Chapter 560: The brave cat (Edited)

"Oh my God, what are you doing?!"

Hermione froze for a moment before running over and pulling Fish away from Mundungus, who had his hands clasped behind his back.

"He's taking Kreacher's things!"

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Fish said with a straight face.

"This..."

Hermione looked at the sack they had tossed aside, remembered what Sirius and Mrs. Weasley had said about Mundungus and instantly understood what was going on.

"Sirius doesn't care about the garbage...I was going to throw away, I'm just using it..."

Mundungus was still arguing, and actually, he wasn't entirely lying.

Sirius had been aware of the theft of items from Black's house to sell, but he himself didn't care too much about them.

Although he didn't like what he was doing, Sirius wasn't bothered by it and usually just turned a blind eye.

But after doing a bit of cleaning, Kreacher put away most of the valuables that had been accumulating, and after selling almost all the valuables lying around, Mundungus finally made a dash for Kreacher's collection....

And then Kreacher caught him red-handed.

Faced with the interrogation of a mere house elf, Mundungus, an old fool, certainly didn't mind. Not only did he not run away after he was caught, he confidently taunted Kreacher....

Then he was pressed there by Fish, who walked by.

"How dare you say that How dare you say that?!"

At Mundungus' sophistry, Kreacher screamed in rage, and then proceeded to brandish the frying pan in his hand and slap him across the face.

"I was wrong, I was wrong!" Mundungus shielded his head and face, pleading, "I'll never do that again!"

"If Fish finds out you stole Kreacher's things again, Fish will beat you up too!"

?(?`w′?)?

Fish stopped Kreacher, who was still trying to hit Mundungus, and shook his fist in warning.

"I've got him! I got it... it won't happen again..."

Mundungus nodded and fell backwards, and after a careful retreat, seeing that Fish and Kreacher ignored him, he turned and fled, disappearing from Fish's sight in a few moments.

"Thank you so much, Master Fish! You are as kind as Master Regulus!"

Watching Mundungus walk away, Kreacher wrapped his arms around Fish's thigh and thanked him pointedly, "That shameless thief is always trying to steal the Black family's goods from old Kreacher... look what young Master, that loser, has brought back.... Except, of course, Master Fish and his mother!".

He took the opportunity, as usual, to curse Sirius and the members of the Order of the Phoenix again.

"And Hermione."

(?ΦwΦ?)?

Fish added, pointing to his girlfriend.

Kreacher, however, stopped cursing and turned back to the sack, emptying its contents and cleaning it carefully.

"That damned thief, he's soiled all the Black's things! It's Madam's favorite dressing table...".

The elf chattered as he cleaned the contents of the cloth bag.

In addition to the delicate dressing table, Kreacher also removed a silver snake locket and a gold locket from the bag.

The silver locket was nothing special, there were at least a dozen in the house... though I don't think I've seen many lately... and Kreacher obviously didn't pay much attention to the locket, leaving it lying around, limiting himself to carefully polishing the dressing table and the medal. medal. medal.

The gold medal, which Hermione had seen a picture of in a book, was the Order of Merlin, one of the Ministry's highest honors, and judging by the green ribbon on the medal, it was also a first-class medal.

After Kreacher had polished them all and put them back in the cupboard where they usually lived, Fish explained their purpose.

"Kreacher, do you know where the Black's book collection is? Her...err.... Fish would like to see the stories in them."

(??w??)?

The old elf looked at Hermione and muttered something in a slurred voice that even Fish couldn't hear, let alone Hermione.

But Hermione guessed what it was about: dirty blood, the term by which pureblood wizards called those born of Muggles.

But Hermione didn't get angry; instead, she gave Kreacher a friendly smile.

Of course, her kindness was not reciprocated by Kreacher, and the elf merely turned his head away, not bothering to look at Hermione again.

"I'm sorry, Master Fish." He bowed deeply to Fish, his large nose pressed to the ground. "The Black's collection, long ago, was taken by Miss Bella."

"Who is Miss Bella? Where did she take the books?"

?w?

Fish asked curiously.

"Miss Bella is a cousin of Master Regulus, and she married Mr. Rodolphus, of the Lestrange family, who is one of the Holy Twenty-Eight, but she's not as good as the Blacks, sorry to say."

Kreacher prattled on about Miss Bella.

"Oh... the name rings a bell Fish nya!" Fish remembered that the night Voldemort had come back to life, he had mentioned those two men, "They were both Death Eaters, weren't they? Voldemort said they were locked up in Azkaban nya."

"My poor Miss Bella!" Kreacher burst into tears, "That damned Rodolphus! How dare he not protect Miss Bella!"

"But..." Fish blinked, rubbing the back of his head in confusion, "Didn't Sirius say that Regulus was killed by Voldemort? Why do you still like that Death Eater, Miss Bella?"

(??w??)?

"Gah..."

Kreacher, who was bawling, suddenly froze, his large tear-stained eyes filled with confusion.

Obviously, Kreacher had never thought about it, and he knew better than Sirius how Regulus had died, and he knew that his favorite little lordling Regulus had tried to defy Voldemort in his last moments.

But the Black family's long-standing obsession with purebloods, and their reverence for Voldemort, had caused Kreacher to unconsciously ignore the question....

So when Fish asked the question, Kreacher's rigid brain couldn't come up with an answer, so he froze.

Fish was more concerned about the whereabouts of the books.

"What's the matter with you, Kreacher? You haven't told Fish where the books are, have you?"

?(??w??)?

Fish nudged the still dazed Kreacher and asked once more.

"Miss Bella... She said she was going to take them to Voldemort...".

The sober Kreacher replied with mixed feelings, and consciously changed Voldemort's name, while Bellatrix, after some hesitation, remained the same.

"Then there's nothing to be done about it nya..."

Fish shook his head regretfully and looked at Hermione.

Hermione smiled back at Fish and then uttered a quiet "Alright."

After some thought, Fish pulled out a small box with three locks on it and handed it to Kreacher along with the key.

"Put it in here, so it won't be easy to steal."

The box had been given to Fish by Moody, on the same principle as the box that contained it...which had been Moody's box.

"How kind of you, Master Fish!" Kreacher cried disconsolately, and bent down to kiss Fish's shoe.

Fish was not used to this, however, and gave Kreacher a couple of nonchalant remarks before running off with Hermione.