All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Third Year : Three, Four, Five

Friday 7th September 1973

Sirius Black didn’t do homework. Not like other students did—frantic and scrambling, spending hours to finish essays and assignments that he breezed through without breaking a sweat. School had always been easy for him, and he took pride in deliberately slacking off yet still being able to get top marks. Of course, he didn’t want anyone thinking he cared about schoolwork—he wasn’t a swot. But he also felt a quiet, desperate need to prove himself; and besides, it was up to him to keep James’s ego in check once exams rolled around.

So although Sirius would never admit it, he felt a bit overwhelmed by all the extra coursework that came with taking three additional classes. He’d figured there’d be more to do—but since he’d had such an easy time his first two years, Sirius thought throwing in a few more classes wouldn’t be a problem. What he’d failed to factor in was that, as he grew older, his core courses would begin to increase in difficulty, as well.

In Transfiguration, they were starting on bodily transformations—small stuff, but it was still more dangerous and more complicated magic than transfiguring objects or even small animals. Defence Against the Dark Arts was getting into upper-level jinxes, while in Charms Professor Flitwick informed them that they’d start looking at combination spells—luckily, Sirius and the marauders already had plenty of experience with combining incantations, but Flitwick was starting with the underlying theory, which was a headache to read through.

Astronomy, Herbology, and Potions were all as boring as ever, but with even more reading and all the professors insisting that “attention to detail” would be of the utmost importance in their classes that year. History of Magic had also stayed mostly the same, although Professor Binns was beginning to assign more reading than the previous years, as well. Sirius was usually incredibly fast when it came to finishing his class texts (once he actually sat down to do them), but even he struggled a bit when it all added up to over a hundred pages in a weekend.

Divination was a doss, as they’d all expected it to be. The hardest part of the class was getting up to the classroom, which was in a high, secluded tower and required them all to climb up a ladder and through a trapdoor. The professor was a tiny, ancient woman who the class first mistook for a pile of abandoned laundry next to one of the desks—until she started moving, at which point they realized that she was a wrinkled little witch who looked as if she was being swallowed by her many layers of shawls.

She puttered around the classroom as she taught, mumbling about dreams and the symbolic hidden within the subconscious. At the end of the class, she told them to read the first chapter of their textbook (“What Are You Trying To Tell Yourself? Omens and Sleep”) and assigned them to keep dream journals over the course of the next week. Only Peter seemed worried about the homework, moaning as he shimmied awkwardly down the ladder,

“But I never remember my dreams!”

Sirius snorted. “Just make something up, mate.” Peter looked sceptical, shooting a nervous glance back up at the trapdoor.

“You don’t think she’d…know?”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “S’not as if she can read your mind.”

Peter didn’t look so sure.

Luckily, he wasn’t joining them for Arithmancy, which meant Sirius didn’t have to listen to him whinge. Pete had initially put the subject down on his timetable, but dropped it once he realized that they only needed to add a minimum of two extra subjects, not wanting to challenge himself too much with the increased workload. Sirius didn’t think that backing down from a challenge was a very Gryffindor thing to do, but then, it only confirmed what he already knew: Peter just wasn’t in the same league as the other marauders.