his office door. 

"What are you doing?" said Lupin, though in a very different voice from 
Filch. "Where are Ron and Hermione?" 

"Hogsmeade," said Harry, in a would-be casual voice. 

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"Ah," said Lupin. He considered Harry for a moment. "Why don't you come 
in? I've just taken delivery of a grindylow for our next lesson." "A 
what?" said Harry. I 

He followed Lupin into his office. In the corner stood a very large tank 
of water. A sickly green creature with sharp little horns had its face 
pressed against the glass, pulling faces and flexing its long, spindly 
fingers. 

"Water demon," said Lupin, surveying the grindylow thoughtfully. "We 
shouldn't have much difficulty with him, not after the kappas. The trick 
is to break his grip. You notice the abnormally long fingers? Strong, 
but very brittle." 

The grindylow bared its green teeth and then buried itself in a tangle 
of weeds in a corner. 

"Cup of tea?" Lupin said, looking around for his kettle. "I was just 
thinking of making one." 

"All right," said Harry awkwardly. 

Lupin tapped the kettle with his wand and a blast of steam issued 
suddenly from the spout. 

"Sit down," said Lupin, taking the lid off a dusty tin. "I've only got 
teabags, I'm afraid -- but I daresay you've had enough of tea leaves?" 

Harry looked at him. Lupin's eyes were twinkling. 

"How did you know about that?" Harry asked. 

"Professor McGonagall told me," said Lupin, passing Harry a chipped mug 
of tea. "You're not worried, are you?" 

"No," said Harry. 

He thought for a moment of telling Lupin about the dog he'd seen in 
Magnolia Crescent but decided not to. He didn't want Lupin to think he 

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was a coward, especially since Lupin alreadv seemed to think he couldn't 
cope with a boggart. 

Something of Harry's thoughts seemed to have shown on his face, because 
Lupin said, "Anything worrying you, Harry?" 

"No," Harry lied. He drank a bit of tea and watched the grindylow 
brandishing a fist at him. "Yes," he said suddenly, putting his tea down 
on Lupin's desk. "You know that day we fought the boggart?" 

"Yes," said Lupin slowly. 

"Why didn't you let me fight it?" said Harry abruptly. 

Lupin raised his eyebrows. 

"I would have thought that was obvious, Harry," he said, sounding 
surprised. 

Harry, who had expected Lupin to deny that he'd done any such thing, was 
taken aback. 

"Why?" he said again. 

"Well," said Lupin, frowning slightly, "I assumed that if the boggart 
faced you, it would assume the shape of Lord Voldemort." 

Harry stared. Not only was this the last answer he'd expected, but Lupin 
had said Voldemort's name. The only person Harry had ever heard say the 
name aloud (apart from himself) was Professor Dumbledore. 

"Clearly, I was wrong," said Lupin, still frowning at Harry. "But I 
didn't think it a good idea for Lord Voldemort to materialize in the 
staffroom. I imagined that people would panic." 

"I didn't think of Voldemort," said Harry honestly. "I -- I remembered 
those dementors." 

"I see," said Lupin thoughtfully. "Well, well... I'm impressed." fie 
smiled slightly at the look of surprise on Harry's face. "That suggests 

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that what you fear most of all is -- fear. Very wise, Harry." 
Harry didn't know what to say to that, so he drank some mot,, tea. 
"So you've been thinking that I didn't believe you capable of fighting 


the boggart?" said Lupin shrewdly. 


"Well... yeah," said Harry. He was suddenly feeling a lot happier. 
"Professor Lupin, you know the dementors --" 
He was interrupted by a knock on the door. 
"Come in," called Lupin. 
The door opened, and in came Snape. He was carrying a goblet, which was 


smoking faintly, and stopped at the sight of Harry, his black eyes 


narrowing. 
"Ah, Severus," said Lupin, smiling. "Thanks very much. Could you leave 
it here on the desk for me?" 


Snape set down the smoking goblet, his eyes wandering between Harry and 


Lupin. 
"I was just showing Harry my grindylow," said Lupin pleasantly, pointing 
at the tank. 


"Fascinating," said Snape, without looking at it. "You should drink that 
directly, Lupin." 
"Yes, Yes, I will," said Lupin. 
"I made an entire cauldronful," Snape continued. "If you need more. 


"I should probably take some again tomorrow. Thanks very much, Severus." 
"Not at all," said Snape, but there was a look in his eye Harry didn't 
like. He backed out of the room, unsmiling and watchful. 


Harry looked curiously at the goblet. Lupin smiled. 


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"Professor Snape has very kindly concocted a potion for me," he said. "I 
have never been much of a potion-brewer and this one is particularly 
complex." He picked up the goblet and sniffed it. "Pity sugar makes it 
useless," he added, taking a sip and shuddering. 

"Why --?" Harry began. Lupin looked at him and answered the unfinished 
question. 

"I've been feeling a bit off-color," he said. "This potion is the only 
thing that helps. I am very lucky to be working alongside Professor 
Snape; there aren't many wizards who are up to making it." 

Professor Lupin took another sip and Harry had a crazy urge to knock the 
goblet out of his hands. 

"Professor Snape's very interested in the Dark Arts, he blurted out. 

"Really?" said Lupin, looking only mildly interested as he took another 
gulp of potion. 

"Some people reckon --" Harry hesitated, then plunged recklessly on, 
"some people reckon he'd do anything to get the Defense Against the Dark 
Arts job." 

Lupin drained the goblet and pulled a face. 

"Disgusting," he said. "Well, Harry, I'd better get back to work. see 
you at the feast later." 

"Right," said Harry, putting down his empty teacup. 

The empty goblet was still smoking. 

"There you go," said Ron. "We got as much as we could carry." 

A shower of brilliantly colored sweets fell into Harry's lap. It was 
dusk, and Ron and Hermione had just turned up in the common room, 
pink-faced from the cold wind and looking as though they'd had the time 
of their lives. 

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"Thanks," said Harry, picking up a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps. 
"What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?" 

By the sound of it -- everywhere. Dervish and Banges, the wizarding 
equipment shop, Zonko's Joke Shop, into the Three Broomsticks for 
foaming mugs of hot butterbeer, and many places besides. 

"The post office, Harry! About two hundred owls, all sitting on shelves, 
all color-coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get 
there!" 

"Honeydukes has got a new kind of fudge; they were giving out free 
samples, there's a bit, look --" 

"We think we saw an ogre, honestly, they get all sorts at the Three 
Broomsticks --" 

"Wish we could have brought you some butterbeer, really warms you up --" 

"What did you do?" said Hermione, looking anxious. "Did you get any work 
done?" 

"No," said Harry. "Lupin made me a cup of tea in his office. And then 
Snape came in...." 

He told them all about the goblet. Ron's mouth fell open. 

"Lupin drank it?" he gasped. "Is he mad?" 

Hermione checked her watch. 

"We'd better go down, you know, the feast'll be starting in fiveminutes 
They hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd, still 
discussing Snape. 

"But if he -- you know" -- Hermione dropped her voice, glancing 
nervously around -- "if he was trying to to poison Lupin -- he wouldn't 
have done it in front of Harry." 

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"Yeah, maybe," said Harry as they reached the entrance hall and crossed 
into the Great Hall. It had been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of 
candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats, and many 
flaming orange streamers, which were swimming lazily across the stormy 
ceiling like brilliant watersnakes. 

The food was delicious; even Hermione and Ron, who were full to bursting 
with Honeydukes sweets, managed second helpings of everything. Harry 
kept glancing at the staff table. Professor Lupin 

looked cheerful and as well as he ever did; he was talking animatedly to 
tiny little Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher. Harry moved his eyes 
along the table, to the place where Snape sat. Was he imagining it, or 
were Snape's eyes flickering toward Lupin more often than was natural? 

The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts 
ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do a bit of formation 
gliding; Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had a great success 
with a reenactment of his own botched beheading. 

It had been such a pleasant evening that Harry's good mood couldn't even 
be spoiled by Malfoy, who shouted through the crowd as they all left the 
hall, "The dementors send their love, Potter!" 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed the rest of the Gryffindors along the 
usual path to Gryffindor Tower, but when they reached the corridor that 
ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, they found it jammed with 
students. 

"Why isn't anyone going in?" said Ron curiously. 

Harry peered over the heads in front of him. The portrait seemed to be 
closed. 

"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling 
importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all 
have forgotten the password -- excuse me, I'm Head Boy --" 

And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a 
chill seemed to spread down the corridor. They heard Percy say, in a 

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suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick." 

People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe. 

"What's going on?" said Ginny, who had just arrived. 

A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the 
portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and 
Harry