Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts.

Chapter 212 Harry's Judgment

Lupin did not offer any comment from the beginning.

As he said, he was only responsible for presenting the objective facts to Harry; the specific right or wrong was for Harry to judge.

By this time, Black had been rendered speechless by Harry's retort.

He couldn't explain to Harry that at that time, almost all the students who entered Slytherin were Voldemort's fans.

Because Harry was indeed right from an objective standpoint. Since Slytherin is a house recognized by Hogwarts, its existence is justified, and everyone has the freedom to choose.

Furthermore, from another perspective, Harry at that time was unaware of the situation in Slytherin, and Severus at that time was also likely unaware of it. He probably only wanted to enter Slytherin because of his parents.

Although Blake had nothing to say, he still had a lot of complaints.

At this moment, the surrounding scenery began to change again. The original train scene gradually dissipated and reassembled into a new picture.

This time it's inside the castle.

When James and Black reappeared before them, they were noticeably taller than when they were on the train, indicating that this memory was from a long time ago, long after the start of the school year.

Two other boys were with James Black.

One of them, pale-faced and with disheveled hair, was clearly Lupin!

The other one was short and stout, looking furtive and somewhat timid. Even without Lupin and the others saying it, Harry could guess that he was the real culprit Black had mentioned—Peter Pettigrew!

"Hurry up, Sirius, stop dawdling! Didn't we already suspect someone was following us last month? We need to act quickly this time!"

James turned to Black and reminded him.

Blake simply smiled mysteriously, turned his head to look at a corner of a staircase, and then, without saying anything more, quickly followed James and the others.

Upon arriving at the castle, Lupin parted ways with them. He needed to be led by the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey, to the secret passage under the Willow Tree, and finally to an abandoned shack in Hogsmeade outside the school to become a werewolf and spend the night of the full moon.

Of course, James and the other two wouldn't go with Lupin. They would wait for Lupin to pass by and for Madam Pomfrey to leave before transforming into animals to enter the secret passage and eventually reunite with Lupin.

They arrived at a storage room on the first floor, which was filled with miscellaneous items and was rarely entered except by the castle keeper.

In this room, there is a window that faces the secret passage under the Willow Tree, allowing them to see what's happening outside at any time.

"A couple of days ago, I saw you talking to Snape."

The one who spoke was the short, chubby boy; even his voice was weak.

He was speaking to Black, and James, upon hearing this, also turned to look at Black.

"Did Snape contact you first? What did you talk about?"

Blake grinned, his expression mysterious.

“You know, he’s always been looking for trouble with us, whatever it may be. Last month when we went out with Remus, he was the one who was secretly following us! He discovered that we do some strange things on this day every month.”

“I discovered this and deliberately gave him a little clue!”

James's expression had clearly changed by this point, but Black didn't notice and continued to point triumphantly out the window.

"Aha! Look! That snotty-nosed guy has taken the bait! He saw Mrs. Pomfrey lead Remus into that secret passage!"

As he heard his voice, Harry turned to look out the window and saw a thin figure in a black robe with long black hair quietly bypassing the now-defunct Whomping Willow and then disappearing into the secret passage!

Blake was still laughing loudly, and Peter was joining in, laughing along with him, but James stood up with an extremely serious expression.

"We have to stop him from going to the screaming shed! Remus, turned into a werewolf, will tear him to pieces!"

"That's his own fault!" Blake said nonchalantly. "Nobody made him go there; he wanted to go himself. Even if he dies there, it's none of our business!"

"But that would ruin Remus! A murder at school will inevitably lead to an investigation by the Ministry of Magic, and they'll find out that Remus is a werewolf and that he killed someone!"

James had already jumped up from his chair and was running quickly toward the door.

Black seemed somewhat reluctant, but it was clear that he would follow James's lead. Peter, on the other hand, was like a shadow, always sticking close behind the two of them.

They rushed into the secret passage, but found no trace of Severus; he had already gone far away.

The three continued their pursuit until they were almost at the exit when they heard a terrifying wolf howl!
James's expression turned extremely serious and solemn. He ignored Blake and Peter behind him and rushed forward even faster.

"You! You are actually! No! Don't!"

Screams came from outside the exit. James had already rushed out. In Harry and the others' eyes, less than three seconds after James disappeared, he came running back with a terrified boy and closed the secret passage exit in time!

Severus, pale as a ghost and looking utterly terrified, was rescued by James.

Everyone present was breathing heavily; Severus was frightened, while the other three were exhausted from running.

"James saved your life, you snotty-nosed brat!"

Blake couldn't help but point at Severus with a sarcastic tone.

By this time, Severus had recovered from his shock. Instead of being grateful, he glared at James and the others with resentment.

"You deliberately lured me here! You knew Lupin was a damn werewolf! Yet you kept covering for him, covering for everyone! And you even wanted him to kill me!!"

“No, no, it’s... it was your own choice to come along, it has nothing to do with us,” Peter shook his head repeatedly.

James dusted off his robes and gave Severus a cold glance.

"Slytherin is Slytherin after all. Is this how you treat your savior? Nobody wanted to harm you; it's your own stupidity that's ruining you!"

"Also, it's not that we're helping him keep it a secret; it's Professor Dumbledore's idea. If you dare to reveal this, Professor Dumbledore will come after you!"

Severus's face turned noticeably pale and then flushed, and he glared at James and the other two, his voice still sharp and angry.

"You bunch of idiots! Protecting the werewolves and claiming it was Professor Dumbledore's idea! I won't listen to your nonsense anymore! I'm going back right now! I'm going back to tell the professor everything you've done!" He turned and started walking back the way he came from the secret passage, still cursing under his breath.

"You'll be expelled! You'll be expelled! Everyone will know what you've done!"

Blake, panting, got up from the ground and said loudly.

"We must stop him! Take him to Professor Dumbledore! We can't let him reveal Remus's existence before he sees the professor!"

The three of them immediately stood up and chased after them.

They were struggling in the secret passage. Severus kept running forward, and Jaime and the other two had already run all the way to find him. Now that they were turning back, they couldn't catch up with him at all.

Fortunately, they finally caught up with Severus at the tunnel entrance, and then the group discussed taking him to Dumbledore.

The scene in this memory is about to end, and the surrounding scenery begins to change.

After this recollection ended, Black, like Lupin, remained silent. They simply watched Harry and listened to his evaluation.

"You have a big problem."

Harry turned to look at Black, and that gaze made Black feel somewhat lost and dazed, as if James were standing right in front of him looking at him!
“I will not take the teacher’s side. He is definitely at fault in this matter. If he hadn’t been so determined to cause trouble for you, this would not have happened.”

"But what do you want to do? You want Remus to kill the teacher! This will not only kill the teacher, but also ruin Remus! He will definitely be arrested by the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic! He will be expelled from Hogwarts! You will have ruined his life! And you will also damage the reputation of Professor Dumbledore, who made the good deed of allowing werewolves to enroll!"

"You didn't consider the consequences at all when you made these decisions!"

Faced with Harry's accusations, Lupin's face showed only admiration. He didn't really care how Severus's opinion would change after seeing those past scenes, but rather wanted to see how Severus would judge the situation after witnessing these conflicts and contradictions.

Looking back now, Harry is indeed very smart, and he has certainly learned a lot from Severus.

Harry can make rational judgments, think more deeply, and understand the consequences of his actions, which makes him far superior to a normal 10-year-old boy.

The scene shifted again, this time to the common room inside Hogwarts.

Judging from the colors of the flags and the lion motifs around, this is clearly the Gryffindor common room.

At this moment, many Gryffindor students gathered around the campfire, surrounding a girl whose body was covered in ugly, festering pustules, and who was weeping bitterly while covering her face.

The four James members are all here, along with Lily.

"It's Avery and Mulce!" the girl in the middle shouted. "They cast a spell on me! It's dark magic!"

Blake chimed in from the side.

“I know them. They have a friend, right? Severus Snape.”

After the name was uttered, almost everyone in Gryffindor turned their gaze to Lily.

This made Lily feel ashamed.

Everyone knew that during this period of heightened conflict between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Lily Evans, a Muggle-born girl, had a Slytherin friend.

That was Severus Snape.

Facing those stares, Lily took a deep breath; she was still trying to find a solution.

"Don't be sad, MacDonald. I'm going to see Professor McGonagall. She'll definitely help you."

With that, she ran quickly away from the Gryffindor common room.

After he left, many Gryffindor students started discussing it.

"I really don't understand why she would be friends with someone like that."

"Isn't she aware that they all yearn to become followers of the Mystic and exterminate all Muggle wizards? She herself is one."

“Evans is usually so smart, but he lost his mind over something like this.”

"You should advise her to stay away from that kind of person."

The scene shifts again, and other different victimized students appear, some from Gryffindor, others from Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.

Without exception, these students were all from Muggle families and had been tricked and even subjected to dark magic experiments by Slytherin students.

Many of these people were close to Severus.

These events had been heard from others, and Severus, though not directly involved, did not consider such behavior particularly egregious, instead calling it merely "a joke."

Finally, all the memories end here.

They returned to Lupin's bedroom, and for a moment the room was quiet. Black simply looked at Harry, and after a moment, he spoke.

"Later on, you should be able to see why we were so resistant to people wanting to join Slytherin at the beginning! I don't know about Slytherin now, but back then, almost none of the students there were normal!"

"If your mother had been persuaded by him in the first place and gone to Slytherin, I guarantee she would have been bullied terribly there!"

Harry remains calm; he doesn't agree with Black's words, or at least he disagrees with half of them.

“You’re right, but you can’t infer these things from the results. Obviously, when you first entered school and rode the train, nobody knew what Slytherin was like or Gryffindor was like. They were just relying on their own assumptions.”

“But your teacher really did become like that! Like the rest of Slytherin, a bastard! A treacherous viper!” Black shouted angrily, thinking Harry was going to defend Severus no matter what.

However, to his surprise, Harry nodded in agreement at this moment.

“You’re right. The teacher did turn out to be a bad person. He allowed his friends to experiment with black magic on their classmates and try to join a vile and evil organization. He certainly didn’t do anything good back then.”

“I can somewhat understand why you have been unwilling to trust him and why you have such a strong hostility towards him.”

(End of this chapter)