Chapter 233
Lupin did not agree ultimately, and Felix, as a bystander, could clearly see the professor’s reluctance.
He had a few guesses, the form of the Patronus is closely related to the state of the wizard, Lupin as a werewolf – although he tried to avoid mentioning it, but that identity has already influenced him deeply into his bones, his Patronus is most likely a wolf or a related subspecies.
Felix didn’t know what to say, ‘Severus can really be …’
…
Then, that night, Ron entered the common room alone from outside, fuming a bit.
“Snape’s a freak! He *…” Ron cursed a nasty word, causing Hermione to shout in discomfort, “Ron, don’t use swear words!”
He sat on his butt on the soft couch next to Harry, smelling strongly of detergent.
Harry looked at Ron sympathetically, this is not the first time he lost his temper because of Snape, when Professor Lupin was sick, Snape substituted him, Then Ron got punished for publicly rebuffing Snape, and cleaned the chamber pot in the Hospital Wing — moreover, he was not allowed to use magic.
Snape seemed determined to prolong the painful process by splitting the punishment into three sessions, each ending with Ron fuming like a raging lion.
“I mean really, Snape is a man with a twisted mentality, if he hadn’t subbed for just one class …” Ron said angrily, ” I didn’t write a single word of the assignment he left, ha! Sure enough, Professor Lupin cancelled it!”
Hermione’s expression didn’t look good, most people in the class played around without writing, only she finished an essay about werewolves early.
Ron said meanly, “Maybe he got his head shoved into the toilet when he was at school, look at his hair, Harry-” he looked at Harry, “Didn’t you stay behind to ask Professor Lupin some questions this evening, did he reveal anything about black?”
Harry said sombrely, “No, I asked him about the Dementors and my mother.”
Ron’s expression eased as he and Hermione exchanged a look, and he whispered, “Did you hear … anything more about the day of the Quidditch match?”
“Yeah,” Harry said, “it’s the second time, I seemed particularly vulnerable when facing the Dementors, Professor Lupin said it is because I have experienced more anguish.” He whispered, “He was right, I heard my mother’s dying voice over and over again at that time.”
“But-” Harry perked up, “Professor Lupin told me a lot about Mum, you know, I only saw her in the pictures Professor Hagrid sent me and on the Mirror of Erised, nobody else mentioned much …”
“Harry …” Hermione looked at him worriedly.
Harry said regardlessly, “I had thought my mother’s character must be very gentle, this is how I imagined her like, but in fact she is not, Professor Lupin said she is very assertive, even a little snappy, in those days, she defended her neighbour from the enemy House — that is, Snape –a five-year-long friendship, and Professor Lupin said Snape admired her.”
“Of course! Mom and Snape eventually parted ways because of Voldemort!” Harry said excitedly: “Mum has to grow up, when she first enrolled in school she was not aware of the war Voldemort started, but how can a person defy reality? Every few days a classmate’s family and relatives will die, and every month a few students will drop out of school, that’s war, isn’t it?”
“She must have been torn and hesitant for a long time. But in the end, she ended the friendship. Professor Lupin said she was depressed for a long time, and my father comforted her, then told her a lot about the Order of the Phoenix, and they came together as a matter of course …”
“Married, fought the Death Eaters, fled from Voldemort, and had me,” Harry’s expression grimaced, “until they wrongly trusted Sirius Black.”
Ron asked uneasily, “Harry, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Harry said, “Professor Lupin promised that he would teach me Patronus Charm till Christmas. But he turned down my request for special training during Christmas, and Professor Hap is too busy that I didn’t have the heart to mention it.”
“When I wrote my dueling system thesis, I always used Black as my imaginary enemy, but in fact, there’s nothing much I can do, I just know a few spells. And not skilled enough even in that …”
Ron said, “Harry, we can train by ourselves.”
Harry stopped talking on and on, and looked up at Ron as he slowly said, “Train by ourselves?” This made Ron a little upset, and he said, “I know I’m weaker and not your match, but I can be your assistant if you need one.”
He came up with another rotten idea, “If not, we can practice using Slytherin students, Malfoy’s gang will do just fine, Crabbe and Goyle look like they have the build that can resist a few more spells.”
Harry thought of the big-bodied Crabbe as well as the gorilla-like Goyle, and couldn’t help but smile. He restrained his smile and said with a straight face, “Thank you, Ron.”
Ron’s face flushed, “No, it’s nothing.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Hermione looked relieved as she pulled out a piece of parchment and quickly scribbled on it.
“If we’re going to train by ourselves, we need to be well-prepared, pick a good time and place, choose the right spell, and to guard against accidents … have a lot to do!” Hermione said thunderously.
“Hermione?” Ron looked at her a little dumbfounded.
But Hermione had already got into the swing a bit, “I don’t have the same schedule as you guys, but … should be able to make time …”
“How are you going to make time for-”
“Don’t interrupt me, Ron.” Hermione said impatiently, “The choice of the spell is best referred from Dueling class, Harry, I need your thesis.”
Harry froze and handed her the written thesis.
“I’ll give it to Professor Hap for you, but I need to read it first to summarize your dueling ideas. And Ron, you can’t relax either, it’s not good to be too far off.”
Ron grimaced, “You don’t want me to write a thesis too, right?, Professor Binns just gave us a 2 feet assignment, you know.”
“Well, I can lend you the assignment for you to – I mean, I can lend it to you for reference.” Hermione tried to keep the word “copy” to herself.
Ron whispered in Harry’s ear, “She just blows my mind.”
Harry shrugged and said in a relaxed tone, “That’s Hermione, how many times has she surprised us?”
Hermione is still thinking desperately, “Maybe we can drag a few more people, of course, the three of us can be enough for sure, but the others might be interested as well, and they’re pretty good in general, the dueling classes helped a lot!
Dean’s is pretty skilled in Stunning Spell, Seamus’s Reductor Curse is exaggerated, he’s definitely talented at it and Neville…., Ginny’s pretty good at a couple of the little Jinx, I didn’t expect her to learn them that fast when I taught her. We could even ask Percy for help, he owes the twins a favour, and the twins-” she smiled, “they owe me a lot.”
“Wait,” Ron called out, “what does it have to do with Percy, Fred, and George?”
“Remember the couple’s mirror? Penelope going to give one to Percy as a Christmas present and, They gave Penelope a 50% discount, on the other hand, Percy privately approached the twins for that discount …”
“And how did you get involved with Fred and George?” Ron couldn’t understand it, after all, those two brothers of his were not easy to talk with.
“Oh,” Hermione said with a wide smile, “I’m an assistant of ancient runes class, and they often ask me for reference books, the kind with specific page numbers, they say it’s to save their time, theoretical ancient runes aren’t worth their time.”
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