From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 229 The Second Treatment of Lycanthropy

As the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who had just taken office for over a month, Lupin's teaching style quickly won unanimous praise from both teachers and students at Hogwarts.

He neither stumbled over and recited from a script like Quirrell, nor performed a stage play in class like Lockhart. Instead, he focused on combining theory with practice, and in every class he would take students to see a new dark magic creature.

The lack of practical experience is the weakest point of Hogwarts students.

Under Lupin's encouragement and correct guidance, even Neville, a student who always makes trouble in class, can complete the class exercises. In this way, who would not like him?

If anyone has complaints about this, it can only be this year's seventh-year students, who lament why they did not meet reliable Defense Against the Dark Arts professors like Professor Victor and Professor Lupin two years earlier, but only saw the dawn of Defense Against the Dark Arts when they were about to graduate from school.

If they had not had Professors Vector and Lupin, they would have been able to tolerate professors like Quirrell and Lockhart.

But now, they don't even have the chance for revenge.

On a bright spring morning, second-year Gryffindor and Slytherin students gathered together, waiting for their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to come to class.

The students gathered in groups of three or five, discussing the content of this class enthusiastically. Some thought it would be the cruel and bloodthirsty Red Hats that lured others into the ruins of the castle, some thought it would be the Hinckley Punks that lured others into the trap in the swamp, and some thought that Lupin would use local materials from the Black Lake, where a group of Grindylows lived.

As for the dueling club that Lockhart had once promised, it was selectively forgotten by everyone.

"Surprise!" No one expected that the person standing on the podium would be Sirius Black. "Hello! All the little troublemakers from Gryffindor, and the little rascals from Slytherin!"

"Sirius!" Harry shouted in surprise, but his shout reminded all the other students in the classroom of his close relationship with Sirius.

So in order to avoid being stabbed to death by his classmates' gazes, Harry quickly changed the subject: "Where's Professor Lupin? Where did he go?"

"Poor Lupin wasn't feeling well today, so I convinced Professor McGonagall to let me teach you. Otherwise, you would be seeing Professor Snape..." Sirius grinned, revealing a handsome smile. For today's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he deliberately tidied up his stubble and messy hair, making the handsome face inherited from the Black family even more elegant and charming.

This day is the full moon in February, and the moon will be full tonight. So Lupin, as a werewolf, is of course receiving treatment from Ivy, or research.

In order to contrast with the experimental data obtained last time, Ivy specifically asked Lupin not to drink the wolfsbane potion. He wanted to observe more clearly how the lycanthropy curse made Lupin lose his sanity.

Therefore, while ensuring the safety of both teachers and students, asking someone else to substitute for the class is undoubtedly a wise decision.

Snape and Sirius learned of this in no particular order, as they were both present when Ivy stopped Lupin from drinking the wolfsbane potion.

Judging from the results, Sirius obviously won the competition for the right to substitute for the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Malfoy? Did I pronounce your name correctly?" Sirius smiled kindly.

After seeing the latter nod hesitantly, Sirius waved his hand and said, "Because you were not listening carefully and were talking to your classmates, Slytherin will deduct 2 points."

Malfoy frowned but did not refute: "Yes, Professor."

Harry and Ron looked at each other and saw the ecstasy in each other's eyes.

"Can anyone introduce Grindylow to us?" Sirius lifted the black cloth on the aquarium, revealing a slimy, dirty little green monster with pointy horns and many tentacles.

Hermione raised her hand as expected.

"Hermione...ah, Miss Granger." Sirius called her name as soon as her elbow left the table, as if it had been planned.

"This is a magical creature classified as XX level by the Ministry of Magic. They live underwater. Although their tentacles are very powerful, they are very vulnerable. The trick to dealing with them is not to get caught. In addition, using the 'Extraction Charm' can also get rid of their grip." Hermione's answer was so serious that everyone could understand that it was the original text in the book.

"Goyle!" Sirius suddenly raised his voice, "If I see you eating in class again, I'll throw you into the Black Lake! There's more than just one Grindylow there!"

Goyle, who was sitting next to Malfoy, quickly spat out the sour pop candy he had just eaten and watched it leave permanent scars on the wooden desk.

"Parkinson!" Sirius turned his gun again, "Does it give you pleasure to laugh at your classmates? Why didn't you write down what Miss Granger said? Did you remember it all?"

Pansy Parkinson, who had just covered her mouth with her hands to laugh twice, suddenly frowned and began to take notes reluctantly. Other students followed suit.

Sirius nodded with satisfaction. "Now let's review the score changes just now. Because Miss Granger answered my question perfectly, Gryffindor will get 5 points. And because Goyle and Parkinson blatantly violated class discipline, Slytherin will be deducted 5 points."

Sirius's favoritism towards Gryffindor was obvious. The first class of the day had just ended and he had already used up all the points allocated to him as a substitute professor. Most of them were used to reward Gryffindor for its "admirable heroic behavior", and the other half was used to punish Slytherin for its "shameful classroom tricks".

Fortunately, there was no joint Defense Against the Dark Arts class for Slytherin and Gryffindor from other grades today, so Sirius didn't have to go to Professor McGonagall to apply for points again.

As soon as the second-year Defense Against the Dark Arts class ended, many girls in the class surrounded Harry.

Parvati Patil, an Indian girl who always sticks with Lavender Brown, asked curiously: "I heard that Professor Black is your godfather, right, Harry?"

"He teaches so handsomely! ... I mean, so good!" Lavender's eyes began to sparkle. "The photo taken of him by the Daily Prophet is simply slanderous. Look at that dirty and messy hair..."

"I thought Sirius was like a rock star at that time..." Hermione's voice was drowned out by the chatter of other classmates.

----

As night fell, Lupin, chained in the Room of Requirement, became increasingly agitated and restless.

"Although I have suffered this pain for many years, I still can't get used to it." Lupin twitched his arms tied to the chains, making a noisy movement, and he looked like he wanted to scratch his back.

"Why is the lycanthropy curse only harmful to humans? Have you ever thought about this question?" Ivy asked as he checked the dragon blood circle under Lupin's feet again.

"What?" Sirius didn't grasp the point. It was a question that a werewolf would try to attack a human. "What do you mean?"

"In other words, why don't werewolves attack other animals?" Ivy said in a way that he could understand, "Why when you all turned into Animagus forms, you could stay with Lupin without getting hurt?" "Because... uh..." Sirius was speechless for a moment. Accompanying a friend on a night stroll in the Forbidden Forest was a matter of course. He had never considered the ins and outs of it.

"Because attacking an animal doesn't pass on the lycanthropy curse." Lupin sighed.

"That's right. Not much different from my guess." Ivy clapped his hands.

"Survival and reproduction are the two most basic driving forces of all life's instinctive actions." He held up two fingers. "In order to survive, animals will seek shelter, water and food, and humans are no exception."

"The struggle for survival is the most common behavior in nature. Carnivores hunt, herbivores clash for lush territories, and even humans fight for land that can grow crops."

"Then why would lycanthropes attack humans after they turn into werewolves during the full moon? Moreover, after most werewolf attacks, their bodies are not further damaged, or eaten... This proves that humans are not food for werewolves."

Sirius expressed a different opinion: "I heard that Fenrir Greyback eats people!"

"I also heard that he is keen on turning wizards' children into werewolves. Then he is a guy who regards food as his own kind. Strictly speaking, he is an individual case and cannot represent the majority of other lycanthropes." Ivy retorted.

"...I think I understand what you mean, Ivy." It was only Lupin's limbs that were tied up by the chains, not his brain. This guy, who was an excellent student in school, already figured out what Ivy was going to say.

"I think you're saying that werewolves attack other humans in order to reproduce? Is that correct?"

"That's exactly what I guessed not long ago." Ivy nodded. "It is said that when two werewolves of different genders mate during a full moon, they will only give birth to a litter of wolf cubs. Although their intelligence is very good, their appearance is completely different from that of a wizard with lycanthropy during a full moon. Therefore, the only way for lycanthropy to reproduce is to spread the curse to other wizards."

"I believe it's the urge to reproduce that drives lycanthropes to attack other humans during a full moon."

"This kind of fighting for reproduction is very common in nature, but for most creatures, fighting is just a means to win the right to reproduce, not the goal itself. I'm afraid that in the case of an unnatural black magic curse like lycanthropy, the attack on humans has become reproduction itself."

Sirius showed an expression that he couldn't bear to look at it directly: "You mean, Remus didn't go crazy when the full moon came, but was in heat?"

Lupin smiled helplessly: "Okay...Sirius...Ah——"

But before Lupin could finish his words, he let out a terrible howl and his transformation into a werewolf began.

The process was not much different from the last transformation. Lupin's bones changed one by one, and the black hair all over his body sprouted from under his skin little by little.

"Look at you, Sirius." Ivy teased, "You made Lupin so angry that he was deformed with just one sentence."

Sirius did not retort, but looked worriedly at Lupin who was tied up with chains, watching his wrists left bloody marks by the chains.

"Remus…he doesn't recognize me at all…" Sirius said sadly.

Tied up by chains as thick as a bowl, Lupin had completely turned into a terrifying beast, roaring at the two wizards standing in front of him with red eyes. The gentle Lupin had sunk under the water, and only the most primitive animal nature remained.

"As expected, he shows strong hostility towards humans..." Ivy nodded, "Please transform into your Animagus form, Sirius."

But in the blink of an eye, a big black dog appeared where Sirius had originally stood. It was even bigger than the pure black mixed-breed crup that Ivy kept in the Room of Requirement, and looked like a slightly thinner black bear.

When Sirius turned into Animagus form, the werewolf's blood-red eyes immediately turned away and glared at Ivy fiercely.

"Humans... or human-shaped objects are the first target of attack?" Ivy thought for a while and cast invisibility on himself.

Seeing that everyone in the room had disappeared, the chained werewolf was obviously confused for a moment, and then used his nose to confirm that Ivy's position had not changed.

"The sense of smell can also distinguish humans? What about erasing the smell at the same time?"

After using magic to erase its own scent, the werewolf in the house visibly calmed down and was no longer as manic as before.

"It seems that they really don't have magical senses... In other words, werewolves can't distinguish between Muggles and wizards. The organs they use to identify humans are only their eyes and noses..."

"Then the next experiment is to test how werewolves perceive humans... How similar to humans do things have to be to trigger their desire to attack..." Ivy took out his wand and pointed at Sirius. "Next, I'm going to let Lupin out. Don't run around, Sirius."

Sirius raised his head and barked, which Ivy took as an agreement.

While casting an invisibility spell on Sirius, Ivy untied the chains that had been restraining Lupin.

The first thing the werewolf did after gaining freedom was to close his eyes and sniff around. To him, the room was still filled with a lot of "human smell".

Before the werewolf turned around to look at where Ivy and Sirius were standing, Ivy used Transfiguration to conjure up a monkey.

The werewolf stared at the monkey for a while and did not attack immediately. Instead, he pounced on it and tore it to pieces when the monkey came within a certain range.

After the monkeys came the gorillas, after the gorillas came the mermaids, after the mermaids came the centaurs, after the centaurs came the fairies…

"...none of them could arouse the werewolves' desire to attack immediately...that is to say, their understanding of humans is very accurate, and creatures that are partially or completely similar are not enough to confuse them..." The results of the experiment aroused Ivy's great interest. He quickly conjured up a whole set of armor and used magic to give the armor the ability to move.

When the armor wielding a steel sword appeared, the werewolf immediately roared and launched an attack, but the combination of steel and magic was obviously stronger than flesh and blood, and except for leaving a few scratches on the shining armor, the werewolf's first attack did not achieve much.

"Is there really no way to tell if there's someone in the armor?" Ivy began to control the moving armor to attack. "Interesting... I've almost come to a conclusion..."

Ivy's experiment lasted until dawn.

When the exhausted Lupin returned to his human form, he fell into a deep sleep without even saying a word. As for Sirius?

After he found out he had to cover for Lupin the next day, he fell into a deep sleep in the guest room of the Room of Requirement.

(End of this chapter)