Hogwarts: I graduated before the system came

A smell of ozone, like burnt feathers, permeated the air, making one's teeth ache.

He spoke, his voice was very soft, but it drowned out the howling wind in the valley.

"Terry Boots."

He pronounced the name as if he were closing a finished book.

"You could have chosen."

There was no mockery in the voice, only a cold statement.

"You can be like Remus, carrying a curse but still sticking to the bottom line of being a human being."

"You can endure pain and loneliness, but you must protect the yellow and black robes that belong to Hufflepuff in your soul."

"But you didn't."

Douglas's eyes slowly swept over the other werewolves kneeling on the ground.

"You chose the easiest path. You turned your own misfortune into a weapon to hurt others. You used others' rejection as an excuse to do evil."

He raised his wand.

"What you defiled is not just a name."

"It's everything you've ever held on to."

The tip of the staff was not aimed at anyone, but at the increasingly gloomy sky above.

The group of werewolves were stunned for a second, and then the instinct of survival overwhelmed everything.

They screamed and ran around like crazy like a group of frightened mice.

Just at this moment.

"Boom——!"

A dull bang did not come from the sky, but exploded directly in everyone's chest!

Black clouds, like boiling ink, rolled in from all directions, instantly swallowing up the skylight in the entire valley.

The world fell into a doomsday-like darkness.

The first lightning tore through the darkness!

It was not natural lightning, but a pure white spear of light with an aura of destruction, which shot down from the clouds precisely and hit the fastest werewolf.

No screaming, no struggle.

That figure, along with the small piece of land under his feet, turned into ashes in an instant.

Then came the second and third!

Lightning, like the wrath of the gods, weaves a tight web of death.

They are no longer straight lines, they turn and hunt!

A flash of lightning penetrated into the dense forest like a snake, bypassed three giant trees, and nailed the werewolf hiding behind the trees to the ground.

Another flash of lightning drew a dazzling zigzag on the rock wall and caught up with the former Hufflepuff senior.

In the last moment before being swallowed by the light, what flashed across Terry Boots' face was not fear, but a hint of relief.

The valley turned into a cage of thunder and lightning.

The storm comes quickly and goes away quickly.

When the thirteenth lightning bolt fell and purified the last figure that tried to drill into the crack in the ground, the dark clouds in the sky were wiped away quietly as if by an invisible giant hand.

The sun shines again.

In the valley, apart from the body of Greyback, there was no trace of any of his accomplices.

There were only thirteen smoking, charred pits, like ugly scars, branded on the earth, proving that they had once existed.

There was deathly silence in the cave.

The members of the Ash Claw watched this scene and even forgot to breathe.

This made them feel even colder than the bloody fight just now.

Douglas retracted his wand.

He didn't even glance at the body on the ground.

His eyes slowly swept across the entire valley.

Past Marco and the awed werewolves, towards the rocks in the distance that blended into the environment, and towards the seemingly deserted treetops high up.

The corners of his mouth curved up in a very faint, almost imperceptible arc.

That's an actor's curtain call smile.

Lupin stood there, covered in blood.

He looked at his hands, which were stained with Greyback's blood.

Warm and sticky.

A nightmare that had haunted him all his life was ended by these hands.

He thought he would feel relief, ecstasy.

But when the flame of revenge burned out, all that remained was an endless expanse of cold ashes.

A huge emptiness, like a tide, submerged his limbs and bones.

"I killed him."

Lupin's voice was hoarse, like two pieces of sandpapered wood.

"With my hands."

He wasn't seeking comfort or confession.

He was simply stating a fact that was unfamiliar to himself.

"I thought I would feel free." He raised his head and looked at Douglas. For the first time, his gentle eyes were filled with confusion. "But I only feel... empty."

"It was as if the most important part of his body, along with his neck, had been crushed by my own hands."

Chapter 429: The Exorcism Ceremony Decades Late

Douglas said softly.

"You didn't break anything, Lupin."

"You simply completed an exorcism that was decades overdue."

His voice was like a campfire, steady and warm.

"What you exorcised wasn't Greyback the man, but the demon he planted in your soul, the curse."

"You cut off a flag."

Lupin looked up at him, confused.

"Fenrir Greyback is the banner that all the werewolves of Britain, filled with hatred and madness, gather under. He gives their savagery a name and a reason."

Lupin was stunned.

"Now, the flag has fallen."

There was a cold logic in Douglas' voice.

"His followers are leaderless, and there is a huge power vacuum across the werewolf tribe in Britain."

"There will be chaos, there will be infighting, there will be a dozen weaker but equally ruthless Greybacks trying to seize the throne he left behind."

"And those werewolves he oppressed and enslaved will, for the first time, raise their heads and wonder: where will they go without Greyback?"

He stopped and looked at Lupin intently.

"This is your chance. No, it's our chance."

Lupin's heart skipped a beat.

He thought of the man who, deep in Knockturn Alley, had propped up a shabby shelter with cheap stew and herbs.

"Marcus..." He said the name subconsciously.

"That's right, Marcus Belby." Douglas finally showed a genuine smile on his face. "A Hufflepuff. A true leader who understands unity and sharing, rather than ruling with fear and violence."

"Greyback brought more hatred and discrimination to werewolves through killing."

"And you can bring them a brand new future with order and dignity."

Douglas stood up and patted Lupin on the shoulder.

The action was not heavy, but it seemed to place a whole new responsibility on him.

"Your battle has just begun, Professor Lupin."

"Your past has died in this valley."

“Now, stand up and become their shepherd.”

shepherd.

This word echoed repeatedly in Lupin's mind.

He looked at the cold corpse on the ground, then at his own body covered in scars.

The suffocating emptiness is quietly receding.

Instead, there was a heavy sense of mission that allowed him to find his breathing rhythm again.

He is no longer just a victim, an avenger.

He could be a… builder.

Lupin took the wand he had put down and washed the blood off his face.

On the ground, the mirror-like water surface reflected a pair of eyes that were no longer confused and in pain, but were filled with steel-like determination.

"what should I do?"

"Write," Douglas said simply. "Tell Marcus that Fenrir Greyback, along with his most loyal hyenas, remains forever in the Apennines."

"Tell him the pack needs a new leader."

"Not a tyrant like Greyback, but a shepherd."

"Someone who truly understands their pain, someone who has conquered that pain. Someone who can prove to them that the beast within us can be harnessed, not just unleashed."

Lupin's heart trembled violently.

It was as if a spark was cast into the empty ashes.

He looked at his hands.

These blood-stained hands had just ended a life.

They are no longer just tools of revenge.

They may become tools for creating a new order.

A sense of responsibility so heavy that it made it almost impossible for him to breathe began to fill the void.

It's not for himself.

It is to save more people so that they don't have to repeat their cursed and painful fate.

Lupin slowly straightened his back.

The wounds on his body were still bleeding, and every muscle in his body was screaming with fatigue.

But the light in his eyes rekindled.

It was no longer the light of the gentle Professor Lupin, nor the light of the Avengers.

It was a quiet and firm light that belonged to a leader.

Italian Ministry of Magic.

On the Marauder's Map in Lorenzo's office, the dark red dot representing Fenrir Greyback suddenly went out.