Chapter 4:
Dudley scrambled out of the way as Dumbledore passed him into the lounge room. Alicia followed with a glance at Harry on the stairs and he jumped the last few steps, still having the objects in his hands, following. Dumbledore settled himself in the armchair nearest the fire and was taking in the surroundings with an expression of benign interest. He looked quite extraordinarily out of place.
Harry looked at Alicia who nodded.
"Aren't — aren't we leaving, sir?" Harry asked anxiously.
"Yes, indeed we are, but there are a few matters we need to discuss first," said Dumbledore. "And I would prefer not to do so in the open. We shall trespass upon your aunt and uncle's hospitality only a little longer."
"You will, will you?"
Vernon Dursley had entered the room, Petunia at his shoulder, and Dudley skulking behind them both.
"Yes," said Dumbledore simply, "I shall."
He drew his wand so rapidly that Harry barely saw it; with a casual flick, the sofa zoomed forward and knocked the knees out from under all three of the Dursleys so that they collapsed upon it in a heap. Another flick of the wand and the sofa zoomed back to its original position.
"We may as well be comfortable," said Dumbledore pleasantly.
It had not escaped Alicia's eyes as Dumbledore replaced his wand in his pocket and she looked at Harry who had also noticed. Dumbledore's hand was blackened and shrivelled; it looked as though his flesh had been burned away.
"Sir — what happened to your — ?"
"Later, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Please sit down."
Harry took the remaining armchair, choosing not to look at the Dursleys, who seemed stunned into silence. Alicia sat on the arm beside him and they turned to Dumbledore.
"I would assume that you were going to offer me refreshment," Dumbledore said to Uncle Vernon, "but the evidence so far suggests that that would be optimistic to the point of foolishness."
A third twitch of the wand, and a dusty bottle and six glasses appeared in midair. The bottle tipped and poured a generous measure of honey-coloured liquid into each of the glasses, which then floated to each person in the room.
"Madam Rosmerta's finest oak-matured mead," said Dumbledore, raising his glass to Harry and Alicia, both of which caught hold of their own and sipped. Alicia grinned, she hadn't had anything like it yet, but enjoyed it immensely. She looked at Harry who nodded.
Remember Oak-matured mead. he told her. She rolled her eyes.
The Dursleys, after quick, scared looks at one another, tried to ignore their glasses completely, a difficult feat, as they were nudging them gently on the sides of their heads. Harry could not suppress a suspicion that Dumbledore was rather enjoying himself.
"Well, Harry, Alicia," said Dumbledore, turning toward them, "a difficulty has arisen which I hope you two will be able to solve for us. By us, I mean the Order of the Phoenix. But first of all I must tell you that Sirius's will was discovered a week ago and that he left you both everything he owned."
Alicia looked surprised… but it only took a moment for her to realise that who else would he leave it to given the circumstances? He had no heir of his own, and he had always cherished Alicia and Harry.
She lowered her gaze. Everything… all the relics he'd tried to throw out from within the house.
Wait, did that include the house? Her eyes widened suddenly as she thought of what else was within that house.
Over on the sofa, Uncle Vernon's head turned, but Harry did not look at him, nor could he think of anything to say except, "Oh. Right."
"This is, in the main, fairly straightforward," Dumbledore went on. "You add a reasonable amount of gold to your accounts at Gringotts, and you inherit all of Sirius's personal possessions to be divided between the two of you as you chose. The slightly problematic part of the legacy —"
"His godfather's dead?" said Uncle Vernon loudly from the sofa. Dumbledore and Harry both turned to look at him. Alicia was watching Dumbledore, ignoring her relatives…
The glass of mead was now knocking quite insistently on the side of Vernon's head; he attempted to beat it away. "He's dead? His godfather?"
"Yes," said Dumbledore. He did not ask Harry why he had not confided in the Dursleys.
"Uh… Professor…" Alicia began "By everything…" she began
"Yes Alicia, and there lies our problem," he continued to Harry, as if there had been no interruption, "Sirius also left you number twelve, Grimmauld Place."
"He's been left a house?" said Uncle Vernon greedily, his small eyes narrowing, but nobody answered him.
"You can keep using it as headquarters," said Harry. He looked at Alicia but she made no means to argue. "I don't care. You can have it, I don't really want it."
Alicia however felt she did want the house, perhaps not to use, but maybe more as a reminder… she definitely would go an raid it at one point, have a look at what there was.
"That is generous," said Dumbledore. "We have, however, vacated the building temporarily."
"Why?"
"Well," said Dumbledore, ignoring the mutterings of Uncle Vernon, who was now being rapped smartly over the head by the persistent glass of mead, "Black family tradition decreed that the house was handed down the direct line, to the next male with the name of 'Black.' Sirius was the very last of the line as his younger brother, Regulus, predeceased him and both were childless. While his will makes it perfectly plain that he wants you to have the house, it is nevertheless possible that some spell or enchantment has been set upon the place to ensure that it cannot be owned by anyone other than a pureblood."
A vivid image of the shrieking, spitting portrait of Sirius's mother that hung in the hall of number twelve, Grimmauld Place was remembered by both twins fleetingly and they shared a look.
"I bet there has," Harry said.
"Quite," said Dumbledore. "And if such an enchantment exists, then the ownership of the house is most likely to pass to the eldest of Sirius's living relatives, which would mean his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange."
Harry leapt to his feet, the telescope and trainers in his lap rolled across the floor. Alicia blinked at him surprised.
"No," he said.
"Well, obviously we would prefer that she didn't get it either," said Dumbledore calmly. "The situation is fraught with complications. We do not know whether the enchantments we ourselves have placed upon it, for example, making it Unplottable, will hold now that ownership has passed from Sirius's hands. It might be that Bellatrix will arrive on the doorstep at any moment. Naturally we had to move out until such time as we have clarified the position."
"But how are you going to find out if either of us are allowed to own it?" Harry asked
"Fortunately," said Dumbledore, "there is a simple test."
He placed his empty glass on a small table beside his chair, but before he could do anything else, Uncle Vernon shouted, "Will you get these ruddy things off us?"
Harry looked around; all three of the Dursleys were cowering with their arms over their heads as their glasses bounced up and down on their skulls, their contents flying everywhere.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Dumbledore politely, and he raised his wand again. All three glasses vanished. "But it would have been better manners to drink it, you know."
It looked as though Uncle Vernon was bursting with any number of unpleasant retorts, but he merely shrank back into the cushions with Aunt Petunia and Dudley and said nothing, keeping his small piggy eyes on Dumbledore's wand.
"Um… Professor." Alicia said again and he looked at her "By everything, that doesn't, by any chance, maybe include…" she didn't look nearly as happy to say what she was thinking. "Kreacher?" Harry looked shocked and Dumbledore nodded.
"If you have indeed inherited the house, you have also inherited —"
He flicked his wand for a fifth time. There was a loud crack, and a house-elf appeared, with a snout for a nose, giant bat's ears, and enormous bloodshot eyes, crouching on the Dursleys' shag carpet and covered in grimy rags. Aunt Petunia let out a hair-raising shriek; nothing this filthy had entered her house in living memory. Dudley drew his large, bare, pink feet off the floor and sat with them raised almost above his head, as though he thought the creature might run up his pyjama trousers, and Uncle Vernon bellowed, "What the hell is that?"
"Kreacher," finished Dumbledore.
Alicia had no idea how she felt. Kreacher was the reason Harry had felt the need to run to the Ministry only a few weeks earlier, and therefore lead to Sirius' death in the first place. Although he couldn't betray an order…
She took a deep breath as she watched the elf.
"Kreacher won't, Kreacher won't, Kreacher won't!" croaked the house-elf, quite as loudly as Uncle Vernon, stamping his long, gnarled feet and pulling his ears. "Kreacher belongs to Miss Bellatrix, oh yes, Kreacher belongs to the Blacks, Kreacher wants his new mistress, Kreacher won't go to the Potter brats, Kreacher won't, won't, won't —"
"As you can see, Harry," said Dumbledore loudly, over Kreacher's continued croaks of "won't, won't, won't," "Kreacher is showing a certain reluctance to pass into your ownership."
Alicia just stared at the elf.
"I don't care," said Harry again, looking with disgust at the writhing, stamping house-elf. "I don't want him."
"Won't, won't, won't, won't —"
"You would prefer him to pass into the ownership of Bellatrix Lestrange? Bearing in mind that he has lived at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix for the past year?"
"Won't, won't, won't, won't —"
Alicia and Harry both knew that that could not happen. Kreacher could not be permitted to go and live with Bellatrix Lestrange. They both looked at one another and both knew and thought that having responsibility for the creature that had betrayed Sirius, was repugnant.
"Give him an order," said Dumbledore. "If he has passed into your ownership, he will have to obey. If not, then we shall have to think of some other means of keeping him from his rightful mistress."
"Won't, won't, won't, WON'T !"
Kreacher's voice had risen to a scream. Harry could think of nothing to say, except, "Kreacher, shut up!"
Alicia said nothing but watched the elf. It looked for a moment as though Kreacher was going to choke. He grabbed his throat, his mouth still working furiously, his eyes bulging. After a few seconds of frantic gulping, he threw himself face forward onto the carpet (Aunt Petunia whimpered) and beat the floor with his hands and feet, giving himself over to a violent, but entirely silent, tantrum.
"Well, that simplifies matters," said Dumbledore cheerfully. "It seems that Sirius knew what he was doing. You are both the rightful owners of number twelve, Grimmauld Place and of Kreacher."
"Do I — do I have to keep him with me?" Harry asked, aghast, as Kreacher thrashed around at his feet.
"Not if you don't want to," said Dumbledore.
"Send him to Hogwarts." Alicia said and Harry looked at her. She glanced at the Dursleys. "He can't stay here and… I don't want him following me," Harry nodded in agreement.
"Good thinking Alicia. Send him to Hogwarts to work in the kitchen there. In that way, the other house-elves could keep an eye on him."
"Yeah," said Harry in relief, "yeah, I'll do that. Er — Kreacher — I want—"
"Kreacher can you please go to Hogwarts and work in the kitchens there with the other house-elves?" Alicia cut her brother off and he looked at her but she watched the elf.
Kreacher, who was now lying flat on his back with his arms and legs in the air, gave Harry and Alicia one upside-down look of deepest loathing and, with another loud crack, vanished.
"Good," said Dumbledore. "There is also the matter of the hippogriff, Buckbeak. Hagrid has been looking after him since Sirius died, but Buckbeak is yours now, so if you would prefer to make different arrangements —"
"No," said Harry at once, "he can stay with Hagrid. I think Buckbeak would prefer that."
"So would Hagrid." Alicia nodded in agreement.
"Hagrid will be delighted," said Dumbledore, smiling. "He was thrilled to see Buckbeak again. Incidentally, we have decided, in the interests of Buckbeak's safety, to rechristen him 'Witherwings' for the time being, though I doubt that the Ministry would ever guess he is the hippogriff they once sentenced to death. Now, Harry, is your trunk packed?"
Alicia raised her eyebrows at her brother and crossed her arms.
"Erm…"
"Doubtful that I would turn up?" Dumbledore suggested shrewdly.
"I'll just go and — er — finish off," said Harry hastily, hurrying to pick up his fallen telescope and trainers.
"He was packed, I packed the entire trunk." Alicia admitted "Clearly he unpacked it in the last few days." Dumbledore nodded mutely and they sat and waited.
Harry took a little over ten minutes before he heaved his trunk and Hedwig's cage down the stairs.
"Professor — I'm ready now." he arrived in the lounge again where Dumbledore was humming to himself.
"Good," said Dumbledore. "Just one last thing, then." And he turned to speak to the Dursleys once more. "As you will no doubt be aware, Harry comes of age in a year's time —"
"No," said Aunt Petunia, speaking for the first time since Dumbledore's arrival.
"I'm sorry?" said Dumbledore politely.
"No, he doesn't. He's a month younger than Dudley, and Dudders doesn't turn eighteen until the year after next."
"Ah," said Dumbledore pleasantly, "but in the Wizarding world, we come of age at seventeen."
Uncle Vernon muttered, "Preposterous," but Dumbledore ignored him.
"Now, as you already know, the wizard called Lord Voldemort has returned to this country. The Wizarding community is currently in a state of open warfare. Harry, whom Lord Voldemort has already attempted to kill on a number of occasions along with Alicia, is in even greater danger now than the day when I left him upon your doorstep fifteen years ago, with a letter explaining about his parents' murder and expressing the hope that you would care for him as though he were your own."
Dumbledore paused, and although his voice remained light and calm, and he gave no obvious sign of anger, there seemed a kind of chill emanating from him and the Dursleys drew very slightly closer together.
"You did not do as I asked. You have never treated Harry as a son. He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands. The best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appalling damage you have inflicted upon the unfortunate boy sitting between you."
Both Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked around instinctively, as though expecting to see someone other than Dudley squeezed between them.
"Us — mistreat Dudders? What d'you — ?" began Uncle Vernon furiously, but Dumbledore raised his finger for silence, a silence which fell as though he had struck Uncle Vernon dumb.
"The magic I evoked fifteen years ago means that Harry has powerful protection while he can still call this house 'home.' However miserable he has been here, however unwelcome, however badly treated, you have at least, grudgingly, allowed him houseroom. This magic will cease to operate the moment that Harry and Alicia turn seventeen; in other words, at the moment they become an adult. I ask only this: that you allow Harry to return, once more, to this house, before his seventeenth birthday, which will ensure that the protection continues until that time."
None of the Dursleys said anything. Dudley was frowning slightly, as though he was still trying to work out when he had ever been mistreated. Uncle Vernon looked as though he had something stuck in his throat; Aunt Petunia, however, was oddly flushed.
"Well, Harry, Alicia… time for us to be off," said Dumbledore at last, standing up and straightening his long black cloak. "Until we meet again," he said to the Dursleys, who looked as though that moment could wait forever as far as they were concerned, and after doffing his hat, he swept from the room.
Alicia followed without a glance at her uncle, aunt and cousin and moved to the door where the trunk and cage with Hedwig inside was sitting.
"Hey Hedwig." she smiled at the bird who hooted at her quietly.
"Bye," said Harry hastily to the Dursleys, and followed Dumbledore and Alicia, who had also paused beside Harry's trunk, upon which Hedwig's cage was perched.
"We do not want to be encumbered by these just now," he said, pulling out his wand again. "I shall send them to the Burrow to await us there, I've already done so with Alicia's trunk and Noel. However, I would like you to bring your Invisibility Cloak… just in case."
The two shared a look and Harry extracted his cloak from his trunk with some difficulty, Alicia looked annoyed at the mess within, considering how tidy it had been the last time she'd seen it.
When he had stuffed it into an inside pocket of his jacket, Dumbledore waved his wand and the trunk, cage, and Hedwig vanished. Dumbledore then waved his wand again, and the front door opened onto cool, misty darkness.
"And now, Harry, Alicia, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure."
