Chapter 83 - 84

When they heard Peeves, everyone gasped. Sirius Black broke into the castle and even tried to enter the Gryffindor Common Room.

This was terrible. Fortunately, it was Halloween and there was nobody in the tower.

Professor Dumbledore asked all students to return to the Great Hall immediately. To ensure safety, the teachers conducted a thorough search of the castle. Evan followed the others and hurried downstairs, all of them whispering about what had just happened.

"Do you think Black is still in the castle?" Hermione whispered anxiously.

"From what Dumbledore said, he obviously thinks he might be." Ron whispered, "It's very lucky he picked tonight, you know."

"Yeah!" Colin nodded uncomfortably. He nervously looked around, as if Sirius Black was hiding in a corner, ready to pounce.

"I reckon he has lost track of time, being on the run. He didn't realize it was Halloween. Otherwise he wouldn't have broken in."

Ron's words were accepted by everyone. Besides, people were asking one another the same question: "How did he get in?"

"Maybe he knows how to Apparate?!"

"This is impossible. If you read the book Hogwarts, A History, you will know that this castle protected by more than walls." said Hermione quickly, "There are all sorts of enchantments on it, to stop people entering by stealth. You can't just Apparate here. And I'd like to see the disguise that could fool those Dementors. They're guarding every single entrance to the grounds. They would have seen him fly in too. And Filch knows all the secret passages, they'll have them covered!"

"Who knows, after all, it is Sirius Black, the Dark wizard who is second only to You-Know-Who." Ron wrinkled his nose nervously, his eyes fixed on the girls' bathroom at the end of the corridor on the second floor. He remembered his nightmarish experience last term.

Hearing him mention Voldemort, everyone was silent for seconds, and nobody spoke. They walked silently through the dark corridor on the second floor.

Harry followed Ron pale and bloodless. Black must have broken into the castle to kill him, and this feeling was really bad enough.

"Cheer up. No matter what tricks Black has used to get into the castle, he will definitely be discovered by Dumbledore. What do you think of it, Evan?"

"Maybe!" Evan gave a perfunctory reply.

He stared at the narrow window on the left side of the corridor, and his eyes fell to the lawn outside the castle, where there was a huge black dog covered in thick fur, Sirius black! Not far away from Black was the ginger-coloured Crookshanks, and they were sneaking across the lawn.

As if feeling something, Black suddenly looked back in his direction.

The next second, along with Evan's gaze, Harry saw the two creatures on the lawn. He rushed to the window, staring wide.

"Look outside; do you see something, that big black dog?"

"Harry, you're not seeing that Grim again, are you?!" Ron came over uneasily, and he muttered vaguely. "It seems like that damn cat!"

"You mean Crookshanks!" Hermione followed and said anxiously, "What is Crookshanks doing outside the castle? Black may still be in the school."

"Please, Hermione, Black won't kill a cat. He's in the castle to…" Ron stopped abruptly and looked nervously at Harry.

Harry didn't seem to understand what he meant. He said eagerly, "That dog, it was just beside Crookshanks. Didn't any of you see it?"

"It's so dark outside, you may be wrong, maybe it's just a big tree or a stone or something." Ron swallowed and saw the others staring at them.

"No way, Evan, did you see it too?!"

Evan did not answer, he secretly calculated the distance between here and the lawn outside.

If he was fast enough, it might not be too late to get down from here. Maybe it was a good chance to get in touch with Sirius.

"You go first. I'll go to the toilet!" said Evan hastily.

Under the amazed gaze of the others, he turned and walked into another corridor and ran towards the castle gate.

When he was sure that there was no one around, he said quietly "Animagus!"

As soon as the voice fell, Evan's body quickly turned into a black cat. He passed through the deep marble entrance hall as fast as he could and quietly slipped out of the castle.

Evan shivered when the cold night wind hit him head on.

Hogwarts Castle was particularly gloomy tonight, and against the dim moonlight, the grotesque statues on the field revealed some weirdness, several bats glided from low altitude, and the hooting of owls seeping into people's ears came from time to time.

Around the wall in the distance, the Dementors were looming, where the land was desolate and all the plants were withering and dying.

Black couldn't walk in the direction of the wall. Evan hurriedly turned to look at the Forbidden Forest. Through the moonlight, he saw the big dog that Black became and Crookshanks disappearing into the shadow of the Forbidden Forest. Immediately, he rushed to catch up with them.

Just entering the shadow, a figure suddenly jumped out from behind a tree.

It was a sudden attack!!!

Evan felt the heat coming from the opposite. He looked up and saw Sirius Black as a big dog, pouncing at him with his inch-long teeth. With a bang, Black jumped on him with a powerful impact.

Evan fell down and rolled back on the lawn until he hit a big tree and stopped.

He was dazzled and felt as if his ribs were broken.

He wanted to stand up, but Black didn't give him a chance. He revealed his fangs, stared at Evan maliciously, growled softly, and jumped up again.

Looking at the huge figure coming closer and closer, Evan hurriedly left the Animagus deformation and pulled out his wand from his waist with his right hand as his body was restored to its original shape.

The tip of the wand emitted a red light that hit Sirius Black.

Black flew backwards and landed in the grass, giving a painful mourning.

"Enough, stop trying to attack me, or next time it won't just be throwing you back!" Evan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and struggled to get to his feet with his left hand on his knee.

He gasped, and Black, who was opposite, gasped as well.

For seconds, neither of them spoke and the atmosphere was grave and terrible.

Evan saw Black's eyes flashing madly in the darkness, staring closely at his wand. His muscles were tense and his teeth were clenched in an aggressive manner, like a beast staring at its pray.

"Listen, I don't mean any harm. I know who you are, and I know why you're here!" Evan pointed his wand carefully at Black. "I just want to talk to you about my friends Harry and Ron …"

Before he finished speaking, there was a rush of footsteps approaching.

Evan hurriedly turned his head and saw a dazzling glare. He blinked and adjusted for a while, only to see Professor Lupin.

"Professor Lupin?!"

"It's you, Evan! I heard the sound when I was checking the Owlery. What happened here? Why are you outside the castle?" Lupin looked at Evan in surprise and said with concern, "Sirius Black has just broken into the castle, it's very dangerous, and Dumbledore asked all the students to gather in the Great Hall."

"I … I …"

Evan didn't know what to say. He couldn't tell him that he had come out to have a pleasant meeting with Black.

Although Lupin was a close friend to Sirius Black when they were students, would he believe that Black had been wronged in the absence of evidence?!

Evan shook his head. Without real evidence, with Lupin's character, even if he believed that Black was innocent, the first thing he would do would be to tie his former friend and lead him to Dumbledore.

Then, maybe if everything went well, they would catch Peter Pettigrew.

But if Peter was to escape, Evan feared that Black would be handed to the Dementors before tomorrow, and a kiss would be waiting for him.

This was too bad. Evan hesitated and decided to hide the truth.

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Lupin looked at Evan in disbelief. He did not know why the boy appeared outside the castle at this time. This obviously did not meet the common sense. Just like himself, everyone has his own secrets.

In fact, for two consecutive months of contact, Lupin's impression of Evan was very good.

In his class, Evan always answered all the questions the first time. From the several homework assignments he had arranged, he could also see Evan had a deep understanding and unique insights about Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Lupin had not seen such a good, young man in many years, not to mention the good relationship between Evan and Harry, just like James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black.

When he thought of Black, Lupin was distressed for a while. He could not believe the Sirius would betray James and vow allegiance to Voldemort. They were obviously best friends.

He shook his head, maybe he always saw the wrong person.

Black was so good at the time, but he eventually chose to betray them, the cleverer a person is, the more profitable the pros and cons are, and the friendship in their eyes is just a commodity that can be exchanged at any time.

Will this boy behave like Black and sell his friend for his own benefit?!

Lupin looked at Evan carefully and hoped to see something from it.

The next second, his eyes widened and he seemed to see a familiar figure in the grass opposite Evan.

The tip of his wand issued a light and flew into the grass with nothing in it.

Was it an illusion?

Lupin felt relieved and with that relief he was now conflicted with his heart.

On one hand he wanted to see Black to be clear about the whole thing; on the other hand, he was afraid of meeting him, fearing that Black would tell him personally how he sold James and Lily to Voldemort.

Lupin did not remember how many times he was awaken by such a nightmare.

It had been 12 years since the time had passed. He had been condemning himself and he blamed himself for why he had not discovered Black's true colours earlier, so that he had the opportunity to sell James and finally killed Peter Pettigrew.

Lupin thought this guilt would always be with his life, but Black escaped from Azkaban. Everyone was saying that the reason for his escape was to kill Harry.

Lupin would not allow this to happen, this is why he accepted Dumbledore's invitation to return to Hogwarts to teach. He wanted to protect Harry. Maybe he could also grab Black himself and let him explain what happened that year.

Lupin took a deep breath. Now is not the time to think about these things.

"Evan, you should go back to the Great Hall and be with the others." Lupin took two steps forward, and then he stopped suddenly.

He saw in the patch of grass opposite of Evan. There was indeed something there. He was not mistaken. It must have been the Animagus of Sirius Black. He had seen it countless time. In this life he would never forget it.

The boy is in contact with Black, is it just a coincidence or . . .

When Evan saw Lupin's expression, he knew what he was thinking. He doesn't know what to do or how to explain this situation.

However, he will not have to worry about this matter immediately.

Just has he hesitated, something climbed out of the grass. Lupin clearly heard a sound and a strong light flew past. It was Crookshanks. It was startled by the sudden light and jumped into Evan's arms.

"Professor, I came out looking for this cat. It is my friend Hermione's pet. I just saw it run out of the castle. I was afraid it would meet with an accident, so I came to get it."

Evan did not know whether Lupin would believe him, he was looking for any excuse. Lupin looked at Crookshanks for a moment, then showed a sign of relief.

The two returned to the castle. They just turned around the corner of the hall and saw Dumbledore and Snape standing outside of the auditorium talking to each other.

"The entire castle was checked and no traces of him could be found," Snape whispered.

"Very well, Severus, I don't really think that Black would stay." Dumbledore said calmly.

"But there is one thing that I must tell you," Snape said with a wink. "We had a teacher missing during the time of the castle inspection. It was the one I told you about before."

"What do you want to say, Severus?

"I mean, how did Black get into the castle, what do you think about this, headmaster?" Snape said.

"Many possibilities, Severus, everyone as unlikely as the last."

"Do you remember out conversation, just before the semester began?" Snape's voice was low, and he apparently did not want anyone to hear the conversation.

"I remember, Severus." Dumbledore's voice contained similar warnings.

"It seems almost impossible that Black can't enter this school without internal help. Especially if that person has not been seen yet, you understand what I mean. I did express concern and you appointing professor. . ."

"I don't believe anyone in the castle will help Black enter." Dumbledore said, his tone clearly showed that this matter has been talked about so Snape did not continue.

The person that Snape suspected was apparently Lupin. Evan turned and saw Lupin was calm, as if he had not heard a word of what the two said.

"Severus, I must go to the dementors," said Dumbledore. "I said that we would notify them when we have finished the search.

"Do they plan to help?" Snape said.

"Oh, yes." said Dumbledore coldly. "But I am afraid that as long as I am headmaster, I will never allow them to cross the threshold of the school."

Evan saw Dumbledore coming towards the hallway when he looked over and after a slight glimpse of himself and Lupin, Snape followed.

"You're eavesdropping on our conversation?" Snape's eyes continued to wander between the two men, and he finally locked eyes with Lupin with a look of hatred.

"Professor, we didn't. . ."

"Be careful when fabricating lies, Mason!" Snape's gaze shifted to Evan. "I have to remind you first, according to the command of the headmaster, you should be asleep in the Great Hall, instead of going out of the castle with someone you don't understand, and doing something sneaky."

"I..." Evan was speechless, Snape and Dumbledore were both difficult to deal with. Evan explained he was looking for Crookshanks showing him off in his arms.

"For this stupid cat, 10 point from Gryffindor" Snape said disgustingly. "Now hurry and get to the Great Hall and go to sleep. It is where you should be."

Evan hurried towards the auditorium and just as he was about to enter, he looked back and saw Dumbledore, Snape, and Lupin still standing there, not knowing what to say.