Chapter 105: The hidden truth

"Professor, why would you want to find Black?" asked Harry slowly in a skeptical tone. "He escaped from Azkaban to kill me, didn't he? He came to find me and get revenge on Voldemort, didn't he?"

"Yes, that's right." Professor Lupin looked a little uncomfortable and consciously avoided Harry's gaze.

"But that's not the whole truth I can feel you're hiding something from me!" Harry continued to stare at Professor Lupin.

"There's nothing at all..."

"Professor, I'm not a child anymore!" Harry suddenly exclaimed, "You once told me that you were friends with my father and that you were also very familiar with Black You must know something! Why does Black want to kill me? why do you want me not to look for him?"

Listening to Harry, Professor Lupin was silent for a moment, then said, "Harry, there are things I shouldn't tell you, I'm not qualified to do so."

"So you avoid me and say nothing, like I'm a fool!" Harry took a deep breath and said in a sad voice. "Professor, when the Dementors came at me, I saw and heard something, you know?"

Professor Lupin shook his head, with a worried look on his face.

"I could hear my mother screaming and begging Voldemort. If you heard my mother screaming like that before she was killed, you wouldn't forget it." Harry's eyes were red "I can feel it, Professor; Black had something to do with my parents' death! Malfoy once told me, 'If I were you, I'd choose revenge I'd find him myself!"

"Harry, Malfoy was talking nonsense...," Hermione said worriedly.

"No, he must have known something!" exclaimed Harry, looking back at Professor Lupin, "Please, Professor, tell me the truth, for my parents' sake!"

Professor Lupin's expression was very sad. Harry's words moved him greatly, he looked at Harry and seemed to vaguely see his former best friend, James.

"I need to talk to you alone, Harry!" Lupin sighed. "You're right. We shouldn't keep it from you. If your son doesn't know about Sirius, James would be disappointed."

Lupin led Harry into his office, Ivan, Hermione and Ron stood in the dark hallway, looking at them with concern.

"Ivan, what do you think Professor Lupin will tell Harry?" asked Hermione.

"All about his parents' past possibly." Ivan thought for a moment, wondering how much Lupin was going to tell Harry, just in case Harry couldn't handle what had happened.

"Well, can you wait for Harry in the common room? I still feel like something's wrong." Hermione said in an uncertain tone. "Ron and I are going to Hogsmeade to buy everyone's Christmas presents."

"I'm going to get Scabbers!" Ron, who hadn't spoken yet, suddenly spoke in a bored, monotone.

"Ron?!", Hermione wanted to tell Ron not to worry about Scabbers, he would come back on his own.

But when she saw Ron's appearance, she hesitated and said nothing.

Because of Crookshanks, she felt very uncomfortable bringing up the subject of Scabbers.

"I'm going to get Scabbers!" Ron repeated again, not caring about Ivan and Hermione's reaction, and then headed for the tower.

In the torchlight, his silhouette looked extremely shadowy and strange.

Ivan frowned and looked at Ron, the latter's behavior was too unusual nowadays. Whether it was when confronting Snape or Professor Lupin, he was too calm and different from the Ron he knew.

And how did Ron know that the parchment was the Marauder's Map?

"What's wrong with Ron?" said Hermione in surprise, "I can't go to Hogsmeade alone. There's so much stuff to buy I won't be able to handle it!"

"If you don't mind, I can come with you, Hermione," Ivan suggested.

Hermione shook her head and said, "No, Ivan, you'll be discovered by the teachers."

"I don't think so. I've been there many times and I'm very familiar with the Hogsmeade stores. I just have to keep Filch from noticing me." Ivan grabbed the backpack in his hand. "Besides, Harry's invisibility cloak is still here."

"But...," Hermione was hesitant, she knew Ivan had been to Hogsmeade many times before, and unlike Harry, Ivan didn't have to worry about Sirius Black and the Dementors.

Since there wasn't much risk, and he wouldn't be discovered by the professors, it seemed she had no real reason to object to it.

Although it might violate school rules, Hermione was no longer as strict as she used to be when she first entered the school. After all, she couldn't even count the times she herself violated the rules.

Hermione had also had a strange feeling that she couldn't describe.

She had hoped that Ivan would be able to accompany her to Hogsmeade, especially on Christmas Eve.

"I'll take the secret passage under the statue of the one-eyed witch on the fourth floor, Hermione." said Ivan in a relaxed tone. "The secret passage leads to Honeydukes candy store, you can wait for me there See you soon!"

Ivan quickly made his way to the fourth floor and, in front of the statue of the one-eyed witch, looked around to check that no one was there.

"Disendium!" Ivan gently tapped the stone witch.

The statue's hump immediately opened wide enough for a small person to slip through the hidden passageway.

Ivan stepped into the hole and then moved forward.

Compared to this narrow secret passageway, he preferred the more spacious one behind the large mirror on the fifth floor that he had passed through to go to Hogsmeade last term.

But a few days after the start of the school year, Fred and George told him that the secret passageway collapsed and was completely blocked. Now, among all the routes in the castle leading to Hogsmeade, the one he was taking now was the only one left unknown to Filch.

Ivan slid forward, this passage was like a stone slide, and then fell into cold, wet earth.

He stood up and looked around, and found only darkness.

"Lumos!" Ivan raised his wand.

The path before his eyes was curved, not unlike a rabbit tunnel.

Ivan hurried forward, stumbling from time to time because of the unevenness of the ground, holding his wand in front of him the whole way.

About an hour later, Ivan reached the foot of a broken staircase and discovered that the stone steps extended as far as he could not see.

He rested for a while, gasped, and began to climb. One hundred steps, two hundred steps, Ivan climbed the stairs, putting all his attention on his feet. After more than three thousand steps, he crashed into something hard.

It was a floor door, and Ivan pushed it open and stepped out.

As he walked out through the floor door, he smelled a strong odor of blood, as if there was a corpse hiding in the basement.