Hermione's instinct told her that cleaning at Sirius's house wouldn't be as simple as Harry imagined. In the magical world, magical creatures rarely appeared in the non-magical world; they preferred to live in places where wizards congregated, like Hogwarts, where harmless magical creatures were often found.
Sirius's house probably wouldn't be an exception. Therefore, Harry's cleaning journey would likely be quite exciting and could serve as a practice for the Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. But at the end of the day, what mattered most was that he was happy.
It was obvious that Harry would be happier going to Sirius's house.
"Well, we'll see you at the start of the term!" Harry waved to Tom and Hermione as he left the Hogwarts Express with his godfather.
He was eager to start the days when he would be living with Sirius. Sirius was also eager, although he showed it in a carefree manner, he was actually excited and nervous.
He didn't know if Harry would get used to living in his house or how the current situation at his home would be. He also didn't know how Kreacher, the house-elf who was named that way, would be. During the days he was away, had he taken good care of the place?
He probably had taken good care of it, but Sirius wasn't sure if Kreacher would still be alive, after all, he was quite old when Sirius left home. In the more than ten years he had been imprisoned, Kreacher might have died.
The image of Kreacher struggling to behead himself before dying made Sirius feel nauseous. He really hated that tradition of his family. So, even though Kreacher was always unpleasant and sarcastic when he saw him, Sirius still wished that annoying house-elf were alive.
Merlin forbid, he hoped his home would give Harry a good first impression. Sirius prayed in his heart, and just as he finished praying, he realized an extremely serious problem: he had been disowned. When he was sixteen, he had a falling-out with his family and left home, going to live with the Potter family. Since then, he had been denied his inheritance rights and had been removed from the Black family tree.
That was also the reason he couldn't check if Kreacher was still alive.
If he had inherited everything from his family, he would be Kreacher's master, and he would only need to snap his fingers to check his status. But now it wasn't like that: theoretically, he had no more ties to his parents, and he had no connection to Kreacher either. So, Sirius would have to go to his old home personally to check Kreacher's status.
Sirius was anxious: what if he was forbidden from entering the house? The chances of his mother doing something like that were quite high, given her behavior. It would be so humiliating! How would he explain it to Harry if that happened?
Harry noticed the anxiety inside Sirius and looked at him curiously, asking, "What's wrong? Is something the matter?"
"It's nothing," Sirius tried to stay upbeat and shook his head. "Come on, I'll take you on the motorcycle."
This time, to maintain his pride, Sirius retrieved the motorcycle he had lent to Hagrid. He believed that when taking Harry home for the first time, he had to do everything right, as they say, "do it perfectly."
Taking a bus, the subway, flying on a broomstick, or using Apparition obviously wasn't "cool" enough. Sirius wanted to take Harry home in the coolest way possible.
So, Harry was driven to a large motorcycle as white as snow.
"Wow, is this your motorcycle? It looks really cool," Harry praised without reservation. In his opinion, those two motorcycles seemed somewhat familiar and simply incredible.
"Of course," Sirius said proudly, "This is a motorcycle I personally modified." He caressed the motorcycle's seat with his hand, his face showing a nostalgic expression, "That night, I lent it to Hagrid... I never thought I would ride it again someday..."
Sirius skillfully mounted the motorcycle and signaled for Harry to sit in the sidecar. With a simple tap, the trunk opened, and Sirius placed Harry's luggage inside. Then, he retrieved two helmets from there.
"Put on the helmet!" Once Harry awkwardly fastened his helmet, Sirius revved the motorcycle's engine, which roared like a beast before speeding away.
Sirius's motorcycle, of course, could fly, but it wouldn't fly in plain view of everyone. In a deserted corner of the street, he pressed a button, and the motorcycle, with Harry and Sirius on board, turned invisible.
This feature was closely related to Mr. Arthur Weasley, Ron's father. Both of them were interested in Muggle artifacts. When Sirius was called in by the Ministry of Magic for enchanting the motorcycle, Arthur handled his case.
Afterward, they had deep communication and jointly developed the invisibility function. Therefore, both Sirius's motorcycle and the Weasley family's cars could become invisible with just a button press.
The motorcycle carved its way through the air, heading toward the ancestral Black family mansion.
Meanwhile, Hermione and Tom also arrived at the station. Each of them carried a suitcase, and Hermione held a large, ginger cat in her arms, with no difference from Muggle students returning home from out of town for the holidays.
After scanning the area, Hermione spotted Mr. Granger.
"Dad!" She greeted excitedly, waving her hand and jumping up, startling Crookshanks in her arms, who emitted a disgruntled growl.
Mr. Granger heard Hermione's voice, turned his head, and saw his daughter jumping and calling to him.
Mr. Granger smiled happily.
He quickly approached Hermione, hugged her, gave her two kisses on the cheek, and then looked at Tom, who was standing to the side.
Tom greeted Mr. Granger seriously, "Good morning, Mr. Granger," but only received a hearty laugh in response.
"Don't be so formal!" Mr. Granger slapped Tom on the shoulder. "You're a sturdy lad, a young man, you see."
At that moment, a deafening motorcycle engine roar from the nearby street interrupted their conversation.
"Oh, those blasted motorcyclists!" Mr. Granger shook his head and then snatched the suitcases from both of their hands, pulling them toward his own car.
This car was unfamiliar to both Tom and Hermione. It turned out that Mr. Granger had changed his car. It was a black van with a logo of a crown and a ring on the front.