My Godfather

Chapter XIII: Professor Black

Harry's eyes opened to the familiar Gryffindor boys dormitory. He sat up, reached for his glasses and put them on, trying to get over the sleepiness. He turned to his right where Ron was fast asleep, snoring like they had all day. He saw that most of his luggage had been neatly arranged next to his nightstand and he figured that his godfather must have had it moved there.

He looked at his watch only to realise with a jolt that it was already 8:00. Breakfast would get over in a while and it simply wouldn't do to be late on the first day of classes. The last thing he needed was another detention. He got out of bed and shook his best friend awake.

The two of them made it to the Great Hall where they met Hermione who wished them a very short 'Morning' before burying her nose into her Charms textbook. Harry saw Sirius sitting at the high table. He caught his godfather's eye and smiled. Sirius smiled back at his godson and gave him an affectionate wink.

Ron had loaded his plate with everything that was within his reach and began eating in his usual manner, completely ignoring the look of disgust Hermione was giving him. He was just halfway through his breakfast when Errol, his family owl dropped a letter into his plate after successfully knocking over a jug of pumpkin juice and a plate of beacon.

It was a red envelope, nothing special but all the colour from Ron's face drained. "Hey look everyone, Weasley's got himself a howler!" Said Seamus. "What's a howler?" asked Harry, never having seen or heard of one ever before. "You'll see." Said Neville who looked equally weary of the letter. "Open it quickly Ron! I received one from my Gran once. It was horrible!"

Ron opened the letter and the Great Hall was filled with Molly Weasley's enraged, resounding voice:

"RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR?  WE'RE ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED. YOUR FATHER IS FACING INQUIRY AT WORK. YOU HAD BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLANATION FOR THE KIND OF FOOLISHNESS YOU'VE JUST DISPLAYED. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU'RE IN YOUNG MAN? THE NEXT TIME YOU'RE HOME, I'LL MAKE SURE YOU SPEND YOUR TIME DE-GNOMING THE GARDEN! YOU'LL BE GROUNDED FOR A VERY LONG TIME MISTER. Ginny dear we're so proud of you for being sorted into Gryffindor. I SWEAR TO YOU RONALD, IF YOU GET INTO ANY MORE TROUBLE....."

The letter tore itself up, leaving the threat hanging. Ron's face was as white as milk. "I'm in so much trouble when I get home." He whimpered, worry written all over his face. Poor Ron!

The time tables were handed out and much to Harry's dismay, the second years didn't have Defence that day. Instead they began with the year with Double Potions followed by History of Magic. Yay! Wasn't that brilliant?
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"Good morning everyone. Welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts." Sirius smiled as he addressed the batch of Sixth year Gryffindor and Slytherin students. The Gryffindor  students looked pretty excited, even a few Slytherin students looked enthusiastic about the lesson. "I'd like to make one  thing clear before we proceed with today's class. I may be pure-blooded but I shall have you'll know that any sort of prejudiced comments will only lead to a loss of points and detention. Trust me when I say that you'll do not  want to land up in one of my detentions. Are we clear?" There were a couple of 'yes sirs' in reply to his warning.

"Good. Let's get started."

He asked everyone to put away their quills as they wouldn't be doing any writing work that day.

Dumbledore had told him that the students of Hogwarts lagged behind in Defence due to the lack of a well qualified Professor. Well, not anymore. "Silent or non-verbal spells. A very good way to defend yourself in a duel is a non verbal spell. That is what we'll be doing today. What advantage do you have when you perform spells non verbally?"