Chapter 192 - 192 Sirius’ past
Chapter 192: Sirius' past
Harry's lips trembled a little as he looked at the letter the pink haired witch handed him.
"Am I ... I being expelled from Hogwarts?" He asked with his eyes closed and an extraordinarily pained expression.
"Expelled? What are you thinking?" The pink-haired witch seemed to be holding back a bit, "The Ministry of Magic can't wait to baby you, why would they think about expelling you?"
"Huh?" Harry's eyes widened as a wave of ecstasy washed over him, "So ... I don't have to be expelled?"
"Of course." The pink haired witch nodded, "Let me introduce myself, I'm an official Auror in the Ministry of Magic's Auror Office, you can call me Tonks."
She pronounced the words "official Auror" very heavily, and had a proud expression on her face, as if she was afraid that people wouldn't know that she had passed the official Auror test just this summer.
"Uh, hello Tonks." Harry finally breathed a sigh of relief and took the letter Tonks handed over, "Since it's not about firing me, what's the meaning of this letter forbidding abuse of the Division of Magic? You know ... I did break the rules after all."
"You're right, you did break the rules of the Department of Magic." Tonks nodded, "So there's always a process to go through, a warning for the first violation and no other punishment."
With that, she took a distant look in the direction of Maiden Road, "A memory canceler has already gone over to make it right for you, don't worry, your aunt and uncle's family won't remember anything that happened today!"
Harry then let his heart drop completely and looked down as he opened the letter in his hand and read what was written on it-
Mr. Potter:
We have received a report that you used an Expansion Spell at your residence tonight at 9:12pm. You are reasonably aware that underage wizards are not permitted to use magic outside of school, and that any further such behavior on your part will result in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Decree on Reasonable Restraints on Underage Wizards, Eighteen Seventy-Five, Paragraph Three).
Also remember that any magical activity that might attract the attention of non-members of the wizarding community (Muggles) is a serious offense under the International Confederation of Wizards Secrecy Act, Section XIII.
Have a great summer!
Mafalda Hopkirk.
Ministry of Magic Division Against Magical Abuse
...
Harry looked at the letter in his hand with some sadness and some relaxation at the same time.
Relaxed because he knew that this violation of magic use was behind him and he wouldn't be expelled from Hogwarts, and sad because Harry had just learned that there would be a reminder for the first violation.
If he had known about this earlier, then he would have found a better opportunity to use magic on the Dursleys as much as he could and teach them a lesson!
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about business!" Tonks suddenly exclaimed, interrupting Harry's musings, "Harry, is there anything else you haven't taken care of?"
"If there's something else to do or something to get, then I think you need to hurry up, because in case you didn't know, you're in a lot of danger right now!"
Tonks' originally very perky expression suddenly turned serious as she pulled Harry over to a much shadier area next to the street and searched around very professionally, clearing away anything suspicious in the vicinity as required during Auror's test.
"Huh, why is there a big black dog here?" She saw a big black dog next to her and didn't pay much attention to it, just casually shooing it to the other side of the street.
"I don't have anything else to get, I can get out of here anytime I want." Harry shook his head and grabbed his trunk and Hedwig's cage, "But ... Tonks, why am I in danger?"
"I'll tell you more about this when we're somewhere safe, I need to get you to the Ministry of Magic now ..." Tonks said with some urgency, "Are you able to do an attendant manifestation?"
"Follower manifestation? What's that?" Harry asked blankly.
"Oh, I forgot, you're still just a student who hasn't reached third year yet." Tonks covered her forehead helplessly, "Well ... follower manifestation is the ability to follow another wizard in phantom transfiguration, and you've grown up in a muggle household, surely there are no adult wizards to teach you that."
"But the distance to the Ministry of Magic from here is so far that I wouldn't dare just take a young wizard who can't follow a follower to manifest Phantom Shift. This is going to be a pain in the ass ..."
"We could take a cab and the subway." Harry suggested, "Muggle transportation is actually quite convenient."
"That won't work." Tonks dismissed his idea, "Muggle transportation is unprotected, and I'm afraid that if Sirius Black finds out that you're on Muggle transportation, it's not just you who will be in danger, but even the Muggles around you."
She tugged at her hair in a tangled mess, her pink hair color turning surprisingly colorful and messy, and then turning a shade of grey.
"Sirius Black?" Harry's eyes widened in surprise before he could wonder at Tonks' changing hair color, "I think I know that name, he's a wanted man with a bounty on his head from the Muggle government! What does this man have to do with the wizarding world?"
He had only seen the name Sirius Black in the newspaper that Aunt Desiree subscribed to this morning, and on the front page of the Muggle newspaper, it was published that he was an extremely dangerous murderer.
"Ah, it slipped out accidentally ..." Tonks blushed stiffly and covered her mouth with two fingers, "Never mind, it's not impossible to tell you now, we'll just take the opportunity to wait for my colleague and ask him to send over the key to the door leading to the Ministry of Magic."
"Listen, Harry, Sirius Black is an extremely dangerous criminal who has just escaped from Azkaban! The Ministry of Magic has determined that he's probably after you!"
Tonks said with a straight face as she stared intently into Harry's eyes.
What the two didn't notice was that just a short distance down the street, the ears of a large black dog that had just been chased away quietly perked up.
"So, the wanted man named Sirius Black is actually a wizard?" Harry asked in shock, "Then why is he in a Muggle newspaper?"
"Because the Ministry of Magic contacted the Muggle Prime Minister." Tonks said in a surprised voice, "Just take a look at this newspaper and you'll see."
She pulled a newspaper out of the small bag she carried and handed it to Harry, and pointed him to one of the paragraphs on the first page -
Certain members of the International Confederation of Wizards had criticized Fudge for not informing the Muggle Prime Minister that Blake was at large.
Fudge had responded angrily to this saying, "Oh, I had to, don't you know? Blake is insane. Anyone who encounters him is in danger, whether you're wizarding or Muggle!"
"I was assured by the Muggle Prime Minister that he said not a word would be spilled to anyone when it came to Blake's true identity. We can't deny a reality - if the Muggle Prime Minister had spilled the beans on Blake's true identity, what other Muggle who has never seen magic would believe him?"
Muggles are told that Blake carries a gun (a metal wand, a weapon used by Muggles to kill each other), and there is a constant fear in the magical community that there will be a repeat of the massacre of twelve years ago, when Blake once killed thirteen people with a single magical spell.
...
In contrast to the seriousness and formality of the official newspaper of the Muggle world, the official newspaper of the wizarding world, the Daily Prophet, tends to be as casual on top as this story, and even puts Fudge, the Minister of Magic's comical quotes, in their original form.
In comparison, the Daily Prophet was like the Times of the British Muggle world in the wizarding world, yet the content was like the Sun of the Muggle world.
Harry stared at Blake's molded eyes in the newspaper, the only eyes that seemed to have some remnants of life in that sunken face.
Harry thought of the pictures of vampires he had seen in his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook, and Blake, with his wax-like white skin, thought he looked just like a vampire.
Of course, if Dracula were to learn of such dangerous thoughts as his, it might be time for him to duel four times a day at the dueling club again this semester ...
"I really didn't expect Sirius to look so scary now ..." Tonks also glanced towards the picture printed on the newspaper with a slightly saddened expression, "I saw him several times when I was a kid when he was literally the of the most handsome male wizard I've ever seen."
"You saw him as a child?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Not only did I see him, I saw him many times!" Tonks said, "Oh, I forgot to introduce you, Sirius Black is my mom's cousin."
Harry looked at Tonks' pretty cheeks and then at Sirius Black's gaunt, withered, sunken face in the newspaper, and couldn't really connect the two, much less believe that he was the most handsome boy wizard Tonks had ever said he was.
"And don't you believe it, Sirius was always the schoolboy of Hogwarts before he was in Azkaban!" Tonks could see Harry's disbelief and added, "Let's see how I can describe how handsome he is ... By the way, you do know Professor Dracula, don't you?"
She suddenly thought of the silver-haired man she had met twice in the Cairngorm Mountains, on Azkaban's island.
"And what does this have to do with Professor Dracula?" Harry looked at Tonks suspiciously.
"Sirius was just a little bit worse than Professor Dracula when he was younger!" Tonks said in a very sure tone.
The two of them did not notice that the big black dog next to the street first raised its head proudly after hearing Tonks' comment about Sirius, and a hint of curiosity surfaced in its eyes after Tonks mentioned Professor Dracula.
"Wow, so exaggerated?" At the thought that this Sirius could be nearly as handsome as Professor Dracula, Harry almost felt a few good feelings for the wanted man.
What he didn't realize was that the bigger reason for this inexplicably born favor was not because of Sirius' former handsomeness, but because of a strange familiarity he felt with the face.
"No, no, no, he's a murderer who's killed thirteen people!" Harry shook his head menacingly, shaking off the distractions in his mind, "He killed thirteen people with one spell!"
"Yeah, one spell," Tonks said, "in front of witnesses, in broad daylight, and caused a good deal of trouble for the Ministry of Magic."
Speaking of which, Tonks scratched her hair a little suspiciously and changed her hair color back to her favorite pink, "It's rather strange, from the way Sirius acted afterward, it's surprising that he was most definitely in support of the Mysterons."
"What? Voldemort?" Harry asked subconsciously.
"Hiss-" Tonks drew in a fierce breath before looking over at Harry and complaining, "Don't say that name outright for nothing, you scared me, Harry!"
"Sorry," Harry apologized instantly, "I'm sorry, I ... I forgot ..."
"Well, now I really believe you're not afraid of Mystique." Tonks rubbed her eyebrows helplessly.
"So ... so that means that Blake is a supporter of the Mysterons?" Harry asked a little anxiously.
"From the evidence available, it does." Tonks said, her face still looking a little puzzled, "My mom has never been too convinced about this, but there's nothing she can do about it with the evidence."
"According to the information given by the Ministry of Magic, Sirius and the Mysterons are very close ... Anyway, back when you were almost killed by the Mysterons-"
She subconsciously glanced at Harry's lightning shaped scar that was hidden by the hair on his forehead, "All of the Mystic's supporters were hunted down, and most of those Death Eaters knew that since the Mystic had fled, they had lost their power along with him, so most of the Death Eaters were honest."
"But those led by Bellatrix Lestrange thought otherwise, they were die-hard followers of the Mystic, and Sirius would have been among those people."
"A fellow Auror told me that the Aurors once cornered Sirius in the middle of the street, which was still full of muggles ... But he took out his wand and blew up half the street with a spell, and a boy wizard and twelve muggles were killed by him... ..."
Tonks' voice trailed off, as if she was grieving for those who had died.
"The boy wizard was called Peter Pediru," she continued, "and he was posthumously awarded the Order of Sir Merlin, First Class, after his death."
"Sirius, on the other hand, was completely unrepentant for the evil he had caused and laughed the whole time ... Then he followed the Aurors without the slightest bit of resistance, laughing the whole way. The colleagues in the Ministry of Magic all thought he had gone completely insane."
"At that time, the impact of this incident was so great that the Muggle government went to great lengths to keep it hidden." Tonks continued, "The whole street was bombed, all the muggles died, and the explanation they gave was ..."
"I know this one, a gas explosion." Harry took over, "I finally realize now why so many gas explosions are in the news in the muggle world."