On Thursday evening, during their usual nighttime chat, Sirius proposed a new idea that would follow Dumbledore's lessons the day after the following one.
"I was thinking of taking you back to Grimmauld Place for the night. Give us some time to talk about whatever lesson Dumbledore has planned, and make sure you get a good night's sleep," Sirius offered. "What do say?"
"It sounds great, but is it allowed?" Harry wondered.
"Back in my day, it was permitted, as long as you get permission from your head of house. In our case, during the times you wish to spend the night, I will simply inform Dumbledore when you'll be leaving and when you'll return. In this case, tomorrow, since I'd rather you not miss class or breakfast with your friends on Monday," Sirius replied.
Harry grinned. "Inform him, huh?"
Sirius returned the smile with a rather shrewd one of his own. "Keep in mind that I'm continuing to allow him use my house as headquarters. That's in spite of the fact that, even though he knew the truth as of the end of your third year, he didn't even try to get me a trial. It was only after the Ministry saw that I was in the Department of Mysteries and clearly fighting for the Order that they dropped all charges against me. So, yes, pup, I'll be informing him of certain things, when it's beneficial to you, and when we're in agreement. That's not to say," he added, quickly, "that you don't, as muggles say, have a vote. You're nearly of age, after all, and I'm not going to bark orders at you. I have no qualms about doing so with certain others who I just mentioned."
"Thanks," Harry murmured, rather relieved to hear that Sirius wasn't going to boss him around as he planned to with Dumbledore. "Not that, you know, I know everything."
Sirius snickered. "Me neither, and I've been around quite a bit longer than you."
Harry smiled again, then changed the subject.
"Hermione thinks this year is going to be loads of work. Snape gave us a ton of homework, not that we hadn't expected it from him, and we have a lot of reading to do for Potions. Not that I don't know it pretty well from you-"
"-Better than pretty well," Sirius interrupted, proudly.
"Right." Harry couldn't hide his grin at the compliment. "I haven't had Charms or Transfiguration or Herbology yet. Hermione's already gotten loads of homework from Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Do you think she's right, about how it will be like last year?" Harry wondered.
Sirius sighed a little. "Hogwarts is among the best of the schools for magic, but your teachers enjoy dolling out homework like it's candy. Which is rather ridiculous, as they're the ones who have to grade it, but they truly think that all this reading up on theory will make it easier to learn the spells and, eventually, pass your exams."
"You don't think so, then?" Harry wondered.
Sirius shrugged. "Remus found the theory interesting. He was like Hermione in that way. He'd do extra reading just for the fun of it. Your dad and I, now, we didn't exactly hate the theory, but we saw it as a means to an end. Who cares if you spend days reading about Shield Charms and why you're supposed to tilt your wand hand three degrees upwards if you can't make the spell work? If you're too distracted about the details of the process to complete the process?" Sirius asked, and his tone was gentle, yet the same teaching one that he'd used over the summer. "You don't think about how spells you've been using for years work, do you? You just say them, or think them, and they work."
"Yeah, I guess," Harry agreed. "It was a lot harder in the beginning, and now, stuff like Lumos and Alohomora and Expelliarmus are second nature. Even Shield Charms are really easy."
"Exactly, because you've used them so many times. You've practiced them. Not because you've read books on how they work," Sirius explained. "And the same thing applied to any charm or hex you'll learn this year."
Harry nodded. "So, basically, I should do the readings and the essays, but put my focus on practicing, and getting good at nonverbal magic?"
"You already are good at nonverbal magic, pup," Sirius said, smiling proudly. "Otherwise, yes. Really, if you wouldn't earn detentions for not turning in your work, I'd tell you not to do the essays. Shame about that." He made a face. "I've never been one to advocate for homeschooling magical kids, mostly because the few I knew came from families that would make the Malfoys look tolerant. However, if I was teaching you that way, I think you'd be happier, in some ways."
"I'd have you, but I'd miss my classmates," Harry pointed out. "I'd have never become friends with Ron and Hermione."
"I know, pup." Sirius smiled again. "I remember my sixth year. A lot of my classmates, ones who got good grades, ended up struggling. They still passed their NEWTs, but they spent almost two years thinking they would fail. I don't want this to happen to you."
Harry nodded. "Can I ask you for help?"
"Anytime, pup," Sirius promised.
Harry soon realized just how much work this year would be. By the end of the first week, it was clear that he, Ron, and Hermione would be spending all of their free periods studying and completing their massive amounts of homework. Not that this would be enough time to get everything done, as they still ended up studying in the evenings. Hermione, who was taking two more classes than Ron and Harry, had even more work to complete, but she didn't seem to be as overworked as she had been during their third year.
Ron and Harry made a private deal to keep an eye on her, as the stress hadn't really shown until after the Christmas holidays.
"Probably helps that she had her nose in her books ever since we bought them," Ron confided to Harry, when they had a free period and Hermione was in Ancient Runes.
They had taken a break from Transfiguration, which Sirius had recommended for the best studying results.
"Never work for more than an hour without taking at least a fifteen minute break," he had told Harry the previous evening. "Your mind needs a chance to absorb the information. Walk around, have a chat with Ron or Hermione, eat some chocolate. You'll feel better afterwards, and learn more."
Harry wished he had been aware of this study method during his OWL year.
"Did she memorize all of the course books again?" Harry asked, grinning.
"She only managed half, but I reckon she knows the rest nearly as well," Ron chortled. "Between you and her, my grades will be the worst this year."
Harry shrugged, looking a bit uncomfortable. "You'll be able to use magic outside of school next summer."
"And every summer after that," Ron added, looking happy at the idea. "Can't wait to try pranking Percy, if he ever comes back."
"Still no word?"
"No, and Mum gets quiet whenever anyone mentions his name. Git." Ron sighed. "Right, should we get back to this homework?"
"Might as well," Harry agreed, unenthusiastically.
After spending the majority of Saturday studying with Ron and Hermione, and feeling guilty that there had been no time to smooth things over with Hagrid for not signing up for the NEWT level Care of Magical Creatures, they all went to the Great Hall for dinner at 5:00.
"What time will Sirius be here?" Hermione asked, once they had begun eating.
Harry swallowed his bite of chicken. "Around 7, and he's going to take me home afterwards for the night. Whatever Dumbledore wants these lessons to be about, Sirius wants to go over what he thinks afterwards, and it might take more than an hour."
"He doesn't trust Dumbledore, then?" Ron asked, through a mouthful of chicken.
"Not as much as he once did," Harry admitted. "Nor do I, for that matter."
He half expected they to put up a fight, but they didn't.
"Do you?" he asked, pointedly.
"I think he's a great wizard, and certainly wants the best," Hermione said, diplomatically. "But he has a tendency to...my mum used to say that someone would overlook the forest for the trees. In his case, it's the opposite."
"Say what?" Ron asked, confused.
"Overlooking the forest for the trees means that you're too keen on the details of something, without focusing on the major issue at hand," Hermione explained. "Dumbledore doesn't do that, not at all. He's far more focused on the big picture."
"To the extent of forgetting, or overlooking, the individuals," Harry finished. "Seeing them as tools, even. Like he did with me, last year."
"And Sirius wants to put a stop to that? How's he supposed to do that?" Ron asked, rather bluntly.
"Well, we're going to talk after each lesson, for starters," Harry began. "And take it as it goes, I suppose. Anyway, it's not like he's the only person I'll tell stuff to. I'm not going to keep anything from you, even for a little while. No matter how risky it could be."
At Hermione and Ron's reddening faces, he knew that they were thinking of the summer before their fifth year. They had kept Harry in the dark, completely, without even trying to write in some sort of code. They could have, Harry knew, and even though they had admitted this and apologized, it had still stung.
It wasn't likely to happen again. Living with Sirius, he'd have the information he needed. Even Dumbledore had promised to tell him everything, at the end of the previous year. At the same time, he trusted his godfather to tell him what he needed to know a whole lot more than he trusted the headmaster.
After they finished eating, Harry and his friends headed back to the Gryffindor common room to wait for Sirius. He arrived in the fire promptly at 6, and then emerged and banished the soot from his robes without giving it a second thought.
Harry, who still preferred broomsticks over any other form of magical transportation, felt some admiration for Sirius's ability to handle the method of floo travel so well.
Before he could think too much about this, he was swallowed up in a bear hug by Sirius. Not feeling the least bit of embarrassment, he hugged his godfather back, tightly.
They let go rather sooner than they would have had they been on their own, and Sirius, grinning, turned to Ron and Hermione, arms outstretched.
"Any takers?"
"I won't say no to a free hug!" Hermione grinned, and reached out her arms to Sirius for a slightly briefer hug than Harry's.
Ron was next, and he emerged with a similar grin on his face.
It occurred to Harry that he had not been the only one homesick for his family this week. Perhaps, his friends just hid it better, because they would have thought it insensitive to complain in front of Harry who, until his fourth year, had no real family of which to speak.
They sat down in armchairs around the fire, and Sirius let out a sigh of happiness as he let his body rest into the squashy chair.
"I'd forgotten how comfortable these were," he murmured, closing his eyes briefly.
"Remember how hard it was to get the good ones when we were in our first and second years?" Ron reminisced, lifting his feet onto a table.
"Sure, because you were little firsties," Sirius laughed, opening his eyes. "Older students had priority. It was the same when I was here. They even kicked out the younger ones if they managed to get the good chairs."
"That never happened to us, did it?" Harry wondered, and Ron and Hermione shook their heads.
"No, they just hogged them," Ron laughed. After a pause, he added, "Like we're doing now."
"Being older has its perks. More homework, but more comfortable chairs in which to do that homework," Sirius noted. "Sometimes, James would plop himself down on one of the chairs, wearing his invisibility cloak. We were always seated next to him, so it looked mighty odd for such a lovely seat to be vacant."
"Would a student try to sit down?" Hermione asked, looking rather suspicious.
"Yes, and they'd get quite a start when they encountered an invisible body!" Sirius chortled. "They'd take it well, and Remus would usually give them some chocolate to make up for it. We were pranksters, of course, but we weren't mean to members of our own house. Word soon got around that if the other three chairs were occupied, so was the fourth."
This got a laugh all around, and Harry made a mental note to ask Sirius to tell him more stories about himself and the Marauders.
Of course, experiencing the memory was the best way, but listening to Sirius tell a story was nearly as good.
They spent the next couple of hours chatting with Sirius, and asking him more questions about his time at Hogwarts. Hermione, of course, wanted to know more about the NEWTs, but she seemed as happy as Ron when he told them things that did not relate to their seventh year exams.
He had a wealth of knowledge about Slughorn, most of which Harry already knew.
"As far as teaching goes, he's much better than Snape. Patient with students, he is, and very enthusiastic without being a prat about it. Unfortunately, and here's the only place where Snape had the upper end, the textbook you will use for the next two years is dreadfully insufficient. The previous ones were, as well, but Snape always wrote out his version of the instructions. I gave Harry notes for improving the potions, and they give the results that you should receive. I understand that he's been sharing them with you?" At Hermione and Ron's nod, Sirius smiled. "Good. That will help you, both in creating the potions and in succeeding in your NEWTs."
"But why does Hogwarts want us to use such a poor textbook?" Hermione questioned, looking as though she were personally injured by the textbook's insufficiency.
"Because there aren't many masters of potions, and that's what was around back then. Leading to decades of substandard potions by students, and only the truly creative thinkers-Snape included-thought to experiment. It also required a lot of knowledge about the theory behind the potions process, but I doubt that Snape bothered to teach you that in the five years you had him," Sirius added, a bit bitterly.
This was all familiar to Harry, but he kept silent as Sirius explained everything to Ron and Hermione, who seemed interested.
"I wish you were teaching the class!" Harry blurted out.
Sirius wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Probably better that I wasn't. I rather have too much of a reputation for causing trouble in these types of classes."
Which led to Ron and Harry begging for more information, which he happily told them, and they were nearly late to Dumbledore's first lesson as a result.
A/N: Still on vacation for another week, but as I'm inspired and having fun with writing, I plan to be doing some of that (and updating) along with beach and boardwalk fun. :) Currently, I'm onto chapter 33, but lost some of it earlier when it failed to save correctly. I plan to continue to have a few chapters saved for every one that I will post.
As always, reviews are welcome and most appreciated!
