harry potter book of crimes

After Maka separated from Harry that day, he left Hogwarts and disappeared into the bushes at the school gate.

Judging from the situation where Sirius asked Hedwig to deliver the blood letter, he must be in a very bad situation. But since even Hedwig can fly away, it might still be too late.

But Maka never expected that when he reappeared from the Portkey's spatial movement, he would directly cross the North Atlantic Ocean.

…

New York, USA, two o'clock in the morning.

New York is not dark and gloomy late at night.

Even though it had just rained, the dark clouds in the sky had not dispersed with the night wind. Dazzling neon lights and a large number of traffic headlights illuminated the entire street as if it were daytime.

Muggle citizens lingering in New York's nightlife, walking fast or slowly on the streets, enjoying the unique and beautiful air after the rain.

And just next to this bustling street, in a dark and damp alley, there was a little spider hanging upside down under the eaves of a bakery.

Suddenly, there was a faint flash of light under the spider's belly, and with a slight sound, the space under the eaves contracted and twisted strangely.

"Wow--"

A young man dressed differently than a Muggle suddenly appeared in the twisted space, and then sat down in the trash can directly under the spider.

"call--"

The young man sighed with a subtle expression, and then waved his hand gently.

Suddenly, the trash can flipped over half a circle, and he and the garbage inside were poured out together. But he never thought that this young man was agile and stood firmly on the ground, and the garbage was also stagnant in mid-air.

middle.

I saw him reaching out his hand again, waving his hand as if dusting off the dust, and the trash can and all kinds of garbage in the air immediately returned to their original state like a movie rewinding.

This young man is naturally Maka.

Just like the last time he infiltrated the British Ministry of Magic, he drew locating runes on the bellies of each Acromantula. Flexible use of portkeys allowed him to slightly alleviate the trouble of being unable to apparate normally.

"Is there a jet lag?" Maka looked around and said casually, "Xiaoba, come down!"

He waved to the eaves above without raising his head, but saw a gray light flash in the eyes of the spider crawling under the eaves, and it obediently let go of its eight legs and landed on the back of his hand.

"Next time, don't find a place like this to lie down." Maka said angrily.

As he spoke, he made sure again that there were no Muggles... or anything else. Then, he turned around and walked deeper into the alley.

"Xiaoba, where is Sirius?"

In a dim alley where street lights were hard to find, he raised the back of his hand to ask the spider about the situation.

"...attack...separate..."

It is not an easy task to make spiders learn to speak. Their father Aragog spent decades with the help of Hagrid, and Xiaoba and the others are obviously better at learning than their father.

But even so, in its creaky voice, the intermittent vocabulary is still quite scattered. It seems that if they want to be able to communicate fluently, Maka still needs to spend a lot of effort.

Because time was not generous, Maka used Legilimency a little, gently and accurately reading what Xiaoba was thinking and seeing.

"The Obscurial One...?"

Although Xiaoba hides near Sirius most of the time, he is not smart enough to know what to observe.

During the days when Sirius left the old Black house, except for occasionally running out to hunt while Sirius was resting, it spent the rest of the time hiding in Sirius's tattered robes.

It wasn't until the moment when Sirius was suddenly violently attacked that it ran out on its own initiative and joined the fight to protect Sirius.

However, their opponents are several strange and powerful black mists.

To be honest, the alienated Acromantula improved by Maka is indeed very scary. Although the basilisk's death gaze ability seems not to be fully inherited for some reasons, the petrification effect of its four pairs of gray eyes is

It's outstanding.

No matter whether they are living creatures or dead ghosts, they cannot escape the influence of petrified sight.

Even the Black Mist of the Obscurus, whose specific nature has not yet been discovered by Maka, was covered with a layer of gray visible to the naked eye under Xiaoba's gaze, and its movements became much slower.

It's a pity that the Obscurials who attacked Sirius were not one or two, but four!

Xiao Ba held two of them back, but the black mist that hit from the other direction forced Sirius to fight and evade, thus leaving Xiao Ba's protection range, and disappeared without a trace.

"I hope Sirius will be safe and sound..." Maka put Xiao Ba into the sleeve of the wizard's robe, frowning and thinking, "The key is... what is he doing in the United States?"

Harry's owl Hedwig was not enchanted to maintain long-distance flight, and it was not correct in terms of time. He was not sure whether Sirius was still in the United States.

But now that Sirius has arrived here, he has put his actions on hold because of the attack. So, as long as he is not dead, he will definitely set foot in New York again.

According to Sirius's stubborn temperament of never giving up until he reaches his goal, Maka believes that her guess is not wrong.

"So, the question now is... where is he?"

In the end, finding Sirius and confirming his condition was naturally the top priority. He didn't want to never see that reckless, yet passionate man with a true nature.

After experiencing Dumbledore's death, Maka understood something clearly in her mind - even if she died, there should be a proper reason and a cemetery where people can pay their respects.

Dead or alive, he should find that hopeless fool.

After once again confirming that no one was watching, Maka took out the staff and stretched it forward. In his field of vision, the flow of magic became faster, and Sirius's name was outlined on the top of the staff.

"Everyone's name has magical properties. The longer the name is used and the more people know it, the stronger its corresponding magical effect will be." - This is a sentence in "The Magic of Names".

.

But we know what we know, but how to apply it is a confusing topic.

Using magic to add meaning to one's own name, just like Voldemort did, is not a difficult task in Maka's personal opinion.

But if the object is someone else's name, there are a lot more things involved.

Using a name to find someone, even if you just sense a general location, requires a lot of energy to analyze the person's personality, habits, appearance, experience, etc.

All in all, you must know as much as possible about the other person.

Fortunately, Maka knew a lot about Sirius, and he covered everything he should know and what he shouldn't know.

"...Hmm." A few minutes later, Maka shook her head.

The result of induction can only be described in one word, that is "chaos".

In the process of detection and search, all people or things related to Sirius will interfere with the detection. The closer the connection with Sirius, the greater the interference.

Maka would have a headache if she thought one of Sirius' babies was him.

Fortunately, the target confirmed by Maka seems to be somewhere in New York. If we want to give a general direction...

"…west-southwest?"

If it senses another location, Maka's suspicion will definitely be stronger. But if it is also in New York, it is more likely that it is Sirius himself.

After all, he had never heard that Sirius had once stayed in New York.

Without thinking any more, Maka cast a phantom spell on herself, then stepped on the heavy magic book and soared in the direction of perception.

During the fast flight, the colorful street under Maka gradually retreated, and he was quietly left behind. Not long after, the lights below began to decrease, and the gloom of the night slowly turned into

The dominant color in the field of view.

The dark clouds above the head still looked thick and oppressive, and the previous rain did not seem to be the last rain of the night. The damp air kept whistling in Maka's ears, making him feel a little overwhelmed.

The illusion of getting wet.

He continued to fly forward at a place that was not too high above the city, but at a certain moment, as if he noticed something, the magic book under his feet suddenly spun with his body and suddenly dropped to the ground.

It was a deserted narrow street, and the surrounding houses were not too high. Not far away was a dense medium-sized residential area.

On both sides of this street, the shops that are no longer open at night have their doors closed, and only one or two supermarkets still have their lights on. In this quiet street, beside the pale yellow street lights, there is a feeling of loneliness.

.

Maka didn't pay attention to the supermarket. After taking two quick steps, he decisively turned around and walked to the side of an old-fashioned pizza shop.

This pizza shop looks older than the shops on both sides. Not only is the sign broken and faded, but even the windows have only a frame left.

On the side door handle of the pizza shop, there is a "Closed" notice.

The reason why Maka noticed this pizza shop was because it was constantly emitting regular fluctuations of magic power, indicating the magic hidden in it.

"Anyway, let's go in and take a look..."

He lifted the illusion spell on his body, put away the somewhat conspicuous staff, then reached out to hold the door handle, and turned it with a "click".

The door was opened smoothly by him, and he took a light step and walked inside. However, his body did not go into the pizza shop that could be seen, but disappeared with a faint wave.

The side door of the pizza shop slowly closed, and a breeze blew through the door, blowing the old signboard next to the side door and making a few "crunching" sounds.