The Boy Who Lived

Sometimes this Place Breeds Trouble

Oh Sirius, Remus sighed to himself. Why did it have to be you? Why did his soulmate have to be Sirius bloody Black? It just made it all that bit harder to deal with the betrayal.

Remus sighed again and wondered how he was ever going to be able to climb out of his fug he was in. He should never have come back to Hogwarts. It stirred up too much of the past.

Sometimes this place breeds misfortune, Remus thought as he listened to Ron moan to Harry that Hermione's cat had murdered his pet rat. Eaten it... by all accounts. And now the boys were missing the fact that Hermione was clearly struggling with all she'd taken on. Of course, she'd been sworn to secrecy about the Time-Turner but still, it was as clear as day she was overwhelmed.

Sometimes this place breeds petty rivalries, he thought when he overheard Oliver Wood trying to persuade Harry to order a new broomstick before the upcoming Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw match.

'...there's an order form at the back of Which Broomstick... you could get a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, like Malfoy's got.'

'I'm not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good,' answered Harry flatly.

Sometimes this place breeds mischief, Remus thought, as he watched three tall, black, hooded Dementors walk out onto the edge of the Quidditch pitch just as Harry was chasing the Snitch.

Of course, afterwards, it was perfectly clear that Dementors didn't walk onto a pitch; they floated menacingly, sucking the goodness out of the air, but it was understandable that in the heat of the moment, Harry just reacted intuitively and yelled 'EXPECTO PATRONUM!' at them and then carried on to catch the Snitch seconds later as if he'd done nothing extraordinary. Remus couldn't help smiling. Harry had stunned Messrs Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Flint beyond the power of a normal Stunning Spell and left them in a red-faced crumpled heap on the floor. Minnie was standing over them with an expression of the utmost fury on her face as the rest of the school laughed at their misfortune. But, as Minnie was rightfully shouting, it was an unworthy trick and a low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the game - they got what they deserved.

Sometimes this place breeds darkness, Remus thought as Sirius got into the castle again, this time making it all the way into the boys' dormitory in the Gryffindor Tower and had apparently tried to murder Ron Weasley in his bed.

It didn't make sense. Obviously, they knew the Weasleys Seniors from their days in the Order but why on earth would Sirius target Ron if he's got as far as the boys' dormitory and was so close to Harry and Harry was supposed to be his intended target.

Sometimes this place breeds ill-feelings, Remus thought when he was summoned to Severus's office to find the man bent over a certain blank parchment laid out on his desk because it was 'full of Dark Magic' and Harry was stood there looking pale and slightly panicked.

Still, it was very hard to keep a straight face when he saw 'Mr Moony's' special Severus repelling charm work like a dream when it begged him 'to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business' and that Mr Prongs had added that Professor Snape was an ugly git, and the Mr Padfoot had registered his astonishment that an idiot like Severus had ever become a Professor, and finally Mr Wormtail had bid him good day and advised him to wash his hair, 'the slimeball'.

There was a reason that Remus rarely got in trouble when he was at school; he knew how to act innocent and people really didn't want to believe that he was a mischief maker.

Sometimes this places breeds resentment, Remus thought when rumours reached the staffroom that Hermione Granger had slapped Draco Malfoy hard across the face as she defended Hagrid. And Malfoy had scarpered afterwards.