บท 104: Surely it's not that obvious
To everyone's surprise, instead of finding Professor Lupin behind his desk in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, there sat Professor Snape. Many people audibly groaned; it was arduous enough having to endure the man in his own class, and now they had to deal with him in DADA? This wasn't fair!
About ten minutes past the bell, an out of breath Harry burst into the classroom, offering excuses for his tardiness, for which Gryffindor was deducted ten points. Harry, still remembering how Snape had made Lupin drink a potion of dubious nature by proxy, couldn't shake the suspicion that he'd been right; Snape had poisoned Lupin to take over his job!
"Where's Professor Lupin?" Harry asked. He had to get to the bottom of this! His favourite teacher's life may hang in the balance!
"Lupin is feeling a little under the weather today, and as such I have gracefully accepted to replace him, even though I am considerably busy," said Professor Snape with a smile, which was never a good sign. "Now, I believe I told you to take your seat?"
"What's wrong with him?" Harry insisted. There was no way he'd survive if he had to see Snape in two different classes!
"Nothing life-threatening, I assure you," said Professor Snape almost regretfully. "Five more points from Gryffindor, and it will be fifty if I need to tell you to sit down again."
There seemed to be something wrong with the Gryffindors today, as they seemed to talk back to Professor Snape at every chance they got, when normally they'd have been too scared to utter even a word, in fear of getting detention or losing House points.
Even Hermione seemed to be exhibiting a rebellious streak, interrupting Professor Snape. She'd been known to jump ahead of other students by answering questions at the same time she raised her hand, not giving teachers the time to select someone to give an answer, but this was something else.
"Turn to page 394," Professor Snape said. Noticing that many seemed slow on the uptake, he shouted, "That means all of you! NOW!"
As the class begrudgingly obeyed, Professor Snape moved forwards with his accelerated learning plan.
"Which one of you can tell me how one can distinguish a werewolf from a true wolf?" asked Professor Snape.
Hermione and Daphne's hands shot in the air almost instantly.
"Miss Greengrass," Professor Snape selected her.
"Ordinary wolves will generally avoid humans, but werewolves will beeline for them, the disease instinctually telling their minds to infect as many people as possible," Daphne explained. "If one ever had the misfortune to meet one up close, they'd find that the werewolf's snout and eyes would be more humanlike than a wolves', and the tail tuftier."
"By that point," Draco chortled, "You'd have an additional hint; a bite mark on yourself!"
Raucous laughter erupted from the other Slytherins.
"Settle down," said Professor Snape, smiling pleasantly. "Ten points to Slytherin."
Suddenly, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place for Oleandra. The lesson on werewolves. Professor Snape hated Professor Lupin. Wolfsbane potion was a recent enough invention, named after its primary ingredient. And as the Lady of the Stars, it was Oleandra's business to know about the celestial bodies; there was definitely a full moon tonight.
"Miss Greengrass, is there something wrong?" Professor Snape silkily called out to Oleandra, noticing her shocked expression.
"Nothing, I'm fine," Oleandra said weakly.
There was just no way Hogwarts would hire a werewolf as a teacher, right? If it went crazy and bit students, then who would take responsibility? But now that Oleandra thought about it, it seemed like it would be right up Professor Dumbledore's alley to do such a thing. But still, Remus Lupin. Just how badly did his parents want to predestine him to such a fate by naming him this way? First name: Remus, whose namesake was raised by a wolf. Family name: Lupin, as in Lupus, Latin for wolf.
Oleandra felt like she needed to tell someone, anyone. This secret concerned everyone's safety, after all. But at the same time, she hesitated. Professor Lupin hadn't harmed anyone. On the contrary, he was a beloved teacher, who had helped even her. She resolved to ask him about it herself at a later date to make sure; there wasn't any definite proof just yet.
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The next day, Oleandra, Daphne and Tracey headed down from the Great Hall after breakfast to watch the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff game. Despite the awful weather, nearly every single person in school had turned up to watch the first match of the season. Up in the stands, Goyle was holding up a wide umbrella over Draco and Crabbe. Not far away from them were Pansy and Millicent, who looked like they would very much like to sit under Draco's umbrella.
Bad weather and umbrellas could prove to be very conducive to rom-com situations, provided, of course, that no bodyguards were present! And unfortunately for Pansy, boys matured later than girls, which meant that Draco was still in the young master stage of his life. Although, at level sixteen, he would evolve into a gentleman, and all would be well.
Oleandra's group made it up the stands and sat as far away as they could from Pansy in the Slytherin's section. From she was sitting, Oleandra had a pretty good view of Hogwarts's grounds. With Hogsmeade at her back, she could just barely make out the Whomping Willow to her left, and the giant squid frolicking in the Black Lake to her right through the rain. For some ungodly reason, Oleandra suddenly felt the urge to take a dip in the Great Lake's murky waters. If she was going to be drenched in rain water, might as well do things properly and soak in lake water! It was a ridiculous idea, though, so Oleandra shook it out of her head and concentrated on watching the game.
However, the weather was having none of that seeing business, as the rain started coming down so heavily that Oleandra's vision was almost completely obscured; she could barely see the players down in the pitch. Nevertheless, everyone let out a cheer when Madam Hooch, the flying instructor, let out a shrill whistle, signalling the start of the game!
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