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Chapter 7

Remus stared at the headline in horror.

HOGWARTS SCANDAL: WHAT'S NEXT, A

VAMPIRE AS A TEACHER?

By Rita Skeeter

Two days ago, former Headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore announced his replacement.

Professor Flora Sprout, former Head of Hufflepuff House and Herbology professor, was named

the new Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Along with this news

was the announcement that Professor Remus Lupin, current Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor and Head of Gryffindor House would take the position of Deputy Headmaster.

Many in the Ministry were appalled by the news, and some people are calling for the resignation

of members of the Board of Governors for the school in light of this news. Former Minister

Cornelius Fudge told me this: "I always knew that Dumbledore was insane, and this is proof of

his inability to run the school."

Others, however, are taking a "wait-and-see approach" to the announcement, while the new Minister

of Magic, Mr. Sloan Sumner, stated that "he was overjoyed at the refreshing change was happening,"

and that "the students were in capable hands."

Talking with people on the street, I got the chance to discuss the changes at Hogwarts, and the

results were mixed. Parents that I talked to were happy with the announcement of Professor Lupin

taking a more active role in the way the school is run. Arthur Weasley, Head of Muggle Relations,

said that he "was glad that the board and [others] were finally seeing that Flora and Remus would

ensure that the students at Hogwarts will get a well-rounded and fun education."

Mr. Borgin, proprietor of Borgin and Burkes, was sickened by the news. "That anyone would trust

their child to the care of a Dark creature such as a werewolf, I say that they are crazy."

Already several hundred letters have poured into the office here at The Daily Prophet about the

announcement. Editor-in-Chief William Childs had stated that if enough letters come in, they will

be printed in a special edition.

"Remus?"

Harry's voice sounded worried. Putting down the newspaper, he lifted concerned eyes to his lover.

"That bad, huh?" Harry asked as he sat down next to Remus.

The older man sighed and leaned lightly against Harry's arm. He felt a little better when Harry wrapped an arm around him, giving a side hug.

"Shall we sick Sirius on her?"

Remus chuckled weakly and looked back at the paper. "I don't think he's seen it yet."

"Ooh." Harry sounded quite thrilled at seeing his godfather's reaction to the article. "He should be here soon."

Nodding, Remus laid his head on Harry's shoulder briefly before sitting up straight. As he did, the doors to the Great Hall opened to reveal some of the other professors, eager for their breakfasts.

Flora Sprout took one look at them and stopped in her tracks. "Is it that bad?"

Remus started to nod, but found that the others were looking at Dumbledore, who entered the large room and gave a big smile.

"My, my. What a big to-do they're throwing about this!" The older wizard had a spring to his step as he walked over to Professor Sprout and took a hold of her hand. "My dear," he said as he patted her hand. "I wouldn't worry too much about this."

Remus knew that this was a sign of Dumbledore's insanity, but it wasn't like he hadn't seen it coming. Luckily, only Harry heard his sigh.

"Remus?" the younger man whispered in his ear. "Shall we leave now or wait the ten minutes it takes for Sirius to find out what's going on?"

He opened his mouth to reply when Sirius walked through the doors of the Great Hall. Turning to Harry, he said, "We might as well stay now."

As Sirius sat down, Harry handed him the paper and carefully backed away. Remus watched as the other man's face turned several colors before settling on one color – a violent red.

"What!? Who does she think she is? This is that bug lady, isn't she, Harry?" Sirius didn't wait for Harry's nod before continuing his rant. "At least she had the good sense to ask people what they are thinking about this... but Borgin! That fool in his shop in Knockturn Alley deals with the dark so much, why is he suddenly afraid! As if Remy would hurt a fly!"

Remus' face turned a soft shade of pink as Sirius listed a number of his good qualities. Looking over at Harry, he found the younger man nodding his head in agreement. For at least ten minutes the new Potions professor ranted until he realized all the other people in the room were watching him with amused looks. Taking pity on him, Remus filled his breakfast plate up and held up a fork.

"Sorry, Remy, Harry," Sirius said sheepishly, grabbing a hold of the utensil.

"No problem, Sirius." Harry laughed at his godfather's expression. "It was no problem at all."

******

Harry signed the parchment, making sure to put his status as Order of Merlin, First Class under his name. Sirius had suggested, once he had calmed down a little after breakfast, of writing a letter to The Daily Prophet. All of them agreed that something of this magnitude would probably be put on the first page.

Harry would make sure of that by reminding Rita of something only he knew about her. While the rest of the wizarding community knew that she had been an illegal animagus for years, Harry had found out that she had also been sleeping with Fudge for several years before the Tournament. While Fudge was married. While *she* was married. Now was the time for him to use his leverage. It was times like these that made Harry realize just why the Sorting Hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin. Not that he would tell anybody else. That was reserved for the select few he had told in fifth year.

He watched as Remus handed over the quill he'd been using to sign the letter to Sinistra. She would be the last to sign, since three of the professors had refused to have anything to do with the letter. Or at least this one. Dumbledore was writing his own letter, reasoning that since he was no longer a teacher, he wasn't qualified to sign the letter sent by the staff at Hogwarts.

Marissa Warrington, the new Head of Slytherin, had informed them that she would not sign the letter. She would reserve her judgment for the time being. Like any true Slytherin, she was waiting until she gathered all the facts. Harry had already made a note to himself to watch was she was up to. He still remembered how she had acted in his second year on the Quidditch field. She and Flint had made problems for the Hufflepuff team, committing five fouls between the two of them. He knew that if she was willing to do that in a *game*, she was more likely to do it in the "real world."

Sibyl Trelawny had also refused to sign the letter. In fact, the woman had only stepped from her tower long enough to tell Sprout that she wished to be alone. Since then, only the house-elves had seen her when they went to take her food trays. Remus and Sirius had told him several stories about the terror that they had made in her classes when she had first began teaching at Hogwarts. Harry wasn't sure if it was an old grudge against Remus and Sirius, or the fact that she didn't care one way or the other.

He had always thought of her as a loony, privately agreeing with Professor Snape that she was a charlatan. The two predictions she had made while he had been in school had been correct, but when she wasn't guided by something else (which Harry thought had happened, since her voice had been completely different and she remembered nothing) she was a fruitcake. Harry didn't mind her refusal, especially since she had deemed it an insult when he dropped her class in his fifth year to take something that was needed more for the war than divination. Besides, getting tutored by Professor Dumbledore one-on-one was miles above being in some stuffy room where his death was predicted once a week.

Harry looked over at Sprout and Dumbledore, who were conversing quietly. The two had been together for most of the past three days since school had gotten out, and only showed up for meals. Starting tomorrow, both of them would start meeting with the individual staff about what they were planning on implementing, starting with Remus. Once he and Harry had met with them, they would be traveling to the Burrow for the party Molly was throwing for Ron and Hermione's engagement.

Thinking of that reminded Harry of the letter he had gotten from Ron that morning. Pig had twittered madly all the time that Harry had struggled with getting the letter off his leg. Sirius and Remus had been laughing the entire time, until Harry reminded Sirius that he was the one who gave Ron the flighty bird. Then Harry and Remus had been the ones laughing as Sirius spluttered about how hard it was to find an owl that Buckbeak didn't scare.

Ron had written that he had told everybody at his house about his appointment, but had kept quiet about Harry and Remus being together. Molly had been ecstatic about Harry's new job, while Fred and George had commiserated about it, and Ron had told him that he hadn't understood what they had been saying about what Harry had to do with their shop. Harry was glad that the twins had accepted his request that he be a silent partner when they had asked him. Harry was waiting for Molly to not get a nervous twitch whenever someone mentioned the joke shop in her presence before they announced his role in it – he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be invited to the Burrow ever again if it got out at the moment.

The red head hadn't said anything about what the reactions about Harry and Remus would be, but told them that he wanted a front-row seat when their classmates realized that Harry was taken. He had written that it would be some fine entertainment, and that he would probably welcome the break it would give him after his and Hermione's engagement had been announced. While Harry wasn't sure of that, he just wanted people to know that Remus was his and he was Remus'.

******

Sirius took a deep breath as soon as they apparated to the Burrow. He liked the air here in Ottery St. Catchpole. It was clean and smelled like the mint that grew in the fields near the house.

After greeting Ron and his family, he separated himself from Remus and Harry to find himself a seat. He wasn't in the mood for their chatting, since all it did was make him think about how *alone* he felt. The past couple of days had been hard on him as the other two had spent an enormous amount of time with each other, and while he knew, somewhere in his mind, that they needed it, he still felt left out.

He was rather happy with himself for inviting Snape to go with them to the island. After spending two days badgering the other man, Snape had finally relented, and while Sirius was sure that it was because he was getting tired of his asking, he was glad. Sparring with Snape made him feel alive, especially after the nights where he had nightmares. Azkaban featured prominently in them, from him thinking that he was still there to seeing his friends or Harry there.

All of them needed this vacation, even if he had to put up with Remus and Harry being lovey-dovey.

"Sirius!" Dumbledore was standing next to him. "Why are you hiding in the corner?"

He sent the older wizard a quelling look that the former headmaster ignored.

"Determined to get a good seat, then?"

"Albus..." Sirius wasn't quite in the mood for Dumbledore's jovialness. Thankfully, the older wizard's attention had been grabbed by the appearance of Charlie Weasley and one of the red head's friends. The second oldest Weasley had played a prominent role in the war against Voldemort, trying to keep the dragons safe from him. He had been mostly successful, and only one dragon reserve had been attacked before it could be made unplottable. He had been very glad that the dragons hadn't gotten involved. Sirius hadn't fancied trying to hold off a Hungarian Horntail as well as Death Eaters.

For the next half hour, Sirius kept to himself, sipping on the drink Molly had pressed into his hand as she passed him. Soon it would be time for Ron and Hermione's announcement, shocking those who had expected this to just be a graduation party. He had also been keeping track of Harry and Remus. The two had stood close to one another, but hadn't been touching, which he knew they wouldn't. They weren't the type to do that in front of a lot of people. They had acted the same way at school, only touching when Sirius, and now Dumbledore, was around.

A ringing sounded over the large yard in back of the Burrow. Sirius looked over to where a sea of red heads had congregated. It still looked small, since Ginny and Bill weren't there – Ginny being in St. Mungo's, and Bill stuck in Egypt, unable to get a couple of days off from work.

Once everyone's attention was on Ron, he stood on the table, ignoring his mother's request that he get off it. Smiling broadly, he dropped a hand to Hermione and pulled her up onto the table as well. Harry was standing next to the table with Remus at his side, grinning up at the two on the table.

"The three of us have brought you here under false pretenses," Ron began.

"What!?" yelled Seamus. "Does that mean we don't get food?"

Parvati, who had been standing next to him, slapped him in the back of his head. "Shut up, Seamus!"

Neville, who was attached at the hip to Hannah Abbot, shot them both a sideways glance. "Ignore them, Ron," he said, earning laughter from the crowd.

The youngest Weasley brother grinned his thanks to his friend. "Ahem. Now, back to what I was saying!"

"Ron?" Hermione began. "Are you going to take forever with this?"

Sirius laughed as he saw the expressions on various faces. Most of the people around them were expecting another of their legendary fights.

"Oh, yes," Ron agreed. "I thought we'd stand on this table all day and dance!"

Hermione giggled, startling everybody. Normally she would have said something back to Ron and they would argue until a certain point and then not speak to each other for days. "I'm game!"

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" That was Harry. "Would you two just get on with it?"

"Yeah, Ron, you're taking too long." Fred and George said the words at almost the same time.

"I had to build up suspense," Ron told them. He grinned again and looked out over the crowd. "I would like to say that Hermione –"

"- And my parents," Hermione interjected.

"- And her parents," Ron repeated, "Have given their agreement for her marriage to me in the month of September."

The crowd was speechless as Hermione turned to him. "Those manner lessons I've been giving to you have really worked!"

Harry and Charlie began laughing, setting off the rest of the Weasleys. Their laughter trickled out into the crowd, eventually reaching Sirius, who had been holding back laughter the entire show. The performance had reminded him of when James and Lily had announced their engagement, except that had been done in the middle of the Great Hall three days before the end of seventh year. Nobody, including him, had known that he had proposed the week before. James, being the prankster he was, had convinced Lily to keep it a secret until just the right moment. And what a moment it had been. Sirius and Remus had practically jumped James as Peter had stammered his congratulations to Lily. Her friends had then bombarded her as Dumbledore had stood up and politely clapped, the rest of the staff had joined them. Soon the entire Gryffindor table, and most of Hufflepuff had congregated around the happy couple.

Sirius sighed as his memory drifted away. They had been so happy then, and now.... He had Harry and Remus, but they had each other....

"Sulking, Black?"

Sirius turned to find Snape sitting three feet away. He hadn't noticed when the other man had shown up, and hadn't known he'd even been invited. Whether it was Hermione refusing to let any of the teachers they'd had be slighted, or Ron's tendency to want to show off to Snape, he didn't know. Either way, it was actually good to see the man he had spent most of his life despising getting some fresh air.

"No, Snape. I was just thinking how this reminds me of when James and Lily told the Great Hall their engagement."

The black-eyed man narrowed his eyes but said nothing, surprising Sirius with his restraint. Usually any mention of James set Snape off. But over the last month he had noticed that there hadn't been a reaction at all, doubly so now that Sirius and Snape were working together. Albeit grudgingly, Snape had said that Sirius would make a decent potions instructor if he remembered that he was there to make the students learn, not have fun.

"When did this happen!? I'm glad that you didn't tell me that... that – !"

Both of them looked over to where Hermione was standing opposite Harry. The two of them had been speaking all the time that Sirius and Snape had been, but something had set the girl off.

"Shit!" Sirius muttered under his breath as he watched Harry's face fall. He looked around and saw that Remus was on the other side of the yard, talking with Arthur and hadn't heard anything. Looking quickly at Snape, who was also watching the pair, he swiftly walked over to his godson.

"Hermione?" Harry was asking. Sirius could hear it break slightly, but knew that he wouldn't cry.

"It's disgusting!" Hermione said in a heated whisper. "I could tolerate Seamus being with Terry, but I didn't have to talk with him."

Sirius stopped at that. He was surprised by Hermione's reaction to what he knew Harry had told her. Now it seems that she had stomached her fellow year-mate being gay, but didn't like the idea of her best friend liking men. That reaction was rare in the wizarding world, where people loved/married different species, let alone the same sex.

"Fine." Harry's voice was barely above audible. Sirius' heart threatened to break at the rejection in it. He watched as green eyes that should never been that sad ever again looked at Hermione one more time to look at Sirius. "Take me to Remy, please?"

He couldn't say no to him. Throwing a dark look at Hermione, whose face was red with anger and disgust, Sirius guided Harry over to where Remus was still talking to Arthur.

"Harry!" Remus looked at his lover for a moment before turning to Sirius. "What happened, Siri?"

Sirius glanced over to where Hermione was now arguing with Ron on the other side of the yard. "Hermione thinks it's 'disgusting' that you and Harry are together."

"That's a shame," Arthur said, reminding Sirius and Remus of his presence. Harry hadn't noticed anything as his hand slipped into Remus'. "You two will be perfect for each other."

Remus gave a grateful look at the balding man next to him. "Thanks, Arthur."

Arthur smiled a little sadly. "I just hope Ron will be able to talk to her."

Sirius nodded as he watched one of Harry's best friends storm away from her fiancé. He looked down at Harry and found he had been watching as well, his green eyes wet but refusing to release the tears.

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