CHAPTER TEN

After the Christmas Ball, Hermione seemed to be keeping a sharp lookout for signs that Jeanne and Professor Lupin were a couple, but to her disappointment, there were none. Jeanne still persisted in going down to Hagrid's cabin for all her meals, instead of joining the staff table in the Great Hall, where Lupin was. She wouldn't come to the Hall even if Hagrid was eating there. Perhaps Harry was imagining it, but she seemed to be looking even more sullen and serious lately, and was finding more and more work for herself to do than ever. Harry thought that even Lupin sometimes looked rather serious, though for the most part he was still his usual cheerful self.

"I'm just looking too hard and imagining it," Harry said to himself. "Hermione's idiocy is beginning to rub off on me."

One afternoon several weeks after the Ball, they were all gathered around Hagrid's table having tea. Jeanne did not join them; she was sitting near the fire, surrounded by a strange assortment of plantlike objects and tree bark. She was systematically shredding them and putting them into jars, while reading from a thick book at the same time.

"Whatever are you doing with all that stuff, Jeanne?" wondered Hermione.

Jeanne was reading something from the book, and only looked up after a few moments.

"- What? Oh, Severus Snape wants help with some of the potions research he's doing," she said, shredding more tree bark. "He doesn't have a lot of time, with all his classes, so I'm just helping him gather some of the ingredients."

"You're helping Snape - ?" said Ron, surprised.

Jeanne nodded, still shredding treebark. Her eyes wandered back to the book.

"What book is that?" asked Harry curiously, coming over to take a look.

Jeanne lifted it up with some difficulty, because it was so heavy. Harry read, "Recent Developments in Potions and Tonics".

Jeanne buried her nose in the book again. She threw some bark into a jar, then gave an exclamation of dismay.

"Oh - ! It's the wrong jar…now it's all mixed up!"

She emptied the jar on the floor and began separating the two different types of bark.

Hagrid looked at her from the corner where he was cleaning his boots.

"Yeh bitin' off more'n yeh can chew, Jeanie," he said.

This was obviously an old topic between him and Jeanne, because she didn't even look up. She just said, "Hmm," vaguely, and continued sorting bark.

"Yeh headin' fer a breakdown," continued Hagrid. "Givin' Neville so much tuition…helpin' Madam Pomfrey…an' my classes…an' now helpin' Professor Snape…"

"Don't worry about me, Hagrid," said Jeanne. "I'm not neglecting my gamekeeping duties, am I? You know I always like doing several things at once."

She finished sorting the bark, and placed them in two different jars.

"Besides," she said absently, as if to herself, "the busier you are, the less time you have to think."

Ron still seemed astonished that she was helping Snape.

"I think you're the only one in this school, besides the Slytherins, who likes Snape," he said. "You seem to be talking to him a lot, these days."

Jeanne looked up at this.

"I don't really like Severus," she said slowly. "In fact, I'm a bit afraid of him; he can be rather unnerving at times. If he were nasty to me, I'd probably dislike him as much as any of you."

"What do you two talk about?" asked Harry, curiously. "It can't be Potions all the time."

"He does most of the talking, actually," she said, starting to shred bark again. "Talks about himself, mostly…his ambitions…the state of the world today..." She waved a hand as if to say, "and so on..."

"I just listen," she said. "Severus needs someone to listen to him…he's actually a very lonely and bitter person. Most nasty people are."

Hagrid looked up, boot still in hand.

"Yeh a good girl, Jeanie," he said.

But Jeanne had buried her nose in the book again.

"You and Professor Lupin were dancing pretty close during the Christmas Ball, Jeanne," said Hermione suddenly.

Harry wanted to kick Hermione, but she was sitting too far away.

Jeanne looked up.

"Are you still going on about that, Hermione?" she asked, looking amused. "Professor Lupin and I are just good friends."

Hermione looked sceptical.

"I didn't dance any closer with Remus than I did with Severus," said Jeanne calmly, throwing bark into a jar.

"Besides," she added, smiling at Hermione, "it takes more than one dance for two people to fall in love, you know."

Hermione didn't look convinced.

"That's not true," she muttered to herself, looking at the floor. "All of us here know, that when the conditions are right, it takes less than a minute to cast a spell on someone." Harry was finding it difficult to sleep. It was a warm night; bright moonlight was spilling in at the window.

He sat up in bed, and found that he was sweating. He walked over to the window, hoping that it might be cooler there, or that even a slight breeze might blow in.

The moon was so bright it was almost like day. He looked down toward the lake, as if expecting to see something there, but everything was still. He stood and gazed out for a few minutes, thinking of nothing in particular. Then, when he was starting to turn and go back to bed, a movement somewhere to his right caught his eye.

He poked his head out of the window, but saw nothing. He waited for a while. Nothing. Harry sighed.

"What's the matter with me?" he muttered. He was starting to turn away from the window when he saw them.

Two wolves, one large and dark, the other smaller and paler, were trotting off in the direction of the Forbidden Forest. They were keeping to the trees, so Harry could only just make them out.

In a flash Harry ran over to his trunk, put on his robes, grabbed his wand and the Invisibility Cloak, and ran silently from the room. He dashed down the stairs, out of the portrait hole, all the way down to the castle entrance.

Once outside, he stopped to catch his breath. The moonlight shone brilliantly down around him. Looking round, he walked toward the grove of trees where he had seen the wolves. But on the way there, something made him turn and look at the castle.

He blinked. The wall of the castle just near him was covered thickly with ivy, but something under the ivy was sticking out ever so slightly. Harry walked quickly over to it and lifted the ivy away.

It was a door, left slightly ajar. Harry's heart skipped a beat. Was it a new secret passageway?

He opened the door and peered in. A flight of stairs led upwards into pitch darkness.

Harry took his wand out, and muttered, "Lumos!" Light flared from the wand. Holding it in front of him, he started up the stairs.

The stairs didn't go up very far. They ended in what seemed to be a trapdoor in the ceiling. Pushing it slowly open, Harry peered cautiously out.

He seemed to be in a room used for stores. Empty boxes lay strewn on the floor, and the dust made him want to sneeze.

Closing the trapdoor, Harry went over to the storeroom door, opened it and looked out. He knew where he was now; a few corridors down, and he would reach the Charms corridor. It would be much faster to return to the dormitory from here, than if he were to go back to the Entrance Hall.

He closed the door and looked around the storeroom. The trapdoor was in one corner of the room. A large, heavy chest, big enough to cover the trapdoor and hide it, stood next to it; it looked as if it had just been shoved aside. The room was bright enough for him to extinguish his wand; moonlight was falling through a window in the wall.

Harry went over to the window to look out. Below, to his right, was the door hidden beneath the ivy. A movement caught his eye. There, in the distance, near the Forbidden Forest, he saw two figures running.

Harry watched them for a while. He knew he had no business to be here; he should go back to bed. However, something about the wolves stirred his imagination. There was something so wild and free about them…

He watched them a while longer, then made up his mind. Leaving the trapdoor open, so that the stairs were dimly illuminated, he made his way down and through the ivy, and started off toward the Forest.

He walked through the grove of trees, then across some fields…The Forest was looming closer and closer to him. He was almost at the edge of it when he heard a noise behind him. He turned, and his stomach gave a lurch.

A large, dark grey wolf was about fifty feet away, its nose to the ground. It seemed to have picked up Harry's trail.

Harry reached into his robes for his wand, but it wasn't there. He must have left it behind in the storeroom! He backed away desperately. It was full moon tonight. What if it was a werewolf? What good was the Invisibility Cloak? The animal could smell him! He then did a very foolish thing indeed; he turned, and ran toward the Forest.

When he had reached the trees, he turned, and his heart almost missed a beat. The wolf was following him.

Harry dashed into the darkness under the trees. His foot caught on a tree root; he fell to the ground, the Cloak falling off him. A loud howl rang in his ears.

Harry scrambled up, his hair all standing on end. There, about twenty feet in front of him, was a werewolf!

It has seen him. It was coming toward him, a mad light shining in its eyes, foam slobbering from its mouth, a low, eager growl in its throat.

Harry stood rooted to the spot, unable to move a muscle.

The werewolf snarled, and bounded forward.

This is the end, he thought. I'm going to die.

Another loud snarling came to his ears from behind him. Turning, Harry saw the dark grey wolf. It was leaping at him - it had leapt past him, straight at the werewolf.

There was a horrible snarling and shrieking as the two animals fought, tearing viciously at each other. Harry stood there, transfixed; and then -

Another wolf sprang at him from the darkness of the trees. It knocked him right to the ground, then stood next to him, growling.

Harry didn't even stop to think. He got up, and holding the Invisibility Cloak over himself, ran for dear life back to the castle, the wolf growling and snapping at his heels all the way. Out of the Forest - across the fields - through the grove of trees - he bounded through the door in the ivy, slammed it shut, thundered up the stairs and through the trapdoor. He then slammed the trapdoor shut and sat on it, breathing hard.

After several minutes, he got up and went to the window.

The wolf was sitting on the ground in front of the ivy, watching the door. It looked up at Harry when he appeared at the window, its tongue lolling out in a smile. Harry had the impression the wolf was laughing at him.

The wolf looked at him for a few moments, then turned, and without a backward glance, made its way back toward the Forest.

Harry watched it until it disappeared from sight. He suddenly felt very tired. He took his wand from the window sill, where he had accidentally left it, and tucked it back into his robes. Turning from the window, he walked slowly back to his dormitory.

Still shaking slightly from fright, his body aching with tiredness, he undressed and got into bed. However, it was a long time before he fell asleep.