The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|20| New Professors

As we stepped down, a drawling, delighted voice sounded in my ear.

"You fainted, Potter? You too, Howell? Is Longbottorn telling the truth? You actually fainted?"

Malfoy elbowed past Hermione to block our way up the stone steps to the castle, his face gleeful and his pale eyes glinting maliciously.

"Shove off, Malfoy," said Ron, whose jaw was clenched.

"Did you faint as well, Weasley?" said Malfoy loudly. "Did the scary old Dementor frighten you too, Weasley?"

"Is there a problem?" said a mild voice. I smirked as Professor Lupin had just gotten out of the next carriage.

Malfoy gave Lupin an insolent stare, which took in the patches on his robes and the dilapidated suitcase. With a tiny hint of sarcasm in his voice, he said, "Oh, no — er — Professor," then he smirked at Crabbe and Goyle and led them up the steps into the castle.

Hermione prodded Ron in the back to make him hurry, and the four of us joined the crowd swarming up the steps, through the giant oak front doors, into the cavernous Entrance Hall, which was lit with flaming torches, and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors.

The door into the Great Hall stood open at the right; I followed the crowd toward it, but had barely glimpsed the enchanted ceiling, which was black and cloudy tonight, when a voice called, "Potter! Howell! Granger! I want to see you three!"

Harry, Hermione, and I turned around, surprised. Professor McGonagall was calling over the heads of the crowd. The three of us fought our way over to her with a feeling of foreboding: Professor McGonagall had a way of making me feel I must have done something wrong.

"There's no need to look so worried— I just want a word in my office," she told us. "Move along there, Weasley."

Ron stared as Professor McGonagall ushered Harry, Hermione, and I away from the chattering crowd; we accompanied her across the entrance hall, up the marble staircase, and along a corridor.

Once we were in her office, a small room with a large, welcoming fire, Professor McGonagall motioned Harry, Hermione, and me to sit down. She settled herself behind her desk and said abruptly, "Professor Lupin sent an owl ahead to say that you and Miss Howell were taken ill on the train, Potter."

Before either of us could reply, there was a soft knock on the door and Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, came bustling in.

I felt myself go red in the face. It was bad enough that I'd passed out, or whatever I had done, without everyone making all this fuss.

"I'm fine," I said, "I don't need anything —"

"Oh, it's you, is it?" said Madam Pomfrey, ignoring me and bending down to stare closely at Harry. "I suppose you've been doing something dangerous again? And dragging along your friend as well!"

"It was a Dementor, Poppy," said Professor McGonagall.

They exchanged a dark look, and Madam Pomfrey clucked disapprovingly.

"Setting Dementors around a school," she muttered, pushing back Harry's hair and feeling his forehead and quickly did the same to me. "They won't be the last ones who collapse. Yes, they're both clammy. Terrible things, they are, and the effect they have on people who are already delicate —"

"I'm not delicate!" said Harry crossly.

"Of course you're not," said Madam Pomfrey absentmindedly, now taking his pulse.

"What do they need?" said Professor McGonagall crisply. "Bedrest? Should they perhaps spend tonight in the hospital wing?"

"N-No, I'm fine!" I said, pulling my wrist away from Madam Pomfrey.