Deep beneath Hogwarts, in the Slytherin common room, Draco Malfoy was finally done spewing bubbles. Quill in hand, a sheet of parchment spread before him, he was ready to pen a letter to his father, Lucius, to snitch on someone. But before he could even start, his mind drifted to the last time he'd tried this. Lucius's reply had been... odd. Not only did he share nothing about Leon Green, but he'd warned Draco not to mess with the kid. And, as if that wasn't enough, he'd sent Draco a rare magical protective brooch along with the letter.
"Hey, Draco, you alright? Need us to teach that Green kid a lesson?" Marcus Flint, captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, sidled up, always eager to keep the team's golden boy happy. The other players chimed in.
"Yeah, never seen a first-year that cocky. He's begging for a beating," one said.
"I've been asking around," another added. "The kid's just some nobody from Ireland, no real background. Come on, Draco, let's do something about it."
"Nothing too harsh. Just catch him alone, throw a sack over his head, and rough him up a bit to blow off some steam."
"When have we ever let someone get away with making us look bad?"
The suggestions came fast and furious, each more reckless than the last. Marcus, noticing Draco's growing irritation, shooed the others away. Soon, it was just the two of them in a quiet corner of the common room.
Lowering his voice, Marcus asked, "What did your dad say, exactly? Why can't we touch Green?"
Good question. Why couldn't they? Draco didn't get it, and he wasn't about to act without thinking. If it was some minor issue, Lucius wouldn't have been so secretive. But this time, his father's letter offered no explanation—just a stern warning not to provoke Green and an extra layer of protection. Was Lucius worried Green might come after Draco? The Malfoy family held serious sway in the British wizarding world. Why would they fear some random kid?
A few days earlier, after Draco's complaint, Lucius had immediately started digging. He even wrote to his old friend Severus Snape to get the scoop. The Malfoys, with their knack for playing the angles, weren't about to mess with someone without knowing their full story. From standard channels, Lucius learned Leon Green was Irish, raised by a single mother—a well-known Irish Seer with close ties to Hogwarts' Divination professor, Sybill Trelawney. On the surface, nothing special. But Snape's reply was... cryptic. He told Lucius to have Narcissa "ask around at her family's place."
The Black family was barely a family anymore—just a handful of ancient relatives on their last legs. What could they possibly know? Narcissa's father, Cygnus Black III, was still alive, though not for long. (He'd be gone by year's end—don't ask why, blame J.K. Rowling.) When Narcissa visited him, Cygnus gave her a sharp warning: "Tell that scheming husband of yours to stop eyeing the Black family fortune. Even if he changes Draco's name, he'll never get a claim to it. The money the Malfoys lost these past few years? Consider it a lesson. No more sneaky moves. The new head of the Black family is a dangerous one. Money can be made again, but if you lose your life, it's over. Remember that."
Cygnus might've been old, but he wasn't senile. Lucius wasn't as cunning as his own father, Abraxas, but he had one redeeming trait: he listened to advice.
The Black family had taken a beating over the years. First, Sirius Black, the heir, ran away and was struck from the family tree before landing in Azkaban. Then Regulus, the next in line, vanished—dead, according to the blood-magic family records. Orion Black, the patriarch, was so shattered he fell ill and died. All that was left was Walburga Black, unhinged and barely holding it together.
To pure-blood families, a weakened noble house like the Blacks was a feast waiting to be devoured. Lucius, as a Black son-in-law, was first in line for the banquet. When the dust settled, the Malfoys and other families had carved up the Black fortune. They waited for Walburga's death to finish the job.
But what came next was a nightmare. After Walburga died, the families did split the remaining Black assets. For years, though, their warehouses were mysteriously emptied at year's end—goods and gold gone, leaving them with nothing. Lucius tried everything: beefing up security, setting traps, even switching to monthly settlements. But the thefts kept happening. The warehouses were cleaner than a polished wand. In the end, he had to shut down the businesses he'd fought so hard to claim.
Weirdly, once they closed, the thefts stopped. Lucius later learned the other families had gone bankrupt too. Comparing notes, they realized the thief only targeted Black family assets, leaving their own holdings untouched. Stranger still, those ruined Black businesses were bought up cheap by some foreign wizard named Krebe, who reopened them under new management. They were thriving now, with no sign of theft.
It didn't take a genius to figure out the new owner was the thief. Stealing from pure-blood families like that? It was a slap in the face, one they couldn't let slide. Lucius and the others were plotting to deal with this arrogant crook when Cygnus's warning arrived. Lucius backed off immediately.
Piecing it together, Lucius realized Draco's "insufferably cocky Green" was likely the same "ruthless new head of the Black family" Cygnus warned about—and the mastermind behind the unstoppable thefts. The first two labels were concerning, but the third? That was terrifying.
The pure-blood families had thrown everything at catching this thief—money, manpower, even elite Aurors. Yet time and again, entire warehouses were cleaned out right under their noses. Not a single trace of the culprit.
Leon Green, so young and yet so formidable—how could Lucius not be wary?
But Lucius had it wrong. Leon wasn't the type to waste time skulking around warehouses to reclaim property. Sneaky theft wasn't his style. He preferred taking things outright.
The real thief? Kreacher, the house-elf. Wizards, with their usual arrogance, overlooked house-elves as mere servants. But Kreacher could turn invisible, and anti-Apparition spells didn't work on him. Armed with enough Extension Charms and a fierce loyalty to his master's orders, Kreacher could empty entire warehouses—maybe even Buckingham Palace if he wanted.
When Leon earned Kreacher's loyalty, he learned about the Black family's stolen fortune. Instead of acting rashly, Leon asked for Kreacher's input and gave him free rein. Leon didn't know the first thing about the Black family's businesses or the wizarding world's complex economy, so he left it to Kreacher. He'd step in only when needed.
Good or bad, likeable or not, one thing about Kreacher never changed: his unwavering loyalty to the Blacks.
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