/I don't own anything you recognize in this story. /

Chapter Nine

The next day went slowly for Harry. It was made slower by the fact that he had Double Potions in the morning and Divination in the afternoon. To Harry, there couldn't be a worse day.

At lunch, Harry was eating his food rather fixedly. Potions had gotten off to a bad start when Malfoy commented on the fact that the only reason Dumbledore hired Sirius was because he had killed thirteen people and was probably in close hands with Voldemort. Harry had rushed to Malfoy in anger, using his fists to clobber Malfoy in the head. His outburst had cost him 20 points from Gryffindor and two nights detention.

"You know you deserved that, don't you, Harry?" Hermione was saying, bringing Harry back to the present. "You really should try and control your temper, it'll cost you something awful someday."

"And what was he supposed to do, stand aside and let Sirius be insulted by that great oaf?" Ron asked angrily.

"He could have taken it differently! He could have went to Professor Snape or somebody and tell them what Malfoy was saying," Hermione snorted, her cheeks flushed red.

"I don't think Snape would do anything, even if I told him, Hermione. He favors the Slytherins too much and hates Sirius with a passion. He would probably have thought Malfoy's comments to be funny," Harry said in a low tone.

"Even still, you should have taken a better control of the situation," Hermione said pointedly.

"I think it's time for us to head up to Divination now, wouldn't you say, Harry? You know how it takes us an awful long time to get up there," Ron said loudly.

"I agree," Harry said, eager to get out of Hermione's stern gaze.

"Just remember what I said, Harry!" Hermione called after them as they hurried out of the Great Hall towards the Divination class.

"I can't believe she has the nerve to say that," Ron seethed, "she hates Malfoy as well and now she's defending him!"

"Well, that's Hermione for you and her love of rules," Harry said as he pushed open the door to the Divination class. Firenze was still the Divination teacher since last year and though the classes were much better than Trewlawney's, Harry still hated the class.

Firenze was standing in the middle of the classroom as the class entered the room and took seats around the giant centaur. Harry and Ron made their way to the nearest tree that, as everything else in the room was, had been magically grown to look like a forest, and sat down, leaning against the enormous trunk. If there was one think that Harry liked about this class, it was the fact that he could sit in comfort instead of sitting in a chair for a whole hour.

"Welcome back to Divination!" Firenze exclaimed as everyone finally settled down, "I hope you all had a safe summer back in your respected homes."

Everyone murmured that they did and Firenze nodded in satisfaction. "I was hoping that you all did considering the dangers at hand. For this lesson I would like to teach you all about the art of correctly interpreting the stars, as last term we had done the planets. Would everyone please turn to page 394 in their books?"

Harry sighed and turned to the page along with everyone else. He somehow knew this was going to be a long class today.

Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the corner table by the window working steadily at their homework. Harry noticed that Ron and Hermione were still not talking to each other, but were giving each other glares when the other wasn't looking. Finally Harry closed his book with a loud bang and the two of them jumped in surprise.

"I think I've had enough," Harry said, "I'm going down to see Hagrid while you two finish up."

"But Harry, that's really dangerous—" Hermione began.

"I don't care if the boogeyman's waiting to jump out at me from behind a bush, I'm going down and anyways, it's broad daylight. Voldemort's not going to try to do anything in broad daylight," Harry said firmly.

He stormed out of the common room and climbing out of the portrait, Harry headed down the staircase to the Entrance Hall. To his surprise when he reached there, Harry met Professor McGonagall along the way. Rarely did he find her pacing the Entrance Hall as if she were expecting somebody to appear.

"Mr. Potter, what do you think you're doing down here at this time of the afternoon?" McGonagall asked sharply when she saw him.

"I've come down to visit Hagrid, I haven't seen him all week. I always come down to see him at the end of the first week of every year," Harry exclaimed, wondering why McGonagall seemed so nervous.

"I am afraid you can't do that today, Potter. There are too many factors at hand to let you go down by yourself. Why don't you head back to your common room?" McGonagall exclaimed.

"But, professor," Harry complained, not really wanting to go back to Ron and Hermione's tense stairs and anger.

"No 'but professor' me, Potter," McGonagall said sternly, "Off you go."

"Why, professor, it's a pleasure seeing you here," a voice called out merrily behind them.

Harry quickly turned around and grinned when he saw that it was Sirius. Perhaps he would somehow allow McGonagall to allow Harry to go down and visit Hagrid, considering the circumstances.

"Good day to you, Sirius. I hope you are being treated well," McGonagall said sternly.

"Oh, never better. I was just about to head down to Hagrid's hut to see how he was faring. Harry is more than welcome to come with me," Sirius said, smiling down at Harry.

Harry smiled back, thankful that he had somebody on his side. He usually never had a teacher on his side, but considering the teacher was Sirius, he was glad to have one on his side now.

McGonagall frowned. "I had just informed Potter that he was not to go out. Certainly you have more sense than this, Sirius."

"Don't worry about it, Minerva, I do. But certainly it's all right for him to go out if a teacher is escorting him to wherever he wishes to go? Come now, nothing's going to happen between here and Hagrid's hut," Sirius said lazily.

McGonagall sighed. "Very well, but if I hear that he gains the merest scratch I'm going to take back my word and never allow you to do so again."

"Thanks ever so much, it's much appreciated. Harry," Sirius exclaimed, clapping a hand onto Harry's back, "let's go, shall we? We can't keep Hagrid waiting or he'll think something's happened."

With that, the two of them headed past McGonagall (who was glaring at them with her lips pursed tightly) and out the Entrance Hall. As the two of them headed down to Hagrid's, Harry grinned up at Sirius.

"Thanks for that bit. I don't know what I would've done otherwise," Harry commented.

"Hey, don't worry about it. That's what godfathers do, right?" Sirius grinned.

Harry smiled and nodded. "Right. But Sirius, why doesn't anybody want me to go outside alone? And you weren't really planning on visiting Hagrid, were you?" Harry asked.

"Well, for one, none of the teachers want you to go out alone because their afraid that Voldemort will snag you when nobody's around to watch over you, because certainly you are not ready to face him yet. And no, I wasn't really planning to visit Hagrid," Sirius said with a twinkle in his eye. "It was just an excuse to let you go see him."

Harry just grinned and shook his head. Sirius was just a like a kid, always wanting to bend the rules and getting away with everything. He reminded Harry of the Fred and George Weasely when they were in school—always getting into trouble but managed to get away with most of it.

When they reached Hagrid's hut, Fang began bellowing his excitement. From within the hut, Harry could hear Hagrid telling the dog to be quiet and to get back. When Hagrid finally opened the door, he his eyes widened with excitement as he saw Sirius and Harry and ushered them into the hut.

"It's good to see the both of yeh. I was wonderin' when you two were going to come down here. Come in, come in, and sit down. Would you two like a cup o' tea?" Hagrid asked as the two of them sat down at the chairs sitting around the table.

Both of them nodded and Hagrid began bustling around, making the tea. Yes, Harry thought, Hagrid was definitely his usual self.

"So how was your firs' week here?" Hagrid asked Harry as he set the cups down in front of them, sitting down in a chair himself.

Harry launched into everything that had happened including what Snape had down earlier today and Ron and Hermione's fight. Then he launched into how when he came down here to get away from the two of them, McGonagall tried to send him back up to the Gryffindor common room because he couldn't come down here by himself.

"Well, she does got a point, you know," Hagrid said when Harry was finished, "but I don't think she should've been so harsh and to not tell you why you couldn't come here by yourself. But I'm sure you already knew why you couldn't."

"Yeah, but I've been down here a million times by myself and nothing's ever happened," Harry protested.

"You don't know that, Harry," Sirius said, suddenly serious. "Just because someone is at a place where they think is safe, anything dangerous can happen."

"Yeah, I guess," Harry said, feeling downcast.

"Don't feel so blue, Harry, it's not going to be forever. Someday You-Know-Who's going to be defeated once and for all and you'll be able to live the rest of your life in peace," Hagrid said soothingly.

"Yeah, if he doesn't kill me first," Harry pointed out.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the hut. Fang trotted over to Harry and began slobbering into his lap. Harry began patting his head automatically, thinking over everything that had been said since the first day of school. He was sure that everyone was meaning well, but—

"Oh, I just forgot! Dumbledore was supposed to come for an important meeting and I never got around to doing it. I'm sorry, Harry, Sirius, but I'm going to have to cut your visitation short. I'm really sorry about this," Hagrid exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

"It's perfectly alright, Hagrid," Sirius said, standing and motioning for Harry to follow him.

"Say, Harry, how 'bout you come down and visit with me tomorrow with Hermione and Ron? We'll be able to sit and chat for a bit longer, then," Hagrid said.

"I'll see what I can do," Harry said in bewilderment. This was the second time this year that Harry felt that Hagrid was holding something back. In fact, everyone around the castle was holding something back and it was making Harry feel on edge.

Reaching the Entrance Hall, Harry said goodbye to Sirius and headed up to the common room. There was something fishy going on around here and Harry didn't like it at all.