"That fat Dursley…"
Sirius began to curse, but a stern look from Lupin made him hold back.
"I advise you, if you want to stay at Hogwarts, you'd better not say things like that."
"The whole school looks up to him."
"And he's my benefactor."
"So what?" Sirius grumbled under his breath, looking put out. "He only stopped a few kids from fighting. He only started some kind of disciplinary committee. He only gets top marks every year. He only solved the Chamber of Secrets crisis from fifty years ago. He only received some Order of Merlin, Third and First Class. He only created some kind of restorative charm. He's only the youngest member of the Wizengamot…"
Sirius's voice grew softer and softer until it was barely a whisper.
Any one of these achievements would be incredible for any other young wizard.
He scratched his head and said angrily, "Hey, Lupin, whose side are you on? Why are you always siding with outsiders?"
"I'm on the side of what's right," Lupin said, refusing to indulge his old friend this time.
A moment later, Sirius stormed out of the office, fuming.
He wandered aimlessly through the Hogwarts castle. The students didn't pay him much attention, assuming he was just a new professor.
'I wish James were here. He'd definitely be on my side,' Sirius thought to himself as he walked.
Unfortunately, his closest friend who would always have his back was gone, and it was all his fault for suggesting that foolish idea of switching the Fidelius Charm.
'No, James is gone. I have to be good to Harry.'
Sirius was the kind of person who acted on a whim, or else he wouldn't have spent twelve years languishing in Azkaban. At the time, he hadn't thought about Harry at all.
"But Harry doesn't even want to see me…" The thought made him feel defeated again.
As for Dudley's warning, it had long since been forgotten.
Maybe you'd have to hit him to make him remember.
The best way to build a relationship, Sirius thought, was to find common ground.
He suddenly remembered something James had said when he was trying to win over Lily.
What does Harry like?
'Cards, right?! Yes, Wizarding Cards!'
With this realization, Sirius's face lit up, and he immediately rushed back to Lupin's office.
Under Lupin's confused gaze, he grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the fireplace and disappeared.
'What's gotten into Sirius now?'
Three days later, a rumor spread among the scalpers in Diagon Alley's second-hand Wizarding Card market. Some rich wizard had spent a fortune buying every last expansion pack from them.
Because of this, the second-hand price of Wizarding Card expansion packs soared once more.
The scalpers, like cats that had smelled fish, began to hoard expansion packs at high prices to sell them for an even bigger profit.
But a few days later, the official Wizarding Cards store announced that expansion packs would be available in unlimited quantities.
The scalpers suffered massive losses, and some of the greedier ones even lost their shirts. They realized they'd been tricked by the so-called rich wizard and swore to make him pay, but he was nowhere to be found.
As Dudley was busy with his research, the preliminary rounds of the Wizarding Card tournament kicked off with great enthusiasm.
Since the matches were held on weekends, the Hogwarts professors didn't mind and allowed the students to participate.
Over five thousand people signed up in the first wave, and more wizards from all over continued to arrive, not even counting the spectators.
Even the organizers hadn't anticipated such a turnout. The original venue could only hold ten thousand people, which was clearly not enough. So, they had to spend a huge sum to temporarily rent the massive stadium used for the Quidditch World Cup, which could hold a hundred thousand fans.
The preliminary rounds were a bit boring, with thousands of wizards playing against randomly drawn opponents. To qualify for the top sixteen, you had to win twenty consecutive matches.
The skill level of the players varied wildly. Some matches ended in just a turn or two, while others dragged on for so long that a different pair of players had already finished four or five matches. This wasn't because the players were skilled, but because they were both terrible.
After half a day of preliminaries, wizards started to qualify.
Just because the first Wizarding Card tournament was held at Hogwarts, you shouldn't assume the students were better at the game; in fact, the adults were more skilled.
Only one student made it into the top five.
"What's the big deal? This game is so easy," Sirius said. With a deck full of high-powered cards, he easily won twenty straight matches and qualified for the top sixteen.
Yes, it was Sirius who was the rich wizard who bought all the expansion packs.
As the heir to the Black family fortune, he was truly a tycoon. In his own words, he was so poor all he had was money.
The Black family's wealth once even surpassed the Malfoy's, making them the richest family in the wizarding world. One of Sirius's ancestors even used a massive donation to 'buy' an Order of Merlin, First Class.
Even though the family's fortunes had declined, Sirius still had more than enough money to last a lifetime.
Because the rules of the game were so complicated, Sirius couldn't be bothered with strategy. He did, however, understand one simple rule: the rarer the card, the stronger it was.
High-powered cards are always powerful, so he used the classic "pay to win" strategy, building a deck with only the most powerful cards.
His strategy was simple and brutal: use his high-power cards to bulldoze his opponents. There was no strategy to it at all.
And it actually worked. Many of the wizards he faced were simply overwhelmed before they could even set up their own moves.
What's more, the guy was incredibly lucky. Many wizards had decks specifically designed to counter high-power decks like his, but he didn't encounter a single one.
The list of the final sixteen came out, with only four Hogwarts students and twelve adults.
The final eight list was also revealed.
Neville, Harry, and Draco all made the cut, meaning the Hogwarts students went from a quarter of the sixteen players to three-eighths of the top eight.
Draco's opponent was none other than Sirius.
"I'll show you how it's done, Malfoy!"
After so many matches, Sirius finally understood how fun the card game was.
Mostly because it felt so good to win.
"I'll go first."
Sirius drew a card and held it with the face down, away from Draco. "My card is this."
"Come forth! Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
As Sirius chanted, a massive, silvery-white dragon appeared on the field.
This was one of the most powerful and rare cards from the Fantastic Beasts series: the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Most cards couldn't even stand up to it.
But faced with the enormous creature, Draco simply smiled.