Chapter 5: The Big Black Dog

It was Fleur Delacour.

"Hello, Harry," said Fleur casually, but Harry looked at her in amazement.

"You're the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" he said.

"Well, I said I was going to get a job at Hogwarts to improve my English."

"Your English sounds fine!" Ron said dreamily. Harry elbowed him in the ribs. Ron scowled at him.

"Well, I've been working very, very hard on it over the holiday. Professor Dumbledore said he'd be glad to hire me, and I have had much practice with the Dark Arts."

"Aren't you still in school?" asked Hermione.

"No, I am finished with school. Last year was my seventh and I graduated. I am nineteen years old."

"That makes you about the youngest teacher ever," Hermione said knowledgeably.

"Yes, but that is something I can manage well enough," said Fleur. "Now you should sit down because I am going to start the class soon."

The four of them sat at a table in the front of the room. First, Fleur had to take role.

"Let's see. Who do we have here today?" She looked at the front of the room first. "I know this is Harry Potter and his friends…uh…Ron Weasley and, um, Hermione Granger. And next to Hermione is…?"

"Lauren Marshall."

"Right, I see your name here. And you are…?" She pointed to Neville, who was sitting behind Lauren.

"Neville Longbottom."

"Dean Thomas." And so on until she had taken down every name in the class.

"Alright everyone. My name is Professor Delacour. You might recognize me from last year. I was here as the Triwizard Champion from Beauxbatons. Now I will be your teacher this year."

Professor Delacour began to talk about curses and other Dark Arts, but Lauren wasn't listening to her. She was listening to Harry, Ron and Hermione argue about her as if she wasn't even there.

"She can't come tomorrow," Harry was saying.

"I agree with him, Hermione. I mean, Lauren might freak out and tell everybody and stuff," said Ron.

"Oh, please!" said Hermione angrily. "Honestly, Lauren's a perfectly trustworthy person. It's no big deal. She won't tell anyone! I'm sure of it!"

"No, no, that's not what I meant," said Harry quickly. "I mean she can't come unless she has a permission slip, but she said she didn't have one."

Hermione thought quietly for a moment. "Well, then I guess she can't come."

Lauren hung her head sadly. "I don't have a permission slip," she admitted. "Maybe they won't notice since I'm a fifth year and I should have gone before."

"That's true," said Hermione. "Harry, what about your invisibility cloak?"

"If she can't get in she can use the cloak," sighed Harry. Ron shook his head, but didn't say anything.

That night, everyone was sitting in the common room. "Are you sure you don't have anything with your parent's signature on it?" Hermione asked.

"I know I don't have anything… Except…" She dug in her bag until she pulled out a piece of paper.

"What's that?" asked Harry.

"I wrote a letter in History of Magic. I decided to have one of the school owls take it to our mailbox. I put a stamp on it and everything so it looked like it was sent by Muggle post. My parents wrote back, and I had the owl go to their mailbox again and get it. My dad wrote his signature on the bottom."

"Wait," said Harry, "You're Muggle-born?"

"Halfblood." Lauren looked at him, daring him to make a comment.

Hermione picked up the note and read it. At the bottom it said:

Love,

Thomas M. Marshall

Oops, sorry. Force of habit!

Love,

Dad

"All we have to do it trace the signature onto a Hogsmeade form. Do we have a spare?"

"I know I don't," Lauren said.

"Spare what?" asked Lavender Brown, who had just come into the room.

"Hogsmeade form."

"I have a Hogsmeade form! Want to copy it?"

"Thanks!" Lauren said grabbing the form from Lavender as she pulled it out of her bag. She traced the form onto a piece of spare parchment, then traced the signature with it.

"We have to get this to Professor McGonagall fast!" said Hermione.

"Thanks, Lavender!" Lauren threw Lavender her form back and raced down the stairs with Hermione and Harry.

Ron groaned, but followed.

They knocked on the office door. Professor McGonagall opened the door. "Yes?"

Hermione pushed Lauren forward. "Well, since there is a Hogsmeade visit tomorrow, I thought I should give you my permission form now," she said. The four of them weren't sure Professor McGonagall would believe the form was real.

"Is that all?" she asked, taking the form and putting it on her desk.

"Yes."

"Then you should go back up to you common room. It's a little late to be walking around school."

They quickly hurried up the corridors, but were stopped by Argus Filch. "What are you four kids doing out at this hour?" He smiled as he asked.

"We were giving something to Professor McGonagall," said Hermione.

"Sure," said Filch. "I believe that. How many times have I heard that excuse?"

"It's not an excuse!" Harry shouted. "You can ask McGonagall! We were in her office."

"You can come to my office, now," said Filch. "Follow me."

All of a sudden, a brick dropped from somewhere above them, narrowly missing Filch. "I'll get you for that, Peeves!" he shouted as the brick crashed on the floor. They used this opportunity to get away from Filch and ran back up to the common room.

The next morning Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Lauren went into Hogsmeade. Lauren really wanted to explore, but the others were more intent on seeing Sirius. Ron kept on mumbling things under his breath to Harry, and Harry kept on replying, "Hermione says it's okay!"

At the end of the road, Harry spotted a large, black dog sitting quietly. When it saw him approaching, it began to wag its tail and barked loudly. It turned around and walked up a steep hill, where there was a cave.

In the cave, the black dog transformed into a man, Sirius Black. He looked very tired and hungry. "We brought you some food," Harry said, taking a parcel out of his bag and giving it to Sirius.

"Thanks!" he said ripping open the package and shoveling down the food.

"So what's been happening?" asked Harry.

"Well, I just came back here. I was with Lupin. He might join me in a little while. You'll probably see him on your next visit. But anyway, we're not really…" He trailed off, looking at Lauren.

"That's our new friend, Lauren," said Hermione.

"Hi," she said nervously.

"Hello," said Sirius. He stopped talking for a while.

Ron said, "Come on, not really what?"

Sirius looked very uncomfortable. "I don't know if I should…"

"It's okay, Sirius," Lauren said, "you can say whatever you want in front of me."

Sirius looked relieved and finished his sentence. "We're not really getting anywhere because of Fudge. Remember all those things Dumbledore told him? Well, he hasn't done anything yet. Voldemort's keeping quiet for a while. No doubt he's doing it to avoid suspicion. Too close to when he was last seen. He's gotta take every one by surprise. But Fudge still has to be ready for him. I wouldn't be surprised if Voldemort was negotiating with the giants or dementors right now."

"My dad tried to convince people," said Ron, "but Fudge just got mad at him. Told him not to spread any more rumors. Almost got fired. No one would believe him."

"We are all trying but the same thing happens to us, too. You may have noticed Dumbledore a little discouraged lately. He was very angry at Fudge."

"So that's why he never smiles anymore!" Hermione said. "But there's something else I've been meaning to ask," she continued. "What happened to the real Moody?"

"Dumbledore sent him to go convince people, the same thing that I'm doing, but he has the same effect. No one wants to believe the Dark Lord has come back. They are all too scared that what happened years ago can happen again."

Suddenly, Harry looked around the cave. "Hey!" he exclaimed. Where's Buckbeak?"

"I left him with Lupin. He has a little cabin. Buckbeak needed to be outside more."

"Uh, Sirius," Ron said, "do you know what Professor Dumbledore asked Snape to do before?"

"I'm not sure. I know Snape was a Death Eater, so maybe Dumbledore asked him to be a spy."

"Snape was preoccupied. Remember when Neville's potion exploded? He didn't even do anything about it!" said Ron.

"But isn't You-Know-Who's smart enough to know when someone is not being true to him?" asked Hermione.

"Well, that's why it's such a big risk to be a spy, Hermione," said Sirius. "Is everything going okay at school? And how was your summer, Harry?"

"School's fine. But how come you didn't write to me?"

"I'm sorry. I should have told you. I was at Lupin's. It's very far away from here, too far for an owl. I didn't think you should put Hedwig through that."

"And one more thing…" Hermione said. "Do you know why I didn't get the Daily Prophet?"

"Who knows?" said Sirius. "Maybe they just don't deliver it to Muggles."

Hermione frowned.

"Hey, Hermione, that reminds me," Ron put in. "What did you do with Rita Skeeter?"

Rita Skeeter was an annoying reported for the Daily Prophet who had embarrassed Harry and Hermione in the paper.

"I let her out once we got to London. I was getting the paper to see if she had written anything, but I never once got it."

"Something sounds strange here. I'd watch out if I were you four. Be careful!" Sirius warned.

"We should go," said Harry. "Do you want us to keep sending food up here like last year?"

"Sure," said Sirius smiling. He turned into the big black dog again, and walked into the village with them. They walked back to school.

That night, after dinner, Harry and Ron met in their dormitory. "Something is really up with her," Ron was saying. "Hermione trusts her but should she?"

"She seems kind of strange to me," said Harry. "But Hermione does know what she's doing you know."

"People always say it's real easy to get hoodwinked by Dark wizards. Maybe she's a Death Eater or something."

"I don't think so, Ron."

"I do! Come on! She knows so much about us already. Maybe she's just using Hermione to get to you! Maybe she's trying to convert Hermione to the Dark Side."

"I seriously doubt that."

"Sirius said to be careful! We really don't know anything about this girl! Maybe the reason You-Know-Who doesn't appear to be doing anything is because he already is!"

"Maybe you're right; we'd better be careful around this girl. She could be dangerous."

"She could be trying to hurt you."

"We'd better not talk to her anymore. We might be giving her information!"

"But what about Hermione? We'll have to stop talking to her too! They're best friends!"

In the end, the two boys agreed not to talk to either Hermione or Lauren.