Chapter 81: Harbingers of Despair

It wasn't until Wednesday morning that Malfoy reappeared at the Slytherin table. When he entered the Great Dining Hall, the Slytherins began cheering. His right arm was wrapped in a bandage and hung around his neck in a sling, as if he had survived some terrible battle.

When they saw him like this, Harry and Ron seemed to despise him, but Malfoy himself was proud and provoked them with a grimace.

Harry turned his head, trying to contain himself at the sight of Malfoy's provocation, and realized that everyone around him was looking at today's Daily Prophet.

"What are they looking at?" asked Harry curiously.

"It's the latest news about Sirius Black!" whispered Hermione, pushing a copy of the paper towards him.

Harry saw that it read: A Muggle saw Black somewhere near Hogwarts. When the Ministry of Magic arrived, he had left and is currently in the process of tracking him down.

Presumably, Sirius Black is trying to get into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Harry gulped - what would Sirius Black want at Hogwarts? did he really want to kill him, like Mr. Weasley said?!"

Harry suddenly lost his appetite at the thought of being the target of such a madman, and to add to his disgust, he had to rely on the Dementors outside the castle to protect him.

"That's terrible, he's out there somewhere not too far from here!" Ron said worriedly, "This Blake, how on earth did he escape the Dementors?"

Harry said hesitantly, "Maybe a Patronus protected him?!"

"That's impossible, he doesn't have a wand, and there are two hundred Dementors outside." Hermione said quickly, "Do you know what this means?"

Seeing Harry, Ron and Hermione whispering silently, Ivan did not participate in the discussion. The question that needed to be asked now was how to track Peter Pettigrew in case he escaped and to contact Sirius Black.

These two things were easier said than done.

The easiest method was certainly to go to Dumbledore and tell him that Ron's rat was Peter Pettigrew, since Dumbledore's cunning plans would be able to overcome the incident as long as he got the news.

The problem was, as with Tom Riddle's diary last year, Ivan didn't know how to explain to the other party how he knew Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew.

Obviously, knowing everything, but not being able to do anything, was a very bad feeling.

Ivan sighed, as it seemed that again he would have to do it all on his own. Sirius Black was not an urgent matter. He needed a way to track down Peter Pettigrew first. Then he remembered a useful potion in the potions book.

As Ivan contemplated his thoughts, Malfoy suddenly approached the table and stood behind Harry with a mischievous look in his eyes, "Have you seen your friend, Hagrid, lately?"

No one bothered with him, Harry and Ron clenched their fists and tried to contain themselves.

"It's a shame, I'm afraid he can't be a teacher anymore." Malfoy pretended to be sad and said, "My father's not happy that I've been hurt!"

"Get out of here before I smash your face in, Malfoy." growled Ron.

"If I were you, I wouldn't be so impulsive. It wouldn't be good for you and your good friend Hagrid. You'll know soon enough..." Malfoy's eyes fell on the paper Harry was holding, "What do you think, Potter, you want to try and catch Black on your own?"

Harry growled, "What's that got to do with you?"

"Of course, if I were you..." Malfoy's thin lips drooped into a wicked grin, "I wouldn't be such a good student, I'd go looking for him everywhere."

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" said Ron harshly.

"Don't you know, Potter?" Malfoy's pale eyes narrowed and he let out a low sneer, "If I were you, I'd choose revenge, I'd find him myself."

"What the hell are you trying to say?" Harry said angrily.

Draco said with mock disappointment, "I'm disappointed, you probably wouldn't want to risk your life, waiting for the dementors to get to him, would you?"

"Malfoy, if you have something to say, say it quickly or get out of the way." Ron pulled out his wand.

"Five Gryffindor points!" Snape approached quietly, grimacing, "Weasley, put your wand away, I don't want to see you spitting those nasty slugs around."

Ron's face turned red, Malfoy gave a fake smile and followed Snape.

"Damn it, what right does Snape have to subtract points when it was Malfoy who came and started it, saying something incomprehensible." said Ron angrily.

"You shouldn't give him a chance. Snape was staring at us. He was just waiting for you to show a flaw." whispered Hermione.

"He wants to deduct points and he can use any excuse" Ron picked up his rucksack, "We have two whole Potions classes this morning, I hope it won't be too hard."

In fact, the third year potions class had been a near disaster, Harry and Ron had cut an entire potions lesson for Malfoy and Snape had threatened Neville with poisoning his pet unless he could prepare an antidote himself.

Finally, with Hermione's help, Neville's antidote succeeded, but Snape took five points off, claiming that the toad was not dead.

All the students thought they were putting up with Snape's limit, but obviously this was not all Snape could do.

Soon, everyone would know what despair really was, this could be the third omen.

The incident took place in Defense Against the Dark Arts class in the afternoon. Professor Lupin brought them a Boggart. This type of dark creature was capable of transforming. It looks into the heart of every person and becomes what it fears the most.

Ivan didn't know what the others were afraid of, but Neville's greatest fear in the world was clearly Snape.

With Lupin's support, Neville used a spell to turn Snape into a funny image: he wore a long lace dress, a witch's hat with a stuffed eagle, eating a moth, and held a huge scarlet bag in his hands.

This story spread throughout the school very quickly.

The Gryffindor students laughed for a whole night, and after the revenge Snape would have, everyone could not laugh.

Now, upon hearing Professor Lupin's name, Snape's eyes flashed with a menacing glint; he was bullying Neville even more than before, and Ginny had secretly told Ivan in Potions class the next day that she had seen Neville wiping tears from his eyes at lunchtime.

Ivan sympathized with Neville's situation, but they are in a difficult position to protect themselves.

In second year potions class, Snape walked around each Gryffindor student with a grim grimace on his face and deducted points whenever he could.

An hour later, he had deducted over fifty points and managed to bring three girls to tears.

In that class, no one managed to complete their potions except Ivan.

Snape looked at Ivan and ignored him. He gave the others a sarcastic lecture and gave them a lot of homework, so much that it was almost impossible to complete.

As for the poor Boggart, Ivan heard that Snape used a spell to explode him and kill him completely.

Ivan sympathized with this, he also wanted to see what his deepest fear was.