Amosta returned to Hogwarts at dusk three days before the end of the Christmas vacation. At this time, the little wizards who went home for Christmas had not returned, but among the faculty, the deans of the four houses had already Return to school early to start taking care of things for the semester after work.
He did not disturb anyone, but returned to his office first, ready to see how the enemies were getting along.
Unexpectedly, there was no one in the spotlessly clean office. Only the fireplace automatically burned after sensing the return of the owner of the room.
After putting the suitcase on the sofa, Amosta turned around and saw a note on the desk. It seemed that it should have been left by one of the two of them.
Amosta:
Lenny and I discussed that blind search is useless when the mouse has no flaws, so we are going to stay in Lenny's old house for two days. I heard Lenny say, you have We had the rights to the house, and since you had planned to clean the house over the Christmas holidays, I thought Lenny and I could help get that started.
If you go back to school, you can come to us at the old house and we can hold a party together to celebrate Lenny's freedom.
Yours faithfully Remus Lupin
The handwriting on the letter paper is not exactly the same as Remus's usual handwriting. There is a lightness in the lines of the handwriting. It is obvious that when writing this letter, Remus must be in a good mood.
"What does 'I own the use of that house' mean?--"
Amosta curled his lips and said, "I hope these two guys don't forget that the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic are still waiting outside the door..."
Amosta threw Remus's message into the fireplace, and the smell of burnt hair filled the air. He stared at the time when the paper turned into ashes, and after Amosta said this casually, his brows also furrowed. wrinkle.
As he said, the Ministry of Magic is still watching, so these two guys shouldn't get too excited.
"All right--"
Through the surveillance screen, Amosta glanced at the deserted Hogwarts Castle. After a brief thought, he picked up the coat thrown on the bed and quickly walked out of the office.
It was getting late, and a few smokes were already rising from the chimney on the roof of Hagrid's hut located on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Amosta's eyesight was amazing, and through the window, he could vaguely see several different figures in the dimly lit room. Flashing forward, I thought it was Harry and the others who were visiting there.
At this time, if he waited for the train to return to London, it would probably be at least midnight before he could reach Grimmauld Place. The Knight Bus was a mode of travel that he absolutely did not want to face, so he had no choice but to choose to apparate. Although it consumes a lot of magic power, it is fast.
The world was blurry in front of his eyes, and his ears were filled with the sound of howling wind. In an instant, Amosta crossed the barriers of thousands of mountains and rivers and the ancient defensive spells guarding the old house, and stayed firmly on the narrow corridor in the foyer. And in the dilapidated corridor.
When he saw the condition of the house, Amosta raised his eyebrows and couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
Compared with last time, this place has completely changed.
Every inch of the dusty floor seemed to have been wiped with stain remover, reflecting a jewel-like light from the completely new chandelier on the ceiling. Both sides of the walls have been repaired. The dark green and black walls were all torn down and replaced with a more pleasing sky blue.
But I don't know if it was intentional or not. The portraits of the Black family's ancestors on the walls on both sides have not been processed in any way, and they still look blackened by age.
On his last visit, the old lady who had lost her temper at him had been hidden by a starched curtain, but it had not been taken down.
Amosta smacked his lips. After the ownership change of this house was officially completed, he would not keep these photo frames that might go crazy at any time.
There was a clanging sound in the basement. It seemed like someone was cooking. Amosta stepped forward and opened the door to the underground.
"Ah, Amosta, it's you--"
Remus, who had a sad face and was awkwardly handling the potatoes on the chopping board, turned around immediately when he heard the noise. When he saw who it was, a smile immediately appeared on his face that had regained some energy.
"When did you return to Hogwarts? Did you see the note I left?"
Amosta nodded noncommittally. He walked down the stairs, his eyes wandering around the kitchen and small dining room. After a moment, he nodded with satisfaction and asked casually, ŴŴŴ.
"Who gave you permission to be in my house, Professor Lupin?"
Remus immediately smiled bitterly. Compared to most Slytherins, Amosta was easy to get along with, but this did not prevent Amosta from still retaining some Slytherin standards. Traits.
"By the way, why did you have to do the cooking, Remus? Could it be that Sirius secretly fired my house elf while I was away?"
Glancing at the potato slices of different shapes and thicknesses on the chopping board, Amosta curled his lips in disgust.
"It's a long story, Amosta--"
Remus threw away the kitchen knife in his hand and clapped his hands to shake off the juice on them.
"When we first moved in, it was the house elf named Kreacher who was cooking for us..., but you know, it is unlikely to be very friendly to a werewolf like me...
In fact, 'unfriendly' is a bit too mild a word to describe it. In order to drive me out of the house, it tried to poison my food several times, trying to poison me to death. Seriously, If I hadn't spent some years in the underground world and was wary of such poisons, I might actually have been poisoned by it. "
Haha, interesting--
Amosta laughed.
Remus continued,
"Later Sirius got furious and ordered it not to do this... Kreacher couldn't resist Sirius's order, but he was unwilling to give in... My meals gradually included many interesting things, such as mushrooms. Dead mice in the soup, spider legs and frog entrails in the salad, vixen in the belly of the roasted chicken..."
"Remus, who are you talking to?"
Just as Amosta was listening to the unfair treatment Remus suffered with great interest, Sirius' voice of inquiry suddenly came from upstairs, followed immediately by the sound of hurried footsteps coming downstairs. A moment later, Sirius also stood at the doorway connecting the hallway and the basement.
Although less than ten days have passed, Sirius's condition is already much better than before.
Maybe it was because he had eaten a few hearty meals, maybe because he had let go of some knots in his heart. In short, he didn't look like a skeleton crawling out of hell. His skinny cheeks finally had some flesh, and his hair was washed. Clean and tidy, he changed out of the old robe that Amosta had lent him before and wore a black and gray robe. His whole person finally looked a bit like he did twelve years ago.
"Oh, it's you, Amosta--"
Sirius muttered a little unhappy.
"When I left Hogwarts, I foresaw to some extent that you would be exposed to Remus,"
Following Sirius who was going downstairs, Amosta showed a smile that could be said to be playful or sarcastic,
"But I really didn't expect you to be so outstanding, Sirius. In less than twelve hours, you were found out?"
Reading Pavilion
