Hogwarts: Undercover Death Eater Replaces the Dark Lord

"How... do you do that?" Sirius was a little confused.

"How did you manage to stay sane while surrounded by so many Dementors in Azkaban..." Dumbledore asked, "Or rather, why did you choose to escape from Azkaban this year after being imprisoned for twelve years?"

"Actually... I don't know how I did it." Sirius shook his head slowly. "I think the only reason I didn't lose my mind is that I know I'm innocent."

"It's not a pleasant thought, not food for the Dementors, so it's not sucked out of my head... so I can keep my head clear and know who I am..."

When he said this, every pore on his face was trembling, as if he was remembering many terrible things.

"So, if the situation around me becomes unbearable and I'm about to give up, I can transform in the cell... into a dog. The Dementors can't see it..." Sirius swallowed hard.

"After spending so much time in Azkaban, I discovered that they rely on human emotions to locate prisoners. Only by sensing emotional fluctuations can they find a person's location... and they can tell that my emotions are... less like human emotions, less complex. This is what happened when I turned into a dog."

"But of course, they just thought I was losing my mind like everyone else in there... so they weren't worried about me running away."

"But even if I could transform into an animal to avoid their interference, I would still become weak in that environment, very weak... Without a wand, I have no hope of driving them away from me..."

Sirius closed his eyes, as if he was back in Azkaban. His already skinny body seemed to become even weaker. The cold wind blew at night, as if to blow him away in the night.

At this moment, Dumbledore patted him gently on the shoulder.

"Don't be anxious, speak slowly." said the old principal.

Fawkes stood on Dumbledore's shoulder, a streak of golden-red flame streaking across the sleeve of his purple pajamas, spreading the heat along Sirius's shoulder to his entire body.

Sirius's complexion instantly became much rosier, and he gradually regained some of his spirit.

He nodded slightly to Dumbledore, and then talked about the biggest twist in the whole matter -

"This physical weakness continued until a while ago, when Fudge came to Azkaban for inspection. I saw Peter transformed into a mouse in the newspaper in his hand..."

At this point, Sirius' voice became very heavy.

He took out the crumpled newspaper again and spread it out in front of everyone - on the newspaper was the photo of the Weasley family taken when they traveled to Egypt.

"Wait, are you sure you didn't take the wrong one?" Mrs. Weasley hadn't noticed Peter Pettigrew's change, and wasn't sure what the photo represented. She was immediately unhappy. "Isn't this a family photo of us? And Peter..."

However, before she could finish her question, she was interrupted by Mr. Weasley.

"Molly, Ron's mouse is Peter Pettigrew." Mr. Weasley shook his head at her and explained softly.

"What?!" Mrs. Weasley was startled. "Arthur, are you crazy?"

Mr. Weasley didn't know how to explain it for a moment, so he looked at Sirius and Lupin, wanting them to turn the mouse into a human again...

But at this moment, Dumbledore seemed to understand Mr. Weasley's dilemma. He turned to Lecos and smiled softly: "Lecos, can you show me the mouse?"

Lycos naturally had no objection and handed the rat trap to Dumbledore.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Scabbers in the cage kept struggling and biting the cage grille, but with its teeth that had been a pet mouse for a long time, how could it possibly bite through the cage specially made by Scamander that even 5X-level magical beasts could not break?

Dumbledore took the cage and, without even moving his wand, simply tapped the outside of it with his slender index finger.

The mouse seemed to be torn apart by some force in an instant, and its body quickly stretched and grew larger, several times faster than when Sirius and Lupin cast the spell before, and in the blink of an eye it turned into the appearance of Peter Pettigrew.

"Long time no see, Peter." Dumbledore withdrew his hand and chuckled as he looked at the cage that had grown bigger along with Peter Pettigrew.

"D... Dumbledore, long time no see..." Peter Pettigrew said tremblingly, huddled in the corner of the cage.

Mrs. Weasley was so shocked by this that she covered her mouth with both hands.

"Merlin's beard..." she murmured. "He turned into a rat and stayed in our house for several years?"

"To be precise, it's been nearly ten years." Mr. Weasley put his arm around her shoulders and said helplessly, "Relax. I was even more surprised than you when I saw this scene before."

"Actually, I was surprised too." Dumbledore nodded. "Although I couldn't believe it emotionally, because of the solid evidence, I also believed that Sirius had betrayed James and killed his good friend... But now it seems that the truth is about to come out."

He turned to look at Sirius and said calmly, "Sirius hasn't finished talking about how we escaped from Azkaban yet?"

"Yes, Sirius just mentioned seeing Peter in the newspaper," said Lupin.

Sirius nodded and continued to tell his story as the first escapee from Azkaban.

Peter Pettigrew in the cage next to him wanted to interrupt him, but he found that he had been put under the Tongue-Locking Curse without knowing when. His tongue seemed to be stuck to his palate, and he couldn't speak no matter what.

"I learned from the newspaper Fudge brought me that the young wizard was about to enter his third year at Hogwarts... and happened to be in the same class as Harry," Sirius said gloomily. "If the dark forces gather strength again and Peter gets even the slightest hint of it, he will definitely take action again..."

"Then, once he's sure he has an ally, he'll make his move, easily capture Harry, and hand the last of the Potter family over to the Death Eaters."

"So I have to take action, because I am the only one who knows that Peter is still alive... and I am Harry's godfather. I have a responsibility to protect his safety and not let him fall into the hands of the Death Eaters..."

Sirius glared at Peter Pettigrew fiercely, as if he wanted to kill him in the cage with his eyes, and continued to tell his story.

"Because of this belief, it was as if a fire was lit in my mind, and the coldness and darkness of the Dementors could not extinguish this fire... This was not a pleasant emotion, but a kind of obsession... This belief gave me strength and made my mind clear."

"So, one night, when the Dementors opened my door to deliver food, I, as a dog, slipped away from them... It's difficult for them to feel the emotions of animals because animals' emotions are chaotic..."

"I was very thin then, very thin... so thin that I could slip through the iron bars. So I slipped out of Azkaban successfully, relying on the dog's body to swim back to the mainland of England..."

"I don't know how I managed to hold on... I swam across the North Sea from the island of Azkaban, landed in Lincolnshire, and walked through Cambridge, Hertfordshire, and London as a stray dog..."

"Finally, I finally reached Surrey, Privet Drive in Little Whinging, and saw Harry from afar... He didn't seem to be having a good time at his aunt's house, but Harry grew up safely, and at least Peter wasn't with him this summer, so I was relieved..."

"So you also met Lycos in Little Whinging?" Dumbledore asked suddenly.

Sirius paused, glancing hesitantly at Lycos.

He didn't know how to explain the fact that he was abducted by Lycos and Regulus... Firstly, it would be embarrassing to tell it out loud, and secondly, Regulus' identity would also arouse suspicion.

However, before Sirius could think of a suitable solution, Lycos spoke first, "Yes, I met Sirius in Little Whinging."

"Oh?" Dumbledore looked at Lycos with interest.

"I was going to look for Harry, but I happened to see a big black dog on Magnolia Crescent." Lycos lied fluently, making up stories in an instant. "The black dog's eyes showed a lot of emotions. I was curious, so I used Legilimency to take a look..."

“Thus, I saw some unexpected stories through the black dog’s eyes – concern for Harry, grief for his own experience, and confusion about the future.”

“I knew then and there that this was no ordinary dog!”

Lycos stared at Sirius with a hint of amusement in his expression.

……

Chapter 195 Burrow

Sirius's face twitched stiffly.

Not an ordinary dog... Why does this sound so strange? It always feels like Lycos is cursing, but Sirius has no evidence.

"Even the Dementors couldn't detect Sirius's emotions in his animal state, so how could you use Legilimency to find them?" Mr. Weasley looked a little incredulous. "Besides, you're only a few years old. Legilimency isn't a simple magic..."

"Lex is indeed very talented in mental magic." Dumbledore interrupted Mr. Weasley with a chuckle. "If it's him, I can believe it."

Dumbledore glanced at Lycos with a meaningful look and said nothing more, as if he immediately believed what Lycos said.

Now it was Lycos who felt a little strange.

He knew very well that Dumbledore would not be so easily convinced by a lie, unless he had no intention of taking it to heart... The more Lecos thought about it, the more he felt that the old headmaster seemed to know something about the inside story, but he didn't know what he knew.

"Let's go. I think the person involved needs to know about this." Dumbledore smiled and turned his back. "Lex and Sirius, come with me...Lex can't Apparate yet."

"As for Sirius, at least for now, he is still the Ministry of Magic's most wanted criminal. Unauthorized Apparition may still attract the Ministry's attention... After all, any magic will leave traces."

And in order to save Sirius's face, Dumbledore did not say one thing directly -

Yorkshire is located in the northeast of England, not far from the Scottish border; while Devon, where the Burrow is located, is located in the southwest of England, connecting to the English Channel and the Bristol Channel.

Although those present were elite wizards, this distance was still too far to travel using Apparition.

It might be easier for others. Even if they couldn't reach their destination in one go, they could still Apparate in multiple times and at multiple transfer points and eventually return to the Burrow.

But Sirius was tortured by the Dementors in Azkaban for more than ten years, and after escaping from prison he was on the run for such a long time that he had no time to rest.

Being able to get from the Burrow to Yorkshire with the help of Regulus was already almost the limit. For Sirius, it was almost impossible to Apparate from Yorkshire back to Devonshire.

Dumbledore saw through this immediately, but he also knew that Sirius had always been a stubborn and face-conscious person, so he didn't say it explicitly... Of course, one of the reasons was that he was worried that Sirius's Apparition would be detected by the Ministry of Magic.

……

So, Fawkes stood on Dumbledore's shoulder, Lycos and Sirius each pulled a hair of its tail, and under the cover of golden-red flames, the three of them appeared in front of the crooked house of the Burrow.

In the yard in front of the Burrow, there were a few old hens, flapping their wings and staring curiously at the huge golden-red "rooster" on Dumbledore's shoulder.

A moment later, with a series of "crackling" sounds like firewood exploding, other people also appeared in the yard one after another.

"Go away, don't interfere with our work." Mrs. Weasley muttered as she kicked the old hen aside and walked into the crooked house with Lecos and others.

The Weasley family's Burrow can be regarded as a typical building in the wizarding world.

Because of the existence of magic such as permanent sticking spells and stabilizing spells, in the magical world, building houses does not require much attention to architectural mechanics.

Therefore, if a wizard wants to build a house, he usually just piles up the materials and roughly pieces them together into a shape that can be used for living.

If you feel that the house is not big enough, you can continue to piece the materials together and then use the permanent glue spell to connect the upper and lower parts together, so it is easy to make the house crooked and strangely shaped.

Of course, because of this tradition of building houses, wizards' aesthetic taste for architecture has gradually changed.

Many wizards have come to love this crooked architecture, calling it an eclectic aesthetic...

Now, Lycos and others were sitting in such an eclectic living room, surrounding an oil-stained square table. You looked at each other, and no one knew where to start.

"Banban!"

The quiet atmosphere was broken by Ron Weasley.

The Weasley children heard the noise outside and ran down from the room one by one.

Ron immediately saw that Scabbers had turned back into a mouse and was cowering in the cage, so he quickly jumped to the side of the square table and wanted to release the mouse from the cage.

"Hey, how did you open this cage?" Ron glared at Lycos, "Let my Scabbers out quickly, or you'll regret it!"

Before Lycos could answer, the voice of another young wizard came from the crooked staircase.

"Ahem!" Harry coughed loudly, and at the same time kept winking at Ron, trying to remind him to pay attention to his surroundings.

Because Harry discovered that, sitting beside the Weasley family's square table, was a man with tangled hair, a haggard face, and a gaunt look.

Harry felt that he would never forget the look of this man. He also read the Muggle TV news, the Daily Prophet, and the news about his godfather that Lycos had told him...

Harry still remembers the impact these things had on him time and time again.

Now, Sirius Black, the most wanted criminal in the wizarding world and even in the Muggle world, was sitting quietly just two or three steps to Ron's left!

"What's wrong with your eyes, Harry?" Ron didn't realize what was happening, but he thought Harry's winking behavior was a little strange.

'Look...to...your...left...' Harry mouthed silently.