Previously:
You won't find out what happened to Lockhart if you skip from first year to fifth year!

Do I have to spell you silent again? Thank you.

Now where was I?

Lucius Malfoy was a part of the school board and this year, it was his turn to teach the Defense class at Hogwarts.

The school board was on a rotation for teaching the class as well. Every seven years, a different member of the board would teach. This year, because it is Mr Malfoy Sr's turn, the Chamber of Secrets would open for the first time in fifty years.

He had been writing in the journal given to him by his master every so often for the last twelve years. And when he finally returns to Hogwarts to teach for the first time (he joined the board only recently—5 years or so) the soul piece of Tom Riddle or You-Know-Who would make himself known.

No one would know what was going on until Harry and Neville happened to over hear the man (who is slowly going insane) talking to himself about the Chamber. A couple of letters to their guardians and one conversation with McGonagall later had the Unspeakables from the Department of Mysteries raiding Professor Malfoy's office sometime in December during the holidays.

"Who's going to teach Defense now? He didn't even last a year this time." Harry had asked Minerva over Christmas dinner.

Minerva sighed in a way only the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts could sigh in a situation like this. "I suppose I would have to reach out to a few friends in the ministry. Perhaps some of your auror friends would be interested in teaching for the rest of the year, Sirius?

Sirius scratched his beard in thought. "I have a few people who might be interested. Let me contact them and I'll let you know."

Kingsley Shacklebolt ended up teaching the remainder of Harry's second year.

Now third year is where things get a little...interesting.

Gilderoy Lockhart had been scheduled to teach as a guest teacher this year—two times every seven years, there was a guest teacher by some notable Defense Master in the world. It created a very rounded education on defense magic around the world since many Defense Masters travel extensively. They've even had Masters from other countries teach the class. Minerva is currently in charge of finding these Masters and unfortunately had to be the one to find out just what kind of a fake he was.

The one good thing about this was that it was discovered only one month into teaching that Defense Master Gilderoy Lockhart was a complete fake and an even worse teacher. They had time to bring in the known werewolf, Remus Lupin a year early.

Not two weeks later, there was a sighting of Pettigrew in Hogsmeade and the Minister (still Cornelius Fudge) decided it was wise to send the dementors to protect the school despite Minerva's terrifying refusal to let them on the grounds.

"She's downright scary sometimes," Neville said shakily. They had just gotten back to the common room after a legendary argument between the Minister of Magic and the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts in the entry hall.

"Yeah, but did you see Headmaster Dumbledore?" Harry waved off the comment on Minerva's temper. He's seen that side of her too many times before when he was sneaking around in his earlier years. "I've never seen him so present before; he was raging! Imagine what he was like when he hadn't lost his marbles!"

Hermione's eyes were alight with excitement. "I could feel his magic and Professor McGonagall's fill the entire hall!" She sighed dreamily. "I want to be just like her someday."

Harry and Ron shared a look. They would never admit it out loud but they would hate to have a teacher like Hermione. Neville only smiled at their bushy haired friend uncertainly. He could see the potential for her to be like their beloved transfiguration teacher but it would take a lot of calming down before she could get there.

The only other notable instance that year was that Harry was offered an apprenticeship to one Defense Master Remus Lupin. It seems he had to see Harry's rumored proficiency in Defense Magic before he would believe it.

The dementors had been removed once the school year was over as there hadn't been another sighting of the rat the entire year.

The Quidditch World Cup that summer reestablished Harry's love for the game and he'd decided to try out for the team that year for school.

Ow! Would you stop screaming? No, he hadn't made the team his first year; he only really enjoyed flying. Of course that changed once he realized how you could catch the snitch but still loose the game. He'd never thought of it much before despite Ron's persistence. (He had tried out his third year and made reserve keeper; Oliver Wood being there to train him for when he left).

And of course much to both Harry's and Ron's dismay, once they reached school in September, the Quidditch season had been cancelled all for a tournament that would only have four major events throughout the year.

What? Oh, what happened at the Quidditch World Cup? Ireland won, but Bulgaria caught the—you know? Then why'd you—oh, the Death Eater attack, I forgot about that. Yeah, they caught the ones doing it except for the one who threw up the dark mark towards the end. They suspected Pettigrew was behind that part and he just took the opportunity. The attack in general wasn't very organized, half of them forgot their masks and cloaks, and they shouted each other's names when they were communicating. They were also drunk.

The Triwizard Tournament itself had not even screamed that someone was out to get Harry. There wasn't an age-line, but the goblet had been retired centuries ago. The champions were chosen by an internalized school competition for the first month to determine best grades, behavior, age, and a skill aptitude test. Not to mention parental permission, especially for those who wanted to participate but weren't of age.

Harry—of course—wasn't in the running, (Aunt Jane would not even let him dream of it) and found the tournament to be incredibly boring right from the ceremony where the champions were chosen. And since his chance to try out for Quidditch was taken away, he decided to create a secondary tournament for those who weren't chosen but still wanted that adrenaline rush. He got Professor Flitwick and that year's Defense Magic teacher, Mad-Eye Moody to help him with it and invited the students from the visiting schools to join in as well. Ludo Bagman had to find another large patch of land besides the Quidditch Pitch for the dragon event and the maze event. No one was going to argue with the Boy-Who-Lived and Head of House Potter.

Harry's tournament had so much more traction than the Triwizard Tournament that the officials in the Department of Magical Games and Sports thought they would make a note to include a competition of Quidditch games between the schools someday. Rita Skeeter did a very good job at making Harry's tournament seem much more exciting. I suppose it was a scandal enough that it didn't need embellishments. I don't think she even went to the second Triwizard event.

Not that I blame her...watching water for two ours? Or was it an hour? Either way, half of the audience left before the first champion emerged from the lake. And there wasn't even a Quidditch game to go to that day!

Also, the champions decided to sue the officials in charge of the tournament on the victims' behalf after that one. The attempt to bring back the tournament was starting to turn into a huge farce.

The only other thing Pettigrew was able to do that year was imperious Bartimus Crouch Sr enough to try and kidnap Harry.

But that was shut down very quickly since Sirius was visiting pretty frequently that year to see Harry's tournament.

"I had him in my hands!" Sirius shouted that evening after everything calmed down. "I was able to track his magical signature down to Mr. Crouch's home and had his little furry rat body in my hands!" He sagged in the couch, looking at his empty hands forlornly. "I had him..."

"It's okay, Padfoot," Harry pat his shoulder sympathetically. "You'll get him soon, I can feel it."

"Harry's right." Aunt Jane forced a cup of tea in one of Sirius' hands and a biscuit in the other. "I have never seen such a great auror before in all my life."

Hogwarts' track record of finding out and getting rid of traumatically horrific teachers ended in Harry's fifth year. As I said, Elizabeth Boade was the teacher this time and there was that whole thing with the Blood Quills. This time it took the entire year to find her out and for her to finally nail down Harry with a detention. She'd been trying all year but circumstances would happen to where either someone else would over see it or there was no grounds for a detention in the first place. Harry was raised to be an angel, thank you very much; he had never gotten a detention until that year. The combination of Minerva McGonagall and Dolores Jane Umbridge raising Harry turned him into the kind of child who could get the adult to apologize for something they hadn't even done.

Between you and me, that would have caused quite the show in Potions had Severus Snape landed the job in the first place.

What? No, of course he didn't! With Albus being the only one who would have even listened to him, he succeeded in warning the Potters about a future attack. One only possible because of the prophecy overheard by Snape as Sybill Trelawney and Albus sat for tea.

Once they were warned, Snape disappeared, only to be tracked down and sent off to Azkaban as all Death Eaters did after He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named was killed. Shortly afterwards, he went insane with grief and regret. The Potions teacher at Hogwarts was Horace Slughorn the entire time. He never told anyone why he decided to come out of retirement after the fall of the Dark Lord.

This makes Harry's sixth year the one to determine the rest of Harry's life. In your version, Severus Snape was the Defense teacher that year, correct?

Well, no Hogwarts education of Harry's is complete without someone showing up in Polyjuice potion. Just look at all the other fanfics.

This time, it was Peter Pettigrew under the disguise of a wizard named Paul Blakely for the soul purpose of seeking out another dark lord in young students with potential.

He was getting desperate enough to try and create his own master. He was just too cowardly to do anything but work at sneaky ways of getting out of his situation.

Of course with the proximity to Harry, he couldn't help showing an uncomfortable level of interest in him. This ultimately was the thing that did him in. You know...besides the fact that he was a terrible teacher. However, unlike all the other years where Harry listened to Hermione to tell a teacher (mainly Minerva), he and his friends snuck around, using the invisibility cloak, spying on their Defense teacher.

They were able to catch him unawares in his office, and thanks to Hermione and her proficiency in...well...everything, they were able to catch him in a teapot and keep him there long enough to take him to McGonagall's office. Where they could call Sirius and he could take him to the Ministry.

"Just what did you think you four were doing?" Aunt Jane was understandably livid when she found out. She had to be called into Hogwarts because Harry had ended up in the Hospital Wing.

I think it's safe to say that this is where Harry got his taste for adventure. He had quite the rush dueling Pettigrew (who despite his teaching abilities, was not that bad at the subject itself) and while Hermione was the one to trap him in the teapot, Harry was the one to wear him down and cause significant damage to the rat than he could to Harry.

"I didn't want him to slip away again, Aunt Jane!" Harry protested through the administrations of Madam Pomfrey. "By the time we would have gotten aurors here, he would have left again!"

"That's no excuse to be going after him yourself, look at you!" Aunt Jane gestured to his broken arm, bloodied bandaged right leg, and swollen left eye. "Are you happy with yourself now?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Harry asked just before the medi-witch shoved another potion down his throat.