Ink and Parchment ~ blood and bone

23

Eliza moved into Regulus' old room.

Kreacher had taken one look at her, the last bastion of the Black's, a slytherin, a dark witch and had almost burst into tears.

The grumpy old elf was still well, grumpy, particularly around Sirius but he seemed to be delighted by Eliza. She treated him kindly, far too familiar with what it was like to work for cruel masters, and he had immediately claimed her as his 'little mistress'

After learning she was Queen of Slytherin (something that took Sirius a few days to wrap his head around, especially when she told him about how she had won the title) he immediatley moved her into Regulus' room saying it was only befitting for his 'little mistress'

Eliza had heard quite a bit about Regulus these past few days – Sirius' little brother, a quintessential Slytherin who was too scared of his parents to do anything but please them and too proud of his heritage to rebel. Sirius called him soft but Kreacher called him kind – a glowing endorsement from the house elf.

She had spent the past few hours unpacking her trunk, for the first time ever. It was an almost overwhelming feeling.

She had packed all her clothes away in her wardrobe – muggle and wizard alike and after speaking to Kreacher he gladly popped in with a huge standalone bookshelf to run alongside one of the walls of the bedroom, next to an old dark wood desk.

Slowly Eliza began filling up the bookshelves. She placed her school texts on the bottom shelf, going from first year to third year although she gave Kreacher the Lockhart books so he could use them as kindling. Then she began stacking the shelves with all her other books, history ones, illegal ones, birthday gifts and extra studies on runes and alchemy. It was ridiculous how much she had managed to fit into her trunk really. She piled all of her potions texts onto one corner of a shelf and then her cauldron, obsessively ordering her empty phials and flasks.

Once all of that had been emptied out of her trunk what remained was only her most treasured items or miscellaneous bits and bobs that hadn't left the bottom of her trunk in years. She got to work.

Stepping back sometime later Eliza could almost cry, this was the first time she had ever seen all of her possessions in one place.

On the shelf rested Daphne's journal, full of family magicks, in an ornate frame rested a picture of her and her court. They were down by the black lake at the end of last year. Eliza had been reading, Theo resting his head on her lap as they both relaxed in the sun. Daphne and Draco sat to their left, Draco focusing intensely on painting Daphne's nails until Blaise shot a hex at Draco. The two boys ended up tackling each other, about to start play fighting before the picture reset again. Next to that picture rested the gorgeous hair clip Narcissa had given her for the yule ball and next to that was a small chipped piece of ruby red stone. A shard of the philosopher's stone, now nothing more than a pretty rock, from her first year. There was a fancy chess set and a small silver metal hippogriff that pranced around in a circle when touched. Hufflepuff's cup sat next to a small dark wooden box. It was filled with every letter she and Tom had ever exchanged, including the sporadic post cards he liked to send to her.

She did feel at home in the Slytherin green room – it was still strange to think of it as hers.

Kreacher apperated back into the room, a silver tray piled with sandwiches that he set on her desk that held all of Eliza's to be completed summer assignments.

"Is the little mistress settled in?" Kreacher croaked out gazing up at her

"Yes Kreacher" Eliza said looking around her new room "I think I am"

~

Of course things weren't perfect. Sirius had no idea what to do with a normal teenage girl, let alone a girl like Eliza. While she was content to stay in the library and work on her summer homework Sirius seemed to want to make up for lost time.