From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 217: The Cure for Lycanthropy
The wards at Hogwarts are very clean and tidy. In addition to clean white linen sheets and quilts, there are curtains to provide private space for each patient.

Most of the windows are facing the south, and there are two pots of green plants on the table. The tiles on the floor are always spotless. What is even more commendable is that when you lie on the bed, you will not smell the disinfectant in the air. The great magic ensures the mental health of all patients. Only the hospital gown on your body will remind you that you are a patient.

Apart from that, the only one left was Madam Pomfrey who always blocked the door.

Sirius's many escape plans all ended because of this respectable head nurse. Not only did he fail to breathe the so-called free air, but he also received a long lecture. Only by covering his head with the quilt and pretending to be asleep could he stop Madam Pomfrey's chattering mouth.

"Why don't you try magic?" Ron asked. "You once fought Voldemort?"

"Oh! Because my wand was broken, and I haven't bought a new one." Sirius said with a smile, then glanced at Madam Pomfrey's small door. After confirming that she didn't notice the movement here, he lowered his voice and said to the little wizards, "In fact, I ran away once before! In the Animagus form..."

"Oh——" The three little wizards made surprised sounds at the same time.

"You never told me!" said Harry. "Those sweets Professor Lupin gave me? Did you buy them, Sirius?"

"That's right." Sirius glanced at Ivy standing by the window, who was looking at a large beetle in a glass bottle. "But it was actually Ivy who paid the bill. We met in Honeydukes. To be precise, we ran into him as soon as we came out of the secret passage."

"The secret passage to Hogsmeade!" Ron's eyes lit up, "And it's in Honeydukes! I'm sure Fred and George know it too! Otherwise, where did they get all those goodies?"

"When I was in school, there were a total of seven secret passages leading to Hogsmeade!" Sirius was about to explain in detail, but he saw Hermione's disapproving look.

"This girl is just like Little McGregor." Sirius scratched his arm and thought, "I don't know how Harry became friends with her."

"It's almost time, we have to go to class!" Hermione urged.

But how could Harry and Ron, who had just heard the key point, be willing to leave? Fortunately, at this time, a voice came from Madam Pomfrey's cabin: "Visiting time is over, children! Go back to class quickly!"

So, Hermione took the two listless little wizards on their journey to the classroom.

"Tomorrow is Saturday, we have plenty of time to chat!" Sirius called after them.

"By the way! There is a Quidditch match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw tomorrow. Can Sirius go with us to watch it?" Harry looked at Madam Pomfrey expectantly.

"No!" She refused without hesitation, "Yelling and getting emotional are not good for Mr. Black's health."

"Then can we go for a walk outside? At most to the Black Lake!" Sirius also actively offered suggestions.

"No." Madam Pomfrey was undeterred. "If you remember, you are not in good standing with me, Mr. Black. I went to the Headmaster's office to get you back last Saturday."

"Okay, okay, stop talking! Let's just chat in the ward!" Sirius interrupted quickly. He didn't want his wise and brave image to collapse in his godson's mind, especially since Madam Pomfrey's tone sounded like she was talking about a lost stray dog.

"Hurry up and go to class, all of you!" Sirius had already succumbed to the tyranny of Madam Pomfrey. The three second-year wizards certainly didn't dare to bargain anymore, so they waved their hands and left the ward.

"Very good." Looking at the empty ward, Madam Pomfrey nodded with satisfaction, and then instructed, "Don't run around anymore, Mr. Black, you need to rest well!"

After seeing Sirius nod, Madam Pomfrey returned to her office like a victorious general.

"This is so strange..." Sirius looked towards the window, "Why didn't she kick you out too... Where are you?"

Ivy, who was originally standing by the window, has disappeared, leaving only a beetle in the glass bottle that keeps trying to climb up.

"Because I used magic." Ivy's figure reappeared from the air and picked up the glass bottle on the windowsill.

"So..." Sirius hesitated, "Do you have anything to say to me alone?"

"Of course not, why would you think so?" Ivy took out his wand and nodded, thinking about how to use Rita Skeeter's pen.

"Because you didn't say much the whole time, you were staring at the beetle in your hand..." Sirius gestured, "Is that a rare species? Sometimes James and I would catch some bugs to play with, and those with horns on their heads would fight with each other. We spent the whole afternoon watching them and even missed Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class..."

Ivy threw the glass bottle in his hand to Sirius: "It is indeed a rare species. Maybe there is only one in the world. Guess what it is?"

Sirius took the bottle and held it to his nose, examining it carefully.

The beetle in the bottle was turned upside down due to the impact and vibration, and was waving its six legs to try to get up.

"It's not small," Sirius commented, and then he looked at the beetle's color, and finally noticed some patterns on its antennae. "Interesting, I've never seen such patterns before... It looks like a pair of glasses..."

"Wait!" Sirius suddenly had a horrifying thought, "Could this be a wizard?"

"Bingo!" Ivy laughed. "It's a wizard. An unregistered Animagus."

"I always thought there were only seven registered Animagus in the whole of Britain and three of us who were unregistered..." Sirius raised the bottle and asked, "Are there too many Animagus appearing in Hogwarts recently? Who is it? Why did it sneak into Hogwarts? Could it be a Death Eater?"

As if hearing what Sirius said, Rita Skeeter in the bottle flapped her wings frantically.

"No, she's not a Death Eater, but she does have bad intentions." Ivy asked for the bottle back.

"Her?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, Rita Skeeter, a tabloid reporter who loves to use Animagus to find out secrets." Ivy smiled, "She wants to dig out secrets from you and Harry, Sirius." "What secrets do Harry and I have? That newspaper has written about our affairs clearly." Sirius smiled nonchalantly, "Let her go."

"No, no, no, you've been in Azkaban for too long." Ivy shook the glass bottle, causing Rita to fall all over the place after turning into a beetle. "In fact, if you had read any of her reports, you wouldn't have such kind thoughts."

"Maybe, but what are you going to ask her to do?" Sirius looked skeptical.

"Hagrid," Ivy said simply, "I need her help to clear Hagrid's identity as a suspect."

"Hagrid is a suspect?" Sirius, who had graduated from Hogwarts, had never heard of this, even though he and Hagrid had served in the Order of the Phoenix together for many years.

"To be precise, he is the suspect who opened the Chamber of Secrets." Ivy added, "Fifty years ago, Voldemort opened the Chamber of Secrets and ordered the basilisk inside to kill a student. In the end, he used his classmate Hagrid to escape the crime. Because Hagrid kept an eight-eyed giant spider in the school, and Voldemort's disguise was very perfect, in the end the Ministry of Magic regarded the eight-eyed giant spider raised by Hagrid as the culprit who killed the student, so they broke his wand and wanted to put him in Azkaban. It was Dumbledore who came forward to guarantee him, so he became the gamekeeper of Hogwarts."

"I didn't know Hagrid had such a past..." Sirius sat up from the hospital bed, "Voldemort was already a complete villain when he was still at Hogwarts!"

"Although Dumbledore has submitted the basilisk scales to the Ministry of Magic, the clarification of Hagrid's identity as a suspect has not yet been reported. So I hope to use some external forces to force the Ministry of Magic to make a statement." Ivy shook the glass bottle in his hand. "Okay, I'm going to discuss the specific content of this report with Ms. Skeeter, so I won't disturb your rest."

"Wait... did you just say basilisk?" Sirius suddenly realized, "The kind of horrible monster that can kill people just by looking at them?"

"Yes," Ivy shrugged. "Salazar Slytherin hatched it himself. It lived for more than a thousand years."

"This is crazy..." Sirius fell back on the bed, "A basilisk that has lived in Hogwarts for thousands of years... Am I still asleep?"

Ivy said hello to him and prepared to leave the school hospital to find a quiet classroom to have a good talk with Ms. Skeeter.

But just before he could go out, Lupin, looking pale, pushed the door open.

"Mr. Doom, it's a pleasure to meet you." Lupin looked particularly weak, with a sickly pale face.

"Professor Lupin? Do you need me to call Madam Pomfrey for you?" Ivy made way for Lupin.

Sirius looked up and understood what was going on: "Damn it! It's all my fault! How could I have forgotten about this!"

"It's okay, Sirius." Lupin smiled weakly, "Professor Snape prepared a potion for me. I just came to Madam Pomfrey to get some vitality tonic."

"That snotty guy? He didn't poison it, did he?" Sirius got out of bed and took a few quick steps, grabbing Lupin's hand. He leaned closer and asked in a low voice, "Do you still need me to walk with you in the Forbidden Forest tonight?"

"I don't think Professor Snape would poison his colleagues, and the wolfsbane potion itself is sad enough." Ivy defended his dean. He heard that Snape personally delivered the wolfsbane potion to Lupin, and he could imagine Snape looking at Lupin with malice, his face twisted because of the extremely bitter potion.

"You know Lupin..." Sirius turned around and asked in astonishment, then pointed at the glass bottle in Ivy's hand, "Does the person in the bottle know too?"

"Don't worry, I'll make her promise not to tell anyone." Ivy joked, "Slytherins are good at this."

"Well, sometimes I forget that you are a Slytherin..." Sirius pulled Lupin to sit beside the bed, "Tell me quickly, what is the effect of the wolfsbane potion? But after staying in Azkaban for twelve years, I feel like I am a person from a century ago."

"Wolfsbane potion was invented not long ago. The raw materials are very expensive, but it can keep me sane after my transformation. However, I will still feel very sad the next day..." Lupin sighed, "Fortunately, Professor Snape is trying to improve it, otherwise Hogwarts may not be able to afford it..."

"Where are you going to transform? Even if we don't have to go for a walk in the Forbidden Forest, I can accompany you in my Animagus form." Sirius didn't seem to care at all about the fact that he was a patient.

"You forget that I'm a professor now, Sirius." Lupin smiled, "I can transform in my office. It's very safe."

Lupin looked at Ivy on the side, hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "Mr. Doom, Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall both told me that you are the most likely to cure my lycanthropy..."

"Give me some of your blood. I can't be sure before checking." Ivy raised his eyebrows.

Without hesitation, Lupin stretched out his arm and put his wand against his wrist, looking as if he was going to commit suicide by slitting his wrist.

Ivy quickly stopped him: "Just poke a small hole in your finger!"

Sirius also breathed a sigh of relief; Lupin's action also frightened him.

Ivy let a few drops of Lupin's blood float in the air, and used the 1st level of identification to identify the magic that was affecting it. It was indeed a strange thing mixed with a curse and a virus, but the higher restoration spell would undoubtedly work.

"It's not difficult for me." Ivy looked at Lupin's pale face. "In fact, I have two solutions. Do you want to hear them?"

Lupin nodded his head slightly, but did not dare to hold out too much hope. After all, lycanthropy had troubled him for too long.

"First, I can use the Philosopher's Stone to help you remove this curse, but it will cost a very high price."

"Second, I will strengthen the connection between this curse and you, so that it truly becomes a part of you, rather than a disease that plagues you."

"What's the price you're talking about?" Sirius asked.

"Gold coins, 10,000 gold galleons," Ivy replied. "Of course, you can pay after it takes effect."

"Then let's go with the first one! I'll pay the bill!" Sirius said decisively, laughing at the same time, "I'm the only one left in the Black family. I only feel that this family name is not useless when I need money."

(End of this chapter)