The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

XL: 27 January, 1994

Harry Potter arrived to  the History of Magic classroom before Professor Lupin did on Thursday, 27 January - the date of their 4th weekly anti-dementor lesson. He'd come through the secret passageways, using the Marauder's Map that Fred and George had given him, and now he sat on the carpet outside the classroom. He could see Professor Lupin in the DADA classroom, apparently pacing. He watched the little dot move about, going up and down stairs from the private quarters to the office and back again several times. He wondered what Professor Lupin was doing and why he was running late. 

Harry kept a careful eye on Mr. Filch, too, and Mrs. Norris, too. 

Harry had had a very frustrating day, and although he was nervous about how he would do at casting a patronus with all the unnecessary frustration trolling through him, he was also looking forward to the anti-dementor lessons none the less. He'd become rather excited about them each week, and at first he thought it was because of the fact that he got to hear his mum and dad - if he didn't cast the patronus too hastily, that is - but that wasn't really it because he'd found after week two that he was getting a lot better at not hearing their deaths reply in his head over and over again anymore and he was able to cast at least a few wisps of patronus-smoke before he had to hear their voices. 

No, rather, it was the fact that Harry Potter found Professor Lupin to be a very kind and very smart person, a great teacher. Harry wasn't sure precisely what it was about Lupin that drew him so much, but there was some part of Harry that didn't want to leave Lupin's presence once he'd gotten around him. He wasn't really sure why that was, but he'd never really felt that way about any adult ever before in his life - aside from Hagrid, that is.

Last class, Professor Lupin had surprised Harry at the end of their lesson by drawing two big bottles of butterbeer from his briefcase. "You've heard a drink -" he'd said, pulling the bottles out and putting them on the desk. He'd looked right pleased with himself as he put them before Harry. "Something from the Three Broomsticks. You won't have tried it before --"

"Butterbeer! Yeah, I like that stuff!" Harry had cried out without thinking. Idiot! he had cursed himself the moment the word was out of his mouth - especially when Professor Lupin's eyebrows had raised with suspicion. He wasn't supposed to be able to get to Hogsmeade - he'd forgotten about that in his excitement. He'd quickly backtracked, claiming Ron and Hermione had been the ones to introduce him to the drink. 

Honestly, Harry had actually felt a little bad that he had tried butterbeer before. Professor Lupin had actually looked a bit disappointed that he'd had it. Harry had spent a lot of time thinking about how Lupin's eyes had sort of glowed with excitement and then - the light of them sort of going a bit dimmer when he found out Harry had tried the drink before. Why it mattered to Lupin, Harry wasn't sure - but it had, and he'd thought on it, feeling a bit guilty, ever since last Thursday. Harry had pictured Professor Lupin using the last of his sickles to buy the two bottles - Lupin clearly didn't have many of those to spare - only to have idiot Harry already have tried the stuff.

Still, drinking the butterbeer with Professor Lupin had been very good, and, Harry found, strangely enough, a memory that he rather thought might be in the running for one of his very good ones that maybe one day could be one of the memories that he could use for a patronus - if he got to know Professor Lupin really well, that is, perhaps. 

Even their topic of conversation while drinking the butterbeers - the dreaded dementor's kiss and what it could do to a man - wasn't enough to darken the memory of the butterbeer. 

What had surprised him about the conversation - and he turned his thoughts to this now, even as he watched the little dot labeled "Remus Lupin" continue to pace and pace and pace in the office two floors below - was the disturbed look in Lupin's eyes when Harry had declared rather boldly that Sirius Black, the escaped Azkaban prisoner, deserved the dementor's kiss for having murdered Harry's parents.