"I only wanted him to realize the lines are drawn. I'm not naive, Andy, I know he will try to get back at me, regardless what I do." He was under no illusion; especially Lucius Malfoy never forgot a slight. It was better to draw the battle lines right away than delude yourself that nothing would come out of it.
They were about to leave, when Sirius noticed the grave beside those of his parents. "You know, we never learned what actually happened to Reggie."
Andromeda knew that the death of Regulus had hurt Sirius, even if he tried to hide it. "Is it that important? He died due to this madman and even then your parents felt that the man was doing the right thing."
Sirius looked at the tombstone of the empty grave - as the body of Regulus had never been recovered - one final time, before turning around and leaving the cemetery together with Andromeda. He would never admit that the continued mystery of how Regulus had died, which his parents had only learned of from the big family tapestry, had never let him go.
...Hogwarts kitchens, August 12th...
"For the final time, Kreacher is not a free elf!" Kreacher hissed, clearly being very annoyed by now. Kreacher had lived through many things in his already long life, but this treatment from the other elves at Hogwarts was starting to annoy him severely.
While he had grown to actually like this new arrangement, since there was lots to do - much more than in the past few years - and he only had little contact with his Master, the behavior of the other elves was not something he did enjoy. At first they had kept their distance and looked at him in pity. Then, after the first weekend where he cared for the house, upon his return the pity became even worse. Thus, finally, he became annoyed enough to ask what was wrong.
As it turned out, these elves mistook his uniform for clothes and thought that he had been given clothes and was a free elf! The mere thought they would think this of him was a massive insult. To make it worse, they then had assumed due to his absence that he did have a free weekend! That they would think so was outright baffling to Kreacher.
These elves must be blind to not see that Kreacher is a proud elf of House Black! he thought.
He had repeatedly reminded them of the coat of arms on his uniform, which clearly marked him as a servant of House Black, and insisted vehemently that he was not a free elf. Sadly, these elves clearly didn't believe him - as was shown right now.
"Then why is Kreacher wearing clothes?" one particularly annoying elf asked. She had been on his case since day one.
"Also for the final time: these are not clothes! Masters insisted that Kreacher show the glory of House Black. Kreacher thus made this uniform himself and is proudly showing his allegiance!" Kreacher made sure to show off the coat of arms on the front. He then gave her a smug look, having an idea. "Kreacher does wonder, why the questions? After all, Kreacher does not see any of you walk around naked."
There were some gasps at this bold declaration, but the point stood that they were all covered up.
Seeing that he now did have the advantage, Kreacher pressed his point. "What all of you wear was made by yourselves, and not given to you by your Master. Kreacher is wearing the same thing as all of you, only Kreacher's does show the glory of the House of Black."
Seeing that he had made his point, Kreacher returned to work. After all, these muffins needed to be baked and the day only had so many hours.
While most elves saw that the last word was spoken, others started to whisper to each other. "Never thought of the rule like that. You think Kreacher is correct with it?"
"Very confusing matter. Kreacher insists on having a Master and that these are not clothes."
"What should be the best thing to do?"
"Wait we should. Wait and observe. An enigma Kreacher is. We need time to observe and come to a consensus."
The house-elves of Hogwarts had never before met such a strange elf. Add to it that he was quite a bit older than most of them - which normally meant much respect in their society - and waiting until they could agree on a course of action seemed like the only possible option at the moment.
...August 21st...
Agernon Longbottom was an Unspeakable. Working in the Department of Mysteries tended to make you virtually immune to fear after some time, due to all the dangerous to downright horrific stuff you worked with on a daily basis. Normally, nothing could make him afraid anymore, after having seen it all. However, being confronted by the very angry father of his great-nephew caused a feeling of terror he'd thought long forgotten to fill him.
"Agernon, what in all names were you thinking?!" Frank Longbottom hissed in anger, barely stopping himself from beating up the man with his cane. Right now he was not seeing his uncle, but the man who almost killed his son.
The day had started normal. The extended Longbottom family had taken a vacation to Blackpool in Lancashire, a place where Frank and Alice could relax and for Augusta's husband Jonathan to find recovery. It seemed that he had developed a chronic sickness and the healers were still struggling to find out how to help him. Things had been normal and relaxed... at least until Agernon suddenly had shoved Neville off the end of the pier into the sea. If it hadn't been for Alice jumping into the water to rescue the boy who couldn't yet swim, causing herself injury in the process, their son would have drowned.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Want to read more?
The next 60+ chapters are already available on my Patreon!
By joining, you'll get:
📖 Early access to future chapters
📫 polls to shape the story
🎁 Exclusive content for Patreon
🔥 Bonus adult -- themed pictures & scenes you won't find anywhere else(adult only 🤫)
Don't fall behind -- others are already ahead! 👀
👉 Patreon.com/c/Nixerion(please search this link on Google Chrome)