(づ￣ 3￣)づHere is a little bonus chapter, coz I felt like it!
A voice suddenly broke the silence, startling a gaunt, skeletal figure who had been staring blankly at the corner of his cell.
"…An Auror? You actually bothered to come this far… Heh… Hehehe…" Sirius didn't even bother lifting his eyelids, mumbling indistinctly under his breath.
"Take a look at this."
The voice's owner pulled out a crumpled newspaper from his pocket and tossed it toward Sirius.
Sirius lazily picked up the paper. After all, a normal person needs information, and in Azkaban, Sirius had no access to any information at all.
A newspaper, no matter how worn out, was still better than staring at the cracks between the bricks on the opposite wall.
He glanced at the date—1993…
At that moment, Sirius couldn't help but laugh.
Every day, he had been scratching marks on the wall to track the days.
It wasn't perfectly accurate, but based on his count, it should still be 1992.
"Where the hell did you get a newspaper from the future?" Sirius asked, flashing a wicked grin.
"Read the contents, Mr. Black."
Sirius shrugged. He would have read it even without the reminder.
As if worried about the poor lighting, the figure outside the cell tossed over two glowing little cubes.
Sirius shifted into a more comfortable position and leisurely flipped through the newspaper—until he came across something that caught his full attention.
The Weasley family had won a Galleon jackpot and had taken a vacation to Egypt.
In their family photo, Sirius spotted something so familiar it made his stomach twist. The rıghtful source is 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅✦𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾✦𝗇𝖾𝗍
He snapped his head up, staring at the silhouette outside his cell.
"You guessed correctly. In short… I'm here to stop a mistake. To kill someone. And I need a competent assistant." The figure spoke.
Sirius gripped the newspaper tighter, locking eyes with the shadowy figure. "If I can… you'll help me?"
"Mm-hmm… If you help me accomplish what I need to do, then I'll help you catch that rat."
"What mistake are you trying to stop? And who do you need to kill?"
The figure stepped closer, crouching down. The glow from the glowstone illuminated the lower half of his masked face.
The reflection from the monocle made Sirius rub the corner of his eye.
"I can't tell you what the mistake is… but the person I need to kill is... Kasenhis."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!!!!!!
A rapid series of gunshots echoed across the shooting range.
Kasenhis stood by a third-floor window of a nearby building, watching the scene unfold.
This was the Prime Minister's way of giving them an answer.
"Looks like the Prime Minister is a reasonable man after all." Dumbledore smiled, glancing at the Prime Minister, who stood beside him, speaking into a phone.
"Hmm… Wizards don't just exist in England. There are tens of thousands of them in France, Germany, America, and do I even need to tell you about the population across Asia?
And you think I'd be stupid enough to experiment on England's own wizards? What kind of idiot would I have to be?"
The Prime Minister shrugged as he spoke.
"Actually, Prime Minister, you're misunderstanding something," Kasenhis said, leaning against the window frame.
"Though, of course… that misunderstanding works perfectly in your favor, assuming you handle this situation cleanly and ensure it doesn't escalate any further."
"You are now a Professor, huh…? I remember you used to do custom-made commissions, didn't you? I even had you design a bracelet for my wife once."
The Prime Minister looked at Kasenhis's distinctively handsome face, clearly surprised—he hadn't expected him to be a wizard.
"Uh… are we going to talk about me being a professor now? You liked that bracelet, right? Do you also like changing the subject?"
"Oh, apologies. Go on."
"Because of your proactive response, Prime Minister, the relationship between wizards and Muggles has been kept from spiraling into an irreversible disaster. That means I can speak my mind honestly now."
"If we set aside the whole 'wizards versus Muggles' war scenario, the first thing I thought when I saw that lab wasn't: 'Muggles are experimenting on wizards.' It was simply: human experimentation." Kasenhis said.
The Prime Minister, looking slightly uncomfortable, handed his phone to a masked secretary standing nearby.
He pursed his lips before speaking again. "You're saying… what truly angered you was the human experimentation itself? Not the fact that it was Muggles doing it to wizards?"
As he spoke, he gestured toward the envelope on the desk.
"Mm-hmm. Both acts are enraging, but if I had walked into that lab and seen wizards torturing Muggles, using them for human experiments, I would have made the same decision."
Kasenhis nodded firmly.
"…You truly are a man of integrity, Professor."
The Prime Minister extended his hand, and Kasenhis shook it.
The masked secretary returned, handing the phone back to the Prime Minister before quickly lowering his head and walking away at a brisk pace.
Kasenhis, frowning slightly, glanced toward the secretary.
Then, suddenly, his expression shifted. "Laim!" he shouted.
The secretary looked awkward, instinctively glancing at the Prime Minister. After seeing him nod, he finally turned around, removed his mask, and scratched his head in embarrassment.
Kasenhis pointed between him and the Prime Minister.
Laim hesitated for a moment before realizing what Kasenhis meant and spoke up. "The Prime Minister knows about my identity."
"Hahaha~ I thought you'd end up in the Ministry of Magic, but looking at you now, your career path seems way brighter than anything the Ministry could've offered."
Kasenhis finally relaxed, patting Laim on the shoulder, recalling how, back when he was preparing for his N.E.W.T.s last year, Kasenhis had warned him.
As a Muggle-born wizard, it was best to stay away from pure-blood circles—
Laim had apparently taken that advice very seriously, distancing himself from the wizarding world entirely.
Laim looked even more embarrassed. "..I was afraid you'd be mad."
Kasenhis looked completely confused. "What would I even be mad about? But now that we're on the subject…"
He lowered his voice slightly.
"You graduated from Hogwarts just last year… By Muggle standards, your formal education level should only be at a primary school level. So how the hell did you land a government job so fast?"
Laim flashed the kind of smug grin that only top students could pull off.
"Well… back at Hogwarts, I self-studied all my subjects. Occasionally, I'd take a day or two off to go sit for exams. So technically, my official academic qualification is at the senior high school level."
"Wow! Very good! Hogwarts' curriculum is not that challenging so you did a great thing while attending!"
"Yes, thank you for the praise Professor."
"If you ever wanna go to university… and if you're not sure where to apply, I highly recommend Manchester. Their civil engineering program is top-tier. But you'll need to study more delegintly, that won't be as easy as studying at Hogwarts."
"..." Dumbledore gritted his teeth and watched Kasenhis recruit people for his alma mater, and angrily dragged him away.
Even as they left, Dumbledore still politely bid farewell to both the Prime Minister and Laim.
"Remember—Manchester!" Kasenhis shouted over his shoulder.
Dumbledore, now fully sulking, muttered, "I really should get you an official Hogwarts diploma. That way, next time, you could at least say—'Remember, Hogwarts!'"
His tone was downright sour, and it was painfully obvious that he had very strong opinions about this Manchester place.
o(*￣▽￣*)ブRead two weeks ahead: