Chapter 114: Full Moon

The evening wind whistled past the window, and Harry woke up feeling uneasy. He discovered a bright full moon shining on his face, and the lawn and Forbidden Forest outside the window were illuminated by silver-white radiance.

How strange, he thought to himself, it seemed like it was a waning moon yesterday.

"Stay away from the window!"

Harry turned his head abruptly and discovered Professor Doudou poking his head out from the wardrobe. "Black might use long-range weapons to strike your dormitory; you cannot let him determine your exact location."

Harry obediently retreated back to the bed, covered himself with the quilt again, and lowered the bed curtains. The protection work of an elite Auror was very hard; he shouldn't add to the trouble.

Fortunately, he didn't have any strange dreams in the second half of the night. When he woke up in the morning, Neville was also lying properly on his bed. Harry felt that he might have been too nervous during this period.

However, at noon, they received very bad news: the Slytherin team falsely claimed that their Beater was sick and adjusted the match schedule, changing the next day's match to Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff.

"This is a bit too late. Do we need to have Jin Ni play?" Wood hesitated.

"Hard to say, Hufflepuff might have also adjusted their tactics." Angelina suggested. "Let's just play the early-game rhythm according to the original idea; in any case, let's win first."

"Yeah, I think Jin Ni's playstyle is more late-game—I mean, late-season." Fred said. "After everyone's scores are basically determined, it's better for us to bring out that point-catching lineup."

"Then Harry will still play." Wood made the decision. "I'm still very confident in Harry facing Cedric."

After shouting "Go" three times in a row, Harry packed his textbooks and walked toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, but what he didn't expect was that the person sitting in the classroom wasn't Professor Lupin, but Snape.

"Professor Lupin is feeling a bit unwell, so I will be substituting for this class." He said. "Where have you learned up to?"

"Where is he unwell?" Harry interrupted him.

"Gryffindor loses one point." Snape said coldly. "For Mr. Potter questioning the professor's Potions level."

Harry was certain that his meaning was that he was confident in curing Lupin, but losing a point for no reason was really annoying.

"We just finished talking about Grindylows." Hermione raised her hand, eager to add that point back.

"Lupin's teaching progress is really too far behind; he has almost spoiled you." Snape didn't add points, but said slowly, "This class we are going to cover: Werewolves."

"Now, who can tell me what the difference is between a werewolf and an ordinary wolf?" Snape asked.

"Neville, you tell me." He deliberately ignored Hermione, who had her hand raised high.

"I think there is no difference, Professor." Neville said disdainfully. "In front of a Stupefy spell and a sword, there is no difference between a werewolf and an ordinary wolf."

"Good, very good. Then tell me, what is the difference between a werewolf and an ordinary person?" Snape looked as if he was already a bit angry.

"Also no difference, Professor." Neville said. "In the eyes of intelligent and upright people, there is no difference between a werewolf and an ordinary person."

Snape was almost too angry to speak.

"I would like to ask a question, Professor." Neville stared back into Snape's eyes. "May I ask if you know what relationship there is between a werewolf and the Witch Ranni?"

"Gryffindor loses three points." Snape said angrily. "For Mr. Longbottom asking irrelevant questions in class."

In the next class, no student dared to speak again; as soon as they opened their mouths, Snape always had a reason to deduct points.

They copied notes about werewolves, while Snape criticized the parts Lupin had taught, pointing fingers at some of the data.

In such a dull atmosphere, they endured until the end of class. Luo En happily hugged Neville's shoulders; anyone could see that he had made Snape furious in this class.

"I am quite curious, what is the Witch Ranni?" Harry asked.

"Don't know, I heard it yesterday, just..." Neville hesitated, "just in the Forbidden Forest, I heard someone mention this name."

"But what does this have to do with werewolves?"

Neville stopped mid-sentence.

"Forget it, Harry, he just found a random question to choke Snape." Luo En said indifferently. "Let's put our minds on the upcoming match; all the points Snape deducted will have to be earned back by you catching the Snitch."

After finishing the evening training, Wood looked at the increasingly gloomy sky and said with some worry: "It looks like there will be a storm tomorrow."

"This is the reason Slytherin is avoiding the fight," he continued, "In such harsh conditions, they don't have the confidence to fight against us, who have been through hundreds of battles."

Harry woke up very early the next morning, and because it was too early, the sky was still dark. He thought it was the sound of the wind that woke him up. He felt a cold breeze blowing on his neck from behind, but the bolt was closed tightly... Peeves, that annoying thing, was floating in mid-air right next to him, blowing sad breaths into his ear.

"What are you doing?" Harry said in a rage. Peeves puffed out his cheeks and blew hard, and suddenly giggled from behind the room, the sound getting louder and louder.

Harry fumbled for his alarm clock and looked at it; it was only four-thirty. Because of Peeves, although he tried to go back to sleep, it was difficult to fall asleep. Since he was awake now, it was hard not to ignore the rumbling thunder outside the castle walls and the rustling sound of wind blowing through trees in the forbidden forest in the distance. A few hours later, he would be standing on the Quidditch pitch, fighting in that gale.

Finally, he gave up the idea of continuing to sleep, got up, dressed, and washed. He sat in the common room staring at the fireplace for a while, then picked up his Firebolt and walked out quietly.

Just as he walked out of the dormitory, he saw Zhang Qiu standing against the wall in the eighth-floor corridor, holding her blue divination record in her hands.

"You woke up at four-thirty, right?" she said. "I'm quite worried about you; divination says you..."

"Very accurate. What else does it say about me?" Harry yawned.

"It says a cat will make you infinitely close to the truth." She said in a strange tone; Harry suspected the original text wasn't this.

"It's fine, we'll see when we encounter it." Harry said indifferently. "Now let's go get something to eat; a bowl of hot oatmeal in the morning will be better."

"Oh right, I'll make you a bowl of beef noodles." she said. "In the Celestial Empire, eating beef noodles before a match has a special meaning; Master told me."

The house-elves generously allowed them to borrow the kitchen. Zhang Qiu made two bowls of steaming hot noodle soup, and a thin mist couldn't help but rise on Harry's glasses.

"Speaking of which, Snape was substituting for us yesterday." Harry said, making small talk. "Neville made him furious."

"Really?" Zhang Qiu looked at him with a smile.

"He even asked what relationship the Witch Ranni had with werewolves. Snape couldn't answer at once and was so angry he deducted three points from him." Just after saying this, Harry noticed Zhang Qiu's smile froze.

"Werewolves..." she mused.

"Do you know something?"

"I should have told you, Master taught me a spell to compensate for Lupin's fate." She said softly. "I recited this spell the night before last."

"What?"

"I declare in the name of the Witch Ranni, do not disturb the mother's deep sleep like mud. Oh sinner, sing it to future generations. The last Queen of Caria, Full Moon Rennala, is like the incarnation of the elegant dark night." She repeated the spell. "I don't know what the effect of this spell is, only that its name is 'Rennala's Full Moon'."

"Perhaps this is a coincidence, or I don't know." Harry said with some difficulty. "Neville and Snape might know something, but I dare not say that is correct."

"What are you hesitating about?" Zhang Qiu said. "Did a werewolf appear that night?"

"If I remember correctly, Wednesday night was a waning moon." Harry said. "Today is also a waning moon; the waning moon is still hanging in the sky."

Indeed, when the sun had just risen, the moon hadn't completely faded away.

"But I saw a full moon on Thursday night." Harry said. "I have reason to suspect that the effect of this spell is to turn the moon phase into a full moon, or at least summon a full moon in a small area."

"Then I really don't know. That night I was just hiding at the door of Lupin's office." Zhang Qiu said. "Wearing a Disillusionment Charm, I quietly recited this spell, and after reciting it, I slipped away."

"But Neville heard it in the Forbidden Forest; doesn't this not quite match up?" Harry was a bit confused.

"Perhaps he just told a white lie; you should have guessed it already, just don't want to believe it."

Harry didn't speak.

"Divination showed that your class was supposed to be substituted by Snape, but what if Lupin didn't get sick? Wouldn't he have violated the divination?" Zhang Qiu said calmly. "In order to get his fate back on track, I had to recite the full moon spell, but who would get sick because of a mere full moon?"

"This is what Neville meant; he should have also discovered that Lupin is a werewolf, but didn't want to spread this matter. After all, we all like Professor Lupin very much." Harry sighed. "If others knew, he would definitely be complained about and fired."

"Yes, no parent can accept a werewolf as a professor."

"That matches up. His nickname in school was 'Moony'." Harry nodded. "But Neville was right; in the eyes of intelligent and upright people, there is no difference between a werewolf and an ordinary person."

"And when Snape was substituting, he insisted on lecturing you about werewolves; such small tricks can't be called upright." Zhang Qiu said disdainfully.

"I didn't say that—wait, you weren't eavesdropping invisibly again, were you?" Harry was stunned.

"Just to verify the divination a bit more." She shrugged. "And today we also got somewhat close to the truth, and another point has been compensated."

"But didn't the divination say there would be a cat?" Harry scratched his head.

"Meow!" ===== CHAPTER 115 =====