Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the plot bunnies causing mayhem inside my brain. On a note: English isn't my first language, so if you notice any grammar mistakes or typos feel free to tell me in the comments, since I don't have a beta and that forces me to have to check everything by myself.

Have fun!

Hellfire45, it will take a little bit still for a deeper delve into Ciel and Sebastian's relationship, but I think I managed to let some of it bleed through this chapter. Enjoy!

Number Twelve Grimmauld Place - Part 2

Ciel lost count of all the little things she saw that should be cleaned or replaced as she made her way upstairs looking for Hermione and Ron, concluding that the best course of action would be to demolish the whole building and start from scratch, there was little that could possibly be salvaged, and she also has the suspicion that Sirius would be way too happy to agree in doing so if she's recalling his previous comments on his family correctly.

When she reached the first floor what greeted her was an old House-Elf dressed in some mold-covered cloth that disgusted her as much as the rest of the townhouse. The wrinkly creature tried to sneer at her, for that could never be called a smile, until something in its behaviour changed and she noticed the fear in its bulging eyes, it was the kind of fear that she used to inspire a long time ago, but that this creature had no reason to be showing since it's the first time they meet. And then it clicked, the creature must have met Sebastian when he was procuring her a temporary room and she would bet her good eye that her demon must have put the fear of Hell into the old elf.

"What are you called, elf?", she needed a name since the elf was probably the only staff in the townhouse.

"Name's Kreacher," the elf croaked in a voice that told of how little he talks to the people in the house, "The demon told Kreacher of the Countess. That Kreacher has to show respect for the Countess, or Kreacher be kicked out."

"First, you shall never refer to him as a demon," she doesn't need to deal with the shitshow that things would become if someone starts suspecting Sebastian of being some dark creature, "His name is Sebastian, so call him Mr Sebastian or Mr Michaelis, I don't care. Just keep in mind not to let others learn of anything you may hear from us, Kreacher."

The elf nodded making his long ears flap in a very unflattering way.

"Kreacher will follow the orders. Kreacher will listen to the Countess, better than the traitor...", the hatred in his voice while saying that and the fact that this place belongs to the Black family put Ciel in a weird spot. She knows the one he is calling a traitor is her godfather, however, as Ciel Phantomhive she has no longing for a connection with her late parents through her godfather, no need to try to belong anywhere else that doesn't bear the name Phantomhive. However, she knows that insubordination can often lead to tragic ends, and although she has no lost love for her life as Henrietta Potter and the people in it, it doesn't mean she wishes them dead. On the contrary, having them die would be a waste when she could maybe find some good use for them.

"Be as it may," she chose not to address his comment about Sirius, at least not right now, "I have work for you, Kreacher.", the curiosity in the elf's eyes was obvious, he must have spent years without the need to follow orders, and taking into the very nature of house-elves, he was craving it, but way too proud and prejudiced to follow Sirius commands, or anyone else for that matter, "Sebastian is my servant, he only follows my orders and is loyal only to me," she started, "During our stay, he will be serving me and that is it, but this townhouse should be your responsibility as the Black's house-elf. I want you to go to Sebastian and get your orders from him during our stay. I'm sure we can bring the Black Household back to what it was supposed to be, don't you think so, Kreacher?", her smile was sweet and deceptive, knowing the old elf would interpret it in his own way. But it should be fine as long as he follows Sebastian's instructions and this place starts looking clean for once.

Her eyes inspected the long hallway, there were more doors than she would expect of a townhouse this size, but that could be easily explained by the use of magic in the building.

"Kreacher," her voice was back to that even intonation, betraying none of her thoughts, "Where is Hermione?", it would be better to get this meeting out of the way if she plans on bathing and getting a proper rest right after dinner instead of being stuck answering her bookworm of a friend's questions.

"The mudblood is over here.", the elf said guiding the Countess to a door at the end of the long hallway.

"Now, now Kreacher," the admonishment in her voice was there, but it still sounded as if Ciel couldn't care much about how the elf treated and talked about others as long as his prejudices didn't get in her way. It's not as if she condones blood prejudice, however, she knows which battles to choose, Kreacher is old and far too set in the beliefs instilled in him by the Black family to change now, "There is no need to talk about the guests like that. It's uncalled for, especially when coming from the servant of such a Noble and Ancient House. You don't need to be nice to any of them, but I would appreciate not having to hear that sort of speech every day during my stay."

It was the best she could do to curb the worst of his hate speech and name-calling. She knows Hermione is capable of defending herself and has no need for Ciel to intervene, but she wasn't lying when she said she doesn't want to hear that sort of thing or she would certainly lose her mind and shoot the damned elf somewhere that he would still be able to recover from, like a knee or something.

"Yes, Mistress, Kreacher will obey," he almost spat the word obey before stopping in front of a door, "The... Muggle-born room."

Wow... He managed to make the word muggle-born sound even worse than mudblood. She was vaguely impressed by that. How could so much hatred fit into such a tiny little creature? And that thought made her shiver, knowing exactly what Sebastian would point out if he heard her now.

Ciel reached for the door, opening it, the voice of her friends reaching her before any of them noticed her by the door. The room wasn't all that big, with already two beds inside of it, Hermione's things were next to one of the beds, books and parchment hinting that the girl had been doing her summer homework until right before the others came to the room, Ginny was seated on the other bed, trying to distract herself while Ron was trying to calm down Hermione, and failing miserably at that. They must have known the Guard had been sent to retrieve her from her Aunt's house which would explain the worried look on Hermione's face and how her hair was even frizzier than usual, probably from the girl running her fingers through the curls.

"Have I arrived at a bad time?", Ciel didn't even try to stop the smirk from taking place on her lips at the anxious and sorry state of the three of them, it served them right for withholding information from her.

Any other smartass comment she was planning to make was halted by Hermione throwing herself on Ciel's much smaller form and hugging the girl for dear life. What is it with witches and trying to break her spine?! They act like none of them was ever taught to respect others' personal space.

Ciel was stiff as a board until Hermione let her go, her face was an emotionless mask, determined not to let anyone know how much physical touch makes her sick to her core.

"I would appreciate it if you could detach yourself from me.", she never raised her voice, but the look on Hermione's face was as hurt as if Ciel had slapped the girl. "Thank you."

Her 'friends' stared, not knowing what to say while the black-haired girl smoothed her clothes after the attack she was subjected to.

"Henry?", Hermione asked slowly, like one would do to a scared animal. Honestly, Granger was the one who looked afraid but still talked to Ciel like the girl would flee from the room at the smallest movement.

"Ciel."

"What?", the girl asked not sure of what she meant.

"My name is Ciel. Not Henry, not Ettie, and definitely not Henrietta.", the Countess felt that tick on her good eye stirred from annoyance. How many more times would she have to tell people that? Maybe she should simply give an interview for the Prophet and make it clear to everyone that the Potter line is no more, "It has been for the last couple of weeks now. Henrietta Potter is, by all means, dead.", the confused look on Ron's face and how much he paled was enough for her to know he misunderstood her somewhere along her lines, "I'm not saying I killed Henrietta Potter, Ronald.", God, give her the patience she certainly doesn't have to spare, "Well... In a way I did. This is me, Ron. I may not look exactly the same, but this is still me, just with a new name and minus one eye."

No one seemed to know what to say to that, the silence between the four teenagers was so heavy she could hear the tic-tac of the grandfather clock she saw on her way to this room.

"But what happened, Henr-", Hermione started but cut herself short at the glare she received when she almost called her friend by her previous name, "I mean, Ciel. Your letters stopped, and Hedwig would refuse to take anything to you. We were worried sick!"

Ciel stepped further inside the room, walking to what she assumed to be Hermione's bed, her eye assessing the parchment the girl had been working on, their Transfiguration work. She could see some ink spatter here and there, she must have been nervous and used her homework in an attempt to focus on something else until Ciel arrived safely at Grimmauld place since usually, her work is much neater than that.

"It's not as if I had much to write about, right?", oh... That guilty look on Hermione's face. Her friend could never be good at poker, her emotions always showing on her face so unguarded that it was almost sad. And right now, she could see that Hermione knew exactly how annoyed Ciel would be at being kept in the dark when it comes to things concerning herself, "All letters had the same spiel: "How's your summer?", "Have you finished your homework?". You asked me about my Potion's essay three times after I told you I had already done it, had you realized?", she pushed the parchment aside, sitting on the bed before crossing her leg over the other and propping her elbow on her knee, her chin resting on her hand. She could be the image of relaxation if one ignored how her eye would dissect her friend's reaction, "I'm not as stupid as you seem to think, Hermione. And I can only tolerate so much of being kept out of the loop by my own friends."

"It wasn't Hermione's fault!"

Ron's red face and his somewhat narrowed eyes told her of his defensive stand. He has always been the most hot-headed of their group, always quick to pass judgment, to grow envious and to fall for any provocation. A small part of Ciel felt pity for him, for someone so good at chess, the boy was never one to think too far ahead of what was going right in front of him. She knew that what was putting him on edge was the way her mannerisms and speech pattern were reminding him of Malfoy and some of the other Slytherins. She wouldn't drawl like Malfoy tends to, that was unbecoming of any well-bred noble, but the almost mocking air to her words as she stared them down was more than her hot-headed friend could deal with.

"It wasn't? Then please, elaborate on that. I am dying to know why you all thought that lying to me was such a good idea.", she didn't even need to raise her voice to see the shiver that went through her friends. She was even ignoring the pair of identical redheads looking into the room from the slightly ajar door. Leave it for the twins to come at the time she is tormenting her friends, "Go ahead. I'm all ears."

Ron started sputtering something that she couldn't for the love of God manage to catch until his voice got a bit louder.

"...And then Dumbledore forbid us from telling you anything. He said it was dangerous and that someone could intercept the owls we were sending you.", it was all she could understand from his muttering.

"It's not as if we even know what they talk about in their meetings. We are kept out of them because we are still too young!", Hermione seemed to be trying to calm Ciel, which was funny since she hadn't said or done anything to suggest she was mad.

"You know... I understand Ron and Ginny not writing to me. They were born and raised in the wizarding community, so I don't blame them for not thinking of other ways of contacting me," Ciel said while the twins got inside the room, looking a bit unsure about where this conversation was going, "The Brightest Witch of Our Age and you couldn't entertain the thought of calling from a public phone? Or sending a letter through regular post? I am a bit disappointed, Hermione. Out of everyone, I expected more from you."

Tears welled up in Hermione's eyes, Ciel was mad, it would be a lie to deny it. However, she's not the type to yell or lash out, no... She would strike where it hurts the most.

"Should I start to worry that all the time you have spent inside the wizarding community is starting to mess with your common sense?", Ciel ignored how the twins winced at her words and the way Ron seemed to be nearing boiling point.

"Hey-", one of the twins started, clearly hesitant, not knowing if they wanted to get involved in what was going on in the room.

"-Potter.", the other finished, looking werdly at how Hermione flinched when they called Potter by her name.

"It's Phantomhive, not Potter. So, you either start calling me Ciel or Phantomhive, it will make everything easier. Trust me.", because then she wouldn't have a reason to sick Sebastian on all of them. Not that the bastard would help her out of the goodness of his heart, on the contrary, if it wasn't for the sake of decorum he would certainly leave her to suffer.

The puzzled look on the twins' faces didn't last long, and out of everyone, they were the first to just shrug and act like it was normal to change names on a whim. She should have expected it from those two, after all, they rarely answer by their given name, often using a combination of their names or simply switching between the two.

"Yeah, okay. So...", one of them said getting fully into the room.

"Why are you making Hermione cry?", the other asked while closing the door, "I mean..."

"We understand getting mad,"

"Because they kept on omitting everything in the letters."

"But aren't you-"

"Being-"

"A bit-"

"Harsh?", they finished.

The tick on Ciel's eye was even more noticeable during their speech. She forgot how annoying that could be. Especially because she was never good at telling them apart.

"Harsh?", she asked with a mockery of a smile gracing her features, pearly white teeth, just a tiny bit sharper than they had any right to be, it was predatory, like a large snake just waiting to play with some mice, "You seem to have misunderstood me. I'm simply giving her some advice when trying to play someone with poorly constructed half-truths. If you want to lie to me, then do it right or don't even try it.", she lifted her face from where it was resting on her hand, "Hermione, you are smart enough to realize that if you don't know how to lie than you shouldn't. It just makes you look... Naive? Someone who is easily swayed by authority? Pick whichever you like.", Ciel's hand moved dismissively, "But as your friend I shall give you some advice: although innocence is beauty, ignorance will result in death. It's more than time to grow up, war is knocking at our doors."

The sombre air that settled on everyone inside the room spoke for itself. They all knew she was right. Cedric's death was the first blood, it started their war, and this was merely the calm before the storm hit. The twins were old enough to realize it without the need for Ciel to point out the obvious, they knew the risks, it was clear in the way their jaws set and the look they had in their eyes, gone where the constant jokes. They were all children, not even considered to be adults and still... How many times had they faced death? Hogwarts isn't as safe as people wish to believe, the Ministry was a joke and the public was unaware of the war looming at their front door.

A knock on the door broke the moment when Sebastian's voice reached them, asking for permission to enter.

"What is it?", she asked when he entered the small bedroom, there were already too many people inside this place for a person to begin feeling claustrophobic.

She decided to ignore the look on Ginny's face while the girl was appraising her butler's looks. At least Hermione knew how to do that without being obvious.

"The meeting seems to be almost over," Ciel could bet how it was his silky voice that made Ginny turn red on the face, and she probably wasn't the only one to notice it if the looks on the twins' faces were anything to go by, they would tease their younger sibling mercilessly, "Your presence will most certainly be required at dinner, Young Mistress."

She sighed, knowing that he was right. With all the changes in her, she was surprised they hadn't called her sooner to start the interrogation.

"You are probably correct," she got up from the bed, "Have you found me a room?"

"You won't be staying here?", Ginny asked, her voice surprisingly normal despite how red her face had become minutes ago.

"Of course not.", the little frown of Ciel's eyebrows made it obvious how she had no idea why the girl would think that, "I need my own room so that I have a silent place to work from, and also, this bedroom is way too small for my tastes. Sebastian already went to prepare a place for me, so don't worry."

She knew they weren't worried about her ability to find a place to sleep, they were probably worrying about how much more she would act like a pureblood. If they could even imagine the place where Ciel grew up... How she grew up. Before being Henrietta, that is.

"Now, if you would excuse me. I just travelled all the way from Surrey," she said, making her way towards her butler, "I need to wash up and get ready for dinner. If any of you need me for some reason, just ask Kreacher to point you my way."

She left the room, being followed by Sebastian who then started guiding her towards the master bedroom on the second floor. It was probably Sirius' father's room. They didn't talk until they were safely inside the bedroom.

Ciel was correct in assuming it must have been Orion Black's bedroom. Sebastian did a good work of bringing this room up to her tastes, the place was spacious with a tall ornamental ceiling painted dark green, almost black in colour. The walls were decorated with dark wood panels and the same dark green colour with silver accents tastefully placed, she knows the family has a history of being in Slytherin but she had never thought about how that could translate to their house, but it shouldn't be a surprise, after all, Sapphire Blue can be found in small doses all over Phantomhive Manor. The large four-poster bed had curtains following close to the theme but in a different hue, and the same could be said about the rest of the furniture, decor items and such. She was satisfied that he got rid of the paintings, not needing anyone spying on them. On the table near the fireplace, she recognized the files she had been working on at the manor.

"I will draw your bath." was all Sebastian said before leaving through a door she only now noticed.

As he was busy, she decided to explore the bedroom a little bit more, she didn't find much, if there was any dark objects Sebastian would have gotten rid of them if it wasn't useful for more than a curse and a laugh.

"Young Mistress?", he called, stilling her hand that was trying to get to a book that was out of reach thanks to her height, or lack of it, "We should get you ready for dinner with the wizards.", there was nothing wrong with what he said, it was the smug smirk and the way his eyes seemed to be mocking her for not being able to reach the book that told her everything she needed to know, "It still surprises me how after all this time you haven't grow even an inch."

Her face was scarlet from what she decided to call mild annoyance, but that Sebastian would always refer to as poorly concealed anger at hearing facts she couldn't change even when wearing heels.

She walked into the bathroom, stopping close to the bathtub and posing in a T without addressing the demon who started to undress her. When she was finally naked, Ciel got into the water, letting the warmth work on relaxing her body before she felt Sebastian's hands on her, cleaning her skin and massaging some of her muscles, drawing a sigh out of the girl's lips.

"How did we even get into this mess...?"

The question was rhetoric, but Sebastian replied to it anyway.

"That would be because the Young Mistress is still the Queen's watchdog, no matter how much time transpires, or who is the current Queen," the demon never stopped his ministrations as he talked, "And it doesn't matter that the Queen is a muggle, she is still the Queen and that shouldn't change just because these humans have a spark of magic."

"And still, the Ministry and the Noble Houses seem to forget their place and think themselves higher than Her Majesty," she tsked, annoyed at those people who dragged her into their mess, "If it wasn't an order, I would just let them kill each other and be done with it."

One of his hands cupping her throat until it rested just under her chin tilted her head back so green and purple could meet red, Sebastian looked amused at her annoyance regarding the human wizards. "That is certainly tempting. It has been some time since I could just sit back and watch an entertaining war. Nowadays, humans just tend to go all out with heavy guns. There is no appreciation for the subtle art of strategizing and playing the game for the sake of having fun."

"Your definition of fun and mine are completely different, Sebastian."

"Really? Because I don't think they are," he said with a shit-eating grin, "If I remember correctly, you used to love making me into one of your pieces on the chessboard, treating everyone else as pawns to be sacrificed when necessary... And we both know you haven't changed."

It was only in moments like this that he would somewhat drop the facade of a butler and talk to her in this way, almost like an equal, despite their contract. She could understand, they have been together in this for a long time, playing this game at the cost of her soul and countless lives that perished on her whims.

"If you know you are just another piece then be sure to do your job well, or one day you will find yourself as just another sacrifice in the game.", her voice was vicious, her eyes still on his, since he wouldn't let go of her throat, as if making a point of letting her know how she was in his hands and how easily he could kill her if he so wished. Their game wasn't the same as when they started it and she wasn't completely sure of which rules they were following anymore.

Sebastian let out a throaty laugh, finally releasing her face and going back to his work of washing her body.

When he was done washing and rinsing her body he helped the girl out of the bathtub, being careful so that she wouldn't slip and hit her head by accident before wrapping her in a fluffy towel. Ciel left the bathroom to her temporary bedroom while he drained the bathtub, all along trying not to allow him to get a rise out of her, knowing very well that it was his daily goal to annoy her by simply existing.

The demon came into the room, the sleeves on his shirt still rolled up revealing more pale skin, his hands, free of his gloves showing the shape of long fingers and black nails, not much different from her own black nails. Ciel would try not to think about how much alike they must look this time around because if she let herself address this detail, she would undoubtedly have to address some other things she wasn't ready to accept. He kneeled in front of her, opened the towel and started drying her body. The girl was so used to having the demon doing all of these tasks for her that any embarrassment about having a man bathing and dressing her had been gone for a long time.

However, it doesn't mean other people would be as blasé as herself about it. That was proven correct by the look on Hermione's face when the door to Ciel's room burst open with the Gryffindor bookworm talking something about an apology and going dead silent. Hermione's brown eyes getting so big that Ciel was wondering if they would pop out of her head.

The Countess stared at the other girl, Sebastian not even halting his movements, he so clearly didn't care for the humans or their opinions. Ciel kept the eye with the contract closed but the indifferent intonation of her voice only made things more uncomfortable for the young witch, she was positive of it, "Has no one told you to knock before barging into other people's bedrooms?"