The Search Is Over

Chapter 158

Chapter 158, Everybody Knows

"I summon Balthazar and Hagatha, elves of House Black. Your son Kreacher as well as the spirits of Walburga and Orion Black welcome you home." Ariana's tone was a mix of firmly commanding and respectful. As when she'd summoned his own parents, Regulus felt the crackle of power in the room. When Ariana spoke the names of Kreacher's parents, nothing happened for several seconds.

Then the air seemed to thicken, or perhaps it grew warmer. Regulus wasn't certain precisely, but something definitely changed. Then they came into view. More translucent than Orion and Walburga had been that first time, and less substantial. A pair of thin, wispy elves, they hovered high in the air. So high were they, that everyone seated had to look up at them. They seemed nearly to shimmer and definitely held an otherworldly quality. As Orion's gaze took them in, his face was agonized. His mouth opened and shut several times wordlessly before Kreacher's mother spoke.

"Orion needs not apologize, for he did no wrong. It was a mistake. An accident, and we always knew that."

"Indeed," Kreacher's father agreed solemnly. As he spoke, his gaze rested on Kreacher and on Regulus. He wore a frown that Regulus couldn't read into. Was it concerned? Disapproving? He didn't know.

"Orion and Walburga raised our baby, and for that, they have repaid any debt, though truly none is owed," Hagatha continued to Orion and Walburga. Seeing the spirits together was disconcerting. Where Orion and Walburga, being grounded, appeared nearly solid, Kreacher's parents were anything but.

"We did not see you when we crossed over," Walburga marveled to the elf couple. "Orion and I looked for you more than once."

Hagatha gave a soft smile. "There are different levels of the astral...the realm of spirit. We were on a higher level because we released this earthly realm and the both of you could not. We understood that we must if we were to be able to help protect. The both of you protect from here, and we from on high."

"Like guardian angels," Orion murmured, and the shimmering elf spirits nodded.

"There are old curses that go deeper than bloodlines," Hagatha said. Her tone, though ethereal, sounded worried.

"The elf curse," Regulus breathed. He wanted to squirm in discomfort when both of Kreacher's parents turned their translucent gazes to him. "And more than elves were cursed during that time," Hagatha pronounced.

"Sadly we know little, though," Balthazar added before anyone could ask. "There are echos...ancient echos that one can feel and read like patterns, but these have been broken so much and they fade so it is hard." Kreacher hadn't moved or spoken the entire time. He sat clinging to Regulus's hand, round eyes staring in fascinated awe at his parents. "What should we do," he asked, speaking at last.

"We cannot say...Because we do not know," Hagatha said. "No matter what comes, though, we shall be watching, and we shall do all we can to protect our Kreacher. He has grown up into such a beautiful boy."" She reached out as if to touch him, but her hand stopped far before it could've reached his cheek, as if restrained by some sort of barrier.

"He may have made some questionable choices, but from what we can see of the pattern, this is not new," Balthazar said with a sigh. "The lifelines of you and your Regulus seem to go back a long way."

"I am almost relieved," Walburga huffed. "It means it wasn't at all our fault, and reflects no shortcomings in Orion and I as parents."

"I could've told you that, Mum," Regulus said.

Walburga shot him a dismissive look. "Your opinion in the matter would not have been useful to me, Regulus," she snapped coldly.

"My mother always behaved differently in front of her friends." Ariana spoke in a stage whisper, leaning conspiratorially toward Regulus and Kreacher.