Chapter 134: Professor Lupin's Departure

Lupin didn't look back. He knew Harry, Ivan, Hermione and other children must be watching him.

All he could do was hold back tears.

The legendary, fierce, terrifying werewolf was now only infinitely desolate and indescribably helpless.

Everyone looked at the lonely figure of Professor Lupin, and many of them wept.

Ivan didn't dare move as Hermione and Ginny wept on his shoulders.

Although he knew that Professor Lupin should be fine, he was affected by the sad mood around him and felt bitter.

No one knew who started it, but before they knew it, practically every young wizard was whispering Professor Lupin's name. As they moved from the scene, they all had the feeling that this was the last time they would see him.

If proven guilty of the charge of attacking Ron, he would have to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban.

"Professor!" Harry shouted miserably, and rushed to grab Professor Lupin.

Remus stopped, his body trembling slightly, but he still didn't look back.

"Let him go, Harry!" Ivan stepped closer and said softly.

"No!" whined Harry, and saw Dumbledore coming to his side.

"You've done a very good job, Harry" Dumbledore said calmly, his gaze moving slowly over the faces of all the young wizards behind Harry, and his voice was extremely kind. "And all of you, I am very proud of the efforts of each of you tonight, and I believe Remus feels the same way as well. Let me take care of the rest of this business."

Harry shook his head stubbornly and was about to say something, but stopped himself.

For Professor Lupin suddenly turned and hugged him once more.

The two stood like that in silence for a minute. No one spoke. Not even Lucius and Snape urged them.

Then Lupin let go of Harry and stood up.

Dumbledore walked by and patted him on the shoulder. They walked out of the office with Fudge, Lucius and Snape.

"Right, the Lupin matter is handed over to the Headmaster. It's too late, you should all go back to your respective common rooms now!" Professor McGonagall turned up her nose, her eyes red.

Beside her, Hagrid was crying loudly and Professor Flitwick wiped his tears with his handkerchief.

They all left one after the other. When they passed Ron, they looked at him with deep contempt.

Even Percy, Fred, George and Ginny; they were no exceptions, especially Ginny. The young girl was crying uncontrollably. She couldn't believe that Ron would accuse Professor Lupin.

Ron stood there still, unmoving.

At that moment, unexpectedly, Harry suddenly approached him.

Just as everyone was guessing what he intended to do, Harry threw a hard punch, hitting Ron hard in the face.

Ron was thrown to the floor, and the office became a mess.

Malfoy smiled proudly, glaring mischievously at Harry and Ron. It was a wonderful day. He didn't know what his father had been up to, but he despised the two guys and they were the ones he hated the most, he had the joy of watching them fight together. That was simply the best Christmas present he could have received.

The only one missing was the dirty blood Mason.

"Potter, stop!" shouted Professor McGonagall sternly, ready to go and separate them.

But she didn't need to, Harry didn't go any further after punching Ron in the face.

He stood and looked at him with cold, terrified eyes.

"Give me a reason, why?" Harry shouted at Ron. "Tell me, why?"

Ron didn't answer Harry. He didn't say a word. He stood up, head down and not looking at anyone.

Hermione looked at him with tears in her eyes and her face was full of worry.

The image she was looking at seemed terribly familiar to her. She also thought about what happened in the common room last year when Ron was ready to attack Ivan. It felt exactly the same as it did now.

Ron was too abnormal. Maybe it's not...

"Ivan, I got it..." Hermione ran up to Ivan and said breathlessly.

"Don't say it here!" Ivan rushed to cover Hermione's mouth. He knew what she was going to say. He should have figured out the fact that Ron was under control. But exposing things now, while it might rescue Professor Lupin, might also scare Peter Pettigrew away. And if this were the case, there would be no way to help Sirius Black clear his name.

Ivan was also thinking that Dumbledore should have concerns about this, even if he couldn't think of a way to find out about Black and Peter.

But anyway, now was not the time to panic. He had just learned that Peter was not in this office, and that the cunning fellow had no part in tonight's events.

Even though Peter wasn't there, Ivan had to be careful when confronting the controlled Ron.

He approached him quickly, and he didn't look worried, nor did he look at him or Hermione. Ivan was a little relieved. If they were accidentally exposed, Peter Pettigrew would run away.

Before he did anything, he had to see what Dumbledore had arranged.

"Ivan?" Hermione blushed and brushed Ivan's right hand away from her face.

Looking at her, Ivan was also a little embarrassed. He was anxious because what he had just done seemed a bit daring.

He swallowed as he tried to pull his hand away, but before he knew it, sensing Hermione's nervousness beside him, he moved without thinking. His hand fell from near her mouth only to hold her cold hand naturally. Hermione struggled a little, then let Ivan hold her tightly, blushing more and more.

Hermione's thoughts drifted further and further away, and she started thinking again about the question she had after seeing Cho Chang....

She didn't have time to check if Ron was being controlled. In fact, no one but her seemed to realize that he was too abnormal.

In fact, no one blamed Harry for what he did to her. Everyone thought he had a right to be so angry.

Even Fred and George didn't. They walked over and patted Harry's shoulders, not looking at Ron, as if he had never been his brother.

No one understood what had happened to Ron, nor did anyone understand the difficulties he was having.

No one thought about these things. As Ron said a moment before, they only believed their own eyes.

They saw that Ron had betrayed Professor Lupin, sold out Gryffindor, and betrayed Hogwarts.

Even the Slytherin students despised him.

"All right, Potter!" Professor McGonagall came over and stepped between Harry and Ron. "I know you're sad, but this can't solve anything. You should trust Dumbledore, Remus will be fine."

Like everyone else, she didn't look at Ron, as if he didn't exist.

"I know, Professor!" Harry wiped away his tears and said, "I believe in the headmaster!"

"We all believe in him. Dumbledore has never let anyone down." Professor McGonagall sighed and said slowly. "So much happened tonight, do you and Weasley need to go to the school hospital?"

"I'm fine, I'm not going to the hospital!", Harry shook his head. He felt nothing wrong except anger.

"Me neither!" Ron whispered, as if he were a wooden man. He didn't respond to Harry's jab.

"Well then, hurry back to sleep!" Professor McGonagall turned and looked at Ivan and Hermione. "Mason, Granger, you need to go to the school hospital for treatment. I promised Poppy I'd take you back."

"Wait a moment, Professor!" said Ivan, "I want to go to Professor Dumbledore's office. He seems to have something to tell me, can you guide me?"

"If there is something, you can tell him tomorrow, what you need now is bed rest" Professor McGonagall frowned. She saw Ivan looking at her as if begging her and pursed her lips. "Well, I'll take you, but you'd better hurry. We can't stay long."