Death Is Our Gift

XII

"Professor Ripper"

Giles awoke early as he always did. He had always assumed it to be a habit based on his lifestyle. Even when he was helping Buffy on patrol, he always awoke early the next day. His duties as a librarian and a Watcher made his low need for sleep perfect.

But his awakening early was more due to a lack of comforting sleep than any biological predisposition. Today, his first class was the Gryffindor first years - which meant Liam. The night had been filled with images of the past and the resentment that he had caused. But he had to put that out of his mind. He had spent this many years hiding from what he did, and now he couldn't just buckle under long dead sins.

Giles put on his robes & walked out of his room. He enjoyed the early morning strolls, as there were few students in the hallways. He would occasionally run into one of the Hogwarts ghosts, who were always nice enough to chat with him. Rarely these days would he run into Peeves, as Peeves knew to avoid him.

Peeves had early on met Professor "Ripper".

Giles entered the Great Hall for breakfast. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were already there. "Good Morning Minerva, Filius," said Giles very chipper.

"Ah Rupert," said Professor Flitwick, "thought you were having a bit of a lie in. You're usually the first one down here."

"Just trouble sleeping. New school year and all," said Giles, sitting down to and helping himself to some porridge.

"No worries," said Flitwick. "I've seen professors here thirty years that had the same problem." Flitwick looked down the table at McGonagall. "Minerva, do you remember that Dark Arts teacher we had. Barnabas something." He looked back to Giles. "Always had trouble getting up. Late nights and all that."

"That's because he was bitten by a vampire," said McGonagall, munching on a bit of toast. "He was fighting off the change with several spells, but was rather unsuccessful in the end."

Flitwick thought for a moment. "Right," he said. "Forgot that last bit. Could you pass me the sausages?"

Giles reached across the table and handed the plate of sausages to Professor Flitwick, who stabbed a few with his fork & placed them on his plate. Giles smiled as the diminutive teacher ate his breakfast. Out of the corner of his eye, Giles noticed a recently awakened Willow coming into the Great Hall.

"Good morning," he said as she took a seat next to him & reached for some toast. She grumbled.

"Your test went well, I take it?" he asked.

"That... big poopie head," said Willow. "He made me make this really complicated sleeping potion and awakening potion. And then I had to test it on myself." She stifled a yawn.

"Dear me," said Flitwick. "I take it you did well?"

"Barely woke up," said Willow. "So I think my sleeping potion was stronger than my wake up potion. He'll probably fail me because of it."

"Though Severus might be a bit severe at times," said McGonagall, placing her napkin over her food, "he will pass or fail you on merit. Plus, he knows that any outward hostilities would be met rather poorly by the Headmaster." Willow did not look convinced by this, but Giles knew better.

He had spent the better part of the last eight years trying to determine what the connection between Dumbledore and Snape was. He knew that Dumbledore gave him another chance, and though Snape's loyalties lied primarily with Dumbledore, Severus extended base level courtesy to those around Dumbledore.

Except for Harry Potter. Or Buffy Summers.

Over the years, Snape & he had come to an understanding - both had dark pasts that they wanted to leave in the past. Despite their first run in, Giles felt Severus had grown... not fond, but at least not hostile towards him. And that was definitely an improvement over their first real conversation.

"What are you doing later?" asked Willow.

"I have two classes today & then was wishing to speak with Harry about a few things," said Giles.

"Yeah, about that." Willow produced her letter from Hermione and showed it to Giles. He read over it & looked back to her.

"To my knowledge, you never met Hermione," said Giles. "But after the Liam affair, my contact with everyone waned. If you wanted, you might speak with Harry."

"Yeah," said Willow, "I might. Or you could do it for me." Willow looked at Giles with her puppy dog eyes.

"Willow, you are a grown woman. You are perfectly capable of talking to a colleague on your own."

"Yeah," said Willow, "but he's kinda scary. You should hear how all the kids talk about him. I think I would remember meeting someone like that."

"Well," said Giles, "he hasn't always been that way. This is a more recent development with him."

"Though he has always been rather moody," said Flitwick. "Even as a child, he was prone to these sorts of fits. Pity Mister Weasley's demise pushed him further along."

"The Harry I met was full of life," said Giles. "I really don't know much about what happened after we left, but it is a shame." Giles turned to Willow again. "I'll speak with him, on the condition that you will do the same if any further information needs to be obtained."

Willow smiled. "Deal." She took a bite of toast and munched away happily.

*****

Giles entered his classroom - first year Ravenclaws and Gryffindors greeted him. He always enjoyed teaching Ravenclaws - their thirst for knowledge always made him smile and caused many stimulating conversations. In fact, his N.E.W.T. History of Magic class was almost always all Ravenclaws. Their week long intense discussions made Giles wish he had been a Ravenclaw. He had spoken to the Head Master about eventually becoming Head of House, once Flitwick retired.

Gryffindors, he found out early on, were a bit harder to keep interested in the subject. Due to the fact that History of Magic was rather dull and Gryffindors were high strung, it required some rethinking of how to make the subject interesting and to keep their attention.

Giles remembered when he took the class over from Professor Binns, a ghost who had taught the class in life as well as death. Binns showed him a hundred year old lesson plan that Binns had committed to memory long before he died. Giles tried this first year to teach from it, but gave up shortly before Halloween. When a subject even bored him, Giles knew it was time for a change. Instead he focused on basic principles and history. He had four years to get them through goblin revolts, Ministry of Magic developments and other dreadfully dull topics.

"Good morning," he said. "I am Professor Giles. I will be instructing you in the History of Magic. Though tedious at times, we will be speaking of rather exciting subjects." He surveyed the class and could tell that even his Ravenclaws this year were waning. Giles walked behind his desk and looked around again.

"Now, to demonstra-" Giles suddenly reached to the side of his desk, pulled out a large nasty looking axe, swung it high over head, and brought it crashing into his desk. The suddenness of the action caused the students to jump.

Giles walked around his desk, pointing to the faintly vibrating axe embedded in his desk. "This axe was the sole cause from the end of the last major goblin revolt in 1858. While meeting with the Ministry of Magic officials, Gurg the Grey took this very axe and in one sudden motion beheaded Tork Two-Toes, his biggest rival and chief instigator of the riots. The action caused all of Tork's followers to immediately drop their weapons, and caused a good deal of panic among the Ministry folks, causing them to re-think allowing weapons into negotiations.

"That is what the History of Magic is about. We will learn similarly horrific things about our culture and pasts, as well as fascinating things that most of you from wizarding families do not know. But initially we will learn about where magic comes from and how the first wizards and witches learned to harness it. Now, if you will turn to page five of your text books." And Giles hid the smile as every student quickly turned open their books, almost simultaneously.

As the class progressed, Giles looked to Liam who seemed very uninterested - so much like his mother in that respect. Occasionally, Liam would look up from his parchment and just roll his eyes. Giles decided that this was all he could expect. The time for a confrontation between them would come, but for now it was up to Giles to deal with his own fears.

As the class ended, Giles assigned homework and watched as the class filled out. Alexandria waved over her shoulder at him, which caused Giles to smile. Maybe her being around Liam would soften some of that anger. But Giles knew better than to hope for such a thing. Though he was only a baby, Liam had learned to hate Giles more than would be though possible. Liam had perfect recall to those events and would take quite a while and an army of Alexandria's to soften it.

Giles gathered his bag and walked out of his classroom, through the halls. Several of the students said "hi" to him as he walked along to the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor. He walked to Harry's office and saw the door partially ajar. He looked inside and saw Harry hunched over his desk. He knocked.

Harry looked up. "Ah, Rupert, please come in." Harry stood and Giles entered the room and shook hands with him.

"Good to see you again Harry. It's been quite a while."

"A lifetime or two," said Harry as he sat. Giles also took a seat. "So what can I do for you?"

"Just curious as to if you had already made your complete lesson plans for the year?" asked Giles.

"Somewhat," said Harry. "Remus and Sirius helped me with some of the bigger points, but I'm still working on some of the lessons."

"Well," said Giles, "I was wanting to discuss with you a few joint DADA/History of Magic lessons, spread throughout the year. Seeing as how I will be covering the history of certain subject and you will be covering the practical applications."

Harry grinned. "Any particular subjects you had in mind?"

"An example would be talking about Voldemort-"

"Rupert," interrupted Harry, "I'm not talking about Voldemort. That was one of the conditions of my accepting this post."

"And I respect that," said Giles. "Last year I covered the subject in my N.E.W.T. classes, with Severus speaking a bit on the subject."

"And he would know all about him," said Harry with a snide tone.

"I was thinking more along the lines of vampires. I know that you will be covering them in most of your classes and it's a fascinating subject on the History of them. I believe they are mentioned on the O.W.L. exam as part of the extra credit."

"Well, I am going to cover them, but what did you have in mind?"

"Are you going to have a Slayer come? Perhaps Dawn?" Giles couldn't help notice Harry suddenly get tensed up at the mention of Dawn's name.

"Actually, I'm trying to get Faith. She's got more experience."

"True," said Giles. "But Dawn would love-"

"Liam's family would not necessarily be a good thing to bring to the school," said Harry firmly, trying to hide something.

Giles thought to ask, but changed his mind. "Well, it would be a good joint lesson, as well as discussion of the Unforgivable Curses."

Harry nodded. "Sounds like a great opportunity. Let me know what you have in mind and I'll see where we can work it into our plans."

Giles smiled. "Well, I'll let you get back to your planning." He stood and turned, but then looked to Harry again. "Uh, there is one more thing. Willow received a letter from Hermione-"

"Yes," said Harry, "Hermione told me that she sent it."

"Is there something here that I'm missing?" asked Giles.

"Yes, and seeing as how it will soon come to light, I'll let you know. A few months after Liam was born, Ron, Hermione and I paid a visit to Buffy. We thought that Willow would be out of town, but she was there. We spent the weekend with her and when we left, we placed a Memory Charm on her to prevent her from remembering."

"Ah," said Giles. "So that's why she doesn't remember it."

"Yes," said Harry. "And Hermione has decided that it is time for her to have the charm lifted."

"I take it you are not happy about the subject," said Giles.

"Quite," said Harry. "But Willow has a right to remember it. And ten years is more than enough time. Just a lot to deal with around that period."

"Yes," said Giles, "I can relate."

"Yes, you can," said Harry. "How is Liam doing?"

Giles laughed. "Well, he's not going to be very happy with me for the next seven years," said Giles. "But I'm hoping that my niece and his new friends will help him through that."

"Quite the group they are," said Harry. "He's a good kid. He'll forgive you eventually Rupert."

"A bit of prediction or wishful thinking?" asked Giles with a smile.

"I gave up being a Seer after my first Divination class," said Harry with a chuckle. "I know that if Buffy can forgive you, Liam can too."

"I hope you're right," said Giles as he left the room.

When Giles was out of ear shot, Harry mumbled, "Might take a while, but he will. Buffy will see to it."