I Dreamt Of You (Wolfstar)

Chapter 19

The next morning, Sirius woke up early, smiling happily at the ceiling. He still struggled with sleeping in until a healthy time due to the years with the Blacks, but sleepy cuddles in the morning with Remus could only be a good thing.

He padded quietly over to his mate's bed, sliding under the covers and snuggling into the warm lump of Remus, who was curled up on his side. The werewolf shifted, wrapping his arms around Sirius' waist and the elf managed to drift back off to sleep until it was time to get up.

When the alarm Remus had set went off, the group woke up and got ready quickly, packing their bags and getting dressed. Sirius would need support when he went into the Great Hall for breakfast and Peter and James were more than happy to sacrifice a bit of sleep in order to help their friends.

Remus took Sirius' hand and the group went down through the common room, other Gryffindors falling in step with them as a large bunch of the house walked together to the Great Hall. It was mostly silent, with a few quiet conversations, and everyone had an air of tense anticipation about them, ready to stand united at the first sign of trouble.

As soon as Sirius entered the large hall, the room went quiet with everyone, both staff and students, staring at him in his new robes. Remus pulled him to the middle of the Gryffindor table on the far side so they had their backs to the wall and sat down, filling a small plate for Sirius as he made up one for himself, having figured out his favourites after several weeks living with him this summer. Sirius smiled gratefully at his mate, settling down to eat and ignoring the whispering and stares.

Thankfully, breakfast passed uneventfully for the most part, other than an unrelated incident involving a clumsy ravenclaw first year and a juice pitcher. It wasn't really relaxing in any way, however, as the tense mood continued, as if Sirius was in the eye of a storm.

Later, in Potions, Sirius braced himself for the usual taunts and hateful behaviour from Felix Gark, and was a little shocked until he remembered last night's conversation when the professor almost completely ignored him during the brewing part of class, not belittling his work or trying to intimidate him into messing up the potion. Gark did insult him once near the beginning of class, but he could tell there was no cruelty behind it and so it didn't bother him. Remus exchanged a happy look with Sirius and the pair concluded through mental discussion that Felix probably believed he could get away with not taking points or being overly rude now that Sirius was in Gryffindor.

The day seemed to be looking up, until Harry entered Monroe's classroom and saw his beady eyes boring into him. He gave a little speech about how they didn't need to actually do magic, just learn how, and Sirius was outraged. How could they cripple students like this? They had their OWLs this year and there was no way anyone would be able to pass the physical portion of the exams without ever doing the spells before.

His anger must have shown on his face, for he said, in a sickly sweet voice. "Mr. Black, did you have something to say?"

"No, sir." He muttered, avoiding his eyes.

"Detention this evening, Mr. Black, for not addressing a professor properly and lying to them." The toad man said, smiling triumphantly.

Remus tensed up next to Sirius, but Sirius put a hand on his knee and he relaxed slightly. It wouldn't help anyone if he got detention too.

The day only went downhill from there. At lunch, Robert stormed over to the Gryffindor table and started yelling at Sirius, screeching loudly about betraying his house and shacking up with Gryffindors, though the words he said were much worse. Enough so that, looking scandalised, Flitwick took 40 house points from Slytherin and gave him detention for a week. Robert sat down at the Slytherin table with a huff.

After lunch, Sirius was called to gark's office in the tower. "Mr. Black, Dumbledore has called you to his office. Would you like me to go with you? Or perhaps another teacher, if you feel uncomfortable with me?"

Surprised at his new Head of House's thoughtfulness, Sirius pondered this for a second before asking, "Would it be alright if both you and Professor Flitwick came?" That way they could make it seem that Sirius was uncomfortable with gark and insisted on having Flitwick come.

"Of course." The vampire nodded and led the way. Sirius followed gark through the castle to the Ravenclaw tower, where they asked Flitwick to come as backup. Flitwick agreed, seemingly confused as to why Dumbledore was trying to meet alone with a student in the first place.

When they arrived at the office, Sirius waited while Flitwick said the password, which today was Custard, and followed the two professors up the stairs. Opening the door after Flitwick knocked, Dumbledore's eyes turned angry when he realised Sirius hadn't come alone but he quickly recovered, throwing on a friendly grandfather mask.

"Hello, Sirius, my boy." He said, twinkling his eyes ferociously. The teen felt a probe along his mental shields and shoved the headmaster out. "I am sure that you have now realised you were hasty in your re-sorting and would like to rejoin Slytherin. I already have your old bed ready for you and you can return there this evening. I'll have one of the house elves move your things for you."

Sirius resisted the urge to laugh at that. The house elves would have fun trying to so much as touch his trunk. It was heavily warded with both elf, werewolf, and wizard magic. It was also absurd how the headmaster seemed to think he'd just do whatever the old coot said.

"I do not want to return to Slytherin. I am perfectly happy in Gryffindor, and I've found friends that actually like me for me, instead of my money." Sirius replied, giving the headmaster a glare that said he knew exactly what Dumbledore was trying to do.

"But, my boy, that's really very selfish of you. Think of your friends. They must be devastated. I can't believe that you would abandon your friends like this." Dumbledore continued, trying to guilt Sirius into agreeing with him. And if he was still under the compulsions and potions, he likely would have too.

Flitwick cut in. "Sirius has made his position on this matter very clear, Albus, and I don't appreciate you trying to strong-arm and guilt trip him into returning to a place he was unhappy in. I don't think the public would appreciate it very much either, especially all those parents on the school board."

Sirius held in a snicker, Flitwick was not very subtly threatening Dumbledore, what was the world coming to. The water elf had to wonder if the half-goblin had been informed at least partially of the situation by some of his relatives at Gringotts. He exchanged an amused look with Felix, who had just been leaning against the wall observing the whole time.

Knowing he had lost, at least for now, Dumbledore gritted his teeth and dismissed them. He'd have to find a way to get that troublesome boy alone. He was messing up all his plans. At this rate, next someone was going to realise that he'd completely faked the fate!