A/N: Hello everyone! Chapter 10 is finally here! I hope you all enjoy it!

"20 points from Slytherin!" Both professors barked simultaneously.

Professor Brion glared hatefully at the blonde as Professor Lupin continued, "Mr. Malfoy, you will take your seat now, and report here tonight at 8 o'clock for detention."

Malfoy turned his heated gaze to the professor for a just moment before returning it to the back of Harry's head. Harry was still standing in the front of the classroom after his encounter with his dementor, and he had his back to everyone but the two professors, who were standing in front of him. Malfoy raised his chin and smirked as he said, "Typical, Potter. Letting others do your fighting for you. What's the matter, are you too afraid to turn around and face me?"

Harry stood up straight and turned around slowly, looking Malfoy directly in the eyes as he said, "There are some things I'm afraid of, Malfoy, but you most definitely are not one of them."

Malfoy's glinted with a revengeful gleam as he said in a savage whisper, "Just wait, Potter. The Dark Lord will get you, eventually, and then he'll make you wish you were never born." Malfoy paused slightly and then his look turned smug as he said, "…Or maybe he's too late for that. I know you're depressed, Potter, because that filthy, good for nothing godfather of yours—"

Harry cut him off as he said in a low voice, "Save your energy, Malfoy. You'll need it before this war is over."

The two professors shared an anxious glance, and several gasps were heard around the classroom. They all knew war was coming, but this was the first time it had been openly acknowledged, especially within the walls of Hogwarts.

Malfoy stiffened slightly and Sirius smiled evilly as he saw a panicked look enter the Slytherin's eyes. Malfoy tried to hide it and he raised his chin defiantly, saying, "Are you threatening me, Potter?"

Harry walked towards him slowly until they were standing only a step apart, and they glared into each others eyes, Harry's burning with fierce determination and Malfoy's widening in fear as he watched Harry advance on him. Harry took the remaining step forward and leaned his face in close as he said in a snarling voice, "Say one more word about my godfather, and it won't be a threat. It will be a promise."

A deadly silence hung in the air between the two boys until eventually Malfoy sneered at Harry and took a step backwards before pushing past him and storming angrily out of the classroom, Crabbe and Goyle in his wake.

Harry seemed to visibly deflate and his shoulders slumped again as his closed off, exhausted manner came back to him. He sighed and closed his eyes, sneaking his fingers past his glasses to rub them tiredly. He then stopped and stiffened slightly as he felt the eyes of the entire class on him, and he opened his eyes and looked around self consciously before moving back to stand in between Ron and Hermione. But even his movement hadn't broken the oppressive silence, so he cleared his throat and mumbled, "Er… are we dismissed, Professors?"

His quiet question jolted everyone back into reality and they all turned as Professor Lupin said quietly, "Yes, class is over. Please write a short summary of what you learned about boggarts today and have it ready to hand in next class. You all may go."

There was a slight shuffling sound as students moved around to gather their things and the noise level rose as they slowly started talking to one another again and left the classroom to go down to the Great Hall for dinner. Inside the empty classroom, Sirius shared a pained look with Remus before sinking down to the floor against the wall and putting has face in his hands.

Ron, Hermione, and Harry were walking down to the Great Hall in silence— they had gone back to the Gryffindor common room to drop off their bags and Harry still hadn't said a word since they left the classroom. Just before they entered the Great Hall, Hermione sighed and pulled them over to a secluded area behind a statue.

"Harry, are you allright?" She asked quietly.

He nodded and said, "Yes, I'm fine. Malfoy is just being a git, as usual--"

Hermione cut him off by shaking her head and said, "That's not what I meant, Harry." She glanced at Ron before saying hesitantly, "We know you have a bad reaction to dementors… you haven't said a word since class ended and you're still white as a sheet… what did you see?"

Harry looked down uncomfortably and shuffled a bit, trying to find away around the question, until Hermione put her hand on his shoulder and looked him expectantly.

He sighed and looked away at an invisible spot near the statue's toe as he said, "I… I saw Sirius…falling through the Veil…disappearing." He made a small, disbelieving noise and he shook his head slightly as he said in a pained voice, "Just like that. He was gone. I don't even know if he died, there was no body, no nothing. He was just… gone."

He heard Hermione suck in a breath and he looked up her, and was surprised to see tears welling up in her eyes. "Please, Hermione, don't cry." He said softly, pleadingly.

"Why not?" she whispered, "Because then you'll cry too?"

Harry looked away, not wanting to admit that to her that she was right. If Hermione started to cry, Harry wasn't sure if he would be able to keep his own tears at bay, and he hated himself for that.

"It's allright, Harry. It's okay to cry--" Hermione said, her voice sounding watery.

Harry shook his head and backed away from her, saying, "I—I'm not hungry. I think I'll just…go for a walk, or something… I'll see you later in the common room, yeah?" he asked, still walking backwards.

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Ron laid a hand on her back to stop her and said, "Yeah, mate, we'll see you later."

Harry gave Ron a thankful look and a small, forced smile before turning around and walking swiftly in the opposite direction.

Ron sighed and said, "Come on, Hermione." He led her into the Great Hall, keeping his hand on her back until they were both sitting at the Gryffindor table. Slowly and mechanically they both put food on their plates, but neither of them ate. Hermione suddenly stopped playing with her food and her shoulders started to shake, and she dropped her head down into her hands as she finally gave in to her tears. Ron turned to her and without hesitating pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly, resting his head on top of hers as she cried into his chest.

"Oh, Ron…" she sniffled softly, "we're losing him."

"No, no we're not, Hermione." Ron replied quietly, but there was a note of uncertainty in his voice. "We won't lose him, he'll come back. He always does. He…he has to."

Unknown to Ron and Hermione, two other people were having the same conversation.

"NO!" Sirius bellowed, "THAT'S NOT ENOUGH, WE'RE NOT DOING ENOUGH! I WILL NOT LOSE HM, DUMBLEDORE!"

"Sirius, please, calm down--" Dumbledore said, rising to his feet to match Sirius, who was in a towering rage on the other side of the desk.

Sirius slammed his fist down on his desk with a thundering bang! that sent papers flying as he continued to yell. "NO! I'M THROUGH BEING CALM! I'M THROUGH WAITING! I WAITED THIRTEEN YEARS TO GET HIM AND NOW THAT I FINALLY HAVE HIM THERE IS NO WAY IN BLOODY HELL THAT I'M JUST GOING TO LET HIM GO!"

"Sirius, I am not asking you to let him go. Believe me, that is the last thing I want. You need each other."

Sirius' manner instantly changed and his face took on a pleading expression as he said in a strangled voice, "Then why? Why are you doing this?"

Dumbledore sounded weary as he said, "It was my intention to keep your identity and whereabouts a secret, but that was before Wormtail was caught. As of right now, Voldemort believes you to be dead, and that would have been a valuable asset to the Order. But your article gets printed in the Prophet tomorrow, announcing to the world not only your innocence, but your…living status as well."

Sirius shook his head sat down, saying, "I don't understand. Voldemort is going to know I'm alive anyway…What does that have to do with keeping me from Harry?"

"Everything, I'm afraid," Dumbledore continued, lowering himself down into his chair as well. "Your death was a victory for Voldemort. You were the person Harry cared the most for, you were the most important person in his life, and you were dead. Since Voldemort has not yet been successful in his attempts to kill Harry, he is going to go to every possible length to hurt him emotionally until a time comes when he can hurt him physically. And the best way to hurt Harry is to hurt the people he loves. When he finds out that you are alive, his anger will be…unimaginable. He will try and kill you again, which means we have to be more cautious then ever with your whereabouts. If Harry has not yet mastered Occlumency, then there is a chance, no matter how small, that Voldemort could obtain information through him. That would endanger not only you but Harry and the entire Order as well." Dumbledore stopped and regarded Sirius thoughtfully over his steepled fingers. "Do you understand?"

Sirius was sitting dejectedly draped over his chair with a bitter, mournful look on his face. "Yes, but that doesn't make it right." He turned his head to gaze out through the window at the darkened sky. "It's not fair." He said quietly.

Dumbledore's eyes stopped twinkling all together as they did far too often these days, and he felt his heart break just a little bit more at the site of his former student. "No, no it's not. But this is war, Sirius. It has never been fair, and it never will be."

Sirius then turned to meet Dumbledore's gaze and he ran a hand over his face and said tiredly, "Well we can't just do nothing. We need to find out if Harry can do Occlumency. How do we do that?"

Dumbledore looked at Sirius knowingly over his half-moon spectacles and Sirius, quickly cottoning on, sat up straight and said, "No, no way, Albus. I will NOT allow Snape to snoop around in Harry's mind."

"Hopefully he won't be able to." Dumbledore replied in an infuriatingly mild voice.

"Oh, of course, don't listen to me at all. I mean, I have no say in his life whatsoever, I'm only his GODFATHER, for Merlin's sake--" Sirius said sarcastically.

Dumbledore gave him a warning glance and Sirius sighed and leaned forward, pleading. "Please, Albus, let me protect him in some way. Anyone but Snape."

"Who, then, would you suggest? There is no one here other than myself as proficient at Occlumency and Legilimency as Severus." Dumbledore replied.

Sirius paused thoughtfully before sitting forward and saying eagerly, "Me, Albus! Me! I can do it! Maybe I can't do it as well as I could have 15 years ago, but I can still do it! If you trained me up a bit I would be just as good as Snape, if not better!"

Dumbledore looked hesitant, but Sirius could see that this was one battle he could win. "You know I was good, Albus, you told me so yourself. When I first mastered it at 16 you told me that not even someone who had been practicing for hundreds of years could break me. I may be slightly out of practice, but a few lessons with you and I would be that good again! And it would be good for Harry! I'm his godfather, and I learned it at the same age…" Sirius faltered slightly before adding, "…almost under the same circumstances."

Albus' look turned regretful at Sirius' last remark, and he opened his mouth to reply but Sirius beat him to it. "Please, Albus, let me do this." He then grinned slightly as he said, "After all, I learned from the best."

Albus chuckled slightly as he said, "You learned from me, my dear boy."

Sirius nodded and said, "Exactly. I learned from the best."

Albus looked at Sirius and nodded, relenting as he said, "Allright, Sirius. Our first lesson starts now."

Sirius grinned widely and stood up, pulling out his wand as he moved to stand opposite of Albus. Inside, Sirius sighed in slight relief. This was step one of getting his godson back.

Harry had been wandering aimlessly around the castle for hours, staring unblinkingly in front of him with his hands in his pockets as his feet moved mechanically one after the other. Left…right…left…right…left…right… that's what his life had become. Waking up after three hours of sleep and surviving the day one step at a time, trying to make it through alive and sane only to wake up the next day and go through the whole melancholy process all over again.

He knew that he should probably be back in the dormitory, getting ready for bed, but he didn't see the point as he knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. Harry then stopped walking to think about where he was, before turning around and heading up to the seventh floor corridor. Once he reached the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, he turned and looked at the blank space of wall before pacing in front of it three times.

When the door appeared to the Room of Requirement, he pulled it open and walked inside to see that the room had arranged itself into an open space much smaller then when he had used it for the D.A. last year, and that the floor was slightly cushioned. Harry sighed and pulled off his shirt, throwing it in a corner as he assumed the push up position and fell into the routine that had become so familiar to him over the summer.

One…Two…Three…Four…

A/N: Well, there it is! I hope you all liked it, please review!

Willow Ann