Chapter 284

"Miss TIA, since you want to see Professor Snape so much, why didn't you say anything when you saw him?"

Snape has left. In his words, it is "I don't spend so much time with others. You look at me and I look at you".

Maybe it was for Marca's face, or for some other reason. In short, he didn't say so in the end.

"... I, I don't know what to say."

Looking at the curious Maka on the wall by the door, TIA replied timidly.

"So... Professor Snape, you've seen it too. What's your plan next?" Marca looked at timid TIA and couldn't help smiling. "Don't be so nervous. I won't do anything to you."

TIA pursed her thin lips and pulled the hair that covered the corners of her eyes behind her ears. She was afraid to look at Maka.

"Am I terrible?" Marca touched her cheek and said strangely.

Finally, after hearing this, TIA subconsciously glanced at Maka's face.

"No, no..."

Seeing Maka looking at her, she quickly looked away, but her tone of voice was calmer.

"... Mr. McLean looks kind and not terrible."

To be honest, it was the first time Maka heard someone use the word "kindness" to describe him. For a moment, he didn't know whether he should be happy or sad.

"Really?" Marca nodded. "By the way, you said you were from America, didn't you? Then why your accent..."

TIA looked down and was silent for a moment. She could see that she didn't seem to want to recall those past events.

"... I grew up in an orphanage. The nuns who taught us to talk are English."

"Church orphanage?" Marca said thoughtfully, "... That's not a good place."

This sounds like nonsense, but in fact, what Maka wants to express is not just as simple as it seems.

Not to mention his childhood, at least he once went to several orphanages to do some trivial "small things" in order to let a Muggle aristocrat take the initiative to pay pounds.

In those orphanages, he had seen the so-called "orphanages" with his own eyes.

Combined with TIA's cowardice, Maka understood a little - whether she was Voldemort or not, at least her strange character did make sense.

"Yes..." TIA nodded softly. "That's not a good place."

"You graduated from ifamani, didn't you? How was it there? What did you teach?" Marca asked again, leaving aside the previous topic.

The topic between them was always guided by Maka, and the conversation was very scattered. They talked one after another, which made TIA gradually relax.

Before long, Mrs. Weasley hurried up from downstairs - dinner was ready.

Incidentally, Marca also vaguely heard two explosions in the bedroom where Harry and his family were staying not far away. It was probably that the Fred and George brothers had moved again.

"Are you going to eat together today?" Marca smiled. "Other people here are good people and won't hurt you."

"Yes, I'm sorry..." TIA seemed to be nervous again.

Maka quickly waved her hand and said, "it's all right. Don't force it. Let's talk about it next time. I'll ask Lena to send some later."

"... thank you."

After whispering her thanks, she withdrew into her bedroom and closed the door tightly.

"The meeting is over. Now you can go down to dinner..." Mrs. Weasley said, standing at the door of the bedroom not far away. "Everyone wants to see you, Harry... And who put those dung bombs outside the kitchen door?"

"Crook mountain." Maka vaguely heard Ginny's voice. "It likes to play with those things."

"Oh!" said Mrs. Weasley. "I think it may be clencher. He always likes to collect such strange things... All right, keep your voice down when you pass the hall, or you'd better keep it quiet!"

She paused and said, "Ginny, why are your hands so dirty? What did you do just now? Remember to wash your hands before you go to the table!"

Then Mrs. Weasley turned and went downstairs, and Ginny soon followed. As they walked up the stairs, both mother and daughter smiled and waved to Marca, motioning him to come too.

Marca nodded, letting them go first and walking to Harry's bedroom.

"See my style... What style?"

"Harry --"

Harry's slightly stuffy voice and Hermione's helpless voice penetrated Marca's ears almost at the same time.

"Yes, I know," Harry sighed. "I'm just... Angry with myself."

He thought for a while and asked curiously, "who is clencher?"

"The house elf who lives in this old house," said Ron. "Madman! I've never met an elf like him before."

Hermione frowned at Ron.

"He's not crazy, Ron."

"His goal in life is to cut off his head and hang it on the veneer like his mother!" Ron said anxiously. "Is that normal, Hermione?"

"Cut off your head? Hang it on the veneer?" Harry said in amazement.

"Those veneers have been removed by Marca, otherwise you can see them on the wall," Hermione explained, and then stubbornly said to Ron. "I think it's really abnormal, but it's not its fault!"

"Okay... Yes, he's just a little weird, but it's not his fault." Ron winked at Harry. "Hermione, she's still like this, isn't she?"

"What's wrong with that?" Hermione said excitedly. "It's not just me. Doesn't Marca want us to be friendly to clencher?"

"Marca just said 'don't care what clencher said'..." Ron muttered.

"I think it would be nice if you were willing to be friendly to clencher," Marca suddenly walked to the door and smiled. "Well, come downstairs! I think Harry must be hungry..."

"Oh, Marca..." Harry was a lot more honest when he saw him. "Yes, I'm starving."

When the four came downstairs together, they saw lupin, Mrs. Weasley and Tonks at the front door. After some members of the order of the Phoenix left, many big locks and bolts were locked again.

"We'll eat in the kitchen down there," whispered Mrs. Weasley as she met them under the stairs. "Harry, honey... I think you'll have to pick up your toes and walk down that corridor. The kitchen is behind the door at the end --"

"Stand on tiptoe?" Harry wondered.

But before his voice fell, everyone heard the "crash", which was not loud, but it was enough to attract everyone's attention.

"Tonks!" cried Mrs. Weasley, looking back in anger.

"I'm sorry!" said Tonks, lying on the ground and laughing, "it's all that stupid umbrella rack. I've been knocked down by it for the second time -"

But the words behind her were drowned by a terrible scream.

"It's a portrait, Sirius's mother," Marca shrugged. "She put a 'permanent paste curse' on the back of her portrait. It's really not easy to take it off."

That's right, but in fact, it's because Marca doesn't want to take down the portrait - that's one of the only thoughts old kliche has left. Marca thinks it's better to keep it until something is done.

Harry looked up and found that in the size portrait, an old lady in a black hat was screaming as if she were being tortured.

"That's Sirius's mother?" Harry said in surprise.

The old lady was drooling, her eyes were turning, and the waxy skin on her face was stretched out when she screamed. It looked really creepy.

Lupin and Mrs. Weasley rushed forward and dragged the curtain to cover the old lady, but the hook of the portrait was a little loose and not so easy to hang.

The old lady screamed louder. She waved her thin claws as if to tear their faces.

"Fifth time! Damn it! It's a nasty and dirty by-product! Get out of here, you half demons, mutants, freaks! How dare you slander my father's umbrella stand in this house -"

Tonks apologized again and again and put the huge, heavy, giant leg shelf up again.

Mrs. Weasley temporarily gave up hanging the heavy curtain. She took out her wand and seemed to want to fix the faulty hook first.

Meanwhile, a man with long black hair ran out from behind a door facing Harry.

"Shut up, you wicked old witch, shut up!" he shouted, grasping the curtain Mrs. Weasley had given up, and the old lady's face turned pale.

"Oh! It's you!" she widened her eyes, stared at the man and shouted angrily, "pure blood traitor, my remaining evil seed, what a nuisance! I'm ashamed of you!"

"I said! Shut up -" growled the man.

After Mrs. Weasley repaired the hook again, several people tried again for a while, hung the curtain again, and the portrait of equal height was finally covered up again.

The old lady's scream disappeared, not even an echo, and the hall was silent.

The man gasped slightly. He wiped his long black hair away from his eyes and turned his face to Marca.

"Hello, Harry..." his anger obviously didn't go away, and he said angrily, "I think you've met my mother."

"Uh... Oh! Sirius..." Harry said, "I think so... But why is your mother's portrait here?"

"Didn't I?" said Marca. "This is the Black family's old house, which was left by Sirius's parents."