Sirius Black leaned against his betrothed, laughing. It was a Saturday and to the Gryffindor's delight, they had restarted their little get-togethers in the lovely Room of Requirement. For this occasion, they had turned it into a cozy little common room in neutral colors. Those who said that Gryffindors and Slytherins can't possibly get along would die of shock if they could see the room's occupants, for those two houses were the only ones represented and not a single spell had been cast other than one to light a fire in the empty hearth.

Lucius Malfoy had come and joined them, just as pleased as Sirius to once again be surrounded by friends and able to relax completely. Other than his betrothed, there were the mischievous, elegant twins Rudolphus and Rabastan, Bellatrix, his brother Regulus and the dryly sarcastic Severus Snape. Gryffindor was represented by the Marauders minus Peter who had detention today. Despite being outnumbered Sirius felt comfortable in the Slytherin-heavy gathering.

He watched with amusement as his brother flushed a little, having finally noticed the attention he was getting from one of their companions. Bellatrix was deep in conversation with Remus, the pair seated on the floor and discussing a book on Runes that was opened between them. Remus seemed a little nervous, which made Sirius want to laugh. Bellatrix was a very intense female, he knew Remus was attracted to her but he was afraid of how she'd react to his lycanthropy.

Severus sat in between the Lestrange twins, gaining a raised eyebrow from the three Gryffindors when they'd first taken up the position. "That's new," Remus commented.

"Perhaps to the unobservant, Lupin," Severus smirked.

Sirius had decided not to try and figure out the complexity of that relationship, desperately trying not to flush in embarrassment and curious arousal at how a threesome would work, so to speak. He could certainly imagine such a thing, but doing it? Yeah, best not to think about that too much. He was content with just one blonde Malfoy.

Since the first practical Defense lesson, his future step-father had been keeping classes interesting, to say the least. After their obstacle course through the Forbidden Forest, they had held two debate-style competitions in the classroom and one dueling competition, which had been won by James' team, redeeming their failure thanks to Evans in the Forest. Remus' group had won the debate-style competition, Harrigan had been very impressed with some of the knowledge contained within just Remus. He was truly lethal when it came to logic and obscure facts.

Evans had gotten worse, not better. She was reprimanded almost every Defense session by Harrigan and James had lost it completely with her after the dueling competition, when she'd very nearly lost it for her whole team due to some spectacularly bad shields. She refused to use the more powerful shields demonstrated and mentioned by their Professor, sticking stubbornly with what she considered 'light' and acceptable.

Her whole team now simply acted as if she didn't even exist. This had not improved her moods or her behavior, but they didn't care. She wouldn't be a person that would ever carry weight for her team, nor would they trust her to do so. She had already had some truly nasty arguments with Bellatrix, all but calling her some extraordinarily foul names. James had been furious and had actually reported her to Harrigan, who had kicked her out for the rest of that day's session.

Outside of Defense, their final year was proceeding smoothly, if not a little nerve-wracking. Their coursework was complex and time-pressed, stressing out even the calmest of their year. Some of the Ravenclaws had already had fits of hysterics, needing to be treated by Madam Pomfrey. Even the Hufflepuffs were looking a little pale, and they were normally the most easy-going and laid back about the exams. Not that they were idiots in any sense of the word, some of the top students of their year were Hufflepuffs, but normally they didn't cave under pressure so easily.

Days like this were becoming necessary at least once a week. They had all noticed a difference in their moods throughout the week when they were able to unwind and ignore everything for even a single day. Plus, Sirius was able to see his betrothed, which was a bonus in his eyes. Despite attempts to do so, Dumbledore hadn't been able to restrict Lucius from school grounds. Sirius had been surprised that he had tried it in the first place, he'd always thought the Headmaster liked the students that made up the Marauders.

The Headmaster's behavior toward Harrigan had not changed. In fact, his moods towards the Defense Professor seemed almost poisonous recently. He did not like the fact that Harrigan's revolutionary teaching ideas were backed by the Board, nor did he like the idea that there was a representative of the Board physically present at the school. Harrigan seemed unruffled by the older man's behavior, acting as if the old man was being as cordial to him as he was to the other staff. He also refused to cater to the Headmaster's whims regarding Voldemort.

He had coached the Defense students to call this 'Dark Lord' by name, now all of them said it without so much as a stutter. Pointing out that fear was one of the greatest weapons held in common by all historical Dark Lords, he had stated that this psychotic man would not get far if he couldn't garner fear in the population, fear, and supporters. He pointed out that the man had no stated aims and seemed to be attacking anything and everything on a whim. He likened the man to a small toddler who was destroying his toys merely to get attention.

"If we ignore him and his behavior, he will soon enough dissolve like the smoke and mist which are the basis of his anger. Men like him require attention to gain strength, they do not like being ignored. By doing so, we will take the 'wind from his sails' before he even begins."

It was a strong contrast to the Headmaster, who cautioned them to be wary of this Dark Lord and his 'Death Eaters'. He spoke in mysterious tones of this He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and compared him to Grindelwald, whom he had personally fought. He predicted in ominous tones of a bad war which would likely last generations. It was like he was trying to make them afraid of the man or something.

Harrigan had told him privately to ignore the Headmaster's words and that Dumbledore would soon get a warning from the Board, telling him to stop with his fear-mongering and concentrate on the students, not a wannabe Dark Lord. He anticipated that the Headmaster would not be a pleasant man to deal with until the insult of being scolded had worn off, so he cautioned Sirius and through him his friends and associates to behave for a while as so not to draw the old man's attention and misplaced ire.

When Sirius had worriedly pointed out that doing so would leave Harrigan to the old man's temper Harrigan had simply smiled at Sirius and said, "I can handle him, don't worry. If he gets too annoying I'm sure your father would love to come to school and put him back in his place."

Sirius had laughed very hard at the mental image and left smiling in agreement. That would make his father's day, to come to the school and publicly scold the Headmaster like he was still a schoolboy. Merlin only knew he was good at it, Sirius remembered getting scolded by his father on a few occasions, the man knew just how to make someone feel guilty.

Sirius smiled, glad Harrigan Peverell had come into his life. Who knew how things might have turned out otherwise?