"Good morning everyone. I'm sorry for the delay. My name is Bethany Conner. I'll be teaching you Defense Against the Dark Arts. James, stop that it's not becoming of you," she told everyone.

James had been gaping at her. He shut his mouth, turned a bit pink and said, "Yes, ma'am." Everyone laughed.

"Thanks. Would anyone care to tell me what you all studied last year? I was not given very precise notes." She asked. Hermione's hand shot up, almost hitting Ron, who was sitting right next to her. "Yes?" Bethany asked her.

"We studied Boggarts, grindylows, red caps and hinkypunks," she answered.

"And werewolves!" a voice called out from the back of the classroom.

"Yes, yes. I heard about that unfortunate experience with Professor Lupin," Bethany responded.

"He was the best DADA teacher we've ever had!" another voice shouted. There were several murmurs of agreement following.

Bethany only smiled. "Well than, I'll have to work extra hard to please you." She turned to Hermione. "And your name was?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Thank you. Five points to Gryffindor for you being so helpful." Bethany made a note on her desk while the rest of the class grinned at Hermione. "Today we are going to start our unit on..." she flipped through her notes, "...vampires. Now, can anyone tell me some legends they know about vampires?"

After class, everyone started filling out for lunch. Harry stopped to ask Bethany a question. "Professor Conner? How did you know James?"

James heard, as he was gathering his stuff. He shot his mom a warning look but she didn't seem to see it. Or she chose to ignore it. "I'm his mother."

"Oh. How did you know about Lupin, then, if you were in California?"

"From Professor Lupin himself. He's an old friend of mine. We went to school here together," she answered, gathering her notes and papers up. She sat down to get something off the floor.

"If you knew him, did you know Sirius Black?" Harry asked, almost anxiously.

Bethany looked up at him so suddenly she nearly fell of her chair. Her face was very pale. "Don't you have somewhere else you need to be going, Harry?"

Harry understood she wasn't going to answer his question, so he left.

James hurried to the front of the room. "Are you okay, mom?"

Bethany just sighed and motioned for him to go on. He ran out to catch up with his friends. They had lunch then. James was the first to start complaining.

"It's not fair. She's my mom."

"James, come on. She taught at out old school. And it's not like she's favoring you or anything," Casey scolded.

"I know, but Hogwarts is a lot bigger than CASSANDRA W., if you didn't notice," James retorted.

"What was that name again?" one of the others at their table asked. "Was that your old school?"

"Yeah," Casey said, "it stands for the C.A.S Southern Academy for..." she paused. "Wait a minute, I know this..."

"For Native and Distinguished Researching Adolescents of Wizardry," James finished for her.

"Thanks," she told him. "I think the initials in the beginning are that of the founder. No one every told us what they were for."

"I think I read about that school in one of my books, but it didn't say what they were for either," Hermione said. "But the founder is a good guess."

"Anyway," James was saying, going back to his complaints, "it would be like your mom taking over for Professor Snape."

 "Wouldn't that be a shame," a girl at the table said sarcastically.

"Oh, would she?" another asked at the same time. "I hate Snape."

"I don't know what you guys are complaining about. Some of the stuff we went over in class today I learned in my second year."

"The very end of the second year, after the exams. Professor Davy was giving a preview of what we were going to be doing the next year." Britt told everyone.

"You spoil my fun, Britt," Casey said with mock annoyance.

"That's what friends are for, Casey." Britt laughed, and so did those who were listening.

Mail came the next morning at breakfast. An owl came over to Casey, holding two letters out for her to take. They both had her name on it. After she took them, the owl flew away quickly, without waiting for her to pet it or give in table scraps.

"What an impatient owl," Ron commented.

"It's my mom's," was all Casey would say. "Oh, look, I got a letter from my dad! He must have sent it to mom thinking I would still be at home." When James looked at her curiously, she said, "Mom forgot to tell him I was going here. I think she thought he wouldn't like the idea." She tore open the letter and started reading it out loud. "'Dearest Casey,' oh please, he never calls me that. He never calls mom that. He must have done something wrong. 'I am going to tell you this first because I don't want you to feel like your being left out on decisions...'" her voice trailed off as she read the rest silently. Her breath started to a little faster, and she started to get angry. She started ripping up the letter.

"Casey! What's wrong?" James asked her, clearly worried.

She had started crying, slightly. She sniffed, quietly. "They're getting divorced. At least he is. He said he was telling me first which is bullshit, because he wouldn't be making this kind of decision on his own. Damn it! She knew, and she let him tell me!" She looked down at the shredded later.

"Casey, you still got one from your mom, maybe she was telling you," Britt said. "Open it."

"I meant she would have told me that they were talking about it." She sounded like she was calming down, however. She read the other letter, this time to herself. She shook her head. "It doesn't even mention it at all. Only that he might not be coming back from Greece until after Christmas. Yeah, way after Christmas. Like, maybe never." Her voice was bitter. Britt and everyone looked concerned. "I didn't like my dad anyway," she told them, as she got up and left, leaving everyone a little bit upset for her.

Meanwhile, Bethany and Snape were having their own little battles. All the students remembered the way Snape had been nasty to Lupin. It seemed to them that he hated Bethany even more. One day, Snape purposely blocked Bethany's way in the hall. She managed to push her way through (she's pretty thin) and then elbowed him in the back so hard that he nearly fell over. After that, he looked back at her, his face filled with loathing. In return, she did something almost crazy. She smiled.  

School had been in for about three weeks when the reports came. They took everyone by surprise. Sirius Black had been sited, not too far away from the school. There was no doubt on anyone's mind that he was coming back, but the reason... Well, no one had a clue. But Bethany, she had a fear, one that had been living in the back of her mind for years. She kept it hidden, but she would jump at the mention of his name, and was paler then usual on most days.

There were rumors among the students that he was coming back to kill Harry, to finish the job he had missed before. They wondered whether or not Dumbledore would bring back the dementors. Many of the rules from the year before went back into effect; students were not allowed outside alone, and many teachers talked about canceling the next Hogsmead trip, which did upset many students.

 James had been walking around the common room a few nights after the reports came, and he heard Harry and Ron talking, slightly hidden from the rest of the students behind the table and chairs. They were whispering about something, or someone.

"Did you get a letter from him recently? Surely he would have told you..." That was Ron's voice.

"No, he didn't. Maybe it was something in the last letter I sent him." Harry responded.

"What did you say in the letter? I mean, there hasn't been anything bad happen lately that would worry him." Ron asked.

"I just told him about the new teacher and the students from the U.S.A."

James walked over to them. "Who are you talking about?" He knew he sounded like he was snooping, but he was thinking about all he'd heard last year about Sirius Black.

"My godfather," Harry said. "No one special."

"Oh. Then why all the secrecy?" Besides being hidden, the two boys had their backs to the rest of the room, as though they were trying to discourage people from bothering them.

Harry just shrugged, but he had guilt in his face. He thought for a moment, then motioned for him to come closer and sit down. "Sirius Black," he whispered.

James' eyes went wide. "Are you insane? He's a murderer," He hissed. "And he helped killed your parents, Harry, if you didn't know."

"He's innocent, James. It wasn't him," Harry responded.

"Wait, how did you hear about that?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"My mom told me. She was a good friend of your parents."

 "What about your dad?" Ron asked, almost eager for information.

"He died, a long time ago," James told them. "I don't want to talk about it." Ron and Harry glanced at each other.

"Listen, James, trust me. Sirius didn't kill all those people. It was Pettigrew. He faked his own death. We know, we saw him ourselves." Harry explained.

"And why is it that you think I should believe you? I barely know you." James was fighting to keep his voice down.

"Fine. Don't believe me. Go ahead." Harry told him. James stood up and went to tell Casey what he heard.

She was sitting at a table with Lavender Brown, Britt and Hermione. They were talking.

"...I've seen the way you've been looking at him recently, Hermione," Casey was saying.

"Oh, I know. But then again, everyone knows that she like him. Everyone but Ron, that is," Lavender said.

Hermione blushed, but didn't say anything against it. Instead she said, "Well, I've noticed how much time you've been spending with James. Is there something between the two of you?" James heard, and carefully hid himself were he could still here. He was very interested in this answer.

"Oh, no, we're just good friends. Don't look at me like that, I'm serious. My dad," she paused, unsure how to continue, but she just went straight on, "he's away a lot, so my mom would spend a lot of time with Bethany, err, Professor Conner. James' mom. They're really good friends, so I became friends with James. He's like a brother to me, almost."

"And he's a lot nicer than 'Rus," Britt put in.

"You only think that because 'Rus puked on you that one time," Casey retorted. Everyone laughed.

Britt nodded. "It did put a strain on our relationship. You haven't told him yet, have you?" She said, abruptly changing the subject.

"No, I won't. If they want him to know, they will tell him. The letter was addressed to me, making it all my business. He's not ready to hear it, I don't think."

"Casey, I don't think anyone can be ready to hear that kind of news, at least no the way you did," Lavender said. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, can we just please change the subject?" Casey asked.

"Do you think that the teachers will cancel the next Hogsmead trip like they're talking about? It's the one right before Halloween," Lavender said, changing the subject for Casey.

"I hope they don't. Then we won't be able to get weird toys to play with," James said, butting in.

"What's with you boys and weird toys?" Britt asked. "You're all obsessed."

"I was just lightening the situation," he told them.

"No, you were spying on us," Casey told him, "weren't you?"

"No, I came over here to ask you something, but I think I've changed my mind." He got up and went to the boy's dormitory.

"What's his problem?" Casey asked Britt and Lavender.

They just shrugged. "Maybe he really likes you, but he heard what you said and now he's all sad and stuff," Lavender teased.

Casey rolled her eyes. "Yah, right. All boys are weird like that at this age. My mom told me so." The other two girls laughed, and they soon forgot about James' strange behavior.

While the students were making jokes about the seriousness of the Sirius Black mater, Bethany was dreaming. Her dreams were very strange, because they were all of things that had already happened, most of them at the school. The castle, she believed, was haunted by memories.

The night after Casey had told Britt she didn't like James, Bethany had one such dream...

~*~

She was coming down the stairs from the girl's dorm. She had decided to go wild with her hair that day. She had put it in eight little braids, and had put a dye spell on them. Four of the braids were bright red, the other four gold. They were the Gryffindor colors.

"Bethany, what did you do to your hair?" Nick exclaimed when she got down.

"Shut up, Nicholai." While it seemed really mean to tease him now, Bethany didn't hesitate to yell at him or ignore him when she was busy.

"But it looks ridiculous," he protested.

"I do not!" she exclaimed. She looked around the room. "Where's Sirius?"

"Detention," Janna said quietly, not looking up from her book.

"Oops. I forgot." She turned to James Potter, who was doing his homework. "How's you arm?"

"Sore but fine. Thanks for asking," he responded. "Good thing it was my right arm, right?" He smiled, but no one else did.

"I'm sorry," Bethany told him, sitting down at the same table.

"It's not your fault."

"Yes, it is," Bethany, Lily, Janna, and Nick said together.

"Okay, yes, it was, but I forgive you. And you look fine, Nick's just being an ass."

"Leave Nick alone, James. He's just immature. Like you," Lily said. James frowned, and Bethany laughed.

"Do you know where Chevielle is, then?" Bethany asked.

"Most likely doing her work in the Library with Gregory," Janna said with a hint of disgust. "It seems like those two are joined at the hip sometimes. And I like your hair, it looks cool."

~*~

Bethany woke, gasping, with Janna's words ringing in her ears.