Chapter 479 - 30: Boggart

Chapter 479: Chapter 30: Boggart

Yimi had only pointed at Kreacher and said it in anger. She never expected Sirius to look as though he was about to applaud and hand Kreacher over to her without the slightest hesitation.

"He’s been transferred to you as part of the family property now. Give him an order and you’ll know it’s official." Sirius leaned casually against the stair rail, paying no attention to how much dust covered it.

"No, no, no!" Kreacher shook his head frantically.

Harry could not help feeling a little sympathy for him, but remembering the insults the house-elf had just hurled at them weakened that sympathy considerably.

"Then help me feed Beetle Number One. Don’t let it get away." Yimi handed Kreacher the glass jar from her pocket.

"That’s a ladybug, little cat," Harry corrected her.

Yimi nodded. "Then help me feed the ladybug."

The thing was not even big enough to get stuck between her teeth, so Yimi had simply caught it and decided to keep it.

Kreacher was forced to accept the jar. As he turned toward the kitchen, he muttered with resentment—no, at this volume it could no longer really be called muttering.

"Kreacher served the Black family for so many years, and the first thing the wastrel young master does after coming home smelling like a criminal is throw out his loyal servant! Kreacher can already imagine what that wastrel will do to Mistress’s belongings when Kreacher can no longer protect the old house. He’ll steal them all and sell them for money. If Mistress were still alive—"

Black gave him a wicked-looking smile. "Sell them? I don’t need money from that worthless rubbish. Don’t worry. I’ll throw all this junk away."

Kreacher muttered curses under his breath. He was plainly heartbroken and furious, but he did not react as violently as an ordinary house-elf might have to being dismissed.

Kreacher had already suffered that blow when Sirius became the only principal heir left in the Black family. Now his mood had simply worsened another step. How he wished he could serve Narcissa, who had married into the Malfoy family. Instead, with a few casual words, he had now been transferred to some half-human child from who knew where.

Unable to disobey the little brat’s orders, Kreacher could only direct his resentment at the half-human brat’s inferior pet. House-elves could not disobey their masters, but that did not mean they could not search for loopholes in an order.

For example, Yimi had only told Kreacher to feed the ladybug. She had never said how much to feed it. So Kreacher muttered curses as he gathered an entire heap of aphids and dumped them all into the glass jar under Rita’s horrified gaze.

"You can come stay with me during summer holidays from now on, but I suppose I’ll have to do one painfully boring deep clean first. I don’t even know where to begin. Maybe I should just move to another house." Black looked around.

Harry shook his head. "I can help you. Today... and during the Christmas holidays too. I was planning to stay at school for Christmas anyway. Are there cleaning supplies here? I’m pretty good at cleaning. I think."

Black clapped him on the shoulder, caught something in Harry’s words, and immediately grew angry. "I should’ve known how that Muggle uncle of yours treated you. I ought to go teach them a proper lesson, with—"

"No! Hagrid already taught them one for me." Harry hurriedly stopped him. He did not want Sirius, who had only just regained his freedom, risking it for his sake.

When Hagrid came to collect him for Hogwarts last year, he had used magic to give Harry’s bullying cousin Dudley a pig’s tail. Uncle Vernon had later hired a private doctor to surgically remove it.

Sirius was clearly not satisfied. He hooked an arm around Harry’s shoulders and led him toward the entrance hall. "You should tell me what kind of life you’ve been living all these years. I am the guardian your father appointed, after all."

He glanced back at Yimi. "Looks like it’ll be a while before I can take you back, girl. Wander around as much as you like. If you see anything you want, don’t be shy—just take it. But I should warn you that after more than ten years without cleaning, this place may have bred... Why am I warning you about that?"

Black remembered the Patronus Charm Yimi had cast, the one that had filled all of Hogwarts with light.

"Meow?"

Yimi was not very interested. There was dust everywhere. As she headed toward one part of the house, a Doxy suddenly appeared and bit her. The venom in its fangs left Umbridge, who was in the middle of making life difficult for a subordinate at the Ministry, clutching her arm in pain.

Yimi slapped the Doxy dead.

Realizing Kreacher had been gone for too long, Yimi went to look for him. In truth, she did not know very much about house-elves. She only knew they were strange creatures who liked obeying orders.

The bite she had taken out of Voldemort’s knowledge had not torn away absolutely everything. Yimi had gotten most of the important knowledge, but she had gained relatively little about living creatures or even magical beasts.

When she reached the drawing room, she sniffed. Despite the dust everywhere, she still caught a strange scent coming from the writing desk.

Just like the Doxy that had bitten her, quite a few creatures had infested the house after it had gone so long without being cleaned. The thing inside the desk was another example. Normally it had no smell at all. In fact, before the writing desk was opened, no one could know what it looked like.

A Boggart. That was the creature’s name. Such things had never truly been alive. They usually hid somewhere, proving their existence by rattling and scratching, then transformed into whatever frightened a person most when faced with them.

Yimi opened the writing desk.

A blue dinosaur with a mouth full of sharp teeth immediately thrust its head out.

"Wryyyyyy!"

"MRAOW!!"

The little kitty jumped straight into the air in fright. With one thrust she stabbed straight through the Boggart, then sprinted all the way up the stairs to the top floor, crashed into a bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.

Too scary! It was Diego again! He always popped out to scare the kitty the moment she lowered her guard!

Yimi leaned against the door and waited for her little heart to stop pounding before looking around the room.

It was a thoroughly dilapidated bedroom, with Slytherin-style silver and green everywhere. The Black family crest was painted above the headboard, and there were even newspaper clippings about Voldemort pasted beneath it.

This was the room of Sirius’s younger brother, Regulus Black. Kreacher was here now, sorrowfully packing up various things.

Yimi padded over in small steps. "What are you doing?"

"Mistress." Kreacher bowed low. "Kreacher is packing away the things Mistress and the young master left behind, so that dirty wastrel cannot throw them out."

Yimi was about to say something when she caught another strange scent.

She had smelled it many times in this world. It belonged to Voldemort, and it was profoundly evil.

Following the scent, she spotted a locket lying in the corner of the room. Compared with most of the objects around it, there was not a speck of dust on it.

Yimi drew out her glaring scarlet spear and stabbed straight through the locket.

Kreacher’s eyes went wide. Whatever he was feeling, it certainly was not resentment.