IN VERY LITTLE TIME, DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS HAD BECOME MOST PEOPLE'S FAVORITE CLASS. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins had anything negative to say about Lupin.
"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy would say in a low whisper as Professor Lupin passed. "He dressed like our old house-elf."
Other than a few magic spells from Alena, no one else really paid attention to Malfoy nor really cared that Lupin's robes were patched and frayed. His next few lessons were just as interesting as the first. After boggarts, they studied Red Caps, little nasty goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever they had been bloodshed. From Red Caps, they moved to Kappas, water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys.
Alena was happy with her godfather's success, and how well he was handling the stress of being a werewolf on top of it all. Professor Snape, who was in a very vindictive mood lately, and no one was in any doubt why. Seems that it was because of the story of how Neville's boggart was Snape and he dressed it in his grandmother's clothes. Snape, of course, didn't find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.
Harry was beginning to dread the hours he spent in Professor Trelawney's tower, figuring out lopsided symbols and shapes, trying to ignore they way Professor Trelawney's eyes filled with tears each time she looked at him. Truthfully, he was tired of it.
Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which after the action-packed first class, had become dull. Hagrid had seemed to had lose his confidence.
At the beginning of October, Alena and Harry had something to occupy themselves with. The Quidditch season had been approaching, and Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor team, called a meeting Thursday evening to discuss tactics for the upcoming season.
A quidditch team was made of up seven people: three Chasers, whom gain points by throwing the Quaffle into one of the fifty-feet-high hoops; two Beaters, who use heavy bats to repel the Bludgers; a Keeper, who defends the goalposts, and the Seeker, who had to catch a tiny, winged, walnut-sized ball called the Golden Snitch whose capture ended the game earned the Seeker's team one hundred and fifty points.
