Chapter 379: Surveillance (Edited)

"A werewolf?!"

Ron and Harry squealed as Hermione explained Lupin's situation.

"You guessed it yourselves, it wasn't Fish who tipped you off."

?ω?

The kitten was more concerned about his own reputation.

"It's Lupin!"

Ron, a pureblood wizard, was obviously more prejudiced against werewolves than Harry and Hermione, after all, like the Dark Lord, he had grown up with stories of evil werewolves, so he immediately shouted with conviction.

"Has Dumbledore gone mad? hiring Lupin when he knows he's a werewolf?" Ron was like an ant on a hot stove, wandering around the Room of Requirement, "No! I have to write and tell Mum and Dad."

Fish had never had much idea of the prejudices Professor McGonagall had talked about, until now he saw the reaction of Harry and the others....

"But... Minerva says Lupin is a good werewolf nya..."

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

The kitten couldn't pin him down, but it seemed too much to assume that Lupin was a bad person just because he was a werewolf, so, even though he didn't like Lupin very much, he defended him by saying, "He didn't want to become a werewolf himself, and no one's been bitten by him all this time, have they?"

"But he helped Sirius Black!" shouted Ron, still excited, "You-Know-Who had a bunch of werewolf followers in the first place! Maybe Lupin had something to do with Harry's father's death."

Harry's face changed slightly, his mood was very complicated.

Emotionally, he didn't want Lupin to be a bad guy, but with the evidence he had so far, it was hard not to suspect who he really was.

"I think we should go inform the Professor."

The only person who would say that, of course, was Miss Smarty Pants.

"Didn't you hear what Fish said? The professors believe him." Ron dismissed Hermione's idea, "We might as well tell our parents and have them protest to the school!"

"But what if Lupin really is the good guy?" Fish still thought they were overreacting, "It's not easy for a werewolf to get a job, look at Lupin in that raggedy state nya."

And Harry didn't agree with Ron's plan, he kept thinking about luring Sirius Black!

Of course, the reason to arrest Ron couldn't be that, so he agreed with Fish against his will, "Fish is right, although Lupin is highly suspicious, we can't wrongly accuse a good person..."

"You're not going to try to be like you were in first year again, are you?"

Hermione looked at Harry with wide eyes and then rightly refused, "I'm not going to go crazy on you again!"

"No, no, no, no," Harry explained, waving his hands, "We don't need to take any chances, have you forgotten? George and Fred gave me the Marauder's Map, I just need to use it to keep an eye on Lupin."

It wasn't easy to find Sirius among a bunch of little black dots, but it was much easier to locate Lupin, since he knew his general location.

Hearing that Harry had already made up his mind, Hermione and Ron said nothing more, and Fish didn't care, whether Lupin was a bad guy or not, the cat didn't care, all he had to do was follow him to the fight.

And so a month went by in a flash.

Slytherin and Hufflepuff fought again, and the Hufflepuff quidditch team, led by Cedric, gave Slytherin a good thrashing, even with the seven 2001 Nimbus, but they couldn't stop the Hufflepuff from winning.

This had the Gryffindor students very excited, because after this defeat of Slytherin, Gryffindor, who had lost to them, could instead aim to compete with Ravenclaw for the final title, but as in first year, they would need to beat Ravenclaw in their final match.

But more than the quidditch match, Harry had been concerned about Lupin's whereabouts, and since that day he had carried the Marauder's Map with him, pulling it out at every opportunity to see where the little black dot representing Lupin was.

But for a month, Lupin's movements had been so ordinary that there was no trace of him coming into contact with Black.

Harry felt relieved and slightly disappointed at the same time.

He was glad that Lupin had not betrayed his father and regretted that he had lost track of Black again.

Not only could he not go to Hogsmeade, but he was not allowed to leave the castle, and the plans he had discussed with Fish could not be carried out.

But Harry didn't let up, as Black's two break-ins had been three or four months apart, and it was likely that Lupin had not acted, so he was still watching Lupin's every move with the living dot map.

"What's the matter? still no sign of Lupin?"

That night, after dinner, Harry went back to the common room, sat down in a corner and pulled out the map again; Ron walked over to him and asked quietly.

Although Ron had kept Lupin's identity a secret after Harry had stopped him, his prejudice against werewolves had not gone away, and he had become convinced that Lupin was Black's infiltrator, so his attitude towards Lupin had taken a turn for the worse, and he would occasionally pop in to ask about Lupin.

"He's still in his office, as usual," Harry replied in the same low voice, "But lately I always see Snape going to see Lupin, and he just left Lupin's office."

He said pointing to a small black dot on the map, the one with Snape's name on it had just separated from the one representing Lupin.

"He's spying on Lupin, just like Quirrell back then... tsk! It's uncomfortable to think that Snape is on our side..."

Ron gasped, he hated werewolves, but he also hated Snape.

"He's supposed to deliver a potion to Lupin," Harry said, nodding and then shaking his head, "Remember? I've mentioned it before, Snape has been making a potion for Lupin, and according to Hermione's speculation, it's a werewolf potion...I looked at the moon's balance, and tonight is a full moon night."

"So, tonight he's going to turn into a werewolf?" An expression of obvious disgust crossed Ron's face, "I just don't get it, Snape obviously doesn't get along with Lupin, so why would he help him brew a werewolf potion?"

"Probably because Dumbledore asked him to."

"Then why would Dumbledore hire a werewolf to be our teacher? I'd rather have another liar like Lockhart."

Ron immediately went back to complaining about Dumbledore.

Harry didn't react much to Ron's babbling, because he was tired of listening to it during this time, and he agreed with Ron at first, but now he just thinks Ron is really annoying....

"Lupin moved!"

Harry suddenly spoke up to interrupt Ron's complaints, both of them nervously staring at the small black dot on the map.

According to their analysis (mainly Hermione's), if Lupin wanted to contact Sirius Black, the best time to do so would be when he transformed every month, and Lupin would only be in the clear if he didn't come into contact with Black during the days he was alone.

On the map, the small black dot representing Lupin entered the Forbidden Forest, pausing for a moment near the Boxing Willow before diving into the secret passage that led to the Shrieking Shack.

"He knows about this tunnel too!" exclaimed Ron lowering his voice, "So Black might know about it too! Maybe he got in and out of Hogwarts through this secret passageway."

"Maybe Lupin used this secret passageway to get through the transformation period...he had to have somewhere to hide."

Harry pursed his lips, unconsciously defending Lupin. Werewolves didn't disgust him as much as they disgusted Ron, and Lupin was friends with his parents, so Harry still held out hope that Lupin wasn't a bad guy.

"But this secret passageway isn't even known to Filch."

If Harry tried to think the best of Lupin, Ron was determined to think Lupin was a bad guy.

"But Dumbledore could have known, couldn't he? And Fish knows about the secret passage."

In the end, Harry convinced Ron and, as they watched for a long time and saw no one else enter through the secret passageway, Ron abandoned his suspicions about Lupin for the moment.

At that moment, Lupin, who was in the Shrieking Shack, stared dazedly at the note in his hand.