"Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor."
-- Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963), American poet, "A Boy's Will," "In the Clearing"
After the congratulating was done, I was wiped out. We were all eating because of all the work we did. My guardians came to me, Sirius was extremely happy, almost lifted me up hugging me, Remus was more modest, but you could tell he was happy. Ron wasn't jealous, thank goodness, he actually was glad he didn't have to be the head, and kept on teasing my name; Hermione glared at him and started lecturing him on how important that name is and how it shouldn't be teased. I rolled my eyes at him.
Hermione was reading a very large book; Ron looked at her incredulously, while stuffing food in his mouth. Of course he couldn't keep his curiosity at bay, so he asked her another stupid question.
"Hermione, what are you reading! Eating is much more important!" said Ron, Hermione gave him a look, and went back to reading. I snorted at Ron's poor attempt to get Hermione to stop reading.
"I'll have you know Ron that I'm studying for my Newts, they're next year you know, so I go to be prepared!" said Hermione. Wow, almost two years to study, I'm sure to fail now, I haven't even started, I thought sarcastically. Ron and I looked at each other, trying not to laugh; Hermione was glaring at both of us. Professor McGonagall came walking by our table and handed us a Book, a rulebook, the phoenix fire's rulebook.
Whoopee, yay, look, a rulebook. It was a red, leather-bound book, with gold lettering.
Hermione grabbed hers and started reading it like it was the latest quidditch magazine, Ron and I strummed through ours, Rule number one is protect at all costs, Gee I would've never thought of that, there were about fifty rules, all in great detail, Dumbledore has way too much time on his hands. I helplessly tried to figure out what Hermione found so interesting in this, but of course Ron didn't think about reading it, he just opens his mouth.
"Hermione it's not that interesting." Said Ron, strumming lazily through the book, probably looking at the pictures, instead of reading it, Hermione glared at him briefly, then quickly looked at her book again.
"Easy for you to say, you'll probably find a way to break every rule in here." Said Hermione, not glancing away from her book. I was still strumming through the book, until I saw a piece on how to clean out a wound, I looked at my food and I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore. I pushed my plate away, slightly green, and got up to go for a walk.
"I'm going to walk around guys, want to come Ron." I asked. Rom looked like he needed something other than food, and Hermione's lecturing.
"Sure, I've got nothing to do." Said Ron, getting up hastily, Man, he really wanted to get away.
We went through all the corridors, occasionally bumping into teachers or guards, and walked outside, near the lake. We grew bored and we ended up doing a contest on who can skip a rock the farthest, mysteriously, my rock kept on being stopped by the squid whiles Ron beat me. He beat me every time, I was gradually growing frustrated at the sea creature and the smirk dancing on Ron's face.
"What did you do, possess the squid!" I asked, Ron smirked, skipping a rock.
"No, I guess it just likes me, or it hates you, I'm leaning to the latter." Said Ron. I scowled and threw another rock, the squid blocked it again, I kicked the dirt.
"Bloody squid!" I yelled at it, it splashed water on me, I was soaked, how did that squid get so smart, and Ron was on the floor laughing, I used my elemental powers to soak Ron with water, and he used fire to dry himself off. Not interested in throwing rocks at a squid, I laid myself on the floor looking at the clouds; getting bored of throwing rocks also Ron did the same, except he was looking at a rock not at the clouds.
"So who do you think the new defense teacher is?" asked Ron.
"I think it's the ex-head auror, the thought of him teaching makes me nervous." I said slowly. Remembering Hermione telling me about it in the infirmary. Ron rolled his eyes at me.
"You're good at DADA, Harry. I'm the one who should be nervous, what do you think he's like." Said Ron.
"Well he can't be worst than Umbridge, I'm sure he'll be good." I said, hoping with all my might he wasn't anything like that hag. Ron looked unsure.
"I hope he isn't too strict, Aurors tend to be really serious, except Tonks, she's cool." Said Ron, I nodded, Tonks, how she became an auror with that stealth technique, I do not know.
"I'm sure he'll be fine, anyways we're taking a lot of defense classes, so if he isn't good we'll still be up to date." I reassured him. He nodded, and then grinned, suddenly I felt cold-water fall on me, and he levitated water on me. OH, I'm going to get him!
We spent the rest of the afternoon running after each other; it was nice to be like a kid occasionally.
By the time we got inside it was dinner, everyone was eating. I forced a grin as everyone said my new title, Couldn't they have been a little more creative, this is getting annoying. Hermione was still reading the rulebook, really she should have gotten bored with that by now, but she was marking in it now. We sat down across from her, Ron stuffing food in his mouth, as usual.
"You're still reading that?" Ron said, his mouth full of food. Hermione gave him a disgusted look, I felt like giving him that look also.
"There are a lot of rules, I'm underlining the ones I think you guys will break and memorizing them, and please swallow your food!" said Hermione, hmm that explains a lot.
"'Mione, we don't always break the rules." I said, Both Ron and Hermione just stared at me, I fidgeted under their gaze. "Err… not a lot anyways." They stared at me some more, my resolved breaking down from their laser beam stares, "Okay, okay, I get your point, Stop staring at me!" I exclaimed. She went back to her book occasionally getting a drink of pumpkin juice.
Ron and I smirked at our studious friend, and went back to eating. Right now the great hall wasn't that full, only one table was set, it was nice to eat here and not have Slytherin's eyes boring in to your back. Though my phoenix tattoo was prickling, like someone was staring at me, I kept looking behind me, occasionally.
Only to see the teachers table, Sirius and Remus were eating together but they weren't staring. Snape surprisingly wasn't staring at me, but he glared at me when he saw me staring at him, Git. I looked some more till' my eyes landed on an unfamiliar face, Sirius and Remus were talking to him animatedly, but his eyes seem to be gazing at me, I wonder why they didn't notice, or maybe they're talking about me.
I looked away quickly, only to find Ron staring at me weirdly.
"What ya looking at?" he asked, food still in his mouth, once again, I stifled the urge to throw up at his manners, and answered his question.
"Oh, that man right there by Sirius is staring at me. Do you know who he is?" I asked quietly. Ron looked at the man, he looked confused.
"It's the upper level DADA teacher, Professor Amstone." Hermione replied, wow she's listening to us, a miracle!
"Wow, did you meet him?" Ron asked, looking very nervous. Hermione looked at him and shrugged.
"He doesn't really come out much, really reclusive, I've heard that he's working on an invention, but no one really had the details, But he seems to be friendly with Sirius and Remus." Said Hermione.
"Yeah, look at Sirius; He's laughing so hard it looks like pumpkin juice will come out of his nose." Ron said, I looked at them and Sirius did indeed look like he was about to explode with laughter, Remus was laughing politely, which was something. Usually he just smiles, when Sirius finds something funny.
"Maybe, he'll be as good as Remus, I mean they seem like they know each other." Ron said hopefully. I shrugged and went back to eating my food; I couldn't help but feel something was not right about him. Maybe it was just paranoia, I mean Remus and Sirius are fine with him; yeah maybe I'm just paranoid.
Even though the students were arriving around 4 o'clock, and even though we needed to get ready for the feast, that didn't stop Remus from waking us all up at five in the morning to run laps, and it sure didn't stop Daer from breathing down my back. We were a little bit out of it, having gone off our routine, I don't know which was worse, Daer yelling at me or Remus' patient corrections and admonishments. I mean Remus is the kind of guy you want to please, not disappoint, but the fear of needing a hearing aid or whatever the magical world does to fix hearing, was not on the top of my to-do list.
The rest of the phoenix fires were watching us in awe at our talents, we were rarely breaking a sweat, but to our instructors they could see it wasn't our best. To the phoenix fires, it seemed as if we were inhuman fighting machines. We ended at 12 o'clock, which was fine with me; all of us were sweating more than we ever had before.
Getting to our dormitories was challenging, and very taxing to our patience. All the phoenix fires were asking us question about our training and how hard it was. Hermione politely answered all their questions, while I nodded along with them. Ron looked like he was about to rip their heads off, that got rid of some of the younger phoenix fires.
At last we reached our dorms, without a fistfight from Ron; we still occupied the Gryffindor Dorms even though we were Phoenix fires.
Which made sense; you have to be close to the people to protect them. It wouldn't be good to be far off. We got cleaned up, after that we had some time left so Ron and I played chess while, Hermione, guess what! read a book! (A/N: if you didn't guess that, I feel very, very sorry for you) Ron of course beat me again, the chess pieces were moving to his side because I sucked so much. I don't know how Ron could concentrate, laughing so hard.
Sirius came in to check on us; He flopped right by me, smirking at my chess piece's antics. I just scowled and purposely sacrificed a piece, that was yelling things that shouldn't be repeated.
"Hey, guys, how are you doing?" Sirius asked. We all just shrugged, Suddenly Ron's eyes lit up.
"Do you know anything about professor Amstone?" Ron asked quickly, Hermione in an instant put her book down and looked at Sirius hopefully. My godfather looked taken aback by this, but answered our question anyways.
"Yeah, he and I used to be aurors together, right along with James and Remus. He was a good partner, very brave, loyal to the bone. That's why he was so loyal to fudge, also fudge is his second cousin, but he respects our dislike for Fudge. So we're just catching up now." Sirius said. Hermione looked at him expectantly and starting asking him a million questions.
"Is he a good teacher, is he strict, does he like kids, does he know a lot about the dark arts, is he the type to give out pop quizzes-" she was interrupted by Sirius, who looked overwhelmed.
"Whoa, slow down, one at a time. Well Tim, I mean professor Amstone, doesn't really seem like the teaching type, always seem to be the action type. He's changed a lot though, he used to be more outgoing, but I guess time does change you. He's still as funny as ever. He's a great guy." Sirius said, we talked for a little while about Amstone and the new classes, Sirius glanced at his wristwatch and swore, he looked at us sheepishly, apologizing quickly. He got up swiftly and looked at us.
"You guys better get down there; the feast will be starting in thirty minutes." He said, waving goodbye while exiting the room. We hastily got ready and ran down to the great hall. Everyone looked like they hurried down also; I got the clue from the rumpled robes and flushed faces.
By the time the students started coming in we were composed enough, but we still got strange looks, probably because of our apparel, you know battle robes aren't really the "In" style, right now.
Malfoy entered, I straightened myself out, readying myself for another one of his insults. I think Ron and Hermione were thinking the same thing, because they immediately stopped talking, or should I say arguing, and glared at Malfoy. Malfoy just looked at us strangely and sat down at his table.
We were confused for a second but didn't mind the change. They went back to their fight, most of our table rolling their eyes. The first years entered and they brought out the hat, he looked more tattered than usual, maybe it was just me. He sang his song, (okay serious writers block, not going to make the song, so be creative and make your own…lol) we gained six new students, and the feast started, but not before professor Dumbledore announced the news of the phoenix fires. Most of the students looked apprehensive, some looked jealous, some looked just plain confused. Luckily they didn't really talk about it during the feast; the main conversation was about the new DADA instructor, Professor Amstone.
Hermione pointed out that we had him as our first class tomorrow with the Slytherins; I didn't know whether to groan or have curiosity take over. After the feast ended it was then when we got a whole bunch of questions, mainly from ravenclaw, who seemed apprehensive of their fellow students' capability of protecting them. We hurried as quickly as we could to our dorms, answering only a few questions.
"Whew, those kids are crazy." Ron said, leaning against the doorway of the Gryffindor common room.
"They were just curious, some of those questions were very good." Commented Hermione, Ron scowled at this, I smirked.
"Well Hermione, you can go out there and answer it for them." I said, gesturing to the door, smiling mischievously at her.
"Oh, shut it, Potter." Hermione said jokingly. Ron gave her a mock-surprised look.
"Has Malfoy possessed you, Hermione!" Ron said, poking her in the arm. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"I going up to my dorms, get some sleep, I don't think Remus will appreciate it if your late for your laps tomorrow." Hermione said, looking pointedly at Ron.
"What, I was only a little late." Ron retorted, both Hermione and I snorted simultaneously.
"Oh sure, 20 minutes, little. You got to be kidding me." I said.
"Well it's not like I got off the hook, I had to run five more laps." Ron said, crossing his arms. Hermione walked up the stairs, and put her hands in the air.
"I give up, get some sleep." She said, disappearing from the staircase.
Sure enough we were woken up at 5 am in the morning, again. Ron was barely dragging himself out; the rest of the phoenix fires got the honor, or horror of joining us. All of them looked half-awake, except a few select Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, the smartest and the most hardworking of course.
Remus muttered a sonorous and gave out the directions. We were doing twice as many laps, most of the phoenix fire watched in awe as they were gasping for air after their second lap. After training, No one really saw Remus as the soft-spoken DADA teacher, they saw him as the strict drill sergeant, Remus can be very firm when he needs to, Probably did him well when the Marauders had an outrageous prank they wanted to play.
We all got washed up and headed down to breakfast, I got a letter from Sirius even though he is at Hogwarts, I found, that he was just telling me where his room was at; if I ever needed someone to talk to, and a quick lecture about not hiding things from him. I rolled my eyes at this as I grabbed some toast, I really wasn't all that hungry, I'm usually not all that nervous about new Professors, but this is a former head auror, and a friend of Sirius, Remus and my dad, I think that gave me an excuse to be nervous.
I believe the Gryffindor's agreed, for they were constantly smoothing out their robes, repeating defense spells, and checking the clock, they wanted to make a good impression and being late wasn't the best thing to start out with.
The time came for us to make our way to the defense room; we entered to find professor Amstone looking over his notes and shuffling paper. He had short brownish-red hair, a long face with sharp hazel eyes. He was tall like Sirius, and very slender, but he seemed to be very toned out. I could see the Pavarti and Lavender giggling when they were looking at him. I rolled my eyes at them, I wonder if I'll ever understand girls.
He winked at them causing them to go into another fit of giggles; Hermione was looking at them disapprovingly. I could almost read her mind, she was probably thinking, "That's not how you treat a Professor." He looked at me, something skittered past his eyes, I didn't catch it, but it couldn't have been too bad for after that he smiled warmly at me. A lot of tension I had felt, melted away, I sat down relieved. The Slytherins entered, Glancing approvingly at the teacher, obviously they didn't mind him, Malfoy glanced at me again, his face neutral, still. I found this disconcerting. Was he planning something, or did he actually grow up. Heck, I didn't mind a few days of peace and quiet, it was welcomed with open arms.
Professor Amstone stood up and smiled, "Okay class, settled down. Let's get this started. Your professor last year was not up to the standards that the former minister put up, she went against his will so we'll have to get you up to where you need to be, so anything you learned last year doesn't apply here, plus, who wants to read a boring ol' book all day anyway." Exclaimed professor Amstone, yes, he was very much like Sirius, If I found Remus saying that I would check for a polyjuice potion. He was still obviously set in his beliefs that fudge was a good minister, I didn't use that against him, and he seemed to be an all-around nice guy.
For our lesson, professor had us all make our own test dummies, so that we could use them in the next lesson. A lot of the test dummy designs were death eaters, some of the muggleborns made them look like regular test dummies. Ron made his look strikingly familiar to Pyrrhus, Ron would live through hell if Pyrrhus found out, considering his luck, Pyrrhus would probably find out. I made mine a cloaked figure with red serpent-like eyes. Only a person who has seen Voldemort would recognize what my dummy represents, but I don't think anyone has.
For our homework we were supposed to find protection spells to put on our dummy to protect them. We were going to test them the next time we had DADA. The Slytherins were actually agreeable in this class, which was an act of Merlin, The Gryffindors were thankful beyond reason. Class was dismissed and everyone started to exit.
"Mr. Potter can I have a word?" Professor Amstone asked. I nodded, telling my friends to go on, suddenly very nervous. I went up to the desk, keeping a formal expression.
Professor Amstone leaned back in his chair.
"Don't worry, Harry, just wanted to say hello, you look so much like your father, probably hear that a lot. It would do the ministry proud to have you as an auror." He said, I smiled, you didn't get that everyday. "Listen, I was just talking to Sirius the other day, and he agreed for me to have you train with me, I can teach you the techniques of an auror, I'm sure it would help a lot. Do you want to give it go?" he asked. I'm liking him more by the minute.
"Yes, I would love it." I said, trying not to sound like a five year old at Christmas, He laughed, nodded, and shooed me on to my next class. Heading out the doorway my arm was grabbed, going by reflex, I spinned out of the hold, and pushed the mysterious offender against the wall. I found myself looking straight into a startled pair of eyes, Malfoy's eyes in fact. I knew it, trying to attack me in the hallway.
"Please just listen to me for a second, I really need to talk to you!" Malfoy exclaimed, I searched his eyes, and loosened my hold, but I still kept my guard up.
"What is it?" I asked coldly, he winced at my tone.
"I know I haven't been the nicest to you." I snorted, "Okay, I've given you hell, but this is really important. I know I've never given you a reason to help me, but to put it bluntly, I don't want to follow in my father's footsteps, and you seem like the person I should talk to. He wants me to become a deatheater, but I don't think I can do that, I may be an arrogant git, but I'm not evil, please, you got to help me!" Malfoy pleaded. I looked at him, he looked as sincere as you could get.
"What makes you think I could help you?" I asked, my voice firm, instead of cold.
'Because when I told him my choice he beat me till' I agreed, he forced me to take the mark. I- I can't do this, you just seem like the fore-front of the light side, besides Dumbledore, but you can relate." He said, shaking. Wow, this sure is a new Malfoy.
"I can maybe tell Dumbledore, and he can let you join the phoenix fires, Dumbledore has dealt with situations like this, the last person who did this was turned into a spy for the light side." I said. Malfoy looked hesitant, but nodded slowly.
"I'll do anything, anything to show that bastard I used to call my father that I'll make my own decision whether he likes it or not." He said firmly. We both headed to Dumbledore's office in silence, trying to organize our thoughts, I had only one thought on my mind, change is certainly strange.
A/N: AHHHHH…this was an incredibly slow update, one of the most frustrating to write. I'm hoping none of you clawed your eyes out in frustration, If any of you saw I have started a new fic to write while I have writers block on this one, vice versa, called "The things we live for" I'm sure you guys will like it, a little more angst in it, plus more Sirius for all those seriously Sirius peoples, I'm sure none of us get tired of that pun. I'm sorry this took this on, but you will not believe this, I exit it okay, and it says do you want to save or not, and you know what I click! NO! I clicked no, and it all disappeared, you wouldn't believe how much I was yelling at myself. So I pulled an all-nighter to get this one done, I hope y'all enjoy. Professor Amstone, I'm sure you guys like, but he does have a few secrets, I bet y'all would never guess, so don't assume, and I'm sure Malfoy is a shock, heh-heh…..I've always been partial to bad gone good….lol please read and review!
Reviews!
Luuvgurl- ha-ha, you did….lol that's hilarious, thanks for the review, hope you like this!
Ickle-princess- I'm glad you found it "wicked"….lol….sorry I didn't get this updated before you're trip, but I'm sure this will be a good welcome back…lol I hope you had a great time at France! Thanks!
Lady Arwen of Rivendell: Looks like I have another regular reviewer, lol…yep Harry rocks and none can beat him, he'll rule the world; right along with Sirius….lol I glad you liked it! Thank you!
ambereyes2873: lol, I've always like riddles, you confused me there for a second quoting my fic….lol I was like "hey, this looks familiar………..oh" lol, Yeah Sirius is the heart of the story, he wasn't in here much, but he'll play a bigger part in chapters ahead, a little bit more angst for Harry, and a new, unique set of danger for Harry, that'll throw Sirius off his rocker, get ready! Thanks for reviewing!
Projectjay: wouldn't want to lose this story, would you…lol I'm glad you were able to find it, probably is pretty difficult to find it, what with the thousands of fic on this site. Not that I'm complaining, but thanks for reviewing, it's always appreciated!