After dinner one day, Hermione asked to talk to Jane, Neville, and Luna in private. They went into an empty classroom and closed the door.
"I heard back from Professor Lupin today," Hermione said. "He would like to meet us, along with all the people who want to participate, in the Three Broomsticks during our next Hogsmede weekend. I still have copies of the lists, so we don't have to remember. I figured we'd tell everyone in the common rooms tonight. Jane, I made a note, which I plan to gemma charm a bunch of times, so you can just pass them out."
Jame smiled at her, in thanks.
Hermione smiled back, and then she started counting the people on the Hufflepuff lists.
They went into the Three Broomsticks, and they all crowded around Professor Lupin and a dark-haired man who Jane recognized from the newspaper as Sirius Black.
"Hello everyone," greeted Professor Lupin. He pointed to his friend. "This is Sirius. He'll probably be acting as a teaching assistant. Anyway, I heard that your guy's professor won't teach you anything, and you want me back."
Everyone nodded.
"And I am delighted," he said with a smile. "I contacted Dumbledore and asked his permission, and he said it was fine but that he doesn't want Umbridge to find out. He suggested a special room for us to do it in and a way to get into the castle. To keep it a secret I wrote it down and drew a map."
"And he'll show it to anyone who signs the contract," Hermione said. She pulled out a parchment and set it on the table.
Everybody signed it.
"I think we'll try to vary our meeting times," Professor Lupin said, "to help go unnoticed. Is everyone okay with Saturday, at eleven, for our first meeting?"
Everyone nodded.
Jane got a lot of weird looks lately, mainly from other students, especially when she used her wand. Her teachers all knew about her speaking situation before the start of the school year, as Jane's mother had sent a letter to the school explaining it, but she'd even gotten weird looks from some of them. She was getting fewer weird looks, and she was getting better at ignoring them, but now she was going to have Defence Against the Dark Arts class with a group that included students she had never had a class with.
She tried to tell herself that she was worried about nothing. The people she'd never met would get used to it, if they even noticed.