Immediately upon returning to Grimmauld Place, Sirius set out the pot he used to begin making a large pot of hot chocolate for himself and Harry.
"What do you say?" he asked, as he wordlessly summoned the pot. Harry noticed that most of Sirius's magic was nonverbal. "Between the cold and the memory, I rather think we need it."
"I won't say no to hot chocolate," Harry replied, with a smile. "Can I help?"
Sirius smiled. "Absolutely. You can pound up the Honeydukes bar. Over there, in the second drawer," Sirius instructed, opening it with a flick of his wand.
Harry nodded, and set to work. With hot mugs in their hands, they retreated to the couch, sipping in silence. After they finished their first cup and started in on a second, Sirius brought up the lesson, and they began to discuss-and process-what they had seen earlier in the Pensieve.
"What did you think?" Harry asked. "Of the boy Tom Riddle?"
Sirius considered. "About as dark as I had expected. He did set a basilisk on the school in his fifth year."
"Malfoy was thrilled when it was released again," Harry pointed out.
"There's a difference between that and doing it yourself. Not a large one, mind you, but all the same." Sirius frowned. "I do wonder how much Lucius Malfoy knew about the diary, but I suppose we'll never find out. Certainly that it was a dark object given to him by Voldemort himself."
"Not exactly a harmless plate of biscuits," Harry observed.
"Speaking of which, I have some of those waiting." Sirius flicked his wand again, and a plate of biscuits appeared at their side a few seconds later. "Help yourself."
Harry helped himself to a chocolate covered one, then spoke again. "Dumbledore burning down Riddle's closet was pretty cool, huh?"
Sirius snorted. "Kid looked like he was going to wet himself. If a teacher showed up when I was a kid and did that, well, even if had been Phineas himself, my mother would have had his head. So would have my father, for that matter. Mind you, Riddle deserved a bit of scaring."
Harry nodded, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. "What do you think made him that way?"
"Well, you can't blame entirely Tom Riddle's character on the orphanage," Sirius began, contemplatively. "It might not have been the ideal place to bring up a child, but Mrs. Cole clearly cared about her charges, and they went on outings. Hardly as bad as what you went through with the Dursleys, and you're hardly a mass murderer."
Harry chortled at that assessment of him. "Umbridge would say I was nearly as bad."
"Umbridge," Sirius practically spit out, "is a bloody liar and a toad. She also puts cat lovers to shame." Sirius said the last part with particular venom.
"Did you notice that Dumbledore didn't tell us about the ring, again?" Harry said, changing the subject. "I thought that, when I brought up the mouth organ, he might delve into the story. It wasn't exactly late, either..."
"The headmaster has a way of withholding information and dismissing people from his presence, in more ways than one." Sirius sighed. "I won't deny that the stories about Voldemort's beginnings are certainly interesting, and I don't deny that they will be useful in the final battle against him-which you will not be fighting alone," he added, rather severely, "but the lessons are not regular enough for my liking, or yours, and they certainly don't have enough information."
"I keep thinking that Dumbledore's leading up to something," Harry mused, taking another sip of his hot chocolate, then drawing closer to Sirius.
His godfather had already placed an arms around him upon sitting down, but he now added the second arm. This made drinking hot chocolate a bit more complicated for both of them, but it was worth it.
Sirius then secured the blanket around them, and Harry thought they might end up falling asleep there if they stayed much longer.
Well, they'd done it before, but Harry rather wanted to change from his robes to his pajamas before settling in for the night.
"I agree." Sirius gave Harry a sidelong look. "I just wish he'd hurry the hell up with it," he half grumbled.
"Any more that we should go over? About the memory?" Harry wondered.
"Kid was a bullying little git and became the darkest wizard that ever lived?" Sirius gave a small shrug. "I think we're seeing that he started off bad. Now, had Riddle had your relatives, they'd likely be dead after his first year at Hogwarts."
"Avada Kedavra's a big early for first year students, Sirius."
"He'd have used poison. Probably."
They drank the rest of their hot chocolate in silence, and then, as though their thoughts were entirely in sync, headed to get changed for bed.
"Would you mind if we turned in a bit early?"
Harry shook his head. "I'm rather tired."
Sirius hugged him tightly. "You've been working harder than ever, pup."
"Well, they been giving us loads of work this year," Harry admitted, not managing to hide a yawn.
Sirius nodded, keeping an arm around his shoulders. "I know, and I realize how important it is to do well on the NEWTs, but sleep deprivation is hardly conducive to good grades on those tests."
Harry frowned, just a bit, and stopped walking. "You're not thinking of pulling me out of Hogwarts, are you?"
"Not this year, certainly, and as you'll turn seventeen in July, I could hardly do something like that without your consent. That being said, pup, I have been worried about the quality of your education, and whether it might be better to spend your last year studying with me and Remus exclusively." At Harry's look of horror, Sirius raised his hands. "As I said, it's not something I'd even attempt to force upon you, and I mean it." He smiled, rather weakly. "I just hate to see you looking so tired, pup, and I want to make things easier on you. We can talk about it further at a later date, all right? I promise, though, I won't even suggest doing anything until after this year is complete, and whatever you choose, I'll be completely supportive of it."
Harry nodded, this information too new in his mind to register. Or, perhaps, it was the exhaustion that had been building up over nearly the past two months.
"All right," he managed.
"Come on, then. Time to get ready for bed," Sirius instructed, and held out his hand to Harry as though he were a small child.
Harry took it without any reluctance.
Perhaps it was exhaustion, because Harry rose after nine the following morning, and he knew that he'd received over ten hours of solid sleep. Sirius had wrapped an arm around him as soon as they entered the bed, and true to his promise, used the other hand to stroke his hair. Harry had never failed to fall asleep quickly when Sirius had done this, but the previous night, he had been sure he had been out in less than a minute. When he rose the following morning, he felt very refreshed, although less eager to begin the homework that would surely take him until at least that evening to complete.
Thinking back on the previous summer, Harry wondered if studying exclusively under Sirius and Remus might not feel like a vacation compared to current work load.
Of course, he would also miss Ron and Hermione, as well as the Hogwarts castle.
Well, Sirius had said that they would not need to discuss any changes to his education for awhile, and Harry was determined to finish out his sixth year at Hogwarts, at the very least.
Glancing over at Sirius, who was reading, his godfather put down his book and pulled the arm that was already wrapped around Harry even tighter, then joined it with the other.
"Morning, pup. Sleep well?" Sirius asked, affectionately.
"Really well," Harry answered.
After a few more moments of cuddling, Harry's bladder began to call.
"I need to use the loo," he said, rather embarrassed.
Sirius chuckled. "So do I."
As the adjoining bathroom to Sirius's bedroom had several sinks, it was hardly a surprise that there were just as many toilets, each separated by a wall, for the sake of privacy. After taking care of their business separately, Harry and Sirius washed up at different sinks.
"I was thinking of pancakes for breakfast. How does that sound?" Sirius asked.
"Incredible, especially the way you make them," Harry answered honestly, and with a grin.
"You're really easy to please, pup," Sirius laughed.
After breakfast, and changing into a pair of casual robes, Harry set up his homework for all five of his classes on the table. Sirius, sitting down next to Harry, listened as he explained his assignments for each class, including two tests the following week in Transfiguration and Charms.
"Snape and Slughorn are going to give us tests the following week, and Snape's tests are always brutal," Harry added, with some resignation.
"If you want any help..."
"Please," Harry answered, hardly waiting for Sirius to finish his sentence.
Sirius ruffled his hair, and sat down to help Harry with his work.
To his great surprise, he had finished with all of his homework midway through the day, and spent the remaining few hours studying for his two tests, with the help of Sirius. His godfather provided him with loads of helpful study tricks, and even though Harry knew that he would need to review his notes again before the tests, he felt loads more prepared than he would have otherwise.
"I'll still go over my notes before the tests," Harry promised, earning another hair ruffle from Sirius.
"You deserve the evening off, as well as tomorrow," Sirius told him. "Anything you'd like to do after dinner?"
Harry considered for a moment. While he might have asked to take a trip into the Pensieve with Sirius (his had arrived the previous week, and was working correctly), he felt that he'd had more than enough of his share of trips in the past twenty-four hours. After a full day of study, he found that what he really fancied was a game with his godfather.
"Could we play Chess? Or Exploding Snap, perhaps?" he asked.
"Suppose we add in some ice cream and treacle tart?" Sirius suggested, with a sly grin.
Harry nodded, with a smile of his own. "Even better!"
Over dinner, Sirius asked if there'd been any word about Katie Bell, and Quidditch in general.
Harry shook his head. "I'm having one of the reserve Chasers train with us. Basically told him to be prepared if he needs to play, but also if he doesn't need to. He's good. Not as good as Katie, but decent enough."
"Third year, right?"
Harry swallowed a mouthful of food. "Yeah, that's right. Most of the reserve team are second and third years, except the Seeker, who's a first year. She's really good."
"Not unlike a certain Seeker who I'm speaking with?" Sirius teased.
Harry laughed. "During tryouts, most could hardly stay on their brooms."
"Well, pup, given school brooms generally are quite awful, that's not always an indicator of talent," Sirius pointed out, but there was a teasing note to his voice. "Anyway, first years aren't allowed to have their own..."
"They'd be liable to crash them, the way most of them fly. Madam Hooch must have loads of patience to teach first years," he mused.
He, of course, had only attended one flying class. After being made the youngest Seeker in about a century, both McGonagall and Hooch had agreed that it would be a waste of his time to continue with the classes. He'd had a free period, then, which he'd sometimes used to do homework, but more often have tea with Hagrid while he waited for Ron and Hermione to be let out.
Ron's flying had improved during a year of classes, but Hermione never felt very comfortable on a broomstick.
"Well, now, there's no pressure, but if you don't win against Slytherin, I'll disinherit you," Sirius said, with mock seriousness. "Or, at the very least, limit your Christmas presents to fifteen instead of twenty. Maybe," he added, then burst out laughing.
Harry grinned. "During my second year, Wood told me to get the Snitch or die trying when we played against Slytherin."
"That was when Dobby tampered with the Bludger and Lockhart removed all of the bones in your right arm?" Sirius asked, making a face.
Harry nodded, still wincing at the memory. "We did win, though."
"You mean," Sirius said, smiling, "that you won it for the team."
"Well, yeah. I think the final score was 150 to 90," Harry recalled.
"That was the year that Lucius Malfoy bought them all Nimbus 2001 brooms?" Sirius guessed.
"Yeah, and they couldn't believe it when I showed up against Ravenclaw the next year with the Firebolt you gave me," Harry added, grinning at the memory. "Although, I'm a bit surprised that Draco Malfoy's dad didn't buy him one."
"Well, he lost the previous year against you on an inferior broom. Probably wanted to teach his son a lesson." Sirius shrugged. "I am rather surprised he didn't buy him one the following year, although he likely knew that the tournament would be called off. Maybe, he thought his son would lose interest come his fifth year."
He hadn't, though, and the fight that followed had lead to Harry, Fred, and George being kicked off the team. Harry still felt anger when he thought about it. But Umbridge was gone, or at least gone from Hogwarts, and not only was he back on the team, he was the captain. And he'd do everything in his power to make Slytherin eat dirt...whenever the match was announced.
Sirius, perhaps guessing that Harry's thoughts had darkened, stood up from the table and pulled him into a long, fierce hug. He guided him to the couch in the sitting room-they had finished their dessert by now-and sat down on the couch.
"I was teasing, you know, about disinheriting you if you lost your upcoming game," he said, staring at Harry with a level of intensity that was usually reserved for much more serious topics than Quidditch.
Harry had to smile. "I know that. I was just thinking about last year. How unfair it was that I got kicked off the team...and Umbridge...you know," he finished, awkwardly.
"Had Umbridge not been there, I expect a loss of points and maybe detention on both sides would have been the expected punishment," Sirius mused, placing an arm around Harry's shoulders, and using his free hand to run his fingers through the teenager's hair.
"She was a total dictator while at school," Harry recalled, with more than a little anger returning. He swallowed hard. "D'you know what happened to her? Especially with Fudge being sacked?"
Sirius let out a deep breath. "She managed to keep her job in the ministry. Well," he added, quickly, "I don't know if it was the same job as the one that she had before, but she's still in the ministry. Slytherin toads like her have a tendency to be like cockroaches-you can't kill them."
Harry let out a snort. "Slytherin, eh? Well, I should have guessed."
"Indeed. Your fake professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, was a Ravenclaw," Sirius noted, still running his hands through Harry's hair, watching as the boy slowly curled up against him, head in his lap.
"We saw him last year, at St. Mungos. Not intentionally, the Healer sort of forced us into visiting. Said that he liked signing autographs, and she thought it would help to bring back his memory," Harry remembered, now closing his eyes. "Is there a cure for Obliviate?"
"Oh yes. Well, not a cure, so much, as dark magic hexes to work against the charm. From what I hear, the result is such that it's far kinder to leave the victim as they are. Now, if you're modifying someone's memory in a very specific way, that's far more easily removed," Sirius explained. "But a general Obliviate is a lot more difficult to undo. It's rather a good thing that Lockhart lost his memory, because otherwise, he'd be in Azkaban for his crimes. Not just stealing work from others, which would result in mere fines, but essentially impersonating a professor and his intent of leaving Ginny to die."
"That would be fair, I think. He tried to prevent us from saving her, too," he recalled.
"I remember. And I'm not at all surprised, pup," Sirius added. "I can't imagine how awful things would be now if Voldemort had risen that fateful day. There might very well be two of him."
Harry shuddered. "Think they'd fight each other?"
"Perhaps at some point. They'd work with each other until they had the wizarding world at their heels. Fortunately, we only have to deal with one Voldemort."
"Sirius, one's more than enough."
"Right you are, pup."
Author's note:
The extent to which Harry and his classmates are given loads of homework in their sixth year is a bit inconsistent. During the early weeks, they're spending every waking moment studying. Later on, Harry manages being the Quidditch captain and spying on Malfoy without a huge amount of difficulty. I'm thinking that the work load hasn't decreased, but it wouldn't be a very interesting story if nothing happened because Harry and his friends were studying every waking moment. That being said, I do want to show that Harry (and his friends) are certainly working HARD, and that when Sirius helps out, he gets better marks and everything done faster. Am I implying something for the next year? We'll see.
Next up-The first Quidditch match of the season...leads to some rather unexpected results!
