A/N:
Fnet is being a bit tetchy and so you might need to read the previous chapter before this one!
I tried to upload it twice on Wednesday, only for it to go all wonky. Like WALLOFTEXT wonky, and then when it finally went through alright the notice wasn't sent out.
Granted it was my third attempt, but you still might be a chapter behind!
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-XXX-
By the time they made it back to the top of the staircase, Heather felt a bit like she was on a sugar-high.
'Like I'm super hyped up and jittery and the crash is imminent.' She thought as grandfather explained how her new place as the Master of the Family Magics was different from being an Heir and how she would be able to hold off on telling anyone outside of the Family of her new position for at least a few more years.
"-well know, the Pureblood customs for coming of age and such are complicated." Grandfather continued after a short trip via Apparition.
One that didn't make her queasy at all.
'Note to self- ask why Apparition feels much less unpleasant now.' Heather thought as she listened intently, keen to know more about the crazy mess she'd just committed herself to being a part of.
"Eleven is a significant age for a variety of reasons, granddaughter." Grandfather explained patiently as they leisurely strolled, arm-in-arm, down one of the many sprawling stone walkways of the east garden that led back to the Hall.
Most specifically the oldest section, which had been converted into a porch-veranda thing that was sort of like a designer-decorated outdoor patio, but with magical plants, conveniences, and advantages.
'This is so strange.' Heather thought rather bemusedly as the information pushed gently into the forefront of her thoughts before she even realized she'd reached for it. 'Awesome- I might be able to decently navigate this place now!- but really, really weird.'
"Not the least of which is that, traditionally, it marks the first year in which it is acceptable for a child to no longer need a Family chaperone for outings and overnight visits." The man gave her a quicksilver smile and patted the hand she had wrapped around his arm gently. "Sirius and James were cousins, as you well know, but Dorea and Walburga could never agree on an acceptable chaperone so the boys never really had the chance to meet until the Express."
Heather was momentarily distracted by a trio of giggling little beings with colorful dragonflyfly wings and laughably thin bodies that looped around her- making low pitched chittering noises- before they darted off through one of the arches excitedly.
They seemed to have tiny little arms and strangely disproportionate- but alarmingly cute- little faces.
Heather didn't understand a thing they'd said, though.
"Ah. The Dragonribbon Pixies are the first to know of you as Lady Black. That's an excellent omen!" Grandfather was doing that ridiculously-proud beaming thing again. "But as I was saying, eleven is considered the age when children are allowed a measure of freedom and, conventionally, were first introduced to society as being eligible for apprenticeships, allowed to mingle freely with their age mates of their own accord, and considered to be responsible for their actions, no longer protected under the canopy of being 'a child'. That is why the upcoming series of Balls and Galas are so important for you, my dear. You should have been Announced this past summer, but what is done is done."
"Uhm, Grandfather-" Heather began, only for the man to cut her off. Seemingly not having heard her, but Heather was rather suspicious of that thought.
He certainly didn't feel the least bit sorry for doing such a thing.
"As I was saying, the age of eleven is important for a variety of reasons. However, most Families do not choose their Heirs until the age of fourteen." Grandfather continued to explain as they ducked below some low-hanging ivy and he seated them at a lovely round wrought iron table.
Silver wrought iron with seat cushions that made the chairs extremely comfortable and the midday sun in just the right spot to be pleasant instead of irritating. A tea service was already in place, as were a delightful spread of some of Heather's favorite treats.
Heater immediately forgave Grandfather and let him continue uninterrupted as she happily served the tea and dug in to the food.
"You must understand, that simply because eleven is the youngest allowable age for an Heir, it is still rather uncommon for an Heir to be Named so young." Grandfather took a sip of his doctored tea and frowned as he set the delicately painted china back onto its matching saucer. "This century has seen more than just a smattering of conflict and so it's not nearly as unheard of now as it was back in my day-"
Heather nearly choked as the memory of Ao from Naruto nearly smacked her in face.
'Oh sweet heavens, I nearly lost it there!' She sniggered internally as she tried to keep her humor at bay.
As well as the 'shut up or I'll kill you' response that had leapt to the front of her tongue.
'What is in this tea?'
"-but still rather uncommon." Another dab of milk was added to his tea before he pressed forward. "I doubt that there are more than one or two other Heirs in your Year, though in a social setting the eldest child- or son- of the current Lord by right and magic are given the title as a courtesy." Grandfather gave her a sharp, vicious little smile over the golden rim of his teacup. "Courtesy concedes to propriety, granddaughter. Do not forget that."
Heather- her mouth full of a muffin because she was far from graceful and elegant- merely nodded to show she understood.
Another sip of tea and then the cup and saucer were placed back on the table one again. "To an outsider, your ring will only show what you are ready for them to see. Part of the innate magic of the rings is to protect the Master of the Family Magics. Therefore, until you are ready for the world to know you are Lady Black, they will not." Grandfather was fairly radiating smugness. "Cassie and I have discussed this topic at length as we understand and respect your desire to 'stack the deck of Exploding Snap cards' against your enemies- we are actually quite proud of your cunning, actually- and so we feel that making Cassie Regent Black would be the best course of action."
"Not that I disagree." Heather replied slowly after washing down her most recent snack with some tea of her own. "But isn't that asking quite a bit of Aunt Cassie? I mean, she's already auditing all the Black interests- and there are so many!- in addition to being my Senior Assistant, wouldn't adding the Wizengamot and everything else be too much? Even for a woman of Aunt Cassie's caliber, I mean."
"I knew we made the right decision to make you Lady Black, but the continued confirmation does this old man's heart good to witness." Grandfather smiled softly at Heather for a long moment, his grey eyes full of affection.
Heather could feel his genuine happiness, too. It was warm, like butter on fresh toast or marshmallows bobbing on top of a cup of perfectly made hot chocolate.
"Cassie being Regent, however, would mostly change nothing." Grandfather continued, slipping back into his typical composure. "I would still be handling the Wizengamot- I had nearly forgotten how much fun it was to poke at the old fossils after a major victory- and Cassie would continue just as she has been."
There was a very put-upon sigh that Heather didn't believe for a minute.
"She's been nothing less than happy as Niffler in a dragon's hoard since Sirius' trial. I haven't seen Cassie this excited since-" Grandfather paused for a moment, grief warring with his self-control until he managed to steadily add, "-well since long before Dorea passed." Suddenly he seemed ten years younger as he leaned forward a bit and added. "Cassie has always been a fighter, but in recent years she's not had anything worth fighting for. Perhaps when you're as old as we are you'll understand a bit better, granddaughter, but I assure you that Cassie and I are both feeling much younger than we have in decades."
Well.
Heather could understand that to some extent.
"So long as you're certain I'm not overworking you." She managed to say cheerfully, her lips curving into a smile.
"Excellent." Grandfather approved with a firm nod as he withdrew back into his seat. "With Cassie as Regent and myself still on the Wizengamot, there will be all sorts of delightful rumors running about, but no one will realize the truth until we are ready." There seemed to be a disturbing amount of glee in Grandfather's voice when he added. "And when we do, it will be far too late for those sycophants of the fiend who killed Reggie to hold on to the power that was never theirs in the first place!"
'No pressure, girl.' Heather thought somewhat wryly as they finished up their tea with a bit more technical banter and headed inside.
-XXX-
"It feels so weird." Harry laughed as the twins unrepentantly climbed into Sirius' gigantic bed, animals in tow. "I can still sort of sense 'feather, but about an hour after I put on the ring, her presence became…..muted?" Harry shook his head, dark hair flying back and forth as Sirius wrestled with Snuffles over a rope toy. "It's not bad, really, just strange."
Sirius' bed was huge. As in double king sized huge! And the inside was pretty much an enchanted replica of a cloudy night's sky, complete with twinkling stars, the moon in its correct phase, and the occasional shooting star or visiting planet.
Originally the spread and everything had been black, then Gryffindor red, but now it was a nice mix of cool blue and pale grey. The recommendations had come from Sirius' therapist- well the magical world of the Isles called them Asklepieion Healers, after the Greek temples of healing and the Greek deity Asclepius- and the change in colors had been really helpful.
Well, Heather had gotten a whole dissertation on the relation between the ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyptians and the founders of modern magical, medical psychiatry. From what Heather had gotten from the excited babble was that that area of the world still held the reins of such things and pretty much every magical therapist ever graduated from one of the two ancient, highly respected institutions of higher education.
Magic.
Heather laughed brightly and crisscrossed her legs, laying a fleece blanket over them for Chromie to sleep on. "I know! I guess I got so used to your presence through the Family Magics I forgot what it was like to…..not? I mean you're still there, just not in the same way?"
The twins traded glances and then burst out laughing.
Mallie, always up for some laughter, switched from watching Snuffles and Sirius wrestle to leap over to Harry, knocking him over, before slathering him in happy doggy kisses.
Sirius, bedclothes askew and minus a rope toy, perked up and bounced over.
Literally. The man was sitting cross-legged and bounced over to the twins, Snuffles happily scampering in his wake.
"I remember when James finally put on his Heir ring!" Sirius interjected brightly. "He said it was strange, but not." Sirius sobered a bit and smiled wistfully. "He yanked on my 'connection' to the Potter Magics the night he died, that's why I knew he was in trouble."
The twins reached out and grabbed Sirius' fidgety hands. "It's ok Sirius." Harry told the man firmly. "We don't blame you."
"And we never will. Not even if it was your idea to switch Secret Keepers." Heather asserted just as firmly.
Sirius ruffled the hair on both of their heads, a sad sort of smile tugging at his lips. "You're both amazing, you know that?" He shook his head and forcefully changed the subject. "Now that you're both heirs- and Lady-"
Heather groaned dramatically.
Both of them had been positively overdoing the 'Lady' shtick since dinner, when they had finally returned to the Hall.
"I am Siriusly-" She began, only for Harry to whimper pitifully while Sirius looked positively delighted.
"Ohmygawd- stop it!" Harry yelped in defeat as he tried to make it past Sirius' blocking appendages to slap a hand over Heather's mouth. "Just…no more! Nonononono~!"
Heather affected an affronted look. "But, Siriusly, I think-"
With a battle cry worthy of a Viking, Harry bodily launched himself at his sister.
Chromie meowed in offense and scampered off to watch the chaos from a distance but the other two decided that playtime was now.
When Mimsy came to check in an hour later they were passed out in a tangled pile of fur, hair, paws, and limbs.
-XXX-
If the Potter offices looked to be as large as the Professor's house from X-Men, than the Black offices were-
Actually, Heather wasn't sure.
They were huge. At least four stories, though the front was all tall columns- with statues of cheerful things like gargoyles- made out of a heavy, grey swirled stone with only a single line of windows above it. The top was a rounded dove-grey dome that flattened out to a regular sloped roof after a little ways. Black shingle- or whatever they were called- naturally. From the side there were at least four individual sets of windows, most with window boxes made from wrought iron that held trailing ivy and the occasional splash of color or just lovely wrought iron decoration.
The fencing was red brick and wrought iron as well.
Heather was sensing a theme.
The inside was mostly dark, polished floors and heavy desks resting on plush rugs. There was more wrought iron- from ceiling accents, to intricately done stairwells, to window decorations and even the holders for the wall sconces or the bloody doorknobs- and more of the dove-grey and swirled grey stone from the outside for the walls and ceiling. Even the benches and chairs were wrought iron, with cushions made of black or grey.
Definite theme here, though Heather preferred the silver wrought iron of her suite at Blackmoor Hall.
There were three basement levels and Heather's office- as Lady Black- was high up in the dome, where she could use all manner of little devices and innocuous-seeming things to spy on her employees or guests.
That was Lord-only level information but potentially useful.
There were four separate libraries and some of the tomes were so old Heather could scarcely believe the dates. A lot of them were reference materials, having been translated over time and so some books were a tenth or twelfth generation 'update' of an original.
Once he'd been shown inside and told to pick an office, Mr. Reginald had seemed so excited.
It took Heather half an afternoon to meticulously remove permissions for most of the people on the House of Black office list, but she felt a certain vindicated satisfaction at crossing out the names 'Lucius Malfoy' and 'Draco Malfoy'. As the Lady and Master of the Black Family Magics Heather hadn't felt comfortable cutting Narcissa completely out, though the woman was only allowed to Floo in and then wait for further approval.
However, this office needed some greenery.
Plants were great to look at and useful!
Heather looked up from her work and smiled at Liv. "Think you can get me some plants for this crazy office?" She asked her assistant wryly.
Well, her junior assistant.
Heather had been concerned about Liv's reaction to essentially being given a new boss, but Liv had been positively ecstatic at the idea of having Aunt Cassie around to help her whenever Liv needed guidance or advice.
Heather was sensing some fangirl enthusiasm for Aunt Cassie from Liv.
Which was entirely fine with Heather because Aunt Cassie was a Grade-A Badass.
The office was handsome and sleek but it just seemed rather….cold. Impersonal. And Heather was going to have to spend plenty of time in here, so she wanted it to be somewhat cozy!
"Will do!" Liv chirped, nearly overbalancing before she righted herself with a huff and blew some hair out of her eyes. "Though might I suggest a decorator? Maybe they could double as a personal shopper?" Liv grimaced a bit and tried to find a comfortable position to exist in. "I mean, I'm okay with a list, but I really have about zero talent with either one of those things….."
"Not a bad idea." Heather replied with a sigh, sinking back in her leather chair- it was super comfortable!- and kneading her forehead tiredly. "Because I really suck at both. I enjoy art and stuff, but I can't look at something and picture it painted and in a room in a cute manner, you know? That's a special talent that some people are born with and I just….wasn't."
It was Sunday so it was back to Hogwarts tomorrow and dealing with the social fallout of her attacking a teacher and several other students.
Though Heather had mostly made her peace with the incident, rumors were terrible things and neither she nor Harry had been there to spread the truth of the incident.
"Did somebody order a Padfoot?" Sirius asked boisterously as he fairly bounced into the room, bearing food.
"Always." Heather replied with a grin, eagerly attacking the fish-n-chips and soda Sirius had set down in front of her. "Hey, little brother." She greeted around a mouthful of food when she noticed Harry, who came bearing some of Florean's ice cream.
"Hey, 'feather!" Harry sing-songed back brightly, laying down his gifts before her with a flourish. "And how is the Lady Black doing this fine morning?"
Heather chucked a chip at him and kept eating, but she grinned at his grandstanding. "Dork." She muttered.
"So, what's this about a personal shopper?" Sirius prodded with an eager grin. "Because I happen to have excellent taste."
"Siri, mullets are not the pinnacle of cool-" Harry started to lecture his godfather and then godson and godfather devolved into playful squabbling, which was quite amusing for Liv and Heather to witness.
Snuffles, meanwhile, ran around inspecting things and barking at his own reflection on various highly-polished surfaces with Mallie trotting around and trying to keep him somewhat contained.
"I dunno, Liv, think you can handle such….Sirius-ness?" Heather questioned her assistant, who groaned dramatically and buried her face in her hands.
"Why me?" Liv moaned theatrically.
"Was that a Sirius pun?" Sirius asked with a wide grin, breaking off his argument with Harry and staring hopefully at the two women. "Or a Sirius play-on-words? Because I Sirius-ly love those!"
"Oh gawd, yes." Harry complained tossing an arm over his eyes and causing Mallie to abandon her herding of the puppy to come over and shove her snout onto his leg, big golden eyes mournful and needy. "Make her stop!" Harry demanded dramatically as he reached a hand down to pet Mallie, sneaking her a chip when he thought no one was paying attention.
"Never!" Sirius and Heather chorused, trading shit-eating grins.
"Oh, the party is in here." Mr. Reginald said with some amusement as he, Nigel, and Aunt Cassie came in.
With Sophie trailing behind them.
"Sophie?!" Heather nearly choked on her chip as she caught sight of her roommate. "What are you doing here? Ohmy- did I get you expelled? I got you expelled didn't I? Iamsosorry-"
Then Heather's mouth was still moving but no sound was emerging.
Aunt Cassie put away her wand with an entirely unnecessary flourish. "Young Sophie here has been staying with Andromeda and her family while we dealt with Family matters." Aunt Cassie turned expectant eyes towards the Montforts.
"Sign these papers and then one Sophie Roper will be made a Ward of House Black." Mr. Reginald told Heather as he laid a sheaf of parchment in front of her via a flick of his wand. "In the care of Andromeda Tonks-" Another sheaf of papers floated towards Heather. "-the mother of Nymphadora Tonks, the first of a daughter line of the House of Black- the Line of Tonks- and thus brining all four under the umbrella of 'Family'."
Heather perused the documents quickly, essentially gleaning that by signing the papers she was accepting financial and personal responsibility for Sophie until the girl turned twenty-five or achieved a Mastery, while Andromeda and her husband Ted would house Sophie.
Having met Aunt Andy Heather had already beenlooking into ways to bring the Tonks family under the protection of either the House of Potter or the House of Black. And now not only could she do that, she could give Aunt Andy the second daughter the woman had always wanted!
Heather was well aware of the fact that Tonks- as in Nymphadora- was likely super excited about having a younger person to smother in affection- and help distract her mum- and Aunt Andy wouldn't offer to take Sophie in and being brought back into the Family unless she wanted to- and Aunt Andy and Uncle Ted had already signed the papers.
"Is this okay with you, Sophie?" Heather asked, glancing up at her roommate uncertainly, not wanting to force the girl into anything. "I mean, I'm all for it, of course, but I want to make sure you don't feel obligated or anything."
"Y-yes. I'm sure." Sophie said nervously, twisting her hands nervously in her skirt. "But I-I do have a request."
"Alright. Go ahead." Heather encouraged once the silence had stretched on a beat and Sophie seemed to be waiting on permission.
Sophie took a deep breath and shot a pleading look at Aunt Cassie, who merely nodded. "I-I don't want to be Sophie Roper anymore." Sophie windmilled her arms a bit and grimaced. "I'm mean- I'm Sophie. But the Ropers are the family who left me at the h-home because they didn't want me." The girl flushed red and her eyes were wet, but she pressed forward determinedly. "I don't really know the Tonks' well enough to- um, well, Mrs. Tonks said that the House of Black has-uhm-"
"Extinct maternal lines that married in to our House." Heather filled in for her, leaning back in her chair a bit. "Aunt Cassie?"
Aunt Cassie levitated a book over to Heather.
"Uhm, got any preferences?" Heather asked her roommate as she perused he names and basic descriptions.
"Anything that doesn't start with the letter 'r' or sound like Roper?" Sophie put in hopefully.
"Hm." Heather hummed as she flipped a few more pages. "How about Arandar? It's matriarchic, actually. Looks like it was last used by a lady who married into the House near the turn of the century. She'd wanted to pass the name along to daughters, but she'd never had any. Total badass, by the way. Refused to marry a Carrow and then beat him in a duel to secure her freedom. And by 'beat' I mean she hexed his bollocks off before she soundly thrashed him and then refused to give him the counter-curse once the duel was over, claiming it as Family Magic. Which was then folded into the House of Black's arsenal."
Heather was deeply amused and mildly disturbed.
But mostly amused.
"Arandar." Sophie said, as if tasting the word. "Arandar." She smiled and flushed a deeper red. "I like it."
"Sounds good to me!" Heather replied cheerfully, shakily levitating the documents over to Mr. Montfort, along with the new name written on a scrap of parchment.
Soon enough the papers were levitated back- much more elegantly; she definitely needed more practice- with the correction noted and the places where Heather needed to sign clearly earmarked. Instead of one daughter line, they were adding two- Tonks and Arandar- and little else changed.
Hm. Apparently this had been planned, or at least Mr. Montfort had suspected.
With Aunt Cassie as her senior assistant it was difficult to say for certain, but either way the contract read smoothly despite the 'surprise' request.
Aunt Cassie was Regent officially now- had the Regent ring and everything- so Heather was fairly content to let the older woman scheme and only do the work that was set directly in front of her.
See? She could learn this delegation thing!
Maybe?
The Black Manager was out of the country on Gringotts business, so Heather wouldn't get to meet her new Manager until the Christmas hols, which sort of sucked.
Heather unearthed her pen from underneath some other documents and signed the certificate with a flourish before affixing her official Seal to the document as well. "Just sign here, here, and here, and we'll be done!" Heather chirped, grabbing a nearby business quill and a small pot of Binding Ink and pushing it towards Sophie, along with a fresh Contract Quill.
She'd had to sign with her fancy 'Lady Black' pen that was bound by blood and magic and couldn't even be touched by anyone but her without nasty things happening- it was a gift from Grandfather, they had spent part of the morning watching it be made by a privately contracted artisan at Blackmoor Hall- but the others could use regular Binding Ink and a Contract Quill.
The other girl walked forward and signed her name, and just as she finished Heather felt the Black Family Magics latch on to the girl and ….sort of memorize her?
Heather also vaguely got a sense of excited joy as the magic embraced…something. She had a feeling that it had to do with Aunt Andy being allowed access to the 'source' of the Family Magics again, but couldn't explain why she felt so certain about that specific thought.
Heather couldn't reach out and feel Sophie like she could sort of feel Aunt Cassie or Grandfather- or even Sirius, but he was much more difficult to read- if she really, really focused, but at the same time she now felt a bit more connected to Sophie.
Magic was wonderful but perplexing and hard to explain sometimes.
Once Sophie had been properly welcomed- there had been a few tears- Aunt Cassie whisked her off to do some shopping and other secretive Aunt Cassie-ish things- while the Montforts went back to Mr. Reginald's new office.
And the Contract Quill had been incinerated, of course.
"So, personal shopper?" Sirius prodded eagerly.
"And a designer!" Liv added cheerfully.
The twins groaned in tandem.
-XXX-
Enid Pettigrew was a very matronly woman; with grey hair and laugh lines around her cornflower blue eyes. "Heather." The woman nearly breathed, when Heather stepped forward to hug her. "Oh just look at you."
It just seemed like the woman needed a hug, okay? Heather was very huggy with people she cared about!
"It's very nice to meet you." Heather told the woman warmly as she stepped back a bit, Enid retaining a gentle grip on Heather's arms as the older woman seemingly visually inspected the new Lady Black. "Would you like some tea?"
"Please." Enid agreed, releasing Heather and taking a seat on the settee.
They were in the rather informal tea room that was enclosed in the rather ridiculously large area that was Heather's office.
The 'formal' one was on the other side of her office.
Her office was rather huge, alright?
"Enid!" Aunt Cassie said approvingly as she strolled inside, Sirius and Harry at her heels. "I was hoping to catch you!"
"Aunt En!" Was all the warning Sirius gave before he bounced over and wrapped the woman up in a spine cracking hug, sweeping her off her seat on the settee and around in a few circles before he set her back on her feet.
"Sirius." The woman choked out, tears running down her face. "I'm-"
"It's not your fault!" Sirius cut her off firmly, wiping her tears away with gentle motions. "You tried, I know you did. Aunt Cassie said so."
"Not enough!" Enid shot back fiercely as she hugged the grown man in a very motherly manner. "You-"'
"You did all you could do." Sirius said firmly, cutting her off a bit more gently and hugging her back fiercely. "And that's more than enough." After a few moments Sirius stepped back and grinned so widely it looked like it should hurt. "And might I introduce-eh, where'd he?- oh!"
Harry, who had taken a seat next to Heather, waved cheerfully. "I'm Harry!" Then he turned back to Heather. "Hey, 'feather. You wanna add my new assistant to the Wards?"
"You have an assistant?" Heather asked, rather incredulously; pausing in her motions of fussing with the tea service. "Already?"
What the hell?
Harry nodded excitedly. "Yup! Passed Bixbite's background check and everything! His name is Remus Lupin!" Harry grinned roguishly. "Aunt Cassie and Sirius finally managed to track him down!"
Suddenly, Heather was extremely amused. "Hiring pre-vetted people is just cheating." She gasped dramatically her brother, a mortally offended look on her face.
"It's smart." Harry shot back with a grin. "Jealousy doesn't become you, sister dear."
Heather felt entirely justified in pushing Harry off the couch and into Mallie and Snuffles' domain.
-XXX-
It wasn't until Tansy answered Heather's call to take letters that Heather was struck with a thought.
"Tansy, darling, I've only just considered- are you still my elf now that I'm Lady Black?" Heather asked, wide-eyed.
She hadn't even considered how her new position would affect Tansy!
Tansy sniffed disapprovingly and snapped her fingers, and Heather's mail disappeared. "Mistress is Mistress and Tansy is honored to serve." The little elf wiped her hands down her spotless pillowcase primly. "Tansy won't be disturbings the Black elves, but if Mistress calls Tansy will always answers."
"Thank you, darling." Heather told Tansy with a smile, reaching for one of Hagrid's 'deluxe' rock cakes and handing it to the suddenly very excited little elf. "I appreciate your service."
Tansy bobbed her head and disappeared with a pop.
House Elf culture was so surreal to Heather. They were tiny beings made of more magic and emotions than flesh- hence their strange speaking patterns and rather difficult gender assignations- but they were still complex beings in their own right.
Still, as Lady Black, Heather should probably reach out to her new elves.
"Mistress called Mimsy?" A squeaky little voice piped up, startling Heather a bit.
"Oh, hello Mimsy." Heather replied with a rather uncertain smile. "I was just pondering how my new position might change things for Tansy- I've gotten quite used to relying on her to ferry letters and such- but I don't want to offend any of the Black elves either."
Mimsy preened. "So long as Mistress bes remembering that's the Black elves bes servings House Black, then wes be accepting Potter elf Tansy handling Mistresses' mails."
"So, as long as Tansy only handles mail and I call you or one of the other Black elves for anything else no one will feel left out?" Heather translated hopefully.
"Yes, Mistress." Mimsy affirmed with a smile.
Heather withdrew a shiny rock she'd found on the shores of the Black Lake that seemed to change colors in the sunlight and handed it to Mimsy. "Well, then. Just to make sure no one feels neglected."
Mimsy bounced on her toes a bit. "Is Mistress being needing anythings?"
"Ah, could you make sure that Chromie hasn't managed to take off her collar again? I don't want to spend an hour searching for her in the morning." Heather's lips quirked into a grin. "Again."
"Right away Mistress!" Mimsy replied easily, curtseying and popping away.
"I might as well get to bed." Heather muttered as she looked over her finished homework. "Tomorrow I have to face the music at Hogwarts."
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Please leave a comment on your way out if you enjoyed~!
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