Chapter 137: Howlers to the director

Because of Professor Lupin's problem, the mood in the castle was gloomy.

Ivan didn't know how many people had lost sleep tonight, but he himself didn't sleep well anyway.

The same seemed to be true of Hermione, who was lying next to him in the hospital bed, and tossed and turned all night, worried about Lupin and Ron.

In the second half of the night, Ivan was awakened again by a nightmare.

He sat up in the middle of the bed and, through the dim candlelight in the hallway, looked at the snow fluttering outside the window.

He thought about his argument with the headmaster. He didn't know if his Occlumency was working. However, the argument was dominated by Dumbledore anyway.

Besides, he had no idea of the headmaster's plans.

Ivan wasn't convinced why he didn't capture Peter Pettigrew directly, and allow him and Harry to help Ron resist the Imperius Curse. But doing that was too risky.

A master strategist, Dumbledore must have been hiding something else that he didn't tell Ivan.

He sighed! No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't figure out what that was. But the one thing he was sure of was that Dumbledore had included him as part of his plan to defeat Voldemort because of his relationship with Harry and his outstanding performance over the past two years.

Well, if I can't figure it out, it's best not to think about it!

Dumbledore had his plans, and Ivan should work with his own plan.

He was not a plaything for Dumbledore to manipulate at his whim, to eventually become another sacrificial lamb of his confrontation with Voldemort.

Ivan was going to do what he wanted, he was going to change his fate and change the fate of everyone else.

No matter what, he wasn't going to sacrifice Sirius Black, Fred, Colin, etc.... Nor was he going to stand by and watch Hermione marry Ron. All these things needed to be changed, and he would start with Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.

'By the end of this year, I will stop Voldemort from coming back and I will be much stronger...', Ivan was thinking that, and his eyelids were getting heavier.

The battle with Greyback left him terribly tired and completely exhausted. After a few moments of determination, he went back to sleep.

The next morning, Ivan was awakened by a tremor inside the castle.

"What happened?" he hurriedly got up from his bed and held his wand in his hand.

"I don't know!" Hermione shook her head as she woke up.

"You two had better not move, lie down on your beds!" Madam Pomfrey came from outside looking worried. "I knew these voices would wake you up. It's terrible, there's a big mess outside."

"Why?" asked Ivan.

"It's because of Lupin, that poor man!" Madam Pomfrey handed Ivan the latest issue of 'The Prophet' newspaper and said, "Look! Now almost everyone knows he's a werewolf!"

Ivan looked hurriedly at the paper in his hands and Hermione joined him. The entire issue was devoted to reporting on the previous day's werewolf riots, events, casualties, in-depth analysis, etc., as well as articles critical of Fudge and the Ministry of Magic.

Worries and anger began to build when Sirius Black suddenly escaped from prison.

The one who took most of the blame was Cornelius Fudge. People became very angry with the Ministry.

And along with Fudge, Dumbledore was also criticized. Although the wording of the newspaper 'The Prophet' was more subtle, many people, especially parents, were deeply shocked by the fact that he had hired a werewolf. The Pureblood families, led by Malfoy, went so far as to collectively ask him to resign.

In short, both Fudge and Dumbledore were under a lot of pressure and the situation was really bad.

As for Professor Lupin, the only werewolf captured by the Ministry, many wizards called for his immediate shipment to Azkaban. Many even suggested that he should be sentenced to death or left for the Dementor's kiss to deal with.

Reading that particular paragraph, Hermione's face went pale.

She remembered what Professor Lupin had once said about those who were kissed by a Dementor, and how they would become the walking dead with their souls lost forever.

If that was going to be their fate.... Hermione didn't want to imagine such a thing.

Just as she was about to speak to Ivan, another strong tremor hit the castle. It was like an earthquake.

Even the walls were shaking.

A few seconds after the shock, a loud, strange echo came from below, sounding like....

"What's that voice?" Hermione raised her head and asked worriedly.

"It's a vociferator! Since morning, the owls have been constantly bringing parents' letters to school, It's just awful!" said Madam Pomfrey, "Although every teacher had their share, most of them were addressed to the Headmaster."

"Snitches sent to the Headmaster?" Hermione didn't seem to have a reaction to that, "Where is Professor Dumbledore?"

"Who knows? He hasn't been back since he left last night," Madam Pomfrey said, concerned. "He must be busy with that business about the werewolves and Professor Lupin. Even though he's not at Hogwarts, the letters are still coming in non-stop - they're about to flood the Great Dining Hall!"

Just as Madam Pomfrey finished her words, Harry entered the infirmary.

He looked ill, depressed and distracted, and had heavy dark circles under his eyes.

"Good morning, Ivan! Good morning, Hermione!" said Harry weakly.

"Good morning, Harry, your face looks terrible!" Hermione looked anxiously at his face.

"It's really bad. If you saw that scene in the Great Dining Room, your face would look as bad as mine." Harry sat down in the chair next to Ivan's bed and said, "Snape and Malfoy's plot has succeeded. At breakfast, hundreds of owls arrived with hooting owls, all accusing Dumbledore and Professor Lupin! They didn't see the disgusting look on the faces of Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin students!"

"But with your exception, everyone believes in Professor Lupin's innocence!" said Hermione.

"It's no use - no one wants to believe us! All the adults are listening to Ron's nonsense. Accusing Professor Lupin of attacking students..." Harry said angrily, "I want to beat the crap out of him until he comes to his senses."

"Harry, there must be some misunderstanding with that!" She said worriedly, "Ron is..."

She paused. When Ivan returned last night, he told her of his conversation with Dumbledore. She knew Ron must have been so abnormal last night because of that spell.

She wasn't sure if she could talk about it, the plan between Ivan, Dumbledore and Sirius Black!