A/N: Well, according to my stats page you are reading this, just not reviewing. Don't know if that is bad or good, but I'll keep plugging away anyhow. At the very least, LothirielofRohan would kill me if I left her hanging and didn't finish this story!

Julia – I kept hoping Snape would redeem himself up until Book 3 when he was just so nasty that he would have seen an innocent man killed because he held a grudge. After that, I couldn't find much sympathy for him.

Chapter 3

Aurelia soon discovered that several of her seventh year, and even a few of the fifth year, students already knew a great many things that were in the textbook to be covered this school year also. Accordingly, she found it necessary to rewrite her lesson plans for those classes in order to adjust to the situation.

On the brighter side, her tirade at Snape had him keeping his distance from her; a development for which she was grateful.

By the end of the week, she was glad to have the respite of a weekend, despite her slowly adjusting to a routine. It was becoming easier to interact with students and teachers alike, though she still found it awkward being around Harry.

From her observations of him, something was troubling Harry. There was a look in his eyes that spoke of great sorrow and, if she wasn't mistaken, a good deal of guilt. She had a feeling there was much more going on here than Dumbledore had yet revealed to her, and she wondered how many more surprises she was in for before the year was out.

xxxxx

Harry found himself beginning to settle back into the routine of classes. All the teachers were harping on the need to prepare now for their N.E.W.T.s in seventh year and starting to pile on homework even this early on. It was clearly going to be a tough year. However, the crunch of school work did take some of the focus off Harry and what he might be feeling about the death of his godfather. No one had brought it up since school began and he was glad to be left alone.

The new Defense teacher intrigued them all. That first day had been a roller coaster of emotion for her and no one knew quite how to take her. Subsequent classes had gone better and she seemed more in control, but Harry often noticed her gaze lingering on him and he almost had the feeling there was something she wanted to say to him, but couldn't bring herself to do so.

He had been somewhat relieved when she chewed out Snape, since it became clear then that any 'relationship' between the two of them was all on his side. And everyone in Gryffindor gave her high marks for what she had done for Neville. Surprisingly, whatever she had said to Snape must have had an impact because he didn't make any comments about Neville like he used to, and the students in his Potions class found he didn't humiliate them so much as he had before. Harry felt like Snape made an exception in his case, and the hatred clearly still existed, but he had to admit it was slightly better than before. Whatever Watson had said to Snape had certainly affected him.

It was with some surprise, and more than a little trepidation, that Harry was asked by Professor Watson to meet with her after his last class during the third week of school. Ron and Hermione postulated various possible reasons for the request, and they all thought that it probably had to do with Lavender's comment on the first day that Harry had taught so many sixth years various defense skills outside of class. They tried to help him prepare some answers to possible questions that wouldn't give away what they had been doing. Even though Dumbledore now knew about the group, it just seemed like something they shouldn't mention to everyone in general.

So at five o'clock on Wednesday, Harry took a deep breath and made his way to the office of Professor Watson. As he entered the classroom and moved toward the door at the back, it struck him how unusual his experiences had been, both with the class and the instructors themselves. He wondered where this new teacher would fall in the varied spectrum of friend or foe that the previous instructors had established.

He knocked on the door and entered at her summons. Looking as nervous as he felt, Watson gazed at Harry and motioned him to have a seat. There was a long moment of quiet and Harry got the impression that she hadn't really yet decided what to say to him. Finally, she seemed to find a direction to take, "So, Harry, how is it that so many of your fellow students claim you as their Defense teacher?"

Harry tried to remember the ideas Ron and Hermione had come up with for him, but was having trouble forming a believable alibi. "Um, some of us just got together and practiced the skills we had learned and shared them with each other. We wanted to do well on our O.W.L.s." It wasn't entirely accurate, but it was basically the truth.

With a sly grin she asked, "So it didn't have anything to do with Dolores Umbridge's ban on any practical learning of Defense in your fifth year?"

Involuntarily, Harry flushed red and tried to think of a response. Clearly she knew more than she let on. Then she reassured him, "Don't worry, Harry. I have no love for Dolores Umbridge or the Ministry of Magic. I watched them put an innocent man in Azkaban in a travesty of justice. And they're all fools to have wasted an entire year pretending Voldemort hasn't returned. You and your friends go right on rebelling if that's what it takes to prepare yourselves. My friends and I would have done the same thing."

Her voice trailed off and her gaze seemed to have shifted somewhere off in the distance, forgetting he was there. For some reason, Harry suddenly felt the urge to explain to her about the DA and hesitantly did so. When he was finished, she looked rather impressed. "Is the group still functioning now?" she asked.

Harry just shrugged. "We haven't really talked about it. I don't know if we'll start it up again or not. I mean, it doesn't look like we'll need it this year..." She caught his implied meaning; with a proper Defense class the extra practice was unnecessary.

She smiled at him, "Well, my feelings won't be hurt if you decide to continue. Practice is really the only way to learn Defense skills. Writing essays and taking tests won't get the job done. And if you need my help, just let me know."

He nodded and then felt emboldened to query, "Professor, do you mind if I ask you something?"

She stiffened slightly, perhaps guessing where the conversation might be headed, but nodded, "Shoot."

Harry thought for a moment how he wanted to phrase his question then asked, "It kind of seems like...like your seeing me upsets you. I was just wondering if maybe you knew my dad and that was why...?" The question trailed off, unfinished.

She stood quickly and moved to the window, and Harry regretted bringing up the subject. After several uncomfortable moments of silence, she gave a deep, trembling sigh and responded, "Yes, I knew your father...and your mother. Lily and I were almost like sisters through most of school. Dumbledore thinks I never really came to terms with their deaths, and I think maybe he's right about that. I've run from it, refused to think about it, buried it deep inside, but when all is said and done, I never accepted it. The night they died my whole world fell apart."

She fell silent and Harry pondered what she had said. He hadn't expected such a personal confession and wasn't sure how to react. Suddenly she turned to him, "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to dump that on you, Harry. Guess you just asked the wrong question at the wrong time and I forgot to hide the truth – from myself or from you." In a funny sort of way, Harry felt like he understood. What she was describing almost seemed to mirror his feelings about Sirius' death.

Before he knew it, he began to confess his own difficulty in dealing with the death of his godfather and how he kept avoiding the pain and guilt thinking about it inevitably brought. When he looked at her for her reaction, he was unprepared for the ashen look on her face. "Your...your godfather is dead? When, how?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Hesitantly Harry nodded, "Yes, he – Sirius Black – died about three months ago fighting Death Eaters."

"But...but he was in Azkaban! How is that possible?" she asked hoarsely.

Harry wondered where she had been that she had never heard of Sirius' escape from prison three years ago. It had even been in the Muggle news. There wasn't any reason to keep that much secret, "He escaped from Azkaban three years ago and had been on the run from the Ministry of Magic ever since. You never heard about it?"

Her head was in her hands and she shook it wearily. "No. I had done a pretty good job of disappearing by then. Even Dumbledore said it has taken him this long to find me. I had no idea he had escaped..."

"So I guess you knew Sirius, too. He wasn't guilty, you know. We found out the truth. It was Peter Pettigrew who betrayed my parents, not Sirius," Harry told her.

She looked up, not bothering to wipe the tears from her cheeks and smiled gently, "I know he was innocent. He's the innocent man I mentioned earlier. The man I knew would never have betrayed James Potter. He would have died first. I didn't know it was Peter, but I knew it couldn't have been Sirius." She lapsed into thought for a few moments, then blinked a few times and asked curiously, "How did you find out the truth? Everyone believed Sirius was guilty and that he killed Peter; even his close friend Remus Lupin believed it."

Harry shifted uncomfortably, wondering what it was safe to say. Dumbledore obviously hadn't told her much, so it didn't seem likely she knew about the Order of the Phoenix, and how could he explain things without revealing that. He decided to just give a vague account of what had happened at Hogwarts by way of explanation. He left out the part about Remus turning into a werewolf and he and Hermione using the Time Turner to steal Buckbeak and enable Sirius to escape. He just told her Peter escaped and Sirius was captured, but then managed to escape and go on the run when the Minister of Magic wouldn't believe his story or listen to Harry, Ron and Hermione testifying to the truth of it.

The same look of anger that had been on her face after she yelled at Snape was on her face now, but there was no one to yell at. Softly she said, "One of these days I may just have to kill Cornelius Fudge. That makes twice Sirius had to suffer because of his incompetence!" Harry mentally agreed with that; he had nothing good to say about Fudge.

Finally, she managed to shake off some of the anger and turn back to their conversation, "I guess the most important thing is that you, and Remus, found out the truth. Obviously you stayed in contact with him while he was on the run. I doubt his death would have affected you so if you had only met him the once..."

Harry realized she was adept at reading between the lines and decided to risk disclosing too much, "Yes. Once I knew the truth, I was anxious to know my godfather and my father's best friend. It wasn't easy with him being in hiding, but we managed to stay in touch with owls and even to see each other occasionally."

He didn't elaborate on how that had been accomplished, but apparently he didn't need to as she said, "Let me guess, your visits involved a big, black dog!"

Harry looked at her, startled, "You know about that?"

She nodded in amusement, "Yes, I knew about the three of them being Animagi. There were only two things I never figured out – how Peter was able to learn it, since he wasn't a particularly talented wizard, and why Remus never became one also. He certainly should have been able to pull it off if Peter could, so I never understood why he didn't."

Blinking in surprise, Harry bit his tongue. Apparently she didn't know about Remus being a werewolf and he didn't feel it was his place to reveal that. Instead he asked, "Did you know Remus well, then?"

"Fairly well, about as much as anyone other than the Marauders did. He was quiet and mostly kept to himself, though everyone liked him. But he never talked very much about himself, and with Sirius around it was hard to turn the spotlight anywhere else! Sirius loved being the center of attention, especially when he and James were together. I tried talking to Remus a few times and getting him to open up a bit, but he was reluctant to do so and invariably Sirius would turn up and interrupt before I was able to make much progress."

Smiling in amusement, Harry nodded, "That sounds like Sirius, though he wasn't that way so much when I knew him." It occurred to him then, that if Watson had been friends with his parents and close to his mother, that she might be able to answer some of the questions that plagued him, but before he could ask anything further, she noticed the time.

"Oh dear, I didn't mean to keep you this long. Shall we see if there's still anything to be had for dinner in the Great Hall? If not, I'll sneak you down to the kitchens for something..."

Harry grinned, "You know how to get to the kitchens?"

She nodded, "Sure. Sirius and James were forever sneaking down there to get food. They used to have a map they had created of Hogwarts, but I don't know what ever became of it." She glanced at Harry and saw a rueful expression on his face and guessed, "Unless it somehow got passed along to a descendant of the Marauders..."

Harry's cheeks turned pink in confirmation and she burst out laughing, "Well, James would be delighted, though Lily wouldn't be so pleased at your following in his mischief-making ways! Did you inherit the invisibility cloak also?" Reluctantly, Harry nodded, realizing she'd know if he lied.

She stood abruptly, "Well, since I've seen no proof that you possess anything 'illegal', I don't feel obligated to report or confiscate anything! Let's go eat."