A/N: I beg your forgiveness for the lateness and the amount of time between posts. School caught up with me. Hopefully that shouldn't be an issue that interrupts my posting much more. I hope you enjoy this and if you have any good pranks you want to see let me know and I'll try to incorporate them as best I can.

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16

By the time they got back to Hogwarts, everyone had changed into their house robes and was to make their way to the great hall for the end of break feast. While not as grand as the opening feast, it was still quite a feast and the headmaster always took time to welcome students back and make any announcements he had at this time. This time however was sure to be different, Harry had made sure of that.

Everyone was seated at the house tables as the headmaster stood up to the podium to speak. "Good evening and welcome back! I trust you all had a relaxing break and you're ready to get back to it tomorrow. I'll make this short with one announcement and then we can all dig in. Professor Quirrell has left us over the holiday break and in his place we welcome Professor Black…" As soon as that was said fireworks had shot up from behind the staff table and exploded causing the staff to jump and turn around at the unexpected explosions, several of them with their wands in their hands. The fireworks exploded in large red bursts leaving the words Welcome Professor Black in large letters that hung there for a few moments before disappearing.

Sirius looked embarrassed as he stood up and gave a quick bow. He looked down at Harry who smiled and winked at him before looking farther down the table at Professor Snape who looked beyond belief and downright angry that he was sitting there. He waved at Snape who scoffed and turned away like a kid who just had his dream of going on vacation taken away, which caused Sirius to grin even more. This is going to be fun.

Harry had seen the look on Professor Snape's face when Sirius had been announced as the new Defense teacher and it was the most beautiful thing in the world to see that look of shock and scowling. Something he had waited an entire 4 years in an alternate timeline for and he had to say it was worth it. He couldn't wait for the encore.

Dumbledore raised his hands and calmed everyone down. "Now that we've had that bit of excitement, just a few final words to leave you with over your dinner. Flip. Skip. Floozle." With that all the food appeared on the table. Harry idly put some food on his plate as he watched the Slytherin table with great interest. Neville, Susan and Hannah saw that his attention was elsewhere and followed his gaze to the Slytherin table. More specifically to Malfoy and his goons.

"Got a new crush there Harry," Hannah inquired.

"Wait for it." Was the response she got. Now all 4 Hufflepuffs were eagerly awaiting something to happen from the Slytherin table and they didn't have to wait long.

Everything was normal for a moment before Draco's hair started changing color. It slowly went from blonde to a bright pink that would make Tonks envious and grew down past his shoulders. Crabbe looked up at him with wide eyes and went to tell Draco what was happening but all that came out was a loud CROOOOOOOAK. His hands immediately shot to cover his mouth as several students turned to look at him. Goyle went to say something in response but let out a loud MOOOOOO instead. He covered his mouth as well, looking horrified. "What is the matter with you two idiots," Draco demanded, only it wasn't Draco's voice. It sounded high pitched and squeaky, almost like a young girl or someone who had been sucking on helium. By now most of the great hall, including the teachers, had stopped to watching the interesting events at the Slytherin table.

"D…D…Draco! Your hair! It's pink," shrieked Pansy Parkinson. Pansy pulled a mirror out of her bag and handed it to Draco. Draco Malfoy looked shocked and then enraged as he got up to storm out of the hall. "Just wait til my father hears about this," he squeaked in his high pitched voice.

"He'll probably buy you a new wardrobe," one of the twins chipped in.

"At this rate you'll end up prettier than Pansy," the other added.

At this point most of the hall burst out in laughter, much to Draco's disapproval. Draco then proceeded to storm out of the hall followed by Pansy, a croaking Crabbe and a Mooing Goyle.

"Did you do that," Susan asked Harry to which she just received a shrug and the famous Potter grin.

The following morning saw their first class of defense in the higher year. As they walked into the classroom they were intimidated by the size of the older students despite recognizing the majority of them. Harry and Susan set their stuff on a desk between the Weasley Twins and Cedric.

"What are you guys doing," Cedric asked. "Are you lost or something?"

"Not at all Mr…Diggory was it? Say hello to your new classmates. This is Harry Potter and Susan Bones from Hufflepuff house for those of you who don't know them. Now everyone put your books away, and grab your wands. We are going to start by evaluating your spells so I can see where everyone is at. Written knowledge is one thing but practical knowledge is what will save you in the real world and in case any of you missed it I am your Professor, Sirius Black," came the voice from the top of the stairs. The students turned to see Professor Black standing at the top of the small staircase that lead into his office. He made his way down the stairs as he flicked his wrist and all the desks pushed themselves against the wall. "We are going to start by evaluating what you have learned so far in your defense classes with a simple test. For 30 seconds I'm going to fire stunners and disarms while you block or evade and then we'll switch and I'll block while you try to get through my shields. How does that sound? Good! Excellent! Do I have any volunteers?" Crickets chirped with enthusiasm as nobody volunteered. "Alright then. We'll do it the hard way. New kids first. Harry, get up here and show me what you can do. We're going to start with a bow and then you're going to block and evade while I am on the offensive." Both wizards stood facing each other and bowed before resuming their stances. With a flash of red light and a "STUPEFY" Harry immediately countered with a "PROTEGO." This was quickly followed up by two more stupefys in rapid succession. Harry blocked one and barely managed to dodge the other. This went on for a full 30 seconds before Sirius called time. "Good job Harry! Very good job. With a little bit of work we can get your reaction speeds up but overall well done. Now it's your turn. You can use anything non-lethal but within reason. Whenever you're ready," Sirius exclaimed as he resumed his stance.

At first Harry started off the same way that Sirius had, with stupefys and disarming but he wasn't getting anywhere and Harry did want to try and win so he was going to have to be creative. He looked around and saw a stack of papers on the teacher's desk. With a grin he pointed his wand at them and cast a quick banishing charm causing the papers to fly off the desk, hopefully distracting and obscuring the Professor. He followed it up with a quick "AVIS" and sent birds into the fray as well. While Professor Black was busy with those he cast an "ASCENDIO" causing him to rise in the air and once he was high enough followed it up with "ALARTE ASCENDALE" which hit Sirius and popped him up into the air while he was distracted. He cast an ARRESTO MOMENTUM followed quickly by an EXPELLIARMUS both of which hit the intended target. Professor Black lie on the floor laughing as Harry walked over and helped him up.

"That was bloody brilliant Harry. I haven't been in a duel like that since your father. You're both creative," Sirius added with a chuckle. Harry quickly summoned Padfoot's wand and handed it back to him before using the same spell on the papers he had scattered. Sirius took the wand and the papers, locking the later in his desk so it couldn't be used against him again before returning to the front of the classroom. "Alright Susan, your turn."

Susan fared nearly as well as Harry did on defense, choosing to dodge a little more than Harry had, causing Harry to grimace and almost turn white at the several near misses at his friend. Fred and George each placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry mate. She's doing fine," one said.

"Yeah. She's doing fantastic," the other replied.

After Sirius called time, Harry was finally able to take a breath before Susan began her assault. Much like Harry she began with disarming spells and Stupefys but quickly changed up the game. She fired an AGUAMENTI which was blocked by Sirius shield but soaked the surrounding area before following it up with a GLACIUS to freeze the water to ice and VENTUS DUO, which caused a giant gust of wind to blast against the shield, causing Sirius to slip and slide before fallin on his butt. A quick disarming spell left him wandless. Susan quickly melted the ice before handing Sirius his wand back.

"Dang Potter, your girlfriend is vicious," Cedric teased Harry quietly.

"She's not my girlfriend," Harry replied.

Fred and George looked at each other and nodded. "Sure. Sure. We believe you."

"Fantastic job Miss Bones. Great ingenuity! It seems I'm 0 for 2 today. Whose next," asked Sirius causing the Weasley twins to raise their hands noisily. If a couple of first years could do it, then surely they would have no problem. They were wrong. Neither one of the Weasley twins could get passed Sirius' shield to disarm him but they gave it their all however both managed to stay afloat on the defensive end. One by one the rest of the class went. Most of them managed to stay up on the defensive end but not all of them. A couple got disarmed and one unlucky student got knocked out. The only other student to come close to disarming Sirius was Cedric Diggory.

"Great job today class. It seems like most of you are on track defense wise but could use a little more offensive work. Not to worry though because we'll get you right as rain before end of term. Now your homework for tonight is to find someone else in the class to pair up with because next class we start pairs dueling. One of you will on offense and the other will be on defense so you're going to have to put a lot of trust in your partner. We'll be keeping this up throughout the term and at the end of the term we'll have a tournament and the last team standing will receive a prize, to be determined later on. Any questions so far?" All the students shook their head. "Very good. Find a partner, work on tactics, and we'll begin next class. For now you're all dismissed early." The rest of the class filed out, talking about partners but Harry and Susan remained behind to talk with Sirius. As soon as the rest of the class had left he turned to the kids with a grin. "Well? How'd I do? First day and all."

"You did fantastic," Harry replied with a grin, "although you need to work on your defense."

"Oh stop it Harry! I thought you did wonderful. Who knew there was actually a practical side to Defense against the Dark Arts," Susan responded.

"Why thank you Susan! I try my best. I wanted to take a new approach to it. Try something fun and practical. It's a good thing I brought along a few Pepper-Up potions to make it through this. After that it'll be ok. I just want to be able to evaluate everyone on a practical level so I know who needs help where," Sirius said.

"Just do yourself a favor and watch out for Malfoy when you get him. He's a….what's the nice way to say it," Harry asked tapping his chin.

"Tosser? Wanker? Git," Susan suggested.

"Yes. Exactly!"

Sirius tried not to laugh but failed. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it if there's an issue. Now I expect you two will be teaming up," he asked. Both nodded without looking at the other. "Well if you continue the way you were today I have no doubt you'll succeed. Might not hurt to dig into the book Moony gave you. Shield Magic wasn't it?"

"Yeah. I brought it with me. Just haven't taken a look at it yet but we'll crack it open this evening."

"See that you do. Now run along. I've got to relax before the next class. Oh and Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Great work this morning both in class and in the great hall. Your parents would be proud."

Harry smiled before taking Susan's hand and walking out of the classroom. She gave his hand a quick squeeze and a smile because she felt the pride and happiness welling up inside him at the mention of his parents. There was also some sadness at the mention of them but that was to be expected. She felt the same way whenever her parents were mentioned.

The most eventful thing to happen that day happened in potions with the snakes surprisingly. Draco had complained about something and Professor Snape had heard and told him "if you are going to see about whining like a little girl then perhaps I can see about getting your dorm changed so you'd feel more at home." That brought laughter to the class room which was quickly silenced by Professor Snape.

The rest of the day was fairly boring. Dinnertime came in the great hall and everyone was talking about Professor Black's Defense class. At least those who had that class. Their enthusiasm had become contagious and everyone else was looking forward to it. Harry listened to people talk about the class for a little bit to get a feeling of it so he could tell Sirius. After a bit he turned back to the conversation Susan, Hannah and Neville were having.

"That was hilarious! I can't believe Professor Snape said that. He tends to favor the snakes," Hannah exclaimed.

"Finally got what was coming to him…or at least part of it," Neville added.

"You know he still won't learn anything from this though," Susan stated.

"Of course he won't," Harry said, "But that's ok. I'm sure that whoever did this will ensure it continues." With that he gave them the Potter Grin.