"Well, he's my godfather, and we know that it's going to be an interesting class." Harry told her.

            "Oh, well, that clears things up." Arlette said. "By the way, what is the divination class like?" Ron snorted. Hermione decided to answer that question, "It's stupid and pointless."

            "And Hermione's not good at it." Ron added.

            "That is not the reason. Prof. Trelawny has serious problems." Hermione scoffed. They bickered back and forth for minutes, and they started to get off subject.

            "Do they do this often?" Arlette asked, surveying the fight laid out before her.

            "Always." Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione and Ron's fighting was a normal daily event now. "As much as we would love to discuss this matter," Harry commented, "We need to eat breakfast."

            "Okay." Ron said, still glaring at Hermione. "So Arlette, your from France?" He asked, turning to her.

            "Yes, from Balemes. It's near la source de Marne," She said. Then seeing Ron's and Harry's puzzled look, she added. "It's a small town in the Haute Marne." Neither Ron nor Harry still seemed to get it, so she added, "It's a few hours from Paris."

            "Why are you at Hogwarts?" Harry asked. Hermione sighed. She had obviously found all this out the night before.

            "It was an exchange program that school was doing, I was picked to go for this year, maybe next year too." Arlette shrugged. "It is up to me whether or not I stay."

            "And you really play Quidditch?" Ron asked, grinning. "And you're good?"

            Arlette blushed. "I'm not that good. Marie is much better than I am, so is Victoire. But I would be glad to help out the team."

            "Good enough for us." Harry said. He looked at the clock on the wall. "I'd really like to prolong this talk, but we can't miss Sirius's first class- excuse me Professor Black's first class."

            The whole class was standing outside the door of the Defense Against The Dark Arts classroom. The door was still locked shut.

"This is great." Dean said, "Our first class of the year is the best one." He then noticed Arlette. "Who's she?"

            "Her name's Arlette. She's a French exchange student." Ron told him

            "Does she speak English?" Dean asked

            "Yes I do. Hello." Arlette said. "I may not know much about the school, but I'm not an invalid." Harry noticed that she pronounced her 'Th.'s' with a 'z'

            Dean smiled, embarrassed, and turned around to talk with Seamus.

            The door to the classroom opened, and all filed in. Harry, Ron, and Hermione got seats up at the front. The class tittered, not sure whether to talk or not. Then a black dog walked in. "What is that huge dog doing here!" Parvati screeched. The dog looked up at her, and kept walking.

            When it was level with Harry, he looked at the dog and said "Hello Snuffles."

            The dog got up to the front of the room and stood there for a minute. Then it changed into Sirius. There was a gasp from the class, then some applause. "Thank you. But seeing as this isn't Transfiguration, we won't discuss that any further. Well, the last time I was in this classroom, I was the student. Who here has the desk that says 'J.P. Loves L.F.'?"

            Lavender raised her hand. "Congratulations, you have my desk. I filled that in for James. We can only hope that there are no more dung bombs in the secret compartment." Lavender looked worried, and tried to see if Parvati would trade desks with her (Parvati refused quickly).

            "I would also like to announce, for those who do not already know, we have a new student in our midst. Arlette Pilliot, who just got here last night from Beauxbatons on a student exchange program. So please say 'hullo' to her or something." Sirius smiled at Arlette, who, embarrassed, smiled back in return.

            "So, what do you think you are going to learn this year?" Sirius asked them. No one knew. "Well, you will be learning intermediate curses. Not any of that stuff Moody taught you. This will be a bit more low-key." He passed around textbooks, and then took out his wand, and instructed the class to do the same.

            "Say 'Allicarte'"

            "Allicarte" The class said. Bright red sparks shot out of their wands, and the ceiling above Neville caught fire.
            Sirius ran over, dousing the flames in water from his wand. "I should have warned you, you have to point your wand a certain way. Now, does anyone know what the point of this spell is?"

            Inevitably, Hermione's hand shot up. Sirius nodded at her and she said (in a rather rushed voice) "It's a spell used to defend you from fire or fire-like substances, using fire to fight fire."

            "Very good Hermione, I can tell you've been studying." Hermione smiled her usual smile after getting praised, and the rest of the class tried to hide their resentment. "Now, we are going to pair up the class, and you may use the simple fire spell you learned last year."

            Harry and Ron teamed up, and after the first try, Harry got rather singed. "Um, excuse me, Professor Black, we have a problem." Ron said, trying not to laugh at the sight of Harry's now powder black face.

            Sirius, who was having trouble stifling his laughs, said "Er- bring down the fire power and you should have no problems."

            A few more minutes were spent with their practicing, and Sirius asked them to go back to their desks. " I hate to tell you this, but you have a homework assignment." The class groaned. "But, I'm letting you do it in class, so you can finish it here." Some people still groaned, but not as many. "Your assignment is to write a paper on the fire reversal spell and give seven reasons why you would use it." The only people who didn't groan this time were Hermione and Arlette.

            Harry and Ron started their reports, thinking of funny excuses to use the spell. But forty-five minutes later, they were still three short. Harry looked over at Arlette's paper. Hers, like Hermione's, was filled with informational things that Harry or Ron would never write.

            Ron was tapping his pencil on the side of his desk when he thought of another idea. "Hey, Harry" he whispered. "I've got another one, If Hagrid decides to get another Norwegian Ridgeback."

            "Oh, I hadn't thought of that one!" Harry whispered back. Hermione looked over at Ron's paper and sighed. "Aren't you going to put something useful on there?"

            "Well, these are useful. I'd definitely use the charm if I ever came upon a volcano." Harry said. "Or one of those rare fire-breathing daisies Sprout told us about last year."

            Arlette tapped Hermione's shoulder. "Um, excuse me, Hermione, I need a little help with some of the words in the book. I didn't get a study in English Defense terms." She said. Hermione turned to help her, and Harry tried to think of more reasons to use a fire defense spell.

            Fifteen minutes later, they were released from class, Harry had promised to see Sirius before dinner; the Gryffindors set off to the dungeons. "Arlette, you are about to enter the bottom floor of the abyss, the devil's lair, Kankredin's main meeting room (A.N. It's from Dalemark Quartet, Kankredin was the stealer of souls,)" Ron said. "But it's also known as," Harry said,