Author's note. I'm so sorry I haven't updated before now, I don't really have any excuse, it's just the way it somehow happened. But now I'm back and I hope you all enjoy this.
By the way, is there anyone who has read my Foundling story? You'll have noticed I haven't been able to update recently and I'm really sorry about that, I just haven't had the muse. So I've been thinking I might get a co author so the story can continue but I don't know anyone who RPs Harry Potter. Is there anyone with experience with writing Harry Potter fics with others? The only thing I would ask is no bashing, so if you love bashing the Weasleys or Dumbledore, it probably won't work.
Also, I should warn everyone I'm not great at writing Snape. And by writing Snape, I mean the cold, sarcastic, sometimes cruel git that everyone loves and hates. So I'm sorry in advance if he doesn't match everyone's expectations, I'll do my best.
Enjoy and please review.
Continued from last time
"On another note," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "I was wondering if I could have your help in hiring a new teacher."
"You do?" Sirius said in mild surprise, noticing that Harry had a similar look of surprise on his face. "Who?"
"One of your old teachers," Dumbledore said with a smile. "Horace Slughorn."
"Slughorn?" Sirius repeated in amazement. "That old reprobate? He's still around, is he?"
"He is indeed and he is the best option for a teacher."
"What's he like?" Harry asked, curious about his new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher.
"Don't worry, he definitely won't be trying to kill or maim you," Sirius assured him, knowing why Harry was asking. "And he's fine, especially if you're good at Potions or well connected."
"Potions!?" Harry exclaimed in complete shock. "But...isn't he teaching Defence?"
"No, his forte is Potions," the headmaster said cheerfully as Harry looked doubly confused.
"But what about Sn...Professor Snape?" he asked, they couldn't have two Potion teachers.
"Don't tell me," Sirius groaned as Dumbledore gave his answer.
"Professor Snape will be your new Defence teacher Harry."
Harry looked at him in horror just as the door opened and who should enter but Professor Severus Snape, robes rippling as always. His black eyes narrowed as he took in who was visiting the headmaster and his expression became dark. Sirius's mouth was a grim line as he surveyed his old school rival, feeling an urge to take hold of his wand. However, Dumbledore was here and that was enough to still the action he dearly wanted to take.
"Ah Severus, you have those reports for me?" Dumbledore greeted with all the enthusiasm of meeting an old friend.
"Yes headmaster," Snape said cordially, his eyes coming to rest on Harry who fought back a scowl. "I didn't know you had...guests."
Sirius knew that Snape would rather have come when Dumbledore was completely alone...and frankly, Sirius would have preferred Snape come when they'd gone.
"We won't be here long," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "Harry and Sirius are going to help me convince Horace to return to service, I'm confident that between the three of us, we will succeed."
"Making you the new defence teacher," Sirius said flatly. "Just what you always wanted."
Snape's cold expression slowly morphed into a satisfied smirk and his eyes seemed to gleam. Sirius was almost tempted to hex him just to wipe that self satisfied look from the dark man's face but quashed the desire.
"What about the jinx?" Harry couldn't help but ask. "Aren't you worried about that...sir?"
The smug look turned into a contemptuous one as Snape looked over at Harry.
"Jinx?" he repeated. "What nonsense is this, Potter?"
"It's not nonsense," Harry said defensively. "All my Defence teachers have been driven from the job, Quirrel was killed, Lockhart lost his memory, Lupin had to resign, Barty Crouch Jr had his soul sucked out and Umbridge was chased out by the entire school."
Snape just raised an eyebrow and said. "Your point, Potter?"
As Harry stared at him in disbelief, Sirius said mildly. "Perhaps Severus is only planning to be Defence teacher for a year."
"Perhaps," Snape said with a cold smirk. "What, thinking of applying for the post yourself, Black?"
"Maybe I am," Sirius growled, hating the man so much.
"We'll see how things are at the end of the school year," Dumbledore cut in pointedly before any arguments could begin. "Severus, if you could prepare all the paperwork for Horace, that would be most appreciated."
"Of course headmaster," Snape said with a nod, turning to leave.
"Sir," Harry suddenly asked and Snape paused. "What level of O.W.L student do you take for class?"
Snape regarded him coolly before stating. "Luckily for you Potter, an E is acceptable."
Harry smiled in relief, he was pretty sure he'd scored an E. Sirius also smiled at seeing his godson's face light up, he needed more moments like that. And did his ears deceive him or did Snape pay Harry a compliment, the assumption that Harry had scored at least an E. Old Snape must be in a pretty good mood to do that.
"Professor Slughorn also takes E students," Dumbledore mentioned cheerfully making Harry grin even more; he had a chance of taking the subjects he needed in order to become an Auror.
"Great," he exclaimed as Snape looked rather contemptuous of Harry's confidence. Sirius decided to ignore this and say.
"I'm sure you'll have gotten great marks Harry, your dad did."
"How could any of us forget," Snape cut in snidely. "He certainly never let us."
As Harry scowled again and Sirius really was about to plunge his hand into his pocket for his wand, Dumbledore averted disaster.
"Now Severus," Dumbledore said pointedly. "Most students are very excited when they receive their results, I'm pretty sure you were as well. Both you and James were right to be proud of your academic achievements as was Sirius."
He nodded over to Sirius who grimaced and relaxed slightly, his anger seeping away. Snape also looked less confrontational, perhaps remembering just who was in the room. Snape turned to leave but apparently couldn't resist one last jab.
"I will still be expecting your Potions essay at the start of term, Potter."
"Yes sir," Harry said. "Um...do you want anything for Defence?"
"I have no interest in whatever that woman might have set you," Snape stated with contempt. "Just study your sixth year books Potter, if you are capable of that."
"And what books will you be assigning sir?" Harry replied coolly.
"I shall send out a letter in due course," Snape stated, heading for the door. "And you can warn your friends they will be tested on their contents, I expect my Newt students to be fully prepared. There will be no slacking in my class. Headmaster, good day."
"As if there ever is," Sirius heard Harry mutter very quietly as Snape left the room.
"Well now," Dumbledore said, clapping his hands together. "If that's everything, perhaps we could depart."
"Sounds fine to me," Sirius said briskly, as soon as this was over, he and Harry could do something fun. Maybe they could fly for a bit, he was rusty as hell but he'd enjoy watching Harry show off some skill. Just like James used to do...
A couple of hours later found Sirius and Harry trudging back to their home. They'd successfully convinced Slughorn to return to teaching but it hadn't been simple. When they'd arrived, Sirius had been shocked to see the state of Slughorn's house, the inside had been completely wrecked and Harry had been no less shocked. Dumbledore had been utterly calm and just when Sirius was thinking he must be missing something, the old headmaster had revealed Slughorn's hiding place.
He'd mentally smacked himself when Dumbledore had pointed out to Slughorn that no Dark Mark had been floating above the house, making it clear the Death Eater hadn't been to call. He really needed to get into shape again; he couldn't afford to be making mistakes like that.
At first, Slughorn was resistant to the idea of returning, citing the deaths of a couple of teachers as a reason. Not to mention how some accident had befallen just about every Defence teacher for the last few decades which was a little beside the point as he was being asked to become Potions master and Snape had safely held this job for almost two decades. Sirius wasn't overly happy about Dumbledore using Harry to tempt Slughorn back but he also knew that his old Potions teacher was not a danger to Harry and would never harm the students. Better to have him back and have Snape take over the Defence post than another Umbridge.
It had been amusing to hear Slughorn once again lament that Sirius hadn't been in his House, startling Harry with the realisation that Slughorn was from Slytherin. Sirius had to admit his old Potions teacher was one of the few decent ones out there and even though he tended to expect wizard raised children to be either more connected or talented, he did still mentor those who were Muggleborn onto greatness. It didn't matter to him what kind of blood someone had as long as they had something special...and would remember him when they became famous.
He'd watched Harry's eyes grow wide as Slughorn had revealed that Lily had been one of his favourites, an exceedingly talented young witch, particularly in Potions and Charms. It had been amusing when Slughorn mentioned it was strange she was so brilliant considering her background and Harry had hotly stated that his best friend was Muggleborn and the best in the year.
This had made Sirius smile, Harry was a loyal friend, always ready to defend his friends. Both of his parents had been the same, he could never forget the number of times Lily had furious rushed to Snape's defence, whether he deserved it or not. Harry was just like that, he judged on actions, not where someone came from. He like Ron because the red head was a good bloke as opposed to Draco Malfoy, another Pureblood but an incredibly nasty spoiled little brat who was bound to become a Death Eater someday.
Anyway, to Harry's surprise, Slughorn had eventually agreed to come back to teach, helped with a few choice comments from Dumbledore. Of course, Slughorn had demanded a pay rise and Dumbledore had readily accepted. After congratulations were exchanged, Dumbledore bid them farewell and had departed. Sirius had apperated with Harry back to Hogsmede but at some distance from the house so they could have a proper walk together.
"So," Sirius asked as they walked along the gravelly path. "What did you think of him?"
"Um," Harry replied, sounding very unsure. "He's...not what I was expecting."
"He's not that bad," Sirius said with a shrug. "And trust me; you'll enjoy Potions a lot more with him as your teacher."
"I don't find that hard to believe," Harry stated with a smile. "I suppose Snape can't be worse than Umbridge, right."
"No one's worse than her," Sirius said darkly, promising to have her dealt with at some point. A woman like her should not be in a position of power of any sort. "Old Snape knows his stuff; no doubt he'll teach you a thing or two."
"You said he knew a lot of curses coming to school?" Harry prompted as Sirius nodded.
"Oh yeah, he certainly did. He seemed to know more than those who'd come from Dark Pureblood households."
"Wait...isn't Snape a Pureblood?" Harry questioned in surprise.
"Huh, no he isn't," Sirius said, looking down at Harry. "What made you think he was?"
"I dunno," Harry shrugged. "He's in Slytherin..."
This made Sirius bark out a hearty laugh which went on for so long that Harry started to smile.
"He might be in Slytherin Harry but there are a quite a few that aren't Purebloods. As much as they'd like to deny it, probably less than a quarter are actually Pureblood, most of them are varying degrees or Halfblood. Hell, there are even some Muggleborns in Slytherin but only a few, the Sorting hat just picks those with the purest Slytherin qualities. There just aren't enough Purebloods out there, some of them have to go to the other Houses. Can you imagine any of the Weasleys in Slytherin?"
"Definitely not," Harry said firmly. "But if some of them have Muggles in their family, why are they so anti Muggle?"
"Well, some of them prefer to pretend they don't have any Muggles in their family," Sirius said wisely. "But you'll probably have noticed there are Slytherins that aren't as loudly outspoken as Malfoy is. Even if they believe Wizards are better, they won't necessarily believe that Muggles deserve to be tortured and killed."
Harry nodded slowly; he had to admit there were a few Slytherins that didn't really seem to have an opinion on Muggleborns. Zabini never got into confrontations with anyone and while he seemed to scorn Muggleborns and those friendly with them, he also appeared to scorn just about everyone else. And while most of the Slytherin girls seemed to hang out with Pansy and were all a nasty lot, there were one or two who seemed alright but none of them appeared to have a desire to become closer to their Gryffindor year mates, preferring those from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
"So as hard to believe as it is," Sirius continued. "Not all Slytherins are evil and Slughorn's one of them. Tonks mother was in Slytherin and she was a decent sort."
"Was?" Harry questioned and Sirius said quickly. "She's still alive but I haven't had a proper chance to see her again. It's a little awaked, she brought with family tradition by marrying a Muggleborn so she and I were essentially in the same boat. It must have broken her heart when it appeared I'd gone bad after all..."
He broke off as memories of his cousin washed over him. She'd been older but they'd gotten on really well and he'd been delighted by her marriage to Ted Tonks. And even happier when she had her little daughter, it had given him hope about the world. He was incredibly thankful that he and Tonks had reconnected but now he needed to make things right with the only close blood family he had.
"You okay?" Harry asked softly and Sirius nodded.
"Yeah but...I'm going to have to try and see her. And probably on my own to start with Harry."
"I understand," Harry said quickly. "Maybe...we could have her round for dinner or something."
"Yeah," Sirius said with a sad smile, wondering if it would happen. He might be innocent but he was very aware how his foolish actions fifteen years previous had resulted in his friends' deaths and his own imprisonment. At the very least, Andromeda wasn't going to think he was the world's biggest fool and even though he would deserve it, he certainly wasn't looking forward to it.
Realising that Harry was looking at him in concern; he pulled himself together and said.
"It'll be fine Harry. I'll still have you, Tonks and Remus, that's what counts. If my cousin can forgive me then great but I'll still have all the family I need if she doesn't. Now, why don't you show me some of those Quidditch moves I hear your famous for."
"Only if you show me some of yours," Harry dared and with a laugh, Sirius declared.
"You're on."
Author's note. Sorry for short chapter, I just wanted everyone to know I'm not giving up on this story. I'm not sure when the next one will be but it definitely won't be as long as the last one. Until next time.