"That's essentially how it is.. we still don't know how Sirius Black managed to escape from Azkaban!" Dumbledore said, sitting in a corner of the Headmaster's office alongside a few other professors.
"I still stand by my opinion," Snape said dryly. "Sometimes, to ensure one's safety, you have to give up a lot- happiness, anger, even friendship. I don't believe that just for the sake of Harry Potter having a so-called normal school life, we should allow him to live under the shadow of Sirius Black."
He cast a sharp glance at both Kasenhis and Dumbledore as he spoke.
Kasenhis ignored Snape entirely. What really caught his attention was that line from Dumbledore—that he still didn't know how Sirius escaped from Azkaban.
But logically, Dumbledore should know.
Sirius Black being an Animagus — Lupin should have already told him that.
Escaping the Dementors' detection, breaking out of Azkaban, and paddling doggy-style all the way from that prison island back to the mainland…
That all should have been relatively easy to piece together.
And while Dumbledore might act senile or play games sometimes, his intelligence was, at baseline, completely functional — if not outright brilliant.
So what was he pretending for?
Kasenhis gave Dumbledore a strange look but didn't voice his suspicion right away. He waited until Snape and the other professors left before staying behind alone.
"Well, why didn't you mention that Sirius is an Animagus?"
Dumbledore shrugged. "Oh, that? I thought you already knew. To be honest, if you didn't bring it up soon, I was about to come find you myself."
"What do you mean?" Kasenhis asked, a bit puzzled.
"That big black dog in your office. Lupin told me Sirius Black's Animagus form is a large black dog. So… unless there's another giant black dog hanging around your office, it seems pretty obvious. After all, to my knowledge, ordinary dogs can't exactly… pilot boats," Dumbledore explained.
"Nah! That dog isn't Sirius! My Bruce can't be Sirius!" Kasenhis replied.
"You're putting too much faith in yourself—and underestimating yourself, too. Let's go back to that winter, that forest, the future version of you facing us on the cliff. Who was standing beside the future you then?" Dumbledore asked.
Kasenhis froze, tongue-tied. "I actually… forgot about that. You're saying Sirius was the one I.. the future me saved before attacking us that day?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Exactly. That also explains how he managed to avoid your single-lens enchantment." He gently took the monocle-like glasses from Kasenhis's face and held them up for a moment.
"...You got a way to prove this? Because honestly, the idea that I've been living under the same roof with a man… for this long… is just a bit…"
"The Animagus Reversal Charm. It's a fairly obscure spell. I'll teach you the incantation right now."
"......." Kasenhis gave him a deadpan look.
"…Fine. I'll go back with you."
The two of them left the office and headed toward the Alchemy classroom.
"If your assumption is wrong, would this Animagus Reversal Charm harm Bruce in any way?" Kasenhis asked.
"Not really. If he's not Sirius Black… well, he might not be able to eat for a few days, since magic sometimes supports certain life functions," Dumbledore explained.
"Ah ...Fair enough."
Soon, they pushed open the door to the Alchemy office.
Bruce wasn't sneaking food in Gryffindor Tower or piloting boats across frozen ponds today—instead, he was napping peacefully in the botanical area near the floor-to-ceiling windows.
"Why are all the trees you grow so… square?" Dumbledore asked with curiosity.
"......."
"Alright, fine, don't tell me if you don't want to," Dumbledore said with a wave of his hand, before casting a quick Stupefy on Bruce, followed immediately by the Animagus Reversal Charm.
In the blink of an eye, the drooling black dog transformed...
Into a lean grown ass man in a worn-out suit, leaving Kasenhis momentarily stunned.
Because right now, through his monocle, he was still seeing the [Beast] tag.
But soon, he realized the trick.
Sirius was wearing a plain silver ring on his finger. Kasenhis took the ring off, and only then did Sirius's tag correct itself.
[Human] [Magic]
He glanced down at the ring in his hand again—but couldn't see anything special about it.
"Looks like the me from ten years in the future is pretty badass," Kasenhis said, waving his hand, ready to immobilize the sprawled-out Sirius Black on the floor—only to be stopped by Dumbledore.
"What?"
Dumbledore didn't reply.
He simply waved his wand and canceled the Animagus Reversal Charm. In the blink of an eye, Sirius turned back into a big black dog.
"Let's go talk in the Headmaster's office," Dumbledore said, then Disapparated right out of the room.
Kasenhis rolled his eyes and followed.
Once they were back in the Headmaster's office, he got straight to the point: "You're thinking that now that Sirius has been found, and considering the amount of time he's spent alone with Harry, we need to question whether he's really a bad guy or not—right?"
"That's exactly what I'm thinking. What about you?" Dumbledore smiled.
"Call Severus over and pour two bottles of Veritaserum down his throat!" Kasenhis declared.
"Er… technically, one or two drops would do. But aren't you curious? He went through hell to escape from Azkaban, but instead of going back to the Black family home, he shows up here—at your office in Hogwarts?" Dumbledore asked, resting his chin on his hands.
"Maybe he was planning to go back, but then Lupin and I found him ..while we were drunk and dragged him here ..by accident, of course..." Kasenhis replied, cheeks flushing a little.
"Then why did he stay?" Dumbledore asked calmly. "If he wanted to leave, he's had plenty of chances."
"...Do you think he has any hostility toward Harry?" Kasenhis countered.
"If he did, Harry and his friends would've been dead countless times by now," Dumbledore replied calmly. "A wizard like Sirius—even without a wand—is not someone a group of students could handle."
"Then… maybe he's here to protect Harry. Or perhaps he has some other enemy here?"
Kasenhis murmured, then suddenly snapped to attention. "Wait—I think I know what this is all about!"
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