2: Sirius Black, the man of terror

The two girls hurried after Newt who seemed to know where he was going. "Where was the last time you saw Funky?" he asked but when no reply came he looked back, finding both of them fascinated of everything, from the walls, to the paintings, to the floor and even the moving stairs. "Oh by Merlin... Diantha... Hello?!" he asked for her attention, she quickly shook her head back to reality. "Did you ask something?" the Ginger sighed, how could his cousin cause trouble at day 1. "Where did you lost see him?" – "If I knew we were not having this situation" – "I need you to think better than that!" Thalia stressed. "I think it might have been when we left the Hogward Express.

They were seperated outside Hogwards, that caused a whole new trouble, one that Diantha clearly did not understand. "He might not even be in here" Thalia said to Newt. "There is mostly chance he is, it must have followed the smell of food, now it can be here in Hogwards... or in Hogmeade" Thalia´s eyes widened, now it was time for concern. "Where is that exactly if I may ask?" – "I rather you don´t" he said uneasy. "Newton, Where is it?" – "It is not too far from here, it is a christmas village were students often go for weekend trips, but only over the third year are allowed to go there"

Diantha got uneasy of this, how could he even be there, it was not way he was there, he clearly was in Hogwards. "I am sure he is around here, snow makes him uncomfortable, it is an persian cat, keep that in mind" Newt nodded. "My thoughts where that too, he could be in one of the library´s, most of them have a fireplace. Cats love comfy and warm places..." – "Then what are we waiting for?" Diantha said, running towards the hall. Diantha! You don´t know where it is!" – "We better hurry up before we actually end up in trouble"

She pushed open the door, proud that she found it on her own, but her eyes widened deeply and worried, giving time for her friend and her cousin to arrive at the library. "You really should listen-" Thalia tried to explain while pushing the door open, however what she was, took away any breath or words she managed to have. Before them stood their home teacher with a persian cat in his hands. Thalia and Newt had never seen the cat before but they were quite sure that it was her cat in his hands. "Dare to explain me this first year?" – "Yes sir, that is my cat, I lost him" she said, honesty could maybe save her from this.

"I thought, I gave the strict orders of taking care of your bag, did I not?" – "Yes you did sir" – "Then why are you and your colleague in the library" – "Because I had lost my cat sir" she said, for the second time. " – "You should take better care of your pets then" he gave her the cat back into her arms. "Go and unpack, I will meet you at the meeting which I will explain to all the students they go -10 points because of their new colleagues." Diantha wanted to argue with him, that is was rather unfair but at the point the harm had alreay been done, there was nothing she could do to make up his mind. "As for you Newton Scarmander, I would think twice about who you decide to help" he advised the fifth year.

After he left Thalia threw herself in the nearest chair she could find, this was a whole new definition of stress. "Seriously Diantha, day one, Day bloody one!" – "You should watch your language" Newt avised, they were eleven after all. "It is not my fault he ran away!" – "You lost him" Newt said, but it did not matter, they either way got their warning and he had Newt under his eye. "I-I should being you to your wing..." – "Newton, do not cause any more trouble for yourself, we can manage" – "I think it will cause more trouble if I leave you two to yourself to be honest"

After a few hours they finally reached their wingand unpacked their bag. Thalia kept Diantha´s pet all the time under her eye, she could not trust it, cats were not to be trusted. "Funky would appreciate if you stopped glaring at him" – "I would appreciate it if he would behave" Thalia said, leaning against the wall, not dropping her eyes from Funky. "Funky was just lost and afraid" – "Look at his eyes, there is no fear in it, only mischief and trouble!" Diantha laughed, that was her cat alright. "It should be fine, let Ophelia here and lets go to the meeting" – "I don´t want to leave my owl with your cat" Diantha frowned at her friend. "There is absolutly nothing wrong with Funky!" the other wizard sighed, nothing to do against that now. They had this ridiculous meeting where they would get a good scolding in front of their new colleagues.

They headed down with some fellow Slytherin´s to the dungeon, it was humid and dark. The stairs were slippy and they could barely see anything. "Serious a meeting in the dungeon, whose great idea was that" Diantha complained. "Well Slytherin had a snake as symbol, snakes like to crawl under the groun" Thalia explained. "That is a ridiculous comparison but you get an A for effort" – "Thank you very much"

They all took their seats in the small room of the dungeon, nervous and afraid were many, but Diantha tried to keep her head up. Slowly she tried to look at Thalia, who looked more bored and feared to be honest. "I get the feeling you truly belong here" she whispered but quickly everyone stood up when Sirius enterred. "Well, well, well, all new first years, welcome to Hogwards" he said as he walked to the center. "I suppose the main rules have been explained in the main meeting in the great hall, so lets keep this short. As you were told before, my name is Sirius Black. And I will be your Home Room Teacher for the next seven years if no Dark Wizard tries to rule the world and kills me, but most likely you will all be killed too. So let us begin" he explained the basic rules about the Hogwards ground, Curfew and school wear. "Swearing, snogging, shouting in the halls, vandalism, fighting, provoking Peeves, and releasing puffskeins in Mr. Pringle's office during mating season are strictly forbidden."

Thalia elbowed Diantha for this, making her point clearly."I do not do that" – "Do not get any ideas regaring releasing puffskeins" Diantha grinned, she bet that her cousin had most likely did that. "And as for final, this morning I had an encounter with two students, Thalia Greengrass and Diantha Scamander, if I am not mistaken" the two sighed, they had hoped he would let this go. "Due to circunstanced I rather not explain as it is wasting my time, ten points will be taken from Slytherin due to their actions" a lot of noise was made by their fellow students and Thalia felt most offended, as she had done absolutly nothing. "Here is your schedule for the first semester, and I will be seeing you in class" Sirius dismissed them.

Thalia was extremely angry about this man, he definitly used his power to torture his students, how could he not let this go? What where they supposed to do? Let the cat wander around? "Thal? Are you alright?" – "I might get expelled if that man is my homeroom teacher for the next seven years" she sai ironically, fastening her pace. "That is unexpected, coming from you!" – "You know we should pay him back! What about that forbidden thing of releasing puffskeins-" – "Don´t you dare" Thalia warned her.

They finally reached the end of the stairs back to the main hall, they actually felt more like rats than snakes to have a meeting so far under the ground. "How did it go?" they heard someone asking, but when they looked to their right it was Newt. "Hello cousin!" – "Pretty bad" Thalia answered afterwards. "How bad?" – "That man is the devil himself" Newt gave a small smile. "I have heard that before" they two followed him through the halls back to their dorm. "Cousin, tell me" Diantha said hanging on his shoulders, which was never a good sign. "Did you too released these puffskeins" – "Will you just drop it?!" Thalia stopped her. She was not getting herself into trouble again. "In Mr. Pringle´s office during matin season?" Newt asked her. "Yeah!" – "I tried the experience, did not end well for my house, it took away points and I was grouned for a good while"

Thalia rolled her eyes, how was he just as stupid as Diantha thought to be?"No, you caused enough trouble for us young lady!" Thalia pointed at her not wanting any more of this discussion, it would end here.

For the next following weeks they frequented their classes and tried to not stand out too much but with Diantha around that could be a problematic job. Usually between every break Newt accompanied them, to the class rooms or just to the hall, she tried her best to distract him from Leta Lestrange. Neither did she or Thalia like her, however Newt was quite attached to her, and it was not like they could put him against her.

"You know Diantha is quite good in the potion lessons" – "Oh is that true?" Newt asked proudly. "Of course! My mother used to teach me what she knew at a very young age" she tried to explain about the rare things of her past. "Newton you are good with creatures, ain´t that right? Now I remember, you used to have some weird creatures in your home too, it must run in the family" Newt nodded. "That is correct, I wish that one day I can collect them and help them as much as I can, however can I ask you something?" suprised by his sudden question, but she nodded either wise. "Could you cal me Newt? It feels uncomfortable to call you normally when you do not do it either"

Thalia had always been formally with people she did not know, but she had been with Newt almost everyday in Hogwards, it must have annoyed him a little. "Alright, Newt, you should show me a creature one of these days, now I need to go, Sirius Black seems to want to speak with me" Diantha frowned, what would the home room teacher of hell want to speak her about with her being involved with it? "Are you okay?" she asked worried but Thalia nodded. "Oh, good luck" Newt tried to tell her, but she was already too far to be heared. "Do you think she is alright?" – "It is probably nothing serious"

"Newt I cannot let it go, what did she do?!" – "I think it is time to let it go" Diantha shook her cousin out of frustration, what was going on. "It is driving my crazy" – "It should be fine" he tried to convince her when some new personalities appear. "What is this?" one of them said. "It seems a badger lost its way" it was clearly an insult to Newt, regarding his house. "Excuse me?" Diantha asked. "You heard me, you are in our way" he warned again. "And who might you be?" Diantha went all out, she ain´t getting shit of no one, especially from a Ravenclaw. "Does it matter, you are in my way, now get a move on" he pushed her away, causing her to trip on her back on the cold floor. "Ouch" she whimpered.

Newt kneeled immediatly next to her making sure she was alright. "Are you alright?" – "I should be fine" she whispered, definitly not expecting this to happen. "You" Newt called him back. "It is me you want, leave her out of this" – "She accompanies you, automatically it turns my problem" – "I mean it, do not bother her any time soon" Newt rarely got angry but Diantha was his family, almost his sister, he had looked after her as an child, and would still do if needed. "Ohh, look the Slytherin is not able to hand this on her own" – "I Can´t what? You see-" she tried to stand up, ready to face this Ravenclaw but Newt pulled her down. "Do not get yourself in trouble, you know the rules" her face dropped, she did not want those two walk around and get away with it, but she did not want to dissapoint Thalia that in her absence she got into trouble again and worst yet dragged Newt into it.

He helped his cousin up, cleaning the dust of his robe. "Who were they?" she asked offended. "Not sure, but I have seen they bullying others around, they are in their second year if I am not mistaken" – "If Thalia was here she would have shut them up, she always do" – "Diantha, how long have you known her?" he asked his cousin, continuing their way through the corridors. "A long time cousin, her mother was a good friend to my mother, so every week I would be with her!" – "So you know her well?" he confirmed. "I do, why do you ask? You think she is in trouble don´t you? Sirius is going to torture her! WE have to save her!" Newt immediatly grabbed her by the shoulder before she did anything stupid. "Nothing at all, I am asking because you speak of her so highly, when I think that she might not be as strong as you think" she clearly looked confused at her cousin, but he probably had his reasons to say that.