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 had anything bad to say about Professor Lupin.
"Look at the state of his robes," Draco would said in a loud whisper one morning 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 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. I wished I was as happy with some of my other classes. Professor Trelawney wouldn't stop predicting Harry's death and Arithmancy had finally started getting to hard. To a point I barely even came to class anymore. 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.
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.
"Why would anyone bother looking after them?" said Ron, next to me after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the Flobberworms' slimy throats. At the start of October, however, I finally had something else to occupy me besides unending school work and drama. Something so enjoyable it made up for horrible experience with a boggart. The Quidditch season was approaching. And I was on the team. There were seven people on a Quidditch team: three Chasers, whose job it was to score goals by putting the Quaffle 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; 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 an extra one hundred and fifty points. I myself was a chaser. One of the best if I say so myself. Draco was also on the team. But I can't really say he was good at it. He never won against Gryffindor which was really only the team with talent.
Though Hufflepuffs seeker was starting to look up. After a long miserable practice in the rain I started to head back to the common room to clean up. Along the way I passed a familiar looking black dog. I was curious so I knelt down to it to pet it. It seemed to hesitate a little but eventually let me pet it.
"So your what everyone thinks is the grim huh?" I ask remembering people pointing the dog out earlier. He let out a soft bark. I smiled and took a seat next to it. I look and it didn't have a tag.
"What's your name?" I ask, it darted off. I was confused. I honestly thought I had scared it off until it came running back with a paper in hits mouth. It dropped it infront of me. On the cover was Sirius Black.
"Black at large huh?" I asked amused. It's paw landed on Blacks name. "Your name is Sirius?" I snorted "That's not suspicious at all considering that he's a mass murderer on the loose." The dog tensed up at this. The dog started staring at my outfit. I sighed.
"I bet your glad your inside with all that rain. Unfortunately my quidditch captain thinks other wise." I says with a small sigh to my voice. "But at least I'm the first ever girl on the Slytherin quidditch team." I says smiling. Before I new it, I was sharing basically my entire life story with the dog. He just felt so easy to talk to, just like he was a human.
