Chapter 19

Hogwarts trouble

The fun and safe bubble Harry had found himself in at the Den and at the Manor burst on the 1st September when he had to return to school. Sirius had kept his name out of the paper after the hearing but the damage had been done and most people on the platform were eyeing him and his godfather with suspicion.

'Ignore them Harry.' Sirius said as they made their way to where a large group of red heads were gathered.

'I just forgot about it. What with everyone at the Manor knowing the truth I just…'

'The important people know you and will stick by you. Ron and Hermione will be with you all the time. Neville knows too since his grandmother accepted the truth when I told her. I'm a bit annoyed Amelia couldn't yet reverse what Fudge has done or have him removed, but it's only a matter of time until everyone knows the truth.'

'I know, I just hoped I'd actually have a normal year for once.'

'Well, until now, normal hasn't really been normal for you, has it?'

'Then can I just have a very abnormal year with no excitement at all?'

'Sure you can, you just have to ignore the world.'

Harry groaned 'Promise me you'll be careful…'

'And you promise me you'll stay out of trouble.'

'Really?'

'Well, the bad type of trouble. I won't mind if I receive a letter from McGonagall every now and then telling me you pranked the Great hall purple.'

'I think that's more up Fred and George's alley.'

'What's up our alley?' the twins asked as they had already reached them.

'You turning the Great Hall purple.' Explained Harry

'Such a nice idea, Sirius. We haven't done that yet.'

'Nor will you!' Molly intervened angrily 'I'd refrain from instigating other people's children to trouble, Black!'

'I was speaking to Harry.'

'He's not your child either!' she snapped back.

'I adopted him Molly, and even if I hadn't, I've always considered him family.'

Molly pursed her lips but said nothing more as the train whistled and the kids scrambled to get on.

'Stay safe, Mirror call if anything happens.' Sirius said quickly as the train started moving and Harry climbed on the top stair.

'You too.'

With that the train picked up speed and Harry watched the figure of his father vanished as the train turned the corner.

'Let's find us some place to sit.' He said to Ron and Hermione who looked at him worriedly before answering they had prefect duty.

'But I don't think the meeting will last until Hogwarts.' Hermione said

'We'll come and find you after.' Ron added.

'Sure, we'll save you seats.' Said Harry 'That is, if you want to sit with me, Gin.'

'Sure.' Ginny said smiling at him and the two went to look for a compartment picking Neville along the way. In the end they had to share a compartment with Ginny's Ravenclaw friend since everything else was full. Luna Lovegood was strange, but friendly. Neville however was looking at Harry as if he wanted to ask something but didn't know how, it made Harry feel uneasy because Neville was uneasy. By the middle of the train ride Ron and Hermione returned to them but even if Harry wanted to question Hermione about what she had divulged from Black Manor, the compartment wasn't the place to do it. Harry was begining to relax when they reached Hogsmeade only for him to think he was losing his mind seeing the black scaly horses pulling the school carriages. Luna's comment that he was just as sane as she was, didn't really comfort him.

The feast was also odd seeing the ministry witch and having her very boring speech translated to him by Hermione: it was troubling to know the ministry was still trying very hard to ignore Voldemort's return but found the time to interfere with Hogwarts. So after a very stressful day what got Harry to finally explode was Seamus. He was barely up in his dorm and looking through his trunk to find his pyjama pants when Seamus and Dean walked in.

'Had a good summer?' asked Neville as he tended to his Mimbulus Mimbletonia.

'It was ok. Better than Seamus's anyway.'

'Why, what happened Seamus?' Neville asked.

'Me mom didn't want me to come back to Hogwarts this year.' He said.

'What? Why?' Harry asked as he was pulling off his robes.

'Well, I suppose…because of you.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, she…er…it's not just you, it's Dumbledore too.'

'She believes the Daily Prophet?' Harry wondered if a fellow Gryffindor thought this…

'Yeah, something like that.' Seamus said nervously. 'Look, what did happen that night when, you know Diggory died.'

Harry really tried to remain calm. 'I don't want to talk about it. Dumbledore filled you guys in at the end of last year anyway.'

'Dumbledore claims You-Know-Who is back! As if one dark wizard at large isn't enough!' Seamus added a bit more strongly.

'What other dark wizard?' asked Harry confused?

'Sirius Black! Didn't you see? He got himself out of the charges against him last summer.'

'Sirius isn't dark.' Harry said immediately.

'Oh yeah? Then how do you account for him being set free and declared innocent? Shouldn't you be afraid? He tried coming after you in our third year…'

'Sirius is innocent.' Harry said 'I've known this since the end of third year. And he was never after me, he was after the real culprit, Pettigrew.'

'How do you know this?'

'He's my godfather, well technically he's my father now since he adopted me last month.'

'You're joking.' Dean said

'No, I'm not. Sirius was my dad's best friend. I've been living with him these last few weeks.'

'And you're not scared of him?' asked Neville

'Er, why should I be scared? Wait, did you meet him?'

'He came by our place to talk to gran one day.' Neville said.

'Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What was it he said, something about your grandmother helping him with the Wizengamot work?'

'I wouldn't know. Gran never tells me anything. D-does he talk to you about these things?'

'He explained a bit about the political system, but honestly I didn't bother paying too much attention. Hermione can tell you more, she kept asking questions.'

'I was a bit curious about it seeing as I'll have to take over at some point from my gran. Do you think Hermione will tell me?'

'Sure she will, and if you have more questions I'll ask Sirius for you.'

'Thanks.' Neville said shyly 'But I'll ask Hermione first, no need to bother him about it.'

'Are you really OK with this?' Seamus was looking from Harry to Neville and back again.

'OK with what?' Neville asked

'Him, here with us in the same room. He's been spending time with a…'

'With a what?' Harry asked his voice dangerously close to a shout.

'He can't be innocent. He's probably confounded you or maybe put you under the Imperius curse.'

'I was the only one who could throw off the curse last year. And Sirius IS innocent, just because the stupid ministry didn't give him a trial 14 years ago doesn't make him a mass murderer.'

'Are you listening to yourself? He was imprisoned because the evidence against him was too overwhelming.'

'The evidence was stupid people thinking he was dark because he has the Black name and he trusted the wrong people. He was never a Death Eater, he fought Voldemort's men and helped save lives as an Auror. He's a hero!'

'A hero who attacked the fat lady and nearly killed Ron three years ago!'

'He wasn't after Ron, he was after the rat!'

'What is going on here?' Ron chose that moment to come in. 'Why are you guys shouting?'

'Your best friend here think Sirius Black is innocent and didn't come here and almost killed you in third year.' Seamus said.

'He wasn't after me. Sirius was after Scabbers.' Ron said making Seamus's mouth drop.

'You know him too?'

'Of course I do. He's Harry's godfather, well father now. It will take me some getting used to that.' Ron grinned. 'Sirius is all right.'

'You're both mad!' Seamus yelled and stormed out.

'Well, that was cheerful. Anyone else have a problem with us or Sirius?' asked Ron

'I don't think so. Gran wouldn't have met with him if…anyway.' Neville trailed off.

Dean eyed both Ron and Harry cautiously. 'You sure you're not confounded?'

Harry raised an eyebrow, how could he answer that?

Dean sighed 'If you are, and you decide to kill me in my sleep, just do it fast and painless.'

Ron snorted. But Harry didn't find it funny. He being called mad was one thing, but Sirius being called a mass murderer wasn't something he would tolerate. He went to sleep trying to clear his mind but failed abysmally falling into a restless sleep and revisiting the graveyard. The upside was that in the morning his scar wasn't hurting and he was given once again the reassurance that he was Voldemort free.

Next morning Seamus left the dorm faster than Harry could get out of bed, obviously none of them had been harmed or killed during the night but that didn't seem to reassure Finnegan yet. Hermione started to rant about the twins after seeing their announcement on the Gryffindor notice board and the three of them made their way to the Great Hall with people eyeing them suspiciously and murmuring behind their backs. Harry was irritated beyond belief. Breakfast didn't get any more cheerful when they saw their schedule for Monday with them having Binns, Snape, Trelawney and Umbridge all in one day. By the time they made their way to the DADA classroom Harry's mood was sour with Snape having humiliated him once more and extra homework to boot. But Harry's day was far from over with Umbridge proving to be, if it was even possible, worse than Snape. At the end of it he had been given detention every day of the week and had eaten half of McGonagall's biscuits to calm down. The muttering around him only grew in intensity and he was really in a foul mood. He couldn't concentrate on his homework so he decided to head to bed early, knowing full well he'd regret it when work started piling up.

He climbed into bed when he felt a buzz from under his pillow.

'Hey there pup, how was your first day?' Sirius's face showed up in the mirror.

'Hey, it was…well, I'd rather not talk about it.'

'Tell me what happened?'

'I'd really not. Let's just say I had Binns, Snape, Trelawney and the new teacher Umbridge all in one.'

'Auch, that doesn't sound too good.'

'I know. We have so much homework already, Snape was horrible, no surprise there, but Umbridge, that woman is evil, she gave me one week worth of detentions for telling the truth about how Cedric died and Voldemort being back.'

'Hm, I know about her from Remus, she's the one behind the legislation that made it almost impossible for werewolves to find a job. She's a nasty piece of work. Did she start training you guys to fight half breeds?'

'No, she's not teaching us anything. All we did today was read the first chapter in the most boring DADA book I've ever read.'

'Ah, yes, Kingsley came by yesterday and told me the new idea the minister has is that Dumbledore is raising an army against him. He doesn't want you trained in combat.'

'Well, this is likely to make us all fail our OWLs.'

'After what I taught you during the Summer I'm not expecting anything other than Outstanding from you, young man.'

'Yes, well, I'll be fine, but you should hear Hermione's mutterings.' Then he remembered he still hadn't talked to his friend about Black Manor.

'Concentrate on what you can improve and just ignore the old toad.' Sirius said bringing Harry back from his own thoughts.

'Easy for you to say, you don't have a week's worth of detention with her.' groaned Harry.

'After detention just find, I don't know, a song that you can silently hum every time she becomes too much to handle. Tune her out as Hughes says.'

'I'll try.' sighed Harry 'Worst part is I have to be in detention when the keeper trials are happening. Angelina blew a fuse when she heard.'

'You'll get to know your new team mate after. Don't worry. Now, when is your first weekend to Hogsmead?'

And so their conversation turned to nicer things.

His first detention with Umbridge was horrible. The woman made him write lines in his own blood. His right hand was trickling blood and he was determined to get back at the toad somehow. Surely this wasn't legal, surely. He got back to the common room where Hermione was waiting for him. Ron arrived a few minutes after him.

'Where have you been?' asked Harry looking at Ron's flushed face and dishevel hair.

'Out.' Ron said evasively his cheeks going a bit pinkyer.

Harry wanted to press for a more definitive answer but decided he would ask when Hermione wasn't present.

'How was your detention with the toad?' asked Ron

'She made me write lines.' Harry didn't know why, but his determination to tell the two the truth about his detentions with Umbridge shrunk back. A tiny voice in his head told him he would deal with this alone, that complaining would be like admitting defeat to the toad. No, telling Ron and Hermione wouldn't solve the problem. Heck, they would just get into trouble if they tried to help. The one person that could help was Sirius. And he was a mirror call away. But he would have to finish his homework first.

It was almost midnight when he finished patching up some form of acceptable essay for the classes he had the following day. Ron was still scribbling something for Snape and Hermione had left them to go to sleep about one hour before.

'I'll turn in, try to talk to Sirius if he's still awake.' He told Ron.

'OK, I'll be done in a bit too.' Ron nodded and Harry was soon setting up privacy spells around his bed before taking out the mirror.

'Sirius Black.' He spoke into the smooth surface. The connection formed and Harry lost his voice immediately after seeing his adoptive father. 'What happened?'

'Hey Harry. Sorry, I'm a bit out of it today.'

'You look almost as worse as you did when you got out of Azkaban.' Harry was trying very hard not to panic.

'Hey, I washed my hair.' Sirius tried to lighten the mood with a joke.

'This isn't funny!'

'Relax, I disowned Bellatrix and the magic exhausted me a bit. But I'll get better fast.'

'A bit? Sirius you look half dead!'

'Yes, well, on the positive side, I'm half alive.'

'This isn't funny.' Harry said for the second time.

'I'm glad I don't have to do this for any other Black family member though.'

'Why did you do it to her anyway? She's in Azkaban, she can't hurt us.'

'Bella is lethal anywhere. But I did this to gain access to some of the Lestrange holdings…Harry, can we talk tomorrow, I think I need a good night's sleep.'

'Where are you?'

'I'm at the Manor, Tia is fussing over me. She'll get me back into shape in no time. Don't worry.'

'A little late for that.' Huffed Harry 'Just take care of yourself old man. I'll mirror call tomorrow at noon, if I don't see any improvement I'm coming home.'

'Love you too.' And the mirror turned silver.

Sirius did look a bit better at noon the next day, but Harry was still concerned. Tia was preparing his medicine and with a promise that in one week's time all will be as before, Harry was persuaded not to go to the Manor. But this little hitch made him tight lipped about his detention with Umbridge. If Sirius found out about that and he was in such a lousy state Harry had no doubt the man would march up to the castle and hex the toad with his last breath. Besides, he decided he would keep quiet, hum a little song and simply ignore Dolores Umbridge at the end of his one week detention. What he didn't count on was getting angry at the toad again and earning himself another week's worth of writing with a blood quill. Honestly, humming didn't help one bit, nor did Hermione and her questions and the bloody discussions that followed. At this point in time Harry was angry at just about everything and anything except Sirius.

A/N: And we're back at school. Did it feel a bit rushed? I know you guys wanted to see Harry have the talk with Hermione, but he's been busy getting angry. Have no fear though, he will have a talk with her, he just didn't have the time (read that, I was too lazy to put together the scene yet).

Cedarwings made a good point about why owl pets aren't allowed to just fly directly to Hogwarts. I honestly was wondering about that too. Especially since owls aren't normal Muggle pets. It would be weird seeing kids with owls in cages every year in September crossing Kings Cross station. But maybe it's just tradition to take your pet with you for the ride. I have no idea.

Anyway, happy Easter, sunny days and try to stay healthy.