Sirius Black's case was still dragging out when September rolled around and the population of Hogwarts were being introduced to that year's new Defence teacher – one Remus Lupin. Harry didn't pay much attention to that announcement though, in all honesty, beyond the perfunctory applause to welcome the latest victim to the post. He was much too preoccupied with thoughts of his science text books. He'd been having to learn the really advanced science and engineering stuff since the day he'd met Tony, so going back to the standard curriculum for people his age was... odd.
Add in the new bio-chem and medical stuff that Bruce wrote to him about, and Harry really was having a very skewed education. Not just because he was learning magic when a greater percent of the population were learning algebra and how to write a book report either.
Harry's first Ancient Runes class was first thing in the morning on the first day back at classes, and he was thrilled to finally be learning the subject that Professor Loki taught. The man had been a God-send that first day he'd stepped foot into the magical world, and something of a role model in the time since then, even if they hadn't actually interacted much.
"There will be no playing with your wands in my class room," Loki informed the students as he seemed to materialise from a shadowy corner of the room. He was better at the dramatics than even Professor Snape. "However, before you begin to despair that this will be a theory-heavy course, I will correct you," he continued, and slipped a pair of glasses onto his face.
Glasses that Harry recognised as the ones Professor Loki had collected from the magical optometrist the day they'd met. He'd never asked what it was they were enchanted for, and now he was intensely curious.
"My inclination is to teach in whatever manner will help you best to learn. For some of you, I suppose that would be to study the text intensely," Professor Loki said, and arched an eyebrow high as he peered down through his glasses at Hermione.
Hermione who smiled, blushed a little, and ducked her head down between her shoulders.
"For others, you will learn better if you are doing something. And some may well learn best through a combination of both," he continued, his gaze sweeping across the other students in the room. "That said, the use of runes in magic does not require a wand to be practically applied. For example," Loki continued, and unrolled a small ream of very thin paper that was covered in graphite. "This is a rubbing of a 'page' from the Egyptian antiquity known as The Book of the Dead. If I were to read from this page, nothing would happen. If I were to read the same passage directly from The Book, then I would have raised a soul from the underworld as the Egyptians understood it. The magic in this instance being tied to the object through the hieroglyphs, which are just the 'runes' of another language," Loki explained. "These are set in place with a magical tool, like a knife."
He nodded at them all when he saw that they at least marginally understood – he was pleased to note though Harry's eyes were brightest with the light of understanding and epiphany, and one hand fiddled lightly with where Loki was certain the boy kept his dagger-like wand – and then moved to his desk.
"For today, I want you all to simply read the introduction of your assigned text books, and when I call your names, you will approach my desk to receive your project for this year. Yes, year. I will assign you each a project that you may work through as quickly or slowly as your understanding of the subject, and your own motivation, permits. You will work on these projects only during class time, so that you may ask me for help, or an explanation, in the event you need it. When any one of you has a question, I will address the answer to the whole class, so that you may all benefit, and I will hopefully not need to repeat myself too often. Homework will be to study the text so that you will, hopefully, need to ask me fewer questions during class time."
~oOo~
"Professor Lupin?" Harry asked, his hand raised as all around him his peers were thinking of ways to make their greatest fear funny. No easy task, especially with the knowledge that they would all shortly be confronting those very fears, in that very room.
"Yes Mr Potter?" Professor Lupin answered.
"What if you don't know what your greatest fear is? Or what if it's an event, sound, or action rather than a thing?" Harry asked. "Like... thunder, or a fear of public speaking?"
Professor Lupin grinned. "An excellent question!" he praised. "And if such is true, then it means you have a slight advantage over a boggart. A boggart can only transform into a physical manifestation of your fear. As such, it would find a lesser fear of yours to transform into, and as it is not your greatest fear, then the spell to counter the boggart should not be as difficult," he explained happily.
Harry nodded in acceptance. "And, uh, what if the thing feared were, uh, bigger than the space available to the boggart?" Harry asked with a gesture around the room. "Someone who's afraid of dragons, for example, could see us all crushed in here, just because they're so big."
"Another excellent point," Professor Lupin agreed. "A boggart is restricted by the size of the space it is transforming in. If you meet a boggart out-of-doors, it has more room to become a large fear. Because the staff room is not particularly spacious, the boggart will be somewhat limited, just as we have a defence against it by coming in strong numbers."
Harry thanked the professor, and returned to trying to think of what he feared most, and of all the things he had ever feared. He was a very in-the-now sort of person though, and didn't carry fear with him if he could help it. Certainly in situations where fear was a sensible reaction, he was afraid, but when the moment passed and he was safe again, he put the fear out of his mind. Harry wondered, as he slowly shuffled forward in the line to face the boggart, which circumstance the boggart would draw from him.
He never got to find out, as class time ran out before he (and about five others, he wasn't the only one) could have a turn facing the boggart.
~oOo~
Sirius Black wrote to Harry, when his trial was over and his name had been cleared, and asked if he would care to spend the Christmas holiday with him, since he was the boy's godfather. They had a lot of catching up to do.
Harry took up dart and atlas, and his destination for that holiday was determined to be Australia. A summer Christmas. The warmth would probably do the man good after a little over a decade in prison. He responded with the positive, while simultaneously outlining his plans to not be in the country for that holiday.
They exchanged letters until the holiday in question, and expressed to each other some disgruntlement with Professor Remus Lupin once Sirius had revealed that the man had been part of a group of friends with himself and Harry's father. On the other hand, a teacher approaching a student about his dead parents... Harry could understand how it would be awkward and difficult for the man. It didn't make him feel better about the matter, but he understood.
~oOo~
Harry had enjoyed Christmas with Sirius, but had also determined that over-exposure to the man wasn't something he enjoyed, and when the summer holidays rolled around and Sirius invited Harry to move in with him, Harry responded that he quite liked his situation and would be travelling to Budapest and touring Russia that summer.
Sirius was disappointed, but understanding. Harry had become a reasonably independent, self-sufficient young man without the need for any adult supervision.
Budapest turned out to be... exciting. Lots of violence in the streets, and a couple of people who seemed to be taking on everybody else. One of them with a bow and a quiver of arrows, which Harry thought was pretty damn cool. Any idiot could point a gun and pull the trigger, after all. Archery was something that took skill. Though there were of course people who claimed that being able to fire a gun could be just as much of an art form.
"Fancy seeing you here, Mr Potter," a familiar voice greeted.
"Hello Professor Loki," Harry answered with a smile and without turning around. "What brings you to Budapest, if I may ask?"
"You may ask," Loki answered with a cheeky grin that said quite plainly that Harry wouldn't get a straight answer from him on the subject. "Though, I find that right now I wish to know more of those two," he said, and gestured to the pair who were essentially surrounded and still somehow winning.
Harry nodded in agreement. "I would to," he admitted. "I think I'll try and catch up with them when the fighting bit is over."
Loki's expression morphed through surprise and curiosity before it settled on fondness. Not that Harry saw his favourite teacher directing that soft look at him.
Harry's eyes narrowed as he spotted someone sneaking up on the pair, only for them to widen and blink in shock when Sif (who had been sitting watching the battle from Harry's shoulder, her hood off) took off and flew straight at the face of the person who had been attempting a sneak attack.
"Just like Sif," Loki said softly, his own eyebrows raised as the goshawk's claws raked down over the offending man's eyes and her sharp beak pecked a couple of times at his scalp before she swooped up again and returned to where Harry stood, watching from the balcony of the room he was renting.
Harry chuckled softly, even as those bloody claws dug gently into his shoulder, and fondly stroked Sif's breast feathers. She had never done anything like that before, come to the defence of another, so he knew that his professor was referring to the Sif that the bird had been named for. Certainly she had flexed her claws threateningly when someone looked to be trying to cheat Harry, and yes, she'd clawed and pecked people who hadn't headed Harry's warning to leave her be and respect her personal space, but actively coming to the defence of a total stranger? That was not her usual behaviour.
"Do you like him?" Harry asked softly.
Sif turned her beak up at the insinuation and delicately shook her feathers. As if she was saying "Me? Like someone? Don't be ridiculous!"
Harry just chuckled again, and turned at last to Professor Loki, where the man was standing on the balcony of the next room over. "Will class next year be like class this year?" he enquired politely.
Loki nodded. "It will, Mr Potter. And may I congratulate you once more on your very well crafted amulet? The carving you were able to accomplish with your dagger is the finest I have seen since I began to teach at Hogwarts."
Harry beamed. "Thank you Sir!" Harry answered happily. "I'm actually wearing it right now, and I made one for Sif as well."
Loki nodded. "An amulet of protection is a useful thing to be wearing if you have one," he agreed, "and yours was most comprehensive. But tell me, does Sif's amulet also protect her against mind control, as yours does?" Loki asked with a slight smirk.
Harry grinned. "It does," he answered. "You can never be too careful. Though I suppose some people would say I'm being paranoid."
Loki nodded. "Some would," he acknowledged. "But then, you actually have a madman, however incorporeal he may now be, interested in making sure your death comes sooner, rather than later."
Harry nodded in solemn agreement, and turned back to the battle that was going on in the street below. Or rather, that was finally winding down in the street below.
"I'm going to go down now and see if I can meet them," Harry decided.
Loki chuckled. "Be careful," he cautioned. "They may decide to shoot at you if you go down there."
"But I've got my very excellent amulet of protection!" Harry objected with a confident grin before he turned and headed back into his room, then out and down to the street.
~oOo~
The bullet and arrow both hit his protective amulet where it hung from around his neck and over his chest. The arrow lodged in the hole which had been for the loop that held the amulet around his neck, while the bullet had struck the middle of the stone and broken it in two.
"Damn," Harry said, and blinked down at the little stone that he'd carefully smoothed, polished, and carved runes into. "Being broken in half just completely ruins the rune structure," he grumbled with a slightly shocked expression on his face. Still, he was pleased as well. He wasn't hurt at all, so his amulet had done its job. It just hadn't survived the encounter with serious weapons at close range.
"Rune structure what?" the guy (who'd shot the arrow) asked, another arrow at the string of his bow and ready to be fired if Harry turned out to be a threat.
Harry shook his head. "You broke my protective amulet," he said.
The woman frowned. "People still sell those?" she asked, a little incredulous.
"And you wasted money on one?" the guy added with a smirk.
"Hey!" Harry objected. "It worked, didn't it?" he pointed out. "I just had a bullet and an arrow flying at me, and I'm completely unharmed!"
The guy chuckled and shook his head, glancing at the red-headed woman at his side, who shrugged in answer.
"He's got a point," she allowed.
The man continued to chuckle. "Yeah, sure," he allowed, and then he noticed Sif – and the blood on her claws. "Hey, your bird..."
Harry smiled. "Her name's Sif," Harry presented proudly. "And I'm Harry by the way. Harry Potter."
The red-head blinked and her eyebrows raised slightly. "The kid who saved Tony Stark," she noted.
Harry nodded, blushing a little. "He likes to talk about me?" he guessed.
The two adults rolled their eyes. Or, rather, the guy rolled his eyes and the woman apparently deemed him a non-threat and was instead looking around the now-decimated neighbourhood in case of other, more viable threats.
"He only mentioned you in the press conference where he announced that he was changing his company's direction, and has been rumoured to actually use the old-fashioned paper-and-stamp mail system for the kid who saved his life," the woman answered absently.
"And now your bird saved mine," the guy said, coming back to his point. "That is the blood of the bastard that was sneaking up on us on her claws, isn't it?" he asked pointedly, and nodded to where Sif was digging her still-bloody claws lightly into Harry's shoulder.
"It is," Harry agreed. "She's never done that before," he added. "Normally, she only claws and pecks at people she doesn't like who get into her personal space. She's never actually gone off and just attacked someone before." Harry smirked. "I think she likes you, but she's denying it like only a bird can."
Sif whipped her head around and snapped her beak just shy of Harry's ear, and dug her claws in more sharply. A warning. She loved Harry, but she would not tolerate having her reputation as an utterly merciless bird of prey being tarnished by him.
"Mr Potter, you're a P.O.I. -" the woman started.
"That's Person Of Interest," the guy interjected.
"To our boss," the woman finished with a silencing glance at the man beside her.
"Me?" Harry repeated, and pointed to himself. "I'm just a teenager who just so happened to be on holiday in the right place at the right time," he stated, and then looked the pair up and down. "And I get the feeling that having your boss interested in me isn't an entirely healthy thing," he added.
The guy smirked. "Nah kid," he assured. "You're safe -"
"Provided you leave before that bomb goes off," the woman cut in, her gaze – which hadn't stopped sweeping the area – fixed on a certain point not ten metres from them.
"Fly Sif!" Harry ordered, and gave a quick wave to the pair. "Maybe we'll meet again some time and you can tell me your names?" he suggested.
"Maybe," the woman agreed, her eyes still fixed on the ticking bomb. There was still time to get clear before it went off.
"Get out of here kid," the guy said, and pulled out a knife as he moved towards the bomb.
"You got it?" the woman asked as Harry headed for his rented room on the other side of the street.
"Yeah," the guy answered. "Should do. You better get clear though, just in case."
"Okay. Don't die."