Rating:
PG
House:
The Dark Arts
Ships:
Remus Lupin/Sirius Black
Characters:
Remus Lupin Sirius Black Harry and Hermione and Ron
Genres:
Drama Romance
Era:
The Harry Potter at Hogwarts Years
Spoilers:
Prizoner of Azkaban
Stats:
Published: 12/03/2004
Updated: 06/24/2013
Words: 120,615
Chapters: 65
Hits: 86,935

Another Prisoner, Another Professor

Marauder

Story Summary:
AU. In Harry's third year he must learn the various truths about the new DADA teacher, Professor Black, and an escaped convict, Remus Lupin. SB/RL.

Chapter 16 - Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Summary:
Most of Harry's fears are relieved, until a new threat arrives in the castle.
Posted:
06/02/2006
Hits:
2,190
Author's Note:
There are two things I'd like to address about the reviews I've been getting. First of all, here and on other sites, I've gotten quite a few saying something along the lines of "You're just switching the names" (Sirius and Remus), and others saying "I'm glad you're not just switching the names." To anyone who thinks all I'm doing in this fic is typing up PoA and exchanging every "Sirius" with "Remus", well, I'm not sure what you're reading, because I think it should be apparent by now that this fic has a lot of aspects that weren't part of PoA. To anyone who's glad I'm not just switching the names, do people really do things like that, submitting the whole book with just the names switched? Very weird. Parts of this are the same as PoA; some things aren't changed a bit by Sirius teaching DADA and Remus having escaped from Azkaban, like Trelawney's classes. That's why they aren't here. I'm working in a sort of vignette style and I hope it's working.


Harry is sitting in the common room shortly before the Halloween feast; Ron and Hermione have just returned from Hogsmeade.

"We've got some really great news," said Hermione, unwinding her scarf from around her face; she looked happier and less weary than she had for the last couple of weeks, Harry noticed.

"Yeah, we got you loads of sweets," said Ron, producing a purple-and-green striped bag from the pocket of his coat. "There was a sale on Chocoballs and Ice Mice - "

"Not that, Ron!" Hermione said, rolling her eyes. She sat down next to Harry as he took the bag from Ron. "We were in this bookshop - "

"Oh, yeah, right!" said Ron, his face brightening.

" - and we found these books on wizarding genealogy. I looked up Lupin in the index, he isn't related to you whatsoever. His father's side of the family has only been magical for five generations and his mother is a Muggle. I read through his whole family tree and there's no one named Potter. Then I thought perhaps I could find something on blood magic, so I had to spend nearly ten minutes convincing this old wizard that I wanted to know for purely theoretical reasons. They keep the books on blood magic in the basement with a chain across the door. When I finally got down there, I found this really excellent book, so I read at least four chapters of it in the shop - "

" - and the old git wouldn't let me go down," Ron interjected. "He said that my hands were too sweaty or some rubbish. Has Pince got a brother, do you think?"

Hermione plowed ahead. " - and it said that although it's definitely possible to work blood magic on someone who isn't a relative, it requires all these herbs and sacrifices and brewing, depending on what you're trying to do - the herbs are for if - "

"Get to the point, Hermione," said Ron.

"You can't do blood magic just by writing someone's name in your own blood," Hermione finished triumphantly. "You can't even do blood magic by writing someone's name in their own blood. You need all sorts of things Lupin wouldn't have been able to get in Azkaban, and most importantly, you need the blood of the person you want to work the magic on. He hasn't got your blood; he isn't working blood magic on you."

Something heavy in Harry's stomach lifted; between this and the knowledge that Black was going to help him fight the dementors, he thought this must be the best day he'd had in a long time.

"Great," he said, grinning at Ron and Hermione. "Brilliant. Come on, I think the feast is starting soon."

"Lupin must be a right nutter," said Ron as they joined the throng of students in the corridors. "D'you think he thought he was really doing blood magic?"

"I don't care," Harry replied. "I don't care if he thought he was conjuring an army of boomslangs. Oh, that reminds me - " He told Ron and Hermione about Black, Kreacher, the dark artifacts, and the dementors.

"I knew it wasn't true that he was a Hit Wizard," said Ron. "Wait till I tell Fred and George - "

"Don't," said Hermione sharply. They had arrived at the Great Hall. "People believing the rumors about him is probably the only reason why half the school isn't in the hospital wing from dueling."

"We're nearly done with dueling, anyway," Harry said. "We're starting - "

"I can't believe he's letting us do dark artifacts. Does Dumbledore know - "

"What does it matter to you?" Ron asked, a note of irritation in his voice as he sat down at the Gryffindor table. "You don't care that Dumbledore knows about Black and the - "

"Quiet!" Harry hissed; at the name "Black", Lavender and Parvati had looked over, interested.

"That elf of his is sort of...strange, isn't it?" said Parvati.

"It's not Black's fault," Harry replied at once; he felt protective of Black suddenly, more protective than he had been about Hermione's criticisms of him. "He belonged to Black's mum before, she's the one who made him such a little git."

"Did you talk to Black a lot, then?" Lavender asked; sitting on the other side of the table from Harry, she leaned so far forward towards him that her hair almost fell into the pudding.

"Sort of." It wasn't as though Harry usually spent a lot of time talking to Lavender, but for some reason he found himself particularly loath to tell her about Black. "I just carried the boxes with him, mostly. He says we're going to learn how to destroy dark artifacts."

"Oh!" Parvati exclaimed. "That'll be so exciting. I just hope I'm good at it. Professor Black told me after our first class that I have a particular talent for conjuring things."

"He told me I was really fast in learning counterjinxes," said Lavender immediately, apparently not wanting to be outdone.

"Do you know if destroying dark artifacts has anything to do with exploding things?" asked Dean, who was sitting between Parvati and Seamus. "Because he told me I was good with those little explosions we learned with dueling."

Everyone, it seemed, had been told by Professor Black that they were talented in one thing or another; even Neville had been complimented on his ability to shoot streams of water from his wand. Only Hermione was silent.

Overall it was an excellent feast, the cheerful mood only briefly interrupted when Lavender began to cry over the roast rabbit. Harry's free and light feeling from the two pieces of good news he'd had that day stayed with him; he felt untouchable, beyond any harm, as though he were on his broom and flying high above the stormclouds below him. The dementors were on the other side of the stone walls and Lupin was even further. There was a Quidditch match against Slytherin coming up, where he would assuredly beat Malfoy, he'd learn how to destroy dark artifacts, and if things in Potions were still going miserably, well, that wasn't anything he hadn't dealt with before...

He wandered back up to the Gryffindor Tower with Ron and Hermione, yawning as he half-listened to them bicker about Scabbers and Crookshanks. It had really been a good weekend, even without going to Hogsmeade.

Several steps away from the portrait hole they stopped; the corridor was packed with students, the closest of whom were trying to look over heads and around shoulders to see what was going on.

"I bet they've changed the bloody password again," groaned Ron. He stood on the tips of his toes and peered over the top of Fred and George's heads. "I don't see the Fat Lady...of all the times for her to be off visiting another painting..."

"Excuse me, excuse me!" Harry heard a familiar pompous voice shout. He turned his head to feel Percy's hand collided with the side of his face as Percy tried to push his way through the crowd. "Oh, I'm sorry, Harry...let me through, all of you, why are we all waiting here? I'm Head Boy, let me through, excuse me..."

Percy made his way to the portrait hole; as he stopped in front of it the chatter died down until the corridor was eerily silent.

Percy's voice broke the uncomfortable stillness. "One of you, go get Professor Dumbledore. Go."

It seemed almost no time at all before Dumbledore had appeared, rushing toward the portrait through the path the Gryffindors hurriedly cleared for him. Harry looked down the empty space and saw what he had not been able to see before.

The Fat Lady had gone; on the bare canvass were four long scratches, evenly spaced and deep. Another set of scratches had torn part of the frame, leaving splinters of wood on the floor. There was a small pool of blood on the floor, no bigger than a Sickle coin.

There was something golden and gleaming as well, next to the blood and among the splinters. Dumbledore reached down and picked it up.

It was a goblet, bright and tall, with small dark stones around the base. A faint trail of smoke drifted from the empty bowl.


Although I really like having feedback, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't leave me reviews that just say something along the lines of "Please update soon." I'm glad that you like the fic enough to want an update ASAP, I'm more interested in knowing WHY you like it. I try to have new chapters on a fairly regular basis, but I'm very busy with lots of other things. :)