“Let’s go inside.” Harry whispered to Hermione, and together they walked into Sirius’ rented house.
But there is already someone inside the house.
Harry stared, glaring blankly, at a bearded stranger in front of him, the man had ginger dishevelled hair that looked like Crookshanks after he had rolled around in the mud a few times. He lounged lazily on the couch, with a short, rotund leg slouched on the table as if he is asleep.
“Who are you!” Harry and Hermione drew their wands at the same time.
Crookshanks crouched on the floor and let out a threatening cry.
The man in the tattered coat awakened, he rolled over and sat up, looking up to see a smoking wand against his neck, so he meekly raised his hands in surrender.
“My name is Mundungus Fletcher, commissioned by Dumbledore to protect you.” The short, fat man said.
“You’re lying,” Hermione said pointedly, “how could Dumbledore send you, your kind-”
Mundungus gave her a reproachful look. “What’s wrong with me? I’m working for both Dumbledore and Hap, and I joined the Order of the Phoenix more than a decade ago …”
“But how come you’re here? This is the house Sirius rented.” Harry asked while continuing to point his wand at the man.
“He told me to come, he is unable to leave right now.” Mundungus leaned back cautiously.
“So you’re the one that was supposed to inform me to leave early?” Harry’s eyes widened, “But you didn’t do anything and sleeping here.” He said with an annoyed tone as he had nearly misunderstood Hermione just because the information did not arrive.
Mundungus pointed to his own lax and bloodshot eyes, “Look at me, just finished a big job, so sleepy that I can’t even open my eyes, I arrived early, with the idea of having a nap … didn’t expect you guys to come here by yourselves.”
“You were busy working for the Order of the Phoenix?”
“Almost,” Mundungus said vaguely.
“But weren’t you ordered to protect Harry?”
“Ahem, a temporary assignment …”
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, how this guy looked very suspicious and sneaky-eyed.
“Since you were the one who was sent to inform Harry, you, um, should know where we are going?” Hermione asked.
“I can’t say the exact address, at least not now, not until–” said Mundungus, waving his hand, “Wait, don’t be impulsive, it’s Black’s Old Mansion!”
Harry and Hermione put down their wands.
“How do we get there?”
“Through that,” said Mundungus, pointing towards the fireplace, “Floo Network.”
“And the time?”
“Seven o’clock, plus there’s a man we need to wait for, and he’s got a note in his hand.” Mundungus muttered, “Don’t ask me, I don’t know who it is either.”
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, and they pretty much guessed who it is.
“What is the note you just mentioned?”
“A specific address is written down by the Secret Keeper, which serves as the key to the house.” Mundungus explained, “The place we are going to be is under Fidelius Charm, after the spell has been cast no one can reveal the address to the public again, and outsiders simply can not find it, only the secret keeper has the right to decide to whom to reveal the secret. At the time we speak again without regard.”
Harry and Hermione temporarily believed his words, but the essential cross-examination is still necessary.
“You know Sirius well?” Harry asked.
“That’s for sure, I always borrowed the fireplace here, it’s safe, secluded, and not regulated by the Ministry of Magic!” Mundungus said.
” Not regulated?”
“Yes, I guess the Black family people must have paid a small price to get this piece of technology, think about it, if I can master it, I can set up secret strongholds around the world, how convenient! And you can also perfectly avoid the Ministry of Magic!” Mundungus said proudly, praising his grand plan.
Unfortunately, the plan got stuck on the first step.
“Mr. Fletcher –”
“Just call me Mundungus, little girl, I’m not a distinguished person.” Mundungus said, scratching his bearded chin.
“Well,” Hermione’s voice paused, “I’ve heard that you need permission from the owner to connect a private fireplace – and that no wizard is allowed to connect a muggle fireplace with Floo Network unless there is a valid reason …”
Mundungus waved his hand.
“The rules are dead. You know what I mean.” He squeezed his eyes at Hermione with a knowing comical look, “You dare to say Sirius’ ancestors never had a private Floo Network? And the Ministry of Magic – hmmm, just saying …”
He started rummaging through his pockets everywhere and finally pulled out a black pipe full of dirt and stuffed it into his mouth, only then did he look up at Harry and Hermione.
“Do you guys mind?”
“What? Oh, uh, of course not-”
“Thanks.” He lit his pipe with his wand and took a deep puff. A few seconds later, exhaled a large cloud of greenish, smelly smoke, “Gotta have a few puffs every hour to refresh myself–” said Mundungus amidst the smoke, as if explaining to them.
Harry and Hermione did not respond and shrank to the other end of the couch, far away from him.
“Do you want to eat something, Hermione?” Harry asked aloud.
“Now that you mention it …” Hermione glanced at the smoke that continued to expand outward and stood up decisively, “I do feel hungry.”
They walked towards the kitchen.
“Bring one for me, too, please–” Montengus shouted from the living room.
“Do you know how to cook?” Hermione asked in a whisper from the kitchen.
“A little, I practiced at Dursley’s. How about you?”
“I know a little too,” Hermione said vaguely.
Harry’s hand touched the fridge door, “Oh no.” He said.
” What–”
There are only two tomatoes on the top shelf of the fridge, otherwise, it is empty, Harry reached out and fiddled with it, there are large patches of mould on the tomatoes.
“I forgot that Sirius doesn’t eat at home much these days.” Harry said.
Hermione blinked, “Can you handle a compressed cookie?”
“I suddenly feel less hungry,” Harry said hastily, “I just finished eating.”
“Me too.” Hermione squinted her eyes as she said.
In the end, only Mundungus ate the compressed cookies, as Harry and Hermione did not have much appetite; Because of the smell of burning stinky socks everywhere in the house, Harry was forced to open the window to ventilate.
At that moment, he saw a familiar figure approaching from across the road.
“Professor?!” He exclaimed with delight.
Felix shot a glance at Harry at the window, and nodded with a smile on his face, immediately irritated by the smell of the house.
“Ventus.”
The house was swept away by a whirlwind of smoke and dust, and Harry and Hermione visibly relaxed, with Hermione breathing heavily and freely.
“I got there half an hour before and found you had already left,” Felix said to Harry and Hermione, “they got stumped by a few things, so it took a while to convince your family.”
“You met the Dursleys?!” Harry exclaimed.
It was more than that, Felix thought. He glanced at Hermione, whose parents were also quite persistent as if they had expected him to drop by, so they had stood guard on the side of the road to block him in advance.
“Yes,” Felix said briefly, “your cousin had some sort of situation and started squealing at the sight of me, and your aunt’s husband almost rushed up to hit me …”
Harry looked at him with confusion.
“… only later it became clear that it was your cousin that stole your Honeydukes Ice Mice, and I had no part in it.”
Felix looked at the clock hanging on the wall, “Almost time.” He retrieved a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Harry, “You two look it over and remember this address, so you won’t need it later.”
Harry and Hermione took it, the note wrote “12 Grimmauld Place”. The two memorized it several times, and then the note turned to dust.
“Professor, are you the secret keeper of Black’s old mansion?”
“I am not,” Felix did not elaborate, “Dumbledore is, and he provided the note.”
At exactly seven o’clock, a turquoise flame rose in the fireplace.
“As promised, we have about two minutes, hurry up.” Felix pushed Harry in front of the fireplace and urged, “We’ll talk over there if you have any questions.”
He took all the luggage in the ring.
Harry, carried Hedwig, and stood in the flames, calling out “12 Grimmauld Place”, his figure swirled and disappeared, followed by Hermione holding Crookshanks, Mundungus, and Felix at the end.
“Young Master Harry.” A low, hoarse voice called.
Harry startled, his glasses blocked by the thick dust, so he could only vaguely see a thin figure.
“Kreacher?” He asked tentatively.
“It’s Kreacher!” The ageing house-elf said happily, taking out a chicken feather duster from behind him and bouncing around to help Harry clean the dust off his body.
“Oh, than -thanks, no, I can do it myself -”
Harry said as he saw a small rectangular thing dangling in front of his eyes, then he took off his glass and wiped it on his clothes.
By then, Hermione, Mundungus, and Felix also passed over.
Harry finished wiping his glasses and stared at the green object that he had just seen – it is a locket hanging on Kreacher’s chest.
“Sirius gave this to you?” Harry asked in amazement, this thing is Regulus’ relic, a fake Horcrux, he had seen Kreacher wearing it before through the two-way mirror, he thought it would be an imitation, but he didn’t expect it to be real.
“The master is very generous, he allowed me to keep this thing.” Kreacher said.
At that moment, a man rushed out of the living room.
“Remus,” Felix greeted, “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, your mission is finished?”
“Yeah,” Lupin said oddly.
“I’m going to go change and then will stay in the study for a while – you can answer their questions.” Felix said.
Lupin nodded, “Leave it to me.”
“I’m going to have a nap too, call me at dinner time.” Mundungus said, yawning and walking towards the living room couch.
“The professor has joined the Order of the Phoenix too?” Harry asked with interest as he stared at Felix’s back as he disappeared down the stairs.
“He hasn’t.” Lupin said, “But he’s on our side, sort of our ally-”
————
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