Chapter 94: Filch's Office

"He needs rest, and you three shouldn't stay long," Madam Pomfrey looked at Ivan, Ron and Hermione with dissatisfaction; and drew their attention to the water stains and mud falling from his clothes. "Also, I need one of you to come and get your nutritional supplements - this will help you regain your strength!"

"I'll go." Ivan saw that Ron had something to tell Harry and that he shouldn't force a girl to do Madam Pomfrey's job. He got up and followed her out of the room.

"Did you see many Dementors?" Harry whispered, but in his mind, he was thinking about the appearance of the dog once again.

"It was over a hundred Dementors, Harry!" said Hermione in a shaky voice. "I was scared and I didn't know what to do. All I could think of were terrible things. But thanks to Ivan and his Patronus, everyone came to their senses..."

She suddenly thought of Ivan's Patronus, which looked exactly like the strange black cat she met in the Leaky Cauldron that night before school started.

Would there be any connection between the two? Hermione remembered that Ivan had told her himself, He had become an Animagus in the summer vacations, but he always refused to tell her what his Animagus form was. She was a little skeptical when she met Ivan's Patronus on the train. It was too similar to the black cat she had seen before, and Ivan was stubborn at the time. Is that strange black cat his Animagus form?!

Hermione's face instantly reddened as she remembered holding the cat in her arms.

God, if it's true, that means she got naked in front of Ivan....

"It's okay, Hermione!" Seeing Hermione's face, Ron's anger flared and he shouted, "Ivan's Patronus was useless. It was Dumbledore who saved Harry and scared the Dementors away."

"What..." Hermione froze for a moment.

"Everyone saw it, Irvine's Patronus rushed towards those Dementors and didn't last more than a few seconds before it dissipated completely." Said Ron without looking at Hermione, "His Patronus was useless, Harry ended up fainting and we lost the match!".

"But it was Ivan's Patronus that brought courage and hope to everyone. Everyone else was able to release their Patronus. I also released my full Patronus for the first time, it was an otter."

"You still don't get it?!" Ron gasped. "There were so many Dementors out there. If it hadn't been for Ivan's Patronus, maybe Diggory would have passed out too. If that had happened, Gryffindor wouldn't have lost."

"What are you talking about, Ron!" Hermione said in surprise. "If Ivan hadn't bought time for Dumbledore, Harry would have fallen earlier from a greater distance."

When he saw the look on Hermione's face, Ron became increasingly irritated.

There was an inexplicable anger in his heart that he wanted to let go. He was also on the Quidditch pitch and his Patronus glowed for a while, then the light immediately disappeared.

It was far from comparable to Ivan's full Patronus, or even Hermione's.

This made him very uncomfortable and he shouted, "He was more of a hindrance than a help, and none of this would have happened if it wasn't for him. Percy was just a little slower than him..."

"Well, you two, can't you give me a little quiet for a while?" Harry whispered.

Ron lowered his voice and there was an awkward silence in the room.

Harry didn't understand what had happened between Ron and Hermione. It was odd that they didn't care about her physical condition. Instead, they were discussing whether Ivan's Patronus played a role in saving him or not. In particular, the fact that they were talking behind Ivan's back made Harry feel bad.

Harry sighed and said, "Forget those damn Dementors, did someone catch my Nimbus 2000?"

When they heard that, Ron and Hermione quickly looked at each other. "Oh..."

"What?!" suddenly, Harry had a bad feeling.

"Oh, when you fell, it flew out." Hermione said hesitantly. "Then it crashed and hit the Boxing Willow."

Harry felt a twinge of pain. He'd seen the Boxing Willow last term, it had even managed to wreck Mr. Weasley's car.

"And then what?", Harry whispered, afraid to hear the answer.

"Harry, you know the Boxing Willow," Ron said. "He doesn't like anything to clash with him."

"Professor Flitwick just brought it back before you woke up," Hermione said quietly.

She slowly picked up the backpack at her feet and turned it upside down.

A dozen pieces of wood and debris from the broom fell onto the bed. Those were the remains of Harry's trusty broomstick.

When Ivan returned to the living room with the nourishing potion, he saw that none of them were talking. The atmosphere was terrible.

Harry sat on the bed looking at the pieces of his broomstick, and Ron and Hermione sat in their chairs in silence, as if they had just had a fight.

"Don't be sad, Harry," Ivan said, setting the potion aside, comforting him and saying, "You can use my Nimbus 2001. I'll give it to you. You know that thing is of no use to me."

After receiving the broomstick, Ivan threw it under the bed. It hadn't been used except for a few times when he lent it to Ron.

"Thanks, Ivan! I just..." Harry looked at the fragments of his Nimbus 2000 and didn't know what to say. The broomstick was beyond repair. He should throw it away. But Harry didn't want to do that. He felt like he had lost one of his best friends.

It was after nine in the evening when Ivan, Ron and Hermione left Harry.

They had just left the school hospital, when Ivan saw Ron walk alone to the common room, not waiting for him and Hermione.

"What's wrong with him?" Ivan said in surprise.

"Maybe the Dementors got to him!" Hermione didn't know what to say, and wasn't sure she wanted to tell Ivan what Ron had said.

Then, she thought of the black cat, and Hermione blushed instantly, wondering if she should check with Ivan.

In case there was a misunderstanding, shouldn't there necessarily be a link between the Patronus and Ivan's Animagus, and if so, wouldn't it be too embarrassing to ask?

Hermione thought for a moment that this matter should be a secret for a while, at least until she found out the truth.

Wait, if the black cat was really Ivan, what should she do?

Ivan and Hermione returned in silence. They had just turned the corner of the stairs on the second floor, and saw Nick Nearly Decapitated suddenly enter through the wall. His long hair was curled in a very stylish feathered hat, with a knee-length robe and ruffled collar in the shape of a wheel.

Like the others he was made of thin smoke, Ivan could look up at the dark sky and heavy rain through his body.

Because Nick had often provided items to the 'Hogwarts Magic' over the past year, Ivan and Hermione became very familiar with him.

"Hello!" said Nick in a melancholy voice. "I just heard about what happened on the Quidditch pitch. It's terrible. It's terrible. There's nothing wrong with Harry, is there?"

"He's fine, he just can't get over it," Hermione whispered. "It's the first time he's ever lost a Quidditch match."

"Yeah, yeah, Gryffindor is clearly the strongest, but we always lose the game for a variety of reasons." Nick took a deep breath. "This time it was because of the Dementors. They had already been..."

Nick's words weren't finished yet, and Ivan saw a cat with yellow, lamp-like eyes suddenly come out from behind him and meow.

It was Mrs. Norris, the sand-colored cat that was raised by Filch and served as his assistant in the never-ending battle between him and the students.

"You two had better get out of here!" Nick said quickly. "Filch is not in a good mood. He caught a cold. When he was on the Quidditch pitch, someone turned his office upside down. Stuff was thrown everywhere. He's looking for the offender in the castle."

"You're right!" Ivan pulled Hermione hurriedly down the stairs and was about to go to bed. He didn't want to be stopped by Filch and interrogated again.

But it was strange, who would go to Filch's office to cause trouble?

Fred and George could do that, but they had just been at the Quidditch game and obviously didn't have time; Peeves was also possible, but it shouldn't be him, and it's not his style to run off without bragging about his exploits.

Besides them, who else could it be?

Nick said that Filch's office had been turned upside down. Maybe someone wanted to find something in it. Filch had confiscated a lot of stuff from the students.