Sirius couldn't wait to get his chapter going, he was surprised how much he missed reading this.

"I would expect nothing less of them," James smirked.

"I wonder who won all the previous tournaments," Remus' eyes sparked with interest, wishing he'd done more than just heard some passing stories about this.

"I know that Beauxbatons won 62 times, while Hogwarts 63," Harry prattled off, then gave a shrug and said, "don't tell me you're surprised Hermione knows random facts about this thing."

That gave them all a laugh as they agreed.

"They don't change that in between years," Lily sighed, "you're stuck with them until your fifth year ends at least."

For some reason this didn't seem to make Harry feel any better.

Both Harry and Sirius felt a chill creep up their spine, their last experience with that class hadn't ended well.

"Including-" Remus began in amazement but Sirius kept going loudly,

"Well alright then," he chuckled as he leaned back.

"Especially since it doesn't even get you out of homework," James grumbled.

"Still wishing I had," Harry huffed, that prophecy had done him a lot more harm than good at the end.

Sirius though caught on something else as he yelped, "hey, she's eating again."

"Couldn't really see her holding out that no food grudge forever," Remus snorted.

"Is it still too late to do that?" Harry sighed.

"You'd have to take it up with McGonagall," Lily shrugged. "Have a valid reason for switching, which I suppose harassment by a teacher repetitively telling you you're going to die counts."

"Hermione had so many extra classes last year she wouldn't have had to give one," James added on thoughtfully.

Harry sighed, wishing he had done something about this, but still couldn't seem to shake that feeling that he may be grateful someday he kept up with Trelawny.

"Well that to," Remus agreed, knowing she wouldn't admit to that.

This time even Sirius couldn't keep up the bravado that everything was fine. Time had been hedging on so long, he really was starting to get a 'walk over your grave' type of feeling the longer he went without answering. Still, he was thankful he was the one reading, as his managing to keep going was a reminder to the others he was just fine now.

"No offense to Hedwig, but I like that answer better than something having happened to Sirius," Remus murmured under his breath, to which Lily couldn't help but agree with.

"Gross," Sirius said extra loudly, catching everyone's eye with a hard glint telling them to drop it, no need to make a fuss until real evidence showed up.

James cracked first, nodding along and saying, "agreed, one of the worst Herbology classes, those thing should be classified as a punishment."

"Were great for a little surprise though," Remus added on more heavily than he meant to, but at least he'd tried. Sirius still gave him a winning smile and ignored how they still kept watching him a little too closely.

Lily snorted in surprise, flexing her hand in disgust at the thought, but upon contemplation she could see where Harry was coming from.

"Oh, but it has so many more uses," Sirius sighed with an old smile the others knew far too well.

"None that need to be shared right now," Lily said pointedly to a very curious Harry who loved hearing their old stories.

James pouted at her, as he loved nothing more than sharing with his son all the mischief he'd gotten up to at school, but Sirius went back to his reading anyways.

"Ooh," Lily coed.

"Really would have been best if she'd tried asking for help with that first," Remus grimaced in agreement.

Harry did a double take in surprise. He'd never seen her as far as he knew, but surely any acne couldn't have been that bad?

"Brilliant," James beamed, "he's clearly moved on from those worms."

"Glad to hear it," Sirius nodded on with high curiosity, "as we know he can do better."

"This should be fun," Remus chuckled, his mind already spinning on what could be in there.

Harry's first instinct was to disagree, a feeling already rising in him saying he did not like whatever this was at once.

"I know one that doesn't give a rat's ass," Lily muttered.

Harry watched them all expectantly, but was surprised to find no one here recognized the name. This only managed to increase his unease, but still he asked in normal tones, "so, no fun facts about this?"

"I've no idea what they are," Remus shrugged, his brow wrinkling up showing his displeasure at that statement.

"Maybe something newly discovered," Sirius offered, sounding even more interested now.

"Well that was, fascinating," Lily got out, not really sure how else to put it. She certainly wasn't drawn to, whatever those were, and they hardly sounded like anything she wanted to be around.

"Those really do sound interesting," Remus agreed without the sarcasm. "For some odd reason though, they sound like a cross between manticores and fire crabs."

"Oh come on Remus," Sirius chuckled, "I'm sure it's just something newly discovered. Can you imagine those two things breeding?"

Remus agreed it was a laughable idea, those had just been the first two things he'd thought of that they resembled, but it must be something else.

"Plus, I like to think Hagrid's done enough illegal stuff for a while," James muttered.

"That sounds, fun," James said, trying his hardest for some enthusiasm, though he couldn't deny he would have enjoyed the thought more if any of them actually knew what those things were.

"That's encouraging," Lily snorted, unable to stop her mind spinning slightly why Hagrid would hesitate on this. Shouldn't he know that kind of answer before he started the class? She liked Hagrid of course, but she really was beginning to wonder how well adept at teaching he was.

"In other words, he has no idea," Remus sighed.

"Please tell me I'm the only one getting a bad feeling about this," Sirius frowned. "Someone tell me they're not thinking what I am."

None of them could though, as the longer this carried on, they were starting to wonder just how new this discovered species was.

"And it's still getting worse," Lily grumbled.

"I'll take the pus, at least I know what it is" Lily sighed.

"Least they can't bite Ron like that," Sirius happily offered.

"Guess they can still pinch though," James gave a weak smile.

The boys really couldn't suppress some surprised laughter at his expense, anyone getting burned by a creatures butt would be laughed at.

"Well this is just wonderful," Lily sighed, running her hand through her hair while her eyes continued narrowing in suspicion.

"They're getting better by the second," Sirius agreed mildly.

"I'd love to give you one," James snarked. "Let it loose in the Slytherin common room."

"I don't find that a valid point," Sirius shivered.

"I do, though it saddens me Hermione had to make Hagrid's point," Lily shrugged.

"We know she needs to get her word in, she probably just beat him to the punch," James offered.

"Again," all five of them muttered with unhappy remembrance.

"Dragons are fairly small when they first hatch," Remus sighed, "that doesn't mean how big they'll grow."

"You are not helping," Lily scolded.

"Neither's Hermione," James snorted.

"Well there's that," Sirius gave a laugh.

"Harsh," Remus said in surprise.

"This coming from the girl who's jumping to every conclusion possible about house-elves, you'd think she'd give these little things a chance," James agreed.

"Guess she was really hungry," Sirius raised a brow in surprise.

Harry was getting a feeling, like he knew there was a reason in particular Hermione would be in such a hurry to eat, but didn't press it and instead remained as confused as the rest of them.

"That would be more insulting than helpful," James scoffed, "she must know that."

Sirius pretended to retch over the side of the sofa at having so many vile vegetables in your mouth at once.

"Aw, I think she missed her real best friend," Remus snickered.

"Has that ever actually stopped her before?" Lily snorted.

"I don't suppose since she was so insanely wrong last year about you dying, she'll quit this year?" Sirius asked without any real hope.

"I wouldn't hold your breath," Harry sighed.

"Every student in that school could be considered preoccupied about something," Lily scoffed.

"That was so vague, it wouldn't matter what happened, she'd claim credit for it," Remus rolled his eyes.

"Isn't this what the centaurs do?" James asked with only vague curiosity, just trying to get her talking to stop for a moment.

"I think it's more elaborate," Sirius shrugged, he really only had the faintest idea like the rest of them, "but yeah, something similar."

All four of them couldn't help but laugh at that, none of them could blame him one bit as they'd been hoping her little speech would be cut off soon as well.

Harry had an unhappy little frown on his face again at the thought of that. He knew that she was in fact a real Seer, and she'd made quite a few right predictions last year no matter her agitating personality. What if this was one of them? The thing he was most currently dreading happened to be something would happen to Sirius, but that couldn't be it, right?

That caught them all up with Harry's line of thinking, and Sirius couldn't help but lose a few shades of color in shock. He had been the first to believe in this woman's real power, and he'd regretted it ever sense as she continued to somehow manage to make his life hell because of it. There was no way that she was right about this though, he was fine! He had to be, for Harry's sake as well as his own. He knew he'd never forgive himself if something did happen to him, and he'd be virtually leaving Harry on his own again. Until he had concrete proof from this stupid little text that something had happened to him, he smothered that terrible fear and put on a confident smile for the others, feeding the line, "ah, the old quack is just winding you up pup. You know she'd love nothing more than to see she'd gotten under your skin."

Harry gave him a brave smile, but none of that even began to erase their worry which would linger until the moment Sirius' name was cleared.

Lily longed for the days where she'd believed that.

Yeah, that was about where all of their suspicions were coming from as well.

"He had much more important things to be thinking about," Sirius said with as much pompousness as he could put into his tone.

"You think you're more important than Merlin himself," Lily said halfheartedly with none of her usual ire.

Sirius gave her a winning smile which she couldn't help but roll her eyes at.

"That's genetics you beanbag," James snorted.

"I fault that to nutrition," Lily scathed under her breath, knowing that while James had been scrawny in his youth, he would have shot up by this age point, while Harry still seemed to be lacking due to his home life.

"Which is always a loving reminder," Sirius got out through gritted teeth.

All five of them began laughing without remorse at that. Considering all the right predictions she'd made, it was nice to see her be so utterly wrong about this when none of them could still take a lingering eye off of Sirius.

"He's more restraint than we do," James got out, still laughing so hard at least they were sure that's what he'd said.

"Probably means you're going to visit the ocean or something," Remus snorted.

Sirius was starting to list against the arm of the couch he was laughing so hard, still blinking as fast as he could to try and keep himself going even while doing so.

At least Lily tried to suppress her humor at that one, juvenile as it was, but the joke had been so unexpected she wasn't doing too well.

"Nah, I'll bet she'd have done that even if you did fawn over her," Remus rolled his eyes.

"She seems as strict as McGonagall, without the intentional fun side," James nodded in agreement.

"There's James proof to back it up," Sirius said without remorse. He'd been longing since the first book just to hear about something as mundane as Harry getting extra homework, so despite his pup's put out look, he was going to yuk this up as long as possible.

"Wishing more and more I'd taken Arithmancy," Harry grumbled.

"Just keep walking," Lily said hopefully.

"And miss the opportunity to hear what he's got to say," James demanded, pretending to look faint at the idea. "Whatever would he do with himself then?"

"Well this can't be good," Remus frowned.

"Hasn't always been bad," Sirius countered back with a small twist of his own lips.

"Now they're just being insulting," James sneered at the misuse of Arthur's name.

"It should hardly be considered credible if they can't even keep their own simple fact like a name straight," Lily nodded.

"Wish you were!" Harry seethed, tensing up more every line Sirius read.

"He was asked to come onto that scene!" Lily spat in outrage. "Who the bloody hell is this woman to be saying all of this horrid stuff, what's she have against Arthur?"

"It's not just him," Remus reminded with an ugly look in place, "she's had a go at Bill, remember? They said the whole of the Curse Breakers, but the fact that he was specifically mentioned pops."

"So what's she have against the Weasleys," Sirius sighed.

"Nothing as far as I know," Harry grumbled, "at least Ron's never said anything, so maybe even he doesn't know."

"Maybe Arthur turned her down in school or something, and she's getting revenge," James offered with an almost amused smirk.

"If she's that petty then she's being sad, and you're depressing me," Lily rolled her eyes, flicking her fingers at Sirius to convince him to keep going.

Sirius did not look remotely pleased to have said such a horrid thing, but hoped dearly Harry and Ron would get him back enough that he didn't stop amongst the protest around him.

Harry's face flushed bright red in hatred, despising anyone speaking about Mrs. Weasley like that.

"You're killing me Harry," James groaned, he wanted to see that brat cursed already!

"Couldn't say, nobody would notice but an f'ing little shit like you!" Remus growled.

"I really wish you would stop doing that," Sirius snarled.

Harry had to take a deep breath to answer without shouting, "we were in front of the Great Hall, teachers everywhere, I didn't want to see him end up in detention without even getting proper revenge."

"Sometimes it's worth it," Remus huffed.

"Brilliant dear," Lily made sure he heard her praise amongst the gale of laughter.

Harry didn't look as pleased as he normally would have at his mother's words, he was still too wrung up about why he'd had to throw that insult.

"Can't take what you dish out?" James sneered.

"Typical of his kind," Sirius nodded.

"He tried to curse you, when you were turning around?" Lily snarled.

"Can't say I'm surprised after all the dirty things he's done," Sirius grimaced with disgust, thankful that he'd missed and now Harry would have a chance to retaliate.

James went wide-eyed in surprise, wondering who else had stepped in.

Sirius wasn't sure he'd read that right. He sat there gaping down at the book for several long moments before his eyes convinced his brain he'd really just read the most wondrous fact he could.

Then the others caught on, and all five of them were leaning back into their seating they were laughing so hard.

Only after several minutes did it vaguely subside, and Remus gasped out, "well, no one could say he didn't have that coming."

"A ferret-" James wheezed, "of all the, oh that's so perfect I couldn't have done better!"

Lily collected herself next, smoothing out her hair from her face but still unable to shake the smile this caused. Malfoy was an arrogant little thing who'd thrown the first punch, at Harry's back. No way could she find anything to protest in his getting this treatment.

Sirius got his breath back last, his eyes still watery from laughing so hard, and not sounding like he cared one jot.

"Cool," Sirius chirped, the more he heard about that thing the more it sounded like a pretty good compensation for losing an eye.

"He can see out of the back of his own head with that?" Lily asked with mild disgust.

"Can see how that can come in handy though," Remus' grin widened as all the possibilities of this came to mind.

James got a smile in place of agreement before anyone noticed otherwise, but the second Sirius turned back it slipped away again to be replaced with confusion and concern. He just couldn't picture this in his head no matter how fascinating the idea.

"Oh I hope you follow," Sirius begged Harry. "I would pay my weight to see that thing going to Snape, and him trying to figure out what it is!"

Harry gave another light laugh, but somehow got the feeling that wasn't what had happened.

Causing the boys another round of ungraceful laughter, while Lily's brows shot up in surprise. She wasn't going to say anything about transfiguring him like that, though he was a teacher she reflected and wished he'd show better. But the physical violence was pushing what was called for in this situation.

"Oh come on Lily Flower," James wheedled when he caught sight of her expression. "You know Malfoy deserves this."

"I'm not arguing that," Lily shook her head with a small frown still in place, "but he could really hurt him doing that."

"You worry too much," Sirius scoffed, "you must know Moody won't cause him a permanent injury, just show him a bit of what a waste of space he is."

Lily still couldn't wipe away her concern, but Sirius moved on like she'd agreed with him anyways.

"I wonder if that might be how he got one of his injuries," Remus considered.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Sirius shrugged.

"Though he has always been against cowardice like that move," James pointed out.

Lily sighed as she ran her hand up and down her face, did Sirius have to sound so indulgent as he said all of that.

"I sincerely hope this did teach him a lesson," Remus nodded in agreement, only managing to increase Lily's consternation when Harry nodded as if in agreement.

"Why is she always carrying so many books around?" Harry asked out of the blue. "She can't have that much time to read."

"She does some other stuff besides teach," Lily happily explained, more than pleased at this change of topic while the boys looked mildly annoyed they'd been distracted from this perfect moment, and now McGonagall was likely going to ruin it altogether. "I know she submits essays and some opinion pieces to the Ministry on a few of the problems the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes division has. I'm sure most of those are for research, though like Hermione I wouldn't be too surprised if she did have just a fun reading novel mixed in there."

"You two get to talking about the weirdest things," James snickered when Harry looked like he was fixing to return with something.

Lily gave him a sharp glare, he was one to talk, but Sirius kept reading loudly to get back on track.

"Doesn't even-" which was all Remus could get out before he started laughing again, though forcing himself to be quite enough Sirius would keep going.

"Isn't it obvious?" James raised a brow at her, thinking she usually caught on faster than that.

"He's just helping out a fellow student," Sirius quickly nodded in agreement as if McGonagall were standing in front of them now.

"Well he's not wrong," Harry smirked.

Cracking up all of the boys again, who started snickering like idiots in Lily's opinion. She was watching them indulgently now though, unable to stop her own spark of amusement now that she knew this wasn't going to progress further. At least McGonagall had always been quick on the uptake.

"Not even going to try-" James got out before he was holding his sides in laughter again.

"Her reaction's my favorite part," Harry got out, starting to gasp a bit he'd been laughing so hard.

"Aw, she's such a killjoy," Sirius pouted down at the pages, even though he was trying for a sad tone at their fun being gone, it still wasn't getting rid of his amusement one jot.

Lily gave a sad sigh, wishing McGonagall had checked to see if Malfoy had an injury or anything.

"Oh yes, just a little side not, right along with don't slip Veritaserum into their morning breakfast," Lily snorted.

"Wish you could get away with stuff like that," James said, "it would have made Moony's time there a lot more interesting."

Remus didn't even bother to look abashed.

"Well he definitely got that," Sirius crowed with triumph.

"Not effective, and a nuisance," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Taking house points away seems to work best," Harry offered.

"For those who cared," James snorted.

"I swear you could make a recording of him doing that, make him disappear, and no one would know the difference," Sirius snickered.

"I'm hoping Moody wasn't the one investigating him on the charges of being a Death Eater," Remus sighed, "otherwise I'd be really disappointed he couldn't find anything."

"And we know Moody can't be bribed out of whatever he would have found," Sirius nodded in agreement, "so I'm with you, hopefully he just tried at his trial or something and couldn't get through."

Lily sadly remembered a time where she would have felt upset at the way this news was delivered, making it perfectly obvious to anyone in the know that he was referring to Snape as a Death Eater as well in that instance, but that ship had sailed long ago.

"I can't believe McGonagall let them go," Harry chuckled. "He may just drag Malfoy out of sight and transfigure him into a slug next."

"We can only hope," Sirius nodded in agreement.

"He's probably still trying to find where he left his breath at," James snickered, "I know I am."

"I want to get that on a t-shirt," Sirius groaned, unable to believe he could still keep laughing as his head would likely fall off soon, but his body was trying.

"That's the best moment of his life?" Lily snorted. "Poor boys got a long way to go then."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sirius scoffed at her, "I'd make the best patronus in the world with that memory!"

"What on earth is she up to?" Remus demanded, mildly disappointed they had finally seemed to step off the topic of the ferret.

"Something to do with house-elves I'd presume," Lily said with much more curiosity, she knew she'd like to hear about this.

"Here's hoping Harry doesn't go and check," Sirius sighed.

"I get a feeling Harry had a better lesson from him than you," James beamed.

"Aw, it's okay Moony, he didn't really mean it," Sirius told Remus with an amused smirk.

Remus rolled his eyes at the teasing, he hadn't taken that personally.

"Those three sound like you three," Lily smiled. "Honestly, he's not the only Auror in the world."

"But he is one of the best," James countered at once.

"He comes from a whole family of Aurors," Sirius added on, "so he's known what he's doing since he was in diapers."

"And he clearly gets results," Remus shrugged, "I wouldn't bet against him in a fight."

Lily started snickering when she realized they'd just proved her point, but wasn't going to pursue it.

"I feel like that's the first time Ron's ever said anything about a class like that," Harry laughed as Sirius handed the book to him.