The Return to Hogwarts

Hermione's brown eyes shone brightly; compared to the Scabbers incident, she could say that her 'report' tonight was entirely without guilt.

The common room was empty. The three of them were still sitting by the fireplace, warming themselves. Ron pulled a bottle of butterbeer from the gap between the back of an old dresser and the wall. It was a smuggled item they had brought back on their last trip.

"Haven't you noticed, Ron?"

Hermione pulled her numerology homework from her bag and started writing as quickly as if she didn't need to think.

“Professor Blaine and I share the same view, and all three of us know that he probably won’t be able to sleep tonight. He’ll definitely be working through the night to check if there are any traces of a criminal who has recently passed through the remaining three passages.”

In this frigid weather, ice-cold drinks were no good, so Ron used his best levitation charm to levitate three glasses filled with beer over a golden flame for a while.

"This only proves one thing: even an elite like Professor Blaine can sometimes have a moment of lapse in judgment."

Hermione consistently displayed this domineering attitude when arguing about who was right or wrong, and Ron was getting fed up with it.

“I’d like to see how Black managed to sneak in through the other three secret passages. It couldn’t be Honeyduke, could it? Otherwise, we would have been at Fred and George’s funeral by now, and that collapsed one too. Excuse my bluntness, Hermione, but I think that since Fred and George couldn’t get through that collapsed passage, Black probably isn’t any better than them in that regard!”

Hermione's quill, which had been moving so fast it was almost blurry, paused for a moment. She bit her lower lip and said...

"There's one more."

"if!"

Ron rolled his eyes, looking utterly helpless.

"If you and I flew to Hogwarts in a car with Harry on the first day of second year, you would know that it's impossible for anyone to walk past that Whomping Willow without leaving a body part behind."

"At least Professor Blaine believes—"

Hermione wanted to say something more, but Harry, who seemed a bit down that evening, suddenly interrupted the conversation.

"The prerequisite is that you need a magic wand to do it."

The butterbeer was already bubbling and steaming. Ron transferred the warm glass to the table, gestured invitingly to Harry, then just gave Hermione a disgruntled nod of his chin.

“Harry is right, provided that Black gets himself a wand. You don’t think Black lost his wand because of Neville’s, do you? Don’t forget, Neville’s wand was still in use when Black broke into the castle last time.”

Hermione was speechless, but she still frowned, trying to think of a way to refute Ron.

Harry was exhausted, not physically, but mentally from self-doubt.

For a week since learning the truth about Blake's persecution of his parents, he had been hardening his heart every night, plotting how he would kill Blake without hesitation if he ever met him. But tonight, Professor Blaine showed him that killing was not so simple at all.

Things seemed to have come full circle, and Harry realized that he might as well not have known the truth about his parents' murder. That way, he wouldn't be tormented by his conscience. Now, it seemed that he could do nothing but hope that Professor Blaine or those evil Dementors would find Black first.

However, Harry knew he had to interrupt Ron and Hermione's serious argument. Because of Scabbers, they still harbored resentment towards each other, and even now, they hadn't completely let go of their grudges. If the conversation continued, the hard-won understanding would be shattered again.

“I think I need to go and apologize to Fred and George,”

Harry sighed deeply, his face filled with sorrow.

"Just a heads up, the hunchbacked witch's secret passage is no longer safe."

It was already past ten o'clock at night, and the young wizards should have been in their dormitories long ago. In order to avoid being discovered by Percy when he returned from his night patrol, the three of them prepared to end this not-so-pleasant pre-night.

“I can come with you, Harry,”

Ron patted Harry on the shoulder.

"We can explain it to Fred and George; they should be able to give me something."

The sudden noise from the doorway interrupted Ron's words and caused Harry and Hermione to show surprise at the same time.

Professor Lupin--

Harry was a little confused as to why the usually gentle Professor Lupin had such a serious expression.

"Professor Blaine just came to my office, explained some things to me, and asked me to be on my guard tonight,"

Lupin scrutinized Harry and said solemnly,

“Professor Blaine told me that he accidentally learned from you about several secret passages leading out of the castle. Harry, how did you find out the locations of these passages so clearly?”

Sorry, I went to the hospital for a check-up today, so I'm a little late.

Also, another month has come to an end. Thank you to everyone who has supported this book so far.

Chapter 230 Introspection

It's a strange thing, that's what Harry thought when he was being questioned.

Professor Blaine didn't press him too much about how he discovered the secret passages, but Professor Lupin seemed very concerned after learning about it. In fact, even though it was so late, he chased after him to the Gryffindor common room to question him about it.

Harry, his two friends, and Lupin exchanged bewildered glances, none of them knowing what Professor Lupin was up to.

“Oh, well—” Harry shrugged, trying to sound as innocent as possible, “a few of them we discovered ourselves.”

Harry had already lied to the two professors he was close to tonight, but he couldn't help it. Fred and George had kindly given him the Marauder's Map, and he couldn't very well drag them into it.

Lupin stared sharply at Harry, completely unlike his usual gentle demeanor. He neither believed nor rejected Harry's explanation, but simply continued to ask...

“I think you must have gotten some help from something else, right, Harry?”

Could it be that Professor Lupin knows about that map?

Harry's heart suddenly raced, and he couldn't help but think this.

“I’ll be blunt, Harry.”

Lupin wasn't going to beat around the bush any longer. His pale cheeks flushed red in the flames as he stared intently into Harry's emerald eyes and asked...

“Professor Blaine told me that one of the three secret passages Filch didn’t know about wasn’t inside the castle, but under the Whomping Willow by the playground. Please allow me to question this, Harry, I think it’s unlikely that you would know this under normal circumstances, right?”

Ron and Hermione stood behind Professor Lupin. When Lupin asked the question and stared into Harry's eyes, their gazes met in mid-air, and they both saw the confusion in each other's eyes.

Professor Lupin went to great lengths to find Harry just to find out this.

"Well, it's because..."

Harry frowned, desperately trying to find an excuse to brush off the question, but Professor Lupin added sternly,

"I think the truth you're telling me must be true, Harry?"

Harry was speechless and could no longer continue weaving lies.

"Because of that car, Professor—"

Ron mustered his courage and stepped forward. Facing Lupin's suspicious gaze, he said crisply,

“I think you may have heard about it, Professor. When we started our second year, Harry and I got to Hogwarts in a flying car.”

“The Daily Prophet reported on it back then…” Lupin said slowly, a hint of recollection in his eyes. “Minerva also mentioned it to me briefly. She said that your car eventually crashed into that 'Hit-and-Run Willow'?”

You're a genius, Ron!

Ron deciphered the meaning from Harry's furtive glance, which boosted his confidence and made his tone much more assertive.

“Oh, yes, Professor!”

Ron said in a tone that was filled with unbearable sorrow.

“That was a very painful lesson, Professor. Harry and I generally don’t like to recall it either. That car. It eventually went out of control and crashed into the Whomping Willow. You know, that tree has a terrible temper. We dodged it desperately, and in the end, we escaped its clutches at the cost of two broken ribs and a wand!”

Hermione's cheeks flushed. She could never get used to talking nonsense to fool the professor, even though she herself had done it many times.

"So, it was around that time that you discovered the secret passage there?"

Lupin's furrowed brows relaxed a little. Ron's words sounded reasonable; at least, there were no obvious flaws.

"Yes, Professor!"

Ron, whose mind was now working quickly, said...

"But we were in such a hurry to escape that we didn't have time to go down and see what was going on. Later we did want to do that, but we could no longer get close to it!"

"Okay, that sounds like the truth."

Lupin let out a sigh of relief, his shoulders slumping, but before Harry could even relax, Lupin regained his serious expression and glared at Harry, saying...

“Professor Blaine told me that after you practiced the Patronus Charm with me last week, you sneaked out of the school gate to go to Hogsmeade for a drink. To be honest, Harry, I was shocked because I thought the sounds you heard when the Dementors were near would have kept you in check.”

Harry tried to explain, but Lupin didn't give him the chance.

“Your parents sacrificed their lives to protect you and keep you alive, Harry. It’s not right to repay them like this—risking their lives for a couple of beers.”

Lupin left, and the look of disappointment in his eyes made Harry feel even worse than in Professor Blaine's office. Seeing him like that, Hermione opened her mouth but said nothing, even though she agreed with the two professors' approach to Harry's upbringing.

As Harry slowly walked up the spiral staircase leading to his dormitory, he suddenly said in a muffled tone,

"I suddenly realized that I've been acting stupidly all along."

"Oh, don't think like that, Harry—"

Ron patted the dejected Harry and said,

"Professor Blaine and Professor Lupin are both adult wizards, and we can't compare to them in terms of life experience. When they were our age, they probably did countless outrageous things!"

The night was dark, and a week of light snowflakes had turned the world outside Hogsmeade into a snow-white painting.

In the dry, cold cave, a large dog, as sharp as a black bear, lay shivering on a bundle of dry grass. Beneath it lay a pile of bloodstained, dark-colored field mouse bones.

A swirling, chilling wind squeezed in through the narrow opening, and the dark cave was immediately filled with howling sounds. The big black dog raised its head and saw a sharp black shadow leap onto a black rock at the cave entrance, arching its back and frantically shaking off the snow from its furry body.

A piece of cake?