We rushed over to Amy.

"Look, mate, there's still some hope" said "Demelza "we can talk to Ludo, we can talk to the teachers, Dumbledore, someone will make her see sense-"

"No!" Amy interrupted "no, we'll leave it, she's chosen her path, we're not making a big scene over it. She better not come crying back to me in a few years when she finds out how rough the dark side is! As much as we don't want it, You Know Who will return one day. Avery, Mulciber and Yaxley will be right by his side I'm sure, alongside their parents. I don't think she will want to come back to us though, you saw her face, her tone, her expressions. She's set on this, and if she does try and return to us, I certainly won't be taking her back! There's no forgiving something like that, especially if she kills or tortures first! I'll write to Ludo and tell him what's happened, and say he may as well start clearing out Sarah's room right now!"

"We don't have to do anything right now" I said. "What we do need to do is get to the common room, cause it's late enough as it is"

We helped Amy to her feet and headed up to Gryffindor Tower.

The next morning, we filled Harry, Ron and Hermione in on what had happened at breakfast.

"So let me get this straight" said Ron "Sarah has disowned herself from the family?"

"Pretty much" said Amy "Knowing her, she'll probably have filed for emancipation before our interaction last night even happened, probably long before we even got here to be honest. Ludo will want to try and fight it in the courts, but I told him last night when I wrote to him not to bother, Sarah will have grounds anyway considering our fathers present state. She can say she doesn't feel safe living there with him, even though that's bullshit, you know what the courts in this country are like"

"I must say I agree sadly. I've read about loads of cases like this in the past, and the child almost always wins" said Hermione, who was examining her new timetable.

'Ooh, good, we're starting some new subjects today' she said happily.

'Hermione,' said Ron, frowning as he looked over her shoulder, 'they've messed up your timetable. Look – they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time.'

'I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall.'

'But look,' said Ron, laughing, 'see this morning? Nine o'clock, Divination. And underneath, nine o'clock, Muggle Studies. And –' Ron leaned closer to the timetable, disbelieving, 'look – underneath that, Arithmancy, nine o'clock. I mean, I know you're good, Hermione, but no one's that good. How're you supposed to be in three classes at once?'

'Don't be silly,' said Hermione shortly. 'Of course I won't be in three classes at once.'

'Well, then –'

'Pass the marmalade,' said Hermione.

'But –'

'Oh, Ron, what's it to you if my timetable's a bit full?' Hermione snapped. 'I told you, I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall.'

"Mate, you must admit it is a bit weird though, I've never seen a timetable like that" I said, taking a look for myself.

"Ginny, it's nothing to do with you either, will you both just drop it please!"

Just then, Hagrid entered the Great Hall. He was wearing his long moleskin overcoat and was absent-mindedly swinging a dead polecat from one enormous hand.

'All righ'?' he said eagerly, pausing on the way to the staff table. 'Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five gettin' everythin' ready … hope it's OK … me, a teacher …hones'ly …'

He grinned broadly at them and headed off to the staff table, still swinging the polecat.

'Wonder what he's been getting ready?' said Ron, a note of anxiety in his voice. The Hall was starting to empty as people headed off towards their first lesson. Ron checked his timetable. '

We'd better go, look, Divination's at the top of North Tower. It'll take us ten minutes to get there …'

They finished their breakfast hastily, said goodbye to us and walked back through the hall.

Demelza, Amy and I though, were starting off strong, with Professor Lupin and Defence against the Dark Arts. After his performance on the train, we were very intrigued to see his teaching style and what he would be showing us this year.

So we headed upstairs to the classroom, which, unlike last year when Lockhart had decorated it with garish pictures of himself, looked perfectly normal. Lupin entered from the back, and greeted us warmly.

"Welcome to second year Defence Against the Dark Arts. Am I correct in saying though, that you didn't really have much effective teaching in this subject last year?"

"Yes" came from around the room.

"Well, not to worry, I promise you I can make up for Gilderoy Lockhart's failures, as I know a lot about the dark arts, as I, unlike him, actually did fight them first hand myself during Lord Voldemort's reign of terror. Oh sorry about saying the name, I will try and refrain from doing so often, but I find, that like your great headmaster once said, fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself"

"Well" I said "wasn't Dumbledore the only person You Know Who was ever afraid of?"

"He was, although I still think the point rings true. Anyway, let's get started shall we? We're going to spend today going over the things you should have been taught last year, just to see what you do know. From what I've gathered, all Lockhart did in his classes was act out passages from his books, is that correct?"

"Yes" said everyone

"Well, as those were based on things other people did, they should still have taught you something, so let's see"

We spent the first half of the double period going over first year information, and Lupin found that we thankfully did have a decent general understanding of the subject material, through vocal questioning and then a short 15 question test. It wasn't as good as it would have been had we had a competent professor the previous year, but it was good enough in his opinion for us to start with the second year material.

That second period we were taught the Disarming Charm, as it had gone disastrously at the Duelling Club, and I excelled at this, as I had already mastered it through practice with Harry, Ron and Hermione the previous year. The rest of the class did pretty well too and this lead to Lupin awarding Gryffindor 50 points at the end of the lesson. He asked us to write an essay on the theory and history of the Charm as homework, and he said that if we progressed well throughout the year, he may treat us with a brief look at some third year dark creatures come the summer term.

"That one lesson was far better than anything Lockhart ever taught us" said Demelza as we were leaving.

"Mate, I reckon any decent third year student could teach us better than Lockhart" I said

"Harry would wipe the floor with him, perhaps that's an idea we should look at if we ever have another similarly bad teacher" added Amy

"That'll surely never happen" I said "Last year was a one off..."