Infamous | Fred Weasley x OC |

Chapter Eighteen



Easter arrived quickly and marked an end to my detentions with the twins. Maddie went home over Easter, she always went home over Easter. Her mum was very religious. Emmy and I decided to stay. Being in our fourth year certainly meant we had more freedom but it also meant we had more work. The end of year exams were nearing rapidly and that meant the workload basically doubled.

That evening at dinner, after Emmy and I had spent the whole day in the library working on our potions homework, we still hadn't finished. I'd even brought my half finished essay, if you could call 3 sentences half finished, to the Gryffindor table.

"I swear Snape hates children," I grumbled, glaring at my essay, "Why is he a teacher if he hates children? Get a real job."

"Someone's in a mood," I heard someone say in a sing-songy voice and was unsurprised to see the twins slide along the bench to sit opposite me.

"What d'ya got there, Caswell?" Fred said, sliding my essay out from under my arm. I was in no mood to argue and besides, if he wanted my essay, he could do my essay.

"Potions essay," I said to George as Fred started reading through my three sentences.

"Bad luck," He said and pulled a face. Everyone hated potions.

"I've been working on this all day and I'm no further than I was this morning," I groaned and rested her head on the table. Emmy looked down at me with a weird look and promptly helped herself to seconds.

"I reckon we have to help her. What d'ya say, George?"

"Reckon you're right, Fred. Ah, ageing potions. Tricky one that."

"Luckily for you, you've got cool, older friends in the year above."

I lifted my head feebly and stared at Fred who was smirking down at me.

"And who would that be then?"

"Oh, ha ha," He said flatly, his smirk fading, "Do you want our help or not?"

"Are you capable of giving it?" I asked and both of them lent back in their seats, jaws dropped and hands over hearts. I rolled my eyes, "Stop being so dramatic."

"You doubt our skills?"

I raised my eyebrows.

"Yes."

"I'll have you know I could have got an E in my last exam." Fred defended.

"Could have?"

"It's not my fault I don't take exams seriously." He shrugged.

"Okay look, I'm desperate," I admitted. It was true. I'd written three sentences in a day for God's sake! "Please help?"

The twins turned to each other, cheeky grins on their faces and pretended to have a serious debate over whether or not they would help me. There was a lot of thoughtful chin stroking. It was weird.

"That's where you're going wrong," Fred said at last. It took them ages to actually help but he had spotted my mistake almost immediately, "You need to keep stirring the potion till it's cooled."

"Oh..." I said, genuinely shocked. I sat up straight and leaned over the table to look over where Fred was pointing at on my homework, "Right. Thanks."

"We've had Snape as a potions teacher for four years," Emmy began with a sigh, "And I've learned more from you two in the last 10 minutes!"

"What can I say? We're geniuses."

"Speak of the devil," I said under my breath and nudged Emmy. She looked around over my shoulder where I had gestured to in time to see Snape stride into the great half, his dark cloak billowing behind him. He walked right up to the table at the front, where all the staff sat, and handed Lupin something, he was too far away to see. Lupin nodded politely in thanks, tucked whatever it was that Snape had handed in into his cloak pocket and turned to walk out of the great hall.

"What was all that about?" George asked but I wasn't paying much attention at this point. Lupin had been disappearing quite a lot. He almost never turned up for our evening detentions, leaving us to just get on with it, and this wasn't the first time we'd seen him accept something from Snape. From Snape of all people! And, on top of all that, I still hadn't plucked up the courage to ask him about that photo of him and my mother. There was something going on...

"Be back in a minute, I've got..." I said, trying to find the right words to not make me suspicious, "Something I need to do."

Well, that wasn't it, that made me sound more suspicious than ever.

*

I ran up the stairs after Lupin. He had made a beeline to his classroom and boy could he be fast when he wanted to.

"Professor!" I called out from half way up the stairs as he opened his classroom door, "Professor, I was wondering if I could talk to you?" I asked, out of breath from having sprinted up the stairs to catch him before he went inside his classroom. He turned around to face me and sighed. He looked exhausted. No wonder. He had practically ran all the way here.

"I'm afraid you've caught me at a bad time, Ms Casswell," He said with an apologetic smile, "I'm, urm," he said and held up the potion by way of an explanation, "I suffer from an affliction that worsens this time of...year." He said, hesitating and pulled on his collar, "If you'll excuse me, Allie, I-"

"Professor, it's about my mother." I blurted. I half wished I hadn't as Professor Lupin froze. His eyes went wide and unblinking.

He just stood there and stared at me until, at long last, he said: "I think you'd better come in."