Chapter 11
Cassidy yawned and rubbed her eyes, ignoring the sounds of Draco milking his injury yet again. The classroom felt cold this morning, and she definitely did not want to be kept waiting. She'd much rather be interrogating Professor Lupin on exactly how and why he knows her dad. Maybe they were classmates? She didn't know. Her father never mentioned the friends he'd made during his time at Hogwarts.
She sighed, stretching. Harry Potter, one of her best mates, was smirking at her. He'd been smirking since the day begun. Cassidy wanted to shove that silly smirk off his face.
"What're you smirking for, you spectacled git?" She said teasingly, though there was a bit of sharpness to her voice. Cassidy was not a morning person.
"You're tired, aren't you Cass?" Harry said, like he knew a big secret no one else knew.
Cassidy furrowed her brow. "Yeah...I am."
"Tired from talking to Ron all night, yeah?"
"Shut up." Cassidy shoved Harry, who'd started laughing. Ron, who was sitting next to Bem not too far off, was too busy doodling to notice. Before Harry could say anything, however, the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom flew open.
It was Professor Snape.
Cassidy then remembered what Harry had overheard him saying last night, before she'd started talking to Ron, how he suspected a teacher was helping Sirius Black. She suddenly thought of the bear she'd been seeing, though she didn't understand why. She hadn't even had a single dream since the Leaky Cauldron.
Professor Snape glided in dramatically, with his black robes billowing the way they usually did, silencing students and closing the window shutters with his wand.
"What's he doing here?" Cassidy muttered, rolling her eyes as Snape got to the front of the classroom and pulled down a large white screen.
"No idea." Harry muttered back, as Snape turned to face the classroom.
"Turn to page 394." Snape drawled. Cassidy reluctantly grabbed her textbook, wondering where the hell Professor Lupin was.
As Snape started to walk across the classroom, Cassidy nudged Harry and motioned to Snape. Harry cleared his throat before speaking.
"Excuse me sir," he started hesitantly. "Where's Professor Lupin?"
"Is he sick or something?" Cassidy asked worriedly.
"It's not really your concern, is it Potter and Sweet?"
Cassidy suppressed the urge to throw her textbook at Snape's head.
"Suffice it to say, that your professor finds himself incapable of teaching at present time." Snape drawled, and Cassidy furrowed her brow as he strode to the back of the classroom.
"Sweet, I see you still haven't opened your textbook. Turn to page 394, now." He repeated, now behind a large projector. Cassidy rolled her eyes and obliged, slowly turning her pages.
She jumped as Snape used his wand to forcefully turn the book to that page, and he did the same to Ron's textbook. Ron widened his eyes.
"Werewolves?"
Hermione whirled around to look at Snape, indignant.
"But sir, we've just begun learning about Red-Caps and Hinkypuffs."
Cassidy jumped, and whirled around to see Hermione was sitting behind her and Harry, though she swore she wasn't there a moment ago.
"Really, Hermione, you're making it obvious." She whispered, so that Harry couldn't hear. Hermione gave her that same pleading look, and yet again, Cassidy dropped the subject.
"We're not supposed to start nocturnal beasts for weeks." Hermione continued.
"Quiet." Snape drawled threateningly.
"When did she come in?" Ron said, bewildered. "Did you see her come in?" He turned to Harry and Cassidy. Harry shrugged, but Cassidy just shook her head and smiled.
"Now," Snape stepped away from the projector, which was now projecting images of what Cassidy thought to be cave paintings onto the white screen. "Which one of you can tell me the difference between an Animagus and a werewolf?"
Cassidy's hand shot into the air, even faster than Hermione's hand.
"No one?" Snape said sarcastically. "How disappointing."
Cassidy wasted no time. "An Animagus is a wizard who chooses to turn into an animal, and becoming an Animagus takes a very long and difficult procedure. A werewolf, on the other hand... has no choice."
The class was silent, watching her. Even Hermione was quiet.
"On each full moon, when he turns, he has no idea who he is. He'd kill his closest friends and family if they crossed his path." Cassidy swallowed, shuddering. "They only respond to calls of their own kind."
Draco howled, causing Crabbe to start laughing. Cassidy rolled her eyes, glaring at them.
"Careful, Sweet. Don't want another Boggart incident, do we?" Draco sneered, making his cronies snicker.
"That will be enough, Mr. Malfoy." Snape said. "That is the second time you've spoken without raising your hand, Miss Sweet, are you incapable of restraining yourself, or do you take pride in being an insufferable, unusually aggressive, shrewd little girl that uses her fists when she can't use her words?"
Cassidy tightened her grip on her quill, and glared at Snape as he looked down at her with that same look. Like she reminded him of someone or something he particularly hated, like she was something on the bottom of his boot.
"And you, Miss Granger," Snape turned to Hermione, who was watching the whole thing with a furious look on her face. "Try not to be an insufferable know-it-all."
"He's got a point, you know." Ron said. Cassidy threw him a glare that made him shrink away from their desk.
"Five points from Gryffindor." Snape said, turning away. "As an antidote to your ignorance, and on my desk by Monday morning..."
Cassidy lost focus as she saw Harry catch a note, one most likely sent by Malfoy. She got her own note, as well, but she saw Ron's messy handwriting on the front and stuffed it into her pocket, annoyed by his remark from earlier.
"...two rolls of parchment on the werewolf," everybody groaned, including Cassidy, who dropped her head on the desk, "with particular emphasis on recognizing it."
"He needs to recognize the fact he needs shampoo," Cassidy muttered. "Greasy haired arsehole."
"Sir, there's Quidditch tomorrow." Harry protested. Snape suddenly rushed up to the desk, getting close to Harry's face.
"Then I suggest you take extra care, Mr. Potter. Loss of limb will not excuse you."
"You need to lose some of that grease in your hair." Cassidy muttered. Harry snorted, before Snape whirled to her.
"Page 394, and 15 points from Gryffindor."
Cassidy glared at him.
"For your lip." Snape left their desk then, and Cassidy opened the note from Ron the same time Harry opened his from Draco.
Cassidy stifled a giggle at a doodle of her stabbing a dragon with Snape's head, while Harry frowned at a moving doodle of a Slytherin hitting Harry's head with a Quaffle. Cassidy looked over and grimaced.
"Morbid, isn't it?" She whispered.
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Cassidy was still fuming when she left the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Fifteen points. For her lip. As if Snape didn't have the greasiest, most unpleasant lip in the entire castle.
"I cannot believe he actually gave us an essay on werewolves," Ron grumbled beside her, kicking at the stone floor.
"Right?" Cassidy huffed. "And after calling me unusually aggressive, too. I should've been more aggressive and chucked my textbook at his head."
"I would've paid to see that," Harry muttered.
Hermione, however, was silent. She looked unusually tense, hugging her textbook to her chest as if it were a shield. Cassidy eyed her carefully.
"Something you wanna say, Granger?" she asked, only half teasing.
Hermione blinked as if startled, then gave a tight smile. "Nothing."
Cassidy didn't believe that for a second, but before she could press her, a voice called her name.
"Miss Sweet."
She turned to see Professor Lupin standing a few feet down the corridor. He looked tired—more than usual. Pale, drawn, like all the life had been drained out of him. He was still in his usual, slightly shabby robes, but Cassidy noticed that his hands were trembling, just slightly, as he gestured for her to come over.
She frowned, confused.
"Professor?"
"I'd like a word in my office," he said, his voice as soft as ever. "If you don't mind."
Cassidy hesitated, glancing back at her friends. Ron shrugged. Harry gave her a questioning look. Hermione, on the other hand, seemed way too interested in this exchange, her eyes darting between Cassidy and Lupin like she was piecing something together.
"...Sure," Cassidy said, still uncertain.
Lupin nodded and turned, walking slowly down the corridor. Cassidy followed, her mind racing.
She'd never actually been to his office before, though she'd passed by it plenty of times. It was a small room on the third floor, cluttered with books, parchment, and odd little trinkets. The desk was covered in quills and chocolate wrappers, and a large wardrobe stood at the back of the room—the same one from their Boggart lesson.
Cassidy swallowed, trying not to think about that day.
Lupin gestured for her to sit in the chair across from his desk before lowering himself carefully into his own seat, like his body ached just from moving.
Cassidy sat but didn't relax.
"...Am I in trouble?" she asked after a moment.
That actually made Lupin smile, though faintly. "No," he said. "Though I did hear about your... comments to Professor Snape."
Cassidy rolled her eyes. "He deserved worse."
"Be that as it may," Lupin said, though his tone wasn't scolding, "that's not why I called you here."
Cassidy frowned, waiting.
Lupin sighed, rubbing his temple before looking at her properly.
"I wanted to check on you properly," he said. "After the Boggart incident."
Cassidy stiffened.
For a second, she thought about playing dumb. Pretending she didn't remember. But the way Lupin looked at her—gentle, knowing—made her drop the act before it could start.
"...I'm fine," she said, shrugging.
"Are you?"
She hated that kind of question. The kind that suggested he already knew the answer.
Cassidy crossed her arms, defensive. "I mean, I reacted fast, didn't I? I didn't let it shake me."
"No," Lupin agreed. "You didn't."
There was something odd in the way he said that.
Cassidy narrowed her eyes at him. "You say that like it's weird."
Lupin studied her for a moment before exhaling, as if deciding something.
"It's not weird," he said carefully. "But it is... telling."
Cassidy blinked. "Telling of what?"
Lupin hesitated, and in that pause, Cassidy saw it—that flicker of something in his eyes, something almost personal.
"Your father," he said eventually, "was much the same way."
Cassidy's breath caught.
That wasn't what she'd expected him to say.
Lupin looked down at his desk, as if lost in thought. "Joshua had this... ability to push past his own fear. To act, even in the face of something deeply personal. It was one of his greatest strengths."
Cassidy's heartbeat was loud in her ears.
She knew her father had been brave—she'd heard stories, seen glimpses of it. But the way Lupin spoke about him now... it wasn't just admiration. It was familiarity.
Like he knew that about him. Like he'd seen it firsthand.
Cassidy swallowed.
"You knew my dad," she said, before she could stop herself. "Didn't you?"
Lupin looked at her then, something unreadable in his expression.
"...Yes," he said, simply.
Cassidy stared.
Something about the way he said it—so quietly, so gently—made her stomach twist.
She had so many questions, but before she could ask even one, Lupin straightened slightly, as if shaking something off.
"But that's a conversation for another day," he said, his voice returning to its usual soft, professional tone.
Cassidy almost groaned. "Seriously?"
Lupin actually chuckled at that.
"I did call you here for a reason, Miss Sweet," he reminded her.
Cassidy scowled but let it go. For now.
"So what is it, then?"
Lupin leaned forward slightly, lacing his fingers together.
"I'd like to offer you extra Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons," he said.
Cassidy blinked.
"...What?"
"I already planned to begin working with Harry," Lupin explained, "but after seeing you in class—your instinct, your way of thinking—I believe you would benefit from it as well."
Cassidy just stared at him.
She hadn't expected this.
"I—" she started, then stopped. Thought about it.
Extra lessons. More practice. Getting better.
A slow, excited grin spread across her face.
"When do we start?"
Lupin smiled. "I'll let you know soon."
Cassidy nodded, standing up. She hesitated for a moment, then looked at him again, studying him.
"...You should rest more," she said, before she could think better of it. "You look like hell, Professor."
Lupin let out a small, amused breath. "Duly noted."
Cassidy smirked and turned to leave.
But as she stepped out of his office, her mind was racing. He'd known her father when they were in Hogwarts.
And that?
That changed everything.