Chapter 112: You better be honest

Sirius Black vowed that he would never underestimate children again.

Although this young lady was only thirteen and looked vulnerable, she was definitely smarter and sharper than most adult wizards.

Black originally wanted to use Hermione's presence to embarrass Ivan a bit. Who would have thought that by coming out wagging his tail he would do anything but expose her identity?

He realized that the joke he had made, actually fell on him.

Upon hearing Hermione's words, Sirius Black's first thought was to run away.

Despite their appearance, the two before him were no pushovers. First Ivan, and then Hermione, each was more difficult to deal with than the other.

Black was fully alert as he took two steps back.

Intuition told him it was best to have little contact with the two.

However, when he saw Hermione pull out her wand, he stopped in place.

He couldn't just turn and run, even though he had a good chance of avoiding Hermione's curse, here it is Hogsmeade and the stores on both sides of the street are full of heavily armed Aurors. Outside the village, there are hundreds of Dementors waiting for him.

Hermione only needed to scream, to make it almost impossible for him to escape.

Should he pounce on the girl to stun her? Seeing that Ivan had his hand on his wand, he quickly dismissed that idea. Three consecutive contacts had made him know Ivan well enough to realize that he was a truly powerful wizard. And although he was inferior to him in combat, his overall strength was not much worse than his own, not to mention the fact that he now had no wand.

Maybe he should behave like a real stray dog, thus giving himself a chance to sneak away.

Sirius Black was quick to glare at Ivan, then tried to make himself expressionless and looked at Hermione with his big straight eyes and looked very foolish.

Seeing Black's appearance, Ivan sighed faintly.

What a terrible fellow, he was doomed! He clearly told him to stay alert and hide, but he still comes out without warning, exposing his identity to Hermione.

Here's the real dilemma. Forget about catching Pettigrew, getting past Hermione is the real challenge.

Ivan took a deep breath and said, "Hermione, this mutt can't be an Animagus!"

"No, I have a feeling, in third year classes we recently studied about Animagi in Professor McGonagall's course. For personal reasons, I researched the subject thoroughly after finishing my homework," Hermione shot a quick glance at Ivan, her face suddenly flushed, but with wand in hand pointing firmly at Sirius Black as she said in a cutting tone, "Trust me, Ivan, this dog is definitely an Animagus."

Seeing Hermione's expression, Ivan secretly admired her learning efforts, "Hermione, since you have read the book we have carefully studied, then you know that the Ministry of Magic has made a record with all the wizards and witches who could become Animagi. There are detailed records showing what animals they have turned into, and the markings they had on their bodies. There were only seven successful Animagus transformations that were recorded in the last century. This dog was not mentioned among them."

"At first I thought it was, but it could be an illegal Animagus." Hermione continued, "You told me earlier that you had finished your Animagus transformation in the summer. You didn't register with the Ministry of Magic, did you?"

Ivan nodded, "Yes, but..."

"Ivan, what is your Animagus form?" Hermione suddenly asked.

Since the last time she had seen Ivan's Patronus on the Quidditch Field, Hermione had been doing a lot of research on Animagi for the whole month.

So now she had more knowledge on the subject than most wizards.

But she still wasn't sure what Ivan's Animagus form was.

Nor could she confirm any relationship between his Animagus form and his Patronus.

On the last day of summer vacation, she met a black cat. Hermione had wanted to ask if the black cat she had met was Ivan or not, and had finally found the courage to ask the question.

Ivan had unconsciously said, "My Animagus form is a black cat. You've seen it before..."

Ivan froze! Hermione had seen his Animagus transformation before. Not only did she see it, but she embraced it. Not only did she hug him, but she also....

Obviously, Hermione remembered all that too, and the atmosphere became totally awkward.

Sirius was surprised that the two of them totally ignored him, and silently took a few steps back, and Ivan and Hermione barely responded.

The corners of his mouth turned up, this scene was very familiar to him; he had seen it countless times with James and Lily.

Love is the fastest way to lose IQ.

Black knew that Ivan and Hermione weren't going to be dealing with him anytime soon.

He turned silently and ran out of the Owl Post office, quickly disappearing around the street corner.

"Ivan, you Animagus, the black cat, that night..." said Hermione, biting her lip.

"Hermione, I don't mind giving you a demonstration of my Animagus transformation, but that dog seems to have run away!" sensing the awkwardness of the situation, Ivan said that to divert her attention.

"What?!" Hermione woke up and realized that the big black dog had disappeared. She said anxiously, "Oh, no, Ivan! That big black dog, it could be Sirius Black, we should report this to Professor McGonagall."

Ivan tried to reassure her, "Relax, Hermione, there is no proof that the stray dog was an Animagus, it's just your guess."

"We can't risk it, if it's Sirius Black, that's probably how he could get into the castle. The professors certainly don't know that Black is an Animagus, so they won't be prepared for this." Hermione said seriously, "We must speak to the teacher about this matter. It's very important."

Yes, it was really important.

Ivan's mouth showed a bitter smile, if she had waited one more day, he could have solved the whole thing.

Without her acknowledging him, Black could have gone anywhere he wanted; he could have even gone to Minister Cornelius Fudge's office without anyone noticing.

Who would have thought this would happen at the last minute?

If Hermione reported this to the professors, forget about going into Gryffindor Tower to get Peter, just getting close to the castle would be a huge hassle.

Knowing Snape, Ivan was sure he wouldn't even sleep at night, and would even go to the forbidden forest before dawn to look for Black, if he ever knew his Animagus form.

He should try to stop Hermione, but he didn't want to lie to her either.

Lies would be exposed sooner or later. Regardless of whether or not they had goodwill behind them, they would hurt him and cause irreparable rifts between the two of them.

In particular, considering that Hermione had discovered that the black cat he met on the last night of summer vacation was his Animagus form, Ivan felt it best to be honest.

Perhaps he could consider telling Hermione all about his plan, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. She would surely believe in him.

In this case, he would get another helper and his chances of catching Scabbers would be even greater.