Wild Amenity » Remus Lupin

14. Ranty rambles

Tuesday, 1st June 1976. 11 days until the full moon.

"What's the assignment again?"

"We've told you already, Mav. Chop the ginger root over there for the Wit-Sharpening Potion," said Ophelia with her angelic patience, mixing her potion which was slowly turning yellow.

"And how do I do that?"

"Does everything have to be explained to you?" Judson spat, as he recited aloud, without pause, the whole assignment again. Just as Maverick grabbed his knife, Judson was already stopping him. "You don't grab it like—give me it."

Maverick threw his knife to his other hand and raised it up, away from Judson. No matter how much he stretched his arm, Judson couldn't reach it. How embarrassing.

"Who cares," Juniper said, rolling her eyes. "Let him do it how he wants. He'll end up cutting it either way."

In between the steam coming out of every cauldron and the lack of windows in the dungeons, the classroom felt suffocating. It was too hot inside for Judson to wear his school hat, so much that Judson even considered putting on his headband to keep his face clear. But no matter how much he wanted to, he knew it would catch too much attention, so pushing his hair away with his hands would just have to do.

He teamed up with Juniper, as always, to brew the potion Slughorn had assigned them. It was a simple antidote, nothing Judson couldn't do at his ripe sweet sixteen. He had just dropped the most even-sized scarab beetles into the cauldron when he heard his name being called from afar.

"Mr. Ogden," Professor Slughorn said, "would you mind swapping places with Miss Greengrass?" Judson turned around to look at him, but he couldn't spot the professor behind his foggy glasses. "It would be just for today."

"No problem, sir," he said, despite having many problems with the idea of working with someone who wasn't Juniper.

Apparently, she did too. "I thought he would never do that to us," she complained, pouting and shoving away her frizzy braid.

"Mourn me," Judson muttered as he gathered his books and moved towards Professor Slughorn. Once his glasses began to clear, he almost returned back to his seat as he realised at which table he would have to sit.

Lottie Greengrass stood and, on her way to sit beside Juniper, Judson swore he saw her wiggling her eyebrows at him. Judson stood still, looking deeply at the empty stool, wondering if it could give him the answer to what had he done wrong in his life to deserve such a thing.

Sergei, with an elbow on the table, smiled at him and patted the stool for Judson to sit.

"Mr. Yakov here told me something very interesting, Mr. Ogden," began professor Slughorn just as Judson sat. He felt his veins freeze. "He informed me of your tutoring."

"My what?" Judson blurted out, turning to see Sergei. There was nothing behind his smile.

"Yes, your tutoring," Sergei confirmed, watching him with his eyebrows raised and a glance that clearly meant follow my lead. "You're helping students who have trouble with Potions, such as me. That's why I personally requested him for you to be my partner today and help me with this complicated potion."

Judson was utterly confused by Sergei's true intentions with that setup. But Slughorn's face was more pleased with the information he had been given than Judson could've ever imagined.

"I considered it a fantastic idea! Keep it going. I'd add a bit more armadillo bile in there, it's still looking a bit reddish."

With only a mere glance at the cauldron, Judson knew they had made a disaster. As soon as Slughorn moved on to the next table, Judson dropped his bag on the floor and proceeded to fix the potion. The urge was stronger than him.