Chapter 112: Hermione’s Guess
Sirius Black vowed that he would never underestimate children again.
Although this young brunette was only 13 years old and looked vulnerable, she was definitely smarter and sharper than most adult wizards.
Black originally wanted to use Hermione's presence to embarrass Evan a bit. Who would have thought that coming out shaking his tail would do nothing but expose his identity?
He realized that the joke that he made, was actually on him.
When hearing Hermione's words, Sirius Black's first instinct was to escape.
Despite their appearance, the two in front of him were no pushovers. First Evan, and then Hermione, each of them was more difficult to deal with than the other.
Black was fully alert as he took two steps back.
Intuition told him that it was better to have little contact with the two.
However, when he saw Hermione pull out her wand again, he stopped in his place.
He couldn't just turn around and run away. Even though he had a good chance of avoiding Hermione's curse, here is Hogsmeade. The shops on both sides of the street are stuffed with heavily armed Aurors. Outside the town, there are hundreds of Dementors waiting for him.Hermione only needed to yell, to make it almost impossible for him to escape.
Should he pounce on the girl to stun her? Seeing that Evan had his hand on his wand, he quickly dismissed that idea. Three consecutive contacts made him know Evan well enough to realize that he was a really powerful magician. And although he was inferior to him in combat, his overall strength wasn't much worse than his, not to mention the fact that he now has no wand.
Maybe he should behave just like a real stray dog, thus giving himself the chance to slip away.
Sirius Black hurried to give Evan a look, and then he tried to make himself expressionless. He looked at Hermione with his big eyes straight and appeared very silly.
Seeing Black's appearance, Evan sighed feebly.
What a terrible teammate he was doomed with! He clearly told him to stay up and hide, yet he still comes out with no warning exposing his identity to Hermione.
This is the true dilemma. Forget all about catching Pettigrew, getting though Hermione is the real challenge.
"Hermione, this stray dog can't be an Animagus!"
"No, I have a feeling. The third years recently studied Animagus in the course of Professor McGonagall's class. For personal reason, I looked up the matter after I finished my homework." Hermione quickly looked at Evan's eyes, her face got red and she pointed her wand steadily to Sirius Black. She said in a hurry. "Believe me, Evan, this dog is definitely an Animagus."
Seeing Hermione's expression, Evan secretly admired her learning efforts.
"Hermione, since you have read the book we studied carefully, then you know that the Ministry of Magic has made a register with all the wizards and witches who could become animals. There are detailed records showing what animals that they have managed to become, and the marks that they had on their bodies. There were only seven successful Animagus transformations that were recorded in the past century. This dog wasn't mentioned among them."
"I thought so initially, but he could be an illegal Animagus!" Hermione carried on, "You said to me before, you finished Animagus in the summer. You didn't register with the Ministry of Magic, did you?"
"No, but…"
"Evan, what is your Animagus form?" Hermione suddenly asked.
Since the last time she saw Evan's Patronus at the Quidditch Pitch, Hermione has secretly been doing a lot of research on Animagus for the whole month.
So now, she has more knowledge on the topic than most wizards.
But she still wasn't sure what Evan's Animagus form was.
She was also unable to confirm any relationship between the Animagus form and the Patronus.
On the last day of summer vacation, she met a black cat. She was always wondering if it was Evan. She has always wanted to ask him this question, and now she has finally gathered the courage required to do so.
"My Animagus form is a black cat. You have seen it before…"
Evan froze! Hermione indeed had seen his Animagus before. Not only did she see it, she also embraced it. Not only did she embrace it, she also…
Obviously, Hermione also remembered all of that. The atmosphere became totally awkward.
Sirius was surprised that the two totally ignored him. He quietly took a few steps back, and Evan and Hermione hardly responded.
The corners of his mouth rose. This scene is so familiar to him; he has seen it countless times with James and Lily.
Love, is the quickest way for one to lose his IQ.
Black knew that Evan and Hermione weren't going to deal with him any time soon.
He quietly turned around, and ran out of the Owl Post Office, disappearing quickly into the street corner.
"Evan, your Animagus, the black cat, that night…" Hermione said, biting her lip.
"Hermione, I don't mind giving you a demonstration of my Animagus transformation, but that dog seems to have run away!" Feeling the awkwardness of the situation, Evan said that to divert her attention.
"What?!" Hermione woke up and realized that the big black dog had disappeared. She said anxiously, "Oh no, Evan! That big black dog, he might be Sirius Black, we should report this to Professor McGonagall."
"Relax, Hermione, there is no evidence that the stray dog was an Animagus. It's just your hunch."
"We can't risk it. If he's Sirius Black, then this is probably how he could get into the castle. Professors certainly don't know that Black is an Animagus, so they will not be prepared for this." Hermione said seriously "We must tell the professor about this matter. It is very important."
Yeah, it was really important indeed.
Evan's mouth showed a bitter smile, if she waited one more day, he could have solved the whole thing.
Without her recognizing him, Black could've gone wherever he wanted; he could've even gone to Minister Cornelius Fudge's office without ever being noticed.
Who could've thought that this would happen at the last moment?
If Hermione reported this to the professors, forget about entering the Gryffindor Tower to catch Peter, just approaching the castle would be a great hassle.
Knowing Snape, Evan was sure that he wouldn't even sleep at night, and even go to the forest before dawn to catch black, if he ever knew his Animagus form.
He should try to stop Hermione, but he didn't want to lie to her either.
Lies will be exposed sooner or later. Regardless of whether or not they have goodwill behind them, they will hurt her and cause irreparable rifts between the two.
In particular, considering that Hermione had discovered that the black cat that she met on the last night of the summer vacation was his Animagus form, Evan felt that he was better off being honest.
Perhaps, he could consider telling Hermione everything about his plan, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. She would surely believe in him.
In this case, he will get another helper and his odds of catching Scabbers would be even greater.