Chapter 153: Black House
"Well, we haven't had a chance to get premises yet," said Fred, dropping his voice even lower as Mrs. Weasley mopped her brow with her scarf before returning to the attack, "so we're running it as a mail-order service at the moment. We put advertisements in the Daily Prophet last week."
"What're you three whispering about?" Mrs. Weasleys called out.
"Nothing. Chris was telling us about the sprays muggles use to clean their house." George replied. "Though they sound pretty useless."
"Stop chatting and come over here, help me throw this things out." Mrs. Weasley ordered.
All three of them hurried towards her.
Mrs. Weasley pointed at the dusty glass-fronted cabinets standing on either side of the mantelpiece. They were crammed with an odd assortment of objects: a selection of rusty daggers, claws, a coiled snakeskin, a number of tarnished silver boxes inscribed with unknown languages, and an ornate crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper, full of blood.
"Are we really going to throw them away?" Chris whispered to Ginny. "I mean the skin and that blood is fascinating."
"We don't know who's blood it is." Ginny whispered back.
Just then a loud, clanging bell sounded from downstairs, followed at once by the cacophony of screams and wails that had been triggered the previous night.
"What's that?" Chris asked. "I forgot to ask yesterday."
"Sirius's mom." Ron replied. "It's her painting."
"Stay here," Mrs. Weasley said firmly, then left.
"Now is the chance, take them if you want." Fred said grinning at Chris.
Chris grinned back and took the tarnished silver boxes and the bottle filled with blood. She put all of the things inside her locket before Mrs. Weasley came back.
"Finish it up quickly then come downstairs. You all can take a break, after lunch." Mrs. Weasley said. "I'm preparing some sandwiches."
They started to throw the other things but time to time Fred, George and Chris sneaked few things from the room. At last Chris stopped in front of a wall, a long tapestry hung on that.
The tapestry looked immensely old; it was faded and looked as though doxies had gnawed it in places; nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read:
THE NOBLE AND MOST ANCIENT HOUSE OF BLACK
"TOUJOURS PUR"
"Wow." Ginny said stopping behind Chris. "Sirius had a big family."
"Had. That's the point." Ron said. "Now, he only have Harry as his family."
"True." Chris frowned. "But look, Sirius isn't here."
They all scan the tapestry but there was no sign of Sirius's name. But there was Bellatrix, Narcissa and a big black burned round mark between them. A double line of gold embroidery linked Narcissa Black with Lucius Malfoy, and a single vertical gold line from their names led to the name Draco.
"Our Draco is here." Chris pointed at his name. "So technically her mother is from Black family and she's the sister of Bellatrix."
"Bellatrix?" Hermione looked at the tapestry wide eyed. "She's the one... who tortured Neville's parents."
"Wait, Tonks told me her mom and Draco's mother are sisters." Ginny said, then looked at the tapestry. "Do you think.."
"Yeah, I think they burned her name." Chris said pointing at the burned place between Bellatrix and Narcissa.
"Maybe then they burned Sirius's name too." Hermione suggested.
"Maybe." Chris sighed. "After listening Sirius's mom last night, I don't think, she liked the muggle lover wizards that much.
"Well let's get out of here." Fred said. "We're done."
They all went down to kitchen, where they saw Tonks talking to Mrs. Weasley. As soon as Hermione saw Tonks, she jumped in front of her.
"Tonks, did you see Harry? How's he? Did he tried to leave the house? Did he do something stupid? Oh My God, did his Uncle and Aunt do something to him? Did they punish him?"
"Calm down, Hermione." Ron said.
"Yeah but Tonks tell us what happened?" Ginny said.
"Well as expected when I reach there, I heard his Uncle shouting at him." Tonks sank down on a chair. "Harry was explaining them about Dementors and You-Know-Who. They were talking in the kitchen and the window was open so I heard them clearly."
"He told them about You-Know-Who?" Ron gaped at her.
"Of course he would've, but the question is.. did they understood what that means?" Hermione said.
"Actually yes. They know You-Know-Who killed Harry's parents." Tonks sighed. "So when they realized that they could be in danger too, because of Harry, his Uncle tried to kick Harry out. I was ready to go inside their house to stop them."
"Then?" Chris asked.
"Then a howler came and Harry's Aunt decided that Harry will stay with them."
"A howler?"
"I'm sure it was Dumbledore." Tonks grinned.
"That's enough, Tonks." Mrs. Weasley said trying to sound calm, then she sat on the table with sandwiches and cakes.
"Thanks Molly." Tonks said and took a sandwich. "I'm really hungry."
Then all of them helped themselves with Sandwiches and cakes.
"Tonks any ideas how can I go out?" Chris whispered to Tonks, as Mrs. Weasley talked to Hermione. "I really miss the sky. It's getting a little suffocating, here."
"I know. The house is really gloomy." Tonks replied. "But you can't go out, alone."
"Oh!" Chris looked really disappointed. She needed to talk Dames but how?
"Hey cheer up." Tonks said smiling. "You can still see the sky from the roof, if you really want to."
Chris just nodded.
After Lunch as they went back to their rooms, Chris decided to check the roof, and Ginny taged along.
As Chris and Ginny were crossing the fifth floor landing, Chris noticed a slightly opened door, she stopped and decided to looked inside a little, judging by the things they saw in this house, there might be something interesting in that room. Chris didn't open the door at first, she just peered through the gap to make sure it's safe.
Chris saw it was a library. Ginny came behind Chris and peered inside like her. Then they looked at each other, pushed the door and entered.