Chapter 279

Half an hour later –

Sirius sat on the couch with a grimace as he heard the terrible news – Peter Pettigrew had run away, or rather, is hiding in a place where no one knows and pretending to be dead without coming out.

He thought dejectedly, did he do useless work all this time?

Felix picked out another book from the shelf, which surprisingly contained a full list of ancient magic known through history. The portrait of Headmaster Phineas Black did not deceive him, the collection of books here is certainly extraordinary, although some of them were moved from the forbidden book section of Hogwarts.

It seems that when the old man served as a Headmaster, he had never spared any benefits for his family.

Unfortunately, things are unpredictable, the Black family has fallen to this point …

“Have you guys tried the Marauders’ Map?” Sirius suddenly asked.

“Marauders’ Map, what’s that?” Felix looked up from his book.

Sirius said sullenly, “A map to track the movements of every person in the castle, recorded with every location and secret passage in Hogwarts, it would appear like a folded up parchment, we made it together when we were at school – me, James, Remus, and… . Peter Pettigrew.”

“The Marauders’ Map can tag everyone within the confines of Hogwarts, even Dumbledore.”

Felix blinked, he already knew exactly what Lupin had asked Filch for, and he said with certainty, “This map should have been confiscated by Filch.”

“We did it on purpose.” Sirius scowled, “That happened when we were about to graduate and wanted someone to inherit our sacred cause of mischief eagerly, so we found a suitable opportunity to attract Filch’s attention and make him take the map.”

Felix nodded slightly, so there is such a past.

Sirius wondered: “Remus did not tell you?”

Felix said softly, “The map got lost, Filch admitted it himself.”

“That old rice kettle!” Sirius shouted unhappily, he then smashed the wall hard, and deflated, “Even if there is a map, it may not necessarily work, Peter Pettigrew can mask his name.”

” Mask? You used the Homonculous Charm?”

“More than that, tracking spell, trail manifestation enchantment, name enchantment, miniature modelling enchantment, concealment enchantment, anti-disturbance enchantment, protection enchantment, and later a combination of transfiguration, Arithmancy, as well as alchemy … too many things.”

Felix looked at Sirius in amazement, he only mastered a portion of these spells now.

Sirius explained: “Initially James brought a magic map-making book from his home, we relied on this book to make the prototype of the Marauders’ Map, of course – at that time there was no name when you move. Then we went through the library and found spells from all kinds of nooks and corners that would lock the trail, and kept adding it, and in the end, even we had a hard time keeping track of just how many spells we used.”

He spread his hands, “You know, when we saw Headmaster Dumbledore’s name on the map, we thought we are invincible, no one can escape the Marauders’ tracking, If you can avoid the detection of a certain magic doesn’t mean you are safe, Because can you avoid the second, third, the fourth … ”

Felix could not help but stroke his hand in admiration, if Sirius did not say it, who would know these things? He even saw the shadows of the other three makers through Sirius.

A stunning artefact emerged from the hands of four students who had yet to graduate.

The story of what happened afterward is even more saddening, as the war interrupted their normal life trajectory, and if Sirius hadn’t mentioned it, it’s possible that even the existence of the Marauders’ Map itself would have been silently submerged in history.

“How did the four of you divide the workup?” Felix couldn’t resist inquiring for more information, it would definitely not be inferior to any known magical artefact if it could be reproduced.

Sirius glanced at him oddly, ” James is good at Transfiguration, I’m good at Charms, especially silent spell casting, many of the spells I learned were added on, Remus knows all kinds of things, he glues a bunch of bits and pieces together, and as for Peter Pettigrew … ”

He frowned and said with a strong sense of malice: “He is a little more meticulous, can find fault and fill in the gaps.”

Sirius finished and paused thoughtfully, half-heartedly he looked at Felix and said slowly, “Maybe he can’t necessarily mask from the Marauders’ Map.”

“Why?”

“I remember – there was a spell that only James and I knew, during the seventh year Halloween break, we went home together and James found an interesting spell from the old mansion.”

He looked at Felix, a gleam forming in his eyes, “It is a curse, or slavery magic. No, that’s not accurate,” he frowned, “I should say a contract.”

“A magic pact?”

“That’s right,” Sirius affirmed, glancing at the study door as he said in a low voice, “It is a very old book, and the author of the books participated in the House elf war, at the time wizards invented a spell specifically to enslave house elf. ”

Felix raised his eyebrows, and he said in a tone of exploring magic: “What does this have to do with the Marauders’ Map? Wait – it occurs to me, a connection between master and servant?”

Sirius amazed at his perceptiveness, “You’re right, there is a strong bond between house elf and master, a bond that runs deep into the bloodline and is passed down from generation to generation, few people know about it anymore, that’s why house-elf will never betray their master.”

That’s not necessarily true …

Felix thought to himself, relying on enslaving magic is always inferior, there is no such thing as eternal and unbreakable magic, Dobby is an example. Even the side effects of one of the three unforgivable curses, the Cruciatus Curse, was not cracked by him?

Along this line of thought, for him, the Cruciatus Curse actually no longer has any effect on him. Pain? He has too many ways to shield the pain perception. What is terrifying about the Cruciatus Curse is that it transcends the physical body and reaches the deepest part of the mind.

And when he protected his memories in layers, the Cruciatus Curse would have an extremely limited effect on him, and in turn, it can be used as a disguise to fool his opponent …

Sirius went on, “-think about it, a master can summon house-elf no matter where he is, oh, not in Azkaban, I’ve tried it, maybe it’s too far away … ”

“Maybe the Ministry of Magic has this part of the information and made appropriate precautions.” Felix speculated.

“Anyway, James and I tried to add part of this magic – when the master summons, the house-elf senses the master’s location, that contract effect – into the map, and we devised a little trick “Sirius smiled happily, “When you walk into Hogwarts, you sign a temporary blank contract by default, with no binding force, and you can even refuse!”

Felix smiled, “Provided the person finds out about the contract, but I don’t think you would let it take effect, but rather you would simply leave it in a state of waiting …”

“That’s it!” Sirius said excitedly, letting out a weird grunt, “Totally harmless, but your location will be exposed.”

“The best part is that Peter Pettigrew didn’t know this, and within days of returning from Halloween break, we decided to leave the map at Hogwarts – with the help of Filch’s hand to find the next master, only the most adventurous students would appear in his office, and we also set some restrictions for that .”

Sirius, lost in a happy memory, his eyes narrowed, and he murmured softly.

Half a moment later, he said with a grim expression, “Too bad the map was lost.”

Felix mused, “If you were asked to recreate the Marauders’ Map, can you able to do it, Lupin’s at the school too, he might be able to help.”

“I know he is,” Sirius said, thinking for a long moment, “It would be hard to recreate it, I don’t remember a lot of things …”

“We can try it together, I’m interested in it.”

“We?” Sirius stared at Felix blankly.

Felix didn’t answer as he glanced at the time, “Two hours until ten o’clock, plenty of time.”

He said cheerfully, “I’m going to take you to Hogwarts, of course, first we have to get in touch with Headmaster Dumbledore. Well, I’ll probably face questioning from the Ministry of Magic, and I’ll lie about not catching you and letting you get away. I don’t know if they will believe …”

Sirius glared at Felix, feeling like he is being mocked.

” Excuse me, where is Phineas Black’s portrait, I didn’t spot him in that row of portraits on the wall.”

“… In the second bedroom on the right-hand side of the second-floor balcony.”

Felix left with a stride and returned again a few minutes later, ” The deal has been made, Dumbledore told us to move stealthily.” He gently touched the ring on his left hand with his wand and took it out of a candy box with the words Honeydukes on it.

“What is this?”

“A little wizard gave it to me for Christmas, I haven’t finished it yet, and I’m a little tired … of it, but I thought I could use it to hold someone now.”

“You applied an Undetectable Extension Charm?”

“Oh, no,” Felix asked sceptically, “Who would cast an Undetectable Extension Charm on a candy box?” He looked at the frozen Sirius and said, “I just happened to have an appropriate spell in mind–”

He pointed his wand at Sirius and an intense blue glow erupted from the tip.

———-

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