Dumbledore listened quietly.
For a moment, he actually didn't know whether to praise Sirius for his wit or call him stupid ... Ahem!
You realised it was Snape, which is truly excellent.
But ... you should also know that you and Snape have a personal vendetta, right?
Then why do you think he tried to free you?
But Dumbledore also admired Sirius' tenacity!
To punish himself for the mistakes he had made, he preferred to stay in Azkaban to atone for his sins. He obviously had the chance to escape, but he never bothered to leave.
Truly a Gryffindor!
"We'll talk about this later!"
Dumbledore said slowly, "Snape's matter still needs evidence, I will pay attention to his every move next. And the most important thing we need to do now is to prove your innocence ... Sirius!"
Although all the current proofs pointed to the fact that Sirius was wrongly accused, Dumbledore had to retain a certain amount of vigilance until he had seen Peter Pettigrew with his own eyes.
Moreover, it wasn't appropriate to tell anyone about Sirius.
At least not right now!
Dumbledore continued, "Tell me about you, Sirius."
"Hoo-"
Sirius took a steadying breath and recounted the events of that year in a somewhat complicated tone.
In the beginning, Sirius was indeed the secret keeper of the charm.
But he thought he was too high-profile and a sure target for the Death Eaters to kill. He felt that they should change to a safer secret keeper, and then he would stand in the open and attract the attention of the Death Eaters.
At that time there was a traitor in the Order of the Phoenix.
Sirius was unable to trust Remus Lupin due to his werewolf identity.
So Sirius proposed to make Peter Pettigrew the Secret Keeper of the Fidelius Charm.
Then ... tragedy happened.
After learning the truth, Sirius went after Peter Pettigrew alone. In desperation, Pettigrew used a spell to blow up an entire street, leaving behind only a severed finger of his own.
Sirius assumed that Peter Pettigrew was dead, and in an act of self-punishment, he allowed the Ministry of Magic to imprison him in Azkaban without any excuse.
In fact, the Ministry of Magic didn't give him a chance to explain.
When the Aurors arrived at the scene, it was nothing but a bombed-out street and dead Muggles, and Sirius was the only one standing there laughing maniacally - the Aurors also found Peter Pettigrew's severed finger there.
Added to that, Sirius did not explain in his defence.
So Sirius was put in Azkaban without a trial.
Then later ...
Fudge came to Azkaban for an inspection and Sirius asked him for a newspaper and read about Arthur Weasley winning the Gold Galleon Prize and also read about Peter the Pettigrew in the report - the bloody rat!
Sirius escaped and went to the Burrow first, and when he learnt that the Weasleys hadn't returned yet, he decided to check on his godson at No. 4 Privet Drive.
To his surprise, Andy was already there, waiting for him.
"How long were you at the Privet Drive before Collins showed up?" Dumbledore asked suddenly.
Sirius froze for a moment, "About four or five days!"
Dumbledore nodded, "Four or five days ... I see, go on!"
Sirius was a little puzzled, but continued, "I didn't want to hurt the boy, but he kept chasing me. There was nothing I could do, it was a critical situation and I thought that if I could hurt his leg, he wouldn't be able to keep chasing me."
"But just at that moment, a Patronus ..."
"Patronus!!!"
Sirius' eyes widened drastically, what was going on? He was attacked by a Patronus?
After leaving Azkaban, Sirius did read a lot of newspapers. But the news reporting the Patronus charm was so far back in the last year that Sirius hadn't seen it mentioned yet.
"That's a spell unique to Collins."
Dumbledore explained before continuing, "You were brought here after being knocked out by the Patronus? What did you two talk about?"
Sirius gave Dumbledore a puzzled look.
How come he felt that Dumbledore cared more about that Andy boy compared to him?
Was it an illusion?
"I got hit by a stunning spell and woke up here."
Sirius continued, "That boy's name is Andy Collins, right? I swear, he's the most sharp-witted young wizard I've ever seen, even surpassing a lot of Aurors, maybe even Mad-Eye Moody!"
"He knew to wait on me at No. 4 Privet Drive!"
"Although he thought I was a Death Eater, he was keenly aware of a few suspicions."
"He asked me why I hadn't escaped Azkaban earlier, and why I hadn't harmed Harry if I had been to No. 4 Privet Drive for so long."
"Because of these suspicions, he didn't hand me over to the Ministry of Magic right away. After hearing my explanation, he called you here. Oh, by the way, the boy was so wary that he used a stunning spell when he went to contact you."
Dumbledore nodded slightly at that.
In fact, Sirius' feeling was not wrong.
In this matter, Dumbledore was indeed more concerned about Andy's behaviour.
It was because Sirius' matter was very easy to solve, simply waiting for the Weasleys to come back from their trip, they could easily catch that rat and prove Sirius' innocence.
But Andy was different.
With one bad handling, he might well become the third Dark Lord of the wizarding world.
But if guided well, Andy could also become the Guardian of the magic world.
After entering this cave, Dumbledore was keenly aware that this place was definitely not for detaining Sirius.
Or rather, it was more than just to imprison Sirius.
Associated with the magic Andy had been researching during this period of time, Dumbledore immediately realised - this place was prepared for magic transfiguration experiments.
And Sirius was that experiment!
It was only that Andy found some doubts, and he felt that Sirius might have been wrongly accused, thus he gave him a chance to defend himself.
But without these doubts ...
Perhaps Sirius would have regretted escaping from Azkaban.
Dumbledore's emotions were somewhat mixed.
He was relieved that Andy still had a conscience in his heart, but at the same time, he was a little bitter about Andy's fanatical attitude towards magic.
Andy was too frantic.
To research magic, he was even ready for human experimentation. It's just that Andy was targeting those evil Death Eaters.
This was not at all like a normal thirteen-year-old.
"Any more?"
Dumbledore asked, "What did you guys talk about afterwards?"
Sirius: Yeah right! You really do care more about that Andy boy, don't you?
"He asked about the secrets of Dementors."
Sirius said, a little helplessly, "I should say ... He is truly a Ravenclaw, and in this situation, he was still thinking about studying. He also wanted to look at the Black family's collection of books, and I promised him. We chatted about our views on magic later."
"Oh, right! We also agreed to have a duel, a five hundredth duel!"
Towards the end, Sirius's tone had a little bit of excitement.
Dumbledore: "..."
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