bats and on occasion, a lapse in aim by Hagrid.
Lupin maintained an expressionless expression. "It died, Dean."
"How did it die, sir?" Gregory Goyle asked.
Then again, perhaps not everyone knew.
"How it died is not important," Lupin stressed. "What matters is how we deal with the Tangleweed. That will be our task for this afternoon." He hopped off the crate and lifted the lid.
The students gathered around.
The combined heat of seventeen teenagers and one adult werewolf was considerable. Harry scrubbed a sticky hand through his hair, before wiping his fogged-up glasses on his sleeve. One thick lock of black hair was sticking straight up in the air in a perfect equilateral triangle. Smiling fondly at Harry, Hermione reached up to flatten the wayward locks. They sprung up almost immediately.
Harry suddenly looked less enthusiastic. Having spent the better part of his third year summer holidays battling the hedges at Number 14, Privet Drive, he was well aware of the purpose of the implements inside the crate.
"Er, you want us to weed?" he asked, staring at the numerous pairs of gloves and trowels with trepidation. "How is that defence against the Dark Arts, exactly?"
"Maybe they're Dark weeds," Lavender suggested. "You know, like Devil' s Snare."
"Tangleweed isn't actually a weed," Blaise answered, giving Lavender a withering look, in which he was especially skilled. "It's an animal that looks like a plant, but was only classified incorrectly due to its lack of sentience."
Lupin nodded. "Very good, Blaise. That's precisely right. Before we go any further, however, I would like for everyone to pair up with your designated Task Partner and collect a pair of gloves, a trowel and a bucket."
It was testament to Lupin's skills in diplomacy that the class had put up only minor resistance to his mixing them up when it came to working in pairs. Girls with boys, Slytherins with Gryffindors, numbers permitting.
Given his ongoing mission to put an end to interhouse enmity, Dumbledore had been ecstatic with the arrangement. Not so, Professors Snape and McGonagall, who were convinced that the students would only quarrel and become distracted.
Hermione, not without some guilt, had found it a pleasant change to not have Neville constantly rely on her during lessons, although she might have enjoyed her D.a.D.A lessons more if Crabbe's personal hygiene had been as well developed as his Beating arm.
Neville, too, could have done worse than having Malfoy as a partner. Despite the constant putdowns, Malfoy generally maintained a professional attitude towards assignments for the precise reason that Lupin cleverly awarded marks to pairs, and not to individuals.
But with both Neville and Draco absent, and Crabbe gone indefinitely, Hemione was missing a partner. She approached Lupin, who was counting pairs of gloves. He paused and looked up to smile at her, except the smile seemed to have died before reaching his face. He blinked a few times, and it might have been her imagination, but she could have sworn he was...sniffing her.
"Professor?"
"Hermione," he began, seeming to shake off his momentary distraction. Understanding appeared in his eyes as he continued staring at her. "Ah, yes! I forget Crabbe is no longer with us. You' ll have to partner with me for the lesson, of course."
Hermione thought that was splendid idea. She was just about to accept a pair of gloves from the teacher when the temperature in the greenhouse took a sudden dip and her skin broke out into clammy goose bumps.
She felt Malfoy a scant second before she actually saw him.
They hadn' t been in such close proximity since he had deposited her at the front steps of the castle on Sunday afternoon. Suddenly and quite disturbingly, she could sense everything about him.
It was like stepping into his body for a few moments, making a quick catalogue of discovery and then darting back out again. Malfoy, not surprisingly was hot, sweaty, hungry and very tired. But there was a tangible anticipation as well, just below the surface.
Hermione didn't linger over any of this. Slapping on a serene look, she turned her attention to her folded arms.
"Apologies," Draco was saying to Lupin, sounding slightly out of breath. "I was unavoidably detained by duties."
"Quite alright, Draco," Lupin looked to the rest of class. "Let's see"
Hermione's gritted her teeth. Oh no. Please noanyone but him. "Good! Hermione is missing a partner!"
Draco hardly spared her a glance. "An improvement over Longbottom, at any rate," he said, before swinging his bag over his shoulder and striding over to her. "What are we doing?" Draco asked.
"We're weeding,"