Leonard thought it over for quite a while and confirmed that he was not going to squeeze any more information out of Sirius.
Still, he was not planning to let him go just yet.
He took out a living wood vine and pressed it to his face. The vine writhed and transformed into the face of a pale middle-aged man.
Then Leonard walked around to stand in front of the panicked Sirius and met his eyes.
"Look into my eyes."
As Leonard spoke, his eyes suddenly turned into a vortex, as if they were about to swallow Sirius's mind whole.
Legilimency.
The moment he saw it, Sirius immediately understood what magic the other party was using.
He had not expected the other man to be a Legilimens. Sirius felt a wave of relief. Fortunately, he had not gambled on lying. Otherwise, he would definitely have been exposed under Legilimency, and that would have ruined things for both him and Harry.
Sirius felt as though his memories were being flipped through like the pages of a book. He wanted to resist, but there was nothing he could do.
Legilimency was an extremely advanced form of magic. Other than the corresponding Occlumency, there was almost no real way to defend against it.
It was practically the same as laying out all your memories for someone else to inspect. For any normal person, that kind of experience was a torment that was impossible to ignore.
Fortunately, Leonard had no intention of prying into Sirius's privacy. Once he confirmed that everything Sirius had said was true, he let him off.
"Mr. Black, I'm glad you cooperated. Even though you didn't actually help me in any way, I'm satisfied with your attitude, so here's a bit of advice. Wash yourself. At the very least, don't make yourself look like some monster that crawled out of the mountains."
Then Leonard added, "Since we've cooperated so pleasantly, how about doing me a favor?"
Sirius fell silent. He very much wanted to ask the man behind all this whether, in his current state, he even had the option to refuse.
What if he refused and the other man turned him in for the bounty?
"What do you want me to do?" Sirius asked.
"It's simple. If you run into that person who wanted to help you escape again... that raven, get him talking. At the very least, I want his name," Leonard said.
Sirius was quiet for a moment, then said half-jokingly and half-seriously, "You're not expecting me to work for free, are you? At a time like this, shouldn't you be telling me what I get out of it?"
Sirius was clever. He had keenly sensed that Leonard did not seem to intend to kill him. If that was the case, and the other man needed something from him, then maybe Sirius could get something in return.
Even if he was caught and his life was still in the other man's hands.
"Of course. I care more than anyone about fair exchange." Leonard took a wand out of the miniature man-eating flower's storage space and tossed it in front of Sirius. "I imagine this is what you need most right now."
Leonard had no intention of threatening Sirius with his life to make him work.
That kind of thing was too likely to backfire and provoke Sirius's rebellious streak.
This man might be smart, but he was a Gryffindor. Just as expected, he was also a reckless hothead.
When recklessness and intelligence came together, they always created unexpected trouble, so Leonard would much rather pay a small, insignificant price and have Sirius work for him willingly.
Leonard had made this wand himself. The wood on the outside came from bitter thorn he had grown himself, and the core was unicorn tail hair. The materials had cost him nothing, and it had just been a practice piece anyway, so Leonard did not mind giving it away in the slightest. Nor was he worried that Sirius would be able to trace it back to him through the wand.
A wand.
Sirius's eyes lit up.
That was exactly what he needed most right now. With a wand, life would become much easier, and even if he ran into the people hunting him, he would not have to just surrender without resistance.
Leonard caught that flash of delight on Sirius's face. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Don't tell me you can't use magic without a wand."
"Who even uses wandless magic? Getting things done that way is too hard, and the spells are weak. I don't like it," Sirius answered without hesitation.
"If you had put even a little more effort into that ability you dislike so much, you wouldn't be in such a miserable state now," Leonard said dryly.
He genuinely could not understand it. British wizards seemed to become useless the moment they were separated from their wands. Dumbledore was like that, and Voldemort even more so.
Leonard glanced at the system. The final enhancement node in the growth branch was called Plant Revival, and it could revive any plant within a designated area.
Once he unlocked that enhancement, would he not become the natural enemy of all wizards? One use of Plant Revival and their wands would turn back into living plants, the kind that obeyed Leonard's commands.
No wizard had probably ever seen anything like that before. Even Dumbledore would likely lose to an ability like that.
Grindelwald was the only exception. Leonard still had not seen through that man completely. By Grindelwald's own account, he was already walking the path of exploring the Eternal Wizard.
Judging by how he had performed in the tower of Nurmengard, not having a wand probably would not affect him much. At most, it might only startle him.
"You make a very good point, sir. By the way, what should I call you?" Sirius rolled his eyes inwardly. He was not some diligent student. If he did not know for certain that he would need something later, he would never bother putting in the effort to learn it.
"You don't need to call me anything. I'll be watching you, and I'll contact you when the time is right."
Leonard snapped his fingers and undid the restraints binding Sirius Black. At the same time, while Sirius was not paying attention, he planted a seed with sealed vitality beneath Sirius's skin.
Sirius hit the ground, sucked in a sharp breath from the pain, and struggled to his feet.
"How are you going to contact me?" Sirius asked in confusion. "Once I have a wand, I'll hide myself with magic right away. Owls won't be able to find me."
"You don't need to worry about that." Leonard glanced at Sirius's filthy, disheveled state and silently took another step back. "Oh, right. One more piece of advice."
"What?" Sirius asked, confused.
"Clean yourself up before you do anything. The way you look right now makes me want to throw up," Leonard said flatly.
Sirius rolled his eyes and answered irritably, "Sorry, sir. I'm on the run, not on my way to a banquet."
"But the way you look really does make you seem exactly like the wanted poster says. Crazy, vicious, filthy, and reeking all over. Looking like that, no matter what you do or say, it'll be hard for anyone to trust you."
Leonard shrugged slightly. "Just a friendly reminder."
Sirius clearly did not care. He obviously had not taken Leonard's words to heart.