The morning of Maisie's sixteenth birthday dawned bright and cold. Despite a roaring fire in the dormitory, the cold seeped in and woke Maisie at the crack of dawn. There was a small pile of packages at the foot of her bed.
Maisie sat up, careful to keep the blankets wrapped around herself, and grabbed a parcel at random.
It was from Mum and Dad: a new jumper in a beautiful moss-green shade, and a delicate silver necklace. The card was sappy, telling Maisie that she was becoming a beautiful young woman and should look the part. Maisie rolled her eyes at Mum's uncharacteristic sentimentality and pulled the jumper on over her pajamas. Green was her favorite color to wear (though never the Slytherin emerald-green shade, of course).
Oliver hadn't sent a card, only scrawled "From Ollie" on the wrapping paper. He'd got her a new pair of armguards for Quidditch.
"Nice, Ollie!" Maisie said quietly. She wondered if he was any closer on deciding which Quidditch team to join. The Kenmare Kestrels and Pride of Portee had both made offers, conditional on Oliver passing certain N.E.W.T. tests. Why a Quidditch team should care what N.E.W.T.s their reserve Keeper had, Maisie didn't know.
Pippa, Bryony, Jimmy, and Jasper had bought Maisie a pair of snow boots. (On the last snowy day, Maisie's feet had gone numb because her boots weren't waterproof.) Lee sent Honeydukes candy.
When she saw Archie's spiky handwriting, Maisie's face grew warm. It was addressed to "Peppermint," in honor of Maisie's favorite candy. The card said, "For when you want to go as fast as you can." It was a pair of Quidditch goggles.
"Oh, Archie!" Maisie breathed. "Brilliant!"
One large parcel and two small ones remained. Maisie recognized Fred's handwriting on one of the small ones and George's on the other two. She opened Fred's first.
Dear Mays, Happy Birthday! Do you remember me saying we bought your birthday gift in Egypt? Well, here's half of it. Georgie's got the other. Enjoy! – Freddie
The parcel contained an oddly shaped bronze ornament. Wondering what the two halves would make, Maisie ripped the paper off George's small present.
Hey Mays, put this together with Fred's gift and see what happens. Love, George.
Puzzled, Maisie put the odd bronze shape next to Fred's. The two ornaments wriggled out of her hands and fused themselves together. A large scarab beetle, buzzing happily, took off around the dorm room.
Maisie shrieked. The sound startled the other girls awake.
"Maisie, what the hell?" Evie raised her tousled head from the pillow.
"What is that thing?" said Pippa.
"The twins sent it," Maisie said. "It's from Egypt."
Bryony eyed the beetle warily. "Is it dangerous?"
"I don't think so," said Maisie, "but knowing the twins, it might do something annoying. Be careful!"
The beetle landed on Bryony's blanket. Bryony pulled back, yanking the covers up to her chin. The beetle, violently displaced, took flight again and landed on Maisie's head. Joscelind, perched on the windowsill, watched the beetle with her enormous green eyes, tail flicking back and forth.
"I'll ask the twins about it," Maisie said. "Don't worry about it. Go back to sleep."
"Like hell!" Pippa bounced out of bed and came to perch on Maisie's. "You're opening your gifts! Did you open ours? Happy birthday, Mays!"
"Thanks, Pip! Yeah, I opened it. It's brilliant, thank you so much! Look what Mum and Dad got me!" Maisie showed Pippa her necklace.
"Ooh, that's beautiful."
"And Oliver got me new armguards, look."
"Those will come in handy," said Bryony. "That bruise from last week still hasn't faded."
"It's starting to." Maisie pulled up her sleeve and examined the yellowing blotch. "It doesn't hurt."
Pippa picked up Maisie's new goggles. "What are these?"
"They're for Quidditch, so the wind doesn't sting my eyes. Archie got them for me."
"Romantic."
"It is, actually!" Maisie turned bright red. "I told him I wanted to play Seeker because I love to go fast."
"You are fast," Pippa said. "That was thoughtful. Most guys would've stuck with jewelry or something."
"I'm a little surprised he got me anything at all," Maisie said. "We haven't been dating for that long."
"He must really like you." Pippa gestured to the large package. "What's that?"
"Not sure." Maisie ripped the paper off. "Oh, look, a card."
She read aloud: "'Dear Maisie, we wouldn't recommend eating any of this yourself. Make sure to tell everybody where you got it: Weasley's Wizard Wheezes! Patent pending.' There's so much here! They've been busy."
"No wonder they're flunking most of their classes." Bryony sniffed.
"Who cares about classes when you've got ideas like these!" Maisie pulled out a cream puff. "Pip, you should try this one."
Pippa shrank back. "The twins said not to eat any of it yourself."
"I know what this one is," Maisie said. "It won't hurt, I promise. And it tastes good."
Pippa took the cream puff warily and took a tiny bite. Chewing cautiously, she glanced around the room as if expecting a bomb to fall. Moments later, she turned into a canary with a loud POP.
Bryony, Maisie, and Evie burst into laughter. Even Patty, peering malevolently out from under her blankets, cracked a smile. The canary cheeped in agitation.
"It's okay, Pip!" Maisie stroked the canary reassuringly. "You'll be back soon."
The presence of a canary and a large beetle in Maisie's bed proved to be too much for Joscelind; she pounced, narrowly missing Pippa-the-canary. There was another POP, and Maisie's bed was suddenly very crowded. Pippa, Joscelind, and several gifts tumbled to the floor. The cat yowled and scurried away.
"Canary Cream!" said Maisie through laughter. "Compliments of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, patent pending!"
The other girls fell about, laughing so hard they couldn't breathe. Pippa looked mildly offended for a moment but joined in the laughter.
Wiping tears of mirth from her eyes, Bryony said, "Do they really have a patent on this stuff?"
"Some of it, yeah," said Maisie. "They've been selling it in the corridors, and they just started a mail order service last week. There's an ad in The Quibbler."
"Seriously? That's incredible!" said Pippa.
"They'll get in trouble if Filch or McGonagall catches them running an illicit business out of the Gryffindor common room," said Patty. "Surely there's something in the school rules…"
"There isn't," said Bryony. "And I'd know."
Patty turned bright red; she'd wanted to be a prefect and was still peeved that Bryony had gotten it. "I'm going back to bed." She pulled the covers over her head.
"Can't sleep for too long," said Pippa, glancing at the clock. "Breakfast opens in thirty minutes."
"Merlin's beard!" Bryony scrambled out of bed. "We've got that Transfiguration test today. We were going to go over our notes one more time."
They got in forty-five minutes of studying before going late to breakfast, eating quickly, and racing to Transfiguration to cram a little more before class.
"Good luck, Wood." Adrian Pucey jostled Maisie's desk on his way past.
"Go to hell, Pucey," said Maisie without looking up from her textbook.
The exam was difficult. Maisie was writing up until the bell rang. But she answered every question and felt confident in most of her answers. She needed to bring her grade up if she wanted to become a Healer.
After Transfiguration they had Potions with Ravenclaw. Maisie felt the beginnings of a headache, from focusing so hard on the exam, and Snape's assignment for the day made things no better. Potions was another O.W.L. she needed to perform well on; Snape only took O students into the N.E.W.T. class. Luckily, Potions had always been one of Maisie's favorite classes.
After lunch was Muggle Studies. There were only six people in the class: Maisie, Bryony, Alicia Spinnet, the Weasley twins, and Gryffindor prefect Anna Mirfield. Professor Burbage delivered a lecture on Muggle currency, which she said was guaranteed to appear on the O.W.L. This exam, at least, Maisie wasn't worried about.
Class got out late, so the third-years were waiting outside. Maisie said hello to Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott before hurrying away. As she rounded the corner, she bumped into a short black girl with a cloud of dark curls.
"Oops! Sorry, Hermione," Maisie called over her shoulder. At the top of the stairs, however, she saw Hermione coming up from the third floor.
"Hello, Hermione," said Maisie. "It's so funny…I just saw someone who looks exactly like you…"
"That is funny." Hermione was oddly breathless for someone climbing a single flight of stairs. "I think there's a girl in Ravenclaw with similar hair. See you later!"
Maisie watched the younger girl hurry away, frowning slightly, but there was no time to dwell on the existence of a Hermione Granger doppelganger; they were going to be late for Charms.
At dinner, Maisie's friends thoroughly embarrassed her by singing loudly over pudding. The Gryffindor Quidditch team came to the Hufflepuff table to sing and share dessert. Fred whipped out a hat with charmed candles around the brim and set it on Maisie's head with aplomb.
"Happy birthday, Maisie Daisy!" The twins swooped in to kiss her on both cheeks at once.
Maisie hid her red face beneath the brim of the glowing hat.
Archie put his finger under Maisie's chin and raised her head to kiss her gently on the lips. "Happy birthday, Mint," he said softly.
This did nothing to lessen the redness of Maisie's face. "Thanks. And thanks for the gift. I love it."
"Good." Archie grinned. "I expect you'll use them a lot. I know you like to go fast."
"I do." Maisie returned his smile.
The fifth and seventh years retreated to the library after dinner. The Hufflepuffs decided to study DADA for a few hours; they had an exam coming up, and it was high time they started reviewing properly for their O.W.L. Owen joined them for the first time in weeks.
"All right, Mays?" Owen took the chair next to Maisie's.
"Er, yeah. Great, Owen, thanks. And you?" It was their first proper conversation in some time.
"I'm getting by," said Owen. "Thought maybe I'd make more progress studying if I had you lot keeping me accountable."
Silence fell as they bent over their books. Every ten minutes or so, somebody broke the silence to ask a question. Jasper and Maisie got into an intense discussion about the identity of a person's Patronus that only ended because Bryony begged them to shut up.
Maisie was rereading the chapter in her DADA textbook on humanoid dark creatures. She came to the passage on werewolves: Frequent illness will follow the strict pattern of the moon cycle…
"When was the last full moon?" Maisie said.
"It's tonight," said Jasper.
"How do you know?"
Jasper pointed out the window. "The moon's right there, Mays."
Sure enough, it was. And it was full.
Maisie's stomach sank; Professor Lupin hadn't been at dinner. Surely he wasn't…Dumbledore would never let…would he? Dumbledore is a highly unconventional person, Maisie thought. Last year's dueling club proves that. But underage dueling and werewolves are two very different things…
Maisie bent intently over her textbook. Another passage jumped out at her: These illnesses will leave the subject thin and exhausted, even if the administration of the Wolfsbane Potion alleviates his symptoms. The Wolfsbane Potion is often not readily available, as it is a highly advanced, difficult, and tricky brew. Few potioneers are up to making the Wolfsbane Potion, let alone frequently enough to satisfy the needs of a full-fledged werewolf…
Snape, Maisie thought. Snape is bloody brilliant. His instructions don't match the textbook half the time, but they work perfectly. I'd bet my last Galleon that Snape could brew the Wolfsbane. And if he did, Dumbledore might allow…but would the Ministry? The Ministry hates werewolves. Werewolves are dangerous!
This could all be an incredible coincidence, Maisie thought. Maybe Lupin just gets sick a lot. The climate in Scotland is harsher than southern England. If he's even from southern England. None of us know anything about him. We knew everything about Lockhart, and Quirrell talked about his research…of course, Quirrell had You-Know-Who sticking out of the back of his head…Maybe this is why Lupin isn't in touch with his family.
Maisie did not get much studying done after that. The others continued studying in the common room after the library closed, but Maisie retreated to the dormitory. She sat in the window seat between her bed and Bryony's, knees drawn up to her chest, staring at the snowy ground and thinking. Joscelind sat on her feet, purring loudly.
It can't be, Maisie thought. There's no way Professor Dumbledore would hire a werewolf. Not even a werewolf who's as good a teacher as Lupin. It's too dangerous. He wouldn't do that…would he?