Chapter 53

"Harry, do you know what Animagus is?" Fang Shao asked the boy.

Harry was obviously a little confused by the change of topic, but he still recalled the knowledge he learned from the book, "Animagus is a kind of ability. Wizards can transform into animals through practice. Our headmaster, Professor McGonagall, is an Animagus. She can transform into a tabby cat."

Meanwhile, the old dean's eyes lit up, as if he were a detective who had suddenly gotten a clue.

Fang Shao noticed the old man's expression and said, "Principal, you should know that a skilled Animagus can sneak into a crowd without being discovered by anyone, whether it is a wizard or a Dementor."

Harry jumped up. "Blake is an Animagus?! So he really went to Hogwarts and tried to kill me!"

Fang Shao nodded, then shook his head.

Harry didn't understand what Fang Shao meant.

Dumbledore had a guess in his mind. He narrowed his blue eyes and looked at Fang Shao: "Blake is an Animagus. He escaped the Dementors' pursuit and fled from Azkaban to Hogwarts. But he is not the reason for the alarm."

"He meant no harm to Harry," the old man said at last.

Fang Shao smiled slightly, confirming the old man's conjecture. "And contrary to what everyone worries, Blake wants to protect Harry."

"Protect me?" Harry was even more confused.

The old man sighed. The Ministry of Magic had convicted Black without trial, and although Black himself had not defended himself, he still found it hard to believe that such an arrogant and willful child would suddenly turn to Voldemort and betray his best friend.

"Harry," he looked at the boy, "I'll tell you about these things when I get back."

"Okay, Professor." Although he was not very happy, Harry nodded obediently. He thought about it for a moment, and his face suddenly became a little ugly. "Who is that..."

He would rather face the threat of a fugitive than accept the possibility that his teachers and classmates might have ill intentions toward him, especially since several of the traffic light warnings were in the Gryffindor common room and even in the tower dormitories.

Fang Shao probably guessed what he was worried about, and patted the boy's not-so-strong shoulders with a smile, "There are more than just students and professors in Hogwarts."

"Is it Felch?" Harry suddenly thought. "He hates me."

Fang Shao laughed, "Of course not him. Although Mr. Felch wants to deduct 200 points from you for the Gryffindors' love of night outings, he does not have the ability to trigger an alarm."

Principal Dumbledore also smiled and stroked his long beard. "Mr. Felch is a responsible janitor. He has served Hogwarts for many years."

Fang Shao was afraid that Harry's guess would become more and more outrageous, so he stopped beating around the bush. "There is another Animagus hiding in Hogwarts, and Blake came here for that person. Blake's arrival also triggered his nervousness and evil thoughts, and his existence was exposed in this small light." Fang Shao said, and handed the red-green light he had been playing with to Harry.

"Another Animagus?" Dumbledore was a little surprised. "When did Animagus become so common?"

There's more to it than that. Fang Shao smiled secretly.

Although there are only 7 Animagus registered with the Ministry of Magic, 3 of the 4 Marauders are Animagus, plus the female reporter who likes to pry into other people's privacy, there are already 4 unregistered Animagus, and it is estimated that there are many others that are not written. After all, although this ability is troublesome and dangerous to practice, it has many benefits once learned.

"Who is this person?" Harry asked curiously. Since it was not the situation he was worried about, he immediately put down his worries.

"I know, but I suggest you ask Professor Lupin." Fang Shao said, "If I'm not mistaken, he is now the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts."

Harry nodded. "But what does this have to do with Professor Lupin?"

Dumbledore's wrinkled forehead wrinkled slightly. Black, Lupin, Animagus, werewolf, Harry... Then, in a flash, the old man figured out the key.

Is that so?

One night a few days later, the Hogwarts campus was quiet. Even the students who loved night outings the most had returned to bed.

The moonlight shone into the Gryffindor Tower, and the teenagers were sleeping soundly in the curtains of the four-poster bed. Scabbers the mouse also fell asleep in the pile of clothes that Ron had taken off, but perhaps the dream was not a good one, because its whiskers trembled and its limbs stomped in the air.

"Wormtail, I'm going to kill you!"

"Squeak~" Banban was awakened by the roar in his dream. He opened his eyes and was relieved when he found that he was still in the quiet Gryffindor dormitory. He had forgotten the past and was content to be a pet to the children, but Blake would not let him go.

Why, it wasn't like it was trying to kill James on purpose?

James always smiles like the sun. It really likes and admires James and hopes it can be as brave and outstanding as him, so it follows him like a tail. That's how it got its nickname, "Bug Tail".

It never wanted to hurt James.

When the war broke out, it thought it could be as brave as its friends, but it turned out that it couldn't. It was all because of that annoying Black. If he hadn't insisted on changing the secret keeper to himself, he wouldn't have had to face Voldemort, and James and Lily wouldn't have died.

It's all your fault, Blake!

Banban, filled with resentment, began to circle around the table. It seemed that just trying to avoid Blake was useless, so it would be better to set a trap again and throw that idiot directly into the abyss of no return.

The mouse's round eyes sparkled in the darkness, but it didn't notice a big ginger cat sneaking silently into the dormitory through the window, followed by a big black dog.

The black dog's movements were not as agile as the cat's. The sound of him landing when he jumped from the window startled the mouse who was thinking.

"Squeak~~" Its voice was distorted by fear.

A cat and a dog rushed towards it together.

Scabbers understood that his only way to survive was at this moment, and he immediately ran towards Harry's bed.

The evil fugitive and vicious Death Eater sneaked into Hogwarts to kill Harry Potter. This rumor believed by many people will protect themselves and give this brainless dead dog a fatal blow.

Scabbers spun quickly on its four short legs, using the messy ground laid out by the Gryffindor boys to give it a slight advantage over its enemies, and it finally jumped onto the boy's bed before the cat could reach it.

The black dog, eager to catch his enemy but worried that he might hurt Harry, couldn't help but release his Animagus. In an instant, he turned into a tall man, with his thin and skinny fingers reaching straight towards the cunning mouse.

At this moment, the figure in the curtain seemed to be awakened. Harry sat up suddenly, opened the curtain, and faced the man in front of him.

Let the rumors come true... Scabbers happily slid behind Harry. Come on, come on, catch this guy and sentence him to death directly, give him a Dementor kiss!

But to its slight disappointment, Sirius Black suddenly pulled his hand back at the critical moment, and his sharp nails scratched in front of Harry, without hurting him at all.

Blake realized that he had failed again this time. He looked at the boy with longing and was about to run outside.

"Godfather?" Harry's voice was a little trembling. He had seen everything in the curtain just now, and recognized the big black dog that had stared at him outside the door of the Fate Bar.

This word seemed to have some powerful magic, and Blake's body froze in an instant as he tried to escape. He stared at the boy blankly.

The other three boys in the dormitory were still sleeping soundly, as if they had been fed a crucible of life and death water, and were completely unaware of everything around them.

Hiding in the corner, Banban finally realized that something was wrong. There was no screaming, no questioning, no chasing or running away. Everything was wrong!

The instinct of survival made it abandon all distractions, and it jumped off the bed frantically, looking for a glimmer of hope.

"Everyone is petrified!" a man's voice rang out.

"Squeak~~" Banban let out a meaningless howl, and then his body froze on the spot, with only his two eyes able to move slowly.

A gray-haired man emerged from the darkness, picked up the petrified rat with disgust, and threw it into a reinforced iron cage.

"Remus?" Blake called his friend's name stupidly, feeling like everything that happened today was just a dream.

But Professor Lupin came over and gave a guilt-ridden hug to his friend who he had misunderstood for more than ten years. "Sirius, I'm sorry. I actually believed the crime the Ministry of Magic had convicted you of. If Professor Dumbledore hadn't come to me, I wouldn't have thought it would be like this."

Waiting for the rabbit by the tree, no, it should be waiting for the mouse and the dog. In the past few days, Lupin kept asking himself why he didn't choose to trust Sirius and why he didn't stay by Harry's side. If he had done any of these, Scabbers would not have been at large until today.

Sirius' lips moved a few times, not knowing how to respond. It was not so much that the Ministry of Magic had convicted him, but rather that he had convicted himself.

He looked at Harry, who was looking at him with sparkling eyes.

"No, I was wrong..." His thoughts were too stupid. Not only did they make his friends sad, but they also put Harry in danger and almost killed him.

The next day, Ron was surprised to find that his pet was missing. He guessed that Hermione's pet cat, Crookshank, had taken Scabbers away. But instead of comforting him, Harry suddenly developed a liking for the ugly cat and kept defending it. This made him depressed and aggrieved.

But this little emotion quickly turned into a big shock. Suddenly, wanted criminal Black became a hero, and his silly mouse became a Death Eater.

Oh my god!

Ron pinched his arm. A Death Eater! Not only did he betray Harry's parents, he also killed half the Muggles on the street! And he stayed with such a Death Eater for so long, it was a relief to be lucky enough to be alive.

What he didn't expect was that Mr. Black not only did not blame him, but also gave him an owl as compensation.

That's awesome!

"Little pig, I'll call you little pig!" Ron teased his new pet with great joy.