Author's Note:

Reviews and Comments: To Guest: Thank you for saying you love the necklace! Yes, when he transforms into a werewolf, she would feel the intensity of his heart beating and be aware of what he is feeling. It is definitely a sign of his love for her. Yes, Harry's scar hurt! Will they figure out the Chamber of Secrets earlier? You'll have to wait and see. Thank you! To alix33: Thank you! It was an incredibly meaningful gift that Remus gave to Tonks! To Claire Fraser: Thank you! It is interesting that Harry's scar hurt, isn't it? Haha, yes, Sirius is a bit terrified to meet Zee's parents. Thanks for loving the new classes!

Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!

Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!

CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR:

The One Where Sirius Asks About Cursed Scars

Harry had spent most of the night wondering about the sudden and intense pain in his forehead. But he had also kept his eyes on his friend, watching her as she scribbled away in the diary in the common room. It didn't make sense that a small leather book had made his scar hurt. And how come when he touched it a second time, there hadn't been any pain?

He found it very strange.

He made his way upstairs to his dorm later on that night and offered a smile for Neville who was propped up in his bed reading the new edition of the monthly Herbology magazine Which Plant?

"Anything new and exciting in there, Nev?" Harry asked, moving to change into his pjs.

Neville nodded. "Always. I won't bore you with the details, but they think they've found a new way to reduce swelling with Bromelain, a tropical plant. They've also discovered that it can be used in potions to help reduce stress levels."

"Interesting," Harry said as Seamus came into the room.

"Hey, Seamus," Harry said, pulling his pyjama bottoms up over his boxer briefs.

Seamus grinned wider as Dean stepped in behind him. "Guys… I just snogged a girl."

Harry's eyebrow rose. "Really?"

He nodded and Harry and Neville laughed as he did a quick little jig.

Ron came in as he was dancing and his eyebrow rose. "What did I miss?"

"Seamus snogged someone."

Ron's mouth opened in surprise. "Really? Who?"

Seamus stopped dancing and jumped onto his bed. "Lavender Brown."

"What was it like?" Dean asked him, sitting next to his friend.

Seamus shrugged. "It was nice. Her lips were really soft and moist."

"Are you going to go out with her now?" Ron asked, staring at Seamus with a mix of awe and disgust.

Seamus shrugged. "Maybe. We were just studying in the corner together and she asked me if I had ever kissed anyone before."

"What did you say?" Ron demanded.

He grinned. "I told her I hadn't and she said that she hadn't either, but Parvati had and she wanted to know what it was like. So, she asked if we could kiss just to, you know, see what it was like. I think I just nodded, and then she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine."

"Just like that?" Dean said in amazement. "Wow."

"See boys, when you get to be thirteen like me, everything changes."

Dean merely rolled his eyes. "You turned thirteen three months ago, mate, you're not old and wise now — and I'm older than you, by one month."

Harry chuckled and dragged a hand through his hair. "This year really is changing for us, eh? I went home for Christmas and got the sex talk. We come back and you're snogging girls."

Neville blushed. "You got a sex talk for Christmas?"

"A few days before actually. It was mortifying. Then Uncle Siri gave me this book for Christmas all about sex."

"Really?" Seamus asked, his eyebrows rise into his fringe. "You got a sex book? Can we see it?"

Harry shrugged and went to dig it out of the bottom of his trunk and held it up for the other boys to see it.

"Pleasing Your Witch or Wizard, A Step by Step Guide," Seamus read. "It looks old."

Harry nodded. "It is. But it's filled with lots of information," he blushed a bit as he opened it up to the chapter on sexual positions. "Plus, there's this."

The four boys' eyes all widened as they watched in fascination as the male figure held the woman figure's hips and rocked his own into her arse. Harry turned the page and the woman figure was sitting on the male figure's face, then the woman figure was sitting backwards on the male figure as her hips rocked back and forth and so on.

"Merlin's bollocks, this is hot, Harry!" Seamus exclaimed, looking down at the green (male) and yellow (female) figures that were faceless coloured forms showing the different sexual positions. "This book has everything!"

"It does. I spent more than few days exploring it," he said with an embarrassed grin.

Dean pointed to the one where the female figure was bent over, hands on the ground and the male figure was standing over her, rocking his hips into her. "Damn…"

Ron was blushing furiously. "Sirius let you bring this to school!"

Harry nodded. "He said that it would answer all of my questions."

Neville peeked a look at the page Seamus had flipped too now where the female figure was knelt in front of the male and he blushed. "Wow. Uncle Algie definitely didn't mention that when we had the talk."

"Neither did Dad," Ron said, his eyes on the page. "Mostly he just blushed, but Bill filled me in on some stuff."

Neville blushed further. "What kind of stuff?"

Ron shrugged, attempting to look nonchalant. "You know, about girls and wanking and what not."

Seamus grinned, turning the page to the diagram on erogenous zones for the male and female form. "Dad gave me the talk last summer when he caught me wanking in the shower. It was embarrassing, but I'm glad he did. Look at this," he said pointing to the male diagram. "I didn't even know that this was a pleasure spot, it says 'where the glans meet the shaft on the underside of the penis just below the head, the frenulum'… mate, this is how you master wanking yourself."

Harry laughed awkwardly. "Er, I guess."

Seamus eyebrow rose. "Well, it's true!"

Dean chuckled. "Or you just have more wet dreams."

Neville turned tomato red and Harry clapped him on the shoulder reassuringly.

They spoke a bit more about the book as they got ready for bed. Harry put the book back at the bottom of his trunk, burying it under some of his clothes before he climbed into bed. His mind was full of the thoughts his friends had told him.

Most of them had had a similar 'talk' experience over the last six months from their parents or uncles or brothers, but Harry was pleased to learn that his fathers had definitely given him the most information on the subject despite him being the last one of the five of them to be 'officially talked to.'

He thought about how Seamus had kissed Lavender tonight. Kissing a girl could be fun, he thought, but he didn't think that he was ready for that. Seamus was older too, he was thirteen as of October, as was Dean whose birthday had been in September, so maybe that was why he liked kissing girls already.

He did like girls, he thought as he thought about the poster of the naked blonde with full breasts and a round backside riding the Harley Davidson motorbike in Sirius' workshop. Her nipples were large and pink he remembered and then he thought about how Alicia's bouncing breasts had dark pink nipples.

Harry merely rolled over in his bed, his hand finding his way into his pyjamas and wrapping around his shaft to stroke it as he thought about breasts in general. He definitely liked girls, he thought, but he wasn't sure that meant that he was ready to be snogging any of them just yet.

When he finished, he used his wand to clean himself off and let out a sigh of relief before he slowly drifted off to sleep.

~ ASC ~

Sirius was frowning as he read Harry's letter at breakfast. He had spent the night at Zee's and hadn't gotten the post until that morning.

His son's scar had hurt.

Harry had only once ever complained about his scar. Sirius still remembered the moment vividly as he had held the six-year-old in his arms.

"NO!" Harry exclaimed suddenly, grabbing his forehead. "Ow!"

Sirius slid Harry around his body, his eyes full of concern. "What is it, Harry? What hurt you?"

Harry was rubbing his scar, tears in his eyes. "It hurts."

He tugged Harry's hand away from his forehead. The scar was its usual soft pink, a perfect lightning bolt, but it didn't look inflamed or anything. He kissed it softly and Harry buried his face in Sirius' shoulder.

"It hurts, Uncle Padfoot."

Sirius sat down on the floor, his hand brushing the locket as he did so and Harry yelped, his hand grabbing his forehead again. Sirius looked at Harry in alarm and then his eyes moved back to the locket.

"Harry, Harry, look at me," he waited until the green eyes met his. "Does it hurt when I touch this?" He picked up the locket and Harry's eyes filled with pain.

"Put it down! Put it down! It's bad!" he shouted, tears in his eyes.

Sirius dropped the locket and stood up, cuddling Harry close, and hurried out of the boiler room. As soon as he stepped into the kitchen, Harry seemed to calm down. He looked back into the room in confusion. Why would an old locket make Harry's scar hurt like that? It didn't make any sense.

He sat Harry down on the kitchen table. "Harry, I need to get that locket in there. It's very strange that it hurts you so we can't leave it here if it's not safe. Okay?"

Harry looked terrified, his eyes wide as he shook his head no. "Don't go back in there! It's bad, Uncle Padfoot! It's bad!"

He had handed that locket over to Dumbledore as quickly as possible. To this day he still had no idea what that locket had contained to make Harry cry out in such horror and fear, but the pain in his eyes had been very real. And now touching Ginny's diary made his scar hurt, but only the one time… and then last year in the forest… it was definitely very strange. What did it mean?

He was meeting with Dumbledore the next afternoon to discuss the Lockhart situation. Maybe it was time that he spoke to the old wizard about that mysterious locket and see what his thoughts were on the pain in Harry's scar resurfacing once more.

He quickly wrote a response out to Harry.

Harry,

That is interesting about your scar and very unusual. Your scar did hurt you once before, it wasn't a dream, you were six years old and when I picked up a locket you claimed that it made your scar hurt. You have never mentioned it hurting again until yesterday. When you picked up the diary a second time, you felt nothing?

I don't know what this means, but I plan on looking into it. In the meantime, please let me know if it happens again.

As to the Lockhart situation, I am meeting with Dumbledore tomorrow afternoon. We will see, but I can't make any promises.

Love,

Uncle Sirius

He sent the letter off with Hedwig who had waited for him in the kitchen, sharing from Persephone's water dish, and then headed upstairs to get ready.

It sounded like he and Dumbledore had a few things to discuss.

~ ASC ~

Sirius arrived at Hogwarts the next dat through McGonagall's Floo just after lunch. She was marking papers at her desk and he bent down to kiss her cheek, making her smile.

"Hi, Sirius," she said, dropping her quill.

"Hi, Minnie. I have a meeting with Albus, but I was wondering if you'd sit in on it with me?"

Her eyebrow rose slightly. "Of course, may I ask why?"

Sirius grinned at her. "I feel that you will have some invaluable insights into what I need to discuss."

She nodded and stood up. "Let's go then."

Sirius linked his arm through hers, kissing her cheek again. "By the way, you look positively ravishing today. New dress?"

McGonagall rolled her eyes. "Oh, shush."

He grinned as they headed towards Dumbledore's office. McGonagall said the password and they rode the griffin staircase up to the door.

Lucius Malfoy was already waiting inside for them.

"Ah, Sirius, and Minerva too, welcome," Dumbledore said with a smile, conjuring a third chair for McGonagall. "Lucius was just informing me that you are looking to make some changes in my staff, Sirius."

Sirius nodded as they both took a seat. "I am. I also know that you are perfectly aware that Lockhart is a barmy git and not at all a suitable teacher."

"I've spoken to Albus about this myself," McGonagall said, crossing her legs and accepting the cup of tea that Dumbledore passed her. "I told him that he's a vain, celebrity-hungry fraud who should not be teaching the students."

"And I believe that I mentioned that there is still plenty to learn from a bad teacher; for example, what not to do and how not to be."

Sirius frowned. Sometimes he forgot how cryptic Dumbledore could be. "Well, I think the students have more than learned that lesson by now, Albus. I remember Lockhart from when I was at Hogwarts. He was few years younger than me, but he was obnoxious then and I happen to agree with Minnie's assessment of him being a complete fraud. He can't even properly demonstrate any of the spells or curses or jinxes that he used in doing his own accomplishments."

"Agreed," Lucius said, nodding at Sirius. "I spoke to my son after the meeting the other day and Draco tells me that Lockhart spent yesterday's lesson droning on about an interview he had with a magazine and how much the reporter fawned over him. If you believe him to be fraudulent of something, I daresay someone should come forward and expose him for the fool that he is."

Dumbledore nodded. "I agree, which is part of the reason why I agreed to let him teach here."

"Why did you choose him, Albus?" Sirius asked. "Anyone would have been better."

"I wanted to keep an eye on him for one. He's claimed to do quite a lot of great things in the nine short years since he has left school. I was curious to see how much he had changed."

"He's a vain and selfish man who hasn't changed at all," McGonagall claimed as she let out a huff of annoyance.

Sirius nodded. "Well, I think it's about time that he was fired."

Lucius nodded. "I agree with Black. He needs to go and we have the backing of the governors on the subject."

"But I have final say in who teaches at my school."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Albus, don't play the fool, I have another suggestion."

Dumbledore simply smiled, linking his fingers together. "And I am here to listen."

Sirius grinned at him. "Hire Remus instead."

McGonagall's mouth opened in surprise. "Remus Lupin? He would be a wonderful choice, Albus! Top marks, tutored other students all through school, not to mention he's been working as a teacher to young Harry for many years. But he did very recently throw a punch at Lockhart — which is not exactly professional."

Sirius grinned. "That was amazing and well deserved since the git removed all of the bones from our son's arm! And you're the one who was too busy to fix his broken nose afterwards."

McGonagall's lips twitched in response.

Dumbledore seemed to consider this for a moment. "He would be an exemplary choice, I agree, but I'm not sure that he'll accept it."

"Why the hell wouldn't he? It's his dream job," Sirius said in exasperation.

"I take it you have not asked Remus if he would like to pick up the position?"

"No, I haven't," Sirius said darkly. "I didn't want to get his hopes up of giving him his dream job and then crushing it."

Dumbledore nodded. "I offered the position of the Defence Against the Dark Arts post to Remus Lupin once before back in 1982. He told me that I was a foolish old man and he absolutely refused to take the position."

Sirius' mouth opened in surprise. "He never told me that."

"I understood and accepted his reasons at the time, but if you could convince him to take up job now, I will happily fire Lockhart without hesitation."

Sirius grinned widely. "No problem."

Lucius stood up. "Well, it seems that this was easier to accomplish than the governors suspected. I will be going. Sirius, I'll see you next week to discuss your distasteful new amendments."

Sirius grinned at him. "Too right you will, Lucy."

When the office door closed behind him and they heard the staircase take him below, McGonagall smiled at him. "What new amendments did you get passed to set off Mr Malfoy?"

"Still in the works, but unanimous vote — minus Malfoy — to make Muggle Studies compulsory for all children who did not grow up in the Muggle world and to introduce a new compulsory course for all children who did grow up in the Muggle world called Life in the Magical World."

"Sirius, that's wonderful!" McGonagall exclaimed, kissing his cheek. "This is exactly why I wanted you to be on that board! You are doing real good and it's about time the board steps up and does something worthwhile for the school."

Dumbledore nodded. "I concur. I would be happy to introduce both of those as soon as I can. Will you want to offer it to incoming first years only or will it be for all students?"

"I would hope for all students, but the details will still need to be worked out."

McGonagall beamed at him. "I'm so proud of you, Sirius."

Sirius flushed a little and his heart felt like it was going to burst. Hearing those words from McGonagall was one of the best things that he could ever imagine happening to him.

"Thank you, Minnie." He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, making her smile before he turned back to Dumbledore. "Albus, there's something else that I was hoping to speak to you about, on an entirely different matter."

Dumbledore nodded. "Of course."

McGonagall made to stand up but Sirius ushered her to sit back down. "No, stay, Minnie. I'm intrigued to see what you think as well."

McGonagall nodded and sat back down.

Sirius sighed. "Albus, six years ago, I brought you a cursed locket."

Dumbledore's eyebrow rose. "You did. It is still locked away tightly in my vault."

"Did you ever find out what it is?"

"No," he admitted, folding his hands in front of him. "I've taken it out once or twice to prod and poke at it, but without knowing what kind of curse was cast upon it, I dared not attempt to open it."

Sirius nodded. "I told you that day that the locket seemed to bring bad memories to the forefront of one's mind. I was reliving the torture that my mother inflicted upon me in that boiler room and Harry… he relived the moment his parents were killed."

McGonagall let out a small gasp. "The poor boy!"

"His scar hurt him."

Dumbledore nodded. "I remember. Has it happened again?"

Sirius nodded. "It has. He said it was sudden and unlike the locket when he attempted to find the source of the pain, it didn't return. It happened once only, but he said it felt like someone was holding a hot poker to his scar. But no flash of memories or anything just the pain."

"It has only happened on these two occasions?"

"No. He mentioned that his scar bothered him once last year when he was in the forest and saw a figure drinking unicorn blood. We know now that it was Quirrell, but he thought nothing of it at the time."

"What did he touch to make it hurt this time?"

Sirius ran his fingers through his hair. "He was talking to his friend and he touched her diary. He said that they both made to grab it at the same time and the pain hit him. But when he touched it again there was nothing there. He thought that it was a strange fluke of some kind. The diary didn't bother him at all outside of that one touch so, it's obviously not like the locket. Or so he thinks. Do you think that it was just a strange fluke or could they be connected?"

"It very well could be either or," Dumbledore said quietly. "But it's also very strange to have come on so suddenly after all of these years."

"That's what I thought, too. What does it mean?"

McGonagall squeezed Sirius' arm gently. "His scar is unique, Sirius, and maybe he will always feel a little twinge of something?"

"I don't know. I know it's unique, but I don't like not knowing what it is, Albus."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a long moment. "As do I. Let me know if it happens again maybe we can make some form of correlation as to why and when it is acting up."

Sirius nodded. "Thank you." He stood up, slipping his hands into the pockets of his black jeans. "What about Lockhart?"

"As to Lockhart, you get me Remus Lupin, and I will get rid of him," Dumbledore said simply.

"What about the fraud you suspected he committed?" Sirius asked curiously.

Dumbledore only smiled, his eyes twinkling in mischief. "Leave that to me."