The creaking stairs led the four teenagers and the elf to a dusty, creepy corridor on the second floor, where one of the walls was occupied by two identical heavy mahogany doors. They were richly decorated with silver snake ornaments, even the door handles were bearing the form of attacking king cobras, created centuries ago by an unknown – Hermione's educated guess would have been an unknown Goblin – goldsmith.
These must have been the bedrooms of the Master and and the Mistress of the House in ancient times, Harry thought, as he randomly opened one of the doors, silently praying that the door wouldn't be guarded by some dark creature from the other side. Then, almost instantaneously, he hushed away the thought and emitted a nervous laugh. Not even two years ago they had thoroughly cleaned out the house and he was sure that apart from the boggart in the cabinet on the third floor it was completely free from any unwelcome presence. So, with growing self-confidence, he entered the room – more like a chamber - and lit his wand, the other three following his example. But Dobby was already inside; he lit the magical torches on the walls and started immediately cleaning the room, muttering some complex incantations in Elvish.
The teenagers watched in awe; apart from the Hogwarts kitchens, they'd never seen an elf in action. In no time, all dust was gone, the windows were clean and opened, letting the warm, fresh air of the August evening into the chamber, the floors were swept, the rags covering the four-poster were gone, and the bed was freshly made with crisp, clean linnen, covered with a burgundy-coloured heavy velvet cover. Another identical four-poster appeared from thin air, and with a loud thump fell on the floor, lined up two yards from the first one. Two identical toilet tables were conjured and two identical, full-height mirrors were hung on the wall, and by the time the girls managed to close their gaping mouths, Dobby popped back from behind the small door on the far end of one of the walls proudly reporting that the bathroom had been taken care of and was now ready for the two Misses.
Laughing at the elf's antics, Hermione thanked him for his valuable help, carefully omitting the loathed word "service". Nodding profusely, the small creature beamed. "Miss Hermione has always been very good for my kindred. We, elves, will never forget this and it's my pleasure to help you in anything you need." The careful observer immediately would have noticed the change in the elf's voice and attitude, and also the fact that his English had drastically improved and his voice suddenly sounded different. Ancient.
Opening the door connecting the two suites, the teens gaped. What seemed to be a simple door led toward a smaller chamber, about 5 yards wide, with a fireplace, four armchairs and a sofa, all of the same burgundy colour of the bedcovers. This room must have also been cleaned together with the girls' bedroom, Harry mused, as there was not even the tiniest hint of dust on the floors and the walls; it was also impeccably clean. Then, he suddenly remembered that the two doors leading to the bedrooms were a mere two yards away from each other on the wall and he understood. This was a magically enhanced anteroom connecting the two suites, something similar to the Room of Requitement and Harry wondered for a while what surprises the house still had for them.
Already knowing what would expect them on the other side, with a smile he opened the door, which he reckoned would lead them to what would become the boys' room for now, and indeed, he was right. The anteroom behind them shrunk back to its original size as they left it.
Dobby was already awaiting them.
"I have put all your belongings of all of in trunks under your beds, Master Harry," he beamed again. Harry had to suppress a wry smile. All their belongings were what Hermione'd managed to pack into her beaded bag and Leticia had nothing with her at all except the clothes she wore. Dobby seemed to understand him, as he cast him an assuring smile.
"I took the freedom and picked some clothes which might fit you from the wardrobe room on the fourth floor for all four of you, Master Harry, since I knew you'd had to leave your place rather unexpectedly," he nodded, with a spark in his huge eyes.
Not willing to ask the elf where did he get all his information, Harry shook his head. "Erm... Dobby, thank you very much for your help, but... do you think you could skip calling us Master, Mister or Miss? I, for one, feel a bit incomfortable by being addressed like that and Harry would be just fine," the boy replied, looking around for support from his friends.
"Most certainly, Mas... Harry," nodded the elf. "You must understand that we aren't used to be treated as equals, so you must be patient with me; it will take some time getting used to it from my side," he apologized for the slip of the tongue.
"That's fine, Dobby," assured him Hermione. "Now, with regards to you. Where would you prefer to have your own room?"
There's a small room adjacent to the wardrobe room on the fourth floor, I think it will be just perfect for me, Truthful One," replied the elf, looking into her eye.
"Pardon me, Dobby, what did you just call me?" inquired the startled girl.
"This is the name the Hogwarts elves had given to you, back in your third year, and while several of them were rather upset thinking that you were trying to trick them somehow by presenting them with those hand-knitted hats of yours, they acknowledged your efforts of changing the way elves had been treated by your kin for a long time," explained the elf, as he looked straight into Hermione's eyes. The girl stood there mesmerized, not able to break eye contact with the elf, and all of a sudden pictures rushed through her mind. She saw herself in the Common Room with her knitwear. Then, the picture changed and she was standing in a small clearing in a forest, behind a roughly carved table. One of the people sitting behind the table was a woman of astonishing, ethereal beauty in a simple white dress, wearing a golden tiara and Hermione knew instinctively that it must have been Maeve, Queen of the Forest.
Maeve set her signature on a sheet of parchment, and producing a small silver dagger from the folds of her dress, made a small cut on her index finger and pressed it against the parchment, which emitted a golden glow, recognizing her blood.
The picture now faded and Hermione found herself back at Grimmauld Place. Rapidly blinking with her eyes, she slightly nodded at the elf, as if she were to say "I will keep our tiny secret."
"I am honoured, Dobby, and I accept the name you kin had given to me," she pronounced in a clear, ringing voice, "although I would still prefer being addressed 'Hermione', if you don't mind. Now that you've taken care of everything in such a wonderful way, why don't you take care of your room as well, and let's everybody just go to sleep. It's been a tiring day and tomorrow will be no different."
"Good night, Ron," she kissed the startled boy on his cheek. "Good night, Harry." Her fingers lingered on his face for a split second. She turned to the elf. "Good night, Dobby."
Taking Leticia's hand into hers, she left the boys' room and the boys jumped as if they had just awakened from a hypnotic state by the loud bang of the door connecting their room with the anteroom and the faint pop of Dobby Apparating away into his room.
"Exploding Snap, the winner to use the bathroom first?" joked Ron, slapping Harry playfully on his shoulder.
"You go ahead, Ron," yawned Harry. "I'm bushed so you'd win anyway. This was a hell of a day, with the two Death Eaters at Diagon Alley, and then meeting Leticia." As if in a haze, he reached for the pendant, the ancient Ouroboros symbol under his T-shirt.
"Yeah, mate, she's definitely something," agreed Ron, searching his trunk for fresh underwear. "I never thought I'd ever be standing THIS close to a vampire."
"There was one, a certain Sanguini, in old Slughorn's club," mused Harry. "But, Leticia is so much different from him. Sanguini had that hungry look in his eyes the whole evening, it was as if he was waiting for the right moment to catch those girls for a dinner. She seems more normal to me."
Shrugging, Ron made his way towards the bathroom. "Different or not, I still don't trust her. I know that medal offers some protection, but I'm not comfortable with Hermione sleeping in the same room as her. I haven't had the guts to tell Hermione yet…but, you know, I really like her.
"It's high time you did mate. Otherwise, you'll be dancing around each other for the next ten years," Harry scolded him, feeling a pang in his heart as he thought of Ginny and the few happy moments they'd shared together. "Will we be there in ten years at all?" he asked himself the somewhat rhetorical question, but he decided not to share his concerns with his best friend of six years. "If you don't like the current sleeping arrangements, would you like to swap rooms with Hermione?" he teased him aloud instead, just to ease his own pain and clear his own head from those disturbing thoughts.
"Bloody hell no!" he yelled back from the bathroom and the next thing Harry heard was the unmistakable sound of water running from the nozzles and Ron whistling a song of the Weird Sisters.
Shaking his head, Harry slowly lowered himself onto his bed. His butt had hardly hit the mattress when his eyes closed. Sleep consumed him immediately, and he stretched out, still in his clothes.
A few yards away, Hermione just finished her shower and, dressed into a soft white bathrobe returned to their bedroom. She found Leticia sitting at the toilet table, slowly brushing her waist-long, raven-black hair, while idly staring at her own reflection in the mirror. Upon hearing the girl enter the room, she shook her head as if trying to shoo away some bad thoughts and looked up into her eyes.
"I already told you, Hermione, that you shouldn't believe everything you read in your books. Bram Stoker stated that vampires have no reflection in a mirror. Rest assured, this is completely bollocks," she laughed.
"I do believe you, Leticia, it's just... too much to digest in one day," she whispered. "For some strange reason, I believe you and I trust you, even if I probably shouldn't, at least that's what my rational mind keeps telling me. Not only because of the Ouroboros and your oath. I somehow feel you're honest. I've always tried to see things in a rational way, but they don't seem rational any more. Too many things have happened to me, my family, my friends I can't consider as such."
The two remained immersed in their thoughts for a while, then Leticia took Hermione's both hands into hers and strangely enough, they didn't seem that ice cold any more. It was again Hermione to break the silence.
"Do you... well, uhm, do you sleep at night?"
"Why, got a flashy coffin for me?" joked Leticia and Hermione joined her in laughter. "I do sleep at night and I can walk outside in the daylight just like you. What Kreacher had been referring to was that should I cease my existence, direct sunlight would destroy my body." She stood up from her table and went to her bed, sliding between the crisp sheets and letting out a satisfactory groan. "Nice to feel like a human being after two years on the run." With obvious pain in her voice, she added, stressing the first word. "Feel like a human being. Good night, Hermione."
Standing perplex for a split second, Hermione swallowed the lump in her throat and moved to her bed as well, on her way magically dimming the torches on the wall. "Good night, Leticia," she whispered, and the other girl was surprised to hear badly disguised sobs in her hushed voice.