When the Gryffindor common room was in chaos again, Maka, who was rushing back from the "Snow Witch", had just entered the secret passage leading to the Whomping Willow.
But when he was holding the vial containing the light-condensing sand and walking halfway through the journey with his head lowered, a black figure suddenly appeared in his sight.
Maka was suddenly thrown to the ground by the black shadow, and the bottle in her hand fell to the ground, rolling all the way to the corner of the stone wall of the secret passage.
Fortunately, the potion bottle was quite strong. Not only was it not broken, but the light-condensing sand inside shone brightly due to the violent collision.
This time Maka saw clearly that the person stepping on him was none other than Sirius Black in Animagus form—the thin but rather large black dog.
Maka immediately struggled to pull out her wand, but was swatted away by Black's paw, who had been staring at him closely.
"Who are you! Why are you here?" Maka pretended to be panicked. He kept struggling, but the black dog was so strong that he couldn't move.
At this time, the black dog looked back - he was looking in the direction of Hogwarts Castle.
Suddenly, Maka's mind quickly analyzed the current situation.
To be honest, this encounter with Blake in the secret passage was beyond Maka's expectations, but it was also within his control.
During this time, Maka always used this secret passage when going back and forth to Hogwarts. In fact, he has been wondering whether he and Blake will "encounter" by chance here
But no matter what, as long as you meet Blake here, the other person must have done something or wanted to do something.
At this moment, Blake was running out in a hurry. It was obvious that he had finished his work - and there was no gain.
He was thinking about it, but unexpectedly the other party was so impatient that he bit Maka's collar and dragged him outside.
Maka glanced at the wand that was getting farther and farther away from him, but she didn't put up much resistance and allowed Black to drag him quickly away from the way he came.
He stared motionless at the top wall of the secret passage, like a child who was frightened by the situation just now.
Black dragged him all the way to the Shrieking Shack, and immediately, the other person returned to his human form.
"Lumos," Blake croaked.
The last time it was too dark in the forest, Maka couldn't see it clearly, but this time he could see it clearly.
This is a tall man with black hair and gray eyes, but his long-term prison life has made him look quite thin, and his hair has long been messy and tangled.
A beard seemed to have been burned by fire, curling up against his dirty face. If he went to Hollywood to play a homeless man living on the streets, he wouldn't even need makeup.
Maka also noticed that the wand in his hand had also been changed, and it was not the original one.
"Sirius Black!" Maka tried to widen her eyes, pretending to be terrified.
"Stop pretending," Black snorted impatiently. "With your acting skills, you can fool children."
Maka was really surprised this time. What did he know
Fortunately, Blake's next words made him secretly relieved.
"McLean, you are Harry's friend, I know this." He frowned and said quickly, "I don't care how you found this secret passage, but now that you have seen me... I definitely can't Let you go back...at least not for the time being."
He just came close to saying the classic line "You will ruin my good deeds" that is exclusive to villains.
It has to be said that Black, who spent a full 12 years in Azkaban, blames himself all the time for what happened back then. During the summer vacation at the end of last semester, Ron's father won the annual award from the Daily Prophet and traveled to Egypt for a month.
What’s even more coincidental is that the innocent rat named Banban was captured in the photo and made the news in the Daily Prophet!
In this way, the filming of the mad dog hunting the mangy mouse officially started this year...
Blake is a man with hidden pride. He is willing to blame himself for the death of his good buddies and his wife, and he is also willing to kill the real murderer by himself.
For this reason, he even did not hesitate to bear all the infamy - he didn't care!
At this moment, Blake's arrogance to the point of arrogance showed up again. He stretched out his wand and pointed at Maka, as if he was about to cast a movement-restricting spell in the next second.
"You don't want Harry to always think that his godfather is a murderer, right?" Maka stared into his eyes and suddenly asked.
Blake's hand holding the wand trembled slightly, but he stabilized immediately.
"So what! I just want to bite that damn rat to death!" Black's eyes flashed with madness, and he shouted loudly, "Petrify them all!"
This damn lunatic!
Maka immediately rolled to the side, and a cloud of dust flew up.
"Is there nothing else in your mind except hatred and self-blame?" After realizing that he had not been hit, he immediately continued, "Think of your godson! Think of Harry! He has lost his It’s been 13 years since my parents!”
Blake's movements stiffened, and a tangled look appeared on his face.
Maka took the opportunity to turn over, regardless of the dust all over her body, and struck while the iron was hot: "Don't you think you should fulfill your duty as a godfather? You should know that his aunt's family doesn't treat him at all. OK—what he needs now is a relative who loves him and cares about him!"
Having said this, Maka stood up and walked up to Blake without hesitation.
"Besides, what's the point of catching Peter? Killing him means taking revenge for Uncle Potter and-" Maka paused suddenly, then continued, "... and Aunt Lily?"
It's so embarrassing, I almost didn't remember what Harry's mother's name was...
Fortunately, Blake didn't notice this. He glared at Maka and yelled angrily: "It's revenge! Revenge! Peter betrayed us, betrayed the Potters! You won't understand—"
At this moment, Maka grabbed Black's dirty collar and said equally loudly: "Then Voldemort is nothing! You should tell me!"
"Voldemort? Isn't he dead?" Black was stunned.
"Have you underestimated Voldemort too much?" Maka felt that she should write a book titled "How to Soothe a Mad Dog."
He pushed Blake gently and loosened his collar - he didn't want to continue to feel that slippery touch.
"Let me put it this way, it is only a matter of time before Voldemort returns." Maka said calmly, "In fact, he had already appeared once as early as the year Harry and I entered school..."
Maka briefly talked about what happened at the end of first grade, and Blake's expression became much gloomier.
"I'm sorry, it's true that I was too impulsive -" he frowned, but stopped mid-sentence, "Wait! Why do you know that Peter -"
"The average lifespan of a rat is 1 to 3 years, what do you think?" Maka waved her hand casually and said, "Besides, the pseudonyms on your Marauder's Map were too careless, so please pay more attention. Isn’t your kung fu good?”
Blake blinked in embarrassment.
"Then..." He thought for a while and then said, "Do you really think that the traitor back then was not me, but Peter?"
Maka nodded and said: "At least that's what I inferred, and I have no doubts about the magic theory I have mastered... Huh? Did you eavesdrop on the conversation between me and the professors in the Three Broomsticks?"
The self-directed and self-acted show obviously paid off well. After all, from Blake's perspective, what Maka said that day were all "true thoughts" revealed "unintentionally".
Judging from Blake's current situation, it is really not easy to have an ally - he will definitely not miss it.
"Then can you do me a favor?"
Sure enough, Blake spoke.
But I'm afraid he can't change his old habit of being conceited - he just asked Maca to help him pay attention to Peter Pettigrew's movements and find an opportunity to tell him, that's all.
To be honest, this is not what Maka wants. From Maka's point of view, this is really unsafe.
Fortunately, Maca's main purpose is not here. What's more, does he need to notify Black in advance of what he is going to do
"Uncle Blake, there is one more thing I have to ask you..." Maka came close to Blake and whispered.
…
That night, no one in Gryffindor Tower in Hogwarts Castle slept.
Everyone knew that the castle had been raided again, and the entire Gryffindor house was waiting in the common room to hear if Black had been caught.
At dawn, Professor McGonagall returned and told everyone that Black had escaped again.
The next day, wherever they went, they saw increased security.
Professor Flitwick was holding a large picture of Black and teaching everyone who was guarding the front door how to identify it; Filch was suddenly running up and down the corridor, boarding up everything from small cracks in the wall to rat holes.
And Sir Cadogan, whose brain was full of oil and glue, was sacked - his portrait was returned to the lonely landing on the eighth floor.
Then, the Fat Lady came back.
They professionally restored the Fat Lady, but she was still extremely nervous. Her return to work was conditional - she demanded that she be given extra protection.
Somehow the professor decided to hire a group of rude and rude dwarfs to protect her. They walked menacingly through the corridors, mumbled, and compared the size of the sticks in their hands.
Harry accidentally noticed that the statue of the one-eyed witch on the fourth floor was still unguarded and unsealed.
Fred and George - and now, of course, Harry, Ron and Hermione - thought they were the only ones who knew there was a secret passage inside the statue, and that seemed to be true for now at least.
"Who do you think we should tell?" Harry asked Ron.
"We know he's not from Honeydukes," Ron said nonchalantly. "If anyone breaks into that shop, we'll hear about it."