"Pozey, will you take us to the apartment?" Zia asked, looking down at the little elf.
"Certainly miss!" the tiny elf grabbed her leg and took Tom's hand, then with a snap, they apparated. Zia felt as if she was being squished down into a little pinprick, pressed in on all sides, then suddenly her body expanded back into place. They were all standing in the apartment. Everything was packed neatly into trunks, and even Tom's belongings were stacked neatly in the same pile. Zia wasn't sure when the elf had done it. The two snakes were shrunk to a smaller size than usual to fit into a smaller tank for travel.
"It's been too long," Honovi hissed in Zia's direction. "We used to speak every day."
"I apologize," Zia told them, flushing with embarrassment. "I take it you've met Pozey?"
"Of course. She seems frightened of us though. She helps, but does not come near." Pozey stared between them blankly.
"Oh that's why!" Tom burst out suddenly.
"Master?" Pozey asked, looking over at Tom. His eyes were fixed on the house elf interestedly.
"You told me house elves have to do whatever they're commanded to do, right?" Tom asked her.
"Pozey is following master and mistress's orders, yes."
"Alright then.. Pozey, be able to speak and understand parseltongue."
"Well, did it work?" Tom asked in parseltongue.
"Pozey is understanding you, master. Pozey is speaking like the snakes." Pozey answered.
"Now that you understand them, perhaps it will help you to not be afraid of them," Tom explained triumphantly. "Understanding things usually helps me not be scared of them."
That's wonderful. There's not anybody who lives in this house who can't communicate with us still then, Honovi said to Pozey. Pozey nodded, and Zia was happy that she looked slightly less afraid of the snakes.
"Okay then. The goal is to get everything moved over this evening, and I'd like everybody to help out however you can. I gave the notice that we would be moving to the apartment manager this morning, so it is all set for us to be gone. Ready?"
"Yes," they all said.
"Then let's get started." Zia turned to the house elf. "I'm not good enough at magic to move myself or objects any kind of distance with it. Can you help with that?"
"Pozey will do it Miss!" Pozey squeaked, and pointed at the box. With a small pop, the box shuddered for a moment, then vanished. "It should be there now miss!"
"Thank you Pozey," Zia said. "If we can get it all over like this, we'lll be done in no time!" The house elf began sweeping her tiny hands over parts of the room, and everything in her path shuddered then vanished. Zia moved to the back rooms, where she would start the cleaning. Instead of pulling out a bucket and sponge and scrubbing on her hands and knees, instead she pulled out her wand.
"Clean!" she cried, waving her wand. She had never tried the spell before, but it seemed to work. A cloud of dust puffed up all around her for just a moment, then it shimmered into nothingness. Several smudges on the wallpaper worked themselves away. Tom, after observing Zia, waved his hand over the bookshelf, and using wandless magic left it polished and clean. Zia was only mildly surprised. Tom had a knack for using magic without the need for a wand, which seemed to mirror his unusual maturity and intelligence levels. With the three of them working with their various forms of magic, the apartment was emptied and cleaned in only a few minutes. The snakes were both in the tank, held by Tom. "Regulus said to inform him when we finished, but I have no idea how to do that," Zia mused out loud.
"Pozey is doing it miss," Pozey suggested.
"Okay Pozey. Thank you."
"No problem mistress!" with a crack, the elf was gone. Moments later, two cracks brought Regulus and Pozey into the apartment.
"Didn't I say you'd be able to get it all done quickly?" Regulus said, looking around the bare apartment. "Let's go. We can side-along apparate."
"All of us? Even the snakes?" Tom asked him excitedly.
"We might need Pozey to take the snakes over," Regulus said, looking at Pozey.
"Pozey will do it sir!"
"Pozey, the address for your house is Number 16 Locke Court, Greater Hangleton."
"Okay sir!" With a snap, the elf, the snakes, and the box vanished.
"Our turn!" Regulus said, taking Tom's arm on the left and Zia's arm on the right. With one swift movement, he spun the three of them around. The same squeezing sensation she'd experienced when Pozey took them there pulled Zia in, then they appeared in front of large mansion. "This one's yours," Regulus said grinning smugly. "Mine's over there." He pointed to the silhouette of another sprawling mansion on the neighboring hilltop.
"It's huge!" Tom whispered excitedly. "I wonder how many rooms there are! What will we do with all of them?" Regulus chuckled at his reaction, and Zia couldn't help smile.
"It's also very safe. Here is your key, but you'll also have to speak your name before you are granted entrance. There are other protective charms of course, but those are what you'll need to get in for now," Regulus said, handing Zia the key.
"What do muggles see when they look at these areas?" Tom looked up at Regulus curiously. "Just the hills?"
"Hills and some cow pastures I believe," Regulus explained. "I'm not entirely sure, but it's not actually limited to muggles. Anybody who isn't invited can't see anything here."
"Thank you for this. I don't know how to repay you, I don't think rent is enough to cover all this," Zia said, rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand.
"Good," Regulus responded. "Let's take a look, shall we?" Tom was so excited that it looked as if he was practically bouncing out of his shoes. Zia looked around at everything warily. She worried slightly that if they stood out there for too long, someone would come by and wonder who they were. Or worse, someone would come by who already knew who at least she was. She still wasn't sure how she felt about living in such close proximity to Little Hangleton.
She put the key in the lock, spoke her name, and after a few clicks and what sounded like large gears turning, the door to the mansion opened.
Zia blinked as her eyes adjusted from the switch between the bright daylight of outside and the dim interior of the house that now belonged to her family. The door opened immediately into a small room that gave off the feeling of some kind of antechamber that people waited in before being allowed into the rest of the house. Looking around at the walls, she saw that there were no more doors.
"Where is the rest of the house?" Tom asked. He turned, arms folded across his chest, looking at Regulus with his eyebrows raised. Zia tried not to smile when she realized that this was the exact same stance that she herself assumed when she felt that explaining was in order. She glanced over at Regulus and saw him grinning, glancing between the two of them. It took only a moment for her to realize that she had already been standing like that before Tom positioned himself to match.
"This is another part of the security," Regulus told Tom.
"How does it work?" Zia asked, wracking her memories to find something familiar to this. All that came to her was the wall of the cave where the horcrux locket had been cached. That had to be opened with blood, but she was sure that a door to a residence wouldn't require something like that for entry.
"The house now recognizes you as its owner, as well as the rest of your family. What happens is you think about what part of the house you wish to go to, and a door leading to that place will appear. This only works automatically for those who live here, others must be identified as guests and granted permission to pass this room. Additionally, no matter who the person is, nobody wishing to harm the occupants will be able to work the entrance even if they do have permission," Regulus explained.
"So basically, it's an inanimate form of a security guard?" Tom asked. Regulus blinked.
"A what?" he asked. Zia chuckled. She sometimes forgot that Regulus was still not very used to muggle terms, despite the continuing education he received from both her and now inadvertently Mary and Charlie. She never thought 'security guard' was something that would be unfamiliar to him. She wondered if it was just that his family was so overly obsessive about staying muggle-free that they wouldn't even use similar words.
"A security guard is a person who protects a place by making sure only the right people at the right times have access to it. Usually this includes being able to physically get rid of threats through force or using weapons," Zia said, trying to word it in an easy to understand way.
"This method seems less dangerous to the people involved, but more effective," Tom told Regulus in a matter of fact tone. Regulus nodded.
"Try it out," he said. "Maybe think of the kitchen?"
"Alright," Zia said. The security feature reminded her of something, but she wasn't quite sure what. "I'll call Pozey first though." Before she could even say it, Pozey appeared next to her with a snap.
"Pozey is here!" the elf squeaked. Zia smiled.
"Okay. I thought you should be here when we test this," Zia told her. Pozey nodded, ears flapping as she did so, smile pulling the corners of her mouth into a little grin. Zia closed her eyes, and concentrated on a kitchen she had never seen before. After a few seconds, she heard a gasp from Tom and opened her eyes. A new door had appeared in front of them, directly across from the entrance. She stepped forward and grasped the door handle then, wondering what the kitchen would look like, pulled it open.
The kitchen was large, and to her surprise, furnished. A large solid oak table sat in the middle of it, surrounded by sturdy looking chairs. They all stepped into the kitchen and the door closed behind them. Zia noticed that there were no other doors in the kitchen except for the one they entered through, and figured that each room in the house must only be accessible through that first room. It was an interesting set up, and she wondered who had designed and built the place. Tom was ahead of them now, flitting from one section of the kitchen to another, opening cabinets to examine the contents.
"There's dishes in here, pots and pans over there, silverware in this drawer, and it all looks really nice mama," he said, pointing out the cabinets where each resided. She walked further into the kitchen and pulled open the cabinet filled with stacks of plates categorized into different sizes but they all seemed to match as far as she could tell with them all stacked. She wasn't sure why anybody would need seven different plate sizes, but pulled a medium sized plate out to look at the pattern. It felt like it was made of glass when she picked it up, and then she pulled it all the way into the light.
It was indeed made of glass, but she was surprised to see that it was like a stained-glass window. The design was unusual and interesting, the black silhouette of a bird winging through a dark clouded sky made up of different colors of glass carefully cut and put together smoothly. There were no ridges in the design, and she wondered if the pieces were put together using a permanent sticking charm.
"That's quite impressive," came Regulus' voice from behind her. She jumped a little, having not realized he was there. He chuckled at her reaction. "I wonder why it wasn't mentioned that the house came with all of these things. Unless only the true owner could get into the other rooms, which might have been why the security features were so highly praised and only a basic description of the house was given."
"It would make sense," Zia replied, placing the plate carefully back on top of the stack. "I wonder who the previous owners were. To leave all this behind seems rather strange, doesn't it?"
"It does. Perhaps there was nobody left to inherit the home or its contents, so everything stayed here for the next owner," Regulus suggested.
"I wonder how long it was for sale," Zia mused. She felt tugging on the side of her robes and knelt down to face Tom.
"I've looked in all the other cupboards and drawers. There are a lot of things for cooking and baking kept here, but that's mostly it. Can we try other rooms now?" Zia smiled at his eagerness to explore.
"Of course we can, as long as you're absolutely sure there's nothing else exciting for me to see," she said.
"Oh I'm sure mama!" he replied, already skipping back to the door. Zia, Regulus, and Pozey followed him back into what Zia kept thinking of as the 'holding tank.' After they were all through the door, it shut and she watched as the door vanished into the wall.
"Where to Tom?" she asked him.
"The bedrooms!" he said immediately. "I want to pick mine out. It would be beneficial to have a room with space for a desk so that I can complete schoolwork. It doesn't take much time for me to finish, but it would be nice to have a place for that. And somewhere to put all my books! But it also has to be close to yours, or I'd be lonely."
"Okay then," Zia replied. "Speaking of lonely, Pozey where are the snakes?" Zia couldn't believe she had forgotten to bring them with her. Pozey clapped her hands together.
"They're in the conservatory room, it's nice and warm there, with lots of plants. Pozey made sure that the plants were safe, since Pozey is knowing how to identify different kinds of magical plants, miss," piped Pozey. "Pozey is thinking they are happy there for now."
"Thank you Pozey, that was very thoughtful of you. I'm sure they are enjoying having all that space and warmth," Tom told Pozey. "It's like having a very large and well-designed tank, I'm sure." Zia smiled at Tom's politeness and kindness to the house elf. He was always polite but guarded around strangers, but with those he considered family he was friendly and outgoing. Tom turned his head towards Zia now, gazing at her expectantly.
"Why don't you try this time Tom? It should work for you as well, right?" Zia glanced over to Regulus to confirm this.
"Yes it should, go for it!" he encouraged. Tom nodded and closed his eyes. A few seconds later, a new door materialized to their left. "And there it is, well done!" Tom opened his eyes again and stepped forward, reaching up to grasp the handle and pull the door open. This door did not lead to a single room, but instead a long gently lit hallway. The hallway was wide, and the walls were painted with a large mural.
It was very similar to the design on the dishes. The same dark clouded sky was depicted on the walls, but what was stunning to Zia was that the whole painting was moving. The clouds drifted slowly across the scene, sometimes letting through streaks of sunlight. And then, occasionally, the black silhouette of a bird would soar across a part of the painting, or sometimes even a flock of them. It was beautiful. Tom was stopped ahead of her, also gazing around at the living painting gracing the walls.
"Magic is wonderful mama. It really is," he said quietly, absorbing the whole scene. After a few moments of quiet contemplation, he walked forward, and found the handle of the first door in the hallway, and pushed it open. Zia followed him into the room and felt her jaw drop.
She had never seen such a large bedroom in her life, or such fancy decorations. The bed, the furniture, all of it was made of a dark wood, and carved in a graceful way. The sapphire and white color scheme, as well as some of the other decorations, seemed to say that this was a room intended for a female. But those things weren't what caught her attention so much. It was the large, finely crafted crest that hung on the wall opposite the door. The crest of Ravenclaw house.
"Well, mama, I don't think I want this one," Tom said, without lingering in the room for very long. "But you should explore more, you might want this one. I'll try the next one." With that, he vacated the room, tugging Regulus along with him. Zia walked to the crest, examining it more closely. It was crafted exquisitely, and out of what looked like superior materials. Zia decided that it most likely cost a fortune to have made, possibly even a good chunk of what the house itself had cost to buy.
The ministry office must not have known about any of this, simply the basics of it, like size and how the security worked. She had seen the details scrawled on a little scrap of parchment that was rolled up with the information on the house. Zia was sure that if the ministry knew about the contents of the mansion, it would have been priced much, much higher. She walked from the crest to a writing desk against the left wall, and saw a filled envelope sitting on it. Looking at the back of it, she read that it was addressed To Whomever Has Acquired My Home and turned it over. Looking at the wax seal, she noticed that the image pressed into the wax was again the crest of Ravenclaw house. Zia carefully opened the envelope, taking extra time to make sure she didn't damage the seal, then pulled out the letter inside. Unfolding the parchment carefully, she began to read it carefully.
If you find yourself in possession of this estate, congratulations to you. Ownership of my ancestral home could only be claimed by someone deemed worthy of it, and if you find yourself here you have passed the enchantments set up to ensure that the place go to one such as yourself. This place has a rich history and many secrets for you to discover, I hope you will enjoy them. I'm sure you have noticed that it is all fully furnished and decorated, I assure you that this was all left behind on purpose. You may find more notes from me as you continue to explore your new residence and the grounds that accompany it.
Respectful Regards,
Arlena Ravenclaw
Zia dropped the letter back to the desk in shock, and suddenly she realized what the 'security system' reminded her of. The Room of Requirement in Hogwarts. She picked the letter back up and reread it several times to make certain she hadn't been mistaken. It seemed that Salazar Slytherin wasn't the only Hogwarts founder with ties to the Hangleton area.