The days at Hogwarts

"Let me help you, Sirius!" Harry hurried over, took the cup and fed him water.

Sirius wanted to scratch his head, but the bandages wouldn't allow him to do so. He said with a little embarrassment: "Actually, I'm not thirsty, it's just that the ward is too boring, so I treat this as a game."

"..."

This is indeed something he can do. Harry looked at him silently and put the cup back on the small cabinet beside the bed: "Did Madam Pomfrey say how your health is?"

Sirius grinned and said, "It's nothing. It just took me some time to find the broken bones in my muscles. Now I just have to wait for them to heal. I will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow and can give you a Defense Against the Dark Arts class before the holiday."

Knowing that he was fine, Harry put aside his worries and turned to complaining about Snape:

"That old bat is going too far! This was just a duel demonstration between professors, and he actually used such heavy hands."

Harry was indignant: "He also deducted 50 points from me today. I don't even dare to face my classmates now."

Sirius' smile faded, his face looked very unnatural, and he said awkwardly: "Strictly speaking, I am more at fault. I shouldn't have used that spell to anger him."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked in confusion, "Isn't it the normal way to duel to provoke the opponent and make him lose his composure?"

"Harry, this matter is very complicated, and I can't explain it to you clearly. Anyway, after I calmed down, I realized that I was wrong."

"Why?" Harry was even more confused.

"This happened a long time ago, when I was still a fool. I, and your father James, used that spell to do unforgivable things to Snape."

Harry's heart was lifted when he heard James' name, and he asked, "What is unforgivable?"

"I can't tell you, at least not now."

"Although Snape is an annoying snotty guy, I still hate him even now, and for a long time I even felt that he deserved it."

"But in that one thing, even if Snape cast a killing curse on me, I still thought it was normal." Sirius paused, "I even felt it was strange that he didn't cast any evil curse on me."

Harry found it hard to accept that his father and godfather had done something wrong to Snape: "You did something wrong to him! So that's why he has been targeting me?"

"No one is sorry for anyone," Sirius retorted, "I admit that James and I went too far at the time, and even Remus always felt ashamed of us. But Snape also took every opportunity to curse us -"

"If the four of us hadn't always stayed together, we would have been the ones to suffer."

He became more and more excited as he spoke, and he finished the whole long string of words almost in one breath. After he finished, he leaned against the head of the bed, gasping for breath, and it took him a long time to recover.

After a moment's silence, Sirius said, "Like I said just now, we were all fools back then."

Chapter 243 Animagus Class Begins

After seeing Harry off, it soon became dark. Madam Pomfrey came in and brought a dinner specially for the wounded.

Taking Sirius' current mobility difficulties into consideration, Madam Pomfrey prepared liquid food for him, which was connected to his mouth through a long tube, making it very convenient for him to suck it full.

Then came the long and boring night in the ward. Through the grid-like glass window, I could see the endless deep blue night outside. It flowed in like a stream, and the white ward, white sheets, and white curtains were all soaked in a silent blue.

It was very quiet. Madam Pomfrey was busy doing something outside and no sound could be heard.

After talking to Harry, Sirius had no mood to play the drinking game. He seemed to be the only one left in the world. He leaned on the support at the head of the bed and stared into the air in the middle of the ward.

His eyes were empty and unfocused.

The memories of the past thirty years were like a Muggle movie he had watched. The frozen black and white photos suddenly came to life, and the characters in the pictures drew their own colors from his broken soul and slowly began to move.

He was born in Islington, London in 1959 into the "oldest and noblest" Black family.

His parents, Orian Black and Walburga Black, were cousins, dark wizards, and extreme purist who adhered to the family motto of "Forever Pure" and were proud of their pure blood.

They discriminate against all people and things related to Muggles, refuse to associate with Muggles or Muggle-borns, Squibs and blood traitors, sever ties with Squib family members, and insist that their family members can only marry with respectable pure-bloods.

Living in the Black family, he had to be careful in what he said and did every day. The rules and regulations derived from the pure-blood concept were like a cage and a rope that made it hard for him to breathe.

In order to resist these oppressions, to show his difference from the Black family, and to anger his parents, he hung a permanent spell of the Gryffindor flag on the wall of his room, as well as pictures of Muggle girls in bikinis and motorcycles, and pictures of himself and his Gryffindor friends.

Thinking back now, these actions were ridiculously childish. Equally ridiculous was his behavior at school...

He skipped classes, cursed his classmates, and duelled with people from Slytherin. Every time he fought, he would forget his identity as a wizard and return to his most primitive fighting style.

Sirius had no scruples about making nasty jokes about people he hated, as long as he found it funny.

Until his closest cousin, Andromeda Black, was expelled from the family and married a Muggle named Ted Tonks, and was denounced as a blood traitor.

The sixteen-year-old Sirius could no longer stand the suffocating atmosphere of the Black family. He ran away from Grimmauld Place and lived in James's house, and was therefore expelled from the Black family.

The following year, he inherited a considerable fortune from his uncle Alphard, who was also expelled from the Black family.

After that, it was the First Wizarding War...

During the first Christmas holiday after being released from prison, Harry didn't want to go back to the Dursleys, so Sirius took him to 12 Grimmauld Place.

After a few days, Sirius couldn't stand it anymore.

What he told Harry was that he couldn't stand Kreacher...actually, he couldn't stand the empty old house.

Regulus died, probably because he wanted to quit the ranks of the Death Eaters, so he was eliminated by the Death Eaters.

Sirius had an absurd idea in his mind that the members of the Black family were probably gentler than the Death Eaters, and at least he would not die if he was expelled from the Black family.

Then there is the father, the mother...

Sirius believed that he had no attachment to the place and did not have much affection for his parents. Even now, it was still the same.

But when he pushed open the door of Number 12 Grimmauld Place and was greeted by a damp, gray, strange, sweet and rotten smell, he was still in a trance.

When he was in Azkaban, tortured by Dementors and losing his mind, the old Black house became empty, without a single living person.

In the silent school infirmary, Sirius's thoughts wandered aimlessly. The sounds of those scenes from a long time ago were somewhat distorted after being processed by memory, and covered with a layer of misty shadows. Even the characters were blurred.

Her father always stroked his big golden ring, which was engraved with the Black family crest. The crazy woman in the portrait was her mother, who was not always so crazy or hysterical.

Before her youngest son and husband died one after another, and before he was imprisoned in Azkaban, she was an extreme and bad-tempered woman. Among the various groups of strange dark wizards, she could barely be considered a normal person.

Then Uncle Fleamont and Aunt Euphemia, Prongs's parents, treated him very well and almost as a second son, but they died of dragon pox when they were very old.

As for James, James died because of him. Sirius always felt that he could not explain to Uncle Fleamont and Aunt Euphemia. They were so good to him, but he killed their only son.

It's all damn Wormtail's fault, damn Peter Pettigrew!

In a daze, Sirius returned to the street in Hampshire...

"...It will kill many people, it shouldn't be here..."

The boy with black hair and black eyes sat on the busy street, tilting his head, and said in a ethereal voice: "Isn't it?"

In the school infirmary, Sirius, who was lying on the bed, suddenly woke up from his dream. He lay straight on the bed, gasping for air, his heart beating violently, and he felt a fear he had never felt before.

……

Friday, sunny.

The first class in the morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Madam Pomfrey's healing skills were as good as ever. Sirius, who appeared in the classroom, showed no signs of discomfort except for more red bloodshot eyes, and the bandages wrapped around his body were gone.

Professor Black caught a few Grindylows from the Black Lake and planned to demonstrate to his students how to deal with them.

Now facing Sirius, Loren has basically calmed down.

Under Dumbledore's nose, he couldn't blow up Sirius. Instead of indulging in these things, he might as well enjoy the wonderful life with Hermione.

If Sirius never repented, the nightmare would accompany him forever. He would have trouble sleeping every night for the rest of his life until he fell into death.

Through the transparent glass tank, Loren saw the aquatic monster that once caused his air force to fail - Grindylow.

Several disgusting green monsters with pointed horns pressed their faces against the glass, baring their teeth and making all kinds of weird faces. Even their teeth were green with scale, and their thin and long fingers had disgusting dark green nails. All kinds of filth in the water precipitated and adhered to the surface of their nails, which were covered with rough keratin, like stones.

When the little wizards collectively turned their eyes to them, they shrank into the corner in fear, pretending to be harmless.

Sirius tapped the glass of the water tank with his fingers, causing the Grindylow to bare its teeth at him. "Today we are going to learn how to deal with Grindylows. Before we do, I want to ask, does anyone know about Grindylows?"

Hermione was the first to raise her hand, which was expected.

Unexpectedly, Ron also raised his hand high, with a look of "Choose me! Choose me!" written all over his face, and he even took the time to give Loren a look.

"Unbelievable!" Seamus' eyes widened.

"I must be still dreaming. I actually saw Ron raise his hand." Dean looked at him in disbelief.

After playing together for a few months, Sirius also knew what kind of people his godson and his friends were. Sirius was very surprised, and then he pointed him up: "Ron, you answer it."

Ron straightened the collar of his magic robe, made a gesture, coughed, and replied, "Grindylow is a kind of unintelligent, cruel dark magic creature that mermaids tame as pets. This creature has a green body, green teeth, and horns on its head. Most importantly, Grindylow has very long fingers."

The conversation was normal up to this point, but it gradually went off track afterwards. "Grindylo is very strong and has flexible fingers. It can skillfully remove the bait from the hook, making it impossible to catch fish. If you fish in waters with grindylo, you need to prepare special bait..."

“…” Loren fell into deep silence.

Ron spoke eloquently, looking very knowledgeable, but the main point was completely off the mark. The young wizards listened with dull expressions.

"stop!"

Hearing that he had already talked about the preparation of bait and the method of casting the hook, Sirius quickly pulled back the key point, "Tell me how to deal with this creature."

"Oh, this... I don't know." Ron blinked with an innocent expression.

"..."

Sirius pursed his lips and was silent for a while: "Very good too, ten points for Gryffindor. Now I will explain to you the characteristics of Grindylow..."

Ron could no longer hear the rest of the words as he was now immersed in the joy of getting extra points.

Although he had earned points for Gryffindor before, they were all from defeating monsters. This time, he earned the points fairly by answering questions.

How many people in the Gryffindor house could score points by answering questions? Just considering this aspect, he had surpassed the vast majority of Gryffindors.

I, Ronald Weasley, have a bright future ahead of me.

Ron frowned at his friends around him, his mouth almost stretched to his ears, and every pore in his body exuded a sense of pride. If he had a tail, it would definitely be sticking up to the sky.

Loren and the others quietly stayed away from him, it was so embarrassing.

The second class was Herbology.

Considering that everyone was eagerly looking forward to the holiday and could not do any strenuous work, Professor Sprout took everyone back to the first greenhouse to cultivate several types of immobile fungi.

At this point, the Easter holiday has officially arrived. For the next week or so, the little wizards can enjoy March and April at Hogwarts and freely pursue the breath of spring on the grass beside the Black Lake and the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Except for the members of the Animagus teaching class, their first class was scheduled for this afternoon.

At the Gryffindor table at lunch.

Ron was showing off his extra points to the twins and said he was going to write back and tell Mom and Dad about it.

"Oh, extra points for baby Ronnie!"

Fred cheered, "Right! I suggest you write Dad a Howler letter and have him open it at the Ministry so that all Ministry employees know about it!"

Ron seemed to be strangled. He fell silent and clenched his fists tightly.

George nodded continuously: "Ask Mom to write a howler letter and bring it back to school, and open it in front of all the teachers and students in the school."

"Ah! I want to die with you two!"

Ron yelled, rushing forward with his fists raised.

But two fists were no match for four hands, and they were soon suppressed by George and Fred, and the two sides started a war of words.

Loren, who was sitting not far away, was watching with great interest. He didn't expect that there would be a farce to watch while eating lunch. It was really exciting.

Seeing the evil look almost written on his face, Hermione was speechless. What kind of person is this?

"Stop looking and eat quickly. After that we'll go to the classroom." She poked Loren's arm.

"Ok?"

Loren looked back at her in confusion, "What are you doing in the classroom so early?"

"Let's go sit in the middle, front seats."

"There are only a few dozen people in the Animagus class, so there's no need to fight for a spot."

"There are also students auditing the class. There must be a lot of people."

"Don't worry, Professor McGonagall will definitely consider this and reserve seats for the students in the teaching class in advance." Loren said happily, "When the time comes, we will go there on time, and the auditors will watch us sit in the front row. They will definitely be envious."

"..."

Loren's beautiful expectations did not come true in the end. After lunch, he was dragged to the Transfiguration classroom by Hermione.

The two arrived the earliest and sat in the middle of the front row as they wished.

Being able to transform into an animal at will, Animagus has a strong appeal to all young wizards. Many students who did not pass the exam came to audit the class, and even many people who did not join the Transfiguration Club came. All the young wizards who were not in the teaching class consciously sat in the back to leave space for the students in the teaching class.

Basically everyone Loren knew came, from all the colleges and grades. Only a few students were really not interested in Animagus.