Kapitel 543: Chapter 540: Moving house (Edited)

Fish and Hermione returned to sort their luggage and, a few moments later, three Thestrals flew out of the Forbidden Forest, Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall in one, and Fish and Hermione in the other, all four covered by an invisibility spell.

The reason for not using Apparition or Fluo Dust was that Dumbledore and Fudge had fallen out.

The Ministry of Magic had been picking on Dumbledore a lot lately, and the thing was, they weren't being unreasonable, they were just getting into little trouble that they normally ignored, and Dumbledore himself wasn't that disciplined, so they were really picking on him.

In the last few days, Dumbledore had been busy with the Order of the Phoenix, and had been running to the Ministry to deal with their violations of the laws.

The Ministry had also instructed The Daily Prophet to write about Dumbledore's infractions in the paper, as a way of undermining his prestige... but so far it had had little effect.

Although the Ministry's tactics had little effect on Dumbledore, Dumbledore did not want to continue to tangle with the Ministry over such trivial matters.

Taking a lesser wizard with Apparition was one of those things that was not allowed by law, but which normally no one cared about, unless it caused someone to become separated by taking them with Apparition, which the Ministry would then punish.

The reason for not using Flu Dust was simple: the Flu network was guarded by the Ministry of Magic, and in order not to reveal the location of the Order of the Phoenix headquarters, they could not use Flu Dust .

Furthermore, the Black family's ancestral home had been empty for over ten years, and the fireplace inside had not been registered on the Flú net for a long time, and Sirius, as a wanted criminal, could not have gone to the Ministry to re-register on the Flú net, since Lupin had helped him find a fireplace outside to communicate with Harry.

The three thestrals flew in the sky for a long time before landing in a small square under Dumbledore's instructions.

It was a weedy deserted one, surrounded by houses with grim looks that seemed to have been shut out of the world. Some of the houses had broken windows, many had peeling paint on the doors, and a few had garbage piled up in front of their steps.

"This way."

Dumbledore waved them out of the grass, across the street and onto the sidewalk.

There were a dozen Muggles wandering the nearby sidewalks, most dressed strangely, with strange tattoos painted on their bare arms, and Fish spotted a few with iron rings and spikes on their lips, noses, and ears, who looked nothing like Hermione's parents or her neighbors.

The Muggles couldn't see them at all, as Fish and the others were still under the invisibility spell.

Hermione's face showed a clear expression of disgust at the sight of the group. "These guys must be heavy metal rockers." She whispered in Fish's ear.

Fish understood, he had seen people dressed like that on TV, but the group on TV, apart from being dressed strangely, had been playing instruments and had flashing colored lights, that's why Fish didn't recognize them at first.

"Heavy metal rock? That's the kind of music that screams nya?".

Fish also showed a look of disgust, he was shocked by the group of people on TV at that moment.

There actually was rock music in the wizarding world, "The Weird Sisters" from the Triwizard Tournament Ball had played rock music, but not heavy metal rock, that was too edgy and niche for the Muggle community, let alone the isolated wizarding world.

Anyway, Fish didn't know how to appreciate it.

As they talked, they followed Dumbledore to an old house with a sign that read 11, with the number 10 on the left and the number 13 on the right of the house.

Fish took a closer look between house 11 and house 13,

The two houses were only separated by a wall, and it seemed impossible to walk through them in a straight line, as on platform 9.

"Minerva, which way do we go? The wall here doesn't seem thick enough."

?(??ω??)

Fish asked curiously, pointing between numbers 11 and 13.

"Think about the direction I showed you earlier." said Professor McGonagall with a smile.

Fish blinked, and instantly the address of 12 Grimmauld Place came to his mind, as did Hermione next to her.

Then, they saw a rickety door appear out of nowhere between numbers 11 and 13, followed by grimy walls and grimy windows, looking as if yet another house had suddenly swollen up and squeezed everything to one side and the other, while the surrounding Muggles remained oblivious, as if they hadn't even noticed the change.

"Come on." Dumbledore led the way up the steps and stopped in front of the rickety door.

Fish and the others followed him immediately.

Dumbledore pulled out his wand and tapped the serpentine silver ring on the door.

Behind the door there was a loud clanking of metal and a jingling of chains. Soon the door creaked open.

Curious, Fish peered inside.

There was no light inside, and all the windows appeared to be boarded up, so there was little light. Of course, that was no big deal to Fish, who could still see just fine.

What made him uncomfortable, however, was the musty, musty smell inside...which reminded him of his bad experiences hiding in sewers and sewers.

"Fish doesn't like it here..."

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Fish sobbed and grimaced.

"Ah, it does look a little worse here," Dumbledore said with a nod, "But Molly and her boys have been helping to clean up as much as they can, and I'm sure it will get better in time."

"Ron and the others are here too nya?".

"The Weasleys live here too, except Charlie, usually." Dumbledore replied with a smile as he walked in. "And of course, the twins who say I'm mad."

Hearing that his friends were there, Fish was less resistant to the place, and with Professor McGonagall in one hand and Hermione in the other, he followed Dumbledore inside.

"Please try to make as little noise as possible, and don't touch anything in the hall..." said Dumbledore quietly to Fish and Hermione as he entered the hall, holding his index finger to his lips, "To avoid disturbing the former 'Masters' of this house."

With that said, he joined Professor McGonagall and led a confused Fish and Hermione silently down the hall.

"Ha! Fish! Welcome. Oh, and of course, Hermione."

Immediately after crossing the foyer, Fish heard the sound of footsteps, with Sirius Black in the lead, followed by Molly, the twins, Ron and Ginny.

Sirius greeted them cordially, though he was still a bit wary of Fish, but that didn't stop him from feeling close to him, especially after learning that Fish had saved Harry from Voldemort, Sirius was even more grateful to Fish.

"Hello," Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall greeted them, then said, "I'll leave you to Fish and Hermione, Minerva and I have other work to do."

With that, he and Professor McGonagall turned to leave.

"What?! You're leaving again, Minerva?"

∑(?`Д′?)

Fish tugged at Professor McGonagall's robe sadly. "I thought you said you were busy with that Order of the Phoenix thing."

"Just because I'm busy with Order of the Phoenix doesn't mean I have to do it at Order of the Phoenix headquarters," Professor McGonagall reassured her, "But we'll be back often for meetings, and then in the evening, Mum will be back to tell you stories."

"Really?"

(?ω?)

"When did Mum lie to you, okay, don't say it!"

Interrupted Professor McGonagall as she saw Fish start counting on his fingers and promised, "Don't worry, I won't lie to you this time. If I don't come back tonight, you can ask for anything you want, even if it's a Multijuice Potion."

With such a promise, Fish unhappily let go of her robe.

"Come on, I'll show you both to your rooms," Sirius said with a big smile, "Molly set them up early when she heard you were coming."

"Yeah, Mum didn't even take that much trouble when she tidied our room." muttered Ron, before receiving a stern look from Mrs. Weasley.

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Kapitel 544: Chapter 541: No. 12, Grimmauld Place... (Edited)

After some small talk, Sirius took the initiative, showing Fish and Hermione the rooms in his house.

As the oldest ancestral home of the Black family, there was no shortage of rooms, and not counting Bellatrix, who was still in Azkaban and had married, Sirius was the only one of the Black family left, so the rooms were largely unused.

As he led the way, Sirius presented the house situation to Fish.

"So this is your house?"

(°ω°≡°°ω°)

Fish followed Sirius, looking around curiously, and frowned when he saw a row of house elves' heads hanging on the wall.

He had seen on TV that some Muggles liked to hang the heads of the animals they hunted on the walls, something Fish wasn't a fan of, but Sirius had the heads of house elves hanging on the walls....

Fish, who already had a small opinion of him thanks to Snape, detested him even more.

(?ω?)

But Sirius was quick to notice the difference in Fish's expression and explained with equal distaste, "It's a family tradition my aunt 'invented': cutting off the heads of house elves when they get too old to hang on the wall."

"Oh my God, that's so cruel!" exclaimed Hermione from the side.

And Sirius shrugged, "But this practice quickly became popular among those pureblood families, and many elves even took pride in it.... That's why I ran away from home at first."

After his explanation, Fish's face improved a little, and he knew that there was something strange going on in the minds of the house elves in the house.

Fish kept looking around, and then asked, "Haven't you and Lupin been living here for over a year? Why is this place still a mess?"

?ω?

"This... ahahahahahaha..."

Sirius laughed dryly and scratched his head. "My family's ancestral home is too big," he excused himself. "And it's usually just me and Lunatic, plus a Kreacher at most, so it doesn't get cleaned much."

Mrs. Weasley rolled her eyes behind his, "Humph! Men!"

"And who's Kreacher?"

?ω?

Fish continued curiously.

"He's our house elf." Sirius' face didn't look very good, more like disgust, "His biggest dream is to die with his head hanging on the wall of this house."

Fish however was very interested in this Kreacher, "Where is he? Fish would like to meet him nya."

"Oh...then you're in for a big disappointment." Sirius pursed his lips and said, "He's not like the nice Hogwarts house elves, he's a crazy old man."

"A crazy old man? Like Albus nya?"

?ω?

Fish blinked, and said.

"Hahahaha! If it's about madness, they're probably both the same." Sirius was also interested in teasing Dumbledore, and grinned broadly.

Mrs. Weasley, who was following them, didn't stand for it, and shouted, "Sirius! How dare you say that about Dumbledore?"

"Hey, Molly, I was only joking with Fish." Sirius waved his hand with a wide grin.

"No joking!" Molly took two steps forward and hugged Fish, "What if Fish is serious?!".

"Wasn't Fish the first one to say that about Dumbledore?" exclaimed Sirius, laughing.

Mrs. Weasley turned to Fish and said, "Fish, you can't say that about Dumbledore, he's a great wizard and you must respect him."

"But..." Fish wiggled his ears, looking back at the startled twins, and said, "Rita said the same thing in the paper, and Albus said he liked her article nya."

"Uh..." Mrs. Weasley was struck dumb,

And the twins let out a long sigh of relief.

At that moment, they made their way to the room reserved for Fish and Hermione.

"This is your room," Sirius' snake-headed doorknob on the bedroom door opened the door, then winked at Hermione again, pointing to the left, "Your room is right next to Fish's, Hermione." He then pointed to the right, "Professor McGonagall's room is on the other side."

"Nya~"

?(=`? ′=)?

Without a word, Fish transformed back into his cat form and began to scamper around the room, occasionally leaving a few claw marks to mark his territory.

Hermione then transformed into a small black cat, jumped onto a chair and plopped down.

Sirius thought better of it and took the form of a big black dog, and then there were the hilarious twins....

Within seconds, Mrs. Weasley, Ron and Ginny were the only ones left in the room that had been crowded.

"Should I learn the Animagus Charm too?" Ron couldn't help but mutter as he watched his two siblings fly around the room enviously.

"No!" spat Mrs. Weasley, "You have O.W.L. exams this year! I forbid you to be distracted by other things!". She pointed bitterly at the magpies that George and Fred had become, "You both spend too much time on these things and didn't get a good grade on the exam!

"Don't worry, Mum," demolished Ginny as she rolled her eyes, "Ron's said that a dozen times, and I've never seen him act on it."

"Ginny!" shouted Ron annoyed with his disrespectful sister.

However, Ginny didn't bother to pay attention to him and, after twisting her lips, she ran over to Fish, who was still marking his territory, and picked him up in her arms and began petting him happily.

Mrs. Weasley was having a hard time with the little ones, so she shook her head and said, "I should be getting the food ready, George and Fred, come and help!".

The twins fell helplessly from the sky and returned to their human forms.

"It's weird that Fish is here, we should play with him for a while, Mom." George argued, undeterred, as they continued to try to talk to Fish about his sales strategy after Weasley's Sortileges.

Even though Bagman had only given them back the capital, with the money they had made last year, they should be able to open a store in Diagon Alley this year with a little more effort.

The twins have it all planned so that they can graduate after this year and then open a store in Diagon Alley, which is perfect.

So this year's turnover is very important to both of them.

But Mrs. Weasley didn't care about that, she just knew that George and Fred hadn't done as well on the O.W.L. exam as their three brothers, so they had nothing to do with her, and whenever she got the chance, Mrs. Weasley dragged the twins to housework.

This time was no exception...

"Cut the crap, Fish has Hermione and Ginny with him!". Mrs. Weasley shouted at the twins with her arms crossed, then, turned her attention to Ron who was cowering, "And you! Ron! Have you finished your homework yet? If you get the same O.W.L. grades as your two brothers this year, you know what will happen!".

A pained expression crossed Ron's face.

It seemed that Mrs. Weasley was worried about him repeating his twin brothers' mistakes, so she had suddenly started catching him studying this summer, not only reminding him to do his homework every day, but also having Percy come into Ron's room every night to give him extra lessons.

"It's only the beginning of the summer...Mum..." grumbled Ron reluctantly, but he made his way towards the door.

Not that he hadn't tried to negotiate with Mrs. Weasley before, but he had been forcibly shushed.

Mrs. Weasley came out of Fish's room with her three children, and when Sirius saw that Fish and the two girls were the only ones left in the room, he shuddered and transformed back, following him out.

Once they were all out of the room, Mrs. Weasley suddenly turned to the two cats and said in a serious voice, "Fish, Hermione, you'd better read more if you have time, you have O.W.L. exams this year, they are very important for wizards and your future work."

Her words had no effect on Fish, but it was Hermione who was nervous about it.

Hermione returned to her human form, pulled a copy of Standard Spells: level 4 out of her bag and flipped through it.

She had been running around Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest with Fish for a few days now, playing games. Other than working on vacation homework together in the afternoons, he hadn't read the textbook at all, which was unthinkable for Hermione.

Just as she was about to resume her studies, Fish let go of Ginny's arms and jumped to Hermione's feet, resting her front paws on Hermione's knees and looking at her excitedly.

?(=?ω?=)?

"Nya!"

Although Hermione in her human form didn't understand cat language, she understood what Fish was saying: the cat wanted her to tell her a story.

Miss Know-it-all looked nervously at the textbook in her hand and then at Fish....

"Snap!"

She closed the textbook in her hand with a loud slap and pulled out a new storybook.

Review and all that...

I'll do it next time!

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