Disclaimer: I still don't own 'Harry Potter' or any of his minions, nor do I own any of the lyric bits that I use to enhance the story. I don't make any money at all from writing this drivel that hardly anyone bothers to read.
A/N: A special greeting to my friend, Jess. I will miss you, and everyone else terribly. In this chapter, Harry discovers many things, and finds one of the things he's looking for, but not how you'd expect him to find it. I'm sorry for leaving it at a bit of a cliff-hanger, but I'm sure you'll forgive me. ^_^;
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Chapter 23: The Sin of Kreacher
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I looked up at the tallest building,
Felt it falling down.
I could feel my balance shifting
Everything was moving around.
These streets so fixed and solid,
A shimmering haze,
And everything that I relied on disappeared.
Downside up, upside down,
Take my weight from the ground.
Falling deep in the sky,
Slipping in the unknown,
All the strangers look like family,
All the family looks so strange.
The only constant I am sure of
Is this accelerating rate of change.
Excerpt from the song, 'Downside Up' by Peter Gabriel and Elizabeth Frasier.
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"What do you mean, 'here' at Grimmauld…" It took a moment for Harry to comprehend what she meant. When it finally dawned on him, he angrily asked, "Hermione, what the Hell are you doing there? It's not safe! How do you know he's there? Wait, Malfoy? Which one? Draco? Lucius? What happened?!"
By the time Harry had finished, his voice had risen in both tone and volume, clearly becoming more and more panicked, which caused Hermione's nervousness to skyrocket into a full-blown frenzy. Her voice became almost comically high pitched and hurried as she answered, "I came here to pick up Kotone's things for her, and decided to visit the library. Draco walked in on me, and I stunned, tied and put a full-body bind on him, then I stunned him again for good measure. I have him hanging from the ceiling here in the study. I have no idea if there's anyone else here… I sealed the door and called for you!"
"Can you floo out from there?"
"No, I tried. It's lucky that I can even communicate through this thing. It's almost like the house is preventing the floo from working properly.
"I'll try it from this end, just hang on a…"
A brief, tentative knock sounded from the door and he could hear Ron's voice cautiously coming from the hallway outside, "Harry? Err… Professor Buck? You have a… erm… visitor…"
Harry briefly looked at the door, then turned back to the floo, saying to Hermione, "I'll be right there one way or another, just keep yourself safe."
He rose from the hearth and rushed to the door, swinging it open to see the faces of Ron, Luna and Kotone looking at him curiously, as he answered his door wearing nothing but a pair of baggy boxer shorts. As Harry opened his mouth to speak, Kotone quickly moved beside him and in her usual way, reached up to him so that she could claim her customary position against his side.
"Sorry, Harry," said Ron rather sheepishly, "we were heading back to the Head's dorm when we found her here sleeping outside of your door…"
"Come on, we have to get to Hermione," said Harry tersely, "Draco Malfoy's with her at Grimmauld Place."
Bloody Hell, it's after three in the morning!" exclaimed Ron as he watched Harry reflexively scoop Kotone in his arms, "What's she doing there?"
Harry didn't answer, he just strode back to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder. Hoping that the Professors' quarters unidirectional floo access has been enabled, and that the floo to Grimmauld Place would work for him, he threw the powder down and called out, "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place."
Harry found himself sprawled out on the floor, thrown off balance by Kotone's additional weight on his side. He sat up on the floor, looked at the little half-witch that was tucked firmly to his side and briefly wondered how she got there until Ron came tumbling from the hearth, immediately followed by Luna, who stepped daintily from the fireplace, but surprisingly had her wand firmly in hand as she scanned the room.
"Thank Merlin you're here," said Hermione nervously, "I wasn't sure what I was going to do."
Hermione was standing with her wand pointed at Draco, who was hanging upside-down in the air with ropes wrapped tightly around him. His face was flushed red from the rush of blood to his face.
"Did he say anything before you stunned him?" asked Harry as he set Kotone down on a chair and approached the still unconscious Draco.
"He said something about being fed," she answered, "but I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying."
"Ron, keep an eye on the door," said Harry as he raised his wand and Rennervated Draco.
Draco's confused eyes seemed to focus as they scanned around the upside-down room, glancing at each of the people in it. He was obviously trying to say something, but the full-body bind prevented any speech.
Lifting the bind, but still keeping Hermione's Levicorpus and Incarcerous in place, Harry asked, "What are you doing here?"
Malfoy began speaking in a scared, child-like voice, "I- I was told by Uncle Severus to wait here for him. We're going on a holiday, but he wouldn't tell me where."
"Uncle Severus?" repeated Harry somewhat confusedly, "Who else is with you? How long have you been here?"
"I… I'm alone here, and it's only been a few days… I was staying in my cousin Regulus' bedroom," with tearing eyes and in a frightened tone, he nervously asked, "Who are you people? Uncle Severus said that nobody lived here and that I'd be safe here."
Hermione's eyes widened as the realization hit her, "Oh, my… he's been obliviated! Why would Snape… oh… to protect him." She stepped closer to Draco and asked him, "Draco, how old are you?"
Draco's brows knitted as he thought, "I… I don't remember… ummm, ten?"
Hermione raised her wand, causing the ropes to fall from around him and pool on the floor. With another twist of her wrist, she lowered Draco gently to the floor.
"What… What are you doing, Hermione!" asked Ron angrily from his position at the door.
Be reasonable, Ronald. He's no threat to us… he doesn't even have a wand, but…" Hermione froze when Draco stood up and the hem of his pajama shirt fell from his chest, revealing a monogram on the breast pocket...
'R.A.B.'
"Harry, look!" exclaimed Hermione, but she really didn't have to, for his eyes were already focused on the monogram.
"He was right. It was Regulus Black."
"Regulus Black?" asked Ron, realizing the importance of the find, "He was the R.A.B. from the locket?"
"Yeah," said Harry, "We believe so. We still have no idea what he did with it, though."
Ron paused in thought before saying, "Remember when we were cleaning this place up that summer, and the locket that none of us could open?"
Harry looked to Ron, "You don't suppose…"
"I know right where it is, too. I helped Sirius haul the bags to the basement. Ruddy awful place," he then whispered with a shudder, "so many spiders…"
Hermione rolled her eyes while removing the seal on the door, "Well, let's get it!"
While moving to the door, Harry asked Luna to watch Draco and Kotone, but the little half-witch seemed to appear at his side with her arms stretched out to him. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he deftly scooped her up against his side.
They made their way down from the second floor, through the sitting room and down the short stairs to the kitchen. Ron hesitated at the doorway to the basement, causing Hermione to roll her eyes again as she brushed past him and swung the door open, revealing a rickety wooden stairway leading into the bowels of the mansion.
The large basement was damp and moldy, with smell of dust and mildew tainting the stagnant air. Hermione lit her wand and scanned the room. Ron, still on the bottom stair and looking rather nervous pointed to a pile of bags and boxes in a far corner and said, "The stuff's over there. Remember, there's a lot of wonky stuff, so be careful… remember that music box?"
Indeed, Harry did remember as he placed Kotone on the floor. As they approached the pile of refuse, Kotone wandered off towards a darkened area under the stairs. It only took a few minutes to dump the contents of the containers over the floor, where they soon found the aforementioned locket.
Hermione reached her hand out to pick it up, but seemed to think better of it and pulled her hand back.
"Don't worry. Remember how everyone was looking at it? Even Ginny was smacking it against the fireplace," said Harry as he reached for the locket, "If nothing happened then, nothing's going to happen…"
The moment he picked the object up, a frown crossed his face. He moved the locket closer to the light from Hermione's wand and flipped the locket over in his palm a few times. Without a word, he tossed the locket back on the pile of rubbish and began walking towards the stairs.
"Harry?" asked Hermione nervously, "What's wrong? What happened when you touched it?"
"Nothing happened," he quietly stated, "That's not the horcrux."
Silence permeated the dark basement until a muffled, crunching sound came from under the staircase, causing Hermione to gasp, Ron to jump in alarm, and Harry to slightly pale.
"What the bloody hell is that?" yelled Ron as he jumped from the bottom step and into a rather large web that was draped from the ceiling to the wall, causing him to frantically slap and scrape at the sticky fibres.
Harry ushered Hermione and Ron to the stairs while calling out to Kotone, "When you're done, come on up. I'll wait for you in the kitchen."
As they ascended the stairs, Hermione whispered urgently, "You can't leave her alone down there in the dark!"
"She'll be fine," assured Harry.
"What's she doing?" asked Ron with a puzzled look.
"Trust me," replied Harry, "You don't want to know."
"No, I do want to know," said Ron tersely, while pulling strands of webbing from his hair, "Look, I know she's not totally human, it's pretty obvious with those horns, that tail and those fangs, but there's something else about her… something that's… not right. I mean what do we really know about her? What exactly did she do to Ginny to make her stop screaming? And why does she have to cling to you like she does? It's almost as if…"
"As if what, Ron?" yelled Harry crossly, "As if she's a ten year old girl who watched her parents get murdered and is in desperate need of affection? As if she were forced to live with people who feared and despised her? As if she lived every day of her life being called a freak by those around her and needed someone to accept her? As if she feels abandoned and betrayed because a relative stole her family's wealth and left her a penniless when she became an orphan and needed someone who could sympathize with her? Oh, I know! It must be because she gets judged by everyone who sees her over a physical flaw and has finally found someone who understands her?" He said the last line while brushing the hair from his forehead, revealing the lightning bolt scar that marked him as 'The Boy Who Lived.'
An excited look appeared on Hermione's face and she opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Ron who blurted out, "No, mate! You got it wrong, that's not…"
"So you want to know what she's doing? Fine, I'll tell you. She eating. She probably found a big, juicy rat and ate it whole, and is probably using its pointy tail as a toothpick!"
Hermione was holding her hand over her mouth while the grimace on Ron's ashen face led Harry to believe that he was about to throw up.
"I'm really getting tired of the way people react to her. I wish there was some way to stop people from looking at her as if she were some sort of evil… some… creature!"
Surprising everyone in the room, Harry's house-elf appeared with an annoyingly loud 'pop,' which Harry was certain that it was done intentionally. The aged house-elf bowed low, dragging his long, crooked snout along the floor as he muttered, "You called for me, Master?" then added under his breath, but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "Well, the half-blood brat and his filthy friends has need of Kreacher. Maybe Kreacher will have another chance to cleanse the Mistress's fine house of the vermin."
Harry, already aggravated about Kotone, turned to the foul house-elf and began to lay into him, "Although you done a right miserable job of keeping this 'fine house' clean over the years, you sure did a wonderful job of getting your master killed, didn't you? It's your fault, you know. By lying to me about Sirius being at the ministry, you sealed his fate. You should be bloody chuffed, I'd say."
Kreacher glared at Harry and opened his mouth to retort when a deep, gruff voice came from the doorway to the basement, "Shishi-san, is the truth what you say?"
Harry turned to see Kotone standing in the doorway with a disturbingly ferocious look in her eyes. He sighed and dropped his eyes, "I know that people are mean to you. I can't help that, but I can at least show you that how you look, act or even eat doesn't matter to me. I was serious about making you part of my family."
"No, not about that. What you say about the sennyo, (fairy, elf) the one to serve," she said, pointing at Kreacher, who was visibly quivering and staring dumbstruck at Kotone.
"Yes. Kreacher told me that his master was being held prisoner, all the while, he was safe in this house. When I went to try to rescue him, he left this place to help me and was killed by his cousin."
A wicked growl escaped Kotone's throat as she walked menacingly towards Kreacher. She stood in front of the house-elf and said, "Yakusoku mamotte yo." (You should keep your word.)
"Kreacher only did as Kreacher was told! Mistress Black told Kreacher to convince the half-blood brat to go to the ministry! Kreacher did not betray his master!"
Harry cut in angrily, "But you didn't warn your true master about what was going on. You let him walk out of here to his death, hoping that you'd get to serve that Death Eater, Narcissa."
The ancient house-elf turned to Harry and, forgetting that a member of an elder race was standing right beside him, said, "Kreacher wants to serve proper wizards. Kreacher can not stand the stench of the blood-traitors and dirt-veins! Kreacher is not sorry for what he did!"
Kreacher cowered back as he saw Kotone take another step towards him, "Iitai koto ha soredake?" (Is that all you have to say?)
Kreacher's large, cloudy eyes grew even larger, "Kreacher did not betray his master! Kreacher did not betray his master! Kreacher did not betray his master…"
Kotone's eyes hardened and she bared her teeth to the cowering house-elf, "Kore ijou ittemo shou ga nai." (There's no point in talking about it any more.)
Kreacher abruptly stopped repeating the same phrase. His eyes narrowed and he stood as erect as his aged frame would allow, although the slight trembling in his ears told that he was still cowed, "So, the angel is holding Kreacher to the vow, is she?"
Kotone's eyes softened as she replied in a calm voice, "Soudesune. Gomen nasai…" (You are correct. I'm sorry…)
Kreacher stopped trembling. His ears drooped only slightly as he raised a hand, snapped his crooked, bony fingers and vanished with a barely audible pop.
The trio looked at each other, then to the small half-witch, all with stunned expressions. Hermione was the first to speak, "Kotone, what did you say to him?"
"I remind the sennyo of his vow. He caused death of master. He died with honour."
Harry bent down to face Kotone, "What do you mean, he died with honour?"
Kotone smiled and calmly said while raising her arms to him, "The sennyo has paid for treason. To take own rife to repay dishonour."
Hermione gasped while Ron let out a muttered, "Bloody Hell."
Hermione seemed to recover quickly. She approached Kotone who was just settling in against Harry side and said, "Kreacher seemed to understand you when you spoke in Japanese to him. How is it that he can he understand you?"
"That is nature of the sennyo, to speak is common to all. A sennyo can have master of any prace in world and understand.
"So house-elves can understand any language?" Hermione absently asked as she looked at Harry. He caught on quickly and nodded.
Hermione raced from the room to retrieve her overnight bag as Ron stated, "I've had enough of this drama, I'm going to check on Luna."
Harry nodded in understanding at his departing friend before he called out, "Dobby?"
The excitable house-elf appeared before Harry, already mid-bow, "Dobby is so happy that the great Harry Potter is needing Dobby's help! Hogwarts is being boring in the holidays and…"
The excitement in Dobby's eyes quickly turned into panic when he rose from his bow and came face to face with Kotone. He froze on the spot, just staring at the little girl on Harry's arm.
Kotone let out a small giggle, which to everyone else, didn't sound jovial at all, and she said to Dobby, "Jiro jiro miru no ha ogyougi warui desuyo." (It's not nice manners to stare.)
Dobby's eyes rapidly shifted between Harry and Kotone. Tears welled up in the little elf's eyes as he threw himself onto the floor, covered his head with his hands, and began bawling piteously, "Dobby is a bad house-elf! Dobby is sorry! I's give back all the moneys I's paid for work! Please, Harry Potter, sir! I's sorry! Please, Master Harry Potter, Sir!"
Harry looked worriedly between the elf and the girl in his arms until Kotone looked up to him with her eyes crinkled in mirth. When she gave him an approving nod, he said, "Don't worry, Dobby. We know you aren't a bad house-elf. You haven't done anything wrong."
"But… but I's been given clothes, Master Harry Potter, sir!" said the little elf in a terrified tone, "I's been paid for work and I's been disgraced and Dobby must pay for his crimes!"
Harry looked at Kotone inquisitively. As he met her gaze, he felt the odd sensation of time slowing down around him and the room faded into blackness.
Kotone's lithe, ethereal voice drifted through his mind, 'Shishi-kun, this fae has done no wrong. His heart is light and his love and respect for Shishi-san is true. I tried to tell him that he should have no fear, but I am afraid he fears what I represent above all other peril. Please to make him understand. I do not need to invoke the vow for someone such as him.'
Kotone broke the connection so quickly that it made Harry's head hurt. He looked down at the groveling house-elf, took him by the shoulders, and lifted him from the floor.
"Dobby? Listen to me. This is Kotone Oota, a good friend of mine, and soon to be my daughter, if I can get the paperwork through the ministry without getting my wand snapped. She knows you are a good elf, and has no intention of punishing you for anything. Do you understand?"
Dobby stopped his fidgeting and looked into Harry's eyes with no small amount of wonder, "Master Harry Potter is willing to take her into a wizard family? Why would a wizard willingly claim a half-breed as blood?"
Harry didn't know how to answer the question. He was distracted by the arrival of Hermione, who, while carrying her overnight bag, looked pale and was visibly shaken.
"Hermione, what happened?"
"Kreacher… his… his head… on the wall… Oh, Harry, he's killed himself!"
Harry tried to find that news disturbing, but his revulsion of the late Kreacher over his betrayal of Sirius prevented any thought of mourning the vile elf. Instead, he walked over to Hermione, relieved her of her bag, and rummaged inside of it for a few moments before pulling out the shrunken book that Kotone had given him days before. He held it out to the still distraught Hermione expectantly, and she distractedly drew her wand and enlarged it to its' normal massive size.
Harry carried the book over to Dobby and said, "Can you use your magic to translate this book?"
Dobby's already anxious face fell further at Harry's request, "I's sorry, Master Harry Potter sir, but house-elfs does not have that kind of magic, sir."
Harry thought for a moment, and then asked while holding the book out to the elf, "But you can read this, can't you?"
"Yes, sir. Dobby can read it."
"And you can write, can't you?" continued Harry.
A broad smile crossed Dobby's mouth, "Yes, Harry Potter sir! Dobby understands, sir!"
With the faintest of pops, Dobby disappeared with the book.
"Right, then," said Harry as he turned to walk up the stairs to the sitting room, "Let's see what we can get out Malfoy."
"Wait a minute, Harry," said Hermione cautiously as she put a hand on his arm as he passed by, "I've got some news for you."
Harry stopped at her gesture and raised a questioning eyebrow.
She bent down and rummaged through her overnight bag that Harry had placed on the floor. It took her a moment to find the report that her father had printed out earlier. She withdrew the stack of what looked like postage stamps and enlarged them back to full size.
"I hope you don't mind, but I had my parents look over those documents you kept in a box," she noticed the dark cloud that shadowed his features, but continued speaking while handing the printouts to him, "it seems that the Dursleys took what was in your trust vault. That vault had annual payments made to it from the Potter family vault in Gringotts, a vault that nobody alive today can touch, not even you or Mr. Dursley. It seems that your inheritance from Sirius was also placed into your family's vault, so Mr. Dursley couldn't touch that money, either."
Harry was listening intently as he tried to make sense of what he was reading, although he wasn't sure he fully understood what she was saying or what was printed out for him, "So, I actually have two vaults under Gringotts… one is the Potter vault and the other was just to set aside money for me to use?"
Hermione smiled and said, "That's right, and the money that Mr. Dursley took from you was a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to what your family's worth, given the actual cash in the main vault and the investments that you're holding. Daddy says you're one of the richest people in Britain."
"How… how can that be?" he stated incredulously as he shuffled through the papers in his hands, "Where does it say that?"
Hermione took the balance sheet from within the stack and stood beside him so that she could point out the items on the paper to which she was referring. In doing so, her right arm was resting against his left as she held the sheet, "See here? It says that you own controlling stock in the 'Fly By Knight Broomstick Company.'"
"That's the company that makes the Silver Arrow series of brooms!" said Harry, "I can't imagine that it's worth that much, considering that there hasn't been a new model of the Silver Arrow in…"
"Almost twenty years," finished Hermione, "It seems that the introduction of new models has to be approved by a majority of the stockholders, and since the shares have been held by an underage wizard, there was no way they could get new models approved. In fact, I've looked over most of your holdings where you have controlling interest. All of them have been stagnant over the years, although with most of them it doesn't make a difference, it's business as usual. Take, for instance, Cromwell's Custom Cauldrons… the rival companies began making their cauldron bottoms thinner to save on production costs, but the decision to follow suit couldn't be made because of the ownership problem, but it worked out to your advantage. Do you remember the report that Percy Weasley made on cauldron bottoms? Well, it seems that people took notice, and since Cromwell's cauldron bottoms were still full gauge, the demand for them skyrocketed after that report went public! In fact, Cromwell's is one of the most profitable companies you own because the demand for them is so high! Everyone at Hogwarts uses them."
Harry's head was spinning. He sat down heavily on one of the kitchen chairs, jostling the little witch that was still glued to his side.
"So, Vernon didn't get all of the money. I can still help Ginny. I can pay you and the twins back."
"Don't worry about me. I never cared about the money. I only cared about…"
Hermione was interrupted as Ron burst into the kitchen and hastily said, "Oi, you two, come on! We got something to show you."
As they followed Ron out of the kitchen towards the stairs to the upper floor, Ron excitedly explained, "When I got back to the study, Luna asked if we found the locket that we went searching for. When I told her that it was the wrong one, that prat Draco said something about there being a locket in his bedroom, so we followed him up to the third floor, telling him to show us where it was, and when we got there… well, you'll see."
He just finished as they reached the third floor landing. He led them down to the end of the hall where Luna and Draco were waiting.
"Alright, Malfoy, go into your room and come out again."
With a shrug, Draco turned to face a blank wall and stepped forward, but instead of walking into the solid wall, he just passed right through it as if he were a ghost. A moment later, he stepped out of the wall and looked at the group expectantly.
Hermione stepped close to the wall and ran her hand over the solid surface, examining it carefully. After a few moments, she turned to Draco and asked politely, "Can you show me your left forearm?"
Again, he shrugged and slid his left pajama sleeve up, exposing his arm and the Dark Mark tattooed upon it.
Ron and Luna gasped, Hermione blanched and Harry's eyes narrowed, but still shone in vindication. Again, he was proven correct.
"I suspect that only those who bear the Dark Mark are able to pass through, or even see the door," commented Hermione, "Regulus must have enchanted it himself before he died."
Harry turned to Draco and said, "You said that you saw a locket in that room?"
When Draco nodded, Harry said, "Can you please get it for me?"
Hermione gasped in protest, but Draco had disappeared through the wall before she could stop him. She rounded on Harry and hissed, "Harry! That thing might be dangerous to handle! What if something happens to him and we can't get to him?"
Harry was about to answer when Draco stepped out of the room holding a locket by its' chain and handing it to Harry.
The moment it was placed in his palm, Kotone let out a surprised gasp, "Shishi-san! Drop it! Hurry!"
But it was too late.