HP: It's a snake, not a badger.

Chapter 95 Boggart 2

Fortunately, he saw "himself" wearing a skirt as soon as he arrived at the classroom door, preventing Severus from being wronged. Of course, he wasn't going to let Lupin off so easily. This werewolf professor seemed to have a grudge against Severus, and wasn't it normal for a suitor to avenge his beloved?

"Who are you, and why are you interrupting our class?"

Lupin remained calm, feeling it was nothing, except perhaps a slight disappointment that he hadn't seen Snape in a skirt.

"Draco, tell me what happened."

Emeric ignored Lupin's questioning; he needed to know what had happened before deciding what to do next.

"Professor Lupin asked Neville to come over and demonstrate, guiding Neville to imagine Professor Snape wearing his grandmother's clothes. This was disrespectful to both Professor Snape and Neville's grandmother. Neville tried to refuse, but Professor Lupin forcibly dragged him over. As for why it turned into you, I have no idea."

Draco summarized the whole incident in a calm tone, adding his own thoughts. Harry picked up on the last part, feeling that it was his words that had frightened Neville even more.

"I just asked Neville why he's not afraid of you, and that might be the reason."

Hearing Harry's words, Emerick suddenly realized that Gryffindors did have brains after all. He'd try to get fewer deductions for covering his classes later, as a way of thanking Harry for his help. If Neville really became Severus, he'd be punished by the ghosts to the point of tears.

"Alright, Slytherin, could you please leave? You're disrupting our class. If you don't leave, I'll deduct points from your house."

Lupin wanted to kick them out; he didn't really like having Slytherin people standing in front of him.

But Emeric didn't move an inch. He was waiting for someone. Dumbledore was too busy to deal with things lately, but McGonagall was available.

"What's wrong, Ellie? The class was only halfway through, and you came out, fine, but why did you call me over too?"

McGonagall rushed over, eager to get back to class. If the fat monk hadn't insisted that she come, she would have planned to wait until after class.

"Professor McGonagall, it's nothing. I just don't know why Professor Lupin disliked me from the first glance and made me look bad at school."

"?"

The werewolf professor, who was witnessing Emeric's tea-making skills for the first time, was dumbfounded. When did he make Emeric look bad?

"Minerva, I didn't, I'm not. This class teaches Boggarts, it's normal," he quickly explained, hoping McGonagall would believe him.

"Remus, what are you doing? Can someone tell me what happened?"

"Professor McGonagall... I... I'll speak."

Neville, his face flushed and trembling, raised his hand. Although he was truly terrified, he knew who was genuinely kind to him. Emeric always gave him a forced smile because he didn't take notes or take precautions when brewing potions, but he never got angry because he had blown up a potion; instead, he would comfort him with delicious food.

"I'll speak, Professor."

Neville raised his hand again in a firm tone, expressing his apologies for what had just happened.

"Good child, tell me what happened?"

McGonagall smiled with relief; she was glad to see Neville had the courage to stand up and speak.

"Professor Lupin asked me what I was afraid of, and I said Professor Snape... I'm sorry, Brother Allie, I'm very sorry about this."

Neville explained things clearly in a soft but clear voice, and finally apologized for what he had done.

"It's okay, I already said it wasn't your fault."

Emeric nodded to him, accepting the apology, and told him to sit down and eat; the rest was none of his business.

"Professor McGonagall, thank goodness it's me. If it were Professor Snape, how would he teach? Thank goodness..."

The fragrant tea aroma and the words directly stirred up McGonagall's nerves. She had also considered the consequences, and given that the bandits had always liked to bully Severus, she became angry.

"No, Minerva, I didn't mean that, I..."

"Neville has already rejected you, but you still won't let him go. I really don't know if you have a grudge against Professor Snape or against us," Emeric said in a low voice that all three of them could hear.

"Enough, Remus, you're coming with me." McGonagall looked at the students below. "You're studying, so be quiet, understand?"

"Understood, Professor."

"Airi, you come with me too."

McGonagall took Lupin and Emeric to her office, and she had Flitwick teach the rest of the Transfiguration lessons.

"Where did Albus go, Ellie? Do you know?"

"I'm sorry, Professor, I can't get in touch with Gellert either."

When McGonagall thought about how the two of them had gone off to mess around somewhere again, leaving her with a huge mess, she decided to take the rest of the group on vacation and let Dumbledore handle the rest himself.

"Let's talk about what happened today. Remus, do you know you were wrong?"

"I'm sorry, I accidentally hurt Emeric with my joke."

Lupin assumed that was what angered McGonagall, and he immediately apologized to Emerick. Since no one had ever intervened in their bullying of Severus before, he naturally had no idea that McGonagall was angry about more than just that.

"Then why did you try to get Neville to say he was afraid of Severus? Don't you know that doing this will prevent Severus from teaching properly for a long time? Even if the children are genuinely afraid of him, that's no excuse for you to attack other colleagues in class. You're a professor now, stop bullying Severus like you used to, okay?"

McGonagall's stern voice struck Lupin, and as if afraid that McGonagall's words weren't hurtful enough, Emeric silently added insult to injury from the side.

"Perhaps Professor Lupin thinks it doesn't matter; he probably doesn't expect what the consequences will be. Wait, Professor McGonagall, you said he bullied Professor Snape throughout his student days?"

The voice, which had been casual at first, turned chilling as it spoke the last sentence. Emeric suddenly understood why Severus had been so angry yesterday.

"Oh, I see. No wonder the professor was so upset yesterday. Albus really went too far. Making the professor brew potions for Professor Lupin—he didn't consider the professor's feelings at all."

"Excuse me, Professor McGonagall, may I go back now? I want to take Professor Snape something to eat. He was busy brewing wolfsbane potion until midnight yesterday, and I'm afraid he might faint from hunger because he didn't eat breakfast. He fainted from hunger once before while brewing potions for Albus."

"Wolfsbane Potion? Starvation?" McGonagall screamed. She knew nothing about any of this. How much had Dumbledore been hiding from her?

I thought he had solved the problem of the source of the wolfsbane medicine before sending Lupin over, but it turns out he made it right there at the school.

"Airi, go quickly, I need to talk to Remus."

After leaving McGonagall's office, Emeric became increasingly uneasy. According to McGonagall, the four of them bullied Severus all the time; could it be that they used Lupin to scare Severus, or even nearly injured him?

Emeric felt that the drug he gave Dumbledore yesterday was too mild, and he planned to give him a little more in a couple of days. How could anyone be so biased, making the victim take care of the perpetrator?

By the time he reached the potions classroom, get out of class was almost over. Almost all the first-year wizards inside had tears in their eyes; only a few weren't frightened. He reached into his ring and pulled out a large bag of biscuits, intending to share them with the poor little ones later.

After comforting the poor cubs, Emeric handed Severus a bunch of small cakes, telling him to sneak some during the meeting so he wouldn't go hungry.

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"Severus, you're back! I've graded this pile of summer homework. Take a look and see if there are any problems."

As soon as Severus opened the door, he saw Emeric's radiant smile. Remembering what McGonagall had just said, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

"Why didn't you tell me you were being bullied?"

He was a little angry, angry that Emeric hadn't told him about Lupin even though they had met. He used to bully him, and now he was bullying his student. Lupin was really something.

"You know, it's nothing, no one was yelling at me, and don't you think I look good in a dress?"

Emeric didn't take it to heart at all. He picked up his wand and touched his clothes, conjuring a silver-green dress. Combined with his smoky purple and flaxen-gray hair, it had a strangely eerie feel and looked quite beautiful.

"How can he change back to his original form? Why didn't you tell me he did this?"

Severus didn't let Emeric off the hook, still pressing the issue; he needed an answer.

"You and he are colleagues, it wouldn't look good if things got too tense. Besides, I'm your student, and I can't let others think that I'm taking advantage of your power to make things difficult for the professor."

"Tell me the truth, or get out and never come back in."

"I was wrong. I was afraid he would turn into a werewolf and hurt you. That's the truth."

Emeric rushed forward and grabbed Severus around the waist, afraid that if he was too slow, he would be thrown out.

"Let go, you underestimate me, don't you? Come with me, we're going to the dueling arena."

Emeric's face turned green. He was indeed no match for Severus, and the thought of the beating he was about to receive made his bones ache. But if it would be good to let Severus vent his anger, he could only follow behind with a sullen face.

They ended up in McGonagall's office. Emeric was confused, but he could only follow Severus inside.

"Minerva, I want to duel Lupin. One fight and it will all be over."

"Fighting is no problem, I've agreed on his behalf, but it can't all be over yet. You still need to brew him potions. I have a suggestion: have him work in the cellar in exchange for potions."

McGonagall thought for a moment and offered a suggestion: letting Severus beat up Lupin was fine, they had gone too far before, a beating now wouldn't matter. But no, people always have to pay the price for their actions, and now that Dumbledore wasn't around, no one was protecting him, so he should be punished.

"Him? Forget it, I'm afraid he'll blow up my cellar. I'll just collect these materials once a week."

Severus tossed him a piece of parchment filled with the ingredients needed for the wolfsbane potion, not wanting Lupin to disturb his time alone with Emeric.

"It's settled then, see you tomorrow night."