Chapter 9, An Old Friend Comes To Call

When Hydra slept again, she did not dream. Eventually the rest had cleared out of her room the previous night save for the grandparents who sat with her until she fell asleep. Some may feel like a baby for that, but she was just grateful for their presence. When she woke in the morning, she could hear voices and laughter coming from Loughness's room next door. What was he doing? Sleepily she contemplated shouting for her brother to shut up, but then she recognized the other voice. It was one that she hadn't heard in far too long! It belonged to Wulfric Dumbledore.

Though a childhood friend, he was five years older than the twins, so was rather like a big brother of sorts to them as well as Sortia. To Loughness's envy, he'd attended school at Durmstrang because both of his parents worked there. The friends always spent time together in the summer, but when Wulfric graduated from Durmstrang, he no longer had the entire summer off. He attended a wizarding university and had a summer work internship that he shared with his girlfriend, Graven. They did security, warding homes, businesses, and anywhere else that magical folk wanted to pay to have warded. Wulfric and his girlfriend really enjoyed working together because they always learned something interesting from the process.

They enjoyed learning what goblin and wizard magic could do when combined and it was a constant experience of discovery. Wulfric had met his goblin girlfriend last year when she began posing as a human at his wizarding university. Griphook wanted a spy on the inside to gauge how students and professors thought when it came to elf freedom, goblin rights and all that. It helped those like he and Kereston who were in charge of the revolution to know who should get their magic back first or even who should not ever lose it at all. Graven was transfigured into a human girl when she met Wulfric Dumbledore, but as his family was aware of the revolution, he knew her secret though they'd never met. Hydra sprang from bed and dressed hurriedly, eager to see what Wulfric had been up to. She tapped on Loughness's door before pushing it open. "Good morning," she said before going to give Wulfric a hug. He was tall and lanky with his father's red hair, though worn quite short and his mother's dark eyes. "Hi, Stranger!"

Wulfric hugged her back, scooping her up so that her feet momentarily left the floor. "I've missed all of you lot so much! I would've brought Sortia along, but she's deep into some potions project thing with Severus." He set Hydra back onto her feet before giving her a worried look. "I hear you've been having very bad dreams."

"Just one," Hydra said.

"Yeah but you never wake up screaming like that," Loughness said. She gave her twin a look, and shrugged. Why was he so concerned now when he'd been literally bored the previous night directly after said dream. "I was wondering," Loughness continued. "The blonde woman you described in your dream. Do you know who she is? Like have you seen her before?" From the attentive look on Wulfric's face, he was just as curious about the answer as was Loughness.

"Not that I recall," Hydra said. She chuckled. "Perhaps it's just how I expect someone to look who would enslave me. Perhaps she's the female Lucy Malfoy."" The Lestranges often called Lucius Malfoy Lucy, sometimes even to his face. Of course he hated it. The tension faded from both boys expressions as they chuckled at Hydra's words.

"Well if you do see anyone who looks like her, let us know, just in case," Wulfric said.

Hydra looked between the two, and raised her brows. "You're thinking I'm prophetic now? Because I'm not. It was just a stress dream. I know enough psychology from Mag to understand exactly what it was." Sortia's mum was very fascinated by Muggle psychology and used it to understand people as well as to pull their strings as it were. "It probably started when Loughness and I were told we had to go to Hogwarts disguised as full humans, because elf issues. Hell it's enough to make anyone feel a bit insecure deep down in their subconscious! Then this uprising, though I do feel it is necessary. It just likely triggered the having to hide that I'm half elf business is all."

"Well you've got it all sorted, and that's good that you're so self aware. Mag will be proud," Wulfric said.

"Still, though," Loughness said. "You see that blonde bitch around, you say something." Wulfric nodded.

Hydra shook her head at them in exasperation, but she couldn't help smiling even as she did so. "Very well, I promise. So what else is new," she asked Wulfric. "And are we going down to breakfast or did you two already eat?"

"Wolfy got shagged," Loughness breathed. His round elf eyes were even rounder in awe as he spoke the words. "He's done it while she was a transfigured human as well as a goblin."

"Did. you. eat. breakfast. yet," Hydra repeated slowly.

"Girls don't care about that sort of thing, Loughness," Wulfric said. His cheeks were scarlett, and Hydra was at least pleased that he had the grace to be embarrassed. The shagging must be what the two were talking so loudly about when she was woken by their voices. "No, we haven't eaten yet," Wulfric added. "I've only had coffee, figuring I'd eat here to be social. I feel weird sitting about while other people eat when I'm not eating."

"Does Graven feel weird if you talk about your shagging," Hydra wondered, arching her brows.

"I... I didn't bring it up," Wulfric sputtered, jerking a thumb at Loughness. "It was him. And I don't know how she feels about it."

"Alright," Hydra said, taking pity on him. "Let's go eat." The elves already had three plates waiting for them on the dining table and the delicious smell of breakfast that filled the room caused Hydra's stomach to rumble. Right away Wulfric helped himself to a cup of coffee before asking if the twins wanted some. They both nodded, so he filled the other two cups as well. Kereston was already gone to work and the daddies would be asleep until sunset, so the place was quiet. "Thanks," Hydra said, gratefully accepting her cup and adding several splashes of vanilla creamer from the bottle that stood beside the coffee pot.

"Stormy thinks the twins are too young for coffee. That was for Wulfric. There was a pot of tea for Hydra and Loughness." The elf's calm tone was nonetheless chastising and Hydra squirmed.

"Sorry, Stormy. It just helps me to get things done throughout the day." Though the elf was standing at the sideboard polishing the silver, she hadn't noticed him when they'd come in.

"Hydra is too young to require energy," Stormy complained.

"Loughness and I sort of had our sleep interrupted last night," she explained apologetically. "I hope I didn't wake any of you."

A look of surprise crossed the elf's face as he shook his head. "Hydra did not. What happened?"

Hydra squirmed in her chair. "Just a silly nightmare."

"Yeah, she woke us up screaming. Well hopefully not Kereston. She didn't comment at any rate," Loughness said.

"Kereston was very tired. Stormy would not be surprised if she could've slept through a hurricane last night," the elf commented gravely. "Stormy has known Hydra her whole life, and never once can he recall her having such dreadful dreams." His gaze was steady as it scrutinized her face as if searching for something.

Hydra nodded. "You're right." With a sigh, she recounted the dream again for Stormy, as it was what he seemed to want. She then explained what she firmly believed to be the psychological reasons behind why she'd had it. She left out the bit about Loughness carrying the tray, for fear Stormy may take it amiss. She didn't consider any of the four elves who worked at #12 Grimmauld Place to be slaves, for they were paid and well. Still she knew the subject could be a sensitive one so opted on the side of caution. This was probably unnecessary because none of the Grimmauld elves were particularly sensitive. Kreacher had likely seen to that, as none of them were particularly fond of him.

"Stormy is sorry that Hydra's mind is stressed," he said, laying a hand briefly on her shoulder. "If she ever needs to talk, she knows where Stormy is."

Hydra gave him an appreciative smile. "Thanks, Stormy." It was Stormy who'd taught Hydra and Loughness the elf magic that they hadn't wanted to learn because Daddy Kreacher made it so boring. Stormy was able to put the charms for cleaning and cooking that Kreacher insisted that they learn into a more useful perspective that the twins found far more palatable. For instance, Stormy told them that the same charm for boiling an egg could be used to cook a person's brain right in their skull. Similarly, a potato peeling charm could peel a person's skin off just as easily. That was Defense at its finest! Such simple yet fascinating methods of violence had the twins far more willing to learn the elf side of things that they'd previously held no interest in. Elf magic was stronger, but when daddy Kreacher only presented it to them for servile tasks, they hadn't found it appealing in the least.