A.N Not much happens in this chapter, but it does have a few time skips throughout, hope you enjoy
Chapter 61: Occlumancy and OWLs
Disclaimer I don't own HP or Marvel.
Harry pushed his hair out of his eyes and looked at his scar in the mirror hanging on the wall. It seemed no different than usual, but since he started taking Occlumancy lessons with Regulus, Harry has had a lot of headaches. He feared his link to Voldemort was reopening, and he would begin having versions. Regulus assured him the headaches were normal and should disappear after several Occlumancy lessons.
"Please tell me you haven't inherited Siri's conceitedness." Regulus said, "He did that exact thing when we were younger, always staring into a mirror fixing his hair."
"I'm not that bad." Harry denied it, and Regulus gave him an amused look.
"I hope not," Regulus chuckled. He sat at a small table in a room he rented at the Hog's Head to give Harry Occlumancy lessons. Harry had no idea how Regulus could sneak out of Grimmauld Place under Andromeda's nose, but he was. Harry was starting to wonder if he wasn't better than Sirius at being sneaky; after all, Regulus was a Slytherin.
"How much longer do we have to do these lessons?" Harry asked.
"Until I think you're good enough to stop," Regulus replied, standing and picking up his wand.
It was the middle of March, and Harry had been back at school for around two months. The professors were assigning even more homework than before winter break, but instead of teaching them new material, they were relearning everything they had learned since entering Hogwarts or everything the teachers thought would be covered in their exams. Even Loki had switched to reviewing some of the material that Binns had covered in Harry's first two years at Hogwarts, which would be on the exams. Sirius was the only one still teaching them as if it were any other year; he had moved on to teaching them protection wards; though he wasn't giving them homework and hadn't mentioned the exams in class, Harry was certain Sirius wasn't handing out homework so the students could use the time to study for their OWLs
"Alright, ready to try again?" Regulus asked.
Harry nodded and walked back over to Regulus, who pointed his wand at Harry, who immediately blocked his mind with a wall of ice. He had been slowly making progress in learning Occlumancy, but it was hard for Harry to find the time to read the book Regulus gave him due to so much school work; on top of Quidditch practice, Harry could only find the time to read it at night when he was supposed to be sleeping, and it was harder for him to clear his mind, with everything he had to worry about; OWLs , Quidditch, and being one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
"You're making progress, but not as fast as I would like," Regulus said. "You need to keep your mind cleared."
"That's a bit hard right now," Harry said, "With everything going on, there's an attack a week, and no one seems to be doing anything about it."
"That happened during the first war too; if you can't keep it off your mind, stop reading the Newspaper," Regulus said.
With Voldemort out in the open now, the wizarding world was getting a lot more dangerous; Dumbledore and the Ministry had tightened security at Hogwarts, and Aurors were even walking the corridors and guarding the secret passages. Dumbledore canceled all Hogsmeade weekends for the rest of the year, so Harry has to sneak out to meet Regulus. He accomplishes this by using his invisibility cloak, the secret passage that leads to Honeydukes, and some of the trickery Loki taught him, illusions, concealment charms, and leaving a double of himself behind, which was the most challenging and riskiest part, but Ron, Hermione, and Cho knew Harry was sneaking out on Sundays. However, Ron thought Harry was nuts trusting an ex-Death Eater. Cho and Hermione thought Harry was reckless for sneaking out, especially considering how dangerous the Wizarding World was getting. They were still willing to keep Harry's secret and help cover for him.
"People are disappearing and being killed; how can I just ignore that?" Harry demanded, and Regulus sighed as he rubbed the side of his nose, which only aggravated Harry further. "I can feel how happy that makes Voldemort; I don't want to feel that."
"Which is why I'm trying to teach you Occlumancy," Regulus said, and Harry glared at him, not in the mood to be lectured again by his dad's little brother. Harry was glad Regulus wasn't an actual teacher; he was worse than Snape when it came to his "student" not getting a gasp on his subject.
"It's getting late; I better get back to school before anyone realizes I'm not there," Harry said; he looked at his wrist to see the time but then remembered he had left his watch at school, not wanting Loki to be able to track him if he realized Harry had left the castle. Harry knew that was probably a stupid thing to do, but he didn't think anyone would show up and attack Hogsmeade, not with it full of Aurors. Harry even saw Tonks standing outside the Three Broomsticks last Sunday. She had to drop out of the Horcrux hunt because the Ministry called all the Aurors to work overtime, either on guard duty at certain places or going out to hunt Death Eaters. Tonks had already used all her personal days for the first few hunts she went on, so, unless she wanted to lose her job, Tonks had to go to work unless it was a real emergency. Tonks had offered to quit, but everyone assured her that wasn't necessary since they only had one more Horcrux to find and enough people to look for it. Besides, the Ministry couldn't afford to lose any Aurors. There were few due to them not accepting anyone but the best, and Tonks had been the last accepted into the Ministry over three years ago.
"Yeah, we've been doing this for a while, we'll continue next week." Regulus agreed, "I'll walk you to Honeydukes."
Regulus pulled his sunglasses out of the pocket of his robes, slipped them on, grabbed his cloak, put it on, and covered his head with his hood. Harry stuck his wand in his robes, picked up his invisibility cloak, and slipped it over his head. Regulus opened the door and allowed Harry to go first, then as quietly as he could, Harry walked next to Regulus down the stairs and then passed the bar, where Regulus nodded to Aberforth Dumbledore, who Harry learned recently was Dumbledore's brother; they left the pub and walked to Honeydukes, where Regulus stayed outside, while Harry went into the sweetshop, and snuck down to the cellier, then crawled down the trap door into the tunnel that led to Hogwarts. When Harry made it to the back of the statue of the one-eye witch, Harry cast an illusion to make it look like the statue was still in place, whispered the password to make the statue open, then snuck out of the tunnel, passed the Auror standing there, and to the Great Hall doors, where Harry cast a concealment charm on himself, and took off the cloak, folded it, and stuck it in the pocket of his robes. Harry then entered the Great Hall and spotted his double sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table, next to Hermione, and quietly hurried over to them and carefully sat on the bench where his double was sitting, causing it to flicker, then dropped the concealment charm same time he made the double disappear, causing Hermione to jumped startled a little.
"Harry?" Hermione asked, looking closely at Harry.
"Yeah, it's me," Harry said.
"How did it go?" Hermione asked, across from Hermione, Ron looked up, listening.
"It went good; Regulus reckons I'm starting to get the hang of it," Harry replied.
"Good," Hermione said, then returned to her attention to her food.
"I still think you're mental for trusting him," Ron said, picking up a chicken leg and taking a bite.
"Regulus is alright," Harry said, "I doubt he'll hurt me or drag me off to Voldemort.
Ron flinched at the name, then gave Harry an unbelieving look, which annoyed Harry a little. It's not like Harry liked Regulus, but he was still Harry's uncle, and he didn't think it right for Ron to be so untrusting of him when he was trying to help Harry; after all, Harry has never voiced anything negative about Ron's family, like how Percy was a stuck-up snob, and how his mother, could be too loud and controlling and showed favoritism to certain children, namely Percy. Harry looked up at the head table and saw Loki watching him suspiciously. Harry would have to cut his Occlumancy lessons down an hour or two; he couldn't have Loki figuring out he was leaving the castle. Harry needed to ensure he was back in time for dinner in the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione; Loki could likely tell Harry's double from the real thing. Harry looked over at the Ravenclaw table. Cho was eating while talking to her friends. She noticed Harry watching and waved; Harry waved back, then looked away.
Glancing around the room, Harry noticed a few students whispering to one another while glancing Harry's way; he scowled and looked down at his plate; that's all they've been doing since he returned to school; there were even students who were scared of Harry, more than once a younger student had turned in the opposite direction from the way they were walking to avoid passing Harry in the corridor. Hermione figured it was due to Loki being his mother was public knowledge now, and it didn't help anything that Loki decided to return to school in his male form and had announced to the Great Hall on their first night back that the students no longer had to refer to him as Professor Ikol, his name was Loki Black, but the students may call him Professor Loki. During Loki's little announcement, no one in the great hall talked; most teachers and students alike were afraid of Loki; in fact, Luna and Cho were the only students who weren't Gryffindor who weren't completely terrified of Loki. Even Draco Malfoy kept throwing Loki frightened looks, and he avoided Harry like he had Dragon Pox, which was okay with Harry because Malfoy's cronies were even too scared of Loki to pick up trying to make him pay for their father's deaths. McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, and Sirius were the only professors who didn't act at least nervous around Loki.
Harry looked back up at the head table to see Loki was now looking at Sirius amused, as he said something Harry couldn't hear but had Snape glaring at Sirius, the latter of which was wearing a Vote Loki Black For Minister of Magic badge on his shirt, as were Ron, Hermione, Harry, Cho, Luna, the twins and nearly half of Gryffindor. Loki and Sirius were annoyed that a trial for Umbridge had yet to be set. Now that the Ministry had to repair the atrium and deal with Voldemort's return, it didn't look like Umbridge would have her court date soon.
March soon passed, and April arrived, with it, the end of Quidditch season; during Harry's first game back, they beat Hufflepuff with a massive lead. Now the final match was set for May and would be Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, and was for the House Cup; Angelina Johnson was turning into another Oliver Wood when it comes to Quidditch if it wasn't for her having to study for her NEWTs Harry was sure she would have the team in practice whenever there were no classes.
The rest of the school year continued to go by fast, and before Harry knew it, it was the Spring Holidays, and Sirius and Loki decided to stay at the school this year. Regulus had come up to spend the holiday with them, sleeping on a cot set up in Harry's bedroom. Regulus used the opportunity to give Harry extra Occlumancy lessons while also getting him to help translate some of the Nordic runes in the books he brought from Grimmauld Place, using the translation book Kreacher had found for him. Harry escaped his uncle during the day when he hung out with his friends and girlfriend. Unfortunately, Hermione wasn't much better; she spent most of her time drawing up study schedules for them. Harry and Ron let her do it; it was easier than arguing with her, and, in any case, they might be helpful. Ron had been startled to discover that only six weeks were left until their exams. Hermione huffed when he voiced his surprise out loud. Harry, too, had been surprised they were so close but kept it to himself. They sat in the library, reviewing pamphlets about various careers in the Wizarding World, none of which Harry found appealing.
On the first Monday after the spring holidays, Harry met McGonagall in her office for a meeting about what career he was considering after Hogwarts. He physically cringed at the look McGonagall gave him after he voiced out loud that he wasn't planning on seeking any job; after a long moment, McGonagall took her glasses off and spoke to Harry in a serious tone.
"Potter," McGonagall said, "I know you don't have to work, with both the Black and Potter gold available to you, not to mention whatever riches a royal god of Asgard has, but I suggest you think about it, lazing about for the rest of your life just because you can is no way-"
"That's not it." Harry interrupted, "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but honestly, all I can think of is facing Voldemort and this war and whether or not I'll be alive by the end of it." McGonagall's look softened at that. "And if I am…wouldn't I deserve a break? Maybe travel and have a little fun before settling down with a job?"
"It's not unheard of for students to take a break before starting a career, and as long as you do well in your OWLs, especially your NEWTs. You shouldn't have a problem seeking a career a year or two after Hogwarts," McGonagall said. "Just don't wait too long."
"Yes, Ma'am," Harry said.
"Very well, Potter, you may go now," McGonagall replied, and Harry stood and left her office.
May arrived with the Quidditch final; one section of the stands was mostly filled with people who came to the game to watch Harry play. There was the usual: Cho, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and Loki, but also Andromeda, Regulus, Thor, and even Bucky all showed up at Hogwarts early that morning for the game. The students around them kept glancing their way; some even pulled out quils and parchment asking for Thor and Bucky's autographs, and Colin Creevey got them to take a picture with him. Loki rolled his eyes until Colin asked him to be in a photo with him and Thor. Gryffindor won when Harry caught the snitch within an hour and a half after the game started. Thor frightened the Quidditch players when he dropped down on the pitch with a roar of thunder and congratulated Harry by giving him a bone-crushing hug, which resulted in Loki teleporting next to them and slapping Thor on the back of the head and demanding for him to release Harry before he broke him in half. Bucky patted his back in congratulations, and Sirius gave Harry a one-arm hug. Regulus assured Harry that he had inherited his Seeker skills from him.
The excitement over winning the House Cup for the second time didn't last long; everyone grew more nervous and anxious as they got closer to their exams. OWLs were all anyone could talk about, and when June finally arrived, every fifth and seventh year became a nervous wreck; while all the other students were able to relax on the weekends, those with essential exams coming up were spending all their free time studying, except for Harry, who was still taking breaks from studying to sneak into Hogsmeade to meet Regulus.
"How upset do you think Loki will be if I fell my History owl?" Harry asked Hermione and Ron one morning after leaving History of Magic class.
"Loki would be very upset," Hermione warned. Harry was even more nervous; he couldn't imagine failing his OWLs. for the two subjects his parents taught. Harry wasn't the only nervous one; Hufflepuff Ernie Macmillan had developed an irritating habit of interrogating people about their study habits.
"How many hours do you think you're doing a day?" he demanded of Harry and Ron as they stood outside Herbology one morning.
"I dunno," Ron shrugged. "A few."
"More or less than eight?"
"Less," Ron said, and Harry nodded in agreement.
"I'm doing eight," Ernie said, puffing out his chest. "Eight or nine. I'm getting an hour in before breakfast every day. Eights are my average. I can do ten during the weekend. I did nine and a half on Monday. Not so good on Tuesday - only seven and a quarter. Then, on Wednesday -"
"Ernie, no offense, but we don't care how much you study." Harry interrupted; he was thankful that Professor Sprout ushered them into greenhouse three because Ernie looked highly offended, and Harry didn't feel like fighting with the Hufflepuff.
A flourishing black-market trade in aids to concentration, mental agility, and wakefulness had sprung up in the fifth years. Harry and Ron were stopped in the corridor one afternoon by a Ravenclaw sixth-year, Eddie Carmichael, who was trying to sell them Baruffio's Brain Elixwas. He swore it was solely responsible for the nine 'Outstanding' OWLs he had gained the previous year and was offering a whole pint for a mere twelve Galleons. Ron had told him to get lost, not believing a word of it, and Harry was tempted to buy some to get rid of him when a pale hand reached out and snatched the offering item from Carmicheal's hand. He turned around angry and was about to tell off the "thief," only to freeze at the sight of Loki standing behind him.
"You should be aware that selling things on Hogwarts grounds is strictly forbidden?" Loki said, "Especially when what you are selling is a scam, as this…" Loki shook the jar. "Is nothing but dried Doxy droppings. Now, Eddie, I have confiscated the ones you sold and have a list of who you sold them to; I want you to give every last one of those students their money back and apologize, do you understand?"
"Yes, Ma'am..I mean, sir…..Professor," Carmicheal said, his eyes going wide.
"I will know if you miss even one person," Loki warned, "And I'm sending a letter to your parents about this behavior; now, go, be gone from my sight."
Eddie Carmicheal fled down the corridor like he was running for his life, making Ron laugh.
"How did you know about him selling that stuff?" Harry asked.
"Hermione," Loki replied, "she's been confiscating all sorts of things like this from older students trying to rip off Fifth-years; she came to me for help, figuring I was the only one who could frighten them enough to get them to stop."
"She's not wrong," Ron mumbled; Loki gave him an amused look.
Their first examination was Charms and was scheduled for Monday morning that weekend. Cho had offered to test Hermione so that Ron and Harry could get some studying in; Harry was relieved not to have to help Hermione himself with how she acts during their regular school exams; he figured she'd be much worse for OWLs, but then felt terrible for Cho having to do it, thankfully, Hermione wasn't as bad with Cho, that she was with Ron and Harry. However, Cho did have to calm her down a couple of times.
Harry went to bed early Sunday night but then lay awake for hours. Harry left his family quarters the following day with a good luck pat on his back from Sirius and a hug from Loki, then headed down to breakfast in the Great Hall, where he hardly touched his food, the other fifth-year Gryffindors sitting around him, did nothing to help Harry with his nerves, all just as much of a wreck as Harry was, were either mumbling spells under their breath or going over notes.
Once breakfast was over, the fifth and seventh years stood around in the Entrance Hall while the other students went off to lessons; then, at half past nine, they were called forward to re-enter the Great Hall, which had been rearranged instead of the four house tables there were many tables for one, all facing the staff-table end of the hall where Professor McGonagall stood facing them. When they were all seated and quiet, she said, "You may begin," and turned over an enormous hourglass on the desk beside her. Harry turned over his paper, took a deep breath, and began taking his test.
When lunch rolled around, the house tables had been put back in place, and Harry ate a little more than he had at breakfast; his exams hadn't been easy but weren't as complicated as he had thought they would be, after lunch, the fifth-years headed to a chamber next to the Great Hall, for their practical examination. As small groups of students were called forwards in alphabetical order, those left behind muttered incantations and practiced wand movements or paced back and forth.
Hermione's name was called, and she left the chamber with Anthony Goldstein, Gregory Goyle, and Daphne Greengrass. Students who had already been tested did not return afterward, so Harry and Ron had no idea how Hermione had done. Then, Professor Flitwick called, "Parkinson, Pansy - Patil, Padma - Patil, Parvati - Potter, Harry."
"Good luck," Ron said. Harry walked into the Great Hall, clutching his wand so tightly his hand shook.
"Professor Tofty is free, Potter," squeaked Professor Flitwick, standing just inside the door. He pointed Harry towards what looked like the oldest and baldest examiner, sitting behind a small table in a far corner, a short distance from another examiner, Professor Marchbanks, who was halfway through testing Draco Malfoy.
"Potter, is it?" Professor Tofty said, consulting his notes and peering at Harry as he approached. "The famous Potter?"
"Is there more than one?" Harry asked; out of the corner of his eye, Harry distinctly saw Malfoy throw a scathing look over at him; the wine glass Malfoy had been levitating fell to the floor and smashed. Harry could not help but grin; Professor Tofty smiled back at him encouragingly.
"That's it," he said, "no need to be nervous. Now, if I could ask you to take this egg cup and make it do some cartwheels for me."
On the whole, Harry thought it went rather well. That night Harry stayed up late studying for his Transfigurations exam for the very next day, in which Harry thought he did pretty well on the written exam, and even better on the practical one, Harry needed to remember to think Loki for making sure he was always on top of his school work, on Wednesday Harry had his Herbology exam, he left knowing he likely didn't do well, but not caring, as he couldn't see himself going for a job where he needs to know about different plants. Thursday was their Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry knew he would get an O. The questions in the writing exam were easy for him, and he could perform every spell correctly and without trouble.
"Oh, bravo!" cried Professor Tofty, examining Harry again when Harry demonstrated a perfect Boggart banishing spell. "Very good indeed! Well, I think that's all, Potter…unless…well, there is a rumor you can produce a patronus if you don't mind?"
Harry raised his wand and thought about how happy he was with his new family and said.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A gold wolf burst out of the end of his wand and ran around the chamber, causing people to pause their exams and look while Professor Tofty clapped.
"Well, done, Potter, well, done, I've never seen a gold patronus before."
On Friday afternoon, while Hermione was taking her Ancient Runes exam, Harry and Ron had some time off and decided to take a break from anywhere school-related, and stretched out under the Beech tree on the castle grounds, relaxing and enjoying the fresh air, but they didn't get to rest long, once classes were over for the day, Loki came outside and dragged them both into his and Sirius' chambers while lecturing them about the importance of studying for their exams; when Harry had looked towards Sirius for help, he held his hands up in defense, while chuckling at the looks on Harry and Ron's faces.
With the most challenging subjects already done, the rest of the exams went pretty easy, and the last week of them passed by quickly; by the following weekend, they were finally over, and the fifth and seventh years were exhausted and relieved; they wouldn't get their results until sometime in July, for now, they could put the exams to the back of their minds for a bit.
"How did your exams go," Regulus asked, sitting in an armchair; it was Sunday, and he and Harry had just finished practicing Occlumancy for three hours.
"I think I did decently; they weren't as hard as I thought," Harry replied, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"That's what I thought after my OWLs too," Regulus replied. "The NEWTs. are a different story."
"Yeah, listen, I should be getting back," Harry said, "I don't know how much longer I can sneak out. Loki hasn't said anything, but I know he's getting suspicious."
"Yeah, Andromeda has been asking questions too," Regulus said, "She knows I'm somehow leaving the house. I have been thinking that perhaps you know enough now to block out your mind, and maybe I should spend the time to focus on finding a way to get that thing out of you."
"So, this is our last meeting?" Harry asked.
"It is." Regulus agreed, "Though it won't hurt for you to keep practicing on your own, I'll be testing you when you get home for the summer."
"I will," Harry replied; he slipped on the cloak, and Regulus followed him out the door and down the stairs. They left the Hog's Head together and barely walked three feet when a familiar voice called out.
"Regulus"
Harry and Regulus froze at that voice, knowing who it was. Then, slowly, they turned around to see Andromeda standing there with her hands on her hips, looking as if she was about to start tapping her foot at any moment. Regulus took his hood off, seeing no reason to try to deny who he was; after all, Andromeda was the one who bought him the cloak, so it made sense she recognized it.
"Annie"
"Don't Annie me," Andromeda said, pointing a finger at him and looking more like a mother than a cousin. "Why are you sneaking out of Grimmauld Place when it can put your life in danger?"
"I just fancied a bit of fresh air," Regulus replied; he stepped closer to Harry and then patted his arm. Harry took that as a single to-go and carefully backed up, the turn and headed as quickly as possible toward Honeydukes; he could hear Regulus and Andromeda arguing.
"If you want fresh air, sit in the backyard." Andromeda said, "Or at least get me to accompany you to Hogsmeade."
"I'm not a child," Regulus said.
"Then why are you sneaking out like a grounded teenager?" Andromeda demanded, "Your brother will not be happy when I owl him about this."
"Sirius isn't my-"
Honeydukes door closing cut off Regulus' reply, as Harry snuck in and went to the cellier and down the passway into Hogwarts. Tonks was the Auror guarding the statue today, so Harry decided he would stop and talk to her a bit. Harry cast his illusion, and like all the other Aurors, Tonks did not react to him coming out of the secret passway; she was looking off down the corridor, so Harry dropped the illusion and removed the cloak, then turned to greet Tonks, but it was no longer Tonks standing there, but Loki, and he looked mad.
"Where have you been?" Loki demanded. Harry noticed Tonks standing behind Loki, leaning against the wall; she gave him an apologetic look with a shrug.
"I..um..just...I took a walk to Hogsmeade." Harry mumbled.
"You just took a walk to Hogsmeade?" Loki repeated, "You decided to sneak out of the castle and just stroll down to Hogsmeade without permission or even telling me or your father you were leaving the safety of Hogwarts."
"Look, I just needed some air, okay -"
"No, it is not okay," Loki said, "Not only have you broken school rules by sneaking into Hogsmeade when you are not supposed to be there, but you risked putting yourself in danger; what if Hogsmeade had been attacked while you were there? You are Voldemort's number one target; you could have been captured and taken to him, and your father and I would never have known."
"But it wasn't, and I wasn't," Harry replied, "So, there is no reason to make such a fuss."
"Harry, sweetheart, if this were any other time, I wouldn't make such a fuss about you sneaking out for a while." Loki replied, "Odin knows I did my fair share of sneaking off when I was a child, but I was never in danger when I did."
"I made it back in one piece, so you don't have to make a big deal about it now," Harry said.
"Harry, I care deeply for you, and I don't want anything to happen to you," Loki said, "Sneaking out to Hogsmeade for whatever reason you did was stupid. What was so important you had to go down there for anyway?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it," Harry replied.
"I am going to worry about it." Loki said, "Now, what was so important, that you had to sneak into Hogsmeade alone instead of asking your father or me to go with you. We would have gladly accompanied you-"
"I'm almost sixteen; I don't need a babysitter." Harry snapped, then instantly felt terrible at the hurt that flashed in Loki's eyes.
"Hey," Sirius appeared next to them, "There you two are; I was wondering-" Sirius paused as he noticed the angry look on Loki's face and the annoyed look on Harry's, then his eyes dropped to the invisibility cloak in Harry's hand, then Sirius realized what statue they were standing by. "Kiddo, please tell me you weren't trying to sneak out somewhere."
"Oh, he wasn't trying; he already did; I caught him sneaking back in," Loki said, "He went to Hogsmeade for reasons he will not say."
"Harry,"
"I'm sorry, okay, and I won't do it again," Harry said.
"Oh, I know you won't." Loki said, "You are grounded for the rest of the school year,"
"What?"
"You heard me." Loki said, "For the rest of the year, after classes, you are to come straight to our chambers, no going anywhere else unless it's to eat dinner, and every weekend, you are to spend it in our chambers unless you need to use the library."
"But there's still four weeks left," Harry argued.
"And if you sneak out again, those four weeks will become six, and for the first two weeks of your summer break, you'll be grounded," Loki warned.
"Dad," Harry turned to Sirius for help.
"Come on, Reigny, don't you think that's a bit harsh?" Sirius asked, and Loki gave him a look.
"If it were any other time, I'd agree, but he snuck out and went to Hogsmeade alone without telling anyone when he's Voldemort's biggest target, and he didn't take his watch if something happened, we wouldn't have known where he was."
Sirius sighed and ran his hand through his hair, looking between Loki and Harry.
"Dad?"
"Your mum is right, kiddo." Sirius said, "You can't just sneak off and not let us know where you are going, you are grounded for the rest of the school year, like Reigny says."
"Come on," Harry said, his voice raising, "You're going to punish me for sneaking to Hogsmeade when you used to do the same in school, even worse."
"Harry-"
"And don't try to say it wasn't as dangerous back then; Voldemort was around then, too." Harry interrupted.
"This isn't about what I did over twenty years ago," Sirius said, "This is about what you did today. Now go to our chambers; we'll be there soon to talk with you."
"Great, I'm going to be lectured by the guy who became an unresigned animagus at my age to chase a werewolf around," Harry mumbled as he walked off. Harry glanced at Tonks while walking by; she mouthed, "Sorry," and Harry gave her a nod, letting her know he didn't blame her. However, he made a note to owl Regulus and thank him for getting him in trouble.
Loki watched Harry go for a moment, then glanced toward Sirius, who shrugged.
"He's a teenager," He said as if that was supposed to explain everything.
AN: Sorry if the chapter was a bit boring, just wanted to skip the time some so Harry's fifth year can end already and I can get to something I've been looking forward to writing.
When Harry was passing by and Tonks mouths sorry, she apologized for letting Loki take her form to catch Harry sneaking back in school.
I couldn't think of how to do finding the last Horcrux, so, I decided to write it a little, and I think I figured out what to do, though it will likely be Bellatrix's vault.