The Beginning of a New Competition... Yes, Again – Part 2
Being the Headmaster of Hogwarts was, without a doubt, the best job Sirius Black had ever had in his entire life.
Well... it wasn't exactly difficult to win that competition.
After all, the alternatives had been joining the Order of the Phoenix, rotting away in Azkaban, or taking over the family business, something he would never, ever do again. Remus was handling that perfectly well.
Sirius let out a contented sigh as he strolled leisurely through the castle corridors, which only made him feel prouder and prouder of himself and how the reconstruction had turned out. It had cost a ridiculous amount of money, of course, but he had more than enough.
"Good morning, Headmaster Black!" a group of third-years greeted as they crossed paths with him.
"Good morning," Sirius replied with a smile as he continued down the corridor, looking at his students' cheerful faces and the respect they showed him.
Though, he had to admit, it still felt strange having students look at him as an authority figure.
Well... except for that particular group.
Although lately they did seem to be giving him the respect he deserved, because he'd honestly expected them to blow up part of the castle with one of their pranks, and the fact they hadn't done so yet meant they were clearly showing restraint out of respect for him.
Of course, every now and then he still received reports about the little magical creatures that now surrounded the castle at all times. Especially one small army of chaotic little beasts that kept sneaking inside to steal food or cause trouble, but it was never anything too difficult to deal with.
"Headmaster! The little Hippogriffs learned how to fly!" announced a second-year whose hair was a complete mess and full of feathers.
Exactly the ones he'd been talking about.
"Looks like Hagrid's going to have an even harder time keeping them under control," Sirius said with an amused grin before tidying the boy's hair with a casual flick of his wand.
Who would have thought that the man everyone used to call a lunatic—or completely bonkers, something that ran in quite a few members of the Black family—would end up becoming this kind of Headmaster?
The boy thanked Sirius before running off to rejoin his friends, while Sirius continued his usual walk.
He liked taking a walk through the castle at least once a day to clear his head from all the work that came with the position. Though sooner or later Professor McGonagall would probably appear to drag him back to his duties.
It almost felt as though he'd never stopped being her student... even now that he was technically her superior.
"Sirius," Professor Flitwick called as they met in the corridor, wearing his usual warm smile. "Oh, forgive me. Headmaster Black. Well, you know, I'm still not used to it," Flitwick corrected himself quickly after the slip.
"Don't worry, Professor. You can call me whatever you like. You'll always be my professor," Sirius replied with an easy smile, not minding in the slightest.
Every single one of the current professors had once taught him and his friends. Of course he'd never be bothered by that.
"By any chance, have you seen Harry and his group of lunatics?" Sirius asked with amusement. After all, Flitwick was Head of House to that particular collection of troublemakers.
"Not since first period. Why? Have they done something?" Flitwick asked as he fell into step beside Sirius, having a few spare minutes before his next lesson.
"No. It's just that they've been far too quiet lately. Even Red seems to be behaving himself these days," Sirius commented.
Flitwick let out a quiet chuckle.
"Now that is unusual. But they're exceptionally bright children, bright enough that they might even surpass us at their age, even if they do cause the occasional problem. Still, they have to grow up eventually, don't they? Besides... I have the feeling they're reaching that age where they start thinking about... other things," Flitwick said with a knowing smile.
Sirius knew exactly what he meant.
Girls... and boys.
"Well then, Headmaster..." Flitwick said, deliberately emphasising Sirius's title with a wink. "I should go look for Professor Morgan. I was waiting to hand her some notes today, but she never showed up. I wonder where she's disappeared to," the tiny professor said with a sigh.
At the mention of the new professor's surname, something strange flashed across Sirius's face for a brief moment before disappearing just as quickly.
"Of course. Go ahead," he said easily before continuing his walk alone.
Only a few metres later, however, he ran into Professor Sprout.
The witch was covered in mud up to her knees, with several leaves caught in her hat, and she was looking around with a deep frown—something rather unusual for the normally cheerful professor.
"Professor Sprout, is everything alright? Have you lost something?" Sirius asked.
"More or less," Sprout replied with a puzzled expression. "I'm looking for Professor Foster. I wanted him to hand me the assessments he gave the second-years today, but I can't seem to find him anywhere," she said.
Hearing yet another name belonging to one of the new professors made Sirius raise an eyebrow.
"Well... perhaps he went to Hogsmeade. Would you like me to send someone to look for him?" Sirius offered.
"No, that's alright. I've finished my lessons for today. I'll go myself," she replied calmly before continuing on her way.
Sirius watched Professor Sprout disappear down the corridor and frowned slightly.
Two of the new professors missing this early in the day was... odd.
Still, he decided not to think too much of it.
Perhaps they'd simply gotten lost in the enormous castle.
And so he continued his walk.
But he'd barely taken a few steps when he suddenly spotted something lying on the floor, making him frown and hurry over.
It was Filch, and for some reason he was covered in a red liquid, as though he were part of a crime scene. Something that frightened Sirius for a moment, because if someone had died during his time as Headmaster, there would certainly be plenty of trouble falling on him.
Fortunately, as he got closer, a sweet smell filled the corridor, and when he stepped in the supposed blood, he noticed it was extremely sticky. So he crouched down, touched it with one finger, and then brought it to his nose.
"Aaah," Sirius let out a relieved sigh, realising it was only syrup.
Filch, sensing someone nearby, opened his eyes, though they looked slightly unfocused.
"Filch?" Sirius said, moving closer to the castle caretaker.
It wasn't as though he was particularly friendly with the man, who had spent most of Sirius's school years trying to catch him and his friends, but now, as Headmaster, he had to look after every member of staff.
"H-Headmaster..." Filch said weakly. "They..." His face filled with tears. "Again... those damned children... I tried, I swear... I... tried..." he said, clutching Sirius's robes as though he were speaking his final words before collapsing unconscious again.
Sirius's face filled with confusion.
It wasn't until, at that exact moment, suddenly...
"BOOOM!"
Something exploded, shaking the entire castle.
"What?" Sirius said with an expression of complete confusion, quickly pulling out his wand and running in the direction the explosion had come from, prepared to face whoever was attacking.
He ran with all his strength, because he couldn't allow anyone to attack the students in his castle.
He raced through the corridors, even using his authority as Headmaster to Apparate.
He appeared in one of the corridors near the inner courtyard, where the explosion had come from, and what he saw made his eyes widen.
Part of the corridor had collapsed.
"HAHAHAHA!"
Peeves, wearing an investigator's cap, flew straight through the wall while laughing like a madman and controlling four enormous war cannons.
"You'll never beat me! Fire!" he shouted.
"BOOOM!"
"Peeves, you damned poltergeist! What are you doing?" Sirius shouted furiously, raising his wand to attack the cursed fool.
"The investigation continues!" Peeves announced proudly while aiming another cannon.
That only made Sirius even angrier.
But before he could cast anything, another explosion suddenly came from the wall beside him, bringing it down.
Sirius protected himself with a Protego at once as dust filled his vision, something Peeves took advantage of to escape while laughing in delight before attacking another of the castle walls.
Sirius stepped out from the cloud of dust, furious, ready to scold whoever seemed to be waging a war against that damned Peeves.
"Who is the one...?"
But he didn't even finish speaking before he looked through the enormous hole opened in the wall, which led into the castle's inner courtyard, and his mouth fell open in shock.
"Come at me, you scoundrels! Today I'll give you the beating of your lives!" shouted a suit of armour, or rather an armoured golem, with the very familiar voice of Sir Cadogan, while charging with an enormous sword.
Fred and George were running for their lives while throwing every charm and explosive object they had at the crazed knight, laughing as they did.
"Haaaaaa!" screamed another golem, above which an illusion of the Fat Lady was being projected while she appeared to be giving some kind of singing performance, making several glass windows begin to crack.
Both golems looked familiar to Sirius.
They were Harry and his group's creations, made to bring the portraits to life.
But that wasn't what surprised him most about the scene.
Sirius felt that every time he looked up, he discovered some new insanity.
Starting with the fact that part of the courtyard had disappeared.
The central fountain had been reduced to a pile of stones.
Sirius closed his eyes for a second.
When he opened them again...
Everything was still exactly the same.
Several windows had enormous holes caused by explosions. An entire tree had appeared in the middle of the courtyard, despite him having no memory of there ever being one there.
And cutting through everything, a red river that hadn't existed before flowed across half the courtyard like a river of blood, the intense sweet smell confirming that it was syrup as well.
In the middle of that river was a small island, where two professors remained tied back-to-back with thick magical ropes.
Ryan Foster and Alice Morgan, both gagged, and the moment they saw Sirius arrive, they desperately tried to get his attention.
But a small red dragon sat in front of them, watching them closely.
Red.
The moment either professor tried to move, the dragon let out a growl. Both of them immediately became completely still again.
Red snorted proudly before continuing his important guarding mission.
A few metres away, Neville was running with a flowerpot containing a bright, truly beautiful flower, as though his life depended on it.
"Give it back!" Astoria shouted behind him, followed by Luna.
"I can't! I'm following orders!"
Farther away, Tommy had set up a small stall with a sign that read:
Verified information.
Five Sickles per clue.
No refunds accepted.
Billy watched the disaster for several seconds.
Then he simply sat down beside Tommy's stall with one of his favourite books.
"Mum's probably already on her way," he said with complete calm before opening it and continuing to read.
Sirius tried to take a step forward while still in shock, but before he could, a voice came from the floor.
"Careful, Headmaster. There's a corpse here," a voice suddenly said.
Sirius looked down, realising it was Terry Boot, who was also covered in red liquid and arranged in a strange pose, while the outline of his body had been drawn on the floor with white chalk.
He also had a sign that read:
Corpse number four.
Which meant there were three others.
Sirius felt the headache beginning to form.
And then he found those responsible not far away.
Four figures he knew very well, dressed as detectives from different eras.
Something that felt disturbingly familiar.
"Idiot, do you seriously think that makes any sense? International espionage? I think you've been watching too many Muggle films," Draco said, exasperated.
"Are you calling me an idiot? You're the idiot!" Daphne shouted immediately.
"You're getting off topic. There's no need to fight," Hermione said at once, trying to calm Daphne down.
"Ha, yes. Defend your boy. I thought it was friends first. You're a traitor," Daphne shouted.
"W-what? What kind of nonsense are you talking about?" Hermione shouted in embarrassment, her face turning as red as a tomato.
"It doesn't matter how much you argue. That won't change the fact that I'm the winner," Harry interrupted in an arrogant tone.
"Aaah?" the others growled, glaring angrily at Harry and even looking as though they were about to pull out their wands and start a full-blown battle.
But Sirius interrupted before it could begin and end with the new castle being destroyed.
"You!" he shouted, raising his voice at them for the first time as he felt a vein about to burst in his forehead. "What the hell did you do?!"
"Oh, Sirius," Harry greeted, raising one hand as though everything around them were perfectly normal. "Hello," he added casually, as if there were absolutely nothing strange about the entire situation.
But that indifference didn't last long, because...
The next voices made all four of them turn completely pale.
"Can you..."
"...explain..."
"...what happened..."
"...here?"
The entire courtyard fell completely silent.
The four of them turned very slowly towards the entrance to the inner courtyard.
Wanda, Selene, Susan, and Narcissa were standing there. All four of them were smiling, but anyone could feel the anger hidden behind those smiles as they stared at their respective children.
The four immediately turned around to run, but they couldn't take even a single step before Wanda barely moved one hand and her red energy caught them, lifting them into the air.
"You'd better explain everything," Wanda said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, while all four felt a chill run through their bodies.
"Well..." Harry said in a somewhat guilty tone as his mother glared at them.
"Start," Wanda said.
"...it all began three days ago."
...