The next time Gryffindors and Slytherins had a combined class was during Potions a few days later. Malfoy came in, his arm wrapped in bandage and put in a sling, acting as if he was dying.

"And here I thought you're the biggest drama queen on the planet." Ciel muttered. "Wait, no. That's Sutcliff."

Sebastian made some disgruntled noises at the mention of the reaper's name, or it could be because Ciel had called him as such.

Snape entered the room and paused when he walked past Sebastian. "You cannot be here."

Right, so Snape had saved Ciel the trouble of asking.

"Wait for me outside, Sebastian." Ciel dismissed him.

"Yes, sir." Sebastian bowed slightly and left the room, closing the door behind him.

As Snape made his way to the front of the class, Ciel observed him. Snape was dressed in all black that matched his inky black hair and he seemed to have a perpetual scowl on his face. He had heard from Harry and Ron that Snape liked to play favourites and he highly favoured his own house's students, the Slytherins.

They were going to make Shrinking Solution today and Malfoy had set up his cauldron next to Harry, Ron, and Ciel, which meant they'd have to cut their ingredients on the same table.

Fifteen minutes in, Malfoy raised his hand and called out, "Professor, I can't cut these roots! My arm…"

"Weasley, cut Malfoy's roots for him." Snape said without even looking up from his desk.

"You liar!" Ron hissed. "Your arm is fine!"

"But you heard the professor, Weasley." Malfoy said with a smirk. "Now cut them up."

Ron grabbed the root and chopped them roughly.

"Professor…" Malfoy protested. "Weasley ruined my roots!"

"Weasley, give Malfoy your roots. You can use the one that you just messed up." Again, not even a glance at their direction.

"What?!" Ron protested. "But, sir, that's not fair!" He had spent the good part of the past fifteen minutes cutting up his roots into nice, equal parts.

"Now, Weasley. And five points from Gryffindor for talking back."

Malfoy smirked and Ron begrudgingly exchanged his nicely chopped daisy roots with Malfoy's.

"And sir, I need my shrivelfigs peeled." Malfoy continued.

"Phantomhive, you can skin Malfoy's shrivelfigs." Snape said dispassionately and Malfoy's smirk got bigger.

"Of course." Ciel took the item and started peeling. It ended up in a mess and Malfoy told Snape, who made Ciel switch his own peeled shrivelfigs with Malfoy's. "Sure thing. Here you go." The young demon handed him the one that he previously worked on, which looked even worse than the one that he had just finished peeling.

Malfoy stared at it. "What is this?!"

"Oh, did I not mention?" Ciel asked, now sporting a slight smirk across his face. "I've never peeled a thing in my life before. I have a butler to do that for me, you see. That," He pointed at the ruined shrivelfigs in front of Malfoy, "Was my practice piece."

Malfoy stared at the demon and Harry and Ron snickered.

"You… You…" Malfoy stammered, face reddening in anger.

"Is there a problem, Malfoy?" Ciel asked innocently.

Beside him, Ron and Harry kept their heads down to hide their laughter.

"If you need any help, I can lend you my butler, seeing that you still don't have your own servants." Ciel offered and made a show of looking around the room. "Oh, what a shame. It seems that the professor has kindly asked him to leave the classroom. How about I help you instead?" He reached for Malfoy's other ingredients.

"I don't need your help!" Malfoy said sharply and batted at Ciel's hand.

Ciel frowned in mock concern. "But your arm…"

"My arm is fine! Just do your own thing and leave me alone!"

"Certainly." Ciel said and went back to his own potion.

By now, Harry and Ron's shoulders were shaking with barely restrained laughter.

They continued on with their work, until Malfoy started talking about Hagrid and what happened earlier this week.

"My father is not happy to hear about my injury and he has complained to the school about it." Malfoy said. "I'd give him a few more days and then he won't be a teacher any longer."

"Three days." Ciel piped up.

"I reckon about that, yes." Malfoy nodded.

"I mean, it took you exactly three days to run back to your father instead of solving your own problems. A true gentleman, Malfoy. You should be proud of yourself." Ciel said.

Malfoy glared at him, but stayed quiet, until Seamus brought up Sirius Black.

"You know, Potter, if I were you," Malfoy said. "I wouldn't be sitting here twiddling my thumb. I'd be out there, hunting him, seeking revenge."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, frowning.

"Oh, you know…" Malfoy started nonchalantly, but his sentence was cut off by Snape, who told everyone to gather around Neville's cauldron.

Ciel couldn't care less about what was happening to Neville's toad. He was busy thinking about Malfoy's words. Revenge? Why would Harry want revenge against Black? Wasn't Black supposed to be the one who wanted to avenge Voldemort? As his loyal follower, it's logical if he'd come after Harry to avenge him, but why would Harry…

And just like that, Ciel pieced together what had happened that night at the Potter residence…

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ciel asked Dumbledore.

As his friends were having lunch, he and Sebastian went to seek out the headmaster and found him in his office.

"About…?" Dumbledore prompted.

"That Sirius Black has aided Voldemort in killing Harry's parents that night." Ciel said.

Dumbledore looked surprised. "Who told you…?"

"Draco Malfoy was taunting Harry about seeking revenge for his parents. I put the pieces together myself." Ciel said. "As we've agreed, Professor, you want us to fight alongside you in what sounds more and more like a war. We're trying to prevent that war from happening in the first place. But we can't do that if you're not being forthcoming with us."

Dumbledore sighed. "This matter with Sirius Black has nothing to do with Voldemort."

"On the contrary, it has everything to do with him." Ciel said. "Black is coming after Harry, either to avenge Voldemort or to finish the job. When he did, we'll be ready for him. As Voldemort's loyal follower, he'd know where he is and how to find him."

"The moment Black is caught, they would be taking him back to Azkaban." Dumbledore said.

"Then your job is to make it possible for us to speak to him before they take him away." Ciel said.

"The Dementors would not allow that."

"We'll take care of the Dementors, if needed. We only need a few minutes with him, at most." Ciel said.

"Young Master, it is time for your next class." Sebastian said, closing his pocket watch and slipped it back into his pocket.

"We'll talk about this again later." Ciel told Dumbledore before leaving.

The classroom was empty when the students arrived for their Defense Against the Dark Arts class that afternoon after lunch.

They sat down, took out their books, parchments, and quills, but still, their teacher seems to be missing in action.

A few minutes later, the door was opened and Lupin entered the room. He put his old and battered bag on the table and addressed the class.

"Good afternoon. You can put your books away. For today we'll be doing practical lesson. All you need is your wand."

Everyone looked confused, but packed their bags and took out their wands. Lupin told them to follow him and everyone walked out of the class. They walked along the deserted hallway and came upon Peeves, who was stuffing the nearest keyhole with chewing gum.

For the past few days, Ciel had noticed that while the ghosts were friendly towards other students, they all avoided him and Sebastian, even the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick. He knew that they were all scared of him and his butler. Ghosts were remnants of souls and demons were soul eaters. So technically, ghosts were their preys. They were lucky enough that nobody had ever said anything to anyone, but perhaps it was because everyone was too scared to say anything.

Peeves, however, was different. He wasn't exactly a ghost. Sebastian said that technically speaking, they could eat a poltergeist, but they were not as fulfilling as ghosts and tasted even worse. If ghosts were leftover food, the poltergeist were the food that one found when dumpster diving.

After Lupin took care of Peeves, they continued walking and stopped in front of a door.

"Inside, please." Lupin said and ushered everyone into the room.

Ciel saw that the room was mostly empty, save for Professor Snape, who was sitting in a low armchair. He looked up as the students filed in and when Lupin was about to close the door, he stopped him. He proceeded to throw an insult at Neville, who flushed and flustered, and when Lupin defended him, he blushed even more.

"And you're allowing a non-student to stay too? You're being too lax, Lupin." Snape said, sneering at Sebastian and Ciel. "The boy won't be learning anything if his butler is doing everything for him."

"I don't see why Mr. Michaelis can't be present during lessons. It's not like he's getting in the way." Lupin responded calmly. "Our job is to help our students to learn as much as they could, not only from us, but from each other. If Mr. Michaelis could do the same for Mr. Phantomhive, I don't see why he shouldn't be here."

Snape didn't reply and left, closing the door behind him.

After Snape left, Lupin led the class to the back of the room and they all gathered near a wardrobe. It was an ordinary wardrobe, where the teachers stored their spare robes, but when Lupin stood next to it, it shook and rattled, causing some students to jump.

"Don't worry." Lupin told them. "It's just a Boggart."

"What's a Boggart?" Ciel asked.

"Can anyone answer Ciel's question?" Lupin threw the question back to the class. "Yes, Hermione?"

"Essentially, a Boggart is a shape-shifter. It takes form of our greatest fear."

"Excellent!" Lupin said and Hermione looked pleased. "Now, this Boggart has no shape just yet. But once it has faced you, it will take the form of something that someone is most scared of. But right now, we have an advantage. Can anyone tell us why that is?"

Ciel raised his hand.

"Ciel?" Lupin acknowledged him.

"Because there are a lot of people in this room, it wouldn't know what shape it should assume." Ciel said.

Lupin nodded. "A very quick learner, aren't you? You're correct. If I opened the door and let it out now, it will get confused. That's why when you face a Boggart, it's always better to have someone else with you. There's a spell that we can use against Boggart. We're going to practice it fist. After me, Riddikulus."

The class repeated after him.

"However, a spell alone is not enough. The only way to completely destroy a Boggart is by laughter. And this is where you come in, Neville. First, let me ask you this, what is the one thing that you're scared of the most in the whole world?"

Neville's lips moved, but only the two demons could hear him.

"I'm afraid I can't hear you, Neville. Could you repeat that, please?" Lupin said.

"P-Professor Snape." Neville's voice was barely above whisper, but everyone heard it and the group burst into laughter. Even Neville himself looked rather sheepish.

"Professor Snape, hm?" Lupin said thoughtfully. "Now, I believe you live with your grandmother, yes?"

Neville nodded.

As Lupin started to explain what he wanted Neville to do, Ciel's attention turned to the wardrobe. He knew that Lupin was going to make everyone try this and he couldn't even hazard a guess of what form the Boggart would assume when facing him. True enough, Lupin told the class to start thinking about how they could turn their greatest fear into something silly.

Ciel thought about talking to the professor now to ask not to be included in this, but before he could do that, Lupin had told Neville to step forward as the rest of them moved to the background.

When Lupin shot a spell at the door to open it, 'Professor Snape' stepped out of the wardrobe, staring down at Neville. The boy raised his wand shakily and stammered the spell. Within moments, 'Professor Snape' was wearing this ridiculous outfits, complete with a bright, red handbag.

"Excellent, Neville. Dean!" Lupin called out the next person forward.

One by one, the students were called forward and as the number of uncalled students dwindled, Ciel was getting more and more anxious. He didn't even know what form the Boggart would assume, how was he supposed to think about how to make it look comical? He shrunk further to the back, hoping that Lupin would forget about him.

The Boggart had turned into a lot of different things by then, a mummy, a banshee, a giant spider, severed head, and so on and so forth. He saw the Boggart made its way to Harry, but Lupin shouted, calling for its attention and everyone was confused when a silvery ball appeared in mid-air.

"Riddikulus." Lupin said and the 'ball' burst like balloon. "Neville, finish it off!" He cried and Neville stepped forward, this time with confidence. The Boggart changed back into Snape and Neville cast the spell and laughed at the Boggart, effectively destroying it.

Ciel let out a sigh of relief.

"Excellent! Very well done, everyone!" Lupin said. "Now, let's see, each of you will get five points for tackling the Boggart, ten to Neville for doing it twice. Five each to Hermione and Ciel for answering my questions correctly. For homework, read the chapter on Boggart, summarize it, and hand it in to me on Monday. Class dismissed."

Everyone left the room chatting excitedly about today's lesson.

"Ciel, we've been meaning to ask you, where are you sleeping?" Ron asked when they were making their way to History of Magic class.

"Professor Dumbledore has assigned me to a different room." Ciel said.

"But you're not even in the dorm." Ron said. "Where exactly is your room and why did he do that?"

"I have… special condition." Ciel said. "I can't sleep when there are other people in the room and it would make me very uneasy. So I've requested a different accommodation."

"How about you, Sebastian?" Hermione asked. "Where have you been staying?"

"With the young master, miss." Sebastian replied.

"So you have your own room and everything?" Ron asked excitedly. "Why didn't you tell us? Then we can hang out in your room."

"I'm usually very busy with homework and studying. I barely spend any time in my room." Ciel said. He had been going to the library almost every night these days and spent the night there, reading or studying.

Ron's face fell, but Hermione took Ciel's side.

"We have more subjects now, which means more homework. You need to start getting serious about your study, Ron. And you too, Harry."

"Hey! Don't drag me into this!" Harry protested as they arrived on front of the classroom.

"Wait here." Ciel told his butler before stepping inside.

They found that Professor Binns – the only ghost professor in Hogwarts – was so terrified of Sebastian. He initially refused to teach if Ciel was in the room, but after Dumbledore talked to him and assured him that Ciel wouldn't eat him, he could tolerate the young demon, but not Sebastian. So, Sebastian had to wait outside during classes as to not scare the poor professor to his (second) death.

"I don't understand why the two of you are taking Muggle Studies." Ron said. "Don't you, like, grow up around them? I mean your parents are Muggles, Hermione."

"I find it fascinating." Hermione said.

"It gives me a different perspective to look at them. Besides, I have to take two electives and I'm not interested in Ancient Runes." Ciel said. He had dropped Divination on the second week, after Trelawney prophesied that he was going to have five beautiful children one day, three boys and two girls, but one of the girls - poor little darling! - would die a tragic death at the age of six. He could only take so much bullshit.

Ciel had also considered dropping Care of Magical Creatures after he had to shove shredded lettuce into some flobberworms' throat for three weeks straight. After the first week, Hagrid had 'played it safe' and had them do boring stuff, such as studying worms and insects, reading and writing essays. However, out of respect of Hagrid, and after the magical experience in his first week, Ciel decided to stay. Besides, his only other option was Studies of Ancient Runes and that sounded even more boring.

Ciel enjoyed Charms with Professor Flitwick. The man was smart and witty and Ciel liked him. The lessons were interesting and although at first he was lagging behind because he didn't have the basics, he quickly caught up with the others by reading some books and practicing during his free time.

Being a demon, he was a natural at using magic and he only needed to learn how to control it, especially when emotions were involved. Sometimes, he could get rather destructive – not on purpose – when he was overly upset or anxious. Sebastian had been training him to have a better control, but sometimes, Ciel still found it difficult to control his instinct and magic, until he got his wand.

The wand had helped Ciel to focus his energy. He didn't need any spell, per se, to do magic, but he learned a lot of them anyway. There would come a day when he'd be able to control his magic without any wand, but for now, the wand helped.

Ciel sat down at his desk during Transfigurations, looking disinterestedly at the others who were arguing about some bunny named Binky.

"All of the fuss, over a bunny…" Ciel sighed and took out his book, parchments, and quill. "And those two look like they're ready to murder each other, over a rat." His eye moved to Ron and Hermione, who were having yet another argument because of Scabbers.

It was the same argument over and over again. Ron accused Hermione's cat, Crookshanks of wanting to eat Scabbers and Hermione's argument was that Crookshanks was just doing what cats were supposed to do. Both Ciel and Sebastian agreed with Hermione, and secretly, even Harry did, but they had chosen to stay out of this as much as they could.

The door opened and Professor McGonagall stepped into the room.

"Oh, look. Your favourite teacher is here." Ciel sneered at his butler.

Sebastian had become quite a fan of the witch. Whenever the class was busy doing their classwork, McGonagall would transform into a cat and sat on her desk to supervise and Sebastian was more than happy to stand there and look at her Animagus form.

After class, McGonagall reminded them all to hand in their Hogsmeade permission form to her before Halloween.

Ciel, Ron, and Hermione waited as Harry asked McGonagall if he could go without a form, but his request was denied. Harry looked dejected as they left the classroom and headed down to the Great Hall to eat lunch.

"I'm probably the only one who'd get left behind." Harry said. "Ciel, have you gotten your form signed?"

"Yes." Ciel nodded. "Sebastian signed it for me. He's not just my butler, he's also my legal guardian." Had been for a century or so.

Harry's eyes lit up. "Sebastian, do you think, do you think you could sign my form?"

"That's a great idea!" Ron said.

"I mean, if you want to, sure. Sebastian can sign it, but I don't think it would work." Ciel said. "McGonagall already knows you don't have it."

Harry's face fell. "I should've asked you first before asking her."

"I don't think that would make any difference." Hermione said. "You can't just ask anyone to sign your form. It has to be signed by either your parents or your guardian. Sebastian is Ciel's guardian, not yours."

"You should've asked my mum to sign it." Ron mused.

"I don't think…" Hermione started, but Ron interrupted.

"Stop being such a party pooper, Hermione."

That started an argument between the two, but they both quieted down as they reached the Great Hall.