"Time's up!"
Harry set his quill down and massaged his cramping right hand with his left. He breathed in deeply the way Healer Fay had instructed; his magic responded to his call and healed the strained muscles. He instantly felt better and took another breath as the Runes teacher, Professor Bathsheda Babbling, took his completed parchments with a bright sunny smile. She reminded him a little of Hermione; wild chestnut hair, kind brown eyes and an intelligent face.
"Ah, excellent, Mister Potter." Professor Babbling said happily. "I'll have these back to you by the end of the day."
Harry nodded nervously. It was the first test he had sat since Sirius had assumed guardianship of him, and beyond the goal of getting into fourth year Runes, he also wanted desperately to have done well. The test had been really long though and the questions towards the end included deciphering runes in strange combinations that he and Sirius hadn't covered in their tutoring. Maybe the syllabus had changed since Sirius had been a student, Harry thought ruefully. But hopefully, hopefully, he had done enough.
Professor Babbling dismissed him briskly and Harry gathered up his things and exited the classroom. Padfoot waited for him in the corridor and Harry made for the dog, giving him a hug before stepping back so Sirius could transform back into a man.
"Well, don't keep me in suspenders!" Sirius said urgently. "How did it go?"
Harry smiled at Sirius's obvious interest. "I think I did OK. There were a lot of questions for an end of year exam and some of the combinations at the end we hadn't covered."
Sirius frowned. "Did you break down the combination and work them out though like..."
"Like you taught me." Harry nodded. "I think I got tangled up on one and I'm pretty sure I said the Norse rune for healing was for blessing in another but…" he heaved a sigh, "I think I did enough to get in the class?"
"Good. Excellent work." Sirius said, slinging an arm around his shoulder and prompting Harry to walk toward the Great Hall. "Everyone else should be gathered for lunch. We'll have a quick bite to eat and then it's off to the Chamber of Horrors."
Harry smiled. The quiet return to the Chamber to search for another one of the objects Voldemort had left behind like the diary had turned into a huge undertaking to maintain the cover story. Some of it, Harry admitted to himself, was his fault as he had asked for Ron to come along. Bill had agreed but in convincing his mother, somehow the condition had been set that the Weasley matriarch and Ginny should attend too. According to Ron, Ginny had "gone mental" demanding that if anyone should be allowed to return it should be her and, after some discussion with Madame Pomfrey, it had been decided it would be beneficial for Ginny to face her demons.
In addition to the Weasleys, Sirius had gained agreement from the Grangers to allow Hermione to attend and the Headmaster in announcing that they were recovering the basilisk had found himself with an influx of volunteers from the excited Hogwarts staff, all wanting to catch a glimpse of the infamous Chamber. Minerva, Hagrid, Professor Flitwick, Professor Snape, Professor Sprout and the new DADA Professor Alastor Moody were all coming along. A contingent of Gringotts Creature Specialists had also been hired for the basilisk removal and rendering. With the treasure team, Bertie, Sirius and Remus, Harry felt they had enough people that even the massive Chamber he remembered was going to feel cramped.
The Hall was bustling with people when Sirius and Harry entered. A long table had been laid out in the centre and everybody was milling about with beverages. The house elves were popping in and out with canapés, looking immensely thrilled to be busy.
"Harry!" Hermione came rushing up with Ron trailing behind her. "How did you do? Did you manage all of the questions? Were they hard? Did you answer the essay question on Norse or Celtic runes? I did Norse but after the exam I thought I should have done Celtic and…"
"Blimey, Hermione!" Ron interrupted as both Sirius and Harry started chortling at the stream of questions. "Give the bloke a chance!"
Hermione blushed but crossed her arms and pinned Ron with a glare. "You're not even interested!"
"It's an exam!" Ron retorted. "One I didn't have to do! Of course, I'm not interested!" He suddenly seemed to realise that his words could be offensive to Harry and winced visibly. "Sorry, mate!"
Harry shrugged. He doubted he would be that interested in an exam Ron did that he didn't have to sit for. "It was OK," he said in reply to Hermione, "yes, I managed all the questions but only just in the time, some of them were really hard and I did the first essay question on Norse runes and the second one on Celtic."
Hermione frowned. "My exam only had one essay question."
"Maybe she added some questions to test me more since she didn't teach me it and this is to prove I have the knowledge to get into fourth year." Harry theorised. There had been a lot of questions. His stomach growled.
"Lunch time." Sirius said firmly, leading him to the table.
"You should try these little sausages on sticks," Ron said enthusiastically, "they're brilliant!"
Hermione sniffed. "You'll ruin your appetite eating all those before lunch."
"Your appetite, maybe," Ron shot back, "mine no way!"
"Well, that's because you're a growing boy." Molly said, walking up to join them. She gave Harry a light hug. "Glad to hear it went well, dear. Sit down and have your lunch."
It appeared that with Sirius and Harry both seated at the table, everyone else began to wander over and in no time at all, the table was filled.
Sirius sat one side of Harry with Hermione on the other. Ron sat across from Harry in between his Mum and Ginny. Remus ended up next to Sirius, Bill next to Ginny. The Professors grouped together at the head of the table where the Headmaster sat presiding over everyone. The rest of the treasure team, Bertie and the Gringotts' Creature Specialist team (two Goblins named Footlock and Brimbold, an old wizard named Casper that Bill had greeted happily and a young wizard called Aontius who was Bulgarian and a Gringotts' intern) gathered together at the bottom.
A lively debate broke out about the imminent Quidditch World cup with Aontius defending Bulgaria and Bill taking the side of Ireland. Ron chipped in on Aontius's side surprising his brother. Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker, according to Ron, was the best seeker in the entire world.
Harry took part enough to contribute his own point of view that Ireland had the better Chaser formation before turning and engaging Hermione in a conversation about why she'd wanted to do the essay on Celtic runes rather than the Norse as she had done. Remus and Sirius were happy to debate the relative merits with both of them and since it had the added benefit of preventing Sirius from glaring at Snape every few minutes it was all to the good. The initial meeting between the two hadn't gone well…
Harry smiled as he stepped out of the floo without stumbling and into the Headmaster's office.
Remus was already there and waved his wand to clear him of soot. "You're getting better at floo travel, Harry."
"He couldn't get much worse." Snape sneered, drawing Harry's attention to his presence. Snape was lurking at the back of the office by a bookcase.
Dumbledore smiled widely. "Now, Severus, it does take everyone some time to get used to travelling by floo."
Harry exchanged a look with Remus but thankfully Sirius arrived, stepping out of the floo with a poised grace and elegance that Andy had promised Harry he would one day achieve for himself.
Sirius smiled at Harry before his eyes caught on Snape and his expression lost all semblance of good humour. "Snape."
"Black."
"What's he doing here?" Sirius asked sharply.
"As our Potions Master, Severus is helping with the basilisk." Dumbledore said mildly but Harry could hear the rebuke in Dumbledore's tone at Sirius's question. "He, of course, is also aware of the real reason for our descent into the Chamber today."
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