Chapter Eight:
Harry was feeling incredibly guilty – Wolf had died that day, one of the watchers had finished him off. He knew that people got killed here every day, but he wasn't a killer. He wouldn't let himself drop to Voldemort's level – killing for the fun of it.
Sirius had an uncanny ability to know what Harry was thinking, and he informed Harry that if someone in the crowd had killed Wolf, that wasn't Harry's fault.
He and Harry both knew that these words made no difference whatsoever, but Harry was thankful for them nonetheless. His lessons were going well with Shadow Master and times were good.
Those who hadn't been there when he'd fought with Wolf had heard about it, and no one was going to approach him with a fight after what they'd seen and heard – Harry was fast becoming a legend in the Seekers Academy.
Everyone now knew that he was studying with the Shadow Master, and no one was going to try and kill one of His favorites. Sirius remained out of sight for the most part; Harry's legendary status had not extended to his godfather. It might have, if they'd known that he was his godfather, but they didn't.
Progress with Light and Dark Elementals was going well and Harry was happy to be learning new things, for with Sirius they were now forced to just go over the same old things, because Harry had learnt all of the spells that he could learn effortlessly, and Sirius wouldn't let him learn the harder ones, because it was difficult and often dangerous.
Back at Hogwarts Draco Malfoy was back and in a foul temper. Ron, Hermione and Harry had got him with curses the year before, and his revenge hadn't worked – he was the one who got into trouble.
Now they had to go back to being careful. They still had potions with the Slytherins, and those lessons had turned into a definite weekly torture lesson.
Snape was even meaner than he had been before, Ron and Hermione in particular got it bad, since they'd robbed Snape's favorite of his Prefects position and any respect he might have had with the other teachers in the school.
The only thing that kept the Gryffindors alive was the fact that they had double Defense Against the Dark Arts after every double potions lesson.
Fleur didn't like the Slytherins, especially not Malfoy, because she didn't like the fact that he had been so mean to Harry. Fleur had been quite taken with Harry when she'd met him the year before, because he'd done so well against incredible odds, and had helped her by saving her sister.
Now she was happy to talk to his friends, hear their side of the story, and with Dumbledore telling the same version, believe them too. So Malfoy got in trouble for any little rule that he broke – she didn't go so far as to get him in trouble for something he didn't do, or make up rules that he'd broken, and she did say well done when he got something right.
They didn't have Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins anymore, and those lessons were much more enjoyable. Ron and Hermione knew that Hagrid wouldn't get into much trouble when it was just the Gryffindors he was teaching, because they'd do as he said and not end up getting hurt because they were stupid.
Consequently the class was much more fun now, and Hagrid was much more confident in his abilities as a teacher. Ron and Hermione spent a lot of time with him now, having introduced Cho, Ernie and Hannah to him (first warning about his cooking abilities).
Hagrid knew the truth (as far as Ron and Hermione knew it) of where Harry was, and about Sirius. He was surprisingly easy to convince about Sirius's innocence, saying that it had been hard to believe it about Sirius.
When told about Pettigrew, he grew so furious that he could hardly talk, and luckily didn't start yelling. He told them that it had always been much more likely to be Peter than Sirius, and was very annoyed that the 'little rat', which they used as Peter's code name, had escaped justice and put one of his friends there instead.
Hagrid was eager to help with anything that he could, though he admitted that he couldn't do much. After some begging on their part, he confessed that over the summer he and Madam Maxine had gone and spoken with the giants, who had agreed, while not to join with the Magical Community, not to join with Voldemort either, for the time being.
The friends were very glad to hear this, since Voldemort hardly needed more allies. He'd gotten the Dementors on his side before he'd even killed Fudge, though no one knew that yet – he told them to stay at Azkaban and act normal, but not to imprison any Death Eaters – give them places of honor inside the buildings instead.
Lucius pretended that he didn't know any of this, and so the whole magical world was kept in the dark. Dumbledore, however, had a spy in the Death Eater ranks – Ron and Hermione had been forbidden to even say Snape's name when such things were being discussed, since Dumbledore had found out that they knew.
Snape had found out all sorts of useful information from the Death Eaters, although he had to be careful. Before he'd fallen, Voldemort and he had made a 'plan' to let Snape become a Professor at Hogwarts. Voldemort told him to tell Dumbledore some things and then take information from Dumbledore back to Voldemort, so he wasn't too suspicious, or wouldn't have been.
But then Snape hadn't been able to make it to Voldemort's rebirth. Fortunately for him, he managed – with Dumbledore's help – to catch Karkaroff and take him to Voldemort's next meeting.
He convinced Voldemort that he'd seen Karkaroff slipping away when the mark burned, and followed, telling his companions that he wanted to talk to the Headmaster of the other school.
Then he'd realized that Karkaroff was not going to Voldemort and stunned the man. Dumbledore had turned up and asked what was going on. Since he couldn't come up a story that would cover the fact that he had an unconscious man at his feet, he told Dumbledore the truth, of sorts, leaving out that he was taking the man to Voldemort.
He managed to get Karkaroff out with what looked like an escape, then stunned him again and took him to Voldemort.
Voldemort believed him – barely. Snape was not completely trusted, but he did hear some things, most of which were fairly useless because they couldn't risk letting Voldemort know that Snape was a double-double crosser.
Even knowing this, it was impossible for any of those who knew, to like the Professor. Sure he put his life in danger almost every day, but he was still a mean little bastard and nothing was going to change that any time soon.
The other bright point in their lives was that Harry would be coming to visit soon. He hadn't told them or Dumbledore what date that would be, but every one of his letters indicated that time would be quite soon.
The second term at Hogwarts was progressing well, both Ron and Hermione were doing well in their studies, and Ron claimed he'd never done so well in school before this year.
It had been seven months since Harry and Sirius had first arrived in the Seekers Academy, on the run, in fear of their lives and not trusting a word that their guide said.
They'd both changed a lot in those months, though neither of them had really noticed it. The real blow came when Ron and Hermione sent a picture of him and them together taken by Colin Creevey just before the Third Task.
Looking in the mirror Harry found it very hard to believe that the skinny young looking boy was him. He'd changed so much, grown taller, his shoulders broader, his muscles stronger. His face had lost its young look and hardened since then.
When he mentioned this to Sirius, his godfather also smiled. "When we go back to the wizarding world, you won't even need a disguise to make sure that no one recognizes us," the man remarked with a smile.
Harry nodded in agreement and slipped away for his lesson with Shadow Master. He knew that the man was coming close to death now. He couldn't do many things with his magic and tired easily during their lessons.
When Harry pushed open the door, Shadow Master was not there. Walking to his mentor's bedroom, Harry carefully pushed open the door. The scene that met his eyes was one so peaceful it was hard to believe.
Shadow Master lay on the bed, eyes closed, for once the shadows did not surround him, and Harry was struck by how much the old man looked like Albus Dumbledore.
Walking forward, Harry tested the vital points and checked breathing; his hands didn't shake at all, something, which greatly surprised him. His findings all proved what Harry's mind did not want to accept. Shadow Master was dead, and the time to leave Seekers Academy had come.
He was so calm as he left the room that he wondered for a moment if someone else had just lost their teacher and friend, but from the dead feeling in his stomach, he knew this to be false.
"Aren't you back early, kid?" Sirius asked, as Harry walked into his room, a trunk trundling behind him. "And why do you have a trunk with you?"
"It's happened, Padfoot. Shadow Master's dead and it's time for us to leave again," Harry's voice was emotionless and deadpan, his green eyes pale and cold. He did not let his grief show.
Sirius bowed his head. "I'll be ready in a moment," he said softly, moving swiftly around his room to gather those few things that he owned and store them in Harry's trunk as well.
He shrunk the trunk and placed it in his own pocket before gently resting a hand on Harry's shoulder and guiding him from the room in silence.
They headed for the stables, Harry took Midnight from his stall, they kept the horses that they chose to ride, if they chose one above the others.
Sirius, who generally changed horses once a week, finding the animals very difficult, chose a chestnut gelding with a white star on its forehead and mounted quickly.
Harry was already sitting easily on the back of his own horse, looking as if he belonged there, which Sirius certainly did not. Clinging to the saddle horn, he nudged the horse carefully after Harry.
They rode in silence till they were about three miles away from the Seekers Academy; because there were anti-aparation wards extended this far away from it. With the horses left tethered and waiting of their return, they Aparated to Diagon Alley where they bought some books and such. It was while they were here that they saw an advertisement on the notice board.
There was a free space at Hogwarts, Fleur Delacour had left to go back to her own country because there were more attacks from Voldemort aimed here and she wanted to be there to protect her family as best she could.
Harry and Sirius glanced at each other, a quick conversation passing with their finger language, and Sirius grinned while Harry smiled ever so slightly.
Having finished their shopping, which consisted mainly of very advanced books on various subjects, the pair of them Aparated back to the horses, and, with the animals and their belongings with them, they then Aparated to the Hogsmeade Aparation point and gave their business to the pair of suspicious looking guards on the platform.
They had to wait for a short time while the guards performed several spells to insure that they were not Death Eaters (mainly anti-illusion charms) Harry thought that it was lucky that neither of the guards could perform the charm that had to be used to remove an Illusion placed using Wandless Magic (the spell itself required Wandless magic to break through, and very few people could do that.)
This was what he and Sirius had used to place their illusions. Harry appeared to have brown-blonde hair, sapphire eyes and pale skin. He was a little shorter, broader, his build was more of a fighters than an athletes and his scar was covered by a patch of illusion that he placed in the air in front of him, since it wouldn't work if it was just on his skin.
Sirius looked almost the same, though there were differences in the shape of the face, the tone of the eyes, height and so on. It was easy to see that they were 'related'.
After that they both headed up to the Hogwarts Castle, coming in by the front gate where they went through the same process by a group of Aurors who were watching the gate.
Then they both headed up to Dumbledore's office, quickly going over the story that they would tell to the rest of the school in their sign language.
They gained admittance into Dumbledore's rooms after going through yet another set of Aurors, who this time took out a spelled ball that changed colour if someone lied. They both had to say in clear words that neither of them were Death Eaters and that they wished no harm to the Headmaster of the school.
Once that had been done, one of the Aurors murmured the password, he didn't seem to think that Harry and Sirius had heard, but they both did, as their Animagus forms both had very good hearing.
They quickly walked into the office and headed up the moving stairs. When they reached the top and knocked on the door, Dumbledore called out calmly "come in!"
Sirius pushed the door open and walked into the room. There was no one but Dumbledore inside, which seemed a little surprising, after the amount of security that the school seemed to need.
Sirius and Harry took the seats that were placed in front of the desk when Dumbledore invited them to sit. "Now, what have you come to see me about? Nothing that you tell me will leave this room without your say so."
Sirius flicked a quick message to Harry who smiled faintly. "I sent you a letter a short time ago asking if we could come and visit the school," he said to Dumbledore carefully. "My name is James 'Panther' Black, and this is my uncle and guardian, Peter 'Padfoot' Black," he said.
Dumbledore's eyes widened a little and Harry felt a slight sense of pride – he'd finally managed to surprise the headmaster!
"We were on our way for the visit, passing through Diagon Alley, when we saw your add. We've come from America (part of the disguise that Harry, had put over them consisted of the American accent) and have little desire to return there, even after we've seen the state of things here in Britain, this is our third trip and we love it here, so I would really like to get a job, for a while at least," Sirius finished for him.
"That takes care of you, Peter, but what of your young nephew? Would he be joining a year group?" Dumbledore asked after a moment.
Harry answered this. "No, I don't think that I would want to join a class too much. My uncle has taught me quite a bit of magic; I'd rather just help him out a bit, with teaching. Like if he needs to do demonstrations, or if he wants some help managing the classes if they are in groups."
"I'm sure that we can accommodate for that," Dumbledore said with a smile. No one would guess from looking at the meeting that it was a reunion of old friends rather than a meeting of new. Dumbledore understood that Harry didn't want to join his class again, because he might let something slip by accident.
By the end of the day both Harry and Sirius had accommodation in the staff wing, Dumbledore had decided immediately that he would hire them on, since he'd been anxious about Harry's whereabouts since he and Sirius had disappeared.
That night they both ate with the rest of the school, Harry spoke to his godfather for a moment and then headed over to the Gryffindor Table.
He sat down beside Ron; Hermione was on the red-haired boys other side. Both watched him with wariness and surprise that this new boy who had been sitting with the teachers before was now choosing to sit with them.
"Hi, I'm James, remember, I met you in Diagon Alley at the beginning of the year?" This was what they'd decided to be the story of their meeting when Harry came for his visit.
Immediately the wariness in their eyes was replaced with surprise and delight and as the greeted him. "We didn't expect you to be so early! And you've changed so much!" Hermione said, eyes wide. "How long are you staying here for?"
"My uncle Peter's going to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and I'll be helping him, rather than joining a class," he explained.
Ron and Hermione nodded. "If you need a tour of the castle, we'll be glad to show you around," Hermione offered. She had become very good at hiding her own emotions, and no one would guess that she was greeting a long lost friend.
Ron finally got around to speaking. "So how are you James?" he asked.
Harry smiled at his best friend. "I'm ok, I guess. A friend just died – old age, not an attack," he added when they looked up sharply.
Both smiled sympathetically at him. "I heard that your parents were killed too, Hermione, I'm sorry," he added softly.
Hermione smiled in thanks at him. Draco Malfoy had been watching this new boy with interest, and felt incredibly insulted when the boy went to the Gryffindor Table rather than the Slytherin.
He stood up, motioning for Grabbe and Goyle to come with him. The three of them headed over to the Gryffindor table to set the new kid straight.
"Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy," he announced calmly, the new boy didn't turn around or even give any indication that he'd heard. Rather than repeat himself and look like an idiot, Malfoy motioned to Grabbe.
The boy blundered forwards and moved to seize the new boys shoulder and make him turn around. Before he could so much as touch the other boy, he'd reached behind him, caught Grabbe's finger, forcing it upwards until, with a nasty crunch, it broke.
Grabbe danced around howling in pain, and finally the new boy turned around to face Malfoy. "My name is James Black, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers nephew. If someone is talking, by the way, it is common courtesy to ask politely before barging into a conversation. If you try and send your bully boys against me, they'll lose. Take him to the hospital."
With that he turned back to his conversation with Ron and Hermione. Draco Malfoy stalked back to his table, leaving Grabbe to make his own way to the Hospital Wing. A blush stained his pale cheeks, made worse by the fact that everyone was laughing at him.
Harry finished his food and stood up, heading back up to the Staff Table. Severus Snape glared at him with pure hatred in his eyes. Harry smiled back calmly, which only seemed to make the man angrier.
Once everyone had finished eating, Dumbledore stood up. "I'm pleased to be able to announce that we already have a new teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Black and his nephew James came here from America, and have decided to stay. Despite his age, James has all the rights of a teacher in most cases, or at least those of a Prefect. I hope that you'll all do your best to help them learn their way around the castle and won't cause any trouble for either of them in classes."
With that, he sat down and the talk broke out amongst the students, all pointing to Harry and Sirius. Both of them left soon after this, not liking the attention that they were receiving.
They'd talked to Dumbledore – Albus, as he insisted that they call him – and he'd organized for a training room to come off their adjacent rooms.
Now they had a quick session before Sirius began teaching Harry some of the spells that were more at his level – he still wouldn't let his godson practice the spells from the advanced adult levels. Now they had the ones that Seventh Years studying advanced classes in Hogwarts used.
Once they'd learned the theory – they'd learn the actual spells the next day – for the first three spells, Sirius watched while Harry carefully practiced Elemental Magic, pushing just to the limits of his strengths, careful not to let himself do too much. Shadow Master had written caution into his bones.
There was a knock on the door and Harry immediately dismissed the Elementals he had summoned and opened it. Albus Dumbledore walked inside.
Harry smiled in greeting. "Professor, how can we help you?" he asked.
"I've told you, call me Albus," was the calm reply.
Harry rolled his eyes and repeated the question, using Albus instead of Professor. The headmaster's response was to ward the rooms against listeners.
"No one can hear anything we say. They'll hear only normal conversation," Albus said. "I want to know where you have been, Harry."
"Could you call me Panther?" Harry asked in reply. "I know that the warding will work, but the need for hiding who I am has been drilled into me for so long that it's kind of odd hearing my real name."
"Panther, then," Dumbledore conceded with a nod.
"We have been at the Seekers Academy," Harry said. "We are both Seekers now, and we left this morning when the old Shadow Master died."
"Ah. I believe that he was my distant cousin," Dumbledore said sadly. "My great-aunts son, I think."
"He looked like you," Harry admitted. "I wondered if there was some connection between you. He was over four hundred years old."
"That would be him then. I myself am one hundred and fifty one," Dumbledore agreed with a faint smile. Harry didn't have much trouble accepting this, after meeting someone who had been alive for over four hundred years.
"Now, why did you go to the Seekers Academy?"
"Shadow Master came and asked if we'd like to come," Sirius said. "He knew who we were, and he particularly wanted Harry there. We found out later that it was because Panther has the ability to use Wandless magic, and Elemental Magic as well."
"Really?" Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise. "I knew that you should be doing better at school, but to be able to use those two magics? I wasn't sure that it was possible to have them both!"
"Shadow Master was the same," Harry replied. "He wanted to teach me how to use them." They proceeded to tell the headmaster of their adventures since leaving Privet Drive eight months before (they left in June and it's now February).
Dumbledore was amazed by their tales, though they could tell him very little about Seekers Academy, it being forbidden. They could, and did, tell him of the training that they'd received, and the other things that had happened.
It was a very late night for all of them, the retelling taking them up to one in the morning.
"I thank you, I do not believe that I have been this amazed since I was your age myself. I don't get many surprises these days, but you have provided me with more than I ever expected! Goodnight!"
They bid the headmaster good night and both Harry and Sirius also headed to their beds, since the first class would be tomorrow morning, and both wanted some sleep after the events of the day.
Harry was asleep the moment he fell into his bed, and didn't wake until half an hour before the sun rose, his usual time to get up. Although for once he could have slept in for a little while at least, he knew that one day would lead to another and the only thing to do was get up now and go for a training session.
Sirius woke a few moments later and joined him, looking as tired as Harry felt, but cheerful nonetheless.
That morning Harry again went to sit with Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor Table and they talked of innocent things, how Harry's 'uncle' was, what they were learning in lessons and the like.
"We have Defense this afternoon, after double period potions," Hermione told him. "We have Defense with the Slytherins too, but with you and Peter – or should I say Professor Black? – as the teachers, I'm sure that it will turn into the complete opposite of Potions."
"I expect so," Harry agreed with a grin. "If you need some help with homework, just ask, I've read a lot of the books, so I might be of some help, though Ron, don't expect me to do it for you."
Hermione smiled. Harry had changed as much as she and Ron had since their last year in the school, probably more. Some of the changes were nice, like this new found knowledge he seemed to have, but others, the wariness in his eyes, the fact that he marked every entrance and exit, where everyone was sitting and seemed to weigh them up, as if deciding how dangerous they were the moment he entered a room, the changes like that she didn't like nearly so much.
After breakfast they parted ways, with "good lucks" all round, figuring that they'd all need it to survive the first classes of the day.
Harry headed swiftly up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Sirius was already there, pacing up and down the room looking nervous.
The first thing Harry did was put a ward on the door that would let him know exactly what each student was carrying with them. This was to make sure that there were no weapons, or things that could potentially be used as weapons. It also told him if they had illusions on, he included illusions made with Wandless Magic, and it would tell him if there were any spells on their belongings, and what they were.
Harry then pulled the teachers chair out from the desk and shoved his godfather into it. "Sit down and calm down," he said firmly. Sirius looked up and grinned wearily.
"What am I doing here?" He asked.
"Teaching," was Harry's firm reply. "Since it's first years, you're working on some basic defense spells, and ways to tell magical animals apart from normal ones. Since they've already learned some, you are going to do some spells for defending and or defeating magical animals."
"Yes I know that. That wasn't the answer I was looking for," Sirius growled in exasperation.
Harry smiled with an innocent expression on his face. Sirius scowled. "What have you done?" He demanded.
"Nothing … yet," Harry replied with a faint smile. Sirius rolled his eyes and went into a brief moment of panic trying to remember if he had everything.
Harry, who'd asked Dumbledore for a list of things his godfather would need for lessons, took it out and checked the items off before Sirius could work himself into too much of a state.
Sirius glared at him, but just then the class arrived. They were first years, and wouldn't have learned too much as yet that year, Sirius had found Fleur's notes on their lessons, so Sirius had some idea of what was happening with their lessons so far.
The lesson went well, and Sirius told Harry to go and wander around the castle, since he wouldn't be doing any spells that required his help. Immediately Harry decided to head down to the dungeons and see what he could do about annoying Snape, knowing that his godfather would deem it 'time well spent.'
He cast a quick invisibility charm over himself and headed for Snape's classroom.
When he entered, Snape was yelling at Neville for not doing a potion right – Hermione was over on the other side of the room, probably so that she couldn't help Neville.
Harry could see exactly what was wrong, and slipped over to the other boy's cauldron and carefully slipped an extra ingredient into the potion. A moment later, while Snape was still lecturing Neville, the potion became the colour, texture and thickness it was supposed to be.
Snape looked at it in surprise, lifted some out with a ladle and was annoyed to find that it was perfectly correct. With an evil smile, Harry slipped over to Malfoy's potion and again added an ingredient.
A moment later, the potion exploded, covering Malfoy, Grabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson in the mixture.
Immediately, giant nasty looking boils popped up all over them, the four of them were screaming and Harry, laughing silently, slipped across the room and out of the door. Opening it, he walked inside to view the chaos that he'd just caused, his face completely blank.
Snape spun to see who'd entered the room and his eyes narrowed to see Harry, or rather 'James'.
"What are you doing here?" He snarled.
"Learning my way around the castle," Harry replied with a blink. "I'd thought that you'd be able to manage a class better than this, Professor. You really do let the Slytherins get away with murder … I heard you yelling at one of the boys just a moment ago, for not getting the colour of the potion right, but I don't see you getting Malfoy into trouble for a much more serious offense."
Snape glared at him in fury. "I will manage my class the way I want to, boy," he growled out.
Harry merely shrugged. "I don't think that Professor Dumbledore would like to hear about this," he said, with a warning smile. "I overheard him telling my uncle that he despised favouritism when it was taken to the extent that a teacher got one party in trouble for a minor offense, and then let another get away with murder …"
He turned to walk away. He didn't see the look of utter hatred that Snape sent at his back – there was even more dislike than when he'd been looking at Harry Potter, if that were possible.
"Malfoy, twenty points from Slytherin," Snape snapped angrily.
Harry turned with a brilliant smile. "There! I knew you were a fair man, Professor! Do you mind if I hang around here, I promise I won't disrupt the class, but my uncle's lessons are boring to attend, since I helped organize them in the first place."
Harry took out his wand and waved at the four Slytherins who were still running around the room screaming. Immediately the boils disappeared.
Snape glared, but he couldn't refuse to let another teacher stand and watch, especially after the said teacher had helped him, and could do nothing to stop him.
Harry took a seat at the back of the classroom, watching. He knew that Snape wouldn't try and favor the Slytherins after Harry's carefully veiled warning, and he got to see the looks of relief on the Gryffindors faces when they weren't screamed at for putting just a foot out of line.
Once the bell rang, Snape was looking incredibly tense, probably because he hadn't had a chance to yell at a Gryffindor for half of the lesson.
Harry fell in with the Gryffindor crowd, as there was a break before they went to Defense, in which he, Ron and Hermione headed for Harry's rooms in the staff wing.
"So, James, what's been happening?" Ron asked, careful to still use Harry's other name.
Harry carefully put up wards around the rooms before speaking. "A lot. Call me Panther if you like, it's my nickname from where I've been staying. You can speak easy now, there are wards on the room."
"But … were they already there?" Hermione asked, surprised.
Harry blinked. "No. I just put them up then," he replied. Seeing the surprised look on Hermione's face become more so, he remembered that he had told them nothing of his life at the Seekers Academy. "I can do Wandless magic," he explained, and then went on to give a short account of where he'd been and what he'd done.
Both Ron and Hermione were gaping by the end of his tale, as they'd been learning a little on the Seekers Academy in History of Magic, everyone had paid attention in those classes, because of the interesting subject matter, although Binns had managed to make it soon very dismal and boring.
"The Seekers Academy … we thought that was just a myth, that's what Binns said," Ron remarked.
"He said the same thing about the Chamber of Secrets. If that was a myth, it was an all too real one for me," Harry replied coolly, a statement to which Ron and Hermione had to agree.
"So, what do you look like now, Panther? And how did you get that nick name?" Ron said, staring at his friend.
"I look different to this, I won't show you know, because it's almost time for lessons, but remind me later. As for Panther, it's my Animagus form," Harry replied, smiling.
"But the Seekers Academy, and being an Animagus … I'm jealous!" Ron exclaimed. "How much fighting stuff did you learn?"
"A lot," was Harry's reply, as the bell rang.
Ron and Hermione grabbed their bags and they all headed for the Defense Rooms. They were the first to arrive, surprisingly, but Sirius was waiting for them.
"Where were you?" He asked Harry, looking panicked.
Harry sighed, took out his checklist and made sure that his godfather had everything. "You know," Sirius remarked, "this feels like going back to school, your father did the same thing."
Harry smiled faintly as he stepped back into a corner and shadows seemed to envelope him. Harry remained there while the rest of the class gathered in the room, the Slytherins being the last to arrive.
It was ten minutes after the bell when Malfoy and his two 'friends' turned up, and Sirius frowned. "I did hear that you were sent to the Hospital Wing, to make sure that all traces of that exploding potion were gone," he said, and Malfoy relaxed a little, he wasn't going to get into trouble. "But I also took the trouble to go and check in the middle of the break, and discovered that you'd been released. Therefore, five points from Slytherin for your lateness."
The Gryffindors all smiled smugly at that, they always loved seeing Malfoy get into trouble. "Now sit down and get your things out! I don't have all day to wait around for you, you know!" Sirius barked at the latecomers.
Resentfully, Malfoy found a seat near the back of the room, in fact, it was right in front of Harry, so the boy could hear every word that they said.
"Huh, doesn't that idiot know who I am? My father will hear about this," Malfoy muttered under his breath, so that Sirius wouldn't hear.
"Is that so Malfoy? And what, may I ask, is your father going to do about it? Nothing. The teaching methods at this school are none of his concern, especially since he got sacked from the Board of Governors for blackmail," Harry's voice, quiet and silky, came out of the corner behind him.
The entire class spun around to find James, the teacher's nephew, standing behind Malfoy's desk. The Slytherin boy was blushing. "Besides, given your reputation – which I am now beginning to think needs to be changed a little – you aren't supposed to be one to hide behind peoples backs. And this is the second time that you've hidden behind your father."
Harry knew that points could not be taken away for that remark, but also knew that the tale of Malfoy's humiliation would be spread throughout the school by the time night fell, and that would be just as bad as getting in trouble – maybe even worse.
The lesson progressed, any Slytherin who tried to make trouble found that Harry was very good at hearing things, and had no mercy on those who spoke out of turn.
He seemed a little more thawed towards the Gryffindors, and accepted their offer to show him around the school during lunch with a smile of thanks.
By the time the lesson ended, the Slytherins were very glad to escape the classroom, though the Gryffindors waited politely behind for Harry, or "James".
After a happy hour exploring the castle with his old friends from Gryffindor, who he made friends with a second time, Harry returned to his own rooms, as Sirius only had the Hufflepuff first years after lunch.
That night, after spending some time in the library with Ron and Hermione and meeting all of their new friends from various houses, Harry headed to bed for an early night, not feeling like eating dinner.
This, he discovered later, was quite a mistake … or was it a blessing? He wasn't too sure.
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Oooo! Wonder what happened! I know, I know! But I'll tell you next chapter, hey?
Thanks To:
Jordan, Katy999, solar, Maxx77, Bob33, knot2be, brion, etfrompo, alana, Lord R, fantasydima, Songbreeze Swifteye, CR, Dog Stars Crush, orion, wquad, Clare, Old Fawkes, DaBear, Zaln, glimmer, princess55, Them Girl, Jess S, and pheonixrising.
~WolfMoon~