A/N Non-canon spells that are used in this chapter belong to the wonderfully creative minds of Piccaboo and Allison and were created for the Third Floor Corridor Duelling Club.
Sirius Black smiled warmly at his godson as the boy faced off with him on the platform. He tried to convey his sincere affection and reassurance that he would not hurt the boy, but Harry was having none of it. Grim-faced, he took his place.
"Expelliarmus," Sirius decided to go easy first, the child was just out of Azkaban after all.
"Protabilis. Osabeo," Harry countered calmly, first casting a low level shield to protect himself against the disarming spell, then casting a bone-vanishing hex – the official version of the accidental hex Lockhart had cast on him. Despite its potentially lethal properties, it was on the fourth year curriculum.
Sirius, shocked that his godson was resorting to spells above first year, just managed to catch his wand with his left hand as his right flopped uselessly by his side.
"Good one, Harry," he tried to put up a brave face, "Tarantallegra!"
Harry simply ducked out of the way from the spell. "Phasmaleda!"
All males and most females in the room winced collectively as a ghostlike foot appeared and kicked the Defense Professor in the groin with inhuman force.
Sirius doubled over in pain and tried to grab his family jewels to soothe – unfortunately his right hand was still useless.
"Accio Black's wand," Harry motioned, and the wand appeared in his hand. "Looks like I win," he concluded, and stepped down from the platform to a slightly pale but smirking Snape.
"Nice one," the Potions Master complimented, "that was most satisfying. I hoped you would draw it out longer, though."
"Oh, but knowing Black, this isn't over yet. Wait for what I have in store for him next," Harry's eyes glittered evilly.
Indeed, after Hermione cast a pain numbing spell and a spell to reduce swelling (all boys wincing again as they realized the necessity of that spell) Sirius got up again.
"That…that was…"
"Below the belt?" Harry happily supplied, making Severus snort and the others step back from him in fear.
"A rematch is in order," Sirius insisted.
"Very well, you are the Professor," Harry sighed, "I suppose I don't have a choice."
Again he stepped onto the platform, and it was clear that Professor Black had no intentions whatsoever of holding back anymore.
Severus frowned. Even with the high level curses Black was throwing about, Harry should be able to keep up at the very least. Instead, the boy made subtle, but obvious mistakes – to the trained eye anyway – and allowed Black to gain the upper hand, letting himself be forced into a defensive position.
Finally, Black threw a Reducto curse at Harry and Harry put up a shield a fraction of a second too late. Severus also noticed that Harry did not fail to move any vulnerable body parts out of the way before he made an attempt at shielding. The Reducto curse hit his leg and he crumpled to the floor, the leg a bloody mass of bones, flesh and sinew.
Sirius Black paled and looked ready to faint. "Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry," he breathed. Severus knew it was his cue and beat him to Harry, bending over the mangled leg.
"Idiot," he whispered fondly, "was it worth it?"
"To be able to file abuse charges?" Harry hissed through his clenched teeth, "definitely. Pomfrey will fix it right back up."
"You Slytherin," Severus shook his head as he cast a numbing spell – miss Granger apparently not alert enough to cast one on her former friend as she had done on her teacher – fed the boy a blood replenishing potion and levitated Harry, intent on bringing him to the hospital wing. He did not care about the trail of blood they were leaving. It would only add to the drama.
The entire class seemed in shock as Sirius Black trailed after them. The nurse's eyes widened when she saw what she was supposed to be mending, but quickly become professional and businesslike.
"Right – first we have to stop the bleeding and get all the muscles back into the correct position," she began barking out orders. "Mr Black, don't stand there like an idiot. Keep out of the way. Severus, go find Skele-gro, a muscle relaxant and a nerve regrowth potion – you know your way around a potion stores. Mr Potter – you just sit back and try not to move too much. Do you need another pain potion?"
"Yes, please," Harry growled, his face pained, "I think the one Severus gave me won't be enough."
"It was a short working one," Severus explained to the nurse, "just enough to get him here. I'll fetch another."
She nodded curtly as she began to cast spells to put the parts of the exploded leg back into the right order. She Vanished the remaining bone fragments – the bone would have to be regrown with Skele-gro.
"What happened, Mr Potter?" The nurse asked, trying to keep her patient's mind off the shifting pieces of leg.
"Professor Black insisted on duelling me, and he threw a Reducto at me. I was too late to block it," Harry made a show of wincing, "he threw all kinds of curses that weren't in the Defense notes I got from my classmates!"
"SIRIUS BLACK!" Madam Pomfrey turned a withering glare on the Defense Professor, "You threw Auror level curses at a boy with no more than a fourth year education? Are you insane?"
"Yes!" Harry and Severus said in unison.
Sirius looked incredibly guilty. "I am so sorry – he defeated me in the first duel…"
"And he wanted revenge," Harry whined, "I never threw dark curses at him! I never threw any hex that I hadn't learned in my first four years here! It's not MY fault he was holding back, and then he wanted revenge on me! Look what he DID!"
The nurse may not have objected to sending them to Azkaban, but now he was her patient again. With her protective attitude towards her patients, she made an extremely useful weapon to sic on his godfather.
"He kicked me in the groin," Sirius feebly defended himself.
"A badly aimed Phasmaleda hex," Severus told the nurse, "unfortunate, but hardly Harry's fault. Any second year could have done the same."
"Hermione healed him up immediately," Harry looked away from his rapidly healing leg, pretending to bite his lip in distress, "but when I was injured, only Severus made to help me."
The nurse ran her wand casually over Sirius. "He's right. The swelling is already down and apart from a lingering ache for a few days you should have no trouble. I shall file a report with the Board…"
"I'm sure that won't be necessary," the voice of Albus Dumbledore came from the door, "I'm sure Sirius would not deliberately have harmed Harry. Accidents do not have to be reported."
"You made me go to a class well beyond my level of education and look what happened!" Harry accused, "I'm not going back to that class. I'll take lessons with the fourth or fifth years from now on!"
"Harry my boy, all your friends are in this class," the Headmaster twinkled merrily, "I am sure they are willing to tutor you."
"And I am sure I am willing to throttle each and every one of them if they even attempt to talk to me," Harry glared, "If I need any tutoring, I'm sure Severus will help me."
"Certainly," the Potions Master handed Harry the first of the half a dozen potions he would have to take, "I can tutor Mr Potter until he is back on par with his age group."
He would actually have to Obliviate substantial parts of Harry's brain to accomplish bringing him back on par with his age group, but of course neither of them admitted to that little fact. It was, after all, not THEIR fault the rest of them were brainless idiots.
"Done," Madam Pomfrey wrapped Harry's leg, "you will have to stay here for a few days, Mr Potter."
"Darn," Harry whined again, "that is going to be so boring. Sev, can't you ask Remus to come visit me? At least he will be able to give me some hints to prevent my leg being busted in the next Defense lesson."
"I am sure Remus would be delighted," Dumbledore was eager to grant any wish that might pacify Harry.
ssssssssss
Delighted was not exactly the word any sane person would use to describe Remus Lupins reaction when he learned what had happened in class. In fact, the man was furious. He decked Sirius across the jaw, chided Hermione so severely for her lack of reaction when her supposed friend was in agony that the girl started to cry, and then stormed off to the infirmary, where a comfortable but somewhat tired Harry – the skele-gro pains had kept him up all night – was awaiting his arrival.
"Harry!"
"Hi Remus. Pull up a chair! Sorry, you can't sit on the bed – my leg hurts something awful when it's jarred."
"How are you doing?" Remus studied the younger man, "Merlin, I can't believe them!"
"They made me take classes with my former friends without considering I missed two years of education. This is the result," Harry motioned to his leg, "there won't even be any reprisals because the Headmaster insists it was 'just an accident'."
The werewolfs eyes glowed golden. "What can I do?"
"Are you serious about that, Lupin?" Severus asked from the shadows, handing Harry his pain reliever.
"Of course," the other man snarled, making Snape step back in a sudden recollection of the Shack incident.
"Sorry, Severus," the werewolf apologised, "of course I will do anything. What do you need?"