Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 256: 12 Grimmauld Place

It turned out that the efficiency of wizarding social media was not much worse than that of Muggle social media of the same period. The news of Black's release was published in the Daily Prophet the next morning.

And because this incident was so popular, the Daily Prophet gave it a front-page headline without hesitation.

In addition to explaining Blake's handling of the matter, the article also mentioned the matters of Peter Pettigrew and Barty Crouch.

Among them, Peter Pettigrew was confirmed to have become a Death Eater, and he betrayed the Potters, causing Harry to become an orphan, and he also framed Black, causing him to spend more than ten years in Azkaban in vain.

The result of his punishment was that he was deprived of his political rights for life and the Order of Merlin, First Class, which was awarded to him as a posthumous honor, was taken back.

He was eventually sentenced to 996 years in prison in Azkaban.

To be honest, Mike was speechless about this.

What's the difference between 996 years in prison and life imprisonment without the possibility of commutation? Even if Mike is beaten to death, he doesn't believe that Peter can live for a thousand years with his strength.

But there is no way, as we all know, Britain is an extremely rigid country.

The number of years of sentence for each crime must be calculated clearly, neither less nor more.

Moreover, in the entire Western concept, freedom is more important than life. That is to say, in the eyes of those judges, the death penalty is not the most severe punishment; making a person lose his freedom forever is.

This concept and approach was perfectly inherited by the wizarding world, which resulted in the Death Eaters and Peter not being executed no matter how badly they committed crimes, but being imprisoned in Azkaban.

Mike thought this was really stupid.

Death is the ultimate punishment for a life. Those who think that freedom is more important than life must have never experienced the feeling of near-death, or they have been brainwashed.

But there is no way. Mike's opinion does not count when it comes to how to deal with the prisoners.

And here is Barty Crouch.

Our dear Mr. Barty Crouch resigned directly due to the impact of this incident.

He also published a letter of apology in the Daily Prophet, and the sincerity of the words in the letter was enough to let everyone know how much he regretted his wrong decision.

Many people even began to sympathize with him because of this apology letter, which made Mike speechless.

Are these people brainless?
For a person of Barty Crouch's level, if he said he was going to resign, would he really resign?

In Mike's opinion, this move was a complete retreat to advance, in order to eliminate the negative impact caused by the Blake incident on him.

Because according to Mike's understanding, Barty has a very high prestige in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and almost everyone respects him very much.

I'm afraid that a guy like this will become director again once this rumor is over, and there will be no changes from before.

Mike smiled and shook his head. This old guy Barty Crouch was really awesome. He was able to turn the tide even in such a situation.

It's just that he has a son who is a traitor to his father, and this son will continue to deceive him.

And this time, Mr. Crouch might not be able to stand up at all.

Thinking of this, Mike closed the newspaper and threw some other miscellaneous tabloids into the trash can.

He knew without even looking that all the tabloids were reporting on Blake.

If something this big happens, these tabloids, known as hyenas, will not let it go.

"Shuke."

Mike called out softly, and a house-elf appeared in front of him.

"How's the construction of the base going?"

"Master, after our hard work, your laboratory is almost finished, but the living room and training ground will still take a while."

After saying that, Shuke's big ears drooped down, and he looked very lost.

In his opinion, he had already disappointed Mike by not being able to build the base now.

How could Mike not know what he was thinking? Seeing the tired look on his face, Mike touched Shuke's smooth forehead and smiled to comfort him:
"It's okay, I'm not in a hurry. Take your time. Don't be too anxious. Take care of yourself."

After that, regardless of Shuke's expression of being moved to the point of crying, he put his hand on Shuke's shoulder and continued:

"Okay, now take me to King's Cross Station."

"I understand, Master!"

With the crisp sound of finger snaps, Mike appeared in the busy King's Cross Station after a dizzying moment.

After saying goodbye to Shuke, Mike tidied up his Muggle clothes which had become a little messy due to the teleportation, and squeezed out of the station.

The purpose of his trip was the Black's lair, the legendary ancestral home of the Black family, No. 12 Grimmauld Place.

That guy Black actually wanted to delay paying me, and used the excuse that he couldn't leave Hogwarts.

This was really unacceptable to Mike.

So he felt that he should go there today to inspect the treasures that already belonged to him.

Grimmauld Place is not far from King's Cross Station and it only takes about 20 minutes to walk there.

However, since Mike had not been back to Muggle society for a long time, he was attracted by the bustling streets in front of him. In the end, it took him a full hour to walk and shop before he arrived at Number 12 Grimmauld Place as Black mentioned.

To be honest, Mike found it very strange at first. The Black family, a family that despised Muggles so much, would actually locate their ancestral home in the city center of a Muggle city.

But after thinking carefully for a while, Mike realized that he was completely wrong.

It was not that the Black family's ancestral home was built in the city at all, but that the Black family's ancestral home was included in the city when it expanded.

This is not difficult to understand.

The Black family is a super family with a history of thousands of years. When they first chose the site for their ancestral home, this place was probably still desolate, right?

The Black family's ancestral home that appeared in front of Mike at this moment did not disappoint Mike. He could feel the ancient atmosphere emanating from it at just one glance.

From Mike's perspective, it was a door painted with black paint. The black paint on the door was covered with scratches due to the long time. The copper door handle was a ferocious giant snake, which fully proved that the Black family had a certain Slytherin bloodline. Perhaps because no one had taken care of it for too long, Mike could see through the window of the house that it was very messy inside, and the window itself was filthy.

Such a dirty tall building forms a sharp contrast with the bright shops nearby. Logically speaking, the city management department would not allow such a building that destroys the city appearance to appear here.

But the amazing thing is that everyone ignored this building.

Mike knew that this was due to the Fidelius Curse, so he didn't care. He took a few steps forward and arrived at the gate.

There was no keyhole or mailbox on the entire door except the door handle. Mike knew at a glance that this door should be opened purely by magic.

Fortunately, there was a doorbell on the upper right side of the door. Mike gently shook the doorbell and it made a crisp and pleasant sound.

Not long after, the door was opened. To Mike's surprise, the person who appeared in front of him was not Blake, but an old house-elf.

"Oh! What do I see? A Muggle! Get out! Despicable Muggle! Your unclean blood will taint this sacred Black house!"

The house-elf screamed as if he had seen something terrible, and his shouting seemed to have awakened something in the house, and a woman's voice was heard shortly afterwards.

"Kreacher, what did you say? A Muggle! This is horrible! Ah!!! Wake up, all of you! Get this damn Muggle out of my house!"

The woman screamed, and although her voice sounded muffled, as if blocked by something, the huge volume still penetrated the entire villa.

Immediately afterwards, the dilapidated villa in front of them became lively, and the voices of countless men and women were heard from inside.

Mike frowned and slowly backed away. With a flick of the wand in his hand, the old house-elf who wanted to attack him was frozen in place.

At this time, Blake, who heard the noise, also ran down from upstairs. He was slightly surprised when he saw Mike, and then he roared at a portrait covered by a rag:
"You crazy bitch! Stop it! Stop shouting! That's my friend!"

However, the female voice obviously didn't buy his story. After a brief pause, she yelled in a slightly crazy tone:

"Why did you come back, damn it! And you brought this dirty and despicable Muggle to defile my house! Why didn't you die outside? Ah..."

Before the woman could finish her words, Blake covered them tightly with a dirty curtain. In just a moment, the woman's voice that was giving Mike a headache became quieter.

As the woman's voice faded, the other portraits in the house gradually became quiet.

"It looks like you're not welcome in this house."

Mike teased, looking at the breathless Blake with a grin.

"Damn it, why did you come here all of a sudden? Hogwarts shouldn't be on vacation yet, right?" Blake came to the door and said to Mike with a bad look on his face, "Merlin, I haven't even had time to tidy up the house!"

"It doesn't matter. I'm just here to receive my reward. I'll leave as soon as I get what I deserve."

Hearing this, Blake frowned but said nothing more. He just gestured for him to come in.

When Mike stepped into the villa, Blake suddenly said:

"Can you remove the petrification curse on Kreacher first? I still have to rely on him to clean the house next."

"The curse stops immediately."

Without even turning his head, Mike casually cast a stopping spell and continued walking towards the house.

The villa had a long first-floor porch with peeling wallpaper, threadbare carpet, gas lamps, and a spiderweb-like chandelier and candelabra in the shape of a large snake.

Most of the decorations in the entire corridor are decorated with snake patterns, except for an umbrella bucket at the door, which looks like... a troll's foot?
Mike's attention was not attracted by the strange umbrella barrel for too long, and he soon turned his eyes to the portrait that was still cursing.

"That's my mother. You saw it. She wants me to die." Blake complained angrily. "Okay, stop looking. Let's go."

After saying that, Blake stepped sideways past Mike and disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Mike followed Blake through the stairs at the end of the corridor to the basement, and Blake turned on the basement lights early.

The structure of this basement is very different. A long table similar to the one in the Hogwarts Great Hall is placed in the middle of the basement, and there is a fireplace on the wall at the end of the long table.

There were two rows of huge bookshelves on both sides of the long table, and the books Mike needed were neatly placed on them.

"I have already moved the books from the vault here in advance. You can choose for yourself."

Mike glanced at Blake and said with a smile:

"It seems that you have already gone to withdraw the money. Well, Harry's Firebolt was broken by the Aurors. Would you like to give him another one?"

"Do I need you to remind me of this? I have already placed an order with the Quidditch supply store. The new broom will be sent to him as soon as it is ready."

Seeing Blake's smug look, Mike chuckled and ignored him. He walked straight to the bookshelves and started flipping through the books on them.

I have to say that the Black family is indeed a super family that has been passed down for thousands of years. The number of books in the basement is almost comparable to the forbidden book area of ​​Hogwarts.

But after flipping through the books for a while, Mike discovered that although there were a large number of books here, their quality was not as good as that in the banned books area.

I won’t mention anything else, but the books on history and potions are pitifully few compared to the restricted section.

However, what made Mike happy was that the Black family, as a family that had been studying the dark arts for generations, had a collection of books about the dark arts that far exceeded the restricted area of ​​Hogwarts.

Mike casually searched for a few times and found what he wanted most on this trip.

How to release the Fire Curse!

Moreover, right next to the Fierce Fire Curse, the methods of releasing the three Unforgivable Curses were also lying there quietly.

Mike was overjoyed and quickly opened the bag with the Invisible Stretching Spell. He used the levitation spell to make the books about dark magic fly neatly into his pocket.

On the other side, Blake frowned immediately when he saw Mike's reaction.

"Mike, I suggest you not to learn those terrible black magics." Black said, "Many ancestors of our Black family died because of studying black magic!"

Mike ignored Blake's advice, nodded perfunctorily and continued to pack books.

When Blake saw that Mike ignored him, he stopped talking.

(End of this chapter)