Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 351 I've traveled across the ocean to see you

When Sherlock and Harry reached the second floor of the Shrieking Shack, they were surprised to find a door half-open on the landing.

Harry instinctively looked at Sherlock with an inquiring gaze.

To his surprise, Sherlock walked up to him without any hesitation and pushed the door open.

A luxurious four-poster bed immediately came into view, but in stark contrast to the exquisite and luxurious bed, the curtains were covered in dust.

But what's even more eye-catching than them is a figure with its back to the door, seemingly tidying up an old box under the bed.

When he heard Sherlock push open the door, he jumped up.

However, when he turned around, he froze on the spot.

At that moment, Sirius Black's gray eyes, which had been shrouded in the shadow of Azkaban, suddenly widened.

Because he saw Harry holding a wand at the door.

He had a face similar to his father James, and his black hair, which seemed to never give up, stood up like Harry's, and he also wore glasses.

Behind the glasses are green eyes exactly like her mother Lily's; anyone who has seen Lily would never doubt this.

In Sherlock and Harry's eyes, Sirius Black's condition was just as bad as the wanted poster suggested.

Her once long, straight black hair was now dirty and tangled, hanging down to her elbows.

His waxy skin clung tightly to the bone structure of his face, and his deep, dark eye sockets made him look like a skull.

Even so, his slightly hunched body was still undeniably tall, appearing to be at least six feet two or three inches.

"Harry?"

Perhaps because he hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time, Sirius's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper being rubbed.

However, both Sherlock and Harry could see that the other person was still grinning with his yellow teeth wide open.

"You...you actually came! How did you find this place? And...who are you?"

Sirius's gaze fell on Sherlock.

At this moment, Sherlock had somehow put on leather gloves and was picking up a sandwich from the table to examine it closely with a magnifying glass.

“Sherlock Holmes, I think you should have heard of me, Mr. Sirius.”

Sherlock put the sandwich back on the table and looked at Sirius:
"Interesting, dandelion jam with a touch of styrax—it seems you didn't forget to add anxiety-relieving herbs when preparing your escape meal."

Sirius was startled when he heard this address.

He stared at Sherlock, who had the same gray eyes as him, as if he had long forgotten that no one had spoken to him so politely in a very, very long time.

"Sherlock Holmes."

Sirius silently repeated the name, scrutinizing Sherlock from head to toe for a long time before slowly saying:

“I know you, Harry’s best friend at school, the new Lion King of Gryffindor…”

Just as Sherlock had predicted, Sirius breathed a long sigh of relief when he saw that the person who had come with Harry to find him was Sherlock.

“I never expected it would be you who came to find me—I thought you would send a letter via the cat first.”

Sirius paused for a moment, then slowly said:
"That way we can choose a more suitable place to meet, but... how did you find this place?"

"Harry thinks I found this place from the Marauder's Map, which is actually half right."

After all, this can no longer be considered Hogwarts, when I…

"The Marauder's Map is in your hands!" Sirius exclaimed before Sherlock could finish speaking.

"It was enough for me to see your name disappear from this passage under the Willow Tree."

I'd rather come and see you in person than have a cat deliver a message to you.

Sherlock finished speaking first, then looked around at his surroundings before continuing to answer Sirius's question:
"Yes, the Marauder's Map was in Harry's hands, and it played a significant role in capturing Peter Pettigrew."

Ironically, he had also contributed to drawing that map, but unexpectedly, it was this map that ultimately exposed his whereabouts.

It can be said that karma is cyclical, and retribution is inevitable.

At this moment, Harry also stepped forward and took out the letter Crookshanks had brought that day from his pocket.

The note, written in trembling handwriting, reads: "If you agree, please send a message so this cat can find me."

"Sherlock always manages to find the truth where others can't see it."

Harry himself hadn't expected that when he finally met Sirius, his emotions would be so intense, yet his voice would remain so calm.

His green eyes met Sirius's gray eyes, and he spoke clearly:
“I believe in you, just as my father believed in you back then.”

"Truth and trust."

Sirius Black repeated the two words softly, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Harry, you’re just like your father. That’s how your dad treats his friends.”

You are all so brave to risk your own safety to clear my name. I am very grateful.

"why not?"

Sherlock tilted his head. "The matter has been clarified. The one who betrayed Harry's parents was Peter Pettigrew, not you."

"But I essentially killed them."

Sirius said in a hoarse voice:
"I was so stupid, really."

I only knew that I wouldn't betray my friends; I didn't know that Peter had already betrayed us.

I convinced Lily and James to switch the Secret Service agent from me to Peter at the last minute; they did so out of trust in me.

The night they died, I went to see Peter to make sure he was safe and sound.

But when I arrived at his hiding place, he was already gone.

There were no signs of a struggle... I felt something was wrong...

I got scared... so I went straight to where your parents live.

When I saw their house, it was destroyed, and I also saw their bodies.

I know Peter must have done something bad, I know... how big a mistake I made.

Sirius finally couldn't continue.

At this moment, he was already in tears.

Harry too.

A somber atmosphere began to permeate the room.

“If you don’t mind, Mr. Sirius, I have a question.”

Just then, Sherlock suddenly spoke, asking somewhat abruptly:
"How exactly did you escape Azkaban? Was it solely through Animagus?"

Sirius glanced at Sherlock in surprise, then turned to Harry, only to see the latter nod at him.

In any case, while Sherlock's question seemed somewhat inappropriate in this context, it did indeed alleviate the somber atmosphere.

"I don't know how I did it."

Sirius Black spoke slowly, as if organizing his thoughts: "I think the only reason I haven't lost my mind is that I know I'm innocent."

This was clearly not a pleasant thought, so the Dementors didn't suck it out of my head.

That's why I can keep a clear head and know who I am, which also helps me preserve my magic.

When I can no longer bear the situation around me, I transform into a dog.

"Can't the Dementors see the dog after it transforms through the Animagus?"

Sherlock's eyes lit up.

"I don't know."

Sirius swallowed hard, trying to regain his composure before speaking, making his accent sound somewhat strange:
"They are able to perceive human emotions, thus sensing the presence of humans and approaching them."

But when I became a dog, they seemed to judge that my emotions were not as complex as human emotions.

To them, I am just like everyone else there, losing my mind, so they are not worried.

But I was very weak, extremely weak, and without my wand, there was absolutely no hope of getting rid of them.

"You mean the Patronus?"

"Correct!"

Sirius looked at Sherlock again in surprise, as if he hadn't expected that Sherlock would know such a profound spell.

"If nothing unexpected happens, I think I won't be able to hold on for more than a few years, until..."

"Until you saw Peter in that picture in the Daily Prophet."

You know Peter's transformed appearance better than anyone else; even Professor Lupin couldn't recognize him at a glance, but you could.

So from that moment on, you made up your mind to escape, right?

Sirius Black spoke rather slowly, so Sherlock simply finished the rest of the sentence for him.

"you're right!"

Sirius looked at Sherlock with surprise once again, gaining a deeper understanding of what made this generation's Lion King so different.

He actually has a brain!
"But how did you know about this? I haven't told anyone yet."

"It's really not worth mentioning. People used to think you chose to escape from Azkaban to hunt down Harry, but that's obviously not true."

You've been in Azkaban for a full twelve years. If it were really for Harry, there would be no need to wait until this year to take action.

We didn't know you were after Peter Pettigrew was captured.

But then again, you'll only take action once you've confirmed that Peter Pettigrew is still alive.

As an Azkaban prisoner, you only have a few ways of getting information about the outside world.

Newspapers are one of them.

For Peter Pettigrew, as the pet rat of a wizarding family, opportunities to appear in public, especially in front of the prisoners in Azkaban, were few and far between.

In conclusion, there is only one source that can confirm this information for you—the photograph of the Weasley family in Egypt.

On the other hand, Minister of Magic Fudge told Harry that when he met him earlier this year, he gave him a newspaper to play a crossword puzzle with.

Shortly after that incident, you successfully escaped from prison.

This makes the matter all too obvious; it's practically child's play.

Sirius was stunned after hearing Sherlock's analysis.

He stared at Sherlock with an incredulous look, and it took him a while to come to his senses.

"Holmes, you really are..."

He paused for a moment, then said, "If I didn't know it was impossible, I would even suspect that you used Legilimency on me."

"It is foreseeable that you will not be the first person to say something to me, nor will you be the last."

Awesome!
Harry, standing nearby, heard Sherlock say the most pretentious thing in the calmest tone, and felt as if his friend was shining brightly at that moment.

At this moment, Sirius Black also reached his claw-like hand into his robe and took out a crumpled piece of paper.

He smoothed out the newspaper and placed it on the table.

Sherlock and Harry immediately recognized it as the issue of the Daily Prophet with the story of the Ministry of Magic employee winning a grand prize.

Looking back now, the one standing on Ron's shoulder in the very center is Scabbers—back then, it was still chubby and had no idea of ​​its impending fate.

"So you saw this photo, and that's why you asked Fudge for this newspaper?"

Now it was Harry's turn to ask a question.

"good."

Sirius looked up, as if lost in memories, "When he visited Azkaban this year, he was chatting with me while looking at this newspaper."

I've seen this bastard transform countless times, so I recognized the mouse on the boy's shoulder as Peter at a glance.

More importantly, I discovered that it was missing a claw, which further confirmed my judgment.

So I used the excuse of doing a crossword puzzle to get the newspaper—Fudge had no doubt about it at all.

Just as Holmes said, I learned from the text beneath the photograph that the boy would be returning to Hogwarts to attend school, to where Harry was.

So I made up my mind that I had to take action.

Because I am the only one who knows that Peter is still alive.

If he is even a step too late, and Peter learns that he has allies, he will act and hand over the last member of the Potter family to them.

If he hands Harry over to them, then who would dare say he ever betrayed Voldemort?
He will return laden with honors.

again.

Sherlock looked at Sirius.

It seems that starting this year, more and more wizards are daring to directly mention Voldemort's name.

First Lupin, then Sirius.

interesting.

"Ever since that thought came to me, I couldn't stay still."

It was as if someone had lit a fire in my head, and even those terrifying Dementors couldn't extinguish it. I guess that's because it wasn't a pleasant thought.

It was this thought that gave me the strength to clear my mind, which had been somewhat muddled.

So one night, while they were opening the door to bring me food, I turned into a dog and slipped out.

As I mentioned before, they are not that sensitive to animals.

But even I didn't expect that I could get away with it so easily.

Fortunately, after twelve years in Azkaban, I became very, very thin, just thin enough to squeeze through the iron fence.

By the time they discovered this, I had already swum across the ocean in dog form, returned to the mainland, and completely left Azkaban.

(End of this chapter)