"Professor, why would I want to find Black?!" Harry asked slowly in a sceptical tone. "He escaped from Azkaban to kill me, didn't he? He came to find me and get his revenge for Voldemort, isn't that the case?"
"Yes, that's the way it is." Prof. Lupin's expression was somewhat unnatural. He subconsciously avoided Harry's gaze.
"But that is certainly not the whole truth. I can feel that you are hiding something from me!" Harry continued staring at Professor Lupin.
"There's nothing at all..."
"Professor, I'm not a child anymore!" Harry said quickly, "You once told me that you were my father's friend, and that you were also very familiar with Black. You must know something! Why does Black want to kill me? Why do you not want me to look for him?"
Hearing Harry, Professor Lupin went silent for a moment, then said: "Harry, there are things that I shouldn't tell you. I don't have such qualification."
"So, you just avoid me and say nothing, as if I were a fool!" Harry took a deep breath and said in a lost, sad voice. "Professor, when the Dementors approached me, I saw and heard something, you know?"
Professor Lupin shook his head and looked worried.
"I could hear my mother screaming and begging Voldemort. If you heard my mother screaming like that before being killed, you wouldn't forget it." Harry's eyes were red "I can feel it, Professor; Black has something to do with my parents' death! Malfoy once told me: "If I were you, I would choose revenge. I would find him by myself!"
"…"
"Harry, Malfoy was talking nonsense…" Hermione said worried.
"No, he must have known something." Harry shouted, looking back at Professor Lupin. "Please Professor, tell me the truth, for my parents!"
Professor Lupin's expression was very sad. Harry's words greatly touched him. He looked at Harry and vaguely seemed to see his former friend, James.
"I need to talk to you alone, Harry!" Lupin sighed. "You're right. We shouldn't keep it from you. If his son doesn't know about Sirius, James will be disappointed."
Lupin led Harry to his office. Evan, Hermione, and Ron stood in the dark hall following them with their eyes anxiously.
"Evan, what do you think Professor Lupin would say to Harry?" asked Hermione.
"Anything about his parents' past is possible." Evan thought for a moment and didn't know how much Lupin was going to tell Harry. He was afraid that Harry wouldn't take it well at that time.
"Well, can you wait for Harry in the Common room? I still feel that there's something wrong." Hermione said in an uncertain tone. "Ron and I will go to Hogsmeade to buy everyone's Christmas gifts."
"I'm going to look for Scabbers!" Ron, who hadn't spoken yet, suddenly talked, with a dull and monotonous tone.
"Ron?!" Hermione wanted to tell Ron not to worry about his rat and that it would be back by itself.
But when she saw Ron's appearance, she hesitated and said nothing.
Because of Crookshanks, she felt very awkward dealing with the rat's issue.
"I'm going to look for Scabbers!" Ron repeated again, not caring about Evan and Hermione's reaction, he then went back to the tower.
Under the torchlight, his silhouette seemed extremely gloomy and strange.
Evan frowned and looked at Ron. The latter's behaviour was too unusual today. Whether it was when facing Snape or Professor Lupin, he was too calm and different from the Ron that he knew.
And how did Ron know that the parchment was the Marauder's Map?!
"What's the matter with Ron?!" Hermione said in surprise.
"I can't go to Hogsmeade alone. There are so many things to buy. I won't be able to handle it!"
"If you do not mind, I can accompany you, Hermione," Evan suggested.
"No, Evan, you will be discovered by professors."
"I don't think so. I've been there many times and I'm very familiar with the Hogsmeade stores. I just have to avoid being noticed by Filch." Evan picked up the schoolbag in his hand. "Moreover, Harry's invisibility cloak is still here."
"But…"
Hermione was hesitant. She knew that Evan had been to Hogsmeade many times before, and that unlike Harry, Evan didn't have to worry about Sirius Black and the Dementors.
Since there was not much risk, and he would not be discovered by professors, it seemed that she had no real reason to oppose it.
Although it might violate school rules, Hermione was no longer as strict as she used to be when she first entered school. After all, she couldn't even count the times that she violated the rules herself.
Hermione's also had a strange feeling deep down in her heart that she could not tell.
She hoped that Evan could accompany her to Hogsmeade, especially on Christmas Eve.
"I'll take the secret passage beneath the one-eyed witch statue on the third floor, Hermione." Evan said in a relaxed tone. "The secret passage leads to the Honeydukes Sweetshop. You can wait for me there. See you soon!"
Evan left the hall and quickly walked behind the one-eyed witch statue on the third floor. He looked around in the hallway and didn't find any one besides him.
"Dissendium!" Evan gently knocked on the stone witch.
The hump on the statue immediately opened just wide enough for a small person to slide down to the hidden passageway.
Evan climbed into the hole and then moved forward.
Compared with this narrow secret passage, he preferred the more spacious one behind the large mirror on the Fourth floor. He passed through that passage to Hogsmeade last semester.
But just a few days after the start of the school year, Fred and George told him that the secret passage collapsed and was completely blocked. Now, among all the routes in the castle that lead to Hogsmeade, the one he's taking now was the only one left that's unknown to Filch.
Evan slipped a long way forward. This road was just like a stone slide. Then he fell into a cold, damp land.
He stood up and looked around, and found only darkness.
"Lumos!" Evan raised his wand.
The path in front of his eyes was curved, it was no different from a rabbit's tunnel.
Evan hurriedly walked, and because of the unevenness of the ground, he was staggering from time to time. He held his wand in front of him all the way.
About an hour later, Evan reached the bottom of a broken stairs, and found that the stone steps stretched out to where he could not see.
He rested for a while, gasped, and began to climb upwards. One hundred, two hundred steps, Evan climbed the stairs, putting all his attention on his feet. After over three thousand steps, he slammed into something hard.
It was a floor door. Evan pushed it open and climbed out.
When he came out of the floor door, he smelled a strong odour of blood, as if there was a dead body hidden in the cellar.
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Evan hurriedly pulled out his wand and looked around vigilantly.
The room was full of chairs and boxes that surrounded him, and not far away from where he was, there was a wooden staircase leading upstairs. He could hear the voices of several people above him, a bell ringing, and the creaking of the opening and closing of doors.
In the cellar, the sweet smell of candies mixed with the pungent odour of blood made Evan feel nauseous. He cautiously approached a wooden box beside him.
The closer he was, the stronger the odour was!
He was about to open the wooden box when he heard footsteps going downstairs and a woman shouting.
"Honey, take another bucket of Jelly Slugs. We're about to be out of stock!"
"I know." A man came downstairs.
Evan hurriedly turned around and he saw a bald middle-aged man walking down.
It was Mr. Ambrosius Flume, the owner of the Honeydukes Sweetshop. He walked into the cellar and suddenly froze. He was surprised to see Evan standing in front of him.
"Hello, Mr. Flume," said Evan softly.
"Oh, it's you, Evan, you scared me. I thought it was someone else in our warehouse." Flume sighed and patted his chest. "What are you doing with your wand?"
"I smelled an odour of blood…" The wand in Evan's hand did not drop.
"Oh, you have already smelled it!" Flume said hastily. "I was intending to talk to you about it. I want you to publish an ad for our newly developed candy."
"An ad?!" Evan looked at him strangely.
Flume walked over and opened the wooden box next to Evan and it was full of Blood-Flavoured Lollipops.
Evan was a bit embarrassed. The odour of blood he had smelled was that of this candy. He went too quickly for his wand. Fortunately, no acquaintances were there.
"We don't think it's too much for our new product bloody lollipops." Flume frowned and said, "I sometimes don't understand your taste, young wizards. It was the most requested flavour in our last poll."
"Are you sure this is not for vampires?"
"Of course not! I thought this candy would be cool!" Flume continued. "But virtually nobody bought it. The stock of these bloody lollipops is almost backlogging the entire warehouse. I need your help, Evan. The last time, the propaganda on the Cockroach Clusters was very effective."
Evan remembered his first advertisement for Honeydukes in the last semester. The Cockroach Clusters were piled up in the warehouse and never bought. But after the ad, even now there are still some people in school who say they kept eating that stuff until today.
"I'll help you, Mr. Flume!"
Evan could not understand the fact that even though the Honeydukes traditional sweets were clearly popular and well received, they have kept developing these unorthodox new products.
Anyway, when he heard Evan words, Flume was so happy that he packed a lot of Blood-Flavoured Lollipops and gave them to him.
When Evan climbed out of the cellar with those almost un-edible candies, he saw the Honeydukes store full of Hogwarts students.
There were so many people around that he couldn't see where Hermione was.
Evan walked between them, trying to find Hermione from one shelf to another. Suddenly, at the corner of a chocolate-covered shelf, he accidentally bumped into a girl and knocked her candies into the ground.
"Excuse me!" Evan lowered his head and picked up her sweets. He looked up just to see a beautiful girl standing in front of him.
The girl had long, shiny, dark hair. She was wearing a Wizard's robe from the Ravenclaw House with a smile on her face that gives off a feeling of kindness and comfort.
"I was too absorbed in choosing chocolate. Are you okay?" The girl smiled at Evan. "Hello, I'm Cho Chang from Ravenclaw."
Evan was shocked. It turned to be Cho Chang, and she was indeed very beautiful. No wonder that Harry, the guy who so hard to move, was so attracted to her.
"Oh, hello, I'm Evan Mason, from…"
"I know you!" she blushed saying that and she hurried to explain. "I've heard from Luna that you have a newspaper and I've got a subscription for each issue. I think it's very helpful, and… In short, all Ravenclaw girls are talking about you."
The atmosphere was a bit embarrassing. Evan didn't know that he was so popular with girls.
"I've heard of you, too. You're Ravenclaw's Seeker!" Evan had no words to say. In addition to this information, he only remembered that Cho Chang was the girlfriend of Cedric Diggory. After the guy died, she and Harry had a fruitless short relationship.
Although her emotional experience was relatively rich, he had to admit that Cho Chang was really beautiful.
"Do you like Quidditch too?!" Cho seemed to be happy to find a common topic with Evan. "I have watched the game between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Your team is very strong, especially the Seeker Harry Potter; he is very fast."
"But we still lost to Hufflepuff," Said Evan. "I heard that in the last few days, you beat them!"
"It was just a fluke. Their Seeker Cedric is also very good." Cho paused. "However, the rest of the Hufflepuff team is not on his level. The score would have been in Gryffindor's favour if you didn't meet the Dementors…"
"Yeah!" Evan nodded, even though he didn't really know what she was talking about.
This is a rare opportunity to get in touch with such a beautiful girl. He was there, endlessly talking about Quidditch even though he had no interest at all in such things.
"I was almost desperate when we faced so many Dementors. Fortunately, your Patronus brought hope back to all of us!"
In Cho Chang's mind, came out the picture of the thin boy facing over a hundred Dementors on his own. That feeling… she would never forget it.
"Evan, are you free?!" She hesitated for a moment then she said, "We can go to the tea shop outside and sit for a while. I want to ask you about the use of the Patronus Charm. Is there any trick to learn it? No matter how hard I tried, all I manage to do is just making my wand shine a little bit."
There was indeed a trick to casting the Patronus Spell, and Evan was also willing to have an in-depth conversation about it with her.
After, Cho Chang invited him herself, he would be too stupid if he didn't understand what was going on.
But he saw Hermione just entering Honeydukes and looking for him with a smile. When she saw Cho with him, she looked very alert.
Choosing between these two beauties is really hard.
Deep down in his heart, Evan still preferred Hermione. With Cho, it was just her beauty that stunned him.
There was nothing else he could think of! Or maybe…
Evan looked again at the girl in front of him. Is that really the case?