Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Chapter 196 Sirius
Harry lay on the bed, watching the sun set behind the window grille, and his mind was filled with thoughts about the accident that happened two days ago.

There was an attack on the Dursleys.

Strictly speaking, it was an accident and no one wanted it to happen, but it happened anyway.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia blamed it on Harry, treating him as a "spoiler" or something like that.

And this is the result of professionals from the Ministry of Magic clearing the memories of them and their distinguished guests (Mr. and Mrs. Mason).

Therefore, in order to seek good luck and avoid bad luck, the Dursleys' meals in the past two days were all served with a lot of salt. Harry felt his throat sore every time after eating.

At this time, there was a slight knock on the door, and when Harry jumped out of bed, he found that there was no one at the door.

His Aunt Petunia left a bowl of pea soup at his bedroom door. This is often a classic dish that showcases the British housewife's culinary expertise (can-opening), but his Aunt Petunia rarely fed canned food to her husband and baby son.

This is for Hedwig.

Because owls cannot eat food that is too salty, otherwise they will get sick and lose their feathers.

Harry picked up the bowl. The soup was cold and he drank a third of it in one go.

Then he walked over to Hedwig's cage and poured what was left of the thick pea soup into her empty food dish.

It ruffled its feathers and glanced at its little master with disgust.

It seems to be saying: With this standard of food, how dare you compete with me for food?

"Don't be so cocky. When you return to Hogwarts in two days, I will compensate you."

Harry said with a straight face.

Then, he put the empty bowl outside the door and lay down on the bed again.

The room was dark, and Harry felt a little tired. After he cast magic and lost his strength some time ago, he found that he had become a little lethargic recently. So, he fell asleep unconsciously, but his sleep was not stable.

Harry dreamed that a senior wizard who was even more handsome than Blaise Zabini was smiling maliciously at him. Judging from the color of the hem of that man's wizard robe, he must be a Slytherin student.

"There are no good people in Slytherin."

Harry said vaguely.

Immediately afterwards, the face of the man in the dream suddenly turned pale white, and a curse full of torture was cast on him. Immediately afterwards, a harsh "clack" sound shook his eardrums and nerves.

"Don't bother me...stop...I'm very sleepy, I want to sleep now..."

He opened his eyes, and the moonlight shone in from between the window bars. Someone was staring at him through the iron bars - but it was not a handsome Slytherin "bad boy", but a freckle-faced, red-haired, long-nosed grid. The little boy from Llanffindor, Ron Weasley, was outside Harry's window.

"Ron!"

Harry's eyes widened with excitement, and he jumped off the bed with a bang, barely able to avoid falling directly to the ground.

Ron quickly waved to him, signaling Harry not to get too close to the window.

It turned out that the little wizard was standing in the trunk of a green car. He had just taken a saw blade and was sawing the iron fence outside Harry's window.

The sound that made Harry feel uneasy was caused by Ron. However, even though he tried hard for a long time, he still couldn't cut through a fence.

"I suspect there's magic on it." From his good friend's mouth, Harry read the meaning of Ron's muttered words.

Then, two jeers came from the car. A boy with the same red hair as Ron folded down the back seat of the car and got into the trunk. He also held a thick rope in his hand.

"Little Ronnie, throw away that little thing of yours..." Fred patted his little brother on the shoulder and motioned for him to step aside.

Then, he lay down and tied one end of the rope to the tow ring under the trunk of the car, and the other end to the iron fence outside Harry's window.

"...Men, you have to learn how to play with a rope - that's how it's pictured in Muggle magazines - you have to believe that 'Strength does wonders'."

(It is a magazine that introduces western cowboys!)

With the engine humming, the anti-theft iron bars that Harry's Uncle Vernon had just paid for to be installed on the windows two days ago were suddenly pulled off to the ground.

"Pack!"

Fred cast a spell on the mantra, and then shouted loudly to Harry, who was stunned as he watched all this: "Harry, what are you waiting for? Get your things quickly and go home with us!"

Uncle Vernon's roar came from downstairs.

And Harry reacted immediately. He was like a sprinter when he heard the starting gun. He didn't know whether it was the adrenaline hormones that played a role or something similar to a magical riot. Anyway, he picked it up with one hand. The big suitcase was automatically packed, and the other hand was holding Hedwig's cage. He jumped out of the window with a big hole in three steps and jumped onto the car that was hovering in mid-air. car.

After they got into the back seat of the car from the trunk, Harry's obese Uncle Vernon climbed up to the second floor and walked into his room noisily.

When George, who was sitting in the driver's seat, stepped on the accelerator, causing the car with an iron fence attached to the rear to "swish" into the sky, Harry, who was sitting in the back seat with Ron, realized a problem: " This, this, this is actually a flying car!!!"

"Ang~~~"

Ron replied somewhat proudly.

"Many wizards think that learning such Muggle tricks is a waste of time, but my dad thinks some Muggle things are also very interesting, so he always tinkers with some Muggle items he got at home.

For example, this car, he used magic to make it fly.

Although this car is a bit slower than a flying broomstick, and he has never understood how Muggles made it run on the ground, it can accommodate many people at once, and the riding experience is simply inferior to that of the Knight Bus. Much better. "

It seemed that he was thinking of some unpleasant experience, so as soon as Ron mentioned "Knight Bus", he forgot what he wanted to say next.

On the other hand, Harry can only be said to be Ron's best friend, and he will not let Ron's words fall to the ground if he understands him well.

Ron also took over the conversation smoothly: "The Knight Bus is also a magic bus, but it can only run on the ground..."
-
"Sirius, maybe...what you do is not wise."

Mrs. Figg looked worriedly at the handsome man standing next to her. This man was about thirty years old, with shawl-length hair like a hippie, a thin face, and a jagged frame that seemed to be caused by tuberculosis.

However, the suit he was wearing, which was custom-made in Savile Row just two days ago, seemed inexplicably consistent with his own temperament.

"It doesn't matter. Principal Dumbledore has already explained to me why Harry should live with this family."

Sirius Black seems to have a melancholy quality. Although he has tried his best to express emotions such as tranquility, happiness, and joy with his expressions when speaking, in Mrs. Figg's opinion, this "young man" is still too cold. a little.

Just like the legendary Azkaban, that nightmare cave isolated on the icy North Sea that can swallow human souls.

While speaking, Sirius had already pressed the Dursley's doorbell.

ding dong...

No one answered, but a series of meaningless roars still came from the house in front of them.

Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong...

Like a playful and impatient child, Sirius pressed the doorbell a few more times before the roaring in the house stopped.

The Dursley's door opened.

Vernon Dursley was holding a cricket ball, and half of his body was exposed through the staggered "door crack" - this door crack had to be very wrong.

He looked at his yard carefully, checking to see if there was anything worth being wary of...someone who was not trivial or trivial. Finally, his suspicious little eyes were fixed in front of the iron fence gate of his yard, and fixed on Mrs. Figg.

There was no way that Sirius had to visit such a family that was full of prejudices against wizards in the middle of the night. Mrs. Figg felt that if she didn't come forward, something might happen to them.

This kind of thing is not without precedent.

"Mrs. Figg, how do you..."

Penny, who was hiding behind her husband's huge body, poked her head and saw Mrs. Figg's figure, and couldn't help asking questions in confusion.

Of course, she didn't run out immediately to open the door for Mrs. Figg. After all, it was in the middle of the night, even if they saw a neighbor living in the same block, even an old lady with a good reputation in the past, but with the accident that just happened, it would be difficult for the Dursleys not to act like a snake. similar stress response.

"That's right, a friend came to visit me, and he asked me to bring him to visit you."

Mrs. Figg composed her words.

"Although it is a bit late now, he is sorry because you may have just suffered some financial losses..."

Hearing this, Vernon couldn't bear it any longer, and his voice involuntarily raised an octave: "Walter? Mrs. Figg, could it be that you..."

He held the cricket ball tightly in his hand for fear.

His wife Penny couldn't help but tremble nervously, and turned her head and glanced behind her, as if she might run into the house and call the police at any time.

"Hello, my name is Sirius Black. I'm really sorry for disturbing you so late at night."

Just when Mrs. Figg didn't know what to say, Sirius' figure suddenly flashed out from the shadows next to the fence door (he had just been ringing the doorbell next to the door), speaking in a way that would never have been possible more than ten years ago. He greeted the nervous couple in a polite tone.

"I am Harry's godfather. I happened to notice what happened just now. This child has really caused a lot of trouble for your family. That's why I came to visit you as soon as possible. I'm here to compensate you."

While talking, Sirius took out a check from the pocket of his suit jacket. However, he seemed to feel that the compensation was not enough, so he dug into his pants pocket and took out a few gold coins.

Hearing the compensation and seeing Sirius' action of "paying out", Vernon seemed to be stimulated. He waved his cricket bat and walked to the iron fence gate of the yard, separated from Sirius by the fence gate. glare.

"Stop your tricks, you ungrateful hippies, liars and scoundrels, what do you think of us..."

He yelled angrily, but halfway through he couldn't speak anymore.

When Penny, who was standing holding on to the door frame, saw this, she thought her husband was being attacked or threatened. She screamed in fright and rushed towards the door.

"Vernon, how about you, don't..."

But when she ran to the door in a few steps, it was as if she was under a silencing spell. The words she originally wanted to blurt out could not be said.

This is indeed because Sirius used his ability, but it is not a magic spell, but the innate super "money ability" of the only legal heir of the Black family.

Because there was an electric light at the door, Vernon could see clearly what Sirius was holding as soon as he walked to the door and through the fence gate.

He held a bank check in his left hand and seven or eight gold coins in his right hand.

These gold coins were not the Gold Galleons that he had seen before, used exclusively by so-called wizards and looked like deceptive gadgets.

(To Vernon, the Galleons were a magic prop, shown to him by James Potter at his wedding to Petunia.

And at that wedding, he and James didn't get along well.

Because he thought James Potter was just a "gai" with no serious job, so whether out of good intentions or simply to save face, he offered to introduce James to a serious job.

But James laughed loudly and said that he had a special vault in a bank called "Gringotts", which contained enough gold coins for their family to last eight lifetimes, that is, gold galleons.

Not only that, the eldest young master Potter was addicted to Gryffindor and played a small prank on Vernon at someone else's wedding.

This also caused Petunia and Lily to have a huge quarrel on the spot. From then on, Vernon became deeply disgusted with everything related to the word "Potter". )
That's a serious Sovereign!

The so-called "Soverin" gold coin is a precious metal currency issued by the United Kingdom in the past that is equivalent to the banknote pound. Of course, since this is a gold coin, its actual value has always been higher than the pound sterling, much, much higher.

In fact, since Sovereign was minted, it has basically not been circulated in the hands of civilians. Big businessmen and nobles like to hoard this kind of hard currency of real gold and silver.

Nowadays, no one will use Sovereign gold coins as pounds, because the place to maximize its value is actually the auction house.

Sovereigns in good condition are generally worth hundreds to tens of thousands of pounds depending on the age of casting. Some extremely rare Sovereigns can even be worth millions of pounds!

To be honest, this kind of Sovereign is what the British think gold coins should look like. Things like gold galleons are just some flashy YYJH...

Likewise, the check Sirius held in his hand didn't look fake to Vernon, the sales director of the drilling rig company. It was indeed a check drawn by a regular bank.

Moreover, in the amount column of that check, after the first 1, there are five "5"s...

That’s £10!
That’s almost 10 years of Vernon’s salary!

"I just came out from... not long ago, and I just went to London recently." Sirius explained very politely: "In a hurry, I can only go back to the time when I was young and ran away from home. The M... bank who gave me the pocket money took these things out of the rented safe.

As Harry's godfather, I am very grateful to you for raising him over the years. This check is my compensation for the extra expenses your family has spent on Harry over the years.

Also, I just noticed that Harry and his friends accidentally broke your window when they ran out to play.

Although it is not that difficult for a wizard to repair this window. But I guess you don't want someone casting a spell on your home, so you may end up calling a worker to fix it.

I have some Sovereigns here, which I collected when I was a child. Later, after I graduated from school, I went to London and wandered around, and found that they were worth some money, and they were still available for consumption in some places.

Just like this outfit I'm wearing - when I was at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Maladies, I only had one hospital gown. Then I thought of coming to visit you, and that outfit wasn't very decent, so I went to Savile Row. I ordered a set of clothes that fit normal people's tastes - I paid the bill with Sovereigns, and the old tailor in that shop gave me a Sovereign.

I think they are still worth the money.

Of course, making a piece of clothing is definitely not as expensive as hiring someone to repair the windows, and I don’t know if they can compensate you enough.

If it's not enough, it doesn't matter. You can talk to Mrs. Figg and she can contact me. "

Mrs. Figg looked blankly at Sirius who had just said such a long paragraph in one breath.

Not because he regarded her as a guarantor.

It was because Mrs. Figg felt a moment of surprise: Wasn't the person in front of her under the Imperius Curse, or was he simply pretending to be someone after drinking Polyjuice Potion?

Although she also knew that was impossible.

Because Sirius is not someone who can be disguised casually. Without hundreds of thousands of years of family accumulation, ordinary people can't pretend to have the money-making ability he has, and even less willing to do so.

However, she never thought that Sirius could actually say so much in such a "humble" tone to a Muggle couple (who seemed to her to have a bad personality).

What a proud man Sirius used to be, except for James Potter - he was the only one who was Sirius's best friend. The two of them were like the same person when they were in school - this Black family The eldest young master has never been so patient.

"...It's all the fault of that little mouse-like pettigrew." As a person who loves cats to the extreme, Mrs. Figg has never liked Peter before, even when they were both comrades of the Order of the Phoenix. "... Ah That hellish place of Zkaban is really no place for human beings..."

Of course, with all the emotion, Mrs. Figg quickly endorsed the promise Sirius just said. And it was precisely because of her being an acquaintance (of course, it might have been too much) that the Dursleys "reluctantly" accepted the compensation offered by Sirius.

They also did not invite Sirius and Mrs. Figg to sit at home, firstly because the time was not suitable in the middle of the night, and secondly because the Dursleys would lack wizards for anything they lacked, literally.

(End of this chapter)