Marisol woke up with a start, to find herself fully dressed in her own bed at home. Remembering all the moments of the night before, she panicked and wondered what had happened after her shield shattered. Then she noticed the note folded on her bedside table leaning against a small wooden box. Recalling her last bedside note, she hesitantly reached for it.

Good morning Miss Selic,

I managed to defeat the two men who were attacking us. They seemed intent on killing or removing me from the situation in order to abduct you. I don't know if you recognized them, but they were the same two men who were after you before you joined me at my table.

The identities of these men you'll find in the box by this note. This also makes me certain they were after you, as had they known my true identity, they would have brought a lot of reinforcements.

I also hope you don't mind, but I took a couple of bananas and used your bathroom. Both rooms were a lot easier to find without someone giving me horrible directions.

Sincerely,

The Mysterious Stranger

Sirius Black

"What the fuck!" Marisol cursed into the empty air of her apartment.

Preparing to call the Aurors, again, she first took a look into the small box on her bedside table to reveal the two badges belonging to the men who attacked her. Her blood ran cold as she realized that she couldn't call them now.


A week later, Sirius was relaxing on a hill overlooking the Goyle family home. He was taking a break from surveillance to read an article in Witch Weekly that he had stolen from a careless guard outside the property. He wasn't careless because he dropped the paper, it was because he had decided to go take a leak without his partner and ended up with his head turned into a Pez dispenser, thanks to the claws of The Grim. Maybe he could join the Gryffindor ghost as a kindred spirit. Fortunately for Sirius, Goyle had chosen mostly hunters, murderers, and evil people for his security. This didn't bother Sirius at all, as it just gave more targets to satiate The Grim while he was waiting for the main event.

Sirius looked down at the magazine and began to read:

Journalist Targeted by the Ministry!

- Marisol Selic

After my last article, I thought that I could go out without fearing for my safety. Sure there would be old women who would give me disapproving glares. Sure there would be some annoying men who would think that I would fall in love with them for being small-time crooks. It was even suggested to me recently that I should work as an informant to the Auror Corps for all the idiots confessing their crimes to me in hopes that I would sleep with them.

However, instead of that, I will be informing on them instead.

A week ago, I ventured out for some much-needed fun only to be regularly set upon by stupid men who couldn't take no for an answer. Two of them seemed to think that they would charm me by admitting to a burglary of a wealthy pureblood and wouldn't leave me alone when I told them to shove off. Luckily I was saved from their advances by a mysterious older man who let me sit at his table as we engaged in a lovely conversation about various mischief we got up to back at Hogwarts. He made no advances on me and when we finished the bottle he was drinking he escorted me to a portkey point.

Just as we were going to say goodnight, he knocked me over to dodge spellfire coming towards us. We were beset upon by two men, the same two who had tried to banter with me earlier using their confession of criminal activity. I was not making a good showing for myself as I had a bit to drink, not that I had ever been that much of a duelist, to begin with. The man attacking me was using a combination of stunners and shield breakers in an obvious attempt to abduct me. The one attacking the mysterious stranger I was with was using far more violent and possibly deadly spells. At some point, my shield broke quite violently and I remember a bit of pain before being stunned.

I woke up in the morning to find a note from the mysterious savior I had been with, informing me that he had defeated both of them and somehow activated my personal portkey to take me home. I woke up fully dressed and unmolested. The note also stated that the identities of our attackers were in a box next to the note. I opened it to find the badges of Second Class Auror Delmer Fauns and Third Class Auror Armand Nightshade.

I had been ready to contact the DMLE just as I had the last time I woke up to a strange note on my bedside table, though I don't think I will do so ever again, not after I was assaulted by the people sworn to protect me. Maybe this time, minister Fudge can make sure these men get a trial, but you can be sure I will not be reporting for a deposition. After their calls for Sirius Black to turn himself in, I doubt he would even get his moment in the spotlight to brag about his crimes before they killed him in a dark alley as well.

Editor's Note: All information has been corroborated by our investigative teams at Witch Weekly. Witnesses at The Aquarium noted the assailants' unhealthy attention toward Miss Selic. Later on in the night, both Aurors in question were treated at St. Mungos thirty minutes after the attack while residents of Knockturn Alley also reported the duel to the DMLE but it took them over an hour to come and investigate. Miss Selic is now in protective custody and will not be available for comments until her safety can be assured.

There was a picture below the article of the badges that he had recovered, one of which was half melted and bent from being crushed in Sirius's fist of hot tar. There was also a pensieve sketch of the mysterious stranger, lounging in his spot at the bar with the bottle of firewhiskey on the table. Sirius thought he looked good, even if he didn't look like himself. He tossed the magazine off into the bushes to vanish on its own and went back to picking off Goyle's security team, one at a time.


Fudge was uncharacteristically angry. As he arrived at Crouch's home, he yelled up the stairs, towards where he assumed the bedrooms were, "What the hell were you thinking?"

Crouch came stalking down the stairs, a snarl on his face, "I did what I thought was necessary. You would never get your hands dirty with anything except money, so I sent them to abduct her."

"To what end? She had stopped writing, we were going to push this under the rug and just kill Black. It would have been over," Fudge snapped back.

"Over? There is no 'over' for a journalist. She would have kept digging until she found something else."

"So now we are dealing with an even more pissed-off journalist and your stupid prophecy. You could have at least gotten some competent men to do the job!"

"It's not like there are Aurors lining up to do work like this, and I don't associate with criminals," Crouch growled. "They were good men, competent and tough. This mysterious stranger must have been quite the fighter, even after drinking over half a bottle of whiskey."

"They were?" Crouch looked a bit afraid. "They were? What did you do with them?"

"Just stitched their memories a bit. They believe they were after her for more personal and intimate reasons than kidnapping her for me. They will be arrested and put in Azkaban after a trial. Hopefully that stupid grim will deal with them once they're behind bars. If not, it's still Azkaban."

Fudge seemed to accept this, though there wasn't much else he could do about it. He looked back up at crouch and yelled, "Don't do anything like this again without consulting me!" Then stormed out through the front door.


Goyle's security team had been whittled down to just six men. With each kill Sirius made, he felt like the next one got easier. He hoped that would be the case for the large man as well. The remaining mercenaries were actually decent men. Not 'good' but also not 'evil,' and The Grim didn't seem interested in killing them. He hadn't yet called the Aurors which meant that there was certainly something in his house he didn't want them to discover. However, he also couldn't be surprised by something he knew was coming for him.

He needed the man to feel safe in his home or he would just flee through a portkey or floo at a moment's notice. For that, he needed a plan. He noticed that every time he tried assaulting the manor, Goyle would take off through the floo and wouldn't come back until morning. So this time, he charged the manor, dodging the spells of the remaining guards until he smelled the ash of burning floo powder in the air and retreated quickly only to turn around and sneak back onto the grounds silently. Knowing Goyle wouldn't be back until morning, he snuck through the darkness until he got into the house through a house-elf door under the kitchen where they would throw out food.

It was because of that entrance that he immediately ran into an elf. Both he and the elf froze in place. The poor creature was wearing what barely counted as a sash around its waist and one ear was completely torn off. After a long minute of staring at each other, a broom appeared in its hand and it just began sweeping away from where Sirius was standing. As would later be reported to the Aurors, the elf would say that it hadn't received any orders to remove dogs from the property and just let it be.

Sirius stalked through the house until he found the entrance hall with the fireplace. The walls were adorned with hunting trophies; a naga, the head of a re'em, the tail of a nundu, a hidebehind arm, a fully taxidermied Arassas, a demiguise head - eyes open and glowing blue in the darkness, and many more. He found a high shelf near the fireplace and leaped up onto it to wait for the return of the master of the house. The Grim kept him awake through the night as he stared at the lifeless eyes of all the animals around the room that would soon share in his vengeance. He knew that if he wasn't successful, he might end up on this shelf for eternity.

As the sun rose, Sirius didn't even allow Goyle to get his bearings after exiting the floo before he jumped on the man's back and sunk his teeth into his spine.

Goyle was tall, so tall that Sirius's hind legs didn't even touch the ground as he hung off the man's neck, though his arms were also too beefy to reach behind himself and pull the giant dog off his back. He settled for spinning around and running backward into the walls to break the grip of the predator on his neck. Sirius was quite shocked at how thick the man's skin was and how long it took until he finally collapsed on the ground. He felt like a few of his bones were broken as he viciously snapped Goyle's neck and watched clearly as the man's soul vanished from his body.

With his mission accomplished, Sirius transformed back into himself and used Goyle's floo to travel back up to one of the abandoned houses in Hogsmeade that he had stolen from before. It was better than having to run all the way back to Scotland.