Although eager to dive into the cleaning work of his new house to make it comfortable and inviting as soon as possible, Amos knew that he obviously didn't have the time for this. So, he gave the command to Kreacher, who was wailing and cursing Muggles like a Fury, to sit there first and he would return during the Christmas holiday to deal with this house that no one had lived in for a decade.
"Don't cry, Kreacher."
Sirius said impatiently,
"You've heard everything, haven't you? It's just a temporary mortgage on the house; I have no intention of selling it. After I take out Peter, I'll quickly be able to gather five thousand Galleons."
"Oh, what would my poor lady say if she knew that the ancestral home of the Black family had been sold, Master Sirius? She would be so angry with him. Oh, how disappointed she would be in Kreacher. She watched all this happen but couldn't stop him from doing such foolish things--"
Tsk tsk--
This house-elf really isn't very likable, Amos was thinking to himself, considering whether he should sell it off to the Underworld. After all, the massacre of the giant creature and the mass escape of the Underworld house-elves have made them a bit scarce lately. It's a good time to sell now; the price would be decent...
Absolutely nothing about what you hear tonight can be disclosed to anyone in any way.
Amos gave Kreacher the order, then, there was a popping explosion. Amos led Sirius back to the Shrieking Shack.
During their absence, the collapsed kitchen was largely covered by a whispering blanket of snow, the howling of the cold wind through the house's numerous holes echoing like the wails of a ghost.
Amos waved his wand, and the broken bricks, splintered wooden boards, and broken beams of the collapsed kitchen slowly woke up from their slumber. They struggled to get up, shaking off the accumulated snow, and flew back into the air to form their shapes. In a flash, the house was transformed back into its original form.
Although he decided not to use the Shrieking Shack, Amos still repaired it. The house stood on a slope overlooking Hogsmeade, visible to all the passersby. If any troublemakers came snooping around and asked why the house had suddenly collapsed, it could cause unnecessary trouble.
"This cat... you said its name is Crookshanks, it's almost frozen to death!"
Sirius rushed into the house to find Crookshanks, looking angry.
"As long as it still has some life, I can revive it--"
Amos pointed his wand at Crookshanks' stiff body, and a stream of red light swept over the ginger fur. White steam rose as he did so. Amos then took out a homemade stimulant from his pocket, tapping the bottle with his wand, causing the liquid inside to swirl into a dangling stream that flew out of the bottle's mouth and into Crookshanks' nostrils.
"How did you end up with this cat?"
Taking advantage of Crookshanks' awakening, Amos asked.
"This cat is smart; I guess it might have some tomcat blood in it, because it recognized me at first sight and knew I wasn't a dog,"
Sirius stroked Crookshanks and rubbed his mouth, "It took some time for it to understand who I really was and what I wanted. Since then, it has been helping me gather information and find food for me. I can't go around freely; Dementors and Aurors are in the village. Moreover, it tried to bring Peter to me once, but it failed."
"By the way--"
The Disappearing Spell lifted, revealing the piles of parchment scattered across the living room floor and the remnants of small animals in the kitchen. Amos cracked his whip through the air like conducting an orchestra, and the items gathered themselves into a pile in the foyer, before being consumed in a dazzling green flame and turned to ash.
"This house..., mainly the secret passage, how did you discover it?"
If I went into detail, it would bring up some secrets about Remus. On the surface, Dumbledore recruited Remus to be a professor at Hogwarts, and as the head of the Department of Magical Security, Brian shouldn't have any idea about Remus' werewolf identity. However, Sirius dare not take the risk. If Dumbledore and Remus haven't told Brian about this, then he might inadvertently cause trouble for his old friend.
"This secret passage... we used it all the time when we were at school--"
Sirius said vaguely, but this made Amos, who was in charge of cleaning up, suddenly stop.
"We?"
Amos squinted, repeating Sirius's words.
"That means Remus knew about the secret passage under the Dementor... hmm, he should also know that you're an Animagus. He had so many chances to mention it, but when I heard there was a secret passage from Harry's mouth tonight, he pretended like he had never heard of it before."
Sirius remained silent, only playing with Crookshanks, whose limbs were now subconsciously twitching. He could roughly guess why Remus had kept silent about everything, despite not knowing that he was innocent.
His old friend, who regarded Dumbledore as a benefactor, feared disappointing him, and feared that Dumbledore might be dissatisfied or even angry with their prankish behavior.
"How did Harry find out about the secret passage under the Dementor?"
Another clue in Brian's words caught Sirius's attention.
"Everyone who knows James Potter says that Harry looks just like his father. I suppose he must have inherited some sort of talent."
"Yes, the kid really does look like James!" Sirius immediately became happy, "He has the same exceptional Quidditch talent as his father!"
At this moment, Crookshanks in Sirius's arms finally fully woke up. Without understanding what had happened, it immediately bared its teeth and roared at Amos with a dark prune face.
"Don't be upset, Crookshanks, we've explained the situation. Now, Amos will not be against us!"
Sirius tightly grasped Crookshanks and quickly explained the situation.
"It's not my fault--"
Amos looked utterly innocent.
"Who would have thought that things would turn out like this? Before, I thought you were an evil accomplice of the Death Eaters, so, my behavior was entirely reasonable, wasn't it?"
Crookshanks made a harrumphing sound, clearly dissatisfied.
The noisy night will eventually end; the snow continues to fall, but a faintly pink dawn has appeared on the horizon.
"According to my opinion, I think it's best for you to stay at home or, like before, hide in the mountains. I will regularly send you food. But since you insists on following us to school and causing trouble, we will have to come up with some way to disguise you."
Sirius was unimpressed by this idea.
"Just use the Animagus form; I can disguise myself very well, and no one will be able to recognize me!"
"I suggest you take some time to visit Azkaban, and see if you accidentally left your brain there when you escaped."
Amos scowled and said, "If you want to stay in the castle for a long time, you can't help but run into Remus, who knows you're an Animagus and what form you turn into--"
And... considering our transactional relationship, I'll remind you, an Animagus can perfectly disguise their magic and form, but on a soul level, you're still Sirius Black. Unfortunately, our beloved Headmaster Albus Dumbledore happens to have the ability to observe someone's situation from a soul level... so, you better be careful.
"Then what should we do?"
Sirius looked gloomy; he couldn't help but dislike a timid Slytherin.
This issue had already been considered by Amos at the old Black family estate.
Sirius's gaze suddenly sharpened as he felt the wand pointed at him.
"What do you want, Brian?"
Sirius stepped back quickly and demanded, "What do you want, Brian!"
"Of course, I need to give you a new identity. How could I just openly bring a wanted criminal back?"
Amos glanced at Crookshanks and smiled, "So, what's the problem?"
"Starting today, you're the wild kitten Crookshanks found outside, and it's found its mate... well, I think 'Lenny' would be a nice name for it..."
"..."
Reading Hall
