(A/N: Want to read ahead of what I have posted so far? Go to my Patreоn and get your early access chapters :3
By becoming a patron, you'll instantly unlock access up to 24 chapters (Chapter 125 already!)
https://www.pаtreon.com/HPMan
______________________
Saturday is a day off.
Spend this day with your family, or get enough sleep for the whole week like me. ;)
Anyway, I wish you a good weekend and I repeat - there will be no chapters tomorrow.
Thank you for your attention! Enjoy!
______________________
After Halloween, the castle was literally buzzing like a beehive, except instead of buzzing on all sides, it was, "Black made his way into the castle... How...? Maybe like this? Or so? .. I know for sure!" In general, Sirius Black has caused unprecedented hype for his person, even worse than Potter's arrival at the time. Well, that's not surprising. If Potter is just a celebrity, then Black is a celebrity who can kill you, just because.
Regarding school activities, everything went steadily, except that once Snape replaced Lupin in DADA class and gave us an assignment - to study werewolves. He didn't forget to take a bunch of points from Potter, which annoyed him with questions about where Lupin was. I used to think it was such extravagant revenge for Neville's boggart, but here the guy didn't dress up a boggart in Snape's uniform in his grandmother's dress. Perhaps the professor is trying to convey to us the idea that Lupin is a werewolf and we should all be afraid of him?
At the beginning of November, there was a Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin teams, but not respected Malfoy managed to get himself into trouble even without a hippogriff - his arm was bitten by blast ended skrewts. They were rather small, as small as a kitten, but judging by the story of Hermione, who in her turn heard about it from her roommates, words can't tell how much scream and panic there was when five of them right from the improvised paddock pounced on the hand giving food. The blast ended skrewts, though disgusting, are very safe at that age, and once I heard that my mind stubbornly refused to let go of the picture of attacking pugs. Anyway, instead of Slytherin, the Hufflepuff boys came out to play.
The match was played in terrible weather conditions, with wind, rain, thunderstorms, and very low clouds. The Dementors took advantage of the situation. Being attracted by the many bright emotion sources, they couldn't resist and attacked Potter at the most crucial moment - the boy almost caught the Snitch. As it was in the canon, Potter was saved from the unenviable fate of crashing to the ground by Dumbledore himself, without any wands or other crutches, conjuring up quite a complicated spell - Arresto Momentum. It was this spell that slowed Potter's fall and brought him gently to the ground. And again, without any wands, the headmaster cast the most powerful modification of Patronus - Pulse. Like shock waves, a series of pulsating translucent blue spheres burst from the headmaster, dispersing the Dementors and even tearing a couple apart. I even somehow regretted that I did not see it in the immediate vicinity but watched from the castle - as always, I did not go to the match.
Well, in general, there has been a lull again. Nothing happened at all, just study, classes, and training. Day after day. It was only with the cold weather and the first snow in the two weeks before Christmas that I realized that the vacations were coming. I had to keep myself warm by enchanting the windows every morning so that the wind doesn't blow because the house-elves would remove the home-made plugs and insulators, saying, "It's not allowed! But we will surely punish ourselves!".
On the last weekend of the semester, Hermione and I took another walk through Hogsmeade, buying some sweets, which was the main purpose of the hike in the first place. That very night, Lumos, with whom Potter sat, looking at the parchment, kept me awake. I, frankly, had been waiting for a long time for the twins to give him the map, so I was not particularly surprised. So I quietly crept up behind.
"Curious map."
Potter literally jumped up on the spot, jumping off the bed and pointing his wand with Lumos at me.
"Knight, Merlin's beard!" he hissed quietly, almost going off in parseltongue. "Don't scare me like that."
"All right, all right," I raised my hands in a conciliatory gesture with a smile. "A stern wizard in pajamas and with Lumos at the ready, have mercy."
I stopped smiling abruptly.
"Better yet, open the map again and tell me, can it lie?"
"Lie?"
"I saw the name, Peter Pettigrew. Do you know who it is?"
Potter quickly sat back down on the bed and opened the map. There were indeed footprints stretching down the hallways with a sign that said "Peter Pettigrew." Literally next to the common room, if I hadn't lost the ability to understand maps at all. Turning my gaze to where our room was, I saw the boys' names and my own. "Maximilian Knight."
"It can't be..." exhaled Potter quietly.
"Ahhhh!" Ron jumped up from the bed. "Spiders! Spiders everywhere..."
He mumbled in a sleepy voice.
"Spiders, Harry. Huge spiders make me dance step..."
"So charm them," Potter replied.
"Charm... yeah, right... I'll do that," Ron collapsed back into bed, immediately falling asleep.
"As far as I know," I spoke quietly, "Peter Pettigrew must be dead because Black killed him. He and Lupin were friends of your parents. Don't look so surprised. I've seen old newspaper clippings, and in the library, there are albums of wizard photos of graduates with their names signed. They've been making them since, like, the twenties. And the topic of Black was discussed by the newspapers for a long time and from all sides."
"But..."
Both Potter and I kept our eyes on Pettigrew as he moved about the castle.
"We need to tell Professor Lupin right away."
"Where is he? Oh, he's probably at his place."
"Let's go. There's no time to waste. Or maybe you go alone? You seem to have an invisibility cloak."
"Yeah, you're right, Max. We should definitely tell him, and the sooner, the better."
Potter quickly pulled himself together, put on his invisible cloak, and left the room. Let him go, make Lupin nervous. I'll go do something else and try to find a rat.