The Search Is Over,
Chapter 136, Blood Binds
At Griphook's request, Kreacher spent the next two hours attempting to teach the goblins his method of hollowing out stone to construct rooms. While it was clear to Regulus that Kreacher very much enjoyed having one up on the goblins, it was equally as clear that he didn't want them depending on him for helping them construct homes.
Their first attempts were frankly a bit dangerous as they consisted of a great deal of stone exploding quite like shrapnel when the goblins attempted to hollow out rooms in the way Kreacher did. This caused Kreacher to hastily decide that perhaps there were better methods for goblins.
He had them show him again how they normally went about it, then taught them a charm that duplicated the work three fold, allowing them to cut stone far faster. Though not as fast as his own method, it would cut the time of construction considerably. That done, he and Regulus departed, eager for some alone time at home to celebrate Kreacher's success with earth magic.
That private moment was to be put on hold, however, because the Lestranges were waiting...rather loudly in the library for them.
"Can you just imagine," Bellatrix was shrieking with laughter as Kreacher and Regulus entered the room.
"Lucy's face if..."
She broke off when her wild eyes registered the two standing in the doorway.
"Oh hi! We've been waiting for you. We were tripping and decided to come visit."
Regulus blinked, uncertain of the association reached for them to draw that conclusionary urge. It had been a rather long, involved evening if quite informative and useful, and now they were to deal with hallucinogenic ridden Lestranges?
Taking the whole thing in stride, Kreacher grinned, moving ahead of Regulus into the room.
"Good. Kreacher was planning to invite the Lestranges to dinner soon at any rate. He wishes to share his latest news of interest."
"News of interest," Rabastan asked.
Kreacher nodded as he settled into the large arm chair he and Regulus usually shared. With a shrug, Regulus pushed the library door shut behind him to hopefully save the four elves in their employ from being traumatized, then went to join Kreacher. He was already telling the Lestranges of how he'd helped to make rooms for a new apartment being constructed under Gringotts.
"It's to study how much Kreacher can do with earth magic and where his aptitudes lie in such areas," he explained.
"He was very nervous in case he got it all wrong, but he was better at it than the goblins," he crowed in obvious delight, and Regulus felt himself beaming in pride at his beloved's accomplishment.
"That is pretty bad ass," Rabastan admitted. Bella and Rod nodded.
"I'm just glad he's thinking more about expanding his talents outside of the bloody home," Regulus said.
Kreacher shot an annoyed frown in his direction.
"Kreacher has been working outside of the home with Blaise and Gellert for some time. Has Master Regulus forgotten, Kreacher wonders?"
"Of course not," Regulus said.
"Just the more you do to realize the greatness I always saw in you the better."
"We've been trying to understand the mechanism behind elf enslavement for some time," he told the Lestranges, wondering exactly how hard they were tripping and if they were able to follow the conversation. Then again they always claimed that for them, when they tripped, they tended to delve into expanding their magical knowledge and understanding. Regulus was certainly no expert. He'd only seen them trip once, after all, before everything had gone to hell, when they were all still young and relatively innocent.
"We were studying the fairy connection, you remember our conversation about cold iron," Regulus reminded.
"We're tripping, not forgetful or stupid," Bellatrix grumbled.
"You two really should trip more."
"If their minds are anymore expanded they may bloody fall out of them," Rodolphus snickered.
Bellatrix's lips twitched, but she kept her frown in place for the most part...The one she was still directing at Regulus.
"Or they could expand them in a more useful way," she replied to Rod, who nodded.
"That could randomly happen, I suppose."
Regulus shot Rod an annoyed scowl.
"Are you lot going to listen or not?"
"Yes, yes, listening right now," Rodolphus assured hurriedly, gesturing for Regulus to go on.
"Well, Griphook was helping us discover more about elf capabilities through giving Kreacher a way to practice."
"Which has what to do with elf enslavement? How does that connect to fairies," Bellatrix wanted to know.
As she basically appeared lucid, Regulus chose to connect the dots for her.
"If elves are so powerful that they are indeed, as my Mum's shade suspects, among the ranks of the fae, how were they enslaved and by whom is a worthy question. We've attempted to study the slave bond to see how it works, and how it could've been forged in order to study how it could've been made, because if elves are so much stronger than us, which they obviously are, how did we manage to enslave them? How could anyone?"
Rod and Rabastan nodded sagely, but Bellatrix leaned forward in her chair, gaze suddenly intense.
"It sounds like a matter of blood magic to me."
Regulus shrugged.
"We've played about with that but come up with nothing."
He understood her rational, as to enslave anyone had to involve some of the darkest magic, and blood magic was generally always quite dark. The Dark Mark which allowed Voldemort to track them as well as control where they all apparated when he summoned them, was a nicely done bit of blood magic, after all.
"Not the simple basic kind," Bellatrix insisted, shaking her head.
"I'm speaking of the genetic sort. A deeper familial link that could, under the right circumstances, make a person easier to control."
"Elaborate," Regulus invited, quite intrigued now.
"Your and Kreacher's nasty relationship made me think of it...Just now, but still," Bella said excitedly.
"Go on," Regulus prompted dryly, opting to ignore her comment about their relationship being nasty.
"If long long ago a male elf and human lady shagged, and made a baby, it would have the blood of both. If that baby was given the wizarding family name and made to marry a human wizard, eventually the resulting...let's say grandchildren would appear fully human again. They would Appear fully human, but still have elf blood in them, thus in the family line. The elf would be linked to the family by blood as would any of his relatives."
"Making it easier to control them with blood magic," Regulus exclaimed, and Bellatrix nodded.
"Yes! They could even curse their own blood line, careful to be specific so that only the elves were affected. Blood curses are some of the most difficult to break, after all. The elves who had nothing to do with the situation, if related to the original shagging elf, would still be affected, so many elves could be enslaved to that family."
"Why does the elf have to be male and the human witch female," Kreacher wondered with a frown.
"Because, idiot, if the human man shagged the tiny female elf, it would bloody hurt and I am standing up for women's rights here," Bellatrix snapped peevishly.
"So if I understand the concept properly, you're saying that if we discovered how to undo the blood curse, and let's say we used your father-in-law's elf, every Lestrange elf would be free," Regulus asked Bellatrix.
"Hey leave Jackdaw outa this," Rabastan said.
"He loves us very much. He's like family. We're like bros."
"He could still love you very much were he free, and that wasn't the point," Regulus snapped.
"Yes I think it would work that way, Regi," Bellatrix said.
"We'd still have to do a lot of studying to be certain how it works, though. For all I know, we could accidentally harm them or us if we went about it the wrong way. Some curses struggle not to be broken, and I have a feeling this one would be nasty if approached incorrectly."
Though the idea was an inconvenient one, the sudden sinking in the pit of Regulus's stomach attested to his agreement on her thoughts. He nodded, sighing.
"But if this blood curse is so very complex and dangerous to break, why is it' so easy to free one elf. Giving someone clothes is super easy and as Lucy can attest, can easily even happen by accident," Rabastan pointed out.
"True enough, but one elf's freedom is hardly the same as an entire line of them," Regulus said.
"Perhaps the clothing bit had a different symbolism originally, or perhaps it was a ruse to make the entire thing appear less sinister."
He shrugged, suddenly frustrated over the entire thing, though not in the least for the first time.
"None of it makes sense."
Rodolphus nodded.
"That just means we're missing some pieces. With care and careful consideration, we'll find those pieces in time. I, for one, would like to know what happened to cause wizards to think enslaving elves was the thing to do. Considering their strength, it should've posed some risk, after all."
"Good thought," Regulus said.
"The circumstances around a thing, can lead to an understanding of how it was done."
Rod nodded back.
"Exactly."
"Is Rodolphus insinuating that the elves deserved it," Kreacher asked, frowning.
"I wasn't," Rodolphus said.
"But even if the wizards at the time believed they did, it doesn't at all mean this is the case now."
"If the wizards believed elves were a danger, there are other ways to go about handling that," Regulus said.
"They didn't enslave the goblins, after all. It was enough to strip them of wands, and push them off into little compartments of magical society."
"So we need to dig deeper into history than you two have been able to find in written records," Bellatrix said.
"As I'm certain you've scoured every book."
Regulus nodded.
"That's the frustrating bit."
"You should ask that Dumbledore Necromancer to help," Rodolphus suggested.
"She could summon the spirits of ancient wizards and you could ask them what they know about human elf political relations or whatever. Keep asking further and further back until you hit on someone who knows."
Regulus straightened eagerly in the chair he shared with Kreacher, excited about the idea.
Kreacher gave Rodolphus a surprised look.
"Kreacher feels the fool for not considering such earlier."
Regulus nodded.
"It is genius, Rod."
"You'll need to research back into family trees for the names of ancient wizards to call on," Rabastan said.
"I assume she can't just call randomly on any ancient ass wizard who wants to come play."
"Obviously," Regulus agreed.
"We'll write her about it tomorrow and let you all know how it goes," he promised.
Ordinarily he'd have done tonight, but it had been a long day, and besides, they had company. He had a feeling leaving tripping Lestranges alone near the dangerous books in the Black family library would be unwise.