Halloween At Hogwarts!

Chapter 20: A visit with Lupin!

A visit with Lupin

When Dumbledore's announcement came, letting the students and staff know that safety had been restored, the students shuffled out of the common room and made their way to the hall. Harry, Ron, and Hermione came at the rear of their housemates, and followed everyone down for lunch. The students were apprehensive and worried, and many of the students made hesitant steps to the hall, not really knowing what to expect. They were finding it rather difficult to believe things were safe again. The trio didn't share the apprehension completely. They were still nervous, but felt Saba was probably right about Halloween keeping away from the food and were confidant that perhaps he wouldn't be trying poison anymore. Or at least not straight away, so it was safe to say this batch of food was okay. Their nerves came from the accuracy of Saba's information, and weather there was a possibility that she could be wrong about something. Or perhaps she hadn't been entirely honest about the information she had given, and most of it was false.

"Can we really trust her?" Ron whispered as they sat down with the rest of the students at the Gryffindor table, surrounded by many platters of food.

"I think she's telling the truth." Harry said now filling his plate full of food, noticing how hungry he was, and to his surprise many students were doing the same. Plates were being filled with big portions. As the smell of cooked food, helped the majority of students forget their worries, and reminded them of their human needs.

"But that's not what I asked," Ron said, "You can't trust her can you, I mean you don't trust her or you don't want to do you?" He tried again.

"I have to try Ron, I can't just ignore a whole load of information, besides she's helped us put a plan in place. We'll just have to try our best and see what happens." Harry answered.

"I don't think we should follow any plans made by someone who could be the enemy." Ron eyed Harry in earnest. Harry noticed for someone who had been moaning about food earlier, he hadn't touched a single bit of food and didn't seem so desperate to eat it now.

"Well I'm sticking to the plan, look you don't have to take part if you don't want to. You can back out and we'll just make some small changes that don't involve you okay." Harry reassured and went back to eating his food. "Aren't you hungry anymore?" Harry asked trying to change the subject and distract Ron from talking about Saba. A part of him was afraid Ron would be right, that Saba probably couldn't be trusted, but Harry didn't want to think of that. Ron ignored the question and looked at Harry harder.

"I thought you hated her." He said.

"No, that's you, not me." Harry was getting rather annoyed with Ron's whining, "look why do you hate her so much?" He asked.

"Because she's evil. I can't believe you can even trust her. You said yourself you couldn't trust her the other day. What's changed?" Ron moaned.

"Nothing's changed. I still feel that there's something off about that girl. There's something not right, but there's something else there as well. I feel a kind of connection to her, I can't explain it, but it's a strong feeling that I can't shake off. Even if a small part of me doesn't want to trust her, I feel that there's a strong bond of some kind, and instinct tells me her advice is good enough to trust." Harry stated. "There's more to Saba than meets the eye. I can't just ignore that. I have to learn more about her and risk it. Maybe she's the only hope we've got, besides Dumbledore bought her here for a reason. I can't ignore that Ron. Come on lets not talk about this anymore." Harry sighed, hoping Ron would stop.

"What about all that rubbish she said about Hermione, surely you can see she was wrong about that.  Hermione doesn't just read books for the purpose of studying.  She does research too.  Like the time we had to deal with that basilisk in second year, and she tried to help Hagrid with Buckbeak and everything.  Saba was wrong about that wasn't she?  She knows you do research, she was trying to make you seem really dumb.  Surely that proves she doesn't really know what she's talking about?"  Ron argued.