The Sun, Moon & Stars

34. Solace

The next few weeks were both exciting, yet dull all at once. Divination was insufferable—Ron still wouldn't let go of the grim concept, and Hermione's patience for it seemed to be hanging on by a thread. Ophelia didn't mind it; analyzing dreams and gazing into crystal balls wasn't the worst thing you could do with your time. In Care of Magical Creatures, the lessons were dull. After the incident with Buckbeak and Draco, Hagrid had seemingly lost all his confidence—and he only brought in harmless, boring creatures for them to observe. And in Potions, Snape was even worse than before after having heard the boggart story. He took points away when they did as much as breath the wrong way; and he tormented Neville more than ever before—not to mention the mere mention of Professor Lupin's name drove him up the wall.

As September morphed into October, their busy schedules only increased. Hermione was still tackling ten classes at once; and the three of them still didn't know how that was possible, but they stopped questioning her a long time ago. Still, their schedules didn't match up and they barley saw Hermione at all. Harry on the other hand was busy with Quidditch. Oliver Wood made their practices twice as long, and pushed them all the harder. It was his seventh and final year at Hogwarts, so he was insistent on them winning—which meant Harry barley had any free time, and when he did it was spent eating, sleeping, discussing Sirius Black and then repeating it all over again the next day.

Ophelia and Ron weren't busy though—it was only October. Homework was light, neither of them played Quidditch, and they weren't taking ten classes. They just played chess in the common room and hoped their friends could spare a few moments out of their busy lives to spend with them.

The only thing that was going well was Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Remus Lupin very quickly became the most popular professor in all of Hogwarts. His lessons were informative and enjoyable, he genuinely cared about his students and their well-being; and above all, he was kind. It didn't matter to him if you were the best in class, or the worst; his only priority was helping them in any way he possibly could. He was also patient, if you didn't understand something he worked with you until you did, if you couldn't master something he'd have you come by after class and he'd help you; and if you needed to talk about anything else, class related or not, he would listen. It didn't matter to anyone that he was quiet and reserved; or that his robes weren't expensive and new; but old, worn and patched. It didn't matter that his appearance was shabby at the best of times, or that his briefcase and shoes were torn and worn out—none of that mattered, because he was an excellent teacher. Very few people disliked Remus Lupin. It was almost impossible to do so with him having such a big heart. The only people that did were the Slytherin's; or Malfoy's gang, more like.

'He looks like my old house-elf when he wears those robes, they're so old and worn out.' Draco snickered to his friends one brisk October morning at the Slytherin table while he ate his breakfast, very well aware Ophelia was directly in front of him.

That was enough for Ophelia. She slammed her fists on the table as she got up and made her way to stand in front of him.

'Ophelia!' Hermione called after her, but she didn't respond.

'Did you want to say that again? Hm?' Ophelia asked as she raised her hand to slap him in the face.

The sudden confidence was a strange feeling. She was not a violent person, not a mean person—but if anybody said anything bad about Remus Lupin she just about lost it.

'Did you?' Ophelia pressed on, Draco didn't answer, just trembled underneath her. That's when she made the move.

George jumped up and grabbed her wrist just before it touched him, and pulled her back.