A/N: JKR owns all of these characters, I own the plot only.
Chapter 6 Personal Professors
Every eye in the Great Hall was focused on Abbott, Hannah.
The Sorting Hat was perched atop her head. Even if the rest of the students couldn't hear it, they knew the old hat was muttering to her. As a matter of fact, a discussion was probably taking place but none of the other fifth years could imagine what it might be about.
As the Hufflepuff sat there quietly she also could hear that the hat was muttering but it definitely wasn't involving her in any type of conversation. All that she could hear from the had was little tidbits like, "Hmmm--- perhaps ---- maybe ---- possibly---"when it shouted, "SPROUT!"
Not exactly knowing what that meant, Hannah found her original seat as Susan Bones came past her toward the Head Table. After a few seconds the hat shouted "FLITWICK!"
Although the students didn't know what to make of any of this, the pattern continued. One by one the students continued to be called up to once again put on the old hat but this time instead of shouting out a house,
Hermione Granger got Professor McGonagall.
Neville Longbottom got Professor Sprout. "Anyone but Snape" he had muttered over and over under the hat. Unfortunately he hadn't been mumbling nearly as much as he thought he had been and everyone in the Great Hall heard his pleas. The Slytherins sneered at him more than ever. But the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Gryffindors silently agreed with Neville and openly chuckled at his opinion. Dumbledore was also sporting a smile. McGonagall was wearing a frown but she too showed signs of wanting to laugh.
Draco Malfoy got Professor Snape. The incident was very similar to Malfoy's first year. The hat had barely touched his head (Harry wasn't even sure if it had actually touched his head) when he heard its decision.
Pavarti Patil got Professor Trelawney (although the Divination Professor must already have known that that would happen.)
Harry Potter was the only student to get, as the hat had clearly announced, "DUMBLEDORE!"
Ronald Weasley also got Professor McGonagall.
When everyone was eventually sorted, Dumbledore rose again. "Well that was extremely interesting. I congratulate you all for being chosen. You will meet your assigned professors at 9:00 AM sharp tomorrow morning in their offices. Off you go now to enjoy this unseasonably warm weather."
Although none of the students knew what their new class was, they knew that their Headmaster would not entertain any questions on the subject and they knew better than to ask any of their other professors about the subject (the Gryffindors were more than certain that their head of house wouldn't answer any questions). The students all quietly made their way back to their common rooms.
The common room was empty when the fifth year Gryffindors reached it because the others were still in class. The trio sat in a table in the corner pondering what was waiting for them tomorrow at 9:00am. As was becoming more and more usual, Ron and Harry were each thinking the other got the better of the deal.
Ron wished he could have private lessons with the less strict Dumbledore instead of his head of house.
Meanwhile Harry wished that he didn't have his lessons alone and would be paired up like Ron and Hermione and the rest of the other 5th years. Also he didn't exactly take it as a positive sign that he was the only one in his year given the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Harry wasn't sure what that meant but he was willing to wager all of his Chocolate Frog cards that it didn't mean anything good.
He and Ron sat there arguing their respective case repeating themselves over and over again until the rest of the school was let out of classes. The common room filled up quickly with noise and students. The two were so embattled in their argument that they didn't notice that the five remaining members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team were coming up to the table.
"Congratulations Harry, we've voted you our captain for this year."
"Captain? Of what?" He was wide eyed.
George, or Fred, was the first to find his voice. "Well that's certainly the most inspiring acceptance speech I've ever heard." He turned around to address the other four folks standing around the table. "Are we sure that we want someone this dense to be our captain? Perhaps there's a nice piece of birch wood that would like to have the job instead? All in favor of the birch wood say aye --- "
Katie took it up from here. "Be quiet you. Harry, we know this is a surprise to you but we want you to be the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team."
"Wha, What? But I didn't even get to vote. No one asked me." That was all Harry could stammer out.
Katie laughed and punched him lightly on the arm, "Harry, you wouldn't vote against yourself, now don't be silly."
Ron and Hermione along with the females on the team were congratulating him heartily. By the time any of them noticed that the twins were missing, they were already back. Fred and George entered the Common Room carrying their usual armfuls of Butterbeer and soda, cookies and pasties, fruits and nuts. (And interspersed amongst all the goodies were certainly some Weasley unique treats but no one would know which ones they were until it was too late.)
The twins were passing stuff out left and right and before anyone was smart enough to question their generosity and realize that they were eating food from the Weasley twins, students all throughout the Common Room were turning into mummies, vampires, broomsticks, forks, textbooks, alarm clocks, pillows, furniture pieces and to Ron's horror – even spiders. Over the laughter Fred could be heard shouting, "Transfiguring Tarts – 1 Galleon each!"
As he found himself doing more and more often, Harry reminded himself not to accept any food or drink from the twins - ever.
Meanwhile the Gryffindors were finally starting to wonder what special event they were celebrating and the twins wasted no time in telling everyone that Harry was the new captain.
"SPEECH! SPEECH!" was the only (and the very loud) response to this news.
As everyone looked at Harry all he could think of to say was, "Tryouts will be tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 pm." At least this way, Harry figured, he'd have something to think about after he made a fool of himself in front of Dumbledore during tomorrow's mysterious lesson.
He was beginning to wonder who would show up for tryouts tomorrow when it was time to go down to dinner. After a quick meal and a grab at some desserts, the trio went to visit Hagrid, something they hadn't done nearly as often as they had wanted to. After a quick hello to him and his dog Fang, they began harassing Hargrid to tell them about their surprise lesson tomorrow.
Hagrid laughed at them. "I don't know nothin' and even if I did I couldn't tell yer anyway," was all he would say no matter how much they persisted. He almost had them convinced that he didn't know anything about the new lessons when Hermione suddenly remembered something.
"Hagrid, you're teaching one of these lessons to two students."
"Well, um, I, er.. well, I, er, I might be..."
Unfortunately that was the most coherent statement they could get out of him on the subject.
However, Hagrid offered to take them for a quick walk around the grounds to show them some of the new additions this year. So the five (including Fang) of them left. They went to his backyard first and saw some of the incredible things that he was growing this year. They enjoyed examining the especially large pumpkins that he was growing for the Halloween Feast. After they finished admiring the garden patch, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher started walking in another direction and the trio followed him. Hagrid was leading them towards the Forbidden Forest. They snuck glances at one another but continued following Hagrid.
Hagrid wouldn't tell them where he was taking them though. "You just wait and see," is all he would say.
Just as Hermione was starting to say that they should turn back now so as not to set bad examples as school Prefects and risk their positions, Harry spotted a large black dog wagging his tail waiting at the outskirts of the forest. He ran to the dog he had once mistaken as the grim. After seeing what he was running towards, Ron and Hermione ran after him.
The black dog ran just far enough into the forest so that no one would be able to spot him from the school grounds. The large dog transformed into the now familiar form of Sirius Black and he embraced his godson and each of his two friends as they reached him. He offered a hand to Hagrid as well.
Sirius was obviously pleased with his reception from his young friends. "Hello Harry, it's great to see you again. You'll never know how much. I thought after all our time together this summer, you were tired of me."
"How could you possibly think that I was tired of my godfather and worst adult influence I've ever known? Utterly impossible!" As he was saying this though, Harry did feel a little pang or two of guilt that he didn't pre-arrange plans to meet with Sirius before the students returned.
"Well don't you worry about me. I'll be out and about throughout the year. Remember to use school owls when you want to talk to me and call me 'Snuffles'. Don't come into the Forbidden Forest looking for me. First of all it's not safe and second of all I don't usually stay here. Tonight I was here because Hagrid was sure you all would visit him but I'm not staying here."
They made small talk for a little while and Harry asked Sirius if he'd be able to stay around Hogwarts much this year. Unfortunately, All Sirius could do was tell the boy the truth.
"Well Harry, it just depends on the Dark Wizards and their agenda. I have to run occasional errands for Dumbledore; you know that. However, I'll be darned if I'm going to miss the important parts of your fifth year such as one of your Quidditch games." Sirius was smiling. Harry was smiling. Ron was smiling. Hermione was looking somewhat putout.
"So you've heard the news!" Ron exclaimed cheerily. He continued without missing a beat. "That's our Harry. Of course we all knew it was coming but it was still funny to see his reaction. He acted like he didn't see it coming though." Ron didn't stop babbling on until Sirius finally interrupted him.
"What news? I haven't heard any news. Harry, what are you friends talking about? Is there something you're not telling me?"
Harry was looking at an interesting tree branch behind Sirius. "I didn't owl you because it wasn't that important. The Gryffindor team asked me to the Quidditch Captain this year."
Sirius began bouncing on the balls of his feet so much that Harry thought he might go airborne at any moment. "Not important? Not important! How could you think that being named Quidditch Captain wasn't important? Are you sure that you're a Potter? Not important! Good grief lad, this may be the most important thing you ever do. I mean I know you've faced Voldemort and all but we're talking about Quidditch here? Not important --- "
"Sirius!" Hermione interrupted his tirade. "I know that there's some male gene in you that thinks this is the most important thing in the world but it's not. I wish you all would remember that it's only a game --- "
"ONLY A GAME!" Three voices shouted at the same time. She cut them all off before they could continue.
"Yes. It's ONLY A GAME!" The group fell silent for a while. They stared at one another for a bit. Finally Harry broke the tension.
"I had fun this summer Sirius, thanks for sticking around." Sirius continued to beam at his godson.
Ron and Hermione were staring at each other through this exchange. It was only then that they realized they never heard the story of Harry's summer. They had each spoken freely about their own vacation but hadn't spoken much about his even though they each had asked more than once. Secretly, each of them had figured that it hadn't been very pleasant and that Harry wouldn't want to discuss it. Usually he spent some part of his summer with the Weasleys but this summer was different.
Every time Arthur or Molly would ask Dumbledore about inviting Harry over he dodged the question. Ron, Ginny and the twins had bugged their parents to death, who in turn bugged Dumbledore almost every day but all he said was that Harry was taken care of and would speak about it when he was ready.
Ron was on the verge of trying to learn more about Harry's summer when he was brought back to the present.
It was Hagrid that insisted it was getting too dark for the three of them to be outside, especially in the Forest, and shooed them back inside the castle. Ron and Hermione were using the walk to ask Harry about his summer but he wasn't answering any of their questions. He wanted this to remain between him and his godfather, even if only for a short amount of time.
Back at the common room, Ron and Harry were engaged in a game of wizard's chess but Hermione would have none of that. Ron asked, "Are you sure that you don't want to play the winner?"
"Yes I'm sure. How many times do I need to tell you? I need to study for tomorrow. And truth be told so do you two."
"But Hermione," Ron began, "you don't even know what to study. Tomorrow's lesson could cover anything."
"Well that's my point exactly." Hermione and Ron were both shaking their heads exasperated with one another. Harry figured out quickly that whatever he did tonight it wouldn't help him tomorrow. Getting in the middle of a fight with Ron and Hermione would be more stupid than anything he could imagine. However, trying to study for some unknown class with Dumbledore would be as productive as trying to skin a pear with his teeth.
He quickly decided that the longer he distract his mind, the less time he would have to worry about the mysterious class. However after losing three games to Ron he decided to call it a night and try to go to sleep so he could at least be rested for whatever tomorrow may bring.
Although he lay awake for the longest time and didn't remember ever drifting off to sleep, he must have because he awoke rested the next morning. He dressed quicker than he had in months anxious to get downstairs for once.
At breakfast most of the school was talking about upcoming individual study sessions for the fifth years. Years one through four were eager to have their own chance someday for these lessons. Years six and seven were jealous that they weren't afforded this opportunity.
Ten minutes before 9:00 all the fifth years started making their way to their assigned professors. Most of the students had paired up but Harry knew he was the only one assigned to Dumbledore.
When he reached the gargoyle he said "Jawbreakers" and waited for the statue to spring aside.
He knocked on the door waiting for the headmaster to let him in. When the door opened, Harry gazed in and could not have been more surprised.
A/N – Please R/R – let's hear what you think and we'll see if it changes anything.
Thanks to Fallen Angel for a correction to Flitwick's gender in CH4, which was immediately corrected.
Chapter 6 Personal Professors
Every eye in the Great Hall was focused on Abbott, Hannah.
The Sorting Hat was perched atop her head. Even if the rest of the students couldn't hear it, they knew the old hat was muttering to her. As a matter of fact, a discussion was probably taking place but none of the other fifth years could imagine what it might be about.
As the Hufflepuff sat there quietly she also could hear that the hat was muttering but it definitely wasn't involving her in any type of conversation. All that she could hear from the had was little tidbits like, "Hmmm--- perhaps ---- maybe ---- possibly---"when it shouted, "SPROUT!"
Not exactly knowing what that meant, Hannah found her original seat as Susan Bones came past her toward the Head Table. After a few seconds the hat shouted "FLITWICK!"
Although the students didn't know what to make of any of this, the pattern continued. One by one the students continued to be called up to once again put on the old hat but this time instead of shouting out a house,
Hermione Granger got Professor McGonagall.
Neville Longbottom got Professor Sprout. "Anyone but Snape" he had muttered over and over under the hat. Unfortunately he hadn't been mumbling nearly as much as he thought he had been and everyone in the Great Hall heard his pleas. The Slytherins sneered at him more than ever. But the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Gryffindors silently agreed with Neville and openly chuckled at his opinion. Dumbledore was also sporting a smile. McGonagall was wearing a frown but she too showed signs of wanting to laugh.
Draco Malfoy got Professor Snape. The incident was very similar to Malfoy's first year. The hat had barely touched his head (Harry wasn't even sure if it had actually touched his head) when he heard its decision.
Pavarti Patil got Professor Trelawney (although the Divination Professor must already have known that that would happen.)
Harry Potter was the only student to get, as the hat had clearly announced, "DUMBLEDORE!"
Ronald Weasley also got Professor McGonagall.
When everyone was eventually sorted, Dumbledore rose again. "Well that was extremely interesting. I congratulate you all for being chosen. You will meet your assigned professors at 9:00 AM sharp tomorrow morning in their offices. Off you go now to enjoy this unseasonably warm weather."
Although none of the students knew what their new class was, they knew that their Headmaster would not entertain any questions on the subject and they knew better than to ask any of their other professors about the subject (the Gryffindors were more than certain that their head of house wouldn't answer any questions). The students all quietly made their way back to their common rooms.
The common room was empty when the fifth year Gryffindors reached it because the others were still in class. The trio sat in a table in the corner pondering what was waiting for them tomorrow at 9:00am. As was becoming more and more usual, Ron and Harry were each thinking the other got the better of the deal.
Ron wished he could have private lessons with the less strict Dumbledore instead of his head of house.
Meanwhile Harry wished that he didn't have his lessons alone and would be paired up like Ron and Hermione and the rest of the other 5th years. Also he didn't exactly take it as a positive sign that he was the only one in his year given the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Harry wasn't sure what that meant but he was willing to wager all of his Chocolate Frog cards that it didn't mean anything good.
He and Ron sat there arguing their respective case repeating themselves over and over again until the rest of the school was let out of classes. The common room filled up quickly with noise and students. The two were so embattled in their argument that they didn't notice that the five remaining members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team were coming up to the table.
"Congratulations Harry, we've voted you our captain for this year."
"Captain? Of what?" He was wide eyed.
George, or Fred, was the first to find his voice. "Well that's certainly the most inspiring acceptance speech I've ever heard." He turned around to address the other four folks standing around the table. "Are we sure that we want someone this dense to be our captain? Perhaps there's a nice piece of birch wood that would like to have the job instead? All in favor of the birch wood say aye --- "
Katie took it up from here. "Be quiet you. Harry, we know this is a surprise to you but we want you to be the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team."
"Wha, What? But I didn't even get to vote. No one asked me." That was all Harry could stammer out.
Katie laughed and punched him lightly on the arm, "Harry, you wouldn't vote against yourself, now don't be silly."
Ron and Hermione along with the females on the team were congratulating him heartily. By the time any of them noticed that the twins were missing, they were already back. Fred and George entered the Common Room carrying their usual armfuls of Butterbeer and soda, cookies and pasties, fruits and nuts. (And interspersed amongst all the goodies were certainly some Weasley unique treats but no one would know which ones they were until it was too late.)
The twins were passing stuff out left and right and before anyone was smart enough to question their generosity and realize that they were eating food from the Weasley twins, students all throughout the Common Room were turning into mummies, vampires, broomsticks, forks, textbooks, alarm clocks, pillows, furniture pieces and to Ron's horror – even spiders. Over the laughter Fred could be heard shouting, "Transfiguring Tarts – 1 Galleon each!"
As he found himself doing more and more often, Harry reminded himself not to accept any food or drink from the twins - ever.
Meanwhile the Gryffindors were finally starting to wonder what special event they were celebrating and the twins wasted no time in telling everyone that Harry was the new captain.
"SPEECH! SPEECH!" was the only (and the very loud) response to this news.
As everyone looked at Harry all he could think of to say was, "Tryouts will be tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 pm." At least this way, Harry figured, he'd have something to think about after he made a fool of himself in front of Dumbledore during tomorrow's mysterious lesson.
He was beginning to wonder who would show up for tryouts tomorrow when it was time to go down to dinner. After a quick meal and a grab at some desserts, the trio went to visit Hagrid, something they hadn't done nearly as often as they had wanted to. After a quick hello to him and his dog Fang, they began harassing Hargrid to tell them about their surprise lesson tomorrow.
Hagrid laughed at them. "I don't know nothin' and even if I did I couldn't tell yer anyway," was all he would say no matter how much they persisted. He almost had them convinced that he didn't know anything about the new lessons when Hermione suddenly remembered something.
"Hagrid, you're teaching one of these lessons to two students."
"Well, um, I, er.. well, I, er, I might be..."
Unfortunately that was the most coherent statement they could get out of him on the subject.
However, Hagrid offered to take them for a quick walk around the grounds to show them some of the new additions this year. So the five (including Fang) of them left. They went to his backyard first and saw some of the incredible things that he was growing this year. They enjoyed examining the especially large pumpkins that he was growing for the Halloween Feast. After they finished admiring the garden patch, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher started walking in another direction and the trio followed him. Hagrid was leading them towards the Forbidden Forest. They snuck glances at one another but continued following Hagrid.
Hagrid wouldn't tell them where he was taking them though. "You just wait and see," is all he would say.
Just as Hermione was starting to say that they should turn back now so as not to set bad examples as school Prefects and risk their positions, Harry spotted a large black dog wagging his tail waiting at the outskirts of the forest. He ran to the dog he had once mistaken as the grim. After seeing what he was running towards, Ron and Hermione ran after him.
The black dog ran just far enough into the forest so that no one would be able to spot him from the school grounds. The large dog transformed into the now familiar form of Sirius Black and he embraced his godson and each of his two friends as they reached him. He offered a hand to Hagrid as well.
Sirius was obviously pleased with his reception from his young friends. "Hello Harry, it's great to see you again. You'll never know how much. I thought after all our time together this summer, you were tired of me."
"How could you possibly think that I was tired of my godfather and worst adult influence I've ever known? Utterly impossible!" As he was saying this though, Harry did feel a little pang or two of guilt that he didn't pre-arrange plans to meet with Sirius before the students returned.
"Well don't you worry about me. I'll be out and about throughout the year. Remember to use school owls when you want to talk to me and call me 'Snuffles'. Don't come into the Forbidden Forest looking for me. First of all it's not safe and second of all I don't usually stay here. Tonight I was here because Hagrid was sure you all would visit him but I'm not staying here."
They made small talk for a little while and Harry asked Sirius if he'd be able to stay around Hogwarts much this year. Unfortunately, All Sirius could do was tell the boy the truth.
"Well Harry, it just depends on the Dark Wizards and their agenda. I have to run occasional errands for Dumbledore; you know that. However, I'll be darned if I'm going to miss the important parts of your fifth year such as one of your Quidditch games." Sirius was smiling. Harry was smiling. Ron was smiling. Hermione was looking somewhat putout.
"So you've heard the news!" Ron exclaimed cheerily. He continued without missing a beat. "That's our Harry. Of course we all knew it was coming but it was still funny to see his reaction. He acted like he didn't see it coming though." Ron didn't stop babbling on until Sirius finally interrupted him.
"What news? I haven't heard any news. Harry, what are you friends talking about? Is there something you're not telling me?"
Harry was looking at an interesting tree branch behind Sirius. "I didn't owl you because it wasn't that important. The Gryffindor team asked me to the Quidditch Captain this year."
Sirius began bouncing on the balls of his feet so much that Harry thought he might go airborne at any moment. "Not important? Not important! How could you think that being named Quidditch Captain wasn't important? Are you sure that you're a Potter? Not important! Good grief lad, this may be the most important thing you ever do. I mean I know you've faced Voldemort and all but we're talking about Quidditch here? Not important --- "
"Sirius!" Hermione interrupted his tirade. "I know that there's some male gene in you that thinks this is the most important thing in the world but it's not. I wish you all would remember that it's only a game --- "
"ONLY A GAME!" Three voices shouted at the same time. She cut them all off before they could continue.
"Yes. It's ONLY A GAME!" The group fell silent for a while. They stared at one another for a bit. Finally Harry broke the tension.
"I had fun this summer Sirius, thanks for sticking around." Sirius continued to beam at his godson.
Ron and Hermione were staring at each other through this exchange. It was only then that they realized they never heard the story of Harry's summer. They had each spoken freely about their own vacation but hadn't spoken much about his even though they each had asked more than once. Secretly, each of them had figured that it hadn't been very pleasant and that Harry wouldn't want to discuss it. Usually he spent some part of his summer with the Weasleys but this summer was different.
Every time Arthur or Molly would ask Dumbledore about inviting Harry over he dodged the question. Ron, Ginny and the twins had bugged their parents to death, who in turn bugged Dumbledore almost every day but all he said was that Harry was taken care of and would speak about it when he was ready.
Ron was on the verge of trying to learn more about Harry's summer when he was brought back to the present.
It was Hagrid that insisted it was getting too dark for the three of them to be outside, especially in the Forest, and shooed them back inside the castle. Ron and Hermione were using the walk to ask Harry about his summer but he wasn't answering any of their questions. He wanted this to remain between him and his godfather, even if only for a short amount of time.
Back at the common room, Ron and Harry were engaged in a game of wizard's chess but Hermione would have none of that. Ron asked, "Are you sure that you don't want to play the winner?"
"Yes I'm sure. How many times do I need to tell you? I need to study for tomorrow. And truth be told so do you two."
"But Hermione," Ron began, "you don't even know what to study. Tomorrow's lesson could cover anything."
"Well that's my point exactly." Hermione and Ron were both shaking their heads exasperated with one another. Harry figured out quickly that whatever he did tonight it wouldn't help him tomorrow. Getting in the middle of a fight with Ron and Hermione would be more stupid than anything he could imagine. However, trying to study for some unknown class with Dumbledore would be as productive as trying to skin a pear with his teeth.
He quickly decided that the longer he distract his mind, the less time he would have to worry about the mysterious class. However after losing three games to Ron he decided to call it a night and try to go to sleep so he could at least be rested for whatever tomorrow may bring.
Although he lay awake for the longest time and didn't remember ever drifting off to sleep, he must have because he awoke rested the next morning. He dressed quicker than he had in months anxious to get downstairs for once.
At breakfast most of the school was talking about upcoming individual study sessions for the fifth years. Years one through four were eager to have their own chance someday for these lessons. Years six and seven were jealous that they weren't afforded this opportunity.
Ten minutes before 9:00 all the fifth years started making their way to their assigned professors. Most of the students had paired up but Harry knew he was the only one assigned to Dumbledore.
When he reached the gargoyle he said "Jawbreakers" and waited for the statue to spring aside.
He knocked on the door waiting for the headmaster to let him in. When the door opened, Harry gazed in and could not have been more surprised.
A/N – Please R/R – let's hear what you think and we'll see if it changes anything.
Thanks to Fallen Angel for a correction to Flitwick's gender in CH4, which was immediately corrected.