The Search Is Over

Chapter 146

It took several months for the novelty of having Walburga and Orion back at #12 Grimmauld Place to wear off and begin feeling more like a normal part of life. It was almost as if Orion and Walburga had been restored to life.

Having them around all the time was amazing. It was a healing experience for the entire family that was humbling. Most people never got the opportunity for anything close to what they were given. Though given was only partially correct. It had begun with Walburga not accepting the hand fate had dealt the Black family.

Of course they were fortunate enough to meet a Necromancer, but that was through the initiative Kreacher and Regulus had taken. Most people did not think of seeking one out and those wizards who shied away from the Dark Arts weren't aware that Necromancers even existed, much less where to find them. So though they were grateful for the unique opportunities that fate had presented, they'd also sought those opportunities out and fought for them. One had to take their destiny into their own hands, and they'd all done that. Considering he'd felt beaten down for far too long, this new empowering concept did much for the renewal of Regulus's inner strength.

Walburga and Orion gladly spent their days with the children while Regulus and Kreacher were forced to sleep. The elves still looked after the children as well, but the twins spent hours in the library playing with their grandparents. Eventually the ghosts even began teaching them simple spells when the twins expressed an interest. There was only so long that books on magic could entertain intelligent minds without some hands on practice to liven things up.

Of course this meant that wands were required. For the children, not the ghosts. Walburga and Orion would never have access to the magic they'd had as wizards. Not all that which their too early deaths had taken from them could be restored. Still the two never voiced a complaint, being eternally grateful for what they'd regained rather than lamenting what they'd lost. Though they could not practice magic, they could still explain it to the children and give precise instructions on how each spell should be done.

Hydra and Loughness were excessively gleeful when Regulus and Kreacher allowed them to get wands from Mag. What the Ministry didn't know wouldn't hurt anyone and all that. The two took well to learning the wizarding side of their magic from the grandparents and even Regulus or Severus, as he trained the children at times on their weekend visits when he taught Sortia. They weren't nearly so eager to learn their elf magic when Kreacher began teaching them a bit of that, however.

"We don't want to clean floors," Hydra announced darkly, showing, what was for her, a rare belligerence.

It was usually Loughness who protested anything he didn't want to do.

"It's stupid," he agreed, not missing the opportunity after all.

"It is not," Kreacher said.

He frowned disapprovingly at both children, but the twins were unmoved.

They all stood in the middle of the kitchen floor, surrounded by a ring of dust that Kreacher had deposited there so the children would have something to clean.

"The point is not to clean floors," Kreacher explained peevishly.

"It is to use the act of cleaning floors to learn how to use your elf magic.

"A thing you should very much wish to do, because it is far stronger than wizard magic," Regulus added.

"But elves shouldn't use their magic to clean floors either," Hydra insisted.

"It's demeaning."

Regulus smiled, proud that she was using words like demeaning at six years of age.

"Why," Kreacher demanded.