Chapter-84: Vendetta-1
That particular day Ronan was sitting in his Club Room, reviewing the notes that he had taken on his French Lecture with Daphne. He had the special parcel from Julian safely tucked under his table, which was part of his Plan-Vendetta. Today was the day when he would finally start the plan, officially. So he was very excited.
It was then someone knocked on the door. He flicked his wand, and the door swung open to reveal a small second-year Hufflepuff boy, holding a rat cage in his hands.
"Ah," Ronan exclaimed, "Mr. Harrison, just the man I was waiting for. Come on in,"
As if a child had entered a sweet shop, the Hufflepuff boy looked around the club room with his eyes in awe. Ronan let the boy soak in every detail of the room, before finally calling him over. The boy came, put the cage and mouse on the table, and smiled at Ronan, "Just as requested your rat." He said, "I have done everything that you have requested. But the rat seemed to be losing weight even when I was regularly giving him treats. I think that it might be sick,"
Ronan smiled, "Maybe. Or maybe, he might be just scared." He said while staring into the eyes of the rat.
He knew that with his busy schedule, there was no way he would be able to take care of a rat. Which is when he started using the strategy from the previous year, he started reading the thoughts of students who were all financially challenged. And this was where he met Mr. Harrison. He was a muggle-born boy, who didn't come from an affluent family. And he was the perfect candidate for the job.
Then he offered Harrison some money to take care of the rat. Ronan didnt forget to perform some magic on the cage, so that Peter won't be able to run away.
Only then did he hand over the rat with its cage to Harrison. He told him that he was supposed to take care of it, and he would give him one galleon every week that the rat stayed in his custody. And the poor boy loved to be given the opportunity. Now that he had planned to lure Sirius Black, he needed the rat back.
"Dont worry about the rat," Ronan said, "It is one strong boy." Then he handed the boy a pouch with 12 galleons. "This is for keeping quiet about our arrangement. As well as, think of this as my goodwill,"
"Thanks" the boy smiled, he looked glad about the bonus.
"Now if you would excuse me, I need to do some work," The boy nodded and ran out of the room.
After the boy ran away, did he look at the rat with interest? With him here, I just need to find Sirius. And I have an idea where he could be hiding.
After he had captured Peter, Ronan knew that Peter was an Animagus. Because no transfiguration spell lasts this long. So out of interest, he started researching the Animagus, and their characteristics. According to the book that he had read, all the Animagus are supposed to report about their power to the Ministry of Magic. And there are about a dozen wizards and witches that have become Animagus in the past half a decade. And their names and transformations are public knowledge.
When he didnt find Peter's name in the list of Animagus, he suspected that Peter must have hidden the fact from the ministry and his friends. Because when Peter received the Order of the Merlin, there was a whole three-page article about the life of Peter, with all his achievements. And there was no mention of him ever being an Animagus.
It is around this research something clicked in Ronan's mind, and he remembered the black dog that he, Harry, and Neville came across. That dog was behaving oddly, and he just pushed it aside, not thinking much of it. But now that he was thinking about it, there was a slight chance that the dog might have been an Animagus. It made sense because according to the book that he had read, the only way to distinguish between an animal and an Animagus is by how they behave. Apparently, humans have a very hard time acting like animals.
That black dog didnt wag its tail, and that was a very sign that there was a chance that it was an Animagus. And according to the official Animagus list of ministry, only Professor McGonagall was a registered Animagus, living around Hogwarts. And she could change into a cat. Which meant, that the dog was someone else.
Ronan knew that the chance of Sirius being an Animagus was very slim. But when he entertained the idea that the Sirius could be an Animagus, he realized then he could answer how he was able to run away from the Azkaban. Dementors could only feed on creatures that are intelligent, like humans, centaurs etc. What they couldnt feed on is animals. And if Sirius used to change into that dog form in his cells, then he could potentially have the energy and motivation to get out of there as well.
He connected another dot when he remembered that the portrait of the Weasley family was published in the newspaper before they went on their trip to Egypt. Maybe, Sirius saw that photo and recognized Peter in it. They were friends during their school life, so of course Peter would have told him about his ability. And maybe would have shown him his Animagus form as well.
To test whether his theory was right or wrong, Ronan had decided to see for himself. He had asked for Harry his invisibility cloak, he had asked the elves for some delicious chicken and soup. And now he was finally ready, to test out whether Sirius is really that black dog or not…
***
It has been two weeks since Ronan had started his routine. Daily he would come by the lake, to enjoy his delicious chicken and soup. Sitting in the middle of February, beside a frozen lake was not easy. He was shivering from inside, but couldnt show his discomfort. He was coming out here, every day, because he knew that dogs have a good sense of smell. And if Sirius was really somewhere around the school, he would surely be enticed by the smell of delicious chicken in such cold weather. This was the best strategy he could think of to lure the dog out of its hiding place.
And he thinks it is working as well.
He would always order the elves to cook him a big chicken. And he would leave almost three-fourths of the chicken in the same spot. And every day, without fail, the chicken would vanish from its place. There was a chance that some magical beast was feasting on his chicken and not the dog that he wanted to lure. But this was the best option he had.
But that day his hard work came to fruition. He was eating drinking his soup as usual, when he heard footsteps. He looked back to see a rather large, familiar shaggy dog standing not too far away from him.
Ronan stood up and smiled at the dog, "Ah.. There you are. I was looking all over for you," the dog didnt move.
"Would you like to have some chicken?" he showed the dog the food that he had. To his surprise, the dog barked. Smiling he put the chicken a step away from him and took two steps back. The dog looked hesitant at first but soon came forward. It first smelled the chicken, as if checking whether something was wrong with it. And then it started chowing down the chicken.
Ronan just stood there, smiling at the creature. Only after the creature had eaten its fill, did he take his wand and swiftly stunned the creature. A chicken being slaughtered is also fed its full before they are slaughtered. So he figured that he should treat Sirius the same way as well.
After that, he wrapped the stunned dog with Harry's invisibility cloak and started levitating the dog behind him. He took the dog straight to the castle, towards his club room. He had prepared a rather large cage there, just for this occasion there. Keeping the cloak wrapped around the dog, and maneuvering it around the ghosts during the broad daylight gave him quite a good exercise. But in the end, he was able to smuggle the dog without any struggle.
After securing the dog in the cage, he pulled the cloak outside, leaving the dog inside. He checked the map, and sure enough, he had hit the jackpot.
Scabbers, which had been kept on his table started acting erratic. There was only one thing that he needed now. With that, he went to the Library…
As he had expected, Hermione was sitting in the furthest corner of the library, with her head buried in books. The last thing that he wanted, was with her. The Time Turner.
It happened during the time when he was keeping a watch on the Marauder's Map, on a lookout for Harry and Sirius. He noticed that there were two Hermione Granger in the castle at that time. He had a hard time believing that a map such as this could be glitching. When he investigated further, he realized that the double Hermiones would only appear when Hermione was supposed to appear for lectures, which took place at the same time.
He figured that she was using magic to appear at two places at once. But what kind of magic was that? So he started paying extra attention to her. And then he noticed during the DADA lecture, that she suddenly appeared in the room while tucking a pendant. He theorized that maybe the pendant was the artifact that was enabling her to appear in two places at once. Some simple questions about the pendant when they met in the library, along with some Legilimency probes he got an answer. The time turner. An artifact that lets the user go back in time for a few hours.
And that was the last ingredient that he needed for his plan to work.
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