"Aurora noticed the painful look that appeared on the professor's face as they came to a halt."
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IN NO TIME AT ALL, Defence Against the Dark Arts had become most people's favourite class. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins (excluding Atlas who enjoyed the subject a lot) had anything bad to say about Professor Lupin.
"Look at the state of his robes," Draco would say in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passed. "He dresses like our old house-elf."
But no one else cared that Professor Lupin's robes were patched and frayed. His next few lessons were just as interesting as the first. After Boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed, in the dungeons of castles and the pot holes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who had got lost.
From Red Caps they moved on to Kappas, creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.
Aurora only wished she had been this excited with her other classes. Worst of all was Potions. Snape was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and no one was in any doubt why.
The story of the Boggart assuming Snape's shape, and the way that Neville had dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, had travelled through the school like wildfire. Snape didn't seem to find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.
Aurora was also growing to dread the hours she spent in Professor Trelawney's stifling tower room, deciphering lop-sided shapes and symbols, trying to ignore the way Professor Trelawney's enormous eyes filled with tears every time she looked at her and Harry.
She couldn't like Professor Trelawney, even though she was treated with respect bordering on reverence by many of the class. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had taken to haunting Professor Trelawney's tower room at lunchtimes, and always returned with annoyingly superior looks on their faces, as though they knew things the others didn't. They had also started using hushed voices whenever they spoke to Aurora and Harry, as though they were on their deathbeds.
Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first class, had become extremely dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence. They were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after Flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence.
