Title: For Harry (6/?)
Author: Wickedwitch
Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, Sirius and Remus would spend all the books completely naked.
Rating: pg-13


The next morning, Harry awoke to find only Ron awake. "All that snogging they did last night must have tired them out," Harry said, motioning to Sirius and Remus. Ron snorted at that but continued getting dressed. Harry had given him and Hermione the details of his conversation with them last night.

When they were both ready, they hurried down the stairs to see Hermione already waiting. "I think we're some of the first ones up," she said when they arrived.

"Good." Ever since the incident at the end of the Triwizarding Tournament, Harry had been eating meals at odd times to avoid large crowds. Breakfast was no exception.

Hermione was talking about how excited she was about Transfiguration this year. There were supposed to be learning how to turn anything of the right size into any non-magical animal. By the end of the year, the goal was to be able to turn other students into inanimate objects. "And think," she said, "if You-know-who comes, one of us could change you into a mirror or something. It won't have to be Sirius or Remus."

"You mean Gerry or Patrick, right?" Ron asked quickly.

Hermione looked puzzled at first but after a few seconds a small "Oh, of course" came out.

"And you're supposed to be the smart one," Ron said mockingly.

"Oh," she said, annoyed, "shut it you." Ron grinned at her; Harry just smirked. Who did those two think they were fooling? It was quite apparent to him that they liked each other. But then again, it was Ron and Hermione, the king and queen of stubbornness. With them, they'd probably be eighty before they admitted it. Good thing wizards have such long life spans, he thought.

After a few minutes, Sirius and Remus came down and went over to where Harry and his friends were sitting.

"McGonagall give us our schedules yet?" Remus asked.

"Nah," Ron answered. "Still on the second years."

"Oh." Sirius looked very tired and it showed in his voice. "Uh, Harry, we've got a small problem."

"Yes, Patrick?"

Sirius frowned at the sound of his new name but continued anyways. "Last night was an exception. From now on you can't go anywhere without one of us. When you wake up, you wake us up. When you go to a class, we go with you. When you go to quidditch practice, Re comes with you."

"Why, uh, Gerry, and not both of you?" Hermione asked.

"Because this one here," Remus said pointing to Sirius, "has a lifetime ban on the quidditch pitch. It was his punishment for the Whomping Willow trick he played on Snape." Sirius smiled meekly.

"And just be glad it wasn't more." That comment came from McGonagall who had finally reached them. "These are your timetables for this year," she said passing out sheets of parchment. The five of them studied them carefully.

"Not bad," Ron finally said. "Today we've got Transfiguration in the morning, and Potions and Divination in the afternoon."

"Not bad?" Harry exclaimed. "That's horrid!"

"I think what Ron means," Hermione said, "is that we no longer have Care of Magical Creatures with Slytherins. We have it with Ravenclaws."

"Really?" Harry asked. She nodded. "Well I suppose that isn't to bad."

"Anyhow," Hermione added, "we really should hurry up. You know how Professor McGonagall gets if we're late."

"Yes, we do," Sirius muttered bitterly. He shared a look with Remus, and both instantly burst out laughing.

"What happened this time?" Harry asked.

"Actually," Sirius said, "we were late for McGonagall loads of times, which resulted in loads of points being taken off Gryffindor." He paused and grinned. "But this one time, uh, James, Re, myself, and He-who-must-not-be-named-"

"Peter," Remus clarified.

"-had just finished putting Dungbombs all over the Slytherin common room. But see one of them had accidently gone off, so we, uh, well we smelled absolutely horrid."

"Why?" Ron asked. "They aren't that bad."

"Normally," Sirius replied, "They're not. But with the Maurader's special treatment.... Well, we had been late for Transfiguartion the previous day and McGonagall said is we were ever ten minutes late again, she'll have us all expelled. And this day, we were already five minutes late and we didn't want to stop to clean up. So we walk in there, about six minutes after class had started, and McGonagall glares at us like usual and starts taking fifteen points off Gryffindor. And then she smells us." He grinned at Remus before continuing. "I think we all had detention for a month for that one."

Ron and Harry were both laughing, while Hermione had a look on her face as if she wanted to laugh but didn't think it was proper to.

"Come on," she finally said. And all five headed off towards the transfiguration classroom.

When they arrived, everybody was already there. McGonagall gave them small smiles as they entered and gestured towards the empty seats at the back of the classroom.

"Since everybody seems to be here," she said when they had all sat down, "I see no reason why we shouldn't start early." Every student groaned at this, except Hermione, which resulted in a stern look from their professor. "So," she continued, "who remembers how to turn this box into a hamster?"

Like usual Hermione's hand went straight up. But to Harry's initial shock, so did Remus' and Sirius'. Of course they know how, he reasoned to himself. They're full grown wizards. I'd honestly be more surprised if they didn't know.

"They really shouldn't act like that," Hermione whispered to Harry as she called on Mr. Thompson. "Someone's bound to notice. They need to act like normal fifth years."

"You mean not at all like you," Harry said in response.

"She just doesn't want one of them stealing her rank," Ron joked.

The three stopped talking and joined the class in applause, as Sirius turned it into a perfect hamster.

"It seems you know what you're doing, Mr. Thompson," Professor McGonagall said.

"Well, we did have an excellent Transfiguration teacher," Sirius said, winking. She tried to look angry at that but failed miserably and started to blush.

"Well," she said once she regained her composure, "let's get started. Mr. Mason, Mr. Thompson, I need to talk to you both at my desk."

Harry started at his futile attempt to duplicate what his godfather had done. By the time he and Remus had returned to their seats, all Harry had done was gave the box a tail.

"Need help Harry?" whispered Remus. Harry nodded. "Try moving your wrist less sharply." Harry did what he was told, and to his surprise, the box soon had two ears and a mouth.

"Thanks," he said. "What did McGonagall want?"

Remus shrugged. "Just told us that we need to bring our ability levels down a bit. Even in our worst subjects, we're probably still miles ahead of you. Except Divination," he added. "Never took that in the first place."

"That was a good idea," Harry said. "I can't stand it."

"That's what Lily used to say. She always complained that the teacher was always predicting how she's be the first to die." Remus paused thoughtfully. "Although now that I think of it, she was the first to die." He gave a sad smile.

"Gerald, Harry, I hope you two are both making a lot of progress with the boxes." It was McGonagall, checking how everyone was doing. Harry nodded and tried the transfiguration another time. This time it was almost perfect, except for the fact it looked like it had swallowed the box whole.

"Marvelous!" she exclaimed, and Harry beamed in response. It was a great start for the year.

To be continued...