CHAPTER SEVEN

Draco Malfoy returns to Potions with a bandaged arm, performing his injury while Snape indulges him, ordering Ron and Harry to prepare Malfoy’s ingredients. Malfoy boasts that his father has complained about Hagrid and hints Harry should seek revenge on Sirius Black, unsettling Harry. Meanwhile, Neville fears Snape’s threat to test his flawed Shrinking Solution on Trevor, but with Hermione’s whispered help, the potion works. Snape still deducts five points from Gryffindor for Hermione’s assistance.

As the class disperses, Hermione briefly vanishes from the staircase and reappears breathless, furtively tucking something into her robes. Her bag splits under an implausible load of books for subjects she doesn’t have that day, heightening Ron and Harry’s suspicion that Hermione is hiding something.

In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Lupin ushers the class to the staff room, deftly dispatches Peeves with the Waddiwasi charm, and introduces a Boggart in a wardrobe. Despite Snape’s derision of Neville, Lupin selects Neville to lead, teaching the Riddikulus charm and urging students to imagine fears made laughable.

The Boggart cycles through students’ fears: Neville turns Snape into a vulture-hatted figure; Parvati trips a mummy; Seamus silences a banshee; Dean traps a crawling hand; Ron removes a giant spider’s legs. When the Boggart rolls toward Harry, Lupin interposes, transforming it into a silvery-white orb before redirecting back to Neville, who finishes it off.

Lupin awards points widely, praising Neville, and adds small credit to Harry and Hermione for correct answers. Harry, however, broods that Lupin deliberately blocked his turn—perhaps doubting Harry’s resilience after the Dementor incident—while classmates revel in their best Defence lesson yet and speculate about Lupin’s own fear.