The wind blew from all directions, as Rain Swallow flew like a black ghost between the mountains, with its wings brushing through the spires of towering trees. The conversation with Dumbledore last night surfaced on Felix's mind piece by piece -
"I received Intel that Voldemort is preparing to personally capture Amelia when she returns from Azkaban using Portkey."
"What are you going to do, arrange a trap in return?"
After a long silence, Dumbledore shook his head in the darkness, "Not this time, we have no foolproof, we can not act as if we know about this in advance."
Felix understood, that this is to protect the spy, and the person who passed on the information is likely to be Severus Snape.
"Then you--"
"I will not be involved in this operation ... it concerns a plot," Dumbledore said softly, the silver moonlight shining on his glasses, making it hard to read his expression. "Although I am not certain yet whether it will be used, but before the decision is made, I can not show my face easily, especially cannot be seen by Voldemort."
...
The Port of Felixstowe is the largest and busiest container port in the UK, located in East Anglia on the southeast coast. On a small stretch of deserted beach near the port, two figures emerged from the distorted air.
Sirius and Ms. Bones stood together, clutching a well-worn copy of the Daily Prophet in their hands.
"I hate Portkeys, can't we just use the ferry like we did when we went?" Sirius rubbed his head, he had just hit his head on Amelia's knee, all sorts of these kinds of accidents would happen when using the portkey.
"The people left behind need the ferry more than we do," Ms. Bones stuffed the newspaper into her pocket, "and since we're going back early, we have to make do with what we have."
Sirius muttered something in a low voice.
Bones flashed a smile, "Well then, congratulations, Professor Black."
Sirius looked at her smugly, then his face changed, "Someone's been lurking nearby." He drew his wand and looked alertly from side to side as Ms. Bones drew her wand in sync, the tip flickering as the sand on the small patch of the beach began to shake.
"Are you positive?" Ms. Bones asked with a serious expression, "It could just be a passing muggle."
"I'm not sure," Sirius said, "I just think - look out!" He waved his wand and a ball of fire exploded in midair with a deafening sound, Sirius staggered back, but he couldn't care less, his eyes fixed dead on one direction as he inhaled a deep breath, "Voldemort!"
Voldemort stood on the beach, at some point in time, as if he had been waiting there for a long time.
"Amelia Bones," Voldemort's pale fingers held the end of a wand as he saluted slightly, "I wish to invite you to be a guest of mine at my castle."
"And if I refuse?" Ms. Bones asked in a dull voice.
"As a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, I trust you will not be that stubborn, but if you insist-"
"You killed my brother." Ms. Bones said with gritted teeth, as she stabbed the wand in her hand like a sharp sword, and the sand grains on the ground rose and rolled up a sandstorm. " Go!" She said to Sirius, Sirius's hand immediately rested on her, ready to cast an Apparition.
The sandstorm suddenly rolled backward, creating a heavy wall out of thin air, and smashed against the two, Sirius and Bones got thrown far away, and couldn't get up for a while.
Voldemort calmly walked towards Ms. Bones, "I'll just have to dig out useful information from your mind then; I might omit some, something that I would not like to see."
Sirius sprawled on the ground, with the feeling that more than one rib was broken, and his wand emitted a red light, Voldemort casually blocked the spell and halted his advance. He seemed to have just only spotted Sirius, his red eyes glinted menacingly as he stared for two seconds -
"Avada Kedavra."
" Solid Earth Wall!" Ms. Bones shouted, and a spacious wall rose up from the beach, blocking the Killing Curse. (*not a spell*)
Once again, the two rejoined.
" Transfiguration." Voldemort uttered in disgust.
" Look for your chance to escape. You're more important than me." Sirius said through clenched teeth as the corners of his mouth began to bleed and his ribs drilled painfully into his body. He braced himself and recited a spell.
"He's targeting me, I can't possibly escape." Bones shouted, while waving her wand, the rocks on the shore suddenly seemed to come to life and lunged toward Voldemort, "So we should think of other options--"
Voldemort showed a cruel smile, he looked like a cat catching a mouse, the spell flicked aside one by one, blasting a piece of rock with ease. The aftermath of the spell left a trail of wounds on the two. If not for the purpose of capturing Amelia alive and digging out the secret of the prophecy, he would have been in a more relaxed state of mind.
At that moment Sirius suddenly grabbed Bones' hand, as he recklessly and forcefully casted Apparition, Voldemort's wrist waved violently, the wand issued a whistling sound, and a bloody wound burst open from Sirius's chest, but the two had disappeared from their original spot.
Voldemort approached unhurriedly, staring at where the two disappeared, and the next second, he appeared straight away in a deserted suburb not far from here.
Sirius and Bones barely held themselves up from collapsing.
"Why does everyone try to use the Apparition to escape, for a highly skilled wizard, like me, it is easy to follow the trail you left behind, not to mention that I disturbed your landing spot." Voldemort explained generously, expecting a look of desperation from the two.
But the response he received was a prepared powerful spell.
Sirius conjured a dozen rusty iron arrows in the air, which let out a mournful cry and flew towards Voldemort, Bones waved her wand in sync, and a patch of open space around her and Sirius suddenly sank, "he can't intercept the Portkey, --" she pulled the newspaper from her pocket and held it out, "Be Prepared!"
The surface of the newspaper flashed with blue light, and then returned to normal.
"Hold on, just three seconds--" she looked at Sirius, whose chest is gushing with a large amount of blood, "three, two-- "
Sirius stared at midair, with his eyes widened dramatically, while Voldemort hovered in midair at some point and a curtain of green light fell, Sirius wrestled his hand free from Bones' grip, as his red spell faced green light; he gritted his teeth and tried to hold on for a few seconds at all cost.
Bones reached out to grab him, only to twist and disappear the moment before she touched him.
It is over ... Sirius thought, he couldn't stop Voldemort's killing curse, but at least one of them escaped. He began to think about what the world after death would look like, and after ten seconds or so, he suddenly found himself still conscious.
A huge thing blocked the curse, Sirius blinked, and the thing seemed to be a giant golden galleon?
Sirius's jaw dropped.
While above the ground, Felix blamed himself for his blunder, he hadn't counted that Sirius would forcefully use Apparition, even though he had done the same when escaping from him. Anyway, it took a while to catch up again, but luckily he caught up in time and used a coin with a Zooming Charm to block the Killing Curse. This familiar scene caused Voldemort to instantly disappear from where he was as he appeared far away from Felix.
"Voldemort, in your words, you are foolish to appear here today," Felix said calmly as he showed him his new wand, he couldn't help but want to try that potent killing curse from the last fight again, but because of his lack of confidence in restraining Voldemort with dead wight Sirius, he felt it would be unwise to expose his killer move and all the magic associated with it.
Voldemort stared at his wand, with an ugly expression.
"Felix Hap." He muttered, with a flash of madness in his eyes. He is already decided to retreat, as the intel from Lucius slowly passed through his mind - Felix Hap gained a new wand, while he is still stuck with a mediocre wand, and he became insane with jealousy.
Voldemort vowed in his heart, that before their next meeting, he must obtain a wand that matches his identity, a wand that allows him to cast spells without scruples. He looked at Felix expressionlessly and disappeared from where he was.
Felix did not move, with deadweight Sirius, he certainly can't chase him for a fight, because the consequences of fighting Voldemort with a deadweight would be disastrous. (like the death of Sirius)
"He's gone?" A frail voice asked.
Felix took a few steps forward and looked at Sirius who is sitting in the pit of blood and looked like he had just been fished out of a pool of blood. Sirius leaned against the edge of the deep pit and said irritably, "If Voldemort is gone, save me quickly, I can't stop the bleeding, I ... damn it, I'm dying."
Felix laughed, "You still have the strength to curse, which means you are still young to die." He quickly dealt with Sirius's injuries, after a vial of potion was fed in, Sirius's state significantly improved a bit, but his whole face still looked pale as a vampire.
During the treatment, dozens of Aurors popped up from thin air, and Ms. Bones' face clouded with heavy gloom, but when she saw Sirius, who is bantering with Felix with a dull look, her expression froze.
"You're still alive!?"
"Almost dead." Sirius said laboriously, nudging his mouth in Felix's direction.
"I'll take you to St. Mungo's." Ms. Bones pursed her lips for a while before saying.
Unexpectedly, Sirius shook his head, "No, I'm going to Hogwarts, Professor Black can't miss his first opening night."
"I'll bring Sirius to the school hospital wing first." Felix said to a worried Ms. Bones.
...
The school great hall.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked toward the long faculty table.
"The professor isn't here, Sirius isn't here, and even Hagrid is missing. What the hell is going on?" Harry asked anxiously.
"They might have been delayed by something." Ron guessed, "Didn't you say Professor Hap had left for something? Did he really turn into a swallow?"
"Yeah." Harry said, "But the professor didn't say what he was going to do." He suddenly thought of Sirius, could it be an emergency on Sirius' side?
The Sorting Ceremony began, but the whole time Harry didn't listen carefully, he just thought that the Sorting Hat had been singing for an extra-long time this year. By the time the sorting ceremony was over and the table is filled with food, Harry had to accept the fact.
At that moment, the great hall's side door abruptly opened.
Felix and Sirius walked in, and Felix whispered a few words to Dumbledore, who nodded lightly, and then the two sat down in the empty seats.
Sirius smiled brightly and waved towards Harry, who couldn't spot a slight problem from his appearance, and Harry immediately gave an enthusiastic response, the fork in his hand almost flung towards the next seat.
"Guess what Sirius is whispering to Professor Hap?" Hermione asked, looking in the direction of the faculty table.
"I'll ask tomorrow, right now I just want to eat a lot." Harry said cheerfully.
At the faculty table, Sirius is complaining to Felix: "What did you give me to drink? I don't have any appetite right now ..."
"Uh - you can think of it as a tonic, the ingredients are very precious and contain dragon's blood." Felix replied without looking.
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