Chapter 1,254

"No one cares what you do now, Mundungus!" Vanlin said, and Mundungus was hiding in the corner.

One-fourth of the magic power can't do anything, not to mention that Harry was still pointing his wand at Mundungus' nose.

"Then...then why did you catch me...I mean, if you can, you should keep your wand away from me a little."

"You have no choice, Mundungus!" Harry refused, "You'd better be honest. In fact, I don't want to dirty my wand. If you can answer our questions honestly, maybe you still have hope of leaving here."

"What question?" Mundungus asked back.

"About this house, Kreacher said that you have been here before. Of course, this is Sirius's stuff, and he also belongs to Harry..."

"Like I said, Sirius doesn't care about those things at all..." Mundungus glanced at Kreacher, "I can't survive at all in the wizarding world..."

"Can't survive? This is like a joke, Mundungus, don't play tricks!" Harry said angrily.

"So, where did those things go? You know, they shouldn't belong to you!" Fanlin said. In fact, he didn't care about this. Sirius had moved the valuable things long ago.

"Sold them on the black market..."

"What did you say?" Harry felt a little angry. Inadvertently, he sent his wand forward, and suddenly, the magic sparks that burst out burned Mundungus' face.

"Hey, stop, Harry! Clear water like a spring!"

Hermione quickly eliminated this accident.

"Very good, I think you did a good job. Maybe Sirius and Harry would like to communicate with you." Fanlin said, gently tapping Mundungus's shoulder.

"Oh, no wait..." Looking at Fan Lin leaving, Mundungus was a little flustered, "We can talk about it!"

"Talk about what?"

"I can... I can pay more for this..."

"You have no money, Mundungus, otherwise you wouldn't sign a contract with me for some gold galleons." Fan Lin shook his head and said, "Besides, you have also lost your identity in the Order of the Phoenix."

"Aren't you afraid that I will leak your information?" Mundungus's face was a little ferocious.

"This..." Hermione paused slightly, and caught Mundungus here...

"Thank you for reminding me." Fan Lin said, turning around, "So, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you to leave here as Mundungus."

"Are you going to kill me?"

"Maybe it's a good choice, but I don't want to do this. It will violate my usual principles. After all, you have helped the Order of the Phoenix before, but maybe St. Mungo's Hospital will like an obedient patient."

"What are you going to do?"

"Like this..." Fan Lin looked at Mundungus steadily. "What?" Mundungus was a little confused. Suddenly, a hot current surged up from his chest. "What did you do?"

Mundungus screamed. He scratched his chest with his hands, but it was useless. The hot current rushed up all the way and soon reached his throat. Mundungus felt like he was about to spit out fire.

"No... stop, you can't do this to me..." Mundungus said, holding his throat hard. Soon, the hot current made his face extremely... rosy?

It felt like a steamed crab.

"Stop, stop, I... I can give you... bring you news from the Ministry of Magic..."

"This is very interesting!" As soon as Fanlin finished speaking, the burning feeling subsided a lot.

Mundungus gasped heavily as if he was drowning.

"What did you do?"

"No, no, no, I'm just exercising my rights. You don't think that killing Moody is as simple as erasing three-quarters of your magic power." Fan Lin said coldly, "You did it yourself, didn't you? So now, tell me, what value do you have?"

"I... I said... I can help you pass on the news of the Ministry of Magic. I have many friends on the black market... Those dark wizards, they have taken over the Ministry of Magic now!"

"I know that, but I doubt whether you can bring some useful information." Fan Lin said, "Of course, I don't want to embarrass you. We can sign a new agreement. What do you think?"

"I..."

"I think you can't refuse. It's okay. It's just a little magic..."

...

August is coming to an end. The wildly growing lawn in the center of Grimmauld Place is withering under the scorching sun until it becomes dark yellow and dry.

People in the surrounding houses have never seen the residents of No. 1, nor have they ever seen the house No. 1. The Muggles living in Grimmauld Place have long accepted this interesting numbering error that No. 1 is located directly next to No. 1. However, the square now attracts some people who are very interested in this anomaly.

Almost every day, one or two people come to Grimmauld Place with a purpose, or it seems so, just leaning on the railing facing No. 11 and No. 1, looking at the connection between the two houses.

The people who came in the past two days were never the same, although they all seemed to dislike normal clothing. Most of the Londoners who passed by them were used to their strange clothes and didn't pay much attention, although occasionally one of them might glance over and wonder why someone would wear such a long cloak in such a high temperature. The close observation of the watchers did not make them find much fun. Occasionally one of them would start to move forward excitedly, as if they had finally seen something interesting, but in the end they would return disappointed.

The first day of September saw more watchers in the square than usual. Six men in long cloaks stood quietly and vigilantly, staring at the two houses 11 and 1, but the thing they were waiting for was still incomprehensible.

As the night fell, an unexpected cold rain fell for the first time in many weeks. When they seemed to have found something interesting, something incredible happened. A man with a distorted face pointed at something, and his nearest companion, a short, fat, pale man, began to move forward, but only after a moment they relaxed to their previous static state, looking annoyed and disappointed.

Meanwhile, inside No. 1, Harry had just entered the hall. As he Apparated to the top step outside the front door, he nearly lost his balance, and thought the Death Eater might have caught a glimpse of his briefly exposed elbow.

Harry carefully closed the front door behind him and removed his Invisibility Cloak, draping it over his arm and hurried down the dim hallway toward the door to the basement, a stolen copy of the Daily Prophet clutched tightly in his hand. He heard the oft-heard whisper of "Severus Snape," and the wind swept across his face, causing Harry's tongue to curl.

"I couldn't kill you," he said as he let his tongue drop, and held his breath until the foul, ominous figure had vanished.

Harry waited until he was halfway down the kitchen steps, making sure he was out of earshot of Mrs. Black and the dust, and called out, "I have news, and you're not going to like it."

The kitchen was almost unrecognisable. Every surface gleamed now: copper pots and pans polished to a rosy sheen, wooden tabletops gleaming, goblets and plates long prepared for dinner gleaming against the cheerfully burning flames, a cauldron simmering slowly over the fire. Yet nothing in the room was more strikingly different than the house-elf who hurried toward Harry, dressed in a snow-white towel, the hair in his ears as clean and fluffy as cotton, the metal locket of Regulus bouncing on his chest.

"Please take off your shoes, Master Harry, and wash your hands before dinner," Kreacher said hoarsely, grabbing the Invisibility Cloak and lazily hanging it on a hook on the wall, next to a number of freshly ironed old robes.

"What happened?" asked Valin, sitting in his seat, "any new news from Mundungus?"

Hermione had been busy, staring at a parchment map, drawing something, while Ron stood behind Hermione and Valin, watching.

At this time, Harry came over and placed a copy of the Daily Prophet on the parchment map.

The Daily Prophet was interesting, especially the front page.

A large picture of a familiar man with a hooked nose and dark hair stared at them, and underneath it a headline read: Severus Snape Appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts.

"No!" Ron and Hermione shouted at the same time.

Hermione was quickest; she grabbed the paper and began to read the rest aloud. "Severus Snape, long-serving Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was today appointed Headmaster in one of the most significant staff changes at the ancient school. Tuffy Warricks will take over the position following the resignation of the former Muggle Studies Master, while Turfur will fill the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professorship.

"I welcome this opportunity to continue our best wizarding traditions and values!"

"Like committing crimes and cutting people's ears off! Snape, Headmaster! Snape in Dumbledore's study... Oh! Merlin's pants! "Hermione screamed, startling both Harry and Ron. She jumped off the table and rushed out of the room, shouting, "I'll be right back!" "Merlin's pants?" Vanlin repeated in a daze. "She must be mad." Ron said, "This is a very meaningful sentence." As he said that, Ron pulled the newspaper over and read the article about Snape carefully. "Other teachers will not agree. Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout and others, they all know the truth, they know how Dumbledore died. They will not accept Snape as the headmaster. And who are those people?" "Obviously, the Death Eaters!" Vanlin said, "You should know Taffel, and that Trevor, he is the representative of vampires, Voldemort has completely mastered the power of vampires. " "This will be even worse. "Harry said bitterly, pulling out a chair and sitting down, "I don't think other teachers have any other choice but to stay. If the Ministry of Magic and Voldemort were behind Snape, it would be either for them to stay and teach or go to Azkaban for a few "pleasant" years - if they were lucky. I think they would stay and try to protect the students."

Kreacher jumped up to the table with a large steamer, scooped the soup into an ancient bowl, and whistled with two rows of teeth.

"Thanks, Kreacher," Harry said, turning the paper over so he didn't have to look at Snape's face.

"Well, at least we know exactly where Snape is now." He began to scoop out a spoonful of soup and put it in his mouth.

Their food had improved significantly since Kreacher stepped up to take over the kitchen, and today's French onions were the best Harry had ever tasted.

"There are still a lot of Death Eaters watching the house," Harry told them as he ate, "more than usual. It's like they expect us to march to the Hogwarts Express with our luggage in tow."

Ron glanced at his watch.

"Hey, you know, I've been thinking about this all day today. It left six hours ago. It's weird that we weren't on it, isn't it?"

In his heart, Harry seemed to see the bright red steaming train he saw when he and Ron were flying in the air, shimmering in the fields and hills, like a wriggling bright red caterpillar. . He was pretty sure Ginny, Neville and Luna were sitting together at this moment, perhaps wondering where he, Ron, Verlin and Hermione were, or debating how best to undermine Snape's system. .

"They almost saw me come in just now," Harry said. "I landed badly on the top step and my cape slipped."

"I do this every time..." Ron said, taking a big spoonful of soup.

"I think we need to pay more attention, but here's the good news, maybe I can go out with you next time, Harry."

"Have you recovered?" Harry was pleasantly surprised.

"It's 70 to 80 percent, but it's okay to clean up some minor troubles. By the way, you went to see Mundungus today. What was the result?"

"He needs gold coins. In fact, he is buying information, and I can't go to Gringotts." Harry frowned and said, "I went to Diagon Alley today. It's so deserted. Diagon Alley The wizards moved their things out, and I saw some familiar faces, the Death Eaters coming and going."

"This is normal. After all, the Ministry of Magic is in the hands of Death Eaters." Fan Lin said and shook his head. (To be continued)