The password Sirius spoke in that slightly peculiar tone left Harry dazed for a moment.
When Professor Dumbledore had still been the master of this office, he had always liked to use the names of his favourite sweets as the password to open the door.
Now that this office, reserved solely for the headmaster, had changed hands, the first change was that the password had taken on a different style.
Harry did not spend much time wondering what that strange-sounding word meant. Seeing Sirius and Remus step onto the spiral staircase beyond the door, he hurriedly gathered his thoughts and followed them.
The three of them jogged up the staircase, which felt unbearably long to them, and poured into the office.
With only Fawkes and a few scattered alchemical instruments missing, the Headmaster's office Harry had visited so many times somehow felt much emptier.
He did not dwell on exactly what changes had taken place. His gaze was fixed directly on the two people seated on the visitors' sofa.
Headmaster Breen and Professor Snape.
Perhaps it was the weight carried by the title of headmaster. In any case, the gentle smile on Headmaster Breen's face, no different from usual, stirred a peculiar sense of awe in Harry's heart.
"I don't think you have any right to be here—"
After a brief silence, Sirius strode up to the visitors' sofa and, across the wooden table, glared coldly at Severus.
Following his godfather's gaze, Harry's eyes also fell on Professor Snape, seated on the sofa.
After taking a hard look at him, Harry's brow twitched.
Rather than sitting, the professor Harry hated most at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was practically curled up on the sofa.
What surprised Harry was that Snape, who had always clashed fiercely with Sirius, offered no