12 Grimmauld Place
From Harry Potter Wiki
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12 Grimmauld Place is the ancestral home of the House of Black. It is located in London, in a Muggle neighbourhood, and the location is protected by a Fidelius Charm. Because the house is invisible to the neighbourhood residents, the Muggles have long since accepted the odd numbering system that landed number 13 Grimmauld Place next to number 11.
In 1995, the home became the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, with consent of Sirius Black.
[edit] History
Number 12, Grimmauld Place was the ancestral home of the House of Black for many generations. The previous matron, Walburga Black, continues to make her presence felt in the home through the hostile shrieks of her portrait, which is affixed to the wall of the home with a Permanent Sticking Charm. The house was virtually haunted for decades by the Black family house-elf, Kreacher, who wandered in and out of the gloom muttering insults about blood traitors and mudbloods.
Number 12, Grimmauld Place held many Black family heirlooms and posessions, such as a music box that played a sickly tune and attempted to put the listener to sleep. This home was also the safekeeping spot for Salazar Slytherin's locket, which was brought back from the Horcrux Cave by Kreacher; minus, however, Regulus Arcturus Black, who perished in the cave. Kreacher kept the locket safe in a glass case in the drawing room.
During Sirius Black's imprisonment in Azkaban, the house was unoccupied. After his escape, Sirius gave the home over to the Order of the Phoenix to be used as a headquarters. The home required an arduous cleaning up to make it even remotely habitable. Much of this work fell to Molly Weasley and her children. The home was in such disrepair that doxies and boggarts had made themselves quite at home.
After Sirius Black died at the Department of Mysteries in 1996, the house was inherited by his godson, Harry Potter. He continued to allow the Order of the Phoenix to use it as a safehouse. After the murder of Albus Dumbledore in 1997, Alastor Moody placed a number of enchantments on the house to keep Severus Snape from entering it. These were a Tongue-Tying Curse and a dust-composed form of Dumbledore, which disintegrated when the person it advanced upon insisted they did not kill the former Hogwarts Headmaster. Despite these enchantments, the Order decided to cease to use the house as headquarters, as due to Dumbledore's death, all he had told of its location (including Severus Snape) had become secret-keepers, which compromised the secrecy of its location.
When Harry, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger escaped from the Death Eater attack on Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding ceremony in 1997, they hid at 12 Grimmauld Place. They were able to remain hidden for several months, though Death Eaters skulked about the street outside, unable to see the secret location. After retrieving Salazar Slytherin's locket from Dolores Umbridge, they were forced to vacate the house after accidentally revealing its location to Yaxley.
[edit] Etymology
The name is another of J.K. Rowling's puns: Grimmauld Place can be taken as "grim, old place" or "grim mould place."
