Chapter 8

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Holding a sheet of paper folded in half in his hand, Grid stared at the huge tree in front of him with mild interest. 

"It even became interesting what these kids were up to ..." There was a message on the sheet that "accidentally" appeared on his desk, or rather, by rat mail, when he was "enthusiastically" reading the book in the library. 

The message, no matter how surprising, was from Lily with a request in the evening to go to a huge tree located on the territory of the castle and, using a hole between the roots, get to a certain house, where she will be waiting for him for a very serious conversation.

Perhaps Grid would have believed that the letter was from Lily if it weren't for two "buts": the first was the "messenger" in the form of a rat, from whom the magic of one of the Potter's friend, Peter Pettigrew, was radiating from, the same unsightly young man who brought the head of Gryffindor to the toilet, and the second "but" was the handwriting that only vaguely resembled Lily's. 

Putting the letter away, the mage looked up at the huge tree again. 

"The Whomping Willow… a rather rare specimen of the Weeping Willow subspecies…" – Coming close, he touched the thick trunk with his palm and smiled. 

"That's right, I didn't think I could find such good material for my toys…" Pulling his wand out of his sleeve, Snape pointed it at the thick bark and made a circular motion, at the same moment a beam shot from the tip of the wand, taking the form oval, which calmly penetrated a few centimeters deep into the tree and at the end again shrunk into one point. 

"If I use telekinesis, it will quickly exhaust me, so I'll have to use the local spell." Pointing his wand at the tree again, he smiled slightly as he noticed how a two-meter-long piece of bark moved away from the trunk. 

"Wingardium Leviosa… an interesting idea, thanks to such a formula, the costs in terms of magic are minimal, and if I used telekinesis, I would be exhausted in a couple of minutes… I still never cease to be amazed at this world…" A few seconds later, a round-shaped piece of wood, thick which was ten centimeters was leviating in front of him. 

"Not bad, I think this will be enough for me to practice and for the first game," the wizard nodded, laying it on the ground and looking up at the sky, his face was immediately lit by a gray light. 

"Full Moon… Whomping Willow… Werewolf Boy… Now it's clear what they were up to, which is probably why they 'turned off' the tree's defense mechanism so that I could easily pass through the hole underneath it and get to where it is. Although I'm more surprised how the director and teachers allow a werewolf to study with simple magicians," but, remembering the basilisk under lock and key, all early bewilderment simply disappeared from Grid's mind.

"I definitely won't let my children study in this "hot hell" of a place."

 After examining the tree for a few more minutes, the magician calmly walked towards the secret hole and went inside.

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A few minutes after Grid left, three people in the uniform of Hogwarts students came out from behind a small slope.

 "I told you that this dupe would fall for our letter!" 

"I can't believe he turned out to be such an idiot," Potter drawled with a grin in his voice. 

"James, are you sure?" interrupted his friend's laughter, a gloomy dark-haired guy with a rather handsome face, reminiscent of the average aristocrats from Slytherin.

 "Lupin can bite him, and then not only he will get in trouble, but us as well." 

"Calm down, Padfoot, I talked to him beforehand, and he will try to restrain himself, and even if this damn Snake gets hurt, it will be his fault, because he climbed into the wolf's mouth, and don't you want to take revenge?" Potter looked at them with a defiant smile.

 "Because of him, we were suspended from school for three months, and it's okay, imagine what happens when our parents come here tomorrow, and especially your grandmother."

"You're right, but we should still follow him: you can't let him die, otherwise Lupin will be unhappy."

"Of course, that's exactly what I wanted to suggest."

"You were just playing for time. In response," James did not say anything, but Sirius knew from the unfailing smile on his face that he had hit the mark, and although he understood that they had gone too far, Black could no longer stop his friend, and did not want to.

"Tail, be here, and if you see someone coming, then "activate" the tree, which you know where to."

 "Understood," Pettigrew nodded, turning into a rather large rat right before their eyes and running up a tree. 

Approaching Willow, the guys looked with slight surprise at a piece of wood lying not far from the manhole. 

"And why did that idiot(Snape) give up on his wan?" 

"God knows what's going inside that idiot's mind." 

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At the same time, Grid finally emerged from the tunnel, and after looking around, he saw the village of Hogsmeade nearby, as well as Hogwarts itself a couple of kilometers away.

"And here is that house," with a smile, he turned his gaze to the dilapidated house, from which there was a roar and someone whining, "So, my thoughts were correct, these kids decided to set a werewolf on me, but they didn't even bother to impose on house silencing charms, damn amateurs."

 In the next moment, the door of the hut burst open with a roar and a creature resembling a wolf of humanoid form stepped out of it. The body of the monster was covered with thick hair, the head, like the limbs, had little difference from the wolf's, and the mouth with razor-sharp fangs and animal eyes evoked only pity in Grid, not fear or awe.

"A terrible sight, I have never seen such a pitiful creature in my life…"

Instead of the huge muscles that the magician expected to see, there were only skin-covered bones, "And this is a werewolf… shame…"

"~ Rrrraaaaar!" growling in the direction of the wizard, the monster took off straight in the direction of Snape, who only snorted contemptuously. 

"Shame on all werewolves," raising his palm, Grid without much difficulty created a transparent barrier in front of him, along which the creature's claws passed with an unpleasant gnash. 

"You can't even break through such a weak barrier," pulling out a wand from his sleeve, he pointed it straight at his forehead.

" Maybe kill you?" but Grid shook his head, abandoning these thoughts, " I won't be able to manage the problems then," and at that moment the claws were finally able to overcome the barrier, but Snape himself, with the help of wind magic, flew back a good ten meters back and again directed wand on the werewolf, a luminous rope escaped from it, without much difficulty tying the monster's hands, and then his legs, and he fell to the ground with a dull sound, still continuing to growl in the direction of the wizard.

 "Be quiet, doggie, otherwise I will castrate you and you will become a good boy then ..." grinning ominously, he pointed his wand at Lupin's groin area. And as if realizing what Snape was talking about and seeing the direction of the wand, the monster immediately whined, while still continuing to growl from time to time, as if making it clear that as soon as the magician did this, he would tear him apart. 

"Oooh… threatening?" Grid approached the werewolf with a grin. "Freeze." The tip of the wand flared with blue light, and the monster froze with bulging eyes and a parted mouth. 

"Be glad that I don't need problems, but if you continue to look at me like that, I'll knock out all your teeth," and, tapping his fangs with his wand, he sat down on him in a businesslike way, while directing his gaze towards the tunnel, from where he recently came out.

"You know, I've been waiting for you," the magician looked at James and Sirius with a smile, who stared at him in shock, not believing their eyes. 

"Why are you freezing now?, let's go out." But instead of answering, they immediately pointed sticks at Grid. 

"Get away from Lupin!"

"Ohh? And what if I do not? Will you complain to the director or the dean?"

"Snape! I said, get away from him!"

"No, dumbas, and why did you decide that it was you who set the conditions? Can't you see that my wand is closer to this werewolf's neck? One wrong move, and I can unintentionally use your favorite Bombard spell and blow the hell out of your friend's head, and I won't get anything for it, I'll say that he attacked me, and I defended myself …"

"What do you want?" Sirius asked with a sullen look at Snape, his eyes fixed on the wand pressed to their friend's neck. 

"I'm glad that at least one of you can think, in fact, I don't want much: all I want is the artifact with which you found me that day in the toilet." Still, there were children in front of Grid, and he could easily see through their bewilderment surprise, which confirmed the wizard's thoughts that the marauders had such an artifact. 

"What are you talking about, we don't have anything…" 

"If you continue to play the fool, I'll tear off his ear first," the wand, on the tip of which a blue light shone, moved from the neck to the werewolf's ear. 

"And don't tell me that you followed me or that your friend is an unregistered animagus*, I'm only giving you three seconds… one…" The light on the tip of the wand grew even brighter. 

"We have nothing…!" 

"Two ... "

"Let's do it …" 

"Three, Sec …" 

"OK!" James growled through clenched teeth, pulling a piece of parchment that looked like a pamphlet from his sleeve and throwing it in Snape's direction, at the same time the two friends looked at each other and nodded.

"Hm…?" Raising his palm, Grid caught it with a smile.

"And how to open it, what is the password?"

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!!" Potter spat out, to which Grid only nodded.

"And to close again?"

 "Mischief Managed!"

 "Understood, very well," the magician put it in his sleeve, while looking at the slightly disappointed faces of the two magicians with a smile, "did you think that I would try to open it right now? What if this is a trap?"

In response, James only snorted, slowly lowering his wand. 

"Now let him go."

"Of course, it's all gone… Obliviate!" Snape shouted sharply, pointing his palm at them, the two magicians simply did not have time to do anything, after all, the spell hit them almost instantly, and both froze, staring blankly ahead of them, "Did you think that I would let you go so easily?" getting up from the werewolf, the magician snorted, calmly walking towards them. 

"You've seen too much today, so I'll have to clean up your memory a little, I think a couple of hours will be enough..." Standing in front of the two frozen wizards, he pointed his wand at Sirius's forehead and whispered again: "Obliviate..." 

"As soon as I'm done with these , let's not forget about that rat," after finishing with the first and erasing the memories of the past seven hours, he switched to the second, "Hmm ... but somehow it will all be too easy for them to pass ... " for a moment the magician's glance fell on the lying werewolf, and a diabolical plan appeared in his head how to punish them.

"It's not for nothing that I learned the magic of dreams, and especially the branch of nightmares ..." 

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In a dream from James Potter. Wandering through the dense gray fog, the young man simply did not understand where he was. 

"What kind of place is it? Is anybody here?!" But the answer was only silence, which frightened the wizard a little.

 "J-James…" Hearing someone's weak voice, the young magician was delighted, because he immediately recognized who it belonged to.

 "Lupin, where are you?"

 "W-here… ~ha!" After a few minutes, he finally left the fog and came out into a spacious clearing. 

Near a huge tree sat his werewolf friend, who continued to cough, and his complexion was completely white. 

"Moony, what's wrong with you?!" excitedly running up to him, Potter asked him, nevertheless, no matter how much of an asshole he was, but he valued his friends very much. Perhaps this was the only positive quality that Grid respected in him.

" P ... help …"

" With what ?!"

"I… ~ Argh! get away, I can't control myself!" Furiously pushing James away from him, he quickly turned into a werewolf. 

"Lupin, calm down, I'm your friend…" the mage said with a smile, getting up, but as soon as the wizard looked down, he took a deep breath, because between the legs of the creature in a stance stood at attention a "soldier", whose length was a little more than thirty centimeters. 

"L-lupin...calm down..." Potter stuck his hand into his sleeve, but without finding his wand, he turned pale sharply as his friend walked towards him at that moment. 

"H-help… I'm f-hot…" 

"Stay where you are! Don't come here!" Turning around, James, without turning around, ran at breakneck speed towards the fog, but how could one escape from a werewolf? The creature quickly caught up with him, which made the wizard's face twisted in horror, and at one moment he "accidentally" stumbled and fell to the ground.

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The Animagus Registry is the Ministry of Magic's registry office under the Misuse of Magic Sector of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Animagi must register without fail, and non-registered Animagi will face time in Azkaban** if they fail to do so. Such measures are taken so that the Animagi do not have the opportunity to spy on someone.

Azkaban ** a prison for violating the laws of the magical world, guarded by dementors.