On Friday morning Harry was pleasantly surprised as he entered the Greenhouse for Herbology. Before he entered, Ernie McMillan pompously announced that he believed Harry. Though he did it in a way reminiscent of Percy Weasley, Harry appreciated the words. As usual, he, Ron, Hermione and Neville took their places at one side of a work table and when the Hufflepuffs arrived, Harry smiled as Susan and Hannah took places in front of them. To his surprise, sitting right next to Hannah and directly in front of him was none other than Cedric Diggory.

“Hey Cedric,” Harry said. “Didn’t know you would be in this class.”

Cedric shrugged, “I tested differently for various subjects. In some I remembered enough to just repeat a year and having them with the Sixth years. Some I tested only for Fifth year and am going to have to take those OWLs again, not that I remember taking them in the first place,” he made a face.

“That must make a difficult schedule,” Hermione said sympathetically.

“Yeah,” Cedric said. “Herbology is one of the few classes I’m taking with Hufflepuffs. If I had tested all classes on the same level they could have just put me with the Fifth or Sixth years, but this way sometimes I have to be in classes where I’m the only Hufflepuff,” Cedric looked around with a bitter expression and said in an undertone. “At least it’s a break.”

Harry was a little confused by that comment. He would have felt quite awkward if he had to enter a class with not only younger students, but where he didn’t know anyone very well. With the House system you usually knew at least the faces of everyone in your House, but quite rarely made very good acquaintances with people from other years of other Houses. As a matter of fact, the people Harry knew well from other Houses were either in his year or older because when he wasn’t a student he had roamed free through the Houses.

“At least you tested for seventh year in Defense,” Hannah said helpfully but Cedric frowned grimly.

“Yeah, I was so excited about that. Thought it would make my parents a little less worried. They’ve been beside themselves about me coming back. They wanted to home school me.”

Harry nodded sympathetically. He knew that his dad and Uncles only didn’t think of that because they teach here and Harry would be under their eyes anyway. Not that it had prevented everything that had happened to Harry, but it made them feel better. Sometimes though Harry envied the other students who were able to do what they wanted without their parents watching them all them time. It was a tad suffocating.

“But then I had my first class and I’m starting to think Umbridge thought that I could be a seventh year because I can’t remember my hexes and curses,” Cedric continued. “I’m worried. Umbridge may not want us having practical experience but she’s not the one that will test us in our NEWTs. What am I going to do then if I don’t remember how to perform them? And they made it so that I can’t even ask Professor Lupin for help. Dumbledore scheduled appointments for me with him twice a week so he can help me in case I have any problems, and when I asked him about Defense he said that he can’t tutor me. I thought he would be able to, since I’m a special case you know? None of the other students are obligated to see him, but then he told me that when Dumbledore tried to argue my case with Umbridge and the Minister, since it’s actually a law and everything, they said if I had any trouble Umbridge would be delighted to give me extra attention. Like that will help!”

Harry nodded with Cedric. His dad had told him when he went to rant to him about the absurdity of a theoretical Defense class that according to their sources, Fudge doesn’t want students trained for battle. Harry had laughed at the absurdity of the thought; what they learned in school was hardly training for battle. But, apparently Fudge thought Dumbledore was training the students so he could use them to overthrow the Ministry. In Harry’s opinion Fudge needed to be tailored for a nice straight jacket and be held in St. Mungo’s.

“Cedric has a point,” Hermione said grimly. “If it is up to Umbridge and the Ministry we won’t be prepared for our OWLs and NEWTs. The testing committee doesn’t answer to the Ministry, just like before Hogwarts didn’t answer to the Ministry, and they won’t lower their standards just because our Minister has gone mental. And if we fail our OWLs we can’t take the classes we need to take in our sixth and seventh years in order to enter our chosen careers. The same goes for the NEWTs students,” Hermione said nodding towards Cedric who nodded back, “If they fail the Auror Academy or the Healer program or anything else, they won’t be accepted either. The Ministry can’t toy with our future that way.”

“There’s not much we can do though,” Susan shrugged.

Harry got shivers down his spine at the little evil smirk that was forming on Hermione’s mouth and realized Ron and Neville had also sensed danger. But, whatever Hermione had in mind was left to be discussed later as Professor Sprout entered the Greenhouse and started the OWL lecture.

xxx

Saturday night in downtown London]a crowd was exiting a movie theater chattering with each other. In that crowd a couple could be seen walking out slowly. Tonks stealthily slid her hand in Remus’s. He smiled at her and asked:

“Did you like the movie?”

“Yes,” she grinned back.

“I know you like that actor a lot,” he said nonchalantly.

“Uh, huh,” she nodded biting her lips to stop smiling. He was so cute!

“Fancy him much?”

“Pretty much,” she said and at his scowl she giggled and leaned on him. “Want to know why?”

“Not particularly, no.”

“Never pegged you for the jealous type Remus Lupin,” she grinned then whispered in his ear, “He reminds me of you.”

He shivered and smiled, biting his lip. He moved his face to look at her and his lips found themselves inches from hers. His hands moved upwards, cupping her cheeks as he leaned forward and locked his lips with hers while she leaned in the kiss and encircled her arms around him.

Xxxx

“So Ron was chosen as the new Keeper?” Sirius asked as he threw popcorn up in the air and caught it with his mouth.

“Yes,” Harry asked grabbing a handful off popcorn and stuffing it into his mouth. Sirius and Harry were lounging on the Marauder’s Quarters’ couch with their feet on the coffee table and stuffing their faces with popcorn as they exchanged how their week had been. “He wasn’t the best choice, but he was the most committed.”

Sirius frowned, “I’ve seen Ron playing Keeper before and he’s not bad. I’d actually say he is quite good.”

“I know. Playing at the Burrow he’s great, never misses, but with the audience that came he was all nervous and kept missing catches I know he was able to catch,” Harry sighed. “How is he going to handle the Slytherin’s taunts?”

Sirius chewed thoughtfully, “I think young Ronald needs Padfoot’s crash confidence course.”

“What?”

“You don’t know this, I never said anything and if you tell him I told you I’ll deny it firmly,” Sirius said seriously then leaned over to Harry and whispered conspiratorially. “Moony played as a Chaser for a couple of games when we were students.”

“Uncle Moony doesn’t care for Quidditch,” Harry said disbelieving.

“Nope he doesn’t,” Sirius agreed. “But in our Fifth year one of the Chasers had gotten injured and it wasn’t one of those injuries that Poppy can heal in a second. It took months. I don’t recall what he did, but it doesn’t matter. The problem was that James called tryouts and couldn’t find one decent replacement, especially one that he could teach all the tactics in time for the first game that was a week away. But you see, Moony may not like Quidditch but when the four of us were at the Potter’s he always caved in and played with us and he is quite good. James was always exasperated about that. Called it wasted talent. There was also the fact that since both me and James were on the team, Moony had gotten into the habit of studying in the bleachers while we trained, so he always heard James yell different orders, he knew what our tactics were.”

“So dad asked him to play.”

“Oh, Harry,” Sirius laughed. “You’re so nice. James ordered him to play and when Moony said no he stole all Moony’s clothes while he was showering until he said yes because he was restrained to the showers. Couldn’t even go back to our room because James didn’t even leave a hand towel. The problem is that Moony doesn’t like being on the spot. Right at the first training session he was embarrassed about the other Gryffindors who were watching. We couldn’t have that. He was missing passes he knew like the back of his hand, so, Prongs and I organized a little intense crash course in tuning everyone out.”

“You stole his clothes again?”

“No, but we did steal his wand and performed a sticking charm on his broom so he was stuck. Then we told every Gryffindor in our dorm to go to the bleachers and throw every insult they could think of at Moony during practice. James told Moony that he could only get his wand back and get unstuck when he got his game back, and since Moony was too embarrassed to tell a teacher why he didn’t have his wand and had a broom stuck on him he caved. We stayed there hours; it was gruesome but in the end each time someone said something Moony got this glint in his eyes like he was going to prove them wrong and did.”

“You think that will work with Ron?”

“A modified version. Ron needs to learn to tune everyone out but he also needs self-confidence. Moony may think people will hate him when they find out about him but he does not lack self-confidence. He knows what’s he is capable of. Always has. His problem is that he is shy and gets embarrassed easily. Ron however doesn’t believe that he is capable of doing this, or at least not well. So we also need to bust Ron’s ego a little beforehand. Don’t worry,” he winked at Harry. “I’ll think of something. I want to see that cup in my office.”

“Daaad, you’re deputy-“

“Well I happen to think that is a very unfair rule. Why does Minnie get the cup? Huh, huh?”

Harry shook his head and chuckled.

“So, what else is going on?”

“Not much, everyone was gobsmacked about Uncle Sev’s attitude. I mean, he is still his charming self, but he has actually been fair to Gryffindors and even has given us points and everyone comes back  from class shocked. We’ve had to throw a few glasses of water on some people. Oh, and the rumor that was running around was that the Slytherin’s tryouts tomorrow are for all positions,” Harry said with a smirk as he grabbed another handful of popcorn. “You do realize Uncle Moony would never approve of us sitting here and stuffing our faces like this? By the way, did you put a ton of butter in here?”

“S’good right?” Sirius smiled chewing his popcorn.

“Yeah,” Harry chuckled.

“Besides Moony is busy and doesn’t need to know what we are up to.”

Harry and Sirius continued talking and eating popcorn, and occasionally throwing popcorn at each other until they heard a knock on the portrait door. Sirius looked at Harry and shrugged. Who would be knocking at this hour? Both Severus and Albus had the password and were the only ones who would come so late. Sirius opened the door and almost groaned.

“Yes Professor Umbridge,” he said grimly.

“Hem-hem, it has come to my attention that Mr. Potter…Black,” she added with a little smile staring at Harry, “is not in his dormitory and that is a clear violation of curfew and as so should be duly punished. I think a detention is in order, don’t you Mr. Potter?”

“What?” Harry asked. “I’m not violating curfew.”

“Harry is in my quarters. He is not roaming the halls after hours.”

“Your quarters aren’t his dormitory Professor.”

“I have always spent the occasional Saturday or Friday night in my old room,” Harry said.

“Well, the students are supposed to sleep in their dorms Mr. Potter, not where they please.”

“Yes, but Harry has a father as a teacher and therefore is able to spend his nights here when he wants. He is not the first student to have a parent on the staff and do so,” Sirius answered tightly trying his best not to snap at Umbridge.

“Just because others have broken the rules before it does not mean Mr. Potter can,” she said sweetly. “I’ll expect you at my office at five on Monday Mr. Potter…Black. Shall I escort you back to Gryffindor Tower?”

“No,” Sirius cut her off. “I will.” And he motioned with his head for Harry to follow him as they walked past her and shut the portrait very violently in her face. Sirius was seething and Harry was between anger and disbelief.

“She can’t do that dad!” Harry said angry.

“Yes she can. She’s right; the rules state that students have to be in their dorms after curfew. But usually the teachers have used common sense that if a student has a parent in the staff we accept that if they are in their quarters it counts as well. For instance, Minnie’s daughter was a seventh year when I started Hogwarts. Gryffindor of course. At the time around her NEWTs she claimed there was no way to study in the common room and slept with her parents in their quarters during school days. No one said anything. Vector’s kid too, remember? He was already a second year when we moved here.”

“So there’s nothing you can do?” Harry asked.

“No,” Sirius said frowning. “We may have to change our plans for tomorrow too. Umbridge seems to be keeping too close an eye on you.”

Xxxx

As Remus entered the Marauder’s quarters with a goofy smile plastered on his face, he said a faint, “Lumos” and almost jumped out of his skin. He glared at the mutt that was seated at the couch staring at him and wagging his tail with his tongue falling off the side of his mouth. A soft pop was heard and in a second Remus was glaring at a grinning Sirius who was wriggling his eyebrows.

“So? How was your hot date?” he asked eagerly.

“What part of me being a gentleman and not kissing and telling did you fail to understand in the twenty-four years that we’ve known each other?”

“So there was kissing!” Sirius jumped exited, “And?”

“None of your business,” Remus answered inspecting his fingernails.

“Aw, Moony. I’m your pal, your brother your Padfoot. Come on?”

“Nope.”

“Just one little detail.”

“Don’t think so.”

“At least tell me if there will be a second date!” Sirius begged.

Remus smirk turned into a huge smile and he said, “Most certainly.”

“YES!” Sirius jumped punching the air. Remus just chuckled at his friend’s antics. As he shook his head he stopped and smelled the air.

“What’s that smell?”

“Huh?” Sirius said looking like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Nothing,” he said innocently.

“No it’s not nothing! It smells like oil, no wait butter-- I know butter and popcorn! Sirius,” he finished giving Sirius a hard look.

“Really?” Sirius said. “Imagine that.”

“Did you stuff your face with a very unhealthy load of popcorn and butter?”

“I wouldn’t say popcorn is unhealthy, it’s corn. And I think corn is a kind of cereal maybe even a vegetable so you see, it’s quite healthy and butter is milk, protein…. Maybe I did,” he finished in a small voice at Remus’ glare.

“Alone?”

“Maybe Harry was with me.”

Remus sighed rubbing his temple wearily, “What am I going to do with you? Is Harry asleep already at least, or is he reading in his room?”

“Wouldn’t know since I had to escort him back to the tower,” Sirius grunted.

“What?”

“You won’t believe this,” Sirius said as he recounted the whole Umbridge debacle.

“I’ll have to have a talk with Harry. Umbridge will use that detention to try to get Harry in trouble. I bet she is just itching to find an excuse to get him expelled, and if she gets Harry to say something against one of us she’ll just be happier.”

Xxx

The little first year Ravenclaw made her way towards the second floor bathroom. She had heard stories from her dorm mates about this bathroom but she had no choice but to go in there now. Valiantly she entered it and looked around. No one was there and her shoulders sagged. What would she do now? She let out a yelp as a translucent face appeared right in front of hers.

“Who are you?” the ghost asked.

“Julie,” she said frightened and wide eyed.

“Oh,” Myrtle said annoyed. “What are you doing here?”

“Using the loo,” she answered.

“Middle stall,” the ghost drawled. “They never come for me!” she wailed as the girl entered the middle stall.

Once inside, little Julie looked around but saw nobody. Suddenly she felt a soft fabric dropping around her and she squealed as she saw a freckled face grinning down at her. He put a finger to his lips and whispered.

“Shhh.”

 “You’re not Harry Potter,” she whispered. “I was told to meet him”.

“I sure hope I’m not him,” the boy said. “I’m so much more handsome. Imagine being a near-sighted midget,” he whispered and shivered theatrically.

She giggled and he opened the stall’s door, “He sent me here. Shall we?” He motioned for her to follow him.

“Where did you come from?”

“The same place you went to.”

“What?”

He pointed at the mirror and she jumped at what she saw, or better, at what she did not see. The two of them were not there even though she knew she was standing right in front of it.

“Let’s go,” he sad ushering her forward. “Bye Myrtle.”

“Bye, tell Harry I say hi. Remus too. I’m here if they want to stop by,” Myrtle called after their retreating backs.

The boy guided Julie through the Hogwarts halls and Julie was amazed at how no one saw them. Not even her friends when they passed them. This was so cool! They stopped in front of a portrait and stood there for a while. Julie was about to ask why when she saw Professor Lupin walking towards them. He opened the portrait without a second glance at them but took his time closing it so they could go in after him. As soon as the door was closed she felt the fabric leave her and the freckled boy fold something that looked like a silvery cloak.

“Welcome to the Marauder’s Quarters Ms. Prentiss,” Professor Lupin said kindly.

“This,” a new voice said and Julie saw Professor Black for the first time pointing at a doorway, “is my son’s room. You can use it to change your clothes and sleep there if you want. Moony prefers the living room rug though. Harry emptied a drawer so you can leave some clothes there so you don’t have to bring your bag every time.”

Julie nodded as she watched Professor Black approach with a pair of scissors. He caught a lock of her hair and cut a small piece of it.

“I hope I don’t unbalance your hair cut but we need this for the Polyjuice Potion that one of the teachers will be taking to cover for you in your dorm on the full moons.”

“Okay,” she said warily.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Professor Black smirked. “We promise not do anything to tarnish your reputation.”

“This way people won’t notice you are not around,” Professor Lupin explained to the small eleven-year-old Ravenclaw. “On the night of the full moon, like tonight, you’ll be with me at our Quarters but one of the teachers who knows about you will take your place at your dorm.”

“Not always though,” Professor Black said. “There may be times when there won’t be anyone available so either someone from the PWA will come or that day you’ll have to something awfully wrong in class and get sent to the Hospital Wing. I know, I know. Ravenclaws are flawless, but it may be needed. We’ll find something suitable,” he winked and Julie giggled. She thought Professor Black was funny ever since she met him at the PWA.

“You have to be careful though. Thanks to the fact that you already had the Permanent Wolfsbane Professor Dumbledore didn’t have to run this through the board of governors like he did when I attended Hogwarts,” Professor Lupin explained but was cut off by a wide-eyed awed cry.

“You did? WOW!”

Professor Lupin smiled and Professor Black said proudly, “Hogwarts’ biggest bookworm. Only one to ever come near him is Hermione Granger and I think they are at a tie.”

“And that’s tough to beat,” the freckled boy said in a suffering tone. “Believe me.”

Professor Lupin rolled his eyes and continued, “This year, how can I put this?” he said frowning. “Not all the teachers are trustworthy. Er,  Professor Umbridge is very much against half-humans and we don’t want her to suspect you of anything. So we have to be very careful in smuggling you to our Quarters. Harry was supposed to bring you here but Professor Umbridge seems to have decided to keep tabs on him so young Ronald here volunteered to do so in his place.”

Ronald puffed his chest and the little girl looked at him in awe.

“Thank you sir. You were so cool coming out of nowhere.”

Professor Black sniggered and Ronald mouthed “sir” gobsmacked.

Professor Lupin cleared his throat, “Well, Harry has this very interesting heirloom,” he pointed at the cloak in Ronald’s hand, “that will enable Ron to bring you to our Quarters undetected. So, on the day of the full moon after your last class if it’s a weekday, you go to the second floor bathroom just like today. Ron will be waiting for you there with whoever will Polyjuice into you that night. If it’s a weekend we will tell you what time to be there, since we don’t want to establish a pattern that someone will notice. Today we did it a little different so we could explain things to you. But this way if someone sees you going in they will also see you going out. In the morning you will go out with Harry’s cloak and meet with your clone at the same bathroom. Give the cloak to whomever is there and they’ll see that Harry gets the cloak back. Once you are more comfortable with Hogwarts’ corridors, you can come here under the cloak.”

“Now,” Ron said. “Why don’t I show you Harry’s room and your drawer before I leave with Professor Black?”

“Thank you sirs,” Julie said brightly with a huge grin on her face and her blue eyes shining brightly. “I never thought I’d be able to come to Hogwarts much less have so many people helping me keep my secret.”

“Hopefully you won’t be the last one,” Remus smiled as the little girl was ushered to Harry’s room where Ron started showing her where to put her things, and Harry’s books and games.

“Harry said you could use any of these that you want when you’re here,” the two Marauders heard Ron say.

Sirius looked at Remus who was looking at the bedroom doorway with distant eyes and nudged him, “See, we are making progress already.”

“I remember being in her shoes. Thinking I’d never come and then getting the chance. Always afraid someone would notice. Except she has a better chance than I did to keep it quiet.”

“Maybe she’ll get lucky and her dorm mates will be like yours. Then she won’t need to be smuggled out because all she’ll have to do is go to sleep early and the rest of the house won’t notice.”

“Hopefully,” Remus smiled and threw an arm around Sirius shoulder, pulling him closer. “I was very lucky!”

“Awwww, see that Julie? And then they try to deny Rita Skeeter’s claims!”

Remus and Sirius turned to see Ron and Julie snickering from the doorway. Sirius didn’t waste time. He transformed into Padfoot and after a yelp Ron tried to run, but was thrown to the floor by the dog that started licking his face.

“YUCK! This is very unprofessional! Julie help!”

Julie seemed to not know what to do and Remus just ushered her to the living room.

“That’s what happens when you know Sirius outside of school,” he said casually.

“Okay, that’s enough now Professor!” was heard from the bedroom.