novelnext Chapter 218 Only the Scourge Remains Alive
Chapter 218 Only the Scourge Remains Alive
Chapter 218 Only the Scourge Remains Alive
"There is a terrible mechanism behind the attack of wolfsbane—"
"When they're in a frenzy, they're more likely to attack the people they care about and are closest to."
The campfire crackled with two-colored flames, its gray glow tinged with orange-red, drifting into the distance on the mountain breeze through the forest.
Lu Ping held the wine glass, his eyes red, muttering incoherently.
The wine was brought by Grindelwald. This dark wizard, who had experienced too much in life, could empathize with the suffering of too many people. He truly understood the pain of others, which was his unique personal charm. Many people became saints because of him, not just because of his seductive words.
Professor Kettleburn also came to the campfire, sipping his drink and listening to Lupin's anguished voice. His aged eyes seemed to be reminiscing about some of his life experiences, and he remained silent.
"Many people cannot imagine that terrifying scene."
Lupin murmured, "The heat was terribly intense, and everything was stained with blood, so the wounds from claws and teeth were less noticeable."
"On the contrary, when you become a werewolf, your soul is cold, as if it is soaking in the deepest, most secluded lake, without sound or movement, you can only feel boundless loneliness and depravity."
His expression was so pained. "Everything about waking up from the depths of depravity and becoming a werewolf became so clear. He clearly knew what kind of beast he had become, clearly knew how much harm he had caused to so many people, and clearly faced the embarrassing situation of appearing naked in a strange place."
"Many people think that werewolves are inherently ferocious, but that's not actually the case. Werewolves have the ability to tear those who are unable to resist to pieces, but they usually only scratch or bite others before leaving."
"Its underlying nature is loneliness; the harm stems from the yearning to find more of its kind, but they can never find any, so they keep creating one more of their own—."
This is why werewolves often attack those closest to them first.
He talked a lot, about how werewolves are not accepted, their student days, wartime, and their time as a wanderer—there was so much suffering in their lives.
One glass of liquor after another was poured into my heart, but the spicy stimulation could not bring even the slightest warmth to my cold heart.
Grindelwald looked at him with a deep gaze, sighed, and said, "It sounds like you feel you owe everyone—you owe your parents, you owe your friends, you owe Dumbledore, you owe so much?"
Lu Ping lowered his head, his messy, graying hair obscuring his eyes and making his expression unclear. His shoulders trembled slightly. After a long silence, he sniffed and his voice was somewhat choked up. "The more people are kind to me, the more afraid I am of getting close to them. I don't know when I will bring them irreparable disaster."
Grindelwald shook his head. "Then haven't you ever considered that you actually owe the most to yourself?"
Lupin froze, instinctively curling up, even though the Forbidden Forest, just beginning to fall, wasn't actually cold.
He didn't speak.
Perhaps he doesn't care about himself at all.
"You know the Patronus Charm, right?" Grindelwald asked. "But I bet you're terrible at it, because you haven't thought about protecting your mind at all."
"They've never even faced their own hearts."
"This is not a healthy mindset. Debt will eventually turn into resentment. No matter how kind you are or how much you suppress your inner restlessness and evil thoughts, you are unknowingly pushing yourself to become more depraved."
"I don't want you to resent or even hate Dumbledore or the other members of the Order of the Phoenix for their distrust back then."
The liquor was strong, but Grindelwald's words were cold.
"Because someone like you is not trustworthy to begin with. In this world filled with magical power, a simple Imperius Curse can turn you into a puppet."
Lupin finally reacted, forcefully lifting his head to look at Grindelwald with serious intent. "I have never done anything to betray Dumbledore or the Order of the Phoenix! I have never betrayed them!"
"Hahaha—" Grindelwald laughed, a hearty laugh, flicking a finger at him from his cup-holding hand. "Remember this feeling. When you mention 'I,' you finally begin to come alive."
"I—" Lupin's expression was indescribably complex, even pale and confused.
"I agree with Gellert," Professor Kettleburn chimed in, smiling as he saw Lupin looking at him. "Look at me, so self-centered my whole life. Students and professors at the university often find me a headache, and many people outside the university don't like me either."
"But none of them can deny that it is precisely because of my own ego, living in my own world, that I began to become excellent, which in turn helped so many people."
"When you lose yourself, you're not even fulfilled, so how can you possibly be useful to others?"
Professor Kettleburn looked at his former student with great emotion, feeling that the other person was a dying man, a very old man, while he himself seemed like a young man.
That's how the magical world is sometimes; if you don't live more authentically, it's hard to become an individual who contributes to other social connections within a group.
After all, the power of magic has always originated from within.
Magic masters only exist among wizards with strong inner strength, while the young man before me is so fragile.
But it was precisely this vulnerability, this terrible state, that still couldn't hide his talent, that suppressed liveliness, that made Grindelwald and Professor Kettleburn appreciate his talent and want to help him out of his inner predicament.
Just then, a voice came from behind the trees not far away.
"Gidero told me—"
The group turned around and saw Severus Snape, who had quietly arrived and was hiding in the corner.
He walked over, looking at Lupin with a complicated expression. "He said that dwelling on the past will lead to the complete loss of the future. The more you value your past, the more you need to move towards the future, so that you can do something for it."
Snape's feelings toward Lupin were very complex.
To be honest, Lupin was a member of the Raiders' group, an accomplice of the group that bullied him back then.
To be honest, I don't dislike them. Sometimes, when Potter and Sirius impulsively want to cause trouble for me and are ready to break out into conflict, Lupin always pulls them back and persuades them to calm down.
Snape was grateful. He could certainly say that he was not afraid of fighting and would even take his opponents down with him if he died, but being ganged up on and toyed with was not a pleasant feeling at all, since no one around him was willing to help him.
There was no way around it; he had always been alone, and one man can't fight against many. His status as the male best friend of the Muggle wizard Lily had always kept those pure-blood elites at arm's length, making it impossible for them to stand firmly with him.
He even knew that while Potter and his group's targeting of him was partly due to their dislike, the key factor was the instigation from the pure-blood elites—they were all waiting for him to make a statement, to completely side with the pure-blood elites, sever ties with Lily, and become one of their own.
He was not happy about it.
So he had no help at all, not a single one. Lily wouldn't help him either, and any conflict with Potter and his group always ended in an extremely bad and embarrassing way.
Snape's first encounter with death also came from Lupin.
At that time, he was trying his best to deal with the raider group, so he secretly followed these guys who didn't sleep at night and wandered around everywhere, trying to find evidence of their bad deeds. Then Sirius led him to Lupin, who had turned into a werewolf.
He was almost killed that time.
He was almost killed by Lupin!
Afterwards, Lupin sought him out privately to apologize, his apology so sincere that it left Lupin with nowhere to vent his anger. He knew it wasn't Lupin's fault; Lupin was also a victim of that near-death experience.
If he dies, Lupin will be sent to Azkaban for life, and even Dumbledore, who secretly planted werewolves in the school, will leave Hogwarts for good and resign.
Life's encounters are sometimes like this. If Snape had met Lupin earlier than Potter and the others, perhaps they would have become good friends, because they were both children with low self-esteem and loneliness, and they understood each other's pain and were willing to help each other.
But life doesn't offer "what ifs," and they are simply members of an opposing group.
They were enemies at school, and even fought each other during the war. When they were bloodthirsty, they unleashed all sorts of vicious curses on each other.
Those who followed Voldemort back then weren't all the wicked people portrayed today. Snape himself knew that there were many pure people filled with the desire and ambition to change the world, such as Sirius's brother. Even though there were people like Sirius, Snape had a good relationship with him.
As it turns out, there is no room for good people to survive in war. All of Snape's comrades-in-arms died, some at the hands of Voldemort and the Death Eaters themselves, and some at the hands of the Order of the Phoenix.
They're all dead.
All that's left are a bunch of thugs. Bad guys always have a better way of surviving, like himself.
Therefore, Snape and Lupin could never be friends again, as they had both killed people the other cared about.
The trauma of war torments everyone who experienced it, and what's even more painful is that the war has not yet ended.
It seems to have no end.
Snape's eyes were filled with darkness, but his tone softened. "I have a life lesson to learn: always wanting to accomplish what you consider the noblest things first, thinking you can put aside your inner feelings and the people who care about you."
We'll deal with it properly later.
In Lockhart's words, it means "A great man's ambitions are far-reaching, and he puts aside personal feelings for his children."
"But I eventually realized that if you don't care about these things, you might lose them forever."
He sighed deeply, walked to the soul campfire, sat down, and stared blankly at the flames. "Once it's lost, it's completely lost. Don't say you cared then; it's too late."
For example.
Lockhart urged Lupin to visit his parents.
Soulfire is a wondrous magic; everyone gathered here seems to see the person they most long to see reflected in the campfire.
The ash-like flames swayed and danced with the rising steam, drifting towards some distant place of longing.
Unbeknownst to them, this corner of the Forbidden Forest had fallen silent, with only Lockhart's wicked, seductive voice urging the werewolf cubs and Madago cat to hurry up and get to work from a distance.