Chapter Eighteen:

Harry could not have been happier after the first task as he had never in his life seen dragons up close. Sure he had seen the much smaller, gentler cousin of the dragon the drake but a real dragon was amazing. Muggles over exaggerated their size, making them far larger than they really were. The average dragon was between ten and twelve feet long from tip of stout to tip of tail. The dragons that had been brought to Hogwarts were beautiful and he envied Charlie in his work with dragons. Three had been brought, all females, the common Welsh Green with her hard knobby green skin, the Chinese fire ball, a riot of reds and yellows and last, Harry's favorite the black skinned horned Hungarian Horntail. Cedric had shown great skill by summoning his broom and getting the golden egg in the least amount of time and he was no in the lead.

That of course was not all, Ron had found new fame as the brother of a dragon keeper, not only that but Charlie made sure that as many people as possible saw Ron up close with one of the dragons petting it! Not many people had ever pet a dragon and live to tell about it apart from a dragon keeper and the rare person that dragon keeper let near a dragon. Harry knew the dragon keeper's secret as Charlie had told him that dragons spoke Parseltongue and that a dragon keeper had to learn this almost impossible language to speak to dragons. It was not clear if even Voldemort had known of this talent he had as he was focused on snakes as he had learned at a young age he could speak to them. Harry of course kept the secret, it was wonderful to know what he spoke was not evil but very helpful.

It was a few weeks after the first task and Harry was going down to lunch in the great hall when he saw Draco who walked up looking a bit too smug. Harry glared at him and wondered what the Malfoy heir wanted to talk about now. Ron and Neville sensed there was going to be a fight and so stood waiting as Draco and Harry faced each other and glared at each other. A small crowd formed waiting for what they where sure was going to be a fight. Both boys had their wands out when they saw something silvery run across the entrance hall. Everyone turned to see two silvery foxes that started to play fight on the floor. Ron looked up to see Fred and George descending the stairs wands out and it was clear who these Patronus belonged to. They were smart boys, they had seen the fight about to be engaged and so chose to end it before it began.

"You know it is really so easy to cast one of these." Fred said.

"Yea, you can do so much more than drive off a Dementor, like use them for mock battles…" George added. "There is rumor you can use them to talk through too."

"Yea wonder how that is done?" Fred finished.

"Foxes?" Draco sneered casting his Patronus, which was a small dragon, "that is a Patronus."

"Mine is better." Harry said casting his Stag.

"No I think mine looks better." Neville said casting his otter. "Otters are dead useful."

"All I got is a fox as well." Ron said casting his at the same time.

"What is going on here?" Came the dreaded voice of Severus Snape.

Everyone froze in the entrance hall and turned slowly to see Snape walk into the entry hall. He looked from the silvery Patronus that were still walking around the hall to the students. What was worse was the fact that the head of Durmstrang was with him. Harry wondered if he was going to end up as a pile of ash on the floor as Snape looked at him as if he was going to burn him up with his gaze. Karkaroff saved Harry with out meaning to as he was impressed with the level of magic the boys had achieved.

"I am impressed professor Snape, these boys know how to cast Patronus very well."

"Yes they seem to like showing off as well." Snape said. "I should take points, they should know that Patronus are very serious indeed."

"Sorry sir." Harry said. "We just wanted to show off our skills."

"You are Harry Potter." Karkaroff said smiling at Harry, a smile Harry only returned to be polite. "I know much about you, defeated the dark lord as a baby."

"I did nothing sir." Harry said. "It was my parents not me who stopped Voldemort."

"You must be brave to say the name of the wizard that killed your parents." Karkaroff said trying to cover his fear of the name.

"I do not fear Voldemort, all he brings is death and destruction and I am glad to be well rid of him." Harry said. "I don't like being famous for living, I am no hero and I did nothing as a baby sir."

Karkaroff could say nothing to that and so he left leaving the students looking up at Snape who was impressed with their skill though he dared not show it. He ordered the students to put away their Patronus and head to lunch, he had to keep order and could not if he allowed violations of rules to take place. Remus Lupin came down the stairs and he was smiling, he had seen the boys ready to fight and what Fred and George had done and he saw the look on Snape's face, points were about to be taken and as Snape had to keep firm control on his students.

"Five points from Gryffindor for each of you who showed off in that manner." Snape said.

"Five points for everyone for casting perfect Patronus." Remus said and at a glare from Snape "that still puts Draco five above everyone else Severus. Besides it really was entertaining, however be that is it may I will not give points if you do that again in the halls."

"Yes professor Lupin." The students said.

Draco walked ahead of the students and smirked at both Lupin and Snape, knowing he had once more gotten away with something. Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table where talk about what had just happened was spreading along the table. Snape stormed into the great hall and glared at Harry as he made his way to the head table and took a seat. Remus came soon after and sat by Snape who looked as if he was going to kill the werewolf. Yes the boys deserved points, he knew that but he was never going to admit that or give them out. He saw a large black shaggy dog make his way into the great hall by Hagrid and he narrowed his eyes at Padfoot who pranced all the way up to the head table.

"Did you have to bring that flea bitten mutt here?" Snape asked Hagrid.

"Oh Padfoot is a good boy, he would not harm anyone Severus." Hagrid protested.

"I would have rather had Fang here, he is much nicer and doesn't have fleas." Snape said coldly getting a growl from Padfoot. "You attack me and I don't care I will neuter you." Snape told the dog.

"Severus if you do that Narcissa will return the favor." Remus said quietly to him.

"I will consider that." Snape said icily. "However that does not mean I have to like him."

"No it does not." Remus said.

"He is not that bad." Sprout said. "Gets me to laugh."

"Does the same for me." Flitwick said taking his seat by Hagrid.

"I could make sure he always makes you laugh." Snape said coldly.

"Severus you do and Buckbeak will have a nice black ferret to eat." McGonagall said taking her seat.

"You love me too much Minerva to do that." Snape said shocking her.

"Say that again and you will be locked up in a sunny classroom with only romance novels to read." McGonagall shot at him.

"You know how to torture a man don't you?" Snape said coldly.

"Yes, too bad there is not Quidditch this year, my lions would shred up your snakes." McGonagall countered.

Remus loved this, nearly every day he had worked here Snape and McGonagall would have some sort of words. It was clear McGonagall loved to spar with Snape as everyone knew that Slughorn, though a decent teacher and good with potions was not on the level of sparring that Snape was. Snape lived for annoying McGonagall and she returned the favor just as much as he did. If they were closer in age and McGonagall was the marrying type (she was a proud spinster thank you very much) they probably would at the very least date. Remus loved to spar with Snape too, he did it in much more subtle ways and this annoyed Snape to no end. Sirius continued to try the "hit him over the head with a sledgehammer" technique and it very nearly got him killed on several occasions.

After lunch was over Harry headed to his Care of Magical Creatures class and enjoyed learning about Unicorns. As he was a boy he stood away from the noble creatures and watched the girls get to pet the Unicorns and enjoy the beautiful creatures. Just being this close (about fifty feet away on the other side of the fence of the paddock) was a treat enough. After class he was heading up to the castle when his godfather caught up to him smiling a bit too much. Harry knew the signs all too well, his godfather could not tolerate sugar very well and it was clear he had gotten into some (or so Harry thought). Harry hoped he would not be too badly embarrassed as Draco was not far away from him and would say something about this.

"Hi Harry having fun in class?" Sirius asked.

"Yea, Hagrid is brilliant." Harry said. "What are you up to? Are you not on duty?"

"Nope, not right now." Sirius said. "It's hard to hide anymore as I am on the public Animagmus registry."

"Well after the trial they had no choice Sirius." Harry said.

"I want to show you something." Sirius said walking close to the lake. "I can make ice now!"

"Er that is very interesting Sirius." Harry said as Sirius froze a good space of the lake near the shore.

"See I can stand on it too!" Sirius said sliding out on it. Unfortunately he forgot one important thing, magic ice does not last, it disappeared and he looked up in shock. "Oh sh…."

He went under and Draco was laughing so hard at this point, even Harry found it funny and he laughed. He laughed even harder when Sirius came up and transformed to Padfoot and swam to shore. A crowd had gathered to watch as the dog got out, shook of and turned to a soaking wet wizard who dried himself off with his wand. He looked over at Harry and Draco who were laughing very hard, he saw Ron and Neville staring at him as if he were insane and then they were laughing too. Sirius joined them and walked with them as far as the school where Filch order him back out onto the grounds to work. It seemed Sirius answered to everyone these days and he did as asked with out complaint, after all he was free and with his godson and that was what mattered most to him now.

Now Sirius's wild behavior could be explained, all his life he had suffered what the magical community called "moods" one minute he could be laughing and enjoying life, the next he would be in a corner crying his eyes out. Sirius Black suffered from a common malady that effected muggles and magical humans alike, Manic Depression or Bipolar Disorder. As teenagers are moody by design no-one had spotted this when he was a teen and it was not until he had escaped from prison he had been diagnosed properly. Ironically he was prescribed the same medication Remus took for his "little problem" and it was working very well for him. So well his life had changed for the better as he no longer had to dread the horrible mood swings he once had to. He was still Sirius and his pranks and jokes had been tamed a bit by the simple fact Fred and George were ironically his idols as he was theirs. Life really was getting that much better for him except for the fact he had to see one Severus Snape nearly every day. As he was told by Dumbledore on condition of hire he was not to humiliate, harm or be rude to Snape Sirius had to plot other ways to annoy the stupid git as he loved to call him. So far though it was Snape who came out on top and though Sirius knew very well Snape was far, far smarter than him he would not admit it even under the worst kind of torture of all.

I got with reading the Harry Potter books Sirius was not completely sane. He acted a bit manic but with medication he would be fine. Now his since of humor can get him in trouble and as loyal and cool as he can be I don't think he is very bright. I do like him but he is really not that bright.