Chapter 189: 12 Grimmauld Place

Ivan, Harry and Hermione put on their robes as quickly as possible. Ivan also deliberately put Hermione's scarf around his neck.

Sirius drove them to Hogsmeade.

Before they left the castle, they ran into Professor McGonagall. Although she agreed to let the three of them leave Hogwarts for Christmas, but from her serious face and furrowed brow you could tell she didn't agree with Sirius at all.

Ivan, Harry and Hermione were very glad that they didn't have to stay in the infirmary.

Standing in the empty, snowy streets of Hogsmeade, Sirius told them that he would take the three of them to Diagon Alley, where Lupin was.

That night, they would all be there for Christmas, a perfect Christmas.

Then, after Christmas break, he would send them back to Hogwarts.

"How are we going to Diagon Alley? are we going to use the Red Flu?" Harry asked Sirius.

"No, I've already booked the Knight Bus. However, before we go to Diagon Alley, we have to go to an unpleasant place, which is not connected to the Red Flu." said Sirius without thinking, "We're going to go get Ivan and Hermione's Christmas presents. I don't want to go back inside though, there's no better place than that."

"A nasty place?" Ivan froze, "To pick up Christmas presents for Hermione and I there?"

He didn't know what place Sirius was referring to, or what he was going to give him, just as he was about to ask, the Knight Bus appeared out of nowhere.

The four of them ran to dodge, and the Knight Bus stopped where they were standing, with a deafening sound.

Stan Shunpike, jumped out onto the sidewalk and waved enthusiastically. "Merry Christmas, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Knight Bus, reach out your hand, climb aboard and we'll take you anywhere you want to go..."

Shunpike stopped suddenly and saw Harry for the first time. "Look who we met, isn't it Neville? how are you?"

"Neville?" Sirius repeated in a strange way, "This is Harry Potter!"

"Harry Potter?" Stan paused, then got excited and exclaimed happily. "I knew I'd already seen this scar."

Stan looked excited, but Harry was embarrassed.

A few months ago, he took a ride on the Knight Bus from the Muggle streets to Diagon Alley. He puffed up his aunt, left the Dursleys alone and helpless, and then met Ivan, and saw Sirius for the first time.

"Why didn't you tell us you were Harry Potter, Neville?" Said Stan, his face smiling at Harry, "Yes, and you strange little black kitten?"

It was Ivan's turn to be embarrassed. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if Stan knew he was the black cat at that moment. "Let's get on the bus, it's too cold outside, I'm freezing!"

"Of course, hop on." Stan took a step back, then looked up and saw Sirius, "God, you're Sirius Black, I just saw your picture in the 'Daily the Prophet'"

Stan's eyes moved from Sirius to Ivan and Hermione, and his face got more and more excited. He shouted, "You're Ivan Mason, you're Hermione Granger! I saw them in the paper too..."

The four of them took the bus. Perhaps because today was Christmas, there was no one else in the car except the driver.

They sat down on the bed of the brass column, and Shunpike pulled out the newspaper he had recently picked up. The entire paper was devoted to the Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew incident.

Ivan saw pictures of himself and Harry, Hermione and Ron. The photos were taken when Fudge gave them a special contribution award last year. What follows is a detailed introduction to the history of the four of them.

Shunpike went on to tell them that he never knew any of this, and asked the four people to sign autographs for him. In this environment, Ivan could not ask Sirius where they were going.

More than an hour later, the bus docked in the middle of a small square with long awnings.

Ivan stepped out of the bus, and the houses around the square had a dirty appearance and didn't seem to be receiving visitors. Some of the houses had broken windows and were lifeless. Paint was peeling off many doors, and a lot of garbage was piled up on the front steps.

"Where are we?" asked Ivan.

"Grimmauld Square." Sirius' expression turned serious, with mixed feelings of nostalgia and disgust on his face.

'Grimmauld Square?!', Ivan's heart fluttered; this was the site of the Black family's ancestral home.

Black led the three of them down a deserted street filled with pungent smells, stopping in front of a house with a door sign on the outside, which was 12 Grimmauld Place.

Unlike all the ordinary houses in the surrounding area, 12 Grimmauld Place was very grand and noble, but it was also dilapidated, like a ghost house.

The black paint on the door had been ruined and scratched, and the silver door handle had been twisted into the shape of a snake. It had no locks or letterboxes.

Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped on the door once. Ivan heard many metallic clicks and what sounded like the clanging of a chain. A few seconds later, the door burst open.

"Get in quick!" Sirius said in a whisper. "But don't go too far inside, and don't touch anything."

Ivan, Harry and Hermione were nervous and entered the almost total darkness of the room. They could smell damp, dust and a sweet, rotten smell.

The place looked like an abandoned building. Harry stood in front, and Ivan and Hermione looked over their shoulders.

Inside the foyer, where the sun was shining, there was admirable and beautiful aristocratic decor, but it was covered with dust. This house gave a strange feeling, as if they had entered some dying man's room.

"Where are we, Sirius?" Ivan heard Harry speak; he was hit by the thick dust and coughed fiercely.

"My parents' house, the Black family manor!" Sirius followed, with a hint of disdain in his tone. "But it belongs to me now."

He waved his wand gently. They heard a soft hiss and then old-fashioned gas lamps came to life along the walls, casting a flickering, insubstantial light on the wallpaper and carpet of a long, gloomy hallway, where a chandelier shaped like a chandelier glowed overhead and portraits blackened by the passage of time hung crookedly on the walls.