Chapter 243

"Well, all right. Why did you come here? I'm glad you decided to feed a harmless stray dog, of course, but still?"

"I have a couple of questions, Sirius. First - why do you look so awful? You could move into Alphard's house. He bequeathed it to you."

"Yeah?" Sirius was genuinely surprised. "I didn't know. Probably should have visited the bank."

"No, Sirius," Potter interjected. "You could get caught."

"Nah…" Black waved him off, taking a bite and chewing a piece of the pie. "Goblins don't care."

"What do you know about Henry Fawley?"

"Fawley? Hmm..." Sirius scratched his shapeless beard thoughtfully. "I remember something ... I had just started my first year at that time. There was some kind of violent conflict between the Fawley and the Greengrass. At that time, I did not delve into the affairs of families, new acquaintances, school, you know ... But I heard that then one of the Greengrass girls disappeared, half of all Fawley's died, and then it turned out that the then head of Greengrass became almost a squib under unclear circumstances. It was all a big secret, but rumors here, rumors there, and even at home spoke. Henry and his friends were to blame. Nobody saw them again, by the way. Why so much interest?"

"There are suspicions that Henry Fawley, now Greengrass, has run away from his family and is helping Voldemort gain power for some purpose of his own."

"Yes? According to rumors, he can."

Sirius finished another slice of pie, pulled out a flask of juice, and drained it, leaning against the wall of the grotto with pleasure.

"It was rumored that he had some kind of rare magical ability. Either because of it or simply because of his bad temper, he was extremely ... He was a scumbag, a marvel that he was a Huff. When I first came to work at Auror Office, I saw a lot of cases closed due to a lack of evidence. Fawley secretly sympathized with Voldemort. True, after almost no one was left of them, they calmed down."

"Huffs and You-Know-Who?" seems to be a day of discovery for Ron. "That's crazy..."

"So it is," Sirius nodded.

"All right, gentlemen," I got up from the couch, and Hermione followed me. "You obviously wanted to tell each other some secrets here."

Ron looked at me seriously.

"I'm this... Max. Anyway... Well... I guess I was wrong..."

"It's even good that we figured it out now. Otherwise, if you'd called me a death eater's son a couple more times, I would have hammered those words back into you so that your teeth would have come out of your ass, not in front of the ladies for other details."

"That's great!" Sirius clapped his hands together, showing his strikingly yellow teeth. "Then I'll say my thanks, too. For the Dementors and Wormtail."

Nodding goodbye to them all, we quickly left the grotto.

"You didn't tell me," Hermione took me under her arm, "that the older Malfoy tried to kill you."

"Snape tried to kill me, too."

"You're suddenly very talkative."

"I think we're sufficiently proficient in occlumency. And with legilimency in the forehead with a wand, not every professional will be safe."

We walked down the hill and made our way to Hogsmeade. We went to the Three Broomsticks and, taking the far table in the dark corner, ordered a hearty lunch - after all, they do not only drink beer here. When Madame Rosmerta, the owner of the tavern, a middle-aged and lush lady, brought the tray with the order, we cast a silencing spell. Then, over a leisurely lunch, the conversation began by itself.

"So. Lucius Malfoy tried to kill you three times."

"Yes."

"Somehow, I'm sure you helped him go to the afterlife."

"Do you judge me?"

Hermione shook her head negatively and decided to dispose of her steak first.

"A couple of years ago, I would have been horrified. A couple of years ago, I would have tried to tell you how wrong it all was. Now I realize that you were protecting your life by getting rid of the threat. Albeit radically."

"I'm glad you don't judge me."

"Just a little bit. Somewhere inside, I believe that another option could have been found. Perhaps under different circumstances."

"Perhaps..."