Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 86: Lupin’s Memory

Lupin pushed the gate of the secret passage aside, splashing a lot of dust.

He quickly climbed out of the secret road into a messy, dusty house. The wallpaper had been detached from the wall. There were stains everywhere on the floor. A piece of furniture has been damaged. It seemed that it had been broken. The windows were nailed with boards.

This was the Shrieking Shack. Lupin and his friends had been here numerous times. Since Black invaded the castle, it was very likely that he would hide here.

Lupin sniffed the familiar smell in the air. He put his wand across his chest, cautiously crossing the dark aisle and climbed the stairs that were about to collapse.

Like the first floor, everything on the second floor was covered with a thick layer of dust.

But this did not apply to the floor. Something had recently passed from here. It was a paw mark left by a canine.

Lupin looked down and he was too familiar with the footprint. It was a sign left by Sirius Black Animagus. Black must have been here recently, and he was still very likely to remain hidden in the house.

Lupin tightly grabbed his wand and carefully looked at the closed doorway at the end of the corridor. Black might be hiding behind this door, ready to rush out. Although Sirius did not wand, Lupin still felt that he should keep up his guard.

He approached slowly, trying not to make any sound, and focused all the power he had into the tip of his wand that started glowing faintly.

“Come on, Sirius, I know you are in there!” Lupin shouted outside the door, his voice echoed in the empty room.

Nothing happened; nothing could be heard but silence.

Lupin blinked and the next second, his wand quickly emitted a stout red light and knocked out the door.

In the room, there was only a luxurious four-poster bed, and the curtains around the bed were all dusty. No one was in there, only he was standing at the door and gasping.

Lupin dazedly dropped his wand. Black was not here. Maybe he had been there. But after he knew he had been seen this evening, he would hide in another place.

“Desperate coward!” Lupin whispered.

Black’s behavior did not meet Lupin’s expectations. He was not a man who would run away. He was the bravest among them when he was a student, but when he kneeled down and kissed the robe of Voldemort, courage of the past may have disappeared.

Now Black was no longer a brave Gryffindor, more like a sinister crafty Slytherin.

Lupin stood for a minute at the entrance of the room and there was an unclear desolateness on his face.

He sighed deeply and turned to leave. But he stopped immediately and he saw something left on the bed. It was a photo.

Lupin went over and picked up the photo.

There were four boys on the picture. From left to right, they were himself, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.

The four people in the photo were laughing so happily.

Lupin suddenly felt a little sad. He still remembers that this picture had been taken on the lawn in front of the castle gate when they graduated. Everyone was given a memorial.

His own photograph was sent out by Hagrid for Harry in the previous year when he collected photos; James’s piece was lost in the ruins on the night he was attacked. Peter’s piece should have been blown to fragments by Black along with his body.

The only one who still had this picture was Black himself.

It was possible that he had accidentally left it behind in the Shrieking Shack. Unexpectedly, Black kept this photograph. Lupin thought he had already lost all sense of friendship.

Looking at this yellowed photo, Lupin’s thoughts returned to the time at which they had just graduated, the darkest age of magic.

At that time, the black wizards led by Voldemort were raging in the magical world. They openly resorted to violence, spreading terror everywhere, killing mud-bloods and Muggles in the name of “pleasure”, and even launching a war of wizards to change the face magical world.

In that protracted war, Lupin witnessed the deaths of many people, including his former elders, classmates, and many innocent bystanders.

The year they graduated was three years before the end of the war. They could not wait to join the Order of the Phoenix and stand on the front line against Voldemort, even though Voldemort and his Death Eaters had far more power than the Order of the Phoenix

However, relying on close cooperation, they have repeatedly stopped the plots of Voldemort and escaped from his hands.

Lupin thought this will carry on until Voldemort is defeated.

But in the last year of the war, everything changed. Dumbledore got a tip that, for some reason, Voldemort was chasing Harry, James and Lily’s son. James originally intended to fight, but for Harry’s sake, he finally listened to Dumbledore’s proposal and hid himself, protecting himself with Fidelius Charm.

In addition to Dumbledore, he and Peter Pettigrew were the only two who knew where James was. James chose Sirius Black, he used to think that Black was his closest and strongest

Lupin also naively believed that this was the best choice.

But he was wrong… They were all wrong!

Less than a week after Black became James and Lily’s secret keeper, he sold them out to Voldemort. Voldemort broke into their house that night. He killed them, but he didn’t know why he had failed at killing Harry!

After knowing this news, Lupin still remembered his reaction at the time. He was madly searching for Black. He needed to ask his to understand the truth. There must be a something that went wrong. Why did James and Lily die and why did the Fidelius Charm fail?

Until that time, he did not believe that Black would sell them to Voldemort.

Two days later, Lupin found Black.

But he was one step too late, and Peter Pettigrew had found him before him.

When Lupin saw Black on that street, he was surrounded by Aurors. He shattered Peter and the Muggles of the entire street into pieces a minute ago.

Everything was clear. Black sold James and Lily out to Voldemort. In the subsequent questioning, he admitted that he killed Peter Pettigrew.

Lupin helplessly stood on the corner of the street. He saw Black laughing wildly there and he silently wept in the corner. This was the only time he had shed tears since he had been a child when he took the vow to never cry again.

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