There are only two days until the start of the second half of the semester. Most of the faculty and staff have returned to work early and started some teaching preparations. And the little wizards who went home for Christmas have also returned to school sporadically. This The castle, which had been deserted for two weeks, gradually became lively again.
Amosta and Remus also returned to school early in the morning the second day before school started.
Sirius temporarily placed Regulus' body in the family's old mansion. He ordered Kreacher to take good care of Regulus, and then returned to Hogwarts with Remus in Lenny's form.
Perhaps it was the wonderful Christmas vacation that made the little wizards lazy. It was supposed to be breakfast time, but there was not a single student in the auditorium. Only Professor Sprout, who was used to getting up early, and Mrs. Pince were among the staff. There were people chatting about each other at the dining table.
"This scene is really rare in recent years--"
When Amosta and Remus entered the castle from the foyer side by side, wishing their colleagues a Happy New Year from a distance, Professor Sprout, who was wearing a wizard's hat covered with wet mud, said with a cheerful smile,
"I mean, two Defense Against the Dark Arts professors showed up at the same time."
"I'm afraid I'm not the special one, Pomona—"
Remus, who has been smiling more and more recently, laughed heartily. He looked at Amosta and said,
"To be honest, Amosta, I've been thinking a lot lately. I think you really have some secrets that can help people stay longer as professors of this course. I still quite like this job."
"It would be wise to get out as soon as possible——"
Amosta shrugged and smiled slightly.
"If I had really continued to do this, I might have ended up with the same fate as my predecessor."
"Your predecessor was the swindler Gilderoy Lockhart. He deserved to be sent to Azkaban. You will not end up like him."
Thinking of Gilderoy Lockhart, Professor Sprout shook his head as if to ward off annoying flies.
After exchanging a few words, Amosta and Remus went directly upstairs.
Because he also needed to prepare for the teaching in the second half of the year, Remus went back to the office alone, while Lenny followed Amosta and continued walking for a while. After arriving at the student safety office, Amosta changed Lenny into Returned to human form.
The morning passed in small talk. While Amosta continued to study the pile of manuscripts related to the Blood Curse, he chatted with Sirius about various details of infiltrating Azkaban.
"At least we need a boat."
Sirius sat on the sofa with his legs crossed and said,
"Since you are unwilling to enter Azkaban through formal means, and I can only identify the general direction, this means that we may have to drift on the sea for a long time, and you must prepare a ship that is strong enough. I don’t know what the reason is, but the sea area surrounding the island is shrouded in thunderstorms and typhoons all year round. It is a natural barrier. Without adequate preparation, there is no way to break through."
"Then how did you get here?"
Amosta stopped deriving the calculations, raised his head and asked with interest.
"I was in my Animagus form at the time, so thunderstorms and typhoons didn't have that big of an impact on me,"
Recalling the experience of crossing the sea, Sirius expressed his joy at surviving the disaster.
"And I was lucky. I accidentally found a large piece of deck that was broken apart by wind and waves. I guess it might be left by a Muggle ship that accidentally deviated from its course. Tsk, you unlucky guys."
Amosta nodded slightly.
Indeed, the situation Sirius mentioned must be considered.
The prison is located on the sea far away from the mainland. If Muggles lose their boat, they will only die. Wizards do have more methods at their disposal, but most ordinary wizards may only have the following options when faced with such a harsh environment: Waiting for death.
If encountering extreme circumstances, Amosta can indeed teleport back to the mainland with Sirius, but if he does this, such a long-distance teleport consumes less magic power. The key is that the previous long search will be in vain.
"I'll think about it carefully."
After thinking for a moment, Amosta said. Before looking away, he casually glanced at the surveillance screen opposite, and his soothing brows suddenly wrinkled slightly.
Near the Slytherin common room, Professor Snape was standing at the door of his office talking to a wizard with blond hair.
Following Amosta's line of sight, Sirius also discovered the wizard who shouldn't be in Hogwarts.
"Who is that, a professor from the school?"
"Lucius Malfoy, the current patriarch of the Malfoy family--"
Amosta said expressionlessly.
"oh!"
Sirius' sigh was filled with hatred;
"It's this guy, I know him. He is a Death Eater. When he was in school, he openly promoted his support for Voldemort. After graduation, he was admired by Voldemort for his unswerving support of pure-blood supremacy. Voldemort did not fall that year. At that time, there were many clues about Muggles being tortured and killed, which secretly pointed to him. However, he was extremely cunning and good at using the power of money, so the Order of the Phoenix was unable to catch him at that time. He came to find Snee What are you doing, catching up with old colleagues?"
Sirius said the last sentence very naturally, and he didn't realize what he had said until the words came out of his mouth.
Amosta did not go online because of this, and in fact, Sirius was not wrong. Professor Snape did have experience in serving as a Death Eater.
The conversation between Professor Snape and Malfoy on the screen had probably come to an end. Amosta could see that there was some doubt in Professor Snape's expression, but he still seemed to agree to some kind of request made by Malfoy. , they stopped talking, Snape took Malfoy out of the basement, went upstairs from the stairs on the side of the hall, and appeared on the third floor.
"Are they here to find you?"
Sirius stood up from the sofa alertly and looked at Amosta, who was resting on his raised knees with their fingers intertwined.
"What do you think it's because of?"
"I'm as confused as you are," Amosta said calmly, "I have no friendship with Lucius Malfoy. Strictly speaking, it's a bit of a shame, but I think he definitely didn't come here to I’m in trouble.”
Who has the ability to cause trouble for you?
Sirius was about to say this, but a flash of lightning shot out of Amosta's sleeve and turned him back into Lenny.
After howling several times in dissatisfaction, the helpless Lenny jumped onto the sofa, cleverly maintaining the posture a cat should have.
As expected, there was a knock on the door of the office soon. After hiding the curtain, Amosta walked over and opened the door.
"I found out from Pomona that you were back in school,"
With his relationship with Amosta, Snape didn't have to hide anything. He narrowed his eyes and raised his chin and asked,
"I thought you were going home for Christmas, why did that guy show up together?"
"We just met on the train——"
Amosta shrugged indifferently and said lightly. Then, he turned his gaze to Lucius Malfoy, who maintained a very restrained posture, with a cold smile on his lips.
"This is Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy--"
Professor Snape stepped aside half way. He quickly glanced at the expressions of Amosta and Lucius looking at each other, and immediately confirmed what Lucius had said to him before, that Amosta and him had something to do with each other. The friendship thing was a lie, but it was obvious that the two people did know each other.
When Snape turned his eyes away, Lucius also cast a hidden look. After receiving the signal, Snape was silent for a moment, and then said reluctantly,
"Lucius told me that he has something personal that he wants to talk to you about alone."
What was Lucius Malfoy doing, trying to get that notebook out of me?
In an instant, this idea came to Amosta's mind. Because he knew that I was unlikely to pay attention to him, he wanted to use Professor Snape's relationship?
"In that case--"
Amosta nodded.
"Come in, Mr. Malfoy."
(End of chapter)
