"Of course Azkaban. Where else would it be?"
Tom shoved the newspaper across the counter toward Leonard. "Look. A madman escaped from Azkaban. Good heavens, I can hardly believe it. Sirius Black. That's a dangerous man, a die-hard follower of You-Know-Who!"
Leonard hurriedly picked up the paper, and the moment he saw the photo on the front page, his whole expression changed.
The picture was not of the refined Grindelwald, but of Sirius Black, roaring madly like a lunatic.
Damn it, how did this happen?
He had considered the possibility that Grindelwald might break out without alerting anyone, but he had never imagined that Grindelwald would vanish without a trace while news of Sirius Black's escape would make the headlines.
After all, Grindelwald's true strength was unknown. Leonard would not have been surprised by anything from someone obsessed with pursuing the existence of the Eternal Wizard.
But what was going on with Sirius Black? Why had he escaped?
A grave look flashed through Leonard's eyes. Sirius Black escaping was part of the normal plot, but that was under the premise that Leonard had not interfered.
Now, however, that premise no longer existed because of Leonard's involvement. Ron Weasley had been badly injured, so there was no way he could be running around with Peter Pettigrew and ending up on the front page.
He refused to believe that with Ron Weasley laid up in the hospital, the paper could still somehow have a photo of Peter Pettigrew. He needed to confirm it.
"Do you have the paper from a few days ago?" Leonard asked. "The one about the family that won the prize."
"Oh, you mean the photo of the Weasley family winning? Let me see... ah, here it is." Tom pulled a newspaper out from under the counter and handed it over. "They really were lucky. Though unfortunately, their youngest son was hospitalized, so their trip to Egypt was canceled."
Leonard took it and looked. The headline really was about the Weasley family winning the prize, but the photo was only of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley together, not the Egypt travel photo from the original story.
Peter Pettigrew was nowhere to be seen either. The last remaining point of doubt had disappeared.
So now the question was, why had Sirius Black escaped? And why at such a coincidental time?
Was it really just because the third Harry Potter book was called The Prisoner of Azkaban, so Sirius Black had to be dragged out for a walk?
If the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had not actually changed last school year, Leonard might have believed the story of this world was incapable of changing at all.
"There has to be something I don't know," Leonard thought to himself.
He quietly set the newspaper down, nodded to Tom, and went back to Fleur and Claudia, who were seated in the corner.
"Well? What happened?" Fleur sat beside Claudia, wiping her hands with a handkerchief. Her gentle, capable manner drew quite a few glances from the people around them, whether openly or in secret.
"It's about Azkaban. Apparently, a dangerous criminal escaped from there," Leonard said.
"Azkaban? That's no small matter. Someone described as a dangerous criminal... could it be a Death Eater?" Fleur said in surprise.
Although there was no death penalty in the British wizarding world, no one sent to Azkaban ever lasted more than twenty years. After all, very few people could endure the Dementors for that long.
And in recent years, most of the notorious criminals sent to Azkaban had been Voldemort's followers, so Fleur immediately guessed it was a Death Eater.
Claudia knew nothing about Azkaban or what a Death Eater was. She sat obediently in her chair, her fair little legs swinging as she waited for the food to arrive.
"Mhm..." Leonard had no intention of defending Sirius Black. "It's Sirius Black. Supposedly one of You-Know-Who's die-hard followers."
"Unbelievable. A madman like that actually has die-hard followers. Compared to that, I think the so-called You-Know-Who is nowhere near as impressive as Grindelwald," Fleur said with a sigh.
"There are all kinds of people in this world," Leonard said dully.
He felt a little frustrated. This was the second time things had gone beyond his expectations. It was not enough to make him angry, but it still bothered him a great deal.
"Your meals are here, the three of you."
A server approached with a tray and set three dishes on the table. His gaze drifted uncontrollably toward Fleur's face, clearly captivated by the Veela charm she carried.
"Thank you. We'll call you if we need anything." Fleur was long since used to it. Her Veela charm really had caused her a lot of trouble. For instance, almost every boy she met was drawn in by her aura and looks.
"All right... right..." The waiter stood there in a daze for a moment, his face flushing red before he hurried off.
Another fool bewitched by Veela charm.
Fleur shook her head helplessly and carefully wiped Claudia's cutlery.
"You're pretty good at taking care of people," Leonard said from the side.
"I'm used to it. I'm usually the one taking care of Gabrielle, and she's not an easy child." Fleur said it without pausing her hands, deftly tying a napkin around Claudia.
That practiced motion made Leonard, for a fleeting instant, feel as though they were a family of three having a meal together, as if a wife were caring for her daughter.
The thought was far too strange. Leonard shook his head and forced it out of his mind.
"Do you want pepper?" Fleur suddenly looked up and asked. Perhaps because of that odd thought just now, Leonard actually thought her voice sounded gentle.
Something had to be wrong with his ears.
"Oh, no." To cover his awkwardness, Leonard quickly lowered his head and started eating, forcing himself to think about Sirius Black instead, trying to use serious matters to suppress the strange thought in his head.
Fleur lowered her head too, feeling a little guilty.
She seemed to have acted a bit too much like a good wife.
Fleur silently cursed herself. Why had she done everything so thoroughly, and why had her voice sounded so... so nauseatingly soft?
She had to have slipped into the habit of taking care of people.
A strange silence fell over the table. The two of them were both thinking about other things, so the food tasted like nothing, while Claudia was the only one eating happily.
Leonard quickly calmed down. Sirius Black was too important. He could not let those random thoughts get in the way of his thinking.
The most important thing now was to find Sirius Black as soon as possible and get some answers directly from him.
Leonard needed to confirm why he had escaped, and exactly what kind of bizarre butterfly effect had blown the warped plot back onto its original course.