Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't understand what Snape was talking about. Nor, apparently, did Lupin.
"You mean, by Mr. Wormtail or one of these people?" he said. "Harry, do you know any of these men?"
"No" said Harry quickly.
"You see, Severus? It seems to me that this is a product of Zonko's Joke Shop." Lupin turned to Snape.
"It's was us!" Fred and George rushed in from the crowd. They explained to Lupin and Snape. "We bought this Parchment a few years ago from Zonko's Joke Shop. We have just given it to Harry."
"Very good, everything has been cleared up then!" Professor Lupin said with pleasure. "Harry did not violate the school rules. He just showed this prank parchment to his friends in my opinion, and he just didn't want the teacher to know about thi…"
"Lupin!" Snape took a step forward and whispered. "Don't play dumb. You and I both know what this parchment is."
"Yes obviously, I said just now that this is a mischievous product. Whoever wants to read it will be insulted." Professor Lupin blinked.
"Not this, I've seen it before…"
Snape suddenly stopped talking and looked indignantly at Lupin.
Although he had seen this parchment more than once in the hands of James Potter back when they were students, he really did not know what this parchment was or what it was for. Its four makers made sure that it was kept a secret.
Since Lupin doesn't want to talk about it, there was no point in continuing this stalemate. Snape also didn't want his past as a youngster exposed in front of the students.
"Very good, very good, Lupin!" Snape turned back to his usual unpleasant tone. He grinned and said: "I suddenly remembered that it was just a full moon tonight and I hope you will be home alone. Don't forget to lock the door! By the way, I'll send you your medicine. Later, we can talk about the pleasant topic of this parchment."
Snape looked at Lupin with an unpleasant gaze. He deliberately stressed on the words: at night, full moon, and lock the door, as if he was giving everyone a hint.
"No problem, my door is open to you at any time, Severus!" Professor Lupin said briskly. "And thank you for your potion."
"You're welcome." Snape's face was not smiling; he looked fiercely at Lupin, Harry, and Evan, and continued, blinking, "I made a full pot, if you still want more, just tell me know."
"I started taking it a week ago, and a little bit more this afternoon should be enough!" Prof. Lupin turned to look at Evan and the rest of his group. "Harry, Evan, Ron, Hermione, come with me, I have something to tell you about the homework that I gave…"
Professor Lupin took two steps forward and seemed to think of something. "Severus, I'll take this away. You don't mind?!"
Snape didn't speak, but from his gloomy face, one could know that it bothered him.
Lupin pretended not to see Snape's expression. He quickly approached and took the map, folded it and tucked it inside his robes.
Evan and the three of them walked behind Prof. Lupin and left the Grand hall. None of them dared to look back at Snape.
When they reached the lobby, they dared to speak.
"Professor, we…" Harry said quickly, apparently, he seemed to want to get the Marauder's Map.
"I don't want to hear explanations. Harry!" Lupin looked around the empty lobby. Other students were still behind in the grand hall. There were no other people besides them. He said in a low voice, "In fact, I just learned that this map was Many years ago, confiscated by Mr. Filch, I know this Parchment"
Harry and Hermione looked at him with great interest. Ron looked down and wondered what he was thinking, and Evan couldn't bury his head in his arms.
Professor Lupin was not just knowing the map, he was one of its makers.
Harry's luck was terrible. It was useless once it was handed in. Professor Lupin would never give the map back to harry.
"I don't want to know how you got it. To my surprise, you didn't plan to hand it over, especially with Sirius lurking around the castle!" Lupin turned to Hermione. "What you did was wrong, Hermione. I thought that unlike them, you would be more sensible."
"Don't blame Hermione. She just told me to hand it over." Harry asked curiously. "Professor, how do you know this map?"
"That is not something you should know, Harry." From Lupin's face, it was clear that he did not to want to say more on this topic.
"Well, then why did Snape think that I got it from its maker?" Harry continued to ask.
"That was because…" Lupin hesitated. "Because the person who made the map may want to seduce you out of school, they think it would be funny."
"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs" Evan interrupted.
It turned out that after the four of them graduated, this map fell into Filch's hands. This was the reason why it stayed within the school's perimeters.
This makes it look like James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Professor Lupin back in their schooldays must have been as mischievous as Fred and George are now, also making Filch feel a headache.
"Yes, that's them." Lupin nodded.
"Professor, do you know them?" Harry asked, looking impatient.
"We have met before." Lupin answered shortly and looked at Harry more seriously than usual.
"Wait a minute, Professor, about this map." Evan asked hastily. "If you know it, then you must know how it was made?"
"Oh, it requires a very deep knowledge of magic, not appropriate to your age…"
"Professor, I don't want to know the specific way to make this map." Evan continued, "Just tell me how those four were able to make it. I think they needed a source of great magical power."
Professor Lupin looked at Evan in astonishment. Harry, Ron, and Hermione also looked at him in surprise, wondering why Evan suddenly asked such a question.
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That was indeed what Evan most urgently wanted to know. Other information, such as the identity of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, or the relationship between Professor Lupin and Sirius Black, the truth of Black's escape, etc, he already knew all of that.
What he doesn't know right now is the Marauder's Map making method. Well, not everything about that. After all, the production principle and the magic knowledge involved with making it are things he can find in books in the library.
But the most crucial thing was the method with which Professor Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew got the magical power necessary to make it.
From what happened with Snape a short while ago, it was obvious that the Marauder's Map was endowed with thoughts,
About the other two magical objects that have thoughts, one of them is the Sorting Hat made by the Four Founders of Hogwarts. Each of them had a lot of magical power. They also possessed a lot of profound magical knowledge that had been lost, so it was normal that they would be able to integrate their thoughts into the Sorting Hat.
As for Voldemort's Horcruxes, killing was the source of their power. Only the power of death is strong enough to make one's soul split.
The Marauder's Map is not comparable to the Sorting Hat or the Horcruxes, but it also possessed its own thoughts.
Like what Evan had previously speculated, Professor Lupin and the other three must have obtained some source of magical power to create the map and complete their own Animagus transformation.
There are many ways to do this: taking a lot of magical potions to increase a person's magical power to an unimaginable level, or using the help of a powerful magic item.
For example, the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's hands has this ability!
"Professor?" Evan whispered to Lupin.
"Oh, they had found a place in the Forbidden Forest… They needed to get their approval to go in… In short, it is dangerous. It isn't something that you should not know at this age." Professor Lupin said ambiguously, "What you should do is to follow the school rules and do not expect me to cover up for you again."
Hearing his words, Evan was lost in thought.
"There is obviously something hidden in the forest that I do not know about. It is probably a very powerful magical item."
Judging from Lupin's expression and reading between the lines, that place or thing should be very dangerous.
What could it be?
At the beginning, Evan thought that it was Dumbledore's Elder Wand. It does not seem to be the case anymore. Lupin and his friends should have made the Marauder's Map behind Dumbledore's back.
In addition to the Deathly Hallows, there are many other powerful magical items.
For example, the legendary Philosopher's Stone, the Sword of Gryffindor, the Gordian Knot, the Stonehenge… Evan also remembered that he had seen a Book of Magic dedicated to this topic, which recorded a lot of similar legendary magical items.
Each of them is very powerful, with strong magical power and once existed in real life, leaving a wonderful epic legend behind in the history of magic.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of them are lost in the long river of history.
The remaining few pieces, such as the Stonehenge, were also collected and studied by the Department of Mysteries and were top secret in the Ministry of Magic.
Of course, those legendary objects that have been lost did not really disappear, because magical objects of this calibre are almost impossible to damage.
They are likely to be hidden somewhere or inherited as family heirlooms in certain pure blood wizard families, but no one knows their locations.
It is like the three of Deathly Hallows. They are gifts given by Death to the three brothers. It is said that the man who possesses all the Deathly Hallows becomes master of death itself.
The three Deathly Hallows are legendary magical items. They are also believed to have been lost in the book that Evan read.
But in reality, the Elder Wand was in Dumbledore's hands and the cloak was in Harry's.
The Resurrection Stone was made into a Horcrux by Voldemort.
Judging from the current situation, there is a good chance that the Forbidden Forest hides a legendary magical item. Like the Elder Wand, it can provide a lot of magical power for a wizard.
It seems that they needed to go to the forest to check it out.
In addition to that, Professor Lupin just mentioned that they had to get "their" approval to go in. "Their"? Who does that refer to?!
What strange creatures are living in the forest?
In addition to knowing that there are Centaurs, Acromantulas, unicorns and hippogriffs, there are other magical animals that Evan knew nothing about.
And this phrase reminds him of the four founders and the secret treasure keys that they have left.
Evan remembered the last sentence of the golden writing behind Godric Gryffindor's statue: "The key to unlocking the treasure is the courage buried deep in your heart. You need to get recognition of his proud followers!"
The followers, and the ones Professor Lupin has just mentioned, could they be the same group of people? The common thing between them is the need to get their recognition.
If they were the same people, wouldn't the legendary magical item in the forest be the key to Gryffindor's treasure?
All seems to fit together. This explains why such a powerful magical item is hidden in the school's forbidden forest, without Dumbledore doing anything about it.
"You guys must abide by the school rules and shouldn't sneak out of school. The current situation is particularly grim. I can't allow you to underestimate the Dementors or get other misunderstandings. Although Evan's corporeal Patronus can resist them, the most horrible thing about these monsters is the…"
"Dementor's kiss?!" Hermione whispered.
"Yes, Hermione!" Lupin's face showed a little smile. "That's the most horrible and powerful weapon of the Dementors. They only use it at the end and the worst. They will put back their hoods before those that they want to destroy…"
"What is under the hood, Professor?"
"No one knows. I think there will always be something like a mouth under the hood because they clamp their jaw around the victim's mouth and consume his or her soul."
Harry suddenly thought of the terrifying image he saw on the Quidditch pitch through the Dementor's hood before he fainted.
"If it is really done, it will be worse than death." Lupin said, "You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you'll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no…anything. There's no chance at all of recovery. You'll just exist as an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever… lost."
No one spoke. Everyone was trying to portray the fearful picture in his mind and thinking about having his soul consumed through his mouth.
"You guys must be careful not to think that you've driven away the Dementors and take them lightly," Lupin continued. "What happened last time on the Quidditch pitch made them very unhappy. I just saw from The Daily Prophet that the Ministry of Magic had promised the Dementors that they would get to do it after they catch Black."
"That's what he deserves," Harry said suddenly.
"Do you think so?" Lupin asked softly. "Do you really think anyone deserves this?"
"Yes!" said Harry. "I heard everyone say he was the evilest black wizard under Voldemort's. He killed a lot of people!"
"Among all those who were finally confirmed to be Death Eaters, Sirius Black was the last one I ever expected!" said Lupin. "I used to think I knew him well. He was very dangerous, more than what you'd ever think…."
Professor Lupin stopped and seemed to suddenly realize something.
"Wait a minute, Harry, you didn't plan to use the map to find Sirius Black?!" he said in a serious tone.
Harry's expression was full of surprise when he heard Lupin.
So strange, why does everyone think he would take the initiative to find Sirius Black?
First, it was Mr. Weasley, then Malfoy, and then Snape. Now even Professor Lupin thinks so.
Are all four of them mental?
Why would he go behind someone who wants to kill him? Is there anything he does not know about it? This is really too suspicious.