A Halliwell at Hogwarts: The Prisoner of Azkaban

Siriusly?!

In no time at all, Defense Against the Dark Arts had become most people's favorite class. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins had anything bad to say about Professor Lupin.

"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy would say in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passed. "He dresses like our old house elf."

But no one else cared that Professor Lupin's robes were patched and frayed. His next few lessons were just as interesting as the first. After Boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed: in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who had gotten lost. From Red Caps they moved on to Kappas, creepy. water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.

Since their private talk Professor Lupin had kept shooting furtive glances at Persephone. As much as this irritated the young Halliwell, she didn't say anything. She understood him, he was afraid Persephone would tell everybody about his little furry secret. However, Persephone hadn't said anything to anyone, not even her friends. She knew what was like to have a secret that had to be kept at all costs, and anyway it wasn't her business. Persephone didn't know if her mother knew about Lupin being a werewolf, but she had always described him as a kind and sweet boy and Persephone had to admit she was right.

Potions had become by far the worst class. Snape was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and no one was in any doubt why. The story of the Boggart assuming Snape's shape, and the way that Neville had dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, had traveled through the school like wildfire. Snape didn't seem to find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.

Harry was also growing to dread the hours he spent in Professor Trelawney's stifling tower room and Persephone couldn't blame him for this. Deciphering lopsided shapes and symbols and the same time trying to ignore the way Professor Trelawney's enormous eyes filled with tears every time she looked at him, could be really annoying. Despite Harry's dislike, Professor Trelawney was treated with respect bordering on reverence by many of the class. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had taken to haunting Professor Trelawney's tower room at lunch times, and always returned with annoyingly superior looks on their faces, as though they knew things the others didn't. They had also started using hushed voices whenever they spoke to Harry, as though he was on his deathbed. Fortunately, they usually stopped as soon as they caught Persephone glaring at them.

Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first class, had become extremely dull. This saddened Persephone, as she had been so eager to attend another lesson like the first they had had. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence. They were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence.

"Why would anyone bother looking after them?" said Ron, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the flobberworms' throats.

At the start of October, however, Persephone and Harry had something else to occupy them, something so enjoyable it more than made up for their unsatisfactory classes. The Quidditch season was approaching, and Oliver Wood, Captain of the Gryffindor team, called a meeting on Thursday evening to discuss tactics for the new season.

There were seven people on a Quidditch team: three Chasers, whose job it was to score goals by putting the Quaffle (a red, soccer-sized ball) through one of the fifty-foot-high hoops at each end of the field; two Beaters, who were equipped with heavy bats to repel the Bludgers (two heavy black balls that zoomed around trying to attack the players); a Keeper, who defended the goal posts, and the Seeker, who had the hardest job of all, that of catching the Golden Snitch, a tiny, winged, walnut-sized ball, whose capture ended the game and earned the Seeker's team an extra one hundred and fifty points.