Chapter 22:
January 8th was the first day of the new semester, bringing three new classes to Remus's schedule: Astronomy, Herbology, And Defence Against the Dark Arts. Remus went to Astronomy first thing in the morning and met his professor, Esteban Francesco Estrella, a very young transfered teacher from the Brazilian school, Castelobruxo. He had strong dark eyes, was very muscular, and had a thick but perfectly understandable accent.
"Now class, Astronomy as we all know is the study of the universe. To start out our class, let's have a pop quiz. Each question right gives the student's house 10 points. First, what was the date and which famous American Muggle first landed on the moon very recently?" He asked as he leaned against the large telescope. Lily Evans, who was standing next to Remus and Severus, raised her hand quickly. Estrella called on her.
"Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon on July twentieth, 1969, Professor."
"Very good, Ms. Evans. 10 points to Gryffindor. Second, how many planets are there in our solar system?" Mr. Estrella asked. Severus raised his hand and said nine.
"Correct. 10 to Slytherin. Finally a difficult one, how many days are there between full moons and when is the next one expected?" He asked. The children looked at each other, dumbfounded, but Remus raised his hand.
"The time interval between similar lunar phases— rather the synodic month—averages about 29.53 days. The next full moon will be on January the 29th." Remus said quickly and factually. It wasn't until after he'd finished that he realized that he shouldn't have spoken. Everyone looked at him in awe.
"Someone did their homework before class. Very good Mr. Lupin, 50 points." The young professor said and he began his lecture.
James leaned over and whispered "Remus, how on earth did you know that?"
Being quick on his feet, Remus jokingly replied "I actually do something called studying, unlike you."
In Herbology Remus practically slept through the boring lecture lead by Professor Sprouse. Peter was the only one who found a liking to it besides the Hufflepuffs. He even earned 15 points to Gryffindor for perfectly transplanting a screaming Mandrake Root. As Remus was nodding off asleep, Severus made a white lily grow gave it to Lily. She smiled and kissed his cheek. James saw this and while holding back his vomit, he whispered a hex and a bee suddenly flew out of the center of the flower while Lily was smelling it and it stung her on the nose. She screamed and a large red mark appeared on her nose. Severus tried to apologize, thinking he made something went wrong, but she threw the flower at his feet and ran out of the class. Remus and Severus looked at eachother confused at what just occurred, while James and Sirius silently chuckled to each other.
After Herbology the first years went to Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Malfoy, the head of the Slytherin house and Lucius's uncle. Great. Remus thought sarcastically. He had long white-blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail, and he wore all black clothing.
"The dark arts are a powerful magic not to be taken lightly or foolishly. If one makes a mistake while trying to defend themselves from a dark spell, casualties and fatalities will occur and blood will be on their hands. I will teach you to control these dark powers and use them to your advantage against your adversaries." Professor Malfoy said in a posh and crisp accent. James who was sitting next to Remus looked down and gave a chuckle. Mr. Malfoy's head snapped in their direction. "Is something amusing about my lecture, Mr. Potter?"
James gulped. "No, sir."
"Good because we have serious material to learn today. Usually we don't teach you first years about this subject until late in year three, but certain circumstances have risen and Dumbledore and I feel it is necessary to prepare you for the worst. Turn to page 394." He said coldly. Remus did as he was told and was shocked to find the title of the chapter to be "Werewolves". He knew that Professor Malfoy did not know about his condition. His parents made Dumbledore promise that only he, Mcgonagall, and Pomphrey would be made aware. But they must want to teach students defense against werewolves incase Frederick would ever get to them.
"Now, Lucius, my intelligent nephew, please explain to the class what a werewolf is." Professor smiled at his nephew.
"A werewolf is a beast who looks like a person for most of the month, but transforms into a hideous wolf-human hybrid every full moon, hungary for human flesh to devour. They are dangerous and can transfer their disease by a bite or a scratch to any innocent human - making them untrustable - and should all be registered with the Ministry of Magic." Lucius said smugly. What a completely arrogant, bigoted, prejudices definition.
"Perfect. 50 points to Slytherin." Mr. Malfoy said proudly. "Now, what would you do in this situation . . . Mr. Lupin, ah yes Mr. Lupin, we haven't heard from you yet." Mr. Malfoy said while he and the class turned their attention to him. He swallowed.
"You are taking a stroll outside on a full moon-" Mr. Malfoy said and Remus silently thought:
I wouldn't exactly call it 'taking a stroll - more like scratching and biting my skin off in the shrieking shack - but please continue. This should be good.
" - when you hear a frantic beast approaching you quickly and angrily through the bushes. You retrieve your wand and prepare to cast a curse in defence. Which curse would you cast?" The professor asked pompously. He was obviously trying to embarrass Remus because most first years don't know any curses yet.
His father had taught him a few defensive spells already. "Well, I would probably attempt to hit 'im with a powerful stupefy stunning spell, but would probably fail seeing as I'm only a first year and that's a challenging spell. If that failed, then I'd run as fast as I could to an experienced adult such as yourself to get away from that 'beast'."
Mr. Malfoy was obviously upset that his plan to humiliate did not work so he plainly said "Correct. Everyone use your text to write a five page report of how to identify a werewolf in human form, and research other advanced spells one could use in defence if they were to encounter one." Remus smiled and started his assignment, appreciating the irony of the situation.