The cool morning breeze rustled through the grass, and sunlight filtered through the sparse leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground.
Four or five people stood in the usually quiet garden, facing a small stone tablet. Nuts, melon seeds, and corn were piled around the tablet.
Ferdinand, dressed like a priest, spoke in a low voice:
"Today, we gather here to bid our final farewell to a tiny life. In her short two years, she brought us much peace and joy."
"And now, she has gone to another world, leaving us with eternal memories."
"Dear Millie, may you run freely in that world, may you enjoy endless food, and may there always be warm sunshine there."
"Rest in peace, my friend."
Fiona sniffled, tears streaming down her face.
—Well, she hadn't actually been sad before this, knowing from the start that hamsters had very short lifespans.
But perhaps Ferdinand's eulogy was so well-written it evoked her empathy, causing Fiona's tears to flow freely.
It wasn't until the funeral ended and she returned to the living room that she finally managed to calm down.
"I'm sorry, I just couldn't control myself..."
Fiona choked out, "Thinking about it now, Millie was so well-behaved... Even when she couldn't run on her wheel anymore, she'd still climb into my hand..."
"It's normal to be sad when you lose a friend... Millie has just shed her old and heavy body. She must be a beautiful and healthy little hamster in heaven..."
Ferdinand comforted her by holding her shoulder. Wade felt there was no room for him to interject, and seeing the only guest standing by the window, staring outside with a serious expression, he walked over.
In the kitchen, several small figurines were busy cooking. The clinking and clanking sounds filled the room with a sense of life.
"Mr. Moody." Wade walked over and asked, "What are you looking at?"
"Just now, a man dressed as a Muggle cycled past that truck parked by the road," Moody said, his voice serious and cautious.
Wade glanced outside.
Their current residence wasn't in the suburbs of London, but next door to Moody's house. This area was near a normal Muggle town, and vehicles frequently traveled on the road.
By the roadside, there was a common red truck, and several ordinary pedestrians were passing by.
"Uh..." Wade asked hesitantly, "Someone cycled past... Is there a problem?"
"Of course there is!"
Moody slowly drew his Wand, his tone grave: "At that fellow's speed, he should have appeared on the other side of the truck forty seconds ago... but I haven't seen any sign of him."
Wade looked outside again; everything was calm, with no abnormalities.
Moody sneered, "Hmph hmph hmph, disguising themselves as Muggles, what a clever idea. Too bad I'm even more careful than they think! But we also need to be wary that the passersby might be their accomplices!"
He glanced at Wade, who was standing beside him in a relaxed posture, and barked in a low voice:
"Stay alert, kid!"
"While it could be an attacker coming for me... it could also be for you. Compared to your parents, you're a much bigger target. Someone might want to kidnap you..."
Before Moody could finish speaking, a young man emerged from behind the truck.
His clothes were covered in dust, and he was supporting a somewhat deformed bicycle with both hands. His left leg was bloody from scrapes, and he walked with a limp.
It seemed he hadn't appeared sooner because he had accidentally fallen.
Moody stared at the man with suspicious eyes for a long time until he disappeared from sight.
Then, he swallowed the rest of his words, as if he hadn't just been battling thin air, and naturally changed the subject:
"I heard that Lockhart taught you classes?"
"Yes," Wade said. "He taught us Defense Against the Dark Arts for most of a year until everything came out, and the Aurors took him from school. Then Professor Abigail replaced him."
"What did he teach you?" Moody asked, limping over to a nearby chair and sitting down.
"Nothing useful, mostly his old heroic stories—of course, now we all know he was an imposter—and also making students perform plays," Wade said.
"Perform... plays?" Moody asked, confused, not quite understanding what that had to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts.
So Wade briefly described Lockhart's teaching methods.
The retired Auror was silent for a while before saying, "He sounds like a useless buffoon... Just from that, no one would imagine he could escape from Azkaban, would they?"
His blue magical eye and his normal eye both looked at the newspaper on the small table.
It was the Daily Prophet.
Ferdinand insisted on subscribing to this newspaper to learn more about Wade's world.
The headline on this newspaper's front page was the news of an Azkaban breakout, and three people had escaped together!
This had practically caused an earthquake in the Wizarding World.
For the past two weeks, Fudge had been almost daily on camera, awkwardly assuring everyone that the Ministry of Magic would swiftly apprehend the escaped prisoners and ensure public safety.
But two weeks had passed, and all three were still at large; the Ministry hadn't caught a single one.
Public criticism was practically being thrown in Fudge's face through the papers. He had no choice but to expand the manhunt, to the point where the faces of the three men were even appearing in Muggle news.
Some people began criticizing Fudge again, saying he shouldn't have involved the Muggle Prime Minister in Wizarding World affairs.
Both sides spent their days in the newspapers accusing and explaining, then reminding the public how evil and cunning the three fugitives—especially Peter Pettigrew—were.
"Beware of every rat around you! They could all be Peter Pettigrew!"
The Ministry of Magic appealed in the newspaper, and the author went into great detail about Peter's Animagus form.
And at the bottom of the page, right below that, were advertisements for various rat-extermination Potions.
...
When Wade saw the newspaper, he realized he had made a preconceived mistake.
He had assumed that Peter Pettigrew, like Sirius in the original story, had used his Animagus form to avoid Dementor surveillance and secretly escape Azkaban.
Animagi weren't that common; if you didn't have the necessary magical ingredients (like Mandrake leaves), you couldn't teach someone even if you wanted to.
So it was already quite difficult for Peter to escape on his own. Wade hadn't expected him to bring companions.
Two of them, in fact.
Lockhart was a fool, but who exactly was this man named Garr?
The information released by the Ministry of Magic only stated that he was a vampire, arrested for violating the Statute of Secrecy and injuring a Muggle who worked in a hospital. There was no more detailed information, nor any indication of his magical ability.
Presumably, because his crime was not particularly significant and he hadn't resisted much during his capture, the Ministry of Magic had very little information on him.
The focus of the reports had consistently been on "the Mysterious One's confidant—Peter Pettigrew."
At that time... when Wade found Peter, where were Garr and Lockhart? Did they know how Peter died?
Wade pondered.
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