Chapter 286

Hospital Wing.

Tonks woke up from the hospital bed, touched the clean white linen sheets, and felt a little confused for a while.

What’s with this situation?

She remembered that she had got rid of that old toad, no one was bothering her, and she decided to have a nice stroll around the campus, including going back to the common room to lie on the yellow and black striped soft-seat sofa for once again, and going to the kitchen to eat Yorkshire pudding, so how did she end up in the hospital wing?

“Ahem, are you awake? Tonks, by the way, I know your name from Professor Hap – Felix Hap.” A voice said.

Tonks jerked her head around and looked at the other side of the hospital bed; it belonged to a middle-aged (?) male wizard, his face still looks quite young, but his appearance looks frazzled, his hair is mixed with gray, and at the moment he is looking at her with an apologetic face.

Uh, let’s see, before I passed out, what was I doing? There is the sound of fighting and brawling, and I wanted to go over and see the lively …

“Did you knock me out?” She asked incredulously.

Lupin coughed twice in embarrassment, and although Professor Hap’s advice was for him to leave the person at the hospital wing and leave her alone, he decided to stay, or at least apologize.

“It was an accident …” he suddenly paused, the fourth time he had said that today.

Tonks shrugged and jumped off the hospital bed, “Wait – Madam Pomfrey suggested for a second observation.” Lupin said.

“Observe what, the awakening time of the stunning spell?” Tonks showed pride, “I’m guessing ten minutes, I’ve done counter training in the ministry and the best I could do was seven and a half, but it’s usually ten minutes.”

Lupin’s mouth opened slightly, and he wisely did not tell her the truth, that she had been hit by more than one stunning spell and had passed out for more than ten minutes, hoping that it would be a secret that only he knew. But–

“I was lying here for two hours?” Tonks looked at Madam Pomfrey in surprise, and on the way out, the Matron in charge stopped her and insisted on checking again.

“Or then?” Madam Pomfrey said impatiently, ” Well, even if you sleep all day, I wouldn’t care if Remus hadn’t said you might be on an official mission. … It’s fine now.”

She rambled away, and Tonks turned her head to look at Lupin and asked again for confirmation, “I was asleep for two hours?”

“… That’s right, I was going to tell you,” Lupin said stiffly.

“Ugh, forget it~,” Tonks said cheerfully, “You’re a professor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class? That’s really something …”

“Not me … well, how do you know I’m the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts class?”

“Or else? One of the things I look forward to most when I attend the school is to see what the new professor would look like.”

“Miss Tonks-”

“Call me Tonks, I haven’t formally introduced myself, Nymphadora Tonks, but don’t call me by my first name,” she muttered in a small voice, ” ‘Virgin Martyr’ is the English equivalent of my name, which is not that pleasant term to hear.”

“Hello, Tonks, my name is Remus Lupin.”

…

Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry is fiddling with his new haul – a very spooky nameless book, Ron curiously reached out and touched it, the surface of the book felt like water, as he touched it lightning-shaped lines would suddenly emerge.

Hermione asked worriedly, “You really want to learn Apparition?”

“That’s right,” Harry said decisively, “I think it suits me best, listen to me Hermione, I’ve been thinking about it for two hours, and now I still think I made the right choice.”

Coming back from classroom seven, or rather being escorted back by Percy, he was originally indignant, and he had the urge to cloak himself in his invisibility cloak and check out Professor Lupin’s office, but Percy Weasley was just two seats away, and he had been following Professor Hap’s instructions to keep an eye on or protect him.

Especially since he had been attacked just yesterday, and now the whole school knew that Sirius kept targeting him – and like a thousand rumours and legends in the school, it isn’t true.

He had to give up this tempting idea and started to study the dueling match prize Professor Hap had given him instead. He told Ron and Hermione his idea: “I had this idea when I was writing my dueling essay. Professor Flitwick said to find what you’re best at and make the most of your strengths… what am I best at?”

“It’s Quidditch,” Harry whispered, “And Professor Hap told me once that he envied my reflexes ….”

“Hiss~” Ron smacked his lips, “You mean you can whoosh later?” He gestured haphazardly with both hands, mimicking a continuous Apparition.

Harry said, “That’s what I have been hoping for …”

“Hermione!”

The twins came in from outside, Fred carrying a ginger cat in his hand, “Crookshanks has been lingering at the door, I think he’s brought you a present.” He said with a smirk.

Hermione lowered her head, “Crookshanks, come here.”

The ginger cat had something in its mouth, she just hoped it isn’t a big spider, or she’d have to clean it up again, and Crookshanks gently jumped up on the table and spat the stuff out of its mouth.

“It’s-” Hermione’s eyes widened.

“It’s the golem Professor Hap brought along with him today,” Harry affirmed, fiddling with it for a moment, “It looks like the armour model in the castle, and he was saying hello to me.”

Hermione patted the big cat’s head, “Why did you take the professor’s stuff? We should give it back to the professor.”

“That’s right,” Harry immediately agreed, he especially wanted to ask about Professor Lupin, if there is a legitimate reason, Percy will not stop him, right?

The knight at the table – or rather, Sirius, had a depressed look on his face. He was thrown out by Lupin, knowing that he couldn’t help and staying would just add to the mess, so he rushed off to find Felix.

First he went to classroom seven, no one was inside; then he went to his office, dodging the little wizards’ dirty paws along the way, tapping hard on the door, no response, he barely climbed up the window, only to find it empty.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He didn’t know what to do for a moment, maybe looking for Dumbledore would be a good option? But he simply didn’t know the password, from the office, he met Crookshanks.

Crookshanks is his ally, providing a lot of information about the castle to him, he has been grateful that this cat is smart enough to distinguish that he is a human, but can also judge whether he is good or bad.

This time too, Crookshanks recognized him and kept trying to communicate with him, but he was under magic and couldn’t speak – unless he got rid of the candy armour he is wearing.

He could only gesticulate, but unfortunately, Crookshanks, although smart, is obviously not that smart enough.

After some ineffective communication, Crookshanks took him to the common room.

Ron looked at him with interest. “Can you talk? Hey! Percy has one which can talk.”

“Ouch!”

Sirius angrily stabbed Ron’s finger with his knight’s sword. Ron felt so painful that he fell on the table, making him groggy.

“Come on, Ron!”

Sirius heard the voice like the sound of nature, what is this little girl’s name, she is also the owner of Crookshanks, she is really a good girl.

Hermione picked up the knight, “Let’s go, let’s return it to the professor.”

They walked all the way to the door, Harry staring nervously at Percy, but he didn’t stop them, maybe thinking that two hours is more than what Professor Hap expected?

Harry is glad to see him bow his head again, fiddling with the advanced golem, and beside him, the twins kept spinning around him.

“You should let us see it, maybe we can add some new features, like — suddenly pulling out a Dungbomb and throwing it at someone’s face?”

Harry closed the common room door, shutting the Weasley brothers’ ruckus behind him, and then two seniors approached their way excitedly: “Have you heard? A little girl in Slytherin set off a big mess…”

“What happened?” his companion asked with interest.

“You would have never guessed it, she let out a big snake in the Slytherin common room!”

———–

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