After a quiet night, Harry woke up to find that Ron was the only other one left in the room with him. He got up and changed quickly. The two of them hurried down to find Hermione waiting in a nearly empty common room.
She got up when she saw them, "finally, let's go."
They hurried down to the great hall and joined the Gryffindor table. They sat down and, as Harry was serving himself pancakes, they were joined by Matt, the new kid.
"Morning," he said to nobody in particular as he sat down. A few people returned the greeting, Hermione being the only one to do it by name.
As Harry was poring syrup over his breakfast, he heard an unpleasant drawl from behind him,
"Hey Scarhead, hanging around with another mud blood, and a yank to boot," Malfoy sneered.
Before Harry could say anything, Matt shot out of his seat, and in a low growl said, "what did you call me?"
"You heard me."
"I asked you, what you called me."
"A yank mud blood."
"That's what I thought you said. Don't mess around with me," Matt said.
"Or what," Malfoy sneered as he and Matt were reaching for their wands.
Malfoy raised his wand, but before he could cast a spell Matt beat him too it, causing him to loose his wand. Draco was surprised at this and was unprepared for what came next. Matt threw his wand at Malfoy, who was holding it with a stunned look on his face.
"What is going on over here,: asked Professor McGonagall, who was handing out schedules.
Everyone turned around to look at her, but Matt was the first one to answer. "Professor. Thank god you're here. I was talking to. I'm sorry, but I don't even know his name. Anyway when I was telling him how happy I was to be attending such a fine school, and he attacked me. Threw my wand clear across the room."
McGonagall gave Malfoy a severe look, "Malfoy, such behavior, and from a prefect." That is when Harry saw, for the first time, the pin on his robes.
Malfoy was stammering, but McGonagall ignored him, "twenty points from Slytherin, and I will speak with Professor Snape about this."
When she turned around Matt reached and grabbed back his wand, "I told you, don't mess with me," and the whole of the Gryffindor table exploded with laughter, as Malfoy stormed away red faced to retrieve his own wand.
Ron warmed up considerably after this. "Welcome to Gryffindor, Matt, it's good to have you here."
Hermione, meanwhile, was looking thoroughly displeased. As much as she did not like Malfoy, she obviously thought that this was inappropriate behavior. It looked as though she wanted to say something, but as all of the Gryffindors were swarming around him, she never had an opportunity.
McGonagall returned a few minutes latter continuing to hand out schedules. As she approached Harry and Ron she looked disappointed, saying, "I am not pleased with you two."
They looked at each other, wondering what she could possibly be talking about.
"Your badges. Why are you not wearing them," she said. "Miss Granger is wearing hers, so what is your excuse."
Harry, realizing now what she was talking about, turned and saw that Hermione did indeed have on her prefects pin. Before they could say anything, McGonagall said, "I trust you will fix this. Next time I will have no choice but to take points." Before she left, she gave them their schedules.
Hermione gave them a look that said they should have known better. Ron, meanwhile, looked upset, scowling at Hermione's direction. Harry wasn't sure if it was because Ron forgot his Pin, or the fact that Hermione didn't forget hers, that upset him more.
Harry looked at his schedule and saw that they opened with defense against the dark arts class. At the very least, they were going to see their new teacher for the first time. They wanted to go straight to class, but Hermione made them go and get their pins first.
When they finally reached the classroom, they looked in and were surprised to find that their teacher was none other than, Harry's godfather, Sirius Black.
Harry ran to the front of the class, "Sirius. I can't believe it. What are you doing here?"
"I'm your new defense against the dark arts teacher. I want to talk to you after class though." Sirius looked at Ron and Hermione and said, "you two also, ok."
The three of them said ok and grabbed the desk in front of the teacher.
Sirius smiled and said, "I have a pretty good idea of what you have been over so far, and we will have a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started."
Everyone started opening their bags and pulling out their books when Sirius said, "put all that away. We're going to be starting the class with a little practical experience."
The class put their things away, and looked very excited at what was going to be happening.
"Now I understand that Professor Lupin covered dangerous creatures, and Crouch covered hexes."
Bartemius Crouch jr., the son of the late head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, was pretending to be their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mad Eye Moody, last term, in his plot. He taught them about curses, including the unforgivable ones.
The class all nodded, wondering what would be next. They didn't have to wait long.
"I want you all to take out your wands, and follow me."
They did as instructed and followed him up the stairs, and up the tallest tower. As they entered the top of the astronomy tower, he stopped and waited as the class gathered around him.
"Today we are going to start covering protective charms and spells. Mr. Potter, here, has already had some experience in this field," Sirius said as the class turned to stare at him. They returned their attention to the teacher at once when Sirius continued. "having learned how to summon a fully corporeal Patronus."
When he said that, the class gave a collective gasp, turned their gaze toward him and started muttering.
"We are, however, not going to start with anything nearly that difficult."
Harry remembered a year and a half ago, when Professor Lupin taught him how to summon a Patronus to defend himself against the Dementors. They are horrible, blind, creatures, which live off emotionsof others. Sirius was right. It was a difficult charm. It took Harry mot of the year to learn how produce a proper one.
The reason the Dementors were there was, at the time, they were searching for Sirius, who escaped from Azkaban. They believed that he was seeking Harry, to kill him, because he had been working for Voldemort, and had killed the Potters and later their friend Wormtail. Harry, Hermione and Ron and later found out this to be false, of course.
"The first one we will be working on will protect you against certain kinds of ghouls."
When he said this, the class started to mumble with delight.
Sirius laughed when he saw this. "Yes, I know that you have been having a problem with a certain ghoul here. That is why I chose this one first, because you will have plenty of opportunity to practice it."
They all laughed at this.
"The reason I brought you up here is because I found out that your ghoul loves this tower. Now, how do we bring him up here to us?"
Hermione raised her hand.
"That was a rhetorical question, but, ok Miss Granger, tell us how we can do this."
Hermione, now looking a little hesitant, said, "you could cast a summoning charm."
Sirius considered her for a moment, nodded and said, "ah, but which one."
Most of the class looked confused, the only summoning charm they knew was accio.
Hermione said, "Occia."
"Very good Hermione. Take ten points for Gryffindor," Sirius said. "Now unlike accio which works on solid objects, Occia will work on non-solid objects, such as ghosts, ghouls or spirits. ok, now when we have summoned a ghost, or ghoul as the case will be, what are we going to do to them?"
Once again, Hermione raised her hand. Without even looking at her Sirius immediately said, "Yes, Hermione."
"The Panatries charm,"
Sirius, now looking very impressed now replied, "excellent work Miss Granger. Take another ten points."
Harry and Ron, who where used to her getting tons of points in this fashion beamed at her. Twenty more points, plus the twenty Draco lost.
"Now everyone, I want you say panatric sismus."
They all did this, without anything happening.
Sirius took out his wand and drew a diagram in the sky. "Don't worry about not having parchment. I will give you an opportunity to write this in the next class. But if we are going to have any practice today we are going to have to be able to conjure up a proper Pantries."
He went from person to person, taking quite some time with Neville showing them what to do. After about 30 minutes, everyone, even Neville, was producing an undefined scarlet mist.
Sirius looked satisfied. He turned to look at the class and asked, "now, what is the name of your ghoul?"
"Peeves," they all shouted at once.
He smiled and said, "ok, we are going to need a volunteer for when we call him over here.
Several people raised their hands, and to everyone's surprise, including his own, Neville raised his as well. Sirius looked pleased and called Neville over. He told him to relax and went over what he had do one more time. He waived his wand, illuminating what he had written in the sky and said, "occia Peeves."
In a flash, Peeves appeared in front on Neville. He looked surprised and not pleased, but after he gained his bearings he turned his attention to the class that was staring at him.
With his usual cackle he said, "you rang. Ickle studeys wanted a word with old little Peevsie."
Sirius nodded, and Neville's resolve stiffened. Peeves, however noticed this and floated over to Neville. As Peeves came closer and closer, Neville raised his wand and shouted, "panatric sismus."
At those words a large scarlet image, a little more clear, but still not definable, appeared. It sought Peeves and he floated away as fast as he could. He floated off the side of the tower and out of sight. The class gathered around Neville, congratulating him on a great job.
"Excellent work Neville," Sirius said. As the bell rang out he said, "I want you all to read on the Occia and Panatries charms for the next class."
Harry, Ron and Hermione waited for the rest of the students to leave. When the last of them left Harry ran up to Sirius and gave him a big hug.
Hermione asked, "how are you here, with us Sirius?"
"You caught Wormtail," Ron asked eagerly.
"That was what Lupin and I were doing over the summer. We went looking for Pettigrew, and we found hum. We had him cornered and after we captured him, we presented him to the ministry. That is why I wasn't able to be here for the sorting ceremony."
"So, they have him then," said Harry, "and you are free now."
Sirius looked disappointed saying, "yes and no."
"Hermione said, "yes and no?"
"First, the good news, yes, I am free. When we presented Peter to the ministry they had no choice but to reverse my conviction."
Harry, so happy about the good news, almost forgot there was also bad news, until Ron asked, "and the bad news?"
Sirius sighed heavily, "after we handed Peter to the ministry, he was sent to Azkaban. Nobody really knows what happened next, but somehow he escaped."
"What do you think happened," Harry asked.
"Let's just put it this way, it's not that easy to escape from Azkaban, not even for an animgai. I should know having spent 12 years there myself. But I've heard disturbing things."
"What kind of disturbing, things," Ron asked.
"I've heard that Voldemort has worked out a deal with the Dementors. As part of the deal they released Wormtail. I hope it is just a rumor, because if it is true then," his sentence trailed off, as if it was so horrible that he couldn't bring himself to actually say it.
Sirius turned to look at Harry. "When I saw you last I asked you," Sirius started but he never had a chance to finish his thought.
"Yes," Harry shouted as loud he could, causing everyone to jump back a bit.
"Yes?" Sirius said tentatively.
"Yes, I will live with you," Harry said much more quietly.
"Are you sure?" Sirius asked.
"No, actually, I think the Dursleys are starting to grow on me," Harry said.
"Oh," Sirius said.
"Are you insane, I would have lived with you in that cave, rather than live with the Dursleys," Harry said.
They all had a good laugh at this image. Harry had a lot he needed to tell Sirius about since his last letter, including his dream, but he figured this would take awhile and he wanted to do this in private anyway.
It occurred to Hermione, so she asked, "what happened to Buckbeak?"
"Remus is taking care of her now. We thought of releasing her, but he needed the company, so they are staying together for now."
Harry was thinking, 'thank god' that they had lunch after a double session of defense against the arts. Even though they were supposed to be in the great hall for lunch, they skipped it, deciding instead to stay and catch up with Sirius. He brought them back to the classroom where they retrieved their bags, and Sirius conjured up lunch for them to share. It was a very pleasant morning, so naturally, they saw they had Potions next and, what was worse was it was still with the Slytherins.
None of them were pleased about this at all, but Ron was especially disturbed by this news.
"Bloody hell. It's bad enough that we have to have potions with that man, but why do we have to have it with them as well." Ron proceeded to curse so bad, and for so long that Hermione blushed, and gasped in shock. Harry, meanwhile, had to laugh, because he completely understood and agreed with Ron on this one.
As they approached the dungeons, they saw a group of Slytherins standing in front of the classroom. A group of Slytherin girls looked enviously at Hermione, as they walked past. Yes, Harry had to admit to himself, Hermione has definitely become rather attractive, and he could understand why they would be jealous of her. After all, she was already the smartest student, and Harry was now feeling that she might be the most attractive as well.
Harry could hardly believe that he was thinking like this about one of his best friends. This was all becoming a bit too much for him, and for some reason, Krum telling him that all Hermione was talking about was him, seemed to keep coming to mind.
However, all that changed when he heard the nasty drawl, that he came to know and loathe, "hey, mudblood lover."
Harry wasn't in the mood, but with Malfoy, he never really was anyway. Before he could say anything Ron stepped forward and said, "what do you want. I would offer to duel you, but apparently you can't even beat a first year."
The Gryffindors that were around howled with laughter. Harry saw even a few of the Slytherins had to suppress a smirk. Draco went red again, and he grabbed his wand.
"Come on Weasley," Malfoy challenged him.
As Ron was reaching for his wand Hermione stopped him, grabbing his wrist.
"No," she said. Before Ron could protest, she added, "not now. You would like to provoke us, so Snape would do the dirty work for you. If he wants to duel so badly, we'll teach him a lesson he won't soon forget. But no, not now."
Harry and Ron looked stunned at each other. Did she just challenge Malfoy to a duel? Nobody else knew how to react as the bell rang and Snape came out to the hallway to usher the rest of the class into the dungeon.
Before they went in Malfoy muttered in little more than a whisper, "ok mudblood, you'll have your duel."
Potions class was torture, as usual. They learned how to make potion that made you depressed, which Harry thought was completely unnecessary, being that the potions class managed to do a magnificent job of that, all on its own.
The bell ending the class seemed to take three and half days, and Harry kept wondering whether it was broken or not. After Harry had doodled another picture of Snape suffering, in the most horrific manner that he could conceive, the bell came finally ending the class.
When all was said and done Professor Snape had managed to take 10 points away from Neville, his second favorite target, behind Harry himself that is, for messing up his potion.
He also left them with- the largest load of homework they had ever received. Apparently, he felt it was just as important to make them just as miserable when they were away from class as they were when they were in it.
They were, however, only too happy to leave after the grinding double period. They dropped off their things in their dormitory and headed to the great hall for dinner. The twins ran up to them and grabbed Harry and Ron.
Fred said, "did you sign up yet for the team."
With everything that happened in his first day, he completely forgot about it. Apparently Ron did as well, because he had a look as though it was just coming back to him.
"No, not yet, but we will. At least I will," Harry said, not wanting to answer for Ron.
Ron quickly added, "I will too."
George said, "excellent. Since we don't have a captain for the Gryffindor team, and since we need some practice, I booked us the pitch on Wednesday."
They were both excited. This would be the first time they both played with the Gryffindor team. They sat down to dinner when three owls came and gave them notes. They all said the same thing, you're prefect orientation will be given tonight after dinner in the room behind the great hall.
They enjoyed dinner, talking about the day's events, and teasing Hermione for challenging Malfoy like that. She didn't defend herself, but rather waited until they had gotten it out of their system, and without her fighting back, it became rather boring, and didn't last very long.
After dinner, they walked up to the front of the hall and past the teachers' table and into the room behind it. Harry remembered this room, because it was the room that was involved with the tri-wizard tournament. The night of the selection from the goblet of fire, they all were directed into the room, where they received their first instructions. On the last day of the tournament the families of the champions met in the room, and spent the day with them. Mrs. Weasley and their oldest son Bill came on Harry's behalf.
When they entered the room they saw about a dozen people. He recognized all of them, including Cho, but before he could say anything, the meeting has begun, so he grabbed a seat between Hermione and Ron.