A Different Halloween

Chapter 48

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Sirius had ensured he made the Slytherin Common room early enough to catch his new students before they headed off to breakfast. There were some things he wanted to say to his house before the rumour mill took over.

"Good morning everyone, I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you before we start classes. I am Lord Sirius Orion Black and most of you will already know my wife, as Lady Black is your Astronomy Professor. I will be teaching you defence against the dark arts and am well qualified in this field, I served as an auror before leaving the ministry to set up PMP with my friends. I was also a Gryffindor when I attended Hogwarts as a student but please don't hold that against me."

It didn't take a genus to see from the glances he was receiving that his last piece of information was already known to some. This was his main reason for holding an impromptu meet and greet this morning, there were things he wanted to say upfront.

"Slytherin house from that time bears no resemblance whatsoever to what I see before me here today, people who don't learn from past mistakes are destined to repeat them. Slytherins are noted for their cunning, guile and ambition, I see nothing wrong with possesing these qualities. My ambition for this house is to see both the Quidditch and House Cups resting in my office at the end of term. This is especially true since one of my best friends is currently the head of Gryffindor."

For some reason this drew everyone's attention to Harry. He just laughed along with his friends, all four knowing the friendly rivalry that existed between the marauders.

"As I said, there is nothing wrong in having ambition. Cunning and guile are also admirable traits to posses, there is something eminently satisfying about outsmarting your opponents. Lying, cheating and sabotaging those same opponents is not something I want this house to be associated with, nor will I tolerate. I want the entire school to know we achieved our goals purely on merit. I want them all to be forced to concede that Slytherin House is simply the best house in Hogwarts."

This drew roaring cheers from the students as Sirius dismissed them off to breakfast. He held the first years back and told Marcus Flint he wanted a word with him later. Sirius then began handing the first years their timetables.

"Since this year's sorting was so skewed in favour of Slytherin and Ravenclaw, the first year timetable had to be amended last night. With the twelve of you, ten Ravenclaws, five Hufflepuffs and only four Gryffindors, this is the smallest intake of first years into Hogwarts in decades. Due to that fact, most of your classes will be undertaken as one group, Potions you will share with Hufflepuff while Herbology is now with the Gryffindors."

They were all studying their new timetables intently as Sirius gave his students more information on them.

"You will notice that you have Wednesday afternoon's and Thursday Morning's off. This is due to the fact that your astronomy class takes place at midnight on Wednesday. Now, since your first class is with me, I'll collect you all after breakfast. I won't have my house turning up late to their first class because they couldn't find it, loosing Slytherin house points will see me demanding an explanation from the individual involved."

Sirius led the excited bunch through the still confusing array of corridors toward the great hall.

Pansy watched the young couple walking beside their head of house, still holding hands. Next to her walked the epitome of a light family wearing the green trimmed robes of Slytherin house. At the moment Pansy had a lot more questions than answers, it was time to try and change that. "Susan, if those two need to be so close, what would have happened if they had been placed in different houses?"

Susan could see the girl was struggling to understand so was as honest as she could be. "Hogwarts would have lost at least two students as they returned to Crawley and went back to St Andrews school. They would just have reversed their teaching schedule."

This didn't help Pansy any so Susan explained further. "As we told you, the six of us attended primary school before coming to Hogwarts, Luna and Dudley still do. Harry and Hermione intend to continue with their ordinary education in their spare time and holidays, they and Dudley intend to attend a university after finishing here. They would have just swapped and studied their magical subjects in their spare time. With four Hogwarts professors available to them, I don't think they would have any problems with the curriculum."

Susan ran her thoughts through to their natural conclusion before saying the next bit. "Hogwarts would probably have lost four professors as well. Aunt Lily was torn about coming here full time while the Potters and Blacks aren't exactly hurting for money. They were already very wealthy before PMP made them another fortune. Without Harry and Hermione here, they would probably have stayed at home and continued our magical education there."

Pansy didn't miss the implications on the way Susan used 'our', she got the distinct impression Susan and Neville would have followed their friends back to this Crawley place. "Well then, we should just be glad Harry and Hermione were both sorted into Slytherin."

Susan didn't let Pansy see the smirk that was dying to break out on her face, that wouldn't have been the Slytherin thing to do.

Sirius took a moment to have a quiet word with his godson as they rounded another corner. "Did either of you get any sleep last night?"

"We managed a good hour on the sofa before you woke us. If we can't sleep, the mirrors can be used to arrange for us to meet in the common room. That sofa was quite comfortable."

Sirius had no intention of hiding his teasing smile. "I don't think it was the sofa that made you so comfortable."

Harry was denied a chance to answer as they were now at the great hall and Sirius was busy handing out timetables to the rest of Slytherin.

Justin had received his timetable from Professor Sprout and was studying it intently, keenly anticipating his first lesson at Hogwarts, defence with Professor Black. The only fly in the ointment was that he had no idea where that classroom was located. Reckoning that his Slytherin counterparts would be more likely to know that information, the naive Hufflepuff decided to ask. Turning around until he was facing the Slytherin table, Justin unknowingly committed a Hogwarts faux pas and left himself wide open for an embarrassing rebuttal.

"Excuse me chaps, we appear to be sharing our first lesson together. You wouldn't happen to know where the defence classroom is, would you?"

Greg was busily working out which of his answers would be the more sarcastic when Neville beat him to it.

"Sorry we don't, but Professor Black is collecting us outside the great hall after breakfast. Why don't you join us there? You might want to pass that around to the other houses."

Justin now wore a wide smile, things inside Hogwarts were looking up. "Smashing, I'll see to that very thing right away. Thank you."

It was a confused Greg who watched the boy pass the information on to his two Hufflepuff friends before then approaching the Ravenclaw table. "Why did you tell him that Neville?"

Neville answered with a question of his own. "Why not?"

Greg was unsuccessful twice as he attempted to find words to answer Neville, this was not lost on the rest of Slytherin house. Cedric Diggory had also paid close attention to the byplay between the houses, he was probably the first outside Slytherin to receive an inclination that there might be dramatic changes afoot inside Hogwarts.

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