Not my best work by a long shot! I'm trying to keep the creative juices flowing, but it's starting to dry up! I had to cut this chapter short because the next chapter has Snape substituting for Lupin as well as the Quidditch match! I had to stop somewhere.

Enjoy!


Chapter 15

Break-In

"My legs are sore!" Rin groaned as he plopped into the couch in the common room. He, Ron, and Hermione quickly started emptying his pockets as well as their own. The two somehow made up when they met up at the Three Broomsticks. Whatever Shiemi said to Hermione must've done the trick because Hermione made sure Crookshanks was shut up in the girls' dormitory when they returned.

"We got as much as we could carry like we promised," Ron said to Harry.

"Thanks," said Harry as he helped himself to a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps. "What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?"

"Practically everywhere," Rin moaned. Hermione handed him a bottle of water which he chugged in minutes.

"The post office, Harry!" Ron exclaimed. "About two hundred owls, all sitting on shelves, all color-coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get there!"

"Shiemi Moriyama sends her greetings, by the way," Hermione added. Harry grinned at that. While he and Shiemi didn't talk much last year, she did offer him moral support when it seemed like the whole school was against him.

Harry then told the others what he did while the others were in Hogsmeade. After telling them that he saw Professor Lupin drink an entire potion Snape gave him, Ron's jaw fell to the floor.

"Lupin drank it?" he gasped. "Is he mad?"

"Did he lose a bet or something?" asked Rin.

The quartet left the common room to go to the Halloween feast, still talking about Snape.

"But if he… you know…" Hermione looked around to make sure no one else was listening. "...if he was trying to poison Lupin, he wouldn't do it in front of Harry."

"Yeah, maybe," Harry said as they entered the Grand Hall.

~0~0~0~

"Is something the matter between Professor Snape and Professor Lupin?" Luna Lovegood asked.

Yukio took a bite of his salad before looking where Luna was looking. Sure enough, it seemed that Snape kept giving Lupin dirty looks.

"I've never seen Snape give anyone the stink eye before, not even last year when Professor Lockhart was teaching," he recalled.

Michael, Anthony, and Terry joined in and also saw Snape.

Terry whistled. "That's the dirtiest look I've ever seen Snape give anyone," he remarked. "He must really have it out for Lupin."

"I wonder why?" asked Michael.

Luna was about to answer when Anthony held up a hand. "So help me if you say anything about Nargles and Wrackspurts," he warned her.

Luna let out an annoyed huff. "Well it's either Wrackspurts or Blibbering Humdingers," she said.

"What's a Blibbering Hum-" Yukio tried to ask before Terry slapped his hand over his mouth.

"The less we know, the better," he hissed.

"Maybe Snape and Lupin knew each other when they were students," Michael suggested.

"If they did know each other in school, they clearly were not friends," Anthony added.

The feast concluded with entertainment from the Hogwarts ghosts. The Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, made a successful reenactment of his botched beheading.

As everyone filed out of the Great Hall, Yukio noticed Malfoy taunting Harry and his friends once again.

"The Dementors give their love, Potter!" Malfoy taunted.

Rin was quick to make a comeback. "Buckbeak sends you his love, Malfoy!" he taunted back. Ron and Harry snorted at the look on Malfoy's face.

Yukio chuckled and shook his head. Malfoy's assault from the hippogriff clearly did not stop him from taunting and teasing Harry. Yukio was just glad that Rin made sure Malfoy didn't forget about his own blunder.

~0~0~0~

Yukio was quite confused that everyone returned to the Great Hall not even thirty minutes after they left. The Gryffindors were already there. The Hufflepuffs and the Slytherins soon followed. Yukio soon broke away from his fellow Ravenclaws and joined Rin and the others.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Sirius Black, that's what's going on," Rin answered.

"What do you mean?"

"He tried to get into Gryffindor Tower during the feast," Harry explained. "The portrait of the Fat Lady guarding the entrance was slashed into ribbons."

Yukio's eyes widened. "What?! Sirius Black's in the castle? Seriously?" he asked in a panic.

Rin nodded. "Peeves confirmed it," he answered.

Yukio sweatdropped. "Peeves doesn't strike me as a reliable source of information," he said.

"When Dumbledore's the one asking the questions, that poltergeist's behavior does a complete one-eighty," his brother replied.

Hermoine nodded in agreement. "That's the most behaved Peeves has ever been," she remarked.

After Dumbledore announced to the student body that they'd have to spend the night in the Great Hall and summoned enough sleeping bags for everyone to sleep in, the quintet settled in a corner and talked amongst themselves. They also listened in on other people's theories about how Black got into the castle.

"He probably knows how to Apparate," said Ravenclaw third year Ryuji Suguro to his friends Konekomaru Niwa and Renzo Shima.

Hermione sneered at her academic rival's back before turning to her friends. "Honestly, am I the only one who ever bothered to read Hogwarts: a History?" she asked crossly.

"Probably," Ron answered. "Why?"

"For starters, it's impossible to Apparate in here," Hermione replied. "Not to mention Dementors are guarding every entrance to the school. And Filch knows all the secret passages."

"Filch can't be at every secret entrance at once," Harry argued.

"Harry's right," Yukio agreed. "Besides, I don't think Filch has what it takes to be a Tamer so familiars reporting to him wouldn't work."

"Professor Shura could help, right?" asked Rin.

"Only if she tells her nagas to help Filch," Hermione countered.

"Lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"

The floating candles all went out at once. The only light came from the ghosts who were drifting in and out of the room and the enchanted ceiling which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. It made Rin feel like he was out camping.

~0~0~0~

The Fat Lady's portrait was taken down and replaced with the portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat gray pony. No one was happy about it. The knight spent half his time challenging people to duels and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords, which he changed twice a day.

"He's a complete lunatic!" Seamus complained angrily to Percy one day. "Can't we get someone else?"
"We missed a tutoring session with Professor Flitwick thanks to him!" Rin added. He and Seamus wanted to get into their dorm to get their Charms notes and textbooks for a study session with said professor but after getting the password wrong one too many times, Sir Cadogan left to go to a different portrait.

"I'm sorry, Rin, Seamus, but none of the other pictures wanted the job," said Percy. "Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer."

"If we flunk our next Charms test, it's on him!" Seamus yelled.

~0~0~0~

Sir Cadogan's antics were the least of Harry's worries. He was now being closely watched. Teachers found excuses to walk along the corridors with him (Shura even summoned her nagas to guard him while he walked from Demonology to his next class), and Percy followed him everywhere like a pompous guard dog. The worst of them all was Professor McGonagall suggesting that Harry not train for the first Quidditch match. He managed to talk her out of it on the condition that flying instructor Madam Hooch oversaw his training.

Harry just entered the castle from Quidditch practice when he noticed Shiemi sitting on the stairs, fiddling with her skirt as if she was waiting for someone. She perked up when she noticed him and quickly ran over to him.

"Harry, hi!" she greeted.

Harry was caught off guard that one of the shyest people he knew could greet him so eagerly and casually.

"Hi, Shiemi. What's up?" he greeted back.

Shiemi looked down on the floor, moving her foot back and forth. "Um… there's something that I wanted to talk to you about… about the first Quidditch match?" she asked more than said.

Harry looked around and saw Madam Hooch entering the castle, knowing that she would follow him until he reached Gryffindor Tower. "Uh, sure. I can walk you to the Hufflepuff Basement while we talk."

Shiemi nodded. "That sounds good."

The two walked in silence for about two minutes before Harry broke the ice. "So, what about the Quidditch match did you want to talk about?" he inquired.

"W-well, I heard that Gryffindor was supposed to compete against Slytherin," Shiemi started.

"Slytherin backed out because Malfoy's arm is still 'injured' if you can believe that," Harry said bitterly. "We're going against Hufflepuff instead… oh."

Shiemi nodded. "Normally I'd root for Gryffindor or Ravenclaw if Hufflepuff wasn't playing but… but Gryffindor is playing against Hufflepuff and I don't know which team to root for," she explained. This was what Harry found very endearing about Shiemi: she didn't like picking sides if she could help it. She preferred to keep the peace.

"You could cheer for both sides," Harry suggested.

"B-B-But I don't really know anyone on the Hufflepuff team and you're the only one I know on the Gryffindor team," Shiemi explained. "If I cheered for you, everyone in Hufflepuff would think I'm turning my back on my house. But if I cheered for Hufflepuff, I'd feel like I was betraying you, Rin, and the others."

Harry was surprised that Shiemi cared that much about him and his friends. It made him wonder if she had any friends in Hufflepuff. Someone as caring as her should have had at least one friend in her own house.

"I wouldn't be offended if you cheered on your own house," Harry assured her. "It's only natural that you did. I wouldn't see it as a betrayal."

Shiemi looked at Harry with wide eyes. "Really? Is it really okay?" she asked eagerly.

Harry chuckled. "I'm the one who goes through this more than you. Imagine how conflicted I get when Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff compete. You're in Hufflepuff and Yukio's in Ravenclaw," he admitted.

Shiemi thought about it and started to giggle. "You're right, but what about when Gryffindor and Ravenclaw compete?" she asked.

Harry snorted. "Good point. That's one matchup that'll have us both conflicted," he laughed, thinking of when he didn't consider the times Gryffindor competed against Yukio's house.

Shiemi was laughing at this point. "That would be a problem," she said.

Both of them laughed the rest of the way to Hufflepuff Basement. Harry believed that a bit of good-natured laughter was what he needed to lift his spirits.


Again, I apologize for how short this was. There are also A LOT of things going on this month so please be patient.

In the meantime, please leave more reviews. And perhaps make a soundtrack for this series. Just for laughs.