Chapter 65: A Brief Discussion

Lightning illuminated the clouds, and the hundreds of dark shadows upon them.

Everyone on the pitch let out a gasp.

The flash of lightning vanished as quickly as it had appeared; in an instant, everyone lost their target again, unsure of what exactly it was.

No one knew what had happened above the clouds; they only saw Harry, who had originally disappeared into them, suddenly plummet from the sky, followed closely by a dense swarm of dark shadows.

"Harry's falling!"

"It's Dementors!!"

Cries of alarm rang out.

Everyone snapped back to reality, looking at the swarming Dementors, and the chill permeating the air instantly made everyone shiver.

At this moment, a booming voice drowned out all the panicked shouting.

It was Headmaster Dumbledore taking action.

"Aresto Momentum!"

Harry's rapidly falling body was caught by an invisible force, his speed dropping sharply as he landed gently.

The next moment.

"Expecto Patronum!!!"

Dumbledore spoke again, and a burst of white energy exploded from him as the center, enveloping the entire Quidditch pitch.

The energy of the Patronus Charm was like a giant wave, instantly blasting all the Dementors away.

And back when Harry had fallen, Cedric, the Hufflepuff Seeker, had already caught the Golden Snitch, though no one knew exactly when.

The match happened to end right there.

Cedric only realized something had gone wrong when Headmaster Dumbledore took action.

People immediately ran onto the pitch to send Harry to the school infirmary for treatment.

He stood where he was, looking at the Golden Snitch in his hand, feeling that the victory was unearned.

He took the initiative to find the Gryffindor Captain to request a rematch, but Wood refused.

He acknowledged that Hufflepuff had won this Quidditch match.

Subsequently, under the direction of the professors, the crowd evacuated the pitch in an orderly fashion.

Headmaster Dumbledore, however, with a dark face, vanished directly from the spot.

In a deserted corridor of the castle, a person and a dog stared at each other.

John had already taken off the conspicuous headgear.

He crossed his arms, examining the black dog with a scrutinizing gaze.

Knowing that this black dog was a human transformed, John suddenly didn't know how to interact with him in a friendly way.

Even though he was wagging his tail right now, looking friendly.

John remained silent for a long time; several times he opened his mouth, wanting to say something, only to hold it back.

Finally, John spoke up.

"Are you fully recovered?"

John asked indifferently.

The black dog nodded like a human.

"Did you talk to Professor Lupin that day?"

The black dog nodded again.

"Are you friends with Professor Lupin?"

The black dog continued to nod.

"... Are you an unregistered Animagus?"

The black dog instinctively wanted to nod again, but his body paused, and he tilted his head to look at John.

After hesitating for a moment, he nodded anyway.

Seeing this, John fell silent again.

"... Are you here for Harry Potter?"

This time the black dog shook his head, but immediately nodded again.

Does this mean Harry isn't his primary target, but he still has some connection to Harry?

John studied him for a good while longer, finally sighed, and waved his wand.

A gust of hot wind blew up, drying the fur on the black dog.

The black dog seemed quite sincere, and John let down some of his guard.

"You just got over a fever, and now you're out in the rain again."

"I don't want to see a corpse the next time I go to the Shrieking Shack."

Although he was complaining, John was helping him dry the fur on his body at the same time.

The black dog wagged his tail, a hint of human-like amusement flashing in his eyes.

"Let me state in advance, I'm not on your side; I only trust you temporarily because Professor Lupin and Big Orange trust you."

"I don't know what your goal is yet, and I don't really want to care; I'll go talk to Professor Lupin about the specifics."

"If I find anything wrong, I will report you immediately."

John continued to say indifferently, his words filled with a sense of detachment.

The black dog felt a bit helpless too.

Think back to last week, how happy a day they had spent together in the Shrieking Shack.

Now John had become like this, not cute at all.

Suddenly, the black dog's ears twitched, and he turned to look at a corner of the corridor.

John also noticed his behavior and looked over.

Before long, footsteps came from the corner of the corridor, approaching from afar.

Soon, Hermione appeared at the corner, jogging.

She had followed the rain stains all the way here.

"Hermione? Why are you here?"

Seeing Hermione, John was clearly stunned; shouldn't she be at the Quidditch pitch watching the match?

Hermione also saw John, and the worry that had been in her heart finally eased.

Because she had been attacked by the snake monster in the Chamber of Secrets just last year, Hermione knew very well that Hogwarts was not as safe as imagined.

When she saw John leaving with a black dog that signaled misfortune, her mind kept wondering if something dangerous would happen again.

That was why she couldn't help but follow.

"I should be the one asking you, why did you leave without a word?"

Hermione put her hands on her hips, her gaze sweeping back and forth between John and the black dog, saying unhappily.

"... Uh, sorry Hermione, because I didn't want to disturb you all watching the match, so I left by myself."

"It was this silly dog that actually came out in the heavy rain; I was afraid he'd catch a cold, so I came to drag him back."

John hesitated for a moment before giving the black dog a light kick with the tip of his shoe and explaining slowly to Hermione.

He didn't want Hermione to know the true identity of this black dog yet; he was afraid it would involve others.

The black dog was also kicked into a stagger by John, and he let out two dissatisfied woos at John.

But John wouldn't indulge him, making a shooing gesture at him.

"Go, go, go, hurry back to your nest!"

Seeing this scene of a master and pet playing, Hermione finally felt relieved.

This should just be an ordinary black dog, after all, even Titus and the others knew him.

"I didn't expect you to be a dog lover."

"Let's call you Xiaohei, come here, come here."

Hermione said with a light laugh, then crouched down, clapped her hands at the black dog, and called out.

The black dog also knew that Hermione was the owner of Crookshanks and a friend of Harry and John, so he wagged his tail and ran over.

Hermione petted the dog's head as she wished, and the black dog subconsciously wanted to nuzzle her.

But John was standing behind, staring coldly at him, as if he would immediately pick him up and throw him out if he did anything untoward.

"Alright Hermione, this dog just got rained on, and he stepped in mud, he's filthy, don't touch him."

John saw that Hermione had petted him enough.

He stepped forward, picked up the black dog, and tossed him aside.

John's behavior once again drew the black dog's dissatisfaction.

He jumped left and right like a Husky, stomped his front paws hard on the ground, and barked a few times at John in dissatisfaction.

"What are you barking at, hurry back."

John raised his hand to shoo him again, shouting at each other, neither the person nor the dog giving way.

Hermione watched them like this and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

In Hermione's eyes, John's actions were like he was competing for favor with Xiaohei. ===== CHAPTER 66 =====