Chapter 46
Meredith slept clear through breakfast the next day. She woke shortly before lunch and met her friends in the Great Hall with deep bags under her eyes.
"You missed breakfast," Patricia said. "You look awful."
"Well you stay up all night on guard duty and see how great you look," Meredith said biting into a chicken leg.
The whole school was abuzz with talk of Sirius Black. Everyone had a theory on how he had gotten past the Dementors. Some were more plausible than others. Dumbledore was getting letters from the Minister demanding that the Dementors be allowed inside the castle. There was a new sense of determination in Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. Meredith was the only one who had managed a true Patronus. The entire class had stood in awe as the silver fox shot out of Meredith's wand and circled around her. Patricia, however, had not seemed so impressed. After several weeks of trying Patricia had not been able to get more than a bit of silver mist out of her wand.
"You're too hard on yourself," Meredith tried to assure her.
"I'm behind everyone!" Patricia wailed plopping down at the dinner table.
"You just need to find a really strong happy memory," Meredith said. Patricia rolled her eyes.
"Gee I have so many, I wouldn't know which to choose from," Patricia grumbled.
"When we win the quidditch cup I'll have the best Patronus in the school," Oliver said tossing a potato on his plate.
"I can't believe you're actually going to play Quidditch in this weather," Meredith said. It had been storming all week and did not look to be letting up soon.
"Rain, snow, sleet or shine," Oliver said. "We play no matter what."
"Uh oh," Patricia muttered. "Look and see what's coming." Meredith glanced up and nearly vomited as she saw Flint making his way toward them. Her hand slipped beneath her robes and closed around her wand. But Flint didn't even glance her way.
"Woody," he sneered. "A word if you please?" Oliver glared at the ugly Slytherin but stood up. Meredith and Patricia watched as they two went to a private corner.
"Can you tell what they're saying?" Patricia asked.
"I can't tell," Meredith said. "But Flint looks smug and Oliver looks livid." They watched as Oliver's face turned red. They saw him arguing with Flint and Flint just shrugging his shoulders. Oliver's brow furrowed and he leaned very close to Flint's face.
"Is he threatening him?" Patricia wondered.
"It looks like it." Oliver looked steamed as he stomped back to the table and sat down with a huff. Both girls decided not to say anything for Oliver looked ready to explode at the slightest provocation.
"We're not playing Slytherin on Saturday," Oliver finally snapped. "We'll be playing Hufflepuff."
"Why?" Patricia asked.
"Flint's claiming his seeker is still too injured to play."
"That's ridiculous," Meredith said. "Madam Pomfrey herself said there's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm."
"I know he's faking it. Flint's just using it as an excuse so they won't have to play in this weather. I've got my team all ready to play Slytherin. Hufflepuff has a completely different style of play. And they've got a new captain. Cedric Diggory."
"Diggory?" Meredith said. "Where do I know that name from?"
"You gave him a verbal thrashing fifth year cause his friends were picking on Harry," Patricia said.
"He's an excellent Seeker," Oliver moaned. "I've got to get to practice and inform the team. Our entire strategy is going to need to be reworked. In one day!" Meredith couldn't help but feel bad for him. Even though she'd never cared much about quidditch she knew how important it was to Oliver.
"Well," Patricia said. "You want to hit the library. Our essay for Herbology is due tomorrow and it could probably use a look over." Meredith bit her lip. The full moon was tonight and her father would need her to teach for him tomorrow.
"I'm afraid I can't," she said.
"What!" Patricia said looking as though Meredith had just insulted her. Meredith winced.
"Well, my father isn't feeling well and he's afraid he won't be up to teaching tomorrow. So I'm going to be teaching his second years." Meredith tried to make it sound as though this was something that had come up out of the blue rather than being planned for weeks.
"You're going to be teaching?" Patricia said astonished. "When did this come about?"
"Dumbledore asked me when my father started feeling ill," Meredith said firmly. She'd gone over this cover story in her head so many times she almost had herself convinced it was the truth.
"Well that seems like rather short notice," Patricia said her tone starting to sound a bit suspicious. Meredith shrugged.
"Yes, well that's why Dad and I need to go over his lesson plans tonight," Meredith said. "Look leave the essay out I'll look over it before I go to bed, okay?"
"I guess," Patricia said though she sounded quite put out.
"You'll have plenty of time to make corrections tomorrow before Herbology," Meredith assured her.
"Yeah, sure," Patricia said. "Well, I better get to the library." Meredith felt her heart twist a little. She felt bad about letting her friend down but then she couldn't let her father down either. She gathered her things and headed down to her Dad's classroom.
"Hello love," her dad said. Meredith bit her lip. He looked awful. He was slumped in his chair looking as though it were taking all of strength just to stay upright.
"Let's get to work," he said. "The moon will be rising in about an hour." Meredith nodded and sat down next to him.
"Now you'll have my second year Gryffindors after breakfast," he said. "Most have mastered Expelliarmus and seeing as how there is so much excitement in the air about Gryffindors match this weekend I doubt you'll be able to get them to focus on much so I thought something a little more fun might be in order." Meredith leaned over to glance at the chapter and gave her dad an amused look.
"The Bat Bogey hex?" she asked. "What in the world did I ever do to you?" Her dad chuckled. She recalled the day Professor Villevue had taught them this hex. The entire class had been one big circus.
"You'll be fine," he said. "I've seen the way other students respond to you. You command a great deal of respect from the younger students and not just in your own house. I know you'll do fine love." Meredith tapped her quill against her lips. She wished she could be as certain as her father was. They spent the next hour reviewing the hex before her dad glanced out the window.
"It's getting late," he said his tone worried. "You better get back to your common room. Quickly." Meredith grabbed her things as Remus retreated to his quarters. She heard him cast a silencing spell around his room as she darted out of the room. She closed the door behind her and glanced around to make sure no one was roaming the corridors. Technically she should have been back in the common room a half an hour ago.
"Good evening to you dear lady," Sir Cadogan greeted her with a gallant sweep of his hat. Meredith gave the password and after a few minutes of argument the portrait opened and allowed her in. The commonroom was empty except for Pinky. She said a quick hello to the house elf and hurried up to bed. The curtains were drawn around Patricia's bed but there was a sheet of parchment on Meredith's bed. Oh, yes, she thought. She'd promised she'd look at Patricia's herbology essay. She put away her things and changed into her pajamas. She crawled into bed and took up the essay. It wasn't too bad. A few items here and there but it was all in all at least an E. After making a few marks she stuck it into her bag to give to Patricia tomorrow. Then she drew the curtains around her bed and laid back and tried to sleep. Like every other night of the full moon since she'd been a small child sleep would not come. She worried about her father locked up in his quarters. She knew that the Wolfsbane potion would do it's job but she couldn't help but be uneasy. People would be wonder why her Dad was unable to teach. Maybe they would ask questions. She'd been covering the truth so long she had it down to a science but still…one little slipup and her dad's secret would be out.
Meredith skipped breakfast the next morning and slipped down to the kitchens. Fred and George always thought they were so clever sneaking into the kitchen to knick food from the house elves. She didn't have the heart to tell them that Charlie had revealed the secret to her in her 2nd year.
"How may we serve you miss?" The house elves said to her.
"Can you put a breakfast tray together for Professor Lupin?" she said.
"Right away miss," they said. Within minutes they had assembled a tray with a plate of sausages, scrambled eggs, toast with jam, and fruit.
"Would you like us to send it to Professor Lupin's quarters miss?"
"No," Meredith said. "I'll take it to him myself." She picked up the tray and left the kitchens. Almost everyone was at breakfast so no one saw her take the tray to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She pushed open the door to her father's quarters and glanced around. The room was still intact for the most part. Her father lay in bed dressed in his dressing gown. His eyes were closed but she sensed he was still awake.
"Come in love," he called without opening his eyes. Meredith's eyes widened.
"How'd you know I was there?" she asked bringing over the tray.
"Your scent is so familiar to me I could find you in a crowd of five hundred people in pitch black darkness," he said sitting up.
"Well there go my plans for running away from home. You'd just track me down wouldn't you?" He chuckled and took a bit of toast.
"So," he said. "Are you ready?" Meredith stuffed her shaking hands in her pockets.
"Absolutely," she said raising her chin and giving what she hoped was a confident smile.
"You're going to be fine love," Remus said. "You've got a knack for this."
"I do?"
"Of course," Remus said. "Patricia would have flunked out of school by now if not for you."
"Yeah," Meredith said. "But she's one person and my best friend. And she's not too happy with me at the moment."
"What's wrong?" Remus asked slightly alarmed. Meredith waved a hand.
"Don't worry about it," she said. "You eat and rest up and don't worry about me I'll be fine." She picked up her bag and turned to go. At the door she paused and swung back around.
"If you hear me scream you'll come rescue me right?"
"Go!" Remus said chuckling. Meredith sighed and stepped out the door. She went and stood behind the desk and set her bag down on it. She pulled out the copy of the text the second years would be using. She could do this. She'd gone over what she would say a hundred times last night.
"Good morning class," she practiced. "Hello everyone. Obviously I am not Professor Lupin, though I guess for today I am. I am Lupin anyway, oh gods." Could she sound any more mental? The door opened and she sucked in her breath.
"Here we go," she thought. "No turning back." The second year Gryffindors came in and quietly took their seats. They stared up at her some puzzled, some happy to see her, and some just not really caring.
"Good morning everyone," she said trying to keep her voice steady. "Professor Lupin is a bit under the weather this morning, so Professor Dumbledore has asked me to take his place."
"What's wrong with him?" a boy Meredith recognized as Colin Creevey asked.
"He's just feeling weak and very tired," Meredith said quickly.
"Probably got to close to a dementor," another student whose name Meredith couldn't remember whispered.
"Well," Meredith said. "Professor Lupin has updated me on where all of you are. I know you have all mastered the disarming spell. Today I thought we'd do something a little bit more fun. If you'll all turn to page 42."
"The bat bogey hex?" a girl with two blonde pigtails said.
"Cool," Ginny said. Meredith smiled. She had to students stand up and pair off. The next hour was filled with the sound of wings flapping and the shrieks of laughter as bat wings flew from people's noses.
"Okay, okay," Meredith said laughing, "Let's leave it here for today. For homework write a summary of today's lesson to be handed in next week to Professor Lupin. Please make me look good. That will be all." Everyone was laughing as they departed. Ginny came up to the desk.
"That was fun Meredith," she said. "Or do I call you Professor?"
"Meredith is fine," Meredith said. "I'm only standing in for today."
"Well it was a great lesson. Can't wait to try out the hex on Fred and George."
"I didn't hear that," Meredith said. They both smiled. "Go on get out of here."
"You're sure you don't want to come to the match today?" Patricia asked her Saturday morning over breakfast.
"If you want to freeze to death sitting out in the pouring down rain that's your business," Meredith said pouring milk over her cereal. "But leave me out of it." Meredith glanced over at Oliver who wasn't eating.
"You need to eat something Oliver," Meredith said. Oliver didn't respond. He was staring out the windows at the weather conditions.
"It's going to be a tough one out there," he said.
"Stop worrying, Oliver," Alicia Spinnet said from where she sat across from Oliver. "We don't mind a little bit of rain." It was more than a little bit of rain. It was pouring buckets and the winds were strong enough to knock a full grown man off his feet. Meredith didn't know how the team was going to stay on their brooms.
"Last chance," Patricia said as she pulled her rain jacket on and grabbed her umbrella.
"No thanks," Meredith said. "While you are out freezing in the cold soaking rain, I am going to be curled up on the sofa next to a warm blazing fire."
"You are just mean sometimes," Patricia said. Meredith grinned.
"Have fun," Patricia said. Meredith set her bag on the table. It was so cozy to sit here by the fire when it was storming out side. She chuckled a bit as she thought of Patricia, Percy and everyone else who was sitting outside on the bleachers. She reached into the bag and pulled out the envelope that had been delivered by owl two days ago. She held it in her hands for a moment before opening it up and pulling out the application to St. Mungoes. She would have to send more to other hospitals but she wanted this to be the first one and she wanted to be alone when she filled it out. The first part was fairly straight forward. Her name, address, date of birth, school attended. A waiver allowing the hospital to request her transcripts. Family medical history. At this she paused. No need to include her dad's lycanthropy. Not being her biological father there was no possibility he had passed it onto her. Her dad had assured her that there were no genetic diseases in her family history. She left the section blank. Next was a questionnaire. Basic medical questions that she was able to answer quickly. That was it. She signed at the bottom and dated it. She folded it up and slipped it into the return envelope. This was it. Once she sent it in it was all out of her hands. She heard the portrait door swing open quickly stuffed the envelope into her bag. She turned and saw Percy and Patricia enter the common room. Both were soaked to the skin and both looked miserable.
"Oh lord," Meredith said. "Do I want to know what happened?"
"Dementors," Percy mumbled. "They showed up at the match."
"Oh no," Meredith said. "Did they go after anyone?"
"They went for Harry," Patricia said. "It was awful." Meredith pushed them both over to the fire and sat them down. She dashed up to her dorm and opened her trunk. She still had one bar on Honeydukes best left and it looked like her friends needed it. She found the bar and broke it in half. She hurried back down to her friends and handed them each the chocolate. They ate it without protest.
"So what happened?" she asked after a little color had come back to their cheeks.
"Harry was chasing the snitch," Patricia said. "Don't know how he could see it, it was raining so hard. The Dementors came out of nowhere and just went after him. He fell off of his broom." Meredith gasped.
"He's all right," Percy reassured her quickly. "Dumbledore kind of slowed him down in mid air. They got him on a stretcher and took him to the hospital wing.
"Physically there's nothing wrong with him," Patricia said. "But after that nasty run in with the Dementors Madam Pomfrey wants to keep him at least a day or two."
"I would think so," Meredith said perching on the arm of Patricia's chair. This was twice the Dementors had focused on Harry and caused such a strong reaction. This could not be normal.
"Dumbledore was furious," Percy said. "I've never seen him so livid."
"Well maybe now Dumbledore will be able to convince Fudge to remove them," Meredith said.
"That's not even the worst of it," Percy said.
"What could be worse?" Meredith said incredulously.
"We lost the match," Patricia said. "Diggory got the snitch." Meredith rolled her eyes.
"Oliver was very upset," Percy said. "He looked as though someone had killed his best friend." Meredith pursed her lips. She had never taken Quidditch seriously, but she knew it was important to Oliver.
"Where is he?"
"Last we saw he was headed for the showers," Patricia said.
"Someone should probably check on him," Percy said.
"I'll go," Meredith said standing. "The two of you need to get into some dry clothes." She left the common room and headed for the quidditch locker room. She had never been down here before. She wasn't even sure which one was Gryffindors locker room.
"It's the one furthest to the right," a voice said behind her. She turned and saw a rather downcast looking Cedric Diggory standing there.
"Wood's not in there," he said. "I heard him say something about the prefect's bathroom."
"Thanks," Meredith said turning to go.
"I tried to call it off," Cedric called after her. Meredith stopped and turned. Cedric was staring at the ground.
"It wasn't fair. If the dementors hadn't shown up Potter would have gotten the snitch. I tried to have it called off. I said we should do a replay. But Madam Hooch would allow it. She said Hufflepuff won fair and square but...it wasn't fair." Meredith bit her lip. She remembered him now. He'd grown quite a bit since he was a third year. He was almost taller than her now. She remembered telling him off for allowing his friends to pick on Harry. She reached out a hand and squeezed his shoulder.
"If Madam Hooch said it was fair then I'm sure it was," she said. She turned away and headed for the fifth floor. She paused in front of the door. She hadn't been in the prefect bathroom since her fifth year. After what Flint did to her, she just never felt comfortable in here again. She sucked in a deep breath and gave the password. The door swung open and she stepped inside. She glanced around but did not see Oliver anywhere.
"Oliver!" she called. "Oliver, are you in here?" She heard a gentle splashing come from the tub and stepped forward. She froze when she saw Oliver, still fully dressed, floating on his back in the tub. He was staring straight up at the ceiling, his eyes glassy and unfocused. She bit her lip and stepped forward. She knelt down at the edge of the tub and stared at him.
"Don't you think you're over reacting just a bit? she said non-chalantly. He said nothing. The only indication that he was still alive was the occasional blinking of his eyes. Meredith sighed. She pulled out her wand and levitated him out of the water. His limbs were useless at his side as she levitated him onto the bench. She did a quick drying spell on him. Oliver was completely unresponsive. She sat next to him on the bench and waited for him to speak.
"We lost," he moaned after a long silence. "We lost."
"I heard," she said.
"Damned Dementors," he said.
"I agree," she said.
"We haven't lost a match since Potter joined the team," Oliver said. Meredith could swear he was crying.
"You're still in the running," she said.
"Ravenclaw would have to beat Hufflepuff by two hundred points," he said.
"It's possible," she said.
"Then we would have to beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin," Oliver said. "I just don't know. It's all about the points. A hundred either way…" Meredith was silent. She couldn't help but think if Oliver paid as much attention to his school work as he did to the point system of Quidditch he'd have gotten all O's on his OWLs.
"Why is this so important to you?" she asked. Oliver sighed. He didn't answer her for a long time.
"If you counted the number of times your dad said he was proud of you on your fingers would you need more than one hand?" Meredith's eyes widened at the question. She thought about it for a minute.
"Yeah," she said. Oliver sighed again.
"I could," he said. He held up two fingers. "When I made the team and when I made captain. My dad was a keeper for Scotland. He took his team to three world cups before his injured his leg." Meredith thought about Oliver's father. She'd only met him twice but she recalled the large burly man who walked with a slight limp.
"All I ever got growing up were stories about his glory days playing keeper. It's the only thing we ever talk about. My OWLs were almost as good as yours. You know what my dad said to me when I showed him marks? "How come a smart kid like you can't bring home a quidditch cup?"
"Ouch," Meredith thought.
"It's all he cares about," Oliver said. "If I didn't play quidditch he and I wouldn't have anything to talk about." Meredith felt her heart ache for her friend. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder.
"He's an idiot," she said. "He's an idiot if he can't see what an amazing person he has for a son. Whether you win at Quidditch or not." Oliver ran a hand over his face and sighed.
"You're really lucky Mere," Oliver said. "All you have to do to make your dad happy is breathe." Meredith smiled.
"Maybe my dad should just adopt you and Patricia," she said. "We could all be one big happy family." Oliver smiled.
"I kind of love you, you know," he said.
"I love you too," she said hugging him. Oliver laid his head against her shoulder and let out a wistful sigh.