Sirius sat on a park bench in Muggle London, reading two wizard papers. It had taken three days for them to publish the story and The Prophet tried to keep it heavily focused on the obituary of a prominent member of society rather than that same man enslaving a dozen muggleborns and half-bloods with an unforgivable curse. Luckily The Quibbler, of all periodicals, picked up the slack, but with a twist.
While The Prophet spoke about how The Grim of Azkaban had moved from killing inmates of the prison to going after exonerated criminals, The Quibbler spun a tale of an ancient vengeance spirit fueled by the soul magic that emanated from Azkaban rampaging across the land seeking justice for those who had their will taken away from them. They even managed to get an interview with Crabbe's widow who spun her own tale of woe; that she had been praying for a way out of her marriage from the man who would play with human dolls and keep her prisoner in her own home. That was obviously bullshit as she could have informed the Aurors during any of her nighttime excursions, but if The Grim didn't seek to kill her, then Sirius was fine with this version of events. Sirius had thought at least one of the imepriused servants had been a muggle, though The Quibbler stated that all of them had been magical and Crabbe would not have risked the possibility of a statute of secrecy violation by keeping any muggles under imprisonment rather than just disposing of them. The women and men that had been freed were reported missing between four to seven years ago and were all currently undergoing medical care at St. Mungo's as well as reuniting with their families.
Sirius felt like this was a big win. It was nothing close to killing Peter but enough to hold him over for now. He smiled at a family that passed him and the child waved back at him. He was currently under several cosmetic potions that made him look like he was in his mid-forties, changed his hair to blonde, and his eyes to green. Tonight he'd celebrate by getting a drink in Diagon Alley. Sure it was a risk, but The Prophet hadn't pulled the dementors from Hogwarts yet, even with the sighting of The Grim so far south. He felt he deserved it.
So, while in his cosmetic disguise and wearing a tailored robe stolen from one of the houses he burglarized in Hogsmeade, he walked straight through The Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley. As it was the middle of the week towards the end of November, street traffic was low, though there were still quite a few people gathered out front of Quality Quidditch Supplies.
One passerby complained, "Why are people still clamoring for a look? If they couldn't afford it three months ago, it's not like they're any closer to getting it now. They must think they'll get better at quidditch just by being close to it."
Sirius took a look in the window and saw a splendid broom. It had the polished bristles of a racing broom combined with the stirrups of a stunt model. The handle was bent slightly so you could grip it above the seat to keep better balance and not lean too far over the front. At the front of the handle, Firebolt was written in gold lettering.
Sirius had played for fun when he was younger but never on the house team. Any knowledge he had lacked from not being an enthusiast himself was learned just from hearing James talk about the sport constantly. So as he looked past the broom itself to all the written specs, he couldn't help but whistle at everything this broom could pull off. It was at that point that he realized he knew someone who could use a new broom.
Making note of the price tag and the time the store closed, he briskly walked into Gringotts and approached the lost key desk.
The goblin at the desk just stared at him in annoyance and pulled pointed to a saucer with a pin in the center, "Prick your finger and ten galleons for a replacement."
"How about twenty and we do it in private?"
Knowing he'd probably get a few more bumps in bribes, the goblin smiled and led Sirius into the back room. After providing a few drops of blood, the goblin only looked slightly alarmed before making a quick exit. The goblins almost certainly wouldn't turn him in as long as he paid them well enough. Though there always was that possibility.
An older goblin came back with the one who had been helping him, holding the golden key to his vault.
"Mr. Black," the older goblin began, "We received your last letter and it has been properly filed in the event of your death. However, our reports indicated that you were still up near Hogwarts."
He was pretty sure he would just be paying bribes at this point, so he just replied, "I thought it would be bad manners to bring the dementors with me to London."
"Your assumption was correct. Though we would also appreciate it if you spent as little time here as possible. What can we do for you to speed up your visit?"
"If you're volunteering to make a withdrawal from my vault for me, that would make things faster than going down myself. Say three thousand galleons, one of the spare wands, and a mokeskin pouch that's stored there."
A mokeskin pouch would solve many of his problems with carrying things around. Right now he just had a stolen, fully detectable, slightly extended pouch.
The elder goblin stared at him and gave a nod to the younger one, who took the key and ran off. While he was gone, they were served a cup of tea and a few cakes by another goblin. Sirius didn't think anyone had ever tipped a goblin before, but he made sure to do so for the one who brought the tea. They drank in silence until the younger one returned with the pouch full of gold.
They hadn't yet asked him for any fees, so it seemed like they were waiting for him to show how much he appreciated their silence. So from the pouch, he pulled out several handfuls of gold and placed them on the desk without counting, then counted out forty galleons and gave them directly to the younger goblin.
"I believe you said it was forty to replace my key?"
The young goblin gave him an affirmative nod and took the gold in exchange for the key. The wand the goblin had retrieved had belonged to a great-great-grandmother, Aurora Larissa Black, who he had only heard stories about. However, she had written many of the stories about the history of the dark arts he was fed as a young boy. The wand felt much better to him, and he used it to fix more of the minor details on his face before heading back into the alley.
He hung out at a cafe until the Quidditch shop was closing and stuck his foot in the door just as they were locking up. The owner was quite annoyed until he poured out nearly two thousand galleons onto the counter to pay for a brand new Firebolt. Then with his gift purchased, he stuck it in the mokeskin pouch and headed out for his celebratory drink.
Despite what most people thought, Knockturn Alley wasn't such a bad place. It was, however, a very adult place; filled with bars, brothels, pawn shops, and more. It was only dangerous to the young or stupid. The alley started with some of the worst parts, Borgin and Burke's, a shady inn serving mostly werewolves and hags, a vampire-owned bar, and a few others. After that came a fancy brothel and some nice bars and nightclubs. At the very end, there were even a few residences.
One of his old favorite places to haunt was a nightclub called led The Aquarium. They had an entire wall taken up with a tank that glowed blue. The owners had gotten in trouble at one point for having real mermaids imprisoned in the tank and had to release them when a complaint was filed from their liaison office in the Ministry. After that, they just gave out free drinks to chosen women and occasionally men who would munch on some gillyweed and then go for a swim in the tank for an hour. It was a good deal, though many feelings were hurt when someone thought they were hot enough to be picked, then rejected.
There were quite a few people already there and two women in the tank swimming around, playing underwater tag. Sirius sat at a table above the dance floor, against the wall, and across the room from the tank and ordered a bottle of Ogden's Firewhiskey, Rainbow Label, Private Reserve. The bottle just screamed money as it was delivered. The fun thing about Firewhiskey was that occasionally you would breathe fire or smoke after taking a sip. Other than that, it tasted like top-shelf Scotch… which was great by itself. The labels just indicated the color of the fire that you would breathe when you drank it. The Rainbow Label was part of an old collaboration Ogden had with Bertie Bott's where the color of the fire or smoke would be random instead of just one shade.
Sirius lay back in his seat and watched the women swimming as he poured himself a glass and took a drink. His first breath of fire was purple.
He knew he needed to savor the evening, so he drank slowly and ordered small snacks as he spent his time relaxing and enjoying his victory. As the place started to fill up, a couple of women tried to join him at his table but he sent them away, not particularly desiring companionship at the moment. However, when the dancing began, he spotted a familiar face on the floor dancing with another woman.
"No fucking way," Sirius said out loud to himself as he stared at Marisol Selic.
Not wanting to get into trouble again, he just watched her dance, and how others reacted to her. She was recognized by everyone, some people smiled or gave her cheers, and others looked at her with scorn. She and her friend had no shortage of suitors, though she turned away all of them. After many rejections, a man managed to take her friend to the bar to get a drink, leaving her alone to dance on her own. Two wizards took that moment to approach her. She smiled at first but then looked increasingly uncomfortable at whatever they were saying, and started looking around for her friend. She briefly locked eyes with Sirius, so to give her a way out, he waved her over to his table. Grabbing the lifeline she escaped the two men and joined him.
"Thank you for the respite," she said with a breath of relief.
"Don't mention it," Sirius smiled. "You probably saved me from having to turn down other women who I don't want to drink with right now too."
"This isn't the best place to be if you want to be alone," Marisol challenged him.
"I just needed a reminder of some of my younger days," Sirius replied. "What did those two want?"
"You don't know who I am?" she looked slightly surprised. Sirius shook his head.
"I recently had an unwitting affair with a wanted criminal, ring any bells now?"
As it would now be suspicious if he didn't admit to knowing who she was, he replied, "Ahh, that one."
"So, now I get plenty of men thinking I'll be interested in them if they act like they're criminals. Those two started by admitting to a robbery, then it became home invasion, I didn't want to stick around to hear the rest."
"You could volunteer your services to the Aurors," Sirius suggested. "Hot tips on dumb criminals."
"Maybe…" she trailed off. "You're not one of them, are you?"
"I can honestly tell you that I've never been convicted of a crime," Sirius smiled.
"That just means you could be a smart criminal," she smirked back.
"How about I promise you that I won't talk at all about criminal activity or try to seduce you, and we can just share some of this extremely expensive bottle of Firewhiskey over a conversation about things that don't matter?"
"That sounds like a good deal and it's good that you're blonde, I've been having bad luck with men with dark hair."
For the next hour, Sirius just chatted with Marisol about all the ridiculous things he did back at Hogwarts which she countered with some equally absurd stories. At one point he told her about the time he sent a catnip bomb to Professor McGonagall which had her snort her whiskey and breathe green fire out of her nose, then choke back on the smoke. She countered his tale with a story of releasing a dozen Nifflers into the kitchens. The magical kleptomaniacs stole nearly all of the school's silverware along with two house elves that tried to get retrieve the utensils from their pouches. Sirius gave her his seal of approval for a fantastic prank.
Once the bottle was finished, he did tell her he needed to be going.
"I should head home too," she frowned. "Though this was a lovely conversation with a mysterious stranger and savior. I don't suppose you'd tell me your name?"
Sirius just shook his head, "I'll walk you out. I'm heading to the apparation point down at the residences."
"I'll be taking a portkey from there too."
The two of them walked together but not touching, down towards the end of Knockturn Alley. When it hit a dead end, there were a few tall houses and a fountain which didn't have anti-apparation and portkey wards around it, like the rest of the alley. When he was just about to say goodnight, he saw a light coming from between the buildings and pushed the two of them apart as a spell shot between them.
The two men from the bar rushed out, firing various stunners and bludgeoning spells. Both he and Marisol were pretty tipsy and had a bit of a challenge returning fire. They succeeded in dividing them so Sirius was exchanging spells with the man with a brown suit while Marisol fought the younger one. She was mostly shielding while trying to return a few cutting and piercing spells. Sirius's dueling partner was using much heavier spells.
They were obviously there to abduct her and just wanted him out of the picture. Trying to push through the whiskey's haze, Sirius began using some more deadly magic himself. The man he was fighting was no slouch as he easily avoided a scalping curse and a pit of boiling tar that Sirius transfigured in the ground beneath him. The spells that this man was using felt like those that Moody had trained him in while they were with the Order of the Phoenix. There were bone breakers aimed at his ribcage, softening spells at his skull, and overpowered disarming charms aimed at the shoulders. With the right modifications to that spell, you could dislocate a person's joints.
As he was about to take it up a notch, he heard Marisol scream and heard the younger man call out, "I got her!"
Sirius took the moment of his opponent's distraction to animate the boiling tar into a giant fist that reached over and squeezed him until he fainted while screaming from the heat, then he turned his attention to Marisol's opponent. This man turned out to not have the skills of his partner and defeated him quickly with a bouncing bludgeoner and a stunner. The bouncing spell was made to look like it fell short, then shot straight upwards like an uppercut punch.
Not wanting to stick around, he quickly searched the two men and found Auror's badges. Stealing them away, he went to Marisol's collapsed form and dug through her pockets to find her key ring, and whispered, "There's no place like home," activating the portkey to bring her home.
