Clearly, Sirius Black's somewhat rough plan earlier seemed possible to succeed, but the unexpected arrival of reinforcements threw him off. So now...
One versus four, and he doesn't have a magic wand, the advantage is... on the other side.
Though he was reluctant to admit it, Sirius Black was certain that if he continued resisting, he would definitely be the one to die next. He touched his empty pocket and sighed inwardly. If only he had a magic wand, he'd dare to challenge this group, even though he hadn't practiced wandless magic much...
"Sir, perhaps there is some misunderstanding between us; you might want to come down first—"
Watching Sirius transform back into human form, the four black-robed figures gathered and exchanged words briefly. Then, the one who had cast two Killing Curses took off his hood and calmly stared at Sirius, who was standing atop a pile of cages.
"A misunderstanding, huh... Is it really a misunderstanding? Well, there might indeed be some misunderstanding—"
Sirius was about to curse but suddenly his gaze was caught by a flash of yellow. He paused, a sense of disbelief in his eyes, and his words turned into stalling tactics. Looking at the pale-faced man below, he frowned, "Who are you?"
These words were also to buy time. Of course, Sirius recognized these people's identities. The identical black robes he almost saw every night for the past half month.
Both dead and alive.
Poachers, specializing in smuggling and selling, according to William, their industry peaked in the sixteenth century, even developing into Muggle industries. During those decades, the entire Atlantic Ocean below was filled with their transported "pearls."
Later, the International Confidentiality Law was promulgated, and various nations' Ministry of Magic began sweeps. These people's blatant actions moved from the open into the shadows.
But, isn't this shadow a bit... too arrogant?
Looking at the heaps of iron cages forming several small mountains, Sirius reasonably suspected that perhaps all the magical creatures from the Mississippi basin were confined here.
"We are victims, you seem to have forgotten the atrocities committed by your Scourers over the past half month?"
"Oh? Really? Is there more to this?"
Sirius's response appeared absent-minded, his gaze locked onto a yellow shadow behind the four people. A pair of sharp claws poised in mid-air, seemingly ready to strike—
"Expelliarmus!"
Regardless of whether he had a wand or not, Sirius directly swung his right hand, a slender beam of red light shot from his fingertip. Then, a scream echoed. Watching the red light instantly extinguished by his Iron Armor Spell, the leading black-robed figure instinctively turned his head, only to see that the man standing behind him had lost half of his head.
"What—"
Next, the man saw a pair of green eyes, a sense of bewilderment made the spell he was about to cast abruptly halt. In the next moment, a stinging sensation gripped his calf, and when he snapped out of the cheetah's hypnosis, he instinctively looked down, only to see a fist the size of a sandbag heading straight for his face...
"Stupefy!"
Grabbing the wand, Sirius quickly cast a charm, knocking out the black-robed figure on the other side. The remaining straggler didn't even have time to scream before a sharp claw sliced across his throat. The standing cheetah licked the blood from its paw tips and looked at Sirius, who was on high alert, with emerald green eyes.
"...Meow?"
Sirius hesitated for a moment and then made a sound that betrayed his ancestors.
"..."
The cheetah was silent for a moment, seemed somewhat speechless, but apparently had no intention of attacking, simply returning to all fours, turning, and walking away.
Watching the yellow shadow disappear into the dust, Sirius finally breathed a sigh of relief. This time he narrowly escaped many predicaments thanks to the cheetah. If the latter decided to attack, it would be somewhat ungrateful—a thought that seemed to be unreliable given the skinny form of the cheetah compared to himself.
But, what should he do now?
Looking at the several corpses lying on the ground, Sirius couldn't help but frown—he was caught here, and Lupin might come looking for him after not seeing him return for so long. If Lupin fell into the same trap... where on earth had William gone?
Feeling a bit agitated, he scratched his head, just about to leave when he noticed the cheetah that had already left reappeared before him.
"?"
"Roar..."
The big yellow cat growled impatiently.
"?"
What does it mean?
Sirius blinked, looking at the big cat before him whose green eyes revealed a human-like disdain. He suddenly hesitated and pointed to himself, asking, "Are you here for me? You want me to follow you?"
"Roar."
This time Sirius felt he understood, the cat seems to be saying he's not entirely stupid.
?
Hey? Since when does a B-cat get to judge me?
Sirius quickly rolled up his sleeves, appearing unconvinced... and followed along. One man and one cat winding through the iron cage mountains along the narrow paths left between them, every time they encountered a fork in the road, the cheetah would crane its head and sniff the air for a while.
Just before Sirius's patience reached its limit, voices of people conversing finally appeared not far ahead.