Between Wands & Sigils - Chapter 116 : Sirius back in Society! Hate spending Money!

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Hogwarts

–Damian Hawthorne–

He looked at the newspaper with a grin on his face, the Daily Prophet doing what it does best. Inflammatory headlines and clickbait titles. Anything to get people hooked to reading more of the paper that was more akin to a Rag than an actual newspaper.

Not even that, other newspapers had also reported on that, as the Azkaban destruction story was quite the hit in the rest of Europe as well. It was quite literally a one of a kind prison that was touted as one of the most torturous, even in the magical sensibilities, that did not care much about the outrage about human rights that the rest of the mundane world seemed to be having right now.

Lord Black, exonerated. Alive. But where? Also how?

Those were the kind of cheesy headlines that the Daily Prophet was known for. For some reason, the writer of the front page this time was not Rita Skeeter, which just felt odd to him. Normally, she would have jumped at a chance to disparage the government and Dumbledore, especially since it was rightfully the government’s mistake, and Dumbledore had been an important part of the Ministry of Magic for decades now. 

He was to blame for the whole fiasco, atleast partially. The public should be up in arms about that, especially since there was a major scandal at Hogwarts not that long ago. The fact that the Daily Prophet was focusing more on the legalities of the case, the guilty verdict of Crouch Sr., and the fact that none of the Ministers had any idea of the atrocity meant that it was doing damage control on behalf of the government.

They probably didn’t have Rita write the front page because the woman likely had nothing except negative things to write. Man, he didn’t think Dumbledore had it in him. The man really went all the way to the other side of having power and not using it in any meaningful manner. Now, he was using it on all fronts.

Forcing the Wizengamot in an emergency session. Not letting them leave. Conducting an emergency administration of the Truth Serum, on a pureblood no less. Extracting confessions. Then, it was revealed that Sirius was alive and well. Not telling them anything more than that.

And then, he leaves.

Shaking his head, he went back up to get ready for the classes for the next day. It was Wednesday, and technically, he was not supposed to go out of Hogwarts, because of security reasons, but he supposed he could waive them for this once. He wrote them, after all.

Slipping outside Hogwarts, he quickly entered the Prison Dungeon, only to find out an utterly relaxed Sirius, looking up at the ceiling with a dopey look on his face. Well, he wasn’t given access to any drugs, so that might just be pure dopamine hitting his body.

He had donned his usual outfit as he spoke up, “So, I assume you got the news?”

Sirius’ neck lolled to the side as Sirius looked at him with his body draped all over the couch like he was a noodle. He felt a little alarmed at that. He couldn’t have suffered from a happy attack, right?

Then, Sirius just got up and tackled him, or atleast tried. The best he could do was hug him, as Sirius babbled on and on, thanking him over and over again. 

Sighing, he let Sirius get it through his system before he threw a bag at him. It was a pre-prepared getaway bag. A standard wand, clothing, money, and a small enchanted force field generator that will instantly warm him if it is being used, with its location so he could come and rescue the idiot if he fell into danger so soon after being released back to society.

There really wasn't any danger of his identity or this location being exposed since he had taken all the precautions from the start. Even if Sirius knew something, he was now much less likely to betray him, given that the Giant Killer was the reason for his freedom. Sure, he might get poked and prodded by the government, but he was sure he hadn’t left any clues behind.

Besides, what was he going to do? Not let Sirius out of here? Or erase his memories? Nah, that one time in the Dorm was enough.

“What is this?” Sirius asked him as he went through the bag.

“Your ticket back to society.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Now you are Lord Black. Why would you be slumming in a prison like this?”

Sirius was silent for a moment before he chucked, “Pretty nice for a prison.”

He smirked back, enjoying the back and forth, “That’s because I am a nice warden.”

“True. True. So…what happens to the Rat?” He sighed. It would seem that despite his happiness, the man hadn’t forgotten about his revenge, even for a second. Understandable, yet sad.

“He is locked up in a far less comfortable prison than yours. I will hand him over to Dumbledore soon. Then, he will go through the justice system, though his trial will likely be a much shorter one. Then, you can use whatever resources you have as Lord Black to make sure you get your revenge."

“Just like that, huh?”

“Just like that. After all, if the vast Black wealth can’t even get you this much, then what use is it?”

“What about Harry?”

“What about him? He is your problem to deal with, now. You just have to go to the Ministry and tell them that he is your godson, and the Minister himself will practically fall over himself to fulfill any demands you might have. I would advise you to take it slow and listen to the people at St.Mungo’s, though.”

Sirius’ face looked confused for a second, “Why would I go to–”

And just like that, he was knocked out. Looking at the sprawled form of the man, he sighed, gathered everything in the room that he might have liked, dumped it in the bag, and took the man with him.

Teleporting out of the Lair, he appeared in front of Diagon Alley, and this time, it was not crawling with Aurors who could have stopped him. Turning both of them invisible, he entered the bar and watched, puzzled, as Tom perked up from the bar, taking his wand in his hand, looking at the entrance.

So, Tom had buffed up his security wards. Good to know.

Entering the Diagon Alley, he woke Sirius up. The man awoke with a gasp, his neck on a swivel as he looked around and sighed in relief when he saw where he was.

Letting the man down, Sirius stood on his two legs and took the offered bag with a thankful look on his face. 

Pointing at Gringotts, he advised the man, “You should probably get your finances in order. The Goblins should be more than happy with blood confirmation. After that, the world’s an oyster for you.”

“Thank you,” Sirius thanked him with red eyes, as he nodded and flew out of the Alley, tracking Tom’s location and realising that they had only placed detection wards at the entrance of the bar, and even then, quite weak ones as Tom didn’t even fire a spell to confirm anything and the wards didn’t even tag him with something or try to attack him in anyway.

He supposed that even with advanced wards, the weak point remained to be wizards.

Shaking his head, he teleported back to Hogwarts, just in time for dinner.

And with that, his involvement in Sirius’ case was done, he thought, relieved. When he’d destroyed Azkaban, he had never thought the aftermath would go on for this long. Not to mention, he still had to deliver Peter to Dumbledore. The letter for which was already sent, so the Rat should be in custody by the end of the week at the latest.

It felt good to have averted one of the tragedies of this verse.

__xx__

It was the weekend, when he appeared back in the same garden as before, in front of a Dumbledore that looked far more confident and assured of himself, with Peter’s floating and knocked out form in tow.

“Dumbledore.”

“Giant Killer. You never gave me something else to address you by.”

“Even that name was made up by someone. I never gave my name to anyone. Never plan to even.”

“Ah, I see. Ever the elusive wizard, huh?” Dumbledore chuckled as he waved his hand forward, the forcefield surrounding Peter carrying him until Peter was right next to Dumbldore. Then, the forcefield shattered, the small sphere that was keeping it activated flying back to him.

“Keep him away from Sirius. He will not be able to control himself. I would not want a man I worked so hard to keep out of prison, go back in so soon.”

“I will keep an eye on him personally, though I struggle to think of anyone who would convict Sirius for killing him.”

That part was true. Sirius had become the public’s darling in the scant few days he had been out of the Lair. He was still at St.Mungo’s, undergoing treatment that was probably not as necessary but good for his continued long term health, and the man had already donated so much money that he was left wondering if Sirius took some sort of perverse joy in seeing the money of his family, that spent their entire lives being giant bigots, be donated to charities that specifically dealt with muggleborns, werewolves, vampires, Goblins, squibs and more.

Oh, who was he kidding? Of course, Sirius would love the irony in that. The man was more than a little messed up in his head.

“Farewell, Dumbledore.” With that, he teleported out of the garden, doing his usual routine for throwing away any tracking method they might have employed on him, before going to his Lair, undergoing a thorough scan of his body and clothing to see if Dumbledore had employed some esoteric means, and after finding nothing, he went back to Hogwarts.