The Forest - R.L.

Chapter 29 - The Homework

"Now, would anyone like to explain what has happened?"

The room was silent.

Grace stared at the wall, pretending to be interested in one of the paintings of an ex-headmaster, who was dozing in his chair. She really didn't want to have to be the one to explain it all – no one did. But someone had to.

"I will," Peter said quietly, scuffing his shoes on the ground. Grace let out a breath.

Peter then launched into the story of the events of the previous night, making sure not to put the blame to heavily on Sirius, focusing on the fact that James had saved Snape.

"His chest has healed completely, Professor. He's perfectly fine now," Peter concluded.

"And then this morning?" Dumbledore pressed.

"This morning?" Peter asked.

"Miss Thorne? Perhaps you might like to contribute anything to this conversation instead of staring at Professor Swott. I believe it is considered inappropriate to watch someone whilst they sleep, even if they are a painting," Professor Dumbledore chided, causing Grace's face to flush bright red.

"Sorry, Professor," Grace mumbled, looking back at the rest of the group.

"Now, Miss Thorne, could you please explain to us all what transpired in the Hospital Wing this morning?"

James and Peter exchanged confused glances.

"Well, Snape was said somethings that were... not very nice about Remus and... I..." Grace trailed off, trying to find the right way to put it. She didn't want to get herself in more trouble. "Pointed my wand at his face."

"Pointed your wand at my face?!" Snape cried. "You attacked me! I thought I was about to be killed – for the second time in a few hours! Professor Dumbledore, you must underst-"

"That's enough, Mr Snape," Dumbledore silenced him. "Now, Miss Thorne, Mr Black, you must understand that these actions will not go unpunished."

They both nodded.

"And neither will yours, Mr Snape."

"But sir, I've done nothing wrong! I'm the victim in-"

"But you were saying particularly nasty things about Mr Lupin, were you not? Ten points will be taken from Slytherin. As for you two," Dumbledore instructed, getting up from his desk. "Thirty points will be taken from Gryffindor house. Ms Thorne will have two nights of detention, and Mr Black, six. Professor McGonagall will be in charge of those."

Two nights of detention, Grace thought. That wasn't that bad. She certainly didn't envy Sirius.

"Lastly, Mr Snape, under no circumstances are you allowed to spread word of Remus' lycanthropy to anyone. Understood?"

"Perfectly, Professor," Snape replied, not meeting the Professor's eyes. Whilst Snape may have a huge grudge against Remus and his friends, Grace knew that he respected Dumbledore. If anyone was going to stop him from blabbing about Remus, it was him.

"You're dismissed. Although, Mr Black, if you could stay back for a moment, I'd like to have a word," Professor Dumbledore concluded, looking directly at Sirius.

The rest of them got up from their seats and made their way past McGonagall towards the door. "Ms Thorne? I expect to see you in my office at half past six for your first detention. Don't be late," McGonagall instructed as Grace passed her. She nodded in reply.

Once they had descended the gargoyle-guarded stairs, Snape went off to find Lily, James returned to the Common room with Peter in tow, and Grace decided to head to the library. It was only the first week back at school and she already had mounds of homework to complete, so she might as well start that.

It was still quite early, so the library was fairly quiet, many people were only just getting up to go to breakfast, so Grace sat down in a corner and began her work. Potions first – a research task that Professor Eischeid asked them to do on the love potion, Amortentia so that they would have a basic understanding of it for when they brewed it on Tuesday. Grace most certainly wasn't looking forward to that. Not only was it with her least favourite teacher of all time, but half the girls had practically squealed when they found out what potion they working on next. Grace could only imagine how much her ears where going to be ringing after that lesson.

Second, she did Care of Magical Creatures work. Her father – or Professor A Thorne as she was forced to call him during class time – had told them to pick a magical creature and write 500 words comparing it to a non-magical creature. Grace had chosen the Occamy, a long, winged creature covered in shiny blue feathers, to compare to a snake, using Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and an old muggle book titled A Glossary of Animals as guides. Newt Scamander had been her father's childhood hero, as well as her own – a man who travelled the world to document magical creatures and care for them. He had even gone to Hogwarts.

Her third home work task was to write an essay on the Inanimatus Conjurus spell for Transfiguration. She was halfway through writing about the different uses of the spell when she interrupted by none other than Lily Evans and Abigail Pinehood.

"Grace! I didn't know you were in here! Where are the others?" Abbey asked, putting her books down on the other side of the desk. It was surprising to see her without at least one of the boys at her, especially Remus.

"Remus is in the Hospital Wing again, he broke his arm when we pranked Professor Eischeid with the pink hair dye. He tripped over a chair when we were sneaking back out of her office," Grace replied, the lie slipping easily off her tongue. Of course, it wasn't completely- they had pranked Professor Eischeid and Remus had broken his arm, but the two events were completely unrelated. In fact, Remus hadn't even joined them in their pranking.

"That was you lot!? Why am I not surprised? Can you five get any more immature," Lily replied, angrily. "Although, I do have to admit, it was quite funny when she arrived at breakfast yesterday morning – she didn't even seen to notice that her hair had changed colour!"

Grace's eyes widened as she realised her mistake. "What... no... that wasn't us! It was..."

Abbey and Lily just laughed.

---

And another update! I'm actually quite proud of how often I've been updating now that school's back.

ALso I came up with a really good idea for how James and Sirius are going to reconcile but I'm not sure if it's too far fetched. Oh well, we'll see.

-Grace