Thud.
"Ghhk... gaaah... gweck."
Thrown to the floor, Rodolphus Lestrange gasped for breath.
He even retched until clear stomach acid came out, a side effect of having his mind thoroughly scrambled.
I looked down at him, placed an index finger to my temple, and began to process the information I had obtained.
First, surprisingly, he had not cooperated in the murder of Hepzibah Smith.
No, he hadn't been in a position to cooperate in the first place. At the time, this Rodolphus fellow had been nothing more than a brat.
That was not to say that Lestrange was innocent, by any means.
The numerous crimes he had committed while serving as a vanguard for the Death Eaters.
Was it a confidence born from concealing his identity? The extent to which Lestrange enjoyed torture was beyond imagination.
The process of torturing the Aurors from the Longbottom family, in particular, was so horrific that even I, who had seen numerous crimes in the 19th century, found it ghastly.
I took a golden cup out from my cloak and showed it to Lestrange.
"Lestrange, does this cup perhaps bring back any memories?"
Lestrange, who had been glaring at me with eyes full of hatred despite his gasping, saw Hufflepuff's Cup and screamed in horror.
"Th-that's! A gift from the Dark Lord! It's supposed to be in the depths of Gringotts, how do you have it!"
Fear filled his eyes, the fear that he had failed the mission given to him by Voldemort.
Terrified, Rodolphus flailed his arms and lunged at me.
"Give that back—!"
I flicked my wand and slammed him back onto the ground.
"Gaaah!"
I leaned down, looked down at him, and said.
"Wrong, Lestrange. The owner of this object is not the Dark Lord."
"What... kind of nonsense is that!"
"Remember this, Lestrange. The owner of this object is Hepzibah Smith."
"Who the hell is she! Shut up!"
"You don't really need to know. Just... so you know why you're dying on your way to the afterlife."
CRASH!
I lifted Lestrange up once more and slammed him onto the ground.
Rodolphus let out a horrific scream, as if every bone in his body had been broken.
I looked down at him and said.
"Not even Azkaban will be your sanctuary."
"What... are you...?"
Lestrange groaned something from below, but I no longer felt it was worth my time to speak.
Hmm. Now, how to dispose of him.
I could finish the job very cleanly with the Killing Curse, but I wanted to leave as little trace of my presence in Azkaban as possible.
Ah, right.
"Hey, you. Come here."
I turned my head and called to the group of Dementors that were floating around, not daring to approach me.
Kieeeek?
As if to ask if I was really calling them, one of the Dementors tilted its head, and I spoke again.
"Yes, you. That's right, I'm calling you."
I then used my wand to levitate the limp body of Rodolphus and offered it to them.
"A special meal. Eat this."
After I had thrown Rodolphus out beyond the bars, the Dementors seemed to eye me for a moment.
Then, a few of them rushed towards Rodolphus.
"N-no, save m—!!"
Rodolphus, finally realizing his predicament, screamed and struggled.
But with every bone in his body broken, he couldn't even put up a fight.
Whoooooosh-----
And a grayish-white smoke, which looked like his soul, was pulled out through his mouth.
It was the 'Dementor's Kiss.'
"My... Dark... Lord..."
Finally resigned to his fate, he uttered his last, empty words.
Once the Dementors had finished their long-awaited feast and departed, I could see that the light had completely vanished from his eyes.
I watched his final moment for a brief second.
Then, I raised my wand and manipulated the scene. To any observer, it would look as if Rodolphus had dramatically broken through the bars to escape, only to be kissed by the Dementors.
But just then, a shout from Harry, along with a red beam of light, shot out from the opposite cell.
—Crucio!!
What in the world. Did someone attack Harry?
I glanced over and saw that, thankfully, he didn't seem to be in any critical danger, so I leisurely finished manipulating the scene and approached him.
"Haa... huh."
I asked Harry, who was catching his breath after casting the Crucio.
"What's wrong, Harry?"
"Gyaaaaargh! Kieeeeaak!"
The answer came not from Harry, but from the inmate inside the cell.
It was Bellatrix, screaming as every single cell in her body felt the unceasing pain of being set on fire.
It was, by all accounts, a very successfully cast spell.
I raised an eyebrow at the sight of her being hit by the Unforgivable Curse and looked at Harry.
Harry, as if feeling a little guilty, avoided my gaze for a moment before speaking first.
"That woman insulted my mother."
I didn't add any further comment to Harry's words and asked only one thing.
"Was there any hesitation in your heart?"
Harry lowered his wand and seemed to think for a moment, then nodded and replied.
"...No. There wasn't."
"Good, then that's all that matters."
Harry beamed at my attitude, which didn't blame him in the slightest.
"Well, now that we're done here, shall we head back..."
Woof woof! Woof woof!
Just then, the sound of a dog barking was heard again from nearby.
As I was wondering why on earth a dog was barking in Azkaban, Harry spoke.
"We probably won't be coming back to Azkaban again, so should we go have a look?"
"Shall we?"
The two wizards who had broken into Azkaban, and who were now casually talking as if they would never be back, followed the sound of the barking.
"Arf arf! Woof woof!"
Wow, what is this.
Following the sound of the barking, we saw in the distance a large Black Shepherd.
Harry asked me.
"Master, why is that dog here?"
How would I know?
After a moment of wondering why a dog was locked behind bars, I understood the situation when I saw the inmate's name faintly written on the nameplate far away.
"Harry, step back. It seems that dog is an Animagus."
"An Animagus?"
"Yes, an Animagus. Wizards who can perfectly transform into an animal. It's quite a rare magic."
I made a displeased face as I remembered that many poachers and Dark Wizards were Animagi.
The particularly vicious ones were the poacher Animagi, who would approach magical creatures in their animal form to lower their guard and then poach them.
"It seems he was surviving the Dementors by turning into a dog. Dementors don't pay as much attention to those with simpler minds."
Although the Animagus transformation is a spell that can be cast without a wand, the fact that he could use the magic even in a weakened state from the Dementors meant he must have been a rather skilled wizard.
Then again, it's not like any of the wizards imprisoned in this lowest level of Azkaban would be anything less than formidable.
I thought for a moment, then raised my wand and said.
"Hmm, it seems he was trying to exploit a loophole in Azkaban's security. Since it's come to this, I might as well help the guards out and take care of him... hm?"
But as I got closer, the inmate's name, revealed by the light of my wand, looked somewhat familiar.
"Sirius... Black?"
"What is it, Master? Do you know him?"
"No. But the name is quite familiar."
As we approached the cell where the dog was imprisoned, the dog panted and greeted us.
"What's with the puppy-dog act?"
[T/N: Puppy-dog act (개수작/gaesujak): Aisen uses an idiom that literally means "dog's trick." It's a pun, as he's speaking to Sirius in his dog form, and the phrase is used to call out a clumsy or pathetic attempt at deception.]
I used a revealing spell to forcefully undo his transformation.
And then, his true form was revealed.
Long, unkempt hair, and a face that must have once been handsome.
But now, he looked worse than a street urchin.
His identity revealed, he shouted frantically.
"Kids, how did you undo my magic...! No, more importantly, you shouldn't be here! The Dementors will come to eat us!"
At those words, I scoffed at him.
"Dementors? You mean those things over there?"
Sirius finally looked outside the bars and saw the Dementors, who weren't coming anywhere near Harry and me.
Sirius said, bewildered.
"No... how. You're not even using the Patronus Charm!"
"More importantly, Black. I have something to ask you."
I asked, full of curiosity.
"You, what is your relationship with a certain Phineas Nigellus Black?"
Black answered with a grimace.
"He is my great-great-grandfather, but what does that have to do with anything?"
[T/N: Phineas Nigellus Black (피니어스 나이젤러스 블랙): A former Slytherin Headmaster of Hogwarts and Sirius Black's great-great-grandfather. In the books, his portrait hangs in the Headmaster's office and Dumbledore's old room at Grimmauld Place. He was known for being stuffy and cantankerous.]
Aha. No wonder. I saw a trace of my old headmaster in that stuffy demeanor, and I said with understanding.
"Aha. So you're a direct-line, pure-blood Black."
At those words, Black grabbed the bars and growled.
"Don't you call me that, you little brat who knows nothing of the world!"
Seeing Black threatening me, Harry aimed his wand and shouted.
"Shut up, Black! Don't you dare insult my master!"
Seeing Harry for the first time, Black said in shock.
"Oh, Harry! By Merlin's beard! I never thought I'd see you again in my lifetime!"
At his tone, which suggested he had seen Harry in the past, Harry's own tone became slightly more cautious.
"You've... seen me before?"
"Of course, my boy! I was a dear friend of your father's, Harry."
"Really?!"
Someone who knew his father.
Startled by those words, Harry was about to approach him, but I stopped him.
"Harry, stop. Who that man was in the past is not important now. What's important is that he is now a Dark Wizard, locked up in Azkaban."
"Ah, I'm sorry, Master."
At those words, Sirius shouted as if it were the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.
"Master? Harry, did you just call that brat next to you your master? So that brat taught you the Cruciatus Curse? And he has the nerve to call me a Dark Wizard!"
What. What's wrong with the Crucio?
I wasn't entirely without guilt, but I was proud. I had even given him a proper mental education.
Harry pointed his wand at Sirius and said.
"I don't know what your relationship with my father was, but if you insult my master, I won't let it stand."
At those words, Sirius cried out as if in anguish.
"Harry, I understand that you resent me. But to resort to such power to get revenge on me! Please, just listen to my story for a moment!"
"What? Why would I resent you? This is the first time I've ever seen you."
"What? You didn't come in here to kill me?"
"Pardon?"
A conversation that was strangely missing the point.
Feeling that something was off, I used Legilimency to skim Sirius's surface memories.
Ah. So that's what happened.
It seems the descendant of my old headmaster had lived a rather tragic life.
Hmm. What to do.
Phineas Nigellus Black. Though he was an annoying and disagreeable teacher, he was also a man who had a charm that made it hard to hate him.
Should I say he was a person who was so annoyingly ridiculous that he became endearing?
In any case, as I was reminiscing about the headmaster who had left a not-so-bad memory on me, I made a decision.
He seems to be innocent, and the trouble of taking one black dog out of Azkaban was worth it.
"Since it's come to this, let's take this person out and have a chat."
"Ah, shall we?"
"How do you plan on getting out of here?"
Harry grinned and said.
"Well, the opposite of how we came in, of course."
Sirius's face twisted into a bizarre expression.