HP: The Duelist of Hogwarts - 472

Chapter 472: Urging

The sun sank beyond the horizon, and a round full moon slowly climbed into the sky.

Sean stood by the window and glanced outside, then turned to Snape in the laboratory.

“Professor, the full moon is about to rise. Let’s get ready.”

Snape nodded, turned towards Lupin, who was wearing only trousers, and flicked his wand. Tough restraint straps shot out from the bench behind them, wrapped around Lupin’s body, and yanked him onto the examination table, pinning him down. The force was so strong it drew a sharp cry of pain from Lupin.

“Oh, Severus, perhaps you could be a little gentler…”

Snape shot him a look and gave his wand a light twitch. The strap around Lupin’s neck tightened suddenly, strangling the rest of his sentence back down his throat.

Sean lifted a hand, and the strap at Lupin’s neck loosened slightly. Then Sean gestured again. The table slid to the window and tipped upright, positioning Lupin so he would see the full moon the instant it appeared.

“Sean, your wandless magic is getting more and more proficient,” Lupin said.

While preparing the injection, Sean answered, “Only for simple spells. Wandless casting will always be weaker than casting with a wand. That cannot be avoided.”

“Wandless magic has its limits, but I still think you should work harder on nonverbal casting. Do you thi…”

He did not finish.

A strand of moonlight spilled in from the full moon now risen into the sky. It passed through the window and fell into Lupin’s eyes, instantly triggering the werewolf virus inside him.

“Uh… ah…”

A low growl tore from his throat. Black fur erupted across his skin, and his face warped, stretching into a savage muzzle.

In the blink of an eye, Lupin completed the transformation. He thrashed against the restraints, trying to tear free, but these straps had been crafted by Sean through alchemy. No matter how he howled and struggled, he could not break them.

Staring at the werewolf snarling at him, Sean immediately said, “Professor, time it.”

Snape did not answer. He began timing at once.

At the same moment, Sean drove the needle into Lupin’s neck and pushed the potion in completely.

The potion was brutally forceful. The instant it entered Lupin’s body, his neck began to revert first, skin and shape snapping back into a human wizard’s form, and the change spread rapidly across him.

When the last traces of lycanthropy peeled away, Lupin stared at his own body in disbelief, then at the full moon outside the window. He did not know how long it had been since he had truly looked at a full moon, and he had almost forgotten what it felt like to face it with a human mind. Even agreeing to Sean’s experiment, he had never dared hope for anything like this.

Now he had his sanity, his human body, and the full moon shining right in front of him. A raw, honest shock rose from somewhere deep in his chest, turning into something so overwhelming it brought tears to his eyes. They slid silently down his cheeks.

“So this is the full moon…”

Sean snapped his fingers, and the restraints loosened.

Lupin stepped down from the table and turned to Sean. “The potion’s effect has not been confirmed yet. Isn’t it dangerous to release me?”

“With me here, it won’t be dangerous,” Sean said.

Lupin smiled faintly and nodded. “True. With you here, there really isn’t much to fear.”

He turned back to the window and looked up at the moon as it climbed higher, as if he could never get enough of it.

Minute by minute, time passed. A little over ten minutes later, Lupin let out a muffled grunt and hunched forward. The hands gripping the windowsill suddenly sprouted black fur and claws. Like the potion’s effect playing in reverse, his body rapidly returned to a werewolf’s shape.

“Se-Sean, quick, quick…”

He did not finish.

Sean stepped in and grabbed Lupin by the throat, pinning him back against the upright table. The straps on the table whipped out again and bound Lupin tight once more.

Holding the fully transformed Lupin’s jaws shut, Sean produced a bottle of Wolfsbane Potion and poured it into his mouth. Within moments, Lupin’s struggle faded and he fell into a heavy sleep.

Sean lowered the table back down and left Lupin there sleeping. He then walked over to Snape.

“Professor, how long?”

“Eleven minutes and twenty-three seconds,” Snape replied. “Within expectations.”

“Then our data is basically enough, right?”

Snape nodded. “For a stage paper, it’s enough. If you want to truly complete this potion, one Lupin is not enough.”

“Don’t worry, Professor. I’ve already thought about that,” Sean said. “Once I publish this stage paper, more werewolves will naturally become interested in my work. When that happens, finding more willing test subjects won’t be difficult.”

Lupin had already been cooperating with Sean’s experiments at Hogwarts for more than twenty days. This full-transformation trial was essentially the final test. The current stage of potion development was completely concluded, and this stage could be considered a success.

In fact, purely as a potion, Sean’s work was already a viable product. A potion that allowed a werewolf to sire a normal child within a limited time, even if currently restricted to male werewolves, was already astonishing. On top of that, it could forcibly restore a werewolf to human form for a short window, which would be a decisive weapon for the Ministry of Magic in dealing with werewolf unrest.

So Sean planned to make the invention and production of this potion his first official order after he became Minister for Magic.

As for publishing the paper, that could begin immediately.

“Professor, I’ll go write the paper. Leaving Professor Lupin here is fine, right?”

“I will stay here and watch him,” Snape said.

“Good. Thank you, Professor.”

“Go. And remember, once you’ve finished writing it, bring it to me first.”

“Of course, Professor.”

Snape watched Sean hurry out. He picked up a book and sat down in the laboratory chair.

But he did not open it straight away. Instead, he reached up and pressed a hand against the Dark Mark on his right arm.

The burning sensation was getting worse and worse. That meant Voldemort was urging him to act, and quickly.

Kill Sean.