"There's no reason for us to be takin' that stupid class anymore. We know the basics. I'm never gonna brew a single potion after I leave here," Ron grumped as they left Snape's classroom, "so I don't see why I haveta be there."

          "Everyone should know the basics of potion-making, Ron. It's an important part of becoming a good wizard," Hermione replied, returning her potions materials to her satchel.

          "Ah, bugger that. Charlie an' Bill are good wizards, you don't see them brewing up stupid potions."

          "So what do we have now?" Harry asked, hoping to head off an argument.

          "Magical Creatures, with … oh."

          "Slytherin?" Ron asked.

          "Slytherin," Hermione confirmed with a frown. "Well, at least there probably won't be any imps."

          Ron and Harry both grimaced.

          Thankfully, Magical Creatures passed without incident. Hermione figured the absence of any actual creatures had something to do with it. The Slytherins deviated not at all from their normal behavior, snickering in the background as Hagrid explained about the proper feeding and care of mephits. A pack of them were apparently in transit and expected to arrive for class use later in the week.

          "Malfoy keeps watchin' us," Ron whispered to Harry halfway through class. "He's got a weird glint in his eye. I don't like it."

          "Relax," Harry said. "It's probably nothing. Malfoy's just trying to make you twitchy."

          "It's workin'."

          Ron tried to ignore it, but he kept feeling Malfoy's eyes on him for the rest of class. When the period ended, he decided he couldn't take it anymore. The Slytherins turned to leave, but Ron grabbed his arm.

          "You got a problem with me, Malfoy?"

          Draco shook his arm free. "I think you know exactly where I stand, Weasley." Idiot. Did you even read the damn note? "Don't touch me again." He mouthed the word 'note'; Ron furrowed his brow in surprise.

          "Hey now, you kids don' be startin'," Hagrid said, coming between them before Ron had a chance to discern what Malfoy had said. "C'mon, Ron, been meanin' ter have yeh up ter my hut anyway. Go on, Draco, get yerself abou' yer business, eh?"

          Malfoy leaned in, speaking for the Slytherin ears and leaving Ron fuming at his words, "Just remember, Weasel, there won't always be a janitor around to save you." He smiled evilly and walked off, two Slytherin girls clinging to his arms.

          "That sonuva…"

          "Don' worry abou' him, Ron," Hagrid said, steering the boy back to Harry and Hermione. "No good, that one. C'mon. Somethin' I been wantin' ter show yeh."

          Hagrid's hut looked the same to Harry as it always did: huge crockery piled everywhere, furniture looking worn and comfortable, Fang sleeping by the chair…

          "Um, Hagrid … that's not Fang," Harry said. In the shadowed light he couldn't quite see the dog, but he knew it wasn't Hagrid's usual companion.

          "Nope," Hagrid said with a grin. "Shut the door, would yeh, Hermione?" She did. "Now, then, I s'pose yeh can come out here," he told the dog.

          The dog stood, stretched, and walked into a shaft of sunlight. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized it; he never quite knew what sort of pet Hagrid might bring home, and half of them had led him into messy scrapes.

          With sunlight beaming down on it, the dog changed into a wizard.

          "Hello, Harry," Sirius said with a smile. His dark hair, still long enough to reach his shoulders, was neatly brushed and clean; his robes looked moderately new, and he had put on enough weight that the bones of his cheeks no longer had a skull-like prominence on his face.

          Overjoyed, Harry ran forward and hugged Sirius; the older wizard hugged him back awkwardly.

          "Sirius? You're back?"

          "So it appears. I hope you don't mind, since I'm not particularly planning on going anywhere for awhile."

          "Mind? Why would we mind?" Hermione frowned at Ron. "Oh, right."

          "I didn't think you would," he said to Ron and Hermione with a chuckle. "How're you two doing?"

          "We're fine, thanks," Hermione said hurriedly; she was curious about Sirius being with Hagrid. "I don't mean to sound rude, but … I thought that Professor Dumbledore was trying to find a way to keep you permanently concealed? So that you didn't have to spend all your time as a dog."

          "He was, and he actually found a man to craft an Amulet of Sorkin, but I turned him down."

          "What's the amulet do?" Harry asked.

          "The wearer can look like someone else," Hermione said. "You can even adjust who you look like."

          "They can be dangerous, though – people who wear them tend to lose their personalities after a time. We decided this would be a better compromise, me living with Hagrid."

          "What happened to Fang?" Ron asked.

          "Gave him ter a friend o' mine," Hagrid said. "He's got a farm near West Oxbury, needed somethin' big enough to keep the bugbears away, an' Fang's good at tha'. Decided 'sfer the best when Dumbledore tol' me abou' Sirius an' all."

          "This is great!" Harry said enthusiastically. "You're here for good."

          "I am," Sirius responded, still smiling. "An' actually, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about, Harry. In the next few days, Dumbledore's going to want to talk to the three of you, and …"

          "You mean about the auror training?" Ron broke in.

          Sirius' expression grew grave. "He's already spoken with you, I take it."

          "We're going to do it," Harry said.

          "You are?" For the first time since the night in the Shrieking Shack, Harry saw real anger on Sirius' face. "Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?"

          "'Ey, Sirius, there's no need ta get mad at 'em. Dumbledore…"

Sirius ignored Hagrid and continued.        "Do you know what they're going to do? How badly you could be hurt?"

          "Sirius, we…"

          Harry cut Hermione off. "We made a decision, Sirius." He locked eyes with his godfather. "Did you really think we could say no?"

          "You said yes, but you have no idea what you're in for. I spent a month arguing against Dumbledore even making the offer. The things they have planned for you … Harry, you know I'm very fond of you. Of all three of you. I know you're capable, but this … this goes way beyond what you can handle." His face and voice softened. "I don't want to see you hurt."

          "An' we do?" Harry said forcefully. "That's the point, Sirius. Is the training more dangerous than another invasion by Voldemort?" Hagrid gulped loudly when Harry said the dark wizard's name. Sirius didn't answer him.

          "What is it that has you so concerned, Sirius?" Hermione asked. "You must know what's coming if you can speak like that."

          "I …" Sirius paused, conflicted. "I can't tell you. Not if you're going through with this. It'll make the training less effective, and that's the worst of either option."

          "So you'll object to us doin' it at all, but you won't say why." Harry's vision clouded with anger. They hadn't made the decision lightly; he'd been spinning it around in his head over and over again since the night before. He hated putting Ron and Hermione at risk, but he knew he had to. Why didn't Sirius see that? "That's not good enough, Sirius. We're doing it. We have no choice, really."

          "I can't let you, Harry. You have to trust me. It's too dangerous. If you're father were alive…"

          "My father's not alive!" Harry shouted. "And if you'd been here instead of prison or off running around who knows where, you'd understand that I have to do this!" Hermione blanched at the hurt pain she saw in Harry's eyes. "That bastard killed him, and he keeps trying to kill me, and the only way to stop it is for me to learn how to beat the bastard at his own damn game! I don't give a shit if you don't like it. You don't have to. I'm the one doing it, and I'm not gonna stop!"

          Harry, his face red with rage, spun and stormed out of Hagrid's house. Ron took off after him, but Hermione never moved. When the boys had gone, she turned back to see Sirius looking stricken.

          "We're going to do this," she said carefully, her voice quiet as she watched Sirius sit down heavily in Hagrid's chair.

          "I know. I didn't mean to light off an argument." Sirius smiled faintly to himself, a mournful grin on his suddenly tired face. "Should've known better. That was classic James right there. Always doing the right thing."

"Harry already felt badly about dragging me and Ron in, even though he didn't. He felt like it was his decision, and he wasn't sure if it was right. It's not, of course. His decision, I mean. But you touched that nerve."

"Grabbed it, more like," Sirius said. "Tell him I'm sorry?"

"Of course," she said. "I'm sure he'll come back when he's calmed down, though, and you can tell him personally. I think you'd best accept that we'll be doing it first."

          "It will be dangerous."

          "At Hogwarts? Class is always dangerous."

          Ron let Harry get a lead, then caught up with him in their dorm ten minutes later. His friend lay sprawled across his bed, his eyes bloodshot and cheeks stained with tears.

          "Harry? You okay?"

          "I yelled at Sirius." His voice was thick. "He's back to stay and the first time I see him, I yell at him. Pretty dumb."

          "Ah, pffff," Ron said with a wave of his hand. "He won't care. You were right, anyways. We made the right decision. An' I would've lost it, too, if I was you an' he brought up my dad."

          "Still dumb," Harry said wiping at his eyes.

          "Look, Harry, we talked about it yesterday. We agreed. 'Mione an' I talked it over some more last night," Harry raised a questioning eyebrow, "later on. We have to do it. You know how badly she wants to be a prefect, but this is way more important. 'Sides," he added, "I've been thinkin' auror might be the right line o' work for me, with all the flamin' experience we've got. I know you have, too."

          "You really think he won't stay mad."

          "Nah. It is the right thing, an' he knows it. He's just scared for you."

          Harry wiped the last of his tears away. "So that's where you snuck off to last night?"

          Ron's face colored. "Yeah. I thought everybody was asleep."

          "Uh uh," Harry said, a grin breaking through at his friend's embarrassment. He would have to go talk to Sirius, but deep down he knew his godfather wouldn't really be mad about the outburst.

          "Aw, you're just wishin' you'd thought of it."

          "Who says I didn't?" Ron blanched. "Ginny and I just picked tonight, is all. Can I get the Marauder's Map back from you?"

          "I shouldn't," Ron said. "It's my little sister you're sneakin' off with. Since you're upset an' all, though, I'll help. Just this once." They both laughed. "Left it in my robe. Hol' on."

          He went to his laundry bin and started rooting through the robe he had worn the previous day. The right-hand pocket had a piece of parchment in it, which he pulled out.

          "This could be … huh? What's this?"

          "What's what?" Harry walked over and looked at the parchment. They both read as quickly as they could.

Potter, Weasley, and Granger,

          Lucius Malfoy personally wants to hand Voldemort your heads on a platter. Internal Death Eater politics at work. Much as it pains me, we can't allow that. We need to meet. Same place I met Potter before the poisoning, Friday midnight.

          The note was unsigned.

          "Gotta be Malfoy," Harry said. "'Much as it pains me?' Who else would write that?"

          "Note! That's what he bleedin' meant."

          "Malfoy?"

          "Yeah. He sort of mouthed it at me today after class. He must've meant this. His father's got us in his sights. That's not good."

          "No," Harry said. "Not good at all."

          Later that night, Harry snuck out to Hagrid's hut on his way to meet Ginny. He knocked tentatively on the door; when no one answered, he let himself in.

          "Hello? Anyone home?" His voice seemed shockingly loud in the empty room.

          "Hello, Harry," Sirius said, stepping out from the shadows and lighting a lamp on the dining table.

          "Sirius, hi." He paused, knowing what he wanted to say but not quite how to begin. "I thought you might be out on patrol."

          "Hagrid and I are switching off, and Grey takes a few."

          "Like when Spike was here?" Sirius nodded. "That's good. Have you heard from him?" Harry asked, hoping to stall.

          "Not since he left last spring."

          "So what are you doing here, if you thought I'd be out on patrol?"

"I … I didn't know if you were or not. I wanted to … apologize for this afternoon. I shouldn't have yelled like that."

          "Probably not," Sirius agreed. Seeing Harry's face fall, he continued, "you weren't in the wrong, though. I should never have said that about your father."

          Suddenly Sirius grinned, and in the torchlight years dropped away from his face.

          "The truth is, James would've done the same thing. If he were alive, he'd want to protect you, but he'd recognize that he couldn't, not anymore than anyone could've protected us dolts runnin' around with a werewolf after lights out."

          "Really?" For the first time, Harry felt some of his anxiety start to lift.

          "Definitely. You're so much like him sometimes that it's frightening," he added with a sigh. "Like today. He'd be proud of you, you know. Not just for taking up Dumbledore's offer, but for tellin' me where to get off, as well. He did that quite a lot."

          "So … we're alright then?"

          "Of course, Harry. There's not anything you can do that would make us not alright," Sirius assured him. "Just don't go and get yourself killed."

          "We have to do this," Harry said, even as he felt the relief wash over him.

          Sirius, his face unreadable, watched his godson for a long moment.

          "Yeah. I suppose you do."