Werewolves had always been a major problem in the magical world.
Not only because they could continuously expand their population through biting and infection, and not only because they lost their sanity on full moon nights, causing indiscriminate destruction and killing.
The biggest problem with werewolves was their astonishing magical resistance and agility speed that was difficult to track with the naked eye.
It was fortunate that werewolves could only transform on full moon nights. Otherwise, who the magical world would belong to was still uncertain.
In response, the Ministry of Magic had implemented many measures, such as preferential policies for werewolves. But in a wizarding society fundamentally filled with discrimination against non-pure-blood wizards, how could they possibly treat werewolves equally? The Ministry of Magic was naturally no exception. They introduced preferential policies for werewolves on one hand while discriminating against and avoiding them on the other. Those werewolves who chose to trust the Ministry, publicly revealed their werewolf identity, and registered ended up living in poverty or falling into darkness.
The former was exemplified by Lupin, while at least half of the werewolves in Greyback's pack had joined them in the latter way.
Regarding Greyback's pack, the Ministry had also introduced some policies, such as forming werewolf enforcement teams and selecting excellent Aurors to lead them in capturing or even hunting those werewolves. Initially, this policy was somewhat effective, capturing and killing some werewolves. But later, when werewolf packs like Greyback's learned of the werewolf enforcement teams' existence, they actually turned to hunting the teams and their families in return.
On non-full-moon nights, werewolves hid in deep mountains and forests or in the Muggle world.
Once the full moon arrived, it was time for werewolves to emerge and kill. That powerful magical resistance and agile speed were simply nightmares for wizards.
The werewolf enforcement teams were now one of the Ministry's most failed political proposals, and the teams themselves were the department with the highest personnel losses in the Ministry. The werewolf enforcement teams were now in a semi-abandoned state, with only a few injured people staying in the department for retirement. No one else joined anymore.
They had defeated the Ministry head-on, making it impossible for the Ministry to deal with them.
This indirectly encouraged the werewolf packs' arrogance. Greyback's pack under Fenrir's leadership had recently committed many major crimes, becoming notoriously fierce and forcing the Ministry into a delicate balance with the werewolf packs.
Fenrir, who had become so inflated that he no longer took Hogwarts seriously, had sent two werewolves to Hogsmeade. Meanwhile, their target, Sean, was sitting in the classroom of Lupin, who was also a werewolf, quietly taking notes.
When class ended, Sean and Blaise walked out of the classroom together.
Just then, Sean saw Harry catching up to him. Looking at Harry with some confusion, Sean asked: "Harry, do you need something?"
"Sean, I want to learn the Patronus Charm from Professor Lupin. Hermione said I should ask you first, so..."
Hearing Harry's words, Sean knew that Hermione wanted him to help dissuade Harry from seeking private lessons with Lupin. Although Hermione could now accept Lupin's werewolf identity in regular classes, she still didn't dare let her friend be alone with a werewolf.
However, Hermione probably never expected that before Harry learned the Patronus Charm from Professor Lupin, Sean had already learned it from him. Moreover, Professor Lupin could be considered Harry's elder. He would never harm Harry, except when Lupin hadn't taken Wolfsbane Potion and was in a full moon state.
"Harry, you might not know this, but I previously learned the Patronus Charm from Professor Lupin. Professor Lupin is a very responsible and capable person. If you want to learn the Patronus Charm from him, I very much support your idea."
Harry could naturally sense Hermione's opposition. In fact, he had come to find Sean to see if Sean would also object to him learning the Patronus Charm from Lupin. If Sean also opposed it, Harry would seriously consider whether he should still insist on learning the Patronus Charm from Professor Lupin.
Harry was very clear that having two smart people like Hermione and Sean around him meant he should carefully consider their advice, especially Sean's. Many principles Sean had taught him ultimately proved to be very correct. Moreover, Sean had saved him so many times. Harry trusted Sean deeply.
Now hearing that Sean had also learned the Patronus Charm from Professor Lupin, he immediately made up his mind. Although Harry hadn't seen it at the time, he later heard that at the Quidditch match, Sean had single-handedly used the Patronus Charm to repel three Dementors, which made Harry very envious.
"Thanks, Sean. I'll go find Professor Lupin in a bit."
"Mm, I believe you'll successfully master the Patronus Charm. Good luck."
Watching Harry turn and leave, Sean could almost see Hermione's incredulous expression when she heard Harry's decision.
Hermione: I really thank you!
Christmas Eve.
Without the Buckbeak incident, everything was normal. Christmas preparations added considerable festive cheer to Hogwarts, even in Slytherin.
Three days before Christmas, when everyone woke up in the morning, they saw a very large Christmas tree had appeared in the Slytherin common room. The green Christmas tree was decorated with various silver ornaments, and occasionally candy would grow on the tree, falling to the ground when ripe.
Whenever candy fell, nearby first and second-year students would scramble for it, including third-years like Goyle and Crabbe. If Sean hadn't glared at them, scaring Goyle and Crabbe into dropping their grabbed candy and running away while covering their crotches, these first and second-year students would have had little chance of getting the candy grown by the Christmas tree.
Accompanied by Blaise, Sean sent out his prepared gifts via owl.
The gifts were for Sean's parents and brother, as well as for Gavin and Eleonora.
For Aldrich, Sean directly sent him some money as a Christmas gift. For Aldrich, who was somewhat overwhelmed with settling those children, this money came just in time to solve his urgent needs. It was quite a good Christmas present.
In the Christmas atmosphere, even classes were filled with laughter.
However, Sean's Ancient Runes professor, Professor Babbling, was one of the few people at Hogwarts who had no interest in Christmas. Her species had no tradition of celebrating Christmas and even somewhat rejected it.
The more intense Hogwarts' Christmas atmosphere became, the more uncomfortable Professor Babbling felt. Especially after Sean once again prevented her from leaving the classroom by jumping out the window and questioned her for over an hour, Professor Babbling's mood had hit rock bottom!