A certain broken Hogwarts

The run-down bar seemed to be bustling with noise at all times.

A group of people were drinking enthusiastically around the fireplace, a thin man in a top hat was loudly urging for the food to be served, a group of dwarfs were making a ruckus around the bar, and Tom, the old bar owner who had lost all his teeth, was wiping glasses.

Irving brushed the soot off his clothes, returning a polite but distant smile to the few people who were furtively eyeing him, causing them to look away. He surveyed the dark, filthy environment of the small bar, feeling goosebumps rise on his skin.

Every time he came to the Leaky Cauldron, he felt an urge to give it a good cleaning. He simply couldn't understand why a well-known pub in the wizarding world, even if it couldn't be exquisite and elegant, shouldn't it at least be clean and tidy?

Having repeatedly expressed despair at the wizards' poor hygiene, Owen politely greeted the bartender, then eagerly went outside and Apparated to a secluded spot. He had been to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries before and could Apparate directly there, so he was too lazy to walk.

With a soft "snap," he emerged from a dark alley, where there was hardly anyone around. He stepped out of the alley and found himself on a wide street with many Muggles coming and going in the shops on both sides.

Owen's appearance on this street attracted a lot of attention. He was wearing a fitted black robe with exquisite silver embroidery, and his pale face was delicate and handsome. Combined with his elegant and unique temperament, he looked just like a young nobleman who had stepped out of a fairy tale.

Irving didn't care how many curious glances his out-of-place attire attracted. He walked past an electronics store and a public phone booth on the street, ignoring the store clerk's stare and the furtive look from the man in a suit who was making a call in the booth.

He arrived in front of a department store called Taotao Co., Ltd. The store was dilapidated and deserted, with a large sign that read "Closed for Renovation" hanging on the dusty door, and the mannequins standing in the window were already somewhat broken.

When he stood in front of a shop window, all the gazes that had been fixed on him naturally shifted away, and no one paid him any attention anymore, as if he had already left the street. Clearly, a Muggle-blocking charm had been cast.

Irving leaned closer to the shop window and said to the ugly mannequin inside, "Hello, I've come to visit Natasha Valentine."

The mannequin nodded slightly and beckoned to him with its fingers joined together.

Irving stepped forward, walked straight through the glass in front of him, and entered a crowded waiting room.

Rows of wizards and witches sat on rickety wooden chairs, some looking normal, others strangely shaped, surrounded by all sorts of odd noises. Wizards and witches dressed in green robes walked back and forth among the crowd, carrying writing tablets; their chests were embroidered with badges that depicted a cross made of a wand and bones.

Irving arrived at the table marked "Inquiry Desk" and joined the long queue. A large portrait hung on the wall in front of him; the witch with long, silver, curly hair in the painting glanced at him and nodded slightly, seemingly recognizing him.

Owen smiled and nodded in response. He had seen the former headmaster's portrait in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts, though the portrait was always "sleeping."

After the witch with mushroom-covered faces ahead of him left, it was finally Owen's turn. He said to the witch at the information desk, "Hello, may I ask which room Natasha Valente is in?"

"Let me look." The witch pointed to a long list and searched downwards. "Got it! Fifth floor, Spell Damage Department, third door from the left."

"Thank you." Owen walked through the double doors, down a narrow corridor, and then up the stairs to the fifth floor. As he climbed the stairs, the portraits of therapists hanging on either side of the stairs shouted and diagnosed him with strange ailments, offering all sorts of terrifying-sounding treatments.

After he entered the double doors on the fifth floor, the portrait on the staircase continued to shout at him: "...Please remember, one cup of toad juice every day!"

Owen pondered the feasibility of toad juice with great interest, then reached out and pushed open the door to the third ward on his left, entering the dimly lit and cramped room.

There were four beds in the ward, only one of which was empty. Natasha's bed was on the far side of the room. At that moment, she was leaning back on the soft pillows, her face somewhat pale, her sharp eyebrows raised, and her deep red eyes seemed to be spitting fire; she looked very annoyed.

Upon seeing Irving, she paused for a moment, then her face lit up with a smile: "Irving, what brings you here?"

"I heard from Lupin that you were injured, so of course I had to come and see you." Irving placed a fruit basket and flowers next to her hospital bed.

"I never said I'd let him notify you..." Natasha muttered, then happily grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and started crunching on it. She waved her hand dismissively and said, "I'm fine, just a minor injury. Actually, I think I could be discharged right now. Those vampire healers actually wanted me to stay here for two days!"

"Two days!" She held up two fingers, her lips pursed in a pained expression. How much money would that waste?

"Just behave yourself, we're not short of money." Owen also took an apple, pulled out a small knife, and smoothly peeled it. "Are you under a spell?"

"Hmm." Natasha's face instantly darkened, and she bit down hard on the apple in her mouth, as if she regarded it as the enemy from last night. "A dark spell, I couldn't dodge it. That spell almost drained all the blood from my body."

"That despicable scumbag!" At this, her expression reverted to the furious look she had when Owen first entered the ward. "My bookstore, which I had worked so hard to open and was finally doing well, is now completely destroyed! That beast dared to cast an explosive spell!"

She was panting heavily, slamming her fist on the hospital bed, her deep red hair seemingly on fire.

"You've been angry about this?" Irving said, suppressing a laugh.

"Yeah. I was angry all night, and I'm still angry when I woke up this morning!" Natasha took a big bite of an apple, her cheeks puffed out.

Irving finally couldn't help but laugh. He tossed a long strip of apple peel into the trash can, took a bite of the apple, and asked, "Can I know what happened last night?"

Natasha chewed on an apple, her voice slightly muffled, and said, "There's not much to say. Last night, that group of people swaggered into the bookstore, triggering the warning spells that Lupin and I set up. They didn't say a word, they just cast spells on everyone they met, and we ended up fighting in the store."

"There were a lot of them, six or seven, but the situation was too chaotic at the time, so I didn't count carefully. However, some of them were entangled in the traps we set, so they could still fight. Lupin was very strong; he took on three of them by himself. I had just knocked one away when I was hit by a spell that bounced off the wall. I don't know who set it."

"But the one I knocked out seemed to be the leader. After that guy was knocked unconscious, the other intruders lost their will to fight. They quickly retreated, and before they left, some bastard put a blasting spell in the store!" Natasha's eyebrows shot up again as she said this.

But then she laughed gleefully, "Hmph, that leader won't get away with it either. I used the Bone-Pulling Curse, pulled out all the bones from his body, he'll suffer... I should have used the Killing Curse, it's all Lupin's fault for nagging me every day about how using the Unforgivable Curse would get me sent to Azkaban to die, so I subconsciously didn't use it..."

"Where did Lupin go?" Irving asked with a smile, taking a small bite of his apple.

"He waited here until I was healed, then went back to the bookstore to clean up the mess." Natasha's expression fell again; anyone could see her dejection. "My store..."

"According to you, those people were there last night intending to attack you." Owen tilted his head, his eyes fixed on the glowing bubbles on the hospital room ceiling. "Someone's got their eye on our bookstore. Do you think there's anything in the store that they'd want?"

Natasha pondered for a while, her expression resembling that of a husky trying to appear serious. After a long pause, she shook her head blankly: "No, I don't think so. I haven't left the bookstore much since it opened. Most of the books in the store are bestsellers from Knockturn Alley. I don't think Lupin has any either; his stuff looks shabby to me."

"Do you think someone might have found out about the Book of Secrets?" Owen asked. Although he himself didn't think much of the book, it was an invaluable treasure to many wizarding organizations.

Natasha paused, then said hesitantly, "I don't think so. I've already taken care of the Dark Spirit organization. I found out later that the people from the 'Book of Secrets' were all burned to death by you, and the remaining henchmen didn't know anything and dispersed afterwards..." She lowered her voice for the last sentence.

"But it's not impossible that some guy escaped..." She tugged at her hair in frustration, feeling guilty that she might have caused the trouble.

"Don't overthink it, maybe that's not the reason," Owen said gently, trying to comfort me. "Perhaps it's trouble caused by the bookstore's previous owner. Who did you buy the house from, and what did they do?"

Natasha's emotions always came and went quickly. In the blink of an eye, she had put her previous struggles behind her and said, twirling her hair with her fingers, "I bought that house from little Craig Garnier."

"Old Craig died in an accident. A spiky creature fell from the sky and smashed his neck. Someone was probably using a flying broomstick to smuggle magical creatures..." She clicked her tongue. "That unlucky old man, by the time he was found, his body was already cold."

"His son, Craig Jr., is a spendthrift. To keep his so-called reusable toilet business afloat, he not only sold off all of old Craig's life savings but also several shops..."

"Excuse me, a reusable toilet?" Owen was utterly baffled by the term.

"Well, you mean..." Natasha grinned wryly, "Little Craig is dedicated to purifying what people excrete in the toilet and putting it back on their dinner tables..."

"..." Owen pursed his lips, clearly not wanting to delve any deeper into the topic. "Go on, what happened after Craig sold a few shops?"

"Before I bought it, that shop sold all sorts of stain removers, and business wasn't great," Natasha chuckled. "Because Little Craig was in a hurry to sell, and not many normal people go to Knockturn Alley, the price wasn't high. So I bought it."

"How's Craig doing now?" Irving casually tossed the apple core aside.

"It seems like we haven't heard from him in a long time," Natasha said after thinking for a while. "He probably disappeared last summer, along with his wife and children. Maybe his business finally went bankrupt and he's sleeping on the streets."

"The whole family is gone?" Owen narrowed his eyes.

"Well, maybe they just moved away, I didn't even notice," Natasha said. "I'll get it checked out after I'm discharged."

Owen nodded and chatted with Natasha for a while about trivial things until Lupin walked in looking exhausted.

"Remus, how is it?" Natasha asked hurriedly.

"I took stock of the damage to the store. A small part of the building collapsed and needs to be repaired. Some of the books in the store were blown to pieces, some were charred, and most of them can no longer be sold..." Lu Ping's already sickly face looked even paler.

"I'm sorry," he said, sounding somewhat melancholy.

"You don't need to apologize. I should thank you for saving Natasha, Lupin," Owen said sincerely. "Looks like I should give you a raise..."

"Speaking of which, haven't you received any letters from Hogwarts?" Lupin asked before Lupin could reply.

"What letter?" Lupin asked, puzzled.

"Okay, it's nothing." Owen blinked, unsurprised. Sure enough, the current headmaster wouldn't consider having a werewolf as a professor, and he wondered who would be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for this year.

Just then, the door to the ward opened. The therapist wheeled in a new patient, placed him on the empty bed next to the ward, and muttered, "...a strange, chronic curse. Recovery won't be quick. You'll have to stay here for a few more days."

After the therapist left, Lupin exclaimed in surprise, "Sirius?"

Owen raised his eyebrows curiously, and then they saw Harry rush in.

"Oh, Owen, Lupin, what are you doing here?" Harry said breathlessly, then ran to Sirius's bedside and asked, "Sirius, how are you feeling?"

"Cough cough... I'm alright." Sirius's thin face was extremely pale. He kept coughing while covering his mouth, but his expression was very peaceful, and he even lazily waved to Lupin.

"It's only been a few days, and you've moved in here?" Lupin joked with a gentle smile. He glanced at Harry, his expression turning serious. "What happened?"

"It's nothing... cough cough, just some personal matters." Sirius didn't want to say more.

"You should have at least told me before you went on that adventure!" Harry said irritably, but his eyes were filled with worry. "At least I have eyes and could tell if you needed to go to the hospital, instead of letting you wait until things got worse before you remembered you needed treatment! If it weren't for Kreacher knowing to come to me..."

Sirius listened helplessly to his incessant nagging, then silently picked up a newspaper from the bedside table and covered his nose and mouth.

Irving chuckled and tossed over a few pieces of fruit, while Lupin wore a gentle smile.

Natasha glanced at Sirius, their eyes meeting. She sized him and Harry up for a moment with an air of self-righteousness, then clicked her tongue and said, "I feel like I've seen them somewhere before… You know them?"

"Harry Potter, and Sirius Black," Owen introduced them. "This is Natasha."

"Oh—" Natasha drawled. She didn't remember who Sirius Black was, she just kept staring at Harry's forehead, which was covered by his hair.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, the group left the ward to give the patients time to rest.

"So, what exactly happened?" Owen looked at Harry, thinking to himself how this guy was always there, always appearing in his life.

Harry sighed knowingly, "Sirius went to that cave with Kreacher without my knowledge and retrieved Regulus's body."

He still looked somewhat frightened. He was well aware of the danger of that cave and dared not imagine that if Sirius's mission failed, he would most likely lose his life there and become one of the countless undead in the lake.

"Luckily, he succeeded. However, he stayed in the lake for a long time, and that lake probably carries some troublesome curse; it might turn anyone who dies in it into an undead." He continued, "Sirius came back with a persistent cough, which got progressively worse. Kreacher didn't know what to do, so he came to me, and their relationship has improved considerably..."

"Now I finally understand why he's a Gryffindor," Harry remarked. He was glad he hadn't told Sirius about the Horcruxes.

Owen chuckled. He thought this Harry was much more pleasing to the eye than the one in the original books.

He said goodbye to Harry and walked out of the hospital with Lupin, intending to check on the bookstore. The two walked side-by-side out of the window displaying mannequins; there were even more Muggles coming and going outside.

Just as Owen was about to step out of the Muggle-blocking charm's range, he suddenly stopped. His slight smile vanished, replaced by a cold indifference, and his sharp gaze swept across the crowd on the street.

He saw two men leaning against the wall with their arms crossed outside a clothing store nearby, their eyes seemingly glancing in his direction. A passerby not far away turned a corner and walked this way, rummaging through a large bag with their right hand.

In the electronics store diagonally across the street, a man bent over examining a television set, his hands in his pockets, seemingly preparing to withdraw money to pay. However, he was dressed in a strange outfit—a black suit and green shorts—clearly a wizard disguised as a Muggle.

In a nearby public phone booth, a man in a suit was making a call. But Owen remembered that this guy was making a call before he entered the hospital…

Seeing the suspicious movements of these guys, Irving sensed trouble. They were likely after him.

He grabbed Lupin's arm and winked at him. At that moment, realizing they had been discovered, the group stopped trying to hide it, and the nearest passerby pulled half a wand from his bag.

"Go!" Owen swung his wand sharply, instantly pulling Lupin away in an apparition. (End of Chapter)