I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH IT. I ONLY OWN DEVYN AND HER PARENTS.

Chapter 1

Devyn was packing up her trunk for Hogwarts, singing under her breath happily. As much as she loved spending time with her godfather - and as much as she loved summer vacation - she really missed her second home and really couldn't wait to get back to it.

"What the hell are you singing?"

Devyn turned around to look at her godfather, Remus "Moony" Lupin, who was standing in her doorway, smiling amusedly at her.

Devyn had grown at least an inch and half over the summer and was 13-going-on-14 years old. She had bright blue eyes that could rival Albus Dumbledore's and brown hair that she continuously chopped shorter and shorter each year. She, Moony, Neville, and Mrs. Longbottom would be going to Diagon Alley the next day, in order to both get their things and meet up with Hermione, the Weasleys, and Harry, who were all there already. Ron and his family had just returned from a trip to Egypt after Mr. Weasley won some Ministry lottery or something. Hermione had been in France over the summer and Harry had evidently escaped the Dursleys early for some reason. Harry had promised her that he would tell her everything when he spaw her.

"You should know, you were a teenager in the 1970s," Devyn answered with a grin. Moony rolled her eyes at her and said, "Well, I don't. So what and who is it?"

"It's called Hotel California. It's by an American Muggle rock band called the Eagles. Hermione put me on to them. They're really good. You'd like them. The song that I was singing was released in 1977."

"Oh. That was the year I graduated Hogwarts. What a year that was, too."

Moony sighed quietly, lost in his memories, and after a minute or so, Devyn cleared her throat. Moony came back to the present and smiled at her.

"How was the full moon last night?"

"It was the best I could hope for, really."

"You're feeling alright, then?"

"As well as can be expected," Moony replied, although Devyn could see how pale he was, as well as the addition of a couple new cuts that would eventually become scars. Her godfather was covered in scars because of the wounds his werewolf form inflicted on his body, given that Moony removed himself from the vicinity of any humans for the werewolf to attack.

Moony was a werewolf, and every full moon, Devyn went over to her best friend Neville Longbottom's house, because evidently it wasn't safe for her at home. Devyn wasn't stupid; she understood that werewolves were dangerous to humans, but that was the thing. She wasn't always a human. Sometimes she was a wolf, but not like Moony.

She had unwittingly become an Animagus in her first year at Hogwarts, when she was twelve years old. Of course, her godfather had no idea about her Animagus, and she intended to keep it that way, at least until she could tell him without giving him yet another heart attack.

Her previous years at Hogwarts hadn't exactly been, well, easy-going. Her first year, she and her friends Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley had gone up against Lord Voldemort, the most evil Dark wizard ever known in the Wizarding World to date, but he had been weak. He had been living like a parasite off the soul of another wizard, Professor Quirinus Quirrell, Hogwarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Together, he and Voldemort were trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, a powerful magical object that had the capability of making one immortal. Devyn nearly died that year, when she cracked her skull open after she attacked Quirrell in her Animagus form, Snow, in an effort to stop him choking Harry to death. Her attempt had worked, but Quirrell threw her off and she cracked her skull open on a stone wall when she hit it. Apparently she lost a lot of blood, and then she was in a coma for two days, but she remembered almost nothing after she blacked out.

She only remembered fighting Quirrell, being thrown off, and then waking up in the Hospital Wing two days later with some very concerned friends and a whopping headache.

In her second year, they had had to deal with an extremely incompetent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, who had been more invested in his own physical appearance and reputation than saving the life of Ginny Weasley, younger sister of Ron Weasley, when she had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, a hidden, thought to be mythical set of tunnels and a large chamber built by Salazar Slytherin himself. The Chamber had been purported to be the home of a terrifying monster, which turned out to be a Basilisk. The Basilisk had been set on Muggle-born students and the caretaker's cat, which ended in them being Petrified (sort of frozen) until which time a cure could be whipped up via Mandrake juice. Hermione had been one of the Muggle-borns attacked, so the entire ordeal was rather personal for Devyn. In the same year, she and her friends (although it was more Harry than anyone) cleared Hagrid's name, who was thought to be behind similar attacks that had happened fifty years ago. Hagrid had been expelled because he had been framed by Tom Riddle, who would later become Voldemort, for the death of a girl, Myrtle, who was now a ghost and was known by the nickname Moaning Myrtle by the students.

Before they had cleared Hagrid's name, the monster was thought to be Aragog, Hagrid's pet Acromantula, who had tried to eat Devyn, Harry, Ron, and Hagrid's boarhound Fang last year. Hagrid had been taken to Azkaban, the wizard prison, but because of their efforts, he had been released shortly before the end of the year.

At the end of the year, she, Harry, Ron, Neville, and Lockhart all went down to the Chamber of Secrets to rescue Ginny, who had been possessed by a memory of a sixteen year old Voldemort by means of a diary. Ginny had been the one who set the Basilisk on the students and Filch's cat, but she hadn't meant to. Voldemort, or Tom Riddle as he was known then, had been controlling her.

Anyway, when they went down there, Lockhart tried to remove her memory along with her friends' memories because they found out he was a fraud, but had stolen Ron's busted wand to cast the spell, which led to it backfiring and wiping his memory instead. The spell caused him to smack into the side of the stone wall, which caused an avalanche of sorts, cutting Harry and Devyn off from Neville, Ron, and Lockhart.

This forced Harry and Devyn to continue on their own into the heart of the Chamber. Luckily, Ginny was alive, but close to death. They found out that Riddle really was behind the attacks and that Riddle was actually Voldemort. They then fought the Basilisk with the aid of Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet Phoenix and the Sword of Gryffindor, which was brought to them by Fawkes. Harry eventually killed it, but not before being stabbed with one of the Basilisk's fangs when he was killing it, which almost caused Harry to die.

In fact, he would have died had it not been for Fawkes. Basilisk venom only had one known cure: Phoenix tears. Fawkes saved Harry's life. Right when Harry was about to die, he took the Basilisk fang that had stabbed his arm and destroyed the diary with it, effectively killing the memory of Riddle.

By the end of her second year, Devyn was dealing with a slight crush on Neville, the beginning of her teenage years, a very vain DADA teacher who had wiped his own memory, Harry's discovery (as well as the rest of the school) that he was a Parselmouth (meaning he could speak to snakes) and that Devyn was, too; helped defeat a Basilisk, and helped to free the Malfoy family's House Elf, Dobby, who had been the one to warn Harry about the Chamber being opened again in the first place.

It was all very convoluted, really.

It had not been a good year, to say the least. She hoped this one would be better. She thought it would, because third years were allowed to visit the Wizarding village, Hogsmeade, which was home to the Three Broomsticks, a place where students could buy Butterbeer by the gallon if they wanted; Zonko's Joke Shop, which was where Devyn supposed Fred and George Weasley got most of their pranking material, unless they made it themselves; Honeydukes, the sweet shop that had every kind of sweet imaginable; and the Shrieking Shack, which was reported to be the most haunted building in Britain, although Hogwarts probably had it beat. Moony had signed off on her permission form without a second thought, knowing how amazing Hogsmeade actually was.

With a sigh, Devyn wrenched herself out of her memories and turned to look at Moony as she was folding up one of her shirts.

"You should just go and lie down. You need your rest, Moony."

Moony gave her a look. "I'm fine, Mother. Besides, I need to talk to you about something. Well, actually, two things."

"Okay..." Devyn said. She set aside her shirt and looked expectantly at Moony. For the first time, she noticed that he had a copy of today's Daily Prophet, the British Wizarding World newspaper, in his hand.

"What's that about, then? Something important in the news?" Devyn asked, nodding at the newspaper. Moony frowned deeply and sighed.

This got Devyn concerned.

"Moony," she asked. "What's wrong? Come on, you can tell me."

Moony sighed again and said, without looking at her, "Devyn, how much do you know about...about a man named Sirius Black?"

Now it was Devyn's turn to frown. She sighed and tried to recall what McGonagall told her two years previously. "Well...I know that you were friends with him in school. You, my dad, Harry's dad, and a bloke called Peter...I know that he came from a Dark family that were big supporters of Voldemort, but that Sirius always said that he wasn't anything like his family..."

"Is that it?" Moony asked, when she trailed off. Devyn shook her head and said slowly, "I know that he's in prison. And I know why he's in prison. He murdered your friend, Peter."

The dark look in Moony's eyes told her that there was something more to the story, but she could sense that it was a personal and sensitive subject for him, so she wasn't going to ask.

"Yeah," Moony said. "That's right."

Moony glanced out the window at the sunny late summer afternoon outside. Then he looked around Devyn's room, smiling. Devyn imagined he was remembering the day that they painted the room together. That had been not long after Moony adopted her; in fact, it was the day that Moony had first told that he was a werewolf. He had fully expected her to run screaming for the hills, and when she didn't, he was rather confused. And when she told him that she didn't care that he was a werewolf, he was completely and properly stumped.

Merlin, that seems so long ago now, Devyn thought.

"Okay, so seriously, Moony...why are you asking what I know about Sirius Black?"

Moony heaved yet another sigh and said, "Because he's broken out of Azkaban. He's escaped, Devyn."

"What?" Devyn nearly shouted. Moony nodded and handed her the copy of the Daily Prophet he had with him. Devyn took it quickly and stared at the large block letters that read: ESCAPE FROM AZKABAN!

Underneath the title, there was the actual article detailing why Black was in Azkaban in the first place and how he has escaped and how there was now a nation-wide search by the Azkaban guards, which were called Dementors, apparently, for Black.

She only scanned the article because she was more interested in the picture of Black that was smack in the middle of the paper.

It must have been taken right after Black was arrested because he was holding what could have been stone or metal that had his prisoner number on it. He had either dark brown or black hair that was cut just below his jaw line. He was rather handsome, but he was currently very angry - furious, in fact, because he was screaming at people who were evidently off to the side of the picture.

Devyn wondered what he could have been screaming about.

"Is he...he's insane, isn't he?"

She looked up at Moony, who shrugged. "I don't know. Probably. Everyone who goes into Azkaban goes insane, if they weren't already in the first place."

"Why?" Devyn asked.

"Mostly because of the Dementors."

"The guards? Why? What's so bad about them?"

"They are foul and evil," Moony replied.

"How do you mean?"

Moony shook his head and said, "Well...they sort of...they feed on every good feeling, every happy memory until a person is left with nothing but their worst experiences. They literally suck the happiness out of you. And if a person is tortured by their worst memories long enough..."

"They lose their minds," Devyn finished for him. Moony nodded and Devyn said, "They sound horrible. What do they look like?"

"No one knows. And anyone who's actually seen what they look like isn't in any shape to tell the rest of us."

"What? But, I mean, someone must know what they look like."

"Well, let me explain. The Dementors...well, they glide around. I suppose that would be the best way to describe it. They glide around and they wear big black cloaks. It's actually really hard to describe them because it's the feeling that you get when they're around that makes them so terrifying."

"W-What do you feel?" Devyn asked. She was almost afraid to know.

"Like you'll never be happy again. Like...you're doomed to live out the rest of your life in complete misery."

"That's awful. I hope I never encounter one," Devyn said, a disturbed look in her eyes. Moony nodded and said, "So do I, love. So do I."

Taking a deep breath, Devyn said, "I suppose you can't really blame Black for wanting to escape, then, eh?"

Moony shook his head, but said, "It should have been impossible, though. I really don't want to think about how he escaped. But anyway, I don't know where he might be going, so I want you to be extra careful this year, okay? At least until Black is caught again."

"What, you think Black might come to Hogwarts?"

"I don't know. Last time he was free, he murdered Peter, along with twelve Muggles. I don't know what he's capable of, or what he'll do."

"He murdered thirteen people?!" Devyn shrieked.

He must be a total nutter...she thought. Sadistic, and murderous...

Moony nodded and then, in that moment, Devyn wanted nothing more than to never speak of Black again. She could see that the subject was causing her godfather pain, and he'd had enough of that in his life - he didn't need any more.

"So...you said there were two things you wanted to talk to me about."

"Yes, I did," Moony said. His entire demeanor changed with that one sentence. "What do you think Defense Against the Dark Arts will be like this year?"

Devyn shrugged. "I don't know. It can't be any worse than when Lockhart taught it, can it? He was utterly useless."

"Do you think it would be better if I was the teacher?" Moony asked.

"Oh, definitely. You'd be the best DADA teacher ever. I mean, you taught me a bunch of spells that I normally wouldn't learn until either this year or next year. You'd be the perfect teacher, Moony."

"Well, I'm glad you think so, because..."

"Because what, Moony?" Devyn asked, narrowing her eyes. Moony grinned and said, "Because Professor Dumbledore just Floo called me and asked me if I would like to be the DADA teacher this year. I accepted."

Devyn's eyes went wider than was thought humanly possible.

"Are you serious, Moony?!"

When he nodded, Devyn cheered and jumped up and down. "That's brilliant!"

"You think so?" Moony asked, grinning at her.

"YES! Oh, now I won't miss you so much! We can see each other all the time! Oh, this'll be amazing!"

Moony chuckled and said, "All right, all right, calm down. Seeing as it's so close to September 1st, I thought I might as well just hitch a ride on the Hogwarts Express, if that's all right with you?"

"Oh, that's fine! Oh, I'm not telling anyone. I want it to be a surprise! Although Hermione'll figure it out, I bet. Oh...wait. What about the full moons?"

"Don't worry, Professor Dumbledore's got it all worked out. Apparently, Professor Snape is going to be making this potion for me called the Wolfsbane Potion that, if brewed correctly, allows the werewolf to keep his or her mind during the transformations. I'll only be a harmless wolf. Well...as harmless as a wolf can be, I suppose."

"Oh, that's great! I don't know, though...Snape...you trust him?"

"He isn't going to try to poison me. No, Severus and I have a history, and it isn't all that pleasant, but Dumbledore has asked him to do this, and I'd be able to smell the poison a mile away. Wolf senses, you know."

"Yeah, I know," she said accidentally. Luckily, Moony just took it to mean that she knew wolves had superb senses, instead of that she mean she personally knew about wolf senses. Moony nodded and said, "Okay. Well, now that that's settled, why don't you introduce me those Falcons you were talking about."

"The Eagles," she corrected him with a laugh.

"Right, the Eagles."

"I'm telling you, Moony, you're gonna love 'em."

As she pulled out some of the old records she had managed to find in this record shop in the nearest shopping area that she and Neville went to over the summer and put them on, she wondered how this year was going to be.

She knew that Moony was going to make a brilliant teacher, but she was worried about his transformations and she didn't really trust Snape, but Moony seemed to, and that was good enough for now.

The only real dark spot on the horizon was Sirius Black and the fact that he was running around somewhere on the loose.

Well, there we go! The first chapter of Devyn Murphy: Third Year At Hogwarts! Like always, I don't know how consistent my updates will be, so you'll have to bear with me. Please leave a review! They really make my day, thanks.