I am so sorry to keep inflicting boring nothing-chapters on you. I'm trying to use up time. Things will actually happen soon, I promise.
One early May Divination lesson, Harry and Ron were extremely glad of an interruption by Dumbledore. They were working on Tarot cards and how Muggles failed to use them properly, and as Trelawney was turning over the Death card in front of Harry for the umpteenth time, the headmaster poked his head up through the trapdoor.
'Would it be all right for me to see Mr Potter and Mr Weasley?' he inquired. Trelawney looked put out, but permitted them to leave the lesson. As Harry walked over to the trapdoor, Trelawney hissed, 'Watch your footing, Potter… I have forseen a fall from a great height…'
Dumbledore didn't speak immediately, so Ron said, 'Yes, Professor?'
'I simply wanted to ask you to come to my office when you next have a break,' said Dumbledore. 'I have visitors who would like to see you.'
'OK,' said Harry, perplexed. That seemed to be all. He and Ron returned to the heavy fumes and close heat of the Divination classroom with some reluctance.
To their dismay, Harry and Ron didn't have a break until after double Divination and a single lesson of History of Magic – possibly the two lessons they liked least. Hermione told them that Dumbledore had asked for her to visit him, too. Both lessibs seemed to stretch for longer than ever, with the friends' curiosity as to who would want to see them – but finally, Professor Binns told them to close their copies of 'Magical Remedies of the Medieval Realms' and they rushed from the room straight to the stone gargoyle in the wall. 'Cauldron cakes,' said Harry, remembering the password from his last visit.
They ascended – very slowly, it seemed – but were at long last facing the door of Dumbledore's office. Harry knocked, slightly too vigorously – the door swung open – and there stood Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.
'Sirius!' Harry exclaimed, grinning. 'Professor Lupin!' Sirius's reaction was to beam warmly, hugging Harry briefly. Lupin remained standing behind Sirius, giving a small smile.
'I'm not a Professor any more, you know, Harry,' he said. 'You might as well call me Remus.'
'Hullo,' said Ron and Hermione, slightly uncomfortably.
There was a silence, then Dumbledore said, 'I believe you, Harry, Ron and Hermione, have news for Sirius and Remus, and that they have things to tell you. I, however, have business to attend to, and no doubt I have heard most of what you have to say, so I'll leave you for a little while.'
Having not seen each other for some time, none of the people present could really think of how to start the conversation. 'So, Harry,' said Sirius after a while, 'would you like to tell us what actually happened when you rescued those missing kids?'
Harry and Ron explained, rather more sensationally than was necessary, and with a few corrections from Hermione, but when they had finished, there wasn't much more to be said. 'Oh, you'll have to meet Andromeda soon,' said Harry after a pause. 'She's my girlfriend.'
Sirius grinned, about to make a comment, but Lupin, smiling, nudged him. 'He's never grown up,' Lupin sighed with a despairing nod towards Sirius.
'What did you have to tell us?' Ron asked, remembering what Dumbledore had said.
'Oh, yeah,' Sirius said, looking at Lupin. 'I'll go first, shall I?' Lupin nodded. 'Well, since pretty much everyone round here knows I'm innocent now, I'm going to be living in Hogsmeade next school year. I'll still take on my Animagus form to go out, just in case, but me and Remus are going to be sharing the ex-Shrieking Shack! Oh, and there's something else happening next year that involves us – but I'll leave it to Moony to tell you that.'
Lupin smiled rather shyly. 'Well, since I left Hogwarts I've had to learn to brew the Potion myself, without Snape around to do it for me – and since I was pretty bored over the last year or so, I experimented with some other mixtures as well. Anyway, Dumbledore got onto me to come and teach Potions at the school, after what happened to Snape…' he shook his head, an unreadable expression on his face, 'but I was a bit busy this year. Next year's a different matter, so from September I'll be your new Potions teacher.'
Harry and Ron beamed. 'That's great!' said Harry. 'You'll do really well, I know it.'
'Thank you, Harry,' said Lupin, unable to keep the grin off his own face. 'But that's not the only job I'm taking on. Sirius and I – we're going to be taking Defence Against the Dark Arts next year, too. I'm looking forward to returning, I can tell you that.'
'Wow,' said Ron. 'Next year's going to be much better than this one. We've got Professor Meredith this year, filling in – apparently there was a lot of trouble finding someone who was prepared to do it, even more than usual. But she's hopeless, she rambles on and on but doesn't manage to stay on the subject.'
'I know Elega Meredith,' said Sirius. 'She went to school with us too. She was really nosy and she never shut up. Half the rumours in school were started by her, and they weren't often true. I was seeing Lily behind James's back at one point, according to her.' He suddenly looked shocked, as though this memory of Harry's parents was painful and unexpected. It probably was, reasoned Harry. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost Ron or Hermione.
The conversation was easier after this – they were more at ease with each other and the initial difficulty of where to start had passed over. Harry, Ron and Hermione learnt that Sirius and Lupin (it was impossible to call him Remus) had been going all over the country aiding the half of the Ministry that was really interested in stopping Voldemort. 'It's an almost impossible job,' said Lupin with a sigh, 'trying to sort things out without Fudge interfering. I don't know why he won't stand down. But then there would be the problem of trying to find another Minister…'
'I don't know,' said Sirius. 'I reckon your dad'd be up to the job, Ron, but I don't know if he needs any more stress at the moment.' Ron flushed with pride.
After more rather worrying discussion, during which Harry, Ron and Hermione learned the extent of the discord at the Ministry, the inevitable happened and the subject turned to Quidditch. In late May Gryffindor would be playing Slytherin, and yet again the Quidditch Cup depended on the outcome of this match. The final had been moved forward to accommodate the OWL exams – these would extend to the day the final was usually played. 'You'll beat them, Harry,' said Sirius confidently. 'You're by far the best player out of both teams.'
'Thanks, Sirius,' said Harry, but he wished he could believe in himself as much as Sirius appeared to believe in him. Every year people told him he'd do fine, but in his first two years he had failed miserably. And he was out of practice, having only played two matches in as many years. The familiar nerves were setting in, with the match only a week away.
It seemed as though they had been talking for only ten minutes when Dumbledore returned to his office, but a quick glance at his watch told Harry it had been an hour. They said goodbye to Sirius and Lupin, Harry very much wishing that they could stay, and went down to lunch.
That evening, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Andromeda went down to the Quidditch field, their interest in the sport at its height with the upcoming Cup match. Harry had his Firebolt and Andromeda, a reasonable player herself, had a Flameshoot. This broom, she said, was a cheap imitation of a Firebolt, but it did for her purposes and she threw Quaffles for Harry to catch while they waited for Ron and Hermione to return with their borrowed school brooms.
Fred and George joined them a bit later, saying that now there were six of them, they had no choice but to have a match. They obliged. Harry, Andromeda and Hermione (who was rather hopeless) played against Ron, Fred and George, who were losing miserably when the Snitch – magically slowed down by Hermione so that they wouldn't lose it – caught Ron's eye. With their three-against-three rules, anyone could catch the Snitch, so he zoomed after it, rocketing around the pitch.
But Hermione was closing in. Though she wasn't an apt flier by any means, she had a keen eye, and was close to the Snitch when it stopped and hovered by one of the goalposts. She stretched out a hand and it was just beyond her reach. Ron was zipping towards her, and suddenly, for some reason, whizzed off course. What was going on, Hermione wondered as she grabbed the little golden ball.
Harry, Andromeda and Hermione won the match by a landslide – 210 points to ten. Ron was looking annoyed as he dismounted his broom. Hermione waylaid him as they returned to the castle. 'Why didn't you catch the Snitch?'
'You were nearer,' said Ron, sounding shifty. 'I'm not that good, you know.'
'You're better than me,' Hermione persisted. 'Come on, Ron, you suddenly just went in the other direction! Why?'
'The Snitch reflected off Harry's glasses,' he said slowly. 'I thought it was over there.'
'You knew where the Snitch was!' Hermione was exasperated. 'You let me win, didn't you?'
But Ron was striding ahead and, if he heard, didn't show any indication of it.