Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 12

After the mention of Sirius Black being inside of the castle, the Gryffindors were sent down to the Great Hall where we were to wait for further instruction.

"How could he have gotten into the castle?" Neville asked me as we walked into the Great Hall. "The castle is supposed to be the safest place in the wizarding world."

"Yeah, tell that to Voldemort," I said, causing him to flinch. "He's been here twice in the past two years."

"There are dementors here this year," he said. "I thought the whole point of them was to keep people like him out."

I shrugged as the Gryffindors all congregated in Great Hall. There was chatter going on all around us and I could only imagine the topic of all o the conversations. After a few minutes, the other houses joined us in the Hall.

"What are they doing here?" Neville asked.

"They probably wanted to tell the whole school," Harry said as he watched them all come into the room.

Once everyone was in the room, Dumbledore made an announcement.

"The teachers and I will be searching the castles tonight," he said. "For your own safety, you will all be sleeping here tonight and the Head Boy and Girl will be left in charge - any disturbance should be reported immediately."

Dumbledore finished speaking and waved his wand. Suddenly, the tables that had been set up flew off to the sides and hundreds of sleeping bags took their place.

When Dumbledore exited the room and the doors were shut, everyone started talking amongst themselves and told the other houses what had happened.

"Everyone settle down and get off to bed," Percy said, trying to sound important.

I rolled my eyes, but found a nearby sleeping bag and sat down on it. Harry and Ron laid on the two to my right while Hermione went to the one on my left.

"How do you reckon he got in?" I heard Fred asking George.

"He probably apparated or something," George shrugged as he pulled down his sleeping bag.

"You can't apparate in or out of Hogwarts," I said absentmindedly.

They both looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Hermione told me," I shrugged.

"Enough talking everyone - go to bed!" Percy ordered.

"Go to bed he says, you must listen to the Head Boy," Fred mocked his brother in a low tone.

Percy shot him a look and George started laughing. Percy's face went red and he went off to yell at some first year Hufflepuffs that were talking.

Once everyone was laying down in their sleeping bags, the candles above us went out and there was silence. I tried to sleep, but I couldn't. My only thoughts were going towards Sirius Black. How had he manage to get into the castle without anyone seeing him?

The only thing that I knew for certain was that he was trying to get to Harry and me. Why else would he have gone directly to the Gryffindor common room?

Beside me I noticed that Harry was still awake too. I just knew that he was thinking about the same thing.

"Where do you think he is now?" I breathed.

He shrugged his shoulders in response. He opened his mouth to say something but was stopped when someone came into the room. It was Dumbledore.

"Have you found him, sir?" Percy whispered.

"There's been no sign of him," Dumbledore said. "Everything okay here?"

"Yes," he replied. "Any news on the Fat Lady?"

"She was found in a map on the fifth floor - terribly frightened. We've found a temporary replacement for her while she recovers."

There was silence for a moment and then I heard the door creak open again.

"Any news, Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"He's nowhere to be found," Snape said. "The whole castle has been searched."

"Just as I expected. I couldn't imagine why he would linger around the castle after that..."

There was silence for another moment more. I tried my best to listen to every word that was said and act as though I was asleep at the same time.

"Any idea on how he might have gotten in?" Snape asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine..."

"Do you remember the discussion that we had at the start of the term?" Snape asked. "Do you think that there is a possibility that he could have helped-"

"I don't believe that any person in this castle would help Black get into it, Severus."

There was silence again and I heard what I assumed to be Dumbledore and Snape walking in my general direction. I tried my best to appear like I was sleeping. The footsteps stopped not far away from where Harry and I were sleeping.

"Do you think he's looking for them?" Snape said in a low voice.

"I would assume so...unless he just wanted to stop and visit his old school..." Dumbledore said.

"They should probably be told to watch out," Snape said. "I'm not sure about the boy, but I know the girl is constantly wandering the hallways whenever she pleases."

"Not unlike yourself, Severus," Dumbledore murmured.

They walked in the other direction and soon I couldn't hear footsteps at all.


Sirius Black was the talk of the school for the next fee days. People where coming up with several theories on how he had gotten into the school, each one as ridiculous as the next.

The replacement for the Fat Lady was just as ridiculous as the theories people were coming up with. Sir Cadogan had taken her place and he was insane. He was a knight that seemed to take everything as a challenge and would constantly change the password to the tower. It was getting to be crazy.

"I can hardly remember the passwords normally," Neville complained. "I'm doomed!"

More annoying than anything else was that Percy kept following Harry and me everywhere we went. I could hardly stand Percy to begin with, now it was just irritating.

"Is there a reason that you've been up our butts for the past few days?" I finally snapped after I caught him stalking up behind us.

"I don't know what your talking about..." he muttered and continued walking on.

Soon afterwards Harry and I were taken to the side by Professor McGonagall who looked entirely too worried.

"I know that this may come as a shock, but you both should be warned, Sirius Black is-"

"Looking for us," I said. "Probably planning out our murder as we speak..."

"We already know," Harry said. "We overheard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley talking about it."

"Oh..." she said sounding surprised. "Well, I guess that you'll understand, Mr. Potter, that I'm not going to permit you to attend evening Quidditch practices."

"What?" Harry said. "Professor, I need to practice or we'll lose!"

McGonagall looked like she was having a battle with herself as to whether or not it would be appropriate to let him practice.

"Fine, but you have to have a teacher's supervision," she said. "And Miss Potter, Professor Snape told me that you have a habit of wandering the castle and the grounds, I ask that you do not do this anymore."


I was sitting in the common room, silence throughout, doing my homework peacefully along with some others. Then Harry followed by the rest of the Quidditch team barged into the room, all seeming furious.

"What's the matter with you all?" I asked.

"Malfoy," Harry sneered. "Slytherin refuses to play us for the next game because he has a 'broken' arm."

"Wait, you never told us who were going to be playing instead," Angelina said to Oliver.

"Hufflepuff," Oliver muttered.

Everyone groaned and fell into some chairs that were around the fire.

"The conditions are going to be bad though," Oliver said. "So we have to concentrate. That, and they have a new Captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory..."

Several of the girls giggled.

"Isn't he the hot one?" I asked Katie.

"Ooh! You think he is too!" she giggled. "I think that he-"

"Ladies!" Oliver said. "Concentrate! We can't let our guard down just because you all fancy him-"

"But he's so dreamy, Oliver! How could I resist?" Fred said sarcastically.

"Shut up Fred, I was talking to them," he said pointing to the girls of the team.


The next day was crazy. I mostly walked around with Ron and Hermione because Oliver kept stopping Harry to give him tips for the game they are having tomorrow. What freaked me out the most was when I walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts and Lupin wasn't there. In his place stood Snape.

I sat down in my usual spot next to Neville and Hermione (Harry and Ron usually sat in front of us) and took all of my things out. I put my hand up into the air slowly as he looked over in my general direction.

"Yes?"

"May I ask where Professor Lupin is?"

"He's sick today and he asked me to take over the class while he recovers."

I knew better than to ask what he was sick with, so I just nodded my head. Once the final bell rang, Snape closed the door to the classroom and walked to the front of the room and looked at us all. Ron looked back at me with a worried expression on his face: Harry wasn't there. Judging on the fact that Snape had never really been that kind to Harry, I knew that this was going to be trouble.

"I am disappointed to say that I have absolutely no lesson plan for you all today. However, I do plan on teaching you, so don't get too excited-"

The door to the room burst open and Harry came into the room. He looked like he had just run here from somewhere, no doubt that it had been away from Oliver and his many pointers to the upcoming game.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor Lupin, I-" Harry looked and saw who was standing in front of the class and stopped. "You're not Professor Lupin..."

"No, I am not and I have no desire to be at the current moment," Snape said. "I would not desire to be you at the moment either Mr. Potter - ten points from Gryffindor for your tardiness. Sit down."

"But I-"

"No excuses," he said bluntly. "Another five points from Gryffindor. If you don't sit down now, I'll make it fifty."

Harry narrowed his eyes, but took his seat next to Ron. Snape then walked towards Lupin's desk where he flipped to a portion of the book that he and I both knew that we hadn't gotten to.

"Please turn to page 394," he said.

Hermione's hand flew straight up into the air and I could have sworn that I saw Snape's eyes roll.

"Please sir," she said. "We haven't made it that far yet."

"It isn't my fault that your teacher hasn't taught you the proper material at the proper rate, Miss Granger," Snape muttered. "You should be here by now."

I flipped to the page that he asked us to go to and I saw the title.

"Werewolves?" I asked.

"Yes, Miss Potter, werewolves. I'm glad that you have the ability to read."

"Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you," I said.

Snape's mouth twisted into a half-smile and he continued on with the class.

"Who in here can tell me the difference between a werewolf and a true wolf?" he asked.

As everyone expected, Hermione's hand flew into the air. As usual, he pretended to not notice Hermione's hand in the air even though she was practically waving it around in the air.

I hadn't actually read through the book yet, so I wasn't sure myself what the difference was. I assumed that a werewolf was only that way during a full moon, but I wasn't that sure.

"Anyone?" he asked with mock disappointment.

"We already told you," Parvati told him. "We haven't gotten that far-"

"Silence!" Snape shouted. "I shall inform Dumbledore on how badly Lupin has been teaching you."

"Please sir!" Hermione said. "The werewolf differs from the wolf in several small ways-"

"Five points from Gryffindor," Snape snarled. "That is the second time that you've spoken out of turn. Must you always be such an insufferable know-it-all."

Hermione put her hand down and sat back with tears in her eyes. It wasn't exactly unusual for her to be called this, but I guess it was just the way that he said it.

"Don't listen to him Hermione," I said quietly. "He obviously just has something lodged up his ass-"

"What was that Miss Potter?" Snape asked.

"Nothing at all," I said. "I was merely commenting on the weather."

His eyes narrowed and I crossed my arms in front of myself. Hermione started to weep now and Ron looked absolutely furious.

"Why do you ask questions if you don't expect an answer?" Ron said loudly. "You asked us a question and she knew it!"

"Detention!" Snape yelled. "I don't want to hear another word out of any of you."

The classroom remained silent for the rest of the period until we were finally released. He even stopped us all from leaving to tell us that we had to write an entire essay on how to identify and kill a werewolf.

This was ridiculous.


Thanks for reading! I know that this wasn't the best of chapters, but I had to keep up with all of the events that were happening in the story. I'll try to make the next chapter a little better.

By the way, I would also like to apologize for any grammar mistakes that I've made. Stupid auto-correct...

Anyway, I would love it if you all would continue to comment. I want to thank everyone who has commented in the past, I really do appreciate every one of them. :D

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