There were no classes on the day everyone returned to school. By the time the train arrived, night had already fallen. After the feast ended, everyone returned to the common room, and before long, curfew would arrive. Bedtime was not far off.
Everyone excitedly flipped through the leaderboards in the Handbook, discussing which events their house had an advantage in. Hermione, the young witch, was especially excited. The ranking she felt most confident about was study hours. Give her a Time-Turner, and Hermione could study for seventy-two hours in a single day.
Gryffindor had never lacked hardworking, studious students. Percy was one example. Hermione was another. The eldest and second sons of the Weasley family were the same. It was not only Ravenclaw students who were obsessed with knowledge, and it was not only Gryffindor students who loved standing out. Every house had all kinds of wizards. It was simply that each house had a different atmosphere.
Harry quickly came to Skyl's side. By now, the students who had been surrounding Skyl had already scattered.
"Mr. Skyl, we caught Wormtail."
The young wizard's face was serious, his gaze firm, and with the scar on his forehead so striking, he looked rather like a secret agent reporting an assassination mission to his superior. If someone gave Harry a Glock, he would probably make a very competent gunman.
Skyl could not help laughing. He patted the boy's shoulder and said calmly, "You should tell Professor Dumbledore about this. He's the head honcho of Hogwarts... He'll provide the help you need. Talking to me about it won't do much, though when you get the chance, you can tell me the story of what happened during this Christmas holiday."
A suspicious light flashed in Harry's eyes. He hesitated for a moment, glanced left and right, then lowered his voice and asked, "Mr. Skyl, were you really not helping us in secret?"
Skyl denied it flatly, and he was telling the truth. "This Christmas, I only went back to London once. The rest of the time, I stayed at school."
"I see." Harry fell into thought. He had always believed that the unknown wizard who had provided them with clues was Skyl. If it really had been him, Harry would have found his chest filled with joy. Yet now that he heard the disciple of the Tower of Tomes deny it, he did not feel all that disappointed either.
It did mean, however, that he had to wonder who had saved him. Harry only remembered seeing a figure before he passed out. She had hair as red as blood, and a voice as gentle as water.
"Mr. Skyl, I think I should give this to you." Harry took a ring from his pocket. The setting on the face of the ring was empty, but that did not change the fact that it was Voldemort's Horcrux, containing a fragment of the Dark Lord's soul and magic.
"You keep it. Treat the soul fragment inside the Horcrux as nourishment. Oh, and please do me a favor."
"I'm listening."
"When you go to the headmaster's office to see Dumbledore later, have Afu come out for a bit. I'll wait for him in the entrance hall."
"It's so late. Are you still going out?"
Skyl sighed, then smiled and said, "I have to deal with someone I don't like again."
"Can I help?" Harry thought Skyl was going to meet someone for a fight.
"You probably can't."
Harry hurried away. Before leaving the common room, he gave his companions a look. Ron and Neville understood at once and dragged Hermione away from her intense discussion.
The four children went together to the headmaster's office. The gargoyle at the entrance asked for the password, but they had not been invited by the headmaster, so how could they know it?
Just as they were preparing to find a way to notify Dumbledore, the guardian gargoyle suddenly moved aside. That meant someone was just leaving the headmaster's office.
The person who walked out was none other than the old bat, Snape. When he saw Harry and the other three, he froze for a moment, then revealed his signature malicious smile and asked softly, "Mr. Potter, and your three little followers. There are less than five minutes left before curfew. Instead of staying in Gryffindor Tower, are you preparing for a little nighttime stroll?"
Harry smiled at Snape, and the old bat seemed stabbed by his expression, jerking backward slightly.
"Professor Snape, we're here to see Headmaster Dumbledore. It's important."
"Do you have the password?"
"That's exactly what we need you to tell us," Harry said calmly.
"That is impossible. Now, all of you, go back at once."
"What we need to say concerns Voldemort."
Snape's expression changed drastically.
He strode over, almost pressing his enormous hooked nose against Harry's face. A gloomy breath drifted from his mouth, smelling of fresh herbs and stale saliva.
"You had better not be making sensational claims, Mr. Potter. Otherwise, you will learn the consequences of making such a joke."
The old bat's vicious threat did not scare Harry, though Neville and the others all held their breath.
"The password is Cockroach Clusters. I'm going in with you."
Dumbledore was bent over his desk writing a letter. He looked energized, completely immersed in his work. Beside the desk was a soft purple velvet cushion, and the Russian wolfhound named Afu was lying uneasily on it. When he saw Harry enter the office, he bared his teeth in a threatened expression.
"Headmaster Dumbledore," Harry called, then glanced at Afu. "There's something I need to tell you."
"Harry?" Dumbledore looked up in surprise. Seeing Snape standing silently beside the four young wizards, he did not scold the children for arriving uninvited. Instead, he smiled and conjured chairs for them to sit.
"Go ahead. What urgent matter brings you here?"
"Skyl asked me to call Afu out. He said he would wait for him in the entrance hall."
Afu tucked his tail between his legs and let out a sharp bark.
"That's all?" Dumbledore glanced at Afu. "You heard him. Off you go."
The wolfhound trembled as he moved toward the door. He stared at the four young wizards with hatred and loathing, muttering constantly as he left in misery.
Harry remained standing where he was, staring into Dumbledore's blue eyes.
"I don't know whether you still remember Sirius. He was framed as the murderer who betrayed my parents and was accused of killing twelve Muggles and Peter Pettigrew."
Both Dumbledore's and Snape's expressions changed subtly.
"Framed? You said framed?" Snape's voice was severe. "Could it be that he somehow had some unspeakable difficulty? Where did you hear news about him?!"
"Severus, don't get worked up." Dumbledore looked at Harry. "What do you know?"
Harry then explained the truth about Wormtail from beginning to end.
"We caught him." Ron proudly patted his chest. "And a snake," he added.
"Quiet, Ron. Let's hear what Dumbledore has to say." Hermione lightly kicked her companion.
Dumbledore and Snape both looked as if they had lived long enough to see something truly impossible. They clearly needed some time to digest the information.
"Where is he? Peter Pettigrew. Did you bring him to Hogwarts?"
Neville was holding two suitcases. Both had been cast with Undetectable Extension Charms, and their internal spaces had been deliberately designed to be very narrow, preventing the prisoners from breaking free.
Neville opened one suitcase and tipped it over toward the floor. From the tiny opening spilled a short, fat wizard bound hand and foot. He hit the floor with a loud cry of pain.
"Oh, no, don't do this, Harry. Your father and I were good friends. You can't do this. Are you trying to kill me? Don't do this... I had no choice. I was forced. The Dark, that man, it was all his fault..."
Snape and Dumbledore moved closer to Pettigrew. They looked at the man who should have been dead, confirming his identity again and again.
"D-Dumbledore? Are you Snape?" Wormtail seemed to have seen his saviors. His hands and feet were twisted behind his back and tied, making him struggle like a caterpillar. "I, I'm innocent..."
Snape's voice trembled. "It was you. The one who betrayed them. It wasn't Black. It was you!"
"I had no choice! I had no choice! If I hadn't told him, he would have killed me! I only wanted to live!"
Dumbledore's gaze was deep as he said calmly, "So the traitor in the Order of the Phoenix was you. Everyone wants to live. There is nothing wrong with that by itself, but you betrayed the blood of good people who gave their lives for justice. Your life is not nobler than anyone else's."
Wormtail began to sob.
"Peter, you will be tried, and the truth will be made known to the world," Dumbledore said.
Elsewhere, when Afu arrived in the entrance hall, he saw Skyl standing by the half-open doors of the castle. Moonlight shone on his figure, making him seem even taller and straighter than the ancient firs of the Albanian forest.
The wolfhound moved bit by bit to Skyl's side and let out a low growl. There was no aggression in it at all. Instead, there was uncontrollable fear.
Skyl held a Tirana newspaper in his hand. The headline reported that the body of a British man had been found in a drainage ditch.
"Come with me." He did not turn back, only stepped forward.
Afu followed closely behind Skyl.
They left the castle, and in the next instant, Skyl teleported with the dog to a police station morgue in Albania.
Under Afu's puzzled gaze, Skyl waved his hand and opened one of the morgue's refrigerated drawers, taking out the unclaimed body of the British wizard.
Skyl stared at the pale corpse. The dead man's face carried a desolate stillness.
The officer guarding the morgue stared dumbfounded at the man and dog who had suddenly appeared.
Skyl turned to the Muggle officer and said, "Hello. Could you do me a favor and forget us? Also, I'll be taking this body with me."
"N-No way. Who the hell are you?" The officer trembled as he drew his sidearm.
Skyl vanished instantly with the body and the dog. The officer looked at the morgue, where the lights flickered on and off, then suddenly rolled his eyes back and fainted.
Godric's Hollow.
Skyl returned here once again. The cauldron still stood in the living room of the old Potter house. He poured a bottle of potion into it, then placed the body inside.
He took out the Resurrection Stone and turned it three times in his hand. The soul of the deceased slowly returned.
Afu understood. Skyl intended to resurrect the dead.
He barked with envy, jealousy, and hatred.
The dead man's spirit looked around blankly. "Where am I?" he asked.
"Britain, Mr. Pierman. I've come to send you home." Skyl smiled. "I'm very sorry that I failed to keep my dog under control, causing your unfortunate death. This little mistake will soon be corrected. Please return to your body."
Mr. Pierman's confused soul drifted into the cauldron.
At that very moment, a cold wind blew in from outside the window. A layer of frost instantly formed over the floor. Afu's fur stood on end, and he barked wildly in terror.
Skyl turned and looked back. A pitch-black cloak descended from the sky like a storm cloud, landing in the yard and naturally forming a hunched human silhouette. Moonlight plated its robe in silver, and beneath its hood, two deep, blue points of fire lit up.
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