Chapter 711: Seat - (2) |
At half past ten in the morning, Sirius took Harry in a taxi to King's Cross station.
Seeing Sirius expertly glance at the timer and then pull out banknotes to pay, Harry was quite surprised. "After all, I lived in the Muggle world for a year," Sirius said, as they, carrying their luggage, walked into the station laughing and talking. Immediately, Harry felt several glances from different directions and became alert, gripping his wand in his pocket.
"Are we being followed? Is it the Aurors?" he whispered.
This time, it was Sirius's turn to be surprised. "You noticed? Oh, it's not just Aurors, but also some Muggle guards. They're part of the first batch of the joint law enforcement department, although it doesn't even have a name yet..." he muttered. "How did you notice?"
"My teacher taught it in class," Harry said, his emotions complex because this knowledge came from Grindelwald.
The station was bustling. They did not linger, deftly moving through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, and the next moment, a deep red train came into view. Harry stopped; he usually would have boarded directly, but today there was a bearded Auror.
"Name?" the bearded Auror blocked them, looking down at a thick list.
"Harry Potter," Harry said, curiously observing the list in the Auror's hands. The writing was upside down from his view, making it a bit hard to read, but he still caught a simple fact: only two-thirds of the names were checked off.
Harry looked at the time, 10:49. This was clearly not normal.
"Brian, the train is about to leave," Sirius reminded the Auror.
The bearded Auror's gaze shifted to Sirius, his expression relaxing, "Black? Right, Harry Potter is your godson." He made a check on the parchment. "All set."
"Are many people missing?" Harry seized the chance to ask.
"Yes, some students went to school through the Floo Network," the bearded Auror said, nodding in the direction they had come from and muttering, "New measure, huh? Always skepticism..."
"Let's go, Harry," said Sirius.
As they walked away, Harry looked at his godfather. "How come I didn't know about this?"
"What, you wanted to take the Floo Network to school? That won't do, you're the boys' prefect," Sirius smiled at him, then seemed thoughtful. Harry would bet Sirius never imagined he'd say such things, "—You need to set an example."
"Like my dad?" Harry said gloomily, pulling the prefect badge from his pocket.
"Or like your mom, she did a great job too," Sirius grinned. "Actually, James wasn't bad either. We always said it was Lily who changed him, but being a 'student leader' played a part too."
This comforted Harry, who pinned on his badge, just as Hermione called out to him. Turning around, he saw her jogging over, followed by Crookshanks. She stopped in front of him, panting, "Lucky, lucky—didn't miss it."
"Traffic jam?" Harry guessed, unable to think of any other reason Hermione would almost be late.
"Oh, no," Hermione breathed heavily, realizing Sirius and Harry were both staring at her, she reluctantly said, "I got recognized entering the station, someone asked for my autograph, thankfully I didn't let my parents come in with me..."
"That's absurd," Harry murmured.
The train let out a loud roar.
"It's leaving," Sirius urged, pointing in a direction, "Is that Ron? I see him—waving over there, by the sixth carriage."
Harry and Hermione hurried to the sixth carriage, him carrying heavy bags, making him envious of Hermione carrying only Crookshanks. "I put everything in the beaded bag," she explained, taking Hedwig's cage from him.
At the carriage door, Ron helped Harry lift his trunk onto the luggage rack near the carriage. Neville and Ginny were also there. After greeting them, they headed towards the train's front.
"It was easy to find an empty compartment for some reason," Ron said.
Harry relayed his earlier conversation, and Ron had an epiphany, "So that's why—no one at home mentioned it to me—I'm a Prefect, after all. Say, you two prefects, could you cut the lecture short? I didn't have breakfast..."
"No problem," Harry immediately said, "Because I can't think of anything to say."
According to the letter, the prefects of the four houses were to take instructions from the boys' and girls' prefects. However
, Harry and Hermione thought it unnecessary to separate, so they gathered all the prefects together.
"...The only thing worth noting is that there are four Aurors stationed at the front and back of the train, in case of emergencies. Of course, if there really is an emergency, they'll probably know before us. The rest is just maintaining order and occasionally patrolling the corridors...that's it."
After Hermione finished and looked at Harry, he shook his head, indicating he had nothing to add, so Hermione promptly dismissed the meeting.
Back in the compartment, they each shared their experiences from the last part of the summer. After Bill and Fleur's wedding, Hermione went home to reunite with her parents, while Harry chose to stay at The Burrow since the Black family house was too empty and boring most of the time.
"You were gone for a few days," Ron recalled, "Seems like it was for some inspection or something."
"Yes," Harry slowly said, "Two workers from the Ministry came to register households with house-elves—there was a bit of an incident."
"What kind of incident?" Neville asked curiously.
"Was it interesting?" That was Ron's question.
"Absolutely interesting," Harry said with a straight face, staring at Ron for a few seconds before recounting the day's events:
"To prove Kreacher's good condition and allow him to stay, Sirius and I racked our brains and wasted a lot of words convincing Kreacher to wear a piece of clothing that meets human aesthetics and standards..."
"That's a good thing, it shows the Ministry is gradually implementing the legal articles," Hermione interjected.
"You sound like Percy," Ron said. Hermione looked hurt, and Ginny chuckled. Harry quickly continued his story, feeling his ability to embellish stories had improved significantly after frequent correspondence with Elphias Doge. Soon, everyone in the compartment was captivated—
According to Harry, he, Sirius, and Kreacher undertook an emergency makeover of the Black family house, uncovering many suspicious magical objects from every nook and cranny.
"That's why I was desperate to cut ties with my family when I was in school," Sirius said seriously. Harry knew the members of the Black family were a bit 'mad,' not quite in line with normal thinking.
"But now this house is entirely under my control!" Sirius said cheerfully, waving his hand, "We want to leave a good impression on our guests. The first thing is to let my ancestors have a good sleep!"
But obviously, the portraits in the hallway didn't want to sleep. They were ancestors of the Black family, passing down their most stubborn memories before dying, making them difficult to persuade. Harry and Sirius had to resort to some tricks.
"Bad master! Bad young master!"
Kreacher was frantic, trying to stop them, but to no avail—a flash of red light from a Stunning Spell, and the long corridor was peaceful again. Harry and Sirius were satisfied with their work, except for one or two portraits drooling with their wigs askew, everything else looked perfect.
"So you just did an emergency clean-up?" Ron asked discontentedly in the compartment.
"There's more," Harry said. He continued.
When the Ministry workers arrived, Sirius greeted them with a smile, leading them towards the living room. Suddenly, a shadow fell over Harry's heart, feeling he had overlooked something, so he stopped, trying hard to think...
The members of the Black family were all very mad...
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