Harry's Future

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

"Alright everyone, let's get started. I hope everyone has their essay completed," Harry said from his stool at the front of his first year DADA class. "Yes? Good. Please hand them forward." 

The parchment rolls were handed forward and Harry unrolled them and placed them face up on a desk that was in front of him. He looked at the titles and then leaned back and looked at the faces looking up at him. 

"Now for the second and most important part of the assignment, we are going to read them aloud. Let me see. Here's one for you and one for you," he said as he handed rolls to students as he limped around the desks. "You'll notice that you're not getting your own essay back. One member from your team will read the essay that I've given you. Let's see, how about the Hufflepuff non magical team first." 

As Harry and the rest of the class looked at the two, the young witch nudged Rhys-Jones and nodded to him. He stood up and held the roll in his hands and began in a halting voice to read what it was like to be young witches and wizards in a world full of muggles. As he read his voice steadied and got a little stronger. When he finished he sat back down and got a smile from his partner. 

"Nicely done, Mr. Rhys-Jones. And a very well written essay. Who's next?" 

This question was met with a number of hands raised. The youngsters read their way through every essay and since this was their double session they had plenty of time to discuss them. The one common theme that seemed to run through the comments was that no one really understood the issues that someone different from them had. Several of the magical born students thought it must be really tough for a muggle born to suddenly discover they were a witch or wizard and then have only a month or so to get used to the idea before coming to Hogwarts where everything and everyone was magical. Rhys-Jones' partner, one Catherine Biggsby, thought it must have been pretty hard to be magical kids and not be seen doing magical stuff by muggles. The discussion became self sustaining and Harry just sat back and watched and listened. There was some real wisdom in what he was hearing. Eleven year old wisdom, to be sure, but it was there none the less. 

When there was just a few minutes left he called them all to attention and asked, 

"Okay, now. I believe I owe someone an answer to a question. Can anyone tell me what that question was?" 

The same young witch raised her hand and said, 

"I asked what did our doing the essay have to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts." 

"Have you been able to figure it out yet?" Harry asked. 

"Well, sir. I guess it's made us realize that even though we grew up in different ways we've all had to deal with similar kinds of problems but I'm still not certain how it would help us against a dark witch or wizard." 

"Well said, Miss Willowby. You got the first part of it very well. As to the rest of it, it might interest you to know that Lord Voldemort used the rather arbitrary line between so called pure bloods and muggle borns as a way to gather followers and promote his ideas for pure blood dominance of the magical world and, he hoped, the muggle world as well. The things that were told to you by your house prefects gave you an idea about what had happened in the past and how Tom Riddle almost won. But did you know that Tom Riddle had no more magical blood than you or you?" he asked as he pointed at the children of mixed parentage. "His father was a muggle. But he chose to focus on his magical heritage and his decent from Salazar Slytherin. The ideas that you have just shared with each other completely escaped Riddle and eventually led to his demise. In order to defend yourself against the dark arts you must first be able to resist using them. Ridding yourself of the notion that you are somehow better than someone or someone is better than you simply by who their parents or grandparents are or were is a good first step. Alright, that's enough for today. Off you go."