Sirius finished his lunch first, shoving his plate away from himself so that a half-full glass of pumpkin juice tipped over and spilled.

He glared at Lupin, daring him to comment.

Lupin diverted a rivulet of hot liquid with a napkin and glared at Sirius.

Harry looked from one to the other warily. He had been counting on Lupin to be the adult, but the full moon's effects apparently included uncontrollable grouchiness. He had been exchanging snipes with Sirius since breakfast.

"Look," Harry said, "I know we're all a bit stressed and --"

"Yes, Patrick," Lupin interrupted, still glaring, "we're all stressed."

Sirius' lip curled into a sneer, which he directed at Harry.

"You leave him alone," Lupin snapped immediately. "He hasn't done anything to you."

Harry looked down at his mostly untouched food and tried to convince himself that the boiled potatoes, carrots, and peas were the most appetizing food he had ever laid eyes on. He pushed a pea around his plate.

"Eat your food," Lupin growled at him. "Food is not a plaything."

They ate the rest of their meal in silence, Sirius using the time to stuff sandwiches and crumpets into his pockets, which Lupin fortunately failed to notice.

"First years, stand," said Malfoy from the other end of the Slytherin table. "I will be leading you to your next class."

Harry pushed away his plate, grabbed a berry tart for later, and scrambled over the bench before realizing Sirius hadn't followed suit.

"Are you going to jump at every command that hopped up little git gives?" Sirius hissed. "Who does he think he is?"

Lupin grabbed Sirius under the arm and hauled him up. "Stop it."

Together, they trailed after the Slytherin girls, who were following Malfoy in a neat line.

"There are four Potions classrooms," Malfoy explained as he led them down the dungeon staircase. "Two are off-limits to the younger students. The largest one is where your class will be held. Professor Snape teaches Potions, and I advice you to pay attention, follow all instructions, and spend adequate time studying."

Sirius looked like he could happily shove Malfoy down the rest of the steps.

The heavy door swung open creakily at Malfoy's push, and he herded the first years inside.

"Have quills and parchment ready. Your class after this is Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Snape will be your escort."

Sirius frowned. Harry looked at Lupin, trying to wordlessly ask if it might not be best to give Sirius some warning about Defense.

Lupin shook his head.

"We have this every day?" Sirius demanded as they found seats in a back corner; Lupin made no move to lead them to the front of the room this time. "Every bloody day?"

"Shh!" Lupin hissed. "You very well know we do, since James read the schedule this morning. Watch your mouth."

Sirius slouched down in his seat, his chin almost level with the tabletop. He made no move to take anything out of his book bag, which he had kicked under the bench.

"Here," Lupin said, shoving a quill at Sirius. "Don't wreck this one. It's my best spare. You have a quill, James?"

Harry held up his quill and set it carefully down on top of three sheets of parchment.

His stomach was in knots.

Would Snape repeat their first lesson together, singling Harry out for ridicule and impossible questions?

He shook his head. No, of course Snape couldn't do that this time around. It would likely be Sirius, or, Harry thought as he saw the fat little boy shuffle into a corner and look furtively around before slumping down into a seat, poor Noah Perkins, who would bear the brunt of Snape's bad temper.

Snape had still not appeared five minutes later, and Harry relaxed a bit, tuning in to the conversations around him.

"-- our common room is ever so nice," said a girl with two thick braids framing the sides of her face. Her robes marked her as a Ravenclaw. "I haven't seen so many books outside of a library!"

"It's up in a tower, isn't it?" said Wilma Salinger, who was still searching her book bag for a quill. "Ours is not far from here. We have a window that looks right into the middle of the lake!"

"Ooooh!" squealed the other girl. "I heard there are mermaids. Are there? Are they pretty?"

"Pretty?" Wilma frowned at her. "What do you mean? No, they're quite awful."

"I've never seen a real one."

"Neither had I until now, but haven't you seen pictures?"

"Of course, and movies."

Harry's stomach knotted again.

"Movies...?" Wilma suddenly sat up a little straighter. "Are you a... are you Muggleborn?"

"Yes," the other girl said, obliviously. "Mum's a nursery teacher and Pa's been laid off a while. I was down for Burgess Hill -- that's a girls' school and is ever so expensive -- and they were ever so glad I could come to Hogwarts instead."

"Oh," Wilma said. She had paused in her search for a quill, her bag slipping off her knees. "Oh... well... well..." She seemed to shake herself suddenly. "Oh, have you a spare quill to lend me? I just remembered I gave mine to Norah, and the Gryffindors aren't here yet."

The girl with the braids happily produced a quill, along with a blindingly pink photo album with glittery flowers all over the cover, and soon the two had their heads bent over it.

"See, that's my Mum here, with two of my sisters. I have six, and they're ever a pain, you know. Have you any?"

"I haven't. Why don't they move?" Wilma gingerly poked a photograph with the tip of her finger. "How very odd they are."

Harry looked away, only then noticing that Lupin had been following the same conversation with a tense expression on his face.

Harry shrugged.

The Gryffindors arrived just then, shepherded by Ron, and Harry ducked his head, pretending his parchment needed rearranging.

"Over here, Annie, Amelie!" Juliette Tate waved the twins over to where she had set her book bag on the bench next to her.

Ron glared in the Slytherin girl's direction, but the twins ran to join her.

Shaking his head contemptuously, Ron stalked out of the classroom, leaving the rest of the first year Gryffindors to fend for themselves.

"Silence!"

In the momentary confusion of the Gryffindors trying to find empty seats among the other students, no one had seen Snape sweep into the room, his black robes billowing menacingly behind him.

The last Gryffindor, a tall and hefty boy whose name Harry could not recall, fell into a seat, not noticing until too late that it was already occupied.

Snape pinned the boy with a glare. "Mr. Hammond, is it not?"

"Yes, sir," the boy said, looking apologetically at Edwin, the undersized Ravenclaw he had squashed with his greater bulk.

"There is a seat to your left," Snape said, his voice taking on the silky tone that always sent an uncomfortable prickle down Harry's spine. "Kindly sit down and refrain from making any further nuisance of yourself in my class."

That had been mild, for Snape. Still, it didn't bode well. Snape's teaching style had evidently not changed much since the last time Harry had been in his class.

Snape continued up to the front of the room. All eyes were on him. Harry, from the back, had a good view of the other students. Many were already wearing apprehensive expressions.

Suddenly, Snape whirled around, somehow managing to catch every eye in the room at once.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking. I expect that most of you will fail to grasp this subject."

Snape stopped and glared at each of them in turn. When he stopped on Harry, time seemed to stand still.

Then Snape was taking a folded piece of parchment out of an inner pocket of his robes, and Harry could breathe again.

"Stand when your name is called." Snape consulted the parchment. "Cuthbert. Gunther. Zoltan. Vaughn. Titus. Glendower."

Benches scraped against the stone floor as the six Ravenclaws rushed to obey Snape's command.

Snape frowned as his eyes swept the room, taking in the scattered students now standing at the sides of their tables.

"Sit down. Hammond. Isaac. Pembleton and Pembleton."

The Gryffindors stood up. Snape frowned again; the twins had been sitting with Juliette Tate, while the boy and Norah Isaac were on opposite ends of the classroom.

Harry suspected that having the students mixed up bothered Snape; every class Harry had ever attended had the Slytherins and Gryffindors sitting with their own kind unless forced by Snape to pair up with someone from the other house.

"Sit down. August. Lachlan. Perkins. Sutherland."

Noah Perkins squeaked, as seemed to be his habit when called upon, and sent his quill and parchment flying to the floor in his haste to scramble out from behind his table.

Harry's stomach did a flip-flop; for a moment he wasn't sure if his lunch was going to stay down.

Snape stared at Perkins as though at a particularly slimy potions ingredient, but made no comment.

"Sit down. McKenna. Moony. Puddifoot. Salinger. Tate."

Harry stood up, his legs slightly shaky.

"Sit down."

Snape marked the parchment with his quill; the class was so silent that even from the very back of the room they could hear the quill scratching out whatever notes Snape was making.

Finally, Snape looked up. "There will be very little foolish wand-waving here. Keep your wands away from your cauldrons and ingredient preparation area, unless you wish to suffer the consequences."

A number of students shuffled in their seats, putting their wands away into robe pockets and book bags.

"Let us see who did their reading prior to coming to class." Snape ignored the subdued murmur that rose from the students. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry felt sick again.

Snape waited, his black eyes slowly making a round of the room. Most students looked down.

Only one hand was up.

"Isaac."

Norah Isaac stood up. "The Draught of Living Death, sir."

"Correct."

Harry tried not to gasp for breath; he had not even noticed when he had begun holding it.

"Of what use are Jobberknoll feathers?"

Once again, only one hand went up, but this time Snape ignored her.

After what seemed like an eternity, a second hand was raised.

"Puddifoot!" Snape snapped. His eyes flashed dangerously and he took several steps toward the back of the room before catching himself.

Harry's breath choked in his throat. He watched with horror as Sirius took his time standing up, sure that something terrible was about to come out of Sirius' mouth; something that would set Snape upon them for the duration of this class and every class hereafter.

"Truth serum."

Snape stared at Sirius, who stared right back.

"Correct."

Harry dared to relax a little, until he saw that Sirius made no move to sit down.

Snape's eyes narrowed. "Is there anything else, Mr. Puddifoot?"

Sirius smiled. "It is also used in memory potions." He paused. "Sir."

With that, Sirius lowered himself back to his seat, looking inordinately pleased with himself.

Harry wished he could sink through the floor.

Lupin's face had turned from pale to beet red.

Snape's glinting black eyes were the most deadly Harry had ever seen them. "Correct again," he said softly, his voice promising terrible things to come. He drew himself up to his full height before continuing. "Name the herbs mentioned in the introductory chapter of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi."

When no hands were raised, Snape flicked his wand, sending a piece of chalk to scratch out an assignment on the board.

"Well?" he demanded. "Why are you not copying that down?"

Harry, as did others, lunged for his quill and parchment to begin copying down the lengthy list of herbs. Only Sirius, a smile still playing around the corners of his mouth, took his time.

The second half of class was spent trying to brew a simple cure for boils; something Harry remembered doing in his first Potions class.

Miraculously, there were no incidents. Snape stalked among the groups working over their cauldrons, but he made no remarks, good or bad, other than a sharp rebuke to prevent Perkins from adding the horned slugs before the nettles to his already hopelessly mishandled potion.

Harry had been separated from Sirius and Lupin, who were working together, and was letting his partner, Hufflepuff Miranda August, do most of the work.

"Why did you do that?" Lupin hissed at Sirius.

"Do what?" Sirius asked innocently. "I answered a question. I was very polite."

Harry joined Lupin in glaring at Sirius.

"McKenna. Do you intend to allow August to complete the assignment singlehandedly?"

Harry started to shake his head, but Snape ignored him.

"Perhaps your grade for this assignment should reflect your contribution to it." Snape paused, his lip curling. "Or rather lack of it."

Harry chose to duck his head and start crushing the snake fangs with great vigor. He especially avoided looking at Sirius. He could only imagine the look that had to be on Sirius' face.

Snape made no further comment, but hovered around their area of the classroom until their potions were done.

"Is he always like that?" Miranda whispered after returning from Snape's desk, where she had deposited a vial of their potion for grading. "Even in private?"

Harry shrugged.

"And you live with him?"

Harry shrugged again. He wasn't up for defending Snape, and he sure wasn't going to say anything against him. Not with Snape in the same room and knowing how keen his hearing was.

Miranda started to clean up their area, giving up her attempt at conversation. Harry, feeling slightly guilty, loaded up their unused ingredients onto a tray and went off to the supply cabinet.

Used to double Potions periods as he was, Harry was surprised to find that class was over. He copied down the homework assignment, put away his quill and notes, and joined Lupin and Sirius, who were standing with a small group of uncertain-looking students.

"Why is he escorting us?" Sirius asked suspiciously, his eyes following Snape's movements at the front of the room.

Snape was transferring their potions to a cabinet behind his desk, which he then spelled shut. He wiped the board clean with another wave of his wand, then set the heavy drapes sliding with a swish across the windows, leaving the dungeon classroom so dark that a worried murmur immediately went up among the students.

"Silence!" Snape commanded. The classroom door swung open, letting in some light from the corridor. "Follow me. Single file."

The students fell into step behind Snape and the silent procession left the dungeons and went up the staircase to the first floor.

Harry's steps were heavy and dragging. He hoped Lupin knew what he was doing. Personally, Harry thought Sirius should have been given enough warning to let the idea of Snape teaching Defense sink in a little.

As if reading his mind, Sirius chose that moment to poke him in the back.

"What's going on, James?"

Harry tried to shrug without turning around.

Fortunately, Sirius didn't persist, and they had arrived at the classroom anyway.

Snape led them in, glaring at the few stragglers.

"Find a seat and take out parchment and quills. Your first assignment is on the board."

Harry looked up, and indeed there was Snape's distinct writing on the board, informing them that they were to list the magical creatures they knew.

Harry looked around for a seat. It seemed that most students had figured out Snape would be teaching the class, because the seats in the front half of the room remained empty.

Not finding a desk, Harry reluctantly headed toward the front. He ended up on the opposite side of the isle from Sirius, who sank into a seat and stared at him and Lupin with a betrayed expression.

Lupin sat down next to Harry and busied himself with the assignment.

Harry gave Sirius an apologetic half-smile.

"As your name is called, add one item under the correct heading," Snape was saying. "If you have nothing to contribute, remain seated. August."

The Hufflepuff girl shuffled out of her seat and up to the board, where she wrote Vampire under the heading of Non-Wizard Part-Human, a sub-category of Being.

"Cuthbert."

Edwin Cuthbert wrote Abominable Snowman under the heading Extremely Dangerous, a sub-category of Beast.

"Incorrect," Snape said, making Edwin jump. "The Abominable Snowman, found in Tibet, has a designation of XXXX, short of the designation of XXXXX required for the Extremely Dangerous classification."

Edwin was unsure about what to do, and Snape, impatiently, moved the Abominable Snowman over to the general Beast category with a flick of his wand.

Gunther added Lethifold, while Hammond added Ghost, and then Lupin, looking very reluctant, wrote Werewolf under Extremely Dangerous.

"Correct," Snape said, inclining his head. "However --" he flicked his wand and the chalk lifted from the board, hovering for a moment in mid-air before coming to rest in the center between the headings of Beast and Being. "It would be negligent not to reflect the fact that werewolves have been shuffled between the Beast and the Being Division numerous times in the last century."

Lupin, his ears red, sat back down.

Harry contributed Boggart, thankfully with no comment from Snape.

Sirius remained sitting when called upon, and Snape moved on to Wilma Salinger, who wrote Sphinx.

"Clearly," Snape sneered, making a show of looking over the list, "most of you did not bother to prepare for this class. For next time, you are to read chapters one though three and make note of six creatures with the designation of XXXX or XXXXX."

Harry added the assignment to his notes.

"Your task today will be to examine and sort parts of magical creatures." Snape flicked his wand and a number of small things floated up off a tray on the desk behind him. "Hair, fur, scales, fangs, and claws will be the main objects you will be dealing with today."

Lupin was looking at Snape like he had lost his mind, prompting Harry to elbow him. "What?"

"It's a sixth year assignment!" Lupin whispered back, indignant. "We haven't a chance to get it right. I helped him plan it for his NEWTs level classes."

Harry suppressed a snort. "You have a chance, anyway."

Lupin looked outraged. "I don't, do I?"

"One member of each pair group is to come to the front to collect your materials," Snape said, cutting off further attempts at conversation.

"I'll go," Harry volunteered.

Sirius, who would be working with a Ravenclaw boy, fell into step next to Harry as they went up to Snape's desk. "Don't mind him. He can't stand having to get things wrong. That's why he's been all put out ever since McGonagall's class."

They got their trays and went back to their partners.

Around them, students were beginning their work. Or, rather, were beginning to moan about the unfairness of it.

"Is that a scale?"

"Are you blind? It's a tongue."

"Tongue? Gross! He didn't say anything about tongues."

Harry set the tray down on the table between himself and Lupin.

Lupin stared at the contents of the tray with an aggrieved expression. He made no move to touch any of the things on it.

"Let's just sort them into obvious groups," Harry suggested. "Claws with claws, teeth with teeth, that sort of thing."

"You go ahead, then."

Lupin stayed silent, only losing his resolve to stay out of it once, when Harry put a slimy bit of skin in with the scales.

"Eyelid." Lupin's hand darted out, snatching the offending piece and moving it to the rather large pile Harry had reserved for things he couldn't identify.

"Ugh," Harry said, wiping his fingers on the hem of his robes.

Snape was moving among the tables, pausing to correct errors and sometimes launching into brief lectures. He stopped at Harry's elbow, watching wordlessly as Harry examined what he thought was a piece of rock and discarded it to the unknown pile. He moved on to the next group without comment.

"Professor," said a girl's voice to the right of Harry, "is there a way to tell hair apart from fur?"

Snape changed direction, coming past Harry and Lupin again and giving Harry, who had been about to place a white, bone-like piece in the claws pile, an annoyed look. Harry quickly dropped it in the pile with the other unknowns, making Lupin groan.

"It's not my fault," Harry whispered crossly. "Do you know what rubbish Defense has been?"

Lupin raised his drooped head and glared at him.

"Except that one year," Harry quickly amended. "But definitely rubbish the rest of the time."

"Very good, Tate," Snape was saying behind them. "You have made more progress than most. The labels are skillfully done. Not something I generally expect from a first year student. Two points to --"

"It was Norah's idea, sir."

Snape paused for a long moment.

"Two points each to Slytherin and Gryffindor. Carry on."

Harry pressed his lips together in case Snape, who was stalking past again, would notice him grinning.

Yes, the mixed-up Houses definitely upset Snape.

Behind Snape's back, Sirius leaned across the isle.

"Did he just give points to Gryffindor?" he asked incredulously. He plucked a squishy, greenish blob out of Harry's hand and dropped it next to a petrified egg. "Well, carry on." Chortling, he returned to his own work.

Looking a bit green himself, Lupin moved the blob to the pile of unknowns.

"Not covered until fourth year," he told Harry balefully.

Harry examined what they had left. Apart from another fang he had overlooked, he hadn't a clue what the rest of the things might be. He moved the fang over to the others and pushed everything else over to the unknowns.

Lupin sighed glumly.

Harry looked at him. He couldn't suppress a grin this time. "Oh, go on, just move one. It'll make you feel better."

Lupin carefully selected a shiny azure pebble and moved it next to the scales.

"Feel better?" Harry asked.

"No," Lupin said shortly.

Snape stopped at the front of the room. Though he had said nothing, almost every pair of eyes in the room was instantly on him, waiting for instructions.

"Write your names on a parchment one foot in length. Leave it on the tray. Bring your trays up to my desk," Snape said. "You will have a chance to work with these specimens further throughout the year."

Harry wrote out his name and passed the parchment to Lupin. "That wasn't so bad. It was like something you would do, really."

Lupin gave him another reproachful look. "That might be because it's my lesson, James."

"Oh," Harry said. He took the parchment from Lupin and placed it on the tray. "Well... I'll just bring this up."

He set the tray on Snape's desk, glancing at the others while he was there. Most of the students hadn't done either better or worse than he had, which momentarily made him feel better, until he remembered that he was supposed to be a sixth year student while they had only arrived at Hogwarts the previous day.

He shook his head. Defense had definitely been rubbish. He wasn't sure how Snape could do much worse.

"That was terribly hard," said Miranda August. "I hope it won't be graded."

"It was fascinating," said the girl with the two braids. "I just love magic! Are there really pixies and fairies? Real ones?"

Harry tried not to snort, recalling his second year Defense class and the awful pixies Lockhart had unleashed on them. He dared her to find those things fascinating.

"Class is dismissed. Do not forget your assignment. Written work will count for one quarter of your grade in this class."

Harry collected his things and joined Sirius and Lupin in the crunch to get out into the corridor. A bottleneck had formed at the door.

"Two hours before dinner," Harry said as they shuffled their way toward the exit. "Do you want to go out?"

Slightly rumpled, they veered off from the rest of the students and took a shortcut down a narrow, portrait-lined corridor.

"I'm not sure I should be speaking to you two," Sirius said peevishly. "A bit of warning would have been good."

"So you could keep James up all night, ranting and railing against another perceived injustice?"

Sirius made a face.

"It wasn't so bad," Harry repeated. "He hardly breathed down anyone's neck."

"Yeah..." Sirius stopped suddenly, causing Lupin to run into him. "And he gave points to Gryffindor. That had to leave a foul taste in the git's mouth."

"You heard the same thing we did," Lupin said. "Slytherin would have got the points if Juliette hadn't spoken up."

"No one made him do it," Harry said. He winced, hearing the defensive tone of his voice.

Sirius stared at him like he had just sprouted two extra heads.

"You're right, James," Lupin said. "I guess no one did."

"We have a Professor Snape fan, Milo," Sirius said, his tone mocking. "Well, well. Start a club, why don't you."

Lupin shoved him.

There was a clatter and Sirius rubbed his shoulder, which had collided with a pedestal upon which sat a display of small statuettes with evil, twisted faces and too many limbs.

"You broke it," he told Lupin reproachfully. "Those were rare and expensive, I bet."

Lupin swallowed. He took out his wand, looking at the broken statuette uncertainly.

"Oh, this will be good," Sirius said, giving Harry a playful slap on the back. "Milo Moony will now impress us with his superior grasp of magic theory by way of an expertly cast Reparo."

Harry thought Sirius' teasing had a cruel undertone, and didn't smile.

Lupin pointed his wand at the pieces on the floor. "Reparo!"

Nothing happened.

Nothing, except a wheezy, horribly familiar voice behind them.

"Well, well, well, we are in trouble."

Filch, the caretaker, was limping toward them, his hands claw-like in front of him.

"Magic in the corridors. Destroying valuable school property."

"It was an accident," Harry said, knowing full well it was useless to try to argue with Filch. "We were trying to fix it."

"A likely story!" Filch huffed. "Slytherins, are you?"

Harry nodded, swallowing hard. Lupin shrank back, his wand still in his hand, but dangling limply at his side. Sirius was trying to look defiant, but Harry was pleased he wasn't succeeding very well. Last thing they needed was for Sirius to open his big mouth.

"Off to Professor Snape with you, then," Filch said. His eyes glinted. He was clearly enjoying himself; Harry suspected they were the first students he had caught at mischief so far. "Yes, off to Professor Snape."

Filch led them back the way they came. Snape was still in the Defense classroom, putting away the trays. Each one now had a shimmering, translucent cover over them, looking a bit like Muggle cellophane.

Snape looked up and saw them. He stared at them for several moments, before setting the last tray down on the desk with a bang.

"What have they done?"

Filch shoved Lupin forward. "Magic in the corridors, Professor Snape. Destroying school property. Dueling, quite likely."

"We were not!" Harry cried indignantly. "We accidentally --"

"Silence!"

Harry's mouth went dry, and he had to swallow several times.

"I will deal with them, Mr. Filch. Thank you."

Filch looked rather unhappy at being dismissed before seeing just punishment being dealt out, but he gave the three of them a nasty look and shuffled out of the classroom.

Snape waited until he had been gone a minute or so before flicking his wand to slam the door shut.

"Can you not get through one day without attracting disaster of one sort of another?"

He had rounded on Harry, which Harry thought was most unfair.

"James didn't do anything!" Sirius said, glaring at Snape. "It was me and Milo."

Snape's flashing black eyes turned on the miserable-looking Lupin.

"It's true," Lupin said. "I did it, really. James had nothing to do with it."

Snape regarded them with a disgusted expression, not saying anything. After an eternity of this, Harry's skin felt itchy all over, like it had grown too tight.

"Detention," Snape said finally. "Tonight, my office, promptly at seven. Until then, you are to do your assignments either in your room or the library."

Harry, almost relieved, echoed Lupin's quiet, "Yes, sir."

Sirius glared, but stayed quiet.

"I have another class, so if you are quite done wasting my time...?"

Lupin pulled Harry and Sirius into the empty hallway, and they made their way up to the library in complete silence.

The library was empty. They found a table at the very back.

"I hate that git," Sirius said, propping his head up on one hand. "I really do, you know."

For a while, none of them said anything.

Then, Lupin went off to find copies of their Transfiguration, Potions, History, and Defense textbooks, while Harry started sorting through their collective pile of notes, and Sirius emptied his pockets of various food items and proceeded to inhale the lot of them like he hadn't eaten in weeks.

"This is the library," Lupin snapped as he walked back to the table, his arms full of books. "You can't eat in here."

Sirius ignored him. He swept crumbs to the floor, making more room for Harry to spread out their notes.

Between Harry and Lupin their History notes were decent, making up for Sirius' ink-blotched ones, but Lupin's Transfiguration notes were hopelessly bloodstained and Sirius hadn't bothered to do much more than doodle all over his parchment. Transfiguration had never been Harry's best class, and his notes plainly showed it.

"Did you even take notes in Potions?" Harry asked Sirius.

"Nope," Sirius said blithely. "Why would I, when I'm best friends with the git's biggest fan? No, no, Milo, don't you dare shove me. You know how well that worked out the last time."

Lupin dropped the books on the table and glared at Sirius over the top of the stack. "I told you to leave him alone, Patrick."

They glared at each other for such a long time that Harry managed to think up, and reject, half a dozen ways of changing the subject.

Finally, Sirius looked away. "I was just making fun, James. Don't mind it."

Harry shrugged uncomfortably. He was finding it hard to tell what Sirius meant and what he didn't. This new side to Sirius and Lupin was impossible to figure out. He kept wondering if they were like this during their school years; teasing and fighting and taking offense one moment and best friends the next. The few glimpses he'd had of them in Snape's memories the previous year hadn't given him much to go on, and they had been years older in those memories, besides.

The silence stretched again.

"Do you have your Defense notes?" Harry finally asked. "I don't see them here."

"Didn't take any," Sirius said. "Same git, you know?"

"All right," Harry said quickly, afraid Lupin and Sirius would get into it again. "We have History and I suppose you both know enough about Transfiguration to get us through that without notes. My Potions notes are good and Milo knows everything to do with Defense. Let's just get everything done, since we won't have time this evening."

Sirius huffed. "I can't believe we need to do homework. Can't they let us off?"

Neither Harry nor Lupin answered him. It was useless to argue about things that couldn't and wouldn't be changed.

"Right, well," Harry said, "we have one chapter of History. I wrote, 'Read introductory chapter, highlight stuff from lecture.' That sounds easy enough."

Lupin frowned.

"What? Isn't that what you have?"

"I wrote, 'Read introductory chapter, highlighting all information covered in Professor Spinnet's lecture. Books and notes to be checked at start of class.'"

Harry stared at him. "That's... exactly what I just said."

Sirius snorted.

"Yes, well," Lupin said, shuffling his notes and checking that the pages were in the correct order, "it doesn't hurt to be precise. Besides, how do you intend to highlight anything without having our own books?"

Harry's shoulders slumped. "I guess we'll do that one before bed. It's only one chapter."

"Yes, and Patrick will have to copy out our notes, as well."

"What?" Sirius demanded. "Why?"

"Books and notes to be checked at start of class," Lupin said. Harry thought he looked just a bit smug to have definitive proof of the superiority of his notes.

"That will take forever!"

"Then you shouldn't have snapped my quill, now, should you have?" Lupin took the History book from the stack and set it aside. "What do we have for Transfiguration? My notes are useless."

"Two inch summaries of chapters one and two."

"Are you sure it's not two feet? Two inch summaries from McGonagall?"

Harry frowned at his notes. It definitely said two inches. "Well, it does make four in all. Do you have anything, Paddy?"

Sirius shook his head. "Sorry. I thought we'd use Milo's notes and then he went and bled all over them. How was I supposed to know he was going to do that?"

"I didn't do it on purpose, you prat."

"I didn't snap your quill on purpose, you git."

Harry was feeling the beginnings of a headache. "About those two inch summaries...."

Sirius took the Transfiguration book from the top of the stack. "I'll do it and you two can copy."

"Then we'll all have the same thing," Harry said. "It's McGonagall. You can't sneak that past her."

"Well," Sirius said, huffing again, "what's the point of even doing homework together, then? Transfiguration is my best subject, Defense is Milo's, and you..." He paused, peering at Harry. "What are you good for?"

Harry, offended in spite of himself, felt his cheeks warming.

"Let him alone," Lupin said. "He did fine. Didn't you, James?"

"Oh, sure," Harry said vindictively. "Once we take Divination our third year, I'll show you all my best tricks."

It took a few moments for Sirius to comprehend. His mouth fell ajar.

Lupin glared at Harry.

"Right," Harry said lamely. "About those two inch summaries...."

They ended up each doing his own work, in silence.

"I have, 'Introductory chapter, take notes on herbs from board,' for Potions," Harry said. "I have the herbs copied down." He looked the list over. "That's a lot."

"None of us are strong in Potions," Lupin said. "We should all do the reading."

"I won't do the reading," Sirius said, managing a polite and rebellious tone all at the same time, "but I will go through the chapter and find the plants we need to do."

"Very good," Lupin said. "James and I can share the book, then. It's easier, anyway, than all three of us sharing."

They seemed to all be trying very hard to say nothing else offensive. Harry felt slightly suffocated.

Harry got half-way through the list of herbs before he stopped, shaking out his cramped wrist. "Where's sage?"

"Page nine," Sirius said.

Harry forced himself to return to writing.

"Leaping toadstool?" Lupin asked.

"Page twelve."

Harry's hand was aching horribly by the time he wrote up the last herb. Lupin was two behind him.

"Mallowsweet?"

"Page fourteen, last paragraph."

Harry blew on his parchment to make the ink dry faster.

"There's a spell for that," Lupin said absently.

"How... useful," Sirius said. His lip curled. "Maybe by our third or fourth year we might even be able to take advantage of it."

The two of them glared at each other.

Harry, not sure at all if he was glad their period of uncomfortable politeness had come to an end, pretended to be very busy rolling up his parchment.

"I'm finished," Lupin said. He laid his parchment to dry at the other end of the table. "My hand is killing me. We still have Defense to do."

"Six magical creatures, XXXX or XXXXX," Harry said, not bothering with his notes. "Not that much."

Lupin frowned. "Should we each do different ones?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Why," he demanded of the vaulted ceiling above their heads, "must everyone insist on doing things the hard way?"

Harry, who ended up writing about Boggarts (XXXX), Dragons (XXXXX), Erumpents (XXXX), Graphorns (XXXX), and Kappas (XXXX), was about to write Basilisk as the heading of his last paragraph, when Lupin snatched the quill out of his hand.

"What?" Harry demanded. He eyed the trail of ink splatters now covering the lower end of his parchment. "I'm not copying this over, you know."

"You can't write Basilisk!" Lupin said, looking at him like Harry had suggested taking a bath in the middle of the Great Hall during dinner. "Bad enough you wrote Dragons and Boggarts. Don't you write Dementors, either. It looks suspicious."

"How...?" Harry started, but he was tired and didn't feel like arguing. "Fine, I'll choose something else. I have four XXXXs and only one XXXXX. What do you have that's XXXXX?"

Sirius looked down at his parchment. "I only have two. Lethifold and Living Shroud --"

"That's the same thing, you dolt!" Lupin exclaimed. "For Merlin's sake. Did you even read the book?"

"No," Sirius said, looking very insulted.

"I have Manticore, Inferius, and Quintaped, but you'd better find your own," Lupin told Harry, still giving Sirius the evil eye.

"Thanks," Harry said.

He was so miffed that he wrote up Werewolves (XXXXX), though he was careful not to let Lupin see.

Sirius, who did see, winked at him.

"That's it, I'm done," Lupin announced. "Did you fix yours, Patrick?"

"Fix it?" Sirius asked innocently. "What was there to fix?"

Lupin drew in a long, frustrated breath.

"I'm done, too," Harry said, just to say something. He had rolled up his parchment several minutes earlier, and had been resting his hand on the cool surface of the table. "What's next?"

They checked the clock above the librarian's desk.

Then they looked at each other for a long moment.

"Right," Harry said finally, sighing. "Dinner and detention."