Chapter 128: The Past is Like Wind

"Back to the past, those days are more worth talking about," Lupin took a sip of Butterbeer. "You must not know how terrible, and... painful it is to turn into a wolf. After turning into a werewolf, you become abnormally irritable and bloodthirsty, but I couldn't touch humans in the Shrieking Shack, so I could only hurt myself, scratching, biting, and the pain would make me even more irritable. The villagers heard those noises and thought it was ghosts at work. Deng Buliduo took advantage of the situation and spread rumors that it was haunted, which better protected my secret. So much so that even now, after so many years, the villagers still believe these claims and dare not approach this house."

"But apart from the pain of being a werewolf, I was happy at other times, happier than ever, because for the first time I had friends, many friends, Sirius, Pettigrew, and of course, Harry, your father."

"Of course, my secret was hard to hide from three good friends, after all, I had to disappear once a month, and I didn't return at night, which was too hard to explain. I made up some stories, sometimes saying my mother was sick, sometimes saying I had a girlfriend... I tried so hard to hide it, just because I was afraid that they would abandon me once they knew the truth, and would make me fall into a situation without friends again."

"But how rigorous can a child's lies be? They eventually found out, but they didn't leave me. On the contrary, they tried hard to make me feel better, and they all learned to be Animagi."

"Prongs is a stag, Padfoot is a wolf-dog, Wormtail is a rat?" Harry summarized.

"Yes, that's right," Lupin said. "They spent most of their time for nearly three years learning to be Animagi. Your father and Sirius were both very smart and talented, so they eventually learned this trick without any danger, and then provided some help to Pettigrew. Finally, in their fifth year, they succeeded, and each could arbitrarily turn into different animals."

"But what's the point of this?" Luo En seemed not to understand.

"Companionship," Lupin said. "If they were in human form, they couldn't accompany me, but they could in animal form. A werewolf only has the desire to attack humans. During that time, every time they would sneak out with James's Invisibility Cloak and transform under the moonlight. Sirius and James turned into larger animals and could control me a little when I went crazy, and the smallest Peter was responsible for sliding under the willow tree to make the Whomping Willow quiet down. After having the companionship of friends, I found that transformation was no longer a painful thing; it became a very precious and beautiful memory."

"But doing this was after all against school rules, so during that time, I would also feel guilty from time to time for betraying Deng Buliduo's trust... He was the only headmaster willing to accept me. He gave me a precious opportunity to study. But I caused three classmates to become Animagi. How dangerous, and even crazy, that was... We were completely ignoring the headmaster. But every time, when they were preparing to plan the next adventure, I never backed out..."

Lupin's face was very stiff, and his voice contained a hint of disgust. "This whole year, I've been struggling with my thoughts. I was thinking whether I should tell Deng Buliduo that Sirius could be an Animagus. But in the end, I didn't. Because I didn't want to betray the promise of my childhood."

"But Deng Buliduo's kindness to me was even more like a rebirth. I don't know why I put someone who had been disrespectful and ignored rules since childhood above Deng Buliduo, just because he accompanied me when I was at the low point of my life? I don't know, I could only comfort myself over and over again, saying that Sirius's prison break was because he learned strange Dark Magic, and had nothing to do with being an Animagus."

"Then what about Snape?" Harry asked. "Deng Buliduo said my father saved his life? And I heard Sirius had a grudge against him."

"Snape always wanted to catch us in the act," Lupin said helplessly. "We were in the same grade and had grudges against each other. This started from him hating James. I think it was mostly because of jealousy, because... James's unparalleled Quidditch talent. In short, he saw us go to the Whomping Willow, and he always wanted to know where we were going. Sirius thought of a bad trick; he secretly told Snape the weakness of the Whomping Willow, so that time, Snape secretly followed us into the secret passage."

"If he had walked a little further at that time, he would have encountered the crazy me, and the ending would have been unimaginable. Fortunately, your father discovered everything Sirius did, and at the critical moment, he caught up with Snape and pulled him back. But Snape still saw the werewolf and guessed the secret. This is the whole story—in a sense, I think he saved me even more."

When these old stories were finished, Harry was also deeply moved by what his father had done. Although he was not a good student in the traditional sense and was far from the glorious image in his imagination, a person who was willing to break school rules for his friends was still the best father in his heart.

"Oh, the drink is finished," Lupin glanced at his watch. "We've been chatting for so long, almost half an hour, Peter should have finished washing."

"Although I still feel a bit uneasy, I'm glad to see my father's friend is still alive," Harry laughed.

"I'll go check on him, maybe he's even scrubbing his rat skin off," Lupin went upstairs laughing.

"Can you believe it? I actually kept a middle-aged man as a pet, this is really..." Luo En couldn't help but vent his shock.

"Oh, you mean if Scabbers turned into a gray-haired, flat-chested, tsundere loli, it wouldn't matter, right?" Harry teased.

"Where did you learn that?" Zhang Qiu patted him dissatisfiedly.

"It's Cui Ge," Harry explained. "He taught me this weird talk."

"Speaking of Cui Ge," Luo En pointed not far away. "His mother still lives here, doesn't she?"

Harry noticed that Mrs. Fontroy was sitting not far away, drinking a cup of orange-red liquid in small sips. She was wearing a Slytherin school uniform, looking just like a seventh-year student.

"Want to go say hello?" Zhang Qiu said with a mischievous smile. "Divination didn't mention her, but intuition tells me I can hear something more exciting than werewolves today."

"Alright," Harry hesitated. Indeed, Lupin thought he was opening his heart to the children today, but in fact, the children had already guessed most of these contents.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Fontroy," Harry greeted her. She looked very dazed.

"Oh, don't mention that surname," she said distressedly. "Please call me Cassandra. How I wish I really were Cassandra."

"Alright, Cassandra... senior," Zhang Qiu hesitated and changed to call her "senior," which made her eyes light up at once.

"You're in the third year now? How nice, how I wish I could go back to the third year..." she murmured. Harry felt this lady was probably a bit drunk.

"Dak, that heartless man, as soon as he heard I was pregnant with Cui Ge, he ran away impatiently..." Mrs. Fontroy lay on the table, looking at her light pink fingernails. "Magic School expelled me. I had a hard time giving birth to the child alone and raising him. Do you know how happy I was when Tang Nade came?"

"It was a sunny day, I thought he had returned, but unfortunately it wasn't him. The one who came was just his twin brother," she hiccuped. "Tang Nade and him are really alike, but unfortunately, it's not him after all."

"I remember you, you are Cui Ge's friend," she lazily pointed at Harry with her hand again. "I only have Cui Ge left now, you must take good care of him..."

"Harry, what are you doing?" Lupin hurried over. Harry noticed his expression was a bit wrong.

"Digging for gossip," Zhang Qiu answered for him.

"Now is not the time to talk about this, Peter is gone," Lupin said anxiously. "I don't know what happened, but I couldn't find him after I went upstairs. He's missing."

"Oh, did your sweetheart run away too?" Mrs. Fontroy said lazily, leaning on the table.

"What grade are you in? Don't you know students aren't allowed to drink?" Lupin said angrily. "I'll have to take you back to Snape to check later..."

"Seventh grade, hiccup, I'm Cassandra from the seventh grade..."

"Don't talk about this for now, Professor," Harry grabbed Lupin's sleeve calmly. "She's right, Peter might have run away."

"What?" Lupin calmed down at once.

"Think about it, we don't have any substantial evidence as to who is lying between Peter and Sirius, do we?" Harry said. "What if Peter is lying?"

"That would also explain it. He's impatient to defect to Voldemort now because he just heard the news of Voldemort's resurrection," Lupin changed his line of thinking. "But I don't think there's any problem with what he said. He really seems more like the innocent one."

"Indeed, there are no doubts in his words, but a truly innocent person wouldn't choose to run away when reuniting with an old friend," Harry said. "Now that Sirius has been taken away, theoretically no one can threaten Peter. He can only have run away himself."

"Losing Scabbers in the third year," Luo En sighed. "Zhang Qiu, your divination is really something."

"And now that I know Tang Nade has a twin brother, I think it's necessary to re-examine the Chamber of Secrets case," Zhang Qiu was still hung up on Tang Nade.

"But if Peter is lying, then Sirius is innocent..." Lupin pondered.

"We have to find Professor Doudou as soon as possible," Harry said. ===== CHAPTER 129 =====