Chapter 430: Scabbers Really Is Just a Rat
Below them was a narrow tunnel that stretched on endlessly. Kyle walked for a long time but never saw Harry and the others ahead of him.
"Are they really running that fast?" Kyle muttered to himself, quickening his pace.
After about ten minutes, the tunnel began to slope upward, and soon Kyle saw a faint glimmer of light. He knew he had reached the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade, the endpoint of the secret passage.
The room he entered was a messy, grey space with barred windows and only a few dim oil lamps on the walls. The light he had glimpsed came from these lamps, which cast a faint but sufficient glow over the small room.
As Kyle stepped inside, a tense atmosphere filled the room. Hidden by the Disillusionment Charm, his shadow danced on the wall in the flickering lamplight, but no one noticed him—not even Professor Lupin and Sirius Black.
In the corner, Lupin and Black argued heatedly over a table, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood on the other side of the room, beginning to grasp the gravity of the situation. Ron, torn between fear and frustration, kept glancing at his rat, Scabbers, and seemed hesitant to retrieve him.
"When Scabbers bit me, I should've known something was off," Ron muttered weakly. "Scabbers is gone now, but Lupin caught him with some sort of spell... Would a professor actually come after us with his wand? Snape wouldn't! He must've had this planned for ages. Why didn't I figure it out sooner..."
"But why would they want Scabbers?" Harry asked, eyeing Lupin and Black with suspicion.
"I don't know," Ron replied, sounding uncertain. "Maybe they just like killing people's pet rats."
But Harry and Hermione didn't think that made sense. Risking so much over an ordinary pet rat didn't add up.
As the argument escalated, Harry caught a familiar name in the midst of the shouting.