Leaving Mrs. Black's portrait, they went through the door at the end of the corridor and entered the basement.
The ground floor seemed to be the kitchen. It was scarcely less gloomy than the hall above, a cavernous room with rough stone walls.
Most of the light was coming from a large fire at the far end of the room. A haze of pipe smoke hung in the air like battle fumes, through which loomed the menacing shapes of heavy iron pots and pans hanging from the dark ceiling.
Close to the kitchen were a small dining room with a sink in the corner and two wooden cupboards with spider webs on both sides, filled with silver cutlery.
Beyond the mouldy carpet, you could see that the green marble floor was engraved with beautiful patterns. In the centre of the house was a table that could accommodate many people sitting down and a lot of chairs. The temperature there was much lower than above, and the smell of mould and decay in the air was more powerful.
"Go this way!" Sirius pulled a green tapestry with the Black family emblem on the north side of the dining room, revealing a black brick wall.
He knocked on the wall with his wand and opened a hidden secret door.
Just like the wall that led to Diagon Alley through the Leaky Cauldron, the wall swirled away, revealing a narrow, steep staircase and continued down.
Evan noticed that there was a silver snake on the brick, but it was so obscure that he couldn't have noticed it if he hadn't looked carefully.
"In the ancient pure-blood wizard family, there are usually such secret rooms, hiding some unknown secrets of the family." Sirius said as he stooped and walked in. "This is the place where the Black family is collecting books, at the very least when I left this house, they were still preserved in it…"
He said half his words, and immediately stopped.
From above Sirius's shoulder, Evan saw a house- elf standing in the dark way.
It was not a decoration hanging on the wall, but a living house-elf.
He looked very old. His skin seemed to be several times too big for him and though he was bald like all house-elves, there was a quantity of white hair growing out of his large, bat-like ears.
His eyes were a bloodshot and watery grey, and his fleshy nose was large and rather snout-like.
Apart from the filthy rag tied like a loincloth around his middle, he was completely naked.
Evan was stunned; this guy should be the house-elf Kreacher. He was just wondering when he would see him.
Kreacher was like a statue, standing still on the corner of the dark way.
He bent over, his head up, and looked at Sirius Black with amazement, his face mixed with a strange expression that was unclear, and then he muttered under his breath all the while in a hoarse, deep voice like a bullfrog's.
"Poor old Kreacher saw something; the lost Master who had disappeared for over ten years came back, leading a bunch of young kids back to spoil my Mistress's house." Kreacher's voice was very slow, his eyes were full of disdain, and as he spoke, he bowed to Sirius, as if instinctively asking him to do so.
"Long time no see, Kreacher, I didn't expect you to be alive." Sirius said calmly.
Although he was meeting an acquaintance, his voice held no shred of happiness.
"Who is he?" Harry whispered.
"Kreacher, the house-elf serving the Black family." Sirius paused, and then added, "A crazy guy."
"The young master always likes to make some jokes, Kreacher is not crazy, Kreacher just didn't see the three young Masters." The elf bowed again to Evan, Harry, and Hermione, and then said in a very light but clear voice, "Kreacher smells the odour of the mud-blood, oh my poor Mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they've let in her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh the shame of it!"
"Shut up, Kreacher, don't call them mud-bloods in the future." Sirius shouted angrily.
"It's okay! This house- elf doesn't seem to know what he is talking about." Hermione looked at Kreacher with fear. She stepped forward and tried to say, "Hello, Kreacher! I am Hermione Granger. This is Evan Mason, the one next to him is Harry Potter."
Seeing Hermione talking to him again, Kreacher's pale eyes widened and he muttered faster and more furiously than ever.
"The Mudblood brought back by the Master is talking to Kreacher as though she is my friend, if Kreacher's Mistress saw him in such company, oh what would she say…"
"I will say it again, shut up, Kreacher!" said Sirius, gnashing his teeth.
Upon hearing the command of Sirius, Kreacher immediately shut his mouth.
He stepped out of the dark, his eyes sliding over Hermione, Evan, and Harry, and then his eyes widened, and he began to mutter again.
"Is it true? Is it Harry Potter? Kreacher can see the scar, it must be true, that's that boy who stopped the Dark Lord, Kreacher wonders how he did it…"
"We all know how it went," Sirius said loudly.
"Kreacher only knows that the young master has just returned from Azkaban." Kreacher's gaze turned back to Sirius. "My poor Mistress, she vowed not to recognize his son, and now he is back. It is said that he is still a murderer…"
"Sirius proved to be innocent, he did not kill, he is now a hero!" Hermione hurriedly explained.
"You don't need to tell him this!" Sirius stared at Kreacher very disgustedly. "He won't listen. He used to be like this, a hateful house-elf."
"How can the young Master say so to Kreacher, Kreacher has never done anything out of the ordinary, Kreacher just obeys the Master's orders, and works for the noble Black family for the rest of his life!" said Kreacher, bowing again, and continuing in a low pitch, "Even if the young Master did not kill, he was a nasty ungrateful swine who broke his mother's heart…"
"My mother didn't have a heart, Kreacher," Sirius snapped. "She kept herself alive out of pure spite."
"Whatever Master says," Kreacher muttered furiously. "Young Master is not fit to wipe slime from his mother's boots, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw the young Master back, how she hated him!"
"Enough, what are you doing here?" Sirius said scornfully, "Don't think I don't know. As soon as we entered the house, you showed up."
"Kreacher is guarding the last legacy of the Black family." Kreacher turned around Sirius and picked up the tapestry that had had just been still on the ground. The young Master came back, and he's wreaking havoc. Mistress would never forgive Kreacher if the tapestry was thrown out. For seven centuries it's been in the family, Kreacher must save it. Kreacher will not let the young Master and these three cubs destroy it."