Author's Note:

Well, here it is beginning… let me know your thoughts please.

Reviews and Comments: To Aastha: Thank you! I'm glad he finally told her as well! To cha-chris: Yes, finally! Thank you! To geekymom: Thank you! To E-Dett: Thank you! Will Remus be the permanent defence teacher or just for one year? Well, you will have to wait and see as I have many plans. To turnthepage21: Thank you! I'm glad you thought it was a great way to reveal it and yes, lots of lemons. Thank you! To alix33: Thank you! To M: Thank you and yes, it was time for Remus to stop acting like an idiot. To love reading20613: Thank you! He did man up, it just took some pushing. To Guest: Thank you! I thought Tonks' reaction was perfect as well. He would obviously think the worse and he needs her to knock some sense into him. To Claire Fraser: Thank you! It was hot and I thought worth the wait. Thanks! We will have to see how they fire Lockhart.

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-SIX:

The One Where Fred Hears the Name Padfoot

By the middle of January, Harry found himself becoming even more frustrated with Lockhart. Every time the man opened his mouth he wanted to throw something at him. When he said as much to Ron, his friend only nodded and mentioned something else stupid that they had seen the man doing lately. He wished Remus was their teacher, but there was still no news from Sirius on that front and Harry was beginning to think his hopes had been dashed.

He headed down to the Quidditch pitch for his first practice of the new year, broomstick over his shoulder. He had spent the morning teaching himself the jinxes and curses he had written down in Lockhart's class and was pleased with the fact that he had mastered eight of them already. He was itching to try some of them out, but had yet to find an opportunity.

The bite of the cold winter wind whistled past his head as he pulled open the door to the change rooms and he made his way down the hall to the Gryffindor section. He stopped short when he saw Oliver and Alicia embracing. Oliver had his leg between hers and Alicia was leaning against her locker, her arms around his neck, his hands on her hips as they snogged. The memory of watching them doing something else entirely flashed in his mind and he made an awkward coughing sound to let them know that he had arrived.

Oliver grinned at him when he pulled away. "Oh, sorry, Harry."

Alicia smiled warmly at him, turning to grab her jumper and tug it over her turtleneck. "Hi, Harry. Sid you have a nice holiday?"

He nodded. "Yeah, you?"

"I did, thanks."

Fred, George, and Angelina came in together all laughing and talking and Harry turned to his cubicle to change, wondering what to do about the fact that he now had an erection. He remembered Sirius' words: Snape, he thought, picture Snape. And before the thought had even finished forming in his mind, he felt his body obey. He quickly dressed in his warm red sweats and socks and then tugged on his undershirt and his Gryffindor Quidditch hoodie. He added a toque and put on his new gloves, smiling at Katie as she rushed inside and rolled her eyes at Oliver who declared her one minute late.

Then they headed out to the pitch.

Wood wanted to work them hard, to get rid of the holiday laziness, he claimed. He started practice off by having them hold their brooms draped across the back of their shoulders and running up the steps of the Quidditch stands. Harry was panting by his second time heading up and he laughed when Alicia called her boyfriend a sadist.

They did ten laps up and down the stands before Oliver let them jog slowly around the pitch. Five laps around the pitch and then onto their brooms for flying laps (fifteen), followed by pass the Quaffle (twenty minutes), and then he finally released the Snitch and Bludgers for the team to practice.

Two hours later, Harry was dragging his feet back to the common room, exhausted, but in a good way. He had taken a quick shower in the changing rooms, putting his things back in his cubicle before he changed into blue jeans and his new knit jumper from Mrs Weasley. He was only halfway to the Gryffindor common room when he ran into Hermione.

She was curled on the window ledge in the corridor, a big quilt wrapped across her legs, a scarf at her neck and a book open in her hands.

He smiled as he made his way over to her. "Hey, what are you doing out here? You must be chilled to the bone."

"A bit," she said with a smile, marking her place in the book she was reading. "But I used a warming charm on the blanket. How was practice?"

"Exhausting, but good," he told her, hopping up onto the ledge and tugging part of her blanket over his legs. "Ron pissing you off?"

Her brow furrowed. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Well, you're out here all alone so, I figured that was probably the reason?"

She smiled and tucked her curls behind her ears. "No. He was playing chess with Neville by the fire and I wasn't in the mood to watch. I needed some peace and quiet and my dorm wasn't the place for it."

At Harry's raised eyebrow, she sighed.

"Lavender and Parvati are just so gossipy, I couldn't stand it! Apparently Lavender kissed Seamus and she and Parvati were gushing about it."

"Yeah, I know, Seamus told us the other day. He was pretty stoked about it. His first kiss and all."

Hermione blushed. "I mean, don't you think that we're a bit young to be doing… that?"

Harry shrugged again, leaning back against the wall and turning to face her. "I dunno, it depends on you, I guess. Uncle Sirius says that it's whenever you think you're ready and it doesn't matter if you're twelve or twenty."

"He's wise," Hermione said.

Harry laughed. "I suppose, but let's not tell him that," he said making her chuckle. "What about the other girls, Sophie and Natalie? What do they have to say on the whole snogging thing?"

Hermione sighed. "They're just as bad. Sophie says that she has a boyfriend back home, but I don't know if I believe her. And Nat fancies Malfoy something terrible. She's always going on about how fit and handsome he is."

"No wonder you prefer to hang out with us blokes."

She smirked at him and wrapped her arms around her knees. "I don't really know how to be friends with other girls. Mum says that I'm too independent and too headstrong and that I intimidate them. Do you think that's true?"

"How am I supposed to know?" he asked her.

She chuckled. "I thought maybe Ginny and I would be friends when I met her at your birthday, but I don't think that she likes me very much."

"Ginny likes everybody. She's like the epitome of the friendliest person on earth. It takes a lot to get on her bad side. She likes you. She's just… going through something right now and I can't quite pin it down. It's been bothering me. Ever since she came to school she's been very different from the girl I knew. Trust me, Hermione, she's a great friend to have. I'm sure that she'll come around."

Hermione shrugged. "Sorry to bring you in on this pity party, Harry. See this is why I'm sitting here alone."

Harry smiled at her. "Hey, I'm always around to listen if you need me."

She smiled gratefully at him. "I know, thanks."

"And pity parties are allowed, sometimes. You didn't say much about your holiday. Were your parents upset that you made the Polyjuice Potion and turned into a half human, half cat hybrid?"

"Confused, more like it," she said honestly. "Sometimes it's hard to explain things to them because they don't understand it. I told them how the potion could make someone essentially become another person, but… I don't know. Dad thought it was brilliant and wanted to know everything. I told him that we brewed it without permission and how it wasn't really a potion most second years could brew. He was pretty proud of that fact. He's always been a bit more understanding of me in that sense."

"Your Mum was upset?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, not upset, but she was pretty relieved when all of the fur disappeared after a few days. I think sometimes as proud as she is, the idea of me having these powers and abilities scares her a bit," she said with a smile. "Christmas was good. My Nonno came to stay with us and I told him all about my adventures. He loves to hear about them."

Harry smiled at her. "Did you tell them that we brewed the potion in hopes of discovering if Malfoy was the culprit?"

"No, but I told my Nonno," she said with a smile. "He told me that sometimes those who look the most obvious are the ones who are the most innocent. I wasn't sure how to take that."

"Uncle Sirius says that of course it couldn't have been Malfoy. But knowing that his grandfather was in school here when the Chamber was originally opened is definitely something to think about."

"I agree," Hermione said, tucking a stray curl away from her face. "Maybe the library will have something about this grandfather of his and maybe that will lead us to more information on the Chamber. Were any of the teachers even here at the time so that they would remember it?"

"Dumbledore obviously, as he was the Transfiguration Professor back then. I mean, Binns is a ghost, but who knows how long he actually taught here. But when you asked him about the Chamber, he never mentioned it had been opened before or had any knowledge of it outside of the myth," Harry said carefully. "I don't know if he was the history professor when my parents were here."

"He wasn't," Hermione said smartly. "I asked McGonagall and she said that Binns was hired to replaced Bathilda Bagshot, who retired from teaching in 1976. He was a retired historian himself but agreed to come in and teach until a suitable replacement could be found. Apparently, one day in 1979, he started teaching as a ghost and has never left."

"Wow," Harry said with a grin. "That's a little freaky actually. Can you imagine one day he's your professor all alive and whatnot and then the next day he walks in all translucent and pearly white? Very strange."

"Agreed," she said with a smile. "So, I guess that he's out of the running, which only leaves Dumbledore. None of the other teachers are old enough to have been here. McGonagall's only in her fifties, Sinistra is forty-three according to the Head Boy as I heard him saying the other day that she's a TILF."

Harry smirked at her. "Hermione, I'm surprised at you."

"What?" she asked. "I don't know what it means!"

He grinned. "Teacher I'd Like to Fuck."

Hermione blushed scarlet. "What a thing to say! How could he even… boys are gross!"

Harry laughed and bit his bottom lip. "I suppose we are. She is pretty attractive though, for you know, an old person." At Hermione's look, he simply grinned. "And come on, Hermione, Lockhart?"

Hermione simply shrugged. "But I wouldn't ever… I mean, he's just nice looking and… it's different, Harry!"

Harry chuckled at her obvious discomfort and blushing cheeks. "Anyway, after Dumbledore, the oldest teacher is Vector and he's only in his early sixties."

"And Professor Sprout is the same age as McGonagall."

Harry nodded. "So, only Dumbledore would have been around to remember. Doesn't exactly help in finding out who it could be."

"No, it doesn't."

Harry sighed. "At least some of the pressure seems to be off of me. Fred and George have helped a lot with that."

"By saying you're off to the chamber for a spot of tea? It's rather childish of them, don't you think?"

"But it's working," Harry told her. "People are realizing it's kind of ridiculous to blame me."

"What about the talking to snakes thing?" Hermione asked, resting her chin on her knees. "You know, I did some research in the library on Parseltongue. It turns out it is a unique language that Salazar Slytherin was gifted with. It's not something that someone learns so much as they just inherently know it from birth. Slytherin's bloodline has always known the language and it seems to have passed down to them in each generation, but it's not just them. Other wizards have claimed to have the ability and they had no connection to Slytherin's bloodline which from what I've read, is extinct. But it is incredibly rare. It's impossible to learn it — though someone can imitate it enough if they were to try, but they wouldn't necessarily understand it if someone were to speak it back to them. There wasn't much else on it except what we already knew — it's considered a dark art — but only because of the connection to snakes."

Harry nodded. "I asked Uncle Sirius about it and he said that it's a wizarding genetic trait that could have been passed down to me after being a hidden skill for generations. Like his cousin Tonks, she's a Metamorphmagus. She has the ability to change her appearance at will and she's the first Black to have that skill in centuries. She was at my birthday, if you remember, the one with the pink hair?"

"Oh, right, the one you said is your sister."

"She basically is," he said with a grin. "But maybe the skill is something like that."

"Well, that's something to think about then."

Harry nodded, tapping on the book that she was still holding in her hands. "So, what were you reading? Not out here studying like mad, are you?"

She smiled. "No, I'm taking a break. It's fiction."

He grinned. "Good. What's it about?"

She smiled. "A young girl who grew up on an island free and independent to do whatever she wished, which in her case was running around and reading and learning. She becomes an orphan and has to move to America to live with her aunt and uncle, who are Puritans, and they highly dislike everything that she does. She's not proper and not the lady she is supposed to be. She makes friends with a handsome sailor and an elderly Quaker woman, who people believe to be a witch."

"The Witch of Blackbird Pond," Harry said with a grin. "I read that one. I liked it."

Hermione's eyes widened. "You always surprise me, Harry."

He grinned and hopped off the ledge, extending his hand out to her. "Come on; let's try to learn the rest of those jinxes that Lockhart mentioned in class. At least teaching them to ourselves makes me feel like I'm almost learning how to defend myself."

Hermione grinned at him, accepting his hand and hopping down herself. "All right, let's go."

~ ASC ~

During the last week of January, Harry was finishing up his Potions essay in the common room with Neville. He was doing his best to help his friend with the Wide-Eye Potion, otherwise known as the Awakening Potion, but Neville was so nervous that he was chewing on the middle of his quill as he attempted to do his homework.

"Nev," Harry said, waiting for his friend to look up at him. "It's fine, you've got this. Let's just go over the prep once more and then we can formulate how to write the essay."

Neville nodded, dropping his quill and running his fingers through his hair. "I hate Potions."

Harry grinned. "Nah, you hate Snape, there's a difference. Potions is like the cool things you can do with all of the plants you love."

Neville smiled at his friend's words. "Still doesn't make it any easier."

Harry laughed as he felt the vibration in his pocket. He tugged out the mirror and grinned at the sight of Sirius' face. "Hi, Uncle Padfoot."

Fred looked up from the chair behind Harry, his brow furrowing. "What did you just say, Harry?"

Harry looked back at Fred. "Oh, nothing Fred, just talking to my father." He stood up, the mirror in his hand and turned it to Fred. "Say hi to Uncle Sirius."

Fred nodded. "Right, hi, Sirius."

Harry nodded at Neville and moved out of the portrait hole so that he could hear his godfather over the loud volume of the common room. "What's going on?"

Sirius grinned at him. "We've got a few things in the works, you know. Listen, I need to talk to you. Head on up to Auntie Minnie's office. I'm on my way."

Harry nodded and tucked the mirror away, ducking his head back inside the portrait hole to let Neville know that he had to go McGonagall's office. He wondered what was so important that Sirius had to come see him in person. He made his way down the stairs to the lower levels and into the Transfiguration wing. He knocked on her door, smiling when she opened it.

"Hi, Aun-Professor, is Uncle Sirius here?"

McGonagall smiled at him. "Yes, come in, Potter."

Harry followed her inside, surprised to not only see Sirius, but Remus too. He hugged them both and took a seat in the chair across from them. "Surprise visit?"

McGonagall smiled at them. "I'll give you three some time. I'll be in the staff room if you need me."

Sirius nodded as he watched her leave, closing the door behind her before he turned to Harry. "We wanted to tell you in person. We heard from Kingsley today about Peter's hearing."

Harry's eyes widened. In all of the excitement with the Chamber of Secrets and wishing that Lockhart would stop being his teacher and worrying about Ginny, he had almost forgotten.

"And?"

"It's tomorrow, little Prongs," Remus said quietly. "It starts at nine in the morning and will most likely last most of the day, possibly into the next."

"Can I go?"

Sirius hesitated, leaning forward and taking Harry's hands in his own. "Harry, are you absolutely sure that you want to be there? This man is the reason that your parents are dead. You are going to hear some horrible things and maybe see some memories that are… violent. I don't know… but he was a Death Eater, Prongslet, he might have truly done some heinous things that Rem and I don't even know about. I don't know if you should be a witness to that."

"I don't want you two to be there alone. I should be there, too."

Remus smiled, draping an arm across Harry's shoulders. "We're supposed to take care of you, Harry, not the other way around."

Harry shrugged. "You're the ones who keeps saying that I'm growing up and to me that means we take care of each other."

Sirius grinned and kissed his forehead. "Abso-fucking-lutely we do."

"Sirius, language," Remus hissed, making Harry laugh.

"I want to be there. I want to be there for you and Uncle Rem and I want to be there for myself. I don't remember this Peter, but you told me how he used to be your friend, how you trusted him and I… I want to understand why he betrayed that trust. I want to know what happened."

Remus nodded, leaning in to kiss Harry's forehead as well. "We want the same answers."

Sirius nodded, squeezing Harry's shoulder. "All right, I have permission from McGonagall to take you home tonight then. We have to be at the Ministry of Magic for eight thirty if the hearing starts at nine. Do you need to bring anything home?"

Harry shook his head as he climbed to his feet. "No, but I was helping Neville with his Potions essay and my books are still out in the common room. Can I just go tell my friends where I'm going?"

"Yeah, of course, go on. We'll be waiting here for you when you get back."

Harry hurried out of McGonagall's office and raced back to Gryffindor Tower. Ron and Hermione had joined Neville at the table now.

"Hey, Harry, what did McGonagall want?" Ron asked, scratching his nose with the back of his quill.

"I'm going home for the night. The trial for Pettigrew is tomorrow and I'm going to attend."

"The bloke who betrayed your parents?" Neville asked, his eyes wide. "It's finally happening?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, it's finally happening. Uncle Sirius says that it might be a few days. I'll see you guys when I get back." He put his books together and stuffed them in his bag, tossing it over his shoulder.

"Good luck, mate," Ron said with a nod. "I hope he's punished for what he did."

Hermione hugged him close. "We'll be thinking of you."

He nodded. "Thanks. See you."

~ ASC ~

While Sirius and Remus were waiting for Harry to return, Sirius sat on McGonagall's desk and smirked at his friend. "Whenever I'm in here I have this vivid memory of being in detention."

Remus chuckled. "You did spend seventy percent of your school career in detention."

"Seventy percent, that seems extreme, more like sixty-five."

Remus laughed and dragged a hand over his face. "You worried about tomorrow?"

Sirius nodded. "More than I'd like to admit."

"Me too," he said, rubbing his hands up his arms as if he was trying to ward off a sudden chill. "I don't know if I'm ready to see him again either."

"He doesn't even look like the same person, Rem."

"That's what you said."

"What do you think about what Harry said, about us taking care of each other?"

"I think that he sounds exactly like James," Remus said with a smile. "That's what he always told us, it was about taking care of each other. He really is growing up quite a lot this year. There's been a lot of changes from him."

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, there has been. Hey, you know that he's going to ask me about the Defence Against the Dark Arts post? Should we tell him?"

Remus shook his head. "No, not yet. Dumbledore is still meeting with Cumberland to determine all of the details. Let it be a surprise."

"Can you believe Dumbledore is going to do it so publicly? I mean, he wants Cumberland to speak."

Remus nodded. "I know, it surprised me too, but actually I think it's a great idea. It is truly setting an example of what not to do in a final way that his teaching already has exemplified and I applaud Dumbledore's plan. And it will be nice to surprise Harry by just showing up to teach one day."

Sirius grinned at him. "I agree." They both looked up as Harry hurried into the office. "Ready, Prongslet?"

Harry grinned at him. "Ready."

End Author's Notes:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare is one of my favourite books of all time. I had a bit of a crush on Nat when I was nine (still do if I'm honest). Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives' stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is in the meadows, where she enjoys the company of the old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, and on occasion, her young sailor friend Nat. But when Kit's friendship with the "witch" is discovered, Kit is faced with suspicion, fear, and anger. She herself is accused of witchcraft! — Great read if anyone is interested!

Thanks for reading and please review!