Chapter 251 The Beginning Of The New Semester
Dumbledore instructed Snape to meet Sirius, seemingly to create an opportunity for the two to reconcile and ease their tense relationship.
In the eyes of others, there seemed to be nothing that couldn't be resolved between the two men, except for a few unpleasant memories from their student days.
But the level of mutual disgust was beyond everyone's imagination.
Snape appeared to transfer all his hatred from Harry's father, James, to Sirius, just as Sirius, who inherited his friend James's animosity towards his counterpart.
They couldn't see eye to eye and wished they could strike each other on the spot.
The hope for them to make amends was merely a dream. Dumbledore's effort was entirely in vain and even backfired against him.
"Pug?!" Sirius raised his wand and snarled loudly. "That's truly interesting. Which of us resembles more a dog running? Me or you, waiting for your old master Voldemort to return, so you could serve him again?
"Shut up, don't mention that name in front of me," Snape said with a smirk, raising his wand.
The two were on the verge of a duel, and Harry, who was closer to them, hurried to stand between them.
"No, Sirius," yelled Harry.
"Step aside, Harry. Do you think I'm a coward?" roared Sirius, trying to push Harry away, but Harry stood his ground.
"Well, I suppose you are," Snape remarked sarcastically.
"Harry, get out of here!" Sirius growled, pushing him out of the way with his free hand.
As Harry stepped back, the tip of his wand glowed with a dense red light shooting directly towards Snape.
Snape was prepared. He backed off and flicked his wand to dispel Sirius's curse. A bright green spark flew past, and a nearby branch transformed into a snake. It hissed and slithered towards Sirius.
Sirius didn't back down, waving his wand vigorously and casting three spells.
One of them struck the enormous snake approaching him, making it vanish in smoke. That left two curses speeding towards Snape.
Snape took a step back and quickly recited a spell.
In the nick of time, a pale white barrier appeared in front of him, blocking Sirius's attacks.
The sudden duel left everyone stunned.
Evan paused for a moment, hastily drew his wand, and dashed to intervene.
Seeing Evan rushing, Sirius and Snape didn't launch another attack. They panted and eyed each other with extreme contempt on their faces.
"Stop, you're both crazy!" yelled Evan. "Sirius, this is Hogwarts, if other students see this..."
"I don't care!" roared Sirius.
"I don't have time to play with a rabid dog." Evan's words seemed to bring back a sense of reason to Snape. He couldn't allow other students to see his emotions.
Snape looked terribly gloomy and disgusted with Sirius, he sheathed his wand, turned around, and headed towards the school castle.
He was gone. Sirius stared at him, wand by his side.
As Snape's figure completely disappeared, cheers erupted in the crowd.
"Fantastic, we've wished to do this for so long, to teach Snape a lesson!" excitedly exclaimed Fred and George, approaching to pat Sirius on the back.
"I can't believe it. What did I just see? We don't have to fear this old bat! You defeated him, Sirius, fiercely," Ron recovered from the shock and became excited.
"This is not a game, Ron!" Hermione was serious. She and Ginny looked very frightened. "Sirius, you got carried away, you shouldn't have attacked Snape. This could get you into trouble."
"I'm not afraid of any trouble," said Sirius, panting as if he had just run a long distance.
"But you're a teacher at the school, I mean..."
"Relax, Hermione, no one will find out about this, it will just be a little talk about the past between two former classmates," Sirius waved his hand and indicated to Hermione not to worry.
The brief fight that unexpectedly occurred seemed to indicate what would happen in the second half of that year.
With the tension between Sirius and Snape, that battle was not the first, and certainly not going to be the last.
There was no doubt that all Gryffindor students would support Sirius, while Snape was the head of Slytherin House.
If such a battle were to occur again, it should be more than just a showdown between two men.
Evan could imagine that the next semester would be very exciting.
As Sirius had said, apart from Evan, Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys, no one else knew about this little confrontation at the school gate.
Twenty minutes later, at the castle gate, Evan and the others parted ways with Sirius, who headed to Dumbledore's office, while the rest returned to the Gryffindor Common Room.
In the hallways were the young wizards who had returned to school a few days earlier. Upon seeing Evan, many of them greeted him enthusiastically, except for the Slytherin House students, who remained indifferent.
Indeed, the attitude of others was much more enthusiastic than before.
Even many girls hurried over to Evan and Harry to get their autographs.
Evan could sense that after the incident with Sirius was widely publicized by the media, he and Harry as direct participants had a greater reputation at school than before.
When Evan returned to the Gryffindor Tower and found the portrait in the Common Room, the Fat Lady had returned and greeted him with enthusiasm.
Hardly had he entered when thunderous applause erupted in the Common Room.
The Gryffindor students hurried over. They surrounded Evan, Harry, Hermione, and Ron in the center and asked them about things related to Professor Lupin, Sirius, and Pettigrew.
Though everyone knew about the incident through the newspapers, it was still thrilling to hear it from those who experienced it firsthand.
They talked together for a long time, and Evan seized the opportunity to dash to his room.
The room was exactly the same as when he left it a few days before, and the house-elves had already tidied up his luggage and bed.
Behind him entered Colin.
"Evan, did you have a pleasant Christmas holiday?" he smiled and inquired, settling on his bed.
"Not too bad, many things happened, but in the end, everything turned out well!" Evan collapsed onto his bed.
Indeed, many things had taken place: searching for Regulus in a cave full of Inferi, encountering a mysterious vampire girl, and the bustling preparations for the shop's opening. Evan had never been so exhausted in his life. Fortunately, the subsequent events continued to improve, and everything was unfolding in the right direction.
"I saw the reports of all the incidents in the newspaper and the happenings in your shop," Colin continued, "I was going to cheer you up yesterday and get Sirius' autograph. My brother and I admired him greatly after learning his story. But my father thought it was too risky and refused to take me to Diagon Alley."
His face was filled with regret, and considering what Evan knew about Colin, he understood how much he admired heroes like Sirius and Harry.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been snapping photos of Harry for an entire year last year. Even now, he would be ecstatic every time Harry spoke to him.
"Don't worry, you can always ask Sirius for an autograph and snap a few photos. By the way..." Evan turned around and addressed Colin. "I forgot to tell you, Sirius has promised the headmaster to become the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."