CH 10

Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter

Sirius Black had been seated at the Professor's table since around the twentieth of October and he was quickly becoming one of the more popular Defense Professors that the school has ever had during Harry's time at Hogwarts. He was only preceded by Remus Lupin in some of the students' opinions, but they couldn't argue that the ex-con had a style all his own and that they were learning exactly what they needed to learn in that particular class.

Madam Umbridge had returned to the school along with an Honorary Ministry title of 'Hogwarts Inquisitor'. She was to provide the Ministry with an overview of the classes being taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and ensure that they were up all to the Ministry Standard. However the reach of her influence had faded greatly due to the press reports and the large fines she had been forced to pay for misusing a goblin made artefact especially against the children of the school. The general public had not been impressed with her discipline methods, writing lines was perfectly fine, but not with a blood quill.

There had been no mention anywhere in the papers nor during the inquisition that she'd endured of her having used the Imperious Curse illegally.

In a stroke of genius though, Professor Black had come to the school prepared to teach the students about different types of magical artefacts and when to properly use them as well as Defense Against the Dark Arts. He'd brought about forty copies of a small booklet called, 'Magical Artefacts and the Ministry; Protocols of Proper Usage; the Laws for and Charges against such Uses.'

Dolores Umbridge's teaching qualifications had come into question as well. After a lengthy review by the Board of Governors it had been found that she wasn't allowed to teach because of her basic lack of sufficient N.E.W.T.s in any prominent field of magic. She barely had any post Hogwarts education and most of which were basic and secretarial in nature. This made the newspapers postulate on her qualifications for the Ministry position she currently held, but that didn't result in anything much. Other than the public not quite trusting the Minister to select well informed or educated members for the various Ministry Departments under his purview.

So she resorted to skulking around the school trying to dock points and give detentions, but the Heads of House had warned their students of the woman's limitations despite her lofty title. The woman was not permitted to take any type of disciplinary actions since she clearly wasn't qualified to teach any class at the school. She was only at the school to review the performance of the Professors and information in the classes being taught. The woman also was not permitted to interfere with the students' studies or with the way the teachers chose to conduct their classes.

Umbridge still tried to make trouble though especially for the Boy-Who-Lived. She had successfully been able to ban Harry, Fred and George from playing Quidditch for the remainder of the year for brawling within the school. However it didn't quite have the same effect that she thought it would because the younger Gryffindor had just smiled at her, grabbed her hand tightly and shook it very vigorously, nearly crushing her fingers. He was hard-pressed not to, but knew to control his strength at that point in time.

Harry gave her an obviously heartfelt and exaggerated, "Thank you!"

But when she intended to confiscate his broom, he denied her the opportunity as he had quickly banished it to Sirius' rooms with a note. She had attempted to obtain it, but the boy told her. "Sorry madam, banning us from playing is one thing, but to take away my personal broom is hardly fair. I sent it to a secure location where I know it will remain safely locked away."

The Gryffindor Quidditch team had been upset, but then again they were doing well in finding recruits to play. "Listen," Harry had given them a bit of advice. "You'll be going through this process all over again when the older members of the team and Alicia leave the school. Think ahead and get some butts into something of a reserve roster. I'll be cheering for you from the benches, but this is my O.W.L.s year and I intend to do well on most of those."

The team had no choice then and agreed about the need to set up reserve team. So they chose to make a secondary team which was made up of mainly second and third year students. They managed to form a main playing team of older students, but everyone needed the practice. In the end it had been the decision best made for Gryffindor.

The only troublesome spot his life was the fact that ever since the ban Hermione had been badgering Harry to head up a secondary club for the purpose of studying practical magic for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Her argument was that, "Sirius can't do it all on his own. It's only the first years that are starting from scratch, but with all the other years being behind, he's got to put a lot of effort into making sure that every student revises all their previous years in order to catch them up to a proper level."

"Give it a rest Hermione," Harry replied with a huff. He'd been trying to eat his supper, but she just continued to talk at him. "What do you expect me to do? I'm not a Professor or anything."

"You have the best scores in Defense and I know that you know more defensive spells because of how you prepared for last year's Triwizard tasks," Hermione pushed. She sensed that he was about to give in. "Remus cannot help either because of how he left when we were in third year. I think Dumbledore has him doing some stuff for the...you-know-what."

"I told you to let me think about it," Harry turned to her with a glare. "Leave me alone to do that."

"I asked you about this last week," Hermione huffed and crossed her arms.

"It'll take me longer than that to decide. I am busier now," Harry told her. "It's my choice on how I spend my free time. Besides I'd have to talk to Sirius about it and pushing me is not going to get me to decide in your favour. So stop asking." He jumped up from his seat, grabbed his school bag and left the Great Hall. He wandered the corridors for a time and then he made his way to his father's room.

"Harry," Sirius said and stepped aside to allow his son to enter his private rooms. He hugged the boy, after he'd closed the door and asked, "How is it going?"

Harry sighed and said, "Hermione is hounding me to head up some kind of secondary defense class or a supplemental defense club to practice defense magic." He huffed, "She's convinced that you'll have difficulty catching so many of us up to the level we are supposed to be at, but I believe she's just more worried about the fact that this is her O.W.L.s year and she's afraid of failing. I think it's the fact that she's a Prefect with more responsibilities that she believes that she'll have less time to study which makes her want to group some of the practical work after classes to make up for her lack of time to practice in class or something like that."

Sirius rubbed the back of his head and admitted, "I could use the help you know." He sat down and ordered tea from Winky who had followed him from Grimmauld Place. "Thank you, Winky," he said.

"You's Welcome," she twittered. "Winky go help MML elves, they's in Forbidden Forest gathering ingredients to store away for Joke Lab."

"Yes," Harry said with his hand petting her clean hair. "Thank you for helping them and for your help to my unruly father here." The little elf preened at the flow of positive emotions she felt coming from her young master. She giggled and popped away.

Kreacher had remained at Grimmauld Place to serve the Order of the Phoenix. He did so, but only with minimal amount of cooperation because Harry had told the old elf that he didn't have to change his attitude when asked to do something for someone that was not Remus, Sirius or Harry. He was still permitted to grumble about 'blood traitors' all he wanted as long as it was not within the hearing of his three magical masters.

The Order members were still confined to the back entrance, the back hall and the large dining room. They had minimal access to the kitchens by way of Mrs. Weasley only, but the Order had to pay for the foods they used.

Harry had refused to permit them access to the rest of the house as even the small party at the end of summer had been confined to the large dining room. Mrs. Weasley thought he was being too strict with the rest of the adults by confining them to the back of the house.

"I'm not a member of the Order," he'd told her at the time. "I don't trust any of them in my house. They have access to what they need and that should be enough for them to conduct their business secretly and securely."

The woman huffed, but left him alone after that. She muttered something about talking to Dumbledore or having the old man talk to him, but nothing came of it yet.

Harry was just sitting next to his father and enjoyed the solitude and peace. He sighed, leaned against the man's arm and just sat there. His eyes were almost closed when Sirius asked, "Do you want to help me out?"

"How," Harry asked in a drowsy tone.

"Help with your year mates," Sirius wrapped an arm around his son's shoulders. "Maybe the upper years too, only the ones that actually seek a refresher in practical defense."

"Still thinking about it," Harry yawned. "Hermione really wants to do that, but she wants to use my name to get bodies to show up for the study group."

"Might be a good idea," Sirius told him. "You can probably discuss the DA articles from the newspapers. More and more papers are putting out articles with references to how to defend your own home, among other things, like when an Auror cannot come to help in time and how to record who did what, when and where."

"I suppose," Harry sighed.

"So what's this I hear about you already running an independent study group," Sirius asked.

Harry grinned and said, "That has to do with the form that Madam Bones had given me the day you were exonerated."

"Ah yes," Sirius said and his eyes sparked, "Ministry Sanctioned or something of that nature?"

"Yes," Harry looked up to his father, his green eyes lighting with mischief too. "It certainly helps that I had the room specially warded against intrusion. Umbridge can't enter the room and I always close it up long before curfew so that there is no excuse for anyone patrolling the halls to ever dock points from those of us coming from that room. Not that she can, but she does try to delay us." He sighed again and the explained. "Ron and Hermione have tried to penalize the Slytherins for it several times because they can't participate in what I'm doing."

"So... you're making sure that the Slytherins learn whatever it is you're teaching in there too," Sirius commented.

"I tested all those that wanted to try something new," Harry said. "I couldn't discriminate against the school's Houses. I'm not sure how my time would work with the secondary defense club though. I don't want them in that room because it'd feel like those that are there for purely defense tutorial are invading our private designated space."

Sirius had thought about it and with the help of Remus he understood that he could request that another defense room be opened for students to do elective studies. It would have to be before that Umbridge woman passed another decree of some kind at the school. As the Ministry's Inquisitor she'd been able have several decrees passed so far. It shouldn't have worked, but Dumbledore was seemingly indulging the Ministry in order to prevent further Ministry interference at the school.

The duelling room was a good idea and then there was also what Winky called the 'Come and Go' room which might work to the students' advantage.

"Work on the name kid," the man told him. "Will I get to see what it is that you do in your specialized study group?"

"I told them that anyone that wants to see what is learned requires an invitation to enter the room by me," Harry told him. "I also told the students that come the New Year, I'd set up a day or two for demonstration purposes, but that they'd have to let me know the names of the people they'd want invited." He stood up and said, "I have to get back to the dorms."

"Drop by anytime you need to," Sirius told him.

"Has Dumbledore told you anymore about what his plans are," Harry asked.

"No," Sirius said. "He did mention that he felt you should have Occlumency lessons."

"But I already know Occlumency," Harry said.

"Yes," Sirius told him. "But he doesn't know that."

"Who does he think can teach me," Harry asked.

Sirius coughed and said, "I told him that I could do it, but then he said that I was perhaps too close to you and wouldn't take care to truly cast the spell with enough strength."

Harry huffed and then said, "He wants Professor Snape to do it right?"

The Head of the House Black nodded. "I hated the git in school, but we're no longer children. It'll be up to you to decide how much you want to tell him or whether to play up to a lack of knowledge."

"I'll have to think about that," Harry said. "If I play up to a lack of knowledge in that skill I'd have to loosen the hold I have on my current shields which are what's stopping the Dark Idiot from invading my dreams or influencing me with his insane thoughts and emotions."

"I understand that," Sirius said. "You'll let me know what you choose to do. Right?"

"Of course," Harry said. "First we'll wait and see. I wonder when the old coot is planning to let me know about these 'extra' lessons and how he'll go about it."

"You should go now," Sirius told him. "Think about it and call on Dobby. He'll show you where the 'Come and Go' room is. If I sanction you to teach or demonstrate some things you might like to have that room show you just what it can do to help you out."

Harry nodded. He left after giving his father a final hug.

The man sighed and looked to the ceiling. "Lily and James please, just help me keep an eye on him, yeah? I need all the help I can get."

Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter

On a Monday Afternoon

Harry walked through the Room of Requirement. This time he'd thought of carnival games. They were the kind that tested dexterity, aiming and other types of abilities. He laughed at the stuffed animals that were hanging up at some of the booths. It was clear that he had no idea what some prizes were at real muggle booths, but everything that appeared looked like something from his cousin's old broken toy room. Only these toys and prizes weren't broken and they looked like something that came from his own imagination too.

"Dobby this is great," Harry said.

"Dobby knows," the house-elf replied. "What does this do?" He pointed at one of the clowns with the open mouth.

"It's a water game," Harry said. He took hold of the pressure gun and showed the little guy how it worked. "You aim like this," the house-elf copied him. "Then you fire with the trigger into the clown's mouth. The balloon on top gets bigger until it pops."

"What is purpose of this game," Dobby asked as they both fired the water into the clown's mouth.

"First balloon to pop means that, that person wins a prize," Harry said. "It's always something from the same booth. It's usually something sized-based, depending on the number of people playing the game or how much you paid to play."

The balloon popped with a loud noise from Dobby's clown face first. Harry's was second because he was looking at his house-elf's facial expression when he explained the game.

"You win," Harry said. "Pick a prize from the booth."

"Which one," Dobby looked pleased to have a choice, but was still confused about which one to choose.

Harry hopped behind the booth and pointed to a row of mid-to-small stuffed animals. There were some goofy looking, daisy faced flowers there as well as pin-wheels and some stuffed car shapes.

Dobby picked out a blue car that had wings and looked an awful lot like Mr. Weasley's old Ford Anglia. Its engine could still be heard in the Forbidden Forest from time to time. The rev of the old engine was unmistakable to many of the muggle born students who always wondered who'd been able to drive up this far into the magical environment.

They stepped out of the room and Harry did a final walk by with the thought in his mind, 'I need a place to practice Defense Magic,' he walked by once, 'I need a place to practice Defense Magic,' twice and finally, 'I need a place to practice Defense Magic.' The door appeared in the wall again.

He walked into it and immediately noticed that there were comfortable chairs at one end of the room, with a tall bookshelf that contained many books on defensive magic. He scanned a couple and noted their names including authors before replacing them in the shelves.

One wall was mirrored and he thought that that might be a good idea to practice wand movements. There were sets of various targets set up around the room and they'd been placed within rune crafted practice circles. He looked at the runes more closely and noted that if he had several students in there at the same time the runes would activate shields to protect everyone practicing from being hit by stray spells.

Harry nodded and then came to a decision. "I'll do it," he muttered. "But it will be done my way."

He left the room and went to find his father. The man had ideas of what spells the students needed to be strong in. They also had the benefits of the pre-Owls tests that had been handed out and done by those that wanted to know what they were missing in order to pass their Ministry Exams.

Sirius had organized most of them into different categories and had placed aside the ones that he felt his son could assist in upgrading their skills. He chose to keep most of the difficult ones, but hoped that Harry would help out with those too.

"Come in," he said when someone had knocked at his door.

"Hey Dad," Harry said. "I've come to a decision."

"Oh," Sirius said containing his curiosity.

"Yes," Harry nodded. "I'll help on two conditions."

"And those would be..."

"I only do it three days a week," Harry said and received a nod. "The Slytherin and Gryffindor students learn on their own days, separate from everyone else."

"What do you mean by that," Sirius asked.

"The Slytherins will be studying Monday nights, after supper," Harry said. "For two hours only so that there is enough time for everyone to get to their dorms in time for curfew and the Gryffindors will be scheduled for the same time on Fridays. The other two Houses will be combined in a three hour session on Wednesdays because I have an extra hour before supper that I can be with them."

"Why are you choosing to do it that way," Sirius asked.

"I'm not going to tolerate fighting between the Houses," Harry said. "It's best to keep the Gryffindors and Slytherins separate and the other two Houses seem to be more tolerant of others. Although I won't prevent them from changing days, but they won't be able to fight since there will be a 'No Inter House Fighting' condition or 'Zero Tolerance - No Exceptions' for the use of my time. As soon as they begin to fight or question my methods or whatever they do to disrupt the others, they'll come back to you and I'm sorry, but you'll be on your own with them after that."

Sirius nodded. "All right that sounds fair and I understand." He walked over to the piles of pre-Owl tests and handed them over to his son. "These are the ones that need the most help. You set up the schedule and monitor the students that attend. If they don't show up, then they forfeit the chance for the in depth review that you'll be responsible for. I'll only test them after you tell me that they are ready for it."

"Uh," Harry huffed under the weight of the forms. "Thanks, I think." He placed them all in his bag and then said, "I'll call a meeting of my other group to let them know what's going on."

"No, no, no," Sirius said with a wave of his hand. "I'm that one that should be thanking you. I would have gone crazy if I had to do all of it on my own."

"We'll see how thankful you are after we start this," Harry said. "I'll set up the notice for the common room boards, but I want you to be the one to spell them and authorize them that way the Professors know that the study is being overseen by you and that it is not a club according to that stupid decree banning clubs still hanging on the school's wall."

"You got it," Sirius replied as he held the door open.

Harry didn't linger in the corridors since it was obvious that some of the Prefects were being extra vigilant for those that were breaking the school rules.

Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter

TBC…