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Teddy had never seen so many students give up their Saturday afternoon for something that wasn’t Quidditch. As Head Boy, it was his job to shepherd them into the Great Hall, and half-heartedly shush them, but the excited babble and chatter was so loud that even the teachers were given up.
He was quietly excited too, which seemed silly, really, but in the fortnight leading up to the lecture he had found himself peppered with questions, and he had to admit that (though he wasn’t an unpopular student by any means) he had been sheepishly enjoying the awed responses when people heard that Harry Potter was his godfather. What’s he like? Do you know what he’s going to teach us? Has he taught you? Is it true he can make people drop dead just by looking at them?
At least he was dealing with it all with dignified smiles and diplomatic answers. He heard James’s voice rise above the crowd. ‘And then my dad did the biggest Patronus anyone had ever seen, it broke the world record-’
Teddy grabbed him by the collar as he passed, pulling him away from the other first years. ‘Stop exaggerating.’
‘I’m not!’
‘He won’t come back if he hears you’ve been spreading nonsense.’
‘Did he tell you what he was going to talk about?’ James demanded. ‘He wouldn’t tell me anything, just pretended he was going to come and talk about the dangers of flobberworm bites.’
‘Yeah, that is what he’s going to talk about,’ said Teddy seriously. ‘I hope you haven’t got everyone’s hopes up for something more exciting?’
James looked a little unsure if he was joking or not, but grinned, and let Teddy push him away into the Great Hall to take his seat.
Once the last of the students had filtered through, Teddy and the Head Girl, Andrea Davies, went through themselves, closing the great double doors behind them. Harry was sitting up on the raised platform, talking quietly to Professor Longbottom, firmly ignoring the squealing, giggling students who were excitedly pointing at him and shouting his name.
‘This should be good,’ Andrea said to Ted. ‘I hope the stories aren’t too grisly, though.’
‘They won’t be,’ Teddy assured her. ‘Not his style.’
‘Well that will disappoint the boys I heard talking in the common room this morning,’ she replied.
They stood at the back, and watched as Professor Longbottom took to the raised platform at the back of the hall to stare seriously out at the crowd until the chatter petered out into quiet. There was a lot of shifting as people craned their necks to see.
‘Thank you,’ said Professor Longbottom. ‘I know you’re all keen for me to stop talking so you can listen to Mr Potter, so I’ll be brief. As many of you know, Mr Potter and I go well back, from school and also working together for a few years. I know from experience that he knows what he’s talking about so I hope you’ll use this opportunity to ask sensible questions-’ Teddy saw his eyes flick to a group of giggly girls on the front row. ‘-And listen carefully to what he has to say. Anyone mucking about will be escorted out by our Head Boy and Girl and will then enjoy a lovely evening in detention with me.’
There was absolute silence in the hall - the anticipation of seeing the Chosen One was enough to keep every mouth shut. Professor Longbottom turned to Harry, who smiled and gave a nod, then stood to hysterical applause.
‘Good afternoon,’ he said to them all, when the noise had died down enough. ‘It’s wonderful to be back here, this school is a place of many happy memories for me and I hope it will be for you all too. I’m here to talk to you all today about far less happy memories, however, and though I’m sure you’re all excellent in your Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, the reality is that when it comes to battling the dark arts, much theory flies out the window. What matters is guts and quick thinking, something that often comes only with experience, or, more hopefully, simply good practice.’
The students were listening enraptured, many of them leaning forward on the tables with their chins on their hands, gazing up at Harry with wide eyes. Teddy wondered what they would be like if they had seen his godfather on holiday, once all the kids were in bed and he and Ron had cracked open some elf-made wine. He bit back a smile.
‘I’m afraid I am ill-prepared,’ Harry continued. ‘I’m not a teacher and I had no idea how many of you there would be - I’m flattered that there seems to be standing room only left. So I thought I would open the floor to questions and go from there.’
Hundreds of hands flew up at once.
‘Questions should be related to Defence Against the Dark Arts,’ said PRofessor Longbottom loudly.
About half of the hands came down.
Harry smiled, and gestured to a Ravenclaw boy. ‘Yes?’
The boy, who looked to be fourteen at the most, seemed startled to be chosen, and had a rather star-struck expression. With a shaky voice, he spoke. ‘Hi… Um…’ he swallowed, but Harry waited patiently. ‘I was wondering if you think there could ever be another person like… like…’
‘Like Voldemort?’ Harry prompted kindly.
‘Yeah.’ said the boy quietly.
‘Certainly there could. My job is to stop them before they get to the levels of power and influence that he ever did, of course. Yet there will always be people in this world who wish to do others harm. Often it is because they have been harmed themselves, at some point, and it has left them without empathy or compassion for others, many times it’s for disappointingly poor motivations like greed for power, or money. Either way history is littered with people like him.’ He paused. ‘I may be biased, I believe he was one of the worst, and I think he was terrible in a unique way. But I have certainly met others that could give him a run for his money.’
‘Could he ever come back?’ the boy asked. ‘As he did before?’
‘No,’ said Harry promptly, smiling in a reassuring manner. He pointed at a student who had only just raised their hand.
‘Apart from him, who’s the scariest person you’ve ever met?’
‘Oh, my wife when she’s angry, certainly,’ said Harry. ‘Possibly more so.’ Though the students were giggling, the boy looked a little disappointed, and so Harry continued. ‘I had the misfortune to come across a person who particularly enjoyed inflicting pain on others, and while I have met many others like them, they stand out as being especially sadistic. With people like that, it’s about staying calm under pressure, and trying your best to not let them enjoy themselves.’
He moved on swiftly, though Teddy thought that statement could have applied to any number of the names of Death Eaters he had heard over the years.
A few more hands rose, but Harry nodded at one of the girls on the front row, who gave a squeak of excitement. ‘Did you ever rescue a girl?’
‘Miss Marchbanks,’ said Professor Longbottom warningly.
‘It’s fine,’ said Harry, who seemed amused. ‘I’m not sure rescue is the right word, but there were women that were unfortunately involved in his schemes along the way, one of which was my wife.’
There was a great, giggling sigh from the girls, barely disguising James’s loud snort of disgust, and Teddy saw Harry grin at his son as Professor Longbottom glared at the front row. ‘Some more practical questions, please,’ he instructed them firmly.
Harry pointed to an older, more sensible looking Gryffindor, who pompously asked which spell Harry had found the most useful throughout his career.
Harry nodded as he listened to the question, then looked to the back of the hall. ‘Ted,’ he said, gesturing for Teddy to join him.
There was a ripple of excitement as Teddy walked past the tables - he heard James’s splutter of indignation and saw Harry throw an amused glance at him. ‘You’ve had a wand for about three months, I’m not getting you up here,’ he said, and there was a rumble of laughter.
Teddy got up onto the raised platform and his godfather clapped him on the shoulder in greeting. ‘Now, Ted, I want you to stand on the other side - just over there - and do your best to attack me. Nothing lethal, please, but don’t hold back.’
Teddy raised an eyebrow as he withdrew his wand. ‘Any jinx?’
‘Sure,’ said Harry. ‘Ten galleons if you get me.’
There was another ripple of laughter, and Teddy started to walk to the other end of the raised platform.
He hadn’t got half way there before his wand was wrenched out of his hands and clattered across the floor. ‘My back was turned!’ he exclaimed, to yet more chuckles and Harry’s smiling face.
‘I thought you might attack me though,’ said Harry cheerfully. ‘Come on, pick it up and give it another go.’
No sooner had Teddy touched his wand when it was out his hand again, and again, and again - Harry saying expelliarmus so lazily that even Teddy was soon struggling to stop laughing as he chased his own wand around the hall, ending up breathless while Harry stood casually, feet planted firmly where they had been the whole time.
Eventually (and later Teddy was sure his godfather let this happen for the sake of Ted’s dignity), he managed to grab the wand and cast a stunning curse at Harry, who blocked it smoothly and disarmed Ted again.
‘That’ll do, I think,’ said Harry. ‘Doesn’t look good for my career if you do manage to get me.’
He gave Teddy another squeeze on his shoulder and a smile as Ted, grinning somewhat despairingly at him, went back to return to his position by the doors as the hall applauded.
‘The disarming spell is the first thing that usually pops into my head,’ Harry said to the audience. ‘I know it’s not particularly glamorous, but it’s saved my skin more times than I can count. With most other jinxes and hexes, your opponent is still able to at least attempt to fight - the exception is probably a stunner, but they can be a little more tricky to cast than your basic expelliarmus. Once you have disarmed your opponent, he or she is forced to take their eyes off you as they look for their wand, and they are unprotected against any other spells you might use to incapacitate them.’
Every hand in the hall was up by now; Teddy thought Harry looked a little overwhelmed. He pointed at random at a Slytherin second-year. ‘What’s the most painful thing that you’ve ever felt?’ the boy asked excitedly.
Harry seemed to consider the boy for a moment, and Ted saw Professor Longbottom, raise his eyebrows. ‘Well,’ said Harry lightly, ‘the Cruciatus curse isn’t something I would ever recommend. But nothing really compares to the pain of losing someone you really care about. We tend to talk about love making us very happy, and that is certainly the case, but something that strong can also be extremely painful. I have consistently found that dark witches and wizards underestimate the strength of love people have, and the pain that they go through when they are grieving.’
There was a different kind of silence now; the boy looked a little sheepish. Ted doubted there was anything malicious in his question. Like many of the students there, he had probably simply wanted to hear a gory story.
‘Do a patronus!’ James yelled, and the tension was broken - people laughed again, and Harry grinned.
He took his wand, and from it burst a beautiful, silvery stag. It cantered the length of the hall, looped around Ted and then back towards Harry, dissolving into mist before it reached him. The hall erupted into impressed cheers - Professor Longbottom had to stand and shout, ‘oi!’ before they finally settled down again.
‘The Patronus charm is one of my favourites,’ said Harry mildly, ‘and it was the first advanced magic I learned. A good friend of mine taught it to me to help me deal with a dementor problem I was facing-’
Ted’s heart swelled with pride, and he remembered his own patronus lessons with Harry, unable to prevent himself from smiling.
‘-And though it is definitely a very difficult spell, it’s a common misconception that only very happy people are able to cast it. Naturally you must have a happy memory to cast it, but that strength of feeling, that complete openness to joy, and hope, and love, and all the other things dark creatures hate - that can come from anyone. Indeed, sometimes people who suffer the most are the ones most able to perform it, because they are the ones that truly appreciate the happiest of their memories, whether it’s a first kiss or winning a Quidditch match or the birth of your children - what matters is having the ability to fully embrace it when darkness and fear is in front of you. This, of course, is why it is far easier for me to cast it while you’re all smiling at me than face to face with a dementor.’
More hands - and this time a nervous looking girl asked what to do if you were not very good at duelling, and found yourself in a dangerous situation.
‘I’m a great believer in running away,’ said Harry. ‘Or if that doesn’t seem possible, keep them talking. It’s extraordinary how often bad people like to talk rather than just getting on with it - they tend to be egomaniacs, you see. Let them talk about how great they are for a bit, while you figure something out.’
‘When you died,’ asked one Hufflepuff, ‘what did you see?’
Teddy looked carefully at Harry’s face, which was unusually guarded. ‘Well,’ said Harry slowly, ‘I didn’t really die, as such… I believe I was on the brink of it.’ He took a breath, and seemed to be thinking very hard. ‘I saw something personal to me, that I’m not sure I could explain in any meaningful way. All I can say is that the experience was not as terrible as you would expect, and nothing to fear any more than is natural.’
Unfortunately, their time was soon up. With promises that he would return to the school at some point in the future for more questions, Harry wished them luck for the future and thanked them for their time. There was a loud, droning chorus of thank you back from the collective crowd, which Harry seemed to find funny. As the students trudged out, Teddy saw James run to Harry, and hug him, his face beaming.
Ted smiled too - he had always found it sweet how much James openly looked up to his father.
‘Isn’t he just so heroic?’ Andrea gushed to him. ‘I mean, you’re probably used to it all-’
Ted chuckled. ‘Yes, a bit. Are you all right herding them out? I’d like to go and-’
‘Oh, yes, of course,’ she said. ‘Say hello from me - or would that be weird?’
‘It’s weird, but I’ll do it-’
‘No, don’t,’ she said, horrified.
‘I’ll let him know your full name too, in case he wants to write.’
‘Ted!’ she spluttered, her cheeks burning.
He winked at her, and walked over to his godfather, who was smiling down at his son. ‘Of course I will,’ he was saying. ‘If you make the team-’
‘I’m obviously going to make the team!’ James spotted Ted. ‘I’ll make the team, won’t I? Then dad can come and watch me play-’
‘You might, if you can fit your big head through your Quidditch robes,’ said Ted, giving James a very light punch on the arm.
Harry threw an arm around Teddy, pulling him into a sideways hug. ‘Thank you for being my glamorous assistant.’
‘Any time,’ said Ted. ‘I still expect that money though, even if I didn’t manage to get you.’
‘A deal’s a deal, Ted, you’ll just have to be quicker next time.’ He glanced down at his watch. ‘I better get back to the office. I’ll see you both at Christmas, all right?’
They bade him goodbye, with one last hug each, and then Ted escorted James out of the hall. ‘That was cool, wasn’t it?’ James said. ‘I thought he would tell more gory stories though, like the one where that big snake came out of the dead woman and started squeezing him-’
Teddy rolled his eyes. ‘He was never going to tell that story with a bunch of little kids in the room.’
‘I’m one of the youngest there.’
‘That’s different, he knows you’re very brave,’ Ted told him placatingly.
‘D’you reckon we’d be good at it?’ James asked him. ‘All that stuff.’
‘You would be, perhaps,’ said Ted. ‘I would die immediately I expect. Drop my own wand, no disarming spell needed.’
‘Nah,’ said James. ‘You’re smart. And you’re really fast at running, before you fall over I mean.’
‘Cheers,’ said Ted, ruffling James’s hair in the way he knew he hated. ‘Well, when you’re a big shot auror like your dad, you’ll find out, won’t you?’
‘Yeah,’ said James, suddenly serious. ‘I’ll know by then.’