'This must be Kreacher..." Lucifer thought to himself. He looked very old.
His skin seemed to be several times too big for himself, and while he was bald like all other House-Elves, he saw the distinct look of White Hairs growing out of Kreacher's large, bat-like ears.
His eyes were bloodshot and watery gray, and his fleshy nose was rather large and snout-like.
Kreacher took absolutely no notice of the rest of them in the room.
Upon further examination, Lucifer deduced that Kreacher seemed to be deliberately avoiding looking at them.
He shuffled hunchback, slowly and doggedly, toward the far end of the room.
He was muttering under his breath all the while in a hoarse, deep voice like a bullfrog's, "... Smells like a drain of criminal to boot, but she's no better, nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my poor Mistress's House... oh my poor Mistress, whoever destroyed you from the wall will pay dearly... if she knew of the scum they've let in her house, what would she say to old Kreacher? Oh the shame of it, Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors and thieves... poor old Kreacher, what can he do...?"
"Hello, Kreacher," Fred said loudly, closing the door with a resounding snap.
Kreacher froze in his tracks, stopped muttering, and then gave a very pronounced and very unconvincing start of surprise.
"Kreacher did not see Young Master," he said, turning and bowing to Fred, then while looking at the floor, added quite audibly, "Nasty little brat of a blood traitor it is."
"Sorry?" George spoke up, "Didn't quite catch that last bit."
"Kreacher said nothing," he said with a second bow to George, adding in a clear undertone, "and there's its twin, unnatural little beasts they are."
Lucifer had to admit, he was impressed at the House-Elf's ability to throw insults without batting an eye, or regard to the person's presence was most impressive.
Kreacher stood up as straight as he could and eyed them all malevolently; Lucifer noticed that his eyes lingered on him a moment longer than anyone, except for Harry, and he continued muttering as though he figured no one could hear him.
"And there's the Mudblood, standing bold as brass... oh if my Mistress knew, oh how she'd cry, and there are two new boys Kreacher doesn't recognize, Kreacher doesn't know their names, what they are doing here, Kreacher doesn't know..."
Lucifer had stood up and slowly walked in Hermione's direction.
"This is Harry Potter, Kreacher, and this is-" Hermione was speaking tentatively, but Kreacher interrupted her with more muttering.
"The Mudblood is talking to Kreacher as though she is my friend... if Kreacher's Mistress saw him in such compan-aggh!" Kreacher yelled out as he was suddenly lifted into the air.
"Call Hermione a Mudblood one more time, and I'll send you straight to the same place I sent your Mistress," Lucifer said as his eyes glowed red.
Kreacher's large eyes widened even more as he glared loathingly and scathing at Lucifer, "You took my Mistress away from me!"
"I did... I don't care that you're a House-Elf, you call Hermione a Mudblood again and I'm going to remove your mouth permanently," Lucifer got right in Kreacher's face.
"Lucifer, it's alright, I've been dealing with it since I got here," Hermione said as though it was okay.
"You've been dealing with a racist House-Elf since you got here?" Lucifer asked, slightly surprised.
"I've just been ignoring him... I may want all House-Elves to be free and treated fairly, but that doesn't mean I'm going to defend Kreacher's actions, I just ignore him half the time," Hermione answered.
"Lucifer? Lucifer Morningstar?" Kreacher asked, looking suddenly scared.
"The one and only," Fred said with a smirk, "Lucifer Morningstar that Sirius said was just might be Devil on earth."
Even being suspended in midair, Kreacher visibly tried bowing his head, "The Light Bringer, Fallen Angel. Please, forgive Kreacher's insolence and have mercy on his soul."
A clanging sound was heard from the doorway.
Lucifer turned and saw Sirius; he set Kreacher down, who promptly got on his hands and knees and pushed his face into the dusty carpet.
His eyes stopped glowing red, and Sirius was stunned into silence.
He stared at Kreacher, "He didn't act like that when I was talking about you to the Order....."
"My Mistress talked about The Great War, Archangel named Lucifer Morningstar with great admiration," Kreacher said in a muffled voice, still face first on the carpet, "if there was someone she held in higher regard than her own, it was Satan. How magic originated after Lucifer's Fall? About Celestials, the Purest beings of the Universe...."
"Blood purity... it was everything to my family..." Sirius spat.
Lucifer looked back to Kreacher, "Don't bow to me, I'm not your Master, but don't ever use that word towards Hermione again, or we are going to have a problem."
"Yes, My Lord.... Kreacher will not refer to her as a Mudblood anymore..." It surprised everyone when he didn't begin muttering under his breath.
Lucifer pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaling and exhaling slowly.
"What are you up to, Kreacher?" Sirius asked him.
"Kreacher is cleaning," he said to Sirius, standing up to look at him, "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black-"
"- and it's getting blacker every day, it's filthy," Sirius said.
"Master always liked his little joke," Kreacher said, bowing again, and continued in an undertone, "Master was a nasty ungrateful swine who broke his mother's heart-"
"My mother didn't have a heart, Kreacher," Sirius snapped at him, "she kept herself alive out of pure spite."
Kreacher bowed again and said, "Whatever Master says," then muttered furiously, "Master is not fit to wipe slime from his mother's boots, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw Kreacher serving him, how she hated him, what a disappointment he was-"
"I asked what you were up to," Sirius said coldly, "Every time you show up pretending to be cleaning, you sneak something off to your room so we can't throw it out."
"Kreacher would never move anything from its proper place in Master's home," he said, then muttered very fast, "Mistress would never forgive Kreacher if the tapestry was thrown out, seven centuries it's been in the family, Kreacher must save it, Kreacher will not let Master and the blood traitors and the brats destroy it-"
"I thought it might be that," Sirius said, casting a disdainful look at the opposite wall, "she'll have put another Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of it, I don't doubt, but if I can get rid of it I certainly will. Now go away, Kreacher."
Kreacher proceeded to make his way out of the room, it being a direct order from Sirius, but on the way out, no one missed the look of some of the deepest loathing a face could ever have that Kreacher gave Sirius as he muttered, "- comes back from Azkaban ordering Kreacher around, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw the house now, scum living in it, her treasures thrown out, she swore he was no son of hers and he's back, they say he's a murderer too-"
"Keep muttering and I will be a murderer!" Sirius said irritably and he slammed the door shut on the elf.
"Sirius," Hermione said, "Kreacher's been alone for too long... he's not right in the head because of it. I don't think he realizes we can hear his muttering."
"I agree he has been alone for too long, taking mad orders from my mother's portrait. He won't anymore now that it's gone... which reminds me, Lucifer," Sirius looked over at him, "do you think you could get rid of the tapestry like you did my mother's portrait?"
"I can most certainly try, but it's a lot thinner than portrait was, so I'll have to set aside at least a half hour of concentration to be able to do so, especially if you don't want the wall behind it destroyed too," he answered, and that seemed to be what Sirius wanted to hear.
He then walked across the room, where the tapestry Kreacher had been trying to protect the length of the wall.
They all followed him to get a better look.
The Tapestry itself looked immensely old; it was faded and looked as though doxies had gnawed it in places; nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back all the way to the Middle Ages.
Large words at the very top of the tapestry read:
The Noble and Most Ancient
House of Black
"Toujour Pur"
"You're not on here!" Harry said after scanning the bottom.
"I used to be there," Sirius said, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, which looked like a lit cigar had been placed over it, "my sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home - Kreacher's quite fond of muttering the story under his breath."
"You ran away from home?" Harry asked.
"When I was about sixteen," Sirius replied, "I'd had enough."
"Where did you go?" Harry asked, staring at him.
"Your dad's place," Sirius smiled, "your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son. Yeah, I camped out at your dad's during the school holidays, and then when I was seventeen I got a place of my own, my Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold - that would explain why he's been wiped off here too - anyway, after that I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr. and Mrs. Potter's for Sunday lunch, though."
"But... why did you...?"
"Leave?" Sirius smiled bitterly and ran a hand through his long, unkempt hair, "because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure- blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal... my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them... that's him." Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name REGULUS BLACK. A date of death, which was about fifteen years prior, followed the date of birth.
"He was younger than me," they heard Sirius say, "and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded."
"But he died..." Harry said slowly.
"Yeah, stupid idiot..." Sirius looked at Harry, "he joined the Death Eaters."
"You're kidding!?" Harry yelled.
"No, no, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea. They were all for the purification of the Wizarding Race, getting rid of Muggleborns and having Purebloods in charge. They weren't alone either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things... they got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first."
"Was he killed by an Auror?" Harry asked.
"Oh, no," Sirius said grimly, "no, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders more likely, I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to ever be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime service, or death."
"Lunch," came Molly's voice from the doorway.
She had her wand out high in front of her, balancing a huge tray loaded with sandwiches and cake on its tip.
She was very red in the face and still looked angry.
Hermione looked at her boyfriend, "Stay here, I'll bring you something."
"Okay," he said and everyone but he and Harry went over to her.
Sirius bent closer to the tapestry, "I haven't looked at this for years... there's Phineas Nigellus... my great-great-grandfather, see? Least popular Headmaster Hogwarts ever had... and Araminta Meliflua... cousin of my mother's, she tried to force through a bill in the Ministry to make Muggle- Hunting legal... and dear Aunt Elladora, she started the family tradition of beheading House-Elves when they got too old to carry tea trays... of course, anytime the family produced someone halfway decent, they were disowned... I see Tonks isn't on here... probably why Kreacher won't take orders from her - he's supposed to do what anyone in the family asks."
"You and Tonks are related?" Harry asked, his eyebrows going up.
"Oh yeah, her mother, Andromeda, was my favorite cousin," Sirius said, examining the tapestry carefully, "No... Andromeda's not on here either." He pointed to another burn mark between two names, Bellatrix and Narcissa.
"The same Narcissa that married Lucius Malfoy?" Lucifer asked in a surprised tone.
"The very same, yes," Sirius said with disgust. He saw the look on Harry's face, "The Pureblood families are all interrelated, well, maybe that's not entirely true," he looked at Lucifer , "Do you know if you're a pureblood, Lucifer?"
"I am a celestial, and we are not born like you humans do....." Lucifer trailed off, not wanting to talk more about it
"Right...." Sirius nodded in false understanding before changing back to his own Family Tree, "But if you're only going to let your son or daughter marry pure bloods, your options are limited, very limited. There are hardly any of us left..." Sirius sighed, "Molly and I are cousins by marriage, and Arthur's something like my second cousin once removed. No point looking for them here, though - if there ever were a family that was known for being blood traitors, it would be the Weasley's."
"Lestrange..." Harry said loud enough for Lucifer to hear.
"They're in Azkaban," Sirius said shortly, "Bellatrix and her husband, Rodolphus, came in with Barty Crouch Jr," his voice was brusque, "Rodolphus" brother, Rabastan, was with them too."
Hermione came over and Lucifer's full attention was on her, causing him to miss Harry and Sirius continuing to talk, "Sorry that took so long, my stomach started growling and I couldn't wait any longer before I started eating," she said and handed him a sandwich.
"How many did you eat for it to take you that long?" Lucifer asked, chuckling as he took the sandwich, "Thank you."
Hermione's face was turning red, "Just two... and a half..."
He smiled at her, taking a bite into the sandwich as Harry and Sirius walked over to get some food as well.
Hermione watched and waited until they were far enough away, and turned back to Lucifer, "I managed to sneak you over something."
He swallowed his food, "What would that be?" He looked at her as she got closer.
"This," and she gave him a quick, risky, two second kiss.
He smirked at her, "Is there enough for more later?"
"Always," Hermione smirked back at him, giving him another quick peck on the lips.
xxxxxx
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