"Do you know what this is, Elaina?"
It was pure coincidence that Draco Malfoy appeared before Daphne and me while we were having tea in the common room, wearing a puzzled expression. In his hand was a goblet, filled with a strangely colored liquid.
"From the look of it, it seems like a potion…"
"What's this?" Daphne asked.
Tilting his head, Draco replied.
"Professor Snape summoned me earlier and told me to deliver this to Lupin. He even instructed me on how to brew it, but I couldn't quite figure out what kind of potion it is."
The more we heard, the stranger it sounded. Calling Draco over just to hand a potion to Professor Lupin was odd enough, but the fact that Professor Snape had gone out of his way to brew it himself for Lupin was downright baffling.
"Well, Professor Snape doesn't exactly think highly of Professor Lupin."
The fact that Draco avoided saying he outright disliked him showed a certain degree of consideration.
"Despite that, he brewed a potion for Lupin. And instead of delivering it himself, he deliberately summoned me. That means Professor Snape is expecting something from me."
"So since you don't understand what that is, you decided to borrow the wisdom of two top-ranking beauties?"
"…I won't bother responding to that, but yes, that's basically it."
From the sound of it, Draco's desire to live up to Professor Snape's expectations, perhaps a form of approval-seeking toward a teacher who favored him, had been stirred.
"What do you think, Daphne?"
The Greengrass family has run a pharmaceutical business for generations, so she should know about this sort of thing. When I asked, Daphne pressed a finger to her temple, closed her eyes in an exaggerated gesture, and then spoke.
"First of all, this potion probably isn't commercially available. It's likely an expensive medicine used for serious illnesses, the kind you'd only be prescribed at St. Mungo's."
"So that's why Professor Snape brewed it himself."
"Exactly."
Professor Snape's skill in potion-making is first-rate. Looked at another way, that means Professor Lupin must be suffering from an illness serious enough to require a potion brewed by someone of that caliber.
"Well, Professor Lupin didn't look very healthy when we first met him, and even now he takes sick leave regularly."
"About once a month, right? That's pretty often."
The real question was why Draco had been instructed to deliver it. On top of that, teaching him the brewing process as well was strange.
I don't particularly want to speak ill of our Head of House, but to be honest, Professor Snape isn't especially attentive.
While he does favor Slytherin during lessons, outside of class he generally keeps his distance. He's nothing like Professor McGonagall, who offers career guidance, or Professor Flitwick, who helps decorate for house celebrations. That sort of kindness just isn't his style.
"By the way, do you remember the ingredients or the procedure?"
When I asked, Draco prefaced his answer with "only vaguely" before continuing.
"I'm pretty sure it used wolfsbane…"
After that, relying on Draco's memory, we looked up wolfsbane-based potions in reference books, but in the end we found nothing.
However, not knowing led us to realize one thing.
"This is probably a newly developed potion. That's why it's not in the old books."
If it were a potion listed in our textbooks, that would be one thing, but a new potion was beyond my abilities as well.
"For now, let's go deliver it. Getting too caught up in solving the mystery and failing to do what we're supposed to would be putting the cart before the horse."
"You're right. Then I'll be off with this…"
"Wait!"
Just as Draco was about to take the goblet, Daphne suddenly raised her voice.
"Daphne?"
Ignoring Draco and me as we stared in surprise, Daphne pulled out her Astronomy textbook from her bag, flipped to the page with the celestial events calendar, and murmured meaningfully, "I knew it…"
"Draco, just in case, I'm coming with you. Elaina, will you come too?"
"I don't mind, but… did you figure something out?"
"I'm not certain yet, but…"
It seemed Daphne had decided to confirm things directly with Professor Lupin.
＊＊
It didn't take long for Draco and me to realize that something was off about Daphne.
Even though all we were doing was delivering a potion, she kept fiddling with her wand, humming a clumsy tune, and wearing a tense expression that was anything but relaxed.
"Isn't Daphne acting stranger than usual today?"
"She's always strange, but today she's especially odd."
When we reached Professor Lupin's office, we heard what sounded like voices coming from inside. It seemed he had a visitor.
"Excuse us."
The door wasn't locked, so we went straight in. What I saw there was shocking.
Inside the room were two people. One was lying on their back on the floor, while the other, Professor Lupin, was crouched over them.
And I recognized the face and name of the student lying there.
"Astoria…?"
When I asked in a hushed voice, Professor Lupin turned toward us with a startled expression. Lying weak and limp beneath him was Daphne's younger sister, Astoria Greengrass.
"Astoria!"
Pushing past me, Daphne rushed into the room with a scream. In front of Draco and me, who stood frozen in shock at her agitation, Daphne pulled Astoria protectively behind her and swiftly aimed her wand at Professor Lupin.
"W-wait, Daphne!?"
I had no idea what was going on.
"Elaina, Draco, get your wands ready!"
"Please wait! Sister, Professor Lupin is—"
Astoria hurriedly tried to sit up and say something, but Daphne cut her off.
"Stay back, Astoria!"
"Calm down! I'll explain!"
Professor Lupin shouted as well, his face pale.
"There's a reason your sister is here. Please…"
"Astoria wouldn't taste good anyway!"
Though trembling, Daphne bravely tried to protect her sister. At last, I realized what she was thinking.
"Don't tell me… that's what this was about!?"
"That's right, Elaina! Professor Lupin was planning to trick Astoria and eat her!"
"How horrifying… that's not the behavior of a teacher at all, just an unforgivable bastard!"
To think something like this could happen at Hogwarts, and to an innocent eleven-year-old girl no less.
"Wait, both of you, let me explain. Please…"
Professor Lupin pleaded, but there was no mercy to be shown to an enemy of womankind.
"My sister and Elaina, you are both mistaken! I came here of my own free will."
"Astoria is being deceived!"
"I am not being deceived! Professor Lupin is fine!"
"Astoria, Daphne is right. Listen carefully. A truly evil person approaches others while pretending to be good."
"What on earth is going on here!?"
Draco, who had been completely left out of the situation, shouted, and Daphne and I exchanged glances. Professor Lupin had been a very good teacher, so accusing him did sting a little, but if he truly intended to sink his fangs into an innocent young girl, we could not simply stay silent.
"Professor Lupin's true identity is—"
Speaking at the same time as Daphne, I revealed Professor Lupin's terrifying secret.
"He's a werewolf!"
"A lolicon sexual predator who lays hands on his students, and—eh?"
A painful silence followed.
All eyes were now fixed on Professor Lupin. His face had gone pale, but he calmly opened his mouth.
"This isn't like you, Daphne or Elaina. Let me say this first. Elaina's assumption is a complete misunderstanding."
He looked at me as if deeply offended, and I turned toward Daphne. For some reason, Daphne was staring back at me with a look that clearly said, "How did you even get that?"
"But Daphne said that Professor Lupin was going to eat Astoria or something like that."
"Elaina, are you okay? Aren't you acting a bit out of character today?"
Even if you say that…
Normally, if someone says a teacher is going to eat a student, you would not take it literally. You would assume they meant it in that other sense.
"I have never once tried to eat Astoria, even in the literal sense. Werewolves may bite people, but they do not eat them."
Come to think of it, when Professor Snape filled in for Defense Against the Dark Arts and went on at length about werewolves, I vaguely recall him mentioning something like that about their habits.
(That said, there are similarities between werewolf traits and Professor Lupin…)
Honestly, it was so far beyond common sense that I had never even considered it.
That said, secretly employing a werewolf without telling the students raises serious questions about Hogwarts' compliance practices. Hiring a werewolf in itself might be one thing, but concealing it seems problematic.
Then again, if they openly announced, "The new teacher is a werewolf, but we have taken every precaution so it is safe," there would undoubtedly be complaints. So perhaps they chose the approach of not announcing it unless asked, while still being prepared to explain if questioned.
"Ah… could it be…"
I glanced at the goblet in Draco's hand and finally understood Professor Snape's intention.
"Professor Snape would be pleased. He opposed my employment until the very end. He taught those lessons on werewolves because he wanted someone to realize what my condition truly meant."
Professor Lupin continued.
"That is also why he had you bring the potion, Draco. He thought that, since you excel at Potions, or perhaps through your connections, someone might realize that the potion is Wolfsbane."
Professor Lupin then looked at Daphne, and next at Astoria.
"If anyone were to uncover my identity first, it would be you. Greengrass Pharmaceuticals was deeply involved in the development of this latest Wolfsbane Potion."
Daphne nodded silently, still holding her wand at the ready.
"Then… you really are…"
Draco's face grew deathly pale, and fear crept into his gaze as he stared at Professor Lupin. A strange tremor passed over Professor Lupin's face.
"Yes. I do not deny that I am a werewolf."
Draco let out a small scream and stumbled backward.
"Stay back! You wolfman!"
Professor Lupin's expression twisted in pain. He let out a small sigh and rolled his wand toward us.
"Here, how about this? You are armed. I am not. Will you listen to me now?"
I quickly picked up the wand. Even so, as long as there was still a possibility of him transforming into a werewolf, we could not afford to be careless.
"Draco, please give Professor Lupin the potion. If he drinks it, he should retain his reason even if he transforms."
At my words, Draco set the goblet down on the floor so he would not have to approach Professor Lupin directly, then used a levitation charm to move it into his hands. Professor Lupin accepted it and, wearing a distinctly unpleasant expression, drank it down.
"Professor, you still have not answered the most important question."
Once he finished drinking, Daphne spoke.
"Why is Astoria here?"
"That is—"
"I am the one who made a deal with Professor Lupin."
Unable to help myself, I turned toward the voice. There stood Astoria, barely upright, her face so pale it looked as though she might collapse at any moment.
(End of chapter)
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