𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐦 {𝐡.𝐣.𝐩}

VII- Fat Lady Sings No More

In no time at all, Defense Against the Dark Arts had become most people's favourite class, which delighted Evergreen greatly. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins had anything bad to say about Professor Lupin.

"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy would say in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passed. "He dresses like our old house-elf."

Evergreen would whip around with a teasing smile on her face when he said this and reply in the same snippy tone, "Malfoy- you must have a pretty classy elf."

And the entire class would break out into laughter.

Nobody else cared that Lupin's robes were patched and frayed. His next few lessons were just as exciting as the next. After Boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed, in the dungeons of castles and the potholes 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.

Evergreen only wished she was as happy with some of 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 spread like wildfire around the school. Snape, unlike all the students and professors, didn't find the idea of himself in Neville's grandmother's clothes amusing. His eyes flashed menacingly at the mention of Professor Lupin's name, which made Evergreen giddy with mischievousness. Snape was also bullying Neville worse than ever.

She was also growing to dread the hours she spent in Professor Trelawney's stifling tower room, deciphering lopsided shapes and symbols. She could also tell that every time Professor Trelawney passed Harry, her enormous eyes would fill with tears. She couldn't like Professor Trelawney, even though she was treated with respect bordering 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 if they knew things others didn't. Evergreen also noticed that they had started using hushed voices when they talked to Harry, as if he was on his deathbed.

Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first lesson, 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.

"Why would anyone bother looking after them?" said Ron, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the Flobberworm's throat.

"Beats me," Evergreen sighed, wincing as the worm coughed up a wad of chewed up lettuce.

However, there was something that she could look forward to in October that would make up for her unsatisfactory classes; Quidditch. She wasn't on the team, but boy did she want to be. The Quidditch season was approaching and Harry, to her surprise, was the Seeker on the Gryffindor team.

There were seven people on a Quidditch team: three Chasers, whose job it was to score goals by putting the Quaffle (a red, football-sized ball) through one of the fifty-foot-high hoops at each end of the pitch; two Beaters, who were equipped with heavy bats to repel the Bludgers (two heavy black balls which zoomed around trying to attack the players); a Keeper, who defended the goalposts, and the Seeker, who had the hardest job of all, that of catching the Golden Snitch (a tiny, winged, walnut-sized ball) whose capture ended the game and earned the Seeker's team and extra one-hundred fifty points.