Chapter Three: Punishments and Plans

The next morning at breakfast, an owl swooped over to me and then Black, leaving us identical letters with the Hogwarts crest emblazoned on the front. I looked over to the Gryffindor House table and he held up the letter waving it, with a small smile. I returned the smile and waved my own letter back before breaking the seal and reading it.

"Dear Miss Willoughby,

Please see me during Lunch today, to discuss your outburst in Professor Aalgaard's Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson yesterday afternoon.

Sincerely,

Professor Flitwick"

I sighed and showed the note to Nicola.

"Consequences, eh?"

Nicola shook her head. "Just tell him your side of the story, Flitwick's always been fair."

I nodded and put the meeting out of my mind during morning lessons. After Potions, I headed to the third floor to go to Flitwick's office and knocked softly on the door.

"Come in," came the Professor's cheerful, squeaky voice and I smiled to myself before entering.

"Hi Professor, you wanted to see me?" I said politely.

"Yes, Bridget, sit down please," he said gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. He was propped up on a stack of books placed on his own chair and smiled at me kindly.

"Now, Professor Aalgaard has told me that you spoke back to him during his lesson yesterday, disagreed with his teaching methods, used foul language and also called him an 'ignorant, imbecile'. Is this correct?"

"Something to that effect, yes Sir."

Flitwick shook his head. "Bridget, in the five years that you've been in my House, never have I had a complaint about you like this one! What could possibly have sparked it?

"Well Professor, he said that people who were killed with Avada Kedavra were weak. Along with some other nonsense about how all the Unforgivable curses were easy to fight. He said it as if anyone who got in the way of one of them was just an idiot. So, I thought that was idiotic and I told him so. Admittedly, not in a particularly calm or mature fashion, but I couldn't help it - he made me so mad!" I felt my eyes getting itchy and I looked away so I could take some deep breaths.

"Would you like a chocolate, Bridget?"

I looked at him in confusion but nodded and took one from the tin that he was offering to me.

"Now…while I wholly understand your reaction, it is simply unacceptable to speak to a teacher that way…regardless of how…questionable…his views may be. I know that you're under an immense amount of stress, what with your horrible family tragedy and your disappointing marks for OWL's, but there are times when you must learn to hold your tongue."

"How could he possibly have become a teacher here?" I said bitterly.

Flitwick coughed. "Professor Aalgaard is a very experienced teacher and though he may not be diplomatic, he has gotten his students at Durmstrang through exams quite successfully in the past."

"I don't want to take Defence Against the Dark Arts anymore."

"I urge you against that Bridget. You are a very talented witch and you have always been brilliant in that subject."

"An A is decisively not brilliant, Professor."

"Well, you'll just have to get an O at NEWT, won't you?" Flitwick said, smiling at me comfortingly. "At least give it a chance for another few weeks! Reconsider in a month's time."

I nodded and agreed only because it was simply impossible not to agree with Professor Flitwick's kind and hopeful face.

"Now, you will have to do a detention tonight because of your behavior. Please see Professor McGonagall at eight 'o clock in the Transfiguration classroom, all right?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Very well Bridget, you may go. Take these," Flitwick said, handing me a box of the chocolates.

"Thanks Professor," I said with a smile as I left the room.

At five to eight, I entered the Transfiguration classroom to find Sirius Black sitting at a desk with a piece of paper in front of him. The desk to his right was set up identically and I walked over immediately to sit down before looking up at the clock.

"You're early," I said to him. "Aren't you usually late to things like lessons and detentions?"

Sirius shrugged. "Best not to mess up when it comes to Minnie."

"Who?"

"McGonagall."

"I can't believe you call her Minnie," I said, shaking my head.

"Surely you've got a nickname for Flitwick in Ravenclaw too…Filli perhaps?"

I chuckled. "I can't even imagine that catching on."

His grey eyes glinted and he grinned. "I might take that as a challenge."

At exactly eight o'clock, Professor McGonagall arrived and stood in front of us.

"All right Willoughby, Black, you will be doing lines today. I will ask you to please write 'I will not disrespect my teachers' as many times as you can in an hour. I have a meeting to attend, so I trust that you will both be able to behave yourselves for that amount of time?" She turned her steely gaze to Sirius who seemed to bite back a laugh.

"Yes Professor," we said in unison and she nodded.

"Very well, wands please," she said, holding her hands out. I surrendered mine without complaint but Sirius pulled a face.

"Aw come on Miss, what if we get attacked and we have no way to defend ourselves?"

"Don't be so ridiculous, Black - no one's going to attack you in detention."

Sirius sighed dramatically and handed over his wand. "I sincerely hope you're right, Professor."

She sighed almost as dramatically and shook her head. "I will see you both in one hour's time."

"Hopefully!" Sirius called as she left the room and I could have sworn I heard a faint laugh.

"Not bad though is it? Lines…" I said as I began to write.

"Yeah, I reckon they let us off a bit easy. No supervision, just writing lines... In fact, I don't think I've ever had to do lines before." Sirius said, leaning back in his chair.

"Really? But haven't you been in detention more times than anyone in the school?"

"Less than James. But, normally it's cleaning dragon dung out, or something equally smelly."

I smiled and continued to write.

"You know…they probably wouldn't even care if we hadn't written any lines at all."

"I doubt that," I replied.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah…" he said, doubtfully.

And so for a quarter of an hour, we sat in silence writing those ridiculous words over and over again until Sirius leaned back and stretched.

"Merlin, this is boring."

I put my own quill down and cracked my neck.

"Well I suppose that's why they call it punishment."

We sat saying nothing and doing nothing for another few minutes until Sirius spoke again. We'd known each other for over five years and this was the most I'd ever heard him talk.

"Do you reckon they'll sack him?"

"Who – Aalgaard? Nah, I doubt it."

"He deserves it. I'm shocked that Dumbledore let him near this school," Sirius said, scowling quite attractively.

"I'm sure he was just a bit desperate. The job's cursed - something's always happening to the professors he gets," I said with a sigh.

"Yeah, I bet Dumbledore has his reasons. He's pretty clever from what I hear."

I laughed at that and one side of Sirius' mouth turned up into a slight grin.

"Either way though…I won't be going back. At least not while he's teaching," I said, slumping over the table and turning my head to look at him. He frowned at that.

"Really?"

"Well I told Flitwick I'd give it another couple of weeks but I think I'll just skip. I can't even look at that man." I closed my eyes and sighed deeply again.

"Yeah, he is a bit shocking to look at," Sirius joked and I gave a half-hearted chuckle to which he shrugged sheepishly.

"So…I wanted to ask you," I said, sitting up again and facing him fully. "Well…I mean, I know why I had a go at Aalgaard, but I just wondered…You know everyone in that room was thinking the same things as we were and I know why I said something, but why did you?" I played with my dark fringe, feeling a bit awkward.

He looked at me for a long moment before giving me a small smile. "Bit personal, you know?" he said with a slight shrug.

"Oh…" I shook my head. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to…"

He shrugged. "No, I mean - yours is personal too…just more public I suppose."

"Yeah…"

I turned back to my sheet and began writing again, so the only sound left in the room was the scratching of my quill.

"What if we all skipped?"

I looked up and cocked my head to the side. "Sorry?"

"I mean…if we want him sacked, we could all skip. They can't punish every single one of us and then they'll have to get rid of him - Aalgaard," Sirius said.

I laughed. "No one would go for it. People are afraid to get in trouble. I'd normally be afraid to get in trouble, but I seem to be able to play the sympathy card quite often lately." I went a bit quiet and shook my head. "That's a horrible thing to say."

Sirius watched my face for a second, before choosing to ignore my statement and continue talking about his idea.

"Nah, I could get all the Gryffindors to stop going. They'll listen to most of the things I tell them," he said nonchalantly.

I couldn't help but chuckle and shake my head. "Really? Are you sure? What about Lily Evans - doesn't she hate you?"

He shrugged again and raised his eyebrows. "Course she does - but even so, she's a decent girl, she'll go for it. Besides, Aalgaard is a prick to her too 'cos she's Muggleborn."

I nodded, realizing the truth in that.

"And I bet you could get the Ravenclaws to stop going too. You're quite popular aren't you?"

I rolled my eyes in response. "Um, I don't think so - but we don't really think that way in our House."

Sirius rolled his eyes back. "Yeah right, you're telling me you're all just equals? Surely there are some astonishingly ugly people in your House that you don't speak to."

"Hey! Bad looks aren't a reason to not talk to someone!"

Sirius scoffed. "Yeah, yeah - you lot are all about 'wit and cleverness'."

"Well aren't you lot supposed to be chivalrous?!"

"I pulled your chair out for you, didn't I?"

"No, you didn't…"

Sirius bit back a laugh and furrowed his brow. "Oh…oops."

We both laughed at that and he smiled at me.

"Go on mate, you and Hobbs - you could get the others to stop going to Defence. It's a good cause. Come on, you've got to be the girl from the classroom," he was staring at me quite earnestly now and his eyes were so grey and twinkly that I simply couldn't say no.

"Yeah, actually I reckon if Nicola helps, I could."

He clapped and grinned. "Brill!"

"The problem is Slytherin though…and Hufflepuff I suppose."

Sirius barked a laugh at that. "Hufflepuff will do anything I tell them to and forget about Slytherin - they'll be outnumbered."

"So, we're really going to do this...boycott him?" I said, looking at him doubtfully.

"Yeah. We have to - Aalgaard shouldn't be allowed."

"What?"

"It's like what you said about the Unforgivable Curses - what was it? 'They are evil, awful, completely debilitating spells that should not be allowed.' So…that's him. Aalgaard is an Unforgivable."

I stared at him feeling a little bewildered. "You remembered what I said?"

"Yeah - I've completely forgotten what I said, but I remember your speech 'cos it basically fueled mine, you know?"

I nodded. "Nicola was quite impressed with yours…she said you were inspiring."

He chuckled. "Yeah, well…you know, I got a bit of a kiss out of McKinnon for it, so I reckon it was okay," he said, sheepishly, though his eyes were twinkling.

"That's terrible."

"Ah, just a bit of fun…nothing too serious."

"Isn't that the way it always is with you?"

"Nah, I'm not normally interested in such endeavors, but she's okay."

I shook my head. "So, what endeavors are you normally interested in?"

He smiled slyly, "Getting up to no good, mostly."

"I should have guessed!" I smiled and then after a moment, said, "I didn't know you were like this. I might have tried to talk to you before this year if I had."

He crinkled his eyes and smiled. "What am I like?"

I shrugged. "You know…easy to talk to. Nice."

"You didn't think I was nice before?" he said, looking a little offended.

"I didn't really know, to be honest. You just seemed a bit…full of yourself."

He laughed a little too much at that and I worried that I'd hurt his feelings.

"Sorry, it was just a blind judgment. Obviously, I was wrong."

He shrugged and shook my apology off. "Nah, I actually get that all of the time. And as long as we're being so honest…I didn't know you were so interesting."

I quirked an eyebrow. "What?"

"I mean…I just thought you were a typical Ravenclaw - someone who had a group of boring, low-key friends and hung out in the Library all of the time. But I guess I was wrong too."

We smiled at each other and I glanced up at the clock.

"Oh, Professor McGonagall's going to be back in five minutes. Shall we write some more lines to be half convincing?"

"Couldn't hurt, I suppose."

And so, we wrote lines for the next five minutes until McGonagall came to excuse us. I noticed that she rolled her eyes at the very sparse pages but I was happy that she didn't comment and simply returned our wands and let us go with a curt nod.

"So, get the word out to your mates about ditching Defence. We have until Friday, so there's plenty of time," Sirius said, once we'd reached our respective staircases.

"Sirius, that's less than two days!" I exclaimed.

"Oh come on," he argued, "You've got, what, like six people including yourself who take Sixth Year Defence? I've got to tell practically all of the Sixth Year Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs and I'm not worried!"

"Yes, but you're so much more 'popular' than I am," I teased.

He rolled his eyes at me. "You're friends with all of the Sixth Year Ravenclaws, I see you all eat together every day - tell them at Breakfast!"

"Okay, okay."

He smiled. "Okay, see you tomorrow then."

I nodded and couldn't help but smile back. "Yeah, tomorrow."

It was surprisingly easy to get my friends in Ravenclaw to agree to skip Defence. As Sirius had suggested, I simply asked them all during Breakfast the next day. Ollie, Matt and Benjy were a little worried about getting in to trouble, but they agreed with Nicola and Arron that it was a good enough cause to risk it.

"This is quite brave, Bridget…how are you going to get the other Houses to do it though?" Ollie said, after everyone had agreed to join in.

"Well, actually Sirius Black is going to talk to the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs," I said, looking down at my porridge.

"Ooooh," Matthew and Benjy teased, winking dramatically at me.

"Oh push off you two," I said, throwing a bit of toast at them.

"Sirius Black? Since when do you hang out with that over-the-top attention seeker?" Ollie said, frowning at me.

I wrinkled my nose thoughtfully. "We don't really hang out…we just had detention together. And I don't really think he's over-the-top."

"Are you re-kindling an old crush?" Arron teased, making Nicola laugh.

I blushed. "No. It's not like that. He's just a decent bloke, I like him. Not as thick as we thought."

"So not just a pretty face then?" Ollie said, sarcastically

"Aww careful Bridge, I think you're making Ollie jealous!" Benjy said, comically elbowing his friend in the side.

Ollie and I both blushed at this and ate to avoid the teasing, but I saw his gorgeous, bright blue eyes flicker up to meet mine a few times.

Just as we were all getting up to go to lessons, or in mine, Nicola and Arron's case, the Library for our free period, someone cleared their throat.

"All right everyone?" Sirius' husky voice said. It was soft but seemed to cut through all other noise. The boys greeted him nicely (though Ollie just nodded) and Nicola smiled.

"Hey Sirius."

"Hello Hobbs! Keeping your nasal passages bean-free?"

Arron laughed with Sirius and Nicola rolled her eyes. "Keeping Arron from doing dumb spells, at least."

Sirius smiled politely but nodded at me. "Can I have a word, Bridget?"

Benjy and Matt ooh-ed again and fell in to laughter when I got up and Sirius quirked his eyebrows at them. When we'd walked a few paces away, he spoke.

"Do your mates think we're dating or something?" he said, a slight look of disgust on his face.

"Nah, they're just being children," I said, though I was annoyed that the idea of dating me seemed repulsive to him. He seemed to cotton on to this and shook his head.

"Sorry, I just feel like every time I talk to a girl, people are wondering if I'm trying to have a go or something."

I rolled my eyes. "It's a casualty of being so good-looking, people will assume that you want to date."

Sirius squinted at me. "You think I'm good-looking?"

I patted him on the back. "Don't pretend to be modest, you know that everyone does."

Sirius shook his head, mostly to himself but then changed the subject. "So, I've got the Gryffindor boys, obviously. Also, McKinnon, MacDonald and Crawley. I just need to speak to Evans, Smith and Meadowes and that'll be everyone. The Hufflepuffs were easy, they barely questioned it! I do think you ought to go around and talk to everyone too - you are basically the face of this rebellion."

"But you're the popular one!" I whined.

"Oh come on, you'll do fine," he said shoving me lightly.

"Fine…"

"Also, I reckon, we should set up a place to meet during that lesson - so that we're sort of publicly defying him but also we're presenting a united front. We also need to figure out how to get Hufflepuff out of trouble 'cos they won't have the same backup as us."

"You're quite organized you know…I wouldn't have guessed," I said.

He frowned at me. "So basically, you thought I was a not-nice, disorganized, self-centered bloke before this year, is that right?"

I smiled. "But a very good-looking one!"

He scoffed and ran a hand through his hair looking a bit embarrassed. "Okay, I have track down Evans and her mates - talk later?"

I nodded and he dashed away leaving me feeling quite confused. He'd sort of swept me up in this rebellion that I would never have taken part in before and I would have to talk to people again, be my old friendly self. It was odd, Sirius Black had somehow got me to a place that Nicola had been trying to get me for weeks. And it had only taken him a day. I could only imagine how easy it would be for him to woo a girl at this rate.

On Friday, I woke up nervous. Today was the day that the plan would be moved in to action and we'd get to see if we would receive the desired goal. Sirius had been sending people my way all day yesterday and everyone seemed to be completely on board. A few of them seemed to be only interested in doing what Sirius asked and others were simply in it for the excitement, but the general consensus was that we were doing something that was worth fighting for. Yes, Aalgaard hadn't been outwardly targeting muggleborns or teaching us actual Dark Arts, but the way he seemed to talk and the biased way he taught, made him not only a bad teacher but to most people, a bad person. Sirius and I both had a morning free before Transfiguration, Herbology and finally Defence but luckily, the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins had Defence during our free. Sirius had arranged for the Hufflepuffs to meet us in the Courtyard and later, the Ravenclaw/Gryffindor Defence class would meet there too. I was excited but also a bit worried. What if people started to back out - would Sirius and I just end up in more trouble?