Fire in the Castle
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money from writing this story
"Welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts, I am you teacher, Professor Black," Sirius Black said to his class of first years, which contained none other than Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. "Now, I am not one for formalities, so please don't call me Professor Black or Sir, otherwise I will be forced to hex you. Instead call me Sirius or Padfoot."
His class looked around in anticipation, their first lesson at Hogwarts. Many students were rather apprehensive at being taught by a man convicted, and then found innocent for killing Peter Pettigrew. "Now, I know you have probably heard many horrible stories about how I blew a guy up, but I need you guys to trust me, I didn't blow him up, and I am definitely not going to blow you up." The class let out a collective sigh of relief.
"Professor Dumbledore has some things he wants me to teach you, many of the teachers disagree with him, saying that you don't have the capability to perform these spells, but I believe in you and will help you perfect these spell. Before we begin, we need to get into pairs; if you don't do this quickly I will put you into pairs."
The class quickly divided into pairs and spread out around the room. "Now, this spell that we are going to learn is the disarming spell. The use of this spell against an opponent will make them release whatever they are holding at the time. To cast this spell, simply says 'Expelliarmus". It is important to get the right amount of force behind this spell, as more enthusiastic casts can result in the victim being knocked unconscious, which if it is performed to weakly, it will merely knock them back a few paces." Sirius explained. "Now, with your partner I want you to practice disarming each other. Choose one of you to perform the spell first. One the count of three, I want you to try and disarm your partner. One…Two…Three!"
The room filled with cries of "EXPELLIARMUS!" Many students flew across the room, their partner knocking them unconscious, while others were knocked back a few paces. Only one person had manager to perfect the spell, "Good job Miss Granger, I want you and your partner to come up here, and you will show the class how to successfully disarm your partner. Up you come Mr Potter, Miss Granger."
Harry and Hermione slowly walked to the front of the room, Hermione shaking slightly from nerves. "When you're ready Miss Granger," Sirius said happily, obviously confident in Hermione's ability. Hermione took a deep breathe, "Expelliarmus!" she cried. A shot of light shot from her wand, bouncing off the mirror at the back of the room and setting the teacher's desk on fire. "Never mind Miss Granger, it happens to the best of us sometimes," Sirius said calmly as he tried to extinguish the blaze. Instead of extinguishing the blaze, it ignited and took over the desks in the front row. "Stay calm people, I need you to evacuate the classroom in an orderly fashion, while I … extinguish this fire"
"Should we go and get help?" Hermione asked timidly?
"Yes, quick, go and get Professor Dumbledore!" Sirius screamed as he tried to put out the fire.
Harry, Ron and Hermione tore around the corridor to Dumbledore's office. They were arguing with the statue gargoyle when Dumbledore exited his office. "Sir!" Harry exclaimed, "We need your help, quick, the Defence Against the Dark Arts room is on fire! Professor Black is trying to put it out, but it isn't working!"
"Lead the way, my boy, quickly," Professor Dumbledore said calmly.
The three of them lead Dumbledore to the classroom, smoke billowing out of the door. "We need to evacuate the school, I will send word to the other teachers," Dumbledore mumbled to himself. He turned to the first year class, "Students, I need you to calmly evacuate the building, the rest of the school will be congregating at the lake, I need you to go there and find your head of house."
By the time the first years reached the lake, the rest of the school was down there. They quickly found their head of house, where their names were marked off. From the lake, it was easy to see the smoke billowing out the windows of the castle, the fire obviously spreading at an alarmingly fast rate.
By the time Sirius and Dumbledore exited the castle, the whole building was up in flames. "I need as many people to help put out this fire as possible. All teachers are required to help, and students in sixth and seventh years are asked to help extinguish the fire. As this fire is spreading rather quickly, the more people we have helping, the slower the fire will spread." Dumbledore started when he arrived at the lake. "While the teachers and the older students are extinguishing the fire, it is asked that the prefects in fifth year supervise the rest of the students and ensure they are okay." With that, Dumbledore, the teachers and all the sixth and seventh year students made their way to the castle to extinguish the fire and repair any damage which may have occurred.
For an hour the teachers and students worked as one to control the fire, until finally they had extinguished it. Dumbledore and many of the teachers went into the castle to inspect the damage of this fire. Professor McGonagall stayed behind to address the students. "Since the fire was able to be put out, and as far as we can tell there has been no major damage, tomorrow we will be able to re-enter the castle. Until then, residents of Hogsmeade have very kindly offered their houses and business to us. You will be split up into groups, with at least one teacher or member of staff, and each group will stay in a different place. We will all eat at the three broomsticks, and you will be free to roam Hogsmeade in groups of three. Students in first and second year will be required to have the company of someone in fourth year or above before wandering around Hogsmeade. While we will be re-entering the castle tomorrow, classes will not resume for another 2 weeks." As Professor McGonagall finished, Dumbledore approached the students. "We are allowing small groups of students to re-enter the castle to retrieve any belongings that will be needed tonight. These groups will be accompanied by teachers and prefects, who will then take them to Hogsmeade. The first group to re-enter the castle will be first year Gryffindor's. Please be as quick as you can."
Harry, Ron and Hermione hurried to the castle along with the other first year Gryffindor's. Hermione was rather anxious, "This is all my fault," she kept saying, "My first ever class at Hogwarts and I will probably be expelled."
"Don't worry Hermione," Percy Weasley said, "you won't be expelled, it is more than likely Professor Black will be fired, I don't know what he was thinking, teaching a bunch of first years, on their very first day the disarming spell."
When they reached the Gryffindor common room, the boys and the girls separated and went to their dormitories to collect their belongings. "Blimey," Ron said when the boys were safely in their common room, "I never in a million years thought something like this would happen on my first day of Hogwarts. I have been trying to imagine this day since Bill started here, and not once did I even consider anything like this happening. When Mum hears I'll be lucky if I get to stay!"
"I don't even want to think about what Gran will do if she finds out it started in my class," Neville Longbottom said quietly.
"You know, I never thought I would ever say this, but Percy is right, what was Sirius thinking teaching us something like that on our first ever class, it's almost like he wanted something like this to happen," Ron said thoughtfully.
"You might be onto something," Dean Thomas said, "everyone knows he is a convicted criminal, I don't care if he was let off, he still shouldn't have been allowed to teach here, I knew something like this would happen with him teaching, I just didn't think it would be in one of our classes…or on the first day."
"You know-"
"Hurry up boys, we have to go," Percy popped his head in the room, interrupting Harry.
As they entered the Three Broomsticks, Dean said to Harry, "What were you saying when Percy came in?"
"Don't worry, it's not important," Harry responded. Professor Dumbledore was waiting for them, along with the girls. "Now I know you were in the class where the fire started, I need you to tell me exactly what happened so we can get to the bottom of this."
"Well," Hermione began, "we were in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Professor Black was teaching us disarming-"
"Disarming? Why would he teach such a thing to first years?" Dumbledore interjected.
"He said there were something's you wanted him to teach us, I'm assuming disarming was one of them," Hermione answered.
"I'm going to have to have a talk to him, I said I wanted him to cover what's in the text book. Anyway, please continue Miss Granger." Dumbledore said.
"So we split into groups," Hermione continued, "I was with Harry, and we were disarming each other, so I went to disarm him, but I missed and hit the mirror instead, it ricocheted of it and hit the desk. When it hit the desk, it burst into flames, and when Professor Black was trying to put it out, it just spread, and that's when we came to get you."
"Is there anything else anyone would like to add?" Dumbledore asked.
"This may sound kind of strange," Ron started, "but I kind of think Professor Black kind of almost planned this."
"What do you mean Mr Weasley?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well, it's just, this was our very first lesson, which he would have has to have known, and teaches us how to do something, which he would have had to have known was way out of our capability," Ron explained.
"That is very true Mr Weasley," Dumbledore said, "I will have to go and talk to Professor Black."
That evening, the whole school congregated in the Three Broomsticks for dinner. There was no sign of Sirius Black. "What do you think happened to him?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione.
"I don't know," Hermione replied.
"The way Dumbledore was talking, I think he was probably fired," Harry said. "I mean, he obviously did this on purpose, disobeying Dumbledore like that."
"Yeah, but Harry, why would he do something like that?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know, maybe the conviction of being a serial killer rubbed off on him," Harry replied.
Just as Hermione was about to respond Dumbledore stood up, "I would just like to thank you all for your cooperation today. Before any rumours start to circulate, I would just like to tell you what happened. The fire did start in a first year class of Defence Against the Dark Arts. While the fire was started by a student, it was not their fault. Professor Black, the former professor for this subject, was teaching these students magic that was out of the capability. As he would have had to have been aware of this, Professor Black was fired, shortly after I spoke to some of the first years who were in that class. We will definitely be able to return to the castle tomorrow, however, as mentioned before, classes will not resume for another two weeks. It may be longer than that until classes in Defence Against the Dark Arts resumes, as I will have to hire a new teacher. Once again, I would like to thank you for cooperating today, and remaining calm throughout the entire ordeal. Now, please enjoy the amazing food from the Three Broomsticks." The room erupted in chatter, as everyone started their food and began to discuss what Dumbledore had just said. "What do you think will happen to Sirius?" Neville asked the table.
"Well, I don't think he will be able to get a job now, not after he has pretty much tried to kill the entire school," Harry said, his mouth full of mashed potato.
"No, I mean do you think he will go to Azkaban?" Neville said.
"I don't know," Ron responded, "is the crime serious enough for imprisonment?"
"I think it is," Hermione piped up, " I mean, he could have killed the while school."
"I guess that's true," Harry said, " I wonder what our new teacher will be like."
With that they all started imaging what their new teacher would be like.
