Chapter 15 is here!

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Dipper's POV

Malfoy didn't reappear in classes until late on Thursday morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through double Potions. He swaggered into the dungeon, his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, acting as though he just fought against Kill Cipher when Kill was extremely annoyed. Little brat...

"How is it, Draco?" Pansy Parkinson simpered. "Does it hurt much?"

"Yeah." Malfoy said, putting on a brave sort of grimace. But I saw him wink at Crabbe and Goyle when Pansy had looked away. That little biiiiiiiitch...

"Settle down, settle down." Professor Snape said idly.  

We were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution. Malfoy set up his cauldron right next to Harry and Ron, so that they were preparing their ingredients on the same table. Malfoy was saying that he can't really do anything because of his 'broken' arm & Snape immediately ordered Harry & Ron to help him, favoring Draco again, like he always does. I don't really like Snape even though he's the head of my house. I do feel kinda sorry for him since I... uh... accidentally overheard him talk to himself saw his past. Yeah... Uh... I totally didn't go inside his mindscape & take a look at his memories. What? Nooo... I know what privacy is...

Anyway, I know Snape's behavior is kinda an act but he's taking things a bit way too far. I mean, we don't even know if Death Flight is back or not.

Meanwhile, Prof. Snape went to yell at Neville and then Hermione when she interfered & tried to help. At Harry's table, Malfoy was saying something about Black being the reason why the Potters were killed.

At the end of the lesson, Snape strode over to that Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.

"Everyone gather 'round." Snape said, his black eyes glittering, "And watch what happens to Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned."  

OK. Now that's just cruel. I looked around to see that the Gryffindors were watching fearfully and the Slytherins looked excited.

Snape picked up the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Longbottom's potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down the toad's throat.

There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Neville's toad gulped. Then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm.  

The Gryffindors & I burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.

"Five points from Gryffindor." Snape said, which wiped the smiles from every face.

"Say wha?" I slipped.

"I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."  

Excuse me but what!? Can you repeat that? That's just cruel, man. Honestly, do you even consider yourself a teacher?

He does. Probably. I'm too lazy to check.

I got out of the class & made my way to my next class, Defense Againt the Dark Arts, or DADA for short, when I suddenly felt a disturbance in the space-time continuum. Hermit Crab must be using the Time Turner to get to her class again.

I made my way to the DADA class & was greeted by the werewolf professor. He smiled vaguely and placed his tatty old briefcase on the teacher's desk. He was as shabby as ever but looked healthier than he had on the train, as though he had had a few square meals. He briefly introduced himself and said that we wouldn't need our books in this lesson, just our wands, before leading us to the staff room.

In there, there was a wardrobe with something inside and that something didn't seem friendly... Or at least, it's just grumpy since he's trapped inside a wardrobe.

"There's nothing to worry about. It's just a boggart." Professor Lupin reassured the class. "Now, can anyone tell me what a boggart is?"

I raised my hand.

"If I remember correctly, a boggart is a shapeshifter and it shifts into your worst fears."

"Correct." He said. "Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces: Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks... I've even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice."

"So the Boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a Boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears." Prof. Remus continued. "This means that we have a huge advantage over the Boggart before we begin since there are so many of us that it wouldn't know what shape it should be."

"Yeah... It could come out pretty ridiculous..." I quietly said, remembering the uni-whale-scorpio-pega-squid-icorn girl.

Next, he taught us the spell which we will use to fight the boggart. It's ridiculous. No, seriously, it's Riddikulus.

The students face the shapeshifter in order. I saw arachnophobia, ophidiophobia, coulrophobia,... Heck, even anatidaephobia!

For the readers who don't know, they're, in order, the fear of spiders, the fear of snakes, the fear of clowns and the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.

I couldn't think of what my fear is and how to ridiculize it. What could it be?

Suddenly, the boggart was right in front of me. And it shapeshifted...

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Cliffhanger! Mwehehehehe!

Chess_Cat out! Bye!