Disclaimer: Non ho proprio Harry Potter.

Chapter 19-And Stuff Happens

Harry walked away groaning. He couldn't help but feel that he had just made a huge mistake. But whether this was at the fact that he hadn't just forgiven them and tried to become a family again (however stupid that may sound) or that he'd given them a chance, let hem in, stopped hating them just as much, and returned to neutral ground with them, he did not know. Well, okay, not really neutral at all; but he wasn't going to try to destroy them or leave them to get themselves killed by Voldemort anytime soon or anything.

'Ugh! Stupid conflicting emotions!' Harry moaned unhappily to himself. Why was he acting like some hormonal teenage girl?

Harry tried to shake off his feelings and walked through the nearby front door. On his way out, he paused and, in a rare fit of anger, used wandless magic to set a small trap for Dumbledore the next time he came through that door. Oh, it wouldn't do too much, just douse the man in spaghetti sauce, (Harry was beginning to feel a bit hungry) but it made Harry feel better. As a second thought, Harry set another small trap to drench the rest of the Order members who might come through this building with a cat-attracting pheromone. Have fun with that, McGonagall…and whatever Order member it was that might come into contact with her when she was in her animagus form.

Feeling a bit better having had his fun, Harry hurried down to the gate and quickly slipped through. As soon as he was outside, he began to feel even better. But then, like that annoying older brother/sister who just won't leave you alone for some reason and keeps throwing erasers at you,(1) the feeling of having made a grave mistake returned.

Harry once more began questioning his judgment in telling Sirius and Remus where he was currently living. No, he did not think that they would betray him, or, at least, not intentionally. But Harry had no doubt in his mind that if Dumbledore thought Sirius and Remus had any idea where he was, the man would do whatever he could to get the information from them. Harry could almost feel sorry for them, but he wasn't really. Dumbledore wouldn't kill them or anything; he was a light wizard after all.

The rumbling of his stomach broke through Harry's thoughts, startling him into laughter. Harry reached inside his pocket to try to find a small snack when his finger grazed cool metal. Frowning, Harry reached inside and pulled out Slytherin's locket, realizing that he had completely forgotten about it up until this point. He fingered the ice cold metal and shivered; he could practically feel the evil swirling around inside of it.

Harry reached inside his other pocket and pulled out the fang. Immediately, the locket began sending him visions of wealth, persuasive images of anything he could ever desire; but Harry ignored these. The feelings changed to ones of hate, spite, promising to curse Harry into oblivion if he didn't put the fang away or, better yet, destroy it. Harry ignored the locket and stabbed it with the fang, causing it to shriek once before falling silent.

Harry placed the locket back in his pocket (2) to give to Kreacher later on as proof that it had been destroyed. Harry wondered what the diadem must have said to Draco…man! Draco must really trust Harry if he'd done what Harry had said even after listening to the diadem. Harry began to think idly, as he stood there.

'You know, a horcrux is actually really pretty stupid once you think about it. Yeah, you get to live forever if you make one, but that's only if no one destroys it before you die. You just hack off a piece of your soul and place it in an inanimate object that can't move or fight back and can easily be destroyed once a person has the right tools. Sure, it can try to send you mind waves to try to get you to not destroy them; but if someone were really determined, he could destroy the horcrux no problem.'

Harry shook himself from his musings, looked at his watch, and saw that it was only four in the afternoon. Maybe he could have a little fun yet today. Grinning, Harry turned on his heel and apparated away.

When Harry turned around, he was at none other than Hogsmeade village. Harry was struck, once again, by the glaringly bad job wizards did at naming things. Looking around, Harry saw that several of the shops had closed. There was only one new shop in the town, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. It seemed they had expanded from Diagon Alley. Harry smirked and walked into the shop, which, despite it being a week day and during school hours, was rather crowded.

Harry caught sight of a few parents who were either trying to find ways to prevent future pranks or, if the ever growing looks of delight and mischief on a few of their faces were anything to go by, encourage them. Harry even thought he may have seen a couple of students. Harry cast a charm to keep his hood from being removed, so that it could not be taken down by anyone but him; with the twins around, you could never be too careful.

Harry's suspicions proved true when a small model airplane zoomed out of nowhere past his head, catching on the hood and trying to pull it off. Harry reached up and captured the still-moving plane. He watched as Fred and George Weasley trotted over, one of them holding the remote control. They both had dark looks on their faces and glanced at each other suspiciously before plastering on fake grins as they approached Harry.

Harry had no idea which one was which, so he mentally decided to call refer to them by their clothes as purple jacket and red jacket. It would be much less confusing that way. "Sorry, mate," purple jacket, who Harry thought may have been Fred, laughed, not sounding sorry or happy or like he thought it was funny at all to Harry's trained ears. "Our airplane just got a little outta control there. It's a new project we're working on. I hope you're alright."

Harry had to admit, the twins were really quite the actors; but Harry knew better than to think they were happy to see him. After living for three years with dementors, some of whom rarely showed any kind of emotion at all, Harry had learned how to read faces like a pro poker player. He had no trouble telling that the Weasleys were lying. They had meant for the plane to hit him, or, at least, for it to hit his hood and reveal who he was.

Harry could read the distrust lying just under their jovial smiles. He sighed; these days, anyone wearing a hood was considered either death eater a dark wizard. According to Juan, at one point, it had just been fashion to wear the hood up. Then, some dark wizard had gone around killing people while wearing his hood up; and ever since then, witches and wizards who wore hoods were generally considered dark. And now, what with Voldemort being out and about, they were usually considered death eaters.

Harry looked up and kept a blank mask on his face, clearing away all emotions, and spoke with a Bulgarian accent, pretending to be baffled by the toy plane. "What ees dis…toy you ave made?"

Harry barely held in a snort of sardonic laughter as he watched the twins' underlying emotions darken even further while their outward faces didn't change. They Weasleys really were prejudiced; weren't they? Just because you seemed to be Bulgarian or something like that didn't mean you were a death eater. (Or Bulgarian, for that matter.)

"It's a muggle toy," red jacket explained. "Muggles fly around in the bigger versions, and they made these for fun. We thought some of the younger kids or muggle fanatics would enjoy them."

"Hmm…how…interesting," Harry nodded, acting nonchalantly bored. He thought he may have seen George's eye twitch. Or was that Fred?

Either way, the other one seemed to see it too because he jumped in. "Would you like to purchase it?"

Harry shook his head mock sadly. "No. I vas actually thinking of getting vone of your cases of darkness powder."

This time, the twins didn't even try to cover the hard looks that came over their faces. "No."

Harry raised an eyebrow, though he doubted they could see that from under the hood. "You vould deny a customer his right to purchase your merchandise?"

"Only if we didn't know if said customer was a death eater or not," purple jacket said coldly.

Harry chuckled sardonically. "Den you vant me to show you my arm?" They both nodded.

Harry sighed loudly, as if this was the most laborious task ever to be asked to do but pulled back his sleeve to reveal his right arm anyways. The twins set about inspecting it, to make sure he wasn't covering it up with some strange Bulgarian magic or the simple magic that was muggle makeup. Eventually, the two pulled back, sure the mark wasn't there, but far from satisfied with the fact that Harry seemed not to be a death eater.

Harry huffed indignantly while he pulled his sleeve back down and remarked, "You realize vat just because somevon does not haff a mark does not mean they are not death eaters. Vat is a very inefficient way of doing things. Or vey could just have the mark somevere else on their body."

Red jacket's eyes narrowed. "Then you admit that you could be a death eater."

Harry nodded amicably. "I very vell could be, but vould a death eater point vat out to you?"

Red jacket immediately replied, though a bit more hesitantly than before. "Not unless he was just doing that to reinforce the idea teat he was not a death eater."

"True," Harry said, "But how vany death eaters are smart enough to do vis? Besides, you haff no proof vat I am a death eater. Therefore, you haff no veason to refuse me the right to shop here."

"How about because we just don't like you? It's our shop, after all," purple jacked asked.

It was Harry's turn to glare coldly. "Ven vat vould be discrimination. I vould be forced to go to your ministry to complain and ven later to my own authorities."

They had a sort of glaring contest for a few moments before the twins just turned and walked away, proceeding to ignore Harry completely. Harry smirked. He turned to leave the shop, but before he left, he turned back. He walked over to one of the students there and whispered in his ear. The kid looked up in surprise but started nodding his head fervently at the look Harry gave him. Harry smiled in satisfaction and walked out.

As soon as he was gone, the twins rushed over to the kid. "What did he say?" they asked in unison.

The boy looked up, frightened, and stammered, "He wanted me to tell you that he was, and I quote, 'Adding racists to his list of things the Weasleys are, right up there with having bad table manners and being traitors who abandon those who considered them family.' And then he whispered something else I didn't catch."

"What was it?" the twins demanded, getting a bad feeling as the gears turned in their heads.

The kid looked like he was going to wet himself, but he answered dutifully. "J-just something that had to with a Moon, Prongs, a foot, and a tail."

"You mean Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs?"

"Yes, that's it. How did you–?"

The poor kid didn't even get to finish his question, as the two let go out of him roughly in shock. He then promptly ran out the door of the shop. The twins looked at each other, and one word came out of their mouths. "Harry."

The two tried to make a break for the door Harry'd left through when, suddenly, the fireworks on their shelves that could only be activated by magic went off. Every single one of them. They yelped and tried to deactivate them with an override spell, but for some reason, it didn't work. Meanwhile, walking down the street form Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, Harry heard the cracks and booms coming from behind him and smiled.

Harry looked up from his glass of Butterbeer at the Hogshead and at the clock. He was barely able to see the numbers from all the grime and dirt covering the ancient clock. Harry was glad that the bar keeper kept a clock, no matter how ancient or dirty, as most of the inhabitants of Hogsmead, while able to use technology, chose not to. Harry finally spied the time and cursed under his breath.

It was still only six 'o clock. Harry was bored, and, while he didn't want to go back up to Hogwarts or go home, he also did not want to stay here getting drunk for the rest of the night. (Not that butterbeer would get you drunk, but you get the idea.) Ugh. Harry got up and moved outside, feeling the suspicious glares from people in the bar that he'd gotten as soon as he'd walked in follow him out.

Harry sighed as he turned on the spot and apparated. He supposed he should wonder why he'd even tried to take a day for himself. Oh, well, time to go back to work. Harry staggered a little as he arrived outside Gringotts bank. He hated apparating. Harry cast an invisibility spell the dementors had taught him on himself and waited for someone to come open the door.

A young woman walked inside, and Harry followed her in. He then walked straight past the desks and security and into the dark caves where they ran the carts. When he got there, Harry reached out with his mind and magic to try and feel out which direction the horcrux was in. He felt several dark objects in the surrounding vaults, but one stood out among them. It reeked (metaphorically, of course) of dark magic and death. Harry gave a grim smile; he'd found his horcrux.

Harry took a right turn and set off to find the vault the horcrux was in. He was halfway towards where the deep aching absence of light that was the horcrux was when he heard the rumbling of an oncoming cart. Harry barely had time to jump back before a cart came hurtling down on the track, right where he'd been just seconds before. Was that…Bellatrix Lestrange? Harry felt a deep-rooted hatred rise up in him at the sight of her face; he'd seen her do too many horrible things when he'd had his connection to Voldemort.

Oh, well, Harry pushed his anger away; he was here to destroy the horcrux, not fight her. Harry climbed back up onto the tracks and began walking again. A little while latter, he stepped right through what seemed to be a waterfall. He could feel the water, which he was sure was charmed try to wash away his own invisibility charm and fail. Harry nearly gave a laugh; goblin or wizard magic didn't work well against dementor magic.

Dementors: 12 million and 3.

World: 0.

Harry walked through and cast a drying charm on himself before he even had the chance to get chilled in the cold tunnel. And he just kept walking. Another little while later, he passed a dragon, which he carefully skirted around. Finally, a long time later from when he'd started walking, Harry reached the vault. He was surprised to find it open. A shiver of anger went up Harry's spine as he heard Bellatrix Lestrange's voice float out form the open vault.

"…And 200 sickles, Missy. We must have enough for the Dark Lord's task."

"Yes, Mistress Bellatrix," Harry heard a house elf squeak and then the shuffling of felt and finally the clinking sound of coins falling on top of each other.

"That's too much!" Harry heard Bellatrix yell. He heard the dull thud of something living being kicked and heard what he assumed was a house elf squeal in pain. Coins clacked and clinked loudly as Harry assumed the house elf dropped the bag holding the money. Bellatrix's voice rose an octave. "You clumsy oaf! You dropped the bag! How dare you sully the money to be used for the Dark Lord's means!"

Harry heard another thud and a sharp cry of pain. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Finally, he had had enough. Harry couldn't stand by while this, this murderer bullied the poor house elf. He strode into the open vault, head held high and magic ready for use. He stupefied the disgusted-looking goblin who was guarding the cart and watching Bellatrix as if he wished for nothing more than to leave her there to die.

Harry watched as Bellatrix kicked the house elf again before he could stop her and felt disgusted. But what was the most sickening part of all was that the elf was still smiling up at Bellatrix, apologizing profusely and trying to bow while its master repeatedly kicked it. Harry ran forward and pulled Bellatrix back so that she couldn't hurt the house elf again.

"What the–?" She turned and tried to grab at Harry, but he quickly knocked her out with a wave of magic. He then tied her up using a rope he conjured. Harry took off the invisibility spell, pulled down his hood, and turned to the frightened house elf, who cowered in the corner on the floor, near a pile of gold. It had blood on its face from where Bellatrix had obviously kicked it, and Harry thought its nose might have been broken.

He walked forward cautiously, as if approaching a frightened animal. The house elf just stared up at him with wide, scared eyes. Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a silk handkerchief. (It seemed Draco kept a spare one in all of his clothes.) The house elf jumped but stayed still as Harry carefully reached out his hand and healed the broken nose with a crack. He then took the cloth and dabbed away at the blood left on the creature's face.

"Are you alright?" he asked. "Did she hurt you badly anywhere else? Anymore broken bones?"

The elf stared up at him for a moment, lower lip trembling, before bursting into tears. "Sir talks to Missy like she is another wizard. Sir doesn't even know Missy, but he asks how she is. Sir even stops Mistress Bellatrix from punishing Missy! Oh, but Missy is a bad, bad girl; Missy deserves punishment. Missy dropped Mistress Bellatrix's bag; Missy doesn't deserve Sir's kindness! Sir should revive Mistress and let her continue punishing Missy."

Harry slowly absorbed the words streaming out of the elf's mouth. When he did, he felt sick to his stomach. Bellatrix had been beating this elf for something Bellatrix had done, yet the elf–Missy, excuse him–still believed it was all her fault. Had he been like this once too? Blaming everything that went wrong on himself? With new resolve, Harry turned away from Missy and back to Bellatrix and spoke quietly.

"You're right, Missy. I should revive Bellatrix." Harry heard the elf sigh in relief behind him. He woke Bellatrix up with a tap of his hand to her forehead. Upon waking, she immediately began struggling against the magical ropes binding her, and a stream of profanities and insults flowed out of her mouth.

"Enough," Harry said over her, voice commanding enough that she shut up for a few seconds. "I don't care what you think of me, my family, my pet dog,–and I don't have one, by the way, so that insult is useless–my friends, my ex-family and friends, how I was born, or whatever side I'm on. I woke you for one thing; I want Missy."

Bellatrix let out a hysterical bout of laughter, and Missy squeaked in some unknown emotion. "The house elf?" She laughed again before saying, eyes glinting manically. "I had no idea there were people out there who leaned that way. I'm sure you have lots of fun with your––!"

Harry reached forward and slapped her with a loud crack, eyes flashing. Her head turned sharply to the side, and Harry could see a large bruise already coloring her cheek. She glared up at Harry and spit at his feet. "Don't. Play. With. Me." Harry glared coldly at the insane woman before him. Just the sight of her filled him up with rage, and he remembered seeing her kill and maim and torture, laughing hysterically while she did so.

Harry heard the treasures in the vault begin to click and clatter as they began to rise up, responding to his anger and magic, and he quickly brought himself under control before he accidentally beamed the woman with a coin before she could give him Missy. Besides, he wouldn't stoop to her level. Harry leaned forward and ground out calmly, "Bellatrix Lestrange, if you don't give that house elf to me, I swear I will find what your master has hidden here in your vault; and I will destroy it."

Immediately, the crazed woman's face went pale white and panicked. She looked up at Harry, and, for the first time, her eyes held fear, but not for herself, for her master's plans. She stared up at him again, gauging his seriousness. "If I let you have the elf…you won't destroy what the Dark Lord has entrusted me with?" Harry nodded his head. Bellatrix snapped her eyes over to Missy, who looked scared out of her wits. "I, Bellatrix Lestrange, give you, Missy the house elf, to this Potter. I am no longer your master; he is."

Missy let out a small squeak and fell to the ground as her bond with her master was severed and retied to Harry. Harry winced as she convulsed in pain and then fell still before turning back to Bellatrix. He was sure she knew some way to make it less painful to rearrange the house elf's bond and had still made it hurt in some sadistic last try to harm the elf. Harry pressed his lips into a hard line and kept his face blank.

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a cup to destroy."

"What!" Bellatrix fought against her restraints again. "But you swore you–"

"I lied." Bellatrix looked at Harry with outrage, and he pretended to take it as disbelief. "No, really, I did." Harry sighed in exasperation that was only partially faked. "You people all seem to think that just because I'm Harry Potter, I can't lie." Harry's voice hardened. "I'm not the same person I was back then. Now, I'm not afraid to lie, cheat, or steal; and the wizarding world made me this way. They–"

Harry cut himself off mid-monologue. Venting to her would have no use. Instead, he reached forward and knocked her out again, despite her violent protests. He then turned to Missy, who was now on her knees, bowing so low her forehead touched the floor. "Please…don't" Harry's voice was full of pain as he walked over and carefully picked up the house elf off the ground and put her on her feet.

"Master," she said, eyes wide in amazement. "Master helped Missy. Missy will serve Master gratefully for the rest of Missy's life."

Harry blinked; apparently, house elves change loyalties fast. "Missy…" Harry began, unsure of what to say. "First of all, my name's Harry. Please try and just call me Harry." At the elf's expression, Harry was prompted to add, "Or Master Harry, whichever you want. Second, I want you to know that no matter how angry I get or what you do, I will never hurt you."

Harry watched in horror as Missy's big eyes filled up with tears of what he assumed what happiness, and she launched herself forward to hug his leg. Apparently, she was taking the whole "whatever you do" thing seriously. "Oh, Master Harry!" she sobbed. "Sir is too kind. Missy will serve Master Harry faithfully!"

"Er, yeah," Harry patted the elf's back awkwardly. "Now, uh, listen. I'm going to take you back to where I'm living right now, but there are a few more things you need to know. First of all, my home is my…god father's house, but he and I had a bit of a, uh, falling out, so he doesn't know I'm living there still. Keep that in mind and please don't let anyone see you unless they're in my rooms, or you have my permission." No need to confuse the house elf with ex-god father and things like that; better to keep it simple.

Harry continued. "Also, I'm gunna be away a lot. So you'll just have to keep house and stuff. Oh! And do you have a problem working with another house elf?" Missy shook her head excitedly. "Good, 'cause Kreacher, my other house elf, that is, is there, so you can just follow what he says. And remember that just because he hates everyone else in the house does not mean you have to. Now, I don't really have time to go home with you, so can you…figure your way there?"

Missy nodded her head again, eyes still wet. "Sir is so kind. Most masters wouldn't explain or worry about their house elves. House elves automatically know where the master's houses are; Missy will be fine."

"Okay, then," Harry paused awkwardly. "So…see you later."

Missy nodded happily and apparated away. Harry just stared at the spot where the house elf had been. Maybe Kreacher and Dobby were actually normal for house elves. Or Harry had just picked up another odd ball. Or Kreacher and Dobby could be insane and Missy was normal. …Harry sincerely hoped it was just his luck causing him to pick up the few insane ones in the bunch. Then he remembered the Hogwarts house elves and wasn't so sure. Oh, well, thoughts for another, less busy time.

Harry turned to the vault and groaned openly as he looked around at the mounds and mounds of unorganized treasure and gold. Didn't anyone ever clean up here? No, wait, if the wizards tried to get the goblins to clean anything, they'd probably just start another war. But still…Harry groaned again. This was almost as bad as the room of requirement.

Harry may have been able to sense where the horcrux's general area was, but then he'd had a rough idea of where it was; and he couldn't tell it apart form all the other dark magic in this vault. Harry shivered; he'd be okay just as long as there were no more demon, drag-queen Ken dolls. Suddenly, Harry glimpsed a flash of a badger out of his peripheral vision. He turned and found himself staring right at the horcrux.

Harry looked back over at Bellatrix; had she been getting this out to take to Voldemort? Harry felt conflicted. He was happy to be scaring Voldemort enough for him to go look for his horcruxs, but how it would probably be harder to destroy Naginii. Darnit! More work for Harry. Maybe he could just make Draco do it…nah. With his luck, Draco would probably just turn out to be allergic to snakes or something.

Harry shook himself out of his lazy thoughts and turned his attention to the cup. Harry pulled the fang out of his locket and un-shrunk it. He felt the cup weakly try to persuade him not to and laughed once more at how stupid Tom was to leave parts of his soul in inanimate objects before he stabbed the thing. It let out a thin, girl-like wail as the soul inside the cup was destroyed. Hmm…maybe Voldemort was really just a very, very ugly girl. Was that why he was so bitter? It would make sense. Harry tried to think back to any certain time of the month when Voldy seemed to kill/torture more people than usual. Was Voldemort just…PMSing? It was a possibility, Harry mused. Harry moved away from that rather disturbing train of thought and turned on one foot, apparating.

Harry blinked and stared at the sight that greeted his eyes when he arrived at his room at Number 12 Grimlaund Place. He watched in shock as Kreacher moved around the room efficiently, cooking and cleaning and explaining things out loud. That wasn't what stopped Harry in his tracks; no, no, it was Missy, who was traveling behind Kreacher worshipfully, wonder and amazement in her eyes, like some star-struck little group, that stopped Harry. Well, that and that Kreacher was wearing and apron. She was even taking notes, hanging onto Kreacher's every word.

Kreacher himself looked extremely pleased and sure of himself. He looked up from explaining the toaster to Missy, who was listening with rapt attention, and saw Harry. Abruptly, he turned and bowed deeply to Harry, Missy following excitedly in suit. "Master Harry, welcome back!" the elf said happily. "I have been introducing Missy to the way things run here." Missy nodded her head enthusiastically in agreement.

Harry just stared for a few seconds. Had Kreacher just used a pronoun? What was the world coming to? "Er, good job, Kreacher. So, she knows all about my…relationship with the rest of the people in this house?"

Kreacher nodded his head before a serious look overcame his face. "Sir, about the scum inhabiting our Noble House of Black…I fear that your presence here has been discovered."

Harry blinked. Why did he feel like he'd forgotten something, or maybe several somethings? "Really, why?"

"Well, Kreacher was that blood traitor and the werewolf trying to get into the room. They were banging on the door and trying to enter in earnest. They only stopped when some of the other idiots in this house came and asked what they were doing. They even tried getting Kreacher to let them in, but Kreacher refused. They finally left Kreacher alone, but they swore they would come back up later when no one else is home. They said that sir gave them permission to come, but Kreacher told those liars to leave and that Kreacher knew nothing."

Oh, that's it. He forgot to tell Kreacher about them. Harry rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before a thought occurred to him. Wait, this was the perfect chance for revenge. He was still angry with them, after all. "Actually, Kreacher, I did give them permission to come see me." The elf gave him a withering look, but Harry went on. "You see; it seems that Sirius has had a change of heart."

"A…change of heart?" Kreacher sounded unsure of whether he should be disgusted or joyed at this. Harry nodded his head.

"Yes, a change of heart. He had finally seen the error in abandoning the Great and Noble House of Black and wished to truly be reconciled. I met him while I was out, and he begged me for my permission as one acting for Master Regulus to truly become a member of the House of Black once more. I told him to come visit me here later so that he could apologize, and I'm sad to say that I forgot to inform you. Oh, and he and Remus want to pledge to become my slaves for life. I honestly have no idea why, but they do."

The elf began to look hopeful. "Apologize?"

"Yes, Kreacher, apologize. He begged me, pleaded with me for the opportunity to apologize to you and to his mother. He simply felt he did not have the right without my permission."

Kreacher looked stunned, and Harry hide a snicker. Slowly, a smile that Harry thought was supposed to be happy but came off as creepy overcame the house elf's face. "Finally, the Noble House of Black will continue! Kreacher had feared that it would fade away, but he never spoke of it, now did Kreacher? But now, the white sheep of the Black family wishes to return and apologize! And apologize, he must. Oh, all the poor grey hairs on Kreacher's Mistress' head caused by that traitorous boy, but she will forgive him, no doubt. After he has been properly punished for leaving our great house in the first place, of course, but oh! We will go on!" Kreacher crowed excitedly before lapsing into quiet mumblings and silent tears of absolute joy.

"Yes, Kreacher, yes. But he needs to be able to apologize without interruption. Could you possibly create some sort of distraction to get everyone but Sirius and Remus out of the house?"

Kreacher looked up at Harry, sniffling silently. What was with house elves and crying, anyways? "The werewolf, too?"

"Yes, he, er, sympathizes with the House of Black and wishes to apologize also for…being so inferior to all members of the House of Black. They both also wish to pledge their loyalty to me, as I said before, as my helpers (slaves) until I no longer need or want them to be."

Kreacher nodded his head and walked stiffly towards the door, motioning for Missy to stay there. "Kreacher will clear out the scum."

"Inconspicuously, please, Kreacher." Suddenly, a thought dawned on Harry. "Hey, I never told anyone about the Order of Idiots being trapped in that village. How'd they get out? Did my spell wear off?"

Kreacher shook his head. "No, it seems that some Order member who had not been involved in trying to capture you saw the note and saved them."

"Darn."

"They were quite upset when they returned, though," Kreacher hurried to assure Harry. "They even went so far as to call Sir a traitor! Hypocritical little…" The elf trailed off, mumbling to himself.

Harry shrugged. "Let them. As far as I'm concerned, the more upset they are the better. Oh," he added as an afterthought, "Feel free to do whatever you want to make them miserable as long as they don't know it's you, and you don't kill them."

Kreacher let out a short little cackle before nodding to Harry and apparating away.

'There goes one happy house elf,' Harry thought before flopping onto his bed for a quick nap to wait for Kreacher to return, most likely with the mutt and the werewolf in tow and leaving a wave of decimated Order members in his wake. Personally, Harry was amazed that Kreacher had taken Sirius coming back over so well; but, then again, he probably wanted the House of Black to continue with a blood heir, even so much as to accept Sirius, whom the elf hated with a passion, back. Besides, who understood house elves anyways?

Author's Note: (1) This did not actually happen to me, but to my sister. My brother kept annoying her while she was on the computer over the summer by throwing erasers at her and clicking out of whatever it was she had up whenever she left the computer alone for a few seconds. I am not ashamed to admit that I helped quite a bit. But then again, you probably don't care about that.

(2) Ha! I rhymed. By accident, too.

I am so sorry it has been so long since I last updated, but school, tennis, physical training, Church retreats, and life in general have really hit me hard. I will try not to go so long before I update next, though. But I do have Midterms coming up before Christmas, so I make no promises for farther into the future. Thanks so much to all the people who reviewed; I always appreciate it.