Lupin still remembered his first encounter with this student on the Hogwarts Express. The student had used an incomplete Patronus Charm to drive away a number of Dementors. But in that lesson about Boggarts, Malfoy's performance was truly speechless. This boy seemed to be deliberately provoking him, intentionally making the Boggart appear as a Dementor, and then casually defeating it.
He was well aware that the thing Malfoy truly feared was definitely not Dementors.
And the words Malfoy said when he walked off the platform at that time made cold sweat run down his back and his hair stand on end.
As for the more recent events, they were even more astonishing. This student had actually discovered Peter Pettigrew's true intentions early on. If the part reported by the Daily Prophet was true, he might have even resisted the Imperius Curse and assisted Mad-Eye Moody in capturing him. Even if he failed, this courage still made Lupin admire him. In the past few days, he had been constantly thinking whether they had been too impulsive at the time, alerting the enemy, otherwise, perhaps if they had followed the usual procedure, Moody might have already captured Peter Pettigrew.
Of course, no matter how much Lupin thought about it now, it was meaningless. He was now only full of interest in this student's practical ability. He wanted to know whether this student's ability had already surpassed him as a teacher.
"Yes, I have one more question." Malfoy had already taken out his wand at this time, but had not yet made a move.
"Speak," Lupin said. A faint sense of unease suddenly rose in Lupin's heart, but reason still made him choose to let this student continue to ask.
"After our duel begins, can I really regard you as a Dark wizard and defeat you by any means necessary? Do I really not have to bear any consequences?" Malfoy continued to press.
"Good heavens, does Malfoy really think he can defeat a grown wizard head-on? I heard that Lupin was a prefect back then. What an arrogant Slytherin!" a Gryffindor student said disdainfully.
Now, the only ones who still had expectations for Malfoy were Pansy and Neville. The former was unconditional, instinctive trust, while the latter was out of gratitude. Although Neville also didn't think that Malfoy could defeat Lupin from the bottom of his heart.
Hermione looked at Malfoy standing on the platform with a complex expression and flickering eyes.
Regardless of the reason, Malfoy did help Hagrid and Black, which was an undeniable fact.
From a student's point of view, she really hoped that someone could stand up and prove the strength of their group, but from a personal point of view, she hoped that Professor Lupin could teach this student a good lesson, because sometimes Malfoy was really annoying.
Especially when Malfoy commented on her buck teeth and hair.
Did he think she didn't want to be pretty?
"Of course, I hope Professor Lupin won't be too ruthless," Hermione silently added in her heart. At this time, she had already defaulted on the outcome of the victory.
Some objective things are really difficult to overcome. If nothing unexpected happens, a wizard's magic power usually increases slowly over time, and Lupin was twenty years older than Malfoy. Even if, stepping back, Malfoy's spells were not inferior to Lupin's, the huge age gap was still there.
Even if Lupin was willing, disregarding his identity as a teacher and playing rogue, he could completely rely on his Shield Charm to be invincible.
The possible situation was that Malfoy's spells simply couldn't break through Lupin's defense.
But Malfoy's confident appearance made her even more puzzled.
"Since that's the case, then I'm relieved," Malfoy breathed out and continued, "I hope that before the battle begins, I can say a word, and let the end of my word be the beginning of the two's competition."
"No problem," Lupin pondered slightly, then nodded in agreement, but the faint sense of unease in his heart became more and more intense.
At this time, he only felt that this student might just want to use this one condition to take the initiative in the upcoming battle into his own hands, and hadn't thought about what would happen later.
"As you can see," Malfoy turned his body slightly, facing all the students sideways, slightly bowing and nodding as a sign.
"Our respected Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Mr. Lupin, is a werewolf!"
Malfoy pointed a finger directly at Lupin and said firmly.
Lupin's pupils contracted sharply at this time. He couldn't imagine that his secret would be revealed in public like this, and so unexpectedly.
"Don't forget to take your medicine on time, Professor Lupin." Lupin suddenly remembered Malfoy's reminder to him on the platform last time. This student knew his identity at that time, but didn't reveal it immediately.
Instead, he saved it for now.
He did it to strike his opponent by any means necessary.
As soon as Malfoy said this, the whole place erupted in an uproar. Except for Hermione, who knew the truth, all the students subconsciously shrank back a few steps in unison, and then began to discuss frantically.
Lupin only felt cold all over for a moment, as if he had fallen into an ice cave. He didn't dare to look at the students' eyes looking at him under the platform. He was afraid of seeing fear and disgust. Even if he had never maliciously harmed anyone, as long as his identity was labeled as a werewolf, almost no one would trust him anymore. Word-of-mouth legends, ink-written books, and countless prejudices made this group of people demonized madly.
Even if he was also a victim, even if he was more upright than most people.
"Expelliarmus!" Next, Malfoy casually pointed his wand at Lupin, and a Disarming Charm shot out from the tip of the wand. The speed of this Disarming Charm was extremely slow, so slow that Lupin could avoid it by simply dodging one or two steps in any direction.
But this spell still hit him. Lupin's wand suddenly came out of his hand, flew high, and then fell to the ground, making a crisp sound, and slowly rolled to Malfoy's feet, while Lupin himself was also affected by the spell's strong impact, his body was thrown back, and his back hit the corner of the wooden desk hard.
Throughout the whole process, Lupin didn't make a single defensive move.
Hermione looked at everything in front of her in disbelief. The violent impact made her cover her mouth with her hands, trying her best to keep herself from screaming.
"How could he do this!" Hermione looked painfully at everything that was happening in front of her, which was so unacceptable to her.
After she learned this secret, she only "threatened" Lupin at the time in order to gain Lupin's trust, and after that, Hermione decided to keep this secret forever, buried in her heart.
Because she herself was also a victim of some "discrimination", she knew very well the harm of this prejudice.
But she never thought that Professor Lupin's secret would be exposed in this situation.
"That's right, Snape must have also taught them a lesson about identifying werewolves. Others may not notice it, but he definitely won't ignore this! Even when Malfoy and Moody were outside Lupin's office door at the time, they heard what Snape said." Hermione quickly found a reasonable explanation.
She's not the only one in the world who is good at analysis.
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