Nothing Lasts Forever

by MadamoiselleMidnight

Before the school year even begins, Harry Potter makes a new friend – a rather unusual dog. At Hogwarts, trouble always seems to be just around the corner for Harry and his dog. Eventually a devastating betrayal reveals some shocking truths. Trust is a fragile thing, and unfortunately for Harry, his trust in someone is about to be broken.

4. Creatures and Classes

Author's Note:

There are mentions and a description of a bleeding injury towards the end of this chapter. It's not described in great detail or anything, just thought you ought to know…

...

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Chapter Four: Creatures and Classes

The next morning, Harry woke with a mouthful of fur.

Sometime in the middle night, both Harry and Snuffles had migrated to the center of the bed with Snuffles taking over the position of Harry's pillow. Snuffles was partially curled up on top of Harry's actual pillow. Harry had his head resting on Snuffles' side with his arms loosely draped around Snuffles' midsection. Harry's legs sprawled out across the bed and one of his feet was dangling off the bed. His pajama shirt was riding up in the back and he had also managed to kick off most of the covers as he slept.

Slowly, so as to not wake Snuffles, Harry got up and quietly backed up off of the bed and through the bed curtains. Harry grabbed and put on his glasses as he glanced out the window to see that the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. He grabbed his clothes for the day and made his way to the showers. On his way, he noticed that Dean and Neville were already up (and most likely already in the showers since they weren't in the room) and Ron and Seamus were still asleep.

Harry greeted Dean with a "good morning" when Dean walked out of the bathroom as Harry was walking in. Harry could hear one of the showers still going, so he assumed that Neville was still in there.

Harry quickly stripped, turned on the water, and walked under the showerhead. He wanted to be in and out relatively fast because he didn't want to leave Snuffles alone for too long, especially since he had yet to introduce him to the other boys (with the exception of Ron) who'd be living with them in the dorm room.

A few moments after Harry heard Neville leave the shower, Harry finished his shower, dried himself off, and got dressed. As Harry left the showers, he almost ran into Ron, who was a bit bleary eyed as he headed off to take a shower as well. Seamus was up and grabbing his clothes from the dresser beside his bed when Harry walked back into the dorm room. Dean was getting ready to head out of the door and Neville was putting some quills and parchment into his schoolbag. Before Dean could leave, Harry called out to the three boys.

"Hey Dean, Seamus, Neville," Harry said. "There's someone I'd like you to meet since he'll also be staying in here with us."

"What do you mean, Harry?" Dean asked, slowly glancing around the room as if looking for someone else.

"W-who?" Neville asked as he stopped messing with his schoolbag.

"You having us on?" Seamus smirked. "Cuz I see no other bed in here."

"He'll be staying with me," Harry said as he started pulling aside the curtains to his bed.

"Oh ho! I didn't know you were like that, mate," Seamus joked, draping his clothes for the day over his shoulder. "Just so long as we don't have to hear what you two lovebirds get up to in the middle of the night, I think we'll be fine."

"Oh, shut up Seamus," Harry griped, somewhat amused and completely unsurprised about where Seamus thoughts had turned. It was exactly like Seamus to suggest something along that line of thought. "It's not like that."

Seeing that Snuffles was awake, Harry indicated that he should sit up.

"This is Snuffles," Harry introduced, stepping aside so that the three boys could fully see Snuffles. "He's my dog and he'll be staying with us here in Gryffindor Tower," Harry turned to look directly at Neville. "I know you knew about him from the train, Neville. But since all of the lights were out, and then with what happened afterwards, you didn't really get to see or meet him," Harry said as he began scratching Snuffles behind his ears.

"That's a pretty big dog," Dean commented. "You've got permission for him to be here, yeah?"

"Yup," Harry affirmed. "I asked Professor McGonagall and she said he can stay as long as he doesn't cause any trouble. And I don't think there'll be any problems because he's a really well behaved dog. And, just to warn you, he can be a bit protective of me and he doesn't like to be petted by people he doesn't know, so maybe ask me before you pet him. Alright?"

"Well, I have no problems with him staying in here with us," Dean said as he adjusted the strap on his schoolbag. "I'll see you all later… Oh!" Dean turned to give Seamus a stern look. "And don't be late for breakfast, Seamus. I'll not be packing up food for you to take to your first class like I did at the end of last year."

"Yeah, yeah," Seamus said, waving him off.

As soon as Dean left the room, Seamus smiled in Harry and Neville's direction, saying, "He always threatens that, but anytime I miss breakfast, he'll turn up beside me in class with some toast or something. He's a good friend… when he's not pretending to be strict."

Turning his attention away from Seamus, Neville looked between Harry and Snuffles.

"Do, erm, do you think I could pet him?" Neville asked hesitantly.

"What do you say, boy?" Harry asked Snuffles as he took his hand away from where he'd been scratching at Snuffles' ears. In response, Snuffles dipped his head down then up and made a snuffling sound.

"I'd say that's a yes," Harry said.

Neville walked over and slowly raised his hand to Snuffles' head and let Snuffles sniff his hand. Snuffles pressed his nose into Neville's hand which led Neville to start gently petting Snuffles.

"He's a very nice dog," Neville said after a moment or two. "And his fur's pretty soft."

"Don't compliment him too much," Harry said wryly. "It'll all go to his head and sooner than later he'll be prancing around here like a peacock."

Snuffles gave Harry a wounded look to which Harry just smiled as Neville laughed at the both of them.

So far, Seamus had been quiet about the dog, which was rather unlike the Irishman. Harry had been expecting some kind of comment about Snuffles, whether it was good, bad, or kind of lewd. Harry turned towards Seamus, who was still in his pajamas standing with his uniform over his shoulder. Seamus was kind of squinting at Snuffles as if he was considering something.

"Seamus?" Harry prompted.

"… You think you could get him to give Malfoy a sound bite on the rear?" Seamus asked as he slowly broke out into a large grin. "I'd say a bite from a dog of that size would certainly discourage that git from being his usual nasty self."

Snuffles snorted loudly and shook his head as Harry laughed and said, "I wish, but I'd rather not get Snuffles kicked out of Hogwarts just as soon as I got him here."

"Ah well, you win some, you lose some," Seamus said before heading towards the showers.

"I'm going to go ahead and head to breakfast," Neville said as he stopped petting Snuffles. "Want to come down with me?"

"Thanks, but I've got to pack some quills and extra parchment and ink into my bag before I can head down. But I'll see you there soon, yeah?"

"Alright. See ya later," Neville said as he grabbed his schoolbag and left the room, almost getting hit in the face with the door as Ron walked back into the room. Neville stumbled back, but Ron caught his arm and kept Neville on his feet.

"Sorry, Nev!" Ron called as he let go of Neville's arm and continued to walk into the room.

"It's fine," Neville responded, waiting for Ron to be completely out of the way of the door before he walked forward again and left the room.

"Mornin' Ron," Harry said as Snuffles watched Harry pack his supplies into his schoolbag.

"Mornin' Harry," responded Ron, flopping back down on his bed with a large sigh before rolling over and bending down to grab his bag from where it had been shoved partially under his bed.

"Are you going to take Snuffles down to breakfast with us?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, I figure the sooner people see Snuffles, the sooner they'll get over it and find something else to talk about. Also, I'd rather not have to have Snuffles cooped up in our room for the entire time we're here," Harry said as he threw his bag over his shoulder and patted his leg, silently calling Snuffles to his side.

"Good idea, mate," Ron said, tossing his own bag over his shoulder. "Ready to head down to breakfast? I'm starving."

"Yup! Let's go," Harry said as he walked towards the door with both Ron and Snuffles following behind him.

When they made it down the stairs, they saw that Hermione was waiting for them on one of the couches.

"Good morning, Harry, Ron!" Hermione greeted as she stood up and walked towards them. "And good morning, Snuffles."

"Mornin', 'Mione," Harry said as Ron nodded at her with a tired smile. Snuffles responded with a short bark that drew the attention from the other students who were still lingering in the Common Room. Some were visibly startled at the sight of Snuffles, but there were no cries of outrage at Snuffles' presence, so Harry counted that as a good thing.

"Ah, good morning everyone," Harry said, addressing the room. He wanted to try to stop any potential disasters (and some of the rumors that he knew would be likely to spring up) by giving people information about Snuffles straight from him. Once he had everyone's attention, he continued speaking. "This here is my dog Snuffles. I've got permission from Professor McGonagall to have him here. He's well behaved, but please ask me before you pet him, if you feel the need to, that is."

The other students in the room generally accepted what had Harry said. A few looked a bit unhappy with the situation, but they didn't really say anything aside from a few soft-spoken, unintelligible grumbles.

As Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Snuffles walked towards the portrait opening to leave the room, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan caught up with them.

"Huh, I thought you guys were joking," Lee said to Fred and George as he nodded a greeting to the three third years and the dog.

"We told you Harry has a man-eating dog!" One of the twins said with a large smile.

"Ha ha," Harry said without any emotion. "Very funny, Fred."

Fred just smiled wider at Harry and looped an arm around Harry's shoulders. Harry made a face at that and ducked under Fred's arm, so George came up and ruffled Harry's hair. Fred and George laughed as Harry pulled away from George's hand with an annoyed look on his face. The annoyed look quickly fell away to amusement once Harry was out of the reach of the twins.

"So," Ron said. "Are we going to go down to eat breakfast or what?"

Laughing at Ron's question, they all left the Common Room. As the group of seven made their way through the corridors towards the Great Hall, Hermione fell into step next to Harry.

After a moment, Hermione asked, "How do you always know who is who?"

"What?" Harry asked.

"The twins, Harry. By the time I think I have them figured out – who's Fred and who's George – They go and confuse me once again. You seem to have a knack for telling them apart. So… what's you're secret? How do you know?" Hermione questioned.

"Dunno. I just do," responded Harry unhelpfully, grinning at Hermione.

"Really, Harry…'" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I've got to have some secrets," Harry said.

"One of these days, Harry," Hermione sighed. "One of these days…"

Once they made it into the Great Hall, Fred, George, and Lee made a beeline towards where Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were sitting while Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Snuffles meandered towards the open spaces near the middle of the Gryffindor table. Ron and Hermione sat on either side of Harry with Snuffles ducking under the table to rest his head on Harry's right knee.

Harry went for the sausage links as Ron began spooning scrambled eggs on his plate and Hermione poured herself a glass of orange juice. Of the six sausage links that Harry grabbed, four were immediately passed down to Snuffles. Harry grabbed some hash browns as Hermione was buttering some toast and Ron was swapping the serving dish of scrambled eggs for the large plate of sausage links. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione dished out and then ate their breakfast, all three of them were passing down bits and pieces of their meal down to Snuffles who would move back and forth between them, taking turns resting his head against one of them and whining softly for more food.

"Oh! Harry, you missed Dumbledore's speech last night," Hermione said after she finished a bite of her eggs.

"Yeah? Did he say anything interesting?" Harry asked, passing a few slices of bacon off to Snuffles.

"He said some stuff about the Dementors," Ron chimed in around a mouthful of food.

"Thank you, Ron. That was very informative," Harry said sarcastically. In response, Ron smiled with his cheeks stuffed full of food. Harry gave Ron an exaggerated roll of his eyes.

"The guards of Azkaban, the Dementors, will be patrolling around the grounds, so Professor Dumbledore warned us all against trying to go up to them or to try to get passed them. He said that a Dementor will not distinguish between friend and foe," Hermione stated. "He also gave a very specific warning that I think was intended for us, or well, maybe just for you, Harry. He said that an invisibility cloak will not fool a Dementor's gaze."

"It's funny how everyone just assumes that I'll get into trouble, or go searching it out under my invisibility cloak," Harry mused, pausing to take a sip of pumpkin juice.

"Well, to be fair, mate, you have gone out looking for trouble under that invisibility cloak of yours," Ron said and continued to talk over Harry's spluttered protests. "And while you may not have actually gone out with the intention of looking for trouble, you've gotten into some fairly troublesome and life-threatening situations. So, yeah, I can see why Dumbledore called out that warning about Dementors and invisibility cloaks."

"Oh! Here comes Professor McGonagall with our schedules," Hermione interjected excitedly, looking towards where the professors were usually seated at the high table. And, indeed, Professor McGonagall was making her way down the Gryffindor table, pausing to hand out the students' class schedules.

"I can't wait to learn about Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. And I'm also very interested in how Muggle Studies will be taught," Hermione rambled. "With how some witches and wizards view Muggles, I'm sure that –"

"Hold on. I thought you were taking Divination and Care of Magical Creatures with us?" Harry interrupted.

"Oh, I am," Hermione said as Professor McGonagall finally reached them and handed them their schedules before continuing on down the table.

"Woah, I think there's something wrong with your schedule, Hermione," Ron said as he leaned forward and glanced over Harry at her paper. "You're supposed to be at two or three classes at the same time in some cases. Let's get McGonagall back over here. She'll sort it out."

"No! Don't," Hermione said shortly. "It's fine."

"Fine," Ron repeated skeptically.

"Yes, I've got it figured out. Don't worry about it," Hermione responded.

"'Don't worry about it'," Ron mimicked in a falsetto voice before lowering his voice to his usual tone and skeptically saying, "How did ya figure that out?"

Ignoring Ron, Hermione turned to Harry and said, "Did you know that Hagrid is now going to be our new Care of Magical Creatures professor?"

"Well, I guess that explains the book," Harry said, scratching Snuffles behind his ear after he rejected the latest sausage link that Harry attempted to offer him. "Who else would assign a book that would rather bite you than let you read it? I'd been wondering why he sent me that book for my birthday."

"I still haven't figured out how to open it. And the poor employee at Flourish & Blotts who had to help me get the Monster Book of Monsters had no clue how to either. His hands were all wrapped up and he looked physically pained when I said I needed a copy of it," Hermione said.

After Harry finished his last bite of hash browns, he said, "I'm going to take Snuffles back up to the Common Room. Snuffles is acting more like his usual self this morning, but he was really shaken up by the incident on the train yesterday so I think that some more rest for him this morning while I'm stuck in classes would probably work wonders; then maybe I'll go talk to Hagrid after classes are done for the day and see if he'd be willing to let Snuffles hang out around his cabin during the day, or kinda keep an eye on him if I let him roam around the grounds since I can't take him to my classes with me. Also, I think he'd get really bored of just sitting in the hall and waiting outside of whatever class I'd be in at the time."

"Want us to wait for you here, Harry?" Ron asked, dishing out another serving of scrambled eggs on his plate.

"No, you guys can go ahead and go to class after you've finished eating if you want to," Harry said, hunching down to look at Snuffles who was still under the table. "Ready to go?"

Snuffles 'woofed' his confirmation lightly. The sound of all the students talking covered the sound of Snuffles' soft woof, so no one looked over at them when Snuffles barked.

"Actually, I'm done as well, so I think I might head to the classroom right now. I'll see you both at Divination in a few minutes," Hermione said as she fiddled with the chain of the necklace that she was wearing before putting her schedule in her school bag and standing up.

Harry also got up and let Snuffles hop over the bench to land on the floor next to Harry. With everyone busy still eating, no one really noticed the reappearance of Snuffles.

Harry and Hermione left the Great Hall together with Snuffles, but then Hermione branched off to go to the North Tower where the Divination classroom is located. Snuffles and Harry walked back to Gryffindor Tower by themselves.

...

After Harry left Snuffles in the room on his bed, with permission to explore the Common Room if he wanted to, but not to leave Gryffindor Tower, Harry wandered towards where he thought the Divination classroom in the North Tower was located.

Harry happened to run across Ron on his way to their first class, but unfortunately, neither he nor Ron knew exactly where the Divination classroom was at, apart from it being somewhere in the North Tower. Luckily, or rather unluckily, they managed to catch the attention of a mad knight in a painting who, after trying to challenge them to a duel, offered to help lead them on a 'quest' to the Divination classroom. Although Sir Cadogan led them to the classroom, Harry and Ron had to spend the entire 'quest to the classroom' listening to Sir Cadogan's mad rantings and ravings about quests, duels, and knighthoods.

Harry and Ron finally made it to where the other students who'd be taking the class with them were congregated. Spotting the boys, Hermione walked over to them, and when Ron and Harry asked where the classroom was, Hermione pointed up. On the ceiling, there was a trap door with the words 'Prof. Trelawney: Divination Classroom'.

"So, how do we get up there?" Harry asked, and as if that was the cue, the trapdoor opened and a ladder unfurled from it. When no one made a move towards the ladder, Harry walked up to it saying, "Right then, I guess I'll go first," and then he started climbing upwards.

Following behind him was Ron, then Hermione, and then the rest of his classmates. Upon entering the room, Harry waved his hand back and forth in front of his face as he was overwhelmed by the amount of incense (and the smoke from the burning incense) that was hanging as a heavy fog in the air.

While Trelawney was making her dramatic entrance and equally dramatic introductory speech about the subject of Divination, complete with predicting that Neville would soon break a teacup (and he did), Harry couldn't help but wonder about how Snuffles was doing all by himself back in Gryffindor Tower.

'I hope he's doing okay. I mean, I know he was fine on his own before I found him,' Harry thought before slightly tilting his head to the side, looking at Professor Trelawney but not really listening to her as he considered what he knew about Snuffles. 'Or well, maybe he wasn't entirely fine on his own since he was a starving stray when I stumbled across him. But we haven't really been separated since I found him and he found me. So, I hope he's not getting too lonely… or getting into too much trouble. Although after the Dementor on the train, he hasn't been as…lively? Is lively the word I'm searching for? Well, he isn't as lively as he was when we were staying at the Leaky Cauldron. Hopefully, with time, he'll put the chill of that creature behind him. And I hope I can do the same.'

Harry started to pay attention to Trelawney again just in time to hear her instructions about tea leaf readings. So, after he poured the hot water and stirred the loose-leaf tea in his cup for a minute or two, he drank it down to the dregs, slightly scalding his tongue, and switched his cup with Ron.

Harry opened his copy of Unfogging the Future and stared dubiously into the cup before referencing the pages of his book.

"Alright, it looks like you've got a tilted cross, and that means…" Harry trailed off to find the correct image and then read the definition of it directly from his book. "…That you're going to have some 'trials of suffering'. And this sun you've got is for… 'great happiness'," Harry said before he looked across the table at Ron. "So you're gonna suffer, but you're going to be very happy about it."

"Great," Ron drawled sarcastically. "I think that you might need to get your Inner Eye checked."

Harry scrunched up his nose as he made a face at Ron. Ron responded by making a face back at Harry.

"Now let's see here," Ron turned his attention to Harry's tea cup and his own book. "This blob looks a bit like a bowler hat, so maybe you'll end up working at the Ministry of Magic," Ron joked before becoming slightly more serious. "But if it's flipped upside down, it kinda looks like an acorn and that's… 'a windfall, unexpected gold'. Nice! You can lend me some. And this thing here," Ron squinted at the cup. "Well, it looks like some type of animal. A hippo maybe? Or a sheep?"

"And you say that I need my Inner Eye checked," Harry said amused.

Suddenly Professor Trelawney was swooping over to their table like an overgrown bird and snatched Harry's cup from Ron's hands, saying, "Let me see that, my dear."

"Ah, the falcon," Trelawney said after a moment of staring intently into Harry's cup. "You have a deadly enemy."

"Everyone knows that," Hermione scoffed. Harry and Ron turned their gazes towards her.

"Well, they do," Hermione defended. "Everyone knows about Harry and You-Know-Who."

Professor Trelawney continued on as if she hadn't heard Hermione speak up.

"The club signifies an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup. And this here is the skull," Trelawney turned to gaze woefully at Harry. "Danger is in your path, my dear."

"Danger always seems to be in my path… along with trouble," Harry muttered quietly. "I don't need tea leaves to tell me that."

Hermione smiled a little at Harry's comment, but soon their attention was back on Professor Trelawney who shrieked as she practically threw the cup away from her.

"What?" Harry questioned, not entirely sure if he actually wanted to hear whatever doom-and-gloom thing she was predictably going to say.

"My poor boy, it is… No… it's kinder not to say it," Trelawney stuttered out dramatically. "I shouldn't… No, don't ask me to tell you."

'If you don't want to say it, then why put on the big show?' Harry thought. 'You're pretty much begging someone, like me, to ask about whatever it is that you saw in my cup.'

Rather than Harry, or even Ron or Hermione, asking about whatever it was in Harry's cup that had Professor Trelawney all flustered about, Dean spoke up, since Trelawney's actions had caught the attention of the entire room.

"What is it, Professor?" Dean asked. The rest of the students remained silent as they watched the dramatic scene between Harry and Professor Trelawney unfold.

"My dear," Trelawney addressed Harry ominously. "You have the Grim."

'Oh no, not this Grim thing again,' Harry thought. 'It's like the thing in Diagon Alley with Snuffles all over again. Hey! Maybe I should've brought Snuffles to this class with me. That would've been a laugh since Trelawney's acting like this over tea leaves. I wonder how she would react if she saw Snuffles?'

Seeing that Harry appeared unaffected by her dramatic telling, Professor Trelawney cried out, "The Grim, my dear! The Grim! It is an omen, the worst kind of omen! It is the omen of death!"

'I already know that! I read all about Grims this summer since almost everyone seems to be under the impression that Snuffles is a Grim.'

"Or maybe, it's an omen that Snuffles is going to cause some kind of trouble for me," Harry muttered mutinously under his breath causing Hermione to roll her eyes. Ron, who had looked worried as Trelawney was speaking, started laughing only to cover it up by pretending he was having a coughing fit.

Trelawney didn't even seem to notice that Harry wasn't taking her warning seriously since just about every other student in the room, with the exception of Ron and Hermione, was looking at Harry as if he was going to drop dead right then and there.

Needless to say, Harry couldn't wait for this class to end.

...

While Harry was in Divination and all of the rest of the students in Gryffindor were at one class or another, since it was the first class period of the day, Snuffles decided to put his unsupervised time to good use.

After Harry left Snuffles in the dorm room, Snuffles waited a few minutes on Harry's bed, just to make sure that none of the other third year Gryffindor boys would be coming back into the room, before leaping off of the bed to start his investigation the room by sniffing around.

Literally. Sniffing.

Snuffles was just thankful that the boys in Harry's year were mostly hygienic because his investigation around the room could've been worse. At least he wasn't having to smell things he'd rather not have to smell. Just thinking about some of the things that he used to leave around his old room when he was Harry's age made Snuffles shudder in disgust.

Starting over in Ron's area, Snuffles thoroughly scanned and sniffed around Ron's bed, then his trunk, then his dresser, and then his desk. The rat's scent was strongest on Ron's bed, which was making Snuffles more enraged than he already was.

That rat was staying with the kid, with Harry's best friend, and that bastard had the gall to actually sleep in the same bed as a thirteen year old. And Snuffles had no doubt that it had been going on for a lot longer than just last night. Which made it infinitely worse.

'If that rat bastard has ever, EVER, touched the kid in any inappropriate way, he'll be begging for death by the time I'm through with him.'

Just to be safe, Snuffles wandered around to the other boys' areas, sniffing for the rat's scent. And, upon finding nothing, Snuffles returned to the area between Ron and Harry's beds.

'To think that that rat has been so close to Harry all the time he's been here at Hogwarts just sends chills racing down my spine. Merlin, the what-if's alone – what that bastard could've done to Harry and no one would've known what was going on, what had happened, until it would've be too late. I will not leave Harry, not while that rat is still free.'

Once Snuffles had confirmed that the rat appeared to just stay with Ron and wasn't in the room at this time, Snuffles padded over to the door and abruptly stopped and sighed, staring at the door. The firmly shut door.

'Great,' Snuffles thought as he glared at the door, willing it to open. 'That's just fan-freaking-tastic. Gee, thanks, Harry, I thought you said I could go explore the Common Room, but how am I supposed to do that when you've shut the door.'

Taking a moment to be paranoid and glance around the room to make sure that no one, living person, ghost, or portrait, was in sight, Snuffles transformed.

Snuffles was gone and in his place stood Sirius Black.

The shift from dog to person, especially after long periods of time as a dog, was always disorienting for a moment or two as his senses adjusted. Sirius rubbed a hand over his face before running it through his hair. He paused. His hair was a lot longer than he thought it was.

"I need a haircut," Sirius hoarsely murmured, shaking out his hair and gazing mournfully at a section of his lanky locks before clearing his throat. "Actually, I need to find a rat first."

Sirius pulled the door open a bit and quickly turned back into Snuffles. Using his nose to further open the door, Snuffles walked out of the room and over to the staircase, leaving the door partially opened behind him.

Making his way down the stairs, Snuffles decided to check around the Common Room for the rat just in case Harry's friend decided not to take it with him to his classes. Before he entered the Common Room, Snuffles abruptly stopped in the shadows of the stairwell, just out of sight of the Common Room. After a few moments of hearing nothing, Snuffles figured that there were no Gryffindor students left in the Tower. All of them were probably in their first period class.

Knowing that he'd have to be careful and continue to act like the dog he was pretending to be for the benefit of the gossip-loving figures in the portraits that decorated the room, Snuffles slowly wandered around the Common Room. Sniffing around a few areas before flopping down in front of the fireplace to use his hind paw to scratch behind his ear, Snuffles discretely looked around the room. Seeing that most of the people in the portraits were not watching him, not paying any attention to him at all, really, Snuffles continued with his investigation of the Common Room.

The only thing that Snuffles found were a few Cauldron Cake wrappers under one of the armchairs, and Snuffles was sure it was only a matter of time before one of the house elves found the mess and cleaned it up.

'Although the rat wasn't in the Common Room or in Harry's room, that doesn't mean that he's not somewhere else in this tower. Or that he doesn't have other hiding places somewhere else in the castle,' Snuffles thought as he padded back over to the stairs leading to the boys' rooms.

Snuffles decided to snoop around the other Weasleys' rooms, but, unfortunately, Snuffles didn't know what year the other boys were in. So, he'd have to check out all of the rooms. Just in case.

Snuffles took to the stairs and made his first stop at the first year boys' room. Once again running into the obstacle of a closed door, Snuffles was thankful that the portraits were only hung in the Common Room. Snuffles turned into Sirius for a brief moment, just long enough for Sirius to reach out and open the door a bit, before Sirius was once again Snuffles.

Nosing his way into through the door, Snuffles quickly searched around the room and, upon finding nothing related to the rat, Snuffles left the room; transforming back into Sirius long enough to close the door.

Snuffles did the same thing for the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh year boys' rooms. He'd approach the room, survey his surroundings, transform into Sirius to open the door, transform back into Snuffles to check out the room, and then briefly transform back into Sirius to close the door behind him.

Since Snuffles found no trace of the rat in any of the other boys' rooms in Gryffindor Tower, he would have to continue his search with the girls' rooms. Snuffles was pretty sure that the youngest Weasley, the girl, was a first or second year, but he wasn't entirely sure. So, just like he did for the boys' side, Snuffles decided to check all of the girls' rooms, even though he knew there was little to no chance that he'd find anything related to the rat on the girls' side. He had to be sure.

Although the stairs to the girls' rooms wouldn't allow any boy to pass, Snuffles already knew a way for him to get around that particular problem.

Back when he was a student at Hogwarts, he and James (well, it was more James than him), needed to figure out how to get up to the Gryffindor girls' rooms. It had taken a lot of trial and error (and earned many disapproving looks from Remus when he found out what they were trying to do), but in their seventh year, they succeeded.

The whole plot to get up the 'forbidden staircase', as Sirius and his friends called it after a run in (or rather, a run up) had ended in a loud sliding disaster, started when James decided to do something special for his girlfriend.

James had made a plan to create a romantic date for Lily and himself for Valentine's Day. Since they had just started dating that year, James wanted to do something memorable; so he decided to make a scavenger hunt of sorts that would lead Lily around the castle, taking her to places that meant something to the both of them (such as where they shared their first kiss, the corridor where Lily actually pranked James – much to his shock at the time, their favorite study table in the library, and other places that had special meaning). The hunt would end with a picnic by the lake where James would have charmed the area to be warm and dry.

But James' elaborate plan started with giving Lily the first clue to the hunt, and since this Valentine's Day was meant for just the two of them, he didn't want to obviously involve anyone else. James wanted to personally give Lily the first clue, but that wouldn't work because he needed to be waiting for her at the picnic spot by the lake. Also, he was afraid that she'd make him 'spill the beans' and tell her all about the hunt if he actually gave her the first clue in person.

So, the solution James that came up with was to put the first clue somewhere where only Lily would be able to get her hands on it and somewhere where she would find it relatively early in the day.

After having been rebuffed by Alice, one of Lily's roommates, when they asked for help with the set up ("Really Sirius?! Did you have to ask her like that? Now she thinks we're 'up to something'!" "… We kinda are, Prongs." "Yeah, but not like that, Padfoot. We aren't looking to prank the girls in their own room."), James enlisted Sirius' help ("You ruined my chance to get help from Alice or any of the other girls since, because of you, Alice warned them away, so now you're going to help me get up there. And no! You don't have a choice.").

They considered getting help from the other two Marauders, but, because it involved sneaking into the seventh year girls' room, they decided to keep what they were doing, or trying to do, a secret. Even though their intentions were good, they'd rather not put Remus in a position where he'd have to choose between them and his duty as a Gryffindor prefect (at least in this specific instance). As for Peter, well, he couldn't keep a secret to save his life. James didn't want risk Peter ruining the surprise he had planned for Lily.

So, after having multiple failures with trying to go up the stairs (and having the girls of Gryffindor get progressively more and more annoyed with every attempt they made, since an alarm sounded and the stairs turned into a slide), James had an epiphany one night about a four days before Valentine's Day.

One moment he had been pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace in the Common Room, aggressively running his hands through his hair as he was desperately trying to think of a solution, then he stopped moving as he stared at something across the room. All of a sudden, he started practically dancing around the room, obviously excited about something but unwilling to tell anyone what it was. Later, James approached Sirius with his major breakthrough and together they made a plan to try out James' latest idea.

The next morning, James and Sirius skipped Binns' boring history class to try out James' idea. And since this idea he had involved a major secret, Sirius and James cleared out the Common Room of any remaining students by declaring that anyone left in Gryffindor Tower would be their next pranking target. Then they obscured the sights of the portraits in the room by creating an opaque shield around them and the girls' stairwell. The figures in the portraits huffed and complained about the shield, but other than that, did nothing to stop the boys.

The night before, James had realized that one of the fourth year girls had a cat, a male cat, which came and went as it pleased. Sometimes the cat came down to the Common Room with the girl just to turn around and go back up the stairs to the girl's room all by itself.

And if a male cat could go up and down the girls' stairs whenever it wanted to, well, what was to stop a male dog from doing the same?

Since James' animagus form was too big to fit up the stairs, Sirius had to be the one to transform and test out the idea. So, after making sure that no one could see them, Sirius transformed into a dog and cautiously placed a paw on the first step of the staircase. When nothing happened, Sirius placed another paw on the second step before deciding to just go for it and leapt up onto the stairs.

James had let out a loud cheer when the stairs did nothing and there was no alarm sounding. Sirius continued to climb all the way up to the top of the stairs before racing back down to briefly celebrate their victory over the girls' stairs.

On Valentine's Day, after all of the seventh year girls went down to breakfast, Sirius snuck up the stairs in his dog form under a disillusionment charm to scatter rose petals around Lily's things and place James' handwritten clue in the middle of her bed.

Remus played his part in James' Valentine's Day scheme during breakfast by asking Lily if he could borrow her notes from Potions class for a moment, just to make sure he copied something down correctly. Immediately after she finished her breakfast, Lily ran up to her room to get her notes and found the rose petals as well as James' first clue. Forgetting all about grabbing her notes for Remus, Lily smiled brightly as she began to figure out where the first clue was going to lead her.

The next Hogsmeade weekend, James bought Sirius and Remus a few rounds of Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks as a thanks for their help in making his and Lily's first Valentine's Day together a great success.

Realizing that he had gotten lost in a memory from his Hogwarts days, Snuffles shook himself and walked over to the girls' stairwell. Snuffles went up the stairs and systematically made a quick check of all of the girls' rooms, first year through seventh year.

Finding nothing, as he suspected he would, Snuffles retreated down the girls' stairs, back up the boys' stairs, and went into the third year boys' room, shutting the door behind him with a press of his forepaws. Snuffles jumped up on Harry's bed and laid down with his head on his front paws.

'I had my chance to get the rat at the Leaky Cauldron and on the train, but I didn't want to appear as if I was attacking Harry's friend and that rat probably would've managed to scurry away in the confusion,' Snuffles thought. 'That wouldn't've won me any points and I probably would've been taken away from Harry, which is the last thing I want to happen. I have to be near him to protect him from that rat. But, at least I still have the element of surprise… I hope.'

Snuffles knew he'd eventually come up with a good plan to capture that rat. At first, he just wanted to kill the rat, but now that he's thinking more clearly thanks to Harry's care, Snuffles realized that it's likely he would've had to stay on the run from the Ministry if he went through with killing the rat. And the longer he stayed with Harry, the more he realized that he needed to be here with Harry to keep him safe from more than just the threat of that traitorous rat.

But first, Snuffles needed to prove to himself that he could keep Harry safe from harm by protecting Harry from that rat bastard. And to do that, he needed to catch that rat.

'It shouldn't be too hard,' Snuffles thought as he closed his eyes, deciding to take a nap before Harry returned. 'After all, I have some experience with making detailed plans for capturing people. Although it was usually James, Remus… and I making plans to catch someone in a prank. But I'll catch him, Harry. And then you'll be safe.'

...

Once Divination finally ended, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked down from the North Tower and towards the Transfiguration classroom. Harry purposefully ignored the heated whispers of his fellow classmates as the group of students made their way through the corridors.

"I'm sure Trelawney just misread your cup or something like that," Ron said to Harry, trying to be reassuring as Hermione fell back behind them a few paces. "Or she just wanted to make a memorable first impression."

"Yeah... I probably won't just drop dead all of a sudden, but it's still a bit alarming to be told that I have a death omen hanging over my head," Harry responded.

"I mean if something happens, it'll happen. But I doubt anything really bad will happen," Ron paused, squinting slightly and tilting his head to the side, considering something. "Although, with the way our first and second year turned out for you, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you, well, if we got into some kind of trouble before the end of the school year."

Harry gave Ron an offended look, saying, "It's not like I go looking for trouble."

"Of course you don't, but that doesn't stop trouble from finding you, mate. Right, Hermione?" Ron asked, turning back towards where Hermione had fallen behind a few steps, only to find that Hermione wasn't behind them anymore. Both Ron and Harry stopped walking.

"Hermione?" Ron called out before looking over at Harry. "She was just right there, wasn't she?"

"Yeah," Harry said, looking around at the rest of the third years from his Divination class who were continuing down the hallway towards Transfiguration. "She was right behind us not even a minute ago."

"Where do you think she disappeared to?" Ron asked.

"I dunno. But I'm sure she wouldn't miss Transfiguration. Maybe she left something behind in the Divination classroom and ran back for it?" Harry suggested.

"Yeah," Ron agreed as the both began walking towards their next class once again. "That makes sense. I guess we'll just meet up with her in the classroom in a little bit."

After a moment of walking in silence, Ron spoke up again.

"So… If you do happen to just, oh, I don't know, suddenly drop dead in Transfiguration," Ron said with a teasing glint in his eyes. "I can have your broom, right? It'd be such a waste, leaving a perfectly good Nimbus 2000 to just collect dust."

Harry quickly punched Ron in the shoulder.

"Ha. Ha," Harry deadpanned. "Just for that, I think I might demand to be buried with it."

Rolling his eyes, Ron rubbed his shoulder at the spot where Harry had hit him.

"Bloody hell, Harry. That hurt…" Ron moved his hand from rubbing his shoulder to press it against his chest. "Right here," Ron said, his tone taking on a weepy quality. "To know that you would sentence a broom like that to an early grave."

"Well, then I suppose you'd best write up a fitting eulogy for it… and for me," Harry responded, his lips twitching as he fought back a smile at Ron's antics.

"Buried alive! How could you do such a thing to such a fine broom?!" Ron wailed before a snort of laughter escaped him and he turned to grin at Harry.

"Come on, you loon," Harry said, shaking his head in resigned amusement and starting to walk a bit faster. "We're going to be late and I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have Professor McGonagall turn me into a pocket watch so that 'one of us might be on time'."

"Blimey," Ron said, picking up his pace to catch up with Harry. "You still remember her threat from that time in first year when we were late to her class."

"Obviously you remember it too," Harry retorted.

"Well, yeah! It was a bit scary at the time, ya know," Ron shuttered. "Very effective. And memorable."

"I think that was her intention," Harry said as they approached the classroom door. "And she's had years of practice to get it right."

"True," Ron agreed.

Harry walked through the door first, closely followed by Ron, only to abruptly stop, causing Ron to run into Harry's back.

"Oi!" Ron quietly exclaimed. "Warn a guy before you just stop like that."

"Hermione's here," Harry said, walking over to the row of desks that Hermione was sitting at and sliding in next to her.

Ron followed along and slid in beside Harry. As Harry was grabbing his Transfiguration textbook out of his bag, Ron leaned over him and cleared his throat emphatically. Hermione turned away from the section of her textbook that she was reviewing to look over at Ron.

"What is it, Ron?" Hermione asked.

"You were just walking with us from Divination. How did you get here before us?" Ron asked as Harry also turned to look at Hermione.

Hermione sighed and said, "You two were talking to each other so I just continued on ahead. I guess you didn't notice."

"Oh," Ron said sheepishly.

Hermione gave Ron and Harry a pointed look before turning back to look at her book.

"Have either of you read the first chapter of the text for Transfiguration yet?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, no. I haven't," Ron responded, sounding unconcerned.

"Ron! Really…" Hermione sighed.

"Hey! She hasn't assigned us to read anything yet, so I wasn't about to read a section of boring text if I didn't have to," Ron said, reaching around inside of his schoolbag for his Transfiguration book. "I mean, I finished the essay she assigned for us to do over the summer, but that's all I did."

When Hermione turned her expectant gaze on him, Harry said, "I kind of did – read, that is. And I finished my essay as well because, you know, I was stuck in Diagon Alley for a while, yeah? And after I got my books, I read through them a bit. So I may not remember all the details, but I think I got the gist of some of the stuff."

Hermione proudly smiled at Harry and opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it and faced forward as Professor McGonagall shut the classroom door and entered the room.

"Good morning class. Now, before we begin with any new material, we'll go over a brief review of what you learned in here last year. If you would all hand in the essays, I assigned at the end of last term, then we will get started," Professor McGonagall said as she stood in front of her desk at the front of the classroom.

Unfortunately, while Professor McGonagall was collecting everyone's essays, most of the students who came from Divination, like Lavender and Parvati, were whispering to each other and continually shooting glances at Harry.

"Silence, please, or I will begin to take house points," Professor McGonagall threatened once she had gathered all of their essays in a neat pile on her desk.

Those who had been whispering had quieted down, but Harry could feel the hair on the back of his neck prickling and knew that some of his fellow classmates were still staring at him.

"Now, who can tell me three fundamental rules to keep in mind when transfiguring an inanimate object, such as a button, to something animate, like a beetle," Professor McGonagall asked, glancing around the room.

Hermione immediately raised her hand, but most of the other students were visibly distracted. Rather than calling on Hermione, McGonagall looked around the room and noticed that Harry seemed to be at the center of most of her students' attention.

"I can tell that, for some reason, you all seem a bit preoccupied," said Professor McGonagall. "What's keeping most of my students from focusing on today's lesson? Hmm?"

Hermione slowly lowered her hand back down to the desk.

After a moment or two of awkward silence, Dean spoke up, saying, "We've just come from Divination, Professor. And, well…" Dean trailed off, looking meaningfully at Harry.

"Ahh… So, whose death has been predicted?" asked Professor McGonagall, sounding somewhat amused.

Slowly, Harry raised a slightly shaky hand. He hadn't been expecting Professor McGonagall to know about the prediction. It was bad enough that he'd just had to endure a class period of his classmates giving him looks that alternated between pity and worry after Trelawney announced his imminent death to the entire class. Harry had hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with this in Transfiguration, but it looked like Trelawney's prediction was determined to follow him. Hearing that he had a death omen hanging over his head was alarming, having it follow him to his next class was even more so. Especially since Professor McGonagall was bringing it up and seemed so causal about it.

"Every year without fail, Professor Trelawney will introduce her third-year class to the subject of Divination by 'predicting' the death of one student in her class. So far, none of her predictions have come true," Professor McGonagall reassured the class. "So, Mr. Potter, you'll have to forgive me when I say that I'll expect you to continue to turn in all of your classwork despite this 'prediction'. However, if Professor Trelawney is proved correct with her prediction, then rest assured, you won't have to turn in any work for my class."

Upon hearing Professor McGonagall say that Trelawney's prediction of his death was most likely false, Harry felt the tension of drain out of his body. He hadn't been aware that he was already so stressed over that prediction until he realized that his upper back felt a bit sore after he let his shoulders relax from their previously tense position.

"Now, Ms. Granger, I believe you raised your hand when I asked about the three fundamental rules of inanimate to animate transfiguration. Would you care to recite the first rule for the class?" Professor McGonagall asked, returning her focus to teaching transfiguration.

"Of course, Professor!" Hermione said enthusiastically. "The first fundamental rule of inanimate to animate transfiguration is that one must have…"

...

Snuffles yelped as he was startled out of his sleep by the bed suddenly moving. Harry had plopped down on the mattress right next to Snuffles.

"Did you have a good nap, Snuffles?" Harry asked as he rubbed at the fur on Snuffles' head.

Snuffles 'woofed' and moved to nuzzle his nose into Harry's stomach.

"I'll take that as a yes," Harry laughed. "So, rather than keeping you cooped up in this room while I'm in my next class, I was think that you might enjoy stretching your legs outside a bit."

After yawning, Snuffles stood up on the bed and shook out his fur. Harry took that as his cue to stand as well and started walking towards the door.

Once Harry made it to the door, he looked over his shoulder only to see that Snuffles was still standing on his bed.

"Well, come on then," Harry called to Snuffles. "I don't want to be late for my next class."

Snuffles jumped down from the bed and happily trotted to Harry's side. The two made their way through Common Room and out of Gryffindor Tower. As they were passing by the Great Hall, they ran into Ron and Hermione who had been waiting there for Harry.

All four of them quickly walked outside and towards Hagrid's hut which was near where Hagrid was holding their Care of Magical Creatures class.

"I mean, I know what Professor McGonagall said about Trelawney just predicting a random students' death every year, but… well, I was thinking about it and you don't think that the Grim she saw in your cup would have anything to do with Sirius Black, do you?" Ron asked. "That can't be a coincidence, right?"

"Oh honestly, Ron! If you ask me, Divination is a very wooly subject," Hermione said as they continued downwards towards Hagrid's hut. "Now, Ancient Runes, that's a fascinating subject."

"Ancient Runes?" Ron asked. "Exactly how many classes are you taking this term?"

"A fair few," Hermione responded.

"Hang on," Ron stopped to look at Hermione, almost tripping over Snuffles as Snuffles and Harry kept walking. "That's not possible," Ron said as Hermione walked past him. "Ancient Runes is at the same time as Divination. You'd have to be in two classes at once."

"Don't be silly, Ronald," Hermione said. "How could anyone be in two classes at the same time?"

"I don't know," Ron said. "You tell me."

"Broaden your mind! Use your Inner Eye to see the future!" Hermione teasingly exclaimed.

"Hey, you guys go on ahead," Harry cut in. "I'll be along in a moment. I'm just going to point Snuffles in another direction and away from the class."

Ron and Hermione nodded at Harry and continued to walk to class as Harry turned and crouched down in front of Snuffles.

"Now you'll have the run of the grounds, but don't come near the class, alright? I don't want you startling whatever it is that Hagrid is probably going to show us. You might get hurt or someone else could get hurt… or you could just get yourself or me in trouble. Although I don't think Hagrid would be too harsh about it. And you should probably stick close to the castle because I'm not entirely sure where the Dementors are at. I don't think they're anywhere near here and I'll have to ask one of the professors about it later, but for now, better safe than sorry. So if you do start to feel unnaturally cold, run for the castle," Harry said as he brushed his hand over Snuffles' head. "Also, I'd rather you not go into the Forbidden Forest. There's a bunch of things in there that could eat you… like gigantic spiders. And take my word for it, you do not want to run into those spiders. If you absolutely have to go into the Forbidden Forest, then, please, for my peace of mind, just stick to the outer edges. Don't go in too far."

Snuffles nodded his head at Harry as if he was agreeing to what Harry had just said. And with what Harry has seen of Snuffles so far, he figured that Snuffles really did understand everything Harry had just said. It was a strange thing to think about – Just how did Snuffles understand English? But Harry wasn't too concerned. With magic, almost anything was possible. A dog that could understand English was a lot easier to comprehend than someone turning a desk into a pig or flying through the air on a broomstick.

Harry stood up and smiled down at Snuffles.

"I'll talk to Hagrid after class is over to see if he could keep an eye out for you if I let you wander around the grounds whenever I'm in class or just whenever you want to go outside. I'm sure you'd eventually get tired of staying inside Gryffindor Tower all the time and I'd rather not see what you could get up to when you get bored or restless," Harry said before looking over at the group of his classmates. "I have to go now, Snuffles, but I'll see you soon. Try not to get into too much trouble."

Giving Snuffles a final pat on the head, Harry walked towards his classmates. Harry paused when he has halfway to his destination, turning his head to look over his shoulder at Snuffles.

Snuffles was already trotting away from Harry and towards the lake.

Harry briefly brushed shoulders with Hermione as he squeezed in to stand between her and Neville while they waited for Hagrid to start their first Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Ron looked at him from across Hermione and it looked like he was about to say something, but, before he could get a word out, a commotion near the front of the group interrupted them.

"That's it! Gather 'round, gather 'round!" Hagrid greeted enthusiastically as he stood in front of his hut to address the group of students. "Come closer! Less talking if ya don't mind," Hagrid called out to a few chatty students near the back. "I've gotta real treat for ya today. A great lesson! So follow me!"

Harry was the first to fall into step behind Hagrid as Hagrid led the group away from his hut and into the very outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. The trees in this area were a bit sparse, so there was plenty of light from the sun shining down.

"Alright, you lot, less chattering. Form a group over there," Hagrid said, pointing to an open area off to the side of a large clearing. "And open your books to page forty-nine."

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?" Malfoy asked acidly, holding his Monster Book of Monsters off to the side of him by the belt he had cinched around it.

"Well, just stroke the spine o' course," Hagrid responded as he turned and started walking further away from the spot where he had told the student to form a group at.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stopped near the front of the area where the group forming.

While Neville was having a bit of a mishap trying to open his book, Ron and Harry stroked the spines of their own books and got them to open with a weird purring sound.

Hermione smiled at the sound her book made as she stroked the spine and opened it.

"It's an interesting way to open a book," Hermione commented, "I think they're funny."

"Oh, yeah, terribly funny," Malfoy interjected loudly from where he stood near the back of the loosely formed group. "Really witty. Merlin! This place has really gone to the dogs! Just wait until my father hears that Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes."

Crabbe and Goyle, who were standing on either side of Malfoy, laughed at what Malfoy had said.

Slowly, Harry started moving through the group towards Malfoy.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry said angrily.

Malfoy looked first at Crabbe and then at Goyle as he laughed mockingly at Harry before grabbing his messenger bag off of his shoulder and handing it over to Goyle. Goyle hadn't been expecting that and almost dropped Malfoy's bag before recovering and placing the bag on the ground beside him. Malfoy walked forward so that he was less than a foot away from Harry.

Malfoy looked confident as he stood practically toe to toe with Harry before he glanced up over Harry's shoulder and became visibly scared. Almost stumbling back away from Harry, Malfoy pointed at something behind Harry and cried out, "De… De… Dementor! Dementor!"

The entire class, including Harry, turned around to see the creature, but came up short to see that nothing was there. Harry turned back around to be faced with the sound of Malfoy and his cronies' jeering laughter.

Then Malfoy and a few of his Slytherin friends hitched their cloaks over their heads, partially covering their faces as they began waving their arms and hands towards Harry, chanting, "oooohhh, oohh, ooooohhhh!"

"Are you going to faint again, Scarhead?" Malfoy cruelly sneered as he brushed his cloak off of his head with a laugh. Taking Malfoy's lead as an example, the four other Slytherins uncovered their heads and smirked.

Ron started forward with a snarl, but was pulled back by Hermione who had grabbed the back of Ron's robes. Making a face at Malfoy, Hermione turned to see Harry looking like he was gearing up for a fight with Malfoy. Just as Harry was about to step forward and say a cutting remark, Hermione stopped him.

"They're not worth it, Harry," Hermione said quietly to Harry as she grabbed the cuff of Harry's sleeve to pull him away. "We don't want to start off Hagrid's first class with a fight. People might take it the wrong way and look at it as if Hagrid can't control his students."

All at once, the fight drained out of him and Harry stopped resisting Hermione's pull as she led him back to the front of the group of their classmates. Ron followed after the both of them, periodically turning back to shoot glares in Malfoy's direction.

"One of these days I'm gonna punch that smarmy git right in the face," Ron growled under his breath as Hermione guided them to a stop.

"Please warn me in advance so that I can be there to see it," Hermione said shortly. "I'll be the first in line to cheer you on."

Hagrid returned at that moment and purposefully cleared his throat to gather everyone's attention. He had what appeared to be a string of dead ferrets draped around his shoulders.

"Ta da!" Hagrid announced triumphantly as he presented the creature that had followed him back to the students. Now that he was looking, Harry could see that there were more of the creatures staying together in another clearing from the direction that Hagrid had come from. "Isn't he beautiful? Say hello to Buckbeak!"

The creature had wings, a beak, a tail like a horse, four legs (with claws like an eagles at the end of its two front legs and hooves like a horse at the end of its two back legs), and was covered in grey, black, and white feathers. When it cried out, it sounded similar to a loud bird call.

Hagrid tore off one of the dead ferrets that was draped on a rope across his shoulders and threw it to the creature. The creature caught it with its mouth in midair.

"Hagrid," Ron spoke out against the stunned silence of his fellow classmates. "Exactly what is that?"

"That, Ron," Hagrid spoke as he walked away from the creature and towards the students. "Is a Hippogriff! The first thing you should know about Hippogriffs is that they're very proud creatures and very easily offended. You do not want to insult a Hippogriff. It may just be the last thing that you ever do."

Buckbeak was grooming the feathers on one of its wings as Hagrid was speaking.

"Now!" Hagrid clapped his hands together once before turning to look from the students back to the Hippogriff. "Who'd like to come and say hello?"

All of the students almost fell over backwards as they rushed to put as much room between themselves and Hagrid as they could. All of the students, except for Harry, of course. Harry, who was too busy staring at the Hippogriff because it, for some odd reason, was reminding him of Hedwig with the way it was grooming its wing feathers.

"Well done, Harry! Well done!" Hagrid said happily.

Confused about what he just did, Harry looked around only to find that there was no one standing anywhere near him. Harry looked back over his shoulder to find that the rest of his classmates were standing further back by a few feet. Apparently, the entire class just served him up as a sacrifice, or should he say, a volunteer for Hagrid and the Hippogriff.

"Come on, now," Hagrid encouraged when Harry stayed still, looking at Buckbeak and standing stiffly in place, making no move to get closer to the Hippogriff.

Ron took a few steps forward to give Harry a helpful nudge in the middle of his back to get Harry to start going forward. Harry looked over his shoulder for a second to give Ron a half betrayed, half dirty look as he gave in and walked towards Hagrid and the Hippogriff.

"Now," Hagrid began once he saw that Harry was getting closer to Buckbeak. "You have to let him make the first move. It's only polite. So, step up and give him a nice bow," Hagrid demonstrated what the bow should look like. "And then you need to wait and see if he bows back."

Harry slowed down as he was drawing nearer to Buckbeak, feeling a mixture of nervousness and excitement. Although, admittedly, he was feeling more nervous than excited. It was about three parts nerves, one part excitement.

"If he bows back, you can go ahead and touch him," Hagrid continued lecturing. "If not, well… we'll get to that later."

'Thanks, Hagrid. That's entirely reassuring,' Harry sarcastically thought as he stopped in front of the large Hippogriff, leaving plenty of room between them.

"Now, make your bow," Hagrid prompted Harry from where he stood off to the side as the rest of the class watched on eagerly from behind and at a safe distance.

Harry started to bow.

"Nice and low," Hagrid encouraged as Harry bent himself over at an almost ninety-degree angle and kept his eyes on the ground.

The Hippogriff was watching Harry, tilting its head from side to side, ruffling its wings, and swishing its tail back and forth as it considered him.

Suddenly it cried out, and kept crying out as it opened its wings and flapped them threateningly.

"Back off, Harry! Back off," Hagrid exclaimed quietly as he used a hand indicate that Harry should move back.

As Harry stepped back, he stepped on a short stick. Although the stick made a soft crack as it broke, in the highly stressful situation that Harry was in, it almost sounded like a gun shot. Harry could hear the worried murmurings of his classmates.

Although extremely nervous, Harry maintained his bowed position in front of Buckbeak.

"Keep still," Hagrid said, sounding much calmer than he had a few seconds ago.

Slowly, Harry raised his eyes and tilted his head back to look at the Hippogriff.

"Keep still," Hagrid repeated.

Buckbeak pawed at the ground and screeched at Harry before making a sound that was closer to a cawing-purr. Making the cawing-purr nose again, the Hippogriff slowly bowed down before Harry.

"Oh-ho-ho!" Hagrid laughed. "Well done, Harry. Well done!"

Hagrid grabbed another dead ferret from around his neck and threw it at Buckbeak. The Hippogriff caught the ferret in midair and chomped down hard, turning and trotting a few feet away to finish eating the treat.

Harry stood up from his bow and let out a sigh of relief.

"Right. I think you can go and pet him now," Hagrid encouraged, gesturing towards the Hippogriff. "Go on! Don't be shy."

With the rest of his classmates closely watching him, Harry hesitantly approached the Hippogriff.

"Nice and slow, now," Hagrid said softly. "Nice and slow."

Harry slowly extended his right hand out towards Buckbeak and continued to walk towards the Hippogriff.

"Woah! Not so fast Harry!" Hagrid quickly said as the Hippogriff suddenly flared out its wings and shrieked at Harry. "Slow down, Harry."

Slowly, ever so slowly, Harry approached Buckbeak with his hand still raised towards the Hippogriff.

"Nice and slow," Hagrid said quietly.

When the Hippogriff snapped its beak at Harry, Harry flinched back a little and stopped moving.

"Now let him come to you," Hagrid said as Buckbeak started approaching Harry at a steady pace. "That's it."

As Hagrid kept up a continued mantra of "slowly, slowly", Harry took a few baby steps towards Buckbeak as the Hippogriff continued to come closer to Harry. The Hippogriff bent its head down so that it was on the same level as Harry's extended hand. Once Harry's hand made contact with Buckbeak's head, the Hippogriff made a noise of contentment.

Smiling at his accomplishment, Harry barely heard Hagrid clapping and saying, "Well done, Harry! That was well done!"

Most of Harry's classmates were following Hagrid's example and clapping for Harry as well.

Shocked and relieved to have not been mauled by the creature and proud of his accomplishment in petting the Hippogriff, Harry almost didn't hear what Hagrid said next. Almost.

"I think he may let you ride him now," Hagrid said, walking up to Harry and the Hippogriff.

"What?" Harry asked in disbelief and dawning horror.

"Come on, now," Hagrid said as he lifted Harry up and walked around to the side of Buckbeak.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey!" Harry protested, unable to think of what to say to get Hagrid to put him down and away from the creature that could conceivably snap him in half. "Hey, HEY, HEY! HAGRID!"

"I'll set you down over here," Hagrid said over Harry's panicked protesting. "Just below the wing joint."

Setting Harry down on the creature and causing Buckbeak give out a cawing-screech, Hagrid said, "Don't pull out any of his feathers, 'cause he won't thank you for that!"

Hagrid gave Buckbeak a firm smack to the side of the rear which caused the Hippogriff to rear up and make a loud screeching-caw. Harry had to quickly wrap his arms around Buckbeak's thick neck to avoid falling off as the creature stood up on its back legs. The Hippogriff quickly slammed down onto all fours again and charged off at a run away from Hagrid and passing the group of students. As it ran, Buckbeak's wings flared out and started to flap.

Suddenly, Harry found himself in the air on the back of a Hippogriff and couldn't help the loud, "Woah!" that escaped him as the sailed up passed the tops of the trees and away from the excited exclamations of his fellow classmates.

As they passed over Hogwarts and around the castle's tall towers, Harry summoned the courage to loosen his grip around the Hippogriff's neck. As Buckbeak dove down and took them over the lake, brushing the water with its claws, Harry sat up straight and extended both of his arms out to the side.

A bright smile lit up his face and Harry let out a loud exclamation of excitement, "Ha! Woo-hoo! Ha ha! Waa-hoo!"

When Buckbeak started flying back up and away from the lake, Harry lowered himself back down to wrap his arms around the creature's neck once again. They sailed back over towards the trees where Hagrid and his classmates were waiting.

Hearing Hagrid's whistle, Buckbeak slowly descended and eventually landed back in the clearing where they had started.

"Well done, Harry!" Hagrid exclaimed over the sound of the other students' clapping as the Hippogriff slowed it landing-run to a stop. "And well done, Buckbeak!"

Hagrid gently lifted Harry off of Buckbeak's back and set him down on the ground. Harry's knees felt a little wobbly after his time in the air, but he was able to lock his knees and stand up straight. Flying on the back of a Hippogriff was very different from flying on a broomstick.

Once Harry was sure that his feet were firmly beneath him, he walked back over to the group of his classmates, making his way towards Ron and Hermione who were smiling at him. Harry smiled back as he brushed his hands through his hair, attempting to tame his now windswept locks.

"Now, who'd like to meet some of the other Hippogriffs?" Hagrid excitedly asked the class before leading Buckbeak and the students over to the clearing where the other Hippogriffs were pacing around.

Harry walked with Ron and Hermione they all followed after Hagrid.

Hagrid repeated his instructions on how to respectfully approach Hippogriffs and encouraged the students to spread out to get closer to the creatures. As Hermione and Ron walked over to a brown and white Hippogriff, Harry hung back and decided to wander around the area while observing his fellow classmates' attempts to interact with the Hippogriffs.

Some of his classmates were rather reluctant to approach the Hippogriffs while others seemed to be really enthusiastic about it. It was somewhat entertaining to watch how some of his classmates would approach the Hippogriffs only to dance away whenever the creatures would make a noise.

Seeing that Neville was struggling to approach one of the Hippogriffs, Harry decided to wander over to him to see if he could help since Hagrid was busy talking to two other students. As he was passing by a few clusters of his classmates and Hippogriffs, Harry thought he heard a bark.

Thinking of Snuffles, and kind of worried that the dog had disregarded his advice and decided to go ahead and approach the class, Harry looked over towards where he thought he heard the bark. Instead of seeing a dog, Harry spotted Malfoy callously and arrogantly swaggering towards Buckbeak.

Like feeling the static before a lightning strike, Harry could practically taste the trouble in the air and he was pretty sure that something bad was about to happen.

Changing his course midway to Neville, Harry, despite not knowing what he was going to do, picked up his pace as he made his way towards Buckbeak and Malfoy. Harry was close enough to hear Malfoy call Buckbeak a "bloody chicken", and, remembering Hagrid's warning about not insulting Hippogriffs, Harry broke out into a run.

Malfoy looked up at an enraged and offended Buckbeak just in time to see the Hippogriff rear up on its hind legs. As Malfoy brought up his arms to protect his face from Buckbeak's oncoming swipe, Harry tackled Malfoy out of the way. Both boys landed hard on the ground with Malfoy landing on his back and groaning as Harry collapsed on top of him with a grunt.

Hagrid suddenly appeared in front of the boys and drew Buckbeak away from them with a few commanding words and a dead ferret.

By this time, almost everyone in the clearing noticed that something had happened. Hermione and Ron were already hurrying over towards Harry.

Biting back a yelp as he attempted to push himself up and off of Malfoy, Harry used his left hand to help get himself up to his feet as he gingerly cradled his right arm close to his body. Once he was back on his feet, Harry looked down at Malfoy. Malfoy had propped himself up on his elbows and was staring up at Harry with unconcealed confusion and disbelief.

"Harry! What happened? Are you alright?!" Hermione exclaimed as she and Ron made it to Harry and completely ignored Malfoy.

"I'm fine," Harry said lightly, turning to look at his concerned friends.

"Harry Potter! Your arm is bleeding! You. Are. Not. Fine!" Hermione worriedly fussed.

"It's not that bad," Harry tried to reassure Hermione and Ron even though he could feel the warm trickle of blood making its way down his arm.

"That looks pretty bad, Harry," Ron quietly said as he stood next to Harry.

Once Hagrid had calmed Buckbeak down, he looked over at Harry and Malfoy.

Malfoy had made it to his feet by himself, not looking any worse for wear, but Harry was standing between Ron and Hermione with his right arm held close to his chest. Harry's right arm had a nasty looking cut that was rapidly bleeding through a tear in Harry's sleeve.

"Alright there, Harry?" Hagrid asked, concerned.

"Hagrid, Harry really needs to go to the Hospital Wing and see Madam Pomfrey," Hermione said urgently as Hagrid walked over to them.

"It's not that bad. Buckbeak just clipped me," Harry said, not wanting to get stuck in the Hospital Wing. "Slap a bandage on it and it'll be fine."

"That's not a 'clip', Harry, he really clawed you!" Hermione disagreed.

"I agree, mate. I think Madam Pomfrey should take a look at that," Ron said, pointing from the oozing cut on Harry's arm to the ground where a puddle of blood was steadily forming. "You're leaking."

"Ron, Hermione, take Harry on up to the Hospital Wing, alright?" Hagrid said. "I have to stay down here with the rest of the class."

"We will, Hagrid," Hermione assured. "Come on, Harry."

Sighing in defeat, Harry slowly (so as to not jar his injured arm) began the long walk to the Hospital Wing as Ron and Hermione fell into step on either side of him.

As they continued to walk towards the castle, Harry realized that Malfoy hadn't said a thing since Harry had tackled him out of the way of Buckbeak's attack.

...

Snuffles continued trotting towards the lake, but once he saw that Hagrid was leading the class towards the Forbidden Forest, Snuffles decided to discreetly trail after them.

Although Snuffles knew that Harry was relatively safe in the castle where there were professors, ghosts, and paintings to keep an eye on him, out here on the grounds, there was much more of a risk. It was only Hagrid out here to keep an eye, not only on Harry, but on the other kids as well. And Hagrid had to split his attention between the kids and whatever creature he was teaching them about. It would be simple for the rat to just stun and snatch Harry whenever everyone was distracted and then run deep into the Forbidden Forest with his hostage.

Snuffles lurked safely out of sight in the background but stayed close enough to hear what was being said and close enough to keep a good watch over Harry.

When Hagrid asked if anyone would like to greet the Hippogriff, Snuffles saw that everyone except for Harry just about tripped over themselves to get away from Hagrid and the creature.

'Oh you glorious little trolls!' Snuffles thought in exasperated amusement when he saw that Harry had been 'volunteered' by his classmates to be the first to approach the Hippogriff. 'Harry, kid, you need to learn to pay better attention to your surroundings.'

His amusement quickly faded when Hagrid picked up Harry and put him on the Hippogriff. With his heart in his throat, Snuffles watched as Hagrid slapped the creature's rear and the creature took off with Harry on its back.

Upon seeing that everyone else didn't seem too worried about Harry's flight with a Hippogriff, Snuffles calmed down somewhat, but didn't completely relax until he saw that Harry and the Hippogriff landed on the ground safe and sound.

When the class moved to follow Hagrid over to the area where the other Hippogriffs were residing, so too did Snuffles. Snuffles was trying to keep his distance, but with Harry walking around, that made it hard for Snuffles to keep a close eye on him. So, Snuffles risked coming closer to the class by dodging and weaving between the trees, almost as if he was patrolling the perimeter of the area while simultaneously playing a game of hide and seek.

Snuffles happened to overhear one of the kids making derogatory remarks towards one of the Hippogriffs. Glancing away from Harry, Snuffles saw that the idiotic kid looked a lot like Lucius Malfoy.

'I think that's the Malfoy kid that Harry told me about. He's the one who tries to get Harry into trouble all the time… Well, Malfoy might be a little snot, but he doesn't exactly deserve to get trampled by a raging Hippogriff. And that's what's gonna happen if he doesn't stop with the arrogance and the name calling. For Merlin's sake, kid, you're just about as oblivious to your surroundings as Harry is! Can't you see that you're angering that animal?! Where in Merlin's name is Hagrid?! He should be handling this!'

Seeing that no one, namely Hagrid, was paying attention to the volatile situation that was about to unfold between the Malfoy kid and the angry Hippogriff, Snuffles decided to try to call attention to the situation in the only way he knew how to without exactly revealing that he was there in the first place.

Snuffles barked.

Loudly.

Unfortunately, the only head that his barking turned was the last person that he wanted to get involved in the situation.

Harry.

'Of all the times that Harry's been oblivious, he chooses NOW to be aware of his surroundings?! I swear this kid's gonna be the death of me someday,' Snuffles thought as he saw Harry turn to look in his direction.

When it became apparent that Harry was the only one to notice the situation and he started running towards Malfoy, it suddenly seemed like everything that Snuffles was seeing was passing in slow motion. Snuffles felt like he'd been frozen. He could only watch in horror as Harry tackled Malfoy out of the way only for Harry to get hurt in Malfoy's place.

'I did that.'

Harry was on the ground.

'It was my fault.'

Harry was hurt.

'If I hadn't barked…'

Harry was bleeding.

'He wouldn't've gotten hurt. I shouldn't've… I… What have I done?

…Why…

…Why can I never do anything right?!

Why do my actions always seem to hurt the ones I love?

Why did…

Why did I let…

Why did I let them get hurt?

Why did I let James…

Why did they have to… Why did they have to die?

Why did I let them die?

It's my fault.

It's all my fault.

James…

Lily…

Harry…

…

No.

No, Harry's right here.

Harry's hurt… but he's here.'

When Snuffles snapped back to himself, he realized that Harry was being led away from the area and towards the castle by his two friends.

'Harry!'

Snuffles races out from behind the trees and dashes out across the grounds, moving as fast as he could to catch up to Harry.

Once he managed to catch up, Snuffles had trouble stopping and just about brained himself on the redhead's shins, taking the kid down as Snuffles plowed over him. Snuffles laid on the ground next to the redhead, taking a few shocked seconds to regain his breath.

"Snuffles!" was called out by Harry at the same time that the girl exclaimed, "Ron!"

"Merlin, Snuffles!" Harry exclaimed as he crouched down next to Snuffles and rested his left hand on the dog's heavily panting side. "You came out of nowhere! Are you alright?"

"Gee thanks, Harry," the redhead said sarcastically as he used girl's extended hand to pull himself back to his feet. "I'm fine. It's not like I was just knocked off my feet by a bloody Grim."

"He's not a Grim," Harry automatically denied. "And I think something's wrong with him."

Almost as if to prove him wrong, Snuffles rolled over so that his paws were under him once again. Snuffles got back up as Harry stood up straight.

"Harry, if you're going to have us stop here, then at least raise your arm above your head," the girl said.

Looking confused, Harry raised his left arm above his head.

"Oh! For the love of – Your other arm, Harry!" the girl exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

Harry winced in pain as he raised his injured right arm above is head and brought his left arm down.

"Why am I doing this?" Harry questioned hesitantly.

"It should help to slow down the rate of bleeding from your injury. I read somewhere, I think it was in an article in a medical journal, that if you can, raising a bleeding cut above your heart can help slow bleeding. So, that's why I told you to raise your arm above your head since your head is most definitely at a higher level than your heart," the girl answered rapidly in one breath.

Snuffles couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Harry's injured arm.

"I'm serious, guys. I think something's wrong," Harry said concerned. "With my dog, that is, not with my cut."

"Well, you are injured, Harry," the girl said. "Maybe he's worried? I mean, he seems to be staring at your arm."

"Is that it, Snuffles?" Harry asked. "Did I worry you? Because, I'm fine, really."

Snuffles nuzzled his head gently into Harry's left side.

"We really need to get going, Harry. And since you're currently in the process of bleeding out," the girl was interrupted by Harry's protest of "I'm hardly bleeding out! It's just a simple cut!"

"I think you've lost the privilege of deciding whether or not you're fine so we are going to go to the Hospital Wing and let Madam Pomfrey have a look at you and your simple cut," the girl finished saying.

"Right," Harry resignedly sighed. "Let's get this over with."

Snuffles stayed glued to Harry's side as they all resumed walking towards the castle. When the redhead got a little too close to Harry's injured arm, Snuffles growled and bared his teeth at the boy. The boy jumped slightly and looked over at Snuffles. Harry also looked down at Snuffles and rested his left hand on Snuffles' head.

"Maybe… Maybe you two should keep your distance?" Harry suggested to his two friends as they walked through the castle's main doors and headed towards the corridor that would lead them to the Hospital Wing. "I think Snuffles is a little… anxious about me being hurt, so he's getting really protective."

"Yeah, I'd say," the redhead said. "That growl sounded very vicious."

"Ha!" Harry laughed. "You should've heard the growl he made when the Minister tried to get too close to me."

"Harry!" the girl exclaimed.

"What?" Harry said defensively.

"Honestly," the girl sighed.

Snuffles barely noticed his surroundings, barely took in what was being said by Harry and his friends, because all of his attention was on Harry.

Harry was hurt.

He had to protect Harry.

He failed.

He failed to protect Harry.

Again.

Snuffles only realized that they made it into the Hospital Wing when the redhead tried to separate him from Harry as Harry went to sit down on one of the beds.

Snapping his teeth at the boy and snarling, Snuffles quickly slipped passed the redhead and jumped onto the bed, curling himself protectively around Harry.

"… You know, Mr. Potter, I believe I already told you about my policy of no animals in my Hospital Wing," the older woman said.

Snuffles was keeping a sharp eye on her.

"Sorry, Madam Pomfrey," Harry said sheepishly, resting his left hand on Snuffles.

"You're lucky I like you, young man," the woman smiled as she pulled out her wand.

"Yes, ma'am," Harry responded.

"You're about the only one who keeps me in business here, what with all the trouble you find yourself in," the woman teased as she waved her wand over Harry's bleeding arm.

"It's not like I go looking for trouble!" Harry protested.

"I'll have you right as rain in no time, Mr. Potter," the woman assured.

"Thank you," Harry said sincerely.

Snuffles curled a little tighter around Harry, determined to keep him from further injury.

He wouldn't let Harry get hurt. Not again. Not if he could help it.

...

---

Author's Note:

When Sirius is in his animagus form, he'll be referred to as Snuffles. When he's not in his animagus form, then he'll be referred to as Sirius.

And after Snuffles had that panic attack over Harry getting hurt, he went into a kind of panicked protective mode where he viewed the people around Harry as a potential threat. So that's why, instead of saying 'Hermione', she referred to as 'the girl. Same for 'Ron' and 'redhead/boy'. And 'Madame Pomfrey' as 'the woman'. Snuffles will come back to himself again – remember, he's bound to have… let's say, episodes, where he seems a little, well, when he seems not like himself. Azkaban Prison is a nasty place, folks. It's bound to leave scars, mentally and physically. Also, Snuffles/Sirius is feeling really, really guilty.

Any mistakes, grammar or otherwise, are my own. Let me know if you see anything that you think needs to be corrected.