Hogwarts’ John Wick

135: Poor Dementors and Map

John put down the newspaper and looked over at the Gryffindor table.

Ron and Hermione were arguing. Again.

"How do they manage to argue every single day and still stay so close?" John mused.

The reason for the argument was once again their pets. Crookshanks had been running around as usual, but still hadn't given up on trying to catch Scabbers. This had become a constant source of tension, and Ron had long been fed up with the ugly cat.

On one side was a pet Ron had had for twelve years, and on the other was a hideous cat Hermione had only bought less than six months ago.

He couldn't understand why Hermione couldn't see things from his perspective.

At least from Ron's point of view, he wasn't in the wrong.

John was also curious why Crookshanks was so fixated on Scabbers. From what he knew, Crookshanks was a smart cat; it should have realized that the rat was a pet belonging to its owner's friend.

"Peter Pettigrew, huh," John thought to himself.

The Marauder's Map showed all the people within Hogwarts, and the rat by Ron's side wasn't listed as "Scabbers."

John had known this for a while, but he couldn't exactly walk up to Ron and say, "Hey, your rat isn't really Scabbers, you know?"

"That rat's been hiding a lot lately, barely even coming out of the dormitory," John reflected.

He had originally wanted to confirm whether the rat was really an Animagus, but unfortunately, Scabbers wasn't giving him the opportunity.

John had no choice but to put this matter aside for now.

After eating the sausage on his fork, he sensed someone standing behind him.

Turning around, he saw Professor Snape deliberately slowing his steps.

"Well, I guess I have to deal with this," John muttered to himself, then called out to Snape.

"Professor."

It was as if Snape had been waiting for this moment. He stopped, turning around slowly.

John noticed that Snape's face showed an unusual expression of expectation. Wiping his mouth, John said, "I know."

Without any context, Snape's face broke into an unexpected smile.

He stretched out his words, "Oh?"

John said the key phrase: "Full moon."

Snape replied in a low voice, "Mr. Wick, you're a smart man."

'Great, now I'm smart,' John thought sarcastically.

He couldn't help but wonder if Snape was cursing him for being stupid behind his back.

Grumbling internally, John forced a smile and said, "Thanks for the compliment."

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One big and one small, like two sly foxes.

Snape's footsteps sped up as he left, clearly in a good mood.

The two of them had spoken in riddles, leaving Daphne wide-eyed and confused, her face filled with curiosity.

Meanwhile, Heinrich quietly continued eating, carefully lifting his juice and sipping it cautiously.

'Hmm, garlic essence!'

Without hesitation, he walked over to the Gryffindor table. The twin pranksters saw him coming and made a quick escape.

Harry was in high spirits; Lupin had agreed to teach him the Patronus Charm.

After this Christmas break, he wouldn't have to keep being mocked by Malfoy and his gang anymore.

Speaking of Malfoy, Draco arrived.

Despite the fact that the tables of the two houses were separated by Hufflepuff, Draco Malfoy deliberately walked all the way around just to get Harry's attention.

"The Dementors are coming—"

He put on a mock terrified face, causing Pansy and the others to burst into laughter.

Harry scowled, and even Ron and Hermione, who had been giving each other the cold shoulder, immediately jumped into defense mode.

"Shut up, Malfoy!"

Ron was already in a bad mood, and after being provoked like that, he immediately stood up, staring right back at Malfoy.

"Weasley, you should be thankful this is the Great Hall," Malfoy threatened openly, lowering his voice. "If you dare, come duel me."

Ron's face darkened. It wasn't the first time he'd clashed with Malfoy.

Malfoy had gotten much stronger lately, and if they really fought, Ron wasn't sure he could win.

What Ron didn't realize was that Malfoy had stopped mocking his family's background—thanks to Percy being part of the Constellation Society. If not, with Malfoy's venomous mouth, he wouldn't have been so "civil."

"I'll duel you, Malfoy," Harry said, stepping in to defend his friend.

"Enough, Malfoy. Do you want to get detention?" Hermione intervened, stopping the two hotheads from rushing into a duel. She glared at Malfoy, not backing down.

Every time someone cast a curse, they'd lose house points. Gryffindor was already trailing behind Ravenclaw.

Malfoy shrugged, sneering at Harry, "Oh, dear baby Potter, always hiding behind your friends."

Then, he made a mock baby-crying face before turning and leaving with his group.

Ron slammed his fist on the table in frustration, and Hermione comforted Harry, saying, "He only talks big."

Harry mumbled, "I know, thanks, you guys."

After what had just happened, the trio's friendship was restored once again.

...

Time passed quickly.

Every day, John made sure to perform his incantation at sunrise and sunset, like clockwork.

The storm, however, didn't seem like it was coming anytime soon, which left John a little frustrated.

In the meantime, he could only catch some Dementors to practice on.

He'd go to the forest, close off his thoughts, and head out for a bit. By the time he returned, one unfortunate Dementor would be missing.

Due to the Aurors' involvement, the Dementors had been mostly confined to one specific area.

But Dementors often tried to escape, so whenever a few went missing, the Aurors just assumed they had fled. After a fruitless search, they'd leave it at that.

What they didn't know was that the reason Dementors kept trying to flee was because they had noticed some of their kind disappearing mysteriously.

It was like they had encountered a natural predator—wanting to escape but constantly being held back.

Pretty tragic, really.

John didn't care about their plight.

His soul extraction skills had become more and more proficient, and he stuffed the extracted souls into bottles.

An entire shelf was now filled with bottles containing the remnants of at least a dozen Dementors.

The ring on his finger grew darker and darker, and he no longer even needed bait to lure Dementors. He simply used the Soul-Sucking Curse to pull them in directly.

"Nice! That should be enough."

John carefully stored away the glowing bottles of souls on the shelf. With these soul fragments, it would be enough for the surgery on Nagini.

He stretched out his left hand toward an idle box, clenched his fist, and murmured, "Crush."

The box crumpled as if squeezed by an enormous invisible hand, collapsing inward under an unfamiliar force.

This wasn't the typical Crushing Charm—it was ancient magic.

To be precise, it was a variant of ancient magic, one that could manipulate objects.

It sounded similar to the Levitation Charm, but in reality, it was quite different.

The Levitation Charm lifts objects, and its damage comes from the object's weight falling back down.

However, this spell was for grasping—grabbing an object with one hand, then accelerating it to smash downwards.

John had found this spell in Forbidden Magic.

With a snap of his fingers, the crushed box ignited in flames, burning away until there was nothing left.

"Now there's no evidence," John chuckled softly. With enough materials in hand, there was no longer a need to torment the Dementors.

After putting away the soul fragments, John glanced at the Boggart that had been quiet for a while and decided to let it be for now.

...

December 18th.

A group of students had gathered at the castle gates, ready to head off to Hogsmeade. John spotted Harry again.

He was standing all alone at the entrance, looking utterly pitiful.

With a sigh, Harry began to turn back.

"How unfortunate," John thought.

Seeing the "Chosen One" in such a sad state, John figured that since he had two Marauder's Maps, he might as well give one to Harry.

After all, the map originally belonged to James Potter anyway.

So, John called out to Harry. Confused, Harry looked over as John approached.

"John? What are you doing...?"

John pulled out a piece of parchment. Harry's eyebrows furrowed—was this guy about to give him homework?

Wait, that didn't make sense. John wasn't a professor. What homework could he possibly assign?

Still puzzled, Harry watched as John smiled slightly, then said mysteriously, "There's more than one way out of Hogwarts~"

With that, John gently tapped the blank parchment with his wand.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"

Ink lines spread across the blank parchment, and Harry's eyes widened in surprise.

"This is the Marauder's Map," John said with a light chuckle. "I'm sure you can see how it works."

Harry's mouth hung slightly open. He hadn't expected John to hand over something so important.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Harry asked, "Is this... for me?"

"Of course," John nodded, a deep meaning in his tone. "It was always meant to be yours."

Harry was overjoyed, his eyes scanning the map, spotting several secret routes out of Hogwarts that piqued his interest.

"Thank you, John," Harry said sincerely.

"The closing spell is: 'Mischief managed,'" John added, waving him off before turning to leave the castle.

Not long after John left, Harry was already planning to use one of the secret passages to sneak out.

In the end, Harry was caught by the Weasley twins, who dragged him to one of the floors.

They winked at him mysteriously and said, "Before we leave, let's give you a bit of holiday spirit."

With that, they pushed Harry into a nearby classroom.

The twins began introducing him to a secret passageway that led out of Hogwarts. Harry's expression turned odd as he tried to say something. But Fred, who had sharp eyes, noticed the Marauder's Map in Harry's hand.

"So that's where it went! We thought we lost it."

Harry stood there dumbfounded, watching as the twins casually took the Marauder's Map from him and used it without hesitation.

Seeing how familiar they were with it, Harry's expression grew stranger, and so did the twins'.

Regardless, Harry was finally able to make his way to Hogsmeade. Full of excitement, he crawled into the secret passage hidden inside the statue of the hunchbacked one-eyed witch, followed it, and eventually emerged in Honeydukes' candy shop.

_________

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