HP: I’m working on redemption at Hogwarts

"Miss Greengrass, is that right? Your wonderful performance of Expecto Patronus on the train was amazing."

After class, Astoria was unable to leave with her friends, but was left in the classroom by the unkempt Professor Lupin.

She followed Lupin back to his office. The light was dim and some inexplicable herbal smell made her nose fail.

Hearing Lupin's question, Astoria subconsciously took a step back, leaning against the door frame, and nervously tapped the wall with her hands behind her back, not knowing what to say.

"The truth is, Professor. I have no recollection of what happened. I don't even know that I cast Expecto Patronus..."

Lupin raised his eyebrows in surprise. He sat at his desk, tapping the table with his fingers from time to time. His movements slowly slowed down and finally stopped.

"You're saying that you cast Expecto Patronus unconsciously without even knowing the spell existed?"

"Oh no!" Astoria was afraid of misunderstanding, so she quickly shook her head and waved her hands to deny it. "I have seen this spell in some books. Out of curiosity, my friends and I practiced this spell together, but no one succeeded."

"Is that so..." Lupin nodded slowly, his wrinkled eyes slightly wrinkled, and a hint of contemplation flashed across his eyes.

"In fact, Professor Lupin. I don't think this is something I can perform. Expecto Patronus is about good memories. I think I... nothing..." Astoria spoke, her voice was so low that it was almost inaudible. Her eyelids slowly drooped, her eyes were dark and unclear, and a lonely mood lingered around her.

"Miss Greengrass," Lupin seemed to sigh, he raised his arm, put his big hand on Astoria's shoulder, and led her closer to him. Lupin raised his head slowly, his gray-green eyes reflected Astoria's lowered head, and his eyes gradually softened.

"Ms. Greengrass, the casting of Expecto Patronus does require good memories to activate. But you need to remember that these so-called good or happy memories are just appearances. The more important key is--" Lupin squeezed Astoria's shoulder soothingly and smiled gently.

"-Love and faith. I can see that beneath your thin body lies a strong and unyielding soul. Greengrass, you are really great." Lupin said these extremely sincere and moving words while staring at Astoria.

His eyes never left Astoria's face from beginning to end, paying attention to Astoria's sensitive and suspicious emotions. There was always a gentle smile on his face, making people feel like they were in the spring breeze.

"Thank you, Professor Lupin."

-

Even after returning to the Slytherin common room, Astoria still couldn't calm down for a long time. As a Slytherin, she was not very happy to deal with Gryffindor people. But Professor Lupin, his sincere words and gentle and considerate temperament made her unable to help but get close to him.

Astoria sat by the fireplace, her two little hands, which had turned blue due to the cool breeze, were placed over the warm charcoal with five fingers spread out. The warm yellow flames flickered as they reflected on Astoria's face along with the crackling flames.

"Daphne, besides you, does anyone else know what happened on the train on the first day of school?"

Astoria couldn't help but turned around and asked Daphne who was leisurely reading a novel. Beside her, Pansy was scratching her hair in distress and concentrating on her notes for the Potions class.

"Hey, hey, hey, what do you mean? Are you afraid that we will tell everyone about it?" Pansy seemed to have found some outlet for her unhappiness over Snape's criticism of her notes, and she started talking nonsense to Astoria.

Daphne helplessly covered Pansy's mouth, pressed her head hard and told her to take notes seriously.

"Don't worry, we haven't told anyone else. Who mentioned this to you?" Daphne closed the novel, folded a corner casually and put it on her lap, staring at Astoria with concern.

"Nothing, it's just that today Lupin -"

"Lupin! You mean the ragged, self-righteous man."

"Uh...it seems."

Draco suddenly rushed over from behind, his expression of disgust and disdain was too obvious. And it was the second day of school, and the third grade had not yet taken the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Why did Draco inexplicably feel such disdain for a professor he had never met?

"Oh, I remembered it after hearing what Draco mentioned. Leah, Professor Lupin was also on the train that day."

"Lupin is here too?" Astoria's eyes widened in shock, and she even forgot to address him as professor.

———————Memory dividing line————————

First day of school

"Leah!" Draco turned around instantly when he heard Daphne's anxious call, grabbed Leah who was about to faint, and held her in his arms.

Draco was knocked down by Leah's force and knelt on the floor of the corridor. At this moment, Leah was lying in Draco's arms. Her face was pale, and her eyelids were twitching uncontrollably, revealing abnormal pure white pupils.

"Leah! Leah!" Draco looked at the weird scene in front of him, tightly holding Leah's hand, his eyes turning red unconsciously. He buried his head helplessly in Leah's neck, calling out.

Daphne and Pansy came forward, their eyes full of worry and anxiety. Theodore also immediately reacted and opened the door of the carriage, wanting to go forward to help.

“Leave space,”

The door connecting the two carriages of the train was opened. Theodore and Zabini, who were still relatively calm, looked over and saw a ragged man staggering over from the other carriage.

"Who are you?" Theodore frowned and questioned. Although he said so, he had to admit that the man was right. He held Draco and Daphne with one hand and asked them not to surround Astoria so tightly.

"Don't surround her so tightly, she won't be able to breathe." The man finally walked up to him. Theodore looked him up and down and saw that he was just an ordinary homeless man.

Why was he on the train to Hogwarts?

Adult men are much stronger. The man easily pushed Draco aside with one hand, and lifted Astoria up with one hand.

"What are you doing? Let her go!" Draco was instantly furious. He got up from the ground in a panic, not even caring about his red and swollen eyes and tear marks, and punched the man hard.

"Please let my sister go." Daphne held her wand tightly in her hand. The bulging veins on her wrist and the slightly trembling movements vaguely showed her nervousness and fear. But she swallowed and still stood firmly in front of the man.

"You don't have to be so nervous. I just want to put her on the sofa in the car." The man sighed helplessly. Looking at the vigilant little kids, big and small, he couldn't help shaking his head and sighing.

"Also, I will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year, Remus Lupin." Lupin tried to put on a friendlier smile and stretched out his hand to shake hands with them.

Snapped!

Draco raised his hand without any hesitation and slapped away the friendly hand that Lupin extended, still glaring at Lupin fiercely with anger on his face.

Lupin smiled helplessly, looked around at the still vigilant classmates, and quickly placed Leah safely on the sofa.

"What are you doing again?" Draco watched Lupin stuff a black thing into Leah's mouth.

"Chocolate, Astoria is overly frightened. Sweets can soothe overly volatile emotions."

Before Lupin could open his mouth to explain, Theodore's deep voice came from beside Draco.

"Eh! I didn't expect there is still a little classmate who understands me. Maybe she will feel better if she sucks some chocolate." Lupin raised his eyebrows in surprise and looked at Theodore with bright eyes. He saw that he was staring at Leah who was sleeping on the sofa with his eyes downcast.

Lupin rolled his eyes thoughtfully, looking back and forth between the two of them.

In fact, Theodore did not know the saying that sweets can heal his mood, but was told to him by a girl when he was 8 years old.

Theodore's gaze lingered on Leah's face, then he looked away absentmindedly.