Another Prisoner, Another Professor

Harry, Ron, and Hermione have arrived in the train compartment on their way to Hogwarts.

"That ruddy cat of yours had better stay away from Scabbers on this train," said Ron as they searched for a compartment. "I don't fancy having to write in my first letter home that he became Crookshanks's lunch."

"I've already told you, Ron, Crookshanks had a lot of tuna before we left," replied Hermione, rolling her eyes. "Look, there's someone in this compartment, but I think it's the only one left on the train that has any room."

Harry looked over her shoulder to see a man sitting next to the window, asleep.

The man was wearing scarlet robes, which looked as though they were either very new or not worn frequently. He had thick and shiny black hair that fell to his elbows. His face was very calm as he slept; that and his pale skin gave him the look of a marble statue.

"Who d'you suppose that is?" asked Ron, looking the stranger up and down.

"Professor S. A. Black," Hermione said casually.

"How do you know?"

"It's on his case," she replied; Harry saw that above the man's head he had stored a leather suitcase with "S. A. Black" embossed in fancy script in one corner.

"What do you think he teaches?" Ron asked.

"Well, there's only one thing," Hermione replied, sitting down opposite Professor Black. "It has to be Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Unless maybe Snape got sick of not getting to teach Defense and quit, and this bloke here's his replacement," said Ron hopefully. His face looked wistful for a moment but when he turned to look at Professor Black again he scowled.

"What are you scowling for, Ron?"

"Well look at him, Hermione, he looks like the Darkest thing he's ever battled was a spot on his chin."

"That's a bit of a harsh judgment, seeing as all you've seen him do is sleep," Hermione replied, one eyebrow arched. "I'm sure Dumbledore wouldn't hire anyone who's completely incompetent."

"I'm not sure about that," Harry said; he had just remembered Professor Lockhart. "Still, he doesn't look bad to me so far."

Scabbers the rat came out of Ron's pocket and began to sniff about. Ron lifted him out and cast a wary glance towards Crookshanks's basket. "Well, maybe he'll be all right, but I'll tell you one thing, if we end up with another Lockhart I'll skive off lessons as much as I can. Black, that name sounds familiar - oy, Scabbers, watch it!" Scabbers had leapt from Ron's raised hand into the pocket of his shirt, small claws gripping at the fabric. Crookshanks yawned widely.

"It's all right, Ron, Crookshanks shouldn't be hungry until dinner," said Hermione immediately. "Anyway, you can't skive off Defense Against the Dark Arts. I mean, Lockhart was obviously a terrible teacher, but you can't say we didn't learn anything - "

"Yeah, we learned not to let pixies loose if you're a stupid git," said Harry.

"And that modifying people's memories and lying can get you a lot of money," Ron added. "Right useful knowledge, that."

"Professor Black is probably a lot better than Lockhart," Hermione said, stroking Crookshanks behind his ears. "I mean, think about it - we've had one Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had You-Know-Who in the back of his head, and another who didn't know what he was talking about. Dumbledore's probably gone through a lot of trouble to find a better professor for this year."

"I hope so," said Ron, a bit too loudly on the second word.

"Ron, be quiet, he'll hear you!"

But Professor Black did not stir.

Dumbledore had better have gone through a lot of trouble to find a good professor, Harry thought miserably. Was Dumbledore too trusting? He hadn't found out about Quirrell until it was almost too late, and after that he'd gone and hired Lockhart. Back when Lupin was a boy he'd let him go to Hogwarts, and even if Snape hadn't been after the Stone and hadn't had anything to do with the Chamber of Secrets, he was still far from a pleasant person...

No, Harry thought. Dumbledore was one of the greatest wizards of all time. After two bad professors, he must have worked extra hard to find a good one. Especially if...

"Hermione," he asked, "you wouldn't happen to have one of those books about blood magic here with you, do you? In Crookshanks's basket or anything?"

"No, I don't," Hermione answered as Ron gave Harry a concerned look. "I don't actually own any, but there are some in the library at Hogwarts."

"You don't think Lupin could have really put a curse on you or anything, do you?" asked Ron. "Percy says it's impossible for prisoners to do magic while they're in Azkaban."

"If Lupin's as powerful as everyone says he is, I'm not taking any chances," Harry replied firmly. "Besides, I don't know anything about werewolves."

"Now that I think about it, I don't know much about them either," said Hermione. A bright, distant look came into her eyes. "I'll have to research them when we get back to Hogwarts. If I remember right there are some really thick old books about them in the northeast corner of the library..."

Professor Black shifted in his sleep and made a small noise in the back of his throat; they looked to see if he was awake, but his eyes remained shut and he did not move again.