"Fleur, could you look after Claudia for the next few days?"
Leonard asked the question while stirring his mushroom soup.
He was planning to go look for Sirius Black next, and bringing Claudia along would be troublesome.
He could have tucked Claudia into the space inside the miniature man-eating flower, but that place was a mess. The thought of leaving Claudia there by herself made Leonard feel sorry for her, so he decided to ask reliable Fleur instead.
Judging by how Fleur had taken care of Claudia at the table, she seemed perfectly suited to the job.
Midgard was not a good option right now. Leonard did not want Fleur finding out about his ties to the werewolves.
"Look after Claudia?" Fleur paused. "What are you going to do?"
"I have something to take care of..." Leonard did not want to go into detail.
"You're not planning to go after Sirius Black, are you?" Fleur lowered her voice, a trace of worry flashing through her eyes. "Are you crazy?"
Fleur was no fool. As a genius from Beauxbatons, she picked up on it at once. Leonard had not even bothered to hide his expression.
Leonard stopped for a moment, then looked at her helplessly. "Do you think I'm weak? Or stupid?"
Fleur had no answer to that. Neither description seemed to fit him. Even when it came to cunning and ruthlessness, this boy who had not even started his third year yet did not seem inferior to that escaped Death Eater.
Still, Fleur felt that someone like Leonard should not be putting himself in danger on purpose, so she went to the counter and asked Tom for a copy of the Daily Prophet, intending to find something in it that might convince him.
She found it quickly.
"Can you guarantee you're stronger than he is? The report says Sirius Black once destroyed an entire street. That's not something an ordinary wizard could do." Fleur pointed to the article's description of Sirius Black's "great achievements."
"And I take back what I said before..." Fleur glanced at Sirius Black's photo in the paper. "I think this guy is even more ruthless and even crazier than you."
Apparently, to make the article more persuasive and dramatic, the Daily Prophet had used the photo from when Sirius Black was arrested and sent to prison as its front-page image.
In the picture, he was roaring madly like a complete lunatic, with not a trace of fear in his eyes. There was only hysterical fury, as though he wanted to destroy everything.
As far as the public was concerned, Voldemort had already fallen, and the sensible Death Eaters were all busy finding excuses to clear themselves. Anyone still raging like that at a time like this had to be one of Voldemort's most fanatical loyalists.
All one could say was that Sirius Black's performance really was misleading enough. In the eyes of the world, and in Fleur's eyes now, he was nothing more than an irrational madman and a psychopath.
The bounty on Sirius Black was certainly tempting, but the reward was nowhere near worth the danger.
Leonard shook his head and did not explain.
There was no way to explain it. He could hardly tell her, I know Sirius Black was framed. He is not actually that dangerous.
Fleur was not Claudia or Midgard. She would never trust him unconditionally, and she was smart enough that any lie would be easy to expose.
So it was better to say nothing at all.
Seeing how firm Leonard was, Fleur stopped trying to persuade him. Instead, she turned and scooped up Claudia, who had finished eating and was tilting her head as she watched them.
"If you don't come back, I'm kidnapping Claudia and taking her home to be my little sister."
Claudia looked completely baffled, but when she saw that Leonard did not object, she obediently curled up in Fleur's arms like a doll.
"All right, do whatever you want." Leonard smiled and quietly flicked two seeds onto Fleur's clothes.
Of course, that was not to stop Fleur from kidnapping Claudia. It was for Fleur's safety.
Leonard had no idea why Lehende had allowed Fleur to come to England alone, but as Fleur's uncle in name, he had to show some concern.
Those seeds would protect Fleur if it came to a critical moment, just like the seeds Leonard had placed on Claudia when he let her go to the candy shop alone.
...
A few days later, at dusk in Little Whinging.
As usual, Leonard made a round of the area. Finding nothing unusual, he returned to a tree beside the Dursleys' house.
He did not know where to look for Sirius Black, but he guessed Sirius might come to Little Whinging to see Harry Potter, just as he had in the original story.
That was only human nature. It probably would not be affected by changes in the plot.
So staking out this place should be the easiest option.
After arriving, Leonard cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and circled the neighborhood, planting seed after seed. He watched them take root at astonishing speed and turn into hidden black vines.
Neighborhoods like this were highly suspicious of strangers, and the Squib living next door to Harry Potter's uncle was one of Dumbledore's informants, so Leonard stayed invisible the entire time to avoid being spotted.
That was also to keep Sirius Black from noticing him. If Sirius ran, Leonard really would have nowhere to look for him and would be left with no choice but to wait for the escaped prisoner to show up at Hogwarts.
Leonard was not about to underestimate Sirius Black.
The Ministry of Magic had already put out a wanted notice, and Sirius Black's picture, stamped with a tempting reward, had been spread all across Britain. Yet despite a manhunt that dense, Sirius Black had still not been found. Aside from the fact that he was a secret Animagus, his temperament and intelligence clearly could not be underestimated either.
As evening fell, the households in the neighborhood began preparing dinner one after another.
The British took dinner seriously, and the tempting smell of food drifted through the air.
Leonard sat in a tree, casually leaning against a branch that had bent toward him of its own accord, and looked through a "window" formed by parted leaves at the Dursleys' house.
The dinner was lavish. Stew, roast beef with vegetables and potatoes, the inevitable fries, an attractive dessert, and a rather expensive bottle of red wine.
The meal was for a fat woman. Leonard remembered her... she seemed to be a relative of the Dursleys.
Leonard pulled out a piece of candy and popped it into his mouth for a bit of energy as he watched the boy who, despite being right there beside the dinner table, could not even get a taste of cream.
That lavish dinner had nothing to do with Harry Potter. He still had to act like a waiter, catering to that family and that fat woman.
Even so, Harry Potter showed no sign of dissatisfaction. He was being careful because he wanted his uncle to sign the consent form allowing him to go to Hogsmeade.
"Oh, right. The permission slip... I should send Gray to handle that. I almost forgot."
A certain student who had long since stopped following school rules, and who had been to Hogsmeade so many times he had completely forgotten permission slips were even a thing, smacked himself on the forehead.