Harry Potter: Eclipse.

They were currently at lunch and had decided to sit at the Slytherin table for the first time. The older years were shooting Harry and some of their group odd looks but they were ignoring him for the most part. It had gotten out how close the patriarch of the Malfoy family was to the Potter-Black heir and, adding Sirius and his reputation to the mix as well as Harry's unexpected attitude and intelligence, even the older year Slytherins were willing to give him a chance.

Harry smirked - he had gone back to Defence only once since his first lesson and, predictably, he had found it to be ridiculous. Lockhart had spent half an hour talking about heroic battles he had fought in, claiming to have done such outrageous and practically impossible feats of magic that Harry had feared his eyes would roll out of his head. It was laughable. The man was a fool; he could hardly disarm a dummy, let alone engage in a one versus five all out duel with vampires.

Even his friends had started to follow his example by going to their Head of House and asking for self-study. In Neville's case, as McGonagall had flat out refused, he had taken to feeling 'unwell' whenever Defence came about.

Harry had heard back from Lucius a few days after he had sent his letter.

~ Harrison,

I thank you for bringing such a shocking problem to my notice. Draco has also written to me and shared his concerns and I am appalled at the quality of staff Dumbledore has hired.

As a member of the Board and, more importantly, a parent, I shall do everything in my power to see to it that you do not have to put up with such standards of teaching for long. It's shameful that Hogwarts, which was once heralded as the best school for witchcraft and wizardry, has let its standards fall so low. Hopefully, I shall have this outrageous situation dealt with and you will not have to suffer for long, however I fear the headmaster will foil any attempts I make to rectify the situation. Therefore my actions may take longer than initially expected.

I am grateful for the example of teaching material that you sent, it shall go a long way in proving the quality of the lessons. Hopefully the rest of your teachers and classes are going well and, as always, if you ever need any help or advice, I shall always be willing to offer it.

Lucius Malfoy

~

Meanwhile

September, Grimmauld Place, London Sirius laughed as he read the letter Harry had sent him—the boy really did have the best qualities from them all. He had Lily's brains, James' sense of humour, and the Black cunning. How he had managed to orchestrate a school wide boycott he would never know; that level of manipulation was simply obscene.

Remus, recognising the laugh, sighed. "What's he done this time?"

Sirius grinned. "I'll be honest, Remy how he managed to persuade the hat not to put him in Slytherin I will never know."

"Oh?"

"He's only managed to get the entire school to boycott their Defence lessons. Apparently Dumbledore hired Gilderoy Lockhart and Harry is refusing to go. Why didn't we do something like that?"

Remus laughed. "We wouldn't have been able to pull it off. How on earth did that fool get a job teaching children?"

"Dumbledore desperate."

must

be

getting

"He probably spent the entire summer focused on us and Harry and left it until the last moment, the manipulative old goat."

"You know, Harry did mention that I should try to take my seat on the School Governors' Board. I'm sure that with the right push, Lucius and I could make Dumbledore's job a lot harder."

Remus nodded. Although he was still wary around the former Death Eater, he could recognise the fact that Lucius Malfoy was an awfully useful ally and he did appear to genuinely like Harry.

~

Lucius Malfoy had just finished replying to the letters from both his son and Harrison when a House-Elf popped up saying Lord Black wished to speak to him through the floo.

Standing, Lucius walked to the parlour and saw Sirius' face in the green flames. "Sirius, won't you please step through? I do hate to talk through the fire."

"Erm, sure. I'm not dressed for company though," Sirius said, looking at his black trousers and dark red shirt. He knew that to purebloods like Lucius, one wasn't dressed unless in robes. Sirius, however, had fallen into the habit of not wearing them in the house, which didn't bother either Remus or Harry.

"It is fine, we are family after all," Lucius said, stepping back so Sirius could walk through.

Sirius stepped into the manor and wordlessly removed any soot from his clothing. "Let's take this to my office," Lucius said, motioning Sirius to follow him.

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