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Chapter Nine

"Well, he sure does look fine terday," Hagrid said, smiling down at Wolfsbane who pranced around with Fang as if the two were old friends. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had decided to visit him on Sunday afternoon. "Yer s'good with animals, yer are, Harry."

Harry smiled at the praise and Hagrid invited them all in for tea.

"How yeh been likin' the lessons?" Hagrid asked them.

"They're quite nice," Hermione told Hagrid with a smile as she sipped her tea and easily evaded Hagrid's attempts to give her scones. Hagrid looked extremely happy at the praise.

"You should Charlie to come and bring some dragons!" Ron eagerly suggested to Hagrid.

"I don't think that's very safe!" Hermione squeaked.

"It'll be safe with Charlie there!" Ron assured her, and the two began arguing back and forth while Hagrid looked very thoughtful.

Wolfsbane had jumped to place his paws on Harry's leg so that he could sniff at the rock-hard scones on the table. Hagrid smiled and gave him one; Wolfsbane dropped down, the scone in his mouth and began gnawing on it like it was a bone.

"I been really wantin' ter get a hippogriff," Hagrid interjected into Ron and Hermione's argument, "them's some graceful beasts. No luck s'far though."

"A hippogriff?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Well, y'see they got the front of a griffin," Hagrid explained to her and Hermione looked rather fascinated by it all while Ron looked bored enough to actually attempt to eat one of the scones. Harry didn't think Madam Pomfrey would be happy to see them all back so soon because Ron chipped a tooth on a scone.

After Hagrid finished his explanation and Hermione looked like she'd found something to research next weekend, Hagrid turned to Harry and asked, "So there a reason yer all came ter see me?"

"Well," Harry said slowly, trying to figure out a good way to say this, "It's Bane…"

"Ah," Hagrid said knowingly, "think he's comin' down with a cold, eh?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed easily, "could you make sure he's okay?"

Hagrid knelt down and looked closely into both of Wolfsbane's eyes and then opened his mouth and looked in there as well. After closely examining, Wolfsbane's whole head for a few moments, he then looked closely at Wolfsbane's coat and said, "Well, I think yeh don't have ter worry, he looks ter be as hearty as a hippogriff."

Harry beamed proudly at Hagrid's reassurances, and when they left an hour or so later Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Now, I'm all for listening to what teachers have to say, but honestly I don't even know why you took him down to see Hagrid. Professor Lupin obviously takes issue with Wolfsbane because he's a dog."

"Then I won't even bother taking him to Professor McGonagall," Harry told her, shaking his head.

"Does he still need to walk even though we've just been to Hagrid's?" Hermione asked.

"Can't hurt," Harry replied.

"Let's go to the pitch," Ron suggested, "we can get a stick and play fetch with him."

The three of them changed directions to head over to the pitch.

"Did I tell you that when I found him, he knew what a wand was and gave me mine because I'd dropped it without realizing?" Harry asked his friends.

Hermione looked shocked and said, "No! Do tell us what happened!"

"Well, I was so scared after I saw him that I tripped over my trunk and dropped my wand," Harry explained, "and then he came up and was friendly so I forgot about it, but when I said I had to leave, he wouldn't let me till I got my wand."

"He's an awfully smart dog," Ron whistled, further impressed with Wolfsbane's abilities.

"You're very lucky," Hermione agreed, looking at Wolfsbane like he was some new thing to research.

"Probably belonged to a magical person living in your neighborhood," Ron informed him, "and you both just happened to run away at the same time."

Harry grinned and said, "Just so long as they never ask for him back."

After the next defense class, Harry stayed after of his own volition.

"Can I help you, Harry?" Professor Lupin asked with a gentle smile.

"I took Wolfsbane to Hagrid," Harry declared, "he said he was completely fine."

"Did he?" Professor Lupin asked as though trying to keep his tone light even though it clearly took a bit of effort.

"Yes," Harry replied.

"Well, Hagrid certainly is an authority when it comes to magical creatures," Professor Lupin told Harry in that same tone.

"Yes."

"Are you still going to attend your extracurricular lessons this evening?" Professor Lupin as though he clearly expected Harry to say no.

"Why wouldn't I?" Harry asked in confusion.

Professor Lupin cleared his throat and replied, "Things come up."

"Oh," Harry replied, brow furrowed, "well, I don't think anything will."

"I'm glad to hear that," Professor Lupin said with a relieved smile.

Harry got the feeling he just had two conversations and he only understood one of them.

Harry once more was completely wiped out after the Patronus charm lessons; he stumbled into his dorm and fell flat onto his bed. Wolfsbane jumped up and began sniffing around his face, poking his nose into his ear which Harry normally hated. Tonight, though, he couldn't bring himself to care.

"It's too hard," Harry told Wolfsbane, though it was muffled by the bedding, "I can't do this, I should tell Lupin I give up."

Wolfsbane gave the same growl he gave whenever someone told him that it was time to stop playing, that they had to go.

"It's too hard," Harry sighed, "Hermione looked it up and said it was NEWTs level, and I'm in third year."

Harry rolled onto his side to stare Wolfsbane in the eye, and repeated, "He thinks I can learn a NEWTs level charm."

Wolfsbane barked firmly and gave that same growl again.

"You're as deluded as he is," Harry replied and rolled back onto his stomach. Wolfsbane growled once more, and when that didn't have any effect he barked. Then barked a few more times.

Then he grabbed the back collar of Harry's robes and pulled him off the bed, Harry fell to the floor in heap and said, "Hey, what did you that for?"

Wolfsbane had Harry's wand in his mouth and dropped it in Harry's lap and then growled and barked again.

Harry's eyes were wide open and he stared in disbelief, "This must be what having a mom is like."

Wolfsbane barked once in confirmation.

Wolfsbane never helped Harry with homework in front of the other students, but when they were alone up in the dorm, Harry would pull out his books and practice spellwork. Bane would watch him like he would watch rabbits running across the grounds during walks, and then whenever Harry wasn't moving his wand the right way Wolfsbane would touch his wet nose to Harry's arm or wrist and gently nudge it into the correct position and the spell would suddenly make sense and work perfectly every time.

With assignments, it was different; Wolfsbane would nudge some books closer or further away from Harry. The ones that were closest had the best information, and if Harry really couldn't find what he needed then Wolfsbane would turn the pages with his nose whenever Harry groaned and rubbed his eyes or collapsed onto the desk out of sheer frustration. Wolfsbane only did it when he thought Harry wasn't looking, but it didn't take Harry long to figure out what the sneaky beast was doing.

Harry wondered if he would get in trouble for having his dog help him with homework, but there was no safe way Harry could ask. Hermione and Ron would certainly call it cheating, even if it wasn't the obvious sort of cheating like when Wolfsbane would tell him which cards to play in exploding snap.

Of course, Harry would often study with Ron and Hermione, because nothing beat being able to ask someone what book they'd used or which page something was on and having them answer.

Harry arrived at Professor Lupin's office early for his next lesson. Professor Lupin looked pleasantly surprised to see him and welcomed him.

"I've been practicing," Harry declared proudly.

"Have you?" Professor Lupin asked with an encouraging smile.

"Yes," Harry said, nodding fervently. "Can I show you?"

Professor Lupin looked amused and replied, "Certainly, please go right ahead."

Harry carefully arranged himself in the position he'd found worked best while practicing, having Wolfsbane adjust his stance and movements for other spellwork caused him to experiment with this spell as well. Wolfsbane never helped him with this spell, though, simply watched and barked or growled whenever Harry became impatient or discouraged.

Then he closed his eyes and the memory immediately came to him, "Expecto," he concentrated on exactly how it felt to fly through brisk air, twisting and turning, hearing wind and cheers until finally he caught the snitch, "Patronum!"

Harry eagerly opened his eyes and once again there was a thick silver cloud hovering in front of him. Harry beamed and looked up at Professor Lupin who had stood up, and apparently knocked his chair over, and was staring at Harry with a mix of fierce pride and shock.

"I did it!" Harry told him, needlessly.

"Yes," Professor Lupin exclaimed, happily, "you certainly did!"

Professor Lupin worked with him on performing the spell, and by the end of the lesson Harry's cloud was thicker and looked like it was beginning to have some sort of form to it.

"Next time," Professor Lupin told him, "we're going to see how well it works when you're faced with a dementor…well, a boggart-dementer, rather."

Harry left to head back to the common room, but when he arrived Ron and Hermione each immediately grabbed one of his arms and pulled him upstairs to his dorm, everyone in the common room was staring at him silently. Once, they'd gotten into the stairwell though, everyone began talking at once, loudly.

"What's happened?" Harry demanded, fearing the worst.

"You're not going to like it," Ron said solemnly.

"Professor McGonagall came up right after you'd left and made us get Wolfsbane," Hermione told him, "she cast a bunch of spells on him and looked him over really well and then said that was all she'd needed and left muttering about Professor Lupin."

Harry felt ice-cold rage fill his chest, Professor Lupin had used his private lessons as a diversion so Professor McGonagall would come up here and look at his dog without him knowing!

"I can't believe this," Harry yelled. Then he heard the talking in the common room get louder when he said that, and knew that they had heard him. Ron and Hermione jerked him into the dorm, and he saw Neville was sitting with Wolfsbane, petting his head.

Wolfsbane jumped up and ran over to Harry who grabbed Bane around the neck and hugged him.

"Where did you go anyway?" Ron demanded, "How could he have known you'd be gone?"

"He's giving me private lessons, every Tuesday," Harry said darkly.

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, "I can't believe he'd do something like that, he seems so nice!"

Harry felt so rotten inside; he'd been so excited to show Professor Lupin how he'd been improving and this is what happened. Harry buried his face into Wolfsbane's fur and began sniffing.

Hermione knelt down beside him and wrapped her arms around him, and for some reason she felt a lot softer than he remembered, "It's okay, though, Professor McGonagall didn't act like there was anything wrong with him."

Harry didn't wait until his next defense class to confront Professor Lupin about what he'd done. Harry raced to his classroom right before lunch, just as the professor was leaving.

"How could you?" Harry demanded, "Is that why you even offered to teach me?"

Professor Lupin didn't even pretend that he had no idea what Harry was talking about, "I'm sorry, Harry, I-"

"No! You don't understand," Harry yelled, tugging his hand through his hair roughly, "You can't just…I thought…"

Harry couldn't find the right words to describe how much it felt like betrayal because Wolfsbane was his friend and Professor Lupin was his friend, and why didn't it matter that Hagrid said Wolfsbane was fine? …and what was wrong with Wolfsbane in the first place?

Harry, to his great embarrassment, felt like he was going to cry over this again and apparently Professor Lupin noticed the same thing and reached out for Harry. Harry couldn't stand to have that happen and he ran away before Professor Lupin could reach him.

Professor Lupin found Harry while he was walking that afternoon, Wolfsbane saw him before Harry did and the two of them stopped several feet away from the man.

"You trusted me, didn't you?" Professor Lupin asked without greeting Harry, and Harry didn't respond. Professor Lupin sighed and came closer to Harry, so they were standing next to each other. Wolfsbane shied away and waited a few feet away from them for the discussion to finish.

"You probably won't believe me, because you probably don't believe a word I say anymore, but I know what it's like to be betrayed by someone," Professor Lupin told Harry. "It led to three of my closest friends being killed."

Harry froze, but still said nothing.

"You don't know what that's like, but I get the feeling that my betrayal of you is a shadow of that," Professor Lupin continued. "So, I know it still must hurt. You asked if that was the reason I was teaching you the Patronus…I can honestly say, that I was and still am very concerned over the effects that dementors have on you."

Professor Lupin looked over to Harry, and he immediately looked away from his teacher, not wanting any contact with the man.

"And, I will still remain in my office, every Tuesday evening, so that if you should like to continue to study the Patronus Charm with me, you will be able to do so."

Professor Lupin waited for a response and then, with a sigh, he turned to leave.

"Why do you even care about Wolfsbane?" Harry demanded, before Professor Lupin could go.

Harry heard the man make something like a growl and then Wolfsbane quickly came over to Harry to stand as close to him as possible, tail between his legs, head down.

Professor Lupin turned around, and his eyes fixed on Wolfsbane, who whimpered and retreated behind Harry, trying to make himself as small as possible. Professor Lupin looked a bit wild but he closed his eyes and breathed deeply twice, and when he opened his eyes again he appeared to be himself once more.

"I knew a dog like him once," Professor Lupin admitted with a deep frown, and then spat out like an accusation, "his name was Padfoot."

The dog whimpered and Harry suddenly got very angry, "You leave him alone! He never did anything to you! If you want to pick on something then pick on something that can fight back!"

"Harry," Professor Lupin said, very softly, and Harry almost wished he was yelling because then he'd know exactly what the man was feeling, "Some dogs just aren't what they seem, they play nice, but deep down they're very bad dogs. And yes, this dog never did anything to me," Professor Lupin's eyes focused fiercely on Bane and he growled, "but he did do something very bad to you."

Harry drew back in confusion and surprise, staring at Lupin as though expecting an explanation. He wasn't going to get one though as Professor Lupin left.

When he was completely gone from sight, Harry, now too angry to think about what the professor had said, turned to Bane and said, "Come on, let's go."

Bane whined, and slunk along behind Harry looking like he had done something bad and was being punished for it. This made Harry even angrier at Professor Lupin. How dare he make Bane feel so bad. He'd been nothing but a good dog ever since Harry found him. Finally, Harry stopped walking and knelt down.

"It's okay Bane," Harry said taking hold of Bane's head and staring him in the eyes, "don't listen to him, he doesn't know anything about you-you're a good dog, a good dog."

Bane simply began whimpering and collapsed down to the ground, whining and crying. Harry sighed and sat down next to the dog, and waited for him to perk up.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!