abcnovels
Chapter 301
Chapter 301
“Trapped on the covered bridge -”
“Peter Pettigrew has come to get Harry along with another Death Eater!”
“Sirius is injured!”
Hermione explained in a panic until Felix’s hand rested on her shoulder, “Calm down Granger, I only have one question,” his eyes fixed on her, and he asked seriously, “Do we still have time?”
Hermione blinked, “Oh-” she stammered, ” Well, of course, that’s what I came back for, we still have … about an hour.”
” Oh, you used the time-turner.” Felix said calmly, “We can talk as we go, where do you think, we should go now?”
“Hagrid’s Hut!”
Hermione answered without thinking, Felix nodded, he tapped Hermione’s shoulder with his wand, she found her whole body blending into her surroundings, so did the professor, she realized it is the effect of the Disillusionment Charm.
“If we want to do something, first we have to hide,” Felix said.
They made their way towards Hagrid’s hut, and Felix first asked what concerned him most –
“Did you see any of the endings? I mean, did you witness the serious consequences, such as … death.”
“No, I only saw them trapped on the covered bridge, and a horde of Dementors attacking them, as well as a group of Aurors from the Ministry of Magic, and some students-”
“The Ministry of Magic’s Aurors? How did they get there?”
“That woman in pink, whose last name is Umbridge! She’s the one who summoned the Dementors and informed the Ministry of Magic!” Hermione said in a shrill voice.
In the pumpkin patch behind Hagrid’s hut, a hippogriff snorted, its head raised warily, its nose constantly sniffing the air.
“Buckbeak, take it easy, we’ve met before.” A gentle voice said.
“Oh, it’s me, Hermione, I fed you–” a slightly shaky female voice.
Buckbeak looked blankly at the air, it recognized the owner of the voice, but could not see the person, which made it a little annoyed so it stomped on the ground.
The window of Hagrid’s hut abruptly opened, and a voice asked, “Who’s out there?” Immediately afterward, a hairy head peeked out of the window, and it is Hagrid.
He glanced warily out the window, Felix and Hermione hiding behind the big pumpkin, coupled with the cover of the disillusionment charm, Hagrid could only see Buckbeak became fidgety, he shouted in the direction to the hippogriff: “Don’t let strangers near, Buckbeak!”
Hagrid pulled his head back, and his growl came from the house, “Get it straight, Peter! Why did you hide in Ron’s house for all those years and attack Harry with your men!”
A cowering voice said, “No, it’s not what you think, I’m worried about Harry, he’s in danger … I have to get him out of school!”
Lupin’s mild voice said, “That’s odd. If I’m not mistaken, your friend who escaped was wearing a Death Eater’s hood.”
The cowering voice stammered, “That’s, that’s a disguise …”
Outside Hagrid’s hut, behind a big pumpkin, Felix asked Hermione: “You can talk to me now about what happened.”
Hermione straightened her thoughts and said, “This afternoon, Harry came back from the Quidditch pitch, it was about five o’clock – at the request of Professor McGonagall, he couldn’t train too late.”
“I know about it, but you were there?” Felix asked, as far as he knew, Hermione wasn’t really interested in Quidditch training.
“Uh, we made an appointment, and it was a serious mistake – we were going to visit Hagrid, and to avoid detection, I was the one who brought Harry’s invisibility cloak.”
It was actually Harry and Ron who had been restricted so hard that they wanted to go and talk to their friends, and for that reason, they had prepared themselves in advance and covered themselves with their invisibility cloaks.
“And then what happened?”
“We heard a movement at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, a conversation between two people who were discussing bringing Harry to someone,” Hermione paused for a moment, “but then we learned that they wanted to bring Harry to the dark lord.”
“-and one of them was Peter Pettigrew, as he got captured.”
” Yes … “Hermione said sadly, “They mentioned Harry’s parents, and Neville’s parents, and said a lot, plus he taunted Peter Pettigrew for being a coward and saying he betrayed the Potters and still wanted to be a good person. ”
“Who was the other guy?”
“Not sure, he is wearing a hood,” Hermione shook her head, “should also be a Death Eater.”
Felix said thoughtfully, “No wonder we couldn’t find Peter Pettigrew for so long, I thought he was being dormant, now it seems that he should be using this time to find his old master, and an additional companion …”
Hermione continued: “Harry saw this as an opportunity to sneak up on those two people and force the truth about the year. We were almost close to success, three stunning spells hit Peter Pettigrew, and he passed out without the slightest resistance, but-”
Her eyes widened, “the other guy counterattacked quickly, his spell was fast and strong, we were no match, Ron’s leg was injured, we had to rely on the trees in the forbidden forest to keep retreating …”
“It was an emergency, the tree trunk in front of us suddenly came to life, like a whomping willow, and its branches tied us up.”
“That Death Eater let down his guard, and he gleefully said that he would bring Harry to the Dark Lord, who would use him to resurrect, and he would be the biggest contributor!”
“Just at that moment, Sirius suddenly appeared, oh, I almost didn’t recognize him, he doesn’t look much like he did on the wanted notice, of course… he quickly fought with that Death Eater, a stand-off for a while, the Death Eater woke Peter Pettigrew up, two against one, Sirius quickly ran out of steam, he lost a lot of blood, and he was on verge of fainting… then Professor Lupin and Snape appeared together, the chaotic battle ended, they again knocked Peter Pettigrew out, and the Death Eater took advantage of that situation to escape.”
“After that, we came to Hagrid’s Hut and dressed Sirius’s wounds, and also wanted to take the opportunity to interrogate Peter Pettigrew.”
Felix almost understood what happened before, however, it is worth noting that from the information revealed by the mouth of that Death Eater, Voldemort’s order was to bring Harry alive to him, to resurrect with the help of Harry, he tried to think, what kind of magic is this?
…
Hagrid said gruffly: “So, back then you secretly changed the Secret Keeper, so this despicable villain, this traitor had the opportunity to take advantage of it, he happily told the dark lord, the secret. And you – Sirius – mistakenly thought the traitor was dead, so you didn’t defend yourself out of guilt.”
He made a loud sniffling sound and muttered in a low voice, at which point Hermione in the room said timidly, “Oh … Mr. Black, but how did you show up in time today?”
Sirius seemed a little surprised, “Uh, you’re Granger, right? Because of this-” There is a rustling sound of rummaging through pockets.
“A crumpy piece of paper?” Hagrid asked.
“It’s not a crumpy piece of paper, it’s a Felix Hap’s imitation of Marauders’ Map, it’s a bit rudimentary and doesn’t compare with the Marauders’ Map at all, I can only see a few key people, but that’s enough … I stare at it when I’m not doing anything, and today I accidentally found Peter Pettigrew’s name and I thought I was looking at it incorrectly, God knows how surprised I was, and then I saw Harry’s name approaching him, and I rushed to contact Felix Hap, but there was no response at all! This guy, he promised me!”
“Professor Hap–?” Harry’s puzzled voice asked.
“Yeah, I got caught by him, remember, the time I got close to you with the polyjuice potion and I ended up getting caught …” Sirius explained awkwardly about his not-so-pleasant escape experience.
In the pumpkin patch, Felix thought about it and said, “When he asked me for help, I should have been in a safe house, isolated from the outside world.”
“Is it the kind Harry’s parents used? You need to use the fidelius charm?” Hermione asked softly.
“That’s right.”
In the Hagrid hut, Sirius continued, “… that’s it, I’m being held in the old Black mansion, I can’t go anywhere. This afternoon, when I couldn’t reach him, I realized something was wrong and used apparition to appear near the Forbidden Forest, I searched for a few minutes with that awful map and finally found you guys, Peter Pettigrew was down on the ground, how I wanted to give him a Killing Curse to immediately end his vile life …”
From the room came Peter Pettigrew’s defense, and with a sobbing voice he said, “I wanted to be brave like you guys, but he grabbed me and kept forcing me–”
Sirius roared angrily, “So you chose to betray!” The room went into disarray, accompanied by a thud and a groan of pain from Peter Pettigrew, who seemed to have been punched hard, as he whimpered and sobbed.
Lupin urged, “Calm down, Padfoot, we have to find out the truth from him.”
” I will listen to you,” Sirius gasped, “I will continue – I wanted to kill Peter Pettigrew, but Harry’s side was in much worse danger, so I joined the fight, and you all know exactly what happened after that. ”
Lupin also explained the reason why he rushed there: “I do not have that imitation map, however, Professor Hap gave me a golden galleon, which is connected to the Marauders’ Map, and if Peter Pettigrew appears, it will react, coincidentally, I was with Severus.”
“How did you get together?” Harry asked.
“I came to deliver Lupin’s potion …” Snape’s distinctive cold voice said, “Do you want to know what it is, Potter?”
“I’ll tell you myself, Severus. There’s no need to hide it any longer, it’s a wolfsbane potion, Harry, and I’m a werewolf.” Lupin said.
“What? Professor, you, you are …” Harry asked in surprise.
“Yes, I am a werewolf, Dumbledore gave me the opportunity to go to school and showed me the wider world. He invited me last year to come and assume this position at Hogwarts, and he promised to provide me some complimentary wolfsbane potion – a potion that will make me a little better on the full moon, which is rare outside, and I have Severus to thank for that …”
Felix and Hermione waited quietly for ten minutes as the door of Hagrid’s hut opened.
Hermione narrated from the sidelines, “Next, we’ll split up, Hagrid will take Ron to the hospital wing, the wound on his leg is starting to puss, and I will follow, as the rest of us will take Peter Pettigrew to the castle great hall, ready to hand him over to the Ministry of Magic’s Auror stationed at the school.”
“Isn’t that perfect? Why did the accident happen?”
“It was Umbridge! She secretly placed many detectors in the school to monitor everything moving in the school. She said all this herself, in order to take credit in front of Fudge …”
———-
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