The sickly, iron-fisted beauty in Harry Potter

258

Chapter 258 Sirius's Encounters.

However, simply opening a bookstore is a bit too monotonous, and it also needs to differentiate itself from stores like Flourish and Blotts.

After thinking it over, Dolly came up with a plan.

Why not just open a Muggle lifestyle experience center?

Dolly and Hermione have gained some experience in living in the dormitory for the past two or three years, and they've learned a thing or two about how to achieve modern Muggle life in the wizarding world.

This is enough for them to open a Muggle-style shop in Diagon Alley, and they can put anything inside, since this place is essentially just Dolly's contact point.

You can also recruit researchers and wizards to work for you in the name of the shop.

While it might be difficult to get these wizards to risk their lives for her, it wouldn't be a problem to get them to be Dolly's helpers.

After all, the employment rate in the magical world is actually quite bad.

If wizards couldn't easily enlarge food, and if growing vegetables and cooking weren't mostly done with wands, resulting in a very high rate of self-sufficiency, many people would probably starve to death in the magical world with its terrible employment rate.

Take Lupin, for example. He was a seasoned wizard with excellent combat skills and teaching experience, but he was covered in patches and often suffered from hunger.

Although this is because he is a werewolf, the Ministry of Magic signed an anti-werewolf bill last year, which requires werewolves to disclose their status to their employers and employers to report the werewolf's status to the Ministry of Magic every month.

At the same time, if the werewolf causes losses, the employer must also bear at least half of the responsibility.

This transforms what was originally a simple employment relationship into a community of shared interests with joint liability.

Which boss would take such a big risk for werewolves if they had nothing better to do?

The most sensible decision would obviously be to get rid of all the werewolves, even though someone like Lupin would have a hard time finding a job.

This gave Dolly an opportunity. If she didn't take this chance to bring Lupin, who would be out of office next year, to work for her, wouldn't she have wasted her time getting to know such a talented person?

Of course, Dolly never intended for Lupin to become her or anything like that.

Lupin was one of Dumbledore's most trusted and beloved lieutenants; Dolly was simply entrusting her shop to an acquaintance.

So Dolly then began to plan in detail, which added a little fun to her daily life.

Time began to flow at an accelerated pace again.

School life seemed to have completely quieted down, and even Dolly had settled into the daily routine.

If there's any change, it's that Hermione is visibly getting more and more tired, while Dolly is becoming increasingly close to Cho Chang and Luna.

As for Buckbeak, the Daily Prophet hasn't mentioned it for a month.

Of course, this doesn't mean Buckbeak has passed the test, but rather that he has entered the Ministry of Magic's trial process, and the specific outcome is still unclear.

However, given the Ministry of Magic's efficiency, the results won't be available until next year anyway.

Then, at the end of November, it seems someone tried to break into Hogwarts.

However, this time he hadn't even entered the gate when he was already being watched by the Aurors.

Dolly didn't know what was going on, but she knew that Sirius hadn't been arrested.

She suspected it was related to her previous attack on Sirius, and that was indeed the case.

Although the Auror did not continue to track Sirius Black afterward, he was deeply impressed by the big black dog.

So when the big black dog tried to sneak into Hogwarts, the Auror on duty noticed it and then realized something was wrong with it.

Now the Ministry of Magic is basically certain that the big black dog is Sirius Black.

Sirius's situation became increasingly difficult, and he felt that it was all thanks to Dolly, which made him increasingly resentful.

However, he had no chance to vent his dissatisfaction now, and could only run around aimlessly trying to evade the Aurors' pursuit while seeing Harry as soon as possible.

Eventually, Lupin, who was preparing Christmas presents, found him, met up with him, and took him into the Screaming Shack, giving Sirius a chance to catch his breath.

The Screaming Shack cannot be entered from the outside; it can only be accessed through a secret passage beneath the Whomping Willow, which is protected by Dumbledore's personal magic.

Currently, apart from Voldemort and a large group of Aurors working together, it's highly unlikely that anyone can break Dumbledore's plan.

The Aurors were already used to the existence of the Shrieking Shack, so no one suspected that Sirius was hiding in this inaccessible room.

"Listen, Sirius, you need to calm down."

By this time, Lupin had finished listening to the story told from Sirius's perspective. Although he was extremely excited and incoherent, Lupin still managed to piece together the truth.

At the same time, out of trust in Sirius, he chose to believe Sirius, but he also remained skeptical.

Because he couldn't be sure what state Sirius was in, or whether he was under some kind of mysterious magic.

As a wizard, being vigilant about magic is a fundamental quality.

At the same time, as a mature veteran and the thoughtful leader among the raiders back then, he also remained skeptical about the behind-the-scenes story of this matter.

Although he trusts Dumbledore, could Dumbledore have also taken advantage of Sirius?

After all, if Dumbledore knew Sirius was innocent, why didn't he go to save him all these years?

If Dumbledore didn't believe Sirius was innocent, then Lupin was even less likely to tell him, otherwise Dumbledore might easily have captured Sirius.

"Your most important task now is to regain your sanity and fighting ability, and then gather enough evidence to clear your name."

"Otherwise, everyone except me can distrust you, which is the right choice."

"Rat, I caught the rat, you know, he..."

Sirius was so excited he wanted to say something more, but Lupin interrupted, "Yes, I know, Peter Pettigrew."

“Dumbledore wrote to me saying that it was Miss Dursley, whom you just complained about, who first discovered him and then planned to send him to Azkaban. As a wizard, she is excellent; as a sister, she also took very good care of Harry.”

"That's why I'm advising you to calm down. You can't just violently take Harry away from her like that."

Lupin tried to reassure his former comrade: "Believe me, Sirius, everything will slowly get better only if you believe in me."

Seeing that Sirius had calmed down, Lupin said, "By the way, where's Peter Pettigrew? Where did you hide him?"

"Don't worry, it's hidden in the old house, guarded by Kreacher."

"That's alright... but it's surprising that you went back there too."

Lupin looked at Sirius with some surprise. The fact that Sirius could say and do such things meant that his mental state was not bad and that he had finally learned to use his brain.

Kreacher is a house-elf of the Black family, and Sirius Black is one of the last heirs of the Black family, so Kreacher is Sirius's servant.

But Kreacher didn't like Sirius. His favorite people were Sirius's mother, Mrs. Black, and Regulus Black. He didn't have any genuine loyalty to Sirius.

Sirius Black also treated Kreacher poorly, calling him a "useless piece of trash" and constantly beating and verbally abusing him.

This was partly because Sirius himself was rebellious and unruly, and partly because Kreacher always reminded him of the family he hated.

So theoretically, these two should never have anything to do with each other, but now Blake has even used Kreacher, which is enough to show that he has at least matured a bit.

This really relieved Lupin, who was genuinely worried that Sirius was still the same somewhat cruel and arrogant Sirius from back then.

"Anyway, you stay here for now and let me try to figure out what to do, understand?"

Seeing Sirius nod, Lupin slowly left and returned to Hogwarts.

Although he appears very assertive in front of Sirius, he is actually quite helpless right now.

Lupin is indeed mature, calm, and excellent, but as a werewolf, he is destined to have few connections. Now, Dumbledore cannot be easily trusted, and Snape is even less so.

Lupin couldn't ask Sirius for help to improve his health; he had to buy the potions himself, and money was what Lupin lacked most.

Of course, he could make it himself, but he would still need to buy the ingredients, and the process wouldn't be much different.

The immense pressure made him feel suffocated, and at that moment he suddenly thought of Dolly.

With Dorina's genius-like mind and her endless stream of clever tricks, she should be able to solve these problems.

However, Lupin ultimately abandoned the idea.

In his eyes, Dolly was still a child, and Lupin couldn't bear the shame of asking a child for help.

At worst... I'll just buy it on credit.

He's a professor at Hogwarts, so he should still have some influence, right?

Unfortunately, he was the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and everyone knew that professors of Defense Against the Dark Arts could only teach for one year, otherwise they would either die or be seriously injured.

Lupin had no choice but to do it anyway, and the result was indeed very bad.

Although he was a professor at Hogwarts, his credibility was extremely low due to his role as a werewolf and Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and he didn't have enough money. Some even suspected that Lupin was going to borrow money and then run away.

Helpless, Lupin finally managed to gather enough ingredients to brew the potion for Sirius.

But Sirius, who had recovered somewhat, wanted to go find Harry again, which inevitably increased Lupin's mental stress once more.

So much so that Dolly couldn't help but ask Lupin after seeing him again, "Professor, you look even worse than Hermione lately. Don't you really need to rest for a couple of days?"

"Oh no, thank you for your concern, Dursley, I just have a bit of a cold."

This reasoning doesn't hold water with Dolly. Forget about the fact that a cold can be cured by a spoonful of medicine from Madam Pomfrey and a puff of smoke through the nose; how could Lupin possibly be bothered by a mere cold?

Is it...

Dolly considered one possibility: that he had made contact with Sirius.

This speculation is not without basis.

Sirius was wandering around Hogsmeade, and Lupin would recognize his brother immediately once they saw him, given their familiarity with each other.

After the two recognize each other, Lupin will definitely side with Sirius.

If Lupin were to examine the people around him from Sirius's perspective, the scene would become very awkward, as it would seem that no one could be trusted at first glance.

Thinking of this, Dolly smiled.

This might be an opportunity to both win over Lupin and make that big black dog truly submit.

If possible, Dolly wouldn't want to fall out with Sirius, but given his temperament, it's unlikely that they could avoid conflict for Harry's sake.

But if you can control Sirius, then it's a completely different story.

Dolly already has a dog named Snow, so having another black dog doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Of course, Dolly didn't mean to treat Sirius like a dog; she just wanted him to calm down and accept reality, nothing more.

"Then why don't you go to Mrs. Pomfrey's? Is it because you don't have time?"