In the second week, when the Defense Against the Dark Arts class was about to happen again, the Gryffindors were extremely nervous.
# Harry
"Who do you think will be teaching today?"
Harry said listlessly.
# Harry
"I wonder if Professor Lupin has recovered."
# Ron
"It's hard to say. Do you remember last week? The day Snape made me clean bedpans in the hospital wing,"
Ron made a face of disgust.
# Ron
"Professor Lupin wasn't in the hospital wing at all that day. Maybe he's too sick and was sent to St. Mungo's."
## Orli
"I think maybe his illness doesn't require staying in the hospital wing."
Orli reassured them:
## Orli
"If it's just a cold or something minor, a bit of potion and a couple of days' rest should do."
# Ron
"If Snape comes to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I'm taking a sick day."
Ron said, as they were finishing lunch and heading to the classroom.
# Ron
"Hermione, go see who's teaching."
Hermione peeked around the classroom door, then turned back with a smile:
# Hermione
"It's okay!"
Professor Lupin had returned to teach, and he indeed looked like he'd been ill. His old robes hung loosely on him, and there were dark shadows under his eyes from lack of rest. Even so, he smiled at them as the class sat down, and the Gryffindors immediately began to complain about what Snape had done while Lupin was sick.
# Harry
"It's not fair, he was just substituting, why did he give us homework?"
# Neville
"We don't even know what a werewolf is—"
# Ron
"—Two rolls of parchment!"
# Professor Lupin
"Didn't you tell Professor Snape we hadn't covered that yet?"
Lupin asked, frowning slightly.
Everyone started talking again.
# Harry
"We did, but he said we were too far behind—"
# Neville
"—He wouldn't listen—"
# Ron
"—Two rolls of parchment!"
Everyone looked indignant, but Professor Lupin just smiled slightly.
# Professor Lupin
"Don't worry. I'll speak to Professor Snape. You don't have to write that essay."
# Hermione
"Oh, no,"
Hermione looked disappointed,
# Hermione
"I've already finished it."
The class was enjoyable. Professor Lupin brought in a glass tank containing a hinkypunk, a one-legged creature that looked like a wisp of smoke, fragile and harmless. It merely dangled a lantern from its forelimb, hopping around to lure travelers into bogs, easily dispelled.
Orli watched Lupin, her mind often drifting to the parts about werewolves in the books. In fact, Snape's class wasn't bad; at least compared to those little water demons, a werewolf posed a greater threat to their lives. Unfortunately, most people couldn't understand this now.
She thought about Snape so much that she was distracted for most of the class. Perhaps he didn't care if these students understood him at all—a feeling of melancholy filled her chest, leaving her quite downcast.
It wasn't until that evening that Orli finally felt better—her ordered bottle of Mandrake infusion had finally arrived.
——————
On Saturday afternoon, as Orli headed to the dungeons as usual, she clutched the bottle of Mandrake infusion, her palms sweaty.
With only two weeks left until Christmas, if she wanted to deal with Pettigrew in the first half of the year, today was the best opportunity.
Scabbers was still as gluttonous and lazy as ever, lounging in his cage. As soon as he saw Orli step into the office, he crawled to the small door of the cage, hoping she'd let him out to play for a while, drink some sugar water, eat some snacks, and then be taken back to his little owner Ron for a pleasant weekend.
Orli forced herself to remain calm as she took him out, stroked his back a few times, then placed him on her lap and began preparing today's potion. The Fizzing Whizbees she'd bought from Honeydukes were melted into the Mandrake infusion, and now the potion was full of a sweet honey aroma.
# Snape
"If you keep feeding him like this, the poor rat will eat itself to death."
Snape watched her actions coldly. For a long time, he'd noticed Orli's tendency to give the rat extra treats, but he assumed it was just her overflowing affection.
When Orli wasn't around, he occasionally gave the rat some random potions. Scabbers was always quite afraid of him, but whatever weight he lost from the potion testing was always fed back by Orli, so Ron never suspected anything.
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