HP: I beat the otome game at Hogwarts

Chapter 137 Sirius Black's Thoughts

No sooner had Dumbledore left than a groan came from the ward—Ron had woken up.

Mrs. Pomfrey, who had just been in the office, moved with the agility and speed of a hound, appearing at Ron's bedside in the blink of an eye.

She handed Ron a bottle of green potion; judging from Ron's expression, the potion probably didn't taste very good.

"You two need to rest too!" Madam Pomfrey urged Harry and Hermione back to their beds like chicks.

Harry and Hermione could only suppress their anxiety and return to their respective beds. Only after Madam Pomfrey left again did they jump up.

"Harry, where is Professor Lupin? How is Black? Have you told Headmaster Dumbledore the truth?"

Ron, who had just woken up, was full of questions.

Hermione and Harry explained the situation to Ron in a low, concise voice.

"So, we need to find Hagrid now, and then together we'll find Black in the Forbidden Forest and tell him to run away?"

“Harry and I will go,” Hermione said, glancing at Ron’s leg. “Your leg isn’t healed yet.”

Harry and Hermione hurried off to find Hagrid.

Ron felt that the potion he had just drunk tasted like rotten eggs, and the strange taste seemed to still be lingering in his throat. He sat up and decided to pour himself a glass of water.

"You're awake, Ron," Ginny exclaimed with delight as she entered the room.

Following her were Lyra, Fred, and George.

“Fred and the others just told me that you, Harry, and Hermione encountered werewolves and Dementors while you were walking outside the castle!” Ginny looked at Ron’s pale face, a hint of fear in her voice. “Thankfully, you were all alright. Percy went back to his dorm to write to his mother about it—”

Lyra and George packed a lot of food for Ron from the kitchen, and Ron quickly devoured a pumpkin pie, then grabbed an apple pie.

"Where are Harry and Hermione?" Lyra looked around. The beds in the school hospital were all empty, and Ron was the only one left in the room.

“Uh, they went, uh, you know, went to…” Ron mumbled, chewing on apple pie, “You know…”

Oh! That's right!

Lyra slapped Fred's thigh hard; she suddenly remembered something!

"Ouch!" Fred exclaimed, caught off guard and indignant. "Why don't you pat your own leg?"

“Look!” Lyra pulled a tightly bound ball of fur from her pocket. “Spotty! It’s not dead. I caught it in the grass near the Whomping Willow. Happy, Ron?”

Ron's eyes widened, his mouth opened, and the corners of his mouth twisted, making it impossible to tell whether he wanted to laugh or cry—his appearance was more strange than happy.

"—Spot!" Ron's mouth dropped open, his throat gurgling as if he were suffocating, and it took him several seconds to start inhaling. "You caught Spot!"

“Yes…” Lyra was somewhat taken aback; this was nothing like the reaction she had imagined Ron would have upon hearing the news. “I just caught him this evening…”

Ron sprang out of bed and grabbed Banban from Lyra's hand!

"Ron!"

"where are you going?"

Amid everyone's gasps, Ron only left them with a vague and ambiguous statement.

"I'm going to find Harry and Hermione—"

*

The next day, Leila and the twins heard a legendary story at the dinner table.

She, Fred, and George had just returned from Hogsmeade. The three of them had a great time and bought many interesting gadgets, planning to research them during the summer vacation and try to create more new products.

"So, Sirius Black is innocent?" Fred was so surprised that he dropped the fried sausage from his fork. "Peter Pettigrew is the real murderer?"

“Then the Ministry of Magic made a huge mistake—” George was much calmer than his brother, and he was able to take the opportunity, while still expressing his surprise, to toss a piece of lamb liver-flavored Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean into Ron’s onion soup.

“If Dumbledore hadn’t presented Fudge with irrefutable evidence, I don’t think the Ministry of Magic would have so easily agreed to overturn the verdict,” Hermione said.

“I heard from my father that Sirius Black was thrown into Azkaban without any trial,” Ron said, taking a sip of his soup. “Tomorrow’s headlines will definitely be all about it—”

“Dumbledore summoned Fudge last night and practically forced him to agree to overturn the verdict,” Harry whispered to his friends. “Fudge almost cried, but Headmaster Dumbledore hinted that he could shift the blame to his predecessor, which successfully cleared Sirius’s name.”

“I bet Fudge is probably discussing with his confidants how to deflect blame so as not to be cursed by all the wizards in Britain—” Hermione continued, “In the Muggle world, Black could bankrupt the government, but Dumbledore is right, Sirius Black himself has a lot of misconduct, so he is advised not to make things too difficult for Fudge, but a public apology should still be expected.”

“But this is really good news, isn’t it?” Lyra turned to Harry, who was happily cutting his steak. “I heard Hermione say that Black is Harry’s godfather.”

“Yes,” Harry said, a little shy but mostly happy. “Sirius said that if I wanted, I could live with him, but he needed to find a new house, so he asked me to stay at my aunt’s house for a few days and come back to pick me up after everything was settled.”

While the students were having lunch in the auditorium, Lupin was packing his luggage in his office.

Sirius Black sat with his legs crossed in a chair, toying with a glass of champagne.

Remus Lupin had already packed most of his things; his old trunk was almost full, but the drawers were still unpacked. He opened the drawers and began taking things out.

Sirius Black has already started drinking his third glass of champagne.

Lupin glanced disapprovingly. The champagne had been opened by the two to celebrate Sirius's release, but given Sirius's long imprisonment, it wasn't suitable for him to drink much. But—

He glanced at Sirius, who, though in fairly good spirits, was still thin, sighed silently, and gave up on trying to dissuade his friend.

Alright, let's cheer him up first. As for getting him to take care of his health, we can do that later.

However, it was clear that his old friend was troubled by something at the moment.

“You don’t need to worry too much about Harry,” Lupin said gently. “Dumbledore said that as long as Harry stays at his aunt’s house for a certain amount of time each year, you can bring him over to stay with you.”

“I’m not worried about that…” Sirius Black put down his glass, hesitating to speak.