Sirius Black was almost rolling on the floor and laughing - only the airplane safety belts prevented him from actually doing that.
The passing flight attendants were giving him funny looks, but the man did not care, he was free! Finally free!
In his arms was a newspaper, summarizing the results of his now famous trial. Of course, the paper was charmed to look like some fake news tabloid muggles tended to read on occasion.
The main article was as follows:
BREAKING NEWS! SIRIUS BLACK WAS FALSELY ACCUSED ALL ALONG?*
In a stunning display at court, just last Friday, the former most wanted man of Britain, the only one to ever escape Azkaban, Sirius Black himself was present at the court. Initially various influential figures were practically demanding he be executed at that very moment - but they just never knew the full story.*
According to various witnesses and after intense memory review sessions, questioning with verita-serum, mind healers checks and double checks for any memory alternations the truth was out of the bag!*
Minister Fudge himself was astonished by such a significant mistake made by his predecessor, he promised to review all other cases and let not past mistakes repeat again.*
Lucius Malfoy commented - "it so sad to hear of my wife's relative suffering so much under false charges. I hope our families will restore the good relations we had in the past.*
Albus Dumbledore - "I have failed him… To think I was the one who shoved him into the prison without even a trial… "
Molly Weasley - "I never liked that stupid rat.*
Sirius Black - "You want to know how I escaped Azkaban? I just walked away on my own legs. Dementors? What dementors? They ignored me for some reason. I guess falsely accused can just walk away, eh?*
Later on Sirius actually reveals his method of escape! Continue reading about the trail with all the details and full Sirius Black questioning on page 2!*
Other note-worthy articles in this edition*
pages 8-13 - The life of Peter Pettigrew by Rita Skeeter - from presumed dead, to a pet rat and now a wanted murderer roaming free?*
page 14 - Sirius Black expels everyone else from Black family! Harry Potter-Black appointed as sole heir!*
page 15 - Gringotts Britain branch received a significant donation from one of its users who decided to stay anonymous - what are the goblins plotting this time?*
pages 16-17 - Cyrus Greengrass makes huge shifts in his businesses - Are Greengrasses leaving the 'grey' and joining the 'light' faction of the families in Wizengamot too? Rumours of engagement of his daughter! *
Sirius stopped reading the paper - for once all articles seemed interesting. He did not doubt Pettigrew's story was highly exaggerated… But for once, it was not against him or the ones he cared about.
He stole a quick glance at his travel companions… Hermione was neck deep into books as usual, frankly he rarely saw her doing something else… Meanwhile Harry and Daphne were sound asleep, with their heads touching as they dozed off together. Sirius smirked, inwardly musing that they perhaps had a long night…
Then there were a couple of other teenagers that he did not really know that well - Ron Weasley and Tracey Davis… And damn, they were still passionately chatting about Chudley Cannons…
He turned his head some more and saw Daphne's sister was still sketching something. Aw… it was actually her sleeping sister with Harry this time! He made a mental note to ask for a copy later! That would surely look nice in his home when framed…
Cyrus Greengrass patted him on the shoulder, looking back Sirius groaned, but realised the break he asked for was over, and he went back to rejoin the long and boring talk of business and how to best use Black family fortune he had….
Yes, he was learning the way of investing - frankly during the war a lot of Black's died while he was almost removed from the family, simply from being a Gryfindor… He never expected the family head position to be his in the end… Now he had a lot to learn to catch up, thankfully Cyrus was here to lend him a helping hand…
A low buzz distracted him again as he shooed the annoying beetle away. He hated the damn thing! He could swear it was buzzing around him and Cyrus as they spoke! He even saw it staring at his sleeping godson and doing a weird dance, as if happy!
A few hand waves later he cursed - the insect got away again, but thanks to that he could refocus on the discussion… There was still quite some time until landing…
After all, they were going for a vacation!
To Egypt!
Rita Skeeter was jumping in joy, such a scoop after that death scare…
During Sirius' trial where he finally admitted to being an animagus as well as Peter and James being animagi too - security against animagi had been enchanted significantly, so she didn't dare snoop around in the country for a while longer.
Sirius was lucky to get away scott-free. Being an illegal animagi could result in years in Azkaban, sometimes even lifetime imprisonment. But thanks to Sirius doing that when he was but a child made his punishment actually shorter than how much he already stayed in prison. Thanks to him Azkaban was also upgraded with animagus detection wards…
She had to be extra careful about her secret now. If news of her beetle animagus form got out, her career would be over! Heck she might be forced to hide among muggles! Yuck!
Still, the life of a journalist was not easy. The next significant event looming on the horizon was the Quidditch cup, and that was still months away…
So she just snooped around the airport, considering which country's flight to join for her vacation…. While she could apply for an inter-continental port-key or floo travel… frankly those were quite expensive, and had a lot of annoying checks from both ends of travel…
Muggle travelling was way simpler, and essentially free! What airplane would not fit one small beetle animagus?
And imagine her surprise when she saw a lot of famous people in the airport!
The boy who lived! Main branch of the Greengrass family! Sirius Black! And some others from the magical side of Britain, yes a hair of shade that red could only be a Weasleys spawn…
And her surprises did not end here - the change of Greengrass family politics everyone was talking about? She knew the answer. She chuckled as the magically shrunk instant camera printed a picture of Harry and Daphne dozing off together on the airplane… She placed it beside the one she took of Cyrus and Sirius discussion.
Yes, that's enough pictures for a nice article, no two articles!. The first page will be hers again!
She buzzed in annoyance as Sirius once again tried to flatten her with his hands - thankfully the camera did not fall off, so she flew under the chairs to hide for a moment, but still listened in. Her magically shrunk quill was in fact recording every word said in the discussions nearby. It was secured on her back, just below the wings.
Yes, this is how the most famous journalist of Britain's Daily Prophet operated!
It might seem easy, but it was quite a pain in the ass to wear all that miniature gear after switching to her animagus form…
Yes, being a reporter was a hard job…
Egypt, while a famous and popular vacation choice, did not really have a very strong magicals presence - since it had no local school, few people were sent overboard to learn how to use the gift and even fewer remained who could do some magic on their own.
After all, wandless magic was quite hard to use, and especially so to self-learn. And yes, while there were children occasionally doing accidental magic - it was well documented that while adults could in theory use accidental magic too, if they were magical, such occurrences were supremely rare.
Well, that was the impression of their stay in Egypt. It's been a whole week so far and they were having lots of fun! Beaches, swimming at sea, going over the local stores to try their food, buying random things, exploring the pyramids and so on.
The trio agreed that since they finally got out of the room, they should at least rest for a while, so they focused more on relaxation. Well, except Hermione - for her, reading was both a way to learn more knowledge and relax, even if that was all she did most of the day. Frankly the others thought she had an addiction of sorts… at least she tagged along when they went outdoors and got some sun.
Harry himself mostly spent time with Daphne and his friends. He did manage to find a book in parseltongue of all things among the junk the peddle shoppers were offering - the man who sold it thought it was gibberish and was happy to part with it. And that was one book he kept reading from time to time.
If it was something not so useful he would frankly not bother with it as reading parseltongue was quite a headache. Rather than letters, there were snakes drawn in various mid-hiss moments. As it corresponded to actual hissing, Harry found no way of actually decoding it - there was no translation manual, but what he could do was summon a snake and just ask it to replicate the hisses…. Which frankly took a while - summoned snakes were not that good at doing that… Perhaps that was why Parseltongue users usually kept pet snakes around… But from the few pages he managed to comprehend, it was a book of healing spells, a branch of parseltongue magic… So seeing as this loop would seemingly go towards the end if nothing unexpected happened, Harry paced himself and just spent like half an hour every day, summoning snakes and making them replicate the images of their siblings….
Still it was a smooth holiday for all of them. They improved themselves, just a little bit every day, but mostly just let their tired minds relax and enjoy the beach… and books in Hermione's case - she just read outdoors, and thankfully she picked some fantasy novels to read too, not just learning all the time.
There were not many adventures during their whole stay here. But, there were some surprises.
Like the Daily Prophet getting a hold of photos of Harry and Daphne. A lot of them.
But just being more aware of surroundings for a few days after that article, Harry managed to notice the particular beetle always buzzing around them… Being an animagus himself, it was not hard to connect the dots - and so Rita Skeeter was caught.
Then they just came to a deal - if writing anything about them, she would get their agreement first, otherwise her identity as an animagus would get leaked to the public…
And that was essentially the only unexpected event happening. Well, Ron and Tracey got together - but that was expected, seeing how much they adored Chudley Cannons so much…
Other than that, the days were nice and relaxing. And time just flew by - and so, the summer vacation was nearing its end. Which meant they had one more event to do - the Quidditch cup.
The Quidditch cup was also not so eventful - yes, the death eaters did attack. But now there were way more helpers to keep them in check than before. Dumbledore informed his trusted friends, the so-called 'Order of Phoenix' to stay vigilant, and Sirius paid for the tickets for all of them - which resulted in way more wizards keeping an eye out for potential 'troublemakers'.
And this in turn had a chain effect. Seeing people standing up against the death eaters made some brave other wizards and witches join in - then like a snowball, they kept joining and joining, eventually forcing them to flee, still, they did manage to cast the death mark before fleeing.
After the chaos, Dumbledore took Harry aside for some private conversation. He informed the boy that the cup has been taken care of by goblins, and that he reviewed Hermione's research notes as well as his own sources and did some travelling and managed to find the locations of Gaunt's family shack as well as that carefully hidden cave by the sea, then invited Harry and his friends to join him, being reminded of the boys warning of him losing an arm last time he went there alone…
Harry of course agreed, and they decided to do it during the first weekend of the school year. After all, Dumbledore was far too busy as the school was about to start and what with all the mess in Quidditch cup tonight, there were even a few captured death eaters who would undoubtedly have trials he will need to participate in, as well as various meetings by the board of governors and other responsibilities… Never mind all the bad events the boy disclosed that could happen which he would try to prevent as best as he could… Like his friend, Alastor…
The rest of the days until school were quite relaxing as well. Molly Weasly was only happy to allow Daphne, Sirius and Hermione to stay over as well for the rest of the summer. Harry had a blast with his godfather and all the Weasleys doing various races around the burrow as well as doing pranks left and right. Daphne also had some fun getting to befriend the Weasleys.
And as summer passed by a flash, it was time to head back to school.
Alastor Moody was beaten, a lot of his bones broken as he weakly breathed in and out.
In and out.
He had no magic here locked in his own trunk! What a shame!
This was torture, living solely due to his enemy needing him alive as a potion ingredient!
He felt magic shifting nearby and braced himself - perhaps his kidnapper came back for more hairs…
But the magical signature was actually his own! - he recognized the ward, a weak ward he knew how to set up, that let one hide small things in walls, floors and ceilings - he frankly hardly used it nowadays and he never remembered using it inside his trunk of all things!
As the flow of magic disappeared, he looked around - as much as the space he was stuck in allowed - and noticed a hidden compartment had opened quite close to him.
Inside there was a knife, one of his old spare wands. His spare peg leg, even his old magical eye - which while still working, sometimes got stuck when rotating. And a tiny bottle with a familiar looking silvery liquid.
He knew what it was… a memory. He even felt a pull towards it… As if it was his own memory.
He was tired, beaten, but interestingly, reading your own memories that were removed - required just a touch. So he inched forward in what little space there was, and managed to hit the silvery glass bottle of memories with his forehead.
It shattered as if it was purposefully made extra thin.
And then he remembered.
Everything.
To think Dumbledore was right… Last time they played cards, he joked that he of all people would get beaten and locked away inside his own trunk…
He never believed that would happen - what with his motto of constant vigilance and all that! But he was getting old… Truthfully he was losing sleep over this - if he ever got put into his own trunk what would he do?
So he did the normal thing every person would do in this situation - he made countermeasures for such an absurd scenario, like a backdoor for his trunk. One not documented in its manual. One only he would know. Then even erased such knowledge and hidden it inside the trunk. Then erased the knowledge of hiding it even, for more security.
It was logical to think that If he was beaten it was highly likely that his mind would be breached too. So just in case he even erased the memory of Dumbledore mentioning the possibility of him getting locked in his own trunk.
And now after struggling in the hidden trunk compartment for the whole day, he unknowingly met the hidden requirements to trigger the ward and reveal the items within.
His beaten face crooked a smile, shoving a few freshly missing teeth, his spare wand was now clenched in his hand, as he opened another secret compartment in the trunk and took out a shrunken sandwich, restored it to its original size and took a bite.
With each bite, his focus seemingly returned to his one remaining eye, while another, a magical one, was spinning in circles, but mostly focusing on the ward structure of his trunk. As it was made of magic, it actually shielded him from his imposters gaze - while making his magical eye unable to pierce it too, but he would see the moment it would start to open.
Yes, perhaps he was getting old, but he thought he still had some backbone. There was a reason criminals feared him like no other…
The old man continued to eat in silence, regaining his strength, stretching his limbs a little - there was not enough space for more serious stretches.
And then he waited for his chance to strike…. He eyed the small stack of magically shrunk sandwiches, blaming his past self for not making some more variety of food.
Still, checking the time with his ward he saw it was about time for the feast to end… So soon he should be back, and since he planned on using him as an ingredient… It was natural to assume he would be given food, or water at least.
Alastor grinned with his crooked smile, as his predictions were confirmed - he saw the ward slowly being pried open and prepared for the ambush.
He might have lost the first round, but he was already old and his opponent was so young and skilled…
But due to polyjuice, he was no longer a young man, but a broken old man like him, with a stump for a leg.
And he certainly had more experience fighting in a body like that.
Albus Dumbledore was humming as he ascended the final flight of stairs - the ones leading to his office. The school start went well, hmm except Alastor was quite late…
His office was weirdly quiet - Fawkes was out hunting, and the portraits were all out of frames as well - they sometimes did that, going out for other parties, checking out new students and the like.
A sudden thought interrupted his humming.
Come to think of it, Harry didn't mention when exactly Alastor would be replaced by an impostor? Perhaps he did not know that either? But surely his friend took his warning seriously?
Alastor did mention some things only he should know during the brief exchange thye had during the feast… But if he was captured, wouldn't his mind be accessible too?
Albus furrowed his brows… He was mostly busy thinking about the upcoming trip with Harry and his other responsibilities…. But Moody in the hall…. Didn't he seem somewhat… off?
Normally he would have pushed it as stress or old age… But what if…?
He grabbed his wand and rushed downstairs, before slowing down. As far as he knew, the real Alastor should be alive - sudden actions from him would just arouse suspicion!. Besides, perhaps he was just being paranoid…
He rushed back upstairs to grab the chess set he used to play with his friend. It was public knowledge they played occasionally, so playing now, at the start of the term seemed normal… Then he started strolling with a casual pace towards his friend, or was it his 'friend'?
He did not quicken the pace, staying cautious of the magical eye - if his fears were confirmed - wouldn't a running headmaster cause the impostor to abandon the plan and get rid of real Moody while escaping?
Opening the door to the classroom, all well crafted greetings left Dumbledore's mind as he took in the sight of the room.
It was completely thrashed! And there were still not one but two Alastors, beating each other on the floor! No… it looked like polyjuice was ending as one 'Alastor' had blood dripping out of his magical eye… His real eye was coming back, but the eye socket was already occupied - which meant it would either push the device out… or he would lose his real eye…
Still, before he could start casting any spells, the 'duel' was seemingly over as his friend, the real 'mad-eye' grinned as he knocked the other one unconscious.
His real eye gazed at the headmaster, while the magical one was keeping his opponent in check. He opening his mouth to speak, then frowned, and spat out a tooth that got loose due to duelling, before he finally addressed his friend with a grumbling voice - "You're late to the party, Albus"
Dumbledore could only lower down his gaze in shame… What was he doing wasting time picking up a chess set and going so slowly… he could have prevented more wounds for his friend… Well, at least the troublemaker was now captured…
"I am truly sorry, Alastor…"
Moody just grumbled - "It's fine… I should have taken your warning more seriously - I thought you had too much fire whiskey! I myself got paranoid about such a possibility and I did prepare for such a scenario of being locked in a trunk… But still, I was ambushed and bested… I am not at my prime anymore, and this bloke is good"
Dumbledore was frowning as he was casting the healing charms he knew as well as analysing his friend's condition while he was retelling the story.
"Quite nasty curses on you… I don't think they would get removed that quickly, even at Saint Mugos! I am afraid you're not in a good enough shape to teach the classes… You need rest… "
"Yes, I do feel like shite, thank you Albus for pointing out the obvious." - his face grimaced as adrenaline was leaving his body, and the amount of damage was coming in for him to feel in full - "though, what about the lessons? Will you teach them yourself? Won't the curse affect you? And don't say there's no curse! Just because no one found it, just look at the facts! Not one teacher stayed more than one year for quite some time!"
Albus pondered for just a moment, before replying - "I just had… a wonderful idea… Yes, I can just ask Sirius Black to cover the classes - he did joke he could come over to teach a lesson or two… And all in all, he did receive Outstanding grades in this subject, and was a good auror too…"
A grumble of agreement was all he got in reply, as Alastor clearly was holding in the pain now, not focusing so much on the conversation, though his magical eye was still staring at the impostor, as if waiting for him to twitch and reawaken.
Albus caught on, as he cast a few strong restraining charms on Barty Jr. Then Alastor gave him one final nod, before his eyes closed - his consciousness was also seemingly slipping away.
"Now wait just a moment, my old friend, I will remove the ward and get you to St. Mugos… And this fellow will go back to Azkaban… Sigh… If only I came earlier…"
Sirius Black was grinning as he read the letter offering him a position to teach at school of witchcraft and wizardry… starting now.
After hearing of his godson's adventures, he too wanted to stay at the school this year… He just jokingly mentioned to Albus about giving a few lessons if Moody was out doing auror business… And to think something like this actually happened! He knew Harry warned them about the impostor… But for that legend Mad-eye to screw up while knowing such?
Frankly, Sirius did not mind teaching - staying in prison for so long made him crave social interaction, and dealing with children could be quite fun, certainly more entertaining than mingling with Cyrus and his business friends…
Then his mind wandered back to the story he heard during the summer.
Of how Harry's name actually ended up in the cup.
And his lips twisted into a smirk.
Oh yes, he had such a nice idea of a prank when he heard about this…
He just needed a way to be at the school at the right time…
And now that was resolved quite nicely with him becoming a teacher…
His smirk spread into a wide grin, now there were high chances he could pull it off!
He quickly penned down the agreement and sent the owl on its way, then looked back on the book he was reading.
It was titled 'Advanced applications of confundus charm'