Chapter 331: Sirius Black (Edited)

Night had fallen once again, and under the hazy moonlight, Hogwarts Castle fell silent as usual, while the Forbidden Forest, not far from the castle, began to come to life.

"Crack, crack, crack..."

There was the sound of dead branches and fallen leaves being trampled, and an uninvited guest entered the Forbidden Forest tonight.

As the large black dog cautiously made his way through the forest, Sirius Black, with what little he remembered of his time as a student in the Forbidden Forest, tried to avoid the other creatures of the Forbidden Forest and slowly but surely made his way towards the castle.

Without his wand, Sirius Black could not use 'Apparition' to anywhere near Hogwarts, so he had to spend a lot of time walking from London to Hogwarts.

Sirius knew a few ways to get a wand without a trace of Knockturn Alley, but the ways he knew were all over ten years ago, so there's no guarantee that it would still work now.

Secondly, he didn't dare take the chance that, if he accidentally revealed his identity, the Knockturn Alley boys would capture him and take him to the Ministry of Magic for a reward.

Besides, he looked a bit conspicuous in his Animagus form, and even if the Dementors couldn't spot him as a wizard, a big black dog outside Hogwarts would be conspicuous enough.

The same could be said for entering through the secret passageway of the Shrieking Shack, and since he had taken a walk around Hogsmeade and found several Dementors patrolling around there, he thought better of it and decided not to risk it.

So Sirius chose the most problematic option of all: entering the Forbidden Forest from the outside, and then going around Hogwarts.

Good thing he had been in the Forbidden Forest a lot when he was a student, and even though he mostly just hung around the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, he knew a bit about who not to mess with in the Forbidden Forest.

With a keen sense of smell in his Animagus form, the trip was uneventful.

However, Sirius hadn't hunted much prey in the meantime to avoid the dangerous magical creatures, so he was hungry and tired, and could collapse at any moment.

After years locked up in Azkaban, Sirius was already in bad shape, and with all the traveling he had done lately, his body was already close to its limits, and he would have collapsed on the road if it hadn't been for his obsession.

It was only when he managed to reach the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest that Sirius was able to catch his breath, where dangerous creatures were rarely seen, so after a brief rest he decided to find something to eat.

The big black dog put his nose to the ground, sniffing around, trying to find a mouse or rabbit to fill his stomach.

Soon, Sirius found a mouse nibbling on fruit under the roots of a large tree.

Sirius hated rats with a passion, so he had developed a knack for hunting them in his time outside of Azkaban, so it wasn't long before the unfortunate rat was in the big black dog's mouth.

Thanks to his transformation into Animagus, all of Animagus' physical habits had changed, allowing Sirius to tear the rat's carcass into a bloody pulp and swallow it with no trouble.

Evidently, a mere mouse was not enough to satisfy Sirius' ravenous appetite, and he kept sticking his nose to the ground in search of new prey.

After catching a few more small animals (mostly mice), Sirius was half full and his spirits had recovered from his bad day.

He planned to catch some more prey (preferably mice), fill his belly, find a place to rest, and then find a way to sneak into the castle to settle the score with Peter Pettigrew.

Just then, the barking of dogs could be heard in the distance, Sirius, now also a dog, could hear the joy in the barking, but he didn't go in the direction they were coming from... he didn't have much time to play with other canines.

So Sirius kept crouching down, looking for the scent of his prey....

Hmm?

Sniffing and sniffing, Sirius suddenly caught a scent different from that of a mouse and a rabbit, a scent that was both familiar and unfamiliar....

It was the smell of prosciutto, and he hadn't tasted it in over ten years.

Following the smell, Sirius made his way to a tree stump and soon found the source of the odor: under a patch of dirt that had obviously been disturbed.

Mixed in with the prosciutto was the scent of another dog marking the spot.

Without hesitation, Sirius hurriedly dug his paws into the dirt and pulled the half-chewed prosciutto out of the ground.

"Woof woof woof woof!!!"

As Sirius ate, another dog barked from the side.

He turned his head and saw that it was also a large black dog, only slightly smaller than his Animagus form, barking angrily at him.

Sirius looked at the other dog and then at the prosciutto he had stepped on with his paws.

Obviously, prosciutto didn't grow in the ground just because, and with the same smell as the big black dog in front of him... it was someone else's business.

"Woof Woof!"

Sirius made an intimidating gesture, giving a low growl of warning to the "gentle" dog.

And then Fang was furious.

Ever since Fluffy and Fish were recognized as his sponsor, Fang gained some fame in the Forbidden Forest. Even those trolls with not-so-good heads got to give him some face. But today this little dog had appeared out of nowhere and was threatening to steal his food....

"Woof!!!"

Without a word, Fang, furious, barked and lunged at Sirius Black....

And then he got a good beating.

After all, Fang was still a dog whose guts did not match his size, who had never fought in the Forbidden Forest, where all kinds of magical animals were to be found, and whose intelligence was even less than Sirius', who was essentially human.

Despite Sirius not being in the best of shape, he had no trouble defeating Fang, a dog with no strengths other than his size.

He knew he was stealing Fang's food and didn't want to hit him too hard, so he only gave him a few painful punches, lost a few hairs and didn't even break his skin.

After chasing Fang away, Sirius didn't take the incident to heart and continued to eat the loot he had taken from Fang with his head down.

But he hadn't eaten more than a few bites when the barking of the dog he had just chased away came from a distance, along with the smell and sound of another dog.

Help?

Sirius chuckled in his mind.

Instead of running away, he ate his fill and plopped down on the ground, front paws crossed over the uneaten ham, waiting for Fang and his assistant to arrive.

It occurred to him that if the dog could get one ham, he could get a second and a third.... Once he had taken it in, he wouldn't have to worry about food in the future.

Although there is no psychological barrier to eating rats and rabbits in Animagus form, it is still a bit unpleasant to think about it after returning to human form, so it is better to have normal human food to eat.

The big black dog was obviously someone's pet at Hogwarts, Sirius guessed who it was, after all, Hagrid had been a Hogwarts grounds keeper for years when he was a student....

Even if Sirius hadn't seen Fang when he was at school, that was perfectly normal, a dog's lifespan was just over ten years, and Sirius had been out of school for almost twenty years, Fang had obviously been raised by Hagrid after he graduated.

Of course, none of that mattered, what mattered was that he could have adopted Hagrid's dog and had it help him spy on Peter Pettigrew!

The idea that he could soon get his revenge was so exciting to Sirius that he didn't notice the movement of the assistant Fang had hired as he approached,

It seemed...

There was something a little out of the ordinary.