Rating:
PG
House:
The Dark Arts
Ships:
Remus Lupin/Sirius Black
Characters:
Remus Lupin Sirius Black Harry and Hermione and Ron
Genres:
Drama Romance
Era:
The Harry Potter at Hogwarts Years
Spoilers:
Prizoner of Azkaban
Stats:
Published: 12/03/2004
Updated: 06/24/2013
Words: 120,615
Chapters: 65
Hits: 86,935

Another Prisoner, Another Professor

Marauder

Story Summary:
AU. In Harry's third year he must learn the various truths about the new DADA teacher, Professor Black, and an escaped convict, Remus Lupin. SB/RL.

Chapter 21 - Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Summary:
Harry and Professor Black advance their plans for Harry to learn to fight dementors, Hermione is under stress, and Snape gives Harry some advice Harry doesn't trust.
Posted:
05/11/2007
Hits:
1,602


Harry goes back to classes.

With the predictable exception of the Slytherins, everyone seemed to be relieved that Harry had recovered from his fall; even a couple of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws whom Harry had never met approached him in the corridor and told him they were glad he was all right. Professor Flitwick was so surprised to see Harry alive and in one piece that he nearly fell off the pile of books that he sat on to see over the top of his desk. On his way to Defense Against the Dark Arts Harry saw Hagrid, who abandoned the giant pumpkins he was bringing to the kitchen to give Harry such a crushing hug that Harry thought for a moment that his glasses were going to break.

But it was Professor Black who had the strangest reaction of all. The minute Harry walked into his classroom, Black sprang from his desk and ran over to him, his long legs crossing the room in no more than five paces. "Tell me you're all right," he said, leaning down and resting his hands on Harry's shoulders. There was such an intense look in his gray eyes that Harry felt almost a bit afraid.

"I'm fine," he said quickly. "I was pretty much okay after I woke up, but Madam Pomfrey wanted to keep me in the hospital wing just in case."

Black let out a sigh of relief and released him. "You had everyone scared to death," he said. "If there's anything you don't feel up to doing in class, I want you to tell me."

"I'm okay," Harry insisted. "I was wondering, though - sir, do you remember when you said you would teach me to fight the dementors?"

"Of course I do," Black said. "I asked you to tell me when you had time to do it and we'd arrange something."

"Oh," said Harry, embarrassed. "Right. Well, Wood's giving everyone two weeks off from practice while he figures out our strategy for the Ravenclaw match, so I haven't got anything in the evenings."

"Give me a few days to think of how we're going to do this," said Black. "Obviously we can't start out against real dementors, but I'm not sure what we will start out with. I'll come up with something by the next lesson."

"Okay," said Harry, relieved, and went to sit down with the rest of the class.

Hermione, however, had other ideas about how Harry should spend his newfound free time. "We know that you're safe from blood magic," she told Harry at dinner, "but we still need to find out exactly what you're up against. I think you ought to research werewolves as much as you can."

Harry suddenly realized that he knew nothing about werewolves. He had figured that he knew at least a few things about them, but now that he thought about it, all his knowledge of werewolves came from the Muggle monster films Dudley sometimes watched. The Muggle notion of gnomes was nothing like the wizarding version; what would a werewolf, a real werewolf, be like?

"All right," he said. "Let's go look tonight."

An uncomfortable look came over Hermione's face. "Actually, I can't go," she said. "I have to work on my Arithmancy essay. I'm really sorry, Harry. You and Ron are going to have to go by yourselves."

"Oh, come on," said Ron, idly poking at his potatoes with his fork. "When's your Arithmancy essay due, next month?"

"It's due the day after tomorrow, Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. Her voice was unsteady; for a moment, Harry thought she might actually start crying. "It's due the day after tomorrow and I've only just started researching today. I have to reference three different books and consult four different charts and Professor Vector doesn't assign a physical length of essays, she assigns a number of words, and this one is supposed to be at least two thousand and forty-two words long and I only know what thirty-eight of them are going to be - "

Ron put down his fork. "Hermione," he said, "look, you're going to drive yourself mental. Maybe you should quit Arithmancy."

"I can't quit Arithmancy!" she cried. "It's my favorite class!"

With no Hermione to help them, Harry and Ron spent almost fifteen minutes just trying to find the right section of the library. "All right, here we are," said Ron at last, sliding a book off the shelf. "The Historical and Practical Guide to the Werewolf by Conall Valko. Wow, Harry, this book is huge..." He flipped through the pages. "Attempted cures from the seventeenth century...werewolf colonies in Belgium...'the psychology of the lycanthropy sufferer'...hang on, what's lycanthropy?"

"The condition of being a werewolf," said a slightly sneering voice from behind them.

Harry turned around and, with a sinking horror, realized that Snape was standing in the aisle, staring at them with his cold black eyes. "I wouldn't bother with the psychology of the lycanthropy sufferer if I were you, Potter," he said. "So little of the human remains in a werewolf that his mind is that of a beast - a cunning beast, perhaps, but a beast all the same. The fool who thinks otherwise often finds himself confronted with some rather nasty truths - " he smirked " - once it is too late for him to admit his own arrogance."

"Why don't you go tell that to Dumbledore, then?" Harry said before he could stop himself. "He let Remus Lupin go to Hogwarts, obviously he didn't think his mind was that of a beast."

Snape's eyes flashed. "If I were looking for information about Remus Lupin," he said slowly, "I would try the published records of the Wizengamot from twelve years ago. Two shelves over and five shelves back." He gave Harry a final stare, turned on his heel, and marched off down the row.

"Harry," said Ron slowly, "I know it's Snape and all, but - maybe you ought to look. The Wizengamot's the wizard high court, they probably had lots about Lupin in their records twelve years ago."

"I'm not doing anything Snape thinks is a good idea," Harry said flatly. "There's no way Snape would have told me that if it would actually help. Come on, I'm going to take out this book."