Chapter 85: Hermione's worries

In the Great Dining Hall, the four house tables were stacked against the walls and hundreds of purple sleeping bags were on the floor. There was no noise and everyone seemed to be asleep.

Ivan, under Percy's gesture, crawled into a sleeping bag near the door.

The Magic Roof was like the sky outside, full of stars. In the dim starlight, Ivan saw a thin, white origami crane fly silently overhead from the corner of the wall. It floated in the air and landed precisely in front of him.

The paper crane made a slight noise and turned into a silvery white note with Hermione's delicate handwriting written on it. "What did you do? what took you so long?"

The handwriting was lightly scrawled and the girl's concern could be seen.

Ivan thought for a moment, pulled his wand out of his sleeping bag and tapped it gently on the sheet of paper. The black letters above it disappeared like smoke, gathering into new words. "I went looking for Crookshanks. I found him in the grass by the Forbidden Forest."

Then she used her wand to tap the sheet of paper again. The paper folded again and fluttered back to Hermione.

Hermione sent it back to him with new sentences, "Fortunately you found it! But you shouldn't run out of the castle. It's too dangerous. Black is maybe hiding in the school. You can run into him at any time."

Ivan arranged the letters on the letter again, "Don't worry. I just heard Dumbledore talking to Snape. He was not found in the castle. Dumbledore thought he was gone."

Hermione sent him another letter that contained, "But how did he do it, he couldn't have left the castle, and he left quietly besides! The castle has had a variety of spells applied to them to prevent outsiders from sneaking in, he certainly isn't invisible or able to fly. Maybe some kind of Transfiguration, like in our last year when taking the multijuice potion or..."

Looking at the document Hermione handed back, Ivan felt he shouldn't discuss this topic any further. Otherwise, with Hermione's intelligence, he feared it wouldn't take long for him to guess that Black is an Animagus.

Since he is not ready yet, it is too early for Black's secrets to be revealed yet.

Ivan organized the letter's handwriting and tried to deflect the subject by asking, "I forgot to mention this, it's almost midnight, why aren't you asleep?"

Hermione blushed when she saw Ivan's question. Fortunately, the Great Hall was pitch black and there was no need to worry about being discovered.

She couldn't tell Ivan that she was waiting for him to come back - it was too embarrassing! She hesitated for a moment and tapped her wand on the note, "I was worried because Harry said he saw the dog again. It's an unknown omen of death, but it's obviously absurd. And you hadn't come back, so in case something happened..."

Ivan replied in the letter, "Such a small problem is not a problem. You haven't forgotten that Harry and I had entered the Chamber of Secrets last year. We defeated the Basilisk and young Voldemort, didn't we?"

Hermione sent him the letter again, "That's why I'm worried. I was afraid you were going against Black alone. Promise me, Ivan, that you won't get into anything dangerous again, okay?"

Looking at Hermione's handwriting, Ivan had a strange feeling, even though the words were vague. He could feel the vulnerability of the other person that is hidden behind a strong appearance, Hermione was especially like any other ordinary girl right now, and that he couldn't help but worry.

She didn't know how to respond, and an "ok" was not the right word.

Regardless of the current situation or Voldemort's return, Ivan had a dangerous and difficult road ahead of him, and he couldn't stand idly by, or the outcome could be even worse.

Irvine sighed and, after looking up and seeing that no one was watching him, he decided to do something....

In the darkness, Hermione waited nervously for Ivan's response. Harry and Ron were emitting a light snore beside her.

Looking up at the stars on the ceiling, her mind unconsciously flashed back to last year. When the basilisk burst into the Gryffindor common room, and suddenly lunged towards them, Ivan ignored himself and hugged her in his arms and turned his back on the basilisk.

That scene reappeared in Hermione's head. She thought that was something she would never forget in her life.

Suddenly, she felt something approaching her. Hermione looked up and was surprised to see Ivan's sleeping bag flying towards her silently.

Ivan lowered his sleeping bag to Hermione's side and reached out to stroke her sleeping bag, which might have put Hermione at ease.

Unexpectedly, his hand met another small, soft, cold hand in the darkness.

In the next second, Ivan realized that his hand was holding the small hand tightly.

The opposite small hand trembled a little but never seemed to let go.

...

At the same time, in the secret tunnel under the Boxing Willow in the Haunted Manor, Lupin stepped cautiously forward, his wand emitting a faint light, he seemed pensive at the familiar and unfamiliar sights by the faint glow of his wand.

He never thought he would still have the chance to return here and walk back down the secret tunnel he had once walked countless times.

It was all like it was yesterday. He seemed to have returned to his time at Hogwarts over two decades ago, the best days of his life.

Before Hogwarts, Lupin never had any friends.

When he was four years old, his father offended Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf. In retaliation, the werewolf attacked him. Since then, he has become a werewolf.

Because of this identity, everyone avoided him. Regardless of where they went, werewolves were discriminated against. Lupin still remembered asking his father why they did this, but his father said nothing and held him crying silently.

At that moment, Lupin secretly vowed that he would never cry again, no matter what he encountered.

Until he was eleven, his life was dark and colorless.

Lupin thought he couldn't go to Hogwarts like other children. Other parents didn't want their children to be around a werewolf, but Dumbledore gave him hope.

Dumbledore ordered a willow tree to be planted on the school grounds and used it to hide the passage to the screaming one in Hogsmeade.

When there was a full moon, he would go there to transform.

This was to protect the safety of the other classmates, because he became so wild, the villagers of Hogsmeade heard the noises and screams and thought he was a fierce ghost.

Dumbledore used the idea and had people spread the rumor so that people would stay away from her.

Lupin remembers the days when he feared his classmates would know who he was and hid this secret from everyone.

Every night of the full moon, he had to tell people he was going to visit his sick mother or for some other reason. Then he came here alone and became a brutal monster in the screaming house, beating, tearing and howling in the cabin.

Although he tried to cover it up, several classmates quickly guessed the truth of the matter.

At that point, Lupin felt he was definitely finished and would be expelled from Hogwarts and return to a colorless life.

But James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black accepted him and became his first friends in life. They even studied how to become Animagi for this purpose. After fifth year, they came to stay with him every full moon night.

They traveled around Hogwarts, and under the influence of his friends, Lupin felt no hatred for becoming a werewolf.

If it were possible, he would have wanted time to freeze at that moment.