In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter
Chapter 156: No way to go (2 in 1)

Sirius got together with Lupin and Lily in the Professor's common room after Dumbledore had introduced him to the whole school at breakfast.

This is not the first time they have met since the prison break-out from Azkaban, as early as last semester when Lupin first came to the wagon as a Defense class professor, they had a private get-together.

They have shared hatred for a long while, all three were once most directly affected by that ridiculous Saviour Prophecy.

And now they have reunited on the wagon, just as they did back then.

"If the man who infiltrated the wagon from the beginning is Wormtail, then he has done only two things so far. Persuaded the third son of the Weasleys to betray; and reported the location of the wagon to the Dementors."

Lupin is undoubtedly the calmest one among them all, and he knows that if he wants to find Wormtail successfully, it is best to understand his purpose of coming to the wagon first.

Lily, however, said in a cold voice.

"In fact, inquiring about what he came to the school to do simply has no way to provide us with any aid, these orders must have been given to him by his lord, it is likely that he himself does not know why he is doing this. We want to catch him, we can only rely on what we know about him before."

She looked at Lupin and Sirius.

"All of us know that he is a very timid person, and when you guys were in school before, he was the one who was usually the most afraid to break school rules in your little group of friends. A large part of the reason he chose to betray later on was also because he succumbed to his fear of Voldemort."

In private, Lily had no qualms about just calling the Dark Lord by his old name that no one dared to even mention.

"So coming to this wagon is also certainly not his own intention, he must know that I have always been in this school, and know that I live each day with a strong desire to kill him with my own hands, this must be Voldemort's strict order to him, forcing him to comply!"

"Being coerced to do it, even if he came to the wagon, he wouldn't likely stay with us every day, watching me, Lupin, and Dumbledore every moment, it would scare the rat out of him! If he wants to hide, it must be in a place where he would not normally meet with us every day."

"And previously, Dumbledore has brought us to conduct three inspections throughout the wagon, in which we have likewise speculated whether the infiltrator would be an Animagus. Dumbledore for this possibility also cast the Animagus reversal spell fully throughout the wagon, but there was no gain, which means that he found a place in the wagon where he could avoid this magic, and this place also meets the last condition, usually we won't notice, and will not go there."

While Lupin is the calmest among them, Lily undoubtedly for sure is the smartest among them.

The reason she wasn't able to get a clue about the infiltrator's whereabouts before was that she simply didn't have any information about the person, but now that she knew his identity, still he was once one of the people she knew best, then everything that could be deduced became traceable.

Sirius had come to the wagon only a handful of times, and he could tell that Lily's analysis made sense, yet he still stared.

"So where is that place?"

Lily didn't bother to look at Sirius, she had always known that this male wizard, who was closer to James than his own brother, was just as dumb as his Animagus form, a dumb guy who was only good at receiving orders and then carrying them out. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NøvᴇlFirᴇ(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Of the three people in this common room, the only one she could discuss it with is Lupin.

"We usually take classes in the wagon, the potion class needs me to cultivate and store a lot of potion materials, your Defense Against the Dark Arts class after the start of this year also applied for permission from Dumbledore to find a lot of empty classrooms to keep some dark creatures, so basically we have been to every room in the wagon. So is there any room that we have not or rarely go in, and never actively think about?"

Lupin had been listening carefully to Lily's analysis, his gaze showed a thoughtful look, his brow unconsciously furrowed.

The atmosphere went silent, not only Lupin was pondering, but Lily was also recalling with a cold face, wondering if they had missed any place.

Sirius was fidgeting a little anxiously in his chair, and now at this moment he could not help much, and could only wait for Lily and Lupin to come up with the results after using their brains.

And in the quiet time in the common room, they suddenly heard faint, somewhat messy footsteps above their heads.

The sound of footsteps made Lupin and Lily, who were originally in deep thought, all freeze.

Both of their eyes suddenly lit up with a flash of brilliance.

"That doesn't have to be a room!" Lupin said excitedly.

Lily's breathing also became visibly sharper: "You are the professor of defence class and history of magic, I am the professor of potion class and other elective classes, we can choose any room in the wagon as a classroom, but only one of the most special one will not be used!"

Hearing the two of them talking like a riddle, Sirius was getting more and more agitated.

"Alright! Just say it! Where the hell is that place!"

Lupin and Lily turned their heads together to look at him and said in unison.

"Astronomy classroom!"

There is no classroom for astronomy class to be precise, the class needs students to observe the stars, and there is certainly no suitable place for this activity in the wagon, so when the period of exile in the wagon begin, Dumbledore organized the space on top of the wagon, to be used as the venue for the astronomy class.

In addition to attending classes there, Jon in his first year also applied for permission from Professor McGonagall to go there to practice, usually, it is prohibited for students to enter without permission, and astronomy classes are basically held at night, professors except for Professor Flitwick who is responsible for teaching astronomy class basically will rarely go over there, even Flitwick only go there during the class, not to mention Lily and Lupin who have nothing to do with astronomy class.

And in the first three investigations, although the wagon roof was also involved, it was not the focus of the search, and Dumbledore's Animagus reversal spell was also likely not to cover this place!

After thinking clearly about the crucial point involved, Lily and Lupin did not stay any longer, they left and turned around to get ready to walk out of the common room, but Sirius moved faster than they did after they mentioned the astronomy classroom, he had already rushed out of the room.

It is now morning, and the students are basically in class, leaving only the three of them hurrying down the corridor towards the very end of the wagon, then they pushed open the door of the room marked with the astronomy class sign, and went up a spiral staircase from inside, and finally came to the top of the wagon.

Although this place is usually prohibited for students to come in freely, it is still scheduled by the McGonagall to carry out the regular cleaning work, the sound of movement from the top of the wagon that they just heard in the common room is the sound made by the cleaning students walking on it.

The sixth graders, who had no classes in the morning, all looked at the two professors and the new security guard who had arrived today in surprise.

Lily addressed them as soon as she walked up to the top of the wagon.

"You don't have to do the clean-up today, go back and get some rest."

The sixth graders had no objection to this even if they were puzzled, and after they left the roof of the wagon, Lily and the gang each took out their wands.

"Pay attention, if you find him, you must not let him get away."

They stood on top of the wagon, the wagon was driving on a suburban road, surrounded by muggle vehicles that were occasionally overtaken by them, but the people driving the vehicles seemed oblivious to the fact that this kind of vehicle should not even appear on the roads of the late twentieth century.

In the distance, the village, town, and wilderness were receding, while Lily and the gang split into three directions and did some all-around searching throughout the astronomy classroom.

Soon Lupin spotted a major clue, he called Sirius and Lily both all over.

In front of him, there is a palm-sized, raised floor, and under the floor is probably less than half a square size of recessed inner space.

Looking at the traces of the edge of the wooden plank break, this place is obviously newly dug out not long ago, at the bottom, there was also a layer of cashmere-like soft pad, and the soft pad is also covered with a lot of the same grey hair that Jon previously found in the charms' classroom, and there are still a lot of dried chicken bones and nuts shells nearby.

After seeing this place, Lily and Sirius couldn't help but hold their breath.

"He has been hiding here before!" Sirius gritted his teeth and said.

Lupin pinched the grey hairs from the cushion and muttered under his breath.

"It's him, this is where he stayed."

And the more it came to this, the more calm Lily became, staring at the dry, hard chicken bones and other scraps of food in them, she said in a flat voice that was obviously deliberately suppressed.

"This is just where he used to hide, all this rubbish looks like it hasn't been cleaned up for a month at the very least, and he hasn't been back here for a long time!"

"But we can't rule out the possibility that he has not still given up on this place completely." Lupin said while casting a spell on the movable piece of plywood, "This will help us know if he returns later on."

He then restored the movable floor plank to its original state.

They found new evidence that Wormtail was on this wagon, but still hadn't really found out where he is.

Lily's suspicions were all correct, but Wormtail was also obviously more cautious, and the location in the astronomy classroom was probably only one of his three caves.

After that, they carried out an extensive inspection throughout the wagon roof but still found nothing more, and finally had no choice but to return to the wagon.

The new clues found in the astronomy classroom gave Lily more motivation, and for the rest of the day in October, they carried out a complete inspection on other suspicious areas on the wagon, but no new clues were found.

This gave them strong uneasiness, and none of them uttered the most likely guess - that Wormtail is most likely no longer on this wagon!

The investigation of the Lily trio, on the other hand, had little effect on the students in the school. Jon had been working hard on the Patronus Charm all this time, and for some reason, he had a vague sense of a very bad feeling in his heart, so he has been working hard.

Although the school is now calm and quiet, from the beginning of the school year after the dementor attack, there has never been any other accident, but Jon's heart still somehow felt uneasy.

This uneasiness has a source, in this wagon, Jon can be said to be the person who is now most familiar with Voldemort who is in a high position except Dumbledore, even if he becomes more sensible, but a person's personality rarely changes.

He is vengeful and dark-hearted, in the first half of the year he suffered humiliation caused by a piece of flesh cut off from his home territory, Voldemort absolutely will not just let it go.

It seems that the less he fights back, the more Jon feels that there is a shocking storm hidden behind it.

In the last week of October, five days before Halloween, late that evening, Dumbledore suddenly called Jon to the Headmaster's office.

The Headmaster's office is still the same as before without much change, but Jon felt a different atmosphere, and this unusual feeling came from the portraits of the Headmasters on the walls.

When he came here before, most of these portraits would be pretending to sleep and secretly open a small slit to look at him, but now all these portraits are empty.

None of the people inside still remained in the portraits, leaving only empty frames, and the whole wall looks like a gallery store displaying its wares.

"Perhaps the situation now has reached the most critical scenario since the fall of Hogwarts Castle seven years ago, Jon."

Dumbledore looked deeply at Jon, he did not say anything unnecessary, but directly cut to the chase and said a message like a thunderclap in Jon's ear.

Even if there had been a forewarning in his mind before, Jon still looked at him with a dumbfounded face.

"Professor. I do not understand, are we already unknowingly surrounded by people sent by the Dark Lord?"

Dumbledore's voice was calm, but it was because of this kind of cold calmness that he had, unlike his usual tone, it carried an inexplicable meaning that gave people a more uneasy feeling.

"If we are surrounded, we just need to find a way to break out of the encirclement, even if the Dark Lord personally came, I am sure to hold him in check, and then let the Order of the Phoenix lead you guys to continue to escape, but now the situation is that we have nowhere to go."

He pulled a French-language newspaper from the side of his desk and placed it in front of Jon's face, on which a determined-looking witch was raising her fist for the camera.

Knowing that Jon could not read French on it, Dumbledore read the headline in the newspaper directly.

"[Interim Council of Councillors convenes in advance and will decide the future of the French magical community on October 25]"

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