Ron was confused. Many would say that this was Ron's standard state of mind, but that was not so. He became confused due to certain circumstances, but Ron otherwise normally had a firm grip on reality. Unfortunately, the list of said certain circumstances was incredibly long and generally caused Ron to be confused for a good portion of his waking hours. That fact, however, did not indicate that confusion was his default mode. He had a very good reason to be confused on this day and at this time.
He had escaped from the Prefect's compartment to have a chat with Harry, who was sitting in the train's last compartment, as usual. Not as usual, however, in addition to Ginny and Neville were two girls who were at most Ginny's age holding an intense discussion about psychology, a man named Jung, and another man named Freud. They were throwing around strange words like "Oedipus" and "id" and "anima." The girl with the dark hair seemed to be denying that she had something called an "Electra complex" and "abandonment issues" stemming from "the lack of a male role model" that was causing her to perceive an unnamed man, who possibly had some sort of condition called "post traumatic-stress disorder," as a "father figure." All in all, Ron decided that he had a right to be confused.
He sat down next to Harry and Neville. "Do either of you have a blooming idea of what they're talking about?" Ron asked his classmates earnestly. Another thought then struck him, and Ron added, "And what's an 'oedipus'? Is it similar to an octopus?"
Harry paused for a moment, seemingly stunned (Ron was confused as to why Harry would find the questions that strange). "Well," Harry began. "You see, in Greek mythology, there was this prince who was supposed to kill his father due to a prophecy, right?"
The strange, dreamy-looking girl in the other far corner of the compartment interrupted, "You're telling it incorrectly. Oedipus was a king who killed his father and married his mother because of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Oedipal complex refers to a Freudian idea about the psychological development of young men, who all inherently want to marry their mothers. Granted, most psychology has drifted away from Freud, but he did ask the right questions."
Ginny scooted closer to the door. Ron did not blame his sister in the slightest. Apparently, he still looked confused and shocked, because the girl with the dark hair translated, "We're talking about psychology because Luna thinks I'm too attached to—" She paused, seemed unwilling to continue for a moment but continued resolutely, "—this guy I seem to run into every so often. He's really nice, but Luna thinks it's all unwise and won't explain."
The slightly disconnected girl with the very light blond hair (whom Ron supposed was Luna) sighed exasperatedly and declared, "Well, Alphecca, if you insist on being this way, I shall return to my reading." And with that, she picked up the magazine from her lap and proceeded to read it upside down. Ron turned his head to read the cover. It was the Quibbler.
"You do realize that the magazine is upside-down, right?" Ron asked Luna.
Luna looked up from her reading, staring at Ron like he was possibly the least observant man in the universe. "Of course it's upside-down. It's much more interesting that way," she replied in a matter-of-fact manner. She shook her head. "Next you'll be telling me that the Veil-Between-This-Realm-and-the-Next is actually a rip in the time-space continuum that leads to all sorts of alternate realities predicted by string theory and every science fiction novel to exist." She looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing, "Or that witches and wizards have finally learned that just saying things is so much easier than creating hyphenated pseudonyms. The former is sadly more likely."
Ron twitched and turned to his best friend. "Harry, she's scaring me," he said. Ron was also tactless and the opposite of subtle. Chess he could manage. Relationships he could not. Ron then noticed that the girl with the black hair (Alphecca? What kind of name was that?) was trying not to laugh. Apparently she had heard Ron. Glancing around at the rest of the occupants of the compartment, Ron realized that everyone had heard. Luna stared at him with an eerie intensity and resumed her reading once more.
Luna's friend called Alphecca (?) then grinned and introduced herself, "Hi. I'm Gemma White. It's nice to meet you finally, Ron. Harry mentioned you when he came in, and Ginny said you were her brother. Plus, it's kind of hard not to know who you are since you and Harry and Hermione essentially run around the school every year causing all sorts of chaos. I'm sorry if I'm being rude or rambling, but I'm not very good with this sort of thing." Blushing, Gemma shrugged.
"Er, nice to meet you," Ron said, now thoroughly confused. Wasn't her name Alphecca according to Luna? Now her name was Gemma? Wait… White? Wasn't that one of the American pureblood families? Why did she sound English, then? And look rather familiar? The answer to the last question came to him rather quickly: they went to the same school, so he just had never really noticed her before. To break the awkward silence that had developed, Ron then decided to ask, "So, what year are you in?"
Gemma turned her head to the side. "Third, why do you ask?" she replied.
Ron suddenly had a flashback to the boggart Professor Lupin had showed the class. "Oh, no reason. I was just wondering," he replied, continuing to remind himself as to why Hermione, Harry, and his third year was quite the adventure… and not an experience he would ever repeat.
Ginny was staring at Ron in disbelief as she said, "Ron, she's been sitting at the Gryffindor table about ten people down from you for the past two years, and you've never noticed her?" Intrigued, Luna looked up and was glancing between Ron and his sister.
Gemma looked a little flustered and protested, "No, it's fine, really. I'm just a third-year and practically nobody. You guys are … well, you." She looked to Luna for back-up and received no help in return, just the cover of the upside-down magazine. Gemma continued to look a little sheepish. "Well, what do you think Defense will be like this year?" she asked a tad shyly, desperately looking for a topic aside from herself to talk about.
Neville, who Ron had momentarily forgotten, had remained outside the conversation until then. "It seems like it'll be interesting. I liked the essay we had this year," he said honestly. "Maybe we'll get someone good, like Professor Lupin."
"It is possible, although unlikely, that we shall receive another Defense teacher like Professor Lupin," Luna mentioned from behind her magazine. "However, of his group, I think maybe. They tended to run in the same circles." She paused for a moment, seemingly pensive, before exclaiming, "Oh! That's what it meant! Poor teachers. Much homework for us."
Ron stared at Luna with a confused look. This conversation was one of those times that Ron felt he had a right to be confused. After all, Luna was confusing: an enigma wrapped in a puzzle garnished in a riddle and covered with mystery. Essentially, he found that she made little sense. So, the only logical thing to do would be to ask Harry: "What do you think about the DADA teacher?"
Harry shrugged and said, "I was kind of annoyed about the amount of homework that we've received already, but I suppose that we might be getting a good teacher this year." Glancing out the window, he continued, "Sirius was saying that the work we've been getting is good for preparing for the OWLs or something. I can't remember. He's been a little off all summer."
This, Ron understood. After spending a couple days at Grimmauld Place, he could hardly blame his friend's godfather for avoiding the house as much as possible. The former prisoner, however, did seem 'a little off,' as Harry put it. Ron recognized that Sirius had been trying to keep Harry and the rest of them from noticing that he wasn't doing so well. The tactics that Sirius used Ron recognized as similar to those his parents used when trying to hide certain unpleasant realities from the children. "The essay was long for being about one spell," Ron agreed.
"We had to write on various types of people and sentient beings considered Dark by the vast majority of the wizarding populace," Luna mentioned helpfully from behind her magazine. She lowered the periodical and stared at Harry. After a moment of tense silence where Harry was a little freaked out by the girl's behavior, she continued, "I did vampires." Luna then acquired an amused look on her face, as if she had just thought her comment to be rather witty.
Ron chose not to think about it. He probably was better off—Too late. Ron tried to dispel the images from his mind. Harry had caught onto what Ron was trying not to think about and was trying not to laugh. "Sorry, Ron, but you totally walked into that," Harry said amusedly. "It's what you get for making inane comments."
Ron chose to ignore his best friend for the moment. If he were to ignore Luna the Loon, Ron had the option of talking to Neville (who made sense, if not incredibly interesting conversation), his sister (the last resort), or Gemma, who remained something of an enigma. He swore he had seen her before, not in the halls really, but somewhere not school. Maybe it was that she looked like someone that he knew. Actually, now that he thought about it, Ron realized she did look eerily like a particular adult that the Golden Trio (Ron really hated whomever bestowed that moniker upon the three) knew. One of the professors…? Oh, well. It didn't matter. "I did not make an inane comment, Harry. It's called being noncommittal. There's a huge difference there, mate," Ron defended himself. "Besides, knowing Dumbledore, can you even think of who we're going to have for a Defense teacher this year? I mean, we've not had a normal one yet. Just think about it. For all we know, Snape may finally be teaching the class."
"I doubt it," Gemma interjected quietly. All eyes turned to her, and she meekly explained, "Well, potions teachers are near impossible to find, kind of like Muggle physics teachers." Ron and Neville stared at Gemma in confusion, so she continued more nervously, "Plus, Mum's been freaking out about him, the professor for Defense, and she refers to Snape with different terms, from his first name to long strings of profanity."
Well, Ron reflected, that answered one of his questions. Her mother was one of the professors. None of the professors had the last name of White, though. Ron decided that maybe he would be best off not thinking about it. At least until he gained more information, that is. On the other hand, Harry looked very intrigued. "Your mum knows the Defense professor?" he asked. "Who is it? Please say he's not at all interested in killing me."
Gemma looked very uncomfortable with the spotlight, especially since it was Harry reenacting the Spanish Inquisition. "I—I—uh, well," she stammered. However, Luna swooped in and saved the day for her friend. She translated, "We have not heard who it is, just that the parental unit has a couple of bats in her belfry at the moment because of the new colleague. I think I like him." Luna, suddenly frustrated about something, then murmured, "Unless I already don't. In which case I don't like him." Gemma shot Luna an annoyed look, which the blond returned.
"Oh," Harry said, a little disheartened. He resumed looking out the window. Ron wondered if Harry was being so moody because of Sirius and not because of the Defense teacher. Unless, of course, Dumbledore had been crazy enough to hire… Ron halted that train of thought, trying to ignore the fact that the explanation would explain… all of… behavior. Ron's eyes went as wide as plates in realization. "Oh, bloody hell!" he exclaimed.
Everyone in the compartment was staring at Ron, who then sat back down, and muttered, "Sorry. I just realized I forgot to do some of my homework." He hoped no one would notice his lie.
Harry was very suspicious of Ron, ever since he had made that exclamation in the train car. Homework. Right. And a Ministry-appointed representative was teaching Defense. Loony Luna Lovegood had managed all on her own to slip into the carriage Harry was riding in. Her friend, Gemma, had stared at Luna like the latter was going slightly mad and scampered off to another transport. "You'll have to forgive Alphecca, Harry. She's a little skittish and slow to make friends," Luna interjected suddenly. "She finds much solace in the status quo, as long as it is just and not in need of changing. Oh, and don't worry about the creatures pulling the carriage. I can see them, too." Harry wondered how that was supposed to be reassuring. "You're just as sane as I am," Luna continued airily as she brought the Quibbler back up to read.
"That's nice," Harry said in way of acknowledging the fourth-year's presence. He had been wondering why he could see the strange equine animals with wings like bats that were wasted like Death's horse in that old block-print of the Four Horsemen. No one else seemed to, save Luna. Harry sometimes wondered about his sanity. He looked back at Luna to find her staring at him intensely. "What's the matter?" he asked, rather curious as to why she was looking at him with the gaze Trelawney usually reserved for him.
"There's something rotten in the state of Denmark," Luna replied grandly.
Hermione could only stare at the girl in the year below them. Her incredulity was rather amusing, now that Harry thought about it. When they had first entered the carriage, Hermione had gone from staring at Luna's unnaturally pale hair to her butterbeer cap necklace to the magazine. The strange, vague, and rather random answer that the girl had just given only reinforced Hermione's first impression. That said, it seemed that Hermione had decided that she should try to communicate since she then essayed the reply, "Fear no more the heat of the sun? Or is the year again star-crossed?"
Luna stared at Hermione, apparently amused. "Life is but a tale told by an idiot," she affirmed before laughing. Ron, who had been unlucky enough to get the seat next to the fourth-year was looking a bit nervous and was completely not reassured by the exchange between Hermione and Luna. "Signifies nothing," she added.
Harry somehow doubted that very much, or she had just been finishing her paraphrase. The rest of the carriage ride passed easily with Harry, Ron, and Hermione discussing what they did over the summer and Luna staring out the window or continuing to read the Quibbler upside down. Eventually, however, they arrived at Hogwarts.
Once they had sat down at the Gryffindor table, Harry felt that the only thing that could possibly make his day bad was if Snape was really the Defense professor. Luckily, however, Snape was in his typical seat. The Defense teacher's chair was empty, and Harry had to wonder where said person was. Professor Sinistra looked a little frantic, but Harry supposed that something was going wrong in her life again (he still wondered how they learned Astronomy in that class, what with her incessant monologues that should have been internal). The teacher sitting two seats down from her (whom he thought Hermione had identified one day as Professor Vector) looked a little nervous about something, but Harry decided that he did not want to know.
Turning back to his friends, Harry noticed that Ron looked particularly concerned as he watched the empty chair at the teacher's table. Harry was about to ask what was the matter when Hermione, a tad concerned, asked, "You don't think that Dumbledore had to hire that one woman from the Ministry, do you?" Harry and Ron, who had turned his attention away from the gap at the table, stared at their friend in confusion. Hermione elucidated, "The Ministry was going to appoint a Defense teacher if Dumbledore was unable to furnish the school with one. The woman they had been considering was this awful espèce de je ne sais quoi who has been lobbying for all of these terrible bills, one of which has all of these provisions limiting the rights of witches and wizards considered 'dark creatures.' It's horrible. I hate to think how much it could limit Professor Lupin's future job opportunities."
Harry stared at his friend in disbelief. "So you're saying that this woman might be our Defense teacher? The person who assigned us the essay of doom?" he essayed.
Hermione looked a little torn. "I don't know," she replied uncertainly. "I thought the assignment was fair, and I don't want to believe that someone who could propose those things would be a decent teacher," she continued. "However, I think it might be someone else. Nothing has been mentioned in the paper, really, since the middle of the summer. If she did get hired, they did not report it in the Daily Prophet, although I gave up on a number of the sections after the fiftieth conspiracy theory article about how it's impossible that Sirius is innocent."
Ron nodded absentmindedly, and the Sorting began. Harry watched and listened as the new class was sorted into the four different houses. Two children on the tail end of the Sorting, however, caught his attention, simply because they looked familiar, a little like the third-year who had been on the train. He had thought the girl was interesting, but she easily faded into the background.
"White, Leo," McGonagall announced, and the eleven-year-old hesitantly walked up to the Sorting Hat. The boy had black hair, dark eyes, and an aristocratic look to him. Harry had the feeling that the younger boy was related to the girl on the train. He seemed nice enough, a little nervous, but nice. Harry decided that he'd best be off in Ravenclaw.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat exclaimed after a couple of moments. The usual clapping began, and Harry noted that the girl from the train (what was her name again?) was clapping enthusiastically. Well, Harry guessed that meant that she was related to the boy and was trying to prove that she was not going to think any less of him because he was now in Hufflepuff. Harry decided that was certainly nice of her. At least he wasn't in Slytherin.
"White, Macha," McGonagall continued. Harry could have sworn that she really wondered how some parents got away with naming their children things. Poor McGonagall had probably seen some of the stranger names ever bestowed upon children. Although, Leo had been a normal enough name. Why had his parents then decided upon a name as strange as "Macha" for his sister? The girl walked up with an air of laziness and sat down. The girl looked a lot like her brother but with pale blue eyes. However, she unpleasantly reminded Harry of Draco Malfoy. The girl was having a conversation with the Sorting Hat and was starting to look rather indignant. Harry decided that the less he knew, the better. He would definitely be staying away from this girl for the rest of his Hogwarts career, even if she had the guts to land herself in an argument with the Sorting Hat.
The Hat seemed to have made its choice and abruptly exclaimed, "SLYTHERIN!" The girl from the train, whose name Harry believed to have started with a "g", again clapped loudly like she had for the girl's brother. That was interesting: one of the family was in the house of the brave, one was in the junk drawer house (Hermione had jokingly referred to Hufflepuff once as "House Protista"), and one was in the house of the conniving snakes. How on Earth did that happen? All of the Weasleys were in Gryffindor, as had all of Harry's relatives as far as he knew. Then again, from what Harry, Hermione, and Ron could tell, Sirius seemed to be the black (or was it white?) sheep of the Black family. Still, the distribution was strange.
In his consideration of the bizarre distribution, Harry had failed to notice that the teacher's table now was not lacking any of the teachers. He neither saw Hermione look shocked nor Ron look like he had just figured out the ending of The Empire Strikes Back again.
Dumbledore was making his traditional beginning of the year pre-dinner speech. Hermione managed to get herself under control again, and Ron started acting like he did from before, when he had shouted about his homework not being finished. The dinner conversation was not at all strained, although Dean had said, "I wonder who that is. Looks like we might have another decent Defense teacher." Harry barely spared the teacher's table a glance, and finding nothing out of the ordinary, returned to talking to Ron and Hermione, the latter of which looked a little amazed at Harry for not noticing anything amiss. Harry did notice that the girl from the train (he really would have to find out her name) looked a little gob-smacked.
After all of the students had finished eating, Dumbledore said, "If I could draw you away from this most excellent feast, I have a few announcements to make, most of which many of you have heard before. Firstly, the Forbidden Forest is, as always, forbidden. I hope that all students keep this in mind for this year, especially if they have managed to forget it in the past." A couple of pointed looks were sent the way of the Gryffindor table.
Dumbledore continued, "Furthermore, Mr. Filch has asked me to remind all students for the four hundred and seventy-second time that the use of magic is not allowed in the corridors in between classes. There is a complete list of restricted items attached to the door of Mr. Filch's office. On a related note, I am pleased to announce that the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for this year is the former-Auror Sirius Black."
At that point, there was silence. Then, Harry had to restrain himself from exclaiming, "What?" as Fred and George gave a standing ovation, which was hastily joined by the rest of the Gryffindors, shortly followed by the rest of the houses applauding politely, with most of the Slytherins looking vaguely confused. Sirius looked a little embarrassed with the attention, and Snape looked halfway between amused at Sirius's disomfort and just disgusted in general. Harry sent a questioning look at his godfather, who simply continued to look sheepish. Annoyed that Sirius had neglected to inform Harry that he was teaching, Harry decided to ignore him for the rest of the night, which was probably counter-productive. Harry then realized why Ron had suddenly had been acting suspicious earlier and shot a questioning glare at his friend, who whispered just as Dumbledore was about to speak again, "I didn't know either. Something that was said on the train made me think that he might be the teacher. I swear to Merlin he said nothing about it the entire summer."
"Well, we should have guessed," Hermione murmured. "Whenever he was at the house, he just locked himself in the dining room and worked. I thought he was going over the state of his affairs or brushing up on the news or maybe even studying to reapply to be an Auror," Hermione explained. Harry and Ron stared at her in amazement. Of all the things she could think of, she had to come to the conclusion that one of the possibilities was studying, didn't she? "It's possible! What other conclusion was I supposed to draw? One of the books I saw is what is traditionally used for Auror training!"
Ron looked a little surprised and suddenly felt a great deal of pity for the seventh years. "A bit of overkill, that," he said. "Half the spells in those books are Dark. Purely for study, of course, but you don't generally go into spell analysis until an apprenticeship or university." Hermione and Harry looked at Ron, wondering how Ron knew this. "What? Bill had to go to university to learn how to set up and deconstruct wards for his job at Gringotts. Don't the Muggles have a university system, too? I mean, the training to be an Auror is four years. To climb higher, you have to get a specialized degree. No one quite knows how they recruit for the Department of Mysteries, though. Bill and Charlie said that there was a rumor that the last director had specialized in Defense, Transfiguration, and Potions but had been hired because he had flown with the R.A.F., or something like that. Apparently he'd not even participated in the war against Grindelwald, just went off and did something else for the entire duration."
Hermione stared at Ron and restrained herself from hitting her dear friend on the back of the head. "Ron, think about it. What else happened in the late nineteen-thirties, early nineteen-forties, that would include being a member of the R.A.F.?" she calmly asked.
Harry wisely decided to stay silent, and Ron said hesitantly, "What?"
"The Second World War."
"Ah. That. Right. That was stupid of me," Ron added placatingly. "Actually, that would explain some of the hiring techniques. Awareness of the Muggle world would be a great asset."
Harry wondered how many of the pureblood wizards were likewise unaware of the world wars as Hermione continued to explain to Ron exactly what the world wars were. He glanced over at Malfoy and decided that, whatever the real statistics were, there were too many. Of course, this got Harry to thinking about Sirius again, and he glanced up at his godfather, who was making strained "conversation" with Snape over the Astronomy teacher, who looked like she was rather close to taking her cutlery to both of the men.
"You know what, Ron? I'm going to go talk to Professor McGonagall and request that we change the password to Gryffindor tower to something historical. Really, Ron! You should know better! In some respects, I'm still amazed that Muggle Studies isn't a required course!"
Their bickering continued even as Ron and Hermione gathered the first-year Gryffindors to take them to the dormitories. Harry stayed behind to try to catch his godfather and talk to him. Ignoring how the Astronomy teacher was currently apologizing profusely for stabbing Snape with a dessert fork, Sirius had apparently noticed Harry waiting for him. Most of the students seemed to not really reconcile that Sirius was in fact Sirius and were not exactly parting like the Red Sea, as Harry would have expected. Actually, looking back, Harry was surprised how easily many of the students had accepted that Sirius Black, the former escaped prisoner of Azkaban, was now their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Now, if Harry could only convince them he wasn't the messiah…
Finally, Sirius was standing next to Harry. He looked about as repentant as Harry would have expected. Of course, Sirius then immediately launched into an apology: "Look, I really did mean to tell you, but… Well, the only time it ever came up in conversation…" Deciding that there was obviously no way he could explain his behavior, Sirius concluded sincerely, "Harry, I'm sorry. I have absolutely no excuse for how I've acted this summer. Please forgive me."
Harry had half a mind to say nothing for a minute or so, just to leave Sirius cooling his jets, but Harry decided that would be unfair. The only time that school ever really had come up in conversation, Harry had complained about homework for Defense. Now Sirius' reply made all the more sense. "Well, I suppose I should," Harry said, suddenly wondering why most of his conversations with his godfather were turning out to be him begging for Harry's forgiveness, "but I would appreciate it if you told me next time something like this happens. Really, Sirius. You could have said something when we went out to the cinema or to Diagon Alley. You could have even said something this morning!"
Sirius grimaced and replied, "I know. I almost spoke to you this morning, but this morning was not a good time, Harry." He just stood there in silence for a moment, obviously trying to figure out what to say. Harry decided not to push why Sirius had not explained that morning. The conversation he had heard between Sirius and Lupin had been rather strained, and Harry was more than willing to take Sirius's word on it. Finally, Sirius said, "Look, Harry, I meant to tell you; I honestly did. I'm terrible at confrontations, despite what you might think. I was afraid how you would react. It's silly, I know, but I've let you down enough this summer, and I didn't want to risk making you even more upset with me. You've a right to be angry with me, for everything. I should be working on trying to get custody; I should have called; I should have told you about the job. Honestly, if you are angry with me, I completely understand. You've every right to be." Sirius paused, thinking over what he had said. He nodded to himself and murmured, half to himself, "Yeah, that's all I wanted to say."
Harry was slightly surprised that Sirius was being so …serious. The short speech made Harry realize that, yes, his earlier theories had been correct: Sirius obviously really needed some time to put his life back together before he could consider dealing with the Ministry of Magic about custody, especially if Sirius was to be given a psychological exam. The suggestion Sirius had made when they had first thought that he was going to be free, that Harry could live with him, had been something that Harry had gradually realized would not happen overnight. His godfather certainly was capable of taking care of him, but now Harry felt that Sirius really needed some time to get his life back in order. Whatever had been eating away at him over the summer was much more complicated than preparing for a custody hearing. After all, Harry was not blind. All of those conversations that Lupin and Sirius had whenever they were sure that none of the children were around? Oh, they had all heard snippets of them, not really understood what was the matter, but they could still tell something was the matter. It had always seemed to be Order business, although the talk that Fred and George had overheard seemed to be much more personal (the twins would never say what they had overheard, just that it was not within their rights to repeat). There was something eating away at his godfather, and Harry decided that it would probably be best to just be as forgiving as possible this once. "It's fine, Sirius, really," he said with a smile. "It's actually excellent news, but I can't really call you by your first name while everyone else has to suffer through calling you 'Professor Black.'"
Sirius seemed to be incredibly grateful and to relax a bit, realizing that Harry was indeed forgiving him. He then seemed to realize that he would be called Professor Black by the students. "Dear God, I seem to have gone over to the Dark Side when I wasn't paying attention. 'Professor Black!' Prongs would be ashamed," he said, in better humor. He smiled and conspiratorially said, "I guess I'm not allowed to mock Moony anymore about his professorship, are I?"
Harry returned the grin. "Nope, I guess not," he replied. Harry noticed that Sirius actually seemed like a weight had been taken off of his shoulders. Had he really been that worried? "So, why did you assign us eighteen inches on a random spell?"
"It's good practice," Sirius replied unrepentantly as they walked to Gryffindor tower. "Besides, it's deplorable how little you and your friends know about defense. I know Remus tried to catch you all up, and he did a remarkable job, but you still know woefully less than what we did when we were your age. In addition, the essay was meant to function as a diagnostic. For instance, Hermione wrote on a little-known curse, right? Obviously she's not afraid to do research, but that particular curse is somewhat interesting, seeing as it affects people in different ways. Her essay shows she knows how to analyze spells, and if you carry it over into the real world, she understands that the method spells are used in determines how "Dark" they are. Half the spells in your text can be used for good or ill; it's just the manner in which they are used. To me, that's the point of the course; it teaches you to think for yourself and to reconsider what you hold to be true. Crouch taught the course well enough, didn't he? I don't particularly approve of how he did it, but your class does know and understand what the Unforgivables do and why they are called that. If even one of you think about what you're being taught, then I'll feel like I've done my job."
They had reached the Gryffindor tower. Harry was actually a little surprised by his godfather. Was he understanding him correctly? "So you're trying to make the Slytherins reconsider joining Voldemort?" Harry asked honestly.
Sirius smiled wanly and replied, "They deserve a chance, Harry. They all do, especially when all they've known is the dark… Remind me to tell you about my brother sometime." He continued before Harry could ask, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow. I'm sure your friends are all waiting to barrage you with questions. Thanks, Harry, for understanding. It means a lot. Goodnight. Sleep well."
Harry nodded and returned the sentiments. He watched his godfather walk back down the hallway for a moment before entering the common room. Of course, there was a whole slew of questions from every single one of his housemates, save, of course, Ron and Hermione, who knew Harry had had no idea whatsoever that Sirius was their teacher. Fred and George were currently throwing a party (food was courtesy of the house elves), knowing that another one of their role models was now their teacher, but Harry had a feeling that Sirius would act professionally in class at least. Why, he had no idea, but he had that feeling.
"You'd think that Filch had taken down the list of forbidden items and forsworn patrolling the halls this year, from the way the twins are acting," Hermione commented to Harry and Ron when they had settled in the corner of the common room.
Ron sent a disbelieving look Hermione's way and replied, "Hermione, you're one of my best friends and possibly the smartest witch of our age, but you can be rather dim sometimes. I know: pot, kettle, same color. However, Sirius is our Defense teacher. Sirius probably helped put most of those items on that list. He and Filch are probably not on good terms. Do you think that Sirius would actually put Fred and George in detention if he noticed them setting up pranks?"
Hermione glanced over at the twins once more. "Honestly?" she said with a skeptical look on her face. "Honestly, I wonder what possessed Professor Dumbledore to hire him in the first place. Don't get me wrong, but why would you bring one of the biggest troublemakers back to school? He may be incredibly well-qualified for the job and so much better than that Ministry woman, but why? Harry, you weren't there, but we found all of the letters that had been sent home because of Sirius. They were stuffed in a broom closet on the third floor of Grimmauld. I counted no less than one letter a week for a span of five years."
"That is impressive," Harry admitted, watching the festivities. "I think he'll be a good teacher, though. I mean, think about what it means that Dumbledore's willing to ignore the fact that Lupin, Sirius, and my dad used to wreak absolute havoc and hire Lupin and Sirius back."
"This year is going to be wicked!" Ron declared, munching on some of the food that Fred and George had absconded with from the kitchens (he'd made sure they weren't Canary Creams).
"You're right," Hermione acknowledged Harry's point. "And on the bright side, we don't have to worry about the Defense teacher trying to kill you," she mentioned. "You do realize, though, that this means Professor Snape's going to be in a permanent bad mood this year, don't you?"
"What, he can get worse?" Harry asked with a confused look on his face.
Hermione stared at her friends and finally conceded, "You have a point, Harry; you have a very good point."
Coming Soon: Sirius and Artemesia cannot hold a conversation to save their lives, and Terry goes to a Death Eater meeting.