The Marauders: Year Three | #Wattys2016

Weakest Points

Weakest Points

Lily gasped when Professor Veigler walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, nearly ten minutes late. She covered her mouth with her palm, eyes wide. Professor Veigler's arm was bound up with bandages and a sling that held his right shoulder up into the socket. He limped on the right side and the underside of his chin and throat was bruised so badly it was the color of an over-ripe eggplant. She looked 'round at Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus with wide eyes.

"What happened, mate?" Sirius asked boldly.

Professor Veigler's voice was raw and raspy. "Just a bit of an accident over the holiday... nothing to worry your minds about..." He went to the front of the room and gingerly put down his briefcase. He took a deep breath, winded by the walk to the front. "I have some slides for today's topic," he announced. He glanced around at them. "Peter," he called, "Would you help me with the projector?"

Peter looked surprised. He glanced around, as though he wasn't sure if he was the only Peter to which Veigler could have been referring. Finally, he got up and went up front to the teacher's desk and Professor Veigler motioned for Peter to pull out the projector and showed him how to set it up. Peter's hands shook a bit from nervousness, afraid he'd break the pieces as he put them together.

Lily watched Peter's progression, then scooted closer to Sirius, James, and Remus, leaning over. "Do you lot know what happened to him?"

The three of them shook their heads.

Lily sat back up as Peter finished and Veigler reached into the briefcase with his good hand, withdrawing a film canister filled with slides. "Do you mind, Mr. Pettigrew? Loading the slides?"

"Yes sir," Peter squeaked, looking up at Veigler nervously. He took out the box of slides and stuck them into the rack carefully, then scrambled to his seat between Sirius and Lily.

"Good job, Peter," Lily whispered.

Peter turned red.

Professor Veigler turned on the projector, the first slide dropped into the display, and there on the wall shone Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Sirius glanced at James, smirking at the anatomically correct drawing on the wall. Remus bit his lips. "Da Vinci on the anatomy of a man. Famous drawing. Well known to Muggles." He clicked the next slide in. TheVitruvian Man was now that same man... turning into a wolf.

Remus's muscles tensed. He looked at the other three in a panic, heart in his throat.

Veigler stood, staring up at the wall. His jaw was set tight, eyes glistening. "The Vitruvian Werewolf," he said slowly. "Lesser known to Muggles."

They all were very, very careful not to look at one another, each struggling to keep a stoic face. Sirius couldn't help but wonder why the bloody hell a werewolf would teach a class on werewolves. One would think the guy would skip the chapter! To give himself something to look at and keep his face as straight as could be, he flipped through the textbook. To Sirius's surprise, though, it wasn't the next chapter they were supposed to cover. In fact, the page on werewolves wasn't due until late in the year - over a hundred pages ahead of where they were, on 394. So not only was Professor Veigler teaching the class but he was purposefully choosing to do so at this time. Why?

Sirius chanced a look at James, his eyebrows folded in concern. He nudged James and pointed out what he'd noticed, handing James the textbook, jabbing at the page number on the top corner of the page.

James's face flickered with confusion as well when he saw it.

Veigler changed to the next slide... and moved through the next three rather quickly. Charts pointing out details that differentiated a werewolf from a natural wolf flashed past rapidly.Click, click, click, click. "I'm under the impression that you are all aware how to identify a werewolf," Veigler said, "So we will skip over that information."