分节阅读18
herited —”
he flicked his wand for a fifth ti there was a loud crack, and a hoe-elf appeared, with a snout for a nose, giant bat39s ears, and enoro bloodshot eyes, crouchg on the dursleys39 shag carpet and vered griy rags aunt petunia let out a hair-raisg shriek nothg this filthy had entered her hoe livg ory dudley drew his r, bare, pk feet off the floor and sat with the raised alost above his head, as though he thought the creature ight run up his pajaa troers, and uncle vernon bellowed, ”what the hell is that?”
”kreacher,” fished dubledore
”kreacher wont, kreacher won39t, kreacher wont!” croaked the hoe-elf, ite as loudly as uncle vernon, stapg his long, gnarled feet and pullg his ears ”k readier belongs to iss beltrix, oh yes, kreacher belongs to the bcks, kreacher wants his new istress, kreacher won39t go to the potter
at, kreacher won39t, won39t, wont —”
”as you can see, harry,” said dubledore loudly, over kreacher39s ntued croaks of ”wont, won39t, won39t,” ”kreacher is shog a certa rectance to pass to your ownership”
”i don39t care,” said harry aga, lookg with disgt at the writhg, stapg hoe-elf ”i don39t want hi”
”won39t, won’t, won39t, won39t —”
”you would prefer hi to pass to the ownership of beltrix lestran? bearg d that he has lived at the headarters of the order of the phoenix for the past year?”
”won39t, won39t, won’t, won39t —”
harry stared at dubledore he knew that kreacher uld not be peritted to go and live with beltrix lestran, but the idea of owng hi, of havg responsibility for the creature that had betrayed siri, was repugnant
”give hi an order,” said dubledore ”if he has passed to your ownership, he will have to obey if not, then we shall have to thk of other ans of keepg hi fro his rightful istress”
”won39t, won39t, won’t, won39t!”
kreacher39s voice had risen to a screa harry uld thk of nothg to say, except, ”kreacher, shut up!”
it looked for a ont as though kreacher was gog to choke he grabbed his throat, his outh still workg furioly, his eyes bulgg after a few sends of frantic gulpg, he threw hiself face forward onto the carpet aunt petunia whipered and beat the floor with his hands and feet, givg hiself over to a violent, but entirely silent, tantru
”well, that siplifies atters,” said dubledore cheerfully ”it sees that siri knew what he was dog you are the rightful owner of nuber elve, griauld pce and of kreacher”
”do i — do i have to keep hi with ?” harry asked, aghast, kreacher thrashed around at his feet
”not if you don39t want to,” said dubledore ”if i ight ake ii estion, you uld send hi to hogwarts to work the kitchen there that way, the other hoe-elves uld keep an eye on hi”
”yeah,” said harry relief, ”yeah, i39ll do that er — kreacher — i want you to go to hogwarts and work the kitchens there with the other hoe-elves”
kreacher, who was now lyg ft on his back with his ars and legs the air, gave harry one upside-down look of deepest loathg and, with another loud crack, vanished
”good,” said dubledore ”there is al the atter of the hip-pogriff, buckbeak hagrid has been lookg after hi sce siri died, but buckbeak is yours now, if you would prefer to ake different arrannts —”
”no,” said harry at once, ”he can stay with hagrid i thk buckbeak would prefer that”
”hagrid will be delighted,” said dubledore, silg ”he was thrilled to see buckbeak aga cidentally, we have decided, the terests of buckbeak39s safety, to rechristen hi 39withergs39 for the ti beg, though i doubt that the istry would ever guess he is the hippogriff they once sentenced to death now, harry, is your trunk packed?”
er
”doubtful that i would turn up?” dubledore ested shrewdly
”i39ll jt go and — er — fish off,” said harry hastily, hurryg to pick up his fallen telespe and traers
it took hi a little over ten utes to track down everythg he needed at st he had anad to extract his visibility cloak fro under the bed, screwed the back on his jar of lor-chan k, and forced the lid of his trunk shut on his cauldron then, heavg his trunk one hand and holdg hedwig39s ca the other, he ade his way back downstairs,
he was disa