Chapter 542: The door of the mansion (Edited)

Fish was coming downstairs to eat when he finally saw the house elf named Kreacher.

"Master, that ungrateful, disgusting bastard, is bringing some dirty bloods back into the house..."

As Fish and Hermione followed Ginny into the dining room, Kreacher hid in a dark corner, arching his back and whispering in a hoarse, gravelly voice like a bullfrog.

"Oh, my poor mistress, what would she tell old Kreacher if she knew, if she knew what kind of dirty blood they had brought into her house. Oh, shame on you, werewolf, liar and thief, poor old Kreacher, what could he do..."

His voice was not loud, but not small either, and naturally it attracted the attention of Fish and the others, both Fish and Hermione looked towards the sound, while Ginny, who had been scolded many times by the elf, both explicitly and implicitly, frowned.

This was a very old house elf, wrinkled all over, with loose skin falling in layers like a shaggy dog, a mass of white hair sticking out of two large bat-like ears, and bloodshot, gray, reticulated eyes.

He was dressed even more modestly than Dobby, with a dirty rag around his waist and nothing else.

"Don't mind him," Ginny said, tugging at Fish and Hermione's sleeves, "Sirius is right, he's nothing but a crazy old man."

"He's the filthy old scum brat." Kreacher looked down at the ground and kept muttering in that not-so-little voice before looking up and pretending, "Kreacher didn't see the guest from earlier."

He scanned the trio with bloodshot eyes, and suddenly froze when he saw Fish.

"Hello nya~"

(?ΦωΦ?)?

Fish walked up to him and greeted him cordially, "Your name is Kreacher, right? I'm Fish McGonagall."

Kreacher then looked even more surprised.

"You're the boy who defeated the Fire Dragon and the Dark Lord!".

Kreacher's voice finally became slightly squeaky like the other house elves, but soon, he was back to his husky, gravelly voice like a bullfrog.

"I didn't think that nasty young master would meet a noble wizard like you...even if you are not a member of the Holy Twenty-Eight...young master has done the right thing after all."

He bowed to Fish and praised him, "You remind me of Master Regulus, who was as charming as you when he was a boy, and nothing like that nasty bug that was always bothering his mistress."

"What are the Holy Twenty-eight? And... are you talking about Sirius?"

?ω?

Fish cocked his head, "It's a swear word, isn't it? Minerva says it's bad to swear."

"The Holy Twenty-Eight are the noblest wizards, and House Black is the oldest and noblest of them all!".

Kreacher seemed particularly excited as he said this, his hunched body straightening as he explained to Fish proudly.

Then he continued, "Old Kreacher doesn't want to be rude in front of his guests, but the young master is garbage, and the guests he invites are no good...except His Grace."

"Fish thinks everyone is nice." Fish defended Sirius.

"You're very nice, just like Master Regulus." Kreacher suddenly wiped tears from his eyes, "Not like the young master Kreacher serves now, he's a loser, he broke his mother's heart and he's not even worthy of shining Master Regulus' shoes."

"Sirius is that bad nya?"

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Fish frowned, disgruntled, "How can you upset his mom nya!".

Fish himself had often upset Professor McGonagall,

But he had never made her sad...

Well... there was that one time... when he tricked Professor McGonagall into drinking the multipurpose potion in second year....

But it was all a misunderstanding! It's not like Fish did it on purpose!

And Minerva spanked Fish, and made Fish cry! So it doesn't count.

After a moment of guilty conscience, Fish regained his composure.

"At last someone speaks up for the mistress," Kreacher said, with more tears in his eyes, "All the villains the young master has brought with him only take his side and accuse my poor mistress."

"Fish, don't listen to Kreacher's nonsense!". Ginny hastened to explain for Sirius, "Sirius's mother is a lunatic, at least in her portrait!".

"How dare you slander Kreacher's mistress like that!" The old elf shouted, pointing at Ginny's nose and spitting out a string of vile words. "Not only are you smashing up my mistress's house, you brats, but you dare to speak ill of her! You're a bunch of scum! Scum! A disgrace to the Purebloods!"

"Let's get out of here." Ginny, who had argued with Kreacher many times before, knew it would be a waste of time to continue, so she grabbed Fish and Hermione's hands and dragged them towards the dining room. "Don't listen to him, and don't believe him, the old man's mind is flawed."

Fish let Ginny pull him, he trusted Ginny and Sirius more than the newly met Kreacher....

Although he had a bit of a problem with Sirius, Fish knew he was hardly a good person.

Besides, it wasn't like he'd never seen a house elf who wasn't right in the head before, including Comey, Dobby and Winky, the Hogwarts kitchen elf group were all a bit odd in one way or another.

But.... from what Kreacher had said, Sirius didn't seem to have a good relationship with his mother....

Fish didn't quite understand why that was so, so during the meal, he just asked.

"Sirius, Fish had just met Kreacher, you don't seem to have a good relationship with your mom nya."

Ψ(?Φ~Φ?)

Fish said while chewing on the red sausage in his mouth.

"Actually, I don't have a good relationship with most of my family..." sighed Sirius, "Or I wouldn't have run away from here when I was in school."

Fish frowned, swallowing the food in his mouth before curiously asking, "Why nya?"

(??ω??)

"Because my parents, most of the Blacks to be exact, are madly obsessed with purebloods." Sirius sighed, and said, "They believed that being a Black was inherently noble...I couldn't accept that stupid argument, so I ran away from home, and they thought I had tainted the Black bloodline and cut ties with me."

Fish seemed to understand a little, Slytherin and Gryffindor often fought over this issue, and the other two houses would sometimes join in.

Although they mostly avoided arguments when this Fish, Fish had a good ear, so even if he didn't pay much attention to the issue, he didn't ignore it.

Fish also knew that Voldemort and his men were using this as an excuse to go around doing bad things.

"They're Death Eaters, huh?" Fish asked, thoughtfully.

"No, they're not Death Eaters, except for my cousin Bellatrix, and my brother Regulus." Sirius smirked, "Bellatrix is still in Azkaban with her husband, and will probably be rescued by Voldemort soon, as for Regulus..."

Sirius' expression revealed a faint hint of sadness, but it was quickly covered with a smirk, "He's dead, killed by Voldemort."

"Why? Wasn't he one of Voldemort's men?".

"From what I've learned since his death, he was in deep, and then he got scared of what he was being asked to do, and wanted out." Sirius shrugged and sighed, "Unfortunately, you can't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort and be done with it. You either sell out for life or you die."

"Voldemort really is a bad guy nya..."

Muttered Fish, who seemed to have some idea of what was going on in Sirius' house, probably something like having a Harry Potter or a Ron Weasley in Malfoy's house.

Fish's witty little mind quickly came up with a perfectly appropriate analogy.