Chapter 199
We Come for the Funeral
Chapter 199 We Come for the Funeral
Vader turned around and saw Sirius, and almost thought he had recognized the wrong person.
He looked like he had just come out of Azkaban, with an unshaven beard and long hair that was matted into wisps. His eyes were like a well sunk in a deep valley, dark and without any light, which made him look more like a ghost.
Behind him is an ancient building.
The ornately carved door was now tattered and scratched, and the walls were dirty and dilapidated, with moss and vines crawling over the stone.
The yard was overgrown with weeds, with only a narrow path barely cleared out. A garden gnome wearing a pointed hat was poking his head out of the grass, seemingly sizing up the strange visitors.
"Hi, Sirius," Lupin said in a deliberately light tone. "How are the kids doing?"
"Fortunately."
Sirius said expressionlessly. He nodded politely to the two of them and then moved the coffin through the door.
"Has he been like this lately?"
Vader asked in a low voice until Sirius was out of sight.
"Yes."
Lupin sighed and said, "I hope he will recover after the funeral."
The two men walked up the broken stone steps. Behind them, the silly goblin suddenly floated up, spun in the air for more than ten times, and then flew out with a "whoosh".
Seeing Wade looking back, Lupin said, "If you knock the goblin out and throw it away, it won't be able to find its hole. That's the only way to get rid of it. These guys like to destroy the roots of plants and always make a mess of the garden."
"I know. I've read about garden gnomes in books. But..."
Wade looked at Lupin speechlessly and asked, "Remus, what kind of image do you have of me in your mind? Are you worried that I will pity the goblins?"
Lupin was stunned for a moment, then he burst out laughing: "Sorry, I think my mind has been a little unclear recently."
The two of them crossed the threshold and walked in.
The Black House was eerily similar to the Slytherin common room. The whole building was like a dark crypt, with small windows that were dirty and covered with cobwebs, and the sun was completely blocked out.
This makes the lighting in the room extremely poor, and even during the day, the old-fashioned gas lamps hanging on the wall are always on.
Vader believed that it must have been Lupin's doing, because Sirius looked like he was going to bury himself in the ground and didn't care about the light at all.
This house must have been very gorgeous once. The walls were covered with exquisite wallpaper, the carpet also had remnants of gorgeous patterns, and the chandelier was winding and flickering with a faint golden light.
But at this point, the wallpaper was peeling, the carpet was stained, cobwebs hung from the chandeliers, and the whole house smelled of decay.
Sirius carried the coffin upstairs, apparently intending to temporarily place Regulus in his former bedroom.
Michael and others who had heard the noise and were about to go downstairs were so shocked when they saw the coffin that their eyes widened. They stood close to the wall and dared not make a sound.
Ginny, who was walking behind, saw the coffin and screamed in fright.
"Ah, sorry."
Sirius seemed to realize only now that his behavior was inappropriate, and said politely, "Don't be afraid, he won't bite."
However, as he spoke, two long velvet curtains were suddenly pulled apart, as if someone had pulled them hard, and then a creepy scream rang out in the room -
"You beast! You prodigal! You are the shame of our family! My own bastard! How dare you come back? Why don't you just die! Get out of here, you bastard! You werewolf! You mudblood! You bitch! Get out of my house!!!"
In the life-size portrait, an old lady with sallow skin and a black hat is shouting insults at the top of her lungs.
Immediately afterwards, all the portraits in the hallway were awakened and let out deafening screams.
The young wizards were so scared by their shouts that they covered their ears with their hands. Sirius, however, seemed to have heard nothing and smiled stiffly, saying to Ginny, "Could you please move aside, Miss Weasley?"
Ginny didn't react at all, but Ron reached out and pulled her over.
"Thank you."
Sirius nodded and walked upstairs with the coffin.
Regulus' bedroom is on the fifth floor.
In the hallway on the first floor, Lupin struggled to draw the curtains, and then cast stunning spells on the other portraits one by one.
Only then did Harry and the others put down their hands and come downstairs.
"Ved, you're finally here."
Michael, looking dusty, raised his hand to greet them, and said with dull eyes, "You should have seen how much work we did this morning!"
Lupin said helplessly: "Like I said, this place is not habitable for the time being."
Several young wizards showed regret on their faces, but they were too embarrassed to say, "You're right, let's stop working and go to your house."
"I thought it was just a matter of casting a few more cleansing spells..." Michael muttered, "We are very familiar with this spell."
"But this house is resisting our magic...it seems unwilling to be cleaned. Cleaning spells are almost useless. Only ordinary cleaning methods can be used." Hermione hesitated to tell her discovery.
"Because there is a very annoying house-elf in this house." George also said: "I know how much trouble this kind of thing can cause you if it is not obedient."
"Why doesn't Mr. Black just let him go?" Percy asked in confusion. "It's better to have no house elves like this."
"Sirius said...Regulus once liked that guy named Kreacher very much..." Harry said hesitantly.
While they were talking, the protagonist of the topic appeared.
It was a house-elf with wrinkled skin and white hair in his ears. He was very old and skinny, with a dirty rag tied around his waist, and his light eyes looked a little gray.
"Um... Vader, this is Kreacher..."
Harry said in a tone of "I don't know if I should introduce myself".
"Another little brat has come...to make the mistress angry."
Kreacher muttered to himself in a hoarse and low voice: "Disgusting scum, ruining the mistress's house like goblins..."
"Shut up, Kreacher!" Harry shouted.
Kreacher paused, bowed and said, "It's my young master. Kreacher greets you."
Then he muttered, "It was the brat that the prodigal brought back. It is said that he defeated the Dark Lord, but Kreacher didn't realize he had such great ability..."
Harry looked a little embarrassed, and hurriedly shook his hands to explain to the others: "He is very old, his mind is not very clear, and he likes to talk nonsense. Sirius said, let him go, he won't live long anyway..."
"Hello, Kreacher." Wade squatted down, looked at the dirty house-elf, and asked, "Didn't anyone tell you why so many of us came here?"
Kreacher seemed not to hear him, or perhaps he was unwilling to pay attention to him, and continued to mutter to himself in a daze:
"Kreacher served the noble Black family all his life, but he didn't want to serve the prodigal son... The mistress hated him so much, everything about him disappointed her..."
Vader also ignored Kreacher's words and said directly: "We are here for Regulus Black's funeral."
(End of this chapter)