Tears of Loss, Joy of Gain

Rich felt like he had just been punched in the gut, first from the dementors, and second from the people egging the dementors on. Professor James looked absolutely petrified, so Rich stepped forward and faced the boggart, which amazingly transformed into a figure he had heard and read a lot about, but whom he had never met. Professor James swallowed hard.

There, facing Rich, was a man whom probably everybody in the room had heard of from their parents but never met. He wasn't extraordinarily tall, but he was somewhat tall, wearing black robes, and with a determined expression on his face.

Ah yes, his face. The famous face. It ranged from a stiff lower lip to the unique eyes, to the lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead.

For there, in front of the class, was Harry Potter, or at least a shadow of the famous Boy-Who-Lived. Rich had no idea why he was so scared of this man, but it must have been because they had never met. He swallowed hard also, and Professor James said from the side, "Ridikkulus!"

Harry Potter's appearance changed. His robes turned to teachers' robes, the scar faded from his face, the lips curved upwards to a smile, the hair changed to brown and so did the eyes.

A clone of Professor James now stood in front of the class, and the class began to laugh at the incredulous look on the real professor's face. Seeming to be knocked out of his stupor, Harry lifted his wand and said, "Ridikkulus!" again. The boggard disappeared in a wisp of smoke.

Professor James turned slowly to face his class. "Right then," he said nervously. "Class dismissed."

Rich raised his hand. "But sir," he said. "The lesson isn't over yet."

Professor James looked at him sharply. "Did I not just say class dismissed?" he asked. "For homework, I'd like you all to write twelve inches on why you should face your fears."

Wondering why the professor had seemed to be so disturbed about his boggart and muttering darkly about the homework, the class left.

Harry stayed there, face ashen. "Bloody hell," he said.

The teacher watched as a figure rushed past him towards the headmaster's office, running very quickly. He should have known. His instincts were always right. He took off at a trot toward Professor Dumbledore's office.

Harry stumbled into the headmaster's office, face still pale from what had happened in his first class. To his enormous relief, the office was empty except for the headmaster, so he felt comfortable enough taking off his disguise.

"Professor Dumbledore," he began.

"Sit down Harry," the wizened man said. "I take it your first class gave you somewhat of a trouble?"

"Yes."

"Very well. What happened?"

"Well, I decided to teach about boggarts, and so I took them to the teacher's lounge. I guess Peeves knows who I really am, as he started to call me by the old nickname he had for me. Then, Professor Snape was already in there. He practically told my class who I really am."

"Harry...." Professor Dumbledore began, but he was cut off.

"Then I released the boggart and my fear was...."

At this point, the door burst open and another teacher came in, panting for his breath. He used one of his hands to run through his blond hair. "Hello Harry Potter," he said.

Harry grimaced. "Hello Firenze."

Rich and his friends were still wondering what had happened in Professor James' first class as they walked into the Muggle Studies classroom. They saw the funny sight of Professor Parker rushing about, robes askew and a cross expression on his face.

"Merlin, I wish I had my camera now," Luke said.

Professor Parker seemed to see that the students had walked into his classroom and he turned around. "Oh, hello students," he said. "Do you mind waiting for a couple minutes while I go get my lesson plans?" he asked, and without waiting for an answer, he swept away.

The class could be heard muttering and laughing at about what had just happened when Professor Parker came back. He cleared his throat, but the class still talked and laughed at him, so he cleared it again, louder. They still talked, so he decided enough was enough.

"SILENCE!" he said, and the class stopped talking immediately. He took a couple of deep breaths to compose himself before speaking again.

"Muggles are fascinating people, are they not?" he asked. Silence could be found at this, and he sighed impatiently. "You can talk when I address you," he said.

Muttering could be heard at this.

"You know what?" Professor Parker said. "Class dismissed until next time, but since you felt like you didn't need to answer me and instead disrespected me, I want three rolls of parchment on the proper discipline in class. Let's hope you won't do this again, for your sake, as if it happens again, I will deduct 25 points each and take away your privileges. You may go now."

The class left, seething about what the professor had assigned them, while Professor Parker also stood seething while he watched them leave.

Linda Finch-Fletchley watched as her friends walked down to the Great Hall that night, and noted with amusement that they were still seething from earlier about something.

"What happened?" she asked as Rich plopped down next to her.

"Bloody git," Luke said, pointing at Professor Parker.

"Why?"

"The idiot doesn't know how to conduct a class, so he takes it out on us," Patrick piped up.

"What happened?"

"He gave us three rolls of parchment on the proper discipline in class because we talked when we were supposed to be silent," Jim said.

Linda grimaced. "That bad, huh?"

Rich nodded. "You can say that again. But enough about us. How was your first lesson with Professor Hot?"

Linda made an annoyance sound. "Her last name is Green, thank you very much, not Hot, and the lesson was very good."

"Enough about the lesson. Is she single?" Patrick asked.

"As a matter of fact, she's not. She mentioned that she's engaged to somebody, but she wouldn't say who."

"That's weird," Jim said. He looked around. "Don't you think it's oddly coincidental that two of our new professors are hiding something from us, or so it seems?"

"What do you mean?" Luke asked.

Linda rolled her eyes. "Isn't it obvious? It seems as though Professors Green and James have something in their past that they don't want anybody to know."

"Or just the students," Rich said.

Jim nodded. "Precisely."