Harry Potter and the Mirror of Lehcar

When Harry, Ron and Hermione walked into the Great Hall the next morning, they were greatly surprised. On their way to the Gryffindor table Ron suddenly stopped. He stared at the staff table and then pointed at a new face.

"What the hell is Charlie doing up there?"

"Wow, he is up there! He's in the DADA professor's seat. He must be the new teacher, how exciting!" Hermione giggled as she sat down.

"Cool, your brother is our professor... maybe we won't have to work anymore." Harry grinned, elbowing Ron in the ribs as he sat down next to Hermione, thinking about the joys of slacking off...

"Harry this will be to our advantage! We'll be able to really understand our lessons!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ron didn't sit down with them though- instead he went up to the Staff table to talk to Charlie. Harry and Hermione watched as George and Fred also walked in and up to the table to talk to Charlie. Ginny came in and sat by Hermione.

"Hey, Ginny did you know that Charlie is teaching?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"What?!" Ginny said in shock. "He's what? I have to go see him!" And with that she flew up to the staff table and joined her brothers in talking to Charlie.

"What's going on here? A Weasley reunion?" Draco drawled as he came up behind Harry.

"Sod off Malfoy," Harry said automatically without bothering to look behind him.

"Actually, I didn't just come to make fun of your pathetic lives," Malfoy said. "I need to talk to you Potter, will you come with me?"

"Hell no! You'd just hex me again, I don't trust you."

"You can bring your Mudblood friend if you need to, but-" Draco shrugged suggestively, "she might find out some interesting details from yesterday."

"Fine," Harry gave in. "I'll come with you."

"Wait, Harry..." Hermione started to say.

"Hermione it'll be all right, I'll meet you in class," said Harry as he smiled reassuringly down at her.

"I know you'll be fine," she said as she handed him his schedule. "I just thought you might like this. I'll see you in herbology."

"Right, see you there," Harry replied as he walked out.

***

"Charlie says he is here on a special protection assignment!" Ron said excitedly.

"Really? That's great!" Hermione smiled happily as Ron and the rest of the Weasleys came and sat with her.

"Yeah," Ron said, almost sheepishly, "but don't tell anyone. It's a secret. Which is why Charlie told us and I told you..." He shook his head in confusion. "Hey, where's Harry?"

"He went off with Malfoy. I know it's weird, but Malfoy came over and told Harry he needed to talk to him. Harry said no, but then Malfoy said something about yesterday and Harry went," Hermione explained quickly.

"What? He left with Malfoy?" Ron said, surprised. "And you let him? What were you thinking?"

"Harry can fend for himself, he'll be fine," Hermione said somewhat defensively.

"What? You, Hermione, are the one who is always worrying about him- and you say he'll be fine?!" Ron shook his head in half-mock disgust.

"Well... Okay, so I'm worried," Hermione admitted. "But I want to give him his space. Whatever it is that they are talking about he doesn't want me to know- so I'll let him deal with it,"

"Okay..." Ron surrendered reluctantly. "I guess you're right, although this is all a bit weird," he said as he buttered his toast.

"What's a bit weird?" Hermione said curiously.

"Well- Charlie is the new DADA teacher and we didn't even know. They didn't even hint at it when we were at home, like they did about the Tri-Wizard tournament. And now Harry and Malfoy are going to have a civilized conversation?" Ron started stuffing his mouth full of food while Hermione sat thinking.

"Did he say why he didn't tell you?" Hermione asked.

"Um... well, yeah- he said that he is in some secret group that fights dark magic. He also said that Lupin is kind of our teacher- because he is here to teach advanced DADA and he will be mentoring Charlie... So Charlie is here to make it look better for the parents and for protection."

"Oh..." Hermione said in understanding. "Well, if Lupin is here Harry will be excited. Oh- and here's your schedule. We have herbology first. Would you get going? Maybe Harry will actually tell us something."

"Hang on, hang on... let me finish my toast, then we can go," Ron said, stuffing yet another piece into his mouth. Hermione sighed.

***

Over the summer Sirius stayed at his friend Lupin's house. They were both involved with fighting against the Dark Arts and Voldemort. Now that Lupin was returning to Hogwarts, they had to decide where Sirius would hide.

"You can stay here if you want, Sirius, but there will be negative consequences because of that," Lupin explained as their conversation started to tense.

"I know- but I can't exactly stay at the school- especially since Snape knows that I am an animagus. I won't be in constant contact no matter where I am unless I am hidden within the castle, which I cannot ask you or Dumbledore to deal with. But if I stay here and something happens to Harry- then it will be almost impossible to get to Hogwarts and see how he is. If I stay in the same place that I did last year- I can see Harry, but I'll have to live off the people of the town and there'll be an easier chance of getting caught."

"I know... but we can send you food in the cave and we can go before I leave for Hogwarts and make it a better place to live. I think you should go there," Remus argued.

"I agree, but what if people come and explore? I can easily turn into a dog fast enough to hide- but if I have a nice place then what will happen? I can't change a cave full of things that quickly. I don't know if that would be safe, but I also don't know how long I would be able to live in the cave."

"We can fix it up and put some charms on it. I promise we'll figure something out for you," Lupin said as he patted his friends back.

***

A shocking sight greeted the eyes of Hermione and Ron as they exited the Great Hall: Harry and Draco were both passed out on the floor. Neither of them had their wands out, nor did they appear to have struggled at all. There was no possibility that they had fought each other, or that they had hexed each other. It was a truly odd sight. Ron and Hermoine had no idea what to do.

"I'm going to go get Madam Pomfrey, you stay here and make sure everything is okay," Hermione ordered as she started to walk up the stairs.

"Wait Hermione--" Ron said, putting out his hand to stop her. "They're waking up." Harry sat up at the same moment Draco did.

"Something's going on here," Hermione said as they moved towards Harry and Draco.

Harry and Draco got up, exchanged a few words, shook hands and walked away from each other. When Harry saw Ron and Hermoine he waved and waited for them to catch up. Draco walked by without a single rude comment directed at them. It was new and very different and it left Ron speechless.

"Harry, you just can't shake that off. What is going on here?" Hermione said imperiously.

"Uh... not important," Harry answered quickly. "So Ron... Charlie is our teacher- how'd that come about?"

"What the hell! You just shook hands with Malfoy and you want to know about my brother?! What the hell is wrong with you!" Ron shouted, bewildered and furious.

"Yes Harry. Tell us. I'm also very interested in what is up with you as well, Harry." Hermione said sarcastically.

"Well-- we need to get to class... let's get going. Nothing's wrong with me. I have dealt with everything that I need to deal with and I'll be fine, so let's go," Harry said, in a tone that told Ron and Hermione not to argue.

***

They headed for herbology and they had an enjoyable first lesson in the greenhouse. Harry and Ron were originally partners for their pot, but when Hannah Abbot asked Ron to be her partner, he immediately said yes. Harry didn't mind, as he knew Ron had been slightly fond of her since their third year. Hermione joined Harry at his pot and they spent the class talking over the what-ifs of Ron and Hannah...

After herbology Care of Magical Creatures was up. Harry, Ron and Hermoine had hardly seen Hagrid since last term. The first lesson was on centaurs, which everyone thoroughly did not enjoy. Hagrid introduced a familiar face- Firenze, who, after his introduction, took over the class and talked about the stars and how important they were. Lavender and Parvati really enjoyed this topic. While Firenze was talking, Harry, Hagrid, Hermione, and Ron sat and caught up on the news. It was an odd class, as Malfoy was there and he didn't even acknowledge their presence, but they weren't sure they wanted him to anyway.

***

After Care of Magical Creatures Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked up to the Great Hall for lunch. Harry spotted Cho over at the Ravenclaw table and joined her for lunch.

"Hi, sweetie!" Cho smiled happily.

"Hullo," Harry mumbled.

They didn't have much of a conversation, because as soon Harry started eating his corn beef sandwich, he felt very faint.

"Be right back," Harry said urgently as he stumbled out of the Great Hall. He managed to get out of the Great Hall and through the Entrance Hall to a little room on the side he'd never seen before. His vision was slowly fading, and with his fading eyesight, he saw a shadowy figure collapse at his side- and then he blacked out.

***

Harry was in Transfiguration. Oh no, he thought, it happened again. He was in a conversation with Pansy. And by the tone of their voices the conversation was very private.

"So when was the last time you talked to your father?" Pansy questioned him.

"Ah... well, the day before I came to school, he left on THE MISSION." Draco replied. Harry wondered what the mission was, but he had no way to find out. He and Draco had decided that they preferred privacy to knowledge and left what they were learning about each other to themselves.

The conversation was beginning to get dull as Pansy brought Harry attention back by saying, "Draco, last night was amazing, when can we meet again?"

"Well now that I'm a prefect I only have one roommate, Adrian Pucey. Come to think of it- I don't think I've ever heard him say a complete sentence. He'll do just what I want him to, so we can have a room all to ourselves!" Harry was astonished by the words that had come out of his mouth, and he felt himself blink.

"So how's seven o'clock sound?"

"It's a date!" Draco smiled. Harry was surprised. He couldn't believe Draco's luck. Harry was with an older, more experienced woman, and barely getting any. Harry shook it off as Draco began paying attention in class. He was happy to see that McGonagall was much stricter with the Slytherins than the Gryffindors.

Harry went to Care of Magical Creatures in Draco's body and then to lunch. During the middle of lunch he started to feel faint and got up to leave. He saw himself about one hundred feet in front of him. He followed himself out of the Great Hall and into a little room where he fainted.

***

"Potter, this is pretty fucked up."

"You said it... What should we do?" Harry asked groggily as he sat up.

"We should try to spend time figuring out how to stop it. But there's no way in hell would I spend time with you."

"Yeah, we need to find a way to do it that won't seem suspicious."

"Yeah... Weasley and the Mudblood are starting to catch on," Draco smirked.

"Don't call her that!" Harry said, getting out his wand.

"What, Mudblood?" Draco laughed. "Oh isn't that cute. Potter is sticking up for his girlfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend, she's just a good friend. I thought you would know that, especially after I spent time with Cho at lunch."

"What, you don't know? I thought you were just trying to distract yourself, but you really don't know do you? Wow I know and Potter doesn't! Isn't that good for a laugh!"

"Malfoy, I'm warning you..." Harry said, gritting his teeth.

"Oh, Potter, I'm so scared." Malfoy taunted. Before Harry had time to re-act a blue spark came out of Malfoy's wand, and surprisingly he missed. Harry shot a quick hex, but Malfoy jumped out of the way.

After a few more shots Harry caught on to what Malfoy was trying to do: draw the teacher's attention. After about three minutes of hexes bouncing off the walls, Professor McGonagall came running. They were broken apart and told to go straight to Dumbledore. They were both surprised that they didn't just get detention, which was what they wanted. They needed time to work out a way to stop what was going on and they thought detention was the way to do it, but they didn't get detention. They were both nervous as they slowly trudged up to the Headmaster's office.