Messing With Cogs.

Sirius's ears twitched and his nose wrinkled before he jumped, pushing off the stone floor with as much force as his thin legs could muster.

But it was for nought, Loki's skill in controlling his spirituality, honed through repeated practice and also his skill as a Beyonder of the Marauder pathway came into clutch when the spiritual projectile twisted mid-air and landed squarely in Siriu's chest.

Ropes sprouted out of thin air, slithering around Sirius's shoulder and other joints, tightening around his neck and snout, causing him to lose balance and crash while he was still mid-air.

Crashing on the ground, Sirius's momentum carried him across the floor as he tumbled and was dragged until he reached Loki's feet.

Loki lifted the shadowy illusion he was using to cover himself up but he created a new illusion to transform into Gehrman Sparrow.

The dog looked Loki in the eye and *whined* in pity, expressing its pain and desire for freedom.

But Loki just whispered, "I know who you are, Mr. Black."

The dog's eyes widened and Loki saw how it struggled to run for a moment before the ropes tightened their grip around him.

"Please remain calm and behave rationally. I know about Peter Pettigrew too, I am currently waiting for my friend to catch him."

The dog's brows furrowed and Loki could hear it growl, but he said nothing and calmly floated the dog behind himself as he stepped into an empty classroom nearby.

Once inside, Loki left Sirius there and walked outside.

"Colloportus.", Loki whispered, locking the door behind himself so that Sirius couldn't escape without a wand.

Soon space tore and Sunny appeared beside Loki.

"Did you capture him?" Loki asked in an excited voice since he could see Sunny's hair looked ruffled and his eyes carried a hint of tiredness.

"No. Your map must be malfunctioning, there was no one in the corridor. All that I got caught in was trouble with dementors. You've got to teach me how to avoid them."

Loki's eyes widened but then they sharpened and he asked, "Was there an animal perhaps?"

"....now that you say, there was a rat. It looked ugly and I didn't want to get near it so I let it leave."

"*Sigh* I should've expected this to happen." Loki mumbled and then said, "Next time you see that rat, capture it. Peter Pettigrew appears to be an Animagus. For now, though, you may go rest."

Sunny's eyes widened but then they narrowed dangerously, "I won't be giving you back the Galleon just because I didn't catch the rat and I'll take one extra every other time, alright?"

"Ha~! Fine, keep it.", Loki said, shooing Sunny back to the spirit world.

Loki then opened the door to the classroom he'd just locked and stepped inside.

As soon as he stepped in, Loki immediately felt something attack his body of heart and mind.

A calm serene feeling immediately assaulted his senses giving him the feeling of lightheadedness and Loki realised what was happening, but Loki let it happen.

All of a sudden in front of Loki the ropes around the black dog snapped and he found himself face to face with a crazed man whose eyes were glimmering like stars.

"Tell me, how do you know?" Sirius growled into Loki's face making him feel the stench that emitted out of his mouth.

Loki's face scrunched up, and just as Sirius expected Loki to begin speaking, the surroundings cracked and then shattered under his shocked gaze.

In the real world, the dog *whined* and transformed into a shabby man whose mouth was bleeding lightly.

"Petrificus Totalus." Loki calmly said causing Sirius to be struck by the whitish-blue glow that sprang out of his wand.

Sirius's limbs immediately snapped together and became stiff as he crashed down onto the hard stone floor with a low *thud*.

Loki took a deep breath and let it out before walking towards Sirius and finally getting a good look at his untidy face.

His cheeks were sunken and his eyes were bloodshot.

Looking at the collarbone that was protruding out of his skin, Loki was sure that the man was starved for a long time.

His waist was thinner than a Chinese anorexic model and his body looked more fragile than a stick.

Yet Loki felt a sense of danger emit from the man in front of him that raised the hair on his neck. Loki knew the man in front of him was just pretending to be weak and was probably a Demigod himself.

"Unfortunately Peter Pettigrew escaped from my friend. But Mr. Black. I want to help you, well help myself understand the situation better, but that also involves helping you." Loki said calmly as he watched Sirius's eyes frantically look around and then settle on Loki as he said those words.

"I can't reveal to you the source of my information, but I want to ask you something I suspect. You never killed Peter Pettigrew, did you? Did Peter fake his own death?"

Loki stood there staring at Sirius for half a minute before he realised, "Ah. You can't speak." Loki nodded and lifted the full-body bind curse, but he tightened new ropes around Sirius instead.

Sirius stared at Loki with hate, but he spoke with curiosity, "How did you manage to keep your sanity in that dream?"

Loki stared at Sirius and after a few seconds, decided to answer his question, "Alright, I'll tell you, but you must answer my question later, alright?" Loki asked slowly, afraid the madman would miss his words if he spoke too fast.

Sirius nodded and Loki continued.

"I could remain conscious through the dream because my god blessed me."

Sirius's eyes widened at the mention of a God, but then his eyes sharpened, "Who?"

"Hasn't anyone told you that it's rude to know more about Gods? And it's your turn to answer my question. If you don't I won't let you go, I'm sure the headmaster and the Professors are going to begin searching the castle soon anyway. Do you want to get caught so soon?"

Sirius's eyes trembled with anger, but then he closed his eyes to calm himself and opened them with vigour, "I didn't kill Peter. He blew the street up and left behind his finger to escape."

"I see. So you didn't betray your friends as the world thinks. You were framed." Loki concluded and nodded.

"I wouldn't have betrayed James even if my life depended on it! That damn rat!! He fooled us all!! He was always so weak!!! I never thought he'd turn out to be a rat as a human too. I knew I should've suspected something when he had a thing for corpses!" Sirius growled.

Loki nodded.

He stared at Sirius with a blank gaze while thinking.

'What do I do with him?'

'Hand him over to the professors and claim my prize of a thousand galleons?'

'I could do that but it seems a bit wasteful.'

'What else could I do with him?' Loki wondered and that was when an idea struck him.

'Ah…isn't this just fate? I had a problem and now I'm being given a solution on a silver platter?'

Swiping his wand Loki caused the ropes on Sirius's body vanished, allowing him the ability to move.

But just Sirius was about to capitalize on this opportunity to attack Loki he was forced to stop when he heard, "I want to form a partnership with you Mr. Black."

"Huh?" Sirius was taken aback.

"We have common interests. You want Peter. And I want something."

".....What do you want?"

"Aurora Order.", Loki said causing Sirius's eyes to widen.

"Good since you already know them I won't have to explain anymore. I want you to cooperate with me to help protect the school from Aurora Order for this year."

"....who are you?" Sirius asked with a faint glimmer in his eyes.

"Name's Sparrow. Gehrman Sparrow." Loki said lifting his hat and giving a slight nod. "A pleasure to meet you Mr. Black. I hope to meet you again in the future, would Hogsmede be a good place to meet?"

"....yes." A rowdy smile bloomed on Sirius's face, added with the maddening gleam in his eyes it made him appear dangerous.

"Here's what I need you to do." Loki said and began to explain to Sirius exactly what he wanted from him and the more Sirius heard, the more he lost the mad grin on his face as it turned into a frown.

"Can you do this?" Loki asked.

"If I couldn't do this much, I wouldn't have been able to keep the Aurors off my back. But are you sure this is all you need me to do?"

"Yes, don't worry, the adventures will come later, for now, this is good." Loki nodded and then continued, "Keep this with you, it is something you should be able to recognise and know how to use." Loki said tossing a ring in Sirius's direction.

Sirius caught the ring and within moments his eyes widened, "Ho-"

"The clock is ticking Mr. Black. You need to escape from here right?" Loki said and with his job done, began to walk away from the room, leaving a shocked Sirius to escape while he walked back toward his dorm, tired, tired but excited for what was to come.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N : Extra chapter incoming!

Join my Patreon (p@treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au) to read 20 chapters ahead for just $3.