Chapter 25
Sunday, November 3rd,1991 (Eleven days after the full moon)- The Great Hall, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Somewhere in Scotland
When the doors of the Great Hall swung open, Grace had to quickly slap a hand over Patricia's mouth to stop her from yelling.
"Slytherins," she hissed in her friend's ear.
Patricia nodded in understanding. Despite it being the earliest breakfast time, or maybe because of it, none of them had yet figured out which it was, the Slytherin table was completely filled. Grace removed her hand and they both went back to eating their breakfasts.
Sirius and Remus marched right up to the High Table, where Dumbledore and the Heads of House were sitting down to their breakfasts.
"Would someone like to explain how a fully grown mountain troll got into Hogwarts?" Remus demanded, looking straight at Dumbledore.
"And why my godson and his friends ended up fighting it when they're only in first year?" Sirius added, glaring at the headmaster.
Dumbledore swallowed tensely and Patricia almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
"Shall we go up to my office—?"
"No," Sirius interrupted. "Right here, right now."
Remus put a hand on his friend's arm. "Maybe we should move out of the Great Hall first."
Professor McGonagall threw her napkin down on her empty plate. "May I suggest we all go to the staff room?"
"Excellent suggestion, Minerva," Professor Flitwick agreed. "All of us."
Professor Snape scowled but still put aside his half-eaten breakfast and limped after the rest of the Heads as they left the hall.
Violet looked at Patricia with wide eyes. "What was that?"
Patricia smirked. "That was every adult in the room teaming up against Dumbledore."
"Why?" Violet asked.
She really wasn't awake yet. Violet Moon was not a morning witch.
"You do remember the mountain troll and the giant dog?" Grace said dryly.
Violet blushed.
Professor Babbling entered the hall looked surprised when she saw that the High Table was empty. She raised her eyebrows at the Ravenclaw table. Patricia shook her head with the words "totally innocent" practically written across her face.
Bathsheda Babbling definitely got where she was by believing that look whenever she saw it. It was like her roommate and the frog all over again.
She shook her head and went to have breakfast.
Patricia grabbed Harry once he'd come down and finished breakfast and dragged him to the staff room to wait for Sirius and Remus. The dragging part was only necessary because she didn't tell him who they were going to meet.
Sirius and Remus wouldn't tell them what had been talked about (read: what they had yelled at Dumbledore about) but Patricia could (correctly) guess that it had a lot to do with Harry. When they walked out of the staff room, Sirius was fuming and Remus was pushing him out the door so that he couldn't turn back and rip Dumbledore to shreds.
"Bloody politician," Sirius muttered darkly. "He hates it there! 'Safest place for him' my—"
"Good morning, Papa," Patricia interrupted.
Sirius looked up and his face immediately broke into a grin. "Morning, Pup! And this must be Harry!"
"Of course it's Harry!" Remus exclaimed. He smiled at the first year Gryffindor. "You look just like James, and I've heard you fly like him too."
"Better," Sirius said. "James was never the youngest Seeker in a century. You're lucky you're his son, he'd never stand for anyone else showing him up!"
Harry blushed and smiled modestly. "I like flying."
"Do you like your broom?" Sirius asked. "I made sure to get the best Seeker's broom on the market."
Harry's eyes widened with surprise. Sirius hadn't mentioned in any of the letters that they'd exchanged that he had bought his Nimbus Two-Thousand. He had assumed that Professor McGonagall had got it but he realized now that that didn't make sense. Why would a teacher spend so much money on a student that wasn't related to them?
"You bought my broom?"
"Well he wouldn't trust anyone else to," Remus said dryly.
"I have to start making up for the ten years of birthday and Christmas presents I missed!" Sirius insisted.
Seeing that the three of them didn't seem in any danger of turning the school into a swamp any time soon (which was a prank that she'd have to remember to mention to Fred and George), Patricia waved goodbye to Remus, who was the only one paying attention to his surroundings, and left. She'd head up to the Hospital Wing first to try to get something to take care of the monster headache she'd woken up with. Then she'd go back to Ravenclaw Tower; she and her roommates had an all-day Patronus practice session planned.
I'll tell you now that that wasn't going to go well.