The Search Is Over

Chapter 97

Over the next few months, Kreacher continued, almost feverishly, to write. Beautiful horror scenes flooded his mind throughout each day. So many, in fact, that he had to jot down notes to keep up with them all. He'd sent his first short story, Poetic Justice, off to a popular dark publication called Monster's Fang.

Their publication was bi-monthly, a collection of dark novellas and short stories. It was distributed in Borgin and Burkes as well as other shops in Knockturn Alley. Years ago he and Regulus would gleefully binge read back issues together over the summer when Regulus was home from Hogwarts. Of course back then, Kreacher had never even imagined writing for them himself. While he waited to hear back from the editors of Monster's Fang, he busied himself with bringing his other new ideas to life on paper. Rather than short stories, the next proved to be longer, and soon he had three horror novels in the works. He wrote one at a time during the day while Regulus slept.

He'd have gladly divided his days between working on enchanted items with Blaise and Gellert and his horror writing, but they'd completed all the pillows. Blaise was eager to see what else they could craft with the combination of human and elf magic, but at present he and Gellert were putting all their energies toward the actual opening of the shop. After that Blaise promised they'd get back to work. He wrote Kreacher frequently with updates and it felt nice to be included.

There was only one more stage of preparation to go before Blaise and Gellert were ready to begin decorating and stocking the shop for the grand opening. This involved the contacting of those few people they were interested in taking consignments from to add to their intriguing inventory. The shop would only carry the most unusual and unique of items no matter who made them. Blaise wrote Mag to see if she'd like to consign some of her wands and gemstone jewelry. Now that Voldemort was dead, sharing her talent with a select few should be safe and she'd make a nice chunk of gold.

He also wrote Severus to see if he may be interested to sell some of his more specialized potions in the shop. As it turned out, Mag and Severus were both interested in consigning with the shop, but both would need at least a few weeks to get enough product made up to stock.

A little over a month after Kreacher had finished the last batch of sleep pillows with Blaise and Gellert, Blaise wrote to invite him and Regulus to a dinner party. They also invited Kereston, Millicent, Wolfgang and Parvati. Parvati was new to Kreacher and Regulus, though Kereston had attended Hogwarts a year ahead of her.

She seemed to be giving Master Regulus the eye as they all sat chatting in the library while Bramble, the Zabini family elf, put the final touches on dinner. Kreacher observed, however, that Regulus hardly looked her way and didn't at all seem to notice. For this reason, Kreacher decided to be polite to her, considering they were in the home of friends. Visiting the Zabini home was quite the novel concept, in spite of the fact that seven husbands hadn't truly been killed there. The decor was properly dark and equally as classy as that of 12 Grimmauld Place in its way.

"We have quite the treat for after dinner," Blaise informed excitedly.

Kreacher found himself leaning forward in interest. It must be something extraordinary for the usually bored looking Blaise to show excitement.

"There is a particular type of Egyptian spirits that gives one a feeling of high euphoria, and in some, can even induce visions. We got several bottles to sell in the shop, and to celebrate, we wanted to share a bottle with our closest friends tonight."

"With Gellert and Parvati both being seers, this ought to be good," Kereston said eagerly from her place on the other side of Kreacher from where Regulus was seated.

"Yes but with this particular drink, one doesn't have to be a natural seer to experience a vision when under its effects," Gellert said.

"It shall definitely be interesting to SEE what happens then," Millicent said with a chuckle.