Novel Full Chapter 709: Seats (2 in 1)
Chapter 709: Seats (2 in 1)
At ten-thirty in the morning, Sirius took Harry to King’s Cross Station in a cab.
Harry was quite surprised to see Sirius skilfully glance at the meter and then pull out a bill to pay. “I’ve lived in Muggle society for at least a year.” Sirius said as they walked into the station with their luggage, laughing and joking, and then Harry felt several glances from different directions, he immediately became alert and grabbed his wand in his pocket.
“Someone’s watching, is it Auror?” He asked in a whisper.
This time it was Sirius’ turn to be surprised. “You found out? Oh, it wasn’t just Auror, there were some Muggle security guards too. They were the first members of the Joint Law Enforcement Division, even though the division doesn’t even have a name at the moment …” he muttered, “How did you find out?”
“Our professor taught this in class.” Harry said as a mixed emotion arose in him because this knowledge came from Grindelwald.
The station was crowded, they did not linger too long, and nimbly walked through the wall between platforms 9 and 10, and the next second a crimson train came into view. Harry stopped in his tracks, usually, he could board the train directly, but today there was a bearded Auror there.
“Name?” The bearded Auror stopped them and looked down at the thick list.
“Harry Potter.” Harry said, while curiously glancing at the list in Auror’s hand. Because the handwriting was upside down, he struggled a bit to read it, but he still easily managed to grasp the plain fact that only two-thirds of the list was ticked off on that sheet of parchment.
Harry looked up at the time, it was 10:49, this is obviously not normal.
The bearded Auror mouthed the words, “Harry Potter, the P-word … Oh, dear!” He seemed to have just reacted and looked up to stare intently at Harry.
“Brian, the train is about to leave.” Sirius spoke up to remind Auror.
The bearded Auror’s eyes shifted to Sirius and his expression relaxed, “Black? And yes, Harry Potter is your godson.” He ticked a box on the parchment, “That’ll do.”
“Are there still quite a few people missing?” Harry asked from the sidelines while he had the chance.
“Yeah, some of the students went to school through the fireplace,” the bearded Auror said, nodding his chin in the direction they had come and mumbled, “New initiative, huh? There’s always someone with suspicions. …”
“Come on, Harry.” Sirius said.
Harry looked over at his godfather as he followed some distance away, “How come I never heard of this?”
“What, you want to go to school through the fireplace too? That won’t do, you’re the student body’s Head Boy,” Sirius grinned at him, before showing a thoughtful expression and said some words that Harry never imagined would one day come out of Sirius’ own mouth, “-you have to take the lead and set an example. ”
“Like my dad?” Harry said sullenly while rummaging through his pockets for his Head Boy badge.
“You can also choose to be like your mom, she has done a pretty good job.” Sirius grinned. “Actually, James didn’t exactly perform badly, we all would admit that Lily changed him, but the Head Boy post was also a part of the reason.”
These words comforted Harry, and he put on his badge when Hermione’s shout was heard behind him, and Harry turned his head to see her jogging over, followed by Crookshanks. She stopped in front of Harry, out of breath, “Fortunately, fortunately – not too late.”
“Traffic?” Harry guessed, otherwise he couldn’t really think of a reason why Hermione might have been close to being late.
“Oh, no,” Hermione gasped, and when she realized that both Sirius and Harry were still staring at her, she said reluctantly, “I was recognized when I walked into the station, and someone asked me for an autograph, luckily I didn’t let Mum and Dad follow me in… …”
“That’s pretty insane.” Harry muttered.
The train let out a loud roar.
“The train’s about to leave,” Sirius urged, pointing in one direction, “Is that Ron? I can see him – the one that’s waving, in compartment six.”
Harry and Hermione hurried towards compartment six with great strides, he was tired from carrying large luggage, so he looked a little indignant when he saw Hermione only carrying Crookshanks. “I put everything in the beaded small pouch.” She explained, smoothly picking up Hedwig’s cage.
As they walked to the door of the compartment, Ron helped Harry carry the trunk on board and put it on the luggage rack in the adjoining compartment. Neville and Ginny were also there. They said hello and walked in the direction of the engine.
“Somehow, it is easy to find an empty compartment.” Ron said.
Harry told him about the conversation he just had, and it dawned on Ron, “So that’s what happened, I figured why no one at home warned me – I’m the Prefect. Well, excuse me, Head boy and Head girl, can we have a little less instruction time later, I haven’t eaten this morning …”
“No problem,” Harry said immediately, “because I can’t think of anything to say.”
According to the letter, the four house prefects need to respectively receive instructions from the Head Boy and Head Girl of the school. Still, both Harry and Hermione felt there was no need to do it separately, so they simply gathered all the prefects together.
“… only one thing worth noticing, four Aurors are stationed at the front and back compartment of the train respectively, so in case of emergency, you can contact them. Of course, if there is really an emergency, they may know about it before we do, and all that needs to be done is maintaining order and occasionally patrolling the corridors … That’s it.”
Hermione finished and looked at Harry, Harry shook his head, to express that he had nothing to say, so Hermione decisively announced the dismissal.
When they returned to the compartment, they talked about their respective experiences during the last part of the summer, after Bill and Fleur’s wedding, Hermione returned home to spend time with her parents, and Harry chose to stay in the Burrow since Black’s Old Manor was too empty and boring for the most part.
“Well, you were away for a few days.” Ron recalled, “Like for a check-up or something.”
“Yeah,” Harry said slowly, “two Ministry of Magic staff showed up at the door to register the house elves in possession – and there was a little accident halfway through.”
“What kind of accident?” Neville asked curiously.
“Was it fabulous?” That was Ron’s question.
“Absolutely fabulous.” Harry snapped, glaring at Ron for a few seconds before recounting that day’s events.
“In order to prove that Kreacher was in good shape for him to continue his service, Sirius and I racked our brains and wasted a lot of breath convincing Kreacher to change into a dress that met human aesthetics and standards …”
“That’s a good thing, it means that the Ministry of Magic is gradually implementing the legal guidelines.” Hermione interjected.
“You sound just like Percy.” Ron said. Hermione looked insulted and Ginny snickered. Harry hurriedly continued his story, and thanks to the frequent correspondence with Elphias Doge during this time, Harry felt that his ability to retell the story improved quite a bit, and soon, everyone in the compartment was hooked –
According to Harry, the three of them, he, Sirius, and Kreacher made some emergency renovations to the old Black Manor and scavenged a number of suspicious magical items from around the corners.
” This is the reason why I desperately want to cut ties with the family when I was at school,” Sirius said seriously. Harry knew that the members of the Black family were a bit ‘crazy’ and they would not think quite the same as normal people.
“But now this family is completely in my hands!” Sirius said cheerfully, waving his hand widely, “We’re going to leave a good impression on our guests, and the first thing we’re going to do is let my elders get a good night’s sleep!”
But apparently, the portraits that lined both sides of the entrance hall corridor didn’t want to sleep. They were all ancestors of successive generations of Blacks, who had passed their most stubborn memories on before their deaths, and were therefore extremely difficult to convince, so Harry and Sirius had to resort to a few small tricks.
“Bad master! Bad young master!”
Kreacher jumped around anxiously, trying to stop them, but unfortunately, his strength was not enough – a red light of the stunning spell flashed, and the long corridor once again regained its tranquillity, Harry and Sirius looked at their results with satisfaction, apart from drooling from the mouth of one or two portraits, and their wigs crooked to one side, the rest looked just perfect.
“You guys did an emergency purge?” Ron asked, grumbling in the compartment.
“It’s not over yet.” Harry said. Then he continued.
When the staff came to the door, Sirius welcomed them in with a smile and led them toward the living room. A layer of shadow suddenly clouded Harry’s mind, and he felt he had overlooked something, so he stopped where he was and tried to think about exactly what he had overlooked …
All the Black family members are crazy …
Exaggerated screams echoed through the hall. Harry rushed off, remembering the scene of his first visit to this ancient manor, the wall on the side of the stairs reminded him of something that he was now accustomed to, and now by default he would not look in that direction when going up or down the stairs.
A short wizard rolled down the stairs with a horrified expression, and Harry followed his line of sight – and was surprised to see a row of crumpled house elf heads attached as decoration on the wall. Everyone in the room froze, the smile solidified on Sirius’s face, which gave Harry time to recall his godfather’s words from three years ago when he introduced him to the family tree with a disgusted look on his face.
“… and dear Aunt Elladora… she started the family tradition of beheading house elves when they got too old to carry tea trays…”
The train drove through a field, and Ron pressed for details with gusto.
“And then what happened? Did they run away immediately and bring back a group of Aurors a few minutes later?”
Harry rolled his eyes.
“No, Sirius and I managed to convince them with great difficulty, literally convinced them only using words.” He emphasized the sentence as if to make it clear that no spell like the stunning spell was used. “Those two put Kreacher’s name on the register, and when they were leaving Sirius swore that he would take those heads down … Well, I’m not sure what to do about the Permanent Sticking Charm, probably have to demolish the whole wall.”
“That’s a lot of work.”
Laughter broke out from the compartment.
…
A few hundred miles away, at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall wore her boxed glasses and looked down at the articles in Transfiguration Today, occasionally taking out her quill to cross out errors.
After correcting an article, she looked up diagonally at Felix and the Sorting Hat, the former was holding the latter in his hands and spinning it around, and the Sorting Hat was dazed by the spin and couldn’t help but yell, “Give him a piece of mind! This man is destroying the most important historical artefact in the school! What did I witness? A shameful behind-the-scenes deal where the deputy headmaster bribed the current headmistress -”
Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows from her seat.
“Poor Sorting Hat, you’re not a real person after all.” Felix grinned, bringing the cracked slit of sorting hat to his face as he said smugly, “Even if I gifted the footage of the Montrose Magpies’ last twelve games, that wouldn’t be considered a bribe because they’re just freebies, they were included with the purchase of the magic projector … although it’s a year delayed, It’s still a giveaway.”
“It has nothing to do with that.” Professor McGonagall glared at Felix, whose explanation sounded more like a cover-up, and she pursed her lips and said, “Felix convinced me that if I could allow his magic to become one of the cores of the school’s defense system, the student’s safety would be greatly improved.”
“No!” Sorting Hat hollered. “That’s a privilege that only the four founders had, and even the Headmasters after them could only tinker with the original foundation.”
“That’s why I approached you,” Felix said kindly: “The four founders may not have thought about it this far, so why don’t you open your mind and let me have a good conversation with them, maybe we’ll have a good chat?”
The Sorting Hat remained eerily silent for a while.
In previous years, it had always read the students’ thoughts and sorted them into different houses according to their different traits, and this was the first time it had heard someone want to read its thoughts – well, the thoughts of the four founders that they had infused into his mind a thousand years ago.
The Sorting Hat asked oddly, “You think you will be recognized by all four of them at the same time?”
“I see no issue,” Felix said with a straight face, “If you don’t believe me, we can try.”
“… But I’ve heard that you’ve advanced your memory magic to an unknown level?”
“Rumours, they’re all rumours, I still have a lot of room for improvement.”
The Sorting Hat was silent again, this time for a longer time, then it twisted and turned, the slit at the side of the hat opened to the maximum, and Felix seemed to feel a stream of air sucked into the slit, like a person planning to open his mouth and shout, then the Sorting Hat shouted out –
“Come and help me! No matter who it is! Minerva McGonagall, you’re the Headmistress! Dumbledore, look what you’ve done!”
In the golden frame on the wall that belonged to Dumbledore, Dumbledore looked like he had fallen asleep, though Felix clearly saw that he had been watching them with the other headmasters previously with interest the whole time, and even winked mischievously – there had been a time when Felix had also shown a strong interest in the sorting hat in front of Dumbledore.
After a lot of bickering, the Sorting Hat still refused to agree and threatened not to attend this year’s Sorting Ceremony, and Felix had to regretfully take the Sorting Hat off his head.
“You seem very keen to talk to the Founders, Felix?” Professor McGonagall asked sharply, “Is the pressure recently getting too much?”
Felix shrugged and said in a relaxed tone.
“I just can’t make up my mind – especially when there are multiple options available before me. As of now, I believe we’re still on the right path. But that’s why every step of the future choice is even more important.”
He said lazily.
“I can sort of understand why Babajide Akingbade is doing nothing, if there are six billion people and two million wizards weighing down on the other end of the scale, anyone would be out of breath-” he paused thoughtfully, “Maybe I should talk to Trelawney, every time I see her rant, it makes me feel confident about the future.”
Professor McGonagall looked somewhat odd, “Don’t say that to her face, she’s not in a good mood lately.”
“What’s going on?” Felix asked with interest, “Oh, I figured it out, is it about the new professor this year?”
“That’s right, that Centaur Firenze.” Professor McGonagall said, “He previously accepted Dumbledore’s offer to teach and officially joined this year.”
…
In the evening, the crimson Hogwarts Express slowed down spewing white steam, and approached Hogsmeade station.
Harry and the others greeted Hagrid, but they didn’t get to talk much because Hagrid still had to take care of the first years. They walked in the direction of the carriages and Hermione pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket, “Harry, we are supposed to head to the front, one of the duties of the Head boy and Head girl is to lead the students into the castle …”
They quickened their pace and passed one student after another, stopping at the very front carriage. The two then waited with an authoritative gaze for the students behind them to get into the carriage.
“Almost there.” After some time, Hermione said. The two entered the carriage, Harry very affectionately reached out to pat the Thestrals thin bony back, and the Thestrals meekly looked back at him, before moving forward.
Wheels rolled, then the carriage behind them followed suit, they formed a long line as they passed through the darkness of the night.
Finally, the carriage stopped at the stone steps leading to the castle oak door, Hermione immediately jumped down, and Harry followed her. When almost half of the students got down and gathered towards them, Harry and Hermione led the way into the castle.
The great hall was brightly lit, and when Harry entered, there were already a number of students inside, all of whom had come to school through the fireplace. Harry saw quite a few familiar faces, some sixth and seventh years sitting together at the long dining room table, chatting happily just like they had done after dealing with the newspaper clippings of the day during the summer holidays.
Harry froze and stopped in place. “What’s wrong?” Hermione also paused as she asked in a whisper.
This blocked the doorway for students at the back, and they continued to ask what was going on when they couldn’t get in. Meanwhile, the students in the great hall heard their footsteps and noise and looked toward them. Harry’s arrival made these students realize that school had started, and they stood up sparsely from their benches, ready to go back to their own house tables.
Harry went straight toward the Hufflepuff table.
Hermione hesitantly followed him, but Harry’s direction became more and more clear and revealed the mistake. “Harry, you’re going the wrong way.” Hermione reminded him in a whisper. “That’s right.” Harry said in a calm tone, even though his heart was beating fiercely at the moment.
He took a seat next to Cadwallader, the Chaser of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, whose eyes went wide. With a look of seeing a ghost coming back to life.
Hermione reacted at the last minute, and she turned around the corner next to Harry and sat at the Ravenclaw table.
“Hello, Hermione.” A dazed voice sounded in her ear.
“Oh, hello, Luna.” Hermione replied back, before looking nervously behind her, the people behind her seemed a little confused, “Everyone – everyone feel free to sit down.” She cleared her throat and said, which brought the crowd back to their senses, and they picked their seats in twos and threes, and the students who had stood up also sat back down in the same place and continued their previous conversations.
But the expressions on the faces of the crowd were obviously a little strange, as they exchanged a look of excitement and fear with each other, along with a little surprise. In their impression, this is absolutely unique.
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