0239 Thoughts

On the third floor of the castle, in the Student Safety Office, a cozy and quiet room with a fireplace and a couch, two cats were resting. One was a ginger tabby with a squashed face and a fluffy tail, named Crookshanks. The other was a black cat with amber eyes and a silver collar, named Tom.

But, Tom was not an ordinary cat.

Since Bryan, left the office, Tom and Crookshanks had been lying on the couch, bored and dozing off. Tom silently thought about the encounter with Remus and Harry, who had nowhere to go for Christmas and had to stay at Hogwarts. He felt a pang of guilt and sadness for his old friend and harry, who had suffered so much because of him. Additionally, the words Watson, said to him kept circling in his mind.

To be honest, Sirius had never thought of himself as a hero.

Yes, he felt regret, deep and bitter regret for trusting Peter Pettigrew, the traitor who sold out his best friends to the Dark Lord. And in the twelve years in Azkaban, he constantly regretted his past mistakes, while enduring the torment of the soul-sucking Dementors.

But he never thought of himself as a coward!

After James and Lily Potter's tragic death, in order to make up for his mistakes, he immediately went to seek revenge on Peter. Of course, that cowardly rat fooled him by faking his own death and framing him for the murder of twelve Muggles. And then, because of people's accusation and prejudice, he was thrown into Azkaban by the Ministry of Magic, without a fair trial or a chance to explain.

He bravely endured it, never thinking of defending himself, because even though he did not betray Lily and James, he still had an undeniable responsibility. He was the one who suggested to switch to Peter, thinking that rat would be less suspicious. He was the one who failed to protect his friends and their son.

But in Watson's eyes, his choice was a cowardly escape, even worse than Snape, that slimy git.

Sirius didn't care about Snape's allegiance to Dumbledore. He believed that Snape was only afraid of being targeted by the Ministry of Magic after Voldemort's downfall, so he sought Dumbledore's protection. The idea of lifelong love was even more ridiculous, especially since Snape had called Lily a "mudblood".

But he couldn't deny that after seeing Remus up close and hearing about Harry's situation, he began to doubt himself.

Sirius knew very well that for Remus, the greatest pain was not the poverty he lived in, or the discrimination he faced as a werewolf, but the fact that Sirius had "betrayed" James and Lily, and "killed" Peter. Because for Remus, it meant that their cherished friendship was all a lie, and all those happy memories were false. He had lost everything he cared about, and Sirius was the one who took it away from him.

And as for Harry… Sirius didn't want to admit it, but he couldn't argue against it either. Compared to taking care of James's orphaned son, who looked so much like him, he would rather die.

Death was simple, but it took greater courage to bear the pain and move forward.

In this regard, Watson's evaluation of him was not just a simple mockery.

Compared to his previous form as a large black dog, Crookshanks obviously preferred the cat version of Sirius. It lay next to Tom, occasionally using its paws to play with Tom's drooping ears, thoroughly enjoying itself. 

"Do you think I'm a coward too?" Tom meowed, hoping Crookshanks would give it an answer. But Crookshanks only blinked at him lazily, and then yawned, showing its sharp teeth.

Thinking about these questions, Tom became increasingly restless. Moreover, the fire in the fireplace was burning fiercely, making the room very hot. Tom stretched its body and jumped off the couch, agilely landing on the windowsill on the other side, hoping to open the window for some fresh air. He longed to see the outside world, the blue sky, the green grass, the snow-covered mountains. 

But as soon as its cat paw touched the handle, a black shadow flashed behind the transparent glass window pane. Before Tom could react, a gentle but irresistible force pushed it out, causing it to tumble a few times on the ground before finally stopping.

'That guy!'

Tom angrily meowed. 

To prevent him from running around, Bryan had used magic to seal the entire office. 

At that moment, the red flames in the fireplace briefly turned green, and the outline of a head tried to appear, but before Tom could see clearly, the flashing black shadow blocked it back.

'He even blocked the Floo network in the school,' Tom thought with frustration, 'Isn't he a bit too cautious?'

Compared to other professors, Bryan's desk was relatively simple. There was no clutter, no ornaments, Just a plain pen holder with an extremely simple feather pen, a blue ink bottle and a photo of him and Grandma Ferrena on the right side. 

Apart from these, there was only a stack of parchment documents on the table. They were reports from the Ministry of Magic, letters from Dumbledore, and notes from some books. After jumping onto the table and taking a glance, Sirius lost interest. 

Boring—

That was Tom's evaluation of the office. It crouched on the desk, scanning the room with its keen eyes. It had already explored every corner of the office, and found nothing interesting. It turned its head, and its gaze naturally fell on the black curtain that draped on the floor of the room.

'What is that thing? It looks mysterious?'

The black curtain was the only thing that Tom had not touched. It was thick and heavy, covering something large and bulky. It seemed to be hiding a secret behind it—Tom easily made this guess.

'Should I open it and take a look?'

That was the subsequent question that popped into Tom's mind. If it were back at Hogwarts, this hesitation would never have occurred to Tom. He was always curious and adventurous, and never afraid of getting into trouble. But the situation was different now, and for the sake of his revenge plan, he had to avoid provoking Bryan Watson as much as possible.

'Time really changes a lot of things'— Sirius/Tom thought sadly.

It resisted its desire and prepared to return to the couch to pass the time by sleeping. But as it turned its head, it happened to see Crookshanks also curiously looking in this direction.

Hmm—

A mischievous glint flashed in Tom's gray eyes, and its long whiskers perked up. 

After bidding farewell to Harry and Hermione, Bryan didn't waste any time and quickly walked down the Gryffindor Tower to his office.

He walked briskly through the corridors, greeting the students and the portraits along the way. 

Approaching class time, many young wizards hurriedly walked back and forth, turning the snow on the courtyard into solid ice. They were eager to get to their classes, or to the Great Hall for lunch, or to the library for study.

A cold gust of wind blew through, causing the long icicles hanging from the eaves to crash down, but Bryan quickly flicked his wand and sent a red light to disperse the sparkling ice into a flurry of powder before leaving.

"That was really cool!" Cedric Diggory, who had just been saved from the falling ice, said with admiration to his companion. 

"I really hope Professor Watson continues to teach us Defense Against the Dark Arts!" his companion replied.

"Oh, come on!" the nearby Hufflepuff wizard said grumpily. "I don't want to spend most of the school year in the hospital!"

"What are you up to?" 

Entering the hall from the back door, in the Great hall, Bryan unexpectedly ran into Professor Snape, who had just walked up from the basement, and smiled as soon as he saw him, but before he could greet him, Snape, who had just walked up from the basement, stopped in front of the Great Hall. With a red mark under his nose, he gritted his teeth and said, "I was about to send the potion for that werewolf through the Floo Network to you, but I found that you had blocked the fireplace?"

Bryan couldn't help but smirk at Snape's disheveled appearance.

"I just went to the Gryffindor common room to give Mr. Longbottom his wand—" Bryan said casually.

"Pomona said you woke up early just to find a wand for the empty-headed Longbottom?" Snape interrupted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"If you really have nothing to do, Bryan, I think you might as well take over the job of making potions for that werewolf."

"Unless Dumbledore is willing to pay me overtime, I won't take this hard job." Bryan said with a smile. "I accidentally found out about a secret passage under the Whomping Willow last night, so I went to check it out."

Snape paused for a moment, his thin lips pursed tightly, and his face turned pale.

"The secret passage under the Whomping Willow—"

Snape's breathing became heavy, and he stared at Bryan with a suspicious and fearful look. "You- that werewolf told you? What else did he say?"

"So, you know about it too?" Bryan raised an eyebrow. "That means you also know that there was a secret passage?"

Snape's eyes turned dark, and he didn't want to talk anymore. He looked away from Bryan's probing gaze.

Seeing his reaction, Bryan didn't want to push it further. He just wanted to find an opportunity to ask Black about the story behind this secret passage.

"There's something—"

As he passed Remus's office, Bryan suddenly asked casually, "Last week, when I was negotiating with Cornelius Fudge about the Dementors, I heard some things about Peter Pettigrew from Professor McGonagall. What do you think of this person?"

'Peter Pettigrew?' Upon hearing this question, Snape immediately saw a timid and cowardly figure in his mind. Always following behind those three arrogant and reckless people, agreeing with their opinions without expressing his own, and overall, having no presence at all.

During his time at Hogwarts, when he was at odds with Potter and his gang, Snape didn't pay much attention to Peter Pettigrew. In his eyes, the small guy was just a lackey to Potter and Black, not worth much attention. But he never expected that this insignificant person would make such a surprising move and confront Black on that fateful day.

"He's decent enough—" Snape paused, and a hint of suspicion appeared in his eyes. "At least among that group of idiots, he's somewhat courageous."

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Suggestions and Bad-News

Hi everyone, 

Author here.

I have some questions for you and I would appreciate your honest feedback: 🙌

- Do you think the pacing of the story is too slow? Should I speed it up or keep it as it is?

- What do you think I should add or change in the next chapters? Do you have any suggestions or requests like; Sirius's cat version name?

Please let me know what you think in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you. 😊

Also, I have some bad news. I got a back sprain. It hurts like hell and I won't be able to update the story after tomorrow for the next two days. 😔 I apologize for the inconvenience and I hope you understand. 😓

Thank you for your patience and support. I'll be back as soon as possible with more updates. 😊

I promise that I will implement your suggestions in the story after the updates are resumed.