Chapter 138 Before Christmas

"Your answer is too direct, isn't it? I thought you would deny it."

Sherlock looked at him in surprise.

Lupin and Sherlock looked at each other. Although he was dressed very simply, thin, and pale like a long-term patient, his eyes were unusually bright.

"I am also a person who doesn't like to beat around the bush. I thought before that Snape's hint would not let the students notice anything, but it would definitely arouse your suspicion. But to be honest, I didn't expect you to find me directly and ask me directly."

Sherlock cut the steak on the plate.

"Some things are better to ask directly than to guess blindly. I really didn't expect Dumbledore to really recruit a werewolf, but thinking about it carefully, this is actually quite in line with his character."

Lupin, who had made his words clear, was now relaxed and drank the last mouthful of porridge in the bowl.

"What are you going to do next? Are you going to tell all the students and teachers in the school about my identity?"

Sherlock chewed the steak and blinked.

"Why should I do this? Even Snape, who hates you so much, only uses this kind of covert method to hint at your identity. Why should I do this?"

"I came to ask you specifically because I'm curious. Since Dumbledore knows your identity and recruited you, it means that he trusts you enough. We have also worked together for three months and I think you are a good person."

Lupin smiled dumbly.

"In fact, I always feel that I have failed Dumbledore's trust. He knew that I was so poor outside that I couldn't even afford to eat, so he recruited me into Hogwarts, but I am a werewolf after all."

Sherlock waved his hand.

"Don't be so unconfident about yourself, buddy. I remember that a wizard had prepared wolf poison potion not long ago. This potion can keep werewolves awake when they transform. Didn't Snape prepare the potion specifically for you in school?"

"You guessed this too?" Lupin looked at him in surprise.

"Don't think I'm so great. My Divination grades were so bad when I was in school that I stopped studying after the sixth grade. Harry told me that he saw you drink the potion prepared by Snape and was worried that it was poisonous."

"Harry, he has some prejudice against Snape."

"To be honest, what I find more interesting is that Dumbledore actually asked Snape to prepare the Wolfsbane Potion for you." Sherlock raised his eyebrows and said. "The fact that Snape wanted to expose your identity is enough to show that he has a big grudge against you. Dumbledore asked him to prepare the potion for his enemy. He is really mean."

Lupin looked bitter.

"Because the only person in Hogwarts who can prepare the Wolfsbane Potion is Snape."

"He didn't put any chronic poison in it for you, which proves that he actually has some bottom line."

"Yes, I have to thank him for this."

Sherlock swallowed the last bite of steak, clapped his hands and stood up from the chair.

"Okay, I know what I want to know. Now that we have asked clearly, we know everything about each other."

After confirming Lupin's identity, Sherlock didn't want to do anything.

He had some doubts about how Lupin, with his good-natured personality and popularity among students in class, could have been a professor for one year in the original book.

Now it is clear that his identity as a werewolf means that he cannot stay in Hogwarts for long.

Even if there is wolfsbane potion, given the danger of werewolves, as long as Lupin's identity is exposed, he will definitely not be able to stay in Hogwarts.

What's more, there is a Snape in the castle who is secretly doing bad things. It is a question whether Lupin can survive a full year.

However, Sherlock is still very relaxed with someone helping to take on the task of professor. He hopes that Lupin can stay in Hogwarts for a longer time.

A week passed quickly.

On Saturday night, Harry came to Sherlock's office after dinner at the best time before.

Sherlock was studying a letter, and when Harry came in, he did not hide it.

"Who wrote to you? Professor." Harry scratched his head and asked.

Sherlock did not hide it from him.

"Fleur."

"Miss Delacour? What did she say?"

"Nothing, just asked me if I was in class at Hogwarts and what she did in school. It seemed like she wrote it out of boredom."

Sherlock shook his head, put the letter on the side of the table, and began to seriously guide Harry in learning the Patronus Charm.

"Tell me first, how much do you know about this spell?"

Harry recalled when he heard Sherlock's question.

"I saw Professor Lupin use it once on the train. It seemed that some bright silver light threads could be emitted from the wand. Dementors are very afraid of this kind of light thread, and they dare not touch it."

"Also, when I fell from the sky on the Quidditch field, Ron and Hermione said that a silver-white bird suddenly flew out of the sky, and it drove all the Dementors together. It was more powerful than just silver light. That bird should also be the Patronus Charm, right?"

Sherlock drew out his wand and waved it gently.

"Expecto Patronus."

Bright silver light particles sprayed out from the tip of the wand, and soon formed a bright silver bird in front of Sherlock, and then it flapped its wings and landed on Harry's shoulder.

"That's the bird, my Patronus Charm."

Harry looked at the bird that landed on his shoulder in surprise, stretched out his hands, and Sherlock's Patronus naturally jumped onto his hands.

He felt his palms were slightly cold, and there was no other feeling like lifting a heavy object.

"So this is your Patronus, Professor! The students of Gryffindor are all guessing who summoned it."

Harry observed the silver bird for a long time, and finally found its species in surprise.

"It's a crow."

After being surprised, he was a little surprised why he was surprised.

What else could Professor Forrest's Patronus be except a crow?

The crow jumped a few times on Harry's hand, then flew back to Sherlock's shoulder, staring at him silently.

Sherlock directed Harry, taught him the wand gestures of the Patronus Charm, corrected his pronunciation, and then asked him to try it for the first time in front of him.

"Expecto Patronus."

Harry waved his wand as Sherlock said.

However, he summoned nothing, and not even a silver thread appeared at the tip of the wand.

"The last stroke of the wand should be raised. This movement does not need to be too obvious, as long as there is such a movement." Sherlock pointed out his casting gesture and reminded him, "Before chanting the spell, you have to find the right feeling. This is a spell that requires extremely high emotions. The more positive emotions you have, the more successful it can be used. So think more about happy things before casting the spell."

Although Harry studied very hard and his talent in Defense Against the Dark Arts was indeed very high, such advanced spells were not so easy to master.

Until the curfew was about to start, Harry did not succeed in releasing a ray of light with his wand.

He was a little disappointed, but Sherlock had expected such a situation.

If Harry could really learn something in just this little time, then Sherlock should doubt whether his talent was ridiculously poor. It took almost a year of research before he could finally summon the Patronus.

From then on until the period before Christmas, Hogwarts maintained a peaceful life.

Black did not break into the castle for the second time. After the Dementors went wild in the Quidditch match, Dumbledore did not know what warning they had issued, and no Dementors dared to enter the territory of Hogwarts at will.

It has been more than a month since Silk returned to Germany, and there has been no response. If Sherlock did not know that she was not the kind of irresponsible person, others would have thought that she had really crossed the river and destroyed the bridge, and abandoned the donkey after it had been used.

But during this period, the locket that had been worn around his neck had not shown any abnormality. Except that it could not be taken off and it was a bit troublesome when taking a bath or sleeping, it was no different from an ordinary decoration.

At the end of the first semester of Hogwarts this year, the last week in Hogwarts before the Christmas holiday was another Hogsmeade week.

Two weeks ago, the area where Hogwarts is located had snowed for several days in a row, covering the entire castle with a thick layer of snowflakes. Recently, the weather began to clear up.

Except for Harry, everyone in the third grade and above of the whole school was very happy.

Hermione was planning to bring back some Fluffy Mints from Honeydukes for her parents as Christmas gifts. Her parents both liked the taste of this candy.

Harry was very angry about being the only one staying at school again, but last weekend, he successfully used the Patronus Charm to cast some silver light from his wand for the first time under Sherlock's instruction.

Such excitement offset some of the pain of not being able to go to Hogsmeade for the weekend.

He decided to borrow a book "Classifying Broomsticks" from Wood and spend the day learning about different flying broomsticks to prepare for buying a new broomstick for himself.

Since Harry's Nimbus 2000 was torn apart by the Whomping Willow, he also tried to practice with the school's flying broomsticks.

But those old Meteor series broomsticks were slow and shaky. For Harry, who was not short of money in the wizarding world, he naturally prepared to buy a new broomstick.

On the Saturday morning when everyone could go to Hogsmeade, Harry said goodbye to Ron and Hermione at the school gate, and then walked up the marble stairs alone and returned to Gryffindor Tower.

Snowflakes were falling outside the window, and the castle was very quiet.

Just as he turned around halfway down the fourth-floor corridor, he saw Fred and George peering at him from behind a one-eyed, hunchbacked witch statue.

"Hey! Harry, come here!"