Once again night had fallen, Hogwarts was silent again and the Forbidden Forest was as lively as ever.
"Crack, crack, crack..."
There was the sound of falling leaves and dead branches being trampled, and unlike the caution of his first visit to the Forbidden Forest, Sirius walked with a quick step, heading deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
His fur, which had been dirty and withered, now reflected a dark sheen in the moonlight, and even his thin body seemed to have put on a little weight.
All thanks to the little wizard named Fish McGonagall.
Sirius had been in the Forbidden Forest for a while now, usually hanging around the outskirts, but whenever Fish came to the Forbidden Forest, he was able to wander into the forest and eat with a group of magical creatures and occasionally run into some centaurs.
Thanks to the food Fish brought, Sirius was able to recover quickly, not as much as he had a decade ago, but not as weak as when he first escaped.
At the same time, he had learned from the few exchanges he had with Fish, and from his own observations, that he was probably Professor McGonagall's son, and he too is an Animagus, that is....
Is he really an Animagus who can change his size at will and alternate between a cat and a leopard?
Why didn't he know that the Animagus spell could be played like that?
In order not to reveal his identity, Sirius used to pose as a big dog and a bit smarter than Fang, so the information he received was quite fragmented and he didn't know many of the more detailed things, so he didn't know that Fish was a so-called 'natural Animagus'.
Not that he hadn't thought about asking Fish to help him get Peter Pettigrew out, but, on the one hand, he couldn't guarantee that Fish would trust him as a suspicious character and, on the other, Sirius was worried that Fish would be harmed by Pettigrew in the process.
So, after much deliberation, he gave up on the tempting idea.
"Cold, you're here nya!"
(●ΦωΦ●)?
Fish, who was sitting cross-legged on Fluffy's head, spotted Sirius from a distance and greeted him in a loud voice.
"Come here, Fish has brought you some more yummy stuff!"
"Woof!"
Sirius replied, wagging his tail and coming towards him at full speed.
Instead of using his old nickname "Padfoot", Sirius had given himself a new pseudonym of "Cold" so as not to draw attention to himself.
He made his way towards the three-headed dog, Fluffy, carefully circling the large paws and arrived at his side....
Even though his relationship with Fluffy had now eased, Sirius was still a bit wary of confronting this huge creature, after all, his Animagus form was but a tiny little thing compared to him.
Only Fish could treat the big dog with such recklessness.... Well, at most adding Hagrid.
"Hello!"
Fish jumped off Fluffy's big head, landed lightly on the ground and pulled a large amount of food out of his magical bag, handing it out to Sirius and the other animals present.
Sirius looked at the magic bag in Fish's hand that had been enchanted with the undetectable extension charm, which, according to the cat himself, was a gift from Professor Dumbledore.
As befitted a gift from Headmaster Dumbledore, the magical bag held more than any other magical container Sirius had ever seen, and the food Fish had brought, time and time again, had grown so large that Sirius was still unsure of its size.
Also, Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, used to follow Fish around, along with a half-meter-long basilisk....
Although Sirius couldn't understand why the basilisk was so small, the look on the other party's face that made people freeze wasn't fake.
Maybe it was a hybrid snake with part of the basilisk's bloodline.
Sirius didn't care what happened to the basilisk, what he did care about was.... Headmaster Dumbledore spoiled Fish too much, didn't he?
Is the boy the illegitimate child of Dumbledore and some dark wizard from Slytherin?
After Hagrid, Sirius also thought that Fish was Dumbledore's illegitimate son.
Of course, these nonsensical thoughts simply passed through his mind, and soon Sirius was thinking of Peter Pettigrew again.
After all this time, Sirius had discovered that Fish's senses of hearing and smell were so acute that even he, who had become a dog, could not compare to him.
This made it very difficult for him to sneak into the Gryffindor dormitory undetected.
As for secretly knocking Fish unconscious and locking him up first...
Not to mention that he wouldn't be able to do it, but with all the magical creatures around him, almost all of them above XXX level, he wouldn't stand a chance, and if Sirius dared to do it, the angry magical creatures would tear him to pieces in a minute.
He knew that when he was in London, even if he was a dangerous one, he would have to get a wand.
Sirius grumbled as he nibbled on the food Fish had given him.
But it wasn't like there was no solution, even though he wasn't very skilled at casting spells without a wand, he should be able to succeed after a few more tries, and his body had recovered a lot now, so he could find a hiding place to practice a few more times.
"Cold, take your time, Fish is going to play in the sky with Shadow and the others nya."
Fish's voice brought Sirius back to his senses, he nodded silently and then offered his head for a pat from the kitten.
"Fluffy, don't ever bully Cold nya again!"
Fish turned his head again and cocked a warning at the three-headed dog lying on the ground.
Fluffy's three heads let out a loud snort in unison and he gave a little shake of his head to show that he knew.
In fact, he had only gone over to take a bite of Sirius' food when Fish had first given it to him to avenge Fang....
Although that bite was a bit big....
And as the tyrant of the Forbidden Forest, Fluffy was in no mood to bully such a small creature after the lesson he'd taught the stranger, so Fish's warning seemed superfluous to him.
But he wasn't going to be stupid enough to argue with Fish, or he was sure to get another couple of catcalls.
It didn't hurt, but Fluffy wanted to maintain his authority as tyrant of the Forbidden Forest in front of the other animals.
After talking to the two dogs, Fish transformed into a small tabby cat, jumped onto the back of Shadow, the leader of the thestrals, and flew into the air, laughing, and soon disappeared into the night sky.
The other winged creatures also lifted their wings and left the ground to catch up with them, blowing dust over Sirius' head as they flapped their wings.
Sirius shook his head quickly, shaking the dirt from his body, then silently picked up the food in front of him and trotted towards the outer edge of the forbidden forest....
He had been able to get along with the magical creatures before thanks to the presence of Fish, the little magical wizard, but now that Fish was gone, Sirius didn't want to risk his own life, so it was best to leave quickly.