Hogwarts doesn't need a savior

Aging is irreversible, but at least I look much better than I did a year ago.

-----------------

The night was high in the sky. Holding the stargazing results that looked like a fable, Lin En hurried towards the castle while thinking about the elder's last words.

He also had to hurry back to Birmingham and didn't plan to spend the night in this place that he was tired of.

But at the castle gate, he met someone he seldom saw and whom he really didn't want to see - Sybill Trelawney.

With the lesson learned from the prophecy when he first joined the job, he did not stop for a moment. He condensed the symbol of Redo and wanted to escape quickly, but he heard a floating voice.

"Lynn, I saw you in the crystal ball." Trelawney turned around tremblingly, facing the place where Lynn appeared. "I can't refuse the urging of fate, and neither can you."

Out of politeness and a certain fear of keeping a distance, Lin En stopped reluctantly.

"I'm all ears, Sibyl." His face was full of resistance, especially after smelling the strong smell of sherry.

Trelawney was still wearing her green Christmas dress, decorated with metal discs that looked like a giant glowing dragonfly, which was eerily eye-catching.

"I saw you and Lupin and the black dog," she said in her most indistinct voice. "This is ominous, a shadow rising from the grave."

"Grave? Shadow?" Lynn frowned.

This was inexplicably similar to the prediction he had heard in the Forbidden Forest, but also somewhat funny.

After all, he knew what the black dog represented.

"I found darkness in the crystal ball, very deep darkness. That is your mortal enemy." Trelawney's voice became distant and ethereal. "I'm not sure if it is a ghost, but it is very dangerous. Your wish will be difficult to fulfill and will be accompanied by death."

"Whose death?" Lynn's brows furrowed even more.

"I don't know. It could be that poor Professor Lupin... he won't be with us much longer. But it could also be that... no, I'm sorry, but even my third eye can't see everything."

Trelawney's voice suddenly returned to normal, and her big eyes stared straight at Lynn.

She tremblingly took out a small bottle of sherry from her arms and put it into Lynn's hand.

"Why, are you going to buy me a drink, Sibyl?" Lynn pretended to be cheerful. "Thank you. I also want to experience the taste of sherry. You know, I rarely drink it."

"Perhaps you need it to open your third eye, my dear friend." Trelawney did not respond, but said dryly, and then walked slowly upstairs.

"Sherry, Third Eye, Prophecy..."

Long after she had left, Lynn still stood there, taking out Firenze's parchment.

This left him a little confused.

At the same time, in the Defense Against the Dark Arts office.

Snape, who had left Dumbledore, found Lupin.

"Hello, Severus," Lupin said gently, "What do you want to talk to me about?" He was wearing a plain gray pajamas and looked like he was ready to go to bed.

"Indeed, there is something." Snape's face was grim. "I want to ask you about someone."

"who?"

"Sirius Black."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop suddenly under Snape's aggressive attitude.

Lupin remained calm, with a puzzled expression.

"It's difficult for him to break in here. There must be someone inside." Snape said to himself, looking confident. "Who do you think it is, Lupin?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know, Severus. But I'd like to bring him to justice just as badly."

"You don't know? Very good..."

Snape sneered as if he had expected it. "We will know soon. Remember, I will always keep an eye on you. Dumbledore trusts you, and it has nothing to do with me."

"of course."

Lupin's smile was harmless, like a ball of cotton that wouldn't react even if hit.

This made Snape very angry, and he just walked away.

On the way downstairs, he bumped into Lynn, who was still eyeing the bottle of sherry.

With a loud bang, two people, each preoccupied with their own thoughts and not looking at the road, bumped into each other.

The sherry shattered on the ground, and the flowing wine soaked into the parchment, blurring the already blurred ink on it.

"This is……"

Lynn stared at it intently, not even paying attention to Snape who was badly hit by her.

The words, or "pattern" after being soaked, looked familiar to him.

It's like... I've seen it somewhere.

-----------------

In western Africa, there is a country ravaged by war.

The sound of gunfire in the market continued from morning to night, day and night, and the air was always filled with the strong or weak smell of blood, as well as other mixed odors.

A tall and thin man walked on a dirt road full of garbage and debris, ignoring the gunshots and shouts around him. The passers-by around him seemed unable to see him and the plastic bag he was holding.

He moved back and forth in the flames of war, and the bullets seemed to fly around him, until he walked out of this market, which was bustling in every sense, and came to a bungalow on the edge of the town.

"Squeak-"

The dilapidated door groaned and slowly opened.

"Boom"

The plastic bag fell to the ground with a dull sound. The man who had been calm just now immediately became alert. His skin all over his body trembled violently, and in the blink of an eye he turned into a nimble bluebird.

This was an extremely skillful Animagus transformation, which caused even the uninvited guests in the room to exclaim in sincere admiration.

"What a wonderful transformation. No wonder you were able to escape from Azkaban, Barty."

The hoarse voice came from the body that did not resemble a human, and it also slowed down the pace of the bluebird that was about to flap its wings to fly.

The next moment, he turned back into a human again, and his handsome face showed almost no signs of aging.

"Bellatrix? How did you become like this?" he asked puzzledly.

"This is all thanks to that damn Eric. Luckily my master saved me." Bella's only recognizable face was filled with resentment, but also twisted with relief and pride.

"Master?" Barty Crouch Jr. narrowed his eyes. "Where is the master?"

"I'm here, Barty..." A weak voice came from the swaddling clothes in Bellatrix's arms, "It's been many years since I last saw you, my loyal child."

“Master… I knew you were still alive.” Barty’s voice trembled as he rushed into the house in two steps and knelt on one knee in front of Voldemort, who was weaker than ever before. “After so many years, I finally see you again.”

"It's a pity that you didn't come with the three of us back then." Bella said regretfully, "Otherwise, even that damn Eric wouldn't be our opponent, and maybe we could have found the master earlier."

"It's all in the past. I know you've been looking for me for years, ever since you left Azkaban, so this time I answered your call."

Voldemort's tone was even softer than when he was talking to Bella, "It turns out that you are right. You are both very loyal, but you just lacked luck. Now I want you to work for me."

"I'd give my life for you anytime! Great Master!" Batty said fanatically, then lowered his head to hide his expression.

"We will get back everything we lost, in the near future. But first you have to protect yourself."

The dim oil lamp was lit, illuminating a face that looked like that of a centenarian, or just a tangled mass of flesh attached to a body the size of a baby.

Also illuminated was a newspaper on the table.

On the unfolded paper, there was a picture of the opening ceremony of Diagon Alley half a month ago.

Chapter 297 Coincidence or Metaphor

With Snape's complaints and resentment, Lynn returned to his home in Birmingham. Without even taking time to wash up and rest, he hung the wine-stained parchment on the table and observed it carefully.

"What happened?" Euphemia, who had gone to bed early, walked into the living room in her nightgown and asked in a daze.

"You've come at the right time, Fei. Come and help me figure out what this pattern is. It looks familiar, but I'm not sure if I've seen it before."

"Pattern? Let me see... I've probably never seen it before."

"That's it, okay."

"Did you encounter any problems?"

"This was originally a prophecy given to me by Firenze. On the way back, I met Trelawney, who said something ominous and dark, and gave me a small bottle of sherry. I walked to the corner and bumped into Snape, and the bottle broke. The parchment got wet and became like this."

“…Your process is quite tortuous.”

Listening to Lin En's story, Euphemia's sleepiness gradually dissipated. She looked at him mischievously and teased.

She picked up the parchment that was still wet from the table, read both sides, and put it back. "Aren't you the one who least believes in the drunkard's prophecy? Don't think too much. I remember that your last prophecy was also wet with ink."

"That last time...!"

Lynn grabbed Euphemia's shoulders and said excitedly, "It's the prophecy from last time!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he rushed into the study and began to rummage through the drawers.

"What's going on... why aren't you sleeping so late at night..."

After straightening her messy clothes, Miss Fei yawned slightly and followed with the parchment.

Soon she had the same feelings as Lynn.

As a pure Ravenclaw, Euphemia, who never believed in divination, was a little doubtful of her own eyes.

On the notebook where Lin En recorded the prophecy, the ink marks that had spread were exactly the same as the marks that were wetted by the wine at this moment, and even the outlines were only enlarged in proportion.

"These fortune-tellers... are there really something special about them? No way..."

She looked back and forth at the parchment in her hand, her eyes full of disbelief.

"You are my lucky star." Lin En praised sincerely, "Let's see what's there... Death, and this side... What was written here?"

He turned to the next page, revealing a faint ink stain.

That was predicted more than a decade ago.

"The word... I remember it was deception? You seemed to be laughing at that drunkard with us at that time."

Perhaps because her clothes were too thin, Euphemia felt a little cold and shivered before she could finish her words.

Lynn quickly took off her coat and put it on her, then pulled her into his arms and snuggled into the large armchair.

"Cheating death... or...?" He murmured in a low voice like a dream, "Could it be those three things?"

"You mean the Deathly Hallows?" Euphemia twisted her body and changed to a comfortable and warm posture. "The Elder Wand is in Dumbledore's hand, and the Invisibility Cloak is with Harry Potter. If you don't mean these two, you mean the Resurrection Stone? But no one should know the situation over there, right?"

"That's the theory, but you never know." Lynn sighed, "Just like what happened to Frank and the others back then. We should have gotten the intelligence, but unfortunately..."

"It was just a coincidence, Lin En." Bai Shengsheng's fingertips gently touched his chin, soft and cool, "Don't think too much, prophecies are not reliable. Have a good sleep, you have had enough troubles recently."

As she spoke, she stood up and tried to pull up Lin En, who was still in deep thought, but found that he didn't move at all.

"You should rest first, Fei." He said in a deep voice, "I still need to sort out things and make some preparations."

Many words stuck on Euphemia's lips, but in the end they could only turn into a helpless and worried sigh.

"You--Okay, I knew I couldn't persuade you. I'll go get you something to eat, and you should get some rest early. Don't put all the pressure on yourself. You're not an iron man."

“Don’t worry, I know what’s going on.” Lin En smiled comfortingly, holding his girlfriend’s hand and pressing the back of her hand against his mouth. “It’s just that we should make plans early to avoid being passive in the future.”

The fire in the fireplace burned brightly again, giving off a drowsy warmth.

At midnight, the air was filled with the aroma of coffee.

-----------------

"I'm afraid I won't be able to come over very often for the next while, Sirius."

In the Shrieking Shack, Lupin, who had left the school through a secret passage at night, came quietly with packages of various sizes, and put down enough food, medicine and spare clothes to last for quite some time.

Sirius walked to the window and looked around. After confirming that everything was correct, he relaxed his guard and sat down next to Lupin and asked, "What happened, Moony?"

"Snape has already targeted me, and you as well." Lupin said calmly, "But at the moment he has no evidence, and Dumbledore hasn't discovered anything either. You stay here and I'll keep an eye on Peter. And Harry, I'll protect him."

"...Damn Snotlout!"

Sirius clenched his fists and didn't let go for a long moment.

"Well, that's all we can do. Be careful."