As March arrived, the tournament they participated in over the weekend could be considered redemption for Oliver Wood and all the Gryffindor Quidditch team members.
At the beginning of this term, the Gryffindor team defeated Ravenclaw, and now Ravenclaw has defeated Hufflepuff, giving the Gryffindor team who lost to the dementors last term another chance at winning.
This splendid result immersed almost all the young wizards of Gryffindor in an ocean of joy, even Harry momentarily forgot about the progress of the investigation into the accidental death of the House-elf, Peter Pettigrew, which had been reported extensively in The Daily Prophet over this period.
The Monday afternoon Potions class was somewhat more enjoyable than usual because Draco Malfoy had finally returned to school and begun attending classes, so Snape did not spend much energy tormenting Harry's mind. The two Potions classes passed by uneventfully, and when the students burst out of the dungeon and into the daylight above, the sky was still bright.
The evening breeze of this season had shed the chill of winter, and with two or three months still to go before the heat of summer, it was particularly comfortable. Many young wizards took advantage of the time before dinner to take walks in the courtyard, by the lake, and along the edge of the Forbidden Forest. On the lawns, not a few wizards brought out their flying brooms to practice their flying skills, hoping to serve their houses in the future.
"Come and get your Firebolt and Lumos, Harry, we can join in too!"
Ron said this jubilantly as the Gryffindor crowd walked out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase to where they could look down at the green expanse of grass below, where students from all four houses were celebrating.
It was strange—usually when the subject of Quidditch came up, Harry's enthusiasm didn't lag behind anyone, but this time, he seemed a little disinterested.
"Mmmm—that's a good idea, Ron."
Harry glanced towards the gates, distractedly saying.
"You know where I put them, you can go get them down."
Ron was completely unaware of any problem, happily accepting the suggestion, and he, along with Seamus and Neville, turned around excitedly and raced up the steps, after all, every opportunity to handle a wand like the Firebolt was rare in the world.
BAM!
Hermione, who had been racing against time to absorb knowledge since leaving the basement, snapped her book shut with a thud. She glanced at Harry, took a deep breath of the fresh night air,
"Would you like to talk to me, Harry?"
"Oh!" Harry said with some surprise, "Okay, what do you want to talk about?"
The two of them didn't just stand stupidly at the door but descended the steps, circumventing the group of young wizards flying over the lawn, and made their way towards the lakeside.
The gentle breeze rippled through the fields, covering the vast expanse of the Black Lake with layer upon layer of waves. In the setting sun's reflection, it looked like a giant crinkled gold silk.
The two of them sat on a raised mound about fifty feet away from the lakeside, and Hermione opened her worn-out, margin-filled book again and began to read carefully.
"You've been reading this book a lot lately. What is it about?"
Harry was a bit surprised. Although Hermione had proposed talking to him, he himself had been silent and focused on reading, thinking for a moment before deciding to find a topic himself.
"The Simplified Theory of Ancient Magic" Hermione showed Harry the cover of the book, "The content in this book is very profound, especially the annotations above, but I have recently begun to find its fun -"
Hermione pushed back the strands of hair dancing in front of her eyes and calmly said.
"That's the one Professor Black gave you -" Harry immediately realized.
Hermione nodded, her attention still focused on the pen strokes of the text on the page, her lovely brows slightly frowned as she struggled to think, and after a long time, she finally turned to the next page.
"You've been in a bad mood lately, Harry."
Hermione spoke straightforwardly.
"Are you still thinking about the Black Wizard who killed Peter?"
Harry pursed his lips, not answering the question immediately.
It's not entirely wrong, Hermione's guess, but it's incomplete.
After the unexpected news was reported in the Daily Prophet, a tremendous commotion was caused in the wizarding world as well as in the secluded Hogwarts campus.
Everyone was talking about who had killed the onetime hero of the wizarding world who had overnight become a despised and notorious house-elf, Peter Pettigrew.
The most widely accepted answer was that one of the followers of the mysterious person who had killed Peter Pettigrew.
After the mysterious person's downfall, the vast majority of Black wizards who had been loyal to him were locked up in Azkaban. Some of the more cunning ones claimed that they had nothing to do with the mysterious person or that they had been under the control of a Cruciatus Curse, while there were very few deep-seated witches and wizards who had hidden their previous malfeasance during their time as followers of the mysterious person.
Peter Pettigrew has now 'taken over' as the mysterious person's most trusted henchman, and he must know the identities of these people. Therefore, after Peter Pettigrew's capture, in order to have lighter punishment, he is very likely to betray them and reveal their identities, as there have been precedents for this.
It was only natural for those wizards to take preemptive action and kill Peter Pettigrew before he could reveal their identities.
Peter Pettigrew died on the way to Azkaban, which was a big humiliation for the Ministry of Magic. It destroyed the reputation of the Ministry that they had worked hard to establish after the Greengrass event. The Minister for Magic and other high-ranking officials were furious and swore to find out who was responsible within a month.
However, any wizard who knew the Ministry of Magic's past knew that the Ministry's promises could not be trusted. This likely meant that the case would become a cold one.
Barty Crouch Jr. was lucky to have escaped.
Barty Crouch Jr., who had been criticized for mistakenly sending Sirius Black to Azkaban, did not suffer much blame due to this sudden event. Moreover, the 'accidental' leaked information about Barty's strong performance at the trial of the Wizengamot even seemed to improve his reputation. He retained his position as the Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, which was one of the reasons for Cornelius Fudge's rage.
Harry and the others have been guessing who killed Peter Pettigrew these days. Their primary suspects were Lucius Malfoy, and as for the reason? There was no need to hate Malfoy. Of course, their Potions professor was also one of the suspects. How could they explain Snape's much friendlier look after Peter Pettigrew's death?
Hermione probably felt regretful that she had not personally killed Peter Pettigrew. This does not count as a mistaken inference.
Professor Lupin had not returned to Hogwarts since that night, and private rumors were already spreading that he could no longer serve as their professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.
This news was not too surprising, as in recent years, no professor has been able to hold this position for more than one year. However, it was still shocking that Professor Lupin only held the position for half a year before his misfortune occurred.
The young wizards thought that Professor Branagh would step in at a moment's notice to replace Professor Lupin as the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, after all, he had subbed for Professor Lupin last semester, and he had held the position steadily for half a year before.
However, this was just speculation. After the Greengrass incident and the eradication of the Werewolf Clan, Professor Branagh left Hogwarts without returning.
Professor Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts, but he didn't stay for long and disappeared again.
Although everything at Hogwarts continued as usual without them, with teaching and various activities unaffected, Harry still felt something was off. He had a sense that just the absence of the two of them made the school feel as if it were half empty.
But Harry didn't want to tell anyone else, even Hermione, because of the 'weakness' reputation he had been carrying since the last semester's soul-eating creature incident.
"Yes, it's quite puzzling, isn't it?"
Harry sighed, speaking without much enthusiasm.
"I miss the taste of the Felix Felicis, Hermione. We should have kept some on hand at that time."
Last time the Polyjuice Potion process was anything but friendly for Hermione, her eyes left the book, giving Harry an unfriendly glance, ready to say something, but two sudden figures intruding into her vision caused her words to disappear and she became confused.
"Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall?"
Hermione furrowed her brows and stared at the shadowy figure in black robes flying over the lawn like a bat and moving quickly, puzzled.
"They seem to be heading towards the Forbidden Forest?"
(Chapter ends)
