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It happened again. Out in public, during a Hogsmeade trip (that's the wizarding village nearby the castle).

I wish you were here to help me again, it worked last time you came to visit. Perhaps we can arrange something with Dumbledore again? I just feel so lost and you know what it's like, standing in a crowd knowing what everyone's thinking, not being able to move because your brain is so crowded with thoughts that aren't your own.

Something weird happened this time though, someone pulled me out of it, a boy. 

His name is Cedric Diggory, he's in a different house than me and two years above. He bumped into me when I was stumbling through the crowd and everything just stopped. Did that ever happen to you? 

Anyway, I'd like if you would write me back as soon as possible. Tell me what you think I should do.

With love, Iris

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"What villains are these that trespass upon my private lands!" Sir Cadogan, the new protector of the Gryffindor common room entrance shouted.

The Fat Lady had been replaced by a painting of a tiny knight named Sir Cadogan. Stalking a bare stretch of grass as his pony grazed nearby, he brandished his sword wildly as a group of Gryffindors regarded him warily.

"Who dares challenge Sir Cadogan! Back, you scurvy braggarts! You rogues!"

"He's barking mad!" Seamus spoke loudly.

"What d'you expect? After what happened to the Fat Lady, none of the other pictures would take the job," Dean said.

"But he keeps changing the password. Twice just this morning! I've taken to keeping a list," Neville lamented.

As Neville held up a wrinkled piece of parchment, Iris, Harry, Ron and Hermione exited the common room.

"Farewell, comrades! If ever you have need of a noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!" The portrait shouted after them.

"Yeah, we'll call you... if we ever need someone mental," Ron muttered to the other three making Iris hold back a smile.

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Later that day, they were all sitting in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom waiting for Professor Lupin to arrive.

Although it wasn't Lupin who walked through the doors, and that was made plenty obvious when the curtains snapped down over the windows as a black cloaked man briskly walked down the rows of desks.

He turned and there was a snap as Snape pulled down a screen over the blackboard then turned.

A cold, dull voice called out, "Turn to page 394."

As the students eyed Snape with guarded curiosity, Iris noticed Malfoy finishing scrawling something on a bit of parchment and he balled it up in his hands. As he opened them, a moth fluttered from his palms.

Harry didn't open his book, but instead called out, "Excuse me, sir, but... where's Professor Lupin?"

"That's not really your concern, is it, Potter? Suffice it to say, your Professor finds himself incapable of teaching at the present time. Page 394," the Professor snapped.

Snape waves the moth away, blows out a candle and a slideshow begins. An ancient woodcut of a horrific beast flickers at the front of the room.

Ron frowns down at his book, "Werewolves?"

Iris' eyes flashed with irritation, she knew why he was doing this lesson.

"But, sir, we've only just begun learning about Red Caps and Hinkypunks," Iris jumped as Hermione was suddenly sitting in the chair next to her, "We're not meant to start nocturnal beasts for weeks --"

Snape cut off Hermione's briefing with a sharp, "Quiet!"

Ron leaned toward Harry and Iris, whispering, " When did she come in? Did you see her come in..."

Iris squinted at Hermione, pursing her lips.

"Now. Which of you can tell me the difference between an Animagus and a werewolf?"

As the class stared mutely at a slide of an attacking werewolf, Hermione waiting desperately for someone to respond to Snape's question, the moth fluttered by Harry.

SWAT! Iris jumped for the second time. Harry had pinned it to his desk. A tiny cloud of moth dust mushroomed into the air and Harry lifted his palm. Malfoy's parchment had reappeared.

"No one? How... disappointing," Professor Snape ignored Hermione's hand.

Hermione couldn't stand knowing the answer and not being called on so she started speaking anyway, "Please, sir, an Animagus is a wizard who elects into an animal. A werewolf has no choice in the Furthermore, the werewolf actively hunts humans responds only to the call of its own kind--"

She was cut off by Malfoy letting out a low howl. Iris rolled her eyes at the Slytherin boy.

"Quiet, Malfoy! Though one must admit to feeling your pain. That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger. Tell me. Are you incapable of restraining yourself? Or do you take pride in being an insufferable know-it-all?"

Iris found that to be quite rude, and a very immature way for a teacher to be speaking to a student.

It was a mark of how much the class loathed Snape that they were all glaring at him, because every one of them had called Hermione a know-it-all at least once, and Ron, who told Hermione she was a know-it-all at least twice a week, said loudly, "You asked us a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don't want to be told?"

The class knew instantly he'd gone too far. Snape advanced on Ron slowly, and the room held its breath.

"Detention, Weasley," Snape said silkily, his face very close to Ron's. "And if I ever hear you criticize the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry indeed."

Iris noticed Harry was staring at the parchment that was previously the paper moth, and she looked over at it to see what it was.

"Sending love notes?" she jokingly questioned her brother who quickly developed a disgusted facial expression.

Malfoy had drawn a crude caricature of Harry in his Quidditch robes being struck by lightning over and over.

"Mmm..." Iris hummed, "Not quite," she noted, looking disturbed.

Snape snapped at Hermione, "Five points from Gryffindor!"

"Oh look, he signed it. How sweet," Iris elbowed her brother, winking at him. He shivered in disgust, glaring at her.

He then turned to the class and shrewdly said, "As an antidote to your ignorance, I prescribe two rolls of parchment on the werewolf by Monday morning, with particular emphasis placed on recognizing it."

Iris' eyes narrowed into a glare at the professor.

Soon after that, he dismissed the class and they all quickly filed out, anxious to not be near him any longer.

Ron, unfortunately, had to stay behind so Snape could tell him what his detention would be so the other three waited for him outside the classroom.

Ron caught up with them five minutes later, in a towering rage.

"D'you know what that --" (he called Snape something that made Hermione say "Ron!") "-- is making me do? I've got to scrub out the bedpans in the hospital wing. Without magic!" He was breathing deeply, his fists clenched. "Why couldn't Black have hidden in Snape's office, eh? He could have finished him off for us!"

Iris sighed deeply, "If only."

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