285 I Shouldn't Have Been A Professor!

Whine…

A loud whistle echoed in Ivan's ears, and with a shudder, the train began to move.

Ivan flipped through the pages of his book. The carriage was peaceful, and he would have taken the cauldron out of his suitcase if it had not been inconvenient to brew the potion there.

A few moments later, there was a murmur of conversation and the cubicle door was pushed open.

"Ivan?" The little brown-haired witch who opened the door was carrying a wicker basket, from which came a faint, fluttering, purring noise.

Ivan turned his head and Hermione, Ron and Harry entered.

The trio quickly pushed their way inside and closed the sliding door.

The compartment was quite spacious, and Lupin was curled up in a corner, so there was room for three more people.

Hermione sat down in the empty seat next to Ivan, while Ron and Harry sat down on the other side and looked curiously at Lupin, who was sleeping in the corner.

"Who is he?" Ron asked, looking at Lupin in his patchwork robes.

"The new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, he's asleep. You'd better keep your voices down," Ivan warned.

However, Ron's expression hardened, and he leaned closer to signal for everyone to come closer. He glanced cautiously at Lupin before speaking softly.

"And Ivan, did you just confirm that he was not a Dark Wizard or a fraud?"

Ron's words stunned Ivan, and his expression turned strange.

"Ron, how can you say that?" Hermione snapped angrily.

"I'm just asking. It's not like you don't know how things have been these past few years…" Ron said sheepishly, then tried to defend himself.

"The year before last, Professor Chino was a Dark Wizard associated with You-Know-Who, and last year Lockhart was a fake con man who attacked so many people in school, it was thanks to Ivan that they were caught."

"You know, before getting into the car, George and Fred were guessing how many months the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor would last…"

Ron whispered, not noticing that Lupin, who was curled up in a corner, was shaking.

The sound of Harry and the others pushing the door open and talking woke Lupin up.

However, because he was too sleepy, Lupin did not get up to greet Harry and the others. Instead, he prepared to go back to sleep.

However, she never expected him to overhear such news.

Afraid to open his eyes or move, Lupin smiled wryly to himself.

He had originally been impressed with Ivan, who was not prejudiced against werewolves and was the son of a comrade, and had hoped to spend more time with him in the future.

Dumbledore did not mention this to him when he invited him to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts…

Lupin wondered if he should never have become a professor. Was it too late to get off the train?

Unbeknownst to Ivan, who was reading a potion book, Lupin, who had managed to gain Ivan's favour, was avoiding him.

Ron did not dwell on the tragic experiences of the previous professors, and instead told the trio about his family's adventures in Egypt.

Ron's pet rat Scabbers crawled into his pocket the moment it entered the carriage and refused to come out.

Ivan was also distracted by Scabbers' strange behaviour.

At first, Ivan wondered if he had been exposed, and wondered if he should lock Scabbers up to prevent him from escaping.

If Sirius was able to recognise Peter in his Animagus form, Lupin, who was also a close friend, should be able to do the same.

Perhaps Hermione's new pet, a long-haired Persian cat — Crookshanks!

Yvonne looked at the wicker basket next to the chair on the table. The cat was in it.

"Ivan…"

Ivan's thoughts were interrupted by Hermione's words, and when he returned to his senses, he saw her looking at him with a resentful expression.

"Hermione, what did you just say? I didn't hear you." Yvonne looked confused.

"You promised to send me letters, but I haven't seen a single one all summer! And you never replied to any of the letters I sent you…" Hermione repeated her words with a bit of jealousy, her brown eyes fixed on Ivan.

"I'm sorry, Hermione, I was so busy with other things over the summer that I forgot," Yvonne apologized.

Ivan's face clouded as he recalled the events of the summer. He had been too busy trying to track down his attacker to write or reply.

He did not even hear from Hermione, as letters were usually sent to the house.

Only the owl at Hogwarts was special, as it found its way directly to Dobby's hideout. It was unknown if Dobby's frequent teleportations back and forth between Hogwarts and the hideout gave away his location.

'Forgot?'

The little witch's eyes widened and her fair cheeks turned angry.

This was the second time!

During the summer holidays of her first year, Ivan was so busy developing the Wolfsbane Potion that he forgot to send her a letter, which was why she gave him a heads-up.

"I heard from George and Fred that they sent you a letter during the summer holidays, but you didn't reply and they were worried sick. If Mom hadn't stopped them, they would have gone to look for you in Knockturn Alley," Ron complained.

Of course, Ron didn't think anything would happen to Ivan; he'd never seen Ivan suffer before.

Hermione, however, did not think so, and her rising anger subsided as she became acutely aware of Ivan's sour expression.

Recalling how Ivan had said he had other things on his mind during the summer holidays, the wise young witch worried that he might be in trouble.

"Did anything happen at your place during the summer holidays, Ivan?" Hermione asked worriedly.

Harry and Ron, having been reminded by Hermione that something was amiss, looked at Ivan.

"No, it's not. I'm just having trouble making a potion," Ivan said, shaking his head.

"You know, once I started learning, I couldn't think about anything else."

Ivan waved the copy of How to Change Yourself.

Harry and Ron recalled Ivan's Wolfsbane Potion and quickly dismissed their suspicions. Ron even joked that Ivan might get another Order of Merlin this year.

"You can't get two Merlin's for the same person, Ron!" Hermione corrected him, although she was still dubious about Ivan's claim.

After all, no matter how busy one was at improving potions, one would still have time to reply to a letter…