Chapter 381: Lupin is in Action (Edited)

Harry's misunderstanding aside, Lupin had returned to school after two days of recuperation in the Shrieking Shack.

After two days of reflection, Lupin decided that the note was credible, but that Sirius, a madman who had blown up an entire street in public, was not about to do something unthinkable.

There are more than a few Death Eaters who think only of destruction.

Therefore, Lupin also made a decision in his mind.

Find out if Ron Weasley had a pet rat, and go out after Easter break to investigate, which probably wouldn't lead to anything, but Lupin needed more proof to convince himself of what Sirius had written in the note.

And if Sirius really was innocent, Lupin needed the evidence to exonerate him.

"... This is the end of today's lesson, you all have until the next lesson to complete a paper on the Evil Goblin, which must be at least fifteen inches long."

Lupin picked up the teaching materials on the table and handed the homework to the students, eliciting a lot of groans from downstairs.

As the final exams approached, even Lupin began to give them more work.

After the assignments, Lupin paused for a moment and then said, "Ron, stay here, the others can go first."

Instead of beating around the bush, Lupin decided to ask Ron directly, since, according to Sirius, Peter had already escaped, there was no need for him to hide his intentions.

Little did he know, however, that what he did scared Ron.

"Are you trying to bite me?"

Ron grabbed Harry's robes tightly and asked in a shaky voice.

Before Harry could say anything, Hermione rolled her eyes, "This is Hogwarts, and everyone knows you've been dumped by Professor Lupin, and besides, being bitten by an untransformed werewolf doesn't make you a werewolf, it just changes your habits a bit...for example, how to eat bloody steaks and stuff like that."

"That won't work either!"

Despite what he said, Ron was relieved, but he still wished Harry and Hermione had stayed with him.

As for Fish?

The other girls would have beaten him to death if he'd done that!

"Sorry, I have to go to my Muggle Studies class."

Hermione resolutely refused and then hurried out of the classroom. Harry, on the other hand, stayed politely.

"What is she talking about? Doesn't start Muggle Studies at the same time as Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Said Ron to Harry, wide-eyed, as Hermione disappeared out the door.

Harry, who didn't know any more than he did, shrugged at Ron's question.

The two were talking when Lupin approached, and Ron immediately took half a step back, eyeing him warily.

Lupin was slightly taken aback, then smiled bitterly and said, "I see you've discovered my secret...".

He knew Ron's current state all too well, whenever someone found out he was a werewolf he was always in that state, but Ron had been better, and the more aggressive ones even attacked him.

"I didn't mean to keep it from you, it's just that it's very hard for a werewolf to get a job, so could you keep my secret?".

After his identity was exposed, Lupin seemed very friendly, which made Harry believe that he wasn't a bad person.

Ron, for his part, still looked alert, but a little more relaxed in his attitude.

"Of course," Harry nodded, "We still enjoy the classes you teach, and as long as you don't attack the students, we have no reason to throw you out."

Ron snorted twice, a little reluctantly, but didn't object to Harry's assertion.

"Thank you very much then." Lupin smiled and got down to business, "I wasn't looking for Ron for anything important, I'd just heard he had a special pet mouse and was curious to see it."

"You mean Scabbers?" Hearing someone mention his pet again, Ron's mood suddenly dropped again. "He's gone, just when we were on a family trip to Egypt... he was probably taken away by the cats there."

Same thing Sirius said...

Lupin narrowed his eyes, growing more and more convinced by the note.

But he wanted to be sure, so he continued, "Can you tell me in detail? About Scabbers."

"What's there to tell about it?" wondered Ron. "Scabbers is a normal mouse that Percy left me when he didn't want him."

"Percy left him to you? How long has he been in your family?"

"I don't know, anyway, I saw Percy raise him when he was very young."

Now Lupin was pretty sure that the mouse Ron had, if it wasn't Peter Pettigrew, wasn't just any mouse, since a mouse didn't live that long.

"Well, thank you."

Lupin didn't ask any more questions, it was obvious that Ron and the others had been treating Scabbers like any other mouse and there was nothing more they could ask.

So he smiled at Harry and Ron, and walked out of the classroom.

"What the hell is he up to?"

Lupin's behavior was so strange that Ron, confused, even forgot for a moment his dislike of werewolves and turned to discuss it with Harry.

"Who knows? maybe werewolves just want to eat mice when they're not transformed?" Harry was just as confused.

"Oh, well, I prefer to believe that Scabbers is some kind of magical creature, then, he wouldn't have been eaten by those cats in Egypt."

Ron was a little saddened to think about Scabbers again after so many months.

"By the way, do you think it's possible that this has something to do with Sirius Black?".

For some reason, the thought popped into Harry's head.

"Come on, mate," Ron laughed, "It can't be that Lupin is using a rat to inform on Black, can it?"

The two pushed the matter from their minds after a few moments of absent-minded analysis.

On the other hand, Lupin had gotten the information he wanted and basically believed the note, but he still planned to leave school at Easter to look for more clues, preferably to find Scabbers , who was suspected to be Peter Pettigrew....

Although that was unlikely, finding Scabbers, or rather Peter Pettigrew, was imperative, both to continue to learn the truth, and to clear Sirius's name later on.

So Harry, still keeping an eye on Lupin, soon discovered that, as the Easter vacations approached, the little black dot representing Lupin had completely disappeared from the Marauder's Map.

"Professor Lupin is out looking for the creatures he will be using for the rest of his classes, and for his final exams."

That was the answer Harry received when he asked Professor McGonagall about Lupin's whereabouts, the same excuse Lupin had used to ask Dumbledore to come out.

However, it seemed likely to Harry and the others, who were already suspicious, that Lupin had taken the opportunity to leave the school and join Sirius Black.

So Lupin, who was about to be cleared of suspicion, was once again suspicious in the eyes of Harry and the others.