Chapter 158 156. No way to go
After introducing Dumbledore to the students of the school at breakfast, Sirius got together with Lupine and Lily in a professor's lounge.
This was not the first time they had met since they escaped from Azkaban. As early as last semester, when Lupine first came to the carriage to work as a defense professor, they had a private meeting.
Their hatred is the most sympathetic, and all three of them are the most direct victims of the ridiculous prophecy of the savior.
And now they are reunited in the carriage, also for the things of the past.
"If the one who sneaked into the carriage from the beginning was Wormtail, he's only done two things so far. Convinced the third Weasley son to rebel, and reported the location of the carriage to the Dementor. "
Lupine was undoubtedly the calmest among them all the time. He knew that if he wanted to find Wormtail smoothly, he had better understand his purpose of coming to the carriage.
Lily said in a cold voice.
"In fact, there is no way to help us by exploring what he came to the school for. These orders must have been given to him by his master. It is very likely that he himself does not know why he did this. We want to catch him. We can rely on what we know about him before."
She looked at Lupine and Sirius.
"All of us know that he is a very timid person. When he was in school, the small group among you was the one he dared not violate school rules. Later, he chose to betray, and a large part of the reason was He succumbed to his fear of Voldemort."
In private, Lily directly called the Dark Lord by his old name without any scruples.
"So it was definitely not his intention to come to this carriage. He must know that I have always been in this school, and that every day I live, I would like to kill him with my own hands. This is Voldemort's strict order to him. Force him to obey!"
"With a forced mentality, even if he comes to the carriage, it is impossible for him to stay by our side every day. Seeing me, Lupine and Dumbledore appearing in front of him all the time will scare him to death. Rat guts! If he wants to hide, he will definitely hide in a place where we basically don’t see us every day.”
"And before that, Dumbledore has led us to conduct three inspections of the entire carriage, among which we have also guessed whether the infiltrator is an Animagus. Dumbledore may also be aware of this He performed a complete reverse transfiguration spell in the carriage, but there was nothing to gain. This means that he found a place in the carriage where he could avoid the magic, and this place also met the previous condition. Usually we don’t notice it, and we don’t go there.”
Lupine was the calmest of them all, and Lily must have been the smartest of them all.
Before, she had no clue about the infiltrator's whereabouts because she didn't have any information about this person at all. Now that he knew his identity, and he was one of the people she knew best, all inferences became obvious. followed up.
The number of times Sirius came to the carriage was very few, he could hear that Lily's analysis made sense, but he still kept his eyes open.
"So where is this place?"
Lily didn't go to see Sirius. She always knew that this wizard who was closer to James than his biological brother was just like his Animagus form, a stupid guy who was only suitable for accepting orders and executing them.
Of the three people in this lounge, the only one she can discuss with is Lupine.
"We usually have classes in a carriage. There are a lot of potion materials in the Potions class that I need to cultivate and store by myself. Your Defense Against the Dark Arts class has also applied for permission from Dumbledore since the beginning of this year, and found a lot of empty classrooms. It is used to store some dark magic creatures, so we have been to almost every room in the car. Is there a room that we don’t or rarely go in, and we never take the initiative to think of it?”
Lupine has been listening carefully to Lily's analysis, his eyes are thinking, and his brows are unconsciously frowned.
The atmosphere fell silent, not only Lupine was thinking, Lily was also recalling with a cold face, wondering if they had missed something.
Sirius fidgeted a little restlessly on the chair. He couldn't help at this moment, he could only wait for Lily and Lupine to come up with the result after using their brains.
And when the lounge was quiet, there was a sudden sound of slight, somewhat messy footsteps above their heads.
The sound of footsteps stunned Lupine and Lily, who were originally thinking.
A light suddenly lit up in the eyes of both of them.
"That doesn't have to be a room!" Lupine said excitedly.
Lily's breathing also obviously became short of breath: "You are the professor of Defense and History of Magic, and I am a part-time professor of Potions and other elective courses. We can use any room in the car as a classroom, but only Will not use one of the most special!"
Hearing what the two of them said like guessing a riddle, Sirius became more and more restless.
"Okay! Tell me! Where is this place!"
Lupine and Lily turned their heads to look at him together, and said in unison.
"Astronomy classroom!"
To be precise, there is no classroom at all in the astronomy class. This class requires students to observe the starry sky, and there must be no place in the carriage suitable for this activity. Therefore, when the carriage was in exile, Dumbledore sorted out the piece on the top of the carriage. The space is used as a place for astronomy classes.
In addition to the classes there, Jon applied for permission from Professor McGonagall when he was in the first grade. It is usually forbidden for students to enter without permission, and the astronomy class is basically at night. Flitwick, who is in charge of teaching astronomy, Except that they rarely go there during the class, not to mention Lily and Lupine who have nothing to do with this class.
In addition, during the previous three searches, although the roof of the carriage was also involved, it was not the focus of the search. Dumbledore's reverse transformation magic might not have detected this place!
After figuring out the key point, Lily and Lupine didn't stay any longer. They turned around and went out of the lounge after they left, but Sirius moved faster than them, and rushed out after they mentioned the astronomy classroom. door.
It is the morning now, and the students are basically in class, only the three of them in the corridor hurried towards the end of the carriage, then pushed open the door marked with the signboard of the astronomy class, and walked from a spiral staircase inside to Up, and finally came to the roof of the carriage.
Although students are usually not allowed to come in here at will, they still have to be arranged by Mag to carry out routine cleaning work. The noise Lily and the others heard just now from the roof of the carriage in the lounge was made by the cleaning students walking on it. sound.
Lily said to them after walking on the roof of the car.
"You don't need to do the cleaning work today, let's all go back and rest."
The sixth grade students had no objection to this even if they were puzzled, and after they left the carriage, Lily and the others each drew out their wands.
"Attention, if you find him, you must not let him run away."
They were standing on the roof of the carriage, and the carriage was driving on a suburban road, surrounded by Muggle cars from time to time, but the drivers seemed to have a sense of this vehicle that should never have appeared on the road at the end of the twentieth century , turn a blind eye.
The villages and fields in the distance were constantly retreating, and Lily and the others were divided into three directions, and conducted a comprehensive search of the entire astronomy classroom.
Soon Lupine found important clues, and he called both Sirius and Lily over.
In front of him, there is a palm-sized, lifted floor, and under the floor is a recessed space about less than half a square in size.
Looking at the traces on the edge of the plank's fracture, it was obvious that this place had not been dug out for a long time, and there was a layer of cashmere-like cushion on the bottom. I found the same gray hair in the classroom, surrounded by many dried chicken bones and nut shells.
After seeing this place, both Lily and Sirius held their breath involuntarily.
"He's been hiding here all along!" Sirius said through gritted teeth.
Lupine picked up the gray fur from the cushion and muttered to himself.
"That's him and that's what he left behind."
And the more this time came, Lily became calmer. She stared at the dry and hard chicken bones and other food residues, and said in a flat voice that was obviously deliberately suppressed.
"This is just the place where he used to hide. The garbage looks like it hasn't been cleaned up for at least a month, and he hasn't been back here during this time!"
"But we can't rule out that he really gave up on this place completely." Lupine said while casting a spell on the movable floor, "This can help us know whether he will still be here later." return."
Then he restored the trap to its original state.
They found new evidence that Wormtail was on the wagon, but they still haven't really found out where he is.
Lily's conjectures are all correct, but Wormtail is obviously more cautious. This place in the astronomy classroom is very likely to be just one of his three caves.
After that, they conducted a large-scale inspection of the entire roof of the carriage, but found nothing more, and finally had no choice but to return to the carriage.
The new clues found in the astronomy classroom gave Lily and the others more motivation. During the remaining days of October, they conducted a complete inspection of other suspicious places in the carriage, but found no new clues. clues.
This gave them a strong anxiety, none of them said the most likely guess - that is, Wormtail is probably not on this carriage anymore!
The search by the three of Lily did not have any impact on the students in the school. Jon has been working hard to study the Patronus Charm during this time. For some reason, he has a very bad premonition in his heart.
Even though the school is calm now, and there have been no other accidents since the dementor attack at the beginning of school, Jon is always a little uneasy.
This kind of anxiety has its source. In this carriage, Jon can be said to be the person who is most familiar with Voldemort, who is in a high position, besides Dumbledore. Even if he becomes more rational, his personality is still different. Rarely does it change.
He is vengeful and scheming. In the first half of the year, he suffered the humiliation of being cut off from his base camp. It is absolutely impossible for Voldemort to just do what he is doing now.
It seems that the less powerful his counterattack is, the more Jon feels that there is a stormy sea hidden behind it.
In the last week of October, five days before Halloween, Dumbledore suddenly called Jon to the principal's office in the evening.
The headmaster's room remained the same as before, but Jon felt a different atmosphere, and this unusual feeling came from the portraits of previous headmasters on the wall.
When he came here before, most of these portraits would pretend to be snoring and secretly open his eyes to look at him, but now these portraits are all empty.
None of the people inside remained among the portraits, leaving only empty photo frames, and the entire wall looked like a photo frame store displaying its products.
"Perhaps the current situation has reached the most critical situation since the fall of Hogwarts Castle seven years ago, Jon."
Dumbledore looked deeply at Jon. He didn't have any extra words, but directly uttered a thunderous news in Jon's ear.
Even though he had always had an early warning in his heart, Jon still looked at him blankly.
"Professor, I don't understand that we have been surrounded by the Dark Lord without knowing it?"
Dumbledore's voice was calm, but it was because he was different from usual, with an inexplicable calm that made people feel more uneasy.
"If it is surrounded, we just need to find a way to break out of the encirclement. Even if the Dark Lord comes over in person, I am sure to restrain him, and then let the Order of the Phoenix lead them to continue fleeing, but the current situation is Yes, we've got nowhere to go."
He pulled out a French newspaper from the side of the desk and placed it in front of Jon. On it was a determined witch raising her fist to the camera.
Knowing that Jon couldn't understand the French above, Dumbledore directly read the news headline on the newspaper headline.
“[Temporary member meeting held ahead of schedule, will decide the future of the French magic world on October 25]”
(end of this chapter)