Awakening || Harry & Hermione

Chapter 5.4

12 Grimmauld Place was large and imposing, carrying an intimidating regality to it that shouldn't have worked so well for a three story townhouse. The rooms were luxuriously spacious and the furniture—what was left of it—was tasteful and elegant. Whoever named the house had done it a disservice by not naming it Grimmauld Palace instead.

However, Harry had to admit that there was nothing homely about the place. It was too cold. Too dark. Too dusty.

"Blasted cobwebs," Sirius muttered as he fired off another spell against one of the traps in the living room. "It's bad enough that dear old mum decided to ward the inside of this place with enough curses to kill me ten times over, but she couldn't even give that elf an order to dust the place once a millennium before croaking?"

Harry and Hermione exchanged a wry look. It had been surprisingly easy to get into Grimmauld as the aurors seemed to have given up keeping watch over the place. It was even easier to place the Fidelius over the location despite how nervous Harry had felt while casting it. Instead, the real battle occurred once they were inside and had to disable the endless traps Orion and Walburga Black had employed to protect the house in case anyone dared to sully it after their deaths.

Even that, he was sure would eventually be dealt with. What he was truly worried about was how Sirius seemed to flinch from the shadows of every room and seemed to grow more irritable, the worse they found the place. The condition of Grimmauld was just too depressing; it was like a fossil, a testament to the time that had gone by and the years Sirius had wasted rotting away in Azkaban. Wouldn't breathing in all the dust and mold and painful memories eventually suffocate him?

"Kreacher!" Sirius roared. "Show your sorry self!"

There was a crack and a stooping elf appeared. Unlike Dobby, he had a leathery face with deep lines of skin, a bulbous nose, gnarled hands, and bloodshot eyes that were currently squinting at Sirius with undisguised hatred.

"Ungrateful vermin is back," Kreacher moaned in a raspy voice. "Oh, how Kreacher's poor mistress hated him! Traitor to the family name!" When Sirius sneered at him but cut back his retort as Hermione put a hand on his shoulder, the elf turned his squinting eyes at Hermione and Harry instead.

"Nasty brats! Harry Potter, the boy who stopped the Dark Lord, standing there as bold as brass! Mudblood chit sullying my mistress' living room—the disgrace!"

"Don't call her that!" Both Harry and Sirius snarled.

Before any of them could say anything further, Dobby stepped forward with a glint in his eyes. "You is a terrible elf. Dobby would never treat his master like vermin; Dobby is a true elf who knows respect! And pride!"

Kreacher glared. "Youngling has come to give Kreacher a lesson?"

Dobby gave the older elf a haughty look. "Dobby has no need for ungrateful, lazy sack of bones! Dobby will take over cleaning of house himself!"

Kreacher stepped forward menacingly, "Snotty brat dares to presume authority over House Black—"

Dobby cracked his knobbly knuckles. "Old, useless weasel dares to call filthy dump a house—"

"All right! Everyone calm down!" Hermione put her hands on her hips and glared so intimidatingly that even Kreacher took a tiny step back from her. "Kreacher, I know you have no love for Sirius, but tough luck, he's here to stay!" She softened at his aghast expression. "Do you really think your mistress would hate Sirius more than the Ministry? Despite Walburga Black's ... disappointment in her eldest son, the Ministry still locked away the heir of the house with no regard to House Black's dignity or Sirius' innocence. They treated a member of the family like scum! Do you think your mistress would have been happy with that?"

"Scum!? Black family is the most honourable house. Most high!" Kreacher growled. "Mistress did not like being looked down on!" A thought seemed to occur to him then as he gleefully said pointedly to Sirius, "But traitor is not true member of Black Family. Ungrateful brat was kicked out."

Hermione gave the elf a sympathetic look. "Your mistress might have told you that in a fit of anger, but by law, she never made the actual move to remove Sirius from the family. I've already checked this, but you're free to do so as well. Upon her death and by her will, Sirius was made the master of the family and inheritor to everything of House Black."

"What?" Both the elf and Sirius screeched.

"That crazy old woman," Sirius muttered, but seemed to be lost in his own little world. "I thought that at most only my personal vault would be left over. What was she thinking?"

"Mistress... Mistress would never. There is still true heirs, Mistress Cissy and Bella to inherit—"

"According to who?" Hermione snorted. "For all she might have not liked Sirius, he was still her son—her only remaining son. You would rather have a Malfoy and Lestrange sully the family legacy instead of serving wholeheartedly the flesh and blood of your mistress?"

"Kreacher—Kreacher doesn't wish to speak with Mudblood any longer!" Harry thought the poor elf looked completely befuddled as he apparated away and he threw a surprised look at Hermione.

"What was all that about? I thought the first thing you'd do would be to advocate for his house elf rights, not turn his world upside down."

She snorted. "Don't worry, Sirius and I are going to have a long chat on how to appropriately treat your elf, especially one in his old age suffering from loneliness and a mild form of dementia." Sirius cringed. "But seeing how loyal Dobby is to you has really made me appreciate the value of trust with your workers. If Sirius is going to live here, we can't take the risk of having a hostile member in the house. Besides security reasons, it's just better for both of their state of mind if they can get along without trying to kill each other."

"I suppose I'll just have to ignore the little bugger," Sirius grumbled. "But enough about Kreacher, what did your elf here mean that he'll take over the cleaning of the place?"

"Dobby is Harry Potter's elf and Paddy is Harry Potter's family so he is Dobby's family now!" Dobby gave Sirius one of his earnest, gummy smiles and even Sirius had to give him a small, uncertain one back.

"I think it's a great idea!" Harry beamed and felt the burden of leaving Sirius in this gloomy place all by himself lessen. "There's not much for Dobby to do for me at Hogwarts anyway and I can always call him through the bond if I ever need anything."

"That's decided then!" Hermione clapped, glad it all worked out in the end.

Later when they were in the kitchen and forcing copious amounts of healthy food down Sirius' throat, they heard Dobby merrily humming a tune as he cleaned the stairs.

Harry swore at one point Dobby exclaimed, "What great practice for Dobby's Potter Manor! Dobby is sharpening his skills, yes he is!"