The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 224 Analysis and Layout (Please subscribe, collect, and recommend)

After finishing the story about Buckbeak, Hagrid saw the cage in Ryan's hand and asked, "What's wrong with you rat?"

"Oh, this is Ron's pet." Ryan said as he opened the cage and handed Scabbers to Hagrid. "This mouse feels much thinner than before, and his spirit is also much worse. I have tried some methods to treat it recently, but it only prevented the rapid deterioration of the mouse's condition, but it still can't be cured. You are the only person I know who understands these animals, so I want to ask you for help."

"Let me see." Hagrid took Scabbers in his big hand, "It looks like it's been hurt a lot before." Hagrid touched Scabbers' head and paws with his hands and said, "Its ears have even been torn apart by external forces, and one of its front paws is missing."

"By the way, how old is this rat?" Hagrid asked Ryan after checking it.

"From what I know, this was Percy's former pet, probably seven or eight years ago," Ryan said uncertainly.

"Seven or eight years? What a miracle. You know, this kind of ordinary mouse can only live for three years in most cases. However, there are always exceptions to everything, and maybe this mouse is an exception. But even if it lives longer than normal mice, it should be at the end of its life now, so I personally suggest that you feed it some absinthe or something like that. Although this is not good for mice, it can at least make its last days more comfortable." Hagrid finally concluded.

"Okay, thank you." After saying that, Ryan stuffed Scabbers back into the cage. After discussing for a while which case to focus on, Ryan and Hermione said goodbye and left Hagrid's hut.

When they returned to the common room, Hermione suddenly said to Ryan: "Go up and put the cage away first. I have something to tell you."

Ryan nodded and quickly put the cage away and returned to the common room, where he found Hermione sitting in a corner waiting for him.

As soon as he sat down in the seat opposite Hermione, Hermione asked him, "What the hell is that Weasley rat?"

"How do you know something's wrong?" Ryan asked.

"Others might think that the thing wrapped around your cage is just an exotic decoration, but I've seen you use those beautiful little stones with strange runes on them in the temple to easily beat the zombies into ashes. You only need one stone to kill such scary zombies, but I don't think a normal mouse would need more than a dozen stones wrapped around its cage."

"Well, you've been a very careful observer. What I want to tell you is that I suspect that rat might be a wizard."

"What?" Hermione lost control of her voice, and several students in the common room turned to look at her. She quickly lowered her voice and asked, "Why do you think so?"

"It was just an accident, actually." Ryan said what he had made up beforehand. "You know I have some magic that you can't learn in school. When I got Scabbers on the first day, I used a hypnotic spell targeting the soul, and it fell asleep directly."

"It was put to sleep by hypnotic magic. This is normal." Hermione said somewhat puzzled.

"But the problem is that it targets human souls, and theoretically animals shouldn't fall asleep." Ryan explained. "After that, I used similar magic to experiment several times, and the final conclusion was that this mouse must have transformed into a human."

Seeing Hermione open her mouth in shock, Ryan paused and continued, "I was more certain of this when I went to Hagrid today. It's not normal for an ordinary mouse that is not a magical creature to live so long."

"So the mouse might have been transformed by a wizard? Being able to live like a mouse for several years means that this wizard cannot reveal his identity. In this case, it is very likely that a criminal in the wizarding world used this method to hide himself. Oh my God, what should we do now?" Hermione said in a low voice with a nervous look on her face.

"I even have a suspicion about who this rat is, but I have to ask someone to be sure." Ryan glanced at the common room after he finished speaking, and then shouted to a tall red-haired boy: "Senior Percy, I have a question for you here." Percy quickly ended the ongoing conversation and walked over, "Hey, Ryan, Hermione, what are you doing here?"

"We were discussing a problem. You know, Ron's rat was recently treated at my place, and we found some, um, unusual things." Ryan replied.

"That mouse? It used to be my pet. There are some questions I can answer for you." Percy said.

"It used to be your pet? That's great. I want to know when did the pet come to your home? What was it like when it first arrived at your home?"

"Well, the pet was first brought back by my father. He first gave it to our eldest brother Bill, and then to me when I entered school. When I got a new owl, he gave it to my younger brother Ron. In total, it has lived in our family for twelve years. My God, Scabbers lived for so long, and I didn't even notice it." After careful recollection, Percy was also a little shocked by the situation.

"As for what it looked like when it first came to our house, my father picked up a mouse in our garden that day. I remember very clearly that the mouse had a wound on its ear and one of its front paws was missing. Now that I think about it, none of us would have thought that this mouse, which looked like it was covered in wounds, could live so long." Percy said finally.

Ryan and Hermione looked at each other, and both saw surprise in each other's eyes, but Hermione was really surprised while Ryan was pretending.

Percy also realized from the expressions of the two people that something was wrong, and asked, "What exactly did you find wrong with Scabbers?"

"Well, your mouse might be a human." Hermione said

"How is that possible?" Percy asked in disbelief.

"That's true," Ryan said. "Because when we went to Hagrid's today, we took Scabbers with us, and he told me that the normal lifespan of a common house mouse like this is only three years."

"Well, that could also be because our mice live longer," Percy stammered in shock.

"Living one or two years longer is normal, but living four times longer is a bit abnormal, right? If compared with humans, Scabbers is as old as Nicolas Flamel among mice, but it doesn't have the Philosopher's Stone or the potion of immortality." Hermione added.

Percy's face began to turn ugly. After all, a normal person would not look good after knowing that he had slept in the same bed with a stranger for several years.

At this time Ryan continued: "And based on what Senior Percy just said, I have roughly guessed who this mouse is."

"Who?" Percy and Hermione said in unison.

"Peter Pettigrew, the man who was said to have been killed by Sirius Black."

(End of this chapter)