Chapter 9

Two days had passed since James' meeting with his parents, and his grandfather's snitch had not left his hands. He had told Cygnus the story behind it, claiming to have asked Hermione, despite having not spoken to her since their last Transfiguration lesson. Nor had he spoken to Rose, who was chummy as ever with Amelia and Daisy. James still couldn't understand why, or how, but in Herbology that morning she looked blissfully happy giggling along with the two of them. Their Addo Malum crop had now been harvested, and the plants themselves disposed of. James had a hunch that Professor was destroying the evidence. They were now moving on to Herbology theory. They were working in Greenhouse 5, a place where second years usually weren't allowed. Instead of the usual rows of raised beds, instead there were three neat rows of desks and chairs, with a blackboard at the front of the room. Snow had written Herbology Theory for Beginners in neat curly writing on the board, and as James sat down between Fred and Cygnus, he suddenly felt anger with his teacher boiling up inside him. This was his first Herbology lesson since finding out about the WDP, and he had managed to contain his anger with Snow until now, but being taught by her seemed to have allowed it to boil to the surface.

"How could you stand her teaching you?" he whispered to Cygnus out of the corner of his mouth, while they were supposed to be writing about the five categories of magical herbs and fungi from their textbook.

"What d'you mean?" Cygnus asked him, leafing through the pages in his book.

"Knowing all the time that she was planning- you know what," he whispered, "How did you not shout at her! You defended her on her first day!"

"I know I did Jamie, but you have to remember that back then I still thought her plans were a good idea. I was still on mum's side- mum still thinks I am, by the way, she can't accept it. But anyway, I'm not such a passionate person as you," he grinned at James.

"You're not as arrogant either," Fred slipped in from James' other side, obviously overhearing their conversation, "and I'm with you Potter," he grinned, "either of you fancy luring her into the forest next full moon… for purely for academic reasons of course."

"If it's considered academic to maul your Herbology teacher, that is," James laughed.

"Who's planning to maul the Herbology teacher?" a girl's voice asked, and for a moment James thought it was Professor Snow herself. He turned around and realised it was Rose, who had joined the boys at the back of the greenhouse.

"Fred was thinking about it," he said casually, as though it was something they might do every day, "But I don't suppose you're game, Rosie, I don't think your new friends would approve," he glanced towards Daisy and Amelia, who were still laughing happily in the front row.

"Merlin no! Daisy's a stickler for the rules," Rose said cheerfully, "And Amelia's too stupid to even know what mauling is!"

"So you're not 'BFF's yet?" Cygnus asked snidely.

"Who says 'BFF's anymore, Cyg, that was so 2010!" Rose commented, before clapping her hand over her mouth, "I'm even starting to sound like them! Merlin save me!" she started to walk back to her seat at the front of the room, "And for the record, mauling Snow is exactly what I feel like. Common room after school?"

"Sure," Fred said, on behalf of all the boys, Rose skipped off to her seat, "Wow. Well someone's certainly in a good mood."

"Nice to know her little sulks over," said Cygnus.

"Yes it was becoming rather tiresome," said James.

"Arrogant," Fred coughed, and James slapped him round the face with his quill.

As November thickened, the second years discovered, through a combination of Cygnus and their WMRL's that a muggle election had not yet been called, as predicted. James had come to the conclusion that the Addo Malum he suspected Professor Snow had used on the Prime Minister had ceased to work. Rose, who was now fully on board with their mission, had told him not to be quite so hasty, as although she had a strong suspicion that Snow was behind it, she didn't want to blame her unnecessarily.

"But Rose, Cygnus knows that Snow is bad news!" James said one evening in the common room. They had found themselves sitting up by the fire until very late most evenings, often accompanied by Lily Potter. Of course she meant that they couldn't discuss their plans to somehow take down the WDP, but Rose seemed to have taken a shine to her, despite James hating her guts.

"But that doesn't mean she's using the tea to do all this! Mum says-"

"-I don't give a toss what your mum says, Rose!" Cygnus shouted, "She's a teacher, so she's bound to side with one of her own!"

"But she respects James and me," said Rose defensively, "so if she genuinely thought anything was wrong, she would say something!"

James refrained from saying some callous remark about Hermione. He was still angry with her, for ignoring him in class, for not telling him they were moving house, and for giving him detention for months on end. Rose hadn't yet caught on to his prolonged dislike for her mother, and so he chose not to anger her as she was the sort to hold a grudge for weeks on end, and more importantly, she would make him talk to Hermione, which was about the last thing he wanted to do. The common room was silent for a moment, and the only sound to be heard was the slow crackling of the fire. Just as James was about to get up and go to bed there was a small noise, barely audible had they been talking, but due to the state of silence all four of them jumped.

"What was that?" Fred whispered, the other three shrugged their shoulders, and looked suspiciously around the room. The noise sounded again, this time slightly louder, it sounded almost like a cough or a sneeze of a child with a terrible cold.

"Hello?" Rose called out, and there was a tiny scurrying noise. Out of nowhere, a small creature the size of child appeared. It looked almost human, only it had huge bat-like ears, great blue-grey eyes, which stared emptily up at the four of them, and many folds of greyish skin, giving it the appearance of an elderly man. It wore nothing but a dirty ragged pillow case and a tarnished silver locket, and had tufty white hair sprouting from its overlarge nose and ears.

The creature screamed loudly, and James jumped about a foot in the air, "What is it!" he asked Rose hurriedly.

"A house-elf," she whispered back quickly, before clearing her throat and saying loudly, "Hello, my name is Rose Weasley, I presume you are one of the Hogwarts house-elves?"

The house-elf had a look of distinct dislike for Rose, and its face scrunched into a tiny ball as though it had just eaten an entire lemon, "Kreacher will not be spoken to by filth. Kreacher will not serve the Weasley girl! Kreacher wants his mistress- oh yes, Miss Bellatrix was always so lovely to Kreacher-"

"-Kreacher?" Rose asked warily, and the house-elf whimpered again, "Are you talking about Bellatrix Le Strange?"

Before James could ask who Bellatrix Le Strange was, Kreached smiled broadly, "Miss Bella, yes-" he said dreamily, "always so lovely to Kreacher- not like the spoilt boy. Yes. Master Sirius got what he deserved. Mingling with Mudbloods and filth- but not Regulus, no, no, no, no, no…"

He appeared to have dazed off into some sort of trance, which gave James an opportunity to question Rose, "What in the name of Merlin is happening?"

"This is Kreacher," said Rose, as though it would make complete sense to him, "The house-elf-"

"-yes, I got that far," said James, "But what exactly is a house-elf, and how are you acquainted with such a delightful creature?"

"House-elves are creatures that have been enslaved to wizards, they are tied to their family's house, and have to obey any orders they are given," she explained hurriedly, and Kreacher continued to mutter under his breath, "Kreacher served the House of Black- mum told me all about him-" she paused, "And before you ask Cygnus, yes, that is your family-"

At the sound of Cygnus' name, Kreacher seemed to break from his trance, and suddenly buckled to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, "Master! Master! Master!" he shrieked, as Cygnus attempted to shake his legs free, as the small house-elf had grabbed them with his gnarled hands.

"How do you know him though?" James asked over the clamour, as Cygnus jumped up and down, Kreacher still refusing to release him.

"He was tied to the family at the time that Sirius Black died," Rose explained, "Your dad inherited the house he lived in James, and so he inherited Kreacher too. Your dad sent him to work at Hogwarts to avoid any difficulties- Kreacher apparently had a habit of running away to more 'worthy' masters, like his precious Bellatrix. He supposedly changed his ways when your dad, and my parents went into hiding, but then he disappeared after Voldemort was killed-"

"-so this elf has been alive for how long?" James asked.

"About 60 years it seems," said Rose, "They've been known to live up to a hundred if they need to though. Anyway, he disappeared for about five years according to mum, but then the day after your parents were killed, he reappeared in Hogwarts, asking for a job- completely unexpected apparently, but McGonagall agreed, purely because he was completely mad and she felt sorry for him-"

"Rose!" Cgynus shouted, still battling with the elf's fierce grip, "Get this bloody thing off me!"

Rose shrugged and said, "You could try it, you're a Black after all, he might obey you."

"Get off Kreacher!" Cygnus said in a commanding voice, and the elf instantly released him, "Cool! But I thought you said that he went to James' dad after Sirius died-?"

"-according to house-elf law, if an elf changes families, at the death of that family member, the elf returns to the family of origin, in short, when Harry died, Kreacher went back to the Blacks."

"You look very like that nasty boy," said Kreacher, looking quizzically at Cygnus, "You're eyes are cold like the nasty boy's. Not like Master Regulus' eyes. No Master Regulus always had time for Kreacher-"

"-Kreacher why are you here?" Rose asked, "Have you been cleaning?"

The elf shook his head, and a mad grin spread across his wrinkled face, "No, no, no, no, no! My Mistress sent me here! Mistress Bella!"

Rose looked sceptically across at James and whispered, "Bellatrix was killed at the same time as Voldemort, he's obviously bonkers," she turned to Kreacher and asked kindly, "When did Mistress Bella send you here Kreacher?"

"This morning," said Kreacher madly, "Kreacher was in the greenhouses with his Mistress and she told Kreacher to find the Potter boy and so Kreacher came to the Gryffindor tower and Kreacher found the Potter boy and his friends. Yes, his Mistress will be so pleased with him-"

"-Where is your Mistress, Kreacher?" James asked.

Kreacher shook his head, "Kreacher cannot say," he said, and with a loud CRACK, he vanished.

"Bed?" Fred asked quietly, looking slightly shell-shocked, and the four of them trooped off to their dorms without another word.

James' dreams that night were filled with strange images of Kreacher talking to a hooded figure in the Hogwarts grounds, telling him to kill everyone in Gryffindor, or she would not buy him a new Xbox 360. Then Kreacher morphed into Dunstan Dursley, who sobbed uncontrollably, saying he couldn't do magic, and so would never be able to kill all of those people, at which point the hooded figure was revealed to be James' Grandfather, who said that Dunstan was a disappointment to the Potter family and would be pecked to death by crows at dawn.

James awoke with a start. His dormitory was filled with the dull, misty early morning half-light of November, he rubbed the sleep away from his eyes and put his glasses on. He glanced across to the clock on his bedside table, and saw that it was only half past six. Fred, Cygnus, Kerry and Lysander were all still fast asleep in their beds, snoring happily in the case of Fred. James soon found what had caused him to awake so early, as when he went to look out of the small diamond paned window; he saw his owl, Luna, perched on the ledge. He let the window open and the owl flew in, dropping a letter and a small parcel onto his bed, before flying out again in the direction on the Owlery. James walked quickly back to his bed, and opened the letter first, reading it quickly and fervently,

Dear James,

I thought you might be beginning to wonder why Hermione and I have been so distant with you this past term- never doubt that we both love you, never. Only we have been having some trouble of our own- people are hardly welcoming to me, and so we chose to move house. A fresh start, you know? Anyway, we thought it would be nice to move to Godric's Hollow. This probably won't mean anything to you at all at the moment, but we know you'll love the house we've found. Anyway, when we were clearing out some of the things which the previous owners had left behind I found this, and thought you ought to have it- you'll figure out how to work it in your own time, after all, what's the fun in me just telling you? Just remember, that this was once a favourite possession of your uncles Fred and George.

Of course you and Rose will be returning home from school in a few weeks' time, so the house should be ready by then. This may all sound a little hurried and confused, but the muggle removals lorry has just pulled up outside and I need to hide any evidence of us being wizards! I have also enclosed an old photo for you,

Much Love, Ron.

James re-read the letter. He knew he had heard of Godric's Hollow before, but he couldn't quite remember where. He tore open the package to reveal a photograph and what looked like a blank piece of old parchment. He looked at the photograph first, and instantly recognised the faces which smiled and waved up at him. The first was his father's, grinning madly at the camera, his eyes flickering between his wife and the giggling baby in her arms. They were standing in the garden of a cottage, which they obviously lived in. The door to the hallway was wide open, and there were three pairs of Wellingtons stood outside it, one of which was tiny and red. James turned the photo over and read the description, written in an untidy scrawl, Me, Ginny and James at Godric's Hollow. That was where he knew the name from! They were moving to the town where he had once lived with his parents! He remembered reading the name on a letter from his father to Hermione last year.

He turned now to the blank parchment Ron had also enclosed. It was obviously important, and had some use, as his Uncle had suggested, all he had to do was find out how to use it.

Sorry its taken me so long to update, but I've had so much work to do! Anyway, sorry the chapter's a bit short, but I hope you love it all the same :)

as always:

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