A sirius matter

Chapter 37 - Summer Studies

"Hello, everyone. It's good to see so many of you returning to test for a green belt," greeted Mr. Tucker. "I'll call on you alphabetically. After we've finished that, anyone who passes is welcome to test for the blue belt as well."

Among the dozen students wearing a white karate outfit with a purple belt were Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Harry Potter. They had thought long and hard about whether they should try returning in disguise or not, and came to the conclusion that it would arouse too much suspicion for them to show up with different hair and eye colors going by different names. They'd be recognized anyway by the people they'd seen every day the previous summer.

Hermione had pointed out that the last place any Death Eater would look for Harry Potter was at a muggle karate school, and Neville had made sure to ask his grandmother not to tell anyone that they were there. One added security measure was that Sirius Black was in the room under Harry's Invisibility cloak. He was wearing a portkey necklace that went between Black Manor and a secluded spot near the school.

Harry, who'd decided to not wear his glasses during these lessons, told the few fellow students who'd asked that he was wearing contact lenses, which was the truth. In fact, he and Hermione had actually had their prescriptions updated earlier that very day. He anxiously waited for Hermione's turn, since she would be the first (alphabetically) of them to test. If she passed, then that would mean that they had been following the books properly. He was fairly certain that they were, but he did want confirmation.

"Granger, Hermione," called Mr. Tucker. She nervously walked up and began the evaluation while Harry watched with his fingers crossed. He couldn't help but admire how gracefully his girlfriend moved as she demonstrated her mastery of every technique in the green belt handbook. Finally, the instructor said, "Excellent. I can see that you've been working very hard this year."

With her ears turning pink, Hermione answered. "Yes, I have. Thank you, sir," as he handed her the new belt, which she pocketed. Harry saw his godfather's faded image wink at him.

Neville was a bit more nervous when his turn came, but all the work he'd put into it showed when the testing began, and he was given the green belt as well. When Harry's turn came, he also received it. All but one of the returning students got the green belt, but only two of them (besides Harry, Hermione and Neville) stayed to attempt the blue belt test.

That one was much more difficult, but all five of the students that took the test did pass. Neville almost fainted when Mr. Tucker gave him the blue belt. Harry and Hermione had told him that he was just as good as them, but he somehow didn't believe it. All three of them would be able to attend the brown belt classes, but already knew that they wouldn't be able to earn that belt until next summer at the earliest. However, all three felt that they would benefit from a few months' instruction by a master before going back on their own at Hogwarts. Mr. Tucker would demonstrate everything they'd have to be able to do in order to earn the brown belt.

-ASM-

"They all did GREAT!" announced Sirius when the quartet arrived in the living room of his house. The Grangers, Dumbledore, Mrs. Longbottom, Lupin, Ginny and Ron were there, ready for a small celebration. "They all got both the green and blue belts." They would've invited a few more people who'd been told the house's location, except that they didn't want to inform anyone else of those three's muggle fighting abilities. They figured that the fewer who knew, the better.

"Congratulations, all of you," announced the headmaster. "Fine achievement."

Adam Granger hugged his daughter while Marissa hugged Harry. "Good job!" she said proudly. After the others (including Neville's grandma) finished congratulating the three of them, a cake was brought out that had a moving picture that depicted the last few seconds of the tournament from 'The Karate Kid.' Hermione joked that it should've been a scene from the movie, 'The Next Karate Kid' that had come out the previous year. Harry whispered to her that it should've been a scene from a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.