Chapter 9: The Midnight Duel

Harry woke up to a really bad smell. It smelt a bit like the time he was in close proximity to Marge's dog Ripper. He opened his eyes and jumped at the fact his godfather's animagus form was hovering close to his face, it was as close as Dobby's had been last Christmas.

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed "Don't do that!"

Sirius transformed as Harry reached for his glasses.

"Sorry." Sirius said with a laugh. "Just we figured you slept in long enough. Molly won't start breakfast without you."

"How long was I asleep?" Harry asked.

"No clue. Temporal pause remember?" Sirius asked.

"Oh yeah" Harry said with a pout as he remembered the books and how his godfather had learned about the abuse and the cupboard.

"Anyways, after breakfast, we're going to start reading again" Sirius said.

Sirius got off the bed and made to leave the room, but froze when Harry didn't move. "Harry?"

Harry was rubbing his arm just above his elbow subconsciously. He really WAS dreading Sirius finding out about the basilisk.

"Will we get to my second year today?"

"If we do, it probably won't be finished" Sirius said. "Why?"

"Just…if you think this one is bad,…of the four I've had, this one is my second best with the amount of danger in it."

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked like a concerned parent.

"Well, Third year, the only dangers were dementors, Professor Lupin, and you" Harry said. "And you weren't REALLY a danger to me and Lupin was teaching me to handle myself against the dementors. And you know about last year."

"So your second year was the second worst?" Sirius asked frowning. That had been the year James had come up with the idea to become animagi and when they came up with their name. It was also when he and James got on the Quidditch team. It had been one of Sirius' favorite.

Harry nodded thinking about the fight with the basilisk and had it not been for Fawkes…

"How about we discuss this when we get there. "We're only halfway through your first and I have yet to see you're flying lesson."

The two went down to the kitchen where Molly had insisted that Harry take the first helping of breakfast. No doubt due to the starving she had found out about.

Once breakfast was over with, they moved back to the living room where, to EVERYONE'S shock, Ron picked up the book and opened to where they left off.

"Ron WANTS to read!?" Ginny gasped from her spot next to her mother and Bill.

Ron stuck out his tongue before reading.

"Chapter Nine. The Midnight Duel."

All the teachers turned to the trio with their eyebrows lifted. Nobody noticed the piece of parchment and quill in Snape's right hand.

"That does make sense." Hermione interrupted. "I mean, Dudley IS your cousin."

"I don't know about that Hermione" Sirius told her. "If I had to choose between Snape and Bellatrix for which I hated more, I'd go with Bella."

Everyone turned to Sirius in shock.

"You've actually seen her Harry" Dumbledore said seeing Harry's confused look "She was in that last memory when you fell into the pensieve last April."

"You mean the one with Crouch's son?" Harry gasped recalling just WHAT they had done.

Dumbledore nodded.

"That bitch" Harry cursed under his breath.

Figuring it was probably best to go on, Ron did, a bit nervous as he hadn't really heard his friend use THAT type of language before.

"More like the other way around" the twins chorused.

"WHAT?!" Molly and Charlie exclaimed.

"It was the Shooting Star you gave me" Ron defended.

Everyone couldn't help but to agree though the adults placed the blame on Augusta Longbottom for putting so much pressure on the boy.

Snape prepared the quill for his list of things Malfoy had lied to him about.

"It's from teaching you three and James Potter" McGonagall said pointing to the two Marauders and Snape.

"It can't be" Sirius gasped.

"What?" Harry asked.

"I'll explain in a minute if it does what I think it will do" Sirius said indicating for Ron to start reading.

Harry noticed that Remus was also at the edge of his seat and wondered if it had something to do with his father.

"What type of broom was it?" Sirius demanded of the trio.

"Harry's was a Cleansweep 3" Ron said.

"Knew it!" Sirius laughed at the irony.

"What?" Harry asked cluelessly.

"During our first flying lesson, that was the same broom your father used" Remus chuckled.

Harry smiled as he thought of what he had done on that broom.

"Interesting theory. I'm going to have to talk to Rolanda about that" McGonagall mused.

"Oh dear!" Molly gasped.

Snape gave McGonagall a look.

Snape sighed and started writing something on the parchment Theft.

Snape continued to write Was the first to break Rolanda's instructions.

"Natural" Sirius said proudly.

"He didn't" Snape gasped in shock. This was COMPLETELY different than what Malfoy had told him. It was bad enough Malfoy had said he had been a perfect angel and kept both feet firmly on the ground, but to have given Potter the MEANS to show off in front of Minerva?

He was going to have a LONG talk with the boy.

"WHOO!" Sirius cheered. "GREAT CATCH HARRY!"

"How about I show you the memory of that catch and then see what you have to say?" McGonagall said. "He about gave me a heart attack."

"Go easy on him Minnie" Sirius told the professor. "He was just doing it to help a friend."

"He has already been…punished for it" McGonagall said with a wink in Harry's direction as the twins were gapping at Sirius in awe at calling McGonagall 'Minnie' and lived.

"Ever the pessimist, aren't we" Tonks teased.

"Mr. Potter. I would never use physical means to discipline my pupils" McGonagall told him.

Sirius looked at McGonagall and Harry with the same look Wood had given them.

As did Sirius'.

"No bloody way!" Charlie exclaimed "His first year Professor!?"

"James BEGGED you to allow that and you told him to wait to try out!" Sirius exclaimed finding his voice.

However, NOBODY missed the pride in his voice.

To everyone's shock, Sirius frowned and got off the couch and left the room.

"Stay there" Sirius told Harry who made to get up.

A few minutes (or what would have been) later, Sirius came back down with something in his hand and he handed it to Harry.

Harry took it and looked at it to see a picture. It was him as a baby, probably about one, flying on a small broom about a foot or two in the air, being chased by his father with his mother laughing in the background.

"Your first birthday, I got you a toy broom." Sirius informed his godson. "Both your parents confirmed it was your favorite gift and you had nearly killed Lily's cat with it. So, you HAVE been on a broom. Just…you don't remember it."

"Thanks for the knowledge" Harry said handing it back.

Sirius sat next to his godson and refused the picture.

"It's yours" Sirius told him before motioning for Ron to pick up.

"Hey!" Charlie exclaimed indignantly before reconsidering "Well, maybe not on an ancient Cleansweep 3."

"Nope" Sirius confirmed.

"Different setting. That was me" Ron said before picking up.

"Only Quidditch can make Ron forget about food" Ginny laughed.

"We were worried about his sanity" George said.

"It was a scary sight."

"About as scary as Snape smiling."

"I'll try to remember that" Snape said sneering at them making a mental note to actually smile at them once just to see the twins' reaction.

Snape sighed as he wrote again challenged a Potter to a duel. Of course, he wasn't really one to talk, but part of growing up was learning from your mistakes and teaching the next generation what not to do.

"RONALD WEASLEY!" Molly exclaimed recovering from her shock with Harry's dive. "YOU DID NOT JUST ACCEPT A DUEL FOR HARRY!"

"Sorry Mum" Ron said sheepishly before continuing.

"Pocket it and punch him" Moody said.

Snape made to say something about that it was his godson they were talking about, but refrained. Malfoy DID issue the challenge. Besides, knowing his godson, it wouldn't be Malfoy who would show up, but Filch or even himself. But from what he remembered of the night of the Gryffindor/Slytherin flying lesson, it would be Filch.

Jaws dropped. How'd these three become inseparable?

"Did I really sound like that?" Hermione asked.

"Yes" her two boys chorused.

"Should have listened" Hermione muttered thinking of meeting Fluffy.

"At least you care" Molly told Harry.

"It's become my signature move" Ginny bragged.

"He set you up" Sirius groaned with a glare at Snape who found a spot on the wall looking VERY interesting.

"Snape did the same thing to your Dad and Sirius" Remus whispered to Harry. "It's part of what led to Sirius telling Snape about the…you know."

"Run" Sirius suggested.

"Now ISN'T the time for an I-Told-You-So" Sirius said.

"BIG mistake" the Marauders and the twins chorused.

"He won't tell" Sirius said relieved.

"He hates Filch more than he loves causing mayhem" Remus reminded his friend.

"Remember when we taught him that" Sirius laughed to Remus.

"You would think Filch would have learned his lesson" Remus chuckled.

"That was you two?" McGonagall said dangerously.

"Four" Remus corrected.

"Yeah? What?" Arthur asked.

Ron threw a nervous look at Harry and Hermione. He hadn't realized that this was the chapter they would meet Fluffy. He thought it would be the NEXT one with this one ending just before. Apparently he thought wrong. Gulping, he continued.

"Didn't you say something about a painful death?" Sirius asked the headmaster quietly going from Marauder to guardian.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING DOING IN THE CASTLE!?" both Molly and Sirius yelled.

"I thought you liked dogs" Harry asked his godfather innocently.

"When they have one head and are smaller than the average 11 year old!" Sirius informed his godson.

"Read Ron" Harry said as he gripped his godfather's hand as Ginny did the same for her mother.

"Smart choice" Flitwick said speaking up as he had become speechless when he sat down to see Sirius, Harry, and Remus sitting together looking as if it was three of the more troublesome Marauders with the first and third having taken an aging potion.

"The floor?" Remus suggested.

"Too observant for their own good" McGonagall muttered.

"I think you have it mixed up" Tonks said. "Killed is worse than expelled."

"My priorities have been straightened out" Hermione said.

The teachers weren't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

"PLEASE tell me that's the last time you see that dog" Sirius begged his godson and friends.

"Don't worry Sirius" Harry said. "The next time we see that dog again, we know how to handle it."

"NEXT time?!" the two Marauders exclaimed.

"It's…" Harry said before grabbing the book and flipping the pages from back to front and stopping before going back and turning a few pages "The next to last chapter which is 16. So seven more before we SEE the dog again."

"And this was your second least dangerous year?" Sirius asked.

"Something tells me that if James and Lily had survived, Harry would have gotten more howlers than you and James put together" Remus told Sirius.

"I don't doubt that" Molly said remembering some of the letters SHE got from Dumbledore and being told that there was no need for further punishment.

"Is the next one any better on my nerves?" Sirius asked Harry.

Harry checked the title and winced. Especially at the picture above the title's name which was of a troll.

"Actually….it's worse" Harry said truthfully.

Molly groaned at that.

"I'll read" Flitwick offered.