บท 146: 146: Lupin's Test and Level 5 Runes
John recently noticed something off with his dog.
Not only Tom, but even Crookshanks seemed strange.
Watching as Tom happily scampered out of the common room, John stared at the now-empty bag of dog food, lost in thought.
"Three dogs' worth of food, but no weight gain. Are you taking advantage of my kindness?"
Tom needed the dog food to maintain her "top dog" status in front of Fang, so John had always made sure to bring triple the usual amount.
But the dog food, which should have lasted until the end of the term, was already gone.
With such an appetite, even someone as slow as Longbottom would have realized something was wrong by now.
To figure out where all that food was going, John cast an Invisibility Charm on himself and followed Tom.
Tom didn't notice John, but instead met up with a sneaky Crookshanks, and the two headed off together.
The cat and dog were surprisingly harmonious, with Crookshanks clearly being the brains of the operation, and Tom serving as the loyal sidekick.
John tailed them all the way to the Whomping Willow.
With an expression that screamed disbelief, John watched as Crookshanks expertly placed a paw on the knot at the base of the tree, freezing it in place.
"Is this cat turning into some kind of magical being?"
John had needed an entire month to figure out that weakness, yet this cat knew it too.
Taking advantage of the frozen Whomping Willow, Tom dashed inside.
Then something even more absurd happened—Crookshanks stayed behind, seemingly standing guard.
John wanted to follow, but unfortunately, Crookshanks was sitting right at the entrance of the tunnel.
After a while, Tom came back out.
The dog food on her had disappeared, and John's eyes narrowed.
Were these two little creatures secretly keeping something in the Shrieking Shack?
How did they even know about this tunnel?
Questions filled John's mind, and he decided to investigate the situation himself.
Crookshanks was incredibly clever. Before leaving, it even doubled back, as if to make sure no one was following.
"Is this what they mean by pets resembling their owners?" John thought, impressed by the cat's intelligence.
He guessed Crookshanks must have inherited Hermione's smarts—basically a "Hermione of cats."
But as the saying goes, the higher the road, the more cunning the magic. Using a heightened sensory spell, John confirmed that Crookshanks was really gone, and he proceeded to the tunnel under the Whomping Willow.
Following the passage, John once again entered the Shrieking Shack.
Now that he thought about it, it had been a while since he last came here.
Ever since testing Malfoy, he had gradually forgotten about this place.
The eerie atmosphere of the Shrieking Shack remained the same as ever. John walked further inside.
A single piece of dog food on the floor caught his attention. He leaned down to inspect it.
His hand instinctively moved to his wand as he glanced around cautiously.
"Who's there? You think you can hide?" he muttered, tapping the furniture in the room with his wand, looking for any hidden presence.
"Yeah! I can see you! Get out! Tsk. Always worked while playing hide and seek."
"Revealio!"
Nothing unusual appeared.
"Strange," he mumbled.
After another thorough search, there was nothing else but that piece of dog food.
John turned and left.
Not long after he departed, under the tree outside the Shrieking Shack, a head popped out from a hole resembling a dog den.
"What a clever little wizard. If it weren't for my keen sense of smell, I might have been caught."
On Sirius Black's dog-like face appeared a very human expression of lingering fear. After becoming an Animagus, one inherits certain abilities.
His gift was an extraordinary sense of smell, far beyond that of an ordinary dog. While the Disillusionment Charm could hide a body, it couldn't conceal scent.
For Sirius, this heightened sense of smell was what gave him the confidence to evade the many Aurors hunting him.
The Shrieking Shack was no longer a safe spot for now—Sirius needed to relocate.
Last time Sirius had snuck to the Quidditch pitch to watch Harry, it ended with Dementors chasing him. Since then, Sirius didn't dare risk approaching Harry again.
Luckily, he had two friends willing to help. Once they found the right moment to capture that person, Sirius could finally take action.
A flash of anger and hatred crossed the face of the large black dog as Sirius dug the hole a little deeper.
This would help him avoid being caught during the search.
...
John, in fact, had doubled back to the Shrieking Shack, but unfortunately, he didn't find anything.
Since the Shrieking Shack wasn't within the range of the Marauder's Map, he couldn't rely on it to track what was happening there.
Upon returning to Hogwarts, John bumped into Lupin.
He gave a nod of greeting, intending to move on.
But just as he turned around, a gust of wind whooshed past his ears.
John quickly turned his head, only to find a wand pointed right at his face.
"Professor Lupin, are you planning to murder a student at Hogwarts?"
There were only the two of them in the corridor, and Lupin's eyes carried a look of inquiry as he asked, "Why didn't you dodge?"
John had been unnervingly calm, a reaction quite unlike that of a third-year student.
Even seasoned Aurors wouldn't stay this composed with a wand aimed directly at their forehead.
Hearing the question, John smiled faintly and said, "Because I'm not afraid."
Lupin seemed a bit surprised. "Oh?"
John shrugged and replied, "No one would be foolish enough to commit murder inside the castle~"
It was a confident and logical reason.
Lupin lowered his wand, offering an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I mistook you for Sirius Black in disguise. You know, after Black broke into the castle last time..."
"I understand. I just came back from outside the castle," John responded, seemingly unsurprised by the situation.
He then added, with a meaningful tone, "As long as it's not about murder, everything's fine, right?"
Lupin looked at John with confusion. Murder?
Switching gears, John asked, "I heard that you were also a student at Hogwarts, Professor Lupin. You must know a lot about this place, right?"
Lupin nodded modestly. "I know a few things."
"Well then, Professor, do you happen to know about any murders that occurred within Hogwarts?" John asked, staring directly into Lupin's eyes.
"You.. You are talking about Moaning Myr—"
"No, professor. In my second year, we already know that Myrtle was killed by the Basilisk. What I'm talking about is a murder~ You surely can understand what I mean."
Lupin's pupils contracted for a split second, as he recalled an absurd incident from his own past.
If James hadn't intervened that day, he might have committed a terrible mistake.
But within that brief moment, Lupin quickly regained his composure, pretending to ask casually, "Why are you asking about such things?"
Catching that fleeting change, John smiled and said, "I've been looking into the history of Hogwarts, hoping to compile it into a collection of stories. There's nothing more gripping than tales of murder."
His words were flawless, but Lupin had a vague feeling that John might know something more.
Watching John closely, Lupin nodded and turned to leave.
As the two walked away from each other, the same thought crossed their minds simultaneously.
"This guy is suspicious."
...
Lupin's words had hidden probing intentions. Though he couldn't figure out what connection John might have with Johnny Silverhand, he could tell John wasn't as simple as he appeared on the surface.
John's calmness in the face of a wand pointed at him, along with his subtly pointed remarks, all seemed to hint at something extraordinary.
Meanwhile, John also confirmed one thing: there indeed had been a murder attempt at Hogwarts related to Lupin.
Whether that murder was successful or not, it was somehow connected to Lupin.
Both of them had their own thoughts, and after that round of testing each other, neither had gained the upper hand.
Later, John went to the Constellation Society's secret chamber.
John's Runes had leveled up.
Level 5 Runes, which he had upgraded on his own, saving him from using an ability point.
With two level 5 skills, John felt his understanding of magic had deepened even further.
The long-unused Silver Wick Sword lay on the table as John worked to strengthen its enchantments.
"Wounds caused by the Silver Wick Sword are difficult to heal."
He added a Severing Curse to it, a curse that regular magic wouldn't be able to undo.
John also inscribed some Runes, establishing a connection between himself and the Silver Wick Sword.
"In times of danger, this sword will come to my aid."
He held the sword in his right hand, extending it forward. However, less than half a minute later, he had to put it down.
The defect in his right hand still remained, leaving him with no choice but to wield the sword with his left hand.
After sheathing the sword and stowing it back into his small satchel, John resumed brewing the potion to repair his soul.
One Dementor's soul was only enough for three doses. Once he finished this batch, he would need to catch more Dementors.
Last time, he had alarmed the Aurors, and it would likely be more difficult to make a return trip there.
Fortunately, John had an idea: if he couldn't capture Dementors outside of Hogwarts, perhaps those in Hogsmeade Village would be an easier target.
The Ministry of Magic was on high alert, heavily guarding against Sirius Black. Hogsmeade was under constant surveillance, and there was no escaping it.
With a plan in mind, John used the secret passage through the One-Eyed Hunchback Witch to leave.
After arriving at Honeydukes, he used a Disillusionment Charm to sneak out.
Hogsmeade at night was deserted, save for the Dementors roaming around like lost souls.
There were also a few Aurors, but they wouldn't be much of a problem.
John quickly set his sights on a lone Dementor.
_________
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