Azkaban.
Sirius Black was curled in a freezing corner, trembling all over.
The Dementors had just left in disappointment. As usual, those monsters hadn't been able to suck much positive emotion out of him...
For the despondent Sirius, such luxury was in short supply.
Click!
The heavy door was suddenly pushed open again.
Sirius remained huddled in the corner, showing no reaction to the sound of the door opening...
Suddenly, Sirius felt the cold, hopeless atmosphere around him swept away, replaced by a pleasant sensation of warmth.
He hadn't felt anything like it in many, many years.
Bathed in this warmth, Sirius's mental state improved significantly. It was only then that he found the motivation to lift his head slightly and see who had come.
"It's you..." Sirius's voice was raspy.
"It's me." Victor Wick closed the door behind him with a creak.
"Every time you've come to visit before, you came in secret and stayed outside the door... Why did you come straight in this time?" Sirius's hollow eyes gazed calmly at the man before him.
Victor shook a set of keys in front of Sirius. "Because I have these."
"Keys? Did you attack the Azkaban guards?" Sirius asked in surprise.
"What are you talking about... I would never commit such an obvious crime."
"Then those keys..."
"Oh, these? I gave the warden a thousand Galleons. Then, quite coincidentally, he stepped out of his office and happened to leave the keys right in front of me. Then, the Hit Wizards and guards around this cell just happened to leave for a while. You know, Galleons have always been a good thing, and the Ministry is rotten from top to bottom."
Victor had never been short on money, and after obtaining the Philosopher's Stone, money had become nothing more than a number he could change at will...
"Those are some expensive keys... Too bad you wasted your money. I told you, I'm not leaving this place... I killed James and Lily. Being locked up here is what I deserve." Sirius sighed.
Victor chuckled. "Is that so? Even if Peter Pettigrew is locked up right next door, you still don't want to leave?"
Bang!
Sirius, who had been half-dead moments ago, suddenly found the strength to leap from his corner. He grabbed Victor by the collar, the veins on the back of his hands bulging. "What did you say! That... that traitor! He's not dead?!"
"Of course he isn't! You should have told me long ago that Peter Pettigrew was an Animagus. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been like you, believing he was dead all this time."
"An Animagus... of course! That's it!" Sirius's eyes turned bloodshot. "That coward ran away back then! I was so stupid... I really thought he'd actually be willing to die! Right! A coward like him, how could he possibly blow himself up?!"
Sirius let go of Victor, clutching his hair in agony, laughing and shouting like a madman...
Suddenly, he turned slowly to look at Victor and asked, word for word, "You just said he's locked up next door?"
"Yes, right next door." Victor shrugged.
"Argh!" Sirius roared, charging toward the door.
However, before he could make it out, he found himself unable to move. An invisible force held him firmly in place.
"Let me go! I'm going to kill that despicable rat!" Sirius bellowed.
"You can't go out there right now, Sirius," Victor said, shaking his head.
"Haven't you always wanted me to leave this hellhole? I agree! Just let me kill him!" Sirius growled.
"Sorry, I can't let you kill him yet... In fact, I just saved him from the Dementors' kiss... Don't you understand? If he dies, you'll never be able to leave here as an innocent man."
"I don't care! I don't care at all!" Sirius struggled violently.
But Victor's magic was unbreakable. Sirius couldn't budge an inch, and he couldn't even shift into his Animagus form!
"You don't care... but Harry cares, Sirius. Do you know how bright that boy's eyes became when he learned he had a godfather? His aunt and uncle didn't give him an ounce of affection. You have no idea how lonely he's been all these years," Victor said softly.
Sirius's struggling stopped abruptly. He turned to look at Victor, the bloodshot rage in his eyes gradually fading into a calm clarity.
Victor took another key out of his pocket and tossed it in front of Sirius.
"Fine. If you think that boy's wishes are insignificant, then I'll release you right now and let you strangle Peter Pettigrew with your bare hands. This is the key to his cell..."
Sirius felt the restraints on his body suddenly vanish!
But the newly freed Sirius only stared silently at the key on the floor, making no move to take it.
"Has he... had a hard time all these years?"
"Hard? It's been absolutely miserable... While the Dursleys kept him fed and clothed, a child craves something much more important. You should know what that is..."
Sirius remained silent for a long time, his hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly...
Finally, he slumped to the floor. "What do you want me to do?"
"Changed your mind? Good. I think Harry will be relieved." Victor picked the key back up. "You don't need to do much. Just stay here quietly in your cell for now. I'll make sure those monsters don't harass you. You'll be out soon."
"After this is over... can you help me? Let me be the one to kill that traitor!" Sirius looked at Victor with reddened eyes.
"Of course. When the time comes, we'll just let the 'accident' that was supposed to happen to him today actually happen." Victor turned toward the door, then stopped.
A photograph drifted from his hand, hovering before Sirius.
"This is a photo of Harry. Oh, by the way, he's only in his first year and he's already been selected for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Just like James, he's the Seeker. He's the youngest Quidditch player in centuries."
Sirius's hand trembled as he reached out to take the photo.
In the picture, Harry wore a set of expensive robes, looking a bit awkward. It was a photo Victor had taken for him when they were buying his clothes.
"The Quidditch team? That's wonderful..." A slow smile finally tugged at the corner of Sirius's mouth. "He grew up so fast. He looks exactly like James. And... his eyes are just like Lily's..."
"By the way, Snape is currently the Potions Professor at Hogwarts. You have no idea how badly Harry gets picked on without anyone to back him up... Tsk tsk tsk..."
Victor had only finished half his sentence when Sirius exploded again.
"How dare that Snivellus do that!"
"Just stay put. If you want to be able to stand up for Harry properly, you'd better do exactly as I say." Victor turned and left.
The iron door slammed shut again.
Locked inside the cell along with the iron door was a feeling called hope...
Victor didn't tell Sirius about Regulus for the time being because now wasn't the time.
However, once Sirius was out, dealing with Regulus would be much easier. Victor didn't believe for a second that Regulus never read the newspapers!
Ministry of Magic, Minister's Office.
Fudge was sitting at his desk. Although he appeared to be reviewing documents, he wasn't actually reading a single word.
He was waiting for news! News that would allow him to rest easy once and for all!
Scrimgeour sat on a nearby sofa drinking coffee. Like Fudge, he was waiting for the same news.
Suddenly, a paper airplane slipped under the door crack and flew in front of Fudge!
Fudge immediately put down his documents, grabbed the paper airplane, and opened it.
"Well?" Scrimgeour stood up and looked at Fudge.
Fudge looked up at Scrimgeour, his gaze full of dissatisfaction. "It failed! How did you arrange this?"
"How is that possible?" Scrimgeour frowned, unable to believe it. "The Warden of Azkaban is one of my confidants. How could something so simple fail?"
He had only been concerned with whether his man would handle it cleanly; he had never worried it might fail!
Telling the Dementors to suck the soul out of a prisoner was something they had done before, and it had never failed!
"What exactly happened..."
"Stop asking! Go there yourself!" Fudge said coldly.
A voice suddenly drifted from the window. "No need to go to all that trouble. I'm the one who did it."
Fudge and Scrimgeour looked toward the window in shock.
There, a man stood with his back to them. Fudge and the others didn't even know how long he had been standing there!
Scrimgeour had already drawn his wand.
"Who are you! How did you get in here?" Fudge ducked behind Scrimgeour and immediately pressed a button under his desk to call for backup.
However, after waiting for a while, the Aurors who should have burst in within seconds failed to appear!
"Don't waste your effort, Minister." The man turned around and smiled. "No one is coming to interrupt our conversation."
"Who... who are you?" Fudge had never seen this man before.
But Scrimgeour's hand holding the wand couldn't help but tremble when he saw the man's face. "He... he is..."
"I am Victor Wick, the current Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. Minister, I believe you've heard of me." Victor smiled.
"You... you're Victor Wick!" Fudge's voice rose in pitch.
Of course he knew who Victor Wick was...
The notorious Death Eater from years ago, the Dark Lord's most trusted right-hand man, and simultaneously, someone Dumbledore held in the highest regard...
To this day, no one knew how he had managed to achieve that!
But Fudge and Scrimgeour knew that someone who could pull that off was absolutely not someone to be trifled with.
"Mr. Wick, Albus and I are friends. There must be some misunderstanding here, right?" Fudge was terrified. He was afraid Victor Wick was there to take his life!
After all, for a person like this, killing a Minister for fun didn't seem like such an unlikely thing.
"Minister, I think you might have a slight misunderstanding about me. I came to visit quite openly; I just wanted to have a proper chat with you."
"Then how did you get in?" Scrimgeour gripped his wand, his tone cold.
"My apologies, Minister. I walked straight through the front door, but you were apparently so engaged in your conversation that you didn't notice me. As for why I didn't knock... well, obviously because our next topic isn't suitable for a public discussion. Furthermore, to avoid being disturbed, I took the liberty of reassigned some irrelevant people away from the vicinity..."
"How... how did you do that?" Scrimgeour and Fudge both looked at Victor in shock.
This was the Ministry of Magic! Not someone's living room! How did Victor Wick move so freely, even reaching the Minister's office without being stopped?
And... reassigning Ministry personnel? Victor was just a professor; where did he get that authority?
"I hold certain files regarding certain individuals... and besides, I'm filthy rich," Victor chuckled. "You know, Galleons are a wonderful thing. They can even turn a well-known Death Eater into an innocent victim of the Imperius Curse... can't they?"
Fudge's expression became unnatural. He knew Victor was referring to his acceptance of gold from pure-bloods like Malfoy to clear them of their crimes.
At this moment, Fudge and Scrimgeour understood how Victor could come and go as he pleased in the Ministry...
Who among the high-ranking officials in the Ministry had a clean slate? All it took was some dirt and a pile of Galleons. As long as Victor didn't start a massacre in the Ministry, basically no one would stop him.
"You... you are..." Fudge couldn't even speak properly.
Victor Wick was not Dumbledore. Many of Fudge's usual tactics were completely ineffective against someone like him.
"You think I'm breaking the rules? My dear Minister... you can't be the only one allowed to break them, can you?" Victor smiled.
"Then... then let's talk properly." Fudge pushed down Scrimgeour's wand.
This allowed Scrimgeour to breathe a sigh of relief as well.
Although he had acted tough, the pressure this man exerted on him made him feel, for a split second, like he was looking at the Dark Lord from years ago!
Now that Fudge intended to talk, he naturally didn't have to actually fight.
"You're here for Sirius Black's case, aren't you?"
Upon entering, Victor had already stated that he had thwarted the accident that was supposed to befall Peter Pettigrew, so his purpose in coming to the Ministry was quite clear.
"Yes. So... Minister, will you give me this favor?" Victor smiled.
"This matter... is very troublesome!" Minister Fudge sat down, his face gradually returning to a state of calm... at least on the surface.
"That's not what you told Dumbledore. Well, no matter... if there's a problem, we solve it. I wonder if I might have the honor of helping the Minister solve this trouble?" Victor remained polite, making it easy for people to feel well-disposed toward him—provided they ignored the fact that he had forced his way into the office!
"I want to keep my seat as Minister!" Fudge got straight to the point.
Facing someone as goal-oriented as Victor Wick, he knew he couldn't beat around the bush like he did with Dumbledore.
"That's it?" Victor looked at Fudge in surprise.
"That's it!" Fudge was quite displeased by his look.
It felt as though the power he valued most was worth less than a common weed in the eyes of the man before him!
"That's easily solved." Victor glanced at Fudge and said meaningfully, "Back then, you weren't the only one who benefited from this case, were you?"
Fudge's eyes widened, and he felt a sudden sense of clarity! He glanced at Victor, his mind racing with ideas...
However, Victor's next words shattered his little scheme immediately.
"I can help you secure your position as Minister, but... if you go back on your word... I have ten thousand ways to kick you off that throne. You know... there are plenty of people in the Ministry who want to be Minister; they just lack a little bit of resources and a little bit of funding. I only need to provide them with a little help..."
Fudge's calm expression changed instantly!