0279 Unknown Situation

Ron’s worried calls echoed on the breezy courtyard, but Scabbers ignored the shouts of its former owner. It continued running along the path towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest, as if it had a death wish. If it weren’t for Harry’s excellent tracking skills as a Seeker, they would have likely lost Scabbers completely. 

The three of them, along with a rat, ran through the passage for about half of the campus. Suddenly, Scabbers changed direction and disappeared into the grass. He had found a small hole in the ground, and he quickly squeezed into it.

“Hey, don’t do that, Scabbers!” Ron also followed Scabbers onto the lawn, running towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest. But after only a few steps, they completely lost track of Scabbers. The hole was too small for them to enter, and the grass was too thick for them to see through.

The moonlight reflected on Ron’s bewildered face, making him look helpless. He didn’t understand why Scabbers had run away, or what he was running from. He didn’t know what to do next.

Seeing his expression, Hermione couldn’t say anything more, even though she had planned to suggest that Crookshanks be brought back to the dormitory. 

“What’s going on, Ron?”

Harry wiped the sweat from his forehead, his gaze scanning the swaying figure in the grass, but he didn’t find anything. He felt a pang of frustration and worry. Where had Scabbers gone?

“I don’t know, Harry.” Ron shook his head dumbly, “I’ve never seen Scabbers like that before. What is it afraid of?”

Suddenly, sharp and frantic barking came from the direction of Hagrid’s hut. In the midst of the undulating sounds of the forest, the sound was piercing. It sounded like Fang was in pain or in danger.

“It’s Fang!” Hermione immediately realized, her voice filled with urgency. She clutched her wand tightly, ready for any trouble. “Something urgent must have happened to Hagrid!”

“We have to go and see!”

Harry looked nervous and immediately agreed with Hermione’s suggestion. He trusted Hagrid more than anyone else at Hogwarts, and he couldn’t bear the thought of him being hurt or attacked.

Ron didn’t want to go, he wanted to continue searching for Scabbers. In the past two months, he had been secretly depressed countless times because of Scabbers’ mysterious death. He had blamed himself for not taking better care of him, Now that they had discovered that Scabbers was alive, apologizing to Hermione wasn’t a problem. He was glad that she had been right all along, and that Crookshanks was innocent. But for him, the first priority was finding Scabbers. 

However, Fang’s barking and whimpering didn’t sound right. It sounded like he was begging for help, or warning them of something. Hagrid was also their mutual friend, Ron couldn’t refute Harry’s suggestion. He nodded reluctantly, and followed Harry and Hermione.

Their location was not far from Hagrid’s hut, and just a few seconds later, they saw Hagrid’s distinctive massive figure. Hagrid stood on a small slope outside his house, staring blankly at the dark Forbidden Forest. Fang was standing next to Hagrid, howling desperately in the same direction. 

“What’s wrong, Hagrid?”

Harry shouted loudly from a distance of fifty to sixty feet, hoping to catch Hagrid’s attention. He was worried about what had happened, and what had made Fang so agitated.

“We heard Fang’s barking. Did something happen?”

Hagrid turned his head when he heard Harry’s voice and the sound of their footsteps. But his expression was as confused and lost as theirs when they had found Scabbers in the common room. He looked like he couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

“Oh, it’s you three–”

The thing that happened just now obviously made Hagrid unable to understand, so he didn’t even realize that it was so late, and Harry, Ron and Hermione were wandering around the campus. 

“I just saw Malfoy run into the Forbidden Forest.”

“Malfoy?!”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione exclaimed in unison, their voices filled with surprise and confusion.

“Oh, it’s like this–”

Hagrid swallowed a mouthful of saliva, staring at his bell-like eyes, and said in a skeptical tone, as if he was trying to make sense of what he had witnessed.

“I was reciting the materials to help Buckbeak’s defense in my house just now. Then I suddenly heard Fang barking, and I thought he had found some animal trying to break into the campus, so I rushed out. But what I found was Malfoy standing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, holding a broomstick with a rat perched on it–”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged glances, all seeing the astonishment in each other’s eyes. They couldn’t believe what they had just heard. 

‘This couldn’t be true!’

Maybe Malfoy was stimulated by Harry’s outstanding performance on the pitch today, so he had decided to practice flying alone. But that was unlikely, since Malfoy was a skilled flyer, and he had no reason to improve his skills. Besides, he would never fly near the forest, where he could encounter something unpleasant or dangerous.

But that rat, if their guess was correct, should be Scabbers. Let’s not mention how Scabbers became friends with Malfoy. They had only stopped for a short while on the roadside, not enough time for Scabbers to meet up with Malfoy. Could it be that Malfoy also had a pet rat? But that was also unlikely, since Malfoy despised rats, and he had often insulted Scabbers for being old and useless.

“–And then that stray black puppy,”

Hagrid didn’t pay attention to their thoughts and continued speaking,

“It was originally in the little nest I made for Crookshanks. After it saw Malfoy, it suddenly transformed. Its size grew dozens of times larger than Fang. It carried Crookshanks on its back and charged towards Malfoy, as if it wanted to bite him to death.”

‘The black dog grew in size and wanted to bite Malfoy?!’

This was too magical, even Hermione couldn’t come up with any reasonable speculation for a moment. She had read a lot of books about magical creatures, but she had never heard of anything like this. A dog that could transform into a giant beast? A dog that would carry a cat on its back? A dog that hated Malfoy as much as they did?

‘What was going on?’

“I’ve never seen a dog that can change its size like that–”

Hagrid’s focus seemed to have deviated a bit. He gradually came back to his sense and became excited, his eyes shining with interest and curiosity.

“Maybe it’s a special breed bred by some wizard. Oh, if that’s the case, I must go and ask for advice! Maybe Dumbledore knows something about it.”

At this moment, Hermione suddenly noticed that Harry’s expression was not right. It was as if he had been struck by lightning. His face was drained of color, and his eyes were wide with shock. She worriedly asked, “What’s wrong, Harry? What did you think of?”

“I’ve seen that dog–”

Harry slowly closed his gaping mouth, his face turning pale.

Just when Hagrid was describing it, he suddenly understood everything. 

“Last summer, after I blew up Aunt Marge and left the Dursleys, I took the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron. Before that, I saw it near Magnolia Crescent.”

“What are you talking about, Harry?”

Ron, who still had Scabbers and Malfoy being bitten by a dog in his mind, looked at Harry with a ridiculous expression. He couldn’t make sense of Harry’s words. 

“A dog from the Muggle world can’t follow you all the way to Hogwarts, can it?”

“Don’t you understand yet!”

Harry’s face turned white, and he suddenly became very excited.

“How can a dog change its size, Ron? Have you ever heard of such a magical creature? Unless, it’s not really a dog, it’s a disguise!!”

“You mean, Harry.”

Ron still didn’t quite understand, but Hermione suddenly covered her mouth, her amber eyes filled with horror. She gasped, as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

“Professor McGonagall mentioned it in class, Animagus?!”

Silence fell suddenly, but it was quickly broken by the sound of their own breathing, and the distant howling of Fang. They looked at each other, their faces reflecting the same emotion: dread.

“At a time like this, who would deliberately disguise themselves as a dog and enter Hogwarts?”

Harry’s green eyes flashed with angry flames and he said decisively, his voice trembling with rage and fear.

“Sirius Black!”

Harry called out the name in an almost hoarse voice, and the reactions of the people present were different.

Hermione covered her mouth with her hand, fear evident on her pale cheeks, but her lively brown eyes continued to flicker, as if assessing how likely Harry’s speculation was. Ron, on the other hand, was startled and stammered,

“But… but that’s not possible, there’s a Dementor at the school gate.”

“There can’t be more Dementors at the school gate than Azkaban, right?” Harry said coldly, his green eyes flashing with anger. “But Black still managed to escape from there!”

“I think you might be overreacting, Harry–” Hagrid interjected, his voice booming in the dark. “Black is an Animagus? Well, forgive me for being blunt, Harry, but I might know a bit more about Black than you think. When he was studying at Hogwarts, I had been the gamekeeper here for thirty years. I foiled countless attempts by him and his friends to sneak into the Forbidden Forest.”

“Just say it, Hagrid–”

Harry didn’t want to hide anymore. With a stern face, he said directly, “Black’s friend is my dad, right? And Professor Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew who died at Black’s hands in order to avenge my parents. It was his betrayal that led to my parents death at the hands of Voldemort.”

The cold wind howled in the middle of the night, as if echoing his hatred. The sudden appearance of the word ‘Voldemort’ made them all shiver, and they instinctively looked around,

“Sirius Black has been trying to get close to me since he escaped from Azkaban six months ago. He wants to kill me to avenge Voldemort.”

“Where did you hear all this, Harry?”

Hagrid looked incredulous, his mouth wide open as if he could swallow a dragon egg. He looked at Harry in confusion, then glanced at Hermione and Ron, who remained silent. His bushy eyebrows furrowed, and his voice finally became stern,

“Don’t tell me it was Remus. I know him, he’s not a blabbermouth.”

Hagrid’s questioning made Harry hesitate, but after a moment, the anger and hatred he felt when he first heard this news returned to his heart.

“I overheard your conversation, last year at the Three Broomsticks Pub, When you met with the Minister of Magic.”

“But…”

Hagrid tried to say something, but Harry cut him off.

“There’s a secret passage in the school that Filch doesn’t know about, which leads directly to Hogsmeade.”

As Harry said these words, Ron desperately winked at him, but Harry ignored it. He knew Ron was trying to warn him not to reveal too much, but he didn’t care. Seeing Hagrid’s astonished expression, for some reason, he felt a sense of satisfaction. Even though he was the one who should know everything, whether it was Hagrid, Professor Lupin, or Professor Watson, or even Headmaster Dumbledore, they all kept silent. Of course, he knew they were doing it for his own good, afraid that he would do something foolish. But did they even realize that twelve years ago, it was his parents who were brutally murdered by Voldemort?

“Oh my!”

Hagrid’s voice was filled with anger, and he reacted just as Harry expected.

“You know that Black is still on the run, and yet you–”

Hagrid slapped his forehead hard, making a loud sound. He looked at Harry with disappointment and disbelief, then regained his composure.

“It’s already so late, why are you three still on the campus? Harry, even if it’s to celebrate today’s victory, I think you’ve gone too far!”

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