war and peace

As Christmas approached, Hogwarts became more and more deserted.The students took the Hogwarts Express home for the holidays, while Harry and Hermione went to 12 Grimmauld Place ahead of Voldemort.Because at the end of Hogsmeade's day, Sirius finally gritted his teeth and agreed, and then hurriedly invited Hermione to go with him (because he wasn't sure if he would have any emotions at that time).

Harry took Hermione to apparate directly into a small alley next to Grimmauld Place.Hermione wasn't very surprised by this, she didn't want to ask questions about the castle anymore, and it stands to reason that Ministry of Magic officials will come to teach students who are 17 years old or soon to be 17 years old to apparate - oh come on, this Does it work against Voldemort?So her only question was, "Harry, are you growing older, too?" You know, wizards under the age of 17 will be monitored by the Ministry of Magic if they use magic outside of school, and the consequences will be very serious. serious.And if Harry dares to use it, it means that there is absolutely no such problem.

"No." Harry handed her the Invisibility Cloak while he cast a Disillusionment Charm himself.He was an adult long before the Death Eaters were able to successfully attack him in second year.But this question was quite troublesome to explain, so he had to lie: "It's probably a side effect or something... You know, an unknown magical effect..."

Hermione snorted softly.She had put on the Invisibility Cloak, and Harry couldn't see her expression.

The two walked out of the alley one after the other, trying to pick places where no one was around to avoid bumping into people.Due to the secrecy of the Order of the Phoenix, No. 12 Grimmauld Place cannot be entered by other means, and can only be honestly walked through the front door.So they were going to walk across a square full of Muggles in broad daylight, into a house that the Muggles couldn't see, and invisibility was necessary.

After opening the door, Sirius welcomed them warmly. "Harry! Hermione! It's great to see you!" he said as he led the way as the door closed behind Hermione.

The interior of 12 Grimmauld Place was not much different from the last time Harry visited.Hermione came here for the first time, and looked at the surrounding decorations very curiously. "It looks like Hogwarts!" she exclaimed.Sirius never mentioned his family history, but this house spoke for itself.

Harry heard his godfather mutter "Old and noble House Black", still a little disdainful in his tone.But Sirius obviously didn't want to bring his emotions to Hermione, "It's great that you like it," he said, "I'll show you around the house later!" Then he turned to Harry questioningly, "Are you coming too, Harry?"

"Okay!" Harry nodded in agreement.He didn't want to stay in the living room staring at Kreacher or Sirius' mother, even though one was a house-elf and the other a portrait.

As if to verify what he thought, a big, bald head appeared from the staircase leading downstairs. "Oh! Master Sirius has brought Master Harry!" Kreacher said shrilly, bringing out a large plate of savory snacks.It came up, put the plate on the living room table, and bowed to Harry.Then when it turned around, it saw Hermione standing to the side, and its already big eyes widened even further. "Kreacher doesn't know that this lady is..."

The first house-elf Hermione heard about was Dobby, and then Fred and George revealed the hundreds of elves in the school kitchen.She has always had a good impression of this kind of magical creature, and now she hastily showed what she thought was the kindest smile: "Is that Kreacher? I'm Hermione Granger, just call me Hermione."

"So it's Miss Granger!" Kreacher's voice suddenly became excited.It bent over as deeply as it had for Harry. "Kreacher is honored to serve Miss Granger!"

Sirius was taken aback by their attitude.Although he didn't dislike house-elves so much now, he couldn't see the need for Hermione's almost elf-like feeling.As for Kreacher's reaction, it was even more strange. He hadn't mentioned that Hermione was a Muggle before, just because he was afraid of something going wrong.In the end, why did Kreacher respect her more than he, the real master, now?And it seemed that he had heard of Hermione somewhere?

"Uh, it's really not necessary, you can just call me Hermione." Hermione waved her hand hastily, emphasizing it again.

But Kreacher didn't listen to her at all. "Kreacher didn't know it was Miss Granger... Please wait a moment, Kreacher is going to clean up the guest room again!" Then it disappeared with a snap.

Hermione couldn't stop it, and the three looked at each other in blank dismay.Finally, Sirius spoke first: "I'm sorry, Hermione, although Kreacher is usually a bit tempered, but this time he was too reckless!" It was probably Regulus who made Kreacher have such an obvious change of attitude. side thing?After Sirius figured it out, he just felt very depressed.There's absolutely nothing he can do to stop...

"It's okay, it's okay!" Hermione said hastily, fearing to cause any trouble to Kreacher.She probably understood the weird attitude of the house elf, and it was undoubtedly related to Regulus, and in the final analysis, it was related to Voldemort.But Sirius... she gave the latter a wary look, then changed the subject, "Can I have some creme biscuits? They look delicious."

Harry nodded very cooperatively, and he roughly guessed the reason.But seeing Sirius' expression as if he was choking on something, he couldn't help but wonder if a war would break out at 12 Grimmauld Place on the day Voldemort came.

Fortunately, Voldemort didn't seem to want to intentionally embarrass Sirius.It turned out that he was very busy - he hadn't reached the Blakes' house until the morning of Christmas Eve.

Harry opened his eyes in the dim light of the fire and sat up.Closet Hedwig's cage is empty, and it looks like the forager hasn't returned yet.And at the foot of the bed was a small mountain bag, which was obviously a Christmas present he received this year.The temperature in the room was pleasant, and Harry jumped out of bed with bare feet and started unpacking.

Hermione gave him a big book, "Comprehensive Analysis of the Ultimate Wizarding Level Test", which is closely related to the NEWTs test just by looking at the name.Sure enough, it was Hermione's style... Harry couldn't help but wonder if she had guessed that he was going to pass both exams at the same time.

Sirius gave him an expensive wizard robe, from hat to boots.The edges of the clothes are embroidered with dark green ancient patterns, which also reflect light slightly.Harry saw at a glance that there were a lot of protective spells on it, ranging from the most common waterproof and moisture-proof spells to the dark magic spells, which must be of great value.However, Sirius only mentioned on the attached card that he thought the color of the pattern matched Harry's eyes, and it was obvious that he did not mention it on purpose.

There were also presents from several other classmates, Harry looked at them and put them down again.He searched through the entire mountain of gifts, but he couldn't find the one he wanted the most.What about Voldemort's gift?Even Kreacher gave him a gift (a big box of homemade pancetta, full of flavor)!

At this moment, footsteps were heard in the corridor outside. "Great, Harry, I want this just now!" Hermione pushed open the door of his room, her feet were still bare, holding a large book with a hard cover in her hand, her face was full of excitement. And fluttering red: "Both you and Voldemort gave me a rare copy of the ancient runes!" Then she saw Harry's expression, and her excitement turned into confusion: "What's the matter with you, Harry?"

Very well, Voldemort was probably trying to trick something again, Harry thought.Even Hermione had already received it, so there's no reason he didn't.This time, though, it was better to surprise than to scare - after the memory dream came out, he had a shadow of Voldemort's trickery. "I'm fine." He stood up from the carpet, "Thank you for the gift too."

"Actually, I'm not sure it would work for you," Hermione bit her lower lip, distracted. "You have so much tutoring..." she said meaningfully.With Voldemort's level of magic, isn't it a piece of cake to deal with those exams?

"Don't talk about that, do you want to go down and help today?" Harry reminded her.Hermione cared about Kreacher very much. If Kreacher didn't respect her very much now, otherwise Hermione would definitely be kicked out by the house-elf just like in Hogwarts after entering the kitchen.

Hermione patted her head in frustration. "Christmas dinner! How did I forget!" Then, just like when she came, she disappeared like a gust of wind.

Harry had expected Voldemort to appear around noon or sometime in the afternoon, but the latter was nowhere to be seen until dinner was served in the evening.He finally couldn't bear it anymore, and looked around the porch frequently.

"Cough." Sitting across from him, Hermione coughed suddenly.

Startled by her voice, Harry thought she was laughing at his impatience, and suddenly felt embarrassed.But the latter winked at him vigorously, motioning him to look the other way.Sirius was sitting in the armchair, and Harry noticed that the expression on his face was not the choking feeling he had before, but a kind of...hesitating to speak?

"What's the matter, Sirius?" Harry asked.

Sirius moved a bit on the chair, his voice hesitated: "Harry, I thought... you might want to see Regulus?" After saying this, he showed a relieved expression, as if he had finally completed a major task.

"Uh, yes, of course!" Harry replied quickly.He thought it was a big deal!He has never seen the mysterious RAB himself so far, and he is very interested.

"I've been waiting," Hermione added.She had been paying attention to Sirius for a long time, so she asked Harry to ask on purpose.

Sure enough, Sirius showed a joyful expression. "That's great, I have enough reasons now..." But just halfway through his straightening up, there was a chuckle from the stairs above their heads: "Unfortunately, it was half a beat late , Blake."

Sirius froze and turned his head sharply, Harry and Hermione also looked up at the same time.Two young men with black hair and black eyes were going down the stairs, and the one who spoke just now was the first one.The one in the back was very pale, and his profile resembled that of Sirius.

"Voldemort!" Sirius stood up suddenly, and the chair clattered.How did this person pass through the heavy protection of No. 12 Grimmauld Place without anyone noticing it?Then his eyes fell back, and his eyes widened in an instant: "Regulus..." When will he be able to stand up by himself?