Chapter 1,144

However, in fact, after arriving at the Burrow, Harry had no chance to talk to Mr. Weasley. He worked long hours at the Ministry of Magic every day until Christmas Eve.

The Weasleys and their guests were sitting in the living room, where Ginny had decorated the house in an exaggerated way, like a sea of ​​paper flowers.

Fred, George, Harry and Ron are the only ones who know that the angel atop the Christmas tree is actually a gnome, who bit Fred while he was pulling turnips for Christmas dinner. So they gave it a stun spell, painted it gold, put a miniature tutu on it and glued a pair of wings to its back, and now it was glaring down at all of them angrily. .

With a large bald head like a potato and hairy feet, it was the ugliest angel Harry had ever seen.

They were all listening to the Christmas broadcast of Mrs. Weasley's favorite singer, Celestina Warbeck, whose melodious voice was coming from the huge wooden radio.

Fleur seemed to find Celestina's singing boring. She spoke loudly in the corner, while the unhappy Mrs. Weasley kept pointing her wand at the volume control, so Celestina's The sound became louder and louder. To the jazzy rhyme 'The Crucible of Love', Fred and George began to crackle and explode with Ginny. Ron kept peeking at Bill and Fleur, as if trying to learn some tricks.

Meanwhile, Lupine sat by the fire and stared into the deepest part of it, as if he could not hear Celestine's voice.

"Oh, come and stir my crucible. If you do nothing wrong, I will ignite a strong fire of love to keep you warm tonight."

"We danced to this song when we were eight years old!" Mrs. Weasley wiped the tears from her eyes with her sweater. "Do you remember, Arthur?"

"Huh?" Mr. Weasley was peeling a tangerine. He nodded and said, "Oh, yes...incredible tune..." He tried to sit up straighter and turned his head to look at Harry. Is sitting next to.

"Sorry," he turned and glanced at the radio. Celestina had already sang the chorus, "It's almost over."

"It's okay," Harry grinned. "Is the Ministry of Magic busy lately?"

"Very busy," said Mr. Weasley. "I wouldn't have cared if there were any progress, but I suspect that of the three arrests in recent months, none of them were actual Death Eaters - just don't tell anyone else. Man, Harry.”

He suddenly looked more alert. "They don't have Stan in custody anymore, do they?" Harry asked.

"I'm afraid not," said Mr. Weasley. "I know Dumbledore tried to go directly to Scrimgeour to demand Stan's release... I mean, everyone who questioned him agreed that Stan couldn't be a Death Eater... but the higher ups wanted people to see them progress, and 'three arrests' sounds better than 'three wrongful arrests and then releases'...I stress again, these are all top secrets..."

"I won't say anything," Harry said. He hesitated for a moment, not knowing how to speak; while he was organizing his thoughts, he listened to Celestina Warbeck start a new song "You Cast a Magic on My Heart."

"Mr. Weasley, do you remember what I told you at the station before setting off for school?"

"I checked, Harry," Mr. Weasley said immediately. "I went and searched Malfoy's house. I didn't find anything, broken or intact, that shouldn't be there."

"Yeah, I know, I saw in the Daily Prophet that you'd looked it up...but that's a different thing...well, further..." he added to what he had overheard Mal. The conversation between Fu and Snape and the subsequent dispute between Harry and Fanlin were all told to Mr. Weasley. When Harry spoke, he saw Lupine's head turning slightly towards him and heard every word. Character. After he finished speaking, no one in the room spoke except for Celestina's soulful humming.

"Oh, where has my poor heart gone? It abandoned me for a spell..."

"As Fanlin said, have you ever considered, Harry," Mr. Weasley asked, "that Snape is just pretending -"

"But there must be something between them. I know the Unbreakable Vow, and Snape has no reason..."

"No, I think he will do this." Lu Ping said calmly, "I trust him."

"You trust him?" Harry felt a little unbelievable and looked directly at Lupine.

"-Do you really like or trust Snape?"

"I neither like nor dislike Severus," said Lupine.

"No, Harry, I'm telling the truth," he added, seeing Harry's doubtful expression. "We may never have been close friends; after everything that happened between James and Sirius and Severus, there was too much bitterness. But I haven't forgotten that I taught at Hogwarts. That year, Severus prepared the perfect Wolfsbane potion for me every month so that I wouldn't have to suffer so much pain during the full moon."

"But he 'accidentally' revealed the fact that you were a werewolf, and you had to leave!" Harry said angrily.

Lupine shrugged. "Sooner or later this will get out. You and I both know he wants my job, but if he wants to cause me more harm, he can do it in the potion. But he keeps me healthy. I You should be grateful to him.”

"Maybe he didn't dare to tamper with the potion under Dumbledore's eyes!" Harry said.

"You are determined to hate him, Harry," Lupine smiled weakly. "I understand; James is your father, Sirius is your godfather, and you have inherited your prejudices. You can tell Dumbledore what you said to Arthur and me, but don't expect him to say anything about it. I agree with you; don't even expect him to be surprised by what you said. It might have been Dumbledore who ordered Severus to ask Draco."

"...Now that you have torn my heart apart, I want to thank you for giving it back to me!" Celestina ended her song with a long high note, and loud applause erupted from the radio. , Mrs. Weasley also joined in enthusiastically.

"Is it over?" Fleur said loudly. "Thank God, how terrible-"

"Well, shall we have a nightcap?" Mrs. Weasley asked loudly, jumping up. “Who wants eggnog?”

"What have you been busy with recently?" Harry asked Lupin. Mrs. Weasley hurriedly went to get the eggnog, and everyone else stretched and started chatting.

"Well, I've been working in secret," Lupine said. "No exaggeration. That's why I can't write to you, Harry; sending you a letter would probably be a breach of confidentiality."

"What do you mean?"

"I have always lived among my companions, my own kind," said Lupine.

"A werewolf," Lupine added when Harry looked at him in confusion. "Almost all of them are on Voldemort's side. Dumbledore hopes to have a spy, and I am... ready-made, and we have done that a long time ago, rescued the vampire, and then Fanlin destroyed the underground street. Entrance."

"Underground street?" Harry asked, "That's..."

"The territory of the werewolves." Lupine said, "In fact, almost all werewolves are on Voldemort's side, and they have also made some moves..."

"Why do they like Voldemort?" Harry asked in confusion.

"They thought they would be better off under him," Lupine said. "And it's very difficult to instigate Greyback..."

"Greyback?" Harry exclaimed, "That's not..."

"Oh, yes, Fenrir Greyback is perhaps the most cruel werewolf in existence. He regards biting and infecting as many people as possible as his life goal; he wants to create enough werewolves To conquer wizards. Voldemort promised to give him some victims in return for his services. Greyback specialized in biting children... He said that he wanted to bite them when they were young, so that they could grow up away from their parents and cherish the desire for normal wizards. The hatred grew; Voldemort used to threaten others by letting him out to bite their children; such threats often worked." Lupine paused, and then said, "It was Greyback who bit me."

Even though Harry understood something, Harry still couldn't help it...

Lupine is fighting the werewolf who ruined his life.

It seemed that he could see Harry's shock or other emotions. In short, Lupine didn't seem to care that much, as if he was telling someone else's story.

"Yes. My father had offended him. For a long time I didn't know the identity of the werewolf who attacked me; I even sympathized with him, thinking he couldn't control himself, and understood what it was like to transform. But Gray Not so with Burke, who would approach his victim during the full moon to make sure he was close enough to attack.

Everything was planned by him. Voldemort used him to organize and lead the werewolves.

I can't say that my unique and reasonable perspective has made much progress with Greyback. He still insists that blood is what we werewolves deserve, and that we should take revenge on normal people. "

"revenge?"

"This is probably related to Greyback's character, but..." Luping paused, "I have to change their views, and at this point, Rutherford has given me a lot of help."

"Help?" Harry thought of the vampire who made rude remarks at the ball, "I don't think..."

"That's just their opinion, Harry," said Lupine. "It cannot be denied that werewolves should use werewolf practices."

"What do werewolves do?"

"Domination!" Lupine said, "It's a very useful way to seize everything from Greyback, purify your own blood, and then control all the werewolves... There is always a need for a wolf in the wolf pack."

"Dominion, Alpha Wolf?" Harry felt that something was not very reliable and glanced at Lupine's thin body...

"Sorry, but I feel..."

"What do you think of me, I don't look like a leader?" Lupine said nonchalantly, "James said the same thing, but he thinks I am still very strong after the transformation."

Lu Ping seemed to feel a little relaxed when he mentioned his good friend.

He took the glass of eggnog from Mrs. Weasley and said thank you. Looking a little happier. At the same time, Harry felt a surge of excitement: Lupine had just mentioned his father, which reminded Harry that there was something else he was looking forward to asking Lupine about.

"Have you ever heard of a man called the Half-Blood Prince?"

"What's half-blood?"

"Prince," Harry watched him closely, hoping for any sign that he was remembering.

"No prince is a wizard," said Lupine, smiling. "Is this a title you're going to adopt? I thought 'Mr. Right' would be enough."

"This has nothing to do with me!" Harry said dissatisfied. "The Half-Blood Prince was a man who studied at Hogwarts. I got his old Potions textbook. The book was filled with spells written by him, spells he invented. One of them was the Golden Bell——"

"Well, that spell was very popular when I was at Hogwarts," Lupine said wistfully. "This was during a few months when I was in fifth grade. If you were hit by this spell, you would be suspended in the air by your ankles and unable to move."

"My dad used it," Harry said. "I saw it in the pensieve. He used it on Snape." He tried to say it casually, as if it was an insignificant comment, but he was not sure whether it achieved the desired effect; Lupine's smile seemed a little too understanding.

"Yes," he said, "but he's not the only one who uses it. Like I said, it's very popular... you know how these spells come and go..."

"But it sounds like it was invented during your school days," Harry insisted.

"Not necessarily," said Lupine. "Charms come in and out of fashion like everything else," he said calmly, looking at Harry's face. "James is a pureblood, Harry, and I guarantee you he never asked us to call him 'Prince.'" '."

Harry immediately put aside his disguise and said, "Isn't it Sirius too? Or you?"

"Absolutely not."

Harry stared into the fire. "I just thought - well, he helped me a lot in Potions, that prince."

"How old is that book, Harry?"

"I don't know, I haven't checked."

"Well, maybe this will give you some clues as to when the prince attended Hogwarts," Lupine said.

As soon as she said this, Fleur decided to imitate Celestina and sang "The Crucible of Strong Love". After everyone caught a glimpse of Mrs. Weasley's face, they knew it was time to go to bed.

Actually, Harry wasn't exactly willing, but challenging Mrs. Weasley's rant?

Although he was very sure that Mrs. Weasley would not treat him like this, in fact, it still made Harry feel very uncomfortable.

After bidding farewell to Lupine, Harry and Ron climbed all the way to Ron's attic bedroom, where a camping bed had been added for Harry. Ron immediately fell asleep, but before going to bed, Harry dug out his copy of Advanced Potion Preparation from the suitcase.

Following Lupine's prompts, Harry opened the pages and searched, finally finding the publication date at the beginning of the book.

This book was written almost 50 years ago. His father and his father's friends hadn't even attended Hogwarts 50 years ago.

Suddenly, Harry felt very disappointed. He threw the book back into the box, turned off the light, and turned over to think about Lupine's return to the werewolf tribe, as well as Snape, Malfoy, Stan Thumper and the Half-Blood Prince.

Oh, and of course there was Vanlin, and the fact that Harry was abandoned once again, just him and Ron back at the Burrow.

Finally, Harry fell asleep uncomfortably, his dream filled with crawling shadows and the cries of bitten children. (To be continued)