HP's Lost and the Lighthouse

Even though Fudge's constant exclamation seemed silly to Snape, it certainly inflated his vanity.The man pursed his lips so as not to look too complacent, but the reserved and complacent smile on the corners of his mouth still revealed his pleasure.

"Thank you, Minister." He suppressed his excitement, smirked at Fudge with bright eyes, and thanked him politely.

"The Order of Merlin, second class, I'm sure. First class, if I can get it!"

Snape looked at Fudge, who was patting his chest, the smile on his face deepened, and he bowed slightly: "Thank you very much, Minister."

With this bow, the hair on the back of the head of the Potions Professor, which had not been treated at all and was still clumped with blood, was revealed to Fudge's eyes.The chubby Minister of Magic let out a low voice in surprise: "Your wound is very serious... Was it done by Black?"

Snape's expression remained unchanged, but his smile was slightly restrained: "It's actually Potter, Weasley and Granger, Minister..."

"No way!"

Snape glanced at the half-open door of the hospital wing next to it - where Potter and the others lay.The fact that he had captured Black put him in a good mood, and his desire to speak ill of Potter was much less.

"Black had bewitched them, and I saw it right away. Judging from the behavior of the three people, they were under the spell of confusion. They seemed to think that Black might be innocent." He said with a little boastfulness, adding the rest of the extra The words used to describe Potter's recklessness and unruly swallowed, "It can't be blamed on them, but then again, maybe it was their meddling that allowed Black to escape... They obviously think that they can do it on their own." To be able to catch Black, they've gotten away with a lot of bad things before...I'm afraid it makes them overestimate themselves...Of course, Potter always gets special pampering from the Headmaster..."

——Oh, it turned out that even if he was in a good mood and didn't bother to speak ill of Potter, Snape still couldn't give up the opportunity to add trouble to Harry.

Fudge mused at the hint that the Potions Professor was vaguely pointing to Potter's privilege at school.However, he didn't intend to tear himself apart with Dumbledore yet, so he wouldn't show that he disagreed too much with Dumbledore - after all, the other party was the most famous white wizard in the wizarding world.

"Ah, well, Snape," he said with a chuckle, "Harry Potter... you know, we all have blind spots when it comes to him."

"But - is it good for him to have all this special treatment?" Snape pressed.

He had always been one of the people who were dissatisfied with Dumbledore's special treatment of Potter, and now he heard Fudge's special words that seemed to acquiesce to Potter's, and he couldn't help being a little excited.As if realizing that his emotions were a little too extreme, he coughed lightly: "Personally, I always try to treat him the same as other students."

Hermione, who had already woken up, heard the words coming from the corridor, and couldn't help but let out a muffled laugh—Snape's equal treatment...probably meant equal treatment of Gryffindor and Slytherin, and then... …Potter and Potter as equals (if Snape had treated Harry's father that way).

Because she wanted to continue listening to what Snape and Fudge were talking about, she lowered her voice, but Snape in the corridor still paused for some reason, and Hermione heard it again after a while. He spoke to Fudge.

"Bringing a friend into such a dangerous situation, any other student would have been suspended - at least," said Snape. "Just imagine, Minister, after all the precautions taken to protect him , he actually violated all the school rules, went out at night without authorization, and made friends with werewolves and murderers—I also have reason to believe that he has been to Hogsmeade illegally—"Because Dumbledore was unwilling to send Lupine was involved, and Snape had to change the description to a werewolf living in the Forbidden Forest who colluded with Black.

He said, curling his lips unhappily in the increasingly embarrassed expression of the Minister of Magic.

"Oh, oh... we'll see, Snape, we'll see... the boy has certainly done something stupid..."

Hermione listened to the conversation between the two, lying on the bed and looking at the ceiling of the hospital wing, thinking.For some reason, Snape's words gave her the feeling that the Potions Master really wanted Harry to be expelled - and yes, at the beginning of his second year, Harry had also mentioned Snape's attempt to get Dumbledore to expel him.But given how much Snape disliked Harry, it seemed quite normal for him to have such thoughts.

The little witch was thinking, she had already heard that Black was being arrested, but she couldn't think of a way to rescue him for a while - if she told everything to Headmaster Dumbledore, would the headmaster believe it?Peter, who can be used as absolute evidence, escaped again...

A line of sight from the side caught the little witch's attention, she turned her head silently, and met Harry's narrowed eyes that had lost his glasses.

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Everything that Black had told formed the final piece of the puzzle in Dumbledore's mind.He stood where he was, and carefully reviewed everything that happened this afternoon—the focus was on what he saw in Hagrid's cabin, Harry who took Buckbeak away, and what happened under the Whomping Willow and Hermione Harry staying together.

——If someone hadn't impersonated Harry Potter with Polyjuice Potion, then his guess was probably correct.

but……

Dumbledore stared at the emaciated and embarrassed Black in front of him. From the man in front of him, there was almost no trace of the man of Gryffindor at the time - except for his eyes, a pair of gray, unwavering eyes.

"Blake," he asked in a calm and serious voice, "can you assure me that everything you said is completely true, without any subjective changes?"

"I can assure you." Sirius said without hesitation.

Dumbledore sighed: "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't prove your innocence."

"It's okay, Professor," Sirius smiled suddenly, "at least Peter has been exposed, and you'll—be wary of him, won't you?" He was going to say 'kill', but ended up changing it to 'vigilance' .

"Of course." Dumbledore came out and asked Filch, who was guarding the door, to lock the door firmly.

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Dumbledore's appearance made Harry, who was staying in the hospital wing, very excited.

Snape insisted that they had been Confounded by Sirius, while Madam Pomfrey insisted that her patients should not be disturbed - if he had to find an adult who would help him, it would undoubtedly be Dumbledore.

"Professor Dumbledore, Sirius Black—" He struggled to swallow the hunk of chocolate that Madam Pomfrey had thrust into his mouth, and hurriedly tried to defend Sirius as Snape turned to the door.

This attempt was again unsurprisingly unsuccessful.

"My God!" Madam Pomfrey said hysterically, interrupting Harry's words, "Is this still a hospital? Headmaster, I must insist—"

"Sorry, Bobby, I need to talk to Mr. Potter and Miss Granger," Dumbledore said calmly, looking at Harry who was interrupted aggrievedly, a smile flashed in his eyes, "I Just met Sirius Black—"

"I think he's already told you that bullshit he stuffed into Potter's head," Snape sneered, not at all convinced that Black could be innocent, "what rats, what pettigrews are alive -"

"That's what Black said," said Dumbledore.

His eyes peered at Snape, who scoffed at this, through half-moon lenses.According to the old man's own judgment, he is more inclined to believe what Black said, so it is worth investigating Snape's idea that Black is guilty all the time and that the children are under the Confusion Curse—whether he really thinks Is that the effect of the Confusion Charm, or just wanting to...

Snape was stung by Dumbledore's searching gaze.

"Doesn't my testimony count?" he growled, exasperated—and aggrieved—by Dumbledore's seeming inclination to Black's performance, "Pettigret wasn't in the Screaming Shack, I was on the ground No trace of him was seen."

"That's because you were knocked unconscious, Professor! You were late and didn't hear—"

"Miss Granger, shut up!" He didn't even look at the two eager students, but kept his eyes on Dumbledore.

Startled by Snape's sudden outburst, Fudge tried to say something to calm the situation down, but Dumbledore spoke.

He didn't respond to a furious Snape: "I want to speak to Harry and Hermione alone, Connelly, Severus, Poppy - please go away."

"Principal! They need treatment, they need rest—"

"This matter cannot wait," said Dumbledore, "I must persist."

Madam Pomfrey strode into the office on the other side of the ward in displeasure, and closed the door heavily.Fudge went to the door, opened it and waited for Snape to leave with him, but Snape didn't move.

He paused his eyes on Dumbledore's calm face for a long time, trying to figure out what the old man was thinking through clues, but he failed.

"Of course you don't believe Black's story?" he finally asked in a low voice, staring into Dumbledore's face.

Dumbledore gave him a look - in fact, he had already believed Black's story.

"I want to speak to Harry and Hermione alone," he repeated.

This was not an answer that satisfied Snape. He moved closer to Dumbledore, his voice lowered: "Siris Black showed a tendency to kill at the age of 16. You haven't forgotten, have you, Headmaster? Forget that he tried to kill me?"

Dumbledore didn't miss Snape's mention of the blur in his eyes when he was sixteen. He blinked and said calmly, "My memory is as good as ever, Severus."

As if taking some reassurance from those words, Snape turned and strode out through the door Fudge had opened, which closed behind them.

Dumbledore did not look back at the door.

The author has something to say:

Suddenly I feel that my professor is pitiful... I thought Dumbledore would believe his words, but the truth is not what he thought... How miserable 1551

I'm back!I saved the draft 2333 for half a month for my upcoming review week and exam week