Chapter 217: What the heart hides
Lockhart and Snape quickly set to hunting for Peter Pettigrew. This was not an easy task; Pettigrew was far more cunning than they had imagined. The rat footprints from the tracking powder quickly vanished.
"That damned rat!" Snape cursed in frustration.
Animagi were excellent in a certain sense. When a wizard transformed into an Animagus, they became a normal animal, and their own spirituality and even their thoughts were suppressed, leaving no magical traces. Thus, many detection methods designed for wizards and magical creatures became useless!
Snape was getting desperate. If his malicious conjecture was correct, there were three factions currently trying to catch Pettigrew within the sealed Hogwarts grounds.
Dumbledore was one faction. Snape believed Dumbledore might treat Pettigrew the same way he had treated him, willing to give Pettigrew a chance to become a hero.
Then, interestingly, Snape and Sirius Black were another faction—both of them were desperate to kill Pettigrew directly.
Finally, Lupin was the last faction. Snape believed Lupin and Sirius had different goals. Instead of revenge, Lupin probably wanted to clear Sirius's name, meaning he would likely spare Pettigrew's life.
So Snape believed that compared to Sirius, who would be hampered by Lupin, he had a much better chance of getting his revenge if he found Pettigrew first.
But the problem was that he couldn't find Pettigrew.
"You have to help me!" Snape glared at Lockhart. "It's because of you that he now has a chance to escape!"
Lockhart was speechless. "You just said that everyone has their own agenda and that you wouldn't blame me for it."
"That was just now!" Snape waved his wand angrily, and an invisible, sharp shockwave surged forward. Several thousand-year-old trees in the Forbidden Forest were sliced apart and crashed to the ground.
"Alright," Lockhart said, throwing his hands up in resignation. "My method is different from yours. Just like I've always said—find a solution by targeting a specific trait."
"A trait?" Snape frowned.
"Peter Pettigrew is good at finding a way out of a dead end, right? That's what you said." Lockhart reached into his pocket and pulled out a swirling wisp of smoke. "So all I have to do is give him a way out."
Snape still didn't understand. But he would soon.
The wisp of smoke shot out, hovered in the air for a moment, and then slammed into the ground beneath the recently toppled trees. Slowly, it took the form of a figure in wizard's robes and stood up. From the wide hood, a pair of cold, red eyes gleamed, and a low voice spoke. "Who cast the Sectumsempra just now?"
"Ohhh…"
He drew out the sound, stepping out from behind the trees, barefoot. His feet were as pale as a corpse. "Severus, it's been a long time."
Snape was stunned. His rational mind told him that this was Lockhart's Boggart, but he couldn't help but discreetly take a step back, gripping his wand and warily watching the familiar figure.
"That's so rude of you, Severus. Don't you have anything to say to me?"
Voldemort's voice sounded angry, growing colder by the moment. A terrifying, suffocating aura began to spread. Snape felt an involuntary sense of fear welling up inside him. He vigilantly looked around, his first instinct to find an escape route, but he suddenly realized Lockhart had disappeared. All he could see was a venomous snake on a branch above where Lockhart had been standing, watching him with cold eyes.
Not only that, more and more venomous snakes and insects were crawling on the ground in the Forbidden Forest. In a daze, he thought he smelled a potion mixed with the venom of a Demiguise. His head began to feel dizzy, and he found it difficult to think straight. A horrifying thought suddenly occurred to Snape: Could Voldemort actually be hiding in Hogwarts?
After all, if Peter Pettigrew dared to do it, why wouldn't Voldemort?
Lockhart had also mentioned that he had a fight with Voldemort yesterday, and now the whole of Hogwarts was sealed off. Where had Lockhart fought him? Could it have been right here in the Forbidden Forest?
"I…"
Snape didn't know what to say to Voldemort at this moment. His emotions were an utter mess, and he just focused on using Occlumency.
"Haha~"
Just then, a laugh rang in his ear. The faint shadow of a red magic cloak flashed by, and Lockhart appeared beside him, pointing cheerfully at Voldemort. "How's that? Looks real, doesn't it?"
Whew!
Snape broke out in a cold sweat. A gust of wind from the forest blew over him, and he felt a chill on his back and forehead. He desperately suppressed the urge to beat Lockhart to a pulp, looking at the "Voldemort" in front of him with a strange expression. He only managed to let out a low "Mmm."
After a while, he asked, "Are you sure Peter Pettigrew will actively look for him?"
Lockhart shrugged. "I just thought of something. After you told me your analysis of how Peter Pettigrew is anything but timid, I realized something that most people don't know."
"Peter Pettigrew has his wand—the one with the phoenix feather core!"
Snape was shocked. "How is that possible?!"
Yes, it was strange, wasn't it? But Pettigrew really did have Voldemort's wand.
After confirming with Lockhart, Snape couldn't help but reluctantly recall the memories he tried so hard to forget—the night Voldemort killed Lily. The Killing Curse was rebounded, leading to Voldemort's death, and his body and wand were naturally in the cottage in Godric's Hollow.
Snape clearly remembered Dumbledore arriving at the scene when he was holding Lily's body and crying. How could Dumbledore not have retrieved Voldemort's wand? It was impossible for him to ignore it; casting a Priori Incantatem on the wand to figure out what had happened was the most normal thing to do.
And yet… it was now in Peter Pettigrew's possession?
"Are you sure?" Snape's gaze was sharp.
"I am," Lockhart said. He could not be wrong about this. After Pettigrew helped resurrect Voldemort, he presented him with the wand, and it was absolutely Voldemort's original wand. The fact that Voldemort and Harry's wands had matching phoenix feather cores was a crucial plot point, and it was the very reason Harry was always able to overpower Voldemort.
Snape was silent for a while. "I need that wand!"
"Huh?" Lockhart was confused.
"There's a terrible potion, one that specifically targets wands. Few Potions Masters know about it, because it was invented during the Goblin Rebellions to be used against wizards. The Ministry of Magic later enacted a law strictly prohibiting the spread of this potion, and now even the prohibition itself has been hidden from public knowledge."
Snape's eyes were filled with malice. "It's best that it returns to the Dark Lord's hands."
Oh my god, Lockhart thought. He never knew such a potion existed.
"Then it's up to Peter Pettigrew to cooperate."
Lockhart waved his hand. The Boggart, the Golden Retriever, the Banshee, the Demiguise, and the sack cloth all found a corner to hide, ready to jump out and give Pettigrew a surprise at any moment.
Snape watched, confirming that what he had faced was indeed the Boggart and the atmosphere created by other Dark creatures. He breathed a sigh of relief and asked again, "Tell me, is the Dark Lord in Hogwarts or not?"
That was a good question. Lockhart was stunned for a moment, blinking. "I really don't know."
Yeah, had Voldemort managed to sneak into Hogwarts again?
"!!!"
It was late at night when Lockhart returned to the mushroom house on the other side of the Forbidden Forest. From a distance, he saw Lupin walking back from the depths of the forest, holding a wolf pup in his arms.
"The Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest are on the verge of becoming a plague. I must speak to Dumbledore about this!"
"Hagrid can't make any decisions. He wants to protect these creatures, but he's also distressed that they are harming other creatures."
The wolf pup was whimpering incessantly. Lupin quickly pulled out an Acromantula leg from his coat pocket and gave it to the pup to gnaw on. It finally quieted down.
Lockhart looked at the pup curiously. Even though he had seen it many times, he was always struck by how beautiful the creature was. "It's very strange. We know that werewolves are non-sentient dark creatures, but it is a perfectly biological magical animal."
Lupin silently stroked the pup's fur, his head bowed, lost in thought.
"I've been meaning to tell you…" Lockhart sighed. "I am good friends with Lyall, and he misses you very, very much." Lyall Lupin was Remus Lupin's father.
Lupin was finally moved, and he looked up nervously. "How is he?"
Lockhart shook his head. "He's captured some Muggle criminals and had them infected with lycanthropy. He's often with these werewolves, conducting some terrible research, hoping that one day he can atone for his past mistakes and get his son back."
"He shouldn't be doing that!" Lupin grew anxious. "If anyone finds out, he'll be sent to Azkaban!"
The illegal spread of lycanthropy, the creation of werewolves, and the serious violation of the Statute of Secrecy—any one of these crimes would be enough to send Lupin's father to Azkaban for life.
"No one else knows," Lockhart said, seeing the look of alarm in Lupin's eyes and smiling. "You don't have to worry about me telling anyone, because I also help out in Lyall's lab. According to the law, I am an accomplice, and a very active one."
Lupin fought back his emotions, clenching his fists. Still, he couldn't help but let out a mournful cry, kneeling on the ground. His prematurely gray hair fell across his scarred face, making him look exceptionally pained.
Though it was a cruel thing to do, Lockhart was now certain that the Lupin in front of him was indeed Lupin. Lockhart's expression softened slightly, and he asked softly,
"Would you be willing to go see him? I'm worried he might inject himself with lycanthropy to get you back, and so would your mother. If the whole family became werewolves, then the son wouldn't have to run away from them anymore."
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