Chapter 559: Property Stolen and Obtained (Edited)

"purr purr purr purr ..."

?(=?w?=)?

In his cat form, Fish was lying on Hermione's lap, sleeping with his eyes closed and purring, while Hermione sat in her chair, holding a book and reading it quietly.

Fish had expected Professor McGonagall to be less busy once Harry had been brought back, but work was still coming and going at the Order of the Phoenix, and everyone was still in a hurry.

And after Harry had been brought back, Fish hadn't had a chance to go out anymore, Mrs. Black and the other portraits were quite exhausted by Fish, the rest were stories Fish wasn't interested in, and even the house cleaning had long since finished....

Now, apart from spending time with Hermione every day, Fish could only take care of the flowers and plants he had, but thanks to the Nature Fragment, they were always very healthy and didn't require much effort on Fish's part.

Fortunately, Fish is a very easy cat to please, even if he is alone playing with balls of yarn and his tail, he can have a good time, let alone with Hermione by his side.

What's more, after the first stage of the Animagus Charm, Fish could go back to being a cat, and in his cat form, he could go into a drowsy state at any time, and with one eye open and one eye closed, the day was half over for him and he was never bored.

"Snap."

Hermione closed the book in her hand, set it down on the table, and stretched with her arms up.

"Nya!"

(=′Д`=)

(=?w?=)

Awakened by her movement, Fish yawned, then shook out his fur and sat up, twisting his head to look at Hermione.

"I'm a little tired of reading," Hermione explained with a smile, and reached up to gently scratch Fish's chin, "The list for next term never came, and I'm almost done with the books I brought."

Miss Know-it-all sighed, regretting that there were no new books to read.

Fish abruptly returned to his human form, and as he had been sitting on Hermione's lap before, he was sitting directly on her lap, face to face, when he returned to his human form.

"You can ask Sirius nya," Fish's forehead rested against Hermione's, exhaling a hot breath that hit her face, "Fish remembered that Walburga said there was a collection of books in the Black family...but during the cleaning, I don't think we saw any nya."

?(?ΦwΦ?)?

"Come down, you're too heavy!".

Hermione pouted, blushing slightly as she pushed Fish who was on top of her.

When Fish got off her, Hermione felt a sense of loss.

"Hermione?"

(??w??)?

Fish leaned closer, looking at the girl who seemed lost in thought, and poked her flushed cheeks with his finger.

"Ahh!" exclaimed Hermione under her breath, then came to herself and, after calming down, said, "The books the Blacks collect...they must be dangerous, right?"

After her stay at the Black's, Hermione knew a little about those ancient pureblood families, and the books they would collect, most of them related to dangerous dark magic, would have to be placed in the forbidden section of the Hogwarts library.

"Who cares? Fish is here."

(?`?′?)

Fish said thumping his chest.

Hermione thought to herself, "What could be more dangerous than Voldemort's diary?". And it wasn't like she hadn't read any of the Forbidden Zone books....

The desire for new knowledge prevailed, and Hermione rose from her chair, dragging Fish with her to Sirius to ask him about Black's book collection.

"Sorry, Hermione." After hearing the reason for her visit, Sirius said with a bitter smile, "I left here a long time ago and I don't quite know where they've put those books...besides, I don't think those books would be of much help to you."

Sirius had a deep prejudice against anything that belonged to his family and, naturally, that included the family's book collection. And, he had the same fears as Hermione before.

"It doesn't matter if you don't read them, they're either tales of pureblood superiority and ridiculous glory, or dark magic books with cruel spells."

"You have no idea?" Hermione didn't want to give up. "I'll choose the books carefully, and don't we have your help to check?"

Sirius thought for a moment and said, "Maybe Kreacher knows, but if he knows it's you who wants to read them, he won't tell the truth. After all, you are..."

He shrugged, not finishing the sentence, but both Hermione and Fish understood what he meant.

In fact, if Hermione and Fish didn't get along, it was only natural that Kreacher would not only ignore her, but scold her at every opportunity, just as he did with Sirius, Harry, Lupin, and the Weasleys.

"We could borrow it in Fish's name," Fish suggested, patting Hermione on the back, "Kreacher and Fish are still on good terms nya."

"More than that," Sirius pouted and said, "I think I wish it was you who would inherit the Black family."

"Actually, if you treated Kreacher better, I wouldn't be nagging you all the time." Hermione couldn't help but argue on the elf's behalf.

But it was clear Sirius wasn't listening, he waved his hand dismissively and said, "Forget it then, if I wasn't worried about him revealing the secrets of this place, I would have given him clothes and fired him."

Hermione sighed, realizing even more acutely why Professor McGonagall had warned her to be careful around house elves in the first place.

"Let's go find Kreacher." Hermione gave up on convincing Sirius and turned to Fish.

"Alright nya."

After the two said goodbye to Sirius, Fish sniffed the air and guided Hermione to where Kreacher was now.

"Nya!"

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

As he walked, Fish's ears suddenly perked up, both ears pointed straight ahead, and his expression, which had been cheerful, turned serious, apparently he had heard something.

"What's the matter, Fish?"

"Someone's stalking Kreacher! Fish will go first!"

?(? `w′?)?

With those words, Fish fled in the blink of an eye.

Hermione froze and ran after him.

But Fish was running so fast that she had to stop at a fork in the road, not knowing which way Fish went.

But this was no problem for Hermione, who changed into a black kitten and, after listening for a moment with her ears turned, quickly got her bearings and ran in the right direction.

Kreacher went nowhere else, but to the closet where he usually lived.

When Hermione reached the spot, she saw Mundungus pinned to the floor by Fish, and a small cloth pocket had fallen from far away, and Hermione could see the glint of gold and silver through the detached opening.

"Thief! Thief! You dirty bastard!"

And Kreacher, who they were looking for, was holding a frying pan, hitting Mundungus over the head and screaming at the top of his lungs.