Today, the Hanged Man pub was as busy as ever.
The drinkers habitually ignored the figures in the corner wearing strange robes.
After all, Little Hangleton had always been a rather strange place.
At the innermost table, beneath heavy hoods, two serious faces were revealed. Even covered in travel dust, their handsomeness was hard to hide.
The landlady had noticed the two of them when she came over with drinks. Carrying a silver tray, she swayed over toward them, only to be driven away by their cold gazes.
In contrast, when they noticed another robed figure—also cloaked, but much shorter—their unwelcoming stares immediately turned eager.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Green."
The landlady heard that voice, glimpsed the slightly pale skin beneath the other person's hood, muttered something about "so they aren't normal after all—" and moved farther away.
"Good afternoon."
Sean nodded, glancing around the pub at the same time.
"We—"
Sirius and Lupin exchanged a look and were about to say something, but Sean interrupted them.
He shook his head slightly and turned his gaze toward the next table, where several men were drinking heartily, signaling Sirius and Lupin to listen carefully.
"—I'm telling you, Little Hangleton's getting stranger and stranger."
A middle-aged man with a face full of stubble lowered his voice and leaned toward his two companions by the bar.
"First there was all that business with the old Riddle house, and now this weird thing happens."
"Oh, give it a rest, Dave. You've had too much."
The bald man sitting on his left waved a hand.
"What weird thing?"
"I haven't had too much!"
Dave slapped the counter.
"My nephew works on the farm east of Little Hangleton. He says they've lost several sheep lately—looked like something bit them to death. Their necks were torn clean open.
And lambs too. Several went missing all at once. The farmer's gone mad with anger."
The barman wiped a glass and cut in casually.
"Foxes, maybe. Plenty of foxes around here."
"Foxes?"
Dave sneered.
"Old Tom, have you ever seen a fox that could swallow a lamb whole? And they found tracks in the mud—looked like something a snake would leave. God, they said the trail was terrifyingly thick."
In the corner, Sirius and Lupin's hands paused slightly around their cups.
They did not look up, but their ears were already pricked.
"A snake?"
The bald man on the left laughed carelessly.
"What snake around here can kill sheep?"
"I don't know."
Dave's voice dropped even lower.
"But that's not all. Little Withers's daughter was playing near the Riddle house the evening before yesterday, and when she came back she kept babbling nonsense, saying she saw a loach thicker than a tree trunk poking its head out of the broken window of the old house—"
"You believe children's nonsense now?"
"That place has always been strange."
Dave said.
The bar fell silent for a moment.
"People died in that cursed Riddle house fifty years ago, didn't they?"
The bald man's voice unconsciously lowered too.
"The three Riddles, all dead in one night."
Dave nodded.
"The gardener, Frank Bryce, was arrested as a suspect, then later released. Old Frank's still alive now, lives nearby."
Frank Bryce—
As Sean listened, he thoughtfully studied a figure seated at the table to the rear right.
He was a very old man. The cane beside him suggested his legs were probably not very reliable.
His face was sour, and his gardener's clothes were covered in mud and grass roots.
His hearing seemed to be somewhat poor as well. Only when those people mentioned the name "Frank" did he raise his head and glare over at them with a foul expression.
"I'm telling you, that place is cursed."
Dave continued.
"My nephew says he's seen lights in the windows of the Riddle house lately, and that house has been empty for years.
You know Frank wouldn't light the fireplace in that house. He lives in a little room of his own."
"Stop it, Dave. The more you talk, the creepier it gets."
The bald man shrank his neck back.
"Maybe Frank's just doing a deep clean lately?"
The barman tried to lighten the mood.
A soft sound came from the corner.
Frank set his empty glass down on the table and slowly rose.
His movements were slow, as though something heavy were pressing down on his back. He walked to the bar and placed a few coins on the counter.
"Another."
he said, voice hoarse.
Old Tom poured him more liquor and looked at the old man's face.
"Old Frank, you heard all that? You live closest to the place—what do you think?"
Frank picked up the glass and did not answer.
He tipped his head back and took a large swallow. His gaze passed through the pub window, looking toward the outline of the old, weed-choked manor on the distant hillside.
Idle gossip was like weeds. All these years, he had worked slowly in flowerbeds, and the weeds had still kept creeping silently toward him. He couldn't stop them no matter how hard he tried.
Besides, weeds weren't the only thing Frank had to deal with.
The village boys always liked throwing stones at the windows of the Riddle house.
Frank had spent great effort keeping the lawns tidy, but they rode their bicycles over them whenever they liked.
Once or twice, because of dares, they had even broken into the old house.
Frank believed those boys tormented him because, like their parents and grandparents, they thought he was a murderer.
Thinking of that, he snorted coldly.
He had no idea that in the corner, three strange robed figures were watching him.
"The Riddle house—"
Sirius seemed to have found a key clue.
"It isn't there anymore."
Sean rejected the idea.
"It needs to eat."
Lupin said.
"Old friend, are you saying we should go to that farm?"
Sirius asked.
"Let's go take a look."
Lupin cast Sean a questioning look.
Sean nodded.
Finding a snake should, in theory, be fairly difficult.
After all, it could go anywhere.
But finding a giant snake, especially one wandering around a small village, was much simpler.
There were only so many places in a village where food could be found, and that was even more true for a snake that large.
After listening in the Hanged Man pub for a while longer, Sean and the others locked onto the giant snake's trail.
It had gone east.
Farther and farther east.
If they had arrived a few days later, perhaps it would already have wandered away.
Little Hangleton sat between two steep hillsides. The church and graveyard were always clearly visible.
On the hill across the valley stood a very grand manor, surrounded by wide lawns of green grass.
Along a narrow dirt road some distance from the manor, three people in cloaks, each holding a "wooden stick," had just left the Hanged Man pub and were preparing to head toward the easternmost farm.
"How often does a snake usually come out to feed?"
Sirius asked as he stepped across the uneven, rock-strewn dirt road.
"Around six to ten in the evening."
Lupin answered at once.
Sirius's expression went a little stiff.
It seemed they had come too early.
"Maybe we'll happen to run into—it."
When Lupin mentioned Nagini, a shadow passed over his gentle face.
Anyone who knew the name Nagini would never think of her as merely a snake.
On the contrary, she was a wizard, a named person, and perhaps one braver than most.
Only after receiving Sean's instructions had Lupin pieced together her image from the scattered talk of old Order members.
She was a beautiful, captivating woman of East Asian descent, with ink-black hair as deep as night.
As a female wizard afflicted by a blood curse, she had been abused for far too long as a sideshow monster by the Circus Arcanus, which made her long to escape to someplace better.
Then she became friends with a wizard. Perhaps in the innocence and confusion of youth, both had seen in each other the same abandoned side of themselves, and neither wanted to be lonely anymore. They spent a time together that was happy, though not without regret.
But in the end, that wizard chose to follow the cause of the previous Dark Lord, Gellert Grindelwald.
Nagini possessed enough principle and morality that, even though Gellert Grindelwald appeared persuasive, she very quickly saw through his nature and character.
Nagini firmly urged her friend not to join him, but unfortunately, her plea did not work.
That was all Lupin knew.
"If we see her, Sirius."
Lupin glanced at the young wizard checking the signpost and spoke to Sirius with a grave expression.
Sirius paused from tucking his sleeves around himself in his relaxed manner.
He knew his old friend too well. After learning Nagini's past, who knew what sort of pity his soft-hearted friend might develop?
But pity was probably as far as it would go. Perhaps he would prepare a symbolic grave for the snake.
"We need to kill her as quickly as possible. Whether or not she's a Horcrux."
Lupin said each word clearly.
"Oh?"
Sirius looked at his old friend in surprise.
"The blood curse can't be reversed. Perhaps this will be a release for her."
Lupin shook his head.
Sirius nodded readily and patted Lupin's shoulder.
Unfortunately, even after they searched the eastern farm—right under the farmer's nose, and even questioned him for a while without him noticing—they still did not find the giant snake.
After going around in circles, the three returned to the Hanged Man pub.
"It will come back to feed."
Lupin thought of the repeated sliding marks they had found on the dirt road.
"But we'll have to wait."
Sirius grinned, his gaze already drawn to a few drinkers playing dice.
One of them nursed his drink. The other stared intently at the dice players.
But the one thing they had in common was that both of them kept glancing at the young wizard wrapped up like a ball.
He was staring seriously at an old man who looked like a butler.
Watching him drink alone in frustration, then knock his cup against the table with a sour face.
"Mr. Sirius. Mr. Lupin."
Sean spoke, and the two wizards in front of him straightened reflexively.
"Little Hangleton is about to become dangerous."
Sean's words immediately made their expressions turn grave.
They quickly recalled their last communication with him. The words warning them to stay away from Little Hangleton seemed still to be echoing in their ears.
"I suspect there isn't only a snake hunting here—"
Sean paused.
There was, of course, Voldemort as well.
And his two servants.
If a person wanted to live somewhere, then he had to come into contact with the outside world.
Obtaining food was not something only the snake needed to do.
"Mr. Green, you mean—"
Lupin frowned. One possibility after another appeared in his mind, only to be overturned.
"But I need someone to remain here. Of course, gentlemen, you may refuse."
Sean was silent for a while before saying it.
Voldemort's other servant was now the greatest variable.
If he was living here, then he was bound to leave some trace.
Sean realized that he must know quite a bit about Voldemort's movements.
About—
whether he had made a Horcrux; what his Horcrux was; where it had been hidden.
They had to know how many more pieces Voldemort had split his soul into—though Sean believed it would not be many—and whether Voldemort had casually found some stone or grain of sand and attached a piece of his soul to it.
That was very unlikely, but nothing was impossible.
"Mr. Green, please do not underestimate my resolve."
Sirius sat upright, his expression solemn.
"Of course, perhaps Lupin would rather go back and teach or something—"
he added lightly.
Lupin's face stiffened slightly.
"Mm. After all, I don't have a godson."
he said mildly.
"Hey—"
Now it was Sirius's turn to be unsettled.
Sean, having understood the meaning in both their faces, paused slightly, then continued:
"If we find Nagini and she is not a Horcrux, then that means Voldemort's servant is still helping him search for a murder target. Or perhaps they have already completed the murder. Has anyone died in Albania?"
"That forest is too large, Mr. Green."
Lupin looked troubled.
"Mm—"
Sean knew that was asking too much.
If Voldemort had killed someone in Albania, then the Horcrux would have been created there.
They would have no way of finding out unless they searched the memory of the other servant.
And apart from Albania—
"Investigate the people along this route."
Sean took out a map. The red line drawn on it marked the places Peter Pettigrew had passed through while carrying Voldemort, along with the exact times.
If they could find a dead person along that route, then matters would become simpler.
"And also—"
After the first task, Sean looked toward the depths of the pub.
"Take Old Frank away."
Surprise flashed through Sirius and Lupin's eyes, but they still nodded.
"The most important thing—Little Hangleton is hiding one of Voldemort's servants. I need you to help me find him."
Sean ignored the way both men's bodies tensed and continued,
"I hope you will act together, Mr. Sirius, Mr. Lupin. Little Hangleton will be dangerous. Extremely dangerous."
This was the third time Sean had emphasized the danger.
"No matter what, please do not alert the snake in the grass. More importantly, I hope you will protect yourselves before investigating."
Sean finished.
The sky was gradually darkening.
He looked toward the dark outline of the old manor on the distant hillside.
In the twilight, the Riddle house looked like a crouching beast, silent and sinister.
And within that darkness, something was wandering.
Something was waiting.