dragged into the lap of one Bellatrix Black, who had wrapped her hands around him. He may have struggled a bit more, had she not been tightly pressing her breasts against his back, while her hands were slipping under his shirt and gently caressing him. Apparently, she took their morning discussion as a confirmation and became even bolder, something James found hard to object to.

She was training him!

It was a tiny voice in his head that tried to argue against this entire scenario. He was supposed to be the Harem master, he should pull out a whip and show the wench her place!

"Of course, master." She whispered into his ear.

He did not say this out loud. She couldn't have read his mind. Was she really this intuitive that she could predict his thoughts just based on his body language? She was examining his body rather closely, after all…

"How did you place that note on my bed before I even chose one?" James decided to ask.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She giggled, pressing him further into herself.

"I don't know if you're going for mysterious or creepy stalker…" James remarked.

"Hmmm… Hey Amelia, why don't you stop staring and come here and snog James? He's trying to think."

James found himself approving of this kind of subject change tactics, but Amelia found herself blushing brightly, getting a shade close to her auburn hair. The others laughed, aside from Sirius who gave her a thumbs up, and Lily who looked more curious than anything else. Marlene didn't know what to do with herself, so she pulled Edgar into a quiet conversation.

And then she plopped herself onto James' lap, who found himself between the two witches, as Amelia grabbed his face, seemed to gather her courage and smashed her lips against his. James was quite shocked, not expecting her to go along it, but he quickly started reciprocating. The kiss was still hesitant, not a full on snogging session, as he felt the softness of her lips, gently tasting her sweetness.

"James is getting sandwitched! Ow…" Sirius was heard crowing from the side, followed by a light slap. "Marlene…" He whined.

The kissing didn't go for long before the bright red Amelia separated herself from James and scrambled off his lap, hiding her face in her hands. He felt Bellatrix laughing behind him, but before he got the chance to turn to her, a different redhead charged into his lap and face!

"Ow…" Lily whined, rubbing her forehead. She decided to ignore the "quite eager, aren't we?" comment that came from behind James, and the laughter from the rest. She wouldn't let this embarrassment stop her when she was this close, quite literally.

Lily tried to recover by being even more aggressive than usual, though while their lips met with force, she did not assault him this time. He wondered where she got the idea of lightly biting his lower lips, but nonetheless he enjoyed her ministrations. Though as soon as she started moving away from him, James was taken by surprise.

"My turn!" A growl behind him indicated what his near future is going to be like, as he found himself pulled and spun in the air. Landing roughly on the grass, James opened his mouth only to find it stuffed with tongue. The taste of apples and a hint of cinnamon wasn't quite what he expected from Bellatrix, but he found those thoughts evacuating his mind as his senses focused on their tongues, as her own was exploring every inch of his mouth.

James ignored the wolf whistle as his right hand started molesting Bella's derriere and the left lightly massaging her scalp, causing her to moan into his mouth. The two were focused on each other and quickly forgot their surroundings.

"Don't you need to breath?!" Sirius exclaimed suddenly. Bellatrix's growling sent a pleasant sensation through his tongue, and James couldn't help but growl himself when they separated.

"What?! You've been at it for fifteen minutes!" Sirius defended himself meekly at the shared glare.

"I'll have you know that I've gotten really good at conjuring air into my lungs." Bellatrix ground out.

"What, that's what you asked me to teach you this for?" James asked, more amused than anything else.

"Mainly for that, yeah." Bella grinned unrepentantly. "Though I've been practicing that and normal spellcasting at the same time. It's actually quite easy with occlumency, since it is continuous magic…"

"You can cast nonverbally…" James remarked dryly.

"It's not for that. There are many nasty tricks that make it hard or dangerous to breath, and bubblehead is often impractical." She explained with an eyeroll.

"And what about you?" Sirius interrupted, asking James before the two could get further into the discussion. He just wanted to enhance his own (future) snogging technique, how did it become a discussion about potentially lethal duels?

"Such restrictions on the mortal body are beneath me." James said truthfully, though the sarcasm was evident.

"Ah, you've been pretending to breath all this time to not scare people! Clever." Lily exclaimed, while the rest nodded in understanding. Only Marlene seemed to turn from one person to the next, unsure if she was missing some joke.

James was somewhat put out. Declaring insane but true things in a sarcastic fashion is supposed to make others disregard what you say while giving you the excuse of telling them the truth. They weren't supposed to accept it! He would've thought that they were taking the mickey out of him, but he could tell they were all honestly believing him.

James could only huff in irritation. He wanted to mess with them a bit… If that's their reaction now, they'll probably accept his circumstances rather easily… Maybe he should be telling them the complete truth, at least to those he plans to bond with, and pull along his multiverse adventures? It's not like his secrets could be revealed, even if they ever want to… But he wasn't going to bond with a girl before both of them hit puberty, at the least, so he should wait a year, preferably two, regardless…

James' apparent irritation amused his friends greatly. "Did you want to come up with a different excuse? You can still tell us, we'll believe you. Promise." Lily said teasingly.

"It was an insane claim, you were supposed to call me out on it!" James snapped.

"I'm an insane claim!" Bellatrix chirped.

"You're the one that did the claiming, though…" Marlene muttered quietly.

"I don't even…" James shook his head.

"Which makes you odd! Perfect for each other." Lily declared, to which Bella returned a beaming smile.

"Stop encouraging her!" James managed before Bellatrix smothered him with her breasts once more, lifting him up and spinning him like a ragdoll, to the amusement of everybody else.

Double History class wasn't a fun way to end the first day, as Binns was still not replaced. While the governors wanted to replace him, at the time Dumbledore was insistent that the budget might not be able to afford it with an already added class, and that Binns was himself part of history. He managed to frustrate everybody with his annoying and dismissive attitude, thus they had to give up at the time.

Dumbledore retired without enough time for the Board to recover from their shock and have word spread that they're looking for a new History instructor. James was aware that they were still looking, so he was hoping that by next term they will find a replacement. Unfortunately, Britain had very few students that graduated with History NEWTs, let alone having anyone with mastery in the field, so it was a problem. The fact that a foreigner teaching their kids History would not be accepted by the public, to put it mildly, also reduced the hiring pool greatly.

James decided that he should wait before getting involved himself. McGonagall is the Headmistress now, and she'd grow thanks to the challenge. Probably.

James eyed the ghost floating at the front of the classroom and reading in a dull, monotone, voice with slight curiosity. Cuthbert Binns had been expanded upon in a few fanfictions, and James wondered if any of them might be true. He remembered a few where Binns wasn't even aware that he was dead, and instantly moved on when he was informed of that. There was also the one where the Binns family was goblin haters and Cuthbert was actively trying to worsen goblin relations. If that was true, then it was quite effective. The chapters regarding goblin rebellions in "A History of Magic" written by Bathilda Bagshot were based on Cuthbert's own lectures! Even she did not consider collaborating with the goblins to try and get both sides of the story.

There weren't really people around that knew goblin history before Cuthbert Binns started working at Hogwarts, so nobody could call out the ghost on any misinformation. It's not as if goblins themselves can be trusted to be honest regarding their history – they would have their own spin on events that placed the blame on wizards.

James had two sources that could potentially provide information. He could check on the Flamels – if the Philosopher's Stone in this timeline is as vile as the one in the previous he wouldn't hesitate to absorb them either. They were around long enough to have the information, if they kept in touch during those days.

The other source was obviously the Resurrection Stone. Calling upon those who lived those times and confirming events himself. James had the tools needed to become the world's best historian, should he ever bother going along with something like that. Which he might, whenever he wants a break from exploring something new, looking backwards is a rather good idea.

But for now, he was sitting in class, entertaining himself. James' eyes were glowing as he used his various abilities to magically examine the ghost, intrigued by the concept itself. He knew how the afterlife itself worked, so seeing that some souls were allowed to stay behind was a novel idea. And it only applied to wizards and witches. Their magic allowed them to stay behind, meaning that it had some influence over their souls!

Stranger still was that other magical beings, such as goblins and house elves, didn't have ghosts. Was it a difference of mentality, or in their soul composition? Why wouldn't they stay behind, but the Headless Hunt would ride on ghost horses? The existence of those calls into question the requirement for magic in order to stay behind, yet it could be that the horses themselves were unique – perhaps familiars of the members of the Headless Hunt?

So while the class was boring, James found ways to entertain himself.