Loss
By BlackPotterGrl
Chapter XVIII- Homework and History Class
Walking out of Professor Murphy's class, Harry's head was spinning. He was going to have a boat load of homework this week because during the forty-five minutes of work they were supposed to do was spent reevaluating his life.
He had walked into the classroom ready to sit down and send inconspicuous glares at Murphy for the period. She walked into the room, surveyed the class with a stern look and said "Well class, today you are to read from page 33 to page 52. You can start your assignment by giving me a three foot summary of what you read, and then you can answer questions 50 to 84 in the back of your books. No talking."
You could almost hear the class groaning loudly in their heads. "Mr. Potter. Please see me at my desk at the end of the period."
He clicked his tongue, and it seemed to echo through the room. Why was everyone so silent? He assumed they got more work when they talked.
He flipped his book open to the right page and began making a horrible attempt at trying to read. The book was huge, the pages were thin, and the print was tiny. He could tell that it was going to be a long long year.
He had an equally troubling problem. Besides the fact that she was a horrible teacher and gave out way too much homework, he found nothing wrong with Professor Murphy. She was dating his Godfather, and he didn't like it. Beyond the denial he was in, he wanted some reason why Sirius shouldn't be going out with her.
He spent the rest of the period watching her. She had picked up some sort of Wizard romance novel, as far as he could tell. He snickered. Its title, Frolicking Among the Fairies, suggested that Wizard authors should stick to writing non-fiction.
On his mental list for why he hated Professor Murphy, things weren't looking good at all. 1. She's dating Sirius. MY godfather. 2. … he blanked.
Nothing physical stood out to him. She had pretty blondish-brown hair, and she looked attractive enough. He guessed at the opening feast, he had overlooked that.
Besides the fact that she gave horrible loads of homework, and was an atrocious teacher, he really didn't know anything about her. As far as he could tell, he stared at her the whole period long. With no friends, he had no one to wake him up and tell him to get to work.
He was shocked out of thought when the bell rang and he remembered half way to the door that he had to go see 'the woman' himself. He stood in front of the desk.
"You wanted to see me?" He made it painfully obvious that his teeth were clenched, though it wasn't intentional. He forcefully pried them open.
"Yes." She looked at a sheet on her desk. "Potter." She looked at him meaningfully, but her expression wasn't that of kindness. "You missed class last week. Your godfather picked up your homework, but you didn't hand it in. Why not?"
He hated the way her voice seemed to get an octave higher when she said godfather. In truth he had put his History homework off until last night, at which time he had fallen asleep soon after completing his Potions homework. He hadn't had a chance to do it. "Well, I've had a difficult week. I've had a lot of homework to make up."
"You had last week to make up your other homework, and all this week as well. What was the problem?" Her voice was grating his nerves. It was sweet, as though they were talking about how great the weather had been.
"Well, I was running a fever of 106 at one point."
"Very well Potter. Turn it in next week for half of the credit."
He could feel his eye twitch compulsively as he turn to walk out of the classroom. He hoped she wasn't watching him because his shoulders were shaking with suppressed frustration. He assumed he was quite a sight to poor Professor Flickwit who stared at him with a nervous look on his face; his shoulders shaking, his eye twitching and a satisfied smile on his face, as he mentally added number two to his list. She's a BITCH!
_______
He was sure he was sight. That weekend he found himself floundering in the horrible loads of homework he needed to do. Transfiguration and Charms wasn't too extreme. Divination was difficult but wasn't really anything to worry about, and Care of magical creatures was a breeze. All of these things didn't bother him at all. But when you added them all up, you had a mound of homework. They didn't even hold a candle to the Potions and History homework his had.
After finding out that he had done all of the homework that had been assigned the previous week, Snape had told him that since he hadn't been in class he should do extra work to catch up on it.
Sirius had given him a note from Hedwig that he didn't have to do any of the homework. He really wanted to do it, as he felt like he was taking advantage of his godfather working as Defense teacher. Well Snape would surely think so if he found out.
He found another surprise later. As he was eating breakfast, and being ignored by almost everybody, he saw a flash of white as the owl post arrived. As far as he knew, he was the only person in Hogwarts to own a white owl, so expected Hedwig to land on his shoulder. He watched her swoop down in front of Sirius and stick her leg out for him to open a letter. A pink letter. He watched as his godfather read what it had to say and turned as pink as the parchment.
Him and Professor Murphy shared an intimate look.
His mouth dropped open as Hedwig flew away, not even giving him a look. Hedwig was his only friend left in the world, and now she was conspiring against him, delivering love notes between her and Sirius. Why couldn't Sirius get his own owl? He felt too sick to finish his breakfast.
When it ended, he met Sirius at the door. It was a weekend so they would have plenty of time to talk. "Sirius, what was up with that letter?"
"Hmm?" He looked ill at ease. "I didn't think you would mind if I used Hedwig. I mean, between the two of us, we don't get much mail, so I was wondering if I could use her as well."
He couldn't say no. How would he go about it? 'Sorry Sirius, even though no one except Hagrid will ever send me a letter, I don't want you using her.'
He swallowed. "Yeah. Sure." 'Just wish you would have asked.'
Besides that, his weekend pretty much consisted of library visits, reading and studying.
Monday was difficult. He had finished his Transfiguration homework over the weekend, mostly because it was due the soonest, and it was the easiest. He realized how much he had had taken advantage of Hermione throughout his years at Hogwarts. Now maintaining excellent grades without any help whatsoever was suddenly a huge task.
He had to spend a while finishing his Divination homework that night, and didn't make much of dent in his Potions homework. He was going to need to spend an all-nighter to complete those.
He woke in horror on Wednesday to find that he had four pimples on his face. Two on his forehead, one on his chin, and – worst (and biggest)of all – one smack dab right in the middle of his nose. Dean walked into the bathroom to see him staring in horror at his complexion and burst into hysterical laughter.
He didn't get pimples. Ever. He washed his face every night. He stayed away from greasy foods. His mother or father never had pimples; He had even asked Sirius. What did he do to deserve this? What was he going to do? He couldn't go outside like this. He couldn't! He rushed to the pile of books that where on his trunk. 'Cover up spells! Cover up spells!' He finally found a potion, but it would take three hours to prepare!"
He was going to have to go to classes like this!
Breakfast he kept his head down in his food. He didn't eat anything that was remotely greasy. He had scrubbed his face three times after getting dressed that morning and he didn't know what else to do to help.
He sat down in Defense class not looking at anything. He sat at the first empty table he saw and looked down at the desk. He didn't mean to fall asleep during Sirius's lecture about a spell he had already mastered, but he hadn't gotten more then eleven hours of sleep between then and Sunday.
He felt a tapping on his shoulder but he didn't want to get up. "Harry?"
"Go way Ron." His voice groggy.
"Harry! Get up." He recognized Sirius's voice. He looked up with confusion to realize he had slept through most of class. The class was laughing at him as well. When they had stopped he frantically searched for an excuse. He pretended to pick something up with his index finger.
"Oh! Here's my contact." He said, looking at the bare finger.
"Really? You lost your contact? Interesting. Maybe you need to get a new glasses prescription if you need to wear contacts and glasses at the same time. " He said as he took off Harry's glasses and waved them around for emphasis.
Harry let the class laugh for a good fifteen seconds. His face going red to match the pimples.
"I wasn't going to say anything about it, but… that was such a bad excuse! See me for your detention after class." The whole class did that annoying oohing that they did when anyone got in trouble.
He could have cried and everyone in his class knew it. They had all seen him sitting at his table in the corner of Gryffindor almost breaking the desk from the weight of all the books on it. They knew he had extra homework. A couple hundred pounds of it that was due tomorrow. He was going to have t skip dinner, and sleeping for that mater to catch up on it. He would have no time to brew the potion.
He finished the written assignment for the class and when the bell rang he walked sullenly to the front of the class. "Dae Ja Vu?" Sirius asked him. He replied with a glare. "Harry, what's going on? And… are those pimples?"
"No Sirius, they're places I forgot to put sunscreen." He said scathingly.
"Really? Because it's not-"
"That was sarcasm."
"Oh. But anyway, what's going on? Why were you sleeping in class? Particularly my class?"
"Because we where working with blood-sucking plants in Herbology." Harry was growing annoyed with Sirius constant insistence to know every single aspect of his life. "I don't know Sirius. Because I'm a teenager. That's what we do. We stay up all night, never do our homework, and sleep in class. Just ask Snape. He seems to have the measure of me." He said all of his spitefully. But even at his godfathers shocked look, he didn't stop glaring.
"Well, see me at seven tonight for your detention." He didn't seem nasty, he just seemed let down.
Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, or possibly that he was angry over Sirius embarrassing him in front of the whole class but he really didn't care about the fact that Sirius was feeling so disappointed in him.
He was informed that Quidditch practices would start next Friday, and for the first time ever, when he was told, he sighed. Fred, who had told him, widened his eyes.
"You don't want to play Quidditch?" he asked.
The Weasleys twins were the only ones besides Neville who weren't malicious toward him. The first time they saw him after his 'feud' with Hermione, they had given him a weird look but hadn't said anything about it.
Ginny on the other hand had blown up at him in the middle of the common room for everyone to see. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING POTTER? YOU DON'T JUST GO AROUND DUMPING YOUR FRIENDS! ESPECIALY NOW WHEN HERMIONE IS GOING THROUGH SO MUCH, YOU JUST GO AND DO THAT TO HER?" She kicked him in his shin extremely hard. He had excused himself rather hastily and locked himself in his dorm room.
"Yeah, I want to and everything. It's just… with all the homework I've got… Uh!"
Fred just shook his head.
He worked twice as hard, and twice as hastily as he normally would on his potions homework, and by the time he had to go for detention, he still had at least five hours worth of homework left to do.
He knocked on Sirius's office door feeling bad about what he had said earlier. He felt dead on his feat, but he forced himself to look alert in front of Sirius. He didn't want Sirius to find out about him having such hard time, though he was pretty sure Sirius was going to find out, if not from his teachers.
"Come in Harry." Sirius called. He sat down across from him.
"Look Sirius. I'm sorry I blew up at you today." He was having a hard time keeping the drowsiness out of his voice.
"Harry, I really want to know what is going on with you. I mean, the reason I took his job was so that I could watch out for you." He said in a voice so concerned Harry almost felt bad thinking to himself 'and so you could be close to your girlfriend.' But not totally.
"Are you getting enough sleep? I remember your father use to get pimples when he didn't get enough sleep. They usually go away after twelve hours of sleep in one night if I remember correctly." He told him. That was helpful. Too bad it wasn't going to happen.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" Sirius asked him.
He couldn't very well lie could he? What was he going to say? Neville's snoring was keeping him awake at night? "Homework." He said giving in.
"How much?"
He didn't want to, but something in Sirius's voice egged him forward. He sighed. "I have two three foot essays to write by tomorrow in Potions. In History, I have 25 questions to answer and a summary of 20 pages of text. It's all due by tomorrow. It'll take me at least five hours to do." After saying it all, it sounded so much less achievable. He banged his head against the desk.
"Giving yourself a concussion won't help. Well, it'll give you some time if you're in the hospital, but that will kill you with all the work you'll have to make up."
He sighed. "All right." He drew his wand and Harry had a brief and thick idea that Sirius was going to curse him so that he didn't have to go to class. "Accio Harry's homework." Harry shook his head. He really needed sleep. "Handy isn't it?" Sirius told him.
"You can't tell anybody about me helping you. Promise?" he asked. Harry nodded without reluctance. "All right. What is the subject for Potions?"
"Well, the one he assigned to the class was the usage of Doxy wing and its effect on potions. He took out a long piece of parchment that had floated to the desk with the rest of his humongous pile of books and let Sirius read what he had written so far. He looked guiltily at him when Sirius gave him a skeptical look.
"Obviously mine isn't the only class you've been sleeping in." Sirius told him.
"Oh come on! You know I suck at potions." Harry whined.
"All right. Start writing a new one from what I tell you." And to Harry's amazement, Sirius went on and on about the use of doxy wing in various types of potions he had never even heard of. Potions he wondered if Snape had heard of.
"Where did all that come from? Are you channeling Snape's parents or something?" Harry asked him amazed.
Sirius turned completely red. "Actually, my scores on my Potions NEWT were higher then Snape's." He said in a small voice. "I was offered Snape's job before he was, but nobody knows about that Harry. No one! You can't tell anyone." Sirius pleaded with him.
"Does Remus know about it?" He asked, his eyebrows creased down.
Sirius shook his head. "It's not something I brag about. Thankfully, my potions professor liked me. Professor Figg. When she passed our tests back she would put a bad grade on it for me. I think I was her favorite student because I did so good and managed to be pleasant and enjoyable unlike Snape. Of course, she pretended like she hated me, and that she loved Snape. She was one of my favorite teachers."
"Any relation to my babysitter?" he asked, thinking it was just a coincidence.
"That would be her, I'm pretty sure." Harry raised his eyebrows.
Harry looked down at his paper. With all the Information Sirius had given him on Doxy wings, he could write a book. The report he had been sure was going to take him at least an hour and a half had been completed in 25 minutes. "Oh, Snape assigned me my own personal essay on the what ingredients shouldn't be added to together because of spontaneous combustion." This one he was sure would take him at least two hours as he knew nothing about the topic. Sirius however flew off on potions, ingredients, setting the fire a certain temperature so that the chemicals were no longer hazardous. He jotted down what Sirius told him to and was finished before the clock struck eight fifteen.
"I don't know all that much on the topic of History of Magic. It isn't my strong point and I don't know how much help I can be for you." Sirius told him.
"Don't worry Sirius. That's okay. You've done more then I ever could have asked from you." Harry said smiling, feeling bad about snapping at him earlier.
"I may be more bothersome then helpful, but I'll try." And so he got out his History homework. To his astonishment, Sirius once again breezed through all of the questions giving him complete answers that the book hadn't even mentioned.
"You know, you don't look like the scholarly type at all. In fact, I always imaged you were the type of person who barely passed school."
"Well that is the association you get with a motorcycle and a leather jacket." He was referring, of course, to the leather jacket he preferred over a cloak. In fact, unlike all the other teachers, Sirius wore casual muggle clothes instead of robes. "But you don't get to be an auror by barely passing. Don't you know me well enough to know that?" Sirius faked disappointment.
"Well yeah. Of course. I just meant that to someone who didn't know you, that is how you would appear." He said shrugging.
"Well I helped you. You help my nerves by getting some sleep… Rudolf." He said, poking him on the nose.
"Ha ha, you're hysterical." Harry replied, sticking out his tongue childishly.
"Come on, I'll walk you back to Gryffindor."
On their way back, Harry had to ask a question. "Were you really going to give me detention?"
"If you were as rude to me as you were earlier, yeah. You would have helped me grade papers, or you would have washed my bike back in Hagrid's Paddock where he's keeping Buckbeck. Oh, did I tell you? I gave him back to Hagrid. It was part of my compensation that he would go free." Sirius told him.
"Well you did embarrass me in front of the whole class."
"It was just a joke. Come on, get a sense of humor! The old prankster still comes out in me sometimes."
"It isn't so funny when you're the butt of the joke." But he smiled anyway. He wasn't going to argue with the man who had just given him back five years of his life.
"Well, if you ever need me to help you with a pile of homework, you know where I am."
"How can I thank you for helping me. I think I might have drowned in parchment." Harry told him.
"It's all right. Anytime." Sirius looked completely nonchalant, like he hadn't just saved him three or four hours of work. "Can't let my favorite Godson drown in parchment."
He gave Sirius a short hug after looking around to see if anyone was watching. "What's wrong? Afraid to give your godfather a hug in public?" Sirius asked him, teasingly.
"Hmm. Yeah, that sounds about right." Harry responded.
"See ya Harry." Sirius said laughing after Harry opened the portrait hole. Harry waved him goodbye.
_______
Harry didn't make the mistake again that week. He found himself rushing through the pages as fast as he could without tearing up at how boring all of the crap was. He usually got to the point were he was done reading when he left class. He did all of his Potions and History homework over the weekends and could usually get done his Transfiguration homework without having to rush frantically. He managed to get enough sleep that weekend for the pimples to go away without the help of the potion.
Harry barely saw Sirius after that. It seemed like between Quidditch and homework, Harry was busier then Sirius was, though Sirius looked equally swamped. Coming back from Quidditch practice one day, he passed by Sirius's office and noticed that the door was open. He was going to drop in to say hello after not talking to him all week aside from class.
He looked through the door and found Sirius at his desk leaning over a stack of paper that seemed like it reached the bottom of his chin. There must have been two inches off papers scattered all over his desk. The latter, however, did not surprise him in the slightest. Sirius was messier then Ron was, which was a feat.
"You want some help?" Harry asked him, leaning against the door frame.
Sirius's face snapped up at the noise. "Essays. The whole stack of them." Sirius said, running his hands through his hair. It was his trademark motion that he was frustrated. "Hey Har." He greeted him, having not done it in the beginning. "They're all Slytherins, and I don't even trust myself not to fail the lot of them." He gnawed on his lip. "I really have to get to work." Sirius said. In other words, go do your homework or something.
Harry didn't blame Sirius. He himself really didn't want to help grade papers. He had a pile of homework about the size of the one on Sirius's desk, but he had it pretty much all scheduled out as for when to do it. He did want to return the favor since Sirius had helped him. "All right. See you in class then."
Sirius didn't respond so he left.
Not having Ron around was probably the worst transition. Every morning when he woke up, out of habit he would chuck his pillow to the bed next to his. Ron's. At times he forgot himself and wanted to go and say hello to Hermione who had taken to sitting as far away from him as possible. Surprisingly, Hermione didn't give him glares when he passed her in the hallway. In fact, the way it seemed, she didn't even hate him. When ever he made eye contact – which wasn't often – she would just look at him blankly and avert her eyes.
Quidditch wasn't much of a relief either. It was more a distraction from homework. Every time he got on a broom, and let the wind whip through his hair, thoughts of homework would follow him. "Come on Potter. You don't have time for this. Just find the snitch and get back to work."
As October approached him, something equally troubling hung over his head. Dumbledore had said that if Ron wasn't found in a month, he would be pronounced dead. Although it wouldn't really be that big of a change, the fact that it would be official scared him. He wasn't missing, he was dead. It meant he could formally give up just about all hope. He didn't want to have to deal with that.
End Chapter XVIII- Homework and History Class
End Notes: I actually have an excuse for my lateness. My mom took my computer off me and gave me hers. Hers, which doesn't have any of my files on it. I didn't want to do a really sloppy rewrite, so I had to wait. I did just get it back yesterday though. So finally, after all of the reviews, you meet Professor Murphy. I'm sorry to disappoint you folks, but at no time during the story does she get her throat ripped out. *Readers who have been waiting for it to happen get fed up and leave*
Well, review. Please. Sirius, give everyone a pout for me.
Sirius: *Ignores Katie*
Reviews:
Thanks you Anifan1, Sexy Black, Goldengirl2, none, and Flying Goat.
Katani Petitedra: Harry just seems to be like that. Always doing stupid stuff like that even though no wants him to. Thank you.
Shawn Pickett: Thanks a lot for reminding me to write Ginny's response. I hadn't planned on it, but you were right. Ginny really did need to give him a piece of her mind.
80: Hey… what is there left to say to you? Did I say that I would respond to your email in reviews? If I did, I lost it. I really need to stop doing that. I'm really sorry not to have anything to say to you, but if you review me, I'll do one for next chapter regardless.
Sailoranime: You really don't have to make up excuses for why you don't sign in. I know you don't. I know you won't. You seem to like complaining. You and me have a lot in common I guess. I love to bitch and moan a lot. I usually don't do it in reviews. *Shrug* Oh god, I love you for saying that. Red-haired voodoo doll? Hehe. If Siri didn't keep me in check… well, I don't know. Hermione? I keep in mind that in England, their version of insane isn't as easy to achieve as America's, though I can't really talk. I can't say if you will ever like Murphy. If this chapter gives you any idea then it's your own opinion.
Star-Prancer: Couldn't have put it better myself. Thank you very much. You made me feel a lot better. I guess we never like our first chapters after write seventeen more.
LizhowHP: That won't come until pretty close to the climax, which shouldn't be for a while now. I'm sorry. It'll be worth the wait if I write it the way it's been planed. Thanks for your review.
Blueberrie: I don't want to give away the ending, though I can't imagine Sirius really getting horribly mad about something like that. Thanks for your review.
Time is of the Essence: Wow! Thanks a lot for that review. It really helped me write more. I read your story. I can't wait for your next chapter. I must say that your title was the longest I've ever heard of. I thought ff.net cut people off after about 20 characters. You're the first person to ever find out that they don't. Thank you.
I don't no: That's flattering. I love when people say that they don't normally review but made an exception for my fic. That's sweet. Thank you.
Blood Moon1: First of all, I have to say that I really enjoyed your review. I loved your vocabulary. Staggering relationship? No offence what-so-ever though! I like your idea. I really do. If I hadn't planned out the whole thing, I would do it. Really. It's just, I know exactly what is going to happen, and that would really through the whole thing off balance. Thank you for your review though.
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