Volume 3: A Tombstone Stained with Sin and Blood Chapter 154 Wormtail
Hermione also heard Jon's question. She turned her eyes to Jon's hand and saw the small tuft of gray hair.
"It doesn't look like something from a person."
Jon looked at the gray fur carefully and frowned.
"Are there any other animals on the coach?"
"There's Hagrid's Niffler named Beech," Hermione thought. "But Beech's fur is black, and this one is a bit gray. In addition, there are Thestrals kept in a special room, but those Thestrals are unlikely to come to the Potions Office, and if anyone can see their fur, it should also be pure black."
"There is no animal with gray fur on the carriage." Jon's brows were getting tighter and tighter. "Even Professor McGonagall's Animagus is a tabby cat. It is impossible for her to shed gray hair."
He held the tuft of hair in front of Hermione's eyes and asked in an puzzling tone.
"Do you think this was left by some animal?"
Hermione stared at the grey fur, not quite understanding what Jon was trying to say.
"Um... a magical creature? It's kept on a carriage by the professors, but it's kept in a room we can't go into, so we don't know about it?"
"Don't think so complicated." Jon stared at the gray-haired man and said softly, "Do you think this could be the hair of a mouse?"
"mouse?"
Hermione tilted her head in confusion. She felt that short, thin gray fur like this could belong to many animals, such as gray rabbits, cats, and dogs. But why did Jon specifically emphasize mice?
"That's indeed possible." She could only think along the lines of Jon's thoughts. "Maybe at the last welcome dinner, a gray mouse from the field slipped into the carriage, and none of us noticed it, and it has already made its home here."
Jon's frown didn't relax at all, but his eyes became brighter and brighter.
"No, if it was a mouse, it should have sneaked onto the carriage much earlier!"
Hermione was becoming increasingly confused about what Jon was saying. She didn't understand how he could infer so much from just a handful of hair.
Jon didn't continue to explain so much to Hermione. This tuft of hair looks ordinary, but it can make people who know certain things think of many things!
He did not stay in the Charms classroom, but took the tuft of gray hair, turned around and pushed the door to leave.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked from behind him.
Jon said in a hurry without turning his head.
"Go find Professor Dumbledore."
Hermione was stunned.
She felt like she couldn't keep up with Jon's train of thought. Just because she found a tuft of hair from some unknown animal on the carriage, did she have to report this matter to Professor Dumbledore?
Jon was indeed planning to go find Dumbledore, but as he approached the door of the headmaster's office, his pace gradually began to slow down.
This matter must be reported. He had never thought of investigating anything on his own. There were so many people and professors in the carriage, including Dumbledore, who were definitely much better than him alone.
But even if you want to say it, you have to think about how to say it while avoiding people's suspicion of why you thought of this.
After arriving at the principal's office, Jon already had a plan in his mind. He took a deep breath and then knocked on the door.
He waited until he heard Dumbledore's response from inside before he pushed the door open and walked in.
There was not only Dumbledore in the headmaster's office. Besides McGonagall, Flitwick, Lupin, and Lily, who had just finished chatting with Jon an hour ago, were all there.
They seemed to be discussing something, and when Jon walked in, everyone's eyes were focused on him.
"I'm sorry, Professor. I seem to have interrupted your meeting."
In response to Jon's apology, Dumbledore just shook his head.
"It's okay, Jon, if you have something important to say, just tell me."
Jon didn't hesitate any longer. He took a deep breath and raised the tuft of gray hair he found in the Charms classroom.
"Professor, I just found this while practicing spells in the Charms classroom."
Everyone in the principal's office looked at the small tuft of gray hair he held between his fingers.
Flitwick, Lily and Lupin all frowned unconsciously. It wasn't that they were dissatisfied, but they just didn't understand why John came to the headmaster's office with such a tuft of hair.
Only Dumbledore's expression remained calm. His deep blue eyes seemed to show something he had thought of. When he saw the gray hair on Jon's hand, his pupils shrank slightly.
"I don't know if there are other professors on the carriage who have pets, but from what I know of the animals currently in the school, none of them have this kind of hair."
Jon said the words he had thought of before entering the door.
"When Professor Slughorn was still here, he told me about a magical transfiguration called Animagus. I wonder if it is possible that the man who sneaked into the carriage is actually an Animagus? These hairs are left after he turned into an animal!"
His words did not cause any noticeable change in Dumbledore's expression, but Lily and Lupin both turned pale the moment John mentioned the word Animagus.
They seemed to be thinking of some unforgettable past. Lily clenched her fists without knowing when, and Lupin also had a rare gloomy look on his face.
"I know I might be exaggerating, but maybe it's possible..."
"No! You're not making a fuss at all, Jon."
Lily interrupted him before he could finish. She had already stood up from her chair, and her usually cold face was now extremely gloomy.
"This is a very important clue! Can you tell me which spells classroom you found it in?"
Jon could see that the professors in the principal's office had already thought of what he was about to ask them to think of, and he did not hesitate.
"It's in the classroom marked 'Charms (2)'."
And at this moment, Dumbledore suddenly spoke.
"The clues you provided are indeed important. Thank you very much for your attentiveness, Jon, but could you please step aside for a moment?"
He looked at Jon, with neither surprise nor frown on his face, and his tone was still sincere.
"We need to talk about a private matter that happened in the past. This matter is not very nice. You should know that such not-so-nice things should always be avoided."
Of course, Jon knew what they were going to talk about next, and he didn't feel the slightest bit of resentment towards Dumbledore for hiding the truth. It was precisely because he knew that he understood better that these things were not suitable to be mentioned to people who were not in the know, especially in front of Lily, the person involved.
He nodded, left the tuft of gray hair on the desk, and after conveying the clue, turned and left the principal's office.
As he left, Lily turned her head, glanced at the animal hair left by John, and then stared at Dumbledore.
"Only mice could leave hair like this! It could only be mice!"
"I can understand how you feel right now, but the more so, the more we need to stay calm, Lily." Dumbledore advised her and soothed her to sit back in her chair instead of rushing to the Charms classroom where Jon found Gray Hair.
But although Lily sat down again, her expression didn't change at all. She was still as cold, hateful and... impatient.
"Jon is right. None of the animals raised in the carriage have the same fur color and shape. This is not a matter of being calm or not. It's very likely that he is in this carriage, and not only is he here, but he has been there for a long time!"
It sounded like she was trying very hard to suppress the tone of her voice, but it still couldn't stop becoming shrill.
Even Lupin, who was always calm and gentle, looked the same, except that he was obviously much better at controlling his emotions than Lily. He didn't say anything, but looked at Dumbledore, as if waiting for him to finish what he was going to say.
At this moment, Flitwick seemed to have just realized why Lily and Lupin became like this after seeing the tuft of gray hair. He sighed deeply, and did not say the words of dissuasion he had originally wanted to say.
"I know this tuft of hair is most likely left by Wormtail." Dumbledore looked at Lily and Lupin seriously. "His Animagus is a mouse, a gray-haired mouse. We all know this. But it is very likely that the person sneaking into the carriage now is him, so I advise you to calm down."
"Think about it, how many years have we not heard any news from him? After the Dark Lord and his men occupied Hogwarts Castle seven years ago and completely consolidated their rule over the entire British wizarding world, he disappeared as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth."
"It stands to reason that he has made such great contributions. No matter what, the Dark Lord should have rewarded him well after gaining power. However, there is no information about him. His name has not appeared in the wizarding world for seven years."
"You hate him. All of us who know what he did hate him. He should know this better than anyone else. That's why we have always suspected that the Dark Lord helped him hide his identity for his safety, arranged a high position in the Ministry of Magic with an identity that none of us could guess, and gained benefits by betraying his friends. We have also been looking for those suspicious pure-blood wizards, trying to find all the clues about him, but after so many years, there is still no clue."
"And now, a man from the Ministry of Magic and the Dark Lord has sneaked into the carriage, and this man is very likely to be Wormtail who has been missing for so long. In this carriage, with Lily and Lupin both in the situation, do you think that with his character, he would come to such a place?"
Dumbledore obviously saw things much more clearly than anyone else. He was rational enough to think through all the problems. Even Jon had not thought of what he had just said for a while. When he saw Jon take out the tuft of gray hair, he had already noticed that there was something unusual about it.
But not everyone can be as rational and calm as him.
Even if what he said was correct, it would not change the fact that Wormtail was most likely in this carriage right now!
Faced with such facts, neither Lily nor Lupin could just sit there and wait for death.
"These are indeed problems, but with these problems, do we have to ignore Wormtail who is right next to us?" Lily's voice was calm, but it was obviously trembling.
Lupin's tone remained calm.
"You are right, sir. If Wormtail really appeared in the carriage to act as an undercover agent for the Dark Lord, it would be contrary to common sense. He should know best how much we hate him. He must have some kind of plan with his master. But the more this is the case, the less we should catch this traitor as soon as possible! Because only in this way can we pry open his brain the fastest and know all their plans and conspiracies!"
Dumbledore was silent.
He was not convinced by Lily and Lupin's words, and he knew very well that no matter what he said now, it would not be able to stop their hatred for Wormtail that had accumulated for countless years.
Dumbledore knew there must be something wrong, but he had no way of telling what the problem was.
It was precisely because of this that he had no reason to stop Lily and Lupin from trying every possible means to find Wormtail out of the carriage, even though his intuition told him that this was most likely what Voldemort wanted to see...
…
Paris, France.
In an old house located on the outskirts of Paris, Sirius sat on the sofa in the living room, absent-mindedly cutting the steak in front of him. While eating dinner, he listened to Bill, the eldest son of the Weasley family, reporting to him on his work.
"After all this time of visiting and investigating, Charlie and his team have concluded that the top brass of the French Ministry of Magic is currently divided into four factions. One is the pro-pure-blood superiority faction, which is composed of ancient wizarding families and some half-blood wizards who meet the new pure-blood standards. These people are loyal supporters of the Dark Lord's rule theory. Many of them want to turn the French wizarding world into what Britain is today, with pure-bloods completely in control of all power."
"The other faction is the profit-seeking faction, led by the current French Minister of Magic, Eric Amalric. They are now openly leaning towards the theory of pure-blood superiority, but in fact they just want to use this attitude to muddy the waters of the French wizarding world and gain . They are also the biggest reactionary force in the French Ministry of Magic."
"Then there are the pro-Muggle faction led by Adele Roland, who are cooperating with us. They are now fiercely confronting the profit-seeking faction. I heard that they will hold a temporary parliament soon and hope to drive the Minister of Magic out of office, thereby stabilizing the situation in France."
"Finally, there are the neutrals. They are the largest group, accounting for nearly half of the Ministry's top management. Most of them are pure-bloods or half-bloods with more moderate ideas. They are inclined to the theory of pure-blood superiority, but do not want such radical reforms to bring chaos to France. They are neither side of the fence, and will eventually side with whichever faction has the upper hand."
