Ch 9-A Quest Part 1

In the living room of the manor he had occupied, Sirius was sitting on the comfortable sofa with his back arched and his eyes closed raising his occlumency shield to the best of his ability.

Sirius was trying to achieve the state of total emptiness: with every inhale he collected every stray thought that popped inside his head, and with every exhale he threw those thoughts out. He kept repeating that technique until no more distracting thoughts popped up and all his emotions were muted.

He held onto that state and opened his eyes, and while it would have been quite an arduous task for a beginner. After a month of practice, Sirius felt that he could hold onto that state indefinitely as long as he kept a sliver of his mind concentrating on holding his shields.

The chair on the other side of the table in front of him had been occupied sometime during his mediation by his friend who was reading a book while drinking tea.

Remus looked up when he noticed that Sirius had opened his eyes, "Is he coming today, Sirius,"

"Yes, his letter said that he would arrive before 9 today..." Sirius said before he looked at the clock on the wall and said, "So he should be here any minute now,"

"I should go prepare some tea then," Remus said while putting his book on the table.

"Is that really necessary,"

"It's only polite," Remus said back, and Sirius shook his head at his roommate's Englishness while looking at him go toward the Kitchen.

Instead of waiting for the headmaster idly, Sirius decided to utilize the time he had enhanced control over all his mental faculties, due to occlumency, wisely.

Taking a few deep breaths, he went through the process of changing into his Animagus form and woke up the grim inside of him but just before his body could start to grow in size he stopped the process prematurely and just allowed the extraordinary strength and stamina to fill every part of his body.

He held onto that mid-way state for about 2 minutes before fur involuntarily started to grow on his hands and he halted the process immediately, snapping the grim back inside of him.

After a few minutes of break, he went back at it switching the half-grim form on and off. It required quite a delicate amount of control to command the grim to only get the associated benefits without changing into the form, but the occlumency helped a lot.

A ping suddenly went inside his head and brought Sirius out of his exercise, he had just felt someone enter the wards.

After Checking that his occlumecy shields were at their best he went toward the front door with Remus joining him midway.

Sirius opened the door, and there standing on the other side in all his bearded glory was one of the most powerful Wizard of Magical Britain. His back was turned as he was looking at the sky above the forest surrounding the manor, and just at that moment, Buckbeak decided to fly over while screeching.

"Professor Dumbledore," Remus said and the headmaster turned around.

"Sirius, Remus how are the two of you this fine evening," Dumbledore said while nodding at both of them, "Hagrid will be glad to know that his favorite hippogriff has found such a good home," he said while waving at the sky behind him.

"Please, Come in,"

"Very lovely place you have here," Dumbledore said while walking behind Sirius toward the living room, "I assume it's yours, Sirius,"

"Yes, courtesy of my Nice family," Sirius sarcastically said while showing him to the sofa and taking the seat opposite him while Remus went toward the kitchen.

"Ah yes," Dumbledore said while rubbing along the length of his long beard after sitting on the sofa, "The Blacks were well known for their hideouts and... if I am not wrong almost every generation had one or more who paid goblins to get a new one warded,"

"Well, I am sure they were doing perfectly legal things inside these hideyholes," Sirius said while Remus came from the kitchen with tea and some snacks.

"Tea, professor,"

"Yes, please two sugars," Dumbledore said while smiling graciously at Remus before tuning back to Sirius, "You look healthy Sirius, I am glad you made good use of the last month,"

"Thank you, Dumbledore,"

"Now, your letter mentioned that you wanted to discuss Harry's education," Dumbledore said while sipping his tea, "Lovely bird, by the way, Fawkes seemed to like him a lot,"

"Over the summer I've been in contact with Harry," Sirius said while leaning forward, "and after learning that his mother took Ancient Runes as her elective course at Hogwarts, he expressed that he wanted to also take that as his elective instead of continuing with Divination,"

"Oh, and has he been preparing for that or does he want to sit with his juniors and take the classes he missed,"

"I've been going over third-year Ancient Runes notes with him over the last month and he's worked very hard at them," Remus said confidently, "And while he is still rough around the edges, I am sure he has enough knowledge to match an average student,"

"Oh, then that is good, while I am certain that Professor Bathsheda would like to take her own test, the word of a former professor should go a long way to reassure her that it's not a whim," Dumbledore said with a small smile, "And I am very pleased to hear that Harry is taking his education seriously,"

"Thank you," Sirius said with a sigh of relief, "Harry will be very delighted to learn that,"

"Of course," Dumbledore calmly said before he put his teacup down and his hands on his lap, "Now, I am sure it wasn't the only reason you asked for my visit. This could have been easily taken over mail,"

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