Damn, today is so freaking unlucky...
Sirius gritted his teeth, unable to resist turning back again to look at the boy who always appeared at every turn in the corridor, silently smiling at him.
Where the hell did this guy come from?
Just like a ghost, and he didn't just come up and grab him. At the same time, the spells Sirius cast had no effect at all. Now he was just like the mouse in a cat-and-mouse game...
Never thought today, not only would he fail to catch the other mouse, but he would turn into a mouse himself—
The man couldn't help but curse.
But...
Seeing the silver armor standing not far away in the corner, Sirius's expression improved a lot. Fortunately, he wasn't a well-behaved student back then. Over the years, while he might not know every secret path in the castle like the back of his hand, he was quite familiar with them—
He remembered there was a secret passage behind that armor leading directly to the Forbidden Forest—once he managed to escape inside, the sky would be wide open.
But before that...
Sirius turned back again to look at the phantom behind him. Sure enough, the boy flashed a toothy grin.
...Sick pervert.
But right now, the key was, Sirius glanced around, gripping the pink little umbrella in his hand even tighter.
"Deprimo! (Deprim)"
The Ministry of Magic's demolition team's designated charm, essential for murder, theft, and corpse disposal, everyone who used it praised it!
Bricks from the ceiling, accompanied by choking dust, crashed to the ground. Covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve, a hint of joy appeared on Sirius's pale, gaunt face.
Just having escaped from the Gryffindor common room, he was still a bit shaken. He originally thought tonight's plan was too hasty, but the restlessness and anxiety inside drove him to sneak in tonight—
The cat told him that the entire Gryffindor common room had been bustling all evening, and now all the students were sound asleep. Tonight was the perfect timing—
...Damn, thinking about this made Sirius feel weird. How the hell did that cat learn to write?
Although it held the pen with both paws, the words came out crooked and skewed, but they did communicate in writing when gathered...
After all, Crookshanks didn't understand Trevor's toad calls either...
Was Hogwarts always this developed over these two decades?
What sort of underworld force would force a bunch of pets to pick up pens and write?
(Some Niffler, forced to learn to write, started oppressing its fellow minions: Meow meow meow?)
As an animagus blending in with those animals, he felt more like a Muggle—but fortunately, Crookshanks didn't like that damn rat either. So when he mentioned having a way to deal with the rat, just needing to enter the castle, Crookshanks quickly helped gather the passwords for a whole week.
Yet he didn't find that rat beside Ron's bed...
So he tried to lift Ron's bed curtains but made too much noise in his haste, waking the boy. To avoid being caught, he had to escape quickly, but didn't expect to be caught off-guard at the secret passage on the fourth floor—
Luckily, that psycho chasing him didn't seem to know about the secret passage here.
Otherwise, he wouldn't still be trailing behind...
Thinking of this, Sirius couldn't help but gasp for air, having run all the way on foot. His throat felt like it was being torn apart. Gripping the pink umbrella, he gently tapped it on the head of the tall, silver armor. With a "kakaka," a passageway just big enough for a person opened in the armor's belly—
Sirius didn't dare to slack off. Glancing at the pile of dirt beside him, he couldn't help but grin.
The man started imagining that the boy named William must have begun to feel furious—Sirius probably realized that the other party hadn't come up to grab him because they weren't sure they could beat a desperate Death Eater like him, just waiting the professor to arrive—
...
Sirius guessed correctly; William was indeed waiting for the professor to arrive.
It's just that it was a little different from what he imagined.
Seeing Lupin in a light pink nightgown, William was silent for a moment, not dwelling on the other's fashion sense. Instead, he threw the cloak he used for cosplay on his shoulder onto him and then explained the situation—
"..."
Hearing about Sirius's appearance just after William scolded the two Weasley boys who tried to sneak to Hogsmeade, his mouth couldn't help but twitch.
...What a freaking coincidence?
At this moment, the only professor informed was Lupin. William didn't use a Patronus to notify many people but only told Lupin, Dumbledore, and Professor McGonagall. Not even Professor Meow was informed except to retrieve the two little wizards he had stuck in the corridor.
And now Lupin had arrived, just waiting for the other one—
"Bang—"
With a faint flash of fire, Dumbledore appeared beside the two, carried by Fawkes by the collar. Lupin instinctively took half a step back, "Headmaster." Seeing who it was, he barely breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where is he?"
Dumbledore nodded as a greeting, then looked seriously at William.
"Running towards the Forbidden Forest—he probably thinks I don't know about this secret passage?"
William waved his hand, the bricks and lime on the ground reassembled into the ceiling. Then, he reached into his pocket and took out a piece of parchment, muttering as he tapped the center of it. Complex ink marks outlined the silhouette of a castle, and he began to zoom in on the location of the secret passage on the fifth floor—