The gloomy weather that had lasted for almost half a month finally changed on a new day. The temperature was still freezing, but the dense clouds reluctantly retreated from the stage under the eager anticipation of countless creatures on the earth, and the sun reappeared, casting pale and feeble sunlight on the earth.
After a whole term of training, the first-year students of Gryffindor were finally let loose.
Under the supervision of Mrs. Hooch, they rode on the school's old-style broomsticks, flying and chasing the snowflakes that danced in the air like dandelions, cheering and jumping with joy.
Cough, cough!
After the exhausting transformation last night, Lupin's face was as pale as the snow on the lawn. He leaned on Bryan's camp bed, covered with his own thick blanket, and tried to raise his head to look at the young wizards outside. From their expression, they seemed to be happy.
"This thing really depends on talent–"
As Lupin gasped for breath, he muttered to himself while watching the little guys who had been practicing for half a year but still couldn't get rid of their clumsiness.
"I heard that when Harry first rode a broomstick, he flew better than many older kids in the team. He undoubtedly inherited James's excellent talent–"
Meow!
A soft meow suddenly came from his knee, interrupting Lupin's gaze. He looked over and found that, the black cat that Bryan had picked up from the wilderness and named Tom, had a look of joy and satisfaction in its gray eyes, and was nodding slightly.
"Do you think so too, Tom?"
Lupin smiled gently, thinking it was just a coincidence. But to his surprise, Tom nodded again after hearing his question.
'What a strange cat–'
Lupin felt a faint sense of confusion in his heart. He wondered if there was something special about this cat, or if he was just imagining things.
Last night, Lupin had transformed in his own office, and to facilitate care, Bryan had moved him to this office early this morning. When he first arrived, Bryan even asked this cat, which always gave people a strange sense of familiarity, whether it needed a new place to stay since he would be living here for the next few days.
At that time, Lupin thought Bryan was joking with him, after all, sometimes this young wizard liked to play some nasty jokes, but he didn't expect Tom to hesitate for a moment and then shake his head.
"Bryan must have seen that you are very smart, so he brought you back, right?"
Lupin smiled slightly, slowly reaching out his hand, wanting to touch Tom's furry head. But unexpectedly, this frightened Tom, and it swiftly jumped off the camp bed, leaping onto the opposite sofa. For at least twenty hours a day, it lay there, next to the fatty Crookshanks. The two cats seemed to get along well, often curling up together or grooming each other.
"Oh, sorry–"
Lupin showed a disappointed expression, sighed, and said, "I thought you liked me."
Tom crawled on the sofa, covering its face with its overly strong paws, afraid that Lupin would see the guilt in its eyes.
At this moment, the bell for the end of class rang, and it reminded Lupin. He looked at the glass of black smoky potion on Bryan's office desk and showed a bitter expression, "I have reason to believe that Severus may be targeting me."
Lupin supported his body with both hands, trying to sit up straight, but he was too weak. He tried several times, but his arms had no strength.
"This potion is several times more bitter than before."
After struggling for a while, Lupin sighed and leaned back on the pillow. Helplessly, he took out his wand from his pocket.
"Wingardium Leviosa-"
Lupin muttered softly, but the glass of Wolfsbane potion on the table only shook a few times, spilling a lot of liquid, without any sign of levitation. He cursed under his breath, realizing that his magic was also affected by his condition.
"This is really frustrating-"
Under the influence of the full moon's magic, the werewolf's body rapidly produced and multiplied the wolf poison during the transformation, and he needed to drink the wolfsbane potion constantly to kill the wolf poison, Otherwise, he would become aggressive.
Lupin didn't dare to joke about it. Seeing that he couldn't even perform a simple levitation spell, he put his wand back and struggled to sit up on the bed. He felt a wave of dizziness and weakness, as if his bones were made of jelly. He tried to hold on to the edge of the bed, but his fingers slipped and he lost his balance.
After a while–Clang! Lupin fell off the bed and lay on the floor, his body sprawled out. He groaned in pain, feeling the cold and hard surface against his skin.
Meow–
Tom, who had witnessed Lupin's struggle, couldn't bear it any longer. It quickly jumped to Lupin's side and bit his sleeve with its mouth, trying to pull him up. It used all its strength, but it was futile. This action was too difficult for a cat with only paws, it couldn't even lift Lupin's arm.
"Huff–stay away from me, little guy–"
Remus, who was already suffering from a splitting headache, gasped and said, hoping that Bryan's cat would stay away from him.
But Tom didn't give up. Realizing that it couldn't help Lupin get up, it leaped onto the office desk, hoping to pick up the cup of potion. But this was also a difficult task for a cat with only claws.
Ridiculous and laughable, two living wizards were actually stumped by a cup of potion.
'Damn it, Watson!'
Tom hated Watson so much that it showed its teeth. The transformation spell casted on him could only be lifted by human intervention, unlike Animagus, who could voluntarily change back.
Lying on the cold floor, Lupin's eyes were bloodshot. He could feel that there seemed to be millions of tiny insect eggs hatching inside his body, rapidly absorbing the limited magic in his body and using it to grow. This pain made his consciousness blurry and extremely irritable.
Fortunately, the remaining Wolfsbane potion in his body was still working, helping Lupin maintain a certain level of sanity. Otherwise, he would have already started to go berserk.
After an unknown amount of time, Lupin, who had been struggling with his hazy consciousness and bloodthirsty desires, suddenly realized that something wet was touching his lips. He instinctively sucked on it, and the cold liquid that entered his mouth gradually restored his consciousness.
The wet and hard thing disappeared, but soon, it reappeared at his lips again. Having tasted that it was the Wolfsbane potion, Lupin didn't hesitate and sucked on it again.
This went on for several times, and the haze in his vision faded away, and Lupin finally saw who was feeding him the potion.
It was the cat named Tom–it took a feather pen from the pen holder on Bryan's desk and used the pen barrel to suck up the potion and feed it to him.
"Cough, cough-- you're so smart, little guy!"
Lupin coughed violently after being choked by the potion, incredulously saying, "I've never seen a cat with such a clever head like you, Tom–"
Crack-- After a crisp metal collision sound, Bryan, who had hurriedly returned from the auditorium with some packed food, pushed open the door and entered. He saw the scene in front of him and immediately understood everything that had happened in the room.
"Oh, stop making a fuss–"
Bryan quickly walked in, put Lupin back on the bed, and fed him the rest of the potion, while angrily scolding Tom, who was meowing incessantly on the floor like a horny female cat, "This is not my fault–"
"I must have looked very miserable just now–"
After finally catching his breath, Lupin smiled wryly and said to Bryan.
"Everyone has their moments of misery and embarrassment."
Bryan chewed on the grilled eel, nonchalantly saying.
The situation of a werewolf cannot be described with words like misery and embarrassment. Lupin pursed his lips and suddenly reached out to touch Tom's head again. This time, Tom only hesitated and backed away half a step, but didn't avoid it, which made Lupin feel extremely relieved.
"Thanks to you today, little guy, otherwise I might have caused trouble."
Lupin stared into Tom's gray eyes and said, but he noticed that Tom seemed to always avoid his gaze.
"Do you want to adopt it, Remus?"
Bryan, who was watching the emotional exchange between the wolf and the cat, suddenly said with interest.
Tom's body tensed up, its eyes fixed on the ground, not looking at Lupin, nor glaring angrily at Bryan.
"If you're willing to bear the pain of parting, Bryan--"
Lupin, who was hesitating how to make the request, immediately smiled.
"I do hope to be friends with this clever little guy."
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