Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Duh.
A/N: Well, Harry never does seem to get a break, does he? Hopefully, this won't last… There will actually be responses to reviewers at the end of this chapter, so stay tuned!
Just to point this out, I understand I have grammatical errors in this, as well as some errors in canon things. I don't have a beta or anything, and it's hard for me to catch everything on my own. I'm just not that submerged in the HP world right now. I will work on getting more accurate with things, and the chapters that I do get up over the summer should be better, since I'll have like a week or two with each one before I post it. --Miss Laine
00000000000000 Chapter 13: House-Elf Stew 00000000000
Harry shouted and threw his arms up to try to defend himself against the sudden surprise attack.
He was almost fast enough, his skills as a seeker allowing him to get his right arm between his face and his attacker.
However, the sudden impact with his shoulders and head knocked him backwards, and he shouted again as he was pushed off balance. His left foot tried to find solid footing, but he slipped. He was going to fall down the stairs.
He only got about two steps backwards into his fall before it was suddenly broken. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had braced themselves behind him and caught him. So he wasn't going to fall down any staircases today…
He was still being attacked though, and now that he didn't have to worry about falling to his death, he worked on detaching the thing from him, hitting at the thing even as it clawed at his face, long dirty nails scratching at his face and neck.
Finally, he got a hand firmly against it, and just as its long claws raked across his cheek he shoved hard. The thing was dislodged and fell onto the staircase. "THAT'S IT!" he roared. His face burned badly because of the scratches, as did his neck, and his shoulders felt bruised. "THAT'S ABSOLUTELY BLOODY IT!"
"Oh, Harry!" Hermione cried out. Harry ignored her. He advanced on his attacker, anger boiling over.
"He's going, and he's going now, if I have to throw him out myself!" he shouted. His blood was boiling now. He hadn't been this mad—his anger shut off at that sudden memory. He'd been that mad that night he'd almost been possessed again.
Suddenly his anger was cold anger. "Harry, let's go—" Ginny started to suggest.
"No," Harry said. "This is my house. He's my house elf."
"Harry—" Hermione said, sounding exasperated. Harry didn't take his gaze off the house elf. Kreacher was staring up at him, a look of vague horror on his hideous face.
"Hermione, please," he said. "You may want to 'free the house-elves' or whatever, so I'm going to give you a little help."
"No!" Kreacher cried out. "Mistress, oh mistress," he mumbled. Harry slowly pulled his shirt over his head. It would mean getting another one, but it would be well worth it.
Although Remus had said that Kreacher dodged all attempts to give him clothing, Harry wasn't the youngest seeker in a century for nothing. Before the creature could jump more than a foot out of the way, Harry had lunged. He pinned Kreacher down and forcibly wrapped the creature in the fabric.
Kreacher started struggling wildly. "Someone get Remus!" he shouted. He heard footsteps thundering down the stairs.
Suddenly he pitched forward, head actually slamming into the steps in front of him. "Bloody hell!" he shouted.
"Harry?!" Hermione cried out.
"He poofed away, or whatever it is house-elves do!" he snarled. "Bloody hell."
"Where did he go?" Hermione wondered. Harry didn't answer as he shook out his now-filthy shirt. His head hurt where he'd smacked it on the steps, and there was blood on his face and neck, slowly running down to his chest.
"I don't care," Harry said as he stood up. "He's going. No more of this."
"Harry! I got Remus!" came Ginny's voice. Harry saw the two come running up the stairs, and Remus pushed past Ron and Hermione frantically.
"Harry? What happened?" Remus asked. Harry sighed. Remus was in worried-sick father mode.
"Kreacher," he explained. "Look—could we all go somewhere else?" he asked. "I want to wash up and find a new shirt, and then we need to talk, Remus."
"All right," Remus agreed, still looking worried. "I'll find some cream or something that'll heal those scratches right up."
"Thanks, Remus," Harry said gratefully. The others started down the stairs reluctantly, and Harry gave the spot on the steps where Kreacher had last been one last venomous glare before starting down the stairs as well.
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"Kreacher goes," he said firmly. "I don't care how. You can lop his head off or obliviate him or whatever," he offered. Remus frowned.
"You know we can't just free him, Harry. I was just joking about that earlier," Remus pointed out. Harry stopped himself from grinding his teeth.
"I know that, Remus," he got out. "But he's not staying here. He attacked me!"
After he'd washed out the scratches and looked in the mirror, he'd seen how close Kreacher had been to gouging his eyes out or something similar. There had been a rather deep gash along his left temple, stopped only by the stem of his glasses.
Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, thankfully sensing that this was a discussion that was between Remus and Harry more than anything else, had opted to open some more letters in the den and stay out of the way for a bit. Harry was very glad for that. He didn't want them getting involved in this.
"You know that Kreacher's somewhat senile," Remus said gently. Harry really wanted to throw something. Namely Kreacher…over a cliff…
"Somewhat senile?!" he repeated angrily. "Somewhat senile?!! Remus, he's dangerous! You said so yourself, and so did Tonks! Either he goes or I go. I won't stay here with him in this house any longer!"
Remus sighed. "Look, Harry, I'll talk to Albus. I really will. But I can't promise anything."
Harry frowned. That was definitely not good enough. "Three days," he said. "Three days to come up with a solution, and if you don't by then, I'll find some way to get rid of him myself."
"Harry," Remus said warningly. "If you free him, he'd leak important information to Voldemort."
"Well, right now my blood's the thing that's doing the leaking, Remus! I won't stay in what's supposed to be my house if I'm going to live in fear!" he argued. "I mean it, Remus. I'm sick of him!"
"All right," Remus said, giving in. "Three days. And I'll try to keep an eye on him between then and now."
"I won't let this go away," Harry warned. "I've had enough of Kreacher."
Remus sighed heavily, and Harry knew he was remembering the part Kreacher had played in Sirius's death. "I know," Remus finally said. "Look—Mrs. Weasley's going to be coming over to help with dinner, so why don't you do something with your friends until then? They're going to have to go after dinner."
"That soon?" Harry asked, willing to let the subject change for now. He figured he'd made his point.
"Yeah," Remus admitted. "Molly's just worried about things. She doesn't like having her kids away from home right now."
Harry wondered what it was like to have someone care about you so much that they worried about you even when everything was just fine. It probably annoyed Ron and Ginny to no end, but Harry had felt rather flattered the times that Mrs. Weasley had really worried about him. "Yeah," he said. "We'll go find something to do. Where there won't be any Kreacher."
"Good," Remus said. Harry shifted a little as Remus put a hand on his shoulder in some sort of fatherly gesture, and then got up. "We'll listen for dinner," he promised, and then went to find his friends.
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When he got into the room, all three of his friends were on the floor, laughing uproariously. Ron had a letter in his hands. "…And…and…" Ron was gasping out, "T-then they want t-to know i-if he's g-going t-to…" Ron dissolved into laughter. Harry just stood in the doorway, arms folded. He figured he'd wait for them to notice him.
"Come on, Ron!" Ginny cried out. "Finish it."
"It's too funny, Gin," Ron gasped. "T-they want to know if he's…if he's going to model!"
Ginny started laughing again, and Hermione hadn't stopped. Ron dropped the letter, laughing too hard to sit up anymore. Harry knew his face was getting red, and he cleared his throat.
Immediately, the laughter stopped. "Harry!" Hermione said.
"Er—so what's up with Kreacher?" Ron said, recovering.
"Who was that letter from?" Harry asked levelly. Ron smiled.
"Some reporter from the Daily Prophet," Ron explained. "Wondering if The Harry Potter has any plans for his sixth year at Hogwarts."
"Great," Harry groaned. "Was it really that funny?" he asked. Ginny nodded, grinning.
"Funnier."
"Can we send them a howler?" he asked.
"Harry, you know that's not polite," Hermione scolded. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Does it look like I care?" he asked. "And Kreacher's going in three days or I'm making him go," he added. Hermione frowned, but Harry refused to defend himself. Kreacher wasn't a normal house-elf. There was something really wrong with that thing.
"So what're we going to do now?" Ginny asked. "Like 99% of these letters are really stupid," she said. "What do you usually do around here, Harry?"
"Besides have visions, get attacked by house elves, and read mail?" he asked sarcastically. "I haven't done much of anything." He flopped down onto an empty sofa, feeling drained. He'd done too much shouting and struggling and fighting already. He just wanted to lie there.
"Harry…" Hermione began. Her tone made him sit up. Something was up.
"What?" he asked, looking at her. She had a worried expression. "What now?" he wondered.
"Harry, Mrs. Weasley was acting really strange last night when we asked about you when she got back from the Order meeting," Hermione said.
Dammit, Harry thought. Now he was going to have to tell them sooner than he'd wanted. He wished Mrs. Weasley had just acted normal. "What'd she say?" he asked. Perhaps he could still get out of this…but he didn't want them to remember this later and know that he'd lied to them…
"Something about you never getting a break from trouble," Hermione said.
"What happened last night, Harry?" Ron asked. "Mum was all freaked out. So was dad."
Harry sighed. "I got a letter yesterday," he explained. "From some office at the Ministry," he added.
"What did they want?" Hermione asked worriedly. "Was it about Voldemort?"
"Sort of," he said with a bitter laugh. He hesitated. "Look—you guys might get freaked out by this. I—I won't get mad if you do."
"You're not getting shipped to Azkaban, are you?" Ginny asked. "You didn't kill anyone did you?"
"No," he said.
"Tell us, Harry," Hermione said, very serious now. "I promise I won't get upset, no matter what you say."
"Yeah, it's not like you're going to tell us Voldemort's your dad or something," Ron laughed. Harry winced inwardly at how close Ron was to the truth, and did not laugh with the other three.
Ron paled. "Y-you don't mean…" he trailed off weakly.
"He's my great-uncle," he said flatly. "The letter was from the Office of Ancestry."
"No way," Ginny breathed. She looked like she was in shock.
"Wow, mate," Ron managed. Hermione actually didn't look that fazed by it all.
"It actually kind of makes an odd sense," she mused.
"What?!" Ron yelped, sitting up straight.
"Well, think about it Ron," Hermione said. "Remember second year, and everyone thought that Harry was the Heir of Slytherin or whatnot?" she reminded them. "Well, obviously he can't be it still, but I did say that he looked a lot like Salazar Slytherin."
"Oh," Ron said stupidly.
"Was your grandfather his older or younger brother, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Older half-brother," Harry said slowly. "But he was a squib or muggle or whatever," he added. "He wasn't even a bit magical, because the Hogwart's registry listed him as muggle."
"Well, then Tom Riddle was certainly the Heir of Slytherin. If he had children…Merlin forbid…they'd possibly be the Heir, if there was any basilisk left to be of use in the Chamber, but your grandfather would be free of all that," Hermione explained. Harry felt a little relieved at that. He hadn't remembered all the lineage rules about the Heir of Slytherin stuff.
"So could I have inherited anything from him?" Harry asked.
"It's not likely. I mean, Tom Riddle's mother was a witch—and she isn't related to you at all. It'd be whoever your great-grandmother was," she said thoughtfully. Harry could see that both Ginny and Ron were still trying to catch up with this new information, and he was grateful that Hermione was taking it so in stride. "But if your grandfather was a squib, anything he did inherit would be really dormant. So I don't think you would've gotten anything from him. There probably wasn't much of a relation between your grandfather and Tom Riddle. Well, I mean there would have been enough for them to be half-brothers, but really wizard genetics are hard to figure out…"
"His name was Jonathan Riddle, I guess," he added. "Changed to Jacob Evans when his dad dumped in an orphanage. I think Tom Riddle Sr. must have been like a smarter version of Uncle Vernon," he mused. "He put the kid he didn't want up for adoption instead of hiding them."
"Are you all right, Ron?" Hermione asked. Ron nodded, closing his open mouth.
"Y-yeah," he said slowly. Hermione frowned at him, then smiled at Harry.
"Don't think for an instant that this changes anything between the three of us, Harry," she told him. Harry felt a lot better at her words, but it still remained to be seen whether it was really true.
"Yeah, mate," Ron echoed weakly. Harry was noticing that Ginny was just staring at him now.
"Ginny?" he asked worriedly. She blinked slowly.
"You know, you look just like him," she said quietly. "If you took the glasses off, combed your hair differently, and frowned enough…" She trailed off.
Harry knew what she meant by 'him.' She meant the sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle from the diary. The one that had made her first year at Hogwarts terrifying. "I'm not him," he said. She nodded slowly.
"Don't ever let that be you, Harry," she said in that lost and scared voice.
"I won't," he assured her. She nodded slowly.
"I—I'm going to go help with dinner," she said suddenly.
Harry sighed as she just about ran out of the room, never looking back. Ron shifted, looking nervous and uncertain. "She's just upset," he said.
"She'll be all right, Harry," Hermione assured him. Harry wasn't too sure.
"Give her some time," Ron said. "That whole diary thing was really frightening for her."
"I know," Harry said. There wasn't anything he could do to change what had happened though.
"Time's what she needs, Harry," Hermione said wisely. Harry nodded and turned back to looking at his friends.
"Are you guys really all right with this?" he asked. "I mean, I'll understand if—"
"Harry," Ron cut him off. "I know I've been a prat in the past and I've done some really stupid things, but don't believe for a minute that after all those times I'd still do things like that."
"Thanks, Ron," he said. Ron had been the one he'd really been worried about. Ron did tend to jump to conclusions a lot. But last year he hadn't as much, and Harry knew that he'd been the one with the short temper. Maybe they'd all managed to live through that stage now…
"Does this make things more dangerous for you, Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry sighed.
"Dumbledore says it shouldn't, at least as long as Voldemort doesn't find out for a long while. If he did, it might give him enough time to figure out how to do something. But he doesn't know right now, and Snape's supposedly teaching me Occlumency again so Voldemort won't get it from me."
"What about us?" Hermione asked.
"It's the connection that makes things dangerous," Harry explained. "He can get into my head without being in direct eye-contact with me. If he were looking one of you two in the eye, then I'd have to say you're pretty sunk anyway, and it wouldn't really matter if he found out."
Ron smirked. "That's a cheery way to see it," he said sarcastically. Harry smiled thinly.
"Cheery times we live in, Ron. Voldemort isn't even enough. We have killer house-elves," he joked. Ron laughed, but Hermione frowned.
"They should admit non-human patients to St. Mungos, she said suddenly. "Kreacher needs mental treatment."
"They have MacNair for that," Harry said bitterly. "His ax would fix Kreacher good."
"Harry!" Hermione said. Harry smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry, Hermione, but you're not the one that almost had your eyes gouged out by a creature about as big as your left leg," he pointed out. Hermione just rolled her eyes and Ron laughed.
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Dinner was tense. Ginny was still pale and skittish around Harry, and Mrs. Weasley looked worried. She kept glancing at her daughter, then at Harry, then Ron, and then at Remus. She didn't say anything though.
Tonks was not there. Remus mentioned shortly that she'd been called away for something, and Harry just nodded to show that he'd heard.
Everyone ate silently. Hermione looked like she wanted to talk, but every time she started to open her mouth, she instead just took a bite of the casserole that Mrs. Weasley had cooked.
Ron kept glancing at his sister, a worried expression on his face, and Ginny studiously ignored him. She also did not once glance at Harry. Her face was closed, and she kept her eyes down, on her food.
Remus was keeping his nose in his newspaper while he ate. Harry knew the man was purposely ignoring the tense silence at the table, and for a moment he wished for Sirius's more exuberant personality to get rid of the silence.
Finally, halfway through dinner, he couldn't stand the silence anymore. He cleared his throat loudly, setting his fork down.
Ginny started at the noise. Harry wondered if she expected for Voldemort to suddenly come popping out of the kitchen or something, but didn't even look at her as he spoke. "I told them," he said clearly.
"Oh!" Mrs. Weasley said. She didn't sound that surprised, though, Harry noted. He'd pretty much figured from the way she was acting that she knew he'd told.
Remus glanced up from his paper but didn't say anything. His face did not betray what he was feeling either. Harry glanced at Ginny then. She wasn't looking up.
"Do you want to talk about it, Harry?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"No," he said. Immediately, he regretted his sharp response as Mrs. Weasley looked hurt. He remembered last night, when she'd been so worried about him. She wasn't being nice because she wanted to butt in. It was because she cared. "I—I already talked to Hermione and Ron some," he added.
"It's all fine," Ron assured his mother. "We're not worried about it."
"Ginny?" Mrs. Weasley said, immediately picking up on the real source of the tension.
Ginny looked up with a weak smile. She didn't look at Harry though, just at her mother. "I'm fine," she said. "Really."
"All right," Mrs. Weasley said, sounding completely unconvinced. "Ginny—" she started slowly, when suddenly there was a whooshing sound in the other room followed by a series of crashes.
A few moments later Tonks came into the room, shaking soot off her robes. She grinned. "Wotcher, Harry," she said. She gave Remus a quick glance, and Harry saw that the man was smiling amusedly.
"Sit down, Tonks, there's plenty of room," Mrs. Weasley invited. Harry supposed she was being so nice to the other witch because she'd been the one to make dinner.
"Thanks, Molly," Tonks said, plopping down in a seat. She took the offered plate of casserole and dug in heartily. She stopped between bite, though, smiling.
"I figured out the solution to your house-elf problem, Harry," she said.
"Really?" Harry asked, scooping another forkful of casserole and slowly chewing it.
"Yup," she confirmed. She gestured with her fork. "House-elf Casserole!"
More than one person quickly spat out their mouthful of casserole. "WHAT?!" Hermione squeaked, hacking and coughing. Tonks laughed sheepishly.
"I didn't mean this casserole," she said. "And it was a joke, anyway."
Harry smiled. House-elf casserole. It could work. "Did you come up with any real solutions?" he asked her. He deliberately ate another bite of casserole, wondering just what it'd taste like with house-elf in it. Ew, he decided.
"Well, Albus mentioned something about perhaps transferring him to the dungeons at Hogwarts," she commented, smiling.
"Can we give him to Snape?" he asked hopefully. Tonks laughed.
"They'd kill each other in a day," she said.
"My point," Harry said.
"Harry," Remus said. Harry rolled his eyes. Remus just loved to cut him off like that.
"Sorry," he said. He cleared his throat. "That's terrible, Tonks!" he said sarcastically. "How could you even think of being that cruel to a house-elf!"
Even Remus couldn't stop a small chuckle at that. "I think the best solution for it right now is to lock him up in some room he's happy with," Tonks said. "Albus said he could figure out a few spells to lock him up in the attic or something so he couldn't come out."
"What about eating?" Hermione demanded.
"Well, we'd have to take him something to eat every morning," Tonks admitted. "House-elves don't eat as often as people do."
It vaguely reminded Harry of his own days at the Dursleys, but then again, he hadn't been senile or dangerous. As if the Dursleys really understood that… "It sounds good to me," he said. "Although I kind of wanted to go in the attic."
"We could set up a room for him down in the basement somewhere," Tonks suggested. "Just give him some of old Mrs. Black's stuff to do whatever with, and then leave him there."
"Good," Harry said. "When could we do this?" he asked.
"It'll have to be a few days," Tonks admitted. "Honestly, it's not that high on the list of things to do, but Albus does understand, Harry. He's just very busy, you know."
"I know," Harry said with a heavy sigh. "If Kreacher gets too out of hand, though, I'm going to stun him and cook him up," he threatened. Tonks grinned.
"Sounds like a plan," she said with a laugh.
"Although," he added, leaning back in his chair. "I think you'd have to boil him," he commented. "He's rather tough-looking."
"Harry, that's not funny," Hermione said. Ron grinned.
"Sure it is, 'Mione," he told her. She glared at him, obviously expecting more support from her boyfriend.
"House-elf stew," Remus suddenly spoke up, a small grin on his face. Harry laughed.
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A/N: I gave this a title after I finished. It's just kind of funny interlude, with a few very serious moments added into it.
I'm sorry if Ron isn't totally IC, but I've never been a big fan of 'Over-Reaction Ron.' Fifth year he didn't overreact to things that much, I don't think, and although I understand how he could overreact to some things, I don't think he wants to jeopardize the friendship.
Just to mix things up a little, though, I made Ginny the one that's got a problem. I mean, she did go a whole school year terrorized by the memory of the man that is Harry's grand-uncle, and Harry does look somewhat like him. Don't worry, she won't blab to the school or try to kill him or something. She just needs some time to get used to the idea.
Responses to Reviewers:
Thranx – Yeah, Tonks is a little OC, but I just figured now she has a real reason to cook well and all that…partially because she likes Harry and wants to take care of him, and partially because she's got her crush on Remus. She doesn't want to look bad in front of him, I figure. As for Kreacher, well, he's already spilled secrets when he shouldn't, and there's not too much for him to say right now…but the way I see it, Dumbledore made sure that Kreacher couldn't get out of the house again or something. I mean, he couldn't tell anyone where Grimmauld Place was, I figure, so probably he's being kept from telling any more secrets. Something like that… The thin-Harry things is just that he looked pretty thin to his friends, who hadn't seen him since Hogwarts when he was all fed and healthier. So he looks thinner than he should, but not like he's just escaped from prison or something. He doesn't look like he's going to fall over dead, I mean. Just thinner than someone his age should be. Also, sorry about the cliffies. I don't purposely do them, but I like experimenting with things like that. Sometimes, it just works as a good stopping point. I don't purposely make it that way, though. Oh, and the Dursleys are coming up. Things start to come out about that, and Snape will be partially involved in that. Don't look for it to make too much of change to him. I mean, he's seen memories from Harry's life and he still hasn't changed. But perhaps eventually…
Shadowsfriend – Wow. Thanks for telling Shadowarwen about me! I've loved her story and I've been keeping track of her sequel. I'm really glad that you're enjoying my story as well, and I have to admit that reviews may become a little less often before May 7. I have three very nasty finals in two days, on May 5 and 6, but if they go well (meaning I'm not in my room crying or something) I'll write like crazy and make up for lost time. Perhaps get two chapters up to make up for that. I definitely won't be updating until the sixth. Finals come first, sadly. It is kind of difficult to go between 'Promises' and this story, just because of the differences between the characters, so sometimes I just read other stories on for a bit or some of my other unpublished stuff until I've cleared whichever story I was working on out of my head. I try not to let them influence each other too much.
Thanks also: Ash Knight – you always review, and I'm very thankful for that.
Angel74, sambow24, Kjkit, thanks also. I'm always happy when I get such great reviews. Although I feel terrible about being gone all summer… It can't be helped, though. Sorry!
--Miss Laine