After listening to Dracula's question, Lu Ting thought quietly for a moment.
"If I had to guess where Sirius would stay, I think he would stay at the Shrieking Shack." He said slowly, "There is a secret passage there that connects to the Whomping Willow, and that's where everything started. ..."
"The Shrieking Shack?" Dracula raised his eyebrows, "Is it the rumored haunted house in Hogsmeade?"
As a well-known attraction in Hogsmeade, the haunted Shrieking Shack naturally aroused Dracula's interest.
But after he spent a few nights there and realized that it was just an ordinary shack, he lost interest in it.
At this time, hearing Lupine suddenly mention this shack, Dracula's curiosity was raised again.
"In fact, this Shrieking Shack has never been haunted..." Lupine shook his head slightly and said, "The screams and howls that the villagers often hear are actually my transformation into a werewolf on a full moon night. It comes out when the time comes.”
"Is that so?" Dracula nodded thoughtfully.
No wonder the villagers of Hogsmeade said that no ghost screams had been heard from the Shrieking Shack in more than ten years. Lupine had already graduated from Hogwarts, so the Shrieking Shack would no longer be used.
"Professor Dracula, you know that I am a werewolf, but you probably don't know how I became a werewolf." Lupine continued, "At that time, my father offended a werewolf in the court of the Ministry of Magic. The werewolf wanted to To take revenge on him, he sneaked into my house on a full moon night and bit me when I was very young."
"That werewolf is Fenrir Greyback. He was captured by you in Dracula's Castle in Romania."
"Is it such a coincidence?" Dracula was a little surprised.
If Lupine hadn't suddenly mentioned it, he would have almost forgotten that there was a werewolf locked in a dog cage, and he didn't know if Serena had forgotten to arrange for her subordinates to bring him food.
It would be a bit funny to let him starve to death in a cage...
"At that time, my parents tried various methods to prevent the transformation into a werewolf, but nothing worked." Lupine continued, "After all, the Wolfsbane potion only appeared recently. Damocles Belby made it. It gradually became popular after improvements were made.”
"This medicine can indeed make werewolves safe. As long as you take this medicine a week before the full moon, you will stay sane when you transform. With the help of this medicine, I can curl up indoors and become a harmless The wolf of man, waiting for the full moon to pass..."
"However, before the wolfsbane potion was invented, I would turn into an out-and-out wolf one day a month, cruel and bloodthirsty. It was impossible for me to come to Hogwarts, and neither did other parents. You might be willing to let your children come into contact with me."
"But I was lucky enough to meet Principal Dumbledore, who was very sympathetic. He said that as long as certain precautions were taken, there was no reason why I should not be allowed to come to school." Lupine sighed and said to Degur Ra said.
"The whomping willow was actually planted to allow me to come to Hogwarts smoothly. That shack was also built for me..." He pointed to the direction of the whomping willow in the northeast of the castle. There is a passage next to the roots of the willow that leads from Hogwarts to the Shrieking Shack..."….
"That passage was opened for my use. Once a month, I was secretly sent out of the castle and sent here to transform. The whomping willow was planted at the entrance of the passage so that no one could interfere with me. Meet me in times of danger.”
Dracula nodded slightly.
"This makes sense. Otherwise, it would be a bit unreasonable to plant a dangerous plant quite close to the teaching area of the school." He chuckled, "Of course, there are many unreasonable things about this school. .”
Lu Ping also smiled heartily, and then continued to tell the story of his past:
"In those days, my transformation was... very scary. It was very painful to become a werewolf, without any sanity, only bloodthirsty and destructive desires. I wanted to bite people but stayed away from people, so I could only bite. , scratch yourself."
"The villagers of Hogsmeade heard all the noise and screams I was making from the Shrieking Shack.
They thought they heard the sound of a particularly ferocious ghost. Instead of stopping it, Dumbledore encouraged people to spread such rumors, thinking that this would further prevent others from approaching the shack..."
"Of course, I didn't expect that even now, even though the house has not had this sound for many years, the villagers still dare not approach it."
"If you think about it this way, it's really not easy for werewolves." Dracula nodded. "In comparison, vampires don't have so many things to do. They are in whatever state they should be in. They don't have the monthly pain of werewolves. .”
"It wasn't painful to that extent..." Lupine smiled and shook his head, "At that time, except for the time when I transformed into a werewolf, I was happier than before. I had friends for the first time, and they were three good friends. .James Potter, Sirius Black...and, of course, Peter Pedro."
"There's no way my three best friends don't notice that I go missing once a month."
"I made up all kinds of stories - telling them that my mother was sick and I had to go home to see her... I was particularly worried that they would ignore me once they found out I was a werewolf. But, they were smart and got through it quickly. The Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook revealed the truth..."
"But what I didn't expect was that they didn't ignore me at all. Instead, they did a lot of things for me, which not only allowed me to endure the pain of transformation, but also made my time at Hogwarts the happiest in my life. time - they learned the animagus and spent the full moon night with me in their animal form."
"Are all three of them Animagus?" Dracula asked in surprise.
"Yes, it is true." Lupine said, "It took them nearly three years to achieve this. James and Sirius are the smartest students in the school. After they achieved it, they also tried their best to help Peter complete Arnie's work. Magus transforms."
"They are lucky. They didn't go overboard with the Animagus transformation, and they didn't make any huge mistakes. After successfully learning the Animagus, they didn't choose to register it with the Ministry of Magic... so there are very few people. You know, there are three more Animagus in the magic world."
"What a touching friendship!" Dracula exclaimed, "I couldn't keep my friends company in human form, so I turned into animals to keep each other company... I can't believe that there will be a traitor in such a combination. ”….
Lupine's expression became a little heavy again.
"Well, thank you for your story, Professor Lupin." Dracula said clearly, "I probably understand that the reason why Sirius Black can avoid the sight of me and Dumbledore is actually very simple, just because He's just an animagus."
"If you think about it... the reason for escaping from Azkaban is probably the same. Those mindless dementors have never been interested in an animal, and the entrance and exit of Azkaban dementors have never been blocked. An animal."
When Dracula sneaked to Azkaban to find information about Sirius Black, he transformed into a bat and entered the prison through the narrow Dementor entrance.
"So you always knew where Black might be? Then why didn't you tell Dumbledore about it for so long?" Thinking this, Dracula looked sideways at Lupin, "Are you still willing to believe it? He was wrongly accused, and do you believe that despite escaping from prison, he is actually a good person?"
"Because of this factor, I have never believed that Sirius would betray James..." Lupine said softly, "But on the other hand, I have always been a little guilty in my heart, feeling that I have betrayed Dumbledore's trust... "
"At that time, when none of the other principals were willing to accept me, he was the only one who accepted me, and he had no idea that I broke the code - a code he had established for my safety and the safety of others."
"In fact, he never knew that I allowed three of my friends to illegally learn to become Animagus. During school, whenever we sat down to plan our adventures for the next month, I tried to forget this guilt. But I still haven't changed anything about it... I'm addicted to the companionship of my friends who turn into animals on full-moon nights."
Lupine's face was a little heavy, and his voice was even filled with self-loathing, "Dumbledore hired me.
Since arriving at Hogwarts, I have been struggling with myself, undecided whether to tell Dumbledore: Sirius is an Animagus..."
"But I didn't say it. I think it was just because I was too cowardly. Telling him would mean that I had betrayed his trust when I was a student, and it would mean admitting that I had led others to violate the code with me... and for For me, Dumbledore's trust is extremely important."
"This mentality has not changed even after becoming the current leader of the werewolves... In the beginning, I showed up in the most obvious place in the castle every day, hoping that Sirius would realize that there was an Anima in Hogwarts who could recognize him. The person in the form of Gus is here. My actions during that period did have some effect."
"But later on, I seemed to have convinced myself that Sirius used the evil magic he learned from Voldemort to sneak into the school. His becoming an Animagus had nothing to do with it..."
"Severus was always sneering at me, and in a sense he was always right about me."
Lu Ping shook his head mockingly, his eyes extremely complicated.
"I actually don't understand. What kind of conflicts did Snape have with you guys during school?" Dracula asked curiously. "More than ten years have passed, and there seems to be no hatred in his eyes. There is no intention of fading away at all.”….
"Well... this matter is a bit complicated to talk about. It includes the fight in the youthful and frivolous period, the rift between the two rival colleges, the conflict caused by different ideas, the emotional confrontation, the generation and rescue of life threats..."
Lupin's series of adjectives made Dracula twitch the corners of his mouth fiercely.
"Why do I feel that the drama that old guy Nico watches is not as complicated as the story between you..."
"Yes, it is indeed very complicated, and there are some things that I can't talk about yet because they involve Snape's privacy." Lupine smiled softly, "But there is one thing that is very close to me that I can still talk about. I’m here to give you a listen—”
[In view of this general environment, "When I was in school, Severus was particularly interested in where I went every month," he recounted. "We were in the same grade, and we didn't really like each other."
"He especially disliked James. He was jealous of the way James was in the limelight on the Quidditch pitch, and jealous of the intimacy between James and Lily when they talked and laughed... Until one day, Severus saw me on a full moon night. Walking across the grounds in the evening with Madam Pomfrey, she led me to the Whomping Willow to see the Screaming Shed transformed."
"Sirius had no sense of propriety at the time and told Severus as a prank: Just touch the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick and you can follow me into the tree hole. Sirius thought this... well, it was very interesting. Snee Of course I just tried it like this..."
"If he had actually walked into the Shrieking Shack, he would have encountered a complete werewolf... But fortunately, James reacted in time after hearing what Sirius did, and followed Snape to pull him back. , otherwise I really don’t know what would happen.”
"No wonder Snape said that you never take other people's feelings or even lives into account. It turns out that such a thing has happened." Dracula said thoughtfully, "But after all, he was considered a slave by James. Potter saved his life, why does he hate Harry so much now?"
"According to Severus himself, he would rather not be rescued by James, but would rather die in the Shrieking Shack..." Lupine sighed lonely, "Things between James and Severus are more complicated." It’s much more complicated and I can’t explain it for a while.”
"It's okay, the most important thing I lack is time." Dracula became interested in listening to the story and raised the corner of his mouth slightly, "When I have time, I will go to your office and listen carefully to your story about the relationship between you and Professor Snape. The grievances and hatreds between people."
Lu Ping opened his mouth, as if he wanted to refuse subconsciously, but then he nodded with a smile.
"Hey, the staff lounge is here." Unknowingly, the two of them had walked to the door of the staff lounge together. Dracula opened the door, "Go in and see your old friends!"
After sending Lupine into the lounge, Dracula closed the door and went to the Whomping Willow tree alone according to Lupine's instructions.
The usually irritable Whomping Willow was always quiet in front of Dracula. It swayed gently with the morning breeze and deliberately moved a few branches to thoughtfully make way for the entrance of the secret passage under the tree.
Dracula smiled and nodded, and walked in through the hole under the tree.
He was going to personally go to the Shrieking Shack to capture Sirius Black, so that these three best friends from more than ten years ago could have a friendly reunion!
…
….
Ripples of Dust
