Chapter 738: The Old House and the Curse
“Evan, how are you going to find that monster?” Sirius asked, looking around alertly.
“Of course we’ll Disapparate… we can’t walk. I just didn’t want to let the others find out that I know Apparition,” said Evan, pulling Sirius to a remote empty corner. “Come on, I’ll lead you!”
As soon as his words fell, the two figures instantly Disapparated, as though they never appeared in that place.
A few seconds later, they appeared on a messy and barren field.
Compared with the bustling commercial district just now, the surroundings were dead silent, and the houses on both sides of the street looked gloomy and repulsive a long distance away.
The windows of some houses were broken, dimly lit in the light of street lamps, the paint on many doors peeled off, and the front steps of several houses were full of garbage.
In front of them was a large, old house, like the ancestral home of the Black family at 12 Grimmauld Place.
“Pure blood wizard families!” said Sirius scornfully, staring at a huge statue in the center of the courtyard.
It was a knight, who was holding up his sword high, and the label below was Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold.
That was the last independent Duke of Burgundy in history. He was notorious, and it seemed that the owner of the house should be his descendant.
In fact, that old house looked very uncomfortable. The dirty walls, the ghastly windows, and the creepiest were the owl sculptures carved on the outer wall. They kept weird movements beyond imagination and silently watched the visitors.
The window of a bedroom on the second floor was broken and nobody had repaired it. It was like one of the scariest haunted houses.
It should be the old home of Dijon’s oldest pure-blood wizarding family, the bar owner talked about. Not long ago, its last hostess was found dead in her room and brutally killed by the terrible Owl-Woman.
Evan wondered for a while, why did the monster come here, and what did she have to do with that pureblood wizarding family?!!
“I don’t like this place!” Sirius muttered. “There is a strong evil in this house.”
“I don’t like it either, but the traces disappeared here!” said Evan, taking out his wand. “This house is protected by magic, which blocked my sense of that monster. But that could only mean that she must be inside, let’s go in and have a look…”
He and Sirius walked in without knocking at the door, because it was open.
The monster that had just fled back seemed to know that Evan was chasing her, and even the door was not closed, or that she was intentionally waiting for Evan to come.
On the ground, the seal of the French Ministry of Magic was rudely torn off and thrown into the hall covered with dust.
“Be careful!” said Sirius, the end of his wand glowing. “I’m going ahead!”
Evan nodded, followed Sirius across the threshold, and walked into the almost dark hall.
He smelled the odor of wet, dusty, and unpleasant rotten hide, with a hint of blood…
It was hard to imagine that there were people living in this house not long ago.
The place looked like an abandoned empty house with a dilapidated inside and things thrown everywhere.
Perhaps it was the damage caused by the Aurors when they came here to investigate, or it might have been that way even before.
In the flickering light, Evan had a strange sense of foreboding, as though they had walked into a dying house. He could feel that something was watching them, in the darkness that could not be dispelled.
At their feet, the polished and frayed carpet was soft, to make people unsteady and worried when they would fall down.
The two of them were careful, but nothing happened. They didn’t know where the monster had gone.
Walking through the long, spooky hall, Evan saw a large glass cabinet in the living room, which contained a huge owl specimen. He had never seen such a big owl…
Wherever they looked, it was clear that the owner of this house had a special love for owls.
His eyes continued to look forward. The wall behind the cabinet was crookedly covered with portraits that had been darkened due to age. He didn’t know where the owners of the portraits had gone, leaving only a row of empty frames.
The square picture frames were like coffins placed on the wall, holding the souls of the past.
On both sides of the passageway leading to the kitchen and dining room were the wrinkled heads of house-elves.
They were arranged densely together and looked like more than those of the Blacks, a bit like the wall in the basement of Hogwarts kitchen.
That looked really unpleasant. It was really disgusting to imagine being faced, while eating, by a large number of house-elves’ spooky heads, some of them still covered with unknown, disgusting liquid…
After walking through this passage, it was hard for Evan to guarantee that he would have any appetite.
If the last owner of this house did not have the habit of collecting house-elves’ heads, that proved that the pure-blood wizard family that had once lived here was very prominent, had a long history, and had the ability to own dozens of house-elves at the same time, which was quite rare even among pure-blood wizard families.
Of course, that was all over, now here was an empty big house.
“Where are we going?” Sirius stopped in front of the stairs and looked around. “I think it’s better not to act separately.”
“Upstairs… I want to see the room on the second floor first!” said Evan, pointing upwards.
It was the scene of the murder. They might find something that others hadn’t noticed, and know why the owl monster killed the owner here.
Evan and Sirius walked up the dark staircase, avoiding dark magic items that looked very dangerous.
There was only one door on the top floor. Sirius waved his wand, the bedroom door handle rotated automatically, and the door was opened.
All of a sudden, the cold night wind poured in. Facing them was the big broken window, and the gray curtains were fluttering in the wind.
Evan smelled the unpleasant pungent odor of blood, mixed in the blowing wind.
Sirius walked in and stopped abruptly. “Evan, you’d better not come in, you won’t like it here.”
“What’s wrong?” Evan followed into the room.
Then he saw that the room in front of him was covered with blood. On the ground, on the surrounding walls, and on the high ceiling, there were patches of dark brown color everywhere, exuding a bloody smell and infinite fear…
He could imagine the scene of the murder, that Owl Woman was definitely abnormal.
She seemed to have used something to smash the victim into pieces, then churned her body in the room.
“It was made by that monster. I saw it with my own eyes. She killed the poor old Mary, the last owner of this house and the last heir to this ancient family, in the most primitive and cruel way.” A voice whispered. “I know she’s a curse… She will kill all the descendants of the Duke of Burgundy, she wants revenge, she will kill everyone. And… it’s not over. This whole family is dead, and it will be the turn of others soon!”
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