Chapter 16: First Week and Halloween Shock

Thanks for all the reviews.

I added the Monster Book of Monsters in the last chapter. I completely forgot about it, so I went back and added it in. Not much, just a few lines.

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When they got to the castle, Hermione was taken off to the side by McGonagall. She was only gone for five minutes, but when she got back, she was glowing with happiness. At least she got back in time for the Sorting. The Welcoming Feast went off without a hitch. Everybody was happy for the food. It had been a long train ride and the thought of the dementors had been scary, and the trolley had been a long time ago. There did seem to be a lot of chocolate for afters though.

Dumbledore did give plenty of warning about the dementors. He made sure to let everybody know to stay away from them and stay on the school grounds. He also gave warning about Sirius Black being on the loose and made sure to let everybody know that if they saw anything they were to let an adult know right away. Then he introduced Remus Lupin as the DADA professor and Hagrid as the Care of Magical Creatures teacher.

Both men received rather lackluster greetings. Remus because he was in poor quality clothes and Hagrid only received overwhelming applause from the Gryffindor Table. Nobody else seemed to think he would make a great teacher.

The first week of school was interesting. Hermione went to all her classes, but she was getting tired out even during that week. Amy and Harry were keeping a close eye on her. She was not skipping any classes and she was doing her homework, but she was already getting circles under her eyes. She was already disillusioned with Divination. Harry was pretty sure that she wasn't going to stay there very much longer.

He was glad that he didn't take that class from what she was telling him about it. He had taken Runes, Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures. Millie had talked to him about his electives and said that if he wanted to make anything of his life, these were the classes he needed to take. They would be harder, but he would make something of himself.

"I'm telling you, Phil, it was upsetting," Harry said as they were sitting in the Study Hall. Each of them had books, ink, quills, and parchment spread out around them.

"Why do you say that?" Phil asked, going over his homework. It was his NEWT year and even this early in the year, he needed to buckle down hard and get his work done. It was mostly revision, but he needed that.

"I wanted to see what my Boggart was, and it wasn't fair that he cut me off like that. Everyone else in the class got to see what their Boggart was, but I didn't. He just shoved me out of the way and that wasn't fair," the teen said, almost pouting like a kid.

"Why do you wanna see what your Boggart is so bad?" the older teen asked, still writing on his assignment.

"What if it's something that comes back and haunts me later? I mean, what if I get caught unawares?" Harry said, tapping his quill on a parchment, making splotches everywhere. He was going to have to rewrite this assignment.

"I guess I can see where you'd see that. I don't know what my Boggart is," Phil said, getting a thoughtful look on his face. He wondered if Lupin was going to be doing that in all his classes. He had already had his DADA class this week, but he wondered if the man was going to bring it back.

"It's still not fair, but that's not even the worst class that I had. The worst class that I had was Care of Magical Creatures. Do you know that Malfoy got hurt in that? Now they're going to kill Buckbeak?" Harry asked, getting truly upset. He really hated Draco Malfoy and his prima donna ways.

"What happened?"

"Well, you know how they gave us that Monster Book of Monsters? And how Millie told us how to open it?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that started the whole thing. Most people hadn't figured it out, and they were using belts to keep it closed so Draco kept calling Hagrid an oaf and making fun of him in class. And that made Hagrid all flustered. And then he brought out the hippogriffs, which made Malfoy scorn him further. I got to fly on him, which was wicked, but Malfoy wouldn't listen to him and kept making fun of him. And then when Hagrid told him not to insult the hippogriffs, Malfoy didn't listen. So, when he got up to the hippogriff, he called him a name and Buckbeak attacked. Draco started screaming that he was going to see Hagrid fired and Buckbeak dead," Harry said, all in one breath.

"Every fool knows you don't insult a hippogriff," Phil said, shaking his head at the idiot.

"I know Malfoy is a fool," Harry said, trying not to laugh, because it was not a laughing matter.

"Do you have proof that Hagrid told Malfoy not to insult the hippogriff?" the older teen asked, laying down his quill for a moment. He could see how serious Harry was.

"Only the word of all the kids in this class," Harry said, not really sure what good a bunch of kids could do.

"That should be proof enough. Get a statement going," Phil suggested, picking up his quill and starting on his homework again. He really needed to get this done.

"I don't think the other Slytherins will sign it and leaves the Gryffindors," Harry said. He wasn't sure how good a statement would do. Their petition didn't get Snape into the DADA classroom last year.

"Well, have all the Gryffindors sign it and we'll see what we can do about saving Buckbeak. I'll see what I can do on my end. I'll look up some legal things to see what happens there. Uh, I know somebody who's got a father who's a lawyer. We'll see what he has to say. Just because Malfoy has money doesn't mean he's got a case. Don't worry, we'll see what we can do," Phil said, even though he was still concentrating on his homework.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do," Harry said. Even though he didn't think it would do any good, he would put in the effort to save Buckbeak. He was going to see if he could get some of the Slytherins to sign too. After all, not all of them can like Malfoy.

And with that, the two continued their studying.

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A month went by, and Hermione was extremely frazzled. Amy sat her down in an empty classroom to try and talk her out of taking all those classes.

"Alright, Hermione. It's time for you to give up the Time Turner," she said, gently grasping both of her hands in hers. She was trying not to come off as bossy, but as caring.

"But I'm learning so much," Hermione said, tears prickling in the side of her eyes. She had tried to be so strong in doing this, but she knew that she wasn't. It was just too much work. That, and there was just so much wrong with what she was learning.

"But look at you, dear. Your hair is a mess, your eyes are in circles, and you are completely out of control. You snapped at Harry the other day for no reason," Amy said, running her hand down Hermione's hair.

Hermione sighed. She knew the other girl was right. "Okay," she said. "I'll go and give up the Time Turner tomorrow and I'll give up Muggle Studies and Divination. I haven't really learned anything of Muggle Studies, even though it is pretty fascinating how they see muggles from the other side." However, Amy had been right, it was pretty much a study on the horse and buggy. And not what muggles were like now.

"And Divination?" was the next question.

"You were right about that. It's a complete crock. I haven't learned anything in that class except how to predict somebody dies every day. Harry's not even in that class, and she predicts his death every single day," Hermione said, showing her frustration by slamming her fists on her knees. She didn't know how she kept her temper in that class. All she ever wanted to do was throw her book at the teacher's head.

"I wonder why she's picking on Harry like that," Amy said with a confused look on her face.

"Probably because he's the Boy-Who-Lived," Hermione said with a frustrated look on hers.

"Probably. Well, I'm so glad you see it my way. I hate to have to do this to you. I'm not your mum or anything," the older girl said, still running her hand down Hermione's hair. She did try and tame that hair as often as she could. It was a futile effort, but she did give it a shot.

"I know you're just looking out for me. And I thank you for that. But I've learned ever so much. I still have the books and I can continue learning from the books even though the teacher in Divination is a crock. There is still so much to learn from the book," Hermione said, getting some of her enthusiasm back. She always did learn better from books than she did from teachers, anyway. She just got so frustrated with the pace of the classrooms. It was like waiting.

"Are you going to keep Care of Magical Creatures?" Amy asked.

"I'm not sure. I love Hagrid to death, but I don't see where Care of Magical Creatures is going to help in my career choice," Hermione said, worrying her lip.

"What is your career choice?" was Amy's next question.

"I'm not sure yet. That's why I'm not sure whether I'm keeping the class or not," Hermione answered with a pucker in her brow. She knew she wanted to go into the ministry in some capacity, she just wasn't sure how yet.

"I think you should probably keep it for now. I have a feeling you're going to be a crusader," Amy said, remembering how she met the girl.

"Oh?"

"Well, you know about the house elves, correct? That's how we met, after all, remember?" the older girl pointed out.

"Yes, I remember," the younger girl said, a confused look on her face. She wasn't quite sure where this was going.

"Well, if you're going to take up the fight of the house elves, you're going to need Care of Magical Creatures. You're going to need to learn the ins and outs of all the magical creatures so you know how to stand up for the rights of them," Amy said, getting on her soapbox a little bit. She, too, was a crusader for the rights of house elves. And while as a Muggleborn, she couldn't do anything to free them, she was hoping that one day she could get enough people together that they would get at least the right to be not abused.

"Oh, I understand what you're saying. Yes, I think I'll keep that class then," Hermione said, bouncing in her chair just a little bit.

"Good for you. If I were you, I'd grab another book besides the one that Hagrid gave you. There are much better ones on the market, and the Monster Book of Monsters is made basically for just that, monsters," Amy said once again, trying to tame her hair. She got it in a ponytail, so that was better.

"Yes, I'll look into that," Hermione said. She twisted her head about, trying to see how the ponytail felt. It felt pretty good, actually.

With that, the two girls hugged and left the room. The next day, Hermione gave up her time Turner to McGonagall.

"Are you sure this is what you wanna do, Miss Granger?" The Prim and proper Transfiguration teacher asked as she took the Time Turner from her most promising student. She was very disappointed that the girl wasn't going to use it for the entire year.

"Yes, ma'am," Hermione said, folding her hands and putting them in her lap.

"Very well then. I'm sorry to see such a brilliant mind wasn't able to handle it," the older woman sniffed as if she was very disappointed.

"I'm sorry to say that such a brilliant mind such as yours wasn't able to see that a young mind such as mine should not be tortured in such a way," Hermione said with a sniff as she got up and walked out of the room.

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Soon enough, it was Halloween. Everybody was having a great time. Harry was able to go to Hogsmeade because Millie had signed his permission slip. At first, they weren't going to accept it, but she came up to the school and showed them the Power of Attorney. Dumbledore was not happy about that, but he had no say.

Millie left the castle pretty smug. She had taken away guardianship from Dumbledore. She had legal say over Harry's health, his money, and his well-being. She was pretty content about that. As it was right now, she was having the goblins do a complete audit on his accounts. So far, they hadn't found anything misleading or incorrect, which she was very happy about.

Harry took everybody to Millie's shop, and they were all very impressed with her equipment. Most of them didn't buy anything. Well, some bought a few things, but most of them just looked around. Dean, who was ever a sports fan, did buy a couple of exercise things that he could use at the school. He was always going on that the running just didn't cut it. He was an exercise buff. He needed more than running to keep in shape. So, he purchased a complete set of dumbbells.

The rest of the time was spent at the candy shop and the joke shop. Finishing up at the Three Broomsticks.

Harry, who'd spent most of his summer in Hogsmeade, was pretty bored, actually. But he did have a good time showing his friends around. He got to see Padfoot again and he and the dog spent their time as a tour guide, showing everybody the nooks and crannies of the village.

At some point, halfway through that, the dog ran off to who knows where, and Harry was pretty upset about that, but he knew that the dog would be back, so it was okay. According to Millie, Padfoot took off all the time and always came back. She said she thought about putting a leashing charm on the dog, but then decided since he was a stray, he was just used to his freedom and always came back for the food.

When it was time to go back to the school, there was a bit of a panic among the teachers. They hustled everybody into the Great Hall.

"What's going on here?" Harry asked as they milled their way around the Great Hall.

"I'm not sure," Phil said. He had met up with Harry, and the other teens, when they came up to the school. He and his other Hufflepuff friends had been in the Hogsmeade village also.

"Well, do you know anything that's going on?" Seamus asked as he looked around to try and see what was going on, but none of the teachers were anywhere, so all he had was a bunch of confused kids asking the same question he was.

"I think somebody tried to break into the Gryffindor common room," somebody in the back said, their voice carrying over the crowd.

"Why would anybody try and break into the Gryffindor common room? Everybody was at Hogsmeade," someone else asked. Everybody looked around, but a great deal of people were looking straight at Harry. Everybody knew that Sirius Black was after him.

"Not everybody. The younger years were still there," somebody else pointed out. Even though nobody really believed that anybody was after the younger years.

"Yeah, but who wanna kill the younger years?" Hermione said, voicing everybody else's thoughts.

"As far as I know, the younger years were all in the Great Hall doing studies," Ginny said, looking around at all her companions, that were all sitting at the table where they had been when the Gryffindor common room was broken into.

"Are you sure about that?" her brother Ron asked.

"Yes, we were all right here," she said, nodding her head with all the others.

"So somebody tried to break into the empty common room," Dean said with a tone of disbelief. That just didn't make any sense to anybody. Why would anybody break into an empty common room?

"That's my understanding," Ginny said, looking at Dean was something akin to fancy. Not like the crush she had on Harry Potter, but there was interest there.

"Why would anybody want to do that?" was the question on quite a few lips.

"I don't know. All I know is the Fat Lady is all torn up," the redheaded girl said. "One of the teachers came down here and said that. Right before she told us we couldn't go up into the Gryffindor common room."

"That's awful," Lavender said, putting her hands to her cheek in mortification.

"How are we gonna get into our common room?" Ron wondered, thinking about his soft, comfortable bed.

"Attention, students," said McGonagall, from the platform at the front of the Teachers' Table. "As of right now everybody is going to be staying in the Great Hall until the castle has been searched. We have reason to believe that Sirius Black has been on the grounds, and we are taking this very seriously. Therefore, you are to stay here in the Great Hall until the whole entire school has been searched." She looked at them with pursed lips and a dour face.

"Where are we going to sleep?" somebody asked from the middle of the crowd. Though everybody else was thinking it too. Nobody wanted to give up their nice comfortable beds in the dorms, and especially when only the Gryffindor common room was the one broken into. It didn't make any sense to them. Why would everybody else have to suffer? And even then, the common room hadn't been breached. Why did they have to sleep in the Great Hall? That didn't make any sense.

"You will be provided with bed rolls and you will be sleeping here tonight," she said, with the perfectly calm voice, as if this were perfectly normal and it was just a camp out.

"Oh man," said a lot of people.

"Dinner will be served shortly," McGonagall said as she stepped away from the dais and moved on to do what she had to do, which was to continue the search for Sirius Black.

Everybody went to their own table and sat down and waited for dinner to be served, but there was a lot of speculation going on and a lot of fear that Sirius Black was in the castle. The Halloween Feast was cancelled, which pissed a lot of people off.

"So, Harry, are you scared?" Ron asked, taking up a chicken drumstick and eating a bite.

"No, why would I be?" Harry said, confused at the question. He served himself up some beef stew. It was getting chilly now.

"Well, he's after you, isn't he?" the redhead pointed out, shoving another bite of food in his mouth.

"Are we sure about that?" Harry asked, still wondering if it were true. After all, the man hadn't made any aggressive movements towards him yet.

"Well, that's what everybody says," was the answer.

"Yeah, but that's only speculation. We don't know that for sure," Harry countered. He didn't believe what he read in the Daily Prophet and had found nothing in his research that proved otherwise.

"He tried to break into the Gryffindor common room, and that's where you live," Dean pointed out, trying to get in the conversation. He didn't want to sound like a Debbie Downer, but it was a fact.

"That doesn't mean anything," Harry tried to bluster. He really didn't want a mass murderer after him.

"Face it, Harry, Sirius Black is after you," Ron said, pointing his fork at the other teen.

"I guess. I still don't see why he's after me, though. I didn't do anything to him," Harry said, slumping his shoulders in defeat. He shoved some food in his mouth and chewed. He didn't really taste it though.

"If I were you, I'd watch my back," the redhead said, though there was some sympathy in that comment.

"Thanks, mate," Harry stated, a bit bitterly.

Dinner was not a happy meal, but it was eaten and as soon as it was done, everybody cleared off the tables, and they disappeared. Bed rolls were laid out and they spent the night in the Great Hall. Harry overheard some of the teachers talking about how Sirius Black might have been there to kill Harry, but that didn't make sense because Harry wasn't even in the castle when he attacked.

Harry did overhear Snape trying to say that it was Remus' fault that Sirius was in the castle in the first place. He did wonder about that. Did that mean that Lupin knew Black? But that also meant that Snape knew Black too. They must have all known each other in school. Obviously, Snape didn't like either Lupin or Black.

But that was neither here nor there. He was going to have to talk to Lupin to see what he knew about Black.

The next morning the search was over. Black was not found, so they were all able to go back to their common room. Nothing was out of place, and everyone relaxed. Harry was just glad things were back to normal. Well, as normal as things got in Hogwarts.

"Hey, Harry, come here a moment," Fred said, waving Harry to the side of the common room.

"What's up?" Harry asked as he came up to the twins.

"We've got something for you. It'll help you make sure there's no one after you," George said, handing Harry a blank piece of parchment.

They went through the steps on how to activate it and showed him how to close it too.

"This is great!" Harry enthused, looking at all the names in the common room and then noted a strange name in his dorm. "Shite," he said, running from the room to the Great Hall, hoping Phil was there.

The teen was not, but Cedric Diggory was. "Cedric, do you know where Phil is?" he asked, vibrating in place.

"No, I don't know where he is right now. Is it important?" the older boy asked. He didn't like the look on Harry's face. He'd never seen Harry so shaken before.

"Yeah, it's very important. Do you know where Amy is?" Harry asked. His face was very pale, and he was shaking something fierce.

"I can go find them, but I'll check in the common room," Cedric offered, getting up and taking his books with him.

"Let's go.," Harry said, heading towards the entrance of the Great Hall.

And with that, the two of them ran off to the Hufflepuff common room. Cedric went inside to see if the two were there and he came out two minutes later with both Phil and Amy in tow.

"Thank Merlin, you're here. I have to show you something," Harry said, pulling them off to the side. He pulled out the map and activated it and showed them the name of Peter Pettigrew resting on Ron's bed.

"Shite," they both said, going pale.

They both knew the story about Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. Millie had made sure they both knew. She wanted to make sure they knew so that they could tell Harry anything they knew and researched on. Pettigrew is supposed to be dead. Dead men don't rest on beds in dorms.

"What are we going to do about this?" Harry asked, He stood up, taller, ready to face any action.

"You're not going to do anything. We're going to go and talk to Susan," Phil said, waving a finger between him and Amy.

"Who is Susan? Susan Bones?" Harry asked, vaguely remembering the girl from some of his classes. He did have to wonder what she had to do with it, though.

"Yes, she's going to call her aunt and then the aunt will come and take care of it," Phil confirmed. He knew that she was the head of the DMLE and that she would love to take care of this. If there was one thing Amelia Bones did not like, that was injustice.

"You just go back to your common room and don't say anything to anybody," Amy said, turning Harry around and pushing him towards the Gryffindor common room.

"OK, I'll take your word for it," Harry said, though he was very reluctant to go. He really wanted to be a part of the action. He wasn't some little kid. He was a teenager. He was thirteen years old.

"Trust us, we'll take care of it," Phil said. He and Amy turned around and went back to the Hufflepuff common room. They had things they had to get done.

Harry trusted them and went back to his common room, but he was a bundle of nerves and was pretty much vibrating in place the whole time. A half an hour later a group of Aurors came into the common room, marched up the stairs, and into the third-year boys' dorm. They came out five minutes later with a struggling man. They didn't say anything to anybody. They just stormed out of the room with that man. And that was that.

Harry, although, breathed a sigh of relief when he took out the map and didn't see the name Peter Pettigrew on it anymore.