Chapter 376: Memorial Pendant Box
Chapter 376: Memorial Pendant Box
"Seriously, I can't understand what makes these things worth collecting at all."
Ron fiddled with a dusty box containing a Knight of Merlin, First Class medal, muttering to himself.
He, Harry, and Hermione were in the glass cabinet in front of the fireplace on the second floor of Number 12, Grimmauld Place.
Tomorrow was the day they were to return to school, and the excitement kept them up late, idly playing with the items from Sirius Black's house.
By now, they all knew that this temporary headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix was actually the ancestral home of the Black family.
However, apart from Bellatrix, who had married into the Lestrange family, Sirius Black was the only male member left. This five-story mansion had become the private property of the family traitor who had broken ties with his family during his school days.
"This medal is indeed quite worthless. According to Sirius Black, the Ministry of Magic awarded it to his grandfather for donating a large sum of gold."
Harry looked at the old medal, recalling.
Hermione wrinkled her nose and said, "Even a hundred of these First Class medals wouldn't match the one Professor Flitwick received this summer."
"Of course", Ron agreed, then he pulled out a multi-legged, tweezer-like instrument from the glass cabinet.
This spider-like thing was alive, and when Harry and the others first explored the cabinet, it had tried to bite Harry. Sirius Black had smashed it with a book.
Ron disdainfully tossed the fake spider aside, while Harry picked up an unknown Pendant Box.
The Pendant Box had a faint engraving of a snake, but no matter what, it couldn't be opened.
"This might be an antique", Ron observed, looking at the Pendant Box in Harry's hand. "Maybe it's a family heirloom of the Blacks."
"How could a family heirloom be left lying around like this?"
Harry said, about to toss the Pendant Box back to its original spot, but he suddenly paused, thought for a moment, and then put it in his pocket.
"At least it could be a keepsake. I'll ask Sirius Black tomorrow if I can take it to school."
Ron had no interest in the Pendant Box, which looked no better than a piece of junk. He pointed to the First Class medal belonging to Sirius Black's grandfather and said, "If you want a keepsake, you might as well take this."
As they chatted, a sharp voice suddenly rang out beside them.
"Everything here belongs to the Black family! You are stealing!"
The speaker was Kreacher, the Black family's house-elf, who had been deeply indoctrinated with his mother's pure-blood ideology.
He was old, despised Muggles, and detested his nominal master, Sirius Black.
Naturally, he was not particularly friendly to Harry and the others, who were now living at Number 12, Grimmauld Place.
"Hey, don't be so dramatic, Kreacher. Harry is Sirius Black's godson, and besides, Sirius Black doesn't care about this junk", Ron grumbled.
But Kreacher would not let it go. He continued to glare at Harry, muttering things like "shameful thief, despicable robber."
Harry didn't mind because, due to Sirius Black, this house-elf had never liked him.
At that moment, Mrs. Weasley, as if she had heard the commotion, came down from the upstairs bedroom.
"It's very late, you really should go to bed, children. You need to wake up early tomorrow to catch the train."
Under Mrs. Weasley's urging, they had to end their living room treasure hunt and return to their respective bedrooms.
Even after Harry and the others left, Kreacher did not move. He squatted in front of the glass cabinet, straightening out the things that Ron had messed up, muttering to himself all the while.
"Kreacher couldn't stop them, Regulus, Kreacher couldn't stop them."
The last night of August passed in this way.
The next morning, Mrs. Weasley woke up all the children staying there on time, urging them to get up, eat breakfast, and then be taken to King's Cross Station to board the Hogwarts Express.
During breakfast, Sirius Black did not refuse Harry's request to take the Pendant Box as a keepsake. He even suggested that the old thing was too shabby and that he had a pure gold commemorative coin in his room that would be more suitable as a memento.
Harry quickly declined. He wanted to keep the Pendant Box not just as a memento, but because he felt inexplicably drawn to it when he first held it.
These days, Harry's life was not entirely peaceful. He had been having more frequent dreams, and although he couldn't remember much of them when he woke up, they still affected his state of mind.
As they were boarding the train, Mrs. Weasley specifically warned Harry about this.
"If you still have those dreams at Hogwarts, be sure to go to Dumbledore or Sherlock. They will help you figure out what to do."
"I will, Mrs. Weasley."
Harry waved goodbye to Mrs. Weasley from the train door, making a promise.
The long journey made Harry and the others' initial excitement about returning to Hogwarts fade into boredom.
Every year, it was the same. As the sky darkened, the Hogwarts Express finally arrived at its destination.
Hagrid, wearing a coat, called out in the night breeze, gathering the First-Year Students around him. Harry and the other upper-year students, meanwhile, rode in carriages pulled by Thestrals, entering the castle first.
Hogwarts hadn't changed at all since two months ago. The Great Hall, decorated beautifully by Professor Flitwick, welcomed Harry and the others as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table.
"Did you see Malfoy when we got off the train? He's not as arrogant as he used to be. My dad said that his house was searched by the Aurors a few days ago. Scrimgeour is different from Fudge; he doesn't trust these people at all."
As soon as they sat down, Ron mocked the Malfoy family's misfortune.
Harry, who had always been at odds with Draco, listened with interest, but Hermione, frowning, looked up at the staff table.
There were clearly two empty seats in the middle of the table.
"Why aren't Professor Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick back?"
(End of Chapter)
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