Gryffindor Common Room

"Who's there?"

After leaving that strange room, Pomona heard someone shout. She followed the sound and saw that it was the Gryffindor first-year who always looked exhausted, the one who followed James Potter and Sirius Black around.

"Y-you're the girl who stopped the Whomping Willow." He stammered, his eyes darting about as he looked thoroughly uneasy. Pomona felt deeply uncomfortable. What was going on now?

Gryffindor and Slytherin were natural rivals. Aside from their conflict between "justice" and "evil," Slytherins were also skilled at lying. They could make a lie sound exactly like the truth, without leaving the slightest flaw, while Gryffindors were not good at such things.

He was lying. Though Pomona did not know why, being pointed at with a wand certainly did not feel good, so she asked, "Who are you? Why are you here during class hours?"

"M-my name is Remus Lupin," the first-year stuttered. "Who are you?"

I'm your professor.

Pomona wanted to answer that way. After all, Professor McGonagall had just offered her a job, but she truly was not in the mood to tease anyone right now.

"I'm Pomona Martin, a first-year Hufflepuff student. Could you do me a favor?" Pomona patted the dust from her clothes. "I'd like to borrow your washroom to clean myself up..."

"Spider!" Lupin pointed at Pomona's hair. "It's on your head!"

Lupin thought Pomona was an ordinary girl. He thought that, with a spider on her head, she ought to scream at the top of her lungs.

The Hufflepuff girls' common room was like a tropical rainforest. It had not only flowers and plants, but insects and frogs as well. Where there were herbs, there would be bugs, and Hufflepuff girls had long stopped being afraid of a mere little spider.

Article Twenty of the Hufflepuff Code of Conduct: Playing dumb is a talent. We actually understand everything.

So Pomona vigorously slapped at the dust on her head, screaming and hopping around at the same time. Remus Lupin quietly let out a breath of relief. Apparently, he felt the situation was entirely under his control.

"Come on, our common room is on the eighth floor." Lupin gestured for Pomona to follow him. "What were you doing just now? You're covered in dust."

"I was looking for a book," she said in a sniffling voice. "This one."

Lupin took the book, looked at the title on its cover, then turned his gaze back to Pomona. "You're the girl who stopped the Whomping Willow?"

"Only temporarily." Pomona looked at Lupin. "It'll start moving again at night."

"Why?"

"Magic is more abundant at night than during the day. For instance, many magical creatures appear at night, and magical plants are more active then as well."

Lupin's face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Come on, I'll take you in to wash up." His manner became incomparably forceful as he pushed Pomona along by the back toward a huge painting. It depicted a fat woman dressed in ancient Roman robes.

"Oh, you're terribly dirty." The Fat Lady looked Pomona up and down. "Have you been practicing Quidditch, dear?"

That was a question. Quidditch was clearly played flying through the sky on broomsticks, so why did Quidditch players still manage to get themselves covered from head to toe in mud?

Then she thought that if Susan joined the Quidditch team in the future and came back caked in mud, Mary and Jane would definitely have something to say about it. Lost in thought, she failed to react, and the Fat Lady assumed she was slow-witted, so she turned to Remus Lupin and asked.

"Password."

"Dragon's gall," Lupin said. The portrait slowly swung open, revealing a hole in the wall behind it. Lupin crawled inside on all fours, looking like an explorer squeezing into some mysterious cave. Pomona curled her lip and crawled in after him.

Slytherin's colors were green and silver, representing the element of water. Gryffindor's colors were scarlet and gold, representing the element of fire. The cozy round room was filled with squashy armchairs, and two spiral staircases led respectively to the boys' and girls' dormitories.

"Come with me." Lupin beckoned to Pomona. "Gryffindor allows girls into the boys' dormitory."

So did Hufflepuff. Girls could visit the boys' rooms, but boys were forbidden from entering the girls' dormitory. If a boy tried to climb the stairs to the girls' dormitory, the staircase would turn into a slide. It seemed that Hogwarts's founders all believed boys were less trustworthy than girls.

There was no one in the common room during class hours. Pomona still kept her head lowered as she followed Lupin into the Gryffindor boys' dormitory. The instant she stepped into the corridor, an unbelievable stench nearly knocked her unconscious.

"Oh, once the dormitory doors are open and the wind blows in, it won't smell so bad." Lupin blushed. "It's windy here."

Pomona covered her nose and did not answer. Ravenclaw was windy too, but she was certain their dormitories must be filled with the scent of perfume. Stinky socks lay everywhere in the corridor here. This sort of environment was perfect for saprophytic plants to grow.

Lupin opened the door to one dormitory. The first thing Pomona saw was not a Gryffindor four-poster bed, but Muggle girls in swimsuits plastered across the walls.

Wizarding robes reached down to the ankles, yet the swimsuits worn by Muggle girls only covered the most important parts, displaying their youthful, energetic bodies.

It was not strange to see such things in a boys' room, but Pomona could not help wondering who had put those posters on the walls.

"Please wait!" Blushing, Lupin strode over and opened the bathroom door, then vanished inside. Pomona wandered over to the window. Through the glass, she could see the mirror-like Black Lake and the boundless Forbidden Forest. Suddenly, she felt that becoming a Gryffindor would not be such a bad choice if she could see such beautiful scenery every day.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Pomona jolted all over and turned toward the source of the sound. It came from the Astronomy Tower, but there was not a single person there. Dumbledore's office was nearby, its stained-glass window open at the moment, but the room inside was pitch-black and nothing could be seen.

"All right, you can go in now, Martin." Lupin opened the door again and emerged from the bathroom.

"Did you know, Lupin?" Pomona looked toward that office. "Hogwarts is actually the name of a flower."

"A flower?" Lupin looked utterly baffled.

"A lily that grows in forests and valleys." Pomona spoke the word with some bitterness. "Lily."

"Martin, you seem to be very skilled with plant magic." Lupin shoved his hands into his pockets and walked over to her. "Are you pure-blood?"

Pomona's brows drew tight. When Lupin came closer, she caught the smell on his breath.

Ruixiang Wolfsbane—a beautiful little cluster of pink flowers whose fragrance smelled much like lilies. But it grew in frigid Siberia, and wherever it grew was bound to turn into desert, leaving not a blade of grass alive.

Its flowers had little use, but its roots, stems, and leaves were all highly poisonous. They could be made into medicine for external application or used as pesticides to control insect infestations. Why was Lupin drinking that stuff?

"I'm not particularly skilled." Pomona grew suspicious and became more guarded as she spoke to Lupin.

"It's Wednesday already. Do you think the school will give us Saturday off this week?" Lupin walked to another window and gazed outside. Everyone looked forward to holidays, but Lupin did not seem excited. He looked calm, with a maturity beyond his years.

"Maybe." She answered absentmindedly, then turned and walked toward the bathroom.

"Did you know? Eastern wizards used the waxing and waning of the moon to keep track of dates. The fifteenth of every month was the full moon." Pomona seemed to have taught him something, and Lupin returned the favor. "Our September 4th falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. That day is their Ghost Festival and Ullambana. Those two festivals are a lot like our Halloween—days when ghosts and monsters roam about."

"There are lots of ghosts at the school. I don't think ghosts are anything to be afraid of."

"No, there are monsters in this world far more terrifying than ghosts." With his back to Pomona, Lupin spoke softly. "If I were you, I wouldn't wander around that day. Go back to your dorm early and get some rest."

Only after Lupin said that did Pomona remember that the full moon was only three days away. She wondered whether werewolves might appear in the Forbidden Forest.

If Hagrid were bitten by a werewolf, would he become one too? She had heard that he lived on the outskirts of Hogwarts.

If a werewolf as enormous as Hagrid appeared, then he really could be called Fenrir.

Pomona sighed, pulled open the bathroom door, and walked inside.