days at Hogwarts

Chapter 527 Black’s Old Mansion

Chapter 527 Black’s Old Mansion
"Harry!"

Ginny threw herself on top of Harry, nearly knocking him over on his back. "Oh, did you see that, there he is, Harry! We didn't hear you come in! Oh, how are you? Are you all right?"

"We really want to write to you and tell you what has happened this month, but Percy said that someone has monitored the owls entering and leaving the Burrow, so we have to say some useless nonsense in the letter. We can't tell you anything, and Dumbledore also asked us to swear not to say anything..."

Harry hugged the excited Ginny and gently stroked her red hair.

Loren and Hermione narrowed their eyes and smiled meaningfully.

George and Fred sat on the single bed at the back, their backs against the soft bedding, tinkering with a long flesh-colored rope in their hands. At the moment, the room was only illuminated by a few oil lamps. The dim light sprinkled on the peeling walls around them. The two men had meaningful smiles on their lips.

When it comes to love, it’s most fun to make fun of it.

Maybe I can even extort some pocket money, no, confidentiality fees...

"Let him breathe, Ginny..."

Ron walked past them lightly, and after carefully closing the door, he sighed, "Finally seeing you, Loren, Hermione. I have never missed you as much as I have this summer."

After not seeing him for a month, he had grown a few inches taller and looked thinner and clumsier than before, but his long nose, red hair, and freckles on his face were still exactly the same as before.

"Hey, Loren, Hermione!" George and Freyr greeted in unison, "Long time no see!"

"haven't seen you for a long time."

Loren and Hermione nodded in agreement, walked around Harry and Ginny who were talking to each other, and walked towards the twins: "Why are you so happy? Did you hear something great during the one month we were apart?"

“I did hear some…”

“But I didn’t hear it clearly.”

"Tell me what you know..." Hermione said, and the two sat down on the bed opposite them. Loren looked around the room.

The room was spacious, with a high ceiling and clean walls. There was no messy decoration, only a blank canvas inlaid in an ornate frame, exuding a faint, damp and musty smell. In addition to two single beds and a few benches, it looked empty.

"Where should I start..." George shook the flesh-colored rope in his hand.

"Let me tell you about the Order of the Phoenix first..." Fred sighed and pulled out an ear-shaped object along the rope.

It was roughly the same as what Loren knew. The Order of the Phoenix was a secret society founded by Dumbledore. It was first established around the 20s to fight against the growing and threatening Voldemort and Death Eaters.

After the First Wizarding War, the Order of the Phoenix was temporarily disbanded.

Until this summer, Dumbledore summoned them again.

"Who's in there?" Hermione's eyes sparkled.

"We've only seen about twenty of them. You can see them here, but there must be more..."

"I saw some photos at my dad's place. Many of them had appeared in newspapers when we were very young. It took Bill some time to find those old newspapers from Gringotts."

Fred counted slowly on his fingers, "Brothers Fabian and Gideon Prewett were murdered by six Death Eaters led by Antonin Dolohov, Caradoc Dearborn disappeared, Edgar Bones and his family were arrested, Benjy Fenwick was brutally murdered, and Marlene McKinnon..."

George added: "Actually, the Longbottoms were also considered, but they were cured and it was reported in the news."

Hermione glanced at Loren beside her and nodded calmly: "These are the members who died. What about the people who regrouped? What are the current members of the Order of the Phoenix doing recently? What is the conspiracy of the You-Know-Who, and how does Dumbledore plan to stop him?"

"Like we said before, Mom tried every means to keep us from knowing the inside story, and the Order of the Phoenix didn't allow us to attend the meeting." George looked a little aggrieved, fiddling with the prop ears in his hand.

Fred muttered unconvincedly, "So we don't know some of the specific details. We only know a little bit..."

At this time, Ron came in from the door, followed by Harry and Ginny with blushing cheeks. The three of them moved stools and sat down nearby, talking about what they had heard recently.

"Some members of the Order of the Phoenix are tracking the Death Eaters whose identities have been exposed and keeping a close eye on their whereabouts. Percy is in charge of this job." Ron said slowly. "I heard him mention it before when I was at home. In order to monitor us, Fudge wanted to promote Percy to be the Minister's Assistant, but he refused and replaced him with someone named Bertha Jorkins..."

Hearing this, Hermione glanced at Loren again.

"In addition, some of them are trying to recruit more people to join the Order of the Phoenix. Bill is doing this." Ron opened his eyes slightly wide, with a strange light in his eyes. "Fleur is probably his target."

Loren was immediately amused when he saw his expression. This kid might be thinking about his sister-in-law.

"Fleur Delacour?" Harry exclaimed in surprise.

Ginny snorted, "She got a job at Gringotts in Diagon Alley to improve her English, and Bill has been giving her personal tutoring."

Fred chuckled. "Charlie has also joined the Order of the Phoenix, but he's still in Romania. Dumbledore wants him to absorb as many wizards from abroad as possible, so Charlie has a lot of contact with people when he's not at work."

"Some of the others were standing guard over something, discussing some sort of guard duty."

"You're not trying to protect me, are you?" Harry looked up in surprise.

Unexpectedly, Ron shook his head. "Mrs. Figg has always been responsible for protecting you. Not long ago, the wizards were asked to take turns to guard you. I heard that a new member provided information that someone in the Ministry of Magic wanted to deal with you... You know, Voldemort hasn't found the Dursleys yet."

"Ministry of Magic? Who?"

"Well... when mom heard this, she discovered our little invention and was furious." George patted his chest in fear. "Fortunately, we have learned how to Apparate, so we were not caught on the spot."

Fred showed the ears on the rope to the others. "Retractable ears, a recent invention. We have to hide them to prevent our mother from throwing them into the trash or burning them in the fireplace."

Loren took the retractable ear and examined it carefully in his hand: "Any other news?"

The design of the retractable ear is very innovative, the process is not complicated, and the material is not rare. If the two ears are used to transmit sound to each other, a call can be made within a short distance. It can be regarded as the prototype of a wired telephone, and it does not use electricity and consumes no energy. "That's it." Ginny spread her hands, looking helpless. "We have been cleaning this house for the rest of the time, a thorough cleaning. This house has been empty for many years, and many things have bred and multiplied in it. We spent a lot of effort to clean the kitchen and most of the bedrooms. I think we should deal with the living room tomorrow."

"We know they are having an important meeting and even Snape is attending, but we can only sit here." Ron punched the bedside railing in anger, and his expression twisted in pain, looking hideous.

Ginny looked at her brother as if he were a fool, with some disgust: "There's nothing we can do. The Retractable Ears don't work. Mom has cast anti-interference spells on almost every important door, even the kitchen door. The Retractable Ears can't get in from under the door. I really don't understand what she's worried about. Is she worried that we'll learn her magic of peeling potatoes?"

"What a shame. I really want to know what that old guy Snape is up to."

The twins looked very unwilling and spoke with gritted teeth.

"I heard that he was reading a report, top secret."

"..."

Half an hour later, Molly knocked on the bedroom door: "The meeting is over, come downstairs for dinner, many people want to see you, especially you, Harry..."

A group of people walked out of the bedroom and looked down from the railing. The dim hallway below was crowded with wizards, a dark mass. They were whispering excitedly about something as they walked towards the door. Snape was among them, his hair shiny and glossy.

How is Professor Snape doing these days? How is his research on the resurrection potion going?
Loren poked his head over the railing.

As if he was aware of the prying gaze, Snape also raised his head and looked upstairs. When his eyes met, Loren saw those eyes. There was a hint of fatigue under those indifferent eyes, like a patient who had been suffering for weeks without sleep, and whose mind was unusually clear in the sleepy and chaotic night.

boom!
The stare was interrupted by Tonks' scream: "I'm sorry! It's all because of that unlucky umbrella stand. This is the second time I've tripped over it."

Harry was stunned for a second, as if recalling some unbearable memories, and immediately shrank his neck and reminded: "Cover your ears!"

Loren seemed to understand something and quickly raised his hands to cover Hermione's ears.

Before anyone could react, a blood-curdling scream filled the house:

"Beasts! Bitch! Dirty and sinful scoundrels! Bastards, freaks, ugly monsters, get out of here! How dare you desecrate the home of my ancestors-"

At the front of the hall, two velvet curtains full of wormholes were suddenly lifted, revealing a life-size magical portrait of an old lady in a black hat screaming desperately, shrill and piercing.

The old lady was drooling, her eyes were rolling, and the yellow skin on her face was tense from screaming.

Lupin rushed over in two steps, trying to pull the curtain to cover the old lady, but he couldn't pull it up. Sirius also rushed out from a door, grabbed the curtain and pulled with them.

"Shut up, you horrible old witch, shut up!"

"Prodigal son, shame on the family, the bastard I gave birth to!"

"I told you! Shut up!"

The loving conversation between mother and son continued until the curtain completely covered the portrait. The screams gradually disappeared, leaving only a lingering silence.

Hermione startled and blinked in confusion.

Loren turned his head and looked at the door again. The original group of wizards were all gone, and Snape had also left. Only Lupin and Tonks were left standing in front of the door, using magic to add many locks and bolts to the door.

"That's Sirius' mother. We tried to remove her portrait when we came here a few years ago, but failed. It seems she cast a permanent sticking spell behind the canvas."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and led them downstairs while explaining, "Oh, you may not know yet, Loren, Hermione, this is Sirius's parents' house. He is the only one left in the Black family, so the house belongs to him now."

"So he gave this house to Dumbledore as his headquarters..." Molly held onto the stairs, her voice low, "Really, he wanted to get married here, but now the wedding has to be postponed."

"Where's the bride? Is she here?" Harry asked hurriedly when he heard the news about his godmother.

"How could you stay in such a dangerous place? Sirius has reduced contact and said that the wedding will be held after this matter is over..."

Passing by a row of house-elf heads on the wall, Hermione complained in annoyance, "These...these...can't they be taken down?"

"You're talking about this. The adults are too busy. We haven't even finished cleaning here..."

"Don't worry, Hermione, we will clean this wall tomorrow..."

Loren's eyebrows twitched and he didn't speak for a moment. A long-lost memory emerged from the depths of his mind. Some information that should have been unknown in this world was being sorted out bit by bit.

It was about another Black child, Regulus Black, a Death Eater.

It was about the fifth Horcrux, Slytherin's locket, which was created before Voldemort's fall.

Although the locket had been passed around a lot in the stories he knew, it was now in this old house, in the hands of an old and crazy house-elf.

Loren glanced at the dried head pendant and asked softly, "Are there still house elves in this house?"

"There's another one, his name is Kreacher." Ron shook his head, "He's a house-elf who's been guarding here. He's a lunatic. His biggest dream in life is to cut off his head like his mother and stick it on the wall. He'll definitely come and make trouble when we clean this wall tomorrow."

"Really..." Loren nodded thoughtfully.

A flight of stone steps led to the basement kitchen, which was just as dark as the hallway above, a cavernous room surrounded by rough stone walls. Most of the light came from a large fireplace at the far end of the room. Smoke from a pipe filled the air like gunpowder on a battlefield, and the heavy iron pots and pans hanging from the black ceiling looked hideous and gloomy in the smoke.

Because of the meeting, the room was filled with many chairs, and in the middle was a long wooden table, on which were scattered parchment rolls, high-foot wine glasses, empty wine bottles and a pile of things that looked like rags.

Arthur and Bill sat at the end of the long table, their heads put together and whispering something.

(End of this chapter)

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