Chapter 540: Moving house (Edited)

Fish and Hermione returned to sort their luggage and, a few moments later, three Thestrals flew out of the Forbidden Forest, Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall in one, and Fish and Hermione in the other, all four covered by an invisibility spell.

The reason for not using Apparition or Fluo Dust was that Dumbledore and Fudge had fallen out.

The Ministry of Magic had been picking on Dumbledore a lot lately, and the thing was, they weren't being unreasonable, they were just getting into little trouble that they normally ignored, and Dumbledore himself wasn't that disciplined, so they were really picking on him.

In the last few days, Dumbledore had been busy with the Order of the Phoenix, and had been running to the Ministry to deal with their violations of the laws.

The Ministry had also instructed The Daily Prophet to write about Dumbledore's infractions in the paper, as a way of undermining his prestige... but so far it had had little effect.

Although the Ministry's tactics had little effect on Dumbledore, Dumbledore did not want to continue to tangle with the Ministry over such trivial matters.

Taking a lesser wizard with Apparition was one of those things that was not allowed by law, but which normally no one cared about, unless it caused someone to become separated by taking them with Apparition, which the Ministry would then punish.

The reason for not using Flu Dust was simple: the Flu network was guarded by the Ministry of Magic, and in order not to reveal the location of the Order of the Phoenix headquarters, they could not use Flu Dust .

Furthermore, the Black family's ancestral home had been empty for over ten years, and the fireplace inside had not been registered on the Flú net for a long time, and Sirius, as a wanted criminal, could not have gone to the Ministry to re-register on the Flú net, since Lupin had helped him find a fireplace outside to communicate with Harry.

The three thestrals flew in the sky for a long time before landing in a small square under Dumbledore's instructions.

It was a weedy deserted one, surrounded by houses with grim looks that seemed to have been shut out of the world. Some of the houses had broken windows, many had peeling paint on the doors, and a few had garbage piled up in front of their steps.

"This way."

Dumbledore waved them out of the grass, across the street and onto the sidewalk.

There were a dozen Muggles wandering the nearby sidewalks, most dressed strangely, with strange tattoos painted on their bare arms, and Fish spotted a few with iron rings and spikes on their lips, noses, and ears, who looked nothing like Hermione's parents or her neighbors.

The Muggles couldn't see them at all, as Fish and the others were still under the invisibility spell.

Hermione's face showed a clear expression of disgust at the sight of the group. "These guys must be heavy metal rockers." She whispered in Fish's ear.

Fish understood, he had seen people dressed like that on TV, but the group on TV, apart from being dressed strangely, had been playing instruments and had flashing colored lights, that's why Fish didn't recognize them at first.

"Heavy metal rock? That's the kind of music that screams nya?".

Fish also showed a look of disgust, he was shocked by the group of people on TV at that moment.

There actually was rock music in the wizarding world, "The Weird Sisters" from the Triwizard Tournament Ball had played rock music, but not heavy metal rock, that was too edgy and niche for the Muggle community, let alone the isolated wizarding world.

Anyway, Fish didn't know how to appreciate it.

As they talked, they followed Dumbledore to an old house with a sign that read 11, with the number 10 on the left and the number 13 on the right of the house.

Fish took a closer look between house 11 and house 13,

The two houses were only separated by a wall, and it seemed impossible to walk through them in a straight line, as on platform 9.

"Minerva, which way do we go? The wall here doesn't seem thick enough."

?(??ω??)

Fish asked curiously, pointing between numbers 11 and 13.

"Think about the direction I showed you earlier." said Professor McGonagall with a smile.

Fish blinked, and instantly the address of 12 Grimmauld Place came to his mind, as did Hermione next to her.

Then, they saw a rickety door appear out of nowhere between numbers 11 and 13, followed by grimy walls and grimy windows, looking as if yet another house had suddenly swollen up and squeezed everything to one side and the other, while the surrounding Muggles remained oblivious, as if they hadn't even noticed the change.

"Come on." Dumbledore led the way up the steps and stopped in front of the rickety door.

Fish and the others followed him immediately.

Dumbledore pulled out his wand and tapped the serpentine silver ring on the door.

Behind the door there was a loud clanking of metal and a jingling of chains. Soon the door creaked open.

Curious, Fish peered inside.

There was no light inside, and all the windows appeared to be boarded up, so there was little light. Of course, that was no big deal to Fish, who could still see just fine.

What made him uncomfortable, however, was the musty, musty smell inside...which reminded him of his bad experiences hiding in sewers and sewers.

"Fish doesn't like it here..."

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Fish sobbed and grimaced.

"Ah, it does look a little worse here," Dumbledore said with a nod, "But Molly and her boys have been helping to clean up as much as they can, and I'm sure it will get better in time."

"Ron and the others are here too nya?".

"The Weasleys live here too, except Charlie, usually." Dumbledore replied with a smile as he walked in. "And of course, the twins who say I'm mad."

Hearing that his friends were there, Fish was less resistant to the place, and with Professor McGonagall in one hand and Hermione in the other, he followed Dumbledore inside.

"Please try to make as little noise as possible, and don't touch anything in the hall..." said Dumbledore quietly to Fish and Hermione as he entered the hall, holding his index finger to his lips, "To avoid disturbing the former 'Masters' of this house."

With that said, he joined Professor McGonagall and led a confused Fish and Hermione silently down the hall.

"Ha! Fish! Welcome. Oh, and of course, Hermione."

Immediately after crossing the foyer, Fish heard the sound of footsteps, with Sirius Black in the lead, followed by Molly, the twins, Ron and Ginny.

Sirius greeted them cordially, though he was still a bit wary of Fish, but that didn't stop him from feeling close to him, especially after learning that Fish had saved Harry from Voldemort, Sirius was even more grateful to Fish.

"Hello," Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall greeted them, then said, "I'll leave you to Fish and Hermione, Minerva and I have other work to do."

With that, he and Professor McGonagall turned to leave.

"What?! You're leaving again, Minerva?"

∑(?`Д′?)

Fish tugged at Professor McGonagall's robe sadly. "I thought you said you were busy with that Order of the Phoenix thing."

"Just because I'm busy with Order of the Phoenix doesn't mean I have to do it at Order of the Phoenix headquarters," Professor McGonagall reassured her, "But we'll be back often for meetings, and then in the evening, Mum will be back to tell you stories."

"Really?"

(?ω?)

"When did Mum lie to you, okay, don't say it!"

Interrupted Professor McGonagall as she saw Fish start counting on his fingers and promised, "Don't worry, I won't lie to you this time. If I don't come back tonight, you can ask for anything you want, even if it's a Multijuice Potion."

With such a promise, Fish unhappily let go of her robe.

"Come on, I'll show you both to your rooms," Sirius said with a big smile, "Molly set them up early when she heard you were coming."

"Yeah, Mum didn't even take that much trouble when she tidied our room." muttered Ron, before receiving a stern look from Mrs. Weasley.