"He's over there!"
"Hurry. Don't let him get away."
In the dead of night, several wizards ran off in pursuit.
Once the hurried footsteps had faded into the distance, a black dog with a wand clenched in its mouth crawled out of a roadside rubbish bin. It glanced at its fur, matted into knots and soaked through with foul stink, and its mood immediately turned sour.
Just as he thought. How could anyone on the run possibly still have the leisure to tidy themselves up?
He had actually fallen for that weirdo's nonsense.
Sirius spat out the wand and dropped his Animagus form.
Still, it was a good thing he had the wand that man gave him. It was not especially suited to him, but it was more than enough to help him avoid those hyenas hunting him.
Sirius looked at the distant figures of the wizards, wariness written all over his eyes.
Their clothing was a little strange. Unlike the long robes worn by ordinary wizards, which got in the way of movement, these people wore narrow sleeves and had no dragging hems, making them look much neater and more capable.
They were bounty hunters, a group of wizards who specialized in rewards. The Ministry's wanted posters were their hunting list, and the more dangerous the prey, the more interested they became.
These people were strong, almost every one of them at the level of a dueling tournament contestant. In terms of combat magic, they were practically on par with the Ministry's Hit Wizards, and when it came to hunting certain fugitives, they were sometimes even better than Hit Wizards.
They were far more professional at tracking people down.
Unfortunately, people like that operated in the gray areas, sneered at the law, and when they acted, they often ignored consequences and costs alike.
Whenever they moved, a batch of Aurors usually had to come along afterward to clean up the mess.
So Sirius had deliberately leaked his own trail, luring those hyenas over while also drawing away most of the Ministry's Aurors.
He absolutely could not let those people get anywhere near Hogwarts. Quite aside from how dangerous they were and whether they might affect the students, simply having them gathered around Hogwarts would already interfere badly with his plan.
He could not let them frighten his godson.
Though, to be fair, his own first meeting with Harry had already frightened the boy. That was what happened when your Animagus form was an ominous black dog. If it had been a rabbit or something, he probably could have gone straight up to Harry and passed himself off as a pet.
"I still need to lure them farther away and create a time gap..."
Holding the wand, Sirius planned to lead his trail all the way abroad, creating the impression that he had fled the country. Then he could Apparate all the way to Hogwarts himself.
Once those dangerous lunatics followed his trail out of Britain, then the world would be wide open for him. After all, those people were well known to Ministries in every country, and going in and out across borders would be a real nuisance for them.
That would give him enough time to find Peter Pettigrew and crush him.
Thank Merlin for this wand. Without it, his plan would have been much more troublesome.
Just as Sirius was about to head for the next village to continue laying out his false trail, he suddenly heard a familiar sound above him.
"Caw. Caw."
The cry of a raven, clearly carrying some sort of emotion, made Sirius look up. That familiar raven with blood-red eyes dropped down and landed in front of him, and Sirius's grip on his wand tightened slightly.
So this sneaky bastard had finally shown up.
Thinking of the bargain he had made to get this wand, Sirius let out a long breath and asked, "What do you want?"
"Just checking whether you need help, Mr. Ten-Thousand-Galleons." Harris Raymons's voice came from the raven. "You've got yourself a wand? Very nice."
Sirius calmly put the wand away, not letting the other side get a good look at it.
Compared with the raven in front of him, that strange plant-controlling fellow who had shown his face before actually seemed more trustworthy. At least that one had been open and direct, even about his purpose.
But this one was still playing hide-and-seek.
Harris Raymons did not care about Sirius's little movement and continued, "I truly didn't expect the Ministry to put such an outrageous price on your head. Back then, even Grindelwald only fetched five thousand."
That was simply another way of referring to Galleons.
"Who knows? They're acting as though I murdered their mothers." Sirius rolled his eyes.
He had not expected the Ministry to take him this seriously either.
Then again, if the reward had not been so ridiculously high, it would have been much harder to rile up those cunning hyenas enough to make them lose their judgment...
"Which is exactly why I suspect the Ministry never intended to pay that money in the first place," Harris Raymons said.
Sirius noticed that while the voice spoke, the raven itself was not moving at all. It even took a moment to preen its feathers.
So the other party was not an Animagus. This raven was not him. He was transmitting his voice through some other method.
Sirius silently filed that point away.
"Hah. Whether the Ministry intends to pay or not is their business. All I know is that the reward has indeed caused me some trouble, though only a little." Sirius shook his head at the raven. "I don't need your help. I'll say it again. I don't trust you."
"Tsk. The way you're acting, anyone would think I'd done you harm before. I'm trying to save you," Harris Raymons said.
"You hide your face, and I don't even know your name. And you expect me to trust you? Are you taking me for a child?" Sirius said disdainfully.
"All right, then perhaps that really is my fault. In that case, let me introduce myself." Harris Raymons let out a burst of laughter. "My name is Harris Raymons."
"That's it?" Sirius frowned.
Just one name, and for all he knew it could be fake?
Yes, that strange plant-controlling man had also said that a name was the bare minimum. But from the point of view of the one being asked to trust, a name that might not even be real was not worth much.
"That's already perfectly sincere of me. Besides, you're going to Hogwarts anyway. Ask anyone there and they'll know who I am," Harris Raymons said casually.
He had no intention of hiding his identity. According to his teacher, what he had done was not wrong, and even if Sirius spoke to Dumbledore about it afterward, Dumbledore would only thank him.
A clear conscience feared no accusation.
From the sound of it, this name had appeared at Hogwarts before, and had been fairly well known there?
Sirius thought for a moment, then tried a guess.
"You weren't a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, were you?"
Harris Raymons: ...
What the hell was wrong with this man? Why did he have to poke right at the sore spot?
So what if I was a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?