Chapter 76: Life is good

As Rick had expected, the sixth and seventh-years hated him. He made them run around the quidditch pitch, do some more physical exercise, and put them through the ringer through an ever changing obstacle course.

They hated him a bit less when it was about fighting (not duelling) and they learned how to dodge spells. It hasn’t been at first as they were knocked down on their asses or painted in bright neon pink but they began to get the hang of it and enjoy those dodging sessions.

They did love him for the theoretical part of the class. They learned a lot inside or outside class and Rick always pointed out very few known facts (like the patronus changing shape because of love) that were very interesting. The fact that he showed memories of his time in the war, giving them a real idea of what life was and how to deal with hexes and curses or a particularly dangerous situation, made him appreciated even more.

The regular small pop quiz and the small amount of homework he gave the students outbalanced the fast pace of what he was teaching, and the heavy load of information. They all found out that searching by themselves the answers to the creatures Rick told them to look up outside of class hours, allowed them to remember the information better, for the simple reason that in class they’re passive and that outside they’re active and the latter had a better impact on their memory.

Overall the Newts students were glad to finally learn from a competent DADA teacher. So were the OWLs students even though their course load was not nearly as heavy. From first to fourth year, Rick just worked on teaching them the basics foundation so they could be prepared for the next year to come when he wouldn’t be teaching them anymore.

After Halloween and before Rick took the Job, Rose had introduced Hermione Granger to her mother during an afternoon tea time, right before dinner. The young muggle-born had been quite excited and nervous to meet Lily who she saw as a figure to emulate.

“I know all about you, of course – I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century-”

“Breathe, Hermione. Remember what I said about blurting out facts.” Rose told her friend who was babbling away. The young bushy haired witch stopped on the spot and blushed embarrassingly.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“That’s alright.” answered an amused Lily. “Although I doubt you know all about me. Most of the information in the books you named are incomplete or incorrect.”

“B-but…They’re the references in the subject. I m-mean you! How could it be wrong?”

“Well, for starters, they were written by people and people are flawed. They either didn’t do enough research, didn’t have the qualifications to talk about the subject and thought they did or wanted to spread misinformation.”

Hermione was outraged. “Why would people do that?!”

“Who knows? I’m not those people, Miss Granger.”

“That’s why I told you to never take what’s written in a book as gospel or the truth, Hermione.”

“Rose’s right. Just because a book says something means it’s true. You should always cross reference with other books and even then you may not have the truth or correct answers. For example, I’m often credited, with my mother in law, as the one who created the process of ingredient extraction in potions because of the wolf-eazy pill. That’s simply not true.”

“You didn’t?!” Hermione was shocked to the core.

“No. My husband was the one who did it in his fourth year. It was his mother that took the process and experimented on every possible ingredient to find a method to get the best extract from each ingredient.”

“B-but. Your husband is a quidditch player!”

Rose frowned at how condescending that sounded and didn’t like that at all. Nobody talked badly about her father. Lily thought the same but schooled her features, partly thanks to occlumency.

“And he scored top of the class his whole schooling, set a new record of maximum of OWLs and NEWTS earned.”

“I thought it was you who did all that?” The young muggle-born was completely flabbergasted.

“Oh, I did it too. We had exactly the same grades. You can ask Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick, who were our teachers at the time or even Professor Snape who was in our year.”

“Why did he become a pro quidditch player if academically he was that good?” The fact bewildered the muggle-born witch to no end. She couldn’t compute it.

“Because more than anything, my husband likes to fly, Miss Granger. Playing quidditch was something he could only do while young and in his prime. Magical research was something he could do whenever in his life. In fact he never stopped studying magic, he just never published his work.”

“Most of them are secret family magics, Hermione.” Rose interjected before her new friend could ask questions about it.

It failed terribly.

“Family magic?” Hermione repeated with a frown.

“Spells, runes, wards, ritual, which the knowledge is restricted to a family.”

“Knowledge shouldn’t be restricted!”

“Is that so? What about the atomic bomb? Do you think everyone should have access to that knowledge so they could make their own?” questioned Lily.

“Well… No, but-”

“Family magic is the same in a way. I wouldn’t be surprised if my husband actually created a spell recreating the effect of an atomic bomb at a much much smaller scale but that’s not the point I want to make. The point I want to make is… some spells are for the protection of the family, they can be offensive or defensive. If everyone knew about them, new spells could come up to counter them and the family would be defenseless. A less abstract example would be…. The ingredient refining process.

Only my family knows how to do it. As such we’ve ensured that financially we would never be in crisis. Should the knowledge be common we could be in deep trouble monetary wise. Imagine: You work for years on a spell, a ritual, or a potion to provide for your family. During all that time you weren't paid for your research. Then you succeed and everyone knows the in and out or your research and don’t need to pay you to use it.

How do you feed yourself and your family, then? Years of hard work, stolen away, sometimes for others to make profit out of it. The world is already unfair and life is hard, there is no need to make it even harder for yourself. In a way it’s a bit selfish. The refining process could help plenty of people but at the end of the day you’re only responsible for yourself and your loved ones.”

“...”

“Although that doesn’t mean you should be quiet about it. House Potter is a wealthy House, we technically didn’t need the money and to share what we make with our refining process but we did. We’re not that selfish. We still want to do good and help the people. We’re just not naive about how to go about it. Plenty of witches and wizards ended their lives destitute because the knowledge they brought to the world was abused and stolen. Sure, they are credited, sometimes, but what is credit and reputation to a full stomach and a roof above your head?”

That stumped the young witch but also made her think a lot. She had always believed, knowledge should be universal, shared by everyone. The truth was she wanted it that way for everyone because she would get access to all the knowledge first and foremost. It was a selfish wish and idea wrapped into the justification and delusion of benefiting others.

“That’s… not fair.”

“It’s a bit hypocritical of you to say that, Hemione, especially when you’re privileged.” Rose shocked her friends with her words.

“I’m not! Either of those.” the muggle-born witch denied vehemently.

“No? Aren’t you a witch? A muggle-born one at that?”

“Yes, but I don’t see how-”

“There are nearly 7 Billion people in the world. 100 million of them have magic. The rate of birth of a witch or a wizard from a muggle family is about 11 on average every year in Wizarding Britain alone. Please tell me how you’re not privileged and how it’s not hypocritical of you to say ‘it’s not fair’?”

“I… never saw it like that.”

Lily explained a bit more to really drive the point home. “Yet, it’s the truth. I went through that wake up call too during my years as a student. As muggle-borns, we may not have the advantages the half-bloods or purebloods have but in retrospect we have an advantage over most of the world population. It’s no different from a child being born in a middle class family and another in a rich family like the Rockfeller. Some people have more than others. That’s how life is.”

She knew from what she heard from Rose and what she heard right now that the little witch in front of her would be in trouble if she didn’t open her eyes to reality. She was opinionated to a fault and thought herself smarter than anyone, thinking only she knew better. A disaster in the making if nothing was done to correct that mindset. Now she understood why Rose invited her for tea.

“That’s incredibly depressing.” Hermione commented.

“Yes but that doesn’t mean you can’t reach the top and have to stay forever at the bottom. I reached the top and am a muggle-born. There is no reason you or others can’t either.”

“You did marry dad though. A pureblood.” Rose joked.

“Yes but I’ll have you know that at the time your father and I began dating we all thought he was a muggle-born orphan. I would like to add that while it would have been difficult at the very least to go anywhere in Wizarding Britain despite my NEWTs score, other countries would have welcomed me with open arms. Australia, America, France, Spain, the Nordic countries…”

“Why not Britain?” questioned Hermione.

“Blood Purity, that’s why.” Lily said with distaste. “The people who lead the country are way too conservative, bigoted and corrupt. There is a reason Voldemort could raise and wreak havoc for as long as he did. And even gone for the last decade, nothing much had changed regarding society. I wouldn’t be surprised if another civil war happens in the country down the line one day. Not any time soon however.

The point this time is, you can be more than you are and reach the top despite your origins, Miss Granger. You just need to be open minded and look for opportunities. In that regard the world is fair. But enough with the heavy topics. How’s school life?”

The rest of the tea time was way more pleasant and when they left for dinner, Rose mouthed a ‘thank you’ to her mother. She liked Hermione, despite her attitude. She knew she had something to prove but went at it all the wrong ways. At this rate the young witch would spend her entire schooling friendless. A shame when she was a nice and caring person. Thankfully she had a good head on her shoulders and took Lily’s words to heart. By the time Christmas was around the corner she had made quite a few friends beyond Rose, Neville and Ronald.

Every time he could, Rick would watch Rose flying on her broom in his crow form, he didn’t want to miss a moment of her life if he could help it. He nearly missed a third year class because of it and Lily had been furious with him when she learned about it.

On Christmas day, the whole family, Potters and Blacks were reunited at Lions’ Pride. Sitting at the head of the table with Lily and Bella on either side and looking at the children having fun with their Christmas presents, he felt really content in his life and not for the first time.

“MERLIN’S BALLS!”

““““““SIRIUS!”””””””

“It wasn’t me!” The rebel of the Black family couldn’t have done it as he was eating some french patisserie named Chocolate Log.

“Yes, sorry! It was me!”

Everyone looked at Regulus in surprise, even the children. Regulus was the well mannered uncle who never swore and the joke was that he didn’t because he didn’t know any swear words.

“I mean… That’s a copy of Salazar Slytherin’s own grimoire! I didn’t even know he had one!”

““““WHAT?!””””

All the former Slytherins and Draco rose from their seats and went to Regulus to have a look.

“You’re welcome.” The pleased and smug smirk on Rick’s face told everyone he wasn’t kidding when he implied he offered it to Regulus.

“How did you get your hands on it?” asked Cassiopeia.

“Wait! That’s your handwriting. Is it-”

“No, Bella, it’s a true copy. I got the original in my hands and made a copy for the Black Library.”

When asked about the original grimoire in the first place, Rick showed them the memory of the scriptorium. Then went on to show them the memory of the Chambers of Secrets. Andromeda and Dorea were the only Blacks in the know of course since Rick already told them the story years ago so they weren’t that shocked.

“Eh… Now that I think about it… Draco-”

“No talking about either to anyone, Uncle. I know. And no trying to enter either location.” the first-year replied while holding his baby sister in his arms.

Everyone separated in small groups doing their own things afterwards. Sirius watched Duncan play with the twins and Lyra while trying to woo Marlene with who he was in almost speaking and civil terms now.

Nymphadora was talking with Amelia about being an Auror. She already knew that it was what she wanted to do after graduating and asked for advice, what she should focus on and what more she should learn to have a better chance in passing the program. To her surprise, it turned out that Rick was already preparing her (and the rest of her class) for it. When she looked at him he simply winked at her. She had learned more in the month and half being taught by him than in the last three years.

Dorea was talking with Severus about potion in general, Minerva was having a very animated conversation with Rhianon and Remus about brooms. As usual Cassiopeia and Arcturus were playing their sibling games while Melania watched in amusement. Andromeda and Narcissa had been roped in by the children in playing a game. It was quite a sight to see the proper pureblood witch that was Narcissa behave like a commoner. It was like she was a whole other person.

Druella was encouraging Lea and exchanging ideas about a painting she was doing from the painting kit she got as a present. It turned out that the middle of the Black children inherited her artistic trait from her maternal grandmother. Rose was in a corner of the room under a soundproof charm and practicing her grandfather’s guitar. Rick had learned over the years since his father’s death and taught his daughter when she asked to learn too a couple years back.

Bellatrix took back her seat next to Rick and leaned on him, much like Lily on his other side.

“I never thought… I could have a life like that and be happy with it.” She was looking at the whole scene in front of her.

“Same.”

“Well, I did. And I’m glad it’s with the two of you.”

Both Rick and Bella looked at Lily with a puzzle look.“I thought you wished for Dorea or Andi instead of me?”

“Or Amelia.”

“There was a time, yes. But… I think we’re perfect the way we are. Don’t you?”

““I do.””

Exchanging a look, the throuple stood up and discreetly left the crowd to retreat back to their bedroom.

The rest of the school went by in a flash. Rick’s students passing national exams may have been worried for some subjects, except one. His. The seventh-year students knew all they needed to know about dark creatures, defensive spells, jinxes, hexes and curses and how to counter them. They knew how to fight and more importantly how to survive.

The one part of the practical practice they had hated the most was when Rick transfigured and charmed some of the most common and nastier dark creatures. Of course they were just imitations. A nundu wouldn’t have been able to use the real version’s poison breath and it would have been counterproductive (the students would have probably died). That was why instead he changed the most dangerous abilities of the creatures with prank effects. The poison gas was changed to a sleeping gas for example.

It had been hell but they knew when they’d take the exam that they were more than ready. The written part had been a joke in their eyes and the practical, they all presented a corporeal patronus to Griselda’s Marchbrank’s shock. When she learned that Rick was the one to teach them she just smirked.

The fifth-years were much the same. Rick focused on them knowing many different shield charms and how to bypass each single one of them with many different spells. But also how to use basic spells to stall for time and escape. They had been quite surprised to learn that by using your head a little you could use simple light or neutral spells and have devastating effects.

There was no need to dive into the Dark Arts and suffer from the side effects when you could be just as effective with regular spells. It was something that Dumbledore had been quite happy about when he heard that while walking through the corridors of the castle, listening to the students talk.In the end no students of his got below an Exceed Expectations in DADA at the very least and he received plenty of thank you letters from the ones graduating when they got their results in July. Rick thought that for this alone it had been worth it to take the job. That pushed him to work on his masteries during the summer. He was supposed to work on them after the Quidditch World Cup in 82 but with all the children and the expectation people had of him as a seeker he never got around to passing them. Lily had taken her time for charms and her pregnancy made her take things even slower. He had no such ideas.