Here is the next chapter. All advice on what you would like to see happen is welcome. Please review and let me know what you think love Angel x
Narcissa woke up in the morning determined to sort Grimmauld Place out. It was a dank, dark mess and nowhere they should be currently living. She went down the stairs and into the kitchen. She gasped at the filth in there. "Kreacher! You explain yourself at once young man. Why is this house a hell hole? Why have you let it get so bad? Your previous master would be ashamed of you!" she snapped as he looked nervous.
"He never asked me to clean it up so I have not done so. Lord Potters Mudblood got so angry about me being here that he has stopped asking me to do things to keep her quiet!" he responded casually as she gasped. She was about to respond further when the painting in the hall started screaming. She ran out to the hall and up the stairs where the stunned portrait was shouting her usual vitriol.
"Aunt Walburga you always were a scumbag. Not befitting a Black family member at all. Did you really think mother did not tell me what you did? Well she did. You have spoken your last!" she said pointing her wand at the painting as Kreacher threw himself in front of it.
"Please Lady Black no. Don't kill my mistress!" he pleaded as she shoved him to the side and cast a complex spell speaking many things in Latin while Harry who had exited their room looked at her in awe as she struggled. Eventually the painting gave up and caught fire as a black hue left Kreacher who now stood tall and looked younger. Walburga had imbibed her painting with dark magic which would force the elf to do her bidding from beyond the grave and make him turn even more bitter as the years went on. As long as her painting stood he would always be cursed with her.
"Mistress Black you have saved me. Kreacher is free. Lord Black Kreacher is sorry he did such bad things. Old bad mistress made me do them. I did not want to but I could not fight her as she put my blood into that painting with her. I will organise the house now!" he said as Narcissa looked relieved and turned to smile at Harry.
"Kreacher you are forgiven. Please find anything personal belonging to Sirius and Regulus Black and place them inside two brand new undetectably extended trunks in my room. After this you are to get rid of every speck of furniture and portrait this old house has. Buy another special trunk and put them in there and then once you're done cleaning put them in the attic. I never wanted to live like this but I didn't know where to begin. My darling Narcissa will tell you what she wants to do the house and you are to do everything she says. Follow her like you follow me equally. There is to be no peach or yellow in this house but everything else goes!" Harry instructed as Narcissa rushed over to him kissing him soundly as he smiled brightly.
Kreacher nodded once and left to get the trunks. He returned moments later with four brand new trunks. He set to work cleaning up everything. "Kreacher please be careful as things could be cursed and I don't want you getting hurt. We had issues the last time with that grandfather clock which shot out bolts and don't even get me started on that blasted cloak which almost choked Ron to death!" he warned as Kreacher nodded. He was shockingly fast. He brought them breakfast in their room today while he cleaned the rest of the house. In one hour the entire house was literally empty of everything. It was only as this was done that it was evident how filthy it really was. It was all dark black wooden floors and walls with ugly wallpaper on them which were smelly and covered in mould. There was so much dust Kreacher actually sneezed a few times. With a couple of clicks of his fingers all of the dust was gathered into a huge thick pitch black ball and put into the top trunk. Harry looked at him in confusion.
"Master the top trunk has all the old and cursed furniture and now dust in it. I will place all of the wallpaper in it too and then we can simply destroy the whole trunk in one go. I recommend setting it alight in the garden!" he said as Harry nodded once. Himself and Narcissa dressed and he unlocked the floo leaving with her for Diagon Alley just after which Hermione came through the floo accusing Kreacher of wrecking the house while Harry was away. She was furious with him. She didn't believe him when he said Harry had asked him to do so. It would be just like Kreacher to destroy the house to spite Harry. She called him ridiculous and left again annoyed she couldn't find Harry.
Grimmauld Place had many charms and unnecessary magically extended rooms which weren't needed. It also had rooms which had been repurposed as something else poorly. It was high time everything inside it was whatever it was supposed to be. Grimmauld Place had always contained six bedrooms but had been magically extended to contain fifteen bedrooms for the Order and precious space had been taken up that way. Once Kreacher had undone all the charms it looked way less crowded and normal. Harry entered the furniture store with Narcissa shocked to discover he actually had an opinion at all on things. Narcissa was also shocked and indeed delighted to discover he did. They went to the section for the living room furniture when Kreacher popped in handing them a parchment piece which detailed the rooms on each floor clearly as things now stood after he'd made the changes needed.
Basement level:
Kitchen
Dining room
Wine Cellar
Pantry
Scullery
Boiler Room
Bathroom
Ground Floor:
Informal Sitting Room
Formal Lounge
Music Room
Drawing Room
Bathroom
Games Room
First Floor:
Guest Bedroom 1
Guest Bedroom 2
Bathroom
Arboretum Room
Black Family Tree Room
Second Floor:
Guest Bedroom 3
Guest Bedroom 4
Bathroom
Potions Lab
Mistresses Study
Mistresses Bar
Third Floor:
Guest Bedroom 5
Master Bedroom
Bathroom
Masters Office
Masters Bar
Top Floor:
Attic
Sewing Room
Dark Arts Library
Weapons Closet
Duelling Ring
They both read it and gasped loudly. Half of those rooms weren't even there before because Albus Dumbledore had decided on a whim that they should be transfigured into many bedrooms for his many Order members. What a disgrace that was. They decided that the formal lounge should be a place to greet fancy house guests and that its own floo should have a unique name to iterHerm….0
…0. They purchased some fancy sofas in the style of the nineteen twenties. They wanted that room to have the opulence of the twenties. Harry had seen one of Aunt Petunia's programmes on homes throughout time before and had loved the opulence of the twenties. They got a sofa and two armchairs facing it trimmed in gold. They also bought some nice fancy side tables and a nice chandelier for the ceiling. Narcissa thought a nice blue wall colour in here teamed with a gorgeous cream carpet. They went through each room like this buying all around them until in a record six hours the whole house was done. It was an utterly exhausting and they came through the floo giggling stunned to see a furious Hermione waiting there and stamping her foot. Her hair was a total mess and she looked stressed off her head. In fact she looked a right state if he did say so himself. He actually wondered if someone had attacked her but then remembered who she was, how powerful she was and how unlikely that would have been.
"Well I'm glad you decided to show up at long last. Where in the fuck have you been Harry? I needed to talk to you and you weren't here all damn day. Who in the hell are you and why in the hell are you ok with Kreacher ruining your home? He tried to lie and say you wanted these changes!" she snapped as he looked at her in a stunned fashion.
"I apologise I didn't realise you needed me so badly then again that is what Patronuses are for. I would suggest using one next time instead of stressing yourself out waiting the entire day for me so I have to deal with you when you're like this. For your information I did ask Kreacher to do this. You can't seriously think I wanted to live in this hell hole the way it was? This Hermione is Narcissa my wife!" he said sounding very angry indeed that she was so angry with him. Hermione gasped her head off tears springing to her eyes.
"Did you marry Narcissa Malfoy out of some kind of sick sense of duty huh? Did you feel you needed to marry her because she lied and saved your life? What about Ginny or I don't know someone else your own damn age? How could you be so reckless?!" she snapped as he turned on her looking absolutely furious. She gulped not knowing what had come over her making her shout at him but his expression was not good.
"Right now you're behaving worse than Ron which is saying something because he has his moments for sure. If you must know it was soul bond. We didn't intend to get married but we are now. I love Narcissa with all I have and intend to do so all of my life. If you cannot handle that then get the hell out of my house and take your fucking attitude with you. I don't have the time or patience for your nonsense!" he snapped as she burst into tears at the insult.
"I only came here really to tell you I'm damn pregnant and Ron and I are getting married. You should have told me you had a soul bond Harry! I thought the worst of you because you didn't tell me. Anyhow forget it now. I want you to be its godfather. We don't even know the gender of it yet!" she said as his gaze softened slightly. He'd heard before about pregnancy mood swings and she was clearly experiencing them like mad lately.
"Next time use your brain and you being pregnant is not an excuse either. Stop the constant judgement and things will be fine. I love you as my best friend and would be honoured to be the godfather of your baby!" he said with joy her earlier comments forgotten for now. Narcissa watched the exchange with surprisingly fond eyes which made Hermione raise her eyebrows and gasp in shock.
"I've been pregnant once before Miss Granger although mine was a harrowing experience to say the least. I'm not getting into it now but I do know about the hormones being all over the place. Don't worry. Just in case you get any funny ideas I'm thirty and we love each other. I have not ensnared him I assure you!" she said as Hermione who had been smiling once more cried until she was full blown sobbing.
"I'm so sorry! It's all the hormones. I didn't even mean to snap. I don't normally snap at all. I'm just so impatient and stressed out. I can't stop eating weird foods and craving intimacy way more than before and I don't like it. I'm just so all over the place. I can't stop snapping at people. Oh Narcissa please forgive me!" she said as Narcissa smiled and took a handkerchief from her handbag and handed it to Hermione with a smile. It was a long night filled with discussions on the new arrival and plenty of random emotions from Hermione before she said goodnight and the married couple fell into bed too exhausted for any funny business right now.