The Search Is Over

Chapter 155

Chapter 155, Well I'm not gonna get caught sittin' about

Waitin' for the world to go 'round

As she had nothing useful to report, Ariana didn't stay long. When she left Regulus and Kreacher stood together for a moment in the front hall after seeing her out. "Was she weird today?" Regulus spoke first, breaking a shared bit of meaningful silence.

Kreacher nodded. "Kreacher thinks so! It would appear that meeting Slytherin's ghost truly impacted her...though for good or ill, Kreacher is uncertain." The elf chuckled.

"And what's all that about with him being pretty with the hair," Regulus wondered. "I recall him being beefy and bald on his chocolate frog card."

"Kreacher recalls," the elf nodded. "Perhaps whoever designed the cards made Salazar Slytherin unattractive to be unkind. Most dislike and fear Dark wizards after all."

"Not to mention Slytherin got a bad rap over the Hogwarts situation," Regulus added. "Shall we go read for a bit?"

Kreacher nodded, slipping a hand into his. Once in the library, they read together for a time in silence, before Kreacher spoke again. "Ariana Dumbledore was behaving so oddly, though!"

"Did you notice that she said Slytherin LIKES her," Regulus asked. "Does that mean she's keeping him around or something?"

Kreacher shrugged. "Wouldn't she have said so? Perhaps she just misspoke. English is not her first language, after all."

Regulus nodded. "True enough." Bending, he kissed Kreacher's cheek. "As ever, Kreacher is a wise elf." Just as he had on that very first night, Kreacher turned his head so that Regulus's lips trailed across his own.

Kereston came home from work far later than usual. She entered the library with a look of shell shock on her face. Wordlessly she came to sit in a wing chair across from the loveseat on which Regulus and Kreacher were reading together. Rather than greeting them as she normally would, the witch toyed nervously with the ends of the sleeves on her Ministry robe. The little blond was rarely shocked or speechless, so she had Regulus's attention without speaking a word. He glanced at her, but left it to Kreacher to speak, as Kereston was his best friend.

"Is Kereston well," the elf asked hesitantly. His round eyes were concerned as they searched her face.

"I am, actually," Kereston said. "I'm bloody great. I had to get a physical today. It's apparently a new yearly requirement thing for all Ministry workers. They want to make sure everyone is performing properly I suppose. My blood work shows...that apparently I haven't aged since I was eighteen! I mean that's nice but, also a bit unsettling. The healers at St. Mungos didn't comment much, but they certainly gave me enough odd looks while filing my paperwork for the Ministry. I started to worry that they'd find something problematic about my strange state of youth and use it to fire me or something. With that in mind, I went to the bank and asked to see the goblin healers. I dropped your names, knowing it would get them to see me if anything would. I hope that's alright?"

"Of course," Kreacher answered hastily.

With a small smile of relief, Kereston continued. "That's good. Thank you. I was just so upset that I had to know right away...if there indeed was anything to know. The healers saw me within half an hour, and I told them the situation. They can do more extensive blood work than the humans at St. Mungos, and their findings were fascinating. They called me a vampire Scion. Apparently in ancient wizarding culture, as it's not been a thing for centuries, this Scion is a term for a human who is linked to a vampire."

"Linked," Regulus asked. Kreacher was oddly silent. When Regulus shot a glance in his direction, the elf's face was oddly blank. Odd for the ever expressive Kreacher, that was.

"It's a human who is somehow linked to a vampire by magic or blood, according to the goblin healers. Supposedly this human won't age. If the vampire dies, the human ages, or dies, the goblins weren't certain which." Kreacher and Regulus exchanged a look.

"Miss Dora never mentioned that aspect," Kreacher spoke at last. "She said she had heard of the practice, so Kreacher assumes she never applied it herself." The elf was speaking of something that Dora had suggested they do when Kereston first moved in to #12 Grimmauld Place. Kereston came to live with them so that she could help out in the day while they slept. Also to protect them if there was danger during daylight hours. Dora said giving a human a tiny amount of blood from the one he or she came to help allowed for a connection to form that alerted the human if the vampire were under threat.

With Kereston's agreement, Kreacher put a few drops of his blood into a spoon of tea to mask the taste. The blonde drank the spoonful down, and that was that. Everyone basically forgot about it. No danger had disrupted the peace of #12 Grimmauld Place while Kreacher and Regulus slept and no unforeseen danger ever disrupted them on any of their travels. Kereston never reported feeling different and life moved on. Comprehension broke over Kreacher's face and he leapt to his feet, laughing. "Kereston shall live forever with Kreacher! Kreacher is brilliant! Kreacher actually hoped this would happen when he gave Kereston the blood, but he said nothing lest he was wrong!"

Laughing Kereston returned the elf's embrace. "I wasn't expecting that, but it certainly gives us time to improve the wizarding world, doesn't it?" She squeezed Kreacher tightly, briefly pressing her cheek to his. "I'm also glad to be with you. I'd miss you if I died."

Kreacher chuckled. "Kreacher would miss Kereston very much as well, but now he shan't have to."

Regulus smiled, pleased that the little blonde would be about for as long as they would if all continued as planned. "Oh, and the goblins said that the connection is mostly magical," Kereston added as Kreacher resumed his seat beside Regulus. "If you gave anyone a few drops of your blood who wasn't helping you in any way, it wouldn't work. So a lot of the Scion thing is magical intent. I suppose it's some special magic for vampires."

"I wonder if it works for Muggle vampires like Dora, then," Regulus mused. "If it's a link formed through magical intent, I would bet not. Then again if vampirism itself imbibes the vampire with this particular magic, perhaps it would work for Muggleborn vampires after all."

Kreacher smiled happily, just as pleased with Regulus behaving like his old studious self as he was for his best friend's near immortality. "Is this a secret," Kereston asked. "If the Ministry brings it up to me, can I tell them why I haven't aged if it keeps me from getting fired? Everyone is aware that Regulus is back and a vampire, so I should think it's safe, but I still wanted to ask."

Kreacher glanced at Regulus and Regulus shrugged. "I should think it is fine."

"Kreacher agrees. If they ask, Kereston may feel free to tell them the truth."

Kereston chuckled. "The truth is always far easier when we can afford it."