━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━
chapter eight | lost lupin
━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━
Unsurprisingly, the topic of conversation for the next couple of days was Sirius Black and his attempted break in to Gryffindor Common Room. Everyone was creating theories about how he'd managed to enter the castle, and the more they went on, the wilder they became, much to the amusement of Maddie and Jess, who had spent a good ten minutes in a fit of laugher at Hannah Abbott's suggestion that he could turn into a flowering shrub.
The Fat Lady's ripped canvas had been replaced with a portrait of a knight, who was apparently called Sir Cadogan - not many people were happy about this. He spent half his time challenging fellow Gryffindors to duels, and the rest thinking up complicated passwords that he'd change at least twice a day.
However, he might be trained fairly well in annoying people - but Maddie Jordan was the master, and so her tactic was to bug him as much as possible until he let her, Jess, Jake and anyone else around them, in. Maddie was in her element during these moments - whether that was a good thing, or not.
But she might as well put her excellent abilities in pissing people off to good use, right?
As the weeks passed, the weather grew more, and more miserable, dark clouds casting over Hogwarts what felt like every minute of every day - and the fact that Dementors were still patrolling the edges of the school most likely played a part in making it all worse. Even the school corridors and classrooms were dark and dreary, candles having being lit everywhere. It was at times like these, the Gryffindor Common Room felt like the most cosiest place in the world.
Jess had been avoiding her older brother for the past couple days, because the first Quidditch match of the season was dawning on him and the rest of Gryffindor's Quidditch Team - and, considering the amount of stress Oliver usually went through for his games, for it be his final year to be able to grab Gryffindor the win, they were convinced he'd be even more worked up about it than usual. They were definitely correct, judging by the state of the team when they returned to the common room after practice everyday. Not to mention, they'd caught the oldest Wood rushing to his players between lessons to give them tips.
"It's like he's having a mid-life crisis at seventeen," Jess complained, as their trio walked to Defence Against the Dark Arts. "Like, I get it, it's Quidditch, it's his last year to win, but he's gone absolutely mental,"
"Well, yeah," said Maddie. "But he's always been mad on Quidditch, hasn't he? Only this year he's... ten times worse..."
"I didn't even know that was possible," said Jake. "I never thought you could get worse than Ollie - but he's somehow broken his own record for flipping out over Quidditch,"
Neither of them noticed, when they sat down, that their usual teacher had vanished. It was only when Maddie looked up for a second did she have to do a double take - because, in Lupin's place, was Snape. Fucking brilliant.
"Right," she said, sitting next to Jess. Jake took his usual seat beside Neville. "What kind of joke is this?"
"Revenge for being dressed up like a grandma, I bet," Jess replied to her. They exchanged unamused glances.
"Professor Lupin is too ill to teach today," Snape began, through his usual stern tone. Maddie swears the sound of his voice automatically triggers her fight or flight response.
"I bet he poisoned him," Jess joked, and the two girls sniggered.
"Wood, Jordan if you don't think I can't see you both smirking and whispering, then you both must not be fit for a third year class, perhaps we ought to move you back to first year?"
Maddie bit her lip in an attempt to stop her giggles, avoiding eye contact with Snape as many students turned around to look at them.
"Sorry, sir," said Jess, managing to play her accidental laugh as a cough.
"Five points from Gryffindor from each of you. It seems as though Professor Lupin lacks control of his students if this is how they normally act during his lesson,"
"Oh, no, Professor, you know I act like this in every lesson," said Maddie too quickly for her own good. A few students snickered, and the glint in Snape's eyes seemed to flicker even more menacingly.
Jake gave her a look which told her to shut up.
"Another five points from Gryffindor for your cheek, Miss Jordan. Anymore, and you will have your Head of House to deal with,"
McGonagall over Snape? Yes please.
"As I was saying," Snape continued, returning to the rest of the class. "I will be covering this lesson, and as it seems as though Professor Lupin is so unprofessional to have not left any record of the topics you have covered so far-"
The door burst open, and a boy with jet black hair appeared dashing into the lesson, obviously unaware of the teacher taking Defence Against the Dark Arts, today.
"Sorry I'm late, Professor Lupin, I-"
He came to a halt, surprise springing onto his face at the sight of Snape peering up at him from the desk.
"This lesson began ten minutes ago, Potter, so I think we'll make it ten points from Gryffindor. Sit down,"
"It's not a lesson from Snape if at least fifty points from Gryffindor aren't lost," Jess whispered, as they watched Harry remain in his spot.
"Where's Professor Lupin?" he asked.
"He says he is feeling too ill to teach, today," Snape said, with a twisted smile. "I believe I told you to sit down?"
Harry still stayed where he was.
"What's wrong with him?"
Snape's eyes glittered.
"Nothing life-threatening," he said. Maddie couldn't help but feel Snape wished it was. "Five more points from Gryffindor, and if I have to ask you to sit down again, it'll be fifty,"
Jess was counting on her fingers.
"What's that, thirty in the first ten minutes?"
"Ooh," said Maddie, with a grin. "Is that a record?"
"It might just be," said Jess, and they high-fived under the desk.
Harry walked slowly to his seat and sat down, Snape, yet again, looking around the class.
"As I was saying, before Potter interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far-"
"Please, sir," said Hermione quickly. "We've done Boggarts, Red Caps, Kappas and Grindylows. And we're just about to start-"
"Be quiet," said Snape, coldly. "I did not ask for information, I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of organisation,"
Jake was glaring at him angrily.
"He's the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had!" Dean said, boldly, causing a murmur of agreement to ripple through the class. Snape visibly wasn't impressed at this.
"You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly over-taxing you - I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and Grindylows. Today we shall discuss-"
He immediately flicked to the back of the textbook, which raised suspicions. Surely he knew they'd be nowhere near that, yet?
"-werewolves,"
Um?
"But, sir," said Hermione, seemingly unable to restrain herself. "We're not supposed to do werewolves yet, we're due to start Hinkypunks-"
"Miss Granger," said Snape. "I was under the impression that I was taking this lesson, not you-"
"She'd do a better job," Maddie muttered. Jake overheard and grinned at her, nodding in agreement.
"-And I am telling you all to turn to page three hundred and ninety four. All of you, now!"
The class began to open their books - but not without many bitter sidelong looks and muttering. Maddie sighed.
"Which of you can tell me how we distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?"
Everyone sat in silence, except Hermione, of course. Maddie didn't know why Jake never answered these questions, because he probably damn well knew them. She supposed the difference between him and Hermione was that Jake hated speaking in front of the class, by himself. Fair enough.
However, although Hermione's hand was raised Snape seemed to find it amusing to ignore it. Maddie reminded herself that Snape's only personality trait was bullying children, so what did they expect, really?
"Anyone?" Snape said. "Are you telling me that Professor Lupin hasn't taught you the basic distinction between-"
"We told you," said Parvati. "We haven't got as far as werewolves yet, we're still on-"
"Silence!" said Snape. "Well, well, well, I never thought I'd meet a third year class who wouldn't even recognise a werewolf when they saw one-"
"I doubt last year's did, sir, considering they had Lockhart for a teacher. And, oh yeah, we're supposed to be learning that later on in the term," said Maddie, slightly more hotly than she meant to be.
Ron and Harry were grinning at her.
"I thought I'd told you not to give anymore of your cheek, Miss Jordan?" Snape sneered. "Fifteen points from Gryffindor. You've earned yourself another Detention,"
Huh. Maddie swears he told her she'd be off to McGonagall, but okay.
"We're at forty five!" Jess whispered, with a playful smirk.
"I shall make a note to Professor Dumbledore on how behind you all are..." said Snape.
"Sir," Jess spoke up, this time. "Hermione's arm must be aching, she's had it up for so long. Perhaps you didn't notice?"
"Please sir," Hermione said, quickly. "The werewolf differs from the true wolf in several small ways. The snout of the werewolf-"
"That is the second time you have spoken out of term, Miss Granger." Snape said cooly. "Five more points from Gryffindor-"
"-Fifty! We did it!"
"-for being an insufferable know-it-all,"
Maddie and Jess' amused smirks at the amount of points Gryffindor lost turned to astonished expressions. Hermione literally did nothing except answer a question?
Hermione turned red, pulled her hand down and looked towards the floor, her eyes becoming glossy. Jake leaned forward and whispered something gently to her (words of comfort, no doubt) just as Ron decided to have his input,
"You asked a question, and she knows the answer!" he exclaimed, loudly. "Why ask if you don't want to be told?"
Snape advanced on Ron slowly, and everyone held their breath. He'd definitely gone too far, for Snape.
"You will join Miss Jordan in Detention, Weasley," he said silkily. Maddie grinned. "And if I ever hear you criticise the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry, indeed,"
Snape glided back to the front desk, and Ron turned around to look towards Maddie with a furious expression. She beamed, and gave him a thumbs up. The two certainly had different reactions at the news of Detention with Snape - then again, it was like a daily routine for Maddie, anyway. Ron? Maybe not.
Nobody spoke for the rest of the lesson, which was very hard for Maddie, and so she spent her time tapping the desk or plucking at her quill, or finding something else to keep her occupied whilst she tried to get through the dull task of taking notes on werewolves. Snape prowled up and down the rows of desks, examining the work they had been doing with Professor Lupin.
"Very poorly explained," he said. "That is incorrect... the Kappa is more commonly found in Mongolia... Professor Lupin gave this eight out of ten? I'd have given it three,"
What was his bloody problem with Lupin? Oh wait... yeah, he did dress Snape up as a grandma... still, the man was so unnecessarily aggressive...
When the bell rang, Snape held the class back. Probably just to annoy them, even more.
"You will each write an essay, to be handed into me, on the ways you can recognise and kill werewolves. I want two rolls of parchment on the subject, and I want them Monday morning. It is time somebody took this class in hand. Jordan, Weasley, stay behind. We need to arrange your detentions..."
"We'll wait outside," Jess said to her, and Maddie nodded, before walking over to meet Ron and Snape at the front of the class.
"Considering both of you are unable to control your big mouthes and have earned yourselves detention, we need a large job for you two to take up - you will both be doing as much work as you should be doing on your own, even if you will be together..."
Ah, fuck.
"You two will be scrubbing the bedpans in the hospital wing, without magic, tonight."
Ron was in a towering rage as he and Maddie left.
"That absolute bastard!" he said, causing the girl to let out a snort.
"It'll be fine," she said. "At least you're not lonely,"
"Hm," was all he replied.
They didn't get a chance to speak anymore, for Maddie spotted Jake and Jess waiting for her, and Ron saw Harry and Hermione a few feet away - and so, the two separated off to their friends.
Maddie was in rather a good mood at the news that she'd have a friend to keep her company during Detention.
"I'm gonna kill him," was Jake's greeting. No doubt, he was referring to Snape.
"Okay," Maddie replied casually, letting out a laugh at the boy's aggressiveness. "Remember, the first step to any murder is to have fun, and be yourself,"
"In all seriousness, though," said Jess. "Why does Snape have such a problem with Lupin? D'you think it's because of the Boggart?"
"Probably," said Jake. "Lupin better not have a long lasting illness, though. I really hope he'll be back, next lesson,"
"You and me both," Maddie nodded.
She chuckled to herself as they passed Hermione, Ron and Harry - overhearing Ron say,
"Why couldn't Black have hidden in Snape's office, eh? He could have finished him all off for us!"
Damn, right.
━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━
A/N: Ron 🤝 Maddie - both being big mouths that hate Snape
I'm updating quite a lot recently I think it's bc I have so much spare time to write lol anyways I hope you enjoy!
<3