Kreacher Remembers
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Kreacher doesn't forget easy. No, no, Kreacher remember all sorts of things. Kreacher remembers when things were well.
Once, Kreacher knows, pain was welcomed as punishment and not the shackles of age. Once, Kreacher recalls, there were noble witches and wizards dwelled here not filthy Mudbloods and red-headed Blood Traitors. Once, Kreacher remembers, Mistress' house was splendid. Kreacher remembers Master Sirius before he went to school, when hope still was that he could turn out good. Kreacher remembers Mistress when she had her youth and beauty and his own mother was still alive. Kreacher remembers Mistress Cissy talking to him almost as an equal when they were the same size when she was a child. He remembers patching a skinned knee for Mistress Bella. He remembers valiant Master Regulus.
Kreacher remembers how Master Regulus would talk to him at night and follow him around Mistress' house while he did chores. There had still been a reason to do chores, good Masters and Mistresses to please. Master Regulus had always liked Kreacher. When Master Sirius had already gone off to school, already disgracing the dignity of his pure blood in the company of Mudbloods in Godric Gryffindor's house, Master Regulus had grown lonely in Mistress' big house and he had come to Kreacher for company. Master Regulus was brave and cunning; he knew he was of heightened nobility. He knew he had to bring honor to the family or they would be forever disgraced.
Even after Master Regulus went off to study in Slytherin's noble house, he still would seek Kreacher for company over holidays. Master Sirius began to argue with Mistress, fight with Mistress. He said horrible things to her, dreadful things. His mother, my Mistress! He would go rigid when Blood Purity was the topic of conversation and would cringe when she said Mudblood. Finally, they had a row when he was in his sixteenth year and he yelled about his filthy Mudblood friends and his rotten Mudblood-loving friends. He yelled about how proud he was that the Sorting Hat had put him into Gryffindor. Mistress had stood still and listened, while Master Sirius raged at her about how narrow her mind was and how small her heart, how marred her soul. He shouted about Master Regulus, about how he loathed his family and how he hated my Mistress. When Master Sirius was done, he stood before my Mistress panting. He was taller than my Mistress but she managed to look down at him, skillful witch that my Mistress was. And my Mistress says to her eldest son in a quiet voice, "You are a disgrace."
Master Sirius scowls and shouts at my Mistress, "As if I care whom I disgrace in this whole bloody family?!"
My Mistress looks down at Master Sirius and says in the same quiet voice, "You have disgraced all of us with your betrayal."
He got very flushed and yelled, "Haven't I told you? I don't care what you all think of me!" Master Sirius kicked an imaginary ball bouncing away from him, my Mistress looking down at him still. He shouted at her, "You have your darling little Slytherin, Regulus, don't you? You don't need me!"
My Mistress was still calm, "You are callow and headstrong and Gryffindor has ruined you."
"Gryffindor? Gryffindor?! This has nothing to do with Gryffindor! It is about this entire wretched family!" Master Sirius looked fit to kill, "Gryffindor didn't ruin me, I went to Hogwarts a Gryffindor, I am a Gryffindor and, whether you like it or not, I was born a Gryffindor!"
Fury lit in my Mistress' eyes, "How dare you! I, bear a Gryffindor?!" she spat, odd for my refined Mistress to perform such an uncivilized act, "Never!"
"Well, you did!" He roared, clearly glad my Mistress was fighting back, "You did and it's the only worthwhile thing you ever did in your entire pathetic life!" my Mistress raised her eyebrows, "You think all the bloody talking you do about Muggleborns and Gryffindors makes any difference? All it does is prove what a miserable excuse for human life you are!"
My Mistress laughed. Not out of scorn, but amusement. She shook her head, "You cannot insult me, Sirius. Nothing you can call me will reduce we to tears or make me scream and rage like a child as you are doing. Nothing you can say will hurt me, I am not a simpering, brainless Gryffindor like your chosen company. Nothing you call me will make a difference—"
"Oh really, mum?"
My Mistress' face, the youthful beauty vanished with time, twisted in fury and she hissed, "Except for that!" My Mistress pointed up the stairs Kreacher was scrubbing, (not eavesdropping, only 'accidentally overhearing') to Master Sirius' bedroom, "Get your things and get out of this house. You are never to set a toe over the threshold again."
But Master Sirius did! After my Mistress was gone and Master Regulus was dead and Kreacher had no one to clean for or cook for, Master Sirius returned with those Mudbloods and Blood Traitors and he tore apart my Mistress' house and destroyed her belongings and defaceed what she cherished! Master Sirius returned and now he and that 'Order' are down in my Mistress' kitchen, soiling her floors with the muck from their shoe-soles and poisoning the air with their breath. Master Sirius has the nerve to disobey my Mistress and he expects me to follow his orders like a good Kreacher? But he is not Kreacher's only Master. Kreacher has not forgotten Mistress Bella and Mistress Cissy and they want the information Kreacher hears. They want Kreacher to 'accidentally overhear' the 'Order' like he did Master Sirius and Mistress rowing.
Kreacher hears the filthy young ones outside my Mistress' living room. Those filthy, Blood Traitor twins are at it again, trying to 'accidentally overhear' the 'Order'. The Potter boy is here now. The filthy brat that brought down the Dark Lord. Kreacher peers out at the huddle of them. Mistress Bella and Mistress Cissy wouldn't mind knowing Potter was here.
Kreacher will tell them later.
Kreacher goes to the windows he once scrubbed till they shone to impress my Mistress. They are dirty. The Blood Traitor woman wants to clean my Mistress' entire house, but Kreacher won't let her. Kreacher looks out at the square, where he remembers Master Sirius and Master Regulus competing to run faster as children. Always competing. Master Sirius stomped across that square after my Mistress bid him to go and Mistress ranted to Master Regulus and Kreacher about him and blasted his name from the flowering tree of Black.
Kreacher smiles at the memory.
Kreacher drops the curtain and leaves the living room, his presence unnoticed by the eavesdropping children at the top of the stairs. Kreacher creeps away from the noise made by Master Sirius and the 'Order' down in my Mistress' defiled kitchen, in her defiled house. Kreacher leaves his chores undone because he has nothing to repay Master Sirius for. It is Master Sirius' fault that Master Regulus had to try to impress my Mistress and ended up dead. It is Master Sirius' fault. Master Sirius' fault.
It is Master Sirius' fault.
--FIN