Well, the infamous chapter 24 at last. KCB says hi by the way. Anywho-I won't keep you in suspense any longer.
Oh, wait, scratch that. All we own is the plot! And Heather but she's beside the point.
Chapter 24
Halloween Troubles
That Monday evening, Harry trudged up the stairs and into Professor Windling's office. He was greeted by Sirius bounding up to him, tackling him, pushing him to the floor, and licking his face.
"Agh, get-off, c'mon, off-Professor help!!!!!"
"Oh come here, Sam. Harry, you're a weenie, you know that, right?"
"Hey!"
"No one but me is allowed to call my godson a weenie!" Sirius had transformed and was now standing behind Harry with a look of mock outrage.
"He's my godson too, you know."
"WHAT?!?!?!?!?" the men screamed so loud that Heather cringed.
"Well, Lily trusted you, Siri. She told me that she would trust you with her life. She just wasn't sure if you were exactly the right kind of…influence that she wanted for Harry."
"So my parents made you my godmother without anyone knowing?"
"That's about it, yeah."
"Well then, if that's all taken care of, I believe you want to hear about our school days?"
"Do I?!"
"Well, why not. Should we tell him, Sirius?"
"Of course!!!"
"So, let's start with first year."
"Ahh, such happy memories..."
"Of what?" Harry asked.
"Snivellus was our favorite by far..."
"Oh yes indeed!" Sirius cried.
"I've noticed."
"It wasn't easy to keep myself a secret with him nosing around, believe me," Heather complained.
"I can imagine," Harry replied dryly.
"So can I."
"You have no idea."
"Hey, I'm the escaped convict here."
"Shut up. I have to work with him!"
"Well, I-I-oh never mind."
"Anyway, on to our good old school days..."
"So, was that first one dyeing all the teacher's hair pink during the sorting or was there one before that?"
"Isn't that when we met? The hair-dyeing I mean."
"Oh yeah, I think it is. It must've been that prank on Hagrid that James and I pulled that I'm thinking of."
"What prank on Hagrid?" Harry smirked, imagining his father and Sirius running around Hogwarts, playing tricks on everyone.
"Nothing much, we just put a bunch of bows in his hair. We didn't really know much at that point."
"Then I accidentally transfigured Remus into something between a raccoon and a dragon. But that WAS an accident."
"Me transfiguring Peter into a moose wasn't, though."
"I can't remember, it was so long ago. Let's move on."
"Didn't we conjure up a swarm of mosquitoes to chase Snivellus wherever he went?"
"Yeah, and wasn't it James who made his nose swell up to ten times its usual size?"
"Yeah, but it was my idea. I just couldn't use it because I got in detention."
"Well, that was your own fault now wasn't it? Getting caught by Dumbledore. What was it you did again?"
"All I did was charm the gargoyle to say, 'Sirius Black rules!!!' every time you tried to put in the password, where's the harm in that?"
"Because Professor Dumbledore couldn't get into his office until he found you!"
"So? I gave him some exercise. All he had to do was climb up onto the roof of the astronomy tower!"
"Third year...wasn't that when you guys started Animagi transformations?"
"I thought it was second year," Harry put in.
"Oh yeah, it was at the end of second year. Poor, poor Remus. Lily and I couldn't figure out what you guys were doing."
"Well, we didn't really want you or anyone else to know, now did we?"
"Sure, but you could've trusted us. I mean, I know Lily hated James but you could've at least told me!"
"Yeah, but we were afraid you'd get really freaked out if you knew Remus was a werewolf. Didn't you used to have a crush on him?"
"I forgot all about that. I probably would've strangled him to death if I'd have found out."
"Exactly."
"Okay, so she had a crush on Remus but got engaged to you?!"
"Yes I did."
"But I'm still confused!"
"It works out that way, Harry."
"What?!"
"Deal with it Harry, some things in life are meant to be confusing. And besides, didn't you have a crush on someone you don't have a crush on anymore?" Sirius asked.
"Uh, no…not at all…"
"Yeah, uh-huh, right."
"Third year. What did we do in third year?"
"Um, didn't we start the Marauder's Map that year?"
"I don't think so, Sirius. I thought you started that after you nailed the Transformations."
"No, I'm sure we wandered around a bit in James's Invisibility Cloak."
"Oh yeah."
"And that's the year that Snivellus got a bucket of water poured on his head each time he entered his Common Room."
"It's so entertaining to see him soaking wet."
"And we washed his hair in the process."
"True, very true."
"And I think that's also the year James and I learned our animals. By the way, how are you going with your transformation, Harry?"
"Not very good."
"You're teaching him how to become an Animagus?"
"Yep."
"What animal are you?"
"A phoenix."
"A-a what?!???"
"Yeah, I was kinda surprised too, but that's what it is. Anyway, what did we do in fourth year?"
"We made that dragon in my classroom fly around the Great Hall with Snivellus on it, remember?"
"Oh, that brings back memories. And on Halloween we bewitched all the bats and pumpkins to follow him around for a month."
"Good times, good times. What about fifth year?"
"That's the year that we got our transformations down and completed the Marauder's Map."
"How'd you get it to insult people like that?" Harry asked.
"You mean it actually worked?? It never worked for us. Maybe because we were the creators. Who did it insult and what did it say?"
"It was insulting Snape," Heather and Sirius exchanged mischievous smiles. "Moony told him to keep his big nose out of other people's business, Prongs said that Snape is an ugly git, you wanted to know how an idiot like that became a Professor, and Wormtail told him to wash his hair." By the end of this account, Sirius and Heather were both on the floor laughing. Heather recovered first and pulled Sirius off the ground.
"I always thought that map was a work of pure genius."
"Why, thank you very much."
"Wasn't it me and Lily who told you what spells to use?"
"So?"
"Never mind. Onto sixth year!!"
"What did we do in sixth year anyway?"
"That was the year you told Snivellus how to get into the Whomping Willow, remember?"
"Besides that!"
"You know, I can't really think of anything else we did in that year."
"We did bewitch that lion statue to follow Snivellus around and bite him on the nose any time he said anything."
"I'd forgotten about that one. What about 7th year?"
"That was the mother of all pranks!!!!!"
"Of course, the graduation dance!!"
"There's a dance!?!?" screamed Harry, horrified.
"Yes, indeed there is."
"And it was home to Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs, and, what was your nickname again?"
"I don't think I ever had one."
"You did too, we didn't just call you Heather."
"Really?"
"Didn't it have something to do with red?"
"I have no idea."
"Well, anyway, it was home to our biggest prank. All of the Slytherins' robes turned bright pink, their hair turned pink, flowers were painted all over their faces, and then they floated up to the top of the castle and sat there for three hours!"
"Meanwhile, all of the Hufflepuffs' feet got glued to the floor, the Ravenclaws started spinning uncontrollably in circles, the teachers all turned into fluorescent purple lizards, and all of us Gryffindors became giant caterpillars."
"We couldn't have something happening to everyone else and make us look guilty. Though I will say it was rather fun to be a caterpillar for 10 minutes."
"Why only ten minutes?"
"Because the prank wore off then. We couldn't figure out how to make it last longer."
"Oh well. There's our account of our school days. Now you ought to get back to your dorm, it's getting late."
Except for some more Occlumency sessions with Heather, nothing else exciting happened until the morning of Halloween, when Harry awoke to a scream from Ron.
"What, what is it?"
"Creepy-dementors-pink…" (A/N-Don't ask, it's a loooooooooooooooong story)
"What?!"
"Pink-cloaked dementors…"
"Ron, what are you talking about?!?"
"A creepy pink-cloaked dementor! It was coming toward me, and it was pink, and freaky…so freaky…" Harry sighed and jumped out of bed. He started getting dressed as Ron was still muttering about pink dementors. Harry decided to leave Ron to his nightmare and went down to breakfast, where he found Hermione reading over her Transfiguration notes.
"What are you doing?!"
"Studying for the exams."
"But Hermione, those are ages away!"
"It's never too early to study," came the reply, and she returned to her notes. Ron came into the Great Hall at this point, and a very similar conversation ensued. Harry and Ron finally decided to give up and dug into their potatoes.
"Hermione's finally cracked, mate."
"You mean she didn't crack before?"
"Ron, be serious!"
"You already have someone to do that, don't you?"
"Ron, give it a rest, please!"
"Why?" Harry opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by a piercing shriek from Hermione.
"What, what is it?" Hermione paid no attention to them, but was currently staring at her copy of the Daily Prophet. Her eyes were moving back and forth so feverishly that Harry was afraid they would pop right out of their sockets. When she was apparently done, for her eyes had stopped moving and she was staring open-mouthed at her paper, she took no notice of Ron or Harry. Ron, fed up, finally snatched the paper from Hermione's hands (she seemed not to notice this either, and now stared at the table) and he started reading the article out-loud.
Sirius Black Found at Last
Whereabouts of the Mass Murderer Known
After over three years of panic and frustration, Sirius Black has been found at last, writes Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter. Startling new facts have been uncovered concerning the infamous murderer. A reliable key witness, who wished to remain confidential, has disclosed that Black is an illegal and unregistered Animagus, with the power to transform into a large black dog, resembling the Grim. This, of course, is a worthy analogy, as Black had caused the deaths of 13 people with a single curse. It is also known that Black, alias Sam, is currently residing in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in his Animagus form. Posing as the pet of a Professor Heather Windling, Howarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, he has the resources to capture and/or murder the Boy-Who-lived, Harry Potter. It is doubtful whether Windling knows the true identity of her canine friend, but no evidence can be found to support either side of this debate. Rest assured that Ministry officials will have apprehended Black by the time you finish reading this article, and he will be taken to an undisclosed location to be administered the Kiss by one of Azkaban's remaining Dementors. The Wizarding and Muggle worlds can finally rest in peace.
Harry and Ron, horrified, looked at each other, and were about to race up to Heather's office when Ministry officials burst into the Great Hall.
"Nobody move!!" they ordered.
Don don don!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Muahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excitement at last! Three reviews please!
