The Lion and the Eagle {Huna}

Chapter 3

Harry walked through the doors of Hogwarts Castle and felt a wave of nausea sweep over him. The memories the hall brought... He had thought waking past the Forbidden Forest had been bad, but this...

As he entered the entrance hall, he looked away from the great hall. Harry didn't think he could look around that room without seeing the lines of the dead.

He walked past it quickly, climbing up staircase after staircase until he reached the corridor where the stone gargoyles that guarded the headmistresses office. He walked up to them and said the password "Albus" before climbing the moving staircase.

A week had passed since Harry had bumped into Luna Lovegood in the bar, but the idea she had suggested hadn't left his mind. Teaching.

A few days after their conversation, Harry had sent a letter to Minerva McGonagall to tell her he was interested in taking the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. The headmistress quickly wrote back, telling him a time for an interview and the password to her office.

Harry knocked on the door to the Headmistresses office and was told to enter.

"Professor McGonagall," Harry greeted his old teacher as soon as he saw her. She hasn't aged much since their last meeting, except for a few more wrinkles.

"Mr Potter," McGonagall said sternly and Harry nervously walked towards her desk. Professor McGonagall still made him very nervous sometimes.

He sat down and looked around, the office had changed since Dumbledore had died. A new painting was sitting on a wall, Fawkes the Phoenix was gone and so were most of the whirring silver trinkets. A few had remained sitting around the room as a monument to the great Professor, sitting inconspicuously on ledges and around the room.

The room had a few personal touches the Headmistress had added, a painting here and there, several awards for Transfiguration and a picture of a Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"In your letter, you expressed a desire to become a teacher, Potter." Professor McGonagall said, sternly gazing over her spectacles at the young adult.

"Yes," Harry said nervously, "Luna told me you were looking for a Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor... And I thought I would see if it was true."

McGonagall frowned slightly, "Potter... I know you excelled in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and that you would be a very good teacher... But being a teacher does mean you would spend a lot of time in Hogwarts and around children. Plus, you are only a year older than the oldest students."

"Are you saying you have to be old to teach, Professor?" Harry asked, smiling slightly.

"Of course not, but how old are you Harry?" Professor McGonagall asked though Harry knew she already knew the answer.

"Eighteen, nineteen this July," Harry mumbled, realising how ridiculously young he sounded.

"Potter, I am going to ask you for a favour." Professor McGonagall said, smiling slightly.

"What is it, Professor?" Harry asked,

"Go and get some experience from the world. Go travelling, live a little. Have fun, be young and then, in a few years, you can come back and if you still wish for it, the position will be yours."

Harry sighed, "So you think I'm too young? Or too inexperienced?"

"I think you're too young to come back to school immediately after graduating." Professor McGonagall said wisely, "Why not continue with Quidditch?"

"That's not a bad idea actually," Harry mused, "Perhaps I will do that. Thanks, Professor, I will hold you to that promise."

Harry stood up and Professor McGonagall did the same. "I shall see you at some point, Potter, whether it be accidental or in a job interview."

Harry laughed and nodded his head as a respectful salute to his teacher. He exited the office and walked quickly down the spiral staircase, shrugging his cloak over his robes as he did.

Down more staircase, treading the paths he had walked for seven years, he reached the Entrance Hall and hesitated. Harry looked around, wistfully thinking of the bittersweet memories from school. He loved Hogwarts Castle, it was his first home but Professor McGonagall's words had made sense, he needed to see more of the world than this small spot in Scotland.

He smiled sadly, thinking of the memories this place held for him. Many bad but more were good. Harry turned and strode towards the doors, opened them and headed out into the night.

A cold wind bit at Harry's face as he hurriedly walked towards the gates, once past the black metal he would be able to apparate back to his flat. He pulled his black cloak closer to his body and ducked his head, watching his feet as his hand gripped his wand. That was a habit that never left Harry, always being alert, always ready for attack. Constant vigilance, Mad-Eye Moody would have said.

Harry grinned at the memory, then frowned, also remembering that the man who had actually said that was a death eater. Harry reached the gates, opened them and walked through. Just before he apparated, he allowed himself a last glance of the castle he had called home before apparating away from the spot.