Chapter 251: The new semester begins

Dumbledore ordered Snape to meet with Sirius, ostensibly to create an opportunity for the two to reconcile and for their relationship not to remain as strained as before.

In the eyes of the others, there was nothing that could not be resolved between two men, besides only some unpleasant memories of student days.

But the degree of mutual loathing was beyond everyone's imagination.

Snape seemed to transfer all his hatred from Harry's father, James, to Sirius, as did Sirius, who inherited the hatred of his friend, james, to Snape.

They couldn't agree with each other, and wished they could beat each other on the spot.

Hoping they could make peace was just a dream. Dumbledore's work was completely in vain and even complicated things.

"Bully?!" Sirius raised his wand and growled loudly. "That's very interesting, which one of us is more like a dog? me, or you, waiting for your old master Voldemort to come back, so you can go back to him again?"

"Shut up, don't mention that name in front of me," Snape said between gritted teeth, and raised his wand.

The two were about to duel, and Harry, who was closest to them, rushed in between them.

"No, Sirius," Harry shouted.

"Out of my way, Harry, do you think I'm a coward?" . Sirius growled, trying to push Harry out of his way, but Harry was determined not to move.

"Well, yes, I suppose you are," Snape said sarcastically.

"Harry, get out of the way!" growled Sirius, shoving Harry away with his free hand.

As Harry moved, the end of Sirius' wand glowed with a thick red light that flew straight at Snape.

Snape was ready. He stepped back and waved his wand to nullify Sirius' curse. A bright green flash flew past and a branch next to him turned into a python. It hissed and slithered toward Sirius.

Sirius did not retreat, he waved his wand substantially and cast three spells.

One of them hit the giant python coming at him and made it disappear in smoke. That left two curses that flew at Snape with great speed.

Snape took another step back and quickly recited a spell. At the last moment, a pale white barrier appeared before him, blocking Sirius' attacks.

The sudden duel stunned everyone.

Ivan took a moment and quickly pulled out his wand and ran to stop them.

Seeing Ivan run in, Sirius and Snape did not attack again. They gasped and looked at each other with extreme contempt on their faces.

"Stop it, stop it, are you two mad?" shouted Ivan. "Sirius, here's Hogwarts, if other students see this..."

"I don't care!" roared Sirius.

"I don't have time to fool around with a rabid dog Ivan's words seemed to have restored Snape's common sense. He couldn't let other students see him in that state.

Snape grimaced horribly, shot Sirius a look of loathing, put away his wand, turned and walked towards the school castle.

He was gone. Sirius glared at him angrily, his wand still poised in his hand.

When Snape's figure disappeared completely, shouts of joy could be heard from the crowd.

"Great, we've been wanting to do this for a long time, and teach Snape a lesson!" Fred and George said excitedly, and reached over to pat Sirius' shoulders.

"I can't believe it, what did I just see?! Finally or do we have to be afraid of this old bat! You took him down, Sirius, fiercely." Ron also recovered from the shock and became excited.

"This isn't a joke, Ron!" Hermione looked serious. She and Ginny looked very frightened. "Sirius, you got too excited, you shouldn't have attacked Snape. This could get you in trouble."

"I'm not afraid of any trouble," said Sirius, who was breathing heavily as if he had just run a long distance.

"But you're a teacher at school, I mean...," Hermione said.

"Don't worry, Hermione, no one will find out about this, just a little chat about the past between two old classmates" Sirius waved his hand and signaled Hermione not to take it seriously.

The short-lived fight that occurred unexpectedly seemed to indicate what would happen in the second half of that year.

With the tension between Sirius and Snape, that battle would not be the first, and it certainly wasn't going to be the last.

There was no doubt that all the Gryffindor students would support Sirius, and Snape was the dean of Slytherin house.

If such a battle were to happen again, it would have to be more than just the battle between just two men.

Ivan could imagine that next semester would be very exciting.

As Sirius said, no one but Ivan, Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys knew about this little skirmish at the school gate.

Twenty minutes later, at the castle gate, Ivan and the others parted from Sirius, who went to Dumbledore's office and the others returned to the Gryffindor Common Room.

All around the hallway were the young wizards who had returned to school a few days earlier. Seeing Ivan, many of them waved enthusiastically, except for the Slytherin House students who continued to be indifferent.

In fact, the attitude of the others was much more enthusiastic than before.

There were even many girls who ran to Ivan and Harry to get their autographs.

Ivan could sense that after the Sirius incident was repeatedly hyped by the media, he and Harry as direct participants had a greater reputation in the school than before.

When Ivan returned to Gryffindor Tower and found the portrait of the Common Room, the Fat Lady had returned, and greeted him enthusiastically as well.

He had just gone upstairs and thunderous cheers erupted in the Common Room.

Students from Gryffindor House rushed over. They surrounded Ivan, Harry, Hermione and Ron in the middle and asked them about things to do with Professor Lupin, Sirius and Pettigrew.

Although they all heard about the incident through the newspapers, it was very exciting to hear about it from those who lived through the experience.

They talked for a long time, and Ivan took the opportunity to rush into his room.

The bedroom was exactly the same as when he left a few days ago, and the house elves had already arranged his luggage and bed.

Behind him, Colin entered.

"Ivan, did you have a good Christmas vacation?" he smiled and asked, sitting on his bed.

"It wasn't bad, a lot of things happened, but everything went well," Ivan slumped tiredly on his bed.

A lot had happened: searching for Regulus in a cave full of Inferi, meeting a mysterious vampiress, and preparing for the debut of the store. Ivan had never been so tired in his life. Fortunately, what happened next just kept getting better, and everything was moving in the right direction.

"I saw the truth of all the incidents in the paper, and things in his store." Colin continued, "Yesterday I was going to come over and cheer you on and ask for Sirius' autograph. My brother and I loved him so much after learning his story. But my dad thought it was too dangerous and didn't agree to take me to Diagon Alley."

His face was full of regret, and with Ivan's knowledge of Colin, he knew how much he admired heroes like Sirius and Harry.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken pictures of Harry for a whole year last year. Even now, he would be very excited when Harry talked to him.

"Don't worry, you can always ask Sirius for an autograph, and take some pictures. By the way..." Ivan turned around and turned to Colin. "I forgot to tell you that Sirius had promised the headmaster to become the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."