But until twelve years ago, the situation here changed dramatically.

It seemed as if overnight, almost half of the wizards were forced to move away and become neighbors with Dementors, leaving behind a large number of deserted mansions.

It suddenly became quiet here.

But other wizards living here think that this is not bad... at least they can expand their own mansions without any worries.

Lestrange's mansion was located on a hillside to the north.

Several windows around the house were broken, the tiles on the roof were incomplete, and the originally magnificent gate and walls were covered with various unknown vines. From the outside, it looked almost the same as the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade.

But more than a decade ago, this was the most spacious and imposing building within a few kilometers, and the Lestrange family also enjoyed a glorious time in the wizarding world.

But after its owner moved to Azkaban, it became increasingly dilapidated until it became what it is today.

None of the wizards living nearby were willing to come here, let alone help clean the house.

At night, the hillside was completely silent, with only the occasional chirping of insects being heard.

In the moonlight, two figures, one big and one small, walked out of the shadows and stopped in front of the house.

"Sirius, are you sure this is the Lestrange ancestral home?" Kyle asked doubtfully, looking at the house in front of him, which was no less beautiful than the Shrieking Shack.

"If the Lestrange we think of is the same one, then yes..." said Sirius.

"This is too shabby." Kyle frowned. "Didn't they think of using the Fidelius Charm to protect this place?"

"No, and there is no need." Sirius said, "Twelve years ago, who would dare to attack them? That woman... Bella, she was a favorite of the You-Know-Who back then, there were too many wizards who wanted to curry favor with her, and because of the You-Know-Who's trust, the Death Eaters almost regarded this place as their headquarters.

If there is a Fidelius spell, it will become very inconvenient.

"The funny thing is, it must be the same people who turned this place into what it is now after she was imprisoned in Azkaban."

Sirius glanced at Kyle and continued, "Although I don't know why you suddenly want to come here, I am sure that anything of value in the house has been looted long ago. You are destined to come here in vain today..."

"Really? That's not necessarily true." Kyle walked forward.

Sirius showed a hint of helplessness, but followed anyway.

The lock on the gate had long since become a useless decoration. Kyle simply cleared the tangled vines and walked into the house easily.

The inside looked even worse. There was hardly any intact furniture to be seen. The largest item was a table with missing legs.

Just as Sirius said, there was hardly anything valuable here. Even the decorations on the pillars or walls had been taken down.

"If possible, I really don't want to set foot in here." Sirius frowned.

"What exactly are you looking for? If it's gold galleons, just tell me. I have plenty of that."

"That's yours, I don't want it." Kyle pulled a Niffler out of his pocket.

"Look, where is the underground storage room here..."

Xiu Xiu looked around and quickly walked in one direction. During this process, it was like a vacuum cleaner, collecting all the broken glass, nails, porcelain pieces and other things on the ground into the pocket on its belly.

Finally, Sniff stopped in front of a statue in the corner of the room.

There should have been a statue here, but now only a base is left, and under the base is a hole.

It looks like this place has been visited before.

Kyle ignored it, picked up an oil lamp, and walked into the basement storage room.

Not surprisingly, there was nothing left here either, but fortunately the things Kyle needed were not moved.

On the wall of the small storage room hung a painting that was missing a frame and had long faded.

You can vaguely see that the background of the painting is this house, but the people inside are gone.

"This painting should be of old Lestrange, but I can't remember his name." Sirius, who followed in, said, "Kyle, don't tell me that this is what you are looking for... This kind of magical portrait is only valuable to the Lestrange family. It is just garbage if placed anywhere else."

"Yes, but also no..." Kyle said.

Sirius didn't quite understand.

But the next second, he saw Kyle throw away the magic painting, pick up a hammer that he took out from somewhere, and smash it on the wall behind him again and again.

“Boom…boom…boom…”

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The wall was unexpectedly fragile and was soon broken, revealing the dark grey stone inside, but Kyle did not stop...

The dull knocking sound made Sirius, who was already confused, even more confused. He didn't understand what Kyle was doing. Was he planning to tear this place down? But just as he was about to ask, another crack appeared in the wall.

Sirius was surprised to find that as Kyle knocked down more and more stones, the originally gray stone gradually became distorted, and then kept shrinking and squeezing. Soon it turned into a dark golden, fist-sized box.

"Transfiguration... I thought there was a hidden compartment..."

Kyle put on his dragon-skin gloves, picked up the box and shook it... There was a crisp crashing sound coming from inside.

Apparently, the key he was looking for was hidden in this box.

But the question was how to open it. He took a rough look and found that the whole box seemed to be cast, without any signs of splicing, and there was not even a hole for inserting the key.

Looking at Kyle's actions, Sirius blinked, looking dumbfounded, and stammered, "This, this is..."

"It should be a magical item, specially used to store important items." Kyle said, "But it's not easy to open it..."

"I know." Sirius scratched his hair, "But how do you know there is something behind this wall... I mean, this is Lestrange's ancestral home!

Could it be that you have been here before? But that's not right. When that woman Bellatrix was caught by the Aurors, you were less than one year old. "

"No, I was over two years old at the time," Kyle corrected.

"That's not important!" Sirius felt his head explode. "How on earth do you know...the location of this thing!"

"Of course someone told me." Kyle smiled and said, "I spent some money to get the information from someone in the know."

"Informed person? Who is it?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know its name."

Kyle put the box away and looked around carefully to make sure nothing was missed. Then he left the storage room with the oil lamp and prepared to go back.

It's so inconvenient that I can't use the magic wand freely here.

(End of this chapter)