Hogsmeade

There were a few small changes to the third-year courses. Rose had decided during the Easter holidays that year to drop Arithmancy and Muggle Studies. Lily's and Remus's timetables were packed, and even though Rose had prepared herself, the two of them still gave her a terrible fright whenever they suddenly appeared.

Divination was taught by a short man who was already very old, with graying hair. During lessons, he always sat behind a small table, muttering to himself. James said in private that he thought Professor Parsell's brain didn't seem to work very well, and Divination was quickly voted the second-best class for sleeping, after History of Magic.

After Divination came Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class. She turned into a tabby cat in front of everyone, then changed back with a "pop." James and Sirius gave her a thunderous round of applause. They listened to her explanation of Animagi with unprecedented eagerness and even picked up their quills for once.

Under Professor McGonagall's suspicious gaze, James had to make up a story about suddenly developing a great interest in Transfiguration over the summer.

Professor Kettleburn, who taught Care of Magical Creatures, was a very kindhearted man, but he could also be reckless and careless at times. That very trait had led him to suffer some terrible things.

Care of Magical Creatures was held in a small clearing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Professor Kettleburn had only half of his limbs left. He held up a Crup with difficulty, explaining how to remove the parasitic hairy crabs from it.

By the time all the day's classes were over, Rose had collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted. She was nearly asleep again, but she couldn't sleep-because that evening was their first meeting to begin attempting the Animagus transformation.

A heated discussion was raging in the Room of Requirement about where to get Mandrake.

Sirius said, "The second-years are studying it in Herbology right now. We can get some from them."

James clearly agreed. "I'll talk to Steve Locke tomorrow. He's always trying to strike up a conversation with me."

The first step in becoming an Animagus was to hold a Mandrake leaf in one's mouth. From one full moon to the next, it could never be swallowed or allowed to leave the mouth.

"When's the full moon?" Rose asked.

"In three days," Remus said with a bitter smile. That also meant that in three days, he would turn into a mindless monster again.

"Cheer up!" James slapped him hard on the back. "Maybe the month after next, we'll be able to go to the Shrieking Shack with you!"

But the ideal was too beautiful. One morning a week later, Peter swallowed his Mandrake leaf along with his Pumpkin Juice at breakfast. He looked as though he was about to cry.

Soon afterward, Sirius and James accidentally let their leaves fall out of their mouths while casting spells during a fierce fight with Snape. Rose woke up one morning to find her leaf on her pillow.

They could only start all over again.

After October began, Quidditch training got underway in earnest.

After graduating from Hogwarts in June that year, McGu had joined the Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Games and Sports, while his fiancée had joined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The two were to be married before Christmas.

The Quidditch captain was sixth-year Alan Macmillan, a tall, strongly built boy who played Keeper for the team. Until then, Rose had always thought Alan was a shy, introverted big boy, but this year she discovered that he had successfully inherited McGu's devilish fighting spirit.

Every Wednesday evening, they trained on the Quidditch Pitch until late at night. Only after James and Rose nearly collided for the third time did Alan have to call an end to practice.

But everyone on the team understood how he felt, because last year's gleaming silver Quidditch Cup was still sitting on the top shelf of the cabinet in the common room—they saw it the moment they returned every time.

Whenever that happened, Rose felt she could have practiced for another half hour. But when she had to crawl out from under the covers early the next morning, she decided she'd rather not.

At the end of October, the first Hogsmeade weekend arrived.

The permission form had been sent to the Bennetts' house with the letter over the summer. Rose's legal guardian was Bond Johnson, but she had already moved out, and she didn't want to ask him for anything.

It was fine. She could go to Hogsmeade whenever she wanted.

But when the day actually arrived, Rose thought that perhaps she really should have humbled herself and explored the possibility of asking Johnson to sign it-nearly everyone was talking about Hogsmeade, and Mary had even made herself a list on a fourteen-inch sheet of parchment, densely covered with her itinerary for the day.

On Saturday morning, Rose forced herself to stay in bed and not think about Lily and Marlene getting ready. How she wished she could go back two months and force her past self to ask for Johnson's permission.

"Are you sure you don't need us to bring anything back?" Lily's voice came through the bed curtains, full of concern.

"Thanks, but no, I don't need anything!" Rose said stiffly, trying to make her voice sound gentler, but she had obviously failed.

"All right, we'll be back early, I promise!" Lily still seemed worried, but they were nearly out of time, and Mary had already called for them from the dormitory door three times.

"Darling Rose—we'll bring you the newest sweets from Honeydukes!" Marlene reached through the curtains and patted her head affectionately.

Marlene's imitation of a grown-up tone made Rose laugh. She urged them on. "All right, you're going to be late. Pringle won't wait for anyone! Go on, Marlene, you still have to buy me sweets at Honeydukes!"

After she had assured them several times that she absolutely would not cry in secret alone in the dormitory, Marlene and Lily finally left.

The room fell quiet all at once, and Rose even thought the sound of her own breathing was a little noisy.

Rose slept until noon, then drew the curtains wide open as soon as she woke up.

It was a sunny weekend, and she couldn't stay cooped up in the dormitory either. If this went on, she would turn into a Puffskein.

The younger students weren't allowed to go to Hogsmeade, but Rose had never thought the castle was so quiet on a Hogsmeade weekend—the common room was empty, only the occasional ghost drifted through the corridors, and even in the Great Hall, hardly anyone was in sight.

After eating lunch alone, Rose decided to go and enjoy the sun.

Sunlight shone on the Black Lake, and the giant squid occasionally sent a few splashes across its shimmering surface. Half the leaves on the beech trees had turned yellow.

Rose walked under a beech tree and sat down on the grass, which was covered in fallen leaves. She took out a Muggle notebook—she had bought it at a discount shop in town over the summer for only a tenth of the price of parchment.

The notebook contained some of her thoughts on spells and her little inventions. Recently she had been studying the Burning Curse, another variation of the Heating Charm, but when it acted on a person's skin, it made the victim feel the pain of a burn.

She wasn't sure whether her research fell within the realm of Dark Magic, so she could only swear silently that she would never use these spells on anyone else.

Just as she was absorbed in the intricacies of modifying spells, Snape suddenly emerged from the shadows of a bush. He stared fixedly at the notebook and wand in Rose's hands, an eerie smile on his lips.

"Upright, brave lions, the great Gryffindors—it seems there's a traitor among you," he drawled mockingly.

Rose closed her notebook and stood up. Looking at Snape, she said coldly, "Showing up here all alone on a Hogsmeade weekend, Snape? Do you have no friends to go with, or are you too poor?"

Snape's pale face instantly flushed red. He gripped his wand and gave a cold snort. "And what's your reason, Miss Claude?"

"Because I don't have any money, of course!" Rose looked at him in bewilderment. Wasn't it obvious she was poor? Besides, she was even less willing to admit that she hadn't received permission at all.

Seemingly at a loss for words after her reply, Snape moved his lips a couple of times, but no harsher words came out.

Rose stuffed her notebook into her bag, feeling that Snape was about to ruin her peaceful afternoon.

"Did you invent the spell you were trying just now yourself?" Snape's voice sounded behind him, his tone carrying a trace of suppressed excitement.

"Do you want to try it?" Rose turned her head impatiently.

Several emotions were mingled on Snape's face, though they weren't very obvious. In a low, slow voice, he said, "It's a very complete spell. If you're willing, I can try to improve it further until it reaches ultimate perfection!"

The smile vanished completely from Rose's face. Grim-faced, she said, "Snape, an offensive spell can never be described as perfect, because all it brings people is harm and pain."

With that, she turned away without looking at Snape's expression again and headed toward the castle.