I solemnly swear that I am up to no good | Professor Remus Lupin

Chapter 27 | aconite

After the attack on the Gryffindor's portrait no one saw Sirius Black for a long time. And everyone quickly seemed to forget about it again, because Halloween was coming up and everyone got excited about the parties that some students were throwing. Two of them being Fred and George.

Even I found myself being excited for the party. It really would be my first one. And I was glad that I was allowed to sleep in the Ravenclaw dorms and I attended every classes again. Everything got back to normal before the Halloween weekend.

The past days I had only thought of one thing...since the day we had D.A.D.A. with the boggart, i was completely sure, that Remus was a werewolf. The injuries in a full moon night, the fact that his biggest fear was a full moon and his interest in Edward. Everything lead me to that realization, but I wasn't afraid of him now. I wanted to help him like I had helped Edward. I was thinking of how I could confront him, but I was afraid of his reaction. He would probably think I was stalking him and what if he wasn't one and I was completely wrong...

After my fourth period this Friday I handed in the werewolf essay to Snape. He didn't say anything nor looked at me, like I already thought he would. So I laid the papers down on his desk, but I accidentally pushed a stack of books down. He didn't reacted and I immediately began to collect them and mumbled "sorry Professor". One of the potions book was fallen open and i intentionally read the headline.

Wolfsbane

This was the potion that helped werewolves to keep their human mind in their werewolf form. Maybe this way I could help Remus. I quickly looked up if Snape would notice, but his eyes were still glued onto the papers in front of him. I shoved the book into my bag and laid the other books back onto his desk. I walked as fast as I could out of the room.

I still had ten minutes left before Herbology was about to start, so I sat down in the empty corridor that lead towards the classroom. I fished the borrowed book out of my bag and flipped to the page with the wolfsbane potion. This clearly was a book that was originally only for teachers and potions experts. I took a quick look over the instructions. They were really difficult, but nothing would stop me from trying. The ingredients were rare and hard to find.
I sighed, this wouldn't be as easy as I thought.

I took my notebook and a pen out and started copying the instructions on my paper. I wrote down what I needed and the tips that Snape had written down in the book. So he knew how to make the potion, but I was sure that he would never help me and I would probably get more detention... speaking of which, detention in D.A.D.A. started next week after the Halloween weekend. I was still wondering if Snape would supervise the detention, since he was only a substitute teacher in Defense against dark arts, but he gave me the detention, so I didn't even dare to hope that I had detention with Remus.

After a while more students came and I had finished copying the pages. We walked into the classroom where Miss Sprout was already waiting. Today we would be focusing on Gillyweed, but I couldn't stop thinking about the wolfsbane potion. The wolfsbane plant, also known as aconite, was the main ingredient and the leafs were very toxic. We had already talked about this plant in Herbology. I looked on my ingredients list again.

Aconite
Black quicksilver (pulverized)
Powdered moonstone
Moonseed
Valerian roots

Most of them were hard to find or really expensive. Valerian roots were easy to find and I knew a place were to find the aconite. Next to the potions room Snape had a small chamber where he kept most of his ingredients. I was sure that he would have moonstone and moonseed. The black quicksilver was an expensive ingredient, but a store in Hogsmeade sold it. I noted the places where to get it next to the ingredients and shoved the paper back into my bag. If I would manage to mix the plant ingredients with the moon stone I would be able to use the upcoming full moon to bath the potion in its light, like the instructions were saying. The full moon was on the Saturday night, the same night as the party. But is as still unsure to speak to Remus about it and how could I assure myself that my theory was correct?

I focused on Herbology again and met up with the twins after class, to eat lunch.

"Hey, how was Care of magical creatures with Hagrid?" I greeted the twins.

"Well no one died" Fred joked and we walked into the great hall. Grace was already sitting there waiting for us.

"Maevy-baby, you will help us with the pumpkins, right?" George asked me as we sat down with puppy dog eyes.

"Of course georgy" I said jokingly and cupped his face with my hands. "How can I say no to those eyes?"

While the twins celebrated my answer, Grace was staring at them with disgust. "Do you guys still plan on doing your prank?" They nodded proudly.

"This will be the biggest prank since..."
"Our last birthday" they stated and started laughing at the thought of it.

"What happened?" Grace asked me.

"The whole day they acted like they had done something awful in the Gryffindor tower. The whole school started freaking out and the teachers were so scared. They were even debating on evacuating the Gryffindor common room...but they actually had done nothing. But by acting like it, they managed to turn the whole school upside down without needing to do something." I told her and she started laughing too.

"So what exactly do you want to happen to the pumpkins?" I asked the twins and lead forward to keep it secret.

"Explode"
"Explosions are always great"
"Maybe even with paint"
"Good one, George"
"Thanks brother"
"And then spiders"
"Crawling out of it"
"Small or large?"
""This big" George measured with his hands.

"What color for the paint?"I asked them.

"Orange" they answered in unison. I nodded.

"I am sure I can find that in the art room..." I told them. The twins weren't in the art class.

"Do the spiders really need to be real?" Grace asked scared and I noticed that her face had turned pale.The twins exchanged looks.

"Fine"
"The Ravenclaw table will have dead spiders"

"That's still disgusting, but thank you.." Grace slowly answered. "And where do you think you can get all the spiders...?"

"Collect them." They answered.

"And we don't have another option...?" I asked and rolled my eyes. "We will need a lot of spiders..."

"No princess..."
"That's why we should get started"
"Immediately" Fred ended and they stood up. George picked my up and threw me over his shoulder. I punished his back a few times, but it was useless. "Please! Let put me down...is this really necessary?" I just received a nod in response.

"Grace please keep an eye on my bag until I get back!" I screamed in her direction. She nodded and laughed.
"If you ever get back..." Fred said with a smirk.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing" they answered in unison and their smile widened. I giggled and waved at Grace. They walked out of the hall but they stopped in the doorway. Before I could ask what was going on, since I couldn't see what was in front them, I heard Fred surprised say

"Professor!" In his voice I could hear that he was trying really hard not to laugh.

"Hellou" I heard a familiar voice say. Remus. Oh no...

"We really need to go Professor"
"Important stuff" they told him and tried to keep their words at the minimum, so they wouldn't burst out in laughter. They walked past him and I glanced up and saw him smiling down at me. He looked at me with amusement. I felt my face heat up and I blushed for two reasons...the embarrassment and his smile.