Hogwarts: I'm Harry's older cousin

Chapter 353, Section 347: Can you really buy it with money?

"This place is absolutely awful."

"There are vixens everywhere, a mentally unstable house-elf, and a bunch of crazy portraits. There's no place worse than this."

Ron muttered, digging hard into his ears to recover from the terrifying scream.

The group returned to the second floor, or more accurately, they were now almost on the third floor.

"Harry, what else is in those rooms on the upper floors?"

Even the taciturn Neville couldn't help but ask, "Vampires? Banshees? Or something even more terrifying, a creature imbued with dark magic?"

"Don't say that, the books here are quite good."

Hermione held up the ancient book she had just taken out of the study and waved it around.

"there is none left."

Harry shook his head: "Sirius only brought me these last time. Those portraits are of his mother, Mrs. Black."

"I understand," Draco suddenly said with a look of realization.

Ron said with slight annoyance, "What do you know? Are the rest of the rooms filled with female ghosts? Or a whole bunch of undead?"

Draco didn't bother talking to him at all, and instead said to the others, "It's not unusual for a talking and moving image to appear; all you need is a little revealing potion."

"What's rare is that kind of giant portrait. The size of portraits at Hogwarts is rare even in the wizarding world. But Mrs. Black's portrait is even larger, so it's not a simple portrait. I suspect it's a magical object, imbued with Mrs. Black's thoughts."

Some wizards infuse their own ideas into magical objects; the most typical example is the Sorting Hat at Hogwarts.

"Mrs. Black isn't quite right in the head. Didn't you notice? The way she was swearing just now was very similar to Kreacher's."

"I believe it was Mrs. Black's portrait that gave Kreacher the order."

The portrait carries Mrs. Black's thoughts, and given the absence of the other heirs to the house, it's not surprising that Kreacher would obey Mrs. Black's wishes according to the contract.

"Oh my god, you're such a great detective."

Ron winked at Draco, but the latter still ignored him.

"She's imbuing the portrait with her own consciousness. She must be waiting for someone."

Hermione analyzed.

"Wait for Sirius?" Neville said.

Harry shook his head: "Probably not. Sirius told me that he has a very bad relationship with his family. Mrs. Black is a very old-fashioned pure-blood wizard and is very unhappy that Sirius went to Gryffindor. The two of them have argued about this many times, so he has hardly ever been at home since he started school."

"Maybe it's his younger brother. Sirius said Mrs. Black really likes her youngest son."

As they discussed the matter, they walked up the third floor of Blake's old house. Just as they passed a room on the third floor, a figure suddenly appeared on a blank portrait.

"Hey, I just got an alert saying there's a suspicious person in my house."

A rigid voice suddenly rang out, and the image of a bald old man appeared on the portrait.

"So it was you guys."

"The frequent visitors to Headmaster Dumbledore's office."

The speaker was an old acquaintance of Dudley and his friends—Phineas Nigellus Black, one of the headmasters in the Hogwarts Headmaster's Office, known as the most unpopular headmaster, and also Sirius Black's great-great-grandfather.

"Especially you, the pride of Slytherin, the Black family welcomes you."

Phineas looked at Daly with a smile.

In the end, everyone stayed at the Blake family's old house. On the one hand, it was not long before the start of the semester, and it would be nice to have a change of scenery. On the other hand, the Blake family's collection of books was truly extensive.

The only pity is that Phineas, as the portrait artist, cannot teach them magic.

Even if he is a portrait that can move freely, he is still just a portrait, possessing only thoughts but not their knowledge.

The old man knew the location of the Black family's valuable books, saving them time in searching. Moreover, he had a good relationship with Draco and even said he would give Draco all the Black family's collection over the years.

However, the latter rejected him.

While called a collection, most of the items are actually dark magic artifacts. The Black family has more dark magic artifacts than the Malfoy family, filling several glass cases. Many of these items cannot be identified by sight.

This includes, but is not limited to, rusty daggers, animal claws, coiled snakeskin, crystal bottles filled with blood and inlaid with an opal that look like decorative items, and silver nasal canisters that bite.

It's like a smaller version of the Bock & Co. store in The Corner Alley.

The reason it's called a smaller version is because the dark magic items here are far less dangerous than those in Borgin Burke's shop.

It took them about a whole day to thoroughly clean Blake's old house. It wasn't that they were germaphobes or anything, but since they were already inside the house, they couldn't very well stay in tents there.

Moreover, those annoying "biting fairies (vixens)" will quickly grow back if they are not thoroughly cleaned up.

"Wow, look what this is!"

Ron pulled out a dusty box from somewhere, opened it, and took out a gleaming first-class Merlin's Token.

"It's exactly the same as Brother D's."

There was a line of small print on the box, which Ron read aloud.

"A reward for the Black family's 'contributions to the Ministry of Magic'. Wow, what did they do?"

Ron's eyes widened as he finished speaking. He hadn't expected that there would be such a talent in the Black family. D-Brother got a Merlin Medal of First Class by developing the "Restore Human Form Charm". So what did that member of the Black family do back then?

Thinking of this, he was immediately filled with awe; although he didn't know the details, he was certain it was a remarkable achievement.

But this respect quickly vanished.

"Oh, you mean this?" Phineas in the portrait answered Ron's question: "One of my unworthy descendants 'donated' a large sum of Galleons to the Ministry of Magic, and then they gave him this."

Then he adopted a pained tone: "So much Galleons for a meaningless medal? It would have been more worthwhile to get a different position."

The lofty image that Ron had just built in his mind collapsed instantly, along with his impression of the Ministry of Magic.

You can get it by donating money?

Then I am not

Oh, I can't afford to donate.

"Turns out it was a useless thing."

Ron angrily threw the other things he was holding aside.

A ring, a silver picture frame, and a keepsake box that can't be opened.

(End of this chapter)