The Mysterious Heir

Chapter 7, Book 3, "The attack on the Fat Lady"

In no time at all, Defence Against the Dark Arts has become most people's favourite class. Only Draco and his gang of Slytherins have anything bad to say about Professor Lupin.

“Look at the state of his robes,” Malfoy says in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passes. “He dresses like our old house-elf.”

But no one else cares that Professor Lupin's robes are patched and frayed. His next few lessons are just as interesting as the first. After Boggarts, they study Red Caps, nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurk wherever there has been bloodshed, in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who have gotten lost.

From Red Caps they move on to Kappas, creepy water-dwellers that look like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.

Harry only wishes he is as happy with some of his other classes. Worst of all is Potions. Snape is in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and no one is in any doubt why.

The story of the Boggart assuming Snape's shape, and the way that Neville dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, has travelled through the school like wildfire. Snape doesn't seem to find it funny. His eyes flash menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he is bullying Neville worse than ever.

Harry is also growing to dread the hours he spent in Professor Trelawney's stifling tower room, deciphering lop-sided shapes and symbols, trying to ignore the way Professor Trelawney's enormous eyes fill with tears every time she looks at him.

He can't like Professor Trelawney, even though she is treated with respect bordering on reverence by many of the class.

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown have taken to haunting Professor Trelawney's tower room at lunchtimes, and always return with annoyingly superior looks on their faces, as though they know things the others don't. They have also started using hushed voices whenever they speak to Harry, as though he is on his deathbed.

Nobody really likes Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first class, has become extremely dull. Hagrid seems to have lost his confidence. They are now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after Flobberworms, which have to be some of the most boring creatures in existence.

“Why would anyone bother looking after them?” says Ron, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the Flobberworms' slimy throats. Hearing this, Polaris walks up to Ron and says “Because their mucus are great thickeners in potions, so someone's gotta do it.”

At the start of October, however, Harry has something else to occupy him, something so enjoyable it makes up for his unsatisfactory classes.

The Quidditch season is approaching, and Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor team, calls a meeting one Thursday evening to discuss tactics for the new season.

There are 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 are equipped with heavy bats to repel the Bludgers (two heavy black balls which zoomed around trying to attack the players); a Keeper, who defends the goalposts, and the Seeker, who has the hardest job of all, that of catching the Golden Snitch, a tiny, winged, walnut-sized ball, whose capture ends the game and earns the Seeker's team an extra one hundred and fifty points.