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Chapter 413: A Tense Professor Lupin
Chapter 413: A Tense Professor Lupin
After leaving the classroom in the basement, Kyle didn't linger and made his way straight to the entrance hall.
Many students had already returned from Hogsmeade, and the atmosphere was much livelier than before, with everyone exchanging candies and joke items.
Kyle also noticed two people standing by the stairs.
Professor Lupin held a map in his hand, studying it closely.
"A creative design..." he said with a smile, "I've seen something similar during my time as a student... an intriguing map that, like this one, revealed the secret passages within the castle."
"You had such a map when you were a student, Professor?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Even better than this one..." Professor Lupin murmured, a hint of reminiscence on his face.
But soon, his expression turned serious...
He looked intently at Harry and asked, "Are there many of these maps floating around the castle?"
"I think this is the only one," Harry replied after a moment's thought.
He recalled Fred and George mentioning that they had made this map out of personal interest and had no plans to sell it, and as far as he knew, there was only one copy.
Hearing Harry's response, Professor Lupin's expression eased slightly.
"I, er... found this, Professor," Harry said, not wanting to betray Fred and George. He scrambled for a plausible excuse to explain how he had come across the map.
"I'm not interested in how you acquired it, but I'm shocked that you didn't turn it in, especially after the incident with a student carelessly discarding castle information," Professor Lupin said.
"I..." Harry wanted to explain, but wasn't sure how to begin.
Fred and George had clearly told him that after marking the secret passages, the map should be destroyed, but he had forgotten about it.
So far, he had only memorized the location of the hunchback witch statue's secret passage for that particular day.
"I can't return it to you, Harry," Professor Lupin said as he put the map away. "I have to..."
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, he twitched his nose as if he had caught a familiar scent.
Professor Lupin's gaze landed on Kyle, who had just entered the entrance hall.
"Good day, Professor Lupin," Kyle greeted with a wave.
"Hello... Kyle," Professor Lupin said, looking puzzled. "Why are you here? I thought you would be in Hogsmeade."
"I'm under detention, Professor," Kyle shrugged. "Didn't have time for Hogsmeade."
"Detention?!"
Professor Lupin was taken aback. He never would have guessed that Kyle, who had consistently ranked first in their year for three years, would be serving detention.
However, Harry seemed unperturbed, having already known about it when he encountered Kyle and Snape on the fourth floor earlier that day.
As for Snape, his behavior was hardly surprising.
"He probably gave you detention specifically because it's the Hogsmeade visiting day," Harry stated confidently.
"Did he have you dealing with those caterpillar globs?"
"No," Kyle shook his head. "It wasn't that bad. I just had to brew potions for a few hours."
"Oh, that's a relief," Harry said, still feeling a bit queasy at the memory. "The last time I was under Snape's detention, I couldn't eat properly for days... By the way, what potion were you brewing that took so long?"
"A rather rare one..." Kyle said, "Wolfsbane Potion."
Fortunately, a group of students entered the entrance hall at that moment, returning from Hogsmeade.
Fred and George approached, flanking Kyle.
"You have no idea what you missed..." Fred commented.
"The Shrieking Shack wasn't as bad as we thought..." George added with a laugh. "Malfoy saw something in there that scared him so much, he ran all the way back to the castle."
"We could hear his screams from Zonko's..." Fred said regretfully. "But why didn't we see anything like that when we went in there?"
Harry kept his head down, remaining silent.
In truth, it was he who had scared Malfoy away, having thrown a clump of mud at him while wearing the Invisibility Cloak.
However, due to the force of the throw, a part of the cloak had slipped, exposing his head, which appeared to be floating in mid-air, thus frightening Malfoy away.
This was also the reason he had been called to Snape's office.
Soon after, Connor, Autumn, and Cedric returned as well.
Seizing the opportunity, Kyle steered the conversation away from the topic of detention and joined them outside.
He figured that if he stayed any longer, Professor Lupin would end up crumpling the map in his nervousness.
To be honest, the way he was acting, he might as well have had the words "I'm a werewolf" written on his face.
It was a good thing Harry and Ron were there; if it had been Hermione, she surely would have noticed something amiss.
Speaking of Hermione, she seemed to have been scarce lately, especially after the Christmas break. The trio had become a duo.
It was only during mealtimes that Hermione could be spotted, hurrying into the Great Hall with a bulging bag, quickly gobbling down her food.
With these thoughts in mind, Kyle followed Connor out to the grounds.
Autumn handed him a bottle of Butterbeer, and without hesitation, he took it.
But the next second, the Butterbeer transformed into a rubbery, angry-looking Black Line Cod, which bit down on his arm.
The fish didn't hurt, but it held on tight, and no matter how Kyle shook his arm, he couldn't dislodge it. When he pulled harder, the fish only stretched longer.
Fred and George doubled over with laughter, needing no guess as to who was behind this prank.
...
As he watched the group walk out of the castle doors, laughing and joking, Professor Lupin finally released the breath he had been holding and unclenched his fists. A slight color returned to his face.
Perhaps Kyle hadn't noticed anything after all, or maybe he was just overthinking it.
That thought crossed his mind...
Who would have thought that the great Professor Dumbledore would hire a werewolf as a professor? It was as unlikely as him agreeing to let Kyle attend Hogwarts in the first place.
Such a thing was impossible anywhere else... only Dumbledore...
Professor Lupin took a deep breath and, after a few brief words of instruction to Harry, hurried away.
Now was not the time to dwell on such matters; there was something more important he needed to do.
He had to go to Filch, to retrieve an item.
...
(End of Chapter)
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