He screamed in the sky, and that posture made Lockhart even a little worried that this guy would suddenly go crazy.

However, Dumbledore was still as stable as a bell, and Lockhart had to pretend to be

He looked very calm.

After venting for a while, Blake sat back down in the chair that had restrained him.

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Disclaimer... I advise you to go find the rat next to the boy and catch it."

His voice was so low that it sounded like he was about to be sentenced to death tomorrow.

\"Rat? What rat?" Dumbledore asked.

"Peter Pettigrew, he's an Animagus like me, and his Animagus form is a mouse... Because I was chased by him, he blew up a street and cut his own Finger, I thought he was dead, but I read from the Daily Prophet that he was alive..."

He didn't say "Lupin knew this too" because he wasn't sure why his former friend was hiding it.

But Dumbledore clearly knew more than he did: "The same as what Remus just told me... so could you please tell me what the characteristics of that mouse are?"

Black thought to himself that Lupin still couldn't stand it, but since he didn't cast a hurtful spell on himself right away, he decided to say something nice for him anyway.

"Lupin doesn't know everything. The other three of us are more familiar with each other because they often deform together... The mouse has gray-white fur, its eyes are bigger than ordinary mice, and the right front paw is missing a middle toe..."

\"Is it like this?"

Lockhart picked up a rat cage out of nowhere and put it on Black's right

Blake turned his head subconsciously: "Yes, it's this kind of rat, but because Peter is not good at learning, the left half of his body always becomes a little flawed and looks tattered..."

But halfway through his words, he suddenly stopped talking.

Black stared at the mouse cage that Lockhart brought over, his eyes widened and his body trembled slightly.

Immediately afterwards, he suddenly burst out of his seat, and with a roar, he stretched out and rushed towards Lockhart.

Without Lockhart's shot, Dumbledore just raised his wand slightly, and Blake was pressed back as if caught by an invisible giant hand in the air.

Not only was Lockhart not afraid, but he looked like he was watching a good show.

"Wow, it is said that after Animagus becomes too long, people's daily actions will gradually become animalized. I thought it was an exaggeration, but I didn't expect it to be true." He said.

"Not surprisingly, Minerva also walks the catwalk unconsciously when she turns around or goes up the steps." Dumbledore agreed.

"When the Big Five Tournament begins, don't our students have to face a group of beasts from African wizards? Do they need a hunting ground?"

"Hagrid will take care of it, but I personally advise the Ministry not to think too much about field projects when setting up projects."

The two looked at each other as usual, as if the person struggling on the chair was just a kid from the neighbor who came to play with building blocks.

After struggling for a few minutes, Blake finally gave up, but his eyes were still filled with hatred.

Niuba guy give it to me! he shouted to Dumbledore, "let me tear him up with my own hands!" Then what you want, I will give you. "

Dumbledore glanced at the rat cage, then at Black.

"Speaking of which, Gilderoy, you haven't explained it to me? How did you discover all this?"

Dumbledore wanted to dry Black, and of course Lockhart found out. "To be honest, I just discovered it." Lockhart didn't change his color.

Jumping to make up lies, "But in the end, it was the letter he sent to the Bardmore Company that aroused my suspicion. Although it was the standard official letterhead of the Ministry of Magic, I personally felt that there was too much blank space on the top of the letterhead. , so I'm always in the habit of cutting off half an inch before writing."

"And you cut the letterhead for the order credit?" Dumbledore understood.

"Yeah, when I got suspicious, I went to check my old wand. Although this guy is very careful, the Oblivion Charm is my specialty, and everyone's Oblivion Charm is slightly different, and the effect that flashes back. Also different…”

Lockhart gushed about his "discovery" process, and Dumbledore seemed patient enough to keep listening.

But Sirius doesn't have such a good temper. He stared at the rat still stuck to the glue and shivering in the rat cage. He just wanted to eat it alive.

But unfortunately, Dumbledore just wanted to boil him so he could watch his reaction.

It turned out to be so, but I still don't know how on earth you found this mouse. asked Dumbledore with interest. "If they hadn't told me, I might never have found out." "

"I don't know either." Lockhart said a statement that surprised Dumbledore.

"Don't know?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, but when I think about it, I find that Black and Hermione's cat are connected in series, and the purpose should be Ron's rat - if his target is Harry, then the last time he was in Hogsmeade , he should have done it a long time ago, so I guessed he had other goals, plus Hermione and I had secretly complained that her cat was always staring at Ron's mouse, but he usually saw other people in the dormitory. the mouse it doesn't even bother to catch

"I see."

"Then I fiddled with Ron's rat tonic and mixed in some of the tracer that Remus gave me...I was just thinking, since Blake is so obsessed with that rat, I might as well put it on first. I got this rat, so no matter what the problem is with this rat, I have the initiative, and I didn't expect to win the big prize."

It is quite difficult to make up lies in front of Dumbledore, but fortunately, Lockhart's lies are quite reasonable. Even if Dumbledore always finds that Lockhart knows something else, he does not continue to ask Go down, sometimes you have to save some face.

Anyway, Lockhart's purpose of concealing these cannot be for the sake of power, power, and power - Dumbledore considered Lockhart to see through.

Chapter 224 Confrontation

The reason why Lockhart has concealed it until now is, of course, for power.

If Sirius' grievances are quickly revealed, then Mr. Crouch, who had supported himself in the early stages of the project, would probably lose his power immediately.

But now, Lockhart is no longer afraid to sell his boss, because he has basically completed the top five competition, and from talking about sponsors to venue construction, to arranging reception and internships, he is all by himself. No matter what, others can't take his credit even if they want to rob him.

Not to mention that Mr. Crouch is unlikely to resign, even if Crouch does resign, Lockhart is not afraid.

Because those stakeholders, including the pure-blood family and sponsors, have negotiated contracts with him, especially when there are no relevant regulations in the Ministry of Magic for the time being, they are worried about the damage to their interests. I don't want to be replaced at random.

No matter who the new boss is, he has to rely on himself to negotiate with sponsors.

If Mr. Crouch is really forced to retire because of this, then Lockhart will only be very "pity", and he will take the initiative to greet him after his retirement, but it is absolutely impossible for him to stand up for Crouch.

In his mouth, he discovered that Sirius' true identity was purely "accidental". If Sirius had not spent money to buy Firebolts at Christmas last year, he would not have guessed who he was.

Compared with Lockhart's inaccuracy, in front of Dumbledore, Sirius was very honest and explained everything.

He started from the fact that he "betrayed" the Potters back then, to I" because he suspected that Remus was a traitor, so he temporarily changed Peter Pettigrew to be the Potters' secret agent, and then he discovered the omission. , went after Peter personally, and was finally confronted

Fang feigned death to escape.

Then, he explained what he had done for a while - swimming back to England from Azkaban, then walking to London to find his godson, and finally smuggling by boat to Edinburgh, to Hogsmeade...

Dumbledore listened to him describe his journey along the way. Although there was no expression on his face, his heart was full of storms.

He has lived for 120 years and thinks he has seen all kinds of storms, but when it comes to feelings, he still often feels helpless.

How someone would voluntarily punish themselves for the death of their best friend, and squat in a place like Azkaban for more than ten years. Human beings are really weird.

From under 20 to 30 years old, the most precious golden decade in a person's life, Sirius spent in prison, and he suffered charges that he should not have suffered.

At this moment, Dumbledore even thought of Grindelwald who was still locked in the tower - is that the reason why that guy drew the dungeon into a prison and imprisoned him with the shackles in his heart for decades?

Although Sirius put it lightly, Dumbledore could feel the fiery passion in his heart.

You know, Azkaban is in the center of the North Sea—the shortest straight-line distance from the British landing point is also 350 kilometers. Without this emotion, he could hardly imagine anyone swimming from Azkaban back to England.

Just as Snape gained Dumbledore's trust just by relying on the doe patron saint, Dumbledore chose to believe him even though Black's evidence was only the rat.

"However, even with Wizengamore, we must allow the accused to speak..." said Dumbledore slowly.

He turned to the rat cage, and with a wave of his wand, the rat cage split itself in half.

Lockhart felt a little helpless in his heart—whether it was the firm spell he cast or the locked spell, it seemed as if it didn't exist in front of Dumbledore, and he didn't even understand how he did it.

Thinking about it carefully, I have been busy with official business for a while, and I haven't practiced new spells for a long time, and the field control magic system I created has not been updated. If there is a chance, I still have to practice.

…what? Speaking of which, isn't Sirius a good sparring partner?

Just when he was thinking about it, the shivering mouse had recovered his body and stood up awkwardly.

This man had a pointed face and a pointed nose. He was short in stature and had some bald marks in the middle of his gray hair. As a man under 30, this was undoubtedly a sign of his suffering these days.

But no one here will sympathize with him.

Seeing the gazes of the three gathered on him, Peter uttered a voice in his thin mouse-like voice.

Obviously, he listened to the conversations of the few people just now, and it was like sitting on pins and needles.

"I'm not a traitor!" Peter Pettigrew argued: "I'm just an insignificant character. James trusts Sirius the most, everyone knows it!"

Peter Pettigrew was very nervous—his eyes wandered, his speech stammered and incoherent, his voice stuttered, and many places were covered by the garden, and Lockhart could not help but suspect that he would faint in the next moment.

Of course, this may also be related to the fact that he has not spoken for too long, and his vocal organs have degenerated.

It's a pity that he didn't have any confidence in what he said, and he also knew that he had never had any accomplishments in Occlumency, and Dumbledore's legitimacy was no worse than Voldemort's, which was what Voldemort himself had to do. admitted fact.

"Petit Star!" Blake roared at him, calling him by his last name. "Why do you still have the face to mention him? After betraying him?"

"Quiet!" Dumbledore raised a finger warningly, "I also want to hear how this guy intends to explain what happened."

"I I I... I can explain, explain... I, I don't! I still... yes, I still have a mom! I can't die! I don't want James to be like that oooo, we're the best friend!"

It could be seen that Peter had intended to lie, but he just glanced at Dumbledore and was defeated by his penetrating gaze, knowing that he had no way to deceive him.

He couldn't tell a lie, but he didn't want to admit it, so he started to hesitate.

Upon seeing this, Dumbledore turned to Lockhart.

"Regardless of the truth of the matter, I want to call three people to sit in with them, because this matter concerns them."

"Who?" Lockhart was surprised.

"Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, and Harry Potter.

Lockhart nodded, not feeling anything wrong, but Sirius quit.

"Snotling? What's up with him?" he demanded.

"It's Snape...I'll bring him with Veritaserum," Dumbledore said succinctly. "And in a sense, it does have something to do with him."

As he spoke, he observed the reaction of the two.

Dumbledore didn't intend to use Legilimency, because it would make him feel like he was on the same level as Grindelwald and Voldemort, and as for Veritaserum, of course, that was also a trick to Peter Pettigrew.

Although not sure if Snape still has Veritaserum in stock, when Dumbledore said the word "Veritasein", Peter Pettigrew's face turned ashen, while Blake smiled contentedly. . Just by looking at this reaction, Dumbledore knew who to trust.

Although he already knew it, Dumbledore snapped his fingers, and a phoenix feather appeared in his hand.

He whispered a few words to the feather, and then it turned into a flash of fire and disappeared from the shack.

"They should be here soon... You caught the man, Gilderoy, what are you going to do with this?" Dumbledore asked.

Lockhart is obviously thoughtful: "I hope this matter can be kept as small as possible, and if possible, I hope that my boss, Mr. Crouch, can express some opinions on this matter, and give him a chance to recover, after all So many Luos didn't realize that Black was Azkaban who entered voluntarily."

\"Mr. Crouch?" Dumbledore hesitated.

He and Crouch didn't have much of a relationship, and there was even friction between the two because of his support for Fudge in the first place.

But since it was the person who Lockhart caught, the right to dispose of is in the hands of Lockhart, this is Dumbledore's view.

As for resolving things through justice, Dumbledore never thought about it, even if he was one of the members of the Wizengamore Court himself.

In a small society of less than 10,000 people, human feelings will always take precedence over the rule of law. This is the only rule.

Chapter 225 Reaction of the parties

By this point, Dumbledore had no doubts as to what the truth was, but he still intended to finish the process.

Because he wants to confirm how the Savior will choose when faced with such "righteousness" and "private hatred".

And Snape, too. After so many years, Dumbledore wasn't sure if he had let go of what happened back then.

And he also promised Snape to protect Lily Potter, and gave the Potter couple the Loyalty Scarlet Curse as the answer, but in the end they were betrayed by Peter Pettigrew and died tragically, and he had to give Snape one anyway. explain.

As for Peter Pettigrew's life, in Dumbledore's view, it has become less important

Whether sent to the Ministry of Magic or killed by Harry in the name of vengeance: Peter Pettigrew deserved it.

After a while, a black smoke flew from the direction of the castle and landed in front of the screaming shack, turning into a human figure.

"Good morning, Severus," Dumbledore called to him from the window.

Sirius was stunned when he heard the words, but when he looked out the window, he realized that the sky had already brightened during the time when he left and returned and Peter was captured.

Snape slammed into the wooden door of the Shrieking Shack with a cold face, and as soon as he entered, he looked at Peter Pettigrew, without even saying hello to the others present.

Lupin and Harry were shown by two house-elves with their entourage, and Harry had a tired and confused look on his face.

Harry didn't sleep well last night, because of the invasion of Sirius, he never dared to sleep

Death, coupled with the frightened Ron's non-stop chatter, he didn't fall asleep again until after three o'clock in the morning.