It was still late at night, and the residents of Hogsmeade Village had fallen into a deep sleep. Occasionally, dementors would float around the village, searching for targets they could never find.
And just on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, in the not-so-dense woods, two figures were chasing each other quickly. Their movements are very agile, even in the forest full of snow, they still walk like flying.
Occasionally, moonlight fell from the gaps between the branches. When they ran past, their originally dark figures were revealed in a short time.
The one running in front was a big black dog. It looked very strong and powerful when running, but it was the one running away. Not far behind the big black dog, there was a man wrapped in gray cloth. The little man in the cloak looked no taller than the big black dog, but he made the big black dog keep running away.
That was naturally Sirius Black, and Maka, who was still wearing a disguise.
Not long ago, Maka accidentally caught a glimpse of Black wandering around Hogsmeade. At first, Maka planned to ignore him, but after thinking about it, he changed his mind.
When Maka chased Black into another, narrower alley, Black, who was in Animagus form, suddenly turned around and rushed towards him.
Blackburn thought he could quickly deal with the following, but the result was different from what he imagined.
Under Maka's two very rapid stun spells in succession, the black dog that Blake turned into screamed and was knocked away.
It can be seen that Blake's physical condition is not very good. He did make a dodge action in time, but his actions were obviously out of touch with his conscious reaction.
Immediately, Blake and Maka began a chase and escape race in the snow.
Neither of them attracted the attention of the dementors, and they chased all the way to the woods on the outskirts of Hogsmeade.
From the beginning, Maka was almost thrown away by Blake's several consecutive accelerations. But after he whispered something in his mouth, his movements became much faster.
As time goes by, the distance between the two becomes closer and closer.
"There are many obstacles!"
Maka finally seized the opportunity, taking advantage of the moment when Blake jumped forward on the tree trunk, and released the spell that he had already prepared.
Suddenly, Blake's body slowed down, and under the rays of moonlight, Maka could even see the dog hair on his body moving in the wind.
But just as Maka was about to release the next spell, Blake's body began to fluctuate and twist, and he returned to human form in an instant.
"Armor protection."
Black's dueling skills are still very strong, especially his on-the-spot judgment ability is quite accurate. He didn't intend to solve his own predicament first, but reluctantly waved his wand to cast an iron armor spell on himself.
When Maka hit with a coma spell, the red fire composed of Maka's magic power was blocked in time.
Immediately afterwards, Blake shouted: "It's over!"
Maka immediately realized that he was going to use a universal counter-spell to lift his own obstacle spell. This was a good opportunity!
"Expelliarmus!" Maka said immediately.
But at the next moment, when he discovered that Blake was still floating in the air, he realized that he had been fooled!
Almost the second after Maka released the disarming spell, Blake also released a disarming spell!
The opponent's timing was quite accurate. Even if Maka discovered something was wrong in time and immediately interrupted the spell and rushed to the side, it was still too late.
The disarming spells of both sides hit each other with a very short time difference, but Blake was protected by the remaining armor spell.
Although Maka's disarming spell hit Black's body, it only knocked the opponent's wand away; in contrast, Black's disarming spell only hit Maka's calf, but his wand had already flown to Black. hands.
"All petrified!"
Maka tried to get up, but Blake was faster than him.
He was almost ready to accept the effect of the whole body binding spell, but the expected situation did not appear - he could still move!
Regardless of the reason, he immediately took out a small bottle and threw it into the trees not far from Blake.
Suddenly, a puff of smoke quickly spread through the woods, and in a blink of an eye, the nearby area turned into a blanket of white mist. The sight of both parties was obscured.
"Concentrate!"
Maka simply closed her eyes and expanded her perception.
For a moment, the whistling of the cold wind, the rustling of branches and grass blades, and Blake's footsteps... all kinds of sounds were intertwined and intertwined in Maka's perception, forming a simple but clear world.
After a long period of practice, the ability that was stolen from the assassin has fully grown.
He could even "see" Blake walking in the direction where his wand flew out based on his memory.
After making her judgment, Maka immediately threw out another bottle. The bottle drew an arc in the air and landed in the trees not far away, making a sound.
It was such a small movement that made Blake decisively change back to his Animagus form and run away in the opposite direction.
This time, Maka did not catch up, but leaned on the tree trunk next to her, lost in thought.
"...Why do I think that I can easily deal with Sirius Black?"
Since he first entered Hogwarts, his magical attainments have indeed surpassed those of his peers by far, and even many adult wizards cannot compare to him.
This is indeed something to be proud of, and even Dumbledore praised him many times.
Although he always reminds himself that the road to exploring magic is extremely long, with his current progress, he has just taken the first step.
But when most of the people around him couldn't compare with him, his judgment of his own strength was inevitably biased.
He was not arrogant, nor did he even underestimate the enemy - without emotion and emotions, he had no chance to be arrogant.
But precisely because he lost the way of thinking that he was good at, his behavior based solely on rationality became an obstacle to his judgment.
The lack of sensibility makes rationality difficult to control, and Maka's judgment ability has dropped a lot.
"Even if you can usually deceive others with fake emotions, you can never deceive yourself...?" Maka murmured to herself.
The white smoke gradually dissipated, revealing a small figure leaning against the tree trunk. In the cold wind of the snow, he couldn't help but tighten his old felt cloak.
The already solemn night became even darker.
…
Since that night, Maka's actions have become much more cautious.
After all, no matter who it is, if someone takes away their wand because of their own mistakes in judgment, it will probably be the same, right
Although Maka picked up Sirius Black's wand, there wasn't much difference in how it was used - no matter what wand it was, it was the same to him, but it was not his own after all.
"If I can make my own wand in the future, I must add a wrist strap or something to it..." Maka, who was readjusting the bloodline transformation formula in the Room of Requirement, couldn't help but mutter in a low voice.
Recently, he and Aragog made another attempt. Although the transformation was still not successful in the end, there was a major breakthrough in the collection of experimental data.
At this point, success is already in sight.
But just as Maka finished adjusting the formula and planned to go to the auditorium to solve the dinner problem, Luna suddenly walked up to him.
"Hey, you know what? Halloween is coming soon." Luna tilted her head and said in a daze.
"Huh?" Maka raised her head and said, "Oh, yes... Hogsmeade."
"Yes, let's go shopping together?" Luna asked.
Maka thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
To be honest, Hogsmeade is not safe at the moment, and it will always be better if he goes with him... even if he has lost accurate judgment on his own strength now.
Luna looked happy. She smiled slightly and expressed her interest in the outing, which made Maka shake her head.
There is still more than half a month until Halloween arrives!
After dinner, Maka said goodbye to Luna and walked straight to Snape's office.
"Dong dong"
"Professor, it's me, Maka McClain."
"Come in."
When Snape's cold response came from the office, Maka reached out and opened the office door.
"Professor, this is for this month."
Maka placed a potion bottle on Snape's desk and said softly.
This is the second bottle of wolfsbane potion that he has brewed. In terms of preparation speed, it is obviously faster than last month.
"...Hmm." Snape checked it and then nodded.
"Then I'm going out first." Maka leaned forward politely and turned around to leave the office, but was stopped by Snape.
"I have something else, go and deliver it to Lupine." Snape put the Wolfsbane potion back on the table and said calmly.
Although he looked very calm, his eyes seemed to be flashing with impatience, and he obviously didn't want to see Lu Ping, his "old classmate" at all.
Maka paused, looked back at the potion bottle on the table, and then picked it up again.
"Okay, Professor." He said calmly, "If possible, I will send it directly to you every month from now on..."
"Well, that's it." Snape agreed immediately.
"Well, good night, Professor." Maka saluted again and left with the wolfsbane potion.
In the office, Snape looked at the closed door with a thoughtful expression.
"Occlumency." After a while, Snape whispered to himself.