The rest of the class went by smoothly. He asked a handful of students to stay after the class who had all seemed to be doing pretty well with the spells he had gotten them to try. Among the students were Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass from Slytherin, Lisa Turpin and Stephen Cornfoot of Ravenclaw, Walter Gatton of Hufflepuff, and Rob Bankston and Julie Wesmer of Gryffindor.
When the rest of the students had left he addressed them. "You all showed promise, and I'd like to take a bit of time to test you all further to see if you're ready for the intermediate class," he informed them. "I'm just going to run you through some different hexes and curses as well as protego to shield yourself. If you're unfamiliar with any of the spells I have you try, don't hesitate to ask me how to do it. If you already know all the spells, I'll move you up right away. If you don't know everything, I'll work to make sure you get there soon so that you can join the intermediate class as soon as possible. I won't let anyone join until they are completely caught up with the others."
Harry ran through a whole bunch of spells with them in a short amount of time. They had all known most of the spells. Some had problems with a couple spells, but they were soon rectified. After an hour of work with them, he was satisfied with the results. "Excellent work everyone. I think you're all ready to join the intermediate class. The first lesson is tomorrow at 7:00. Don't be late." With that, Harry dismissed them.
Harry was happy with how the first lesson had gone. There hadn't been any challenges to his authority. Everyone had for the most part taken his instructions without complaint after his demonstration with the Ravenclaw. Harry found that even the Slytherin members seemed to be following his commands without any resistance, for which he was rather pleased. They had seemed mutinous to start when he had mentioned they were starting with expelliarmus, Zabini in particular. But after promising the more advanced members that they'd get their chance to prove themselves followed by his exhibition with the Ravenclaw, all visible protests were squashed.
Harry wasn't sure how his former DA would react to the new members that would be in their midst tomorrow, but they would have to get used to the idea. He was especially worried about how the Slytherins would be treated. There was a small group in the previous class, so they would still be able to band together when need be. Only two Slytherins would be in the intermediate class tomorrow.
There hadn't been any conflicts in class between the students, but Harry could tell that the rest of the students were apprehensive about the Slytherin members. The tension was thick between the other three houses and the house of snakes. Harry knew he would have to keep an eye on it. He hoped that everyone would be able to look past their house boundaries and accept each other as members of the HA, but he didn't expect sweeping changes over night. He knew it would take time for them to learn to trust each other. But he would work on it with them.
He retired back to the common room and found his friends waiting on him. The minute he walked over they began asking questions.
"How did it go? Did you get a lot accomplished in the first lesson?" Hermione asked eagerly.
Ron, on the other hand, asked more scathingly, "Did those Slytherins cause any problems? I don't know why you even let them join, Harry. I don't care if they signed the contract you wrote up. They're bad news, every one of them."
Hermione abandoned the line of questioning she had for Harry to reprimand Ron. "That's exactly the kind of attitude that is preventing us from making any progress in inter-house unity, Ronald Weasley. If you would just shut your mouth and open your eyes, you might notice that not all Slytherins are Draco Malfoy."
"They don't have to be Draco Malfoy to be evil. They're snakes, Hermione. Every last one of them evil. Trust me, the less we have to do with them the better."
"I can talk to snakes, you know," Harry interrupted his friends' arguing. "Does that make me evil?"
Ron turned toward Harry and looked at him as if he'd sprouted another head. "What are you on about mate? Of course you're not evil. It doesn't matter that you can talk to snakes. The point is that they're in Slytherin. You're a Gryffindor mate."
"The sorting hat wanted to put me in Slytherin," Harry informed his friends. "It only put me in Gryffindor because I asked it to." Ron looked shocked at this statement. Hermione was smiling at him. "And in case you forgot," Harry added, "Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor as well."
The color left Ron's face at that statement. Hermione looked like the cat that just caught the canary. She seemed smug that Ron had finally been put in his place and set straight about the Slytherins. He could be really thick headed and stubborn sometimes.
"Anyway," Harry said, breaking the silence that had descended over the trio. "The class went well. We'll have a handful of new members tomorrow. I've got some reading to do before I go to bed, so I'll catch up with you two later."
That night Harry talked to Sirius about his first HA class and the reply he had received from Remus. Sirius was ecstatic that Harry would be filling in where he and James had left off in helping Remus get through his monthly transformations. Harry covered what he had gone over in the class and the handful of students that he had already moved to his advanced class. He shared his worries about the two Slytherins that would be coming to the class the next evening. It was easier to have the Slytherins in the other group because not only did they have more numbers there, but that entire group was new.
Blaise and Daphne were coming into an already existing group. And it was just the two of them from Slytherin. Harry didn't think the others would have much trouble accepting the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw additions because they each already had housemates in the class. That would give them a niche to start in while they became comfortable. The Slytherins didn't have that luxury.
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