No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 21

"Are you okay, professor?" Arlene asked.

Lupin cleared his throat "Uh..yes, I'm sorry, I spaced out. The Inferi are a form of Necromancy and a crime that gets you a life sentence in Azkaban, you'll learn about it in sixth year."

"What do they do exactly?" Arlene questioned.

Necromancy was raising the dead, how was raising the dead a good security system?

"An Inferi is a dead body, once the spell is cast on it, can move. But they don't come back to life, they are simply puppets to do one's bidding. They haven't been seen since Voldemort died, he killed enough people to make an army of them." Lupin continued, it seemed like it was hard for him to talk about it, Arlene guessed he had bad memories from the war.

"Okay, thank you." She told him and turned to leave, but suddenly as idea hit her.

She stopped and turned to Professor Lupin again "uh, Professor?"

He turned to her again with a surprised look, probably thinking she had left "Yes?"

"Do you know anybody by the name of Kreacher?"

It was stupid move. She knew it was, but she also knew that Lupin was friends with Sirius Black and had prefect duties with her dad, it wasn't farfetched to think that he knew who Kreacher was.

But she knew she made a mistake when Lupin froze, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

"Professor...?"

Lupin snapped out of it and cleared his throat "No, I'm afraid I don't know anyone by that name."

Arlene nodded politely, thanked Lupin then left, it was obvious the name was familiar, but she didn't want to push her luck.

Alas, Arlene's life was finally relatively good, she and Hermione were hanging out every other day and she was the only one that knew about the time turner (which she would be lying if she said it didn't make her feel special) everybody loved the Hogwarts Weekly, there wasn't any new sightings of Sirius Black, she was on the Quidditch team, the "is Lupin a bad person' fiasco is over and Sage was going on a date.

Speaking of the latter.

The morning of the Hogsmead trip, Arlene was laying on the ground of her dorm and playing a board game with Blaise and Theo while the other girls got ready.

"What do you think?" Pansy stepped out of the bathroom and posed her outfit.

Blaise focused on her dress and tilted his head "I think..." he started, catching Pansy's attention "...I don't care."

She rolled her eyes and threw a random concealer bottle at him playfully as she turned to the mirror.

Arlene chuckled and shook her head. What a bunch of children.

Suddenly, the doors of the dorm were thrown open, and a distressed Sage came bursting in.

She threw herself on her bed dramatically "Arlene! I don't have any clothes!" she declared.

"Predate crises?" one of Arlene's roommates, who was tying her shoes, asked.

She sighed "yup." Arlene replied and stood up to help Sage.

She dropped down next to her "I only have leather, and like, a blouse, but mostly leather."

"You have a leather jacket and a pair of leather boots, Ms. Wannabe." Blaise called out after her.

Arlene grabbed a pen and threw it at him.

Blaise winced as it made contact with his forehead "What is this, 'let's throw stuff at Blaise' day?"