National Appreciation Day

Chapter Two:
September 2rd

Write a Letter Day

Sirius Black awoke from a deep sleep and stretching his arms out, grabbed his wand to light up his room in Hogwarts castle. The night before he had used his own special ability to create chaos out of calm to get himself assigned to the position of High Inquisitor of Hogwarts on behalf of the Ministry. He doubted that Albus Dumbledore himself had realized just what that meant after the mayhem he had created at the head table the evening before.

Still, he winced as he realized he would have to explain to Harry what he was doing there and his doubts about the actions of the Headmaster. Thankfully his small visits with that moron Fudge had paid huge dividends after Lucius Malfoy had shown up the day before supposedly upset about the weakness of the wards, but in truth, the man's ego had taken a blow when Augusta Longbottom and he had prevented his offspring from getting the appointment to the Slytherin prefect position.

Looking at the watch Harry had given to him as a present that summer, he grimaced when he realized that it was barely five am but he had an early morning appointment with several goblins who were coming to deal with the basilisk in Chamber of Secrets. When Harry had told him about his adventure, he had been so furious it had taken everything in him to stop himself from hexing every single adult in the building at the time.

He HAD spoken to the Headmaster and Arthur Weasley about the situation. Albus had agreed that it was rather regrettable that it had been only Harry and his friends who had figured it out but had used that he had not been at the school and that it was in the past to attempt to sweep it under the rug. Well, the Headmaster was in for a huge surprise because while Sirius wasn't a Black in regards to his pureblood beliefs but he was in regards to protecting what he considered his and Harry, well even if he didn't know it was his heir.

Resting his head back on his pillow, Sirius frowned as he thought about his conversation with Arthur regarding his daughter and how after straightening out some confusion where the older man had seemed to think that Sirius wished to use the life debt to betroth his daughter to Harry he had made it pretty clear that he was unhappy about how several of Harry's adventures had been the result of ill thought out moves by the Weasley family.

When Arthur had tried to turn it onto Harry and had pointed out that trouble seemed to be attracted to his godson, Sirius had picked apart his reasoning.

He had pointed out that Hermione Granger would not have been in the bathroom and attacked by a troll if Ron hadn't insulted the young muggleborn. That second year, his son had had the idea of flying that Ford Angila, yes the house elf had blocked the passageway but why had they been taking the Muggle way to get to Hogwarts and not the Floo like most wizards. He had then pointed out to Arthur that it had been he himself who had illegally altered the muggle vehicle.

His final statement had stopped Arthur in his tracks when he had pointed out that his daughter should have never have fallen for Riddle's tricks in the diary if she had been taught before school about such things like most young witches and wizards.

Arthur had claimed she had been taught not to trust anything where you couldn't see it's brain and Sirius had quietly asked then why had she been drawn in by the diary and Riddle. When Sirius had asked if he had talked to his daughter about the incident since or had gotten her any kind of professional help for being possessed by Riddle, the older wizard said that they hadn't had the money.

Sirius still felt bad about pointing out that maybe it would have been better to use the windfall from winning the Daily Prophet contest for that and saving the rest for a rainy day than wasting it on a trip Egypt but he knew that it needed to be said.

He liked Arthur, he really did but the wizard had very little common sense and Sirius couldn't help feeling that Arthur and more so his wife Molly had been interfering in his summer with Harry. He had been furious when he had found out that they had been reporting to the Headmaster everything that Ron had been told about their summer. Still, the kids were okay, a bit rash and undisciplined, but they were okay.

Exiting his quarters to meet the Goblins in the front hall, Sirius was a bit early so he began to plot out what holiday he would next celebrate to cover for the changes that were necessary to pull Hogwarts into the light.

He had found one calendar in the muggle book store that celebrated the second of September as National Write a Letter day, so he intended to announce that at breakfast and require each student to write a letter home or to someone else.

Hearing the sound of boots on the cobblestone, he greeted the Goblin in charge and soon was directing them to the girls' lavatory. He had placed an out of order sign there the night before. Handing over the tape of Harry speaking parseltongue and asking for the door to open, he asked: "How will you remove the snake from the Chamber?"

The Goblin curtly announced, "We have ways of getting past such things."

Sirius waited until they had entered the bathroom, nodding at the red headed wizard with them, realizing it was yet another Weasley, hopefully, this one had more sense than the others. When they had opened the entrance without a hitch thank to Harry's taped voice speaking parseltongue, he looked at his watch went to knock on the door of his former Head of House.

"Morning Minnie." He said after she had let him into her quarters. "As per my requirement to inform the staff at Hogwarts of any changes I feel are necessary or to correct any missteps already committed, it is my duty to inform you that there is currently a team of Goblins removing the basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets."

She frowned then said "Sirius, I wish you had spoken to Albus first, he told me that after the diary was destroyed it was impossible to open the chamber back up. Severus was truly disappointed at the thought of all those rare potions ingredients going to waste and all but begged Albus to find a way in."

"Minerva, the goblins already have the entrance open. All it takes is someone speaking parseltongue which of course Harry does. I taped him saying open for them." He said leaning against her fireplace. He saw her frowning at what he was saying then anger appear. "Albus was too lazy to even think of asking Harry. He believed his answer was right and didn't bother to attempt to find a different way in."

Sirius let that sink in then said "While I hate to please Snape but the goblins are already on their way to the bottom of the Chamber to begin rendering the thing. Tell the greasy git if he wishes to see it, to get the bathroom quick. I have to go inform the Headmaster of his incompetence."

When his former Head of House opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it, looking pensive, he swept out of her quarters and went to ruin the morning of a certain headmaster.


Minerva, knowing that Sirius would tell Albus and ignore telling Severus decided to go visit the head of Slytherin. Knocking on the man's door, she heard muttering as he opened it and glared at her. "Let me in."

"Why?" He asked as he stepped back. The two of them had a rather strange contentious but respectful relationship, but she had never paid a visit to his quarters in the entire time he had been a professor at Hogwarts.

"Goblins have opened the chamber of secrets on Sirius Black's behalf and you are invited to see the basilisk." She stated. When he stood there still as a statue then repeated what Albus had told them about accessing it, she merely said: "Potter could have opened it, but Albus didn't seem to realize that."

"Didn't realize or wanted to pretend the brat couldn't." Snape sneered. Looking down at his robes, he grimaced then said: "I will be right back."

Returning mere minutes later dressed in dark heavy pants and a jumper, he was carrying specialized gloves for gathering ingredients. "Did Black say when the Goblins were going to have the ingredients ready for us to store because I will have to prepare a special room for them. My-"

Minerva who was walking in front of Severus as they exited the dungeons turned when she realized that the potions master had stopped speaking only to see no one there. "Severus?"

Returning to the man's quarters, she saw that he wasn't there nor was he in any of the few open rooms between them and the stairs. "What on earth?"

Meanwhile, Sirius who had been about to request an audience with Albus felt a tingling and then found himself standing in a vast stone chamber with about an inch of water covering his feet as a large rubbery leather thing blocked his view. Wondering how the Goblins had brought that with them, he tried to figure out how he landed there.

Turning to look at the house elf who had popped him there, he saw that it was the very house elf that had appeared in his home insisting that his duty was to serve his Master, the greatest wizard alive, Master Harry Potter.

"Dobby, what is the meaning of this?" He asked a bit surprised at the impetuous elf bringing him down there. When the house elf began to wring his hands and appeared almost at the point of tears, he requested he stop doing harm to himself and tell him what was going on.

"Master Harry's did nots wish to upset his doggy dads and Dobbys felts he was not rights. Dobbys decides that doggy dads needs to sees the truths. Winkys is bringing the hairy one." Dobby said his eyes wide as he pointed to where Lupin had arrived.

Sirius snickered when he saw what his old friend was wearing. Moony was dressed in lounge pants of a rather indeterminate color but this was paired with a t-shirt that said werewolves go all night long. "Do I want to know where that came from?"

When Moony didn't answer other than to point and turn slightly gray, when in fact he looked as if he was about to pass out: Sirius said "Why the dramatics?"

The other wizard turned and gave him an incredulous look and then said "I would have thought you would have been in the same condition, all things considering. Why are you taking this so well?"

"I knew about it already." He replied. When Moony seemed to be shocked then when the other man's eyes narrowed, he said "All I know about our actual visit here outside of the goblins rendering the basilisk is that Dobby felt we should see it. Why I don't know. It's not as if I didn't already know that Harry risked his life by fac..."

Sirius who had been turning around at the sound of Dobby arguing with what sounded like Snape caught a better glimpse of what he had thought to be a goblin container and began to swear.

Snape whose own eyes were taking in the size of the large snake scoffed "Who is Albus trying to kid, there is no way that Potter killed that thing. No way at all. Ridiculous nonsense."

Lupin was torn between decking Snape for his insulting comments regarding Harry and calming down Sirius, rather afraid that his friend was about to go back to Azkaban, this time for a crime he would commit. This changed when he heard an angry hiss and turned to see Minerva McGonagall who looked rather scary at the moment.

Moving towards the elderly woman as he heard what she was saying, Lupin decided that discretion was sometimes a wise thing as he got out of the way of the woman who was marching forward to where Dobby was standing next to Winky.

Snape and Padfoot both stopped their own rants when they felt the heat of a cutting spell exiting her wand and take off the nose off the large face carved into the wall. The sound of it crashing to the ground was rather nerve racking drawing the attention of even the goblins.

All three wizards turned to hear her cursing, at least they thought it was cursing but since it seemed to be in Scottish Gaelic they weren't exactly sure. The only part that they heard clearly was her order to Winky. "Take me to the Headmaster, immediately."

"Mistress McGonagall, thes heads master be leavings orders nots to be disturbs." She told the elderly woman. "Hoggiewarts Heads Elf heselfs tolds us be carefuls nots to awakens him."

"Disturb? You think I wish to disturb that that sassenfrach!" The trio and by now the Goblins were watching as the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts put on light show as she hexed literally the entire face off of the stone wall as her words became even less comprehensible. It was rather clear that Winky was terrified as she backed away from the enraged witch.

The witch stopped shouting then they heard her quietly calling. "Topsy."

A house elf appeared, this one wearing the colors of Hogwarts. "Yes, Mistress."

"Take me to see that bug bitten sassenfrach, now." The house elf nodded then reaching out for the witch, popped out of view.

"Should we be worried she will really kill him?" Lupin was asking Sirius who seemed thrilled with the idea.

Severus was about to say that there was no possible way that Minerva McGonagall would harm the headmaster, but his eyes lingered on the now destroyed stone face of the founder of his house and the magic pouring off him as a result of the spells the elderly witch had used. He asked "Does she really believe that Potter did what Albus told us because I have to say that it isn't likely."

Lupin stepped in before Padfoot attacked the potions master and turning towards the annoying man said "Yes, I saw the scar on his arm where the fang sank into it. Harry killed that thing, Merlin only knows how, but he did."

Sirius moved towards the goblins and the three wizards that they brought with them and overheard what the red headed apprentice was saying. Hearing confirmation that he was a member of the Weasley family as the tall wizard mentioned how his sister had been in the chamber, he was once again reminded why his godson's life had been in danger.

Turning towards Dobby, he asked "Would you please let my godson know that I will be out of the castle and that when I return I will be speaking to him. First however, would you take me to Gringotts?"

The High Inquisitor looked at the other two wizards and said "Remus, I am going to be speaking to Harry this evening about this. He described the snake as large. When I asked how large, he said big enough,nothing more. He knew he was in trouble and tried to cover up how big this monster was. I have to go speak to the goblins and then the Minister. Snape."

"Wait, before you go." Snape was desperate for answers of when he could expect the potions ingredients for his stores and he would even ask his most loathed rival for answers if that was what it took. "When will the goblins be finished rendering the basilisk, I am going to need time to prepare.

"Prepare what?" Sirius inquired.

"The store room where they will be placed." He replied with a scowl on his face. "Why else would I care about when it will be done?"

Sirius moved closer to the other man and saw that he was completely serious. Sneering at the potions master and in anger, he said "None of this will be remaining at Hogwarts, why would you think it would stay here?"

Snape couldn't believe what he was hearing, of course the basilisk parts would remain at Hogwarts where else would they go, after all Hogwarts owned it. "Where else would they go, after all the basilisk belonged to Hogwarts."

Sirius let out a small low chuckle in spite of his rage regarding the snake and said "No, it doesn't. Harry defeated it, so according to Wizarding and Goblin law, it belongs to him. Now, if you will excuse me, there is a pompous jackass who set this in motion that I need to deal with. If you will excuse me."

Snape refused to accept that he wouldn't be able to get any of the snake parts and reached out to grab Black's arm. "Do you really think that the Headmaster will just allow you to remove any of this? Your arrogance knows no bonds, just like your godson, thinking that you are..."

Sirius placed the tip of his wand against the overly large nose of the taller wizard and said "I don't give a damn what the Headmaster wishes. As the Guardian of the boy who defeated this monster, I am the one making the decisions and if he should make the very large mistake of attempting to emotionally blackmail my godson, he will find that his pet death eater will quickly be replaced here in the castle with the direct orders of the Board of Governors and the pleasure of the Ministry. Do you understand me, Snivellus?"

Snape sneered and was about to pull his own wand when Black moved so close that he was toe to toe with the other wizard and he could feel his breath as he inhaled. "Don't even think about it, Snape, You should know, until you came down here and insulted Harry, I had intended to let Hogwarts have a portion of the snake."

Exiting the chamber, leaving Remus to stare at the snake and Snape to mutter about how Black was stealing valuable ingredients that belong to Hogwarts. The werewolf looked at the dark wizard and said "Hogwarts or yourself, Snape?"

With that, he nodded at the goblin supervising the rendering and exited the chamber with the help of Winky, leaving Snape standing in the inch deep water, staring haplessly as his dream ingredients were rendered and whisked away without his being able to do anything about it.

Sirius forgot all about his plans to deal with Lucius Malfoy after paying a visit to the bank and then the Ministry. Fudge who was sweating bullets after Sirius had shown both Amelia Bones and him the basilisk in a pensive was scared that at some point the younger and more powerful wizard would learn that he had been the one behind the removal of the Headmaster at the behest of Lucius Malfoy unaware that he already knew the whole story because Harry did.

When Black had exited his office, he hastily called in his new secretary, one Percy Weatherby and ordered him to make sure that Lucius Malfoy wasn't allowed in his office. "He is to be told that I am unavailable."

Already mentally placing the blame on his former Undersecretary, Delores Umbridge, Fudge exited the building and hurried to do the bidding of the angry wizard who had gone with Bones to speak with the Hogwarts Board of Governors.


At Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall was tearing into the Headmaster regarding his lack of common sense when it came to Harry Potter, she had been ranting at him for almost a half hour before he even found out that she had learned that the basilisk was a lot larger than he had ever admitted. By the time she was finished, he had spent so much time trying to defend himself that he never even thought to ask how she had learned the truth.

It was only after lunch when Severus Snape approached him regarding the potential potion ingredients of the basilisk that he even had a hint that goblins had been in his castle without his knowledge. "Headmaster, we must prevent Black from doing this."

"Severus, there is nothing to worry about. No matter how much Mr. Black would like to be able to do what you said he was speaking of, he would still need to access Slytherin's chamber which is impossible at this time."

"Impossible?" Snape snarled. "Impossible, he has ALREADY accessed the chamber with damn Potter's help. The goblins have already begun removing the parts after spending the morning rendering the snake."

"Severus, I rather fear that Mr. Black is pranking you again. I assure you..."

"You are wrong. I was in the chamber, Albus. I saw the basilisk myself." Snape tersely stated. "Black and Lupin were both there along with Minerva. There were several goblins with a few wizard apprentices who were searching the chamber for what else might have been there. I think one was the eldest Weasley boy."

Albus frowned and standing walked from his office and with a brisk pace was soon standing in the middle of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The sink was still in place and there was no proof of anyone having been there.

Still, he decided to call for Harry clearly something had happened and he knew that the boy was the weakest link for figuring out what it was. As he returned to his office with the intent of calling for the boy, he groaned as he recalled the order he had had to sign agreeing to only speak to the boy regarding his school work and only in the presence of his guardian.


Harry who had seen the signs up in the Gryffindor common room was amused at the rather strange note from his godfather telling every single student that on behalf of the Ministry to either write to their parents or himself in honor of National Write A Letter Day. Any student who refused would find themselves serving detention with the Weasley twins without supervision or himself.

There was also a calendar for the Month of September with a list of supposed holidays but that none of them had ever heard of on it.

Hermione after shaking her head and telling Harry that she was a bit concerned about Sirius using the twins as punishment, actually sat down and wrote a letter to her parents then asked Harry who he was going to write his letter to.

Ron had complained, saying that there was no possible way he could fit yet another assignment in as he hadn't done any of his summer homework and it was due starting Monday. He had attempted to ask to copy Harry's homework only to be told that his godfather had all of it.

"Why would he have your homework?" Hermione had asked after offering to look over Ron's work, but refusing to do it for him. The red head had let out a loud put upon sigh then began to do his work.

"I am not sure. I had it last night, but this morning there was a note given to me by Dobby saying that my godfather was holding my homework for ransom and that we would be talking tonight." He replied while frowning at how uncomfortable their favorite sofa was this year. It was almost like it wasn't the same one.

Sitting down next to Hermione and borrowing some paper off Hermione, he pulled out a quill and sat there, trying to figure what to write then noticing the smile on Hermione's face asked "What is going on? What is up with you?"

She said "If we are going to be celebrating fake holidays all year long I have an idea. I will be right back."

With that, she took the short note she had written to her parents and rolled it up then asked if she could borrow Hedwig which Harry agreed to then watched as she stopped to speak to a few people on her way out of the common room.

Harry ended up helping Ron with his homework after the red head complained about her offering to help him then abandoning him. Ron soon had his Defense Against Dark Arts, Transfiguration and Charms homework done and was now working on his first assignment for Muggle Studies.

"C'mon Harry, I need help." He said frowning as he crumpled up yet another piece of paper and used his wand to levitate it to the trash bin. "I don't know anything about muggles."

"Ron, yes you do. You know that they use cars to get around, you know that they have dentists to fix their teeth and what plugs are thanks to your dad. Don't you ever talk to your dad about his job?" He inquired.

"No, Mom says it isn't any of our concern about muggles." Ron replied. "She doesn't want to talk about such things at the dinner table."

Blinking a bit at that statement, Harry sighed then said "You spent several days with me in a muggle area, Ron. We went to visit Hermione at her dad's office that day, remember? All you are supposed to be telling Professor Burbage is what you have heard about the muggle world."

With a heavy sigh, Ron put his quill to paper and Harry was getting worried about where Hermione was when Dobby appeared and said "Master Harry Potter, your dogsfather is requesting yours joins him please."

"Ron watch out for Hermione, will you. I have to go meet Sirius." Harry said as pulled out the map he had in his pocket and asked to be shown where Sirius Black was. Once he exited through the portrait of the Fat Lady and down the staircase to what seemed like rather elaborate quarters, he knocked on his godfather's door wondering if Sirius would be able to tell him what was going on.

The door opened immediately and Harry was greeted by Sirius in a more adult mode than usual. "Hey Sirius, Dobby said you wished to see me. What is up with taking my homework?"

"We will get to that later. First, have you had any lunch?" When Harry said no, adding that they were waiting for Hermione before going, Sirius suggested that he join him and told Harry to have Dobby pass a message on to the young witch.

When they arrived in the dining room, Harry chuckled when he saw the three large buckets of KFC chicken, sides of potatoes, mac and cheese and coleslaw. "Sirius, the elves would have been happy to feed you."

"Yes, but it is also National Fried Chicken Month." His godfather replied in an attempt to lighten the mood but Harry couldn't help noticing that the normal cheerful glint wasn't in his godfather's eyes. "Remus is joining us.

Harry wandered around the room, looking at the various items from their house that Sirius had brought to Hogwarts with him and noticing the similarity to the sofa from their common room in the tower. Stopping at the strange bowl he didn't recognize on the sofa table, he noticed the runes carved into it and tried to decipher them.

Sirius was watching his godson examining the pensive he had brought to the castle from the Potter vault. James' father had often used the pensive to deal with whatever mischief that they had gotten up to at Hogwarts.

Letting in Remus, Sirius suggested that they eat first, then discuss what had been happening that day. Remus nodded, having spent time around James and his father and understanding that Sirius was following the same path with Harry his grandfather had with James.

Sirius lightened the atmosphere by mentioning his letter writing campaign. Harry grinned and said that Hermione had already wrote a note to her parents before going to the library. "And who did you write?"

"Me? But you..." Harry groaned and said "Fine, but I am writing to Remus after all he is also a parental figure."

Remus wanted nothing to do with Sirius' nutty holiday nonsense, but hearing Harry saying that had him smirking at the animagus. Finishing off the last piece of chicken breast, he asked "So, any dessert?"

After lunch, Harry was guided to the comfort of the sofa, then Sirius withdrew his memory of the basilisk that morning. Placing it in the pensive, he offered to allow his godson to enter first, then when he had joined him, he saw the apprehensive expression on his godson's face and merely asked. "Why?"

Harry gave him a weak half smile then looking over at the dead basilisk didn't bother with pretending not to understand what he was being asked. "I knew you would be pissed."

"Good." Sirius stated. Looking between the oversized snake and his godson, he said "I do not want you avoiding telling me the truth ever again, even if you know I will be pissed, because yes, I will be angry but it is my job as your godfather to be angry when you end up in danger."

Harry saw the fear in Sirius' eyes and found himself given a tight hug and told he loved Harry before his godfather smacked him on the rear once.

"Okay." Sirius said then escorting his godson out of the pensive sat down on the sofa and looked at him. Reaching out, he gave Harry a tight hug then whispered "I am so very glad you are okay but the sight of that makes me want to hex your bottom like your grandfather used to your father and myself. Be glad all I did was smack it once."

When Harry went to speak, Sirius took the package he had picked up earlier that day and handed it to his godson. "This is a notebook. I know considering what you went through, you might be uncomfortable with the idea, but this is not a punishment."

Seeing the confused look on Harry's face, he said "I want you to begin with when you and your friends started looking into this until you had finished speaking to the Headmaster to write down every single incident that happened that year. I will give you the entire month of September, then we will be speaking again after I have read what you wrote."

Harry could see that there was no escape from the assignment and knew that he didn't really deserve one considering he hadn't really lied but hadn't told the truth either.

"Oh, and I have arranged for Ms. Granger and yourself to be doing home study for History of Magic. The Board of Governors agreed due to an issue with your new professor and myself." He told Harry then looking at Remus asked if he had anything to add while returning Harry's homework that he had had Dobby bring to him the night before.

Remus shook his head no then told Harry that he agreed with Sirius and that he hoped that Harry knew that in the future, he would always have his godfather and himself to come to.

TBC