Hermione looked numbly at the professor, genuinely unsure how to react for a moment. Was he openly hinting that she should kill someone?
Fortunately, Sirius returned just then, followed by a hideous House-elf with its head lowered, muttering incessantly.
Super Soldiers had super hearing, and in the stillness of the late night, she could barely make out that it seemed to be spewing all sorts of obscenities.
"The disgrace of the Black family brings outsiders home to soil the house and associates with Mudbloods if Mistress knew she would surely be angry."
Fortunately, Sirius promptly kicked the little elf.
"Shut up, Kreacher!"
"Yes, Master."
The aged elf shuddered a few times by the roadside and shut his mouth. Yet from the malicious eyes darting about, it was obvious that the curses in his heart had never stopped.
Hermione examined him carefully.
Apart from a filthy rag tied around his waist, the House-elf wore nothing at all. His skin seemed several times more plentiful than it needed to be, leaving the entire elf wrinkled like a Shar-Pei.
Yet the top of his head was bald, while a great deal of white hair sprouted from his two large, bat-like ears. His eyes bulged outward and were full of bloodshot veins, and his large fleshy nose looked exactly like a pig's snout.
When he answered Sirius, his voice was as deep as the croak of a bullfrog, as though someone trapped at the bottom of a well were shouting upward.
Sirius led his House-elf to the roadside, swept back his long hair, and gave the teacher and student an apologetic smile.
"Sorry you had to see that. My House-elf is a freak brainwashed by my parents. He thinks about pure-blood nonsense every day. His greatest wish is to have his head chopped off