"Seriously mate, you blew up your Aunt!", Ron laughed as they were making their way to Leaky Cauldron, causing Hermione to shoot him a disapproving look.

"Ron, it's not funny. It was extremely reckless and moronic of Harry to do that. He could've been expelled!", Hermione exclaimed.

"Hermione, lay off. It was accidental magic, which is, just like its name suggests, accidental. Not to mention, Marjorie Dursley totally deserved it, and don't disagree with me on thin.

Besides, knowing you, if you were in Harry's position, you would've lost it way before he did. ", Crystalline defended.

"Hey, could you please stop talking about me as if I weren't here with you", Harry sighed, causing the other three to give him sheepish looks.

"Still, why would they just let me off without even a warning?", Harry tilted his head bemusedly.

"Don't question a good thing Ael. It's considered bad luck", Cat remarked.

"Look we're here already", Sci exclaimed, before pulling gout her wand and tapping specific bricks on the wall before them, making it reveal an entrance.

Before they could take in their surroundings, they heard a voice call out,

"Harry!", Mrs Weasley drew him into a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh we were so worried. You could've been dead for all we knew, with Sirius Black being on the loose...", she trailed off, sobbing.

"Sirius Black?", Harry threw his friends a questioning look. For some reason, a blurry image of a man flashed in his mind.

"Well, Sirius Black is...", Ron said but he was interrupted by Mrs Weasley who interjected,

"Ronald, don't talk about such things out in the open!"

"Alright alright, geez..."

Needless to say, with Mrs Weasley hovering over them, none of them mentioned Sirius Black.

Harry kept asking, his curiosity begging to be sated, but whenever he mentioned it to the others, Mrs Weasley would somehow appear as though out of thin air and they would halt any mention of Black.

Harry was wandering around Diagon Alley, bored, so for once he decided to listen in to what others were talking about.

To his surprise, the topic of Sirius Black came up frequently and that name was usually accompanied by things like,

"Wouldn't let my children out until he is caught", "I rarely go out of my house these days, I don't want to be murdered" and "I hope they catch him soon"

From everything he could tell, Sirius Black was a criminal and someone widely feared. But still, the name seemed familiar, just like hearing his parents names did.

The more he paid attention to things other than the windows displaying colourful and intriguing items, the more he saw wanted posters with that very name written on them.

By doing everything to make sure that he didn't know about Black, Mrs Weasley had only aroused his insatiable curiosity.

His attention was redirected to the real world in the form of someone dropping a copy of the Daily Prophet.

Harry picked it up, and to his surprise and relief, he was given at least some of the answers he desired.

BLACK STILL AT LARGE

Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today.

"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."

Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis.

"Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle.

I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it — who'd believe him if he did?"

While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.

Huh, so Sirius Black was a mass murderer. It made sense, considering how people talked about him with a mixture of disgust, hatred and fear.

But what of the familiarity he felt at hearing the man's name, the recognition when he saw his picture, even when he did so for the first time.

Seriously, why did life plan riddles after riddles for him.

Once after mostly everyone had gone to sleep, he cornered Crystalline, Ron and Hermione, telling him all about how Black seemed familiar.

Ron and Hermione seemed confused, but Crystalline had a thoughtful expression on her face.

"My parents once mentioned something about your father and Black, but the problem is I can't remember what", Crystalline dragged out.

"Well, that's not exactly helpful and it's not like you can just ask them, what with you running or well, flooing away", Hermione rolled her eyes.

"How about we keep the whole dagger, sword, spear and trident thing as our first priority and this whole mess with Black as a sort of side-project", Delphinus suggested.

Aelurus, Sciurus and Catulus hummed in agreement, the former doing so reluctantly.