Bab 385: Chapter 384: Showing off! (Edited)
As the day progressed, the excited Hogwarts students went to sleep, tired from the day's events.
Well, except for a certain kitten that wandered around the castle.
At the same time, a large black dog appeared near the Boxing Willow.
Sirius sniffed cautiously around it to make sure there were no other creatures of the Forbidden Forest in the vicinity before lunging towards the willow, and before its branch could hit him, he rushed towards the trunk and struck one of its knots with his paw.
The dancing branches fell as if they had run out of strength, and the Boxing Willow quickly regained its tranquility as Sirius found the hidden tunnel next to the willow in a jiffy and dived into it.
During the day, Lupin had already left a mark on a certain tree at the edge of the Forbidden Forest in his special Marauder form, though there was no more information than that mark, Sirius still came here tacitly.
The big black dog was moving fast in the tunnel, but stopped suddenly after only a third of the tunnel.
Sirius noticed that Lupin's scent had suddenly started to fade, so he twitched his nose and sniffed carefully, then turned back.
After a few moments, Sirius found in a corner of the tunnel a note left by Lupin, also written in the secret language of the Marauders.
The note simply said that Lupin had asked him to meet him at the Shrieking Shack after the next full moon night.
It wasn't that Lupin didn't want to ask Sirius the truth first, it was that Snape had been keeping tabs on Lupin's whereabouts, in addition to Harry, who was watching him with the Marauder's Map.
Lupin even discovered that Snape seemed to have used his contacts to confirm his movements when he was absent from school at Easter to follow a lead.
If Snape had found out that he was in contact with Sirius, he wouldn't have had the patience to listen to Sirius' arguments and would have handed Sirius and himself over to the Dementors as criminals from the start, and with the whole Sirius-Peter thing, it was just Sirius' word against his, so he wouldn't have been able to defend himself, so he had to be careful.
Sirius was anxious too, but as a culprit who was not yet in the clear, he can only obey Lupin's arrangement.
So while they both waited anxiously, a month or less passed, and Lupin had his least favorite night of the year, the full moon.
After drinking the aconite potion Snape had sent him, he walked out of the castle alone, to the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, pulled the knot on the branch of the Boxing Willow and walked into the tunnel beneath it....
Another hard night passed and Lupin returned to his human form, pale and, as so often before, lying helpless on the bunk in the Shrieking Shack.
He didn't know when Sirius would come in, and if this was a trick, he was completely helpless if Sirius came in at this hour....
But Lupin decided to risk it anyway.
After lying in his bunk for a while, Lupin eventually fought his weakness and fell asleep.
Sirius didn't show up until morning, when Dobby brought Lupin his breakfast....
From this point of view, it looked like Lupin had got it right.
In fact, an anxious Sirius wanted to find Lupin and explain the situation, but he knew that Lupin would be very weak after his transformation, so he waited until morning before approaching the Boxing Willow and trying to find Lupin.
Eventually, he spotted Dobby who came to deliver the food, and then quickly pretended to be a passing wild dog, wandered around the Boxing Willow for a while, and then left without attracting Dobby's attention.
Noticing that an elf would be bringing Lupin his dinner, Sirius had to stifle his impatience and waited until Dobby finished delivering dinner and left before entering the tunnel.
"It's been a long time, Moony."
A bearded Sirius appeared in the Shrieking Shack, greeting Lupin who was still eating.
Lupin put the food down in his hands and looked at Sirius's chin, which was rounder than his own, and fell silent....
"Padfoot, you...", After a long time, he hesitated and said, "Do you seem to be doing well recently?"
Sirius: "..."
"Ahem..." Lupin, realizing he was speaking out of turn, cleared his throat and quickly pulled out his wand and pointed it at Sirius, saying, "So, Padfoot, tell me everything that happened. Tell me."
Although judging by Sirius' demeanor at this point, it was basically certain that he hadn't lied, but Lupin wanted to cautiously confirm it again and ask for details he hadn't figured out.
Sirius, at whom the wand was pointed, did not take it seriously, sat cross-legged on the floor carelessly, raised his head, looked regretfully at Lupin, who was sitting on the bed, and let out a long sigh.
"We changed the secret keeper..."
Sirius said in a bitter voice, talking about the stupid decision he had made.
While Sirius was explaining to Lupin what had happened, Harry and Ron were in their dormitory, picking out all the homework they had to do today and piling it up in the corner of their desks.
Harry glanced around furtively to make sure no one else was in the room and waved, "Ron, help me."
Ron immediately stood behind Harry, shielding him with his own body so that if anyone came in they wouldn't see what he was doing.
Harry, who was blocked next to him, took his wand and tapped it on the parchment.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Harry lowered his voice, recited the incantation, and lines and dots of black ink quickly drew a map on the blank parchment.
He quickly adjusted the position of the map to the Boxing Willow and found that there was nothing special, so he put the marauder's map in his lap and then began writing the task with Ron.
The Shrieking Shack was so far away from Hogwarts that it was out of range of the Marauder's Map, so Harry could only watch the area around the Boxing Willow and part of the secret passages during the two days of the full moon.
But after all this time, there was nothing strange about Lupin, and even Ron was no longer suspicious of him.
Harry was still keeping an eye on Lupin, not only because he was a little reluctant to lose track of Black, but also because....
It was a habit.
Harry concentrated on his homework and only occasionally glanced down at the Marauder's Map on his lap.
"Ron, lend me your Herbology homework for reference."
Harry whispered to Ron as he finished his Transfiguration homework, handing it to him, a reference stream that served them both, doubling their effectiveness....
It was Miss Know-it-all who was offended and had admonished them, but Harry and Ron didn't take it seriously, so Hermione didn't bother.
"Just a moment," Ron replied without looking up, pen in hand scratching quickly at the paper, "I'm still a little short."
For the moment Harry turned his attention back to the Marauder's Map, there were some small black dots flying around the Boxing Willow, at that speed they had to be flying creatures like owls or thestrals.
Just as he was about to look away, a black dot suddenly appeared on the edge of the map, in the middle of a secret passageway.
Had Lupin recovered so soon this time?
Harry frowned slightly; if he remembered correctly, Lupin had to spend two or three days in the Shrieking Shack after every full moon.
Curious, Harry leaned over and squinted at the little black dot, which had his name in tiny print next to it: Sirius Black.
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