CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NEW PLANS

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Even though I was upset for the rest of the weekend while Madam Pompfrey insisted on keeping Harry and I in the hospital wing, I was thrilled to hear Lupin was resuming teaching on Monday. On Sunday night, someone came to visit me that I hadn't seen in a while. It was Noah. I grinned and hugged him tightly when he came.

"Sorry I didn't come sooner, I was so behind on work." He said as we pulled away from the hug.

"It's fine, it's fine. How've you been? We haven't hung out, or even talked, in ages!" I exclaimed, as Noah nodded.

"I know. Let me tell you, Miss Potter, you're one very hard girl to get to." He sighed. I was confused.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Now Noah was confused as well. "What do you mean, what do I mean? Whenever I try to catch up to you in the halls, Malfoy's always there blocking my path. Whenever I try to sit next to you in class, you're either next to Hermione, or Malfoy gets there first. He knows he's doing it, too. A few times I've even asked him where you were and he just told me your schedule was busy with your actual friends. I thought you hated me now or something." Noah explained.

Draco, that blonde absolute prat. "Draco did all that? So that I wouldn't see you or talk to you?" I raised my eyebrows and Noah shrugs and nods.

"Talk about a jealous boyfriend." The brunette mutters, but I hear him. (a/n: noah's a brunette, i know i've mixed that up in the past, sorry :))

"Draco is not my boyfriend!" I exclaimed. "But I'm now realizing how much it must seem like it, huh?"

"Yeah." Noah confirms.

"Oh, Noah, I'm so sorry. Draco and I aren't dating. At the end of last year, I liked the both of you and he told me by this year I was going to have to choose, which I've known. I think he's just trying to get me to pick him." I explained to Noah.

"Are you?" He asks.

"I don't know. I'm not even sure if Draco really likes me. He acts like it, but he's always been a tease like that. I have to focus on other things besides boys anyways." I sighed. Noah stood and began walking away, then grinned and came back. 

"So you don't know who you're going to pick?" He asks.

"No, I don't."

When classes resumed on Monday, I was happy to have something to do besides laying in a hospital bed. Lupin's class was the best, by far, and he even canceled the essay Snape had assigned us. As he dismissed his class, he held Harry and I back.

"I heard about the match. And I'm sorry about your brooms. Is there any chance of fixing them?" Lupin begins.

"Is there was it's long gone." I sighed.

"No." Harry shakes his head. "The tree smashed it to bits."

"They planted the Whomping Willow the same year that I arrived at Hogwarts. People used to play a game, trying to get near enough to touch the trunk. In the end, a boy called Davey Gudgeon nearly lost an eye, and we were forbidden to go near it. No broomstick would have a chance."

"I would've liked to try that." I smirked, and Lupin smiled.

"So would your father. And he did." Lupin told me and I grinned.

"Did you hear about the dementors, too?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Yes, I did. Both of your actions, whether they are foolish is the question." Lupin casts a side glance at me and I look down. "I don't think any of us have seen Professor Dumbledore that angry. They have been growing restless for some time, furious at his refusal to let them inside the grounds.... I suppose they were the reason you fell?"

"Yes," Harry hesitated, and then the question he had to ask burst from him before he could stop himself." Why? Why do they affect me- us- like that? Are we just-?"

"It has nothing to do with weakness." Lupin tells us, and I sigh with relief. My biggest fear was being weak.

And then my boggarts made sense. It was a dementor becauseI don't know how to defend myself against them, they make me weak and cold and depressed. Then it was Tom Riddle, because I'm scared of being weak and letting him get to me. Inside my head, controlling me, whatever.

"The dementors affect you worse than the others because there are horrors in your pasts that the others don't have." Lupin explained. "Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even muggles feel their presence, though they can't see them. Get too near a dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soul-less and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life. And the worst that happened to you, Harry, Giovanna, is enough to make anyone fall off their broom. You have nothing to feel ashamed of."

"When they get near me... I can hear Voldemort murdering our mother." I muttered, and then I saw Harry nodding in agreement. Lupin looked as though there was so much he wanted to do and say, but thought better of it.

Why did they have to come to the match?" Harry snapped bitterly.

"They're getting hungry," said Lupin coolly, shutting his briefcase with a snap. "Dumbledore won't let them into the school, so their supply of human prey has dried up. I don't think they could resist the large crowd around the Quidditch field. All that excitement, emotions running high... it was their idea of a feast."

"Azkaban must-" I start.

"-be terrible." Harry finishes.

"Haven't done that in a while." I sighed, annoyed.

"I didn't miss it." Harry frowns, and I agree.

"The fortress is set on a tiny island, way out to sea, but they don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're all trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheery thought. Most of them go mad within weeks." Lupin explained.

"But Sirius Black's escaped them." I say slowly.

"He got away..." Harry trails off.

"Yes," Lupin's voice lingered, "Black must have found a way to fight them. I wouldn't have believed it possible. Dementors are supposed to drain a wizard of his powers if he is left with them too long."

"You made that dementor on the train back off!" Harry exclaimed suddenly.

"You know how to fight them!" My eyes light up.

"There are certain defenses one can use," said Lupin. "But there was only one dementor on the train. The more there are, the more difficult it becomes to resist."

"What defenses?" Prodded Harry at once. 

"Can you teach us?" I raise an eyebrow.

"I don't pretend to be an expert at fighting dementors, Giovanna, quite the contrary..."

"But if the dementors come to another Quidditch match, I need to be able to fight them!" I exclaimed.

"And I don't want anyone getting hurt to save me." Harry stated. The difference between us. I want to learn to fight them so I'm not weak and I can defend myself, and he wants to learn so no one gets hurt.

Lupin looked into Harry and I's determined faces, hesitated, then said, "Well... all right. I'll try and help. But it'll have to wait until next term, I'm afraid. I have a lot to do before the holidays. I chose a very inconvenient time to fall ill."

With the promise of learning defense against dementors, I perked up. Perhaps this year would be better after all.

Well, right after I have a little discussion with Snake Boy.