CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Nothing much happens in the first half of the school year, so we now jump to the end of March.

Harry might find Professor Flynn irritating, but he definitely preferred it when Flynn took over the Potions classes from Snape. It was a relief for Neville too, for whom the memory of his disastrous Potions exam the previous year was still fresh.

Neville seemed to have lost all confidence in himself when it came to Potions. Snape was being as nasty to him as ever, and Neville even went to pieces when Professor Flynn conducted the class, although Flynn was very kind to him, probably because he knew Jeanne was tutoring him.

On one occasion, the students were supposed to prepare a solution which was used to turn gemstones greener.

"Used in the jewellery business," said Professor Flynn, giving them his childlike stare. "Improves emeralds of poor quality, and deepens the green in jade."

Neville, his face screwed up in concentration, started work on his potion. Harry, sitting at the next table, noticed Trevor, Neville's pet toad, watching Neville with a rather bored look on his toady face.

Flynn came over to Neville several times to encourage him. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, when all of a sudden, Pansy Parkinson, one of the Slytherins, let out a shrill scream.

Trevor had become tired of watching Neville, and had wandered off to watch some of the other students. He had come over to watch Harry for a while, then hopped over to the Slytherins' side. Here he suddenly felt sleepy, so he made himself comfortable on a pile of Pansy's luminous fungi - one of the potion's ingredients - and went to sleep. Pansy, intent on her solution, didn't notice him till she put out a hand to grab some fungi and caught hold of Trevor instead. She screamed.

Trevor gave an indignant croak and leapt up in the air - to drop right into Pansy's cauldron, which fortunately had cooled down. Solution splattered all over the place, onto Pansy, who continued shrieking, and Draco Malfoy, who was sitting next to her.

Pansy grabbed her wand and whacked it at Trevor. Trevor, now a bright grass green, hopped desperately off the table back to Neville, who jumped up in excitement, and accidently dropped a lump of sulphur into both his fire and his cauldron.

Flames sprang up, and the solution, bubbling furiously, shot out in a fountain toward the ceiling, raining onto the surrounding tables and students.

Pandemonium reigned. The girls all screamed, and everyone started scrambling for cover. Harry, peering out from under his table, saw that Neville's solution was turning everything blue, not green. Trevor, now an electric blue instead of green, came hopping over to take refuge under Ron's cauldron, which was lying overturned on the floor.

Professor Flynn, his face a bright blue colour due to the solution, shouted for calm and started searching around the floor for his wand, which Goyle had knocked out of his hand while running past for cover.

In the midst of all the confusion, the door opened and Professor Snape came in with something in his hand. The class, seeing him, suddenly fell silent.

Snape ignored the chaos in the class, and looked at Flynn with a strange glitter in his eyes.

"Donahue is dead," he said.

Flynn's face went a paler shade of blue.

"No!" he gasped. "You're joking!"

Snape said nothing, but merely held out a scrap of parchment.

Flynn read it, then looked at Snape.

"Murdered?" he said, almost in a whisper. "But - who would want to murder him?"

Snape's lip curled.

"That is not our problem, Flynn. Our problem is whether there is any point continuing with the research now."

Flynn seemed to be thinking, and then an expression of mulish determination came over his childlike face.

"We must continue, Severus!" he said. "How can we let our colleague down? We will find a way!"

Snape was wearing his usual sneering expression.

"It's up to you, Flynn," he said coldly. "It is of very little consequence to me whether the experiment is successful or not."

"How can you say that, Severus?" said Flynn, looking rather shocked.

Snape, however, was already leaving the room. He paused at the door, then turned around and snapped,

"We will be having a meeting immediately. The Headmaster wishes to see us."

Flynn, his mouth slightly open, watched as Snape disappeared through the door. Then, he suddenly turned to the students and said, "Class dismissed! Excuse me, I have an urgent meeting." And he hurried through the door after Snape.

Ron, fishing Trevor - now a mixture of electric blue and grass green - out of his cauldron, turned to Harry.

"What on earth was all that about?" he asked.

Harry couldn't sleep. He lay, wide awake, staring up at the canopy of his bed. Then, he got up and took out the album of his parents' photographs and looked through it. When he had finished, he placed it back in his trunk. He then caught sight of the bottle of stardust which Jeanne had obtained from the mirror in Deorg's fortress for him.

He took the bottle out, and idly turned it around in his hands for a while, watching the dust shimmer. Would it one day bring his parents back?

He put the bottle back in the trunk, then saw his Invisibility Cloak. He hadn't used it for a while.

Harry stared at the Cloak for a minute or two, then made up his mind. He would just walk around the castle a bit, until he felt a bit more sleepy. Taking up the Cloak, he went from the room.

He wandered down to the Great Hall, then over to the Charms corridor. At one point he saw Mrs Norris coming up a flight of stairs, and stopped until she passed.

"Just one more round, and then I'll go back to bed," he said to himself.

The route he was taking would lead him past Professor Lupin's room. He was just passing by when the door opened, and Jeanne came out. Harry stopped short in surprise. He pulled the Invisibility Cloak more tightly around him and looked at her. Why was she with Lupin at this hour of the night?

Lupin was at the door, looking at her. For a while, they faced each other, and something seemed to pass between them, though they did not say anything. Harry could tell by their faces that something was wrong.

At last, Jeanne said softly, "Are you sure, Remus?"

Lupin's gaze fell to the floor.

"Forgive me, Jeanne," he said, quietly.

She looked at him for a moment more, then turned and made her way down the corridor. Harry could clearly see tears rolling down her cheeks as she passed him.

Lupin stood at the doorway as if turned to stone, watching her with an obscure kind of pain in his eyes. Then, when she had gone, he slowly turned around and shut the door.

Harry stood there, petrified. What had happened?

He headed slowly back to the Gryffindor common room, and up to bed, still thinking.

The only thing he could think of, that could explain what he'd just seen, was that Lupin had decided he liked Professor Maricai after all, and had dumped Jeanne. But this seemed so impossible that Harry dismissed it. He lay in bed for a while, and fell asleep still wondering about it.

Jeanne seemed very subdued over the next few days. She was wearing her sullen expression even more than ever. Hagrid was worried about her.

"She's almos' like she was when she firs' came here," he told Harry. "Not talkin' ter anyone."

Harry, however, didn't tell Hagrid what he'd seen. He knew neither Jeanne nor Lupin would care for anyone to know.

Professor Lupin was also looking rather sober. He even looked rather irritated by Professor Maricai's constant attention at times, which was unusual for him. Harry couldn't help feeling pleased when he noticed this.

"That rules out one reason, anyway," he said to himself.

During the next full moon, just a few days later, he checked the Marauder's Map. Jeanne was in Lupin's room during the day, but at night she was back in her own room. Harry felt his heart sink when he saw this.

He thought of trying to talk to her, but she seemed to be avoiding him.

He finally had his chance a few days later, when he happened to meet her one afternoon down at Hagrid's. She was sitting on the floor, reading a thick book. In front of her was an array of small jars full of unsightly solutions. They reminded Harry of the jars he had seen in Snape's study.

"Hagrid's gone to London on an errand for Dumbledore," she said when she saw Harry. "He won't be back till tonight."

Harry sat down next to her, but before he could say anything, there was a knock on the door, and Neville came in. He was holding Trevor, who was still a peculiar mixture of grass green and blue.

"I've tried to make Trevor take his medicine, but he just refuses to," said Neville dolefully. "Can you persuade him a bit for me?"

Jeanne took Trevor on her palm and said something to him. Trevor stared back at her, gulping gently and blinking.

Jeanne looked at him for a while, then smiled at Neville.

"He says you're trying to give him the wrong medicine, Neville. It should be from the bottle with the red cap, not the black one."

"Oh!" said Neville, going pink. He thanked her, and then trotted out the door, clutching Trevor.

Harry looked at the thick book Jeanne was reading.

"Journal of Medicinal Potions and Herbal Remedies," he read. He looked at her, puzzled.

"What are you reading that for, Jeanne?" he asked. "It can't be for Neville; it's far too advanced - those are published papers."

"So they are," agreed Jeanne. "Some of the terms are so technical I don't understand them." She shrugged, and said evasively, "It's just for general knowledge."

She picked up Hagrid's pink umbrella and started pointing it at the jars on the floor, labelling each one.

Harry sat and watched her.

"Are you still helping Snape?" he asked. "I would have thought, with Flynn around, you wouldn't have to, any more."

Jeanne pointed the umbrella at the last jar, but nothing happened. She whacked the umbrella on the floor, then tried again. A blank label appeared on the jar.

She gave a small sigh.

"Hagrid's umbrella is acting up again," she said. "I guess I have to do it the other way."

She pointed a finger at the blank label, and the word "Agapanthus" appeared on it.

Harry looked at her face. She was wearing her usual sullen expression, and there were shadows under her eyes, like Lupin sometimes had.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "You look tired."

She just sighed again, and stared at the jars.

They sat in silence for a while, and then Harry spoke.

"Something's bothering you, Jeanne," he said. "I don't want to pry, but both Hagrid and I are worried about you. Can't we do anything to help?"

She looked at him, then shook her head.

She was silent a while longer, staring at the floor, and then she finally spoke.

"A week ago I went to see Remus," she said. "I more or less begged him to change his mind, and to let us be more than friends. But he wouldn't agree."

Harry looked at her in surprise.

"But - I thought you told me you were content to just be friends!"

She bit her lip.

"Things have changed," she said, not looking at him. "Time is running out."

Harry looked blank.

"I'm sorry…I - I don't understand."

She sighed.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I don't really want to talk about it. Please try and understand."

She put all the jars into a box, and got up to go. At the door, she paused, and looked at Harry.

"And please don't tell Hagrid."

"All right," said Harry, feeling rather worried.

She looked depressed. Without another word, she turned and left, shutting the door behind her.

Harry knew he was being a busybody, but he was so worried about Jeanne that he started keeping tabs on her by using the Marauder's Map. She had been suicidal in the past, and he wasn't going to take any chances.

The Map seemed to be behaving better lately. Harry didn't notice any more people suddenly mysteriously vanishing, and Jeanne now always appeared to be in Hogwarts. He noticed she seemed to be spending a lot of her time closeted in her room. Harry wondered what she was up to; at first he thought she was sick, but then he would see her later that same day looking fine, if a bit tired.

She was still giving Neville tuition; but she stopped attending Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures classes.

"Tol' her she needn' come," said Hagrid, when they asked about her. "She ask'd me if she could stop, an' I said yes, since she's not bin lookin' well lately. Guess it was jus' a matter of time before she has ter drop somethin', she can't keep havin' a finger in so many pies."

But the most extraordinary thing that Harry noticed from the Map was that Jeanne seemed to be spending more time with Marcus Flynn. At first, he thought she must be discussing potions with him, just as she did with Snape. But then, he saw them together in Hogsmeade.

Harry had just come out of Zonko's, together with Ron and Hermione, when the latter grabbed his arm and said, "look!"

Jeanne and Flynn were standing nearby, looking at jewellery. The jewellery shop was not Grenivere's, where Professor Lupin had obtained the wolf pendant, but a new and trendier looking shop which had booths outside so as to attract more customers. Signs stuck on each booth said, "Anti-shoplifting charm activated".

Harry couldn't believe his eyes.

"But - Jeanne doesn't even like jewellery!" he said. "I've seen her in a jewellery shop before, and she looked totally bored."

"She doesn't look bored, now," said Ron. "She looks like she's having the time of her life. And Flynn seems to be buying up half the shop for her."

They went a bit closer, close enough to hear what Jeanne and Flynn were saying.

"We might want to have a look at Grenivere's shop after this," Flynn said.

Jeanne frowned.

"I don't go to Grenivere's, Marcus," she said. "His wares are all of very low quality."

Harry couldn't believe his ears. He watched as Flynn bought five necklaces, and gave them to Jeanne. They then turned and disappeared into the crowd.

"Those necklaces cost a lot," said Hermione. "I didn't know Jeanne had such expensive taste."

"She doesn't!" said Harry, still unable to believe what he'd just seen.

"Looks like Flynn's persistence has paid off," said Ron. "Though I must say it's odd. He really doesn't seem to be Jeanne's type."

"No," agreed Hermione sadly, "I thought she and Professor Lupin made a much better couple."

Several days went by before Harry had an opportunity to talk to Jeanne.

His chance came when he met her one day, after his Herbology class. She had just collected some plant samples from Professor Sprout, probably for one of Snape's potions.

"Are you going back to the castle as well, Jeanne?" he asked, falling in step with her.

She nodded, but did not smile. She seemed rather distant, and there was a strangely resolute look on her face.

Harry looked at her.

"I saw you at Hogsmeade last weekend, with Professor Flynn."

He'd half expected her to look guilty, or start explaining why she'd been with Flynn, but she didn't.

"Did you?" she said quietly. "I didn't see you."

Harry felt something wasn't quite right.

"I thought you didn't like Flynn, Jeanne."

She didn't look at him.

"Things have changed, Harry."

Harry was nonplussed.

"Is - is everything all right?" he asked.

"It's as fine as it can be."

Harry couldn't stand it any more.

"Jeanne!" he said, coming to a halt, and looking at her.

She stopped, and looked at him. There was an odd expression in her eyes - determined, resolute and strangely despairing.

"What's happening? Why were you with Flynn? What about Professor Lupin?"

Jeanne looked slightly bitter.

"I told you already, Harry. Remus and I are through," she said.

"I don't believe it!" said Harry. "Don't tell me you don't care for him any more."

She looked at him, then looked away.

"I've made my choice," she said quietly.

Harry couldn't believe his ears.

"You mean, you're really going together with Flynn?" he said incredulously.

She nodded.

"But - how can you?" Harry asked. "You don't care for him, do you?"

"That's not important, Harry," she said.

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand.

"I've made my choice, Harry," she said. "I know what I'm doing. You don't understand now, but maybe you will, one day."

She dropped one of the plants, and bent to pick it up.

"I have to go now," she said, not looking at him. "I'll talk to you another time." And she walked off without another glance, leaving Harry staring after her in amazement.