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— (chapter fourteen.) —
Hermione made no mention of Harry giving Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons for two whole weeks after her original suggestion. Harry's detentions with Umbridge were finally over (Aurora doubted whether the words now etched into the back of their hands would ever fade entirely); Ron had had four more Quidditch practices and not been shouted at during the last two; and all four of them had managed to Vanish their mice in Transfiguration (Hermione had actually progressed to Vanishing kittens), before the subject was broached again, on a wild, blustery evening at the end of September, when the four of them were sitting in the library, looking up potion ingredients for Snape.
'I was wondering,' Hermione said suddenly, 'whether you'd thought any more about Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry.'
'Course I have,' said Harry grumpily, 'can't forget it, can we, with that hag teaching us — '
'I meant the idea Ron and I had — ' Ron cast her an alarmed, threatening kind of look. She frowned at him, ' — Oh, all right, the idea I had, then — about you teaching us.'
Harry did not answer at once. He pretended to be perusing a page of Asiatic Anti-Venoms, because he did not want to say what was in his mind.
Aurora hoped he'd agree to it. deal of thought over the past fortnight. Sometimes it seemed an insane idea, just as it had on the night Hermione had proposed it, but at others, he had found himself thinking about the spells that had served him best in his various encounters with Dark creatures and Death Eaters--found himself, in fact, subconsciously planning lessons ...
'Well,' he said slowly, when he could no longer pretend to find Asiatic Anti-Venoms interesting, 'yeah, I — I've thought about it a bit.'
'And?' said Hermione eagerly.
'I dunno,' said Harry, playing for time. He looked up at Aurora.
'I thought it was a great idea when they brought it up,' said Aurora honestly, tossing her hair over her shoulder carefully. 'I think you should.'
Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
'You did listen to what I said about a load of it being luck, didn't you?'
'Yes, Harry,' said Hermione gently, 'but all the same, there's no point pretending that you're not good at Defence Against the Dark Arts, because you are. You, with the exception of Rory, were the only person last year who could throw off the Imperius Curse completely, you can produce a Patronus, you can do all sorts of stuff that full-grown wizards can't, Viktor always said — '
