Defence and Mayhem

Dark Arts Session

Lunchtime has just passed, and Harrison was glad to say that he was right on schedule. He had finished his book right before lunch, and the lesson plan for tonight was well arranged.

With his immediate work done, he allowed himself a well-earned break.

So, here he was, seated on the loveseat in the main room of his quarters, with a nice glass of firewhisky in his hand.

He usually refrained from drinking on days when he had work, but it wasn't so bad if he had hours to let the drink's effects pass. Besides, it wasn't like he was a big drinker, he usually only had a glass once a week or when he needed a good break like now.

Harrison liked his job, quite a bit more than he thought he would, but he did have to admit it wasn't an easy job, and teaching was stressful. It was also weird to teach his grandparents and the grandparents of his former classmates...

His grandfather wasn't how he thought he'd be. He expected a bigger resemblance between Fleamont and himself. Or, well, to Harry, since Harrison wasn't even a Potter anymore, and wasn't a teenager(although arguably).

In the physical aspect, where Harry's hair was black, Fleamont's was a light brown. Harry had a slim yet fit structure, Fleamont's frame was bigger and more muscular. The only commonalities were the messiness of the hair and some aspects of the face structure, but other than that, nothing.

He did notice Euphemia Braithewaite's Black hair, so he guessed it came from his grandmother...

The difference in their behavior was a whole different story. Yes, Harry didn't have the best childhood, and wasn't the most 'normal' teen, even for a wizard, but he did have a few defining personality traits. He did not share them with Fleamont. Fleamont was brave, and an obvious Gryffindor, yes, but where Harry was modest, Fleamont was brash. Fleamont was also competitive, not only in sports that required it but in all aspects he wanted to be the first, the best. Harry only wished to be like everyone else, he wanted to fit in.

Fleamont's desire to be the best resulted in his obsession with beating Tom. In academics, in popularity, and who knows what else. With Harrison's personal familiarity with Tom, he was slightly biased in his favour, but even from the most neutral viewpoint he could muster, Fleamont seemed a little too invested in his competitiveness. He hated how effortlessly Tom bested him and how Tom didn't seem to share the feeling of rivalry.

Harrison knew that Fleamont was well above average, at least in his schooling, from both what he saw and what he had heard in staff meetings. Fleamont was occasionally acknowledged for his hard-earned success.

But not like Tom.

The staff members sang his praises. He was mentioned all the time, by everyone besides Dumbledore. He broke records daily and managed to surprise the teachers with knowledge they themselves could barely keep up with. If Fleamont was above average, Tom was above genius.

Harrison knew that all that kept Tom from besting him was Harrison's real-life experience and maybe a few tomes from the Peverell vault. And Tom will gain both access to those sources of knowledge and the real-life experience eventually. It was only a question of time.

__________________

The formerly abandoned classroom on the fourth floor of the castle was as prepared as it could be for the first Dark Arts session Harrison held.

The classroom had numerous couches and armchairs in a large half circle in the back of the room, and in the front was a blackboard that took up the whole wall. The room itself was so enlarged, that it could easily fit almost the entirety of the fifth-years and up of Hogwarts. It was a tricky piece of magic to transfigure the desks and chairs that the classroom formerly had in it, and the rune to enlarge it needed a large amount of magic poured into it for it to permanently function, but if all goes accordingly he shouldn't have to use a lot of magic in the next two hours.