James was grumpy but Sirius was fairly certain he'd get over it. Their entire Sunday ended up taken up by trying to do research on the Sorting Ceremony and figuring out what would be the best way to write an essay that none of them wanted to write. James suggested they all just copy one essay written by one of them but that idea was violently and quickly dismissed by the vast majority, including an outraged Severus who looked ready to tear into the boy but whose face just went red when it became clear that the head librarian was very much watching them. Remus had to calmly reminded James that the professor had specifically told them not to do that, and thus doing so would be disastrous. Sirius could see James' point, the boy had been practically vibrating with the wish to go outside and check out Quidditch practice again, and with all the things they'd experienced and dealt with in the days following their assignment it was understandable he had forgotten. But it didn't change the fact that it was a stupid suggestion.

In the end though they did succeed; Peter sat, trying to read Beedle the Bard while James whined and huffed through his essay, one of the last to finish but surrounded by friends who kept trying to help him, he managed to finish long before nightfall. But as the group made their way to the Quidditch pitch, chasing after an excitable and riled up James, they found it still too late. Practice was over and thus the boy was still annoyed the following day.

Sirius sighed and watched as his friend slumped into his seat in Defense Against the Dark Arts, muttering under his breath and resting his head on his hands on the desk. Lily glanced over his shoulder over at Sirius but only got a shrug in response; there really wasn't anything to be done he supposed, he'd stop moping sooner or later. Until then they had class and they'd just have to stick around him; god knew what his mood would be like if his friends started really ignoring him while he was grumpy like this.

"This is our first Defense Against Dark Arts class," Peter squeaked practically vibrating; he leaned forward from his seat behind Sirius and looked at him and James, "What kind of things do you think we'll learn today?"

"Probably the same as what we learned on our first day of Potions class and History of Magic and Herbology," Remus said pulling out parchment for notes, "Nothing outside of what the teacher expects of us and maybe some practical demonstrations of a few spells we'll be learning this year."

"The professor is new to the school, right?" Lily inquired and glanced around, perhaps taking tally of the other students, maybe just nervous, "I wonder what happened to the previous one."

"Retirement probably; I mean most of the teachers stick around for a while right?" Sirius said and stretched, "Though Professor Binns is still around and he's actually dead so who actually knows."

Something tugged at the back of his mind, another of those memories only half formed and drifting in the mist of his future past; he had gone to keep Remus company again the previous night but had found himself curled up with the werewolf instead of playing games, the two taking a nap together. It had been another close call for him to get past the adults when morning started to come but the small amount of rest was just enough to keep his mind working and prevent the mixture of past, present and future. This meant that unlike yesterday Sirius could actually tell the difference between the things the man he'd been remembered and the things that were happening around him right in the moment: less panic, less fear, less anger and madness. Looking to Lily and James and Remus and Peter he made the mental resolution again that he had to make sure to change that future.

"What do we know about the new teacher?" Peter asked and poked James who huffed and turned his head away, "Hey James, come on; aren't you interested?"

"Stop poking me, Peter," James snapped and tried to swat at the boy who frowned in response.

Sirius sighed and put an arm around James. "Okay Grumpy Gus, no need to snap. The boy just was asking a question."

"He was touching me and so are you." There was something there but Sirius was not about to give in now; he doubled down, hugging the other boy closer.

"Yes I am." There was a growl but no violence; James tried to pull away but Sirius refused to be defeated so easily and hugged him even tighter. This caused whines and more growls and James to try and shove Sirius' face away with complaints.

Sirius was sure they were being stared at but it was becoming pretty much normal for them. Since the Sorting Incident, and especially after yesterday's Howler, the quintet that was the five Gryffindors was often the object of attention. When Severus was with them it was even worse, like the six of them were a sideshow; it was thankful he wasn't there then since Sirius was aware of how annoyed it made him to feel the stares on them.

"Let me go," James demanded and pushed on Sirius again, only to get a nasty grin and Sirius' face rubbed against his, "Bloody hell!"

"I won't let go until you smile, Jamesy~"

"I will hex you you maniac!"

"Do you even know any hexes?" Peter asked, getting a glare from James; the mousey boy actually chuckled in response, covering his mouth to try in vain to hide his smile.

"I highly doubt he does," Remus said shaking his head.

"Do you plan on going through the entire class like that?" Hakumei asked, looking over from her seat beside Lily, who was shaking her head with a light smile; the silver haired girl was smiling too, an eyebrow raised at the boys.

"If James doesn't smile then yes, yes I will," Sirius said confidently.

"You can't make me!" The messy haired boy wiggled, just making him laugh more and cuddle his friend more. "Let me go, let me go, let me go, let me go!"

"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter." That voice. Sirius knew that voice. He froze up as he heard it from behind him and immediately turned to look up, finding himself staring at the face of the red head from the Sorting Ceremony and realizing that the eye that was visible was a similar gray to his own. The professor gave the slightest of smiles and hooked his hands behind his back as he regarded the two students, "I am glad to see you two are so close but perhaps you could save this for after class?"

Sirius dropped his arms and James grumbled some before shoving him, albeit gently. Sirius did not pay it much mind. He didn't pay any of them much mind, outside of the man before him, the teacher. Who spoke with a voice he knew; he'd only heard it a few times before but despite being a dog at the time, it still clung to his memory. The image of the hooded figure, the strange hypnotic crystal that had hung around their neck, the way they chuckled as he had growled at them; he had seen them again after the first night, always right as he needed to get back to the dorm after a long night with Remus. And every time they carried him up the stairs, chuckled, told him to be careful. But here it was again, coming from the one who they had talked about before Sirius decided to try to make James less grumpy, the new teacher. What was his name again...?

"Anyway welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts class," the man said walking towards the front of the room; turning around it was notable that the other eye stayed hidden and he smiled at them, "I am Professor Zerus Adalwulf, brand new teacher for Hogwarts; the previous DADA teacher unfortunately suffered a mental breakdown and thus I was asked to step in. I am an alumni of Hogwarts, House Ravenclaw, and before this I worked with the Ministry's Department of Magical Artefacts. Headmaster Dumbledore invited me to take over the position since DADA was my strongest subject when I was in school and I decided it may be a nice change of pace. I am pleased to make your acquaintance and I look forward to helping you through your first year in learning about the various spells and hexes involved in this discipline."

Sirius was aware of what was being said, he was even mostly listening. But a part of his mind couldn't help but be more interested in the fact that he knew Professor Adalwulf's voice as the voice of the man who kept helping him, the one who had for some reason been wandering around the school at night wearing a hood like he was trying to sneak around. Again he tried to turn to the memories for help but what he got out of that was more questions. There was no evidence of a Zerus Adalwulf in his memories, no thoughts about rumors of hooded figures during his first year or any year. He did come across fragments about the war to come, about the things Lucius Malfoy and Severus were set to get into, though he wanted to tell himself he had derailed that fate for Severus at least. But when it came to whatever was happening here he got nothing.

Professor Adalwulf seemed normal really, giving the same sort of spiel as the other teachers, showing them how to perform some of the spells they would learn this year; as he used the Knockback Jinx on a mannequin in the class James seemed to finally perk up, standing out of his chair until Remus dragged him back into his seat. Peter and Lily both watched with plenty of interest on their face, similar to a large portion of the class. There was a way about Professor Adalwulf, something warm and comforting that drew the attention to him as he spoke, but Sirius remembered the way he was so quiet at the opening ceremony, so unassuming, and he wondered what changed. Or if anything had changed at all. He wasn't sure, Professor Adalwulf was a complete mystery, no memory pertaining to him, no knowledge to connect except what he was observing and had experienced thusfar in this life. A few meetings in the night and a singular class session, not much information for anything.

"Now for the first class I figure we can start with some reading on what the Dark Arts is; next week we'll start in on learning spells and about imps for our first unit. Please pull out your copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection and turn to the first chapter; start writing down notes on what most jumps out to you, what you may not understand and then before class ends today we will see about answering some of your questions." He was definitely amicable and at his instruction the class got to work, pulling out textbooks and parchments to start writing. Even James jumped to it and Sirius was left staring at the teacher for a second or two longer than perhaps necessary. And the professor stared back, raising an eyebrow but there was a smile there and furrowing his brow Sirius jumped to doing as he'd been told finally. All while still worrying and thinking about the strangeness that pulled at the back of his mind.

By the time class was over Sirius was no sooner to answers about what he actually wanted to know about but he did now know about what the difference is between spells taught in Charms or Transfiguration class and ones taught in Defense Against the Dark Arts. And he learned that Peter had a strong interest in the class; usually the quietest of the group, and timid to a fault, he had asked more questions and spoken more than Sirius ever heard from him in the days he'd known him. There was a glint in his friend's eye and it was almost enough to make him smile too. But the other part of him tugged and warned, flashing him a memory of a half mad man seconds before a street blew up, a ratty individual cowering and shivering before trying to attack an older Sirius and Remus along with the boy with the emerald eyes. The future he was going to change no matter what it took, and there was Peter fascinated by things that were easily upon that forbidden path.

He tried not to think about it more. As everyone packed up for their next class, James back to his genial and excitable self again it seemed as he gushed about what spells he looked forward to learning and how he planned on using them, Sirius joined them and glanced at their teacher before hearing his name spoken.

"Sirius?" He blinked and looked to his friends, finding them looking at him.

"Huh?"

"We were asking what you were looking forward to most," Remus said half gently, reminding Sirius of the way they had reacted to his parents' Howler.

Sirius forced a smile and rubbed his head. "Eh honestly it's all so interesting I can't decide."

Lily nodded sagely. "I can definitely understand that; there are so many interesting subjects here at Hogwarts and I can just tell DADA is going to be one of the most fun. Though truth be told I think I'm going to enjoy Charms best..."

"The Wand Lighting Charm seems like a really useful one," James said and pulled out his wand; furrowing his brow he started to wave it about, "Lumos!"

There was...nothing. Not even a spark. This just made the boy more intent though it seemed and he tried again, repeating the charm over and over until finally the tip of his wand exploded and Peter gave a rather girly scream. James went pale, eyes widening as he tried to shove his wand back into his pocket only to decide that was probably a bad idea; based on the expression on his face the wand was not actually out yet and there was a completely unnecessary amount of time before he pulled it back out. Lily was frozen in what seemed to be shock, or maybe panic, before finally coming to and starting to scold James, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the classroom. There was a moment of calm among the left behind group members but Remus shook his head before following, joined quickly by a shaking Peter. Sirius sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before glancing back at the other students; some was staring at him, others were working very hard not to. He gave a simple wave of his hand, a small "show's over folks" and moved to leave the room as well.

Before he did though he caught Hakumei talking to the professor out of the corner of his eye, seeing a serious look upon the elder's face directed not on the chaos that Sirius' group had brought about but something else. Something Hakumei had said to him. Sirius frowned but left anyway; that would just have to go on the list of mysteries.

"Mr Potter." Madame Pomfrey did not sound happy but no one really expected him to. She was able to heal him of course, turns out when he shoved his still sparking wand in his pocket it burned a hole in his pants and caused a small burn on his skin, but by the time Sirius joined up with the others she was already partway through a scolding that seemed to only go in one ear and out the other in James' case. Severus had joined them at some point and the Slytherin had his face in one hand, shaking his head slowly while the wild haired Gryffindor got treated by the nurse.

"Don't worry about him, Madame Pomfrey; we will make sure he learns his lesson from this," Lily said, her tone denoting that this would not be the last scolding James would be getting today. And based on his face this one seemed to be more serious in James' eyes.

"Next time young man do not play around with spells you do not know how to use," the nurse said after a look to Lily and the others and with a shake of her head turned to walk away to tend to a different student.

James huffed and got up off the bed, looking rather annoyed. He rubbed his head. "It's not like I burned my pants on purpose..."

"You were very reckless, you fool," Severus said, "Merlin's beard, Potter, who puts their wand back in their pocket after failing to light said wand? I mean, that sounds like a very obvious recipe for trouble."

"Look I was panicking okay," James said whining a little, "I didn't mean to."

"Let's just agree not to try out spells we don't know anything about anymore, alright?" Remus said putting a hand on James' shoulder, causing him to turn to the werewolf, "Alright, James?"

James pouted some but seeing the looks he was being given by Lily and Severus, as well as the still terrified expression of Peter, he finally sighed and nodded, shaking off Remus. "That's no fun though; what's the point of magic if we can't try out new spells?"

"At least let's make sure to learn the proper ways to pull them off instead of just shaking our wands around wildly without a thought to consequences," came Remus' response.

Lily chimed in quickly. "Yes because you might not have meant to but you did indeed burn a hole through your pants, you idiot! What if it had been more serious, what if Madame Pomfrey had to do more to try and heal you?! What if you did permanent damage to yourself?!"

James stared at Lily with wide eyes and for a moment no one spoke. The outburst was a bit strange and Sirius was aware that again they were the center of attention as Madame Pomfrey turned to give them a heavily displeased look. He frowned a little and turned to say something to Lily but he stopped as he saw her face. She looked upset, tears in her eyes and he couldn't quite understand why though he supposed he could guess. The memories didn't help here but he didn't need them here. Lily had said it herself, she was a Muggleborn who had only had one friend who understood what it was like to have magic, she had been scared to come to Hogwarts, scared of what would happen, scared of what her life there would be. But then she had walked into Sirius' compartment and then James walked in and they became a group, they befriended Remus, they dragged in Peter. They got punishment for trying to keep Severus by her side and despite a little hiccup in the start, Sirius realized that James had never really tried to push the Slytherin or his friend away. Sirius had started it but James had yet to try to avoid it. Severus was Lily's best friend, hopefully always would be if Sirius had anything to say about it, but James, James and Sirius and Remus and Peter and even Hakumei and Luka were all her friends too. And James, in all his childish intrigue and excitement, had hurt himself. Why wouldn't she be upset? Why wouldn't she be frustrated?

James opened his mouth then closed it again and for a second Sirius thought he saw the boy actually blush a little before hanging his head. "I'm sorry Lily. Same to you, Remus, Severus; I didn't really mean to upset you guys."

"I mean we were worried too," Sirius piped up and as James looked up he threw his arm around Peter, pulling the quiet boy closer, "After all if something happens to you then what happens to us, your darling children? Or to your loving husband Remus?"

Remus snorted, covering his mouth to hide the big smile he had over Sirius' inquiry. James cracked up as well and even Severus managed to smile lightly, looking at Sirius with a look that seemed equal parts incredulous and amused. Lily for her part looked slightly shocked before giggling. Madame Pomfrey looked at them all like they were a little mad but seemed content in the fact that the first years were happy and returned to what she was doing.

Sirius didn't realize Peter hadn't tried to escape until said boy spoke, her tone actually somewhat playful, "Please dad, don't get yourself hurt."

"Yes dad," Sirius added grinning cheekily and rested his head against Peter's, both managing to give an unified puppy dog look at a suddenly cackling James.

"You are all mad," Severus said snickering, "And I don't see why Lily and I choose to associate with you."

"Because they're our friends, Sev," Lily said smiling brightly, "The best friends we could ask for in the school."

"Even if we're fools?" Sirius asked, fluttering his eyelids at her.

"I don't think any of us would want it any other way," Remus chuckled, still covering his mouth.

"Hey if being mad is the price of having good friends, then I don't want to be sane!" James exclaimed still laughing.

"At least be sane enough not to shove hot wands in your pockets anymore, James." Severus did not deny any of it and this did not escape Sirius' notice. The others laughed and spoke, eventually herded out of the infirmary by Madame Pomfrey who insisted they were being disruptive and only sick and injured students needed to be there, and the tension had settled away. But Sirius took note of every smile, every chuckle, and especially of the way that Severus smiled and Peter joked. He felt happy, truly, completely happy seeing these things, for even with mysteries and strange memories Sirius could at least say one thing.

Sirius Black had his friends and he'd give the world to make sure they stayed safe.