Listening to Dracula's question, Lu thought quietly for a moment.

"If I had to guess where Sirius would be, I think he would be in the Screaming Shack." He said slowly, "There's a secret passage that connects to the beating willow, and that's where it all began......

"Screaming shacks?" Dracula raised an eyebrow, "Hogsmeade's rumored haunted house?"

As a well-known Hogsmeade attraction, the haunted screaming shack naturally piqued Dracula's interest.

But when he spent a few nights there, and found that it was nothing more than an ordinary shack, he lost interest in it.

At this moment, Lupin suddenly mentioned the shack, and Dracula's curiosity was once again aroused.

"Actually, this screaming hut has never been haunted...... Lupin said with a slight shake of his head, "The screams and howls that the villagers often hear were actually made by me when I transformed into a werewolf on a full moon night."

"Is that so?" Dracula nodded thoughtfully.

No wonder the villagers of Hogsmeade say that the screaming shack has not been heard for more than a decade. Lupin had already graduated from Hogwarts, so naturally the Screaming Shack would not be used again.

"Professor Dracula, you know I'm a werewolf, but I don't know how I became a werewolf." Lupin continued, "At that time, my father offended a werewolf in the court of the Ministry of Magic, and that werewolf took revenge on him by sneaking into my house on a full moon night and biting me at a young age."

"That werewolf is Fenrir Greyback, and you captured him at Dracula's Castle in Romania."

"Is it such a coincidence?" Dracula was a little surprised.

If it hadn't been for Lupin's sudden mention, he would have almost forgotten that there was a werewolf in a dog cage, and he didn't know if Serena had forgotten to arrange for his subordinates to bring him food.

It would be kind of funny if he starved to death in a cage......

"At the time, my parents tried all sorts of ways to prevent them from turning into werewolves, but nothing worked." Lupin continued, "After all, the wolf poison potion has only recently appeared, and it has only become more common after Damocles Belby has improved it."

"This potion does make werewolves safer, and if you take it a week before the full moon, you will remain sane when transforming. With the help of this potion, I was able to crouch indoors, be a harmless wolf, and wait for the full moon to pass......

"However, before the wolf poison potion was invented, I would turn into a literal wolf one day a month, brutal and bloodthirsty. I couldn't have come to Hogwarts, and no other parent would have wanted their children to come into contact with me."

"But I was lucky enough to meet Headmaster Dumbledore, who was very compassionate. He said there was no reason why I should not be allowed to come to school as long as certain precautions were taken." Lupin sighed and said to Dracula.

"That beating willow was actually planted to get me to Hogwarts. The shack was built for me......" He pointed in the direction of the Beater Willow northeast of the castle, "There is a passage next to the root of the Beater Willow that leads from Hogwarts to the Screaming Shack......"...

"That passage was opened for my use. Once a month, I was secretly sent out of the castle and sent here to transform. I planted a beating willow at the entrance of the passage so that no one would encounter me when I was in danger to people."

Dracula nodded slightly.

"That makes sense, otherwise it would be a bit unreasonable to plant a dangerous plant in a fairly close place to the school area." He chuckled, "Of course, there are not a few things that make this school unreasonable."

Lupin smiled heartily, and then went on to tell his story:

"In those days, my transfiguration was...... It's scary. It's very painful to become a werewolf, I don't have any sanity, only bloodthirsty and destructive desires, and I want to bite people but stay away from the crowd, so I can only gnaw and scratch myself."

"The villagers of Hogsmeade heard the noises and screams I made from the screaming huts, just

Thought they were hearing the sound of a particularly ferocious goblin. Instead of stopping it, Dumbledore encouraged people to spread such rumours, believing that it would further prevent others from approaching the shack......

"Of course, I didn't expect that even now, even now, even though this house has not had such a sound for many years, the villagers still dare not approach it."

"If you think about it this way, werewolves are indeed quite difficult." Dracula bowed, "In contrast, vampires don't have so many things, they are in whatever state they should be, and they don't have the pain of werewolves every month."

"It wasn't painful to that extent...... Lupin shook his head with a smile, "I was happier than I used to be, except for the time I spent transforming into a werewolf. I had friends for the first time, and I was three good friends. James Potter, Sirius Black...... And, of course, Peter Peddiroux."

"It's impossible for my three good friends not to notice that I'm missing once a month."

"I made up all sorts of stories – telling them that my mom was sick and that I had to go home to see her...... I'm especially worried that they'll ignore me if they find out I'm a werewolf. However, they were clever and quickly found out through the Defence Against the Dark Arts textbooks......

"But what I didn't expect was that they didn't ignore me at all, but did a lot of things for me, not only did I endure the pain of transfiguration, but also made my time at Hogwarts the happiest time of my life - they learned the Animagus and spent the full moon night with me in animal form."

"Are all three of them Animagus?" Dracula asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yes, it does." "It took them almost three years to do that. Jaime and Sirius were the brightest students in the school, and once they did, they did their best to help Peter complete the Animagus Transfiguration."

"Luckily for them, they didn't go crazy with the Animagus Transfiguration, and they didn't make a huge mistake - they didn't choose to register with the Ministry of Magic after successfully learning the Animagus...... So few people know that there are three more Animagus in the wizarding world."

"What a touching friendship!" Dracula lamented, "You can't be a friend in human form, so you take on the form of an animal...... I can't believe that such a combination will have a traitor one day." ….

Lupin's face became a little heavy again.

"Well, thank you for the story, Professor Lupin." Dracula said, "I probably see that the reason Sirius Black was able to avoid me and Dumbledore's gaze is actually very simple, just because he is an Animagus."

"If that's what you think...... The reason for escaping from Azkaban is probably the same, those brainless Dementors are never interested in an animal, and the Azkaban Dementors never stop an animal from entering and exiting."

When Dracula sneaks into Azkaban to find information about Sirius Black, he transforms into a bat and enters the prison through the narrow Dementor entrance.

"So you always knew where Blake might be? Then why haven't you told Dumbledore about it for so long?" Thinking so, Dracula squinted his eyes at Lupin, "Do you still want to believe that he was wronged, that he was actually a good man despite his prison escape?"

"For that reason, I never believed that Sirius would betray James......," Lupin whispered, "but on the other hand, I felt guilty that I had betrayed Dumbledore's trust......

"At that time, when none of the other principals would accept me, he was the only one who accepted it, and he had no idea that I had broken the code, which he had instituted for my safety and the safety of others."

"In fact, he didn't know that I had connived at three of my friends to illegally learn Animagus. During school, whenever we sat down to plan for the next month's adventure, I always tried to find a way to forget that guilt, but I still didn't change anything about it...... I indulge in the company of my friends turning into animals on full moon nights."

Lupin's face was a little heavy, and his voice was even self-loathing, "Dumbledore hired me

I've been at Hogwarts for a long time, and I've been struggling with myself, and I'm not sure if I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius is Animagus......

"But I didn't say it. I think it's just because I'm too cowardly. Telling him means that I have betrayed his trust when I was a student, and it means acknowledging that I have led others to violate the code with me...... And for me, Dumbledore's trust is extremely important."

"This mentality hasn't changed even as the werewolf leader it is today...... I first made daily appearances in the most visible part of the castle, hoping that Sirius would realize that there were people in Hogwarts who could recognize him in his Animagus form. My actions during that time did have some effect."

"But later, I seemed to have convinced myself that Sirius had infiltrated the school using the evil he had learned from Voldemort, and that his becoming an Animagus had nothing to do with it......

"Severus was always sneering at me, and in a sense, he was always right about me."

Lupin shook his head self-deprecatingly, his eyes extremely complicated.

"I don't really understand what kind of conflict Snape had with the rest of you during school?" Dracula asked curiously, "More than ten years have passed, and the hatred in his eyes doesn't seem to have subsided in the slightest." ….

"Hmm...... It's a complicated story, including the feud of youth, the rift between the two rival colleges, the conflict caused by different ideas, the confrontation of feelings, and the creation and rescue of life-threatening ......

Lupin's series of adjectives made the corners of Dracula's mouth twitch fiercely.

"How do I feel, Nicol's old guy doesn't watch as much of a play as the story between you......

"yes, it's complicated, and there's something I can't say yet, because it involves Snape's privacy." Lupin smiled lightly, "But there's something very close to me that I can tell you about—"

[Given the circumstances, "When I was in school, Severus was particularly interested in where I went each month," he recounted, "and we were in the same grade, and we didn't really like each other."

"He especially disliked James, jealous of his showmanship on the Quidditch pitch, and of the closeness of Jaime and Lily when they were talking and laughing...... Until one day, Severus saw me walking through the field with Madam Pomfrey on the evening of a full moon night, and she led me to the beating willow to scream at the shack of deformation."

"Sirius had little sense of proportion, and mischievously told Severus that he could follow me into the hollow of a tree by touching the knots on the trunk with a long stick; Sirius thinks so...... Well, it's interesting. Snape, of course, just tried......

"If he actually walks inside the Screaming Shack, he'll meet a werewolf through and through...... But luckily, when Jaime heard what Sirius was doing, he reacted in time and pulled him back after Snape, otherwise I don't know what would have happened."

"No wonder Snape said you never put other people's feelings or even lives into account, and that this has happened." Dracula said thoughtfully, "But he was saved by James Potter after all, why does he hate Harry so much now?"

"According to Severus himself, he would rather not be rescued by Jaime than die in the screaming ......shack," Lupin sighed lonely, "The matter between James and Severus is much more complicated, and it will not be clear for a while."

"It's okay, the last thing I lack is time." Dracula thought about listening to the story, and the corners of his mouth curled slightly, "I'll go to your office when I have time and listen to you talk about the grievances between you and Professor Snape."

Lupin opened his mouth, as if subconsciously wanting to refuse, but then nodded with a smile.

"Hey, the staff break room has arrived." Before they knew it, the two of them had walked to the door of the faculty lounge together, and Dracula pushed the door open, "Go in and see your old friend!"

After sending Lupin into the lounge, Dracula closed the door with his backhand and went to the tree of the beating willow alone, as Lupin had said.

The usually very irritable beating willow has always been quiet in front of Dracula, swaying gently with the morning breeze, deliberately removing a few branches and intimately opening the hole in the secret passage under the tree.

Dracula smiled and walked through the hole under the tree.

He was going to go to the Screaming Shack and get Sirius Blake over and reunite these three best friends from more than ten years ago!

……

…….

Ripples of dust