Malfoy ended up spending a week in the hospital, before he swaggered into the dungeon the following Thursday during potions, acting like he'd survived a battle.

"How is it, Draco?" simpered Pansy Parkinson. "Does it hurt much?"

I rolled my eyes. Everybody and their mother knew that Malfoy was going to exaggerate, the stupid prick. "Yeah..." Malfoy sighed dramatically to her, even doing a weird limp on the way to his seat.

"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Snape idly.

"Oh yeah, I turn up late because I've been here a week, I get detention. He gets himself injured, gets off fine." I muttered angrily, kicking the table.

Snape hated me, to put it simple. I wasn't sure if it was because he assumed (or knew) I was related to Harry, who he loathed, or something else entirely. Either way, he was my least favourite teacher.

We were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution. It was going okay so far. I was becoming quite good at potions, even if it was like Chemistry, which I despised.

When Snape asked us to set up our cauldrons, for some bizarre reason Malfoy decided to set his up next to me and Gennie. Gennie sent Malfoy a look of uttermost loathing, which was reasonable considering there was plenty of room in the classroom.

Sir," Malfoy called, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm -"

"Miss Lupin, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," said Snape without looking up.

Gennie went bright red with anger as she gripped her knife so tightly her knuckles turned white. "There's nothing wrong with your arm!"

Malfoy smirked across the table. "Lupin, you heard Professor Snape; cut up these roots."

Gennie held the knife up, and for one moment I thought she might stab him. But instead, she aggressively grabbed the roots and chopped them so poorly they looked like misshapen logs.

"Professor," drawled Malfoy, "Lupin's mutilating my roots, sir."

Snape approached the table, stared down his hooked nose at the roots, and then gave Gennie an unpleasant smile.

"Change roots with Malfoy, Miss Lupin"

"Sir!" Gennie exclaimed. "That's so not fair!"

Gennie had spent a good fifteen minutes shredding the roots into perfect pieces, even measuring them with a ruler.

"Now," said Snape in his most dangerous voice.

Gennie shoved her own beautifully cut roots across the table at Malfoy. He grinned as he put them into the cauldron, but jumped as Gennie stabbed the knife into the table a few feet away from him.

"And, sir, I'll need this shrivelfig skinned," said Malfoy.

"Miss Oswin, you can skin Malfoy's shrivelfig," said Snape, giving me a look of loathing.

I took Malfoy's shrivelfig as Gennie began trying to repair the damage to the roots she now had to use. Skinning the stupid thing as fast as possible without injury to get him to stop staring at me, I then flung it back at him, laughing as it almost hit his nose.

"I'm afraid your friend won't be a teacher much longer," mocked Malfoy. "Father's not very happy about my injury -"

"Keep talking, Malfoy, and I'll give you a real injury," I snarled.

"-he's complained to the school governors. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And a lasting injury like this-"

"So that's why you're putting it on," Gennie growled, accidentally beheading a dead caterpillar because her hand was shaking in anger, "To try to get Hagrid fired."

"Well," said Malfoy, lowering his voice to a whisper, "partly, Lupin. But there are other benefits too. Oswin, slice my caterpillars for me."

"Sure," I said in my sweetest voice, throwing the caterpillar right in Malfoy's face. He looked disgusted. Harry, Ron and Hermione; who were at the table across from us burst out laughing.

"Next time it'll be the knife." I said with a wicked smile.

The three of us carried on for the next ten minutes without killing each other, but the silence was interrupted when Seamus Finnigan, a nice Irish boy asked to borrow my scales.

"Hey, Rory," said Seamus, "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning - they reckon Sirius Black's been sighted."

"Where?" Gennie and I said at once.

"Not too far from here," said Seamus, who looked excited.

"Not too far from here, that's, that's bad." Gennie shuddered. "What if he gets into the school?"

"Suppose I'll have to protect you, eh Gen?" Seamus said with a wink, turning away from us, Gennie rolling her eyes at him.

I looked across the table to see Malfoy staring at me, a look in his eye I couldn't quiet detect. "What is it, Malfoy? I'm not dissecting anything else for you."

"Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed, Oswin?"

"Yeah, sure," I drawled sarcastically.

"Of course, if it was me," he said quietly, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good girl, I'd be out there looking for him."

"Stop being as vague as your injury, Malfoy, and tell me what the bloody hell you're on about." I snapped.

"You don't know?" Malfoy raised an eyebrow. He lent forward, eyes glittering maliciously. "I thought you would have known-your family being who they are."

Flushing pink, I whispered angrily, "What?"

Malfoy let out a cross between a sneer and a laugh. "Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the Dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."

The weirdest thing was that he didn't mention anything for the rest of the lesson, or even look in my direction.

* * *

Later in the day, we had our first lesson with Remus. All of us Gryffindors sat in the classroom excited and nervous, especially considering the track record with teachers.

"Gennie," Seamus called, and Gennie turned around. "The new teacher isn't related to you, is he?"

Gennie smiled brightly. "He's my dad, yes. He's going to be an amazing teacher."

"Suppose he's here to keep all the boys away from you, eh?" Seamus grinned, resting his head on his hand.

"If only, Seamus, if only." Gennie said with a coy smile and Seamus winked at her before turning back to Dean.

Gennie turned back to me, looking proud. "He was totally flirting with you!" I exclaimed. "Go you!"

"Well you've got to play the field a bit when you're waiting for the one," Gennie winked, looking over at Harry.

Wondering how that plan would turn out, I almost jumped out of my daydream as Remus (or Professor Lupin, as I now had to call him) walked into class, smiling vaguely at me and Gennie as he put his briefcase down.

Because of all the energy and the low income (and the whole werewolf stress thing), Remus and Gennie usually looked thin and pale. But having a few regular meals did wonders for them, looking healthier and happier.

It was to everyone's delights when Lupin had us put all of books away and told us to follow him to another room for a practical lesson.

"Bloody hell, I like him already." Ron said to me as we left the room. "The last time we had a practical, that mental bloke Lockhart set wild pixies on us."

"Cool," I said in awe.

"Not very cool when Harry has to hit your hair with a book to get one out." Gennie said, wincing at the memory.

Lupin led us down a second corridor and stopped, right outside the staffroom door.

"Inside, please," said Professor Lupin, opening it and standing back.

Unluckily, Snape was sitting in a low armchair, and he glared unhappily as everyone filed in. He said, "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this."

At the doorway he turned on his heel and said, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear."

Neville went scarlet, and I sent insivble daggers at the teacher. He bullied Neville enough in class, why do it outside of class?!

Lupin raised his eyebrows. "I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation," he said, "and I am sure he will perform it admirably."

Neville's face went even redder. Snape's lip curled, but he left, shutting the door with a snap. The silence in the room was broken by the wardrobe at the end of the room rocking, making everyone jump.

"Nothing to worry about," said Lupin calmly. "There's a Boggart in there. So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a Boggart?"

Hermione put up her hand as usual, but Gennie was picked instead.

"It's a shape-shifter," Gennie said with a triumphant grin. "It can take the shape of whatever it thinks we're afraid of."

"Not to play favourites, but I couldn't have worded it better myself, thank you Genesis." Lupin said, and Gennie glowed with pride. "When I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears."

"This means," said Professor Lupin, choosing to ignore Neville's small sputter of terror, "that we have a huge advantage over the Boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?"

Trying to answer a question with Hermione bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet with her hand in the air, looked very off-putting, but Harry had a go.

"Er - because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?"

"Precisely," said Professor Lupin, and Hermione put her hand down, looking a little disappointed. "It's always best to have company when you're dealing with a Boggart. But the thing that the boggart really fears is laughter. You need to make it look hilarious."

"We will practice the charm without wands first. After me, please...riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!" we all repeated.

"Good," said Professor Lupin. "Very good. But that was the easy part. And this is where you come in, Neville. What frightens you most in the world?"

Neville looked around rather wildly, as though begging someone to help him, then said, in barely more than a whisper, "Professor Snape."

Nearly everyone laughed. I elbowed Gennie. "Hey, shouldn't he be fired? I mean, if a kid is afraid of you, something is messed up."

"Ha, this can go on me and Ron's list to get him chucked out." Harry grinned.

"I wonder, could you tell us what sort of clothes your grandmother usually wears?" Lupin said, and I gave him a weird look, considering I hadn't heard the first part of the conversation.

Neville looked startled, but said, "Well...always the same hat. A tall one with a stuffed vulture on top. And a long dress...green, normally...and sometimes a fox-fur scarf."

"Right then," said Professor Lupin. "Can you picture those clothes very clearly, Neville? Can you see them in your mind's eye?"

"Yes," said Neville uncertainty, sounding as weirded out as I was.

"When the Boggart bursts out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it will assume the form of Professor Snape, and then when you use the spell, Snape will be in those clothes." said Lupin.

Harry almost choked on air from laughing, and I burst into ugly laughter.

"If Neville is successful, the Boggart is likely to shift his attention to each of us in turn," said Lupin. "I would like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most, and imagine how you might force it to look comical..."

What was I scared of? Voldemort, the murderer of my parents came to mind. But no, he was dead, I wasn't really afraid of him. Sirius Black? He was hunting me and Harry, but no I wasn't afraid of him-we were safe. Then the ghostly dementor came to mind, but I could avoid those, I was only afraid of fainting.

But then an ugly, scarier thought came to mind. Obliviate. The very thing that destroyed my chance of a life with Harry, forced us apart for twelve years. What if I got hit by it again and forgot my new life?

I'd have nothing left.

"Make it chase a rubber ball," I heard Gennie mutter. She was afraid of werewolves, namely her dad in werewolf form, not that she'd tell him.

"Everyone ready?" said Lupin.

I nodded, but I was nervous. How could you make a spell less frightening?

We all retreated, backed against the walls, leaving Neville alone beside the wardrobe.

"On the count of three, Neville," said Lupin. "One - two - three - now!"

The wardrobe burst open. Snape appeared, hook nosed and snarling. Neville stared him down, nervous, until he squeaked out the spell.

There was a noise like the crack of a whip. Snape stumbled; and all of a sudden he was wearing a lace trimmed dress and wearing a huge hat with an eagle on. The class was in stitches, Ron nearly falling over.

The Boggart paused, confused, and Professor Lupin shouted, "Seamus!"

Seamus darted past Neville, and a banshee, green tinged face began to shriek and wail-"Riddikulus!" shouted Seamus.

The banshee made a rasping noise and clutched her throat; her voice was gone. Crack! The banshee turned into a rat, which chased its tail in a circle, then - crack! - became a rattlesnake, which slithered and writhed before - crack! - becoming a single, bloody eyeball.

"It's confused!" shouted Lupin. "We're getting there! Dean!"

Dean hurried forward. Crack! The eyeball became a severed hand, which flipped over and began to creep along the floor like a crab.

"Riddikulus!" yelled Dean.

There was a snap, and the hand was trapped in a mousetrap.

"Excellent! Ron, you next!"

Ron leapt forward.

Crack! Quite a few people screamed. A giant spider, six feet tall and covered in hair, was advancing on Ron, clicking its pincers. For a moment, I thought Ron wouldn't do it, but-

"Riddikulus!" bellowed Ron, and the spider's legs vanished; it rolled over and over; Lavender Brown squealed and ran out of its way and it came to a halt at my feet.

The spider turned into white hazy mist. As I stared at it, my mind went blank. Was this how peaceful it was, all those years ago? But catching Harry's eye, something snapped in me, and I waved my wand.

The spell exploded into a firework, sparks flying across the room and it began to whine like a strangled cat, making several people laugh.

Harry was next. He raised his wand but-

"Here!" shouted Lupin suddenly, hurrying forward. Crack!

The firework vanished and a silvery-white orb hanging in the air replaced it, Lupin lazily saying the incantation.

"Forward, Neville, and finish him off!" said Lupin as the Boggart landed on the floor as a cockroach. Crack! Snape was back. This time Neville charged forward.

"Riddikulus!" he shouted, and we had a split second's view of Snape in his lacy dress before Neville let out a great "Ha!" of laughter, and the Boggart exploded, burst into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and was gone.

"Excellent!" cried Professor Lupin as the class broke into applause. "Well done, everyone...Let me see...five points to Gryffindor for every person to tackle the Boggart - ten for Neville because he did it twice...and five each to Gennie, Hermione and Harry."

"But I didn't do anything," said Harry.

"I thought you weren't playing favouritism, dad." Gennie said, sounding irritated.

"Gennie, you and Harry answered my questions correctly at the start of the class, and Hermione knew all of the answers," Lupin said lightly. "Homework, kindly read the chapter on Boggarts and summarise it for me...to be handed in on Monday. That will be all."

Talking excitedly, we all filed out of the room. The five of us walked with the rest of the class, everybody excited over what we'd done.

"That was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson we've ever had, wasn't it?" said Ron excitedly as they made their way back to the classroom to get their bags.

"My Dad is awesome," Gennie said proudly.

I looked at Harry who was quiet. I was wondering the same thing as he probably was: why didn't Lupin let him perform the spell?

"He seems like a very good teacher," said Hermione approvingly. "But I wish I could have had a turn with the Boggart -"

"What would it have been for you?" said Ron, snickering. "A piece of homework that only got nine out of ten?"