"Did you see me take that banshee?" shouted Seamus. "And the hand!" said
Dean, waving his own around.
"And Snape in that hat!" "And my mummy!"
I wonder why Professor Lupin's frightened of crystal balls?" said
Lavender thoughtfully.
"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.
"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, sniggering. "A piece of
homework that only got nine out of ten?"
CHAPTER EIGHT
FLIGHT OF THE FAT FADY
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 houseelf "
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.
114
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.
Harry only wished he was as happy with some of his other classes. Worst
of all was Potions. 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, deciphering lopsided shapes and
symbols, trying to ignore the way Professor Trelawney's enormous eyes
filled with tears every time she looked at him. He couldn't like
Professer Trelawney, even though she 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 were on his deathbed.
Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the
action-packed first class, had become extremely dull. 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