Chapter 139 "Snape's Revenge"

Harry followed George and Fred into an empty classroom.

"Why didn't you go to Hogsmeade?" Harry asked strangely.

George and Fred looked at each other and smiled, "Because we're going to give you a Christmas present, Harry. We'll leave when we're done."

As they spoke, Fred took out a tattered parchment from his pocket, the Marauder's Map. They taught Harry how to use it. Harry looked at the Map, which recorded all the routes of Hogwarts, and at the same time, he could see all the movements of the people in the castle.

George is still teaching him the tricks of using this Map, "Remember, no professor can know about this map, especially Professor Forrest."

Harry came back to his senses when he heard his words and asked suspiciously, "Why Professor Forrest?"

"Because he knew about the existence of this Marauder's Map last year." Fred said with a shrug.

George took his words, "Yes, it was on the first day of school, and when we had just finished playing with Filch, who was going to wait and catch us, and slipped out of the Gryffindor common while opening the Marauder's Map. It just saw Professor Forrest staring at us right in front of the door."

Fred shuddered a little when he recalled that terrifying scene, "We were horrified when we saw him, even forgot to hide the map, and he took the map away."

"However, he gave us a chance at that time and promised that as long as we behaved, he would return the map to us."

"That time was almost the most well-behaved year for me and George at school." Fred said with emotion, "If my mother saw us, she would definitely be very happy and feel that we have changed for the better."

"Although he extended the time, at the end of the semester, he still returned the map to us."

"It's just that before he returned the map to us, he seemed to have used some magic on it and removed his name." 

Hearing them say this, Harry realized that Sherlock's name was not on the Marauder's Map.

George patted him on the shoulder, "It's just missing his name. It's still useful. We don't need it anymore, so we decided to give it to you!"

The two of them handed Harry the Marauder's Map and said goodbye before heading to Hogsmeade through the gate. Harry looked at the Map in his hand, and his eyes gradually lit up. He has always been envious that others can go to Hogsmeade to enjoy the weekend, but he can only stay in the castle alone.

Now, his chance to escape from here is finally coming. The Marauder's Map recorded all the secret passages from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade, and Harry could easily go through there.

There is an entrance to the secret passage behind the hunchbacked witch. With excitement and a little guilt in his heart, Harry walked into the secret passage. But this trip to Hogsmeade was not as pleasant as he imagined.

Just as Harry was heading to Hogsmeade through the secret passage, Sherlock was knocking gently on the door of Snape's office.

After the voice inside said, "Come in," Sherlock pushed the door and walked in. Even when Christmas was approaching, Snape was not idle. In front of him was a cauldron burning on the fire, and the potion in the cauldron was steaming hot.

After seeing that it was Sherlock, Snape was surprised, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Why do you come this time?" 

Sherlock didn't care what mood Snape was in right now. He took out a list from his pocket and put it on the desk: "I need these materials, and of course, I won't bargain. I'll give you how much you normally pay."

Snape took the materials list from the desk. Sherlock didn't make any cover-up about the potion ingredients. With Snape's eyesight, he could see what kind of potion Sherlock was going to make.

"Billywig's sting, Fenugreek power, A moondew picked on the full moon. Do you want to make a sadness potion?"

Sherlock replied, "Do you have these materials?"

Snape looked at him; his eyes were still empty and cold, and his hair fell down and looked like it had been brushed with oil.

"Since you asked and as a colleague working in the school, how about I only charge you fifty Galleons?" 

Sherlock looked at him contemptuously, "That's too much."

"Well, do you want it?"

Sherlock took the purse from his pocket and put it on the table. "I currently have thirty Galleons here, and I'll give you the remaining twenty next time."

These materials are not worth the money at all, but some of them are hard to buy in the wizarding world. This is not because of scarcity but because it is not yet the season for such materials to be harvested, and it is estimated that only people like Snape would have spares of it at this time.

But Sherlock thought it was worth the price even though it cost him more than usual. Snape brought Sherlock the ingredients for the potion from his storage. Just as he took the ingredients and was about to leave, Snape suddenly stopped him.

"Don't you want to know what potion I'm making?"

Sherlock stopped. He looked back carefully at the boiling potion in the cauldron. After thinking for a moment, he knew what Snape was trying to do.

He didn't leave in a hurry and sat directly on a chair in Snape's office, "I don't have as much research on potions as you, but maybe I have known about it."

Sherlock pretended to look at the pot of potion, "If I'm not mistaken, this should be a pot of Wolfsbane Potion, right?"

"That's right, the effect of this potion is very uncommon."

"It's not common." Sherlock nodded. "Although it can't completely cure lycanthropy, it is enough to be called the cure for the werewolves."

Snape's impatience seemed to have made no secret of it, "Yes, the cure for the werewolves. If all the people in the castle are normal people, why should I make this potion?"

Sherlock shrugged, "How would I know?"

"You can use your brain to think more about it."

"Look, I'm busy every day. I don't have the time to think about such things. Why don't you tell me the answer directly, Snape? Tell me why you boiled this Wolfsbane Potion." Sherlock said slowly.

Snape looked coldly at Sherlock. Of course, he was not a fool, so he saw through him.

"But you already knew."

Sherlock saw that he had found out and stopped pretending to be with him. "Thanks to your reminder, I tried my best to teach so much about werewolves in the class."

Snape stared at him, "Since you know, why don't you expose his true colors? Don't you think that having a werewolf in Hogwarts is a danger to students?"

Sherlock sneered, "You know it earlier than I do. Why don't you do it yourself?"

Snape seemed to be gritting his teeth, but his expression made it impossible to see how resentful he was, "I promised Dumbledore that I would hide this from anyone."

Sherlock suddenly looked at him curiously. "What kind of hatred do you have with Lupin? He looks like a nice person, but why do you hate him so much that you want to reveal his identity and get kicked out of Hogwarts? Are you jealous of the position? He's just a teaching assistant. You should be jealous of me if you want to be jealous."

The boiling potion was steaming hot in the office. Snape stood under the light, his hands tightly clenched into fists.

"A nice person? Is this what you think of him?"

"You know what he almost did? He turned into a werewolf, and his friends lured me over and locked me in a room with him as a werewolf. If not because someone found me there at the last minute, I'm afraid that there will be no Severus Snape standing in front of you now."

Snape stared at Sherlock. His words were not without much excitement and anger, but the hatred mixed in them could be heard. Sherlock was stunned by what he said. He really didn't expect Snape to have such a strong hatred against Lupin.

He used to think Snape was always bitter, but he held grudges for trivial things during his student days. Judging from what he said, it seems there are things that happened in the past.

Sherlock sighed, no longer in the mood to talk to Snape, "Even if he almost killed you back then, it wasn't his intention. After he became a werewolf, he lost his consciousness. If he hates you, he should hate the group of people who lured you into it."

Snape said coldly, "What's the difference between them? Just because he was unconscious and almost killed me, I can't do anything to him?"

Sherlock was speechless. He wanted to reconcile Snape and Lupin's conflict, but now it seemed that this was simply unfixable.

What happened to them back then was definitely not as simple as Snape himself said. With such a complicated relationship, Sherlock was no longer in the mood to argue with Snape about who was right and who was wrong. He took the potion materials and left. 

Just when Sherlock had walked all the way to his office's door, he found a familiar figure standing in front of him. Her robe covered her whole body, the wide hood covered most of her face, and the exposed lower half of her face could be seen.

Sherlock said with a look of surprise after seeing Silk standing in front of the door, "I thought you lied to me before and wouldn't come back."

She didn't care about Sherlock's words and said coldly, "I got some news."

Sherlock pushed open the door of his office and walked in together with Silk. He sat on a chair and pulled out the locket from under his robe.

"So what exactly is this thing?"

Silk gently told him the news of her trip back, "The Ministry gave me an appointment with an old goblin who lived from the goblin rebellion to the present. He told me that at the time when the situation was the most difficult, the goblins thought they were about to lose the war."

"They discussed together and gathered some of the best goblin craftsmen at the time, created an alchemy item that could reverse the situation after losing the war, and hid it in the deepest underground."

"But I don't know why. After the goblins were defeated, they didn't use this item. The goblin I talked to was not the leader of the goblins at that time. He just heard things about it."

"It is rumored that it represents the highest alchemy item in the past thousand years, but what does this thing look like, and what role does it have? The goblins who know this information are already dead."

Sherlock looked at the locket but did not expect it to be one of the most important alchemy items of the past thousand years. After listening to the information about this locket that she found, he couldn't help but wonder.

"Since this is an alchemy item created by the goblin to reverse the war, how did the Fiddlesticks know about it? What did he want to do when he found this?"

Silk shook her head, "I don't know, but this is what the Ministry is currently investigating. They are trying to ask the Fiddlesticks for something."