The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

He paused for a moment, then continued, "Also, do you know why my cousin, whom I've never met, was sent to Azkaban?"

Chapter 35: Sirius's Story

Harry swallowed hard, and looking at Rez's appearance, he suddenly felt a little nervous.

"I actually heard about these things from Hagrid at first, and then I wrote to my cousin to verify them, so their accuracy should be guaranteed."

But after saying this, Ryze suddenly stopped deliberately, keeping the two of them in suspense.

"But if we really continue, Harry, you might not be able to concentrate on your homework today. Are you sure you want to hear more?"

"Please, Ritz, I've already said all this. If you don't tell me, I won't be able to sleep tonight, let alone do my homework!" Harry pleaded with Ritz decisively.

Ron nodded quickly beside him. He was just as enthusiastic about gossip, and after a few words from Ryze, he could no longer contain his curiosity.

As they spoke, the three of them walked into the library together. Ryze casually found an empty seat by the window and put down his book. Harry and Ron quickly sat down and moved their chairs next to Ryze.

Rizz saw what the two looked like, and then casually recounted the grudges and entanglements between the Marauders and Snape from back then.

Thanks to Hagrid's easygoing personality, he can't stop talking once he starts, and even if someone were to ask him now if he remembers what he said, he probably wouldn't be able to recall it.

In just two mornings, Ryze learned from Hagrid about many of the Raiders' adventures during their school days that were not mentioned in the original work.

Strictly speaking, Snape was not the only one who was disciplined or "bullied" by the group of four. Almost every student in Slytherin who showed a desire to become a Death Eater was disciplined by them.

Snape was indeed the one who was bullied the most.

On one hand, Snape was strong, had a withdrawn personality, and was unwilling to admit defeat. In one-on-one situations, the four of them were basically no match for Snape. Therefore, the young and impetuous group of them would deliberately guard against Snape's sneak attacks, and after subduing Snape each time, they would humiliate him severely in every way.

This situation only subsided somewhat after the students in sixth grade had matured in their thoughts and personalities.

"Hagrid doesn't seem to know the specifics, but Harry, you look seven parts like your father, and I look four parts like my cousin. What do you think Snape would think of us?"

The fact that Rizzi told Harry left him speechless, his mouth agape in disbelief.

No wonder he could sense Snape's obvious disgust for him.

So there's this connection in the middle.

Because he had been bullied by his cousin since childhood, the 11-year-old boy did feel a moment of empathy for Snape at this moment.

Ron, who was clearly biased against Slytherin, scoffed and said, "That was indeed the time when the Mysteries were most active. I heard that more than half of the students at Slytherin wanted to become Death Eaters. In my opinion, they deserved to be taught a lesson."

Hearing these words, Harry shook his head, trying to clear his mind of those thoughts.

He had just lost two points in Snape's class yesterday. Even if he knew about these things, the most he could do was to keep his head down in class from now on and not let Snape see his face.

Although this might make Snape even angrier, after all, Harry doesn't know how long Snape has longed for those eyes of his.

Ron suddenly realized the problem and immediately asked Reese, "But that doesn't make sense... If Sirius Black and Harry's father are friends, and he hates Death Eaters so much, how did he get into Azkaban? Did he use the Unforgivable Curse on those Death Eaters?"

After discussing the group of four and Snape, Ryze shifted his focus to Sirius Black.

Blake, the only student sorted into Gryffindor, ran away from home in fifth grade and was taken in by James Potter at the Potter family's old house. He received financial assistance from Ritz's father, which indirectly led to Ritz's father being expelled from the Blake family.

After graduating, he devoted himself to the front lines of the fight against Death Eaters and even became Harry Potter's godfather at one point.

These recounting events only deepened Harry's astonishment.

"My...godfather?"

Until his birth, Black seemed to be his father's best friend.

So, how exactly did they get into Azkaban?

Ryze nodded: "In theory, he's still your godfather."

"I learned this from my cousin during the summer vacation. What is about to happen may make you a little angry, but you'd better control your emotions. I don't want to be kicked out of the library by Mrs. Pince."

Harry nodded with mixed feelings.

So Rez then voiced the prevailing viewpoint.

Sirius Black, at some point, was tempted by Voldemort and betrayed James, revealing the Potters' hiding place to Voldemort.

In the end, Voldemort came knocking, the Potters died, and Harry Potter became the boy who survived.

"Afterwards, Sirius Black fought Peter Pettigrew, another member of the group of four. The battle destroyed half a street, resulting in the deaths of many Muggles. Peter Pettigrew also died in the battle."

Sirius Black was arrested by the arriving Aurors and imprisoned in Azkaban, where he remains to this day—

As soon as Rizz finished speaking, Harry, who was standing next to her, was so angry that he felt like his teeth were about to break.

If Ryze hadn't warned him beforehand to hold back, he probably would have already angrily questioned him.

"Why? Why would he do such a thing?!"

He tried to keep his voice down.

Ryze shook his head: "I don't know. Nobody knows except him."

"Even my cousin doesn't understand what tempted him to betray her."

"These events are recorded in detail in the Daily Prophet's Report from that year. If you want to know, Hogwarts still has the newspapers from that year. You just need to look for the newspapers from the days when the mysterious man fell from power."

"And then there's Hagrid. When he was following Principal Dumbledore's instructions to take you to your uncle's house, he even greeted Sirius on the spot. It wasn't until a few days later that he learned about Sirius's betrayal from the newspaper. When Hagrid mentioned this to me, he seemed very remorseful, saying that if he had known at the time, he would have definitely tried to subdue Sirius and perhaps even saved Peter Pettigrew's life."

Upon hearing this, Harry suddenly stood up, his eyes red, and declared that he was going to find Hagrid to ask him about what happened back then.

Ron also stood up with a complicated expression, apologized to Reese, then picked up Harry's books and hurriedly followed him out of the library.

Chapter 36: Reese has gotten away with it again.

Watching Harry and Ron hurriedly leave, Ritz felt that the chance encounter had been quite effective.

"Although Sirius can come out on his own after the third year, it's better to come out sooner and rebuild New Black with me. If we get our magic level back up two and a half years earlier, it won't be as sudden as his death in the original story."

He was thinking this.

If the goal is to get Sirius out of prison and then everyone happily divide up Lake's centuries-old fortune, the groundwork must be laid first.

Ryze hasn't seen Scabbers, the mouse that Ron Peter Pettigrew is in disguise, yet, so he certainly can't just come up and say that it's Peter Pettigrew in disguise.

True prophecies are usually only activated after contact with the corresponding target.

So let Harry know about what happened back then beforehand, and then raise the doubts about it.

He just mentioned that Hagrid and Sirius met in front of the Potter family ruins and discussed their plans for Harry.

Sirius Black wanted to take Harry away as his godfather, but Hagrid used Dumbledore's instructions to make Sirius abandon this plan.

Before leaving, Sirius borrowed a motorcycle from Hagrid that could fly so he could get Harry to Prison Drive faster.

There's already a problem here.

After all, if Sirius really betrayed them, he already targeted James and Peter Pettigrew, so why didn't he target Harry and Hagrid at the time, and even helped Hagrid?

Furthermore, in an effort to save face, the Ministry of Magic sentenced Sirius Black to Azkaban without any trial whatsoever.

Sirius Black himself was out of his mind, thinking he should spend his whole life atoning for James's sins. He didn't explain anything throughout the whole process, and even let Peter Pettigrew get a Merlin Medal.

Once more people realize the problems involved, Rizz can then use a "prophecy" to reveal the truth of what happened back then, and have Andromeda go to Dumbledore to control Peter Pettigrew and verify it.

During this process, you can also contact Lu Ping in advance, as he likely still harbors doubts about what happened back then.

"As for the date... let's tentatively set it for when I go back during the Christmas holidays, so that my cousin can come out and spend the New Year with his godson."

As Ryze pondered which day to schedule his cousin's release from prison, he suddenly felt a sharp gaze fixed on him from behind.

Ryze followed his instincts and looked over.

Oh, it's Hermione.

After entering the library, Ryze simply found a table by the window where no one was sitting. However, he did see a small head with messy brown hair peeking out from about four or five tables away.

Ryze gave Hermione a slight nod as a greeting.

Hermione walked over quickly with an unhappy look in her eyes.

"Even though it's the weekend, aren't you being a little too leisurely? It's one thing to come to the library to do homework at this hour, but why have you been chatting with people in the library for so long..."

"I've now thoroughly grasped the basic theory of the Illumination Charm, and I'm sure I'll be able to perform a perfect Illumination Charm during the next Charms class!"

"If you continue like this, I'll surpass you before the end of the semester, not even before the end of the semester!"

After the first Charms lesson, Hermione had already started competing with him.

She arrives at the library earlier than him every day and returns to the dormitory later.

During class, they compete to see who can earn the most points, and when teaching classmates, they compete to see who can teach better.

However, so far, in the courses taken by both colleges together, Reese has completely overwhelmed them with her more in-depth theoretical foundation.

This has made Hermione, who is unwilling to admit defeat, not want to waste time eating. She munches on her bread while reviewing her handwritten notes.

Rizz genuinely felt that Ravenclaw's early reading club should invite Hermione to join.

There are very few students at Hogwarts who work harder than Hermione.

Seeing Hermione's questioning look, Ryze knew that her stubborn temper had flared up again.

Hermione is now determined to work twice as hard to surpass him.

If someone sees their competitor relaxing, they most likely won't point it out.

But Hermione was different. She saw that Rhett started to "slack off" after only a week at Hogwarts. Even on weekends, he didn't come to the library to do his homework until 3 p.m., showing no regard for his studies at all.

Especially after seeing Ritz and Harry Ron arrive at the library, instead of studying properly, they actually chatted for half an hour!

She couldn't hold back any longer and came over to tell Ryze that this wouldn't work, and that she wouldn't feel any sense of accomplishment even if she defeated such an opponent.

Seeing Hermione gritting her teeth and glaring at him with wide eyes, Ryze didn't answer Hermione's question. Instead, he asked her, "By the way, Hermione, how's your puzzle-solving ability?"

Hermione, who was wondering how Ryze would explain, was momentarily stunned by Ryze's sudden question, her mind going blank for several seconds.

After a while, she nodded uncertainly: "It should be alright, I guess. When I was little, I was pretty good at guessing criminals from detective novels... No, that's not what I meant. I meant your studies, you—"

She tried to steer the conversation back on track, but Ryze raised his hand to interrupt her.

"Listen to me first. This morning I found a statue from the school's founding period in Ravenclaw's antiquities room. I have a feeling that it must hold some secret, but many people have studied it for thousands of years."

"Whether it's a common or obscure revealing spell, or a sophisticated transformation spell, even if you dismantle it and then restore it, no one has been able to unravel the secret of that statue for thousands of years. I now think that perhaps the solution has nothing to do with magic from the very beginning, but rather might use a special method similar to that in detective novels. So, are you interested in solving its mystery?"

After Ryze finished speaking, Hermione's attention was completely diverted.

Mysterious statues from the school's founding period?

What secrets are hidden within the statue?

Hermione, however, didn't quite like the term "premonition." After thinking for a moment, she shook her head and said, "Calling it a premonition... it sounds too vague. You said it yourself, so many predecessors studied that statue before you, and none of them discovered its secret. How can you be sure your premonition is true?"

Because I have a mission.

Of course, such words should not be said.

Ryze spread his hands and shook his head: "It's hard to describe that feeling to you. You know divination, right? I seem to have a bit of talent in that area, but because I haven't gotten started yet, I can only feel a part of it and can't make complete predictions."

“But I have a strong feeling that the statue is probably related to Rowena Ravenclaw. If we can solve the mystery, we might be able to find the items left behind by the founder.”

Hermione looked at Rizzi with a mixture of belief and doubt.

How did the conversation end up involving the four founders of Hogwarts?

And what about the talent for divination?

She knew that divination class, like ancient spellbooks, was an elective subject that third-year wizards with a certain foundation could choose according to their own preferences.

So, Ryze not only learned about ancient runes from Professor Babling in advance, but she was also teaching herself divination?

Damn it, that guy got away with it again.

No, besides the ancient magic script she's currently studying, she also needs to find a few more books on divination to study in advance. She absolutely cannot let Ryze pull ahead of her in this new track!

Chapter 37: The Extrasensory Spell that Amplifies the Senses

Although Hermione was very interested in what the founders had left behind, she still didn't quite trust Rizz's premonition.

Especially now that she's racing against time to catch up with Ryze.

Hermione, in particular, now has a filter on magic and thinks that if wizards can't find out something with magic, how could a Muggle solve the mystery?

She thought about it and realized that if she agreed to go with Ritz to investigate the statue, she might spend a long time and find nothing.

As a result, during this period, other students took the opportunity to overtake them.

The thought of Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick's disappointed expressions in class after her grades slipped sent a chill down Hermione's spine.

No, it absolutely cannot become like that!