Chapter 47: Breaking Point
The next day, I discovered that all my work had been for nothing. Now that Professor Lupin was back in charge of his class, he informed us that we didn't have to write the werewolf essay and that he would talk to Professor Snape about assigning homework he hadn't requested.
I was immediately frustrated with myself. If I'd only left it for another day, I could have avoided having to do it all together and wouldn't have had to go back in time for as long. I could have been better rested today, or gotten more of my other work done instead.
If there was anything I hated more than wasting time, it was doing homework for no reason. More than anything else, I hated that I'd put effort into an essay that nobody was going to read. I figured I could hand it in to Professor Lupin, but then thought better of it. He hadn't set the essay and likely wouldn't read it.
Professor Snape however, had set the essay, and was likely going to be unhappy when Professor Lupin told him he'd unassigned it. If I handed my essay in now, perhaps I could ingratiate myself to my potions Professor just a little bit. He didn't like me, but maybe if I was the only student to do his essay, he would be a little less harsh and stop taking points from me for no reason.
So, when the day came to an end, Harry and Ron headed up to the common room and I made my way down to the dungeons to seek out Professor Snape. Maybe he'd even give me extra credit, I thought, as I headed towards his office.
When I arrived at the office door, I could hear voices on the other side and I didn't want to interrupt. I meant to leave and come back after dinner, but when I realized who was inside, I paused.
"You had no right to assign that essay, it was completely inappropriate," Professor Lupin said angrily.
"If you had been there, you could have assigned your own essay, but as I had to fill in for you, I chose an assignment that I deemed appropriate," Professor Snape replied.
"Werewolves aren't even in the curriculum for third years," Professor Lupin said.
"Indeed. However, I believe that begs the question, why?" Professor Snape said. "I believe you and I learned about werewolves in our second year."
"Exactly," Professor Lupin cried. "It's not in the third-year curriculum!"
"Neither are grindylows, red caps, hinkypunks, or any of the creatures you are teaching about," Professor Snape replied.
"Yes, well, they were supposed to study those creatures last year, but they didn't," Professor Lupin said.
"They also never studied werewolves," Professor Snape said.
"That's not the point," Professor Lupin said. "I made it very clear in the lesson plan I left for you that I wanted them to learn about hinkypunks. Imagine my surprise when they came in this afternoon and couldn't identify the hinkypunk on my desk."
"To what lesson plan are you referring?" Professor Snape asked. "I found no such document. It was perfectly within my authority as the teacher in the classroom to teach what I chose within the curriculum and to assign an essay corresponding to the lesson."
"Look, Severus, Professor Dumbledore doesn't think the students should know, and assigning that essay is only going to give them an opportunity to figure it out," Professor Lupin said.
"I believe what Professor Dumbledore said was not to tell them, and I did no such thing. If the students happen to figure it out while pursuing their studies, you can hardly blame me for it," Professor Snape replied.
I heard movement then, and realized that I should probably leave before someone opened the door and found me eavesdropping. I slipped out of the classroom and silently as I could and then ran upstairs towards Gryffindor Tower.
It seemed that Professor Snape wanted everyone to know Professor Lupin was a werewolf, but Professor Lupin didn't want anyone to find out. Again, I wondered what interest Professor Snape could have with Professor Lupin's condition being known, but I realized that I was wasting time pondering it when I could be doing another essay.
I spent a few hours in the common room, working next to Harry and Ron, who were playing a game of chess with each other and annoying me by asking if I wanted to join in. I couldn't join in, I had too much to do. Ron whined about how I was always working and how I was more fun to play in chess than Harry and I bit back a retort, keeping in mind that I didn't want to start an argument.
After dinner, I turned back time and headed to the library to research flobberworms. Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish much. Flobberworms aren't very popular, so most textbooks don't have much to say about them. I desperately tried to find something interesting to say about them for the essay Hagrid set, but ended up settling for talking about how cute they are, hoping that he would appreciate my take on the essay. He hadn't actually given a specific topic, after all.
When the library closed, I used my time turner to return to just after dinner and this time I headed to the common room again to work on ancient runes. When I finished that, I got to work on potions, but it was very early in the morning, and I was worried that someone might wake up early and come down to find me. I still wanted to study divination though, so I used my time turner again and made my way to Professor McGonagall's classroom.
Thankfully, she wasn't there when I arrived. I took my divination book out of my bag and sat down at a desk with it and began to try to figure out how to distinguish the bunch of gunk in the bottom of a tea cup.
I felt my eyelids getting heavier, but every time they began to droop, I shook myself back awake. I knew I needed to sleep soon, but I was determined to keep going until curfew. The next time my eyes drooped shut, I found myself falling forward unintentionally until my head landed on the desk, causing me to jump and shake myself awake again.
I turned the page in my textbook, and the picture on the page was of a beautiful, big and extremely comfortable looking armchair. I imagined I was sitting in it, and I could feel the cushions behind my back. My eyelids became even harder to keep up and my head was now drooping in front of me a little, because holding it up took too much effort.
I reached the end of the page and I tried to lift my arm to turn the page, but it didn't move. I had to concentrate on my arm to lift it and I felt like I was lifting a hundred-pound weight. When the page was turned, my arm fell back to the table with a thud and my eyelids dropped again. I told myself I would open them again in ten seconds and began to count to myself to make sure I did.
One...two...three...four...
"Ms. Granger!" Professor McGonagall cried, jerking me back to reality. I was still in the transfiguration classroom, and my divination textbook was on the desk in front of me. My head was resting on the book and my arms had curled to create a makeshift pillow for myself.
"Sorry Professor, I was just taking a minute to rest," I said, sitting up straight again and pretending to go back to reading my book. I couldn't remember any of what I had read, and I had to flip back four pages before I found something that I could remember.
"Ms. Granger, it is two o'clock in the morning, how long have you been here?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Two o'clock?" I asked, shocked. It had been around eight when I fell asleep. "I'm sorry Professor, I've just had a bit of a long day, I didn't mean to fall asleep here," I said.
"Ms. Granger, how much are you using that time turner?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Not that much," I said. "I didn't even use it tonight; I'm just tired because I had an emotionally draining weekend." I figured Harry being in the hospital counted towards emotionally draining, even if he was perfectly fine.
"May I see your time turner?" Professor McGonagall asked.
I nodded, and took it from my neck, handing it to her, confused.
"Tempus revelio" Professor McGonagall said, pointing her wand at the time turner. A series of puffs of smoke were emitted from the object in different colors for a couple of minutes until it was finally finished and Professor McGonagall set it down on the desk, looking at me with her eyes wide.
"Ms. Granger," she said slowly. "I will ask you again. How often have you been using the time turner?"
I figured the spell she had just done had shown her in some fashion how much I had been using it. I decided I had better tell the truth because she would find out anyway.
"Other than for class, I use it two or three times every day," I replied.
"Two or three times every day?" Professor McGonagall asked. "And how many extra hours does each of your days have in them, would you say?"
I thought for a minute. "Probably between twelve and sixteen," I said honestly.
"Ms. Granger!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed. "Do you realize how dangerous that is? I thought you could handle having the time turner. I thought you were managing your classes, but clearly you aren't. I am very disappointed. I told you to come see me if it became too much to handle."
"But I am handling it!" I said.
"I'm sorry Ms. Granger, but you are putting your very life in jeopardy. I'm afraid I will have to take away your time turner, you are obviously not mature enough to handle it."
I blanched. She couldn't do this to me. I was so tired and so ashamed and so desperate to keep the time turner that I didn't know what to do, and I watched, aghast, as my time turner was taken away and placed in the top drawer of Professor McGonagall's desk.