It had been a long time since I last saw Sirius. Compared to the down-and-out look he had then, he at least looked clean and tidy now.
He was wearing a tough striped suit, and his hair had not been cut, but it could be seen that it had been trimmed.
However, he still looked so thin.
"Chicken!" he said in a hoarse voice as soon as he dropped the worn-out Daily Prophet on the floor of the cave.
Harry was stunned for a moment, and suddenly thought of something. He opened his school bag and handed over the package of chicken legs and bread.
"Thanks!"
Sirius said something, then eagerly opened the package, grabbed a chicken leg, sat down on the ground, and suddenly tore off a large piece of chicken.
Harry and the three looked at him strangely, because there was an inexplicable sense of confusion about him.
"What's wrong?" Sirius raised his head and looked at them, then looked down at his clothes, and then suddenly said, "Well... this is the Christmas gift McLean gave me last time."
He chewed the chicken leg in his mouth and continued vaguely: "He originally prepared some gold Galleons for me, but I didn't ask for it... But obviously, to maintain self-esteem, you have to pay a price - you may know, Rat The meat is really not chewy and they keep running around!”
He looked up at Harry and smiled heartily, but Harry only smiled reluctantly.
"Don't learn from me on this, Harry... I also know that my bad temper is not very good, but I'm afraid I won't be able to change it in this life."
It seems that even when he was laughing at himself, he did not forget to fulfill his godfather duties.
"What have you been doing lately, Sirius?" Harry couldn't help but ask.
"We'll talk about this later. McClane will also be here today." After Sirius said that, he continued to lower his head to eat his chicken legs and bread.
As soon as Blake finished speaking, Harry and Hermione's expressions darkened. They looked at each other, and then subconsciously moved their gazes elsewhere.
Normally, they would definitely call Maka. But now, whenever they see Maka, they feel very uncomfortable.
They unanimously did not tell Ron what happened in the maze that day. First, they don’t know what to say, after all, they don’t know many things themselves; second, they don’t want to say it, because they have been avoiding the topic as much as possible!
However, Maka did not keep them entangled for long.
After a while, Buckbeak suddenly raised his head and looked towards the entrance of the cave, and then screamed excitedly.
"Oh, are they all here already?"
Everyone quickly turned around and saw Maka standing there with a relaxed expression and smiling at them.
Hermione subconsciously looked behind Maka - fortunately, Miss Lovegood didn't seem to be coming with her, which at least would make her feel less upset.
Hermione was very scared now. She was worried that once she couldn't bear it anymore, she would drag Maka up and ask him "why" loudly without any reason.
As for "why"? She doesn't even know.
"Why are you staring at me?" Maka strolled to the deepest part of the cave, reached out and touched Buckbeak's neck, and took out a fresh ferret from her waist.
While feeding Buckbeak snacks, he said casually: "Sirius, I said I hired you to help me take care of Buckbeak, so why don't you just accept the gold Galleons? As for your own stomach... It’s not like I’m giving you money for nothing.”
Sirius said vaguely: "No, I should help you take care of it. You have saved my life! If I take your money again, then I might as well give this life back to you first... Let me talk first. Well, don’t worry, I always don’t have enough to eat, but I’ve never let your Hippogriff starve!”
"In that case, I will give you a clear path today..." Maka turned around and said with a smile, "The ferrets used for feed are much more delicious than mice. In order to make them fatter and bigger, the breeding farms , generally don’t let them have too much exercise. From now on, I will leave Buckbeak’s food money, and you and he will eat ferrets together, how about it?”
When Blake heard this, he felt really moved for some reason.
"How can Sirius and Buckbeak eat the same thing-" Ron said in surprise.
"Shut up, Ron!" Hermione interrupted immediately, "What do you know! Ferrets are much more expensive than drumstick bread..."
"It's just a joke," Maka waved her hand, "It's time to get down to business... Sirius, Dumbledore and I discussed it and decided to temporarily terminate the plan."
"Why did it end so suddenly?" Sirius swallowed the chicken drumstick in his mouth and asked with his mouth full of oil, "Didn't the plan go smoothly?"
Maka put away her smile, slowly shook her head and said: "The specific situation is very different from my expectation. If it continues, there may be very big changes. The details have not been determined yet. So I won’t say it for now, but at least one thing is for sure—”
He paused and then said seriously: "Voldemort is most likely no longer our biggest enemy."
Maka's words were like a biting cold wind, quietly blowing through the cave, making everyone fall silent.
Voldemort is not even the biggest enemy, so how terrible is the real enemy
For a long time, Maca's calm attitude and omnipotent performance have already won the trust of several people present.
If others said this, everyone would probably disagree, even the experienced Sirius Black would sneer at it.
But now, when these words come out of Maka's mouth, everyone has to think more carefully in their hearts.
"Maka, you mean... that person who must not even be named... has come back?" Ron asked belatedly.
"The Dark Mark has appeared twice, what do you think?" Hermione glared at him and said speechlessly.
Seeing everyone's gloomy expressions, Maka showed her previous relaxed expression again and said with a smile: "Although it is right to be careful, don't worry too much, but don't forget, there are still Dumbledore is here!"
Rather than finding a solution on your own, it would be easier to make these people feel at ease by moving Dumbledore out. Although at the moment, Dumbledore has simply left all the problems to him to figure out.
"...Maybe Dumbledore plans to train me to be his successor!" Maka thought gloomily.
"Then...are you here this time just to inform me about the termination of the plan?" Sirius gnawed on the chicken leg again. As he ate, he continued to ask, "Or do you have other things you want to talk about?" Did it for me?"
Maka shook her head and said: "There are indeed some things, but this time it's not that complicated. I have to meet two people in a while. Before that, you first-"
Having said this, he subconsciously looked at Harry and the three of them, and then changed the subject.
"Harry, Hermione, Ron, there are some things I can't tell you yet... If you trust me, can you please step aside for a while?" He said sincerely, "I don't want to use other reasons to deceive you... maybe I would have done that without hesitation before, but now I just want to tell the truth and I believe you can understand me."
"Uh - of course, if you say so." Harry nodded immediately and walked out first.
Hermione hesitated for a moment, then silently pulled Ron out with him, who looked reluctant.
"What's so mysterious that even Harry and the others can't know about it?" Sirius asked curiously, "But if you ask me, you might as well lie to them! At least your level of deception is much higher than the average person..."
"Hey - it's nothing actually, it's just not suitable for them to see." Maka took out her wand and waved it, and a stretcher carrying people appeared next to him.
"This is... Barty Crouch Jr.?" Sirius looked at the man on the stretcher and said in surprise, "Didn't he die in Azkaban?"
"Death is dead, but it's just a recent thing." Maka waved the wand again, and the stretcher carried the body of Barty Crouch Jr. to the side of the cave, and cast a disembodiment spell to cover him up again. got up.
"This was originally part of the original plan. I wanted to use his death to test Voldemort. Now that the plan has been terminated, he will be temporarily useless... Please help me return him to his father!" Maka said with a complex expression, "Although little Barty died innocently, after all..."
He shook his head and continued: "His father is most likely trapped at home by him. You should go and rescue his father by the way! Tell him that everything is not over yet, and things cannot be exposed too early - just If Dumbledore said it, he should do it."
"...Did you do it?" Sirius couldn't help but ask.
"Even if it's not, it's almost the same. Aren't I the one running the whole plan?" Maka sighed, "Don't ask this kind of question again, it's meaningless."
"You look like you have killed many people..." Sirius said helplessly, "It's easy to ignore your age when I'm with you... To be honest, this is your first time... right?"
He cautiously made a gesture of wiping his neck. It could be seen that he was still a little worried about Maka's mental condition. After all, no one really cares about doing this kind of thing.
However, Maka just waved her hand, as if she didn't want to continue the topic.
There was silence in the cave for a while, and finally Maka took the initiative to break the dull atmosphere.
"Anyway, please help me go to Crouch's house. I'm not suitable to go there in person..." He hesitated and said, "You know."
"Hmph..." Sirius said disapprovingly, "Poor Crouch... If I look at it, he can only blame himself... Can you tell me how little Barty died?"