I'm trying to write some longer chapters, and while getting through the year quickly, this chapter has up until Christmas. There isn't really going to be much of POA, as second years don't go to Hogsmeade, and Daniel won't be there in the shack. Please bare with me though, things will get slightly more interesting in book 4, and then I'll start the main story, book 5-7 in the next Part of the story.

"They wouldn't sack him, would they?" asked Hermione anxiously at dinner during the first week of term, she wasn't eating anything.

"They'd better not" replied Ron, who wasn't eating either

Daniel had overheard this, and being the nosy person he was, decided to ask them about it.

"Who's going to be sacked? It won't be Professor Lupin; he was brilliant earlier in class"

"Nobody will be sacked Dan" Harry answered, looking over at the Slytherins. "Malfoy's just being an arse"

"Sounds about right, what happened?" Oliver asked

"Well" Hermione began "Hagrid decided to show us a Hippogriff in Care of Magical Creatures, and Malfoy decided to insult the poor creature, and because they're really proud creatures and don't like being insulted, it reared up and swiped, catching Malfoy's arm"

"Grazing his arm more like" Ron interrupted "Anyway how did you know that Hippogriffs are proud, it has a bird brain! Surely it isn't smart enough to be proud"

"Well unlike you Ronald I actually pay attention in lessons!" Hermione huffed "And Hippogriffs are extremely proud MAGICAL creatures; most magical creatures are smart in some way Ron, not what can be said about YOU!" With that, Hermione stormed off out of the Great Hall.

"Well done Ron" Dan laughed

"What did I do?"Ron replied

"Tried to insult her intelligence maybe?" Oliver said bluntly

"No I didn't, I just said..."

"It doesn't matter what you said, you're going to apologise to her" Harry said "And Daniel, go and find your own year to talk to" With that Harry dragged Ron out of the room, leaving Daniel a little hurt by the brutality of the words Harry just said.

"What's with him?" Daniel asked

"Maybe the fact that Sirius Black is after him, his worst enemy is trying to get his favourite teacher sacked and his two best friends are at each other's throats?" Oliver laughed. Daniel just scowled at the name Sirius Black. His parents had kept awfully quiet about him, but Daniel had found out exactly what had happened. The night Voldemort attacked their house, he had gotten the address from Black, and Black was in the house at the time, let Voldemort upstairs to kill Harry, and a man called Serverus Snape, a reformed Death Eater had attempted to stop them, killing him in the process. Sirius was then in the mood to do some killing himself, so decided to destroy the weakest Marauder, Peter Pettigrew, butchering Peter and 12 muggles. All in all, Daniel didn't like Sirius Black very much.

"I blame Black" He said bluntly, before walking off, leaving Oliver staring blankly where Daniel used to be

•••••••••••••

Halloween soon came, and oddly enough for the third year running there was a disturbance within the castle. The Gryffindors were walking up to their common room, when all of a sudden there was a massive queue. Daniel and Ginny were walking together, and arrived just behind Harry and his friends.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked. At that moment, Professor Dumbledore swooped past, and headed up to the portrait, Harry, Ron and Hermione moved closer, leaving the two second years behind.

There was lots of chatter among students, and then a rumour swept around the students

"The Fat Lady isn't there?" Daniel asked

"Well where is she then?" Ginny said, puzzled

"I don't..." Daniel started, but then a cackling voice was heard

"You'll be lucky!" it said. Peeves had arrived. Dumbledore's lips were seen to be moving, and then Peeves spoke again, in a less mocking, but still as loud tone

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful. Poor Thing" He said. Everything had gone quiet so Peeves could be heard.

"Did she say who did it?" Dumbledore was barely heard

"Oh, yes, Professorhead" Peeves said most sincerely. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves did a flip and grinned from between his own legs."Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black".

That sent everyone in a frenzy, there were scared whispers everywhere until Dumbledore rose his voice. "STUDENTS PLEASE BE CALM!" He boomed. "Please make your way to the Great Hall where you will be spending the night, Head Boy, lead the way!"

With that, Percy flew in charge, ordering everybody to follow him immediately. There were still whispers around, with most people turning to look at Harry. Daniel just silently looked down at the floor scowling, it had to be Black that disrupted things.

•••••••••••••••••••

Second year was flowing through smoothly, Quidditch came up, and it was the first game Daniel had ever seen Gryffindor lose, but it was made even worse by the knowledge that Harry had fallen off his broom from around 50 feet high. Daniel was getting sick of people coming up to him and asking if Harry was ok over the next few days, he was more interested in getting his work done than to worry about a brother who had been blanking him all year.

Christmas break came quickly, and Harry again chose to stay behind. Daniel was secretly glad; it meant that he could enjoy himself with the family that he still liked at that moment in time.