Sirius Black

What a Malfoy-style courtship entailed could wait. Even after giving Draco a dressing-down, Snape was still beside himself with rage.

The hem of Snape's robes billowed through the corridor like a black storm, and the candle flames trembled under the oppressive air around him. His nails dug deep into his palms, his knuckles white with force, while Draco's face replayed over and over in his mind—that of a playboy who, as Snape saw it, was determined to get what he wanted.

That little bastard had no idea of his own limitations! How dare he covet such a lovely, delicate daughter who looked almost exactly like Lily!

His anger flared higher with every step. Draco's deceitful gray-blue eyes, those carefully prepared stupid gifts, and that sickeningly sentimental love letter!

All! Of! It! Reminded him of how that bastard had shown off in front of Lily back then.

Who did he think he was? He was nothing but a thug with an aristocratic title! He wasn't good enough for Harry!

Even more infuriatingly, the boy had dared to talk back! Something about "true love is no crime" and "Miss Potter deserves the best courtship"!

Damn the Malfoys. Sooner or later, he'd wipe out the whole family. He shoved open the door to the Headmaster's Office, leaving the stone beast no time to stop him.

Professor McGonagall looked up from a pile of documents and glanced at her visitor. "Severus? What's so urgent?"

"I've come to request leave for Draco Malfoy." Snape's voice sounded as though he were forcing it through clenched teeth. "He needs to go home next week."

"Oh?" McGonagall put down her quill. "Is Mr. Malfoy ill?"

"Family business."

"How convenient, the day before Hogsmeade weekend?" McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Sit down and tell me about it. You need to calm down."

"I am perfectly calm," Snape said stiffly, but he still sat in the armchair across from her.

McGonagall waved her wand, and a glass of water floated over to Snape. The moment he took it, she spoke as though in passing. "I hear Draco confessed his feelings to Harry?"

Crack-

The glass crumbled to powder in Snape's hand, and water mixed with streaks of bright red dripped between his pale fingers. McGonagall's gaze lingered on the red for a moment before calmly returning to his face.

"So the rumors are true." She conjured a bandage and pushed it toward him. "What are you going to do? Tie him to the four-poster bed in his dormitory?"

Snape roughly wrapped the bandage around his palm. "If necessary."

McGonagall suddenly sighed, her tone becoming unusually gentle. "Severus, you can't keep her locked in an ivory tower forever."

"She isn't Lily," McGonagall said comfortingly. "And Draco isn't James."

Professor McGonagall's words did nothing to ease Snape's agitation. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, and when he felt the grease on it, he suddenly realized he should perhaps find time to wash his hair.

A snicker suddenly came from the shadows of the Headmaster's Office.

Sirius Black strolled lazily into view, his long black hair swaying slightly like the mane of some great feline. He leaned against Fawkes's perch, amusement glinting in his gray eyes.

"Harry's a pretty little thing," he drawled, idly twirling a lock of hair around his finger. "Isn't it perfectly normal for the Malfoy brat to like her?"

A few days ago, Professor McGonagall had already summoned him to her office, and he had learned that Sirius had been wrongfully accused all these years. Even so, upon actually seeing the bully who had plagued him through almost his entire school career, Snape was still in no good mood.

His lips twisted into an almost vicious curve. "Yes, perfectly normal." His voice was as cold as ice. "If it were only a secret crush."

Sirius's smile froze on his face. "Wait... You mean that boy is pursuing her?"

"Love letters, roses, gifts." Snape's voice grew colder with each word. "He's just short of pressing the key to the Malfoy vault into her hand."

Sirius looked as though a troll had clubbed him over the head. He knew Harry, who had inherited traits from James and Lily, was bound to be lovely, but how could his goddaughter be pursued by the Malfoy boy?

One look at that boy and you could tell he was bad news!

What if he did something unforgivable to Harry and then abandoned her? Draco Malfoy's sharp, shifty face didn't look like that of a good person. One look and you could tell he was capable of it!

He turned mechanically to McGonagall. "Minerva, does Hogwarts allow students to date while they're still young?"

"Theoretically," McGonagall said, adjusting her glasses, "the school rules don't forbid students from dating while they're young."

"That's not allowed!!" Sirius's roar made the portraits of the former headmasters and headmistresses on the wall cover their ears as one. "I'm going to pull out his already soft blond hair one strand at a time-"

"Calm down, Black." Snape suddenly gave him a snakelike smile. "Weren't you just saying 'it's perfectly normal for a little girl to date'?"

Sirius's face turned bright red. "How is that the same?! That's a Malfoy...!"

"I'm glad you finally understand."

Having shifted his anxiety and suffering onto Sirius, Snape felt a little better. He turned, delivering one final, devastating blow to Sirius before leaving. "I hope you'll still hold that opinion when Miss Potter goes to the ball on Draco's arm."

The moment the door closed, Sirius snatched up the Sherbet Lemons on the desk, as though Dumbledore were still there to keep them there, and hurled them at it. The sweets left sticky marks on the wooden door.

"What did he mean by that?!" Sirius tugged at his hair in exasperation.

McGonagall calmly conjured a cloth and cleaned the door. "Exactly what you think he meant."

She changed the subject and went on, "Speaking of which, how do you plan to protect Harry from here on?"

Sirius paced in frustration. "Peter, that traitor, has sneaked into Hogwarts. I need to keep an eye on him from the shadows, but..."

It wasn't that simple. He was an escaped prisoner from Azkaban.

"I have a better idea." McGonagall's eyes gleamed behind her glasses.

At breakfast the next morning, Ron leaned over mysteriously. "I heard we're getting a new head of house!"

Hermione's Pumpkin Juice stopped halfway to her mouth. "A new head of house?"

Ron tapped his spoon excitedly against his plate. "Yes! A new head of house! The position's been vacant ever since Professor McGonagall became headmistress. This time, according to Professor McGonagall herself, it's a former student of hers called Professor Black-"

Harry's fork clattered onto her plate. "Professor Black???"

"Yeah." Ron stuffed his mouth full of bacon. "What's wrong?"

The corner of Harry's mouth twitched. Through the Great Hall windows, she saw Hagrid leading a tall man in a flashy dragon-hide jacket across the grounds. The man even looked back and blew a kiss toward the castle.

"Nothing." Harry mechanically stuffed pudding into her mouth. "My stomach just suddenly hurts a little."

Yes, Harry had always wanted to meet her godfather, and she had also hoped she could save him.

But she had never considered the possibility of her godfather, her father's partner in mischief, becoming her head of house.

...He was missing the days when Professor McGonagall had been head of house more and more.