AN – Cheeky midweek update ;o) You're Welcome!
Chapter 13 Black Blood
"KREACHER!" Hermione bellowed as she paced across the floor like a caged tiger. Fleur crossed her legs and sat back on the couch rubbing her temples, all things being equal Hermione was taking the news of her heritage quite well. The old house elf meandered up the stairs muttering under his breath as he entered the library, "Yes, Mistress?"
Hermione thrust the book at the wizened old house elf, "tell me about this," she ordered. Kreacher looked at the book, snarled in disgust and pushed it back towards her, turning away. Fleur scooted to the edge of the couch in anticipation and waited expectantly for Kreacher to speak.
"Behold the offspring of noble birth and the nation of the most ancient House of Black," the old house elf sneered, clearly repulsed at what he had seen on the page. Hermione pushed the book back towards him.
"I read the title of the book Kreacher, I mean this specific page." Hermione spoke through gritted teeth, she employed techniques to control her breathing hoping, praying that she could maintain her occlumency block even if she lost control of her swelling temper.
"Hermione Granger of Black blood," Kreacher closed the book and placed it on the desk, he was clearly confused and chose to wait for instructions, muttering under his breath as he waited. Hermione continued her pacing and looked to Fleur for help. Fleur raised an eyebrow at her but then nodded, eyes following her young friend as she walked to and fro across the library. It was almost a desperate movement, as though maintaining the ritualistic pacing was keeping her grounded, Fleur thought it would be best not to interrupt the movement.
Instead she turned to the house elf, "Kreacher, are you able to explain to us zis entry zat 'Ermione 'as asked you to read?" she asked him, her voice remaining as neutral as possible. Kreacher let his disgust show on his face, clearly not happy at the fact that Fleur was addressing him.
"The noble house of Black has a polluted bloodline as a result of Master Sirius's by-blow, with the Muggle woman." He explained reluctantly. Kreacher was utterly perplexed as to why they were making him read information that they had clearly been able to read for themselves from the book. Kreacher glanced from Hermione to Fleur and back again and concluded that he was no being punished as he had originally assumed when the filth had asked him to read from the book. In truth he had not known that the girl was a half blood until she had shown him the book, he realised that this might be a power play. That Hermione might be trying to get the house from the blood traitor. He stood for a moment wondering which his Mistress Druella might hate less, he concluded that the family motto being "Toujours pur," he genuinely did not know which was worse a Half-blood or a blood traitor.
Kreacher was pulled from his wandering thoughts by Hermione, who seemed to have lost her patience and was rapid firing questions at him. He snapped his head up, his Mistress used to speak to him like this, it kept him on his toes he thought. "Who updates the book?" she asked him.
"Magic updates the book, Kreacher is knowing the book is updated without interference. Most noble and ancient houses have books of Ancestry." He replied, desperate to answer the questions as thoroughly as possible, he wanted to go and polish Mistress Druella's portrait so that he might get her opinion on this whole messy business.
"Is it ever wrong?" Hermione asked him. Kreacher's ears flattened against his head he took exception to the question, it was his family after all who started the book, his family who spelled the enchantments and his family who had started serving the noble house of Black.
"The enchantments on the book are intact, Kreacher can see the work of his great great grandfather on the book, it is never mistaken," he replied indignantly. Hermione pondered this, she was distraught at the situation but not enough to ignore the fact that she had clearly insulted Kreacher and probably his family too. Sighing she too began to wonder where his loyalties lay, whether they would be with her or Ginny first.
"Kreacher, who do you serve?" she asked, glad to be distracted from the bombshell that had just been dropped. She waited patiently for the answer, she could practically see the cogs turning in his head, she sat by Fleur on the couch and sighed as Fleur reached forward and soothingly rubbed her back. The touch simply calmed her, there was nothing more or less to it.
Kreacher bowed to Hermione, "Kreacher serves the Master and Mistress of the house first, but of course he is always loyal to the house of Black first." He told her while practically licking her boots. She thought over his actions, he seemed to be apologising for his answer with the bow and she nodded her understanding. She then considered his words and while she thought the first part of his statement was curious, the final part was absolutely terrifying.
"You mean to tell me that if Bellatrix or Narcissa came in here and told you to apparate me away, and it did not conflict with Ginny's orders then you would comply?" the alarm in her voice was evident as she spoke, why was it that wizarding contracts were always littered with loopholes?
Kreacher nodded, "Kreacher is a loyal and faithful house elf," he replied and his tone made it evident that he considered the questions redundant. He looked at the half-blood and half-breed sitting before him on the couch and shook his head, absolutely certain that he was missing something. Humans puzzled him no end, they put stock in the strangest of things while disregarding the value in other things, for example house elves, simply because they considered them a lower class of being, idiots he thought to himself.
The build up of panic within Hermione practically made her vibrate with fear and energy, Fleur knew that she needed to calm Hermione down. The last thing they needed to do was to let Bellatrix into her mind and to discover where they were. Presumably the Black sisters knew about the familial link between Hermione and themselves, Bellatrix it seemed had already used it to their advantage, but why? That was the big question. Fleur pushed the important question to the back of her mind for the time being, there were much bigger and more important problems to face at the moment. She cleared her throat, "Zank you Kreacher, you 'ave answered many questions for us. Would you be so kind as to ask Ginny to join us?" Fleur asked the house elf, who frankly seemed delighted to be given an excuse to get out of the room as he left to find the mistress of the house.
Fleur studied Hermione, she was in turmoil over this, rightly so. Fleur could not imagine how she would feel if her Maman had lied to her about her origins, what she did know is that it would shake her to her core, a betrayal in the very foundations of her being. She reached her arms around Hermione and gently rocked her, the younger witch did not fight the comforting motion from her friend, she even leaned in to the hug and took a deep calming breath. Hermione had decided that she could only deal with so much at any one time, and this was going to be one of the things that was just going to have to wait until later because she simply could not face it right now.
Ginny entered the room, notebook in hand and a quill stuffed behind her ear. "I have three escape plans in place in case we are attacked her. I have done some work on the wards but honestly I would like to bring Luna on board, she is very smart and will be able to spot any loopholes that we miss." She said to the pair on the couch. If she thought there was anything strange about her sister-in-law holding Hermione in her arms she never mentioned it and made a point not to draw attention to it.
Hermione considered what Ginny had just told her, then nodded her head, "You are right, I am comfortable with bringing Luna in. I would feel a lot more comfortable if she would take a secret keeper oath though?" she asked her friend, wondering if it would be possible to ask this of her friend.
Ginny nodded in agreement, "I will go to her personally, get her to take the oath before I tell her anything, she is shagging Neville these days and he is just clumsy so we wouldn't really want him to know." Fleur and Hermione nodded their agreement and for a few moments the trio discussed the logistics of Ginny contacting, visiting and bringing back Luna. It was decided that she would show them the escape plans then go directly to Luna after supper.
"Ginny there is another loophole that we need to take care of." Hermione told her and she proceeded to explain everything relating to Bellatrix attacking her mind, Fleur's discovery and Kreacher's divided loyalties. When Hermione and Fleur were done explaining it all Ginny exhaled heavily. It had been a lot to take in and it was all pretty heavy.
"Right so what is the next step then? Where should our focus be?" she asked after she had absorbed it all. Hermione smiled at her red headed friend, she was so different to Ron. Ginny took her time to process what she was told, she didn't just react, though she did have a tendency to act rather rashly at least she understood what she was doing, Ron always just sort of went with it. Hermione felt a pang in her heart as she missed the boys, she immediately dismissed the thought, she missed what she thought she had with the boys. She missed the brother she had in Harry and the friend she thought she had in Ron.
"First we take care of Kreacher, and then we focus on how to destroy Nagini. Don't suppose you have any goblin forged weaponry around here that have been used to kill a basilisk?" Hermione told Ginny teasingly. Ginny smiled and called for Kreacher, who was conveniently close by. Ginny instructed the elf that she was his Mistress and he was absolutely forbidden to follow any instructions that he received from narcissi or Bellatrix. The house elf did not like the order but her would obey it.
Fleur got up from her seat, "Ginny, I really must contact my family and check on them is there a way that I can safely do that?" she asked. Fleur knew that her parents would be worried sick about her and Gabrielle would be beside herself. She knew that once she explained to her parents they would understand. She did not however think that Gabrielle would let her off so easily.
Ginny thought about this for a moment, "There is an unregistered Floo connection in the broom shed in the back garden. That would probably be safe to use, it is enchanted to be undetectable but remains closed all the time. Your parents won't know where the incoming connection is coming from but you will be able to get in touch with them from there." Ginny told Fleur. Fleur stood in astonishment, an unregistered undetectable floo connection? Aside from the obvious danger that this posed, it was damned hard magic to do! Fleur did not know whether to question the Weasley about it or just accept the gift and leave well enough alone.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Let me guess, Fred and George?" she asked Ginny as she started counting the number of laws they were breaking not to mention the age old code of using your common sense. Ginny beamed proudly at her and nodded her head; Hermione giggled a little, "Those two, it is no wonder they drive Molly nuts." Hermione joked with Ginny. Fleur smiled as well then turned and left to floo call her parents with the promise of returning promptly.
Once she left Hermione and Ginny turned to Kreacher who was still in the room awaiting further instructions from Ginny. "Kreacher," Hermione began and her tone was more than a little dangerous, "Does the noble and most ancient house of Black have an armoury?" of all the requests Kreacher was expecting to get, this one had probably been the least likely, but still it made him a little uneasy.
"Mistress, Kreacher does not know of an armoury but there are some tools and implements in the cellar," Kreacher answered Hermione, bowing low as he did so. He did not liek the cellar nothing good had ever happened in there.
Hermione nodded her head, then that is where we will go, "Kreacher please join us, I am certain there will be questions that we need you to answer." Hermione told him and he bowed in obedience and followed the two witches down the stairs towards the cellar.
An hour later the three witches sat around the dinner table tucking into some stew that Kreacher had somehow managed to find the time to prepare between fortifying wards and answering questions about Black Ancestry. Fleur was picking at her dinner, Hermione had noticed that her friend had been more than a little distant since she returned from the floo call with her family and wanted to ask if everything was okay, but glanced at Ginny and bit her tongue. Whatever was on Fleur's mind she probably wanted to keep it to herself, that was something that Hermione understood.
The forage in the cellar had not been a complete waste of time, though they had not found a goblin made sword that had been used to kill a deadly basilisk, they did come across a goblin made dagger which though looked as though it had not been used on any magical creatures that were not chained up in the cellar, but that had not seemed to Hermione to be too much of a problem as she had an idea about how to handle strengthening the blade.
Once they cleared the plates away Fleur silently left the kitchen and headed upstairs, Ginny threw a look at Hermione who just shrugged and continued cleaning the kitchen. Ginny headed out the door, firebolt in hand and took off to see Luna. Hermione squared up the chairs and then headed upstairs. She gently tapped on the door then entered the room and froze.
Fleur was laying face down on the bed, an arm carelessly thrown over her head and she was sobbing. Her body shuddered as another sob wracked through her. Hermione watched the car crash on the bed that was Fleur and was lost for a moment. She silently walked over to the bed, climbed onto it and then hesitated. Hermione wanted desperately to know what it was that had dissolved Fleur into this state but something in her mind told her that now was not the time to ask questions, instead she needed to be there for her. Very gently Hermione placed a hand on Fleur's arm and pushed it away from her face.
Fleur looked up at Hermione and quickly tried to wipe the tears from her puffy swollen eyes. "Ma petite, je suis désolé" Fleur said to her but no matter how many times she wiped the tears more formed and filled their place. Hermione reached out and pulled Fleur into her arms, holding her tight softly kissing her head and making soothing noises. Fleur clung to Hermione and broke her heart as she lay in her arms.