It feels like an eternity since I last updated, and it probably is.. but I've just been so busy, too much drama with some relatives and if that wasn't enough I lost my furry best friend only a couple of weeks ago. While some may think 'it's just a cat', I loved that ball of fur more than anything else and he left a huge void in my life.
Enough of my problems though... and on with the Chapter!
Harry frowned as he read the parchment in his hands. It would have been nice if Dumbledore hadn't noticed until the end of the school year but it was just too good to be true. He had readied himself for this eventuality from the beginning after all.
He rose from his seat and walked to the head table where the professors where eating and politely conversing.
Coughing softly to announce his presence he spoke "Professor McGonagall. Headmaster Dumbeldore sent me a summon to his office, if you would please accompany me as my head of house and call my godfather to be present for the meeting .."
"Why do you need your godfather Mr. Potter?" she asked frowning "and I see no reason to participate myself either. I have a class in fifteen minutes young man. You are old enough not to be led by the hand by now"
He pursed his lips at her lack of interest. The woman was supposed to always be available to her students and assist them, not dismiss them like this.
"Your indifference to your own house never fails to astonish me, Minerva. I wonder how your less famous charges fare in your care." Severus sneered "if you had taken the time to get your head out of Dumbledore's ass you would have known that for decree of the Ministry and the governors, our esteemed" he put as much sarcasm as possible in the word "headmaster is not allowed to have meeting with any student, especially Mr Potter, without the presence of their head of house. In Mr Potter's case, the presence of his guardian is also required."
"I.. Mr Potter should have told me so from the beginning" she tried to save herself
"It was not his responsibility to inform you, but your responsibility and duty to know beforehand" he snapped. Flitwick kept himself out of the argument but couldn't help but nod in agreement to his male colleague. As much as she was a good teacher, he didn't share the way she managed her house. He was a firm believer in being as close and as involved as possible with the care of his ravens.
"Since you are unable to meet your responsibilities it seems, I will escort Mr Potter to his meeting in your place, as loath as I am to be in the same room as Black" he continued sneer firmly in place.
"Thank you Professor Snape" Harry said neutrally "I will wait for you to be finished by my table"
"Come Mr Potter." Snape snapped walking out of the great hall, cloak billowing after him. He led them to his office in the dungeons, silence hanging heavy around them.
Once inside he put up privacy wards and motioned for Harry to sit while he threw some powder in the fireplace and called Grimmauld Place.
"Hello Remus. Could you send Sirius through? The old goat summoned Harry for a meeting, we are waiting in my office for him to come" he said briskly before seating himself at his desk waiting for the mutt to come.
"You look a bit pale, Harry" the man frowned "take some tea and try to eat a couple of biscuits. You didn't eat nearly enough at the breakfast table"
"I know, Sev. This morning the nausea had been a bit worse than usual, I'm afraid I'm going to be sick again if I eat more than a few bites" he sighed sipping the warm vanilla tea.
"I can give you a couple of drops of anti-nausea potion" he said carefully adding the concoction to his tea "It's safe for the baby but I find that most women abuse of the potion to get rid of the nausea completely, leading to other side effects"
"Thank you." He smiled before eagerly grabbing a cookie.
The fire flared alerting them of Sirius arriving "What happened? Is Harry alright?"
"I'm fine dad. Calm down and take a deep breath" he said munching on his fifth cookie.
Severus made a quick work of informing the man of what happened and the words he shared with Minerva.
"I can't believe her. She was a bit negligent with us when I attended but at the time I didn't really notice and with the war going on.. now though I can't believe it got to this point. I wonder if she even knows her lions" Sirius sighed
"I could never stand to neglect my snakes in such a way" Severus shook his head.
"Until I became friends with the others, I had no idea that her behavior was wrong or that the other Heads of House were so involved with their students" Harry said "all the times I went to her for help and she turned me away… makes me regret not allowing the hat to put me in Slytherin"
Severus chocked on his tea in synch with Sirius "You what?" he asked coughing
"I should have been one of your snakes, had I not met Malfoy that is.. " he said blinking.
"Salazar.." the man muttered "I would have white hair by now.."
"No.. I like to think that I would not behaved so recklessly had I been a snake and that you would have noticed I was being drugged, saving me a lot of problems"
"Maybe you have too much faith in my abilities"
"I don't think so"
Sirius coughed awkwardly "Have we made the goat wait enough, you say?"
"I would say so. He sent his summon nearly an hour ago" Severus smirked, mirrored by the younger raven.
"Let's go then. The quicker we deal with it the sooner I can go back home and get ready for my date" the man grinned goofily thinking of his beautiful nurse.
"Enter" came the voice from behind the door. "Harry, my boy. I was starting to think that you didn't get my summon" Albus smiled grandfatherly, only for it to falter as he saw Severus and Sirius follow inside the office after the boy.
"Headmaster" Severus nodded "we had to wait for Black to grace us with his presence, first. And of course I had to give up my free period to babysit Potter since Minerva couldn't be bothered by it and the board of governors wouldn't let precious Potter come by himself"
Harry never failed to be amazed by how easily Severus was able to fall into his sneering persona, especially after the pleasant time they had spent together during the holidays.
"Ah, there was no need for it I assure you. You shouldn't have disturbed Sirius"
"That is not for you to decide, Dumbledore. You are not allowed anywhere near my godson without myself present, unless you want a one way ticket to Azkaban." Sirius drawled glaring at the man "Now, tell us the reason of your summon. I don't have time to waste with your little meetings and Harry should be in class with his friends"
"Of course" he said, trying to hide the anger "I have come to know about this little ..Defence Club" he said holding the papers about it "it's a pity that it can't be continued"
"Why not?" Harry asked frowning
"You see my boy.."
"That's Mr Potter for you Headmaster" Sirius snapped
"Mr Potter, then. I have not given my permission to create it and as such it needs to be disbanded. I will close an eye this time and not give out any detentions for it" Dumbledore was already sure of his success. Of course in his mind he didn't count for Sirius or Severus to be present for the meeting or interfere in any way.
"The Deputy Headmistress has the power to grant permission to form clubs in the headmaster's stead, as stated by the Hogwarts charter." Harry said "Professor McGonagall approved the Defence Club before we started it of course so I don't see where the problem is or why we should disband"
"Be that as it may, you will have to.."
"Also" he continued "correct me if I'm mistaken, but the board of governors took away your decisional power after this summer's trial and to disband the club you would need the consent of all four head of houses or take the matter in front of the board itself. In fact, Professor McGonagall would have been the one to give her approval even if you had known about it before and not months after its creation" he recited "but we can always take the matter to the board if really want to disband the Club, I'm sure they will be happy to help us with this little problem"
"Mr. Potter mind your manners or it will be detention for you" the man fumed
"Again, you can't give detentions to my godson, headmaster" Sirius was really enjoying this "Now, is there a real problem apart from your hurt ego and unstoppable need to poke your big nose in my son's affairs? Otherwise I will be forced to file a complaint to the board" he threatened.
"That's all" Albus ground out, willing himself to keep his calm and now throw a tantrum worthy of a five year old.
"Good. Let's go Harry, maybe you're still in time to catch the end of your first class" Sirius drawled, looking every inch like a disgusted pureblood in front of a muggle.
Severus watched them go sneering "I told you, you've been spoiling the brat too much Albus. Now he's out of control and that mutt is only going to encourage him further"
"I know Severus, but don't worry .. Everything will go back to normal soon, I'll make sure of it" the headmaster said, his mask firmly in place "I trust I can count on your help when the time comes, but for now you're free to go my boy"
Sirius and Harry were waiting for him in front of his quarters. With a nod and a whispered word he opened the portrait and ushered them in.
"The nerve of that goat fucking old manipulator!" Sirius screamed
"Calm down Black" Severus drawled going for his liquor cabinet "here take some whiskey and sit down"
"I'm sorry.. he just.. makes me so unbelievably mad"
"You and a lot of other people" Harry muttered "if I wasn't so keen on keeping my status as owner of the castle a secret I would just boot him out but he would be even more of a nuisance away from here, if we can't keep an eye on him"
"That is most certainly true. And even if he lost the majority of his fame and supporters, he still has followers that would do the unthinkable for him" Severus said pursing his lips.
"Like the Weasleys.." Sirius grumbled "I wonder why only four of their children have a mind of their own"
"Because the younger two don't have enough of a brain to properly follow orders let alone think for themselves" Harry supplied with an evil smirk
"Careful, Potter. One might think you're going Slytherin on us" Severus said with a small quirk of his lips
"I may have been spending too much time with you.." he nodded
"Well.. time for you to go back to class Bambi, Severus I'm sure has students to terrorize and I have a date waiting for me.. so, see you soon" the Lord Black grinned before bouncing to the fireplace
By the time February came Harry was once again in good mood. The Defence Club was making huge progress which was shown in the mid-year tests, making a record for the higher number of E and O awarded; while normally only less than half of the class would have such good grades, this time only less than five students per class had lower marks. He was incredibly proud of his students.
His morning sickness was nearly gone, making him chipper in the mornings, and he was also starting to show a tiny baby bump as the third month of pregnancy started. When he wasn't fussing about it himself, the twins were all over it, stroking, cooing and petting the slight roundness in his abdomen. It was an adorable sight and Harry loved it.
He spoke regularly with Sirius and Nym, their relationships with Eve and Remus were going great and he was thrilled about that. Moony and his big sister were just too cute together and the man really needed a bit of cheer in his life, something Tonks had in abundance.
Sirius instead already looked more at peace now that he had someone to love and to love him, the young nurse treated Sirius with patience and understanding for the difficulties he went through. She knew that Azkaban and the new attack left scars on the man and that he still needed some healing to do, but that never scared her instead made more determined to be the one to support him when in need and encourage him. Harry had a heart to heart talk with her before going back to school and she confessed that she could easily see a future with Sirius, something that really wanted to make into reality, so he was reassured in leaving his godfather in her hands.
Every time he was free he would work on his powers and he was now fairly good in controlling his fire and lightning abilities, shadows were still a bit unstable but he was getting there. His illusions were now second nature for him and instead of using a glamour on his tails and ears he would just lay an illusion on himself. It was less magic consuming, he didn't need to concentrate to keep it up all through the day unlike the glamour that could fall if he lost his grip on it, and it could not be broken in any way. The only way one could look underneath it was if Harry willed it so. All his friends and his mates could easily see his fox features all day but no one else. It was amusing to see his female friends look at his ears and tails with longing wanting to pet them and try to contain themselves lest they look crazy for petting air. Fred and George too had to be reminded every once in a while that they couldn't stroke his tails in public because they did it without thought.
"Harry! Harry!" Neville screamed as he run inside the common room banging the portrait hard against the wall.
"Nev. What's wrong?" he asked sitting up from the couch where he was resting while the twins studied beside him.
"You need to help her!" the blond boy pleaded coming nearer
"Who? Calm down and explain. You aren't making any sense" he demanded forcing his friend to sit next to him
"Luna!" he exclaimed "She…she was in the great hall explaining some dada stuff to a younger raven and Umbitch gave her detention. You need to do something Harry, she will hurt Luna.."
"What makes you say that?" Angelina asked sitting next to them and trying to comfort the distraught boy
"You didn't see the look in her eyes. She wants to hurt her!"
Harry frowned darkly. Taking a calming breath he turned to his best friend who looked ready to cry from the frustration and worry by now. "Nev. Neville look at me. I need you to calm down. I will go and help Luna now meanwhile I want you to go to our room and take my two way mirror, you know where I keep it. Call Sirius, tell him what happened and to floo over immediately. Can you do that for me?"
Neville nodded frantically.
"Good. Fred, George. You're coming with me" He said before marching off the common room.
He walked as fast as he could, without running, towards the defence teacher's office. He knew he had so save Luna but he also needed to catch Umbitch doing something wrong if he wanted her out of the castle for good. He just hoped she wouldn't hurt his little sister too bad and that she would forgive him for not stopping her immediately.
He knew he was quite a sight to see, storming over the corridors anger clear in his Avada Kedara eyes, flanked by two equally enraged Weasley twins.
When they reached the office he raised his hand and spoke to his snake bracelet "Go inside, tell me what is happening to my friend"
"Yes, master" the snake hissed. Once Harry had kneeled on the ground and lowered his hand on the floor the snake unwound its metal body from his wrist and slithered under the door.
A few moments later the little reptile emerged again from behind the door "the two legged toad is having the sunshine girl write lines… but I can smell blood master. Sunshine girl is hurt"
Harry growled angrily and literally blasted the door open.
"What do you think you're doing you insolent child!" Umbridge screeched "Have you no manners? That will be a week's worth of detentions Mr Potter" she said smugly
"I don't think so" he deadpanned before turning to Luna. Seeing the state of her hand he could feel his canines and nails sharpening in anger "You'll pay for that" he growled before firing off an overpowered stunner at the woman that knocked her unconscious and threw her hard against the wall.
"Come here, Lu. I'm so sorry I didn't come sooner" he soothed the bleeding girl encasing her safely in his arms.
"It's alright big brother. I knew you were coming and if this can make sure she can't hurt anyone else, then you're forgiven" she murmured softy kissing his cheek.
Once Sirius arrived along with Augusta Longbottm, member of the board of Governorns and Chief Witch of the Wizengamot, and Amelia Bones; all of them were enraged that the woman tried to use a blood quill to torture the students of the school.
Of course that was another black mark on Dumbledore's reputation since he knew nothing of that and didn't prevent Umbridge from taking a dark artifact inside the school.
The toad was quickly arrested and shipped off to an holding cell in the ministry awaiting for trial, before Harry changed idea and just killed her off for hurting a member of his family.
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