"That's all this is about?!" Victor rolled his eyes, looking exasperated. "I thought it was some huge, earth-shattering event. It seems none of you learned your lesson from what happened two years ago."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged bewildered glances, a question mark hovering over each of their heads.
What lesson? They couldn't recall anything of the sort.
"I've told you before, you have to think about the cause and effect of every situation. If you don't, you'll easily make the wrong judgments and set a chain of bad events in motion," Victor said, jogging their memory about how, two years ago, they'd arrogantly snuck into the Hogwarts dungeons in the dead of night with the delusional idea of protecting the Philosopher's Stone.
"Cause and effect?" Ron looked utterly confused. "Sirius Black wanted to get revenge for You-Know-Who, so he went to the Dursleys' house to try and kill Harry. Is there really a complicated cause and effect to that?"
"How shortsighted," Victor criticized, turning his attention to the young witch beside him. Hermione frowned, thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "I don't understand..."
"Ugh, all three of you are idiots," Victor rolled his eyes again and then began to pose his questions. "First, answer me this: how long would it take for you to kill three ordinary people who have no magic?"
"W-why are you asking that?" Harry was baffled, not understanding why he was being asked such a sharp question all of a sudden.
"Just answer the question. Don't worry about anything else. How long?" Victor pressed.
"Maybe... not even half a minute..." Hermione considered it for a moment before giving a conservative estimate.
"Alright, now for a hypothetical scenario," Victor snapped his fingers, and a set of light-based models appeared in the middle of the compartment: a house and some people.
"Suppose that on that very night, Sirius Black quietly snuck into the Dursleys' house and found the three of them."
As Victor spoke, the light models in front of them began to change. A single figure evaded the small people with wands on the perimeter and successfully infiltrated the tiny house, where it found the three little figures inside.
"Think about it. If Sirius Black was there to kill Harry, what would he do first?"
"Find Harry and..." Ron didn't finish his sentence, instead drawing a knife-like shape across his throat.
"Exactly. But Harry had already moved to the Guild. So, with his target gone, what would Black do next?" Victor continued to ask.
"He would go after Harry's aunt and uncle and force them to tell him where Harry is!" The clever Hermione immediately found the answer, but she just as quickly realized the problem with it. "But that doesn't make sense. If that's the case, Harry, your aunt, uncle, and cousin would not have survived."
"Even without a wand, and even if the Dursleys' screaming in terror attracted the Aurors, a man who successfully broke out of Azkaban would have enough time to kill at least one person in a short amount of time."
"But Aunt Petunia and the others were only slightly injured. The Ministry Aurors said that when they arrived, Sirius Black had already vanished, which means he had more than enough time to kill all three of them." Harry finally caught on.
"What if Sirius Black wanted to torture them first?" Ron offered a question, but it was quickly dismissed.
"No, that can't be it. Aunt Petunia and the others showed no signs of being tortured, and aside from being scared, they were mentally stable," Harry replied.
"Then... why would Sirius Black do that?" Ron was completely stumped. "Risking being sent back to Azkaban just to hurt three Muggles?"
A silence fell over the compartment. The three were utterly baffled by this illogical question.
Seeing this, Victor snapped his fingers again and began to speak. "Today, I will teach you another principle. If you ever encounter something illogical like this again, go back to the very beginning of the issue."
"The very beginning?" Hermione was deep in thought when she suddenly looked up and asked, "Victor, are you saying that Sirius Black went to all that trouble to break out of prison, but it might not have been because of Harry?!"
"Think about it. If he really had the ability to escape from Azkaban without anyone knowing, why didn't he use it sooner? Do you really think Azkaban is some kind of holiday resort?" Victor sneered, sweeping his gaze across the three of them. "So, I've said all that. Do you understand?"
"I think so, but I still don't understand what Sirius Black's real goal is," Ron said, scratching his head, his clear eyes revealing a hint of bewilderment.
"If you want to know the truth, you have to go find it yourself," Victor said with a raised eyebrow. "Just don't overthink it. I'll give you a hint: look into the history of your parents' generation. That should help you sort out your thoughts." He then stood up directly.
"It's too stuffy in this room on a day like this. I'm going back to the castle now. We can talk about this later!"
"And good luck, Professor Lupin."
Just as his voice faded, he disappeared from the spot...
The three of them, who were about to ask for more clues, were immediately distracted by his final words. They all turned in unison to look at the figure who had been covered up by a cloak the entire time.
Lupin knew his eavesdropping had been exposed, so he slowly uncovered himself and smiled awkwardly. "Hello, children..."
That night, the Hogwarts Express finally pulled into the station.
The young wizards swarmed toward the Great Hall like zombies let out of their cages.
After being frightened by Dementors on the way here, they needed to make up for it with a good meal!
Before the start-of-term feast, Dumbledore gave his usual speech.
First, he introduced the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the school year to all the students. However, when Lupin stood up to show himself, he noticed that the Ravenclaw students below were all looking at him with a strange look, making the already burdened Lupin even more uneasy.
Second, he announced Hagrid's official return as the professor of Care of Magical Creatures.
And the last thing was the announcement that Dementors would be stationed at Hogwarts for a while, and he gave a warning to the students. This, of course, was met with a wave of complaints and wails from all the young wizards present.
After the start-of-term feast began.
Hermione looked at the figure sitting between Luna and Penelope in the distance and was immediately filled with anger. "That guy, Victor, based on what he said on the train, he definitely knows something, but he just won't tell us. He wants to see us struggle!"
"Let it go, Hermione," Harry said, chewing on a hot dog. "Even if Master didn't tell us everything, at least we know that Sirius Black isn't here to kill me. That alone makes me feel a lot better."
"But it's definitely related to you, isn't it?" Ron said, holding a fried chicken drumstick in each hand. "Otherwise, why would he go looking for you at the Dursleys' house?"
This comment made Harry's relaxed heart start racing again...
After the feast, Dumbledore suddenly stopped Victor from leaving and led him to an inconspicuous corner of the Great Hall.
"Victor, you've caused me trouble again," Dumbledore said with a helpless sigh as soon as he spoke.
He was troubled by the several dozen dead Dementors.
The Ministry of Magic couldn't do anything to Victor, but they were putting pressure on the restricted and cautious Dumbledore. They had already sent several letters in the past few hours demanding an explanation.
Victor, of course, knew what he was talking about. He stared at him with lifeless eyes and said flatly, "A Dementor tried to give Harry a kiss..."
"Oh, well, that's not a big problem, is it?" Dumbledore blinked and immediately changed his tone. "I don't like those creatures, either."
"Cut it out, Professor. Stop putting on an act in front of me. If you cared about what the Ministry of Magic had to say, you would have handed over Hogwarts long ago, and it wouldn't be your turn to be the Headmaster," Victor looked at the man's clumsy acting with contempt. "I bet that if those Dementors outside dared to step one foot into the school, you would turn them into ash."
"No need to be so blunt. People might misunderstand..."
"What do you want?" Victor rolled his eyes and asked impatiently.
"It's nothing serious, really," Dumbledore said, dropping his mischievous expression. "I know I can't hide this from you, so I wanted to give you a heads-up."
"Remus John Lupin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor I've invited this year, was unfortunately bitten by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback when he was a child, so he's a carrier of the werewolf curse."
"I hope you can keep the Ravenclaw and Slytherin students in line and not put too much pressure on him."
"I already met Professor Lupin on the train. I can control the Ravenclaw students, but you know how those little snakes in Slytherin are. Even if I use my position as the Legacy Holder to pressure them, they'll just put on a show for you. They'll definitely still pull some sneaky tricks behind the scenes. Besides, they all represent their families."
"I'm sure you're aware of my relationship with the pure-blood families. It's a blood feud."
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