Hello there. Welcome back to this wonderful story. Hopefully you're all ready for this. :)

Last time on Slade's Apprentice:

"Hey, Sirius?" Remus spoke out.

"Yeah, Moony?" Sirius returned, referring to his friend as his old Maurauder name.

"Your son really does take after you, especially when it comes to bedding with women." Remus gave his old friend a toothy grin, causing Sirius to let out a bark-like laugh despite the serious condition his son was in.


Harry awoke to the sunlight glaring through the window, before he squinted them shut with a groan. Movement on either side of him caused him to open his right eye, glancing to see Daphne and Luna nuzzle closer to his body, seeking warmth beside the overcoat. He looked over to see Madam Pompfry hustle over. "Finally awake, are you?" She whispered, not speaking at a normal tone as to not awake Daphne or Luna. He nodded, to which she quickly waved her wand over him, running a quick diagnosis. "Your magical core is about three fourth's of the way replenished and over the course of today you should be back up to full strength."

"What time is it, Madam Pompfry?" Harry asked politely, trying to ease his way out of the clutches of his girls, needing to move around and wake up his joints.

"It is almost time for breakfast, Mr. Potter. You're recovering quite faster than anticipated." The mediwitch smiled slightly, before nodding in approval. "You can attend classes as normal. Just be sure to wake up Ms. Greengrass and Ms. Lovegood." She proceeded to walk away, leaving Harry to silently escape the confines from his bed with the two lovely witches. Just as Harry had put his feet onto the ground, a voice behind him caused him to momentarily stumble upon himself.

"Goodmorning, Harry." Daphne murmured sleepily.

"Yes, goodmorning, Harry." Luna joined in, stretching out, the overcoat being snatched away by Daphne, causing the other blonde to pout. Daphne merely smirked back before it transformed into a pout as Harry snatched his overcoat out of her embrace, throwing it on. "Are we going to breakfast?" Luna rubbed the sleep from her eyes before she and Daphne removed themselves from the bed and stretched. Luna looped her arm around Harry's left, Daphne taking Harry's right before the two girls dragged their assassin to the Great Hall, where glares and whispers greeted him. At the Slytherin table, nothing but good wishes and respect oozed from the fellow snakes.

"You had us worried mate." Blaise said, offering a small smile, "Glad to see you're alright." Harry merely grunted in response before taking a seat, the blondes on either side of him. Draco regarded the three with an amused look, taking a bite of his toast. He had recently began to manufacture buttons that were labeled 'Potter rules' and 'Cedric stinks', distributing them to all the Slytherin's, watching as they wore them to support Harry.

"So, when is the first task?" Draco questioned, watching as Harry shrugged.

"I do believe it's in a week. By the way Harry, someone came by to see you last night." Luna answered, intriguing Harry.

"Oh really? Who?" The assassin wondered, dabbing a napkin at his lips. He reached over to grab his orange juice, only for a hand to slide it forward. He looked up to gaze upon a man who had shoulder length hair, brown eyes and a somewhat tame beard. "Thank you..Mr..?"

"Black. Sirius Black." The man smiled widely, watching as recognition filled Harry's eyes. "Harry...I'm your father." He whispered, watching as Harry gave a small smile before extending his hand.

"Pleasure to meet you, Sirius Black. I'm Harry James Black, your son." Harry grinned while Sirius shook the offered hand. "I do have a question though. Why weren't you around? Why was I left with the Dursley's to be abused and treated as a slave?"

Sirius frowned at this, running a hand through his hair, "I was incarcerated in Azkaban, the wizarding prison, for the last twelve years. I recently just got a trial and was found innocent. As for why you were with the Dursley's," He spat out the name, "was because Dumbledore decided to put you there since I was in jail and Lily was...well." He trailed off, uncomfortable talking about his wife's death.

"If you're my father, and Lily Black was my mother, then why was I led to believe that James Potter was my father?" Harry questioned.

"James was a dear friend of mine, almost a brother. He agreed to be your Uncle and to act as your 'father' while Voldemort was hunting for you. I do wish that the night he and Lily died had turned out differently." Sirius grew somewhat quiet, looking at his son.

"As do I, father. Now, if you excuse me, I have classes to attend. Perhaps I'll see you after dinner?" Harry asked, something akin to hope in his voice. To his disappointment, Sirius shook his head.

"No can do, pup. Have business to attend to at the Ministry and Remus will be expecting our weekly chess match at my house. After this year, you'll be living with me. Sound good?" Harry nodded which Sirius smiled to. "Good. See you later, pup. Have a nice day." With that his father turned and walked out of the Great Hall, only for Luna to giggle slightly.

"What is it?" Daphne questioned, an eyebrow raised.

"He called Harry pup. I just...find it amusing. Don't you, pup?" Luna questioned, more giggles escaping her. Harry merely felt his left eye twitch in annoyance before turning away and strolling out of the Great Hall.

"Oh c'mon pup. Don't leave!" Luna whined, following.

"Yeah, pup. Don't leave!" Daphne agreed, following, leaving Draco and Blaise to roar in laughter.

XxXx

The following week had resumed with Harry's sparring sessions with Krum, all the while getting prepared for the First Task. Moody had been teaching his class dueling technique's, and Harry had found his main rival in one Ron Weasley. However, if Weasley didn't want to play fair, then neither would Harry.

Harry was blown back from a particularly strong Stupefy, gritting his teeth in pain before he rolled to his feet and fired off an Bombarda. Weasley turned and dodged, the strength of Harry's spell causing the chalkboard to explode in a shower of splinters. "Potter! Careful with that spell!" Moody growled out, his eye focused on the two, his magical eye swirling about. "Malfoy, Greengrass, remember to enunciate the spell and after you cast one spell, follow up with another! Longbottom, keep doing what you're doing. You, Potter and Weasley are among the top ten in this dueling class." Longbottom flushed with pride, before Harry's wand was sent flying across the room thanks to Weasley's Expelliarmus.

"Yield, Potter!" Weasley declared, aiming his wand at Harry.

"First off, it's Black, not Potter. Second, fuck that shit." Harry retorted before he broke off into a slight jog, ducking and weaving under most of the spells Weasley sent, ignoring the stinging sensation of the cutting spell Weasley knicked him with. He met Weasley halfway, wrestling the wand from the redhead's grasp.

"Let go, you wanker!" Weasley grunted out, slamming Harry up against the wall, only for Harry to headbutt the Gryffindor and pick him up by his legs before slamming Weasley into the ground. He let out a strangled gasp of pain, air escaping his lungs before his wand rolled harmlessly out of his hand. Harry crouched down and picked up Weasley's wand and aimed it at Weasley's forehead. "I...yield." Weasley wheezed out, trying to regain air.

"Wise choice, Weasley. And ten points to Slytherin for the use of muggle fighting techniques. This dueling session is over. Study over various spells and counter curses, along with the Protego shield charm." Moody instructed, watching as everyone gathered their stuff, Weasley having to be helped by Longbottom and Dean Thomas. "Black, stay behind, would you?"

"Yes, Professor?" Harry rose an eyebrow, standing beside the door. Moody motioned him over to his desk, Harry obeying warily.

"The first task is coming up. And I'm sure you've heard from Diggory or someone that the First Task is to involve dragons?" Harry nodded, the magical eye swirling about in Moody's head. "Do you have a plan to defeat a dragon?"

"Well, I have my knife and my gun." Harry suggested, only for Moody to laugh.

"Your knife may be sharp, but it will not be sharp enough to penetrate dragon hide. And as for your...what did you call it? A gun? I doubt whatever it attacks with will penetrate the dragon hide either. No. What you need is your wand, and a broom. Sirius Black was an excellent beater while he was on the Hogwarts Quidditch team. So I'm sure that you'd have his genes in your DNA, eh? Do you have a broom?"

"To be honest, I haven't flown before. Not on a broom, anyways." Harry responded, frowning.

"I see. Well, I'm sure one of your classmates is on the Quidditch team and will allow you to borrow their broom as practice." Moody responded. "Off you go then. May want to practice a bit before going up against a dragon, huh?" Harry didn't bother with a response, intent on going to find Draco.

"You're wanting to borrow my broom?" Draco questioned, seeing Harry nod. "Why? Got a plan to defeat a dragon?"

"Yup." Harry responded with a grin, before Draco retrieved his broomstick. "Care to watch me fall on my ass?" Draco replied with laughing as he and Harry made their way to the Quidditch pitch, meeting Daphne and Luna on the way out. "Where were you two at?"

"The library/experimenting." Daphne and Luna replied, one blushing furiously and sporting a faint hicky on her neck, the other with a huge smile and dreamy like expression in her eyes.

Draco's jaw fell open as he stared at them with wide eyes, only for Harry to laugh. "Harry?" He questioned.

"Oh nothing, Draco. Me and Malfoy are heading to the Quidditch pitch to see if I can fly or die." Harry replied. "Care to join?" Daphne and Luna immediately hooked themselves to Harry, while Draco merely grumbled something about 'blonde witches and assassin's' before the four made their way to the Quidditch pitch, gaining several looks from Gryffindor's, Ravenclaw's, and students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang alike. Hermione was particularly curious and decided to follow, despite Draco glaring and objecting. However, Luna came to Hermione's rescue.

"Oh Draco, leave her alone. She hasn't done anything wrong." The blonde commanded.

"But Luna, she's a mud-" Seeing the angry looks from Luna, Hermione and Daphne, but the look that said 'finish that and I'll kill you' from Harry caused him to promptly change his course of action. He didn't want to upset his best friend of course, "muggleborn, and honestly won't she be a stick in the mud?"

"You would think so, wouldn't you Malfoy? Hell, before Black here you were nothing but a bully. Now all of the Slytherin's are like whipped dogs." Hermione interjected, her brown eyes glaring into Draco's grey ones.

"I am nothing like a whipped dog, Granger!" Draco hissed out, preparing to draw his wand, only for Hermione to beat him to the punch...by punching him square in the jaw. "Ow, the fuck?" He found himself staring at the tip of her wand, nothing but fierceness in her eyes.

"I will not settle for anymore of your bullshit, Malfoy. If you dare to cross me, I will ensure that you won't be able to produce children. Understand?" Hermione questioned, only for Draco to nod. "I didn't hear you."

"Y-yes...Granger." His head whipped to the side, Hermione had slapped him! "What the fuck was that for?!"

"You didn't address me correctly. It's yes ma'am." Hermione rebutted, watching as something akin to anger and pride entered Draco's eyes. It had seemed that most women hadn't stood up to him before and it was surprising him. Offering him a challenge.

Draco remained silent, only to see that Harry and his girls were waiting for Draco to speak up. After a moment or two he spoke up, "Yes...ma'am." He said begrudgingly, earning a smile that made him feel oddly good about himself.

"See Draco, was that so hard?" Harry teased, earning a playful punch in the arm from Draco.

"Shove it, Black." Draco grumbled, before the three females made their way to the nearby stands as Draco instructed Harry. "Alright, now the first thing you need to do is mount your broom, grip the handle and slowly start to rise." Harry did as he was told, levitating lowly off the ground. "Think you can do more than that? If you feel confident-" He never got a chance to finish as Harry shot off and skyrocketed into the air, doing laps around the Quidditch pitch, several whoops of joy and laughter escaping the usually reserved Slytherin. "So...since I'm a teacher, in a way, fifty points to Slytherin!" Draco grinned.

"And fifty points from Slytherin since the supposed teacher merely taught the student to levitate on a broom before giving him free reign." Hermione interjected from the stands, Luna giggling slightly. The blonde could tell that a romance would eventually blossom between the Malfoy heir and the muggleborn witch known as Hermione Granger. Draco merely scowled before throwing himself to the ground, Harry nearly wiping out after coming to close to Draco.

"Harry!" Daphne scolded, only for her mock anger to fade away at Harry and Luna's laughing, Hermione and Draco eventually joining in. It seemed that the group of three snakes and one raven had gained another raven.

The end of the week had come, and so the First Task was upon them. Cedric, Fleur, Viktor and Harry were seated in front of Dumbledore, Barty Crouch Sr., Kakoroff, Maxime and Filch who was standing before a cannon. "Alright, the First Task is to grab a golden egg from a dragon guarding it. There are four dragons: A Swedish Short Snout, a Common Welsh-Green, a Chinese Fireball and a Hungarian Horntail." As he spoke the names of the dragons, Harry remembered back to the night when he first saw the dragons. He had no idea what the other three looked like, but the Hungarian Horntail was a vicious dragon. A challenge. And he did love a challenge. "Now, reach in and grab a miniature sized version of the dragons, and whatever you pull out, that will be which dragon you're facing." As they did, Cedric grabbed the Common Welsh-Green, Fleur with the Chinese Fireball, Krum with the Swedish Short Snout, and Harry grabbing the Hungarian Horntail.

"Now champions, at the sound of the cannon," Dumbledore began, only for Filch to jump the gun and fire the cannon prematurely, "your name will be called and you will head out to face your selected dragon. Goodluck, everyone." His gaze briefly lingered on Harry, the assassin merely observing his miniature dragon, the downsized reptile crawling along his arm, breathing small spurts of fire.

The champions soon sat in various places, waiting for their name to be announced. Cedric was up first, followed by Viktor, and then Fleur. Harry lay across his bed, the Hungarian Horntail curled up upon his stomach. It had been about thirty minutes since Fleur had been called out and Harry was beginning to wonder if she had been eaten, only for cheers of her victory to be heard. "Damn, seems that I owe Draco twenty galleons." Harry chuckled to himself before he stood and ensured that he had his knife, wand, and gun, before he turned to his little dragon. "You comin', little guy?" The dragon gave a very downsized roar before curling itself up in his pocket. "I'll take that as a yes. Well, let's do it." Harry walked out and was greeted by a few waves by Draco, Blaise, Luna and Daphne, a curt nod from Hermione and Neville, while the rest of the schools looked on with hatred. "So much for pleasing the masses." He murmured before his mind rang out with alarms. He briefly felt the slight change in the air behind him and that practically screamed at him to run. So Harry did just that. He ran and jumped just as a massive paw rained down upon him, the chomping of jaws reaching his ears. He rolled to his feet and quickly drew his gun. While heeding Moody's words, he had to try.

The Hungarian Horntail had bronze spikes covering it's head, black scales on it's body. Fierce, intimidating yellow eyes stared down at him as the dragon opened it's jaws to roar, the sound causing several to wince, and causing Harry's ears to ring. The assassin shook his head before firing off several rounds watching as the dragon shrugged off the bullets, seemingly to grow only more angry. The dragon released a torrent of flame only for Harry to sent out a stream of water from his wand, trying to defuse the deadly situation. However the water seemed to not even phase the dragon's deadly fire, for it overpowered the element and continued towards Harry. The assassin gave a fleeting glance toward Daphne and Luna before he promptly rushed the dragon. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, HARRY?!" They chorused, only to see their boyfriend be slammed back against a rock by the dragon's tail. However they took note of the small ball that Harry had thrown at the dragon's feet, an explosion going off a moment later. While not as damaging as one would hope, the dragon was in obvious discomfort, a small pool of blood eventually surrounding the dragon's feet.

"Any other plans, Black?" Harry muttered to himself before his eyes lit up with an idea. Draco's broom! He produced his wand and was about to Accio that glorious flying device toward him, only for the dragon to slam into Harry with it's tail, causing Harry to go flying. He landed against a particularly jagged rock, letting out a grunt of pain as he felt skin and clothing tear, blood beginning to rush to the surface of his cuts. He went to preform the spell again, however the dragon stopped him once again by slinging him around. "Okay, so the dragon doesn't want me to fly. Got it." He grunted out painfully before he stumbled to his feet. "C'mon Black, pull yourself together. It's just a fuckin' dragon. A great bloody beast that could kill you." He got chatty whenever it was a life and death situation, such as now. "Welp, if I can't fly, perhaps I can hitch a ride?" Harry grinned before he began to run at the dragon, causing several to scream out in horror, or call him a 'bloody Gryffindor'. Slytherin's were known for their cunning, and Harry was just as cunning, if not more. He wasn't a mere snake. He was a wolf in a pack of snakes. He was cunning, loyal, determined, and territorial. And boy, this dragon was stepping all over his territory. The egg being his territory, that is.

The dragon met Harry halfway, launching the assassin up in the air by flipping the boy with its tail, preparing to devour Harry as the boy sailed toward its open mouth. "HARRY!" The girls chorused, only for Harry to give them a thumbs up, pulling out several of the explosive orbs from before, throwing them all into the dragon's mouth, his hand firmly grabbing into a spike around the dragons head, ignoring the stabbing sensation that presented itself within his leg. The dragon let out a surprised rumble, only for the stomach to explode in a shower of gore, muscle, organ and bone. The giant beast slumped down, dead as a doorknob. Harry detached himself from the dragon and limped over to the golden egg, grabbing it and limping out toward the infirmary tent, with cheers and slow claps reaching his retreating ears.


*drops the mic* That's all I've to say about that.

-V