HP: Beyond Miracle

"What use is studying a Boggart?"

Dawn's merciless criticism echoed throughout the office.

He even went so far as to imply Lupin was little more than a salary thief, words sharp enough to make anyone frown.

Yet...

Lupin, who had spent years wandering from place to place and enduring one hardship after another, showed no anger.

Looking at Dawn's youthful face, he even managed a faint smile.

"Mr. Richter, you're a Hogwarts student as well, aren't you? I'm sorry. This is my first time teaching.

If there's anything I'm doing wrong, please tell me directly. I'll do my best to improve."

His voice was gentle.

His attitude was sincere.

Dawn, however, wasn't moved in the slightest.

Instead, he frowned in open disgust.

"Don't speak to me in that tone."

His face remained expressionless as he looked at the werewolf, who still hadn't fully recognized who he was.

With a cold smile, he slammed the cabinet shut.

"Professor, don't you think this is an incredible waste of time? Teaching students how to deal with Boggarts?"

He scoffed.

"When they face a Dark wizard someday, are they supposed to pull out their wands and cast Riddikulus to save themselves?"

The hostility in his words was unmistakable.

Lupin had accepted the teaching position with very little confidence to begin with. Faced with such relentless criticism, he hesitated.

"But... the textbook..."

"The textbook?"

Dawn interrupted immediately.

His eyes landed on the cover lying atop the desk.

[Defensive Magical Theory]

His expression darkened even further.

"Wasn't this outdated textbook discarded last year?

Professor Lupin, why aren't you learning from Professor Hickman's advanced teaching methods instead of dragging education backward?"

The disappointment on his face was almost painful to watch, as though he'd just seen someone throw away the banana and proudly eat the peel.

Beside them, Dumbledore's eyelids twitched.

Watching Dawn praise his own former teaching without the slightest trace of embarrassment, the Headmaster once again found himself astonished by the boy's astonishing lack of shame.

Lupin, meanwhile, finally frowned.

Not because of Dawn's attitude.

But because the conversation had turned to the textbook.

He had looked into last year's curriculum himself.

"Mr. Richter," Lupin said calmly, "magic is a part of our lives. It exists to create something better."

"Bloodshed and violence are not ideas that should be planted in the minds of young witches and wizards."

He genuinely wanted to correct the boy's way of thinking.

Dawn merely laughed.

"Really?"

"I think that if you asked the students who died last year... They certainly wouldn't choose the same answer you just gave."

He shook his head in obvious disappointment.

"What a shame, Professor Lupin.

I thought someone who had witnessed the darkness of the wizarding world firsthand would understand my point of view.

But it seems you're still clinging to childish ideals."

As he spoke, Dawn couldn't help glancing toward Dumbledore.

He suddenly remembered his own brief career as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor the previous year.

Blind old fool.

Because of that foolish decision, Hogwarts had missed the greatest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in its entire history.

Dawn couldn't help feeling sorry for the students.

Then...

His expression changed.

He suddenly realized... He had just empathized with Voldemort.

Back then, when Tom Riddle had been denied the teaching position, hadn't he reacted almost exactly the same way?

"...Fuck."

For a moment, Dawn's face twisted with disgust. The realization left him feeling as though he'd swallowed a fly.

Dumbledore, meanwhile, looked puzzled.

"My boy, are you feeling unwell?"

"...No, Headmaster."

"I'm perfectly fine."

Dawn immediately forced the nauseating thought out of his mind and answered with a blank expression.

At that moment...

Lupin finally connected Dawn's face and attitude with the newspaper reports.

Recognition dawned across his features, quickly followed by seriousness.

He turned toward Dumbledore, clearly intending to ask a question.

Before he could speak, Dawn waved him silent.

"Forget it, Professor Lupin.

Your teaching philosophy may only produce weaker students, but that's not what concerns me today."

He reached into his wallet and pulled out a rolled-up parchment map.

Holding it open for Lupin to see, he said,

"I came here to ask about this."

Copying memories was certainly convenient. But it couldn't tell him how the people involved had actually felt.

For that reason, he still wanted to ask personally.

"The Marauder's Map?" Lupin's eyes widened in surprise. "So it's in your possession now."

He stared at the parchment.

Nostalgia filled his eyes.

Moments later, that nostalgia became sorrow. Almost instinctively, he reached out to take the map.

Only after Dawn pulled it away did Lupin recover himself.

"So... Mr. Richter. What would you like to know?"

"How it was made." Dawn fixed him with a bright, unwavering gaze. "I want to know exactly how this map was created."

The method?

Lupin didn't answer immediately.

He didn't consider it some great secret, but he still looked toward Dumbledore first.

Only after the Headmaster nodded did he begin speaking.

"The Marauder's Map was created during our fifth year.

My friends and I worked on it together.

It contains every secret passage we discovered over five years of exploring the castle."

"Skip all that."

After listening for only a few moments, Dawn interrupted again.

"The magic. I only want to know what spells you used."

Lupin blinked at the abrupt interruption but answered calmly. "We used two forms of contract magic."

"The Tracking Charm. And the Human Presence Revealing Charm."

He explained,

"Potter... one of my friends... found them in his family's collection.

If they're cast upon a location, they'll identify and display the names of everyone who enters."

As he spoke James Potter's name, Lupin's expression dimmed.

Perhaps because those memories had been so wonderful...

Every time he woke from reminiscing about the Marauders, he was forced to remember how completely the group had fallen apart.

"Lupin. There is something I should probably tell you."

Seeing the melancholy on the werewolf's face, Dumbledore sighed.

"Sirius is innocent.

The one who betrayed James and Lily Potter... And the one responsible for blowing up the Muggle street... Was Peter Pettigrew."

"...What?"

Lupin froze.

He whipped around so suddenly that he nearly knocked over the chair. "Headmaster... What did you just say?"

"Sirius is innocent. He never betrayed his friends."

Dumbledore repeated the words firmly, his expression solemn.

Lupin's eyes widened.

He grabbed the edge of the desk to steady himself. The revelation echoed endlessly in his mind.

Disbelief.

Joy.

Regret.

Every emotion imaginable surged together.

When he finally found his voice, he asked hurriedly, "Then... Sirius..."

"I've already captured Peter. I've handed him over to the International Confederation of Wizards.

I believe Sirius will be officially exonerated before long."

Dumbledore spoke with quiet certainty.

"I... I see..."

The tightness that had lived in Lupin's face for years seemed to melt away.

He murmured repeatedly beneath his breath, "That's wonderful... That's truly wonderful..."

Although Peter had once been one of the Marauders as well... It was obvious where Lupin's heart truly lay.

He lowered his head.

Lost in memories of happier school days.

A faint glimmer of tears appeared at the corners of his eyes.

After calling his name several times without receiving a response, Dawn clicked his tongue.

Rather than waste more time, he quietly memorized Lupin's special trait pattern.

Only after he had committed most of it to memory did Lupin finally regain his composure.

He rubbed his forehead apologetically.

"I'm sorry. I lost myself for a moment."

Taking a deep breath, he continued, "Mr. Richter, I have something important I need to do shortly. Do you have any other questions?"

Dawn could clearly see the urgency in Lupin's eyes.

His own time was equally valuable.

So he continued. "What are the incantations for those two contract spells?"

"I'm afraid I don't know." Lupin met his gaze honestly. "Potter handled that part himself."

"They were family spells. We never asked about them."

"I see."

Dawn nodded thoughtfully.

"There were four of you. Why did you only make one map instead of each having your own?"

"We tried... But we failed." Lupin answered immediately.

"We followed exactly the same steps.

As far as we could tell.

But for some reason... Only the very first map ever possessed those remarkable properties."

Dawn raised an eyebrow.

That definitely sounded suspicious.

He considered the matter before asking another question. "Where exactly was the map created?"

Perhaps its mysteries weren't solely the result of magic.

Perhaps the location itself had also played a role.

"In the Gryffindor common room."

Lupin answered without hesitation.

"Everything that could be done there—drawing the map, casting the spells—we completed inside the common room."

The Gryffindor common room...

Dawn pictured the room with its warm crimson furnishings.

He had visited it plenty of times during the previous school year. He'd never noticed anything unusual there.

"That's everything?"

He lowered his eyes toward the magical pathways etched into the Marauder's Map.

"Aside from the spells... None of you carved any runes into it?"

"...Runes?" Lupin looked genuinely bewildered. "Of course not. None of the four of us ever even took Ancient Runes."

"Is that so?"

Dawn rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Now that's interesting."

If the runes weren't carved by the Marauders... Then how had they appeared on the map?

Thoughts raced through his mind.

The Marauders' inability to reproduce the map seemed to support the idea that something else had participated in its original creation.

The Castle Consciousness, perhaps?

Had it drawn upon natural magic... And inscribed those runes itself?

"Interesting."

After a long silence, Dawn couldn't help marveling once again at how many secrets the magical world concealed.

He asked Lupin several more questions.

When it became clear the professor truly knew nothing else, he finally gave up.

"That'll do."

Dawn sighed.

Seeing no further value in continuing, he nodded politely. "Thank you for your time, Professor Lupin."

With that, he turned and left.

Outside...

The afternoon sun had already begun its descent.

Soft orange light spilled through the windows, settling quietly across Dawn's thoughtful face as he leaned against the stone frame.

What a complete waste of a day.

He scratched his head.

Of the four goals he'd set for himself... His search for information about Merlin had accomplished nothing.

His investigation into the Marauder's Map had likewise ended in failure.

As for Newt...

If Dumbledore had been telling the truth, the famous magizoologist was currently assisting the International Confederation of Wizards and wouldn't be easy to locate anytime soon.

"...Forget it."

"I'll head home."

After standing in the sunlight for a while, Dawn glanced at the Headmaster, who still hadn't left his side.

Thinking back to the library's disappointing collection, he no longer felt any desire to remain at Hogwarts.

Before leaving, however, he made one final round of the castle.

He visited several other professors and secretly memorized each of their special trait patterns, intending to extract and preserve all of their memories later.

Naturally...

His presence caused another wave of chaos throughout the castle.

Only after finishing everything did Dawn leave without even saying goodbye to Dumbledore.

Flames enveloped him.

He vanished.

His destination was Luxor, Egypt.

Still irritated by the day's failures, he captured several more wizards as sacrifices.

Using them, he produced five crystal vials containing the professors' memories.

After cleaning up the scene, he returned to the Vatican.

Pop!

Flames burst into existence.

Outside his hidden base, beside the mailbox that remained outside the protection of the Fidelius Charm, Dawn noticed a single letter waiting inside.

He took it out and opened it.

As expected...

It was from Fudge.

The Minister informed him that preparations for the magical presentation had been completed.

However...

If they truly wanted to attract enough influential figures, as Dawn had requested, they would first need genuine results to generate publicity beforehand.

After a moment's thought, Dawn agreed.

He wrote down the two spells he had created earlier onto a fresh sheet of parchment and sent it back by owl.

Only then did he return to his cabin.

Everything looked exactly as he had left it.

Dawn placed several crystal memory vials across his desk.

The first one he picked up contained Lupin's memories. He wanted to review the creation of the Marauder's Map.

Scene after scene flowed into his mind.

The four young Marauders enthusiastically discussed their ideas.

They explored the castle.

They drew the map.

Then they enchanted it.

Just as Lupin had said, James Potter performed most of the spellcasting himself.

The memories revealed none of the actual incantations.

Afterward, Dawn found the memories of their failed attempts to duplicate the map.

He replayed them several times.

Nothing seemed out of place.

"Next time I run into Sirius Black... I'll copy his memories as well.vMaybe comparing the two will reveal something."

Shaking his head, he set Lupin's memory aside.

Then he picked up Dumbledore's.

This time, he focused specifically on memories involving Merlin and Newt Scamander.

He discovered that Dumbledore had indeed been curious about Merlin during his youth.

But after meeting Grindelwald—and later becoming obsessed with the Deathly Hallows—that curiosity had faded.

He had never investigated Merlin very deeply.

"So that's it.

You really were bluffing back in the library. You only wanted to pry information out of me.

What a crafty old man."

Dawn snorted.

Even so, he continued watching.

Soon enough... Scenes involving Newt surfaced.

To his surprise...

Dumbledore had actually been telling the truth.

Newt's whereabouts during recent weeks were genuinely unknown. Even Dumbledore wasn't sure where he was.

Fortunately... Dawn wasn't worried.

Now that he had openly expressed his desire to meet Newt, whether out of caution or curiosity, Dumbledore would almost certainly contact him in secret.

In a few days...

Dawn only needed to visit the Headmaster again.

A fresh copy of Dumbledore's memories would almost certainly reveal Newt's location.

"But overall... Today really was a complete failure."

Leaning back in his chair with both hands behind his head, Dawn sighed.

Fortunately...

After spending the entire day chasing answers, his overwhelming curiosity about Merlin had finally begun to fade.

At last...

He could calm himself again.

"Time to continue researching the special trait patterns."

Suppressing the countless thoughts swirling through his mind, Dawn picked up his quill.

On a fresh sheet of parchment, he sketched an abstract pattern resembling the tangled roots of a great tree.

After repeatedly copying people and extracting their memories, he had finally identified this pattern.

It represented memory itself.

Moreover...

The greater a person's experiences and memories, the more branches those roots possessed.

"But... Every wizard's memories are unique. So why are the trait patterns representing memory all so similar?"

He rested his chin on one hand.

"Could there be other patterns influencing them as well?"

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