Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 525 The Sacred 28 Families

Chapter 525 The Twenty-Eight Sacred Families

"Sirlen, are you sure this isn't the Ollivander family's old house?"

Sipping the black tea Kreacher had brought him, Fred approached Hillon and whispered, "Why do I feel like this house-elf respects you more than he does Sirius?"

"Of course not." Siren looked slightly embarrassed, but still shook his head and explained, "Olivendell doesn't have any so-called old mansions. If you have to say there is one, then it's probably just the wand shop in Diagon Alley—that's a really old place, it's been there since Diagon Alley was built, almost several centuries ago."

"But what about that house-elf?" George asked. "It was clearly much more respectful to you—look at this teapot, I bet it's silver!"

"Because I helped it solve a small problem that had been bothering it for a long time," Celen said. "It respected me so much out of gratitude."

"Is that all?" Fred said, looking somewhat disappointed.

He thought there might be some hidden secrets involved, such as the complex grudges and entanglements between the ancient pure-blood families of Black and Ollivander, or the unspoken loyalty of house-elves.

Unexpectedly, Kreacher's respect for Siron was merely a thank you for the small favor he had done for him.

"What did you do to help it?" George pressed on, unwilling to give up.

"Ah, I just helped it deal with a rather troublesome thing," Xiren said casually.

After finishing their black tea, everyone looked around the room.

However, because no one has lived here for a long time, the house is infested with vixens and various other pests.

Siren also saw a cabinet on the second floor that would occasionally shake in mid-air; it was likely hiding a Boggart inside.

"This place really needs a good cleaning," Mrs. Weasley said, pulling the cobwebs off her hair for the third time. "Did that house-elf just arrive today?"

In her mind, a normal house-elf would never allow its home to be this dirty. Unless it was also a newcomer and hadn't had a chance to start working yet.

“No, Kreacher has been here for many years,” Sirius said, “but he’s too old and too influenced by my mother to be considered a normal house-elf.”

Everyone seemed somewhat disappointed, except for two people.

Harry didn't mind the dirty and messy environment of the house at all. He observed every corner with shining eyes, and even the spider hanging in the corner of the ceiling seemed to be regarded as a member of this family.

And then there's Bill, he's used to it.

Compared to the pyramids, where you could die at any moment from a magical trap, this place is as clean and cozy as a Hogwarts dormitory.

He was staring intently at a tapestry that covered an entire wall.

The tapestry is quite old; its colors have faded, and it bears many bite marks from a vixen. However, the gold thread embroidered on it still shines brightly, intertwining to form a unique, vine-like family tree. It is covered with various names, and at some important intersections, an additional portrait the size of a plate extends outwards.

Siron noticed that the person in one of the portraits was Phineas Nigellus Black, the same person from the Hogwarts Headmaster's office.

Judging from the portraits, the people in them are all important members of the Black Society.

"As you can see, this is the Black family tree," Sirius Black said calmly as he stepped forward from behind. "Pure-blood families consider these an honor."

"Why aren't you up there?" Harry asked. He had looked around but couldn't find Sirius's name.

The bottom of the tapestry should be the closest member of the Black family to the present day, but there is only one name there: Regulus Black.

"It used to be there." Sirius pointed to a small, charred round hole next to him.

"After I ran away from home, my dear old mother considered me a disgrace to the family and had my name removed from the books."

"You ran away—where did you go?"

"At your father's house, your grandparents practically treated me like their second son, and that's one of the happiest memories of my life," Sirius said half-jokingly. "I bet they'd be a rare delicacy in the mouths of Dementors."

Harry was very interested in Sirius's past experiences, and Sirius himself was willing to talk about them. The two stood in front of the tapestry and chatted for a long time, asking and answering each other's questions.

Harry also learned from Sirius that most of the Black family supported Voldemort, and some of them had even joined the Death Eaters.

Harry looked surprised, but what surprised him even more was that the family tree showed some connection to the Malfoys.

The witch named Narcissa Black, who is also on the bottom line, seems to be Malfoy's mother, now known as Narcissa Malfoy.

"That's how pure-blood families are, so intricately intertwined. You can even find members of every other pure-blood family in there." Sirius Black pointed to one of the names again.

"This person, Morfina Black, is Goyle's aunt. And as you all know, Barty Crouch also had an aunt named Black in the last century, but I forget who it was."

Harry realized for the first time how complex the so-called pure-blood wizards were.

Just then, Ron, who was standing nearby, suddenly turned around and said, "Siren, why don't you come and take a look? Maybe you have some relatives up here."

Sirius just said that the relationships between pure-blood wizards are complicated and almost all intertwined, and Ollivander is also a pure-blood. Thinking about it this way, what he said doesn't seem to make any sense.

Before Sirius could speak, Sirius gently shook his head.

"No, there is no one here who is related to Ollivander."

"But didn't you just say—"

"The purebloods I'm referring to should strictly be called the Twenty-Eight Holy Families. Ollivanders are among them, but for various reasons, they have been excluded by the others."

"What's the reason?" Harry asked.

"Probably because Ollivander never forbids marriage to Muggles or other magical creatures," Siron shrugged and chuckled. "I bet they didn't want to include Ollivander when they were compiling this list."

"That's true," Sirius said, "but without Ollivander, the oldest surname, the authority of the so-called Holy Twenty-Eight Families would be greatly diminished."

17