"You won't taste this flavor again in the future, I promise."

Hermione reached out and hugged Lin Yue, gently patting her back.

In the future, she would definitely watch over Lin Yue, not allowing her to punish herself anymore, and would carefully protect her. Anyone who wanted to hurt Lin Yue again, in any form, would have to pay a painful price!

Cho Chang, Marietta, and Penelope also raised their hands to gently rub Lin Yue's head.

Fred and George exchanged glances, trying hard to think of ways to lighten the mood.

"Good girl, although it is indeed Halloween right now."

"But we should probably avoid talking about things that feel scary."

"How about this: to truly wish you a happy Halloween."

"Feel free to pick some candies."

"We will cover the bill!" ×2

Lin Yue lifted her head from Hermione's embrace and looked calmly at the Weasley twins, who were playfully bantering with each other. She stiffly shook her head.

"Thank you for your kindness, but there's no need. I can pretty much estimate your financial situation..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Fred stuffed an entire bag of Chocolate Frogs into Lin Yue's hands. "Don't think too much about it this Halloween."

"Exactly," George added, shoving a large bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans into Lin Yue's arms. "This isn't something a junior should worry about."

After stuffing her with candy, the two of them went straight to the counter to pay, leaving Lin Yue holding the two big bags of sweets while Hermione wrapped her arms around her waist.

"These two twins are just a bit too mischievous, but they really are good people."

Penelope chuckled and shook her head, which is also why, despite their enthusiasm for pranks, almost no one at Hogwarts disliked them.

After wandering around Honeydukes for quite a while and nearly filling their stomachs with candy, the five girls finally walked out of the shop together.

For the rest of the afternoon, they strolled around Hogsmeade, visiting places like the Joke Shop and the Owl Post Office.

They even stayed at a distance to watch the Shrieking Shack for a while.

Lin Yue squinted her eyes as she looked at the distant Shrieking Shack, taking in all the various remnants on the wooden house. Next to her, Penelope was telling her and Hermione the legend of the Shrieking Shack.

"According to the legend, about twenty years ago, the Shrieking Shack started to be haunted, and every full moon night, eerie howls would echo from it..."

Penelope spoke in great detail about the legends surrounding the place, while Cho Chang and Marietta occasionally added some content. Hermione listened with great interest, her face lit up with curiosity as she gazed at the Shrieking Shack.

Meanwhile, Lin Yue quickly began analyzing the stories from the three senior students alongside the remnants visible on the Shrieking Shack in the distance.

First, the timeline was set around twenty years ago, when howls would emanate from the Shrieking Shack, specifically on full moon nights. What kind of ghost would only be active on full moon nights? Lin Yue couldn't find any ghost in her knowledge that fit this criterion, but there was indeed a creature that did: werewolves.

Werewolves typically only transform into their wolf form on full moon nights unless they are intentionally harming someone, so it would be quite normal for howls to occur only on those nights.

Secondly, Penelope had mentioned in her continuous explanation that there had been no howls from the Shrieking Shack in recent years. This could reasonably suggest that the possible werewolf had left the vicinity of Hogwarts.

As far as Lin Yue knew, there was only one werewolf wizard who had attended Hogwarts: Professor Remus Lupin, the current Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Thoughts flashed through her mind as her gaze quickly scanned the traces left on the outside of the Shrieking Shack. Claw marks, impact marks, bite marks... all sorts of traces pointed to the same possibility: werewolves.

Combining Professor Lupin's current age with the timeline of the strange howls from the Shrieking Shack, Lin Yue was almost certain that the so-called ghost in the Shrieking Shack back then was none other than Professor Lupin, who transformed into a werewolf once a month.

However, if it was only Professor Lupin, he wouldn't be able to leave the kind of traces that were currently on the outside of the Shrieking Shack. The impact marks clearly indicated they were left by a horned creature, and some of the claw marks were clearly not matching those of a werewolf.

So, there must have been more than just Professor Lupin visiting the Shrieking Shack frequently.

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What kind of people would Professor Lupin trust to stay with him while he transformed into a werewolf? Or rather, what kind of people would not mind being with Professor Lupin in his werewolf form?

The answer was almost obvious to Lin Yue. There were only two options: either professors or friends of Professor Lupin.

If that were the case, then the traces outside the Shrieking Shack could be easily explained. Whether they were professors or friends of Professor Lupin, they would have been in their Animagus forms while accompanying him.

This would effectively prevent the werewolf from harming them and avoid them being infected with wolf's bane.

A black paw suddenly flashed through her mind, and Lin Yue shook her head vigorously, trying to concentrate on recalling the fleeting image of that paw.

It was the paw of a large black dog she had seen in Diagon Alley, which belonged to Sirius Black in his Animagus form. However, she had only caught a brief glimpse at the time, so it was quite difficult for Lin Yue to recall it clearly now.

After shaking her head again, Lin Yue felt someone gently pressing on her temples and slowly massaging them.

Turning her head slightly, she saw Hermione, who was seriously massaging her temples, along with the three senior students who looked somewhat worried.

"Do you have a headache?"

Hermione said softly, her hands not pausing for a moment. Lin Yue even felt that with Hermione's massage, the image of the large black dog's paw, which had been vague in her mind, began to slowly clarify.

"No," Lin Yue shook her head with a blank expression, "I was just thinking about something, something I've somewhat forgotten."

"You actually forget things?" Cho Chang stepped forward and put her hat on Lin Yue, "If you can forget it, that means it's not important. It's okay not to think about it. Here, put on the hat, don't catch a cold."

Lin Yue was taken aback for a moment, then reached out to put the hat back on her, "I won't catch a cold. Cho Chang, you should wear it yourself."

Cho Chang wanted to say something else, but Hermione chuckled and shook her head, pulling a knitted hat out of her wizard robe pocket and putting it on Lin Yue.

"This is my hat. I saw you didn't have one on when you came out, so I took an extra one. Now you can use it."

Lin Yue felt the warmth coming from above her head, and she sensed that her heart was also warming up. A strange sense of relaxation and lightness emerged in her mind, and this time, her brain did not autonomously produce pain to overshadow this feeling.

The corners of her mouth slowly curled up, and Lin Yue's eyes and brows involuntarily softened. "Thank you, Hermione, thank you, Senior Cho Chang."

"You're welcome," Hermione and Cho Chang replied in unison. After answering, Hermione reached out and pinched Lin Yue's smiling cheek.

"Not bad, you're showing more and more smiles. You look so good when you smile; you should smile more!"

"Mm." Lin Yue responded with a slow nod.

At the same time, the previously vague images in her mind finally came into focus and were completely filled in. The paw of the large black dog slowly transformed from a flat image to a three-dimensional one in Lin Yue's mind, eventually overlapping with the paw prints outside the Shrieking Shack that did not belong to a werewolf.

The two sets of prints fit perfectly, with a discrepancy of no more than 0.5 centimeters. It could be concluded that, aside from Professor Lupin who transformed into a werewolf, the other paw prints left here belonged to Sirius Black.

Therefore, a previous judgment could be definitively concluded: the ones accompanying Professor Lupin in the Shrieking Shack were not the professor himself, but his friends, and Sirius Black was one of them.

They all transformed into their Animagus forms to accompany Professor Lupin during the full moon night when he became a werewolf. Among them, Sirius Black's Animagus form was a large black dog, and there was another unknown human form that was a horned animal.

As for whether there were any other people besides these two, the current information was too limited, and Lin Yue could no longer continue her deductions.

After their final stop at the Shrieking Shack, the five girls returned to Hogwarts together. By this time, the sky had begun to darken, and the temperature was gradually dropping.

Lin Yue's face showed no change in expression, but she could clearly feel that her head was now incredibly warm, much more comfortable than in the past.

It's really strange; she clearly shouldn't be afraid of the cold. Her mother once said that being afraid of the cold meant her willpower wasn't strong enough. If she were strong enough, she wouldn't fear the cold, so making her stand or kneel in the snow was not just to make her remember her mistakes. It was also to further train her.

Parents everywhere have a heart for their children, and they put in a lot of effort for Lin Yue's progress. So she should study hard to repay them. Lin Yue once firmly believed this, so even in winter, she never paid much attention to keeping warm. But now, she feels differently.

Wearing the knitted hat that Hermione gave her, with her right hand held by Hermione and tucked into the pocket of her wizarding robe, a warm sensation spread throughout her body. She could clearly feel that this was much more comfortable.

Perhaps she was destined not to become the strong-willed person her mother hoped for. But now, she could become the person Hermione hoped for, the person her friends hoped for, the person her professors hoped for. Healthy and happy, living according to her own ideas.

Returning to Hogwarts, she was greeted by a rich aroma of pumpkin. Walking into the Great Hall, she saw pumpkins made into various shapes everywhere. Sitting at the Ravenclaw table, the five girls who had played all afternoon and were already starving began to eat heartily in unison.

They didn't have to worry about table manners; being satisfied and happy while eating was their main focus at the moment. Meanwhile, at the Gryffindor table, Ron sat down with a big bag of candy he had bought for Harry.

"Here’s the candy for you..."

Ron struggled to lift the large bag of candy into Harry's arms, and the weight made Harry, who was sitting in a chair, sway a little.

"Merlin..." Looking at the huge bag of candy that blocked his view, Harry turned to the side and placed it on the ground.

"I can't believe you bought so much."

Harry exclaimed in surprise, watching Ron rub his arms beside him.

"You had given me a lot of money." Ron said, rubbing his arm, as if it were only natural.

Since Harry couldn't go to Hogsmeade, he had asked Ron to bring back candy, so all the money Harry gave had to be spent on candy, and it had to be spent completely.

With that in mind, Ron directly bought enough candy for Harry to last an entire semester.

"I suddenly feel like it doesn't matter whether I go to Hogsmeade or not."

Harry took a sip of pumpkin juice and then turned to Ron to talk about what he had seen and heard in Professor Lupin's office that day.

"Merlin's crystal bottle," Ron showed a slightly uncomfortable expression when he heard that Professor Lupin drank a potion made by Professor Snape that looked like sludge, "Isn't Professor Snape really going to poison him?"

After Hermione's firm correction, both he and Harry still referred to Professor Snape quite respectfully.

But what they thought in their hearts... that was another matter.

"Uh, to be honest, I thought the same thing at the time. I even wanted to remind him not to drink it, but he seemed completely unconcerned."

Harry took a bite of the pumpkin pie in front of him, "Maybe Professor Snape really meant well; it's just us two who think badly of him."

"After all, Professor Lupin does look quite frail, like someone who easily gets sick."

"Well, that explanation does make sense." Ron nodded, somewhat understanding Harry's point.

The Weasley twins, sitting not far away, exchanged glances; they had just learned from Harry's words that he couldn't go to Hogsmeade.

It must be because his aunt and uncle wouldn't sign for him.

"I think I've figured out what to get our little Harry for Christmas, Fred."

"I think you and I are on the same page, George."

"But would you really be willing to part with such a useful prank assistant?" Fred gently nudged George with his elbow.

"Are you saying you wouldn't be willing, Fred?"

George raised an eyebrow, looking at his twin brother who was pretending not to know.

"Giving it to someone else, of course, I might be reluctant." Fred smiled and waved the fork in his hand.

"But who told Harry to be Ron's best friend?"

"And he's a good kid too." George and Fred exchanged a glance and added another sentence.

"Then it's settled." The twins clapped their right hands together, deciding to give Harry a surprise before going to Hogsmeade on Christmas Day.