Ezekiel quickly placed himself in front of Harry, to prevent him from seeing his house-elf. He wanted to smack himself in the head but that would have to wait. The problem wasn't that Harry saw a magical creature, but the fact that it was his.

House-elves are between two to three feet tall, with spindly arms and legs and oversized heads and eyes. They have pointed, bat-like ears and high, squeaky voices. Some wizards, namely not the pure-blood, actually considered them cute, to Ezekiel's astonishment. Kreacher, granted, was never a looker. He had a bulbous, snout-like nose (which looked as if he had runned into a wall at full speed and never fixed it.), bloodshot eyes, many folds of skin, and white hair growing out of his bat-like ears.

That was before.

When Ezekiel decided to flee his aunt Narcissa's house, Kreacher was a bit lost. His masters had died too fast for him to be assigned. Ezekiel liked the old bat, it had been a constant companion as far as he could remember. His father Regulus had appointed him as his guardian, a job that he was to perform once the rest of his tasks around the house were done. It had been the one and only time he had shown any sign of concern for his son, who was mainly raised by his grandfather. Still, that left him with a problem at that time as he didn't fully knew how much he could trust him.

Since the house-elfs of his house were bound in servitude to the master of the house that meant that many would perish as Orion Black aged. In the end only Kreacher remained, perhaps his advanced age and his diminished need of magic allowed him to live when others had perished or maybe he just too stubborn or loyal to his house to lay down and die.

House-elf as a species needed a master. It wasn't clear when it had begun but at some point their magical species began to lose their magic, more specifically, the ability to generate their own magic. Being magical creatures this meant that their lifespan was cut down significantly over the new generations to the point where they almost became extinct. For Ezekiel, the most astonishing part was when he found out that his family hadn't cause this disaster. It was at their lower point that some unnamed wizard had made the first pact with a house-elf, of course at that point they were just called elfs but that wouldn't last much. The contract was quite simple: the wizard/witch would accept the elf as their companion, providing the elf with access to their very own magic thus preventing them from dying and actually using magic. In return, the elf would provide assistance to their wizardkin counterparts using their various talents.

Flashforward a couple of centuries and they were basically slaves, except slaves could sometimes escape their fate.

Ezekiel decided to fix the issue in the most simple way and just like the wizards of old, bound the elf to his very own magic. It wasn't the best move, in hindsight, with him being a small child the strain caused him blurry vision and made it almost impossible for him to walk in a straight line and vomit everything he had in his stomach and then some, which was dreadful. Be it as it may, the new magic from a much younger master had infused new life and the now not-so-old elf managed to bring his new master to a safe place. Ezekiel had thought that Kreacher would get to live the rest of his days as a servant of the true heir of the house of Black before finally getting his much deserved rest, as the elf so much desired.

How foolish had they both been.

It had been the very same day as Ezekiel's magic was fused with the Black family magic that he saw how much it had perverted his very nature, for changing his magic had also changed his oldest friend.

Kreacher was now significantly taller, half the height of an adult human, but physically strong and tough, although his posture was hunched. His skin was now thick, thicker than a normal human, and its scaly surface littered with a variety of scars and scabs. He now also possessed two rows of crooked shark-like teeth both on his jaw and maxillae, yellow glowing eyes, overgrown claws and bat-like ears, though this ones were slimmer and straight. He sported long sideburns, along with a goatee and bushy eyebrows. All his hair was white, as if it were proof of his age but Kreacher physically resembled an elf almost twice younger than him. Instead of using leftover items as clothing the elf used a black toga for clothes. As he put it, Kreacher was only loyal to his master and would never leave his side.

"You've returned, Sire. We were quite anxious, we sensed the Magic being summoned. Of course they'll fall before you, Master." he said with a vow.

That had been one of the many changes Ezekiel noted in Kreacher, as the elf had always been on the proudful side since he served his House. Now he downright dismissed other creatures, in his eyes they were pathetic at best.

"Kreacher, change into a house-efl." Ezekiel ordered.

"Sire?"

"NOW, KREACHER!"

The elf, if that was what it could be called, snapped his fingers and changed back to his 'old' self.

"It's okay, Harry. He isn't scary, it's just a house elf." Ezekiel assured Harry, who hide behind him.

"M-mm-monster." The scared boy mumbled.

"No,no...no. He's not a monster, he's a...a... Butler! Yes, he's my butler, that's right." He assured him before turning to his servant. "Kreacher, this is Harry Potter. He's the godson of Sirius Black and cousin of mine trough his sworn brother. He's under MY protection, understood?"

"Yes, Sire." Kreacher vowed again with respect, but Ezekiel caught the disdainful look he gave to Harry.

"He's my family, Kreacher." Ezekiel repeated sternly. "If you disrespect him, you're disrespecting me and I shall punish you accordingly." This had the desired effect as the elf knelt at his feet, with his head touching the ground.

"Kreacher will never disrespect you, Master! Kreacher is a servant of The Ancient and Most Noble House Of Black." He screamed desperately.

"Of which Harry Potter is now under it's protection. Furthermore, Harry's orders are to be followed. He fall behind Andromeda in importance, is that clear?"

"Yes, Master!" The elf answered with his head still glued to the floor.

"Very well, now get up and set the room next to mine for Harry. I won't tolerate any mistakes either from you or the others, is that clear?"

"Yes, Master!"

"One more thing. " Ezekiel added before the elf could get up. "Seeing as your image disturbs Harry, you and the others shall alter your appearance to look as you were before your service to my House. Now, go and do not disappoint me."

"Yes, Master!" and just like that the elf had disappeared.

"You okay, Harry?" The poor boy was still shacking.

"I-it w-was a mmmonster."

"No, no. Kreacher is my servant, he and the rest tend to the house." Ezekiel explained to him.

"Others?" Harry asked shaking. "There's more of them?"

"Just three more, the house is too big for a single elf."

"And they all look like that?"

"Yes, but they won't hurt you. They serve me and they'll protect your. They're also very good cooks."

"They'll protect me?"

"Yes, they're a bit obsessive in their loyalty to me, but I've said that you're to be protected then they'll do it to their end. If I say that you're family then they'll treat you as such." Ezekiel assured him. "How about I show you the house while they get you setup?"

"Okay." Harry nodded.

Walked trough the house, Ezekiel showed him the ground floor. He explained that it used to be filled with portraits, but had decayed over the years and decided to remove them. Then he showed Harry how to change the intensity of the lights.

"What was there?" Harry pointed to an empty frame that took over most of the wall.

"That was a portrait of my grandmother. Had to cut it out, she had some temper."

"The paint...had a temper?" Harry asked confused.

"Things are different when magic is involved, Harry. Just because things don't move in the Muggle world, doesn't mean that they'll do the same in the magical one."

"So, the paintings move in your world?"

"And talk. My grandmother wasn't the most pleasant woman to be around, her painting acted as she would at the time it was created. Even for me she was a bit too much." Ezekiel confessed.

The rest of the tour went smoothly, Harry saw what would be his house for the next years with his eyes wide open until they finally reached his new room.

"Well, this is it." Ezekiel gestured at the room, it had carved wooden headboards on the beds, velvet curtains, and fine wall hangings and furniture. Ezekiel had all the Gryffindor banners along with the motorbikes posters and the pictures of women in small bikinis removed years ago.

He had placed those in the desks of some colleagues of him that had to be reprimanded for one reason or another.

Yes, it was a childish thing to do but sometimes he really needed to laugh.

"This is my room?" Harry asked amazed.

"Yes, all for you. I know it's a bit empty but think it this way: you got an entire room to fill with the things you like."

"I don't know what I like." Harry confessed.

"Well, you have time to figure it out." Ezekiel consoled him. "It's late already, how about dinner?

"Are they really going to cook for us?"

"Yes, don't worry. I'll introduce you to the rest of the elfs." He said as they began walking to the dining room on the ground floor.

The introduction didn't take long, specially since the House-Elfs looked like House-Elfs. Ezekiel had learned from the incident with Kreacher and had picked a particular type of elf. These three had served Dark families and had been discarded when they couldn't take their abuse anymore.

Thrown to the streets, Ezekiel had approached them and promised one thing: revenge. Sure, it was not the best way to get a servant but Ezekiel had done something they didn't think was possible.

He had actually delivered on his promise.

They had been some of his first arrests and while some of the elves had rejected his service, they had been grateful for what he had done.

The three that remained were loyal to a fault. Kreacher had taken over as a head elf, commanding over the rest. Two female, one male. Loopy and Rinky were kicked out of two different houses, burned for failing to poison their masters enemies, while Zobkey had been used as a spy but his age had caught up to him.

All of them discarded, all of them avenged.

All of them loyal.

Of course Harry didn't knew of this and Ezekiel would instruct them not to tell.

They eat their meal and Harry was surprised by the flavor of it. They both got ready for bed as Ezekiel wrote a letter for Gringotts regarding what Harry would need for his education.

Ezekiel couldn't wait for for things to calm down.

Then the punishment would begin.

I don't own Harry Potter, all characters except OC belong to J. K. Rowling.