A/N: Thanks to everyone who read & reviewed the last chapter!
& to the anonymous reviewer who was wondering why Harry was such a wuss – I don't think he was, but Harry who had been brought up by the Dursleys was used to being beaten up regularly, the Harry who has been brought up by Sirius hasn't ever been in a fight before!
Harry was glad that their Defence Against the Dark Arts class only had Gryffindors in it. They followed Remus into the room and took their seats, all sat in the front two rows. Ron sat beside Harry, Neville behind them. Dean gave him a thumbs up from across the classroom and a girl with blonde hair whose name Harry couldn't remembers smiled sweetly at him. He looked away from her pointedly, wondering why in the name of Merlin girls had to exist, whilst Ron bit back his laughter. Harry aimed a kick at his friend under the table and Remus smiled at the class good naturedly before addressing them.
"Right." He said, an awkward smile on his face. Harry wondered if he was nervous to be teaching him and sat himself up straight, paying perfect attention. "Welcome to your first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson." Harry noticed everyone was sitting up and looking quite excited at the prospect of learning to defend themselves. "I'm afraid today won't be a practical lesson." He paused, but Harry wasn't sure why, his eyes lingering on each of the students for a second or two. "But we will begin looking at how to defend ourselves from various magical creatures next lesson." The class remained silent, but Uncle Moony seemed to be expecting something. Harry raised his hand when no one else did.
"Yes Harry?" He asked, looking half relieved, half worried.
"What sort of creatures?" He hoped that was the right question to ask. Uncle Moony smiled.
"We'll start simply, with bowtruckles. We'll work our way through your textbook. For today, I want you to read the first chapter of the book and make some notes. Wands away, quills out. If any of you have any questions just ask."
Harry opened his textbook for the first time and read it quietly, the only sound that could be heard for a long time was the scratching of quills until suddenly the blonde girl who had smiled at him put her hand up. The whole class looked up, curious to see what question she could have come up with, the book wasn't very difficult to understand.
"Yes?" Uncle Moony asked.
"He's Harry Potter." She said quietly, inclining her head towards Harry, who turned a pale shade of pink and hid his head behind his textbook. Remus reached over and pulled it away from his face gently, with a reassuring smile.
"Yes, I do believe he is." He said, with a wink in Harry's direction. Ron seemed to be fighting the urge to laugh again, earning himself yet another kick aimed in his direction.
"How can a baby defeat a wizard? What kind of spell is that?" Harry felt his insides churning; he didn't want to hear this conversation, he suddenly wished he was somewhere else, somewhere that Sirius was and this blonde girl wasn't. Remus frowned slightly.
"Nobody knows, Miss…?"
"Brown." The girl said. "Lavender Brown." Remus nodded.
"Any answer I could give you would be pure speculation, I'm afraid."
"Is You-Know-Who dead?" Remus opened his mouth to speak and Ron, who had stopped giggling, span around in his seat.
"Why're you so nosy?"
"What? It's not being nosy, it's to do with this class."
"S-stop it." Neville mumbled from behind them. Harry turned around in surprise. "It's n-not nice to ask questions like that w-when H-Harry's here."
"I think." Remus interrupted. "That I have found a group of Gryffindors with a penchant for trouble and confrontation. Remind me to hold off teaching you curses for as long as possible." The class groaned in displeasure. Remus laughed. "It's the first day, try not to get yourselves into too much trouble. Do we have any more questions?" Seamus put up his hand. "Mr Finnigan?"
"You ever fought any creatures, Professor?"
"Other than the normal, household ones, I'm ashamed to say, not really. I did at school, of course, and there was an incident one summer in which my school friends decided we should go camping and we came across a rather nasty hinkypunk." Harry sniggered behind his hand, imagining just whose idea the camping trip had been. Remus turned to Harry. "I don't know what is so amusing Mr Potter, I really don't."
"Nothing Professor." Harry said, hiding a grin. Hermione Granger put up her hand.
"Professor, is it true there are mermaids in the lake here?"
"Yes, it is, although they prefer to be called merpeople. Quite charming really, if you catch them in the right mood. I don't advise swimming right into their village though, especially not before I teach you about grindylows." The class continued with people asking questions about all sorts of creatures, Remus looked as though he was in his element and Harry felt very happy for him. When the class ended they had to be shuffled out of the room, none of them wanting to leave. Hermione Granger seized him by the arm, a girlish excitable look on her fact that made Harry wish Hogwarts was an all boys school.
"Harry. Do you know Professor Lupin?"
"Yes, we've just had his lesson, didn't you notice?" He hid a smile.
"No, I mean away from school." Harry shrugged and nodded and pulled his arm from her grasp, deciding that long fingernails were the work of the devil. "That's fantastic, I bet you know loads about defence against the dark arts already, don't you?"
"Not really, we just talk about normal stuff at home… Quidditch and what's for tea, that sort of thing." He let Hermione walk to the great hall with them, but he avoided letting her grab his arm again. Draco Malfoy made an obscene gesture at them from the Slytherin table as they entered. Ron made an equally rude signal with his hand in response and found himself under the disapproving glare of Percy the prefect.
Harry didn't know it as he sat down and tucked into his bangers and mash, but that evening meal was to go down in Hogwarts history. An owl flew into the room unexpectedly, brandishing a red envelope that made several people gulp. Harry heard a few whispers of things such as "it's the first day of term" and "I haven't done anything yet." Looking up, he realised the owl was Prongs. And that letter was a howler.
"Oh no!" He exclaimed. Ron, Hermione and Neville all looked at him. "That's my owl! And that's a howler. I'm dead. I'm dead. He's going to kill me. He's going to sell me to gypsies!" He mumbled under his breath. Ron clapped him on the back.
"Well, it was nice knowing you." But Prongs didn't bring the letter to Harry, it soared past the house tables towards the staff one, heading in Uncle Moony's direction. Everyone in the great hall was staring now, no teacher had ever gotten a howler before. Prongs dropped the letter in front of Remus, who looked at it with a raised eyebrow and opened it cautiously. Harry's heart was beating fast as Sirius' voice filled the room.
"I suppose you think it's FUNNY, do you Moony?! I suppose you thought half killing me and forcing me to suffer some sort of an-your-whatsit was HILARIOUS? It wasn't! It most certainly was not! And I know it was all YOUR idea! And I hope you know, Remus John Lupin, that when you get back your bedroom will be GREEN. Yes, green! You are not a genius, you are an evil tormentor! If James was here now he'd be helping me to murder you, you know that don't you, you treacherous-" here Sirius said a word that made Professor McGonagall gasp and several other teachers giving Remus disapproving looks. "And I will get my revenge on you, you underhand demon! This is war, Mr Moony, don't you forget it!" Here Sirius paused for dramatic effect and his voice softened when he spoke again. "I am, in case you hadn't noticed, extremely outraged. Despite being incredibly overjoyed at the latest development, I am OUTRAGED. I think I'll sell YOU to passing gypsies. Except, they wouldn't buy you. You smell too odd." Here Sirius seemed to realise that this howler would probably be heard by a large number of people and returned his letter to the matter in hand. "Anyway, how DARE you trick a fellow marauder? That is against the unwritten code of honour! And do not even think about referring to the pink earmuff incident of 1976 because it had nothing to do with me! Nothing! Remember, Lupin, GREEN bedroom! Oh and I hate you!" The letter burst into flames and the remains sank down onto the table in front of Remus, who looked as though he didn't know whether to be embarrassed or amused. Harry had exploded into fits of giggles and as a result received a bitter look from Remus whilst the rest of the school eventually got distracted by other things and conversation about Professor Lupin's howler from a mystery man died down, although Harry was still hearing speculation about who it was from and what it was about weeks afterwards.
A/N: Thanks for reading, please review!