Chapter 401: Vampire Secrets

After a little thought, Harry already began to suspect that Ron's mental state was not as firm as he said, but he didn't dare to persuade him either, for fear that the belief Ron had finally gathered would be collapsed by what he said. A belief with deviation was at least a belief.

Thinking carefully, Moon Rider was a vampire with an unclear stance. Originally, Harry hoped to let Ron defeat him, gain prestige while exercising his strength. But now Ron's mental state was not quite right, so he had to prepare for the worst.

The next morning, Harry went to the Hog's Head Inn alone through a secret passage, and contacted Sirius and Lupin with Claster's help. They found a relatively hidden place, and then Harry began to tell about the current predicament.

"...... The situation is like this; I feel it is indeed quite worth worrying about."

"That is to say, you are worried that Ron cannot grow up according to the plan and defeat Moon Rider, so you want to prepare a backup plan?" Sirius tapped the table, "Indeed, not to hide it from you, I also have some attempts against the Rider system here."

"This armor that is immune to magic is indeed tricky, but fortunately it is not immune to physics." Sirius said seriously, "We started with Muggle firearms, trying to use magic spells to strengthen the power of bullets, or make them able to turn corners, etc. Currently, it can be said that there have been some results."

Saying this, he drew a circle on the table with his finger, "If we set an ambush in advance, and have a few more rounds of volley, I think we still have the confidence to catch him."

"Yes, but according to Harry's statement, the timing of that vampire's appearance is uncertain. He is in the dark, and we don't know when he will appear." Lupin pointed out the difficulty of the plan, "Unless we can think of any way to lure him out."

"We know almost nothing about him." Harry frowned, "The timing of his two appearances has no similar connection either. Zhang Qiu only said he should be a vampire royal, but as far as I know, vampires don't have any royals at all."

"Yes, a hundred years ago, the vampire clan had a royal family, but they split, declined, and disappeared. In other words, any vampire could be a royal descendant, and it is very difficult for us to infer from the circulation of the belt." Lupin added.

"You seem to know quite a lot about vampires?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Yes, I recently took in a batch of losers among them." Lupin explained, "A few months ago, a vampire named Gregorius Hillber suddenly rose to power. He defeated and incorporated various forces one after another, and also occupied Dracula Castle. Now the vampires have completed internal unification within the clan."

"I have seen him; he mixed with Lucius, seemingly cooperating with the Ministry of Magic." Harry said.

"Then that makes sense; he must have borrowed the power of the Ministry of Magic to quickly defeat other clans."

"Then is it possible that the Moon Rider you just mentioned," Sirius proposed a bold conjecture, "is this Gregorius?"

"Probably not." Harry shook his head, "The reason for the cooperation between the Ministry of Magic and Gregorius is that they want to borrow the power of vampires to try to counter Kamen Riders. If Gregorius himself is Moon Rider, first of all, the Ministry of Magic couldn't possibly cooperate with him, and secondly, he wouldn't be willing to participate in the research on countering Riders."

"Actually, there is another point," Lupin added, "According to Harry's statement, Moon Rider is a power that originally belonged to the vampire royal family, but Gregorius is quite hostile to nobility and bloodline theory. He has been emphasizing 'obtaining power by sucking blood, not by inheriting blood,' which actually proves from the side that he himself probably doesn't have much bloodline."

"But this also reflects the particularity of vampires, doesn't it?" Sirius retorted, "If he killed some royal descendant, seized the Moon Rider belt, and also obtained the ability to use the belt by sucking his blood, is this possible?"

"Then if he is Moon Rider, why would he want to attack Hogwarts, or attack Harry and Ron?"

"My guess is, just like he defeated all vampire clans and became the King of Vampires," Sirius guessed boldly, "another of his plans is to defeat all Kamen Riders and become the King of Kamen Riders. After he fought with Ron for the first time, he turned to challenge other Riders, which is why the time and place of the two attacks have no similarity, because this is determined by more and more complex other external events."

"Yes, this possibility cannot be ruled out, but the possibility is not great." Lupin shook his head, "I said here just now because I was thinking, at least Gregorius knows vampires better than we do. Since he is probably not Moon Rider himself, then the existence of Moon Rider is also unfavorable to his rule. In this way, plus he is cooperating with the Ministry of Magic, I think we can deal with Moon Rider together with Gregorius, at least we can learn more information from him."

"Alright, then you go contact him, I still—"

"No, you go contact him." Lupin interrupted him, "I am a werewolf; werewolves are naturally mutually exclusive with vampires, and I have also taken in several of his arch-enemies. It is probably very difficult for me to communicate with Gregorius; it still requires you to approach him using the identity of a Death Eater."

Sirius's fingers tapped the table, revealing a thoughtful look, and finally he asked: "What do you think, Harry?"

"I think Lupin's plan is quite feasible; let's do it." Harry was also thinking, "The only loophole is that if Gregorius is indeed Moon Rider, then he can instead use this to cover himself up. Of course, we can also consider the best situation, that is, Ron suddenly explodes with potential and defeats Moon Rider head-on, then things will be simple." 【401-26

"Right, we are mainly helping you prepare a contingency plan for 'Ron's failure,' so are you going to make a contingency plan for 'both we and Ron have failed' next?" Lupin said with a smile. "Yes, you could also go find Snape and say you suspect Gregorovitch is the Moon Knight."

A sense of déjà vu flashed through Harry's mind. When the Chamber of Secrets case first began, he and Neville had prepared to use this back-to-back investigation method to deal with Malfoy. Indeed, logically speaking, this already covered all possibilities, but the results showed that the truth often doesn't follow logic; instead, it might take another, more imaginative form. He needed a richer imagination.

After saying goodbye to the two elders and returning to school, Harry immediately went to find Snape, but he was not in his office. Harry thought for a moment and decided to leave a note. Afterward, he returned to the dormitory, where he found Ron lying on his bed flipping through a book.

"You're back?" Ron tucked the book under his pillow. "Any progress?"

"Not yet. Sirius will go investigate the Moon Knight's true identity, but I feel it won't be that easy to find out." Harry shook his head. "Let's finish our homework first; I'll talk to Draco again tonight."

"What's there to talk about with him?" Ron said discontentedly.

"First of all, I've always felt that teaming up with him to deal with the Moon Knight is a feasible plan," Harry said. "Secondly, I want to figure out what he was doing in the Room of Requirement yesterday. Was he really looking at the Mirror of Erised? Because you have to know, he went alone—he didn't go with Pansy, nor did he bring Crabbe or Goyle. That is indeed very strange."

"Speaking of the Mirror of Erised, Neville went to look at it too." Ron shrugged. "After I mentioned it to him, he also didn't go with anyone else; he just went quietly by himself."

"Neville is Neville; he's always been happy to be a lone hero." Harry said seriously. "But Draco is different. He's the type of social butterfly who is best at and most enjoys attending or organizing some kind of gathering, and then trying every possible way to gain benefits from others. So, the same behavior is abnormal when it comes to him."

"Fine." Ron sat up, his feet searching for his shoes on the floor. "I'm actually looking forward to you discovering what bad things he's done, because I'd rather be killed by the Moon Knight than fight side-by-side with him."

"Don't say that." Harry sighed. "Let's put it another way: let's find a way to make Draco act as bait to exhaust the Moon Knight's strength first. That's okay, right?"

"But I feel that's not honorable either." Ron said hesitantly. "Even if I don't like him, I don't want to use or harm him."

"Forget it, let's finish the homework first." Harry said, walking toward the library. He wasn't just going to do homework; he actually wanted to find Zhang Qiu to confirm the definition of a "hero" again. He always felt that it didn't necessarily take a tragedy to create a hero.

They arrived at the library, and just as they sat down in their usual spots, Harry noticed that Zhang Qiu wasn't doing homework, but was reading a magazine with great interest.

"The latest issue of *The Quibbler*." Zhang Qiu reached out to beckon them over. "Luna brought it. The official version hasn't been released yet, but this copy has already gone crazy in Ravenclaw."

"When did you get into this?" Harry leaned over curiously, and then a sour, shocking sensation rushed straight to his brain, leaving him completely stunned.

*"Wow, Severus Snape is surrounded by beauties!"* "Are you crazy?" Harry whispered. "Does Luna not want to attend Hogwarts anymore?"

"I want to see, I want to see." Ron stretched his neck out long. "I just want to read stories like this!"

"Wait, this person." Harry recognized a small photo on the side at a glance. "Is that the one who sells plastic Gobstones?"

"Yes, Kavin Sangster," Zhang Qiu explained. "Someone in the American Wizarding community. I suspect there might be some moves from the White House behind this article."

"Then I really look forward to the White House making more moves..." Ron's cheerful tone suddenly stopped because he saw the title of the first section and that name: *The Eternal White Moonlight—Lily. *

"It's over. Why does he say everything?" Harry also saw the subtitle. "Now I don't really want to attend Hogwarts anymore either."