[a/n: Hey everyone! I would just like to say that I LOVE all of my reviewers—Siriusly guys, you are totally amazing! I have an update as to how my sister's surgery went, etc. at the end of the chappie, in case any of you were wondering. Thanks so much for all the prayers you said and thinking about her, it means a lot to me! And now, let's dive into the chapter, shall we? (snaps a shower cap on her head, takes a deeeeeep breath, and dives into the story)]

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I do own a couple Harry Potter calendars, a few Harry Potter posters, a Harry Potter pillow, a Harry Potter blanket, various Harry Potter plushies, a couple Harry Potter T-shirts...(author's voice fades out, as this list could go on for a very very long time)...

Chapter 9: Meeting Professor R.J. Lupin

Claire just sat there for a second, staring at the piece of parchment in her hand. In the excitement of the weekend, she had quite forgotten she owed Professor McGonagall a detention. But seeing as she had it with Professor Lupin, she wasn't worried about it at all, but instead rather excited. Claire had been looking forward to today's classes anyway, because she had just barely missed going to Defense Against the Dark Arts last week (they had it on Mondays and Thursdays—Lupin had been "ill" last Thursday and she had missed Monday, seeing as she wasn't at Hogwarts yet). It looked as if she would be spending most of the day with him!

"Well, I suppose it could be worse," Claire muttered to herself with a little grin on her face, folding up the parchment and slipping it inside her robes. "At least it's not detention with Dolores!"

"Who?"

Claire jumped. Bethany had just appeared behind her.

"Don't do that!" Claire said, clutching her chest. "You scared me!"

"Sorry," Bethany said. She sounded rather irritated. "So are you ever going to explain to me what happened in the hospital wing Saturday night, or what?"

"Oh yeah! Here, sit down—"

Claire explained how she had had a little chat with Robin, although she didn't tell Bethany anything Robin had said about her parents or her childhood. Even if Robin was going to blackmail her or mess with her mind, Claire was not about to sink that low! Basically the only thing she told in great detail to Bethany was how Robin has seen the book cover.

Bethany was not pleased.

"You WHAT?!" she half-shouted, making passerby stare and wonder what they were discussing. Lowing her tone as she noticed this, Bethany went on, "Claire, I realize you don't know much yet, because you haven't 'been here that long' or whatever, but I told you what people think about that girl! I know you think it's wrong, but if you start mixing with her no one is going to trust you, or believe anything you say for that matter. I'm not saying its right, I'm just saying that's the way it works."

Bethany had this kind of pleading in her eyes, as if she was trying to say she was sorry for having to break the news and asking Claire without words not to kill the messenger bringer. Nevertheless, Claire was still slightly infuriated.

"Well if that's the way things work around here, Bethie," Claire said, rising and throwing her bag over her shoulder, "maybe it's time to change the way things work around here." And to complete the point she was making, she followed Robin's lead in leaving the Great Hall.

Tears slightly stung her eyes as she made her way to Lupin's classroom. She felt as if part of the thrill of Hogwarts had just died for her. She had always envisioned it as a place where all the popularity and social standings didn't matter—everyone had magic, everyone was friends with everyone else. That was the way she had hoped it would be. But in fact, it turned out to be just like every other school she'd ever been to, where everyone had to worry and fret over what people thought of you. Claire was never one of the popular kids; rather she was often teased and made fun of because of how smart she was and how often she read Harry Potter. Her nick name at school, to those who didn't care to find out her real name, was "The Harry Freak." Even now that she was finally in a place she thought she had always belonged, had nothing changed? Still was she just another person passing all the "important" people in the halls? It certainly looked that way.

Lost in her thoughts and trying to keep her tears on a manageable level, she didn't even notice that Harry Potter himself was watching her curiously as she fought her way through the throng of people in the Entrance Hall to reach the marble staircase.

Having left the Great Hall in such a rush, she reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom a bit earlier than everyone else. She slumped against the wall, staring into space. This must be how Harry always felt, she thought to herself. He was a boy in his prime, and he was supposed to be out there having fun, going on dates, with nothing more important than quidditch practice to worry about; and instead he had to fight off evil Dark wizards, rescue innocent men from a fate worse than death, and smuggle baby dragons off the grounds. She smiled slightly and dried her eyes on her robes. She was getting the true Harry Potter experience, there was no doubt about that.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a door slamming into her face.

"AHH!"

"Good Lord—Claire! Are you alright?"

Blinking a few times, she looked up and into the kind eyes of Remus Lupin, marauder and dear friend of James Potter and Sirius Black. She could hardly believe he was there, and remembered by the sight of his robes and bags under his eyes that the full moon had been the previous week.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine, professor," Claire said in a nasal voice (she was holding her nose, as if this would make the pain magically go away). "I suppose it wasn't terribly brilliant of me to choose a seat right where the door swings open."

"Nevertheless, from now on I'll make sure that seat isn't occupied before I open the door for classes!" Lupin said, smiling. "You sure you're alright? I'd let you go to the hospital wing, but seeing as you just got out of there about half an hour ago I'm guessing you're not in a great hurry to go back. What brings you to class so early anyway? You are usually one of the last minute stragglers if memory serves me correctly."

Claire laughed. That sounded like her, alright.

"No, actually—"

She spotted Bethany coming up the stairs. She looked rather upset with herself. Taking the hint that this was one of those stupid girl things, Professor Lupin returned to his classroom to finish preparing for the lesson.

"I'm sorry, Claire," Bethany said, and truly looked it. "That was stupid of me to say. It's just—I don't know, I agreed to help you out and I just wanted to forewarn you that you were going to run into problems getting people to help you out if you try to be friends with Robin. People have tried before, she just refuses to accept us, just like we all appear to have refused to accept her. It's just...kinda a bad situation on both ends of the stick, you know?"

"I know," said Claire, trying to be open-minded about the whole thing. "It's just—I don't understand why everyone worries so much about what other people think. As long as they're happy with themselves, who cares, right?"

Bethany nodded, but she didn't look like she truly agreed. But they had no further time to discuss the matter, as the rest of the students had arrived for class. They filed in, and chose seats next to each other in the middle of the room.

"So...we're okay then?" Bethany asked in a worried voice.

"Oh yeah—half of that was just because I'm worried about the person knowing about you-know-what," Claire muttered in response. "No worries!" she added with a wink.

"Alright, class, settle down," Professor Lupin said, raising his voice to be heard. The class silenced itself immediately, looking forward to another good lesson. "I would just like to take the time to apologize for falling ill. I trust that everything went well while I was out?"

Claire half expected the class to burst out complaining about an unfair assignment Professor Snape had given them, as this is what usually happened whenever Professor Lupin inquired about how classes had gone when he was ill in the books. But all that happened were a few pleasant nods and comments like, "No, nothing too interesting."

"Very good!" Lupin replied to these responses, clapping his hands together. "In that case, let's get started with today's lesson. Everyone take out your wands and move the desks to the walls, please..."

It turned out the second years were practicing basic self-defense spells, such as disarming, jelly-legs the full body-bind, etc. Today they were working with disarming, and spent a fun-filled hour and half making each other's wands fly about the room.

"Ow!!" Bethany shouted as Claire's wand flew straight into her ear.

"Sorry, Bethie!" Claire said, unable to stop herself from laughing as Professor Lupin rushed over to assist her in pulling it out.

"I can see we need to work on control and concentration a bit more in the next class," Lupin said with a grin, returning the wand to Claire. "Everyone, for Thursday's class I would like everyone to write a one page essay about an occasion when the Disarming spell could prove itself useful. Feel free to be creative! Now if you all would please move the desks back, that will be all for today..."

After the room had been properly rearranged, Claire thought for a minute about asking Professor Lupin what her punishment was going to be that evening. But her friends were so hungry, they dragged her out of the room and down to the Great Hall for lunch before she had a chance to comment otherwise.

"What was that letter you got this morning, Claire?" Bethany asked her as she shoveled mashed potatoes into her mouth.

"Oh, that," Claire replied, pouring herself some pumpkin juice (which really didn't taste as nasty as it sounded in the books). "It was from Professor McGonagall, about my detention tonight. I'm supposed to" –she whipped the note out of her robes to double check— " 'meet Professor Lupin in the dungeons at 8 o'clock.' I wonder what he's gonna have me doing down there..."

Bethany shrugged. "Beats me. Why didn't you ask him after the lesson?"

Claire glared at her as she took a large bite out of her roast beef sandwich.

After lunch they sat through one of the most boring History of Magic lessons in school history. As Professor Binns droned on and on endlessly talking about goblin so-and-so's great conquer over wizard what's-his-face's fort, Claire couldn't help but let her mind wander freely. Curiosity about the detention was pouring over her. What would she be doing in the dungeons in a couple hours time? Maybe while the rest of her friends ran off to dinner (if this class EVER ended...), she could slip off to Professor Lupin's classroom and just ask really quick if she would need to bring anything with her. Maybe they were fighting bogarts or something...

So when the bell (finally) rang, Claire told Bethany and Ginny she was going to drop off her books, and headed quickly to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room.

When she finally reached the door, however, it was slightly ajar, and voices could be heard inside...

"Why did they have to come to the match?" said a bitter voice.

Now I don't want you to think that for a moment, Claire didn't remember the reason she had received a detention was because she had been eavesdropping in the first place. No, Claire was more thoughtful than that, and she did think a thought quite similar to the one I just mentioned...even if it was only for a small moment..... ;-)

In a flash she had her eye pressed up to the crack in the door, watching as she listened to the conversation.

"—I don't think they could resist the large crowd around the Quidditch field. All that excitement...emotions running high...it was their idea of a feast," Lupin was saying.

"Azkaban must be terrible," Harry muttered while Lupin nodded in agreement. Claire realized then that the professor must have been remembering at that moment that one of his best friends had been tortured in there for the past twelve years, and how it had changed him. Sadness swelled up inside her, but then again, so did her determination to succeed and make these people's lives happy once again.

"The fortress is set on a tiny island, way out to sea," Lupin explained, "but they don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're all trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most of them go mad within weeks."

Claire wiped a tear off her cheek, thinking about Sirius.

"But Sirius Black escaped from them," Harry said, sounding as if he was choosing his words carefully. "He got away..."

"Yes," Lupin replied, "Black must have found a way to fight them. I wouldn't have believed it possible.....Dementors are supposed to drain a wizard of his powers if he is left with them too long..."

"You made that dementor on train back off," Harry said, but at that point Claire stopped listening.

She had begun to gasp, but she covered her mouth with her hand and flattened herself against the wall next to the door, in case the occupants of the room she had been watching and had heard. Her eyes were wide and a smile was spreading across her face. She had just had a brilliant idea, a wonderfully brilliant idea she should have thought of weeks ago. She skipped off to the Great Hall in a rush of excitement, wondering how in the world she was going to be able to contain her idea until 8 o'clock.

She was going to ask Professor Lupin for Patronus lessons.

[a/n: DUN DUN DAAAAAAAaaaa!!! What will be the answer when Claire asks Professor Lupin her question?! Can you even be SURE she makes it to her detention ALIVE?! I mean, skipping down the hallway can be dangerous business! (ticks off the possibilities on her fingers) She could crash into a suit of armor, trip down the stairs, discover a hidden entrance in the castle that leads directly into a lion's cage, or have a sudden case of amnesia and suddenly not have any idea who she is or what she's doing!...I mean the possibilities are ENDLESS! (wink) Thanks for reading and my apologies for not putting the detention in this chapter—I thought it would be too long and it would be better if the detention was in the next one!

Oh! And my sister is doing very well to all of you who asked! The operation took about 12 hours—very boring to those of us sitting in the waiting room -- lol—and she was in the hospital for about 6 days. But now she is home, and she can't move too much 'cus she's still pretty sore and stuff—thus the reason you haven't seen a new chapter from me in a couple weeks, I've had to assist the family in fulfilling her every need! (puts on a waitress outfit and drapes a cloth over her arm) Duty calls! (bustles out of the room, calling to her lovely readers) I love you guys! If I could apparate I would poof to each of your houses and hug you all!]