"Good morning, Sirius... It's great to see you open your eyes and look at me on your own."
On the second floor of the cabin on the Hudson River, when Abigail walked into the room after returning from sending a letter, Sirius was very surprised to see Maka.
"Oh - I think so too." Sirius leaned on the bed and said with a wry smile.
Maka came to the bedside with a smile and hugged Sirius happily - in fact, Maka had never been used to this kind of overly enthusiastic meeting etiquette, but this time it was different.
If something went wrong, he might not be able to see Sirius alive.
"Let's not talk about old times for now. Let me check your physical condition for you..." Maka loosened her arms and let Sirius lean on the raised pillow again, and then immediately said, "To be honest, you don't look like you." good."
However, his movement was stopped by Sirius.
"No, don't worry, I have more important information to tell you -" Sirius said seriously, "Originally, if you didn't come to New York, I would have done it myself. But now that you are here, I think this matter must be handed over to you. It would be more appropriate for you to trace it."
"Huh?" Maka paused after hearing this, "What information?"
Sirius was about to say something, but when he opened his mouth, he subconsciously glanced at Abigail and Olivia who were standing aside.
"Sorry," he thought for a while, "the topic we are going to talk about is not interesting. If you don't want to know some dangerous information, well... it's best to avoid it."
Just hearing what Sirius said, the two sisters were naturally confused. Especially Olivia, who was looking at Sirius with a blank expression at the moment, as if she didn't realize what the "dangerous information" he meant.
Of course, in fact, she was not curious at first, because after being confused for a while, she naturally began to look at Maka, and seemed to be very interested in this new young wizard.
On the other hand, Abigail on the side thought about it carefully, and then also set her sights on Maka.
"Mr. McClain..." Abigail suddenly called Maka, the expression on her face looked quite solemn.
"Well, what's wrong?" Maka gave her a polite smile.
"Can I learn magic from you?" She asked seriously, "Even if I just ask you some questions regularly through letters!"
"Well… "
Maka looked at Sirius who was lying on the bed and the latter smiled and shrugged.
"If it's just a letter exchange," he looked at Abigail and said, "because I am still a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for now - as you may know, the British wizarding world is not very stable recently."
"Ah!" Abigail couldn't help but widen her eyes when she heard this, "Professor of Hogwarts? I, I thought-"
"...Think I'm a dark wizard?" Maka said with a smile.
"No, that's not what I meant." Abigail waved her hands quickly and said, "Although I have thought so before, the misunderstanding has been resolved, hasn't it? What I want to say is, I thought you must be older than me It’s so small…”
Maka nodded calmly and said: "You are right - if it weren't for many accidents, I should still be attending Hogwarts now!"
"Eh?" Abigail was stunned for a moment.
"Can you still call that an 'accident'?" Sirius leaned on the pillow and glanced at Maka.
"Ahem, anyway -" Maka spread her hands and said, "If you encounter any questions about magic research, you can write to me at any time, and I will reply to you as soon as possible. Well, but you'd better Don’t expect too much about the speed of reply. After all, I haven’t really been able to live well during this period of time... "
"Yes, you can ask him any questions, no need to be polite to him." Sirius curled his lips and said, "I have never seen him be troubled by anything."
"No, at least the problem you have is quite difficult." Maka frowned and said, "I still think it's best to let me check it carefully for you first before talking about anything else."
"Is it really that serious?" Sirius hesitated for a moment, but then quickly shook his head, "No, I'd better put my physical condition aside for now. I must tell you everything I know about this matter as soon as possible. Concern the safety of Hogwarts!"
"Livy, let's go out first!" Abigail said suddenly.
"Huh?" Olivia said reluctantly, "Why? I want to hear it too?"
Abigail pursed her lips, then grabbed the arm of her sister, who had not yet figured out the situation, and forcibly dragged her out of the bedroom.
"Then just say it quickly!" Maka looked at the door that was gently closed and said to Sirius.
"First of all, I have to start from the time when I left my old house..."
Sirius quickly organized his thoughts and picked out some of the most important things he had experienced during this period, and the focus was of course on what happened recently.
During the original "Mad Wizard Incident", Sirius also traced the black market for a time in order to find the culprit for Kingsley who had been tricked.
Although his investigation efficiency is also very high, after all, he does not have the level of potion science as Maka, so in the end it was Maka who solved the incident first.
Sirius, who secretly learned of the situation, simply did not go back.
Because he knows very well that the current Order of the Phoenix does not have enough control over the British magical world. In fact, it is necessary for someone to conduct detailed research for a long time in order to prepare for a rainy day.
Whether in the Muggle world or the wizarding world, the importance of intelligence is extraordinary. And Sirius was already very good at doing this kind of work. Even if he still had a wanted warrant on his body, there would be no wizard who was better at acting alone than him.
Of course Sirius is very confident, because he is still the fearless "Padfoot" he used to be.
Obviously, his ability is indeed worthy of his arrogant self-confidence.
After he had been lurking around the wizarding world for a long time, when he learned the news of Dumbledore's sudden death, a piece of quite secret information made him immediately turn his worries about Hogwarts into vigilance.
The piece of information from the goblins showed that several dark wizards with suspicious behavior frequently visited the Dark Spirit Pavilion in the black market, and seemed to be raising a large amount of funds.
To avoid missing important information, Sirius lurked near the Dark Spirit Pavilion for more than ten days and monitored it with extreme caution.
Facts have proved that his hard work was not in vain, because he finally waited for those dark wizards. More importantly, he found a figure that he was very familiar with among those guys.
"... It's my crazy cousin. Although she covered her face, how could I possibly mistake her for her?" Sirius narrowed his eyes with a hint of coldness in his tone.
"Bellatrix?" Maka nodded, "That woman really doesn't admit mistakes easily."
After that, Sirius suppressed his unhappiness and secretly followed the Death Eaters. Of course, he was ready to watch them apparate away.
But he never thought that after the other party finished his work in the Dark Spirit Pavilion, he did not immediately withdraw from the black market, but walked into a noisy bar.
There, he met a wizard whose whole body exuded the "smell of blood."
When it comes to madness, Sirius's cousin is an extremely extreme lunatic.
After Voldemort was defeated in front of Harry quite unexpectedly, Bellatrix was a particularly conspicuous one among the loyal Black Death disciples who spontaneously began to search for their master everywhere.
The woman who was only loyal to Voldemort ended up in Azkaban. But even in the Azkaban wizard prison guarded by a large number of dementors, she never gave in from the beginning to the end.
On the contrary, her craziness is even vaguely better than before.
However, the wizard Sirius saw in that bar was even crazier and weirder than his crazy cousin.
"I'm very familiar with that look," Sirius frowned. "In those years in Azkaban, I've seen several guys like him. But I think those people are still somewhat similar to him. Without it, that guy would probably be even crazier and have a very firm belief in evil!"
"So, do you know who he is? What are those Death Eaters doing with him?" Maka then asked.
"The bar was too noisy at that time, and I vaguely heard a few words -" Sirius said, emphasizing, "It's 'Nurmengard'! I heard the word 'Nurmengard'!" "
"...Is it really the remnants of Grindelwald who are lurking?" Maka nodded clearly.
"You also know?" Sirius said in surprise, "Not everyone knows this. The information about the Wizarding War back then was not comprehensive to begin with, and not many people knew the final fate of Gellert Grindelwald. —It took me a lot of effort to figure it out!"
"Well..." Maka smiled and said, "Actually, I have already been to Nurmengard before, but unfortunately I missed it a little - Grindelwald escaped before I arrived."
"You-" Sirius stared at Maka for a long time, and then sighed, "How could such a thing happen without you... I should have guessed it earlier."
He paused, then turned to ask: "So, you also know about the United States, right?"
"No," Maka shook her head, "I really don't know that. If it weren't for your note, I wouldn't have thought of coming to New York! But who would have thought that Greenwald's remnants are still studying the Obscurials? ? And they really did some tricks... "
"You mean, those black mist groups that attacked me...are really the 'Oscars'?" Sirius didn't seem to confirm this yet, "I didn't expect that they were the 'Oscars'. I thought they would only exist. It’s in the history of magic!”