Harry Potter and the Obscurus

Chapter 64 The Secrets of the Forbidden Forest and the Pensieve

Harry's sprint from the Willow Tree to the edge of the Forbidden Forest brought Snape, Lupin, and Black (now a large black dog) together for the first time. They shouted in unison:

"Potter!"

"Harry!"

"Wang!"

Before the shouts could reach Harry's ears in the distance, the group of older adults felt quite embarrassed by the three different ways they addressed each other.

Snape, who was the first to turn his sour face away, snorted. Then, ignoring how the big black dog was baring its teeth at him, he found an angle that Lupin and Black couldn't see and continued to observe Harry's movements with a sidelong glance.

Seeing that his current colleague and old friend were about to spark a romance again, Lu Ping quickly changed the subject, saying:

"Remember the girl I mentioned to you? The one named Miss Granger? Among the third-year students at Hogwarts, her overall grades were even better than Harry's."

Upon hearing this, Black sniffed and shifted his gaze from "Snotty" to Hermione Granger—someone he hadn't had the chance to observe closely before.

……

In the distance, two young people who had run towards each other suddenly embraced on the lawn outside the forbidden forest. They didn't complain or lament; they simply held each other, as if they understood each other's unspoken thoughts without needing words.

After a long while, Harry released his arm, gently tidied Hermione's more disheveled brown curly hair, and asked:

"Ron and the others have already returned to the castle?"

Hermione nodded, her eyes filled with apology and a hint of grievance, but before she could say anything, she saw Harry smiling and shaking his head at her.

"Anyway, it's good that you're alright. There's nothing to apologize for."

"Immortal Harry, listen to me."

Hermione shook her head gently, her voice choked with emotion as she spoke:

“I used the Time-Turner to get here an hour early to wait for you. To avoid being recognized, I hid on the path where Hagrid took us to the Magical Creatures Protection class. However, the Dementors seem to have mistaken me for Sirius Black…”

Hearing this, Harry subconsciously re-examined the little witch's condition, and only after confirming that Hermione showed no signs of being harmed by the Dementors did he ask:

How did you escape?

"I'm not sure, but the air suddenly turned cold, and the light rain that was falling turned into snowflakes. I was terrified and thought of using the Guardian Charm to protect myself."

"You've mastered the Guardian Charm?"

"No, I just recited the spell as taught in the book, but my wand didn't react at all. At that point, I was even planning to Apparate to escape, thinking that even being disintegrated was better than being kissed by a Dementor, but then..."

At this point, Hermione turned around and pointed to the sky above a certain spot in the Forbidden Forest:

"There! There was a thundercloud there, and lots and lots of lightning bolts roared and chased away all the Dementors. I had seen you use the Weather Charm before, so I was thinking, maybe Professor McGonagall or Headmaster Dumbledore secretly saved me."

Lightning? Weather Charm? Dumbledore?

Several keywords kept flashing through Harry's mind, but he couldn't connect them into a logically sound and coherent explanation.

Can natural disasters and extreme weather affect Dementors? Professor Scamander doesn't seem to have mentioned this. And even if thunderstorms could have an effect, could a weather charm alone control lightning to such a precise degree?

However... then again, if Dumbledore really did secretly help Hermione, then controlling lightning with the Weather Charm doesn't seem entirely impossible.

I should probably ask him again next time I need tutoring.

……

A few minutes later, Harry led Hermione back to the two people and the dog.

As the current Potions professor and the biggest obstacle for Gryffindor in accumulating House Cup points, Severus Snape, as always, wore a very stern and dark expression.

Almost instantly, Hermione was flooded with memories of being nitpicked and criticized in the past. But before she could even calculate how many points she would lose this time, the dangerous "big bat" silently withdrew his gaze, flicked his black cloak, and turned to walk towards the castle.

"what?"

Hermione instinctively opened her mouth wide, then exchanged a glance with Harry. Her lips didn't move, but her eyes were filled with the question, "What on earth is going on?"

Faced with this situation, Harry didn't immediately offer an explanation. He first smiled and shook his head, then gestured with his eyes towards Lupin and Black. In his mind, Hermione, with her intelligence, was capable of figuring out the general situation based on the current circumstances.

Just as Harry had predicted, Hermione quickly sensed the subtle, unspoken tension between Professor Snape and Professor Lupin, a tension that teemed with a mixture of familiarity and antagonism. However, unlike Harry, who had been briefed on the plot by Mo Ran, the young witch could only vaguely guess that the two professors had likely had some unpleasant experience in their youth.

Professor Dumbledore changed the password for his office this year to "Cockroach Pile." After the stone monster leaped away from everyone, revealing the spiral staircase behind it, Snape, who had been silent the whole way, finally spoke:

"When we see Dumbledore, we shouldn't act rashly. Let Potter explain the situation to us. It wouldn't be good if we frightened Miss Granger and caused unnecessary trouble."

Hermione, whose name was inexplicably mentioned, was clearly bewildered. She didn't even notice the large black dog beside Professor Lupin baring its teeth at Professor Snape. At this moment, the little witch had no idea what unbelievable historical truth she had been drawn into.

The door to the headmaster's office creaked open, and Dumbledore, who was writing a reply on parchment, looked at the strange array of people before him with slight surprise, and said:

"Um, have Harry and Miss Granger gotten into trouble again? If..."

Dumbledore's voice suddenly stopped, as if even he hadn't expected the big black dog standing next to Lupin to appear in front of him in such a way.

Harry gave Hermione a reassuring look, then picked up his suitcase and walked to the front of the group, beginning to reveal the truth of what happened 12 years ago.

The enormous grandfather clock swung incessantly, and apart from the slight tinkling of its pendulum parts, only Harry's voice could be heard in the entire headmaster's office.

The truth behind the Potters' deaths and the betrayal of the Keeper of the Secret was incredibly explosive news, even for the successive headmasters of Hogwarts. If judged by the standards of Mo Ran's world, this top-tier revelation was akin to—President Kennedy didn't actually die; he actually used a homemade smoothbore gun to kill Shinzo Abe.

As Peter Pettigrew's body was thrown to the floor, and Sirius Black transformed back into human form, the venerable wizards and witches on the Nash canvases and in the picture frames on the wall even began to cover their mouths and faces.

"Sirius is innocent, and if necessary, he can even undergo a truth serum test."

Harry said firmly:

“However, Headmaster, I think you understand that if Sirius is found innocent after the tests, even the Ministry of Magic cannot maintain its credibility in the eyes of the public after wrongly accusing a hero like this. We now have Peter Pettigrew's body as evidence. Is it possible to resolve this matter without a trial?”

Dumbledore looked up at Harry, then shifted his gaze to Hermione's face, and slowly asked:

“Miss Granger, could you tell me more about your experience in the Forbidden Forest? From which direction did the thundercloud that saved you drift in?”

"Ah...ah? Me?"

Still immersed in Sirius's story of wrongful revenge, Hermione clearly hadn't expected to become the headmaster's target for questioning. She tried her best to recall what she had seen, and said in a somewhat uncertain tone:

"Which direction? It seems... there's no specific direction. That cloud seems to have appeared directly above my head."

Upon hearing this, Dumbledore nodded, then took a clean piece of parchment from the table and began to rewrite a letter to be sent to Fudge, the Minister for Magic.

"The words of a thirteen-year-old may not be very convincing, and even with the testimony of the Hogwarts headmaster and professors, it's impossible to overturn a verdict that has been in place for twelve years in the short term. However, with a starting point, the road will surely lead to the end..."

At this point, he looked up and glanced at Harry, seemingly casually, before continuing:

"For the time being, Mr. Black can temporarily return to his home at 12 Grimmauld Place, London. There are no Dementors patrolling there, and he can live safely without transforming into an Animagus. Of course, if you insist on staying in your transformed form at Hogwarts, then as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, I need you to guarantee that you will not disrupt the students' normal studies and lives."

Number 12 Grimmauld Place, London, is a major property of the Black family, and in the books and films, it was once used as a base by the Order of the Phoenix. Logically, Sirius Black, having endured countless hardships and finally avenged his family, should feel a sense of relief, even if he didn't do it himself. However, compared to reclaiming his position as the young master of the Black family, he seems to prefer spending more time with his godson.

"I want to stay in the Forbidden Forest for now."

Sirius Black said this:

"Harry might want to know more about his parents' story, while I..."

“If Potter really wants to know, then Lupin can tell him these things. If that doesn’t work, I can do it for him.”

Snape coldly interrupted Black, and then suggested to Dumbledore:

"Besides students, there are other unpredictable factors on campus, such as mischievous kids. Any carelessness could lead to unnecessary trouble. I think we should no longer let some people who have caused disasters for others with their wild ideas do whatever they want."

Sirius, who had originally wanted to argue with Snape, became completely deflated after hearing the latter part of Snape's statement.

He glanced at Harry with a hint of reluctance, hesitated several times before forcing a smile and saying:

“It’s alright…it’s alright…Oh, by the way, Harry, remember to write and tell me the results of this year’s Quidditch final. You just heard the address. With your new broom, you shouldn’t lose to Slytherin again. You fly really well, even better than your father…”

Sirius's words immediately made Harry realize who had given him the Firebolt. But before he could say anything more, Dumbledore had already begun assigning tasks to everyone.

"Remus, could you please go and find our Magical Creatures Protection Professor, Rubeus Hagrid? I have something important to discuss with him."

“Severus, I just sent Fawkes to my old friend’s place. If you have enough time, could you deliver this letter to the Ministry of Magic for me? I think it would be most effective if you delivered it yourself.”

"And Sirius, the hearth and Floo Network at Hogwarts have been under surveillance by the Ministry of Magic recently. Please go back to the Shrieking Shack and wait for Remus and Hagrid to finish their respective problems. Then we will find a way to send you to London."