Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy || G. Weasley

POA: Chapter Four

The next day was Halloween and Ron, Hermione and Cordelia had all gone to Hogsmeade. Sadly they had to leave Harry behind seeing as his aunt and uncle hadn't signed his permission slip. But that night was the Halloween feast and the four friends along with Fred and George had spent a wonderful meal together. The day was going perfect and by the end, the six of them had made the long walk up to the Gryffindor common room tired and content. But the happy mood was ruined when they reached the corridor that ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady and found it jammed with students.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" Ron asked Cordelia. She just shrugged.

"Let me through, please," it was Percy. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password — excuse me, I'm head boy—"

Then the crowd got silent and a chill seemed to spread through the Gryffindors stemming from the front of the pack.

"Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick." Came Percy's shrill voice, which was an octave higher than normal.

Cordelia felt a hand in on her shoulder and jumped, turning around. She calmed down immensely when she saw that it was only Ginny.

"What's going on?" She asked, and before Cordelia could answer Dumbledore came sweeping toward the portrait the Gryffindors surged forward, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Cordelia were pushed to the front of the crowd.

"Oh, my—" Hermione grabbed onto Harry's arm.

The Fat Lady was gone from her portrait. It had been slashed so viciously that strips of the canvas were on the floor and chunks had been torn away altogether. Dumbledore turned and Cordelia saw Professor McGonagall, her Pa, and Snape hurrying toward them.

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go get Mr, Filch at once and tell him to search every painting until you find the Fat Lady."

"She's a horrible mess, sir." It was Peeves and he was using a horrible oily voice he only used when talking to Dumbledore. "Saw her running through paintings up on the first floor. Crying something dreadful." He sounded quite happy at this thought.

"Did she say who did it?" Said Dumbledore.

"Oh yes, he got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves grinned. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black." Cordelia saw the blood drain out of her Pa's face as Dumbledore corralled all of the Gryffindors down to the Great Hall and they were soon joined by the other three houses.

Dumbledore casually waved his wand and the tables in the Great Hall moved to the outer edges of the room and hundreds of sleeping bags appeared.

"For your own safety, you all shall be sleeping in here tonight. If there are any disturbances report to me immediately, sleep well." And Dumbledore left, closing the doors behind him.

Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Cordelia all grabbed sleeping bags and moved them to a secluded corner and were soon joined by Fred, George, and Lee Jorden.

"The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "No more talking."

The candles all went out at once and Cordelia felt George move his sleeping bag closer to her so that he could grab her hand.

"I'm glad none of us were in the tower tonight." She heard George whisper. "Who knows what he would do and who he'd hurt to get to Harry."

"Yeah," said Cordelia weakly and even then it still felt like a betrayal to her father. Even though she didn't know if he was innocent. But she didn't say anything more because Percy started hissing at them to shut it and George had shuffled even closer to her and she heard his breathing slow as he fell asleep, hand still tightly clasped in her own.

Over the next few days the only thing that people were talking about was Sirius Black and to make it even worse McGonagall had now decided that due to Sirius Black being such a hazard they needed supervision to practice Quidditch. As the first match of the season came nearer the weather seemed to worsen but the Gryffindor team was still training harder than ever. Then on the final training session before the match, Oliver gave the team some news.

"We're playing Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin." He said looking angry. "Flint says their Seeker's arm is still injured. But I know that they just don't want to play in this weather."

Harry looked outraged. "There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" He said. "He's faking it!"

Cordelia nodded. "This is ridiculous Oliver!"

"I know that, but we can't prove it," said Oliver it was clear that he wasn't any happier than the rest of them.

      
The next day when Cordelia walked into DADA she saw that Snape was teaching in place of her Pa. Of course she knew that her Pa would be too ill after the full moon the night before to teach but did Snape really have to be the one to teach in his place.

Ten minutes into the lesson Harry came running into the classroom out of breath.

"This lesson began ten minutes ago, Potter. Ten points from Gryffindor. Sit down."

"Where's Professor Lupin?" Harry asked, still standing.

"He said that he was feeling too ill to teach today," said Snape with a twisted smirk. "I believe I told you to sit down?"

"What's wrong with him?" Harry asked again, still refusing to sit down.

"Nothing life-threatening, Five more points from Gryffindor, and if you don't sit down it will be fifty."

Harry walked over to his seat and sat down. Snape looked over the class.

"Today we shall be discussing werewolves. Open your books to page 394. Now, which of you can tell me the difference between werewolves and a true wolf?"

Hermione's hand was waving in the air. "The werewolf is different from a true wolf in many small ways. The snout of—"

"That is the second time that you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger," Snape said coolly. "Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all."

Hermione went very red and Ron started to tell Snape off for yelling at her for no reason but didn't it get very far before Snape gave him detention. The class was silent for the rest of the lesson. When the bell finally rang Snape held them back.

"You will write an essay on the ways to recognize and kill a werewolf. I want two rolls of parchment and I want them by Monday morning."

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