Chapter 152 "Live Well"

In Harry and Black's eyes, they only saw that the moment Sherlock touched Snape, the two suddenly disappeared together as if they were erased out of thin air.

"What's going on? Where's Professor Forrest and Snape?" Harry said in shock.

Ron and Hermione couldn't answer his question either because they didn't know what was going on.

"Forget about that! Run!" Black had released Lupin by now.

Lupin knelt on the ground, and the white moonlight shined on him, causing his body to undergo dramatic changes. Black took Harry and the others and flew towards Hogwarts together.

Lupin had completely turned into a beast and let out a long roar in the moonlight. Harry couldn't help but look back as he ran.

"Peter! He's still there!"

Sirius held him and did not let go, "Leave him, he's dead already. Get back to Hogwarts before Lupin notices us!"

They ran wildly and didn't dare to stop for a moment. However, just as they ran to the side of the Whomping Willow, they couldn't see the number of the Dementors that floated down from the sky and surrounded them in the middle. The coldness that was enough to freeze people made Harry almost frozen in place.

Black suddenly let go of Harry's hand and watched the Dementors surround them. Harry seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. He pleaded desperately.

"No, Sirius. You can't. They'll kill you."

Black looked determined. "I already expected this result when I escaped from Azkaban, Harry. Avenging your parents has already fulfilled my wish."

He broke free from Harry's hand and fled in the opposite direction of Hogwarts. His Animagus form is not used because Dementors have no eyes. They only rely on smell and human emotions to perceive the presence of the target. If he turns into a dog, the Dementors will definitely target Harry and the others.

"Expecto Patronum!" Sirius recited the spell.

A silver light lit up in front of him, but no Patronus was formed under his spell. Just a faint silver strands, like Harry had been practicing. These strands of light could not disperse the Dementors at all, but Black managed to force back a few Dementors standing in front of him.

He escaped from the attack, but he couldn't escape for a long time because groups of Dementors were flying over at him. Harry looked in the direction where Black fled and wanted to catch up, but Hermione pulled him.

"If you go there, they'll suck your soul dry!"

"But I just met him, and he said he would sign my consent form and take me to his house." There were tears in Harry's eyes, and he didn't want to cry because he had cried enough today, but there were still tears in his eyes.

Hermione, Ron, and Harry broke into the gate. They leaned into the corridor and could see the direction in which Black had fled. Suddenly, a silver light lit up half the sky. No one knew what had happened to Black then, whether he was still alive or caught by the Dementors.

Harry fell to his knees. His eyes were empty, and his whole body seemed to be exhausted. Hermione and Ron looked at each other, eager to find something to comfort Harry.

Just as they were stunned in the corridor, a footstep sounded from upstairs.

Professor McGonagall, Minister Fudge, Filch, and two other Ministry of Magic staff left. They were about to leave the castle, but now they were alarmed by the reaction of the Dementors. Seeing the Dementors like a swarm of locusts outside, Fudge exclaimed with excitement.

"Aha! They must have found him!"

Professor McGonagall looked at Harry and the others. Her face was serious, and she frowned. "It's curfew time now. What are you doing here? Go back to the common room."

Harry didn't listen to her but hugged Professor McGonagall.

"Professor, please save Sirius. He's innocent, he is falsely accused, and the real culprit is Peter Pettigrew. Please, Ron and Hermione can testify."

"Yes, we can all testify for him." Ron and Hermione also hurriedly said.

However, none of the adults present believed their words, and Fudge looked at them in surprise and muttered, "What kind of bewitching did they fall for him? Why would they say such a thing?"

"No, he's really going to die!"

But no one believed their words. Professor McGonagall asked Filch to take them to the common room, which Filch was happy to do so. Harry and the others were forced to return to the Gryffindor common room. Harry did not go back to the bedroom but sat in the lounge.

The most painful thing in the world is to have hope, and that hope is being destroyed in front of your eyes. Both Ron and Hermione were by Harry's side, and they were worried about his condition right now.

"We should go to Professor Dumbledore!" Harry stood up suddenly as if he had thought of some life-saving solution.

"What can Dumbledore do for us?" Ron whispered.

Harry didn't want to think about that right now. Dumbledore was his last hope, and he had to hold onto that hope and not let anyone else destroy it. He took out the invisibility cloak, draped it over him and others, and sneaked out of the common room together.

They went all the way down the stairs and came to the stone statue. Harry and others didn't know the password and could only beg for it.

"Please help; we want to see Professor Dumbledore; let us meet him."

The stone statue was silent, as if communicating with someone, and made way for Harry and the others. Harry and the others did not stop and immediately walked to the staircase inside the principal's office, hurriedly pushed the door, and ran in.

Dumbledore looked surprised. He put down the quill in his hand, looked at them, and said softly.

"Don't be hasty now. What things do you have to do with me this late? Shouldn't it be curfew time now?"

He quickly told Dumbledore the whole story of the incident. Some details were missed because of his nervousness, and Hermione and Ron added more context. Soon, Dumbledore knew what was going on.

"Professor, can you keep those Dementors from killing him?" Harry begged. "He was falsely accused. It was Peter who killed my parents, not him."

Dumbledore shook his head under Harry's desperate gaze, "I have no way to control the Ministry of Magic, and no one will believe what you say. They will only think that his evil words have bewitched you."

Harry stared blankly and felt as if the ground was falling apart under his feet. He was used to the idea that Dumbledore could solve any problem. He was counting on Dumbledore to come up with a solution to the problem, but his last hope was gone.

"What we need to do now," said Dumbledore slowly, "is more time."

"But..." Hermione began, and her eyes widened as if thinking of something, "Oh!"

Harry and Ron were confused by their conversation, but this time, Dumbledore had risen from his seat, taken out his pocket watch, and checked the time.

"It's half past four in the middle of the night. Maybe four times is enough." He lowered his voice. "I'll leave this room first, and if all goes well, you could save more than one innocent life tonight. All of you must remember. It must be kept out of sight. Miss Granger, you know the rule. You know that it is dangerous to do so."

Before Harry could figure out what they were talking about, Dumbledore had turned away and turned back when he reached the door.

"I wish you a good luck."

"Good luck? Four times?" Harry repeated as the door closed behind Dumbledore. "What is he talking about? What should we do?"

However, Hermione rummaged around her neckline and finally pulled out a fine gold chain necklace. Harry and Ron were confused, but Hermione had already put the chain necklace on their heads, and there was a small gold timer under the chain.

Hermione didn't explain much; she just turned the timer back four times. The lit office was gone, and Harry and Ron felt like they were moving backward.

All sorts of blurry clouds and shapes passed before them, something was pounding in their ears, they wanted to talk, but they couldn't hear themselves, and then they felt the ground under their feet.

"We're back to four hours ago when we were going to Hagrid's cabin." Hermione grabbed Harry and Ron's hands and led them out of the office.

Harry and Ron still couldn't understand. Ron asked in disbelief, "That timer can make us go back in time?"

"It's called a Time-Turner," Hermione whispered. "Put your invisibility cloak on, Harry."

The three put on the invisibility cloak and walked down the office, and Hermione had time to explain the Time-Turner to them.

"I got it from Professor McGonagall on our first day at school. An Exemplary Hogwarts student has to apply for it from the Ministry, and it can only be used for study. I swore to Professor McGonagall I wouldn't tell you anything about it, so I didn't tell you, and that's why I can take several classes at the same time."

"But even if we could go back in time, would that help Sirius?"

Hermione shook her head, but she didn't know that either. "At this time, Buckbeak has not been executed yet. We may be able to rescue him. We can save him first and wait for more later."

The three managed to sneak behind Hagrid's cabin with the invisibility cloak and successfully free Buckbeak before the Ministry of Magic's executioner arrived. They quietly followed behind themselves four hours ago and saw with their own eyes the scene where Sherlock's group confronted them.

"I looked so stupid," Harry muttered under the cloak.

They hid on the outskirts of the forest and did not dare to get too close. They didn't follow again until they grabbed Peter out of the forest. Once again, they witness Sherlock and Snape disappear before their eyes, while Lupin turns into a werewolf and Black leads them away.

Harry and the others didn't run with them. Instead, they saw Lupin, who had turned into a werewolf, cruelly biting Peter, who was lying unconscious on the ground. The unbearable pain awakened Peter.

He screamed and struggled, but Lupin took the second bite without hesitation, and a large piece of flesh and skin was torn off his shoulder. With a scream, Peter disappeared in place the next moment.

Harry knew he had slipped away as a mouse and raised his wand to Peter, but Hermione pulled him and said, "Don't do it. If a werewolf bites you, you will become a werewolf. It's more painful than a normal death."

They ran fast, following Black and the others, and saw that Black had taken the initiative to separate from them to lure the Dementors away.

Harry looked at the direction in which Black fled and muttered to himself. He thought of seeing the silver strands that illuminated half the sky in the corridor. Harry left the invisibility cloak and broke into the night alone, running in Black's direction.

"You two wait for me here."

The night wind whistled beside him, and Harry's mind was full of things when Sherlock taught him the Patronus Charm.

"Happy…" he kept muttering to himself.

He was thinking about his summer trip with Sherlock. Thinking about his birthday, it was the only birthday in thirteen years that anyone remembered and was willing to give him. Thinking about him after meeting Black, hesitated to tell himself that he was the guardian appointed by Harry's parents and could let Harry live with him during the holidays.

Harry was looking forward to a future that would surely be better. The coldness emanating from the Dementor continued to erode him, and his mother's voice seemed to ring in his ears again. But it was no longer a desperate voice; she seemed to speak to him in her own ear.

"Live well, Harry."

Countless Dementors surrounded him, and Harry could already see Black had fallen to the ground in the middle. His whole body turned blue, and he couldn't even use his Animagus form.

He raised his wand, ignoring the Dementors that surrounded him. He was no longer afraid in his heart. He grabbed Black's cold hand and chanted the spell loudly.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Brilliant silver strands spewed from his wand. It was no longer a shapeless mist but a dazzling silver animal. The light almost illuminated the sky, and a stag approached the group of Dementors. The Dementors retreated and disappeared into the darkness.

"Wake up, Sirius! Wake up!" Harry shouted his name. He opened his eyes and stared at Harry.

"Come on!" Harry urged him. "Minister Fudge is coming. Hurry up!"

Black looked at him, "I will write a letter to you."

Afterward, he turned into a dog and disappeared into the darkness.