Black Castle and Falken Manor

I appeared in front of the familiar huge door of the Black Castle. My last visit was too short for me to tour the castle properly. I transformed into my animagus and started flying over the castle to get a good look of the surroundings and the castle.

I found something that made me very happy. The Black castle was on an a sufficiently large Island in the sea and far away from the continent. The whole island was covered in a dense forest except for a small clearing in the middle where the Black castle was located. There were no other buildings on the island. It was my very own private island and I was sure that the non-magical people had no knowledge of it. When I was strong enough, I will hide the whole Island under the Fidelius and it would become my secret retreat.

I flew over every inch of the island with my mage sight activated. There were no magical creatures on the island but I did see many small animals and snakes. Satisfied with my flight, I landed and transformed back into human. I was welcomed by Elgar near the door. He was in a much better condition today.

Elgar "Welcome Master Charles."

I said "Hello Elgar. Are you the only Elf in this castle?"

Elgar "No there is Maggie Elf. She is in the kitchen. We both are responsible for the Black castle."

I asked "Okay. I will meet her later. Are there any other Black elves?"

Elgar "Only Kreature Elf who looks after the Black town house. Others were given to other families by Lord Black when he saw that he did not need many elves."

I then called Sherry and Maggie. After introductions were done, I asked Elgar to take me to the Family crypts. I stood in front of grandfather's grave for some time and paid my respects. I thanked him for everything he has done for me and promised in front of his grave to make his last wish come true.

Next I asked Elgar and Maggie to give me a tour of the castle.

The castle was centuries old. It had a dungeon which had the a huge Potion laboratory, Room for storing potion ingredients, A ritual room, A weapons room and a large prison with a lot of prison cells and torture chambers. Thankful the prison was empty and there was no evidence of it being used recently.

The ground floor had a huge ballroom to hold events, a huge dining hall, a meeting room, the large kitchen and quite a number of guest rooms.

The first floor was the family residence area. It had the master bedroom and many other rooms for family members.

The second floor contained the Lord's study, A huge Library, The family tree dated from the time the castle was built, A room for conducting experiments and many empty rooms.

The third floor had many more rooms but they had been abandoned for over a century. I decided to remodel the third floor in the future for things related to the non magical world.

The wards were in good condition. The black family wards were strong. Anyone trying to force their way in would be burnt to ashes by it. Even with my mastery knowledge, I found the ward scheme fascinating and whoever had done this must have been a genius.

The complete tour took the whole day. It was too big. It would take centuries for my family to grow large enough to make use of the whole castle. But the castle was a good place to hide from the outside world.

Sherry and Maggie prepared the food and after having Dinner I decided to spend the night in the castle. I used one of the guest rooms since the master bedroom was filled with Grandfather's things.

Next morning, I decided to visit the Falken Family manor. Sherry joined me. I apparated to the Falken Manor and stood in front of large gates. A drop of my blood on the gate removed the stasis charm over the manor.

I flew into the sky and looked at the property. The manor was located in remote part of Scotland on a mountain surrounded by forests. I had a lot of open clear spaces surrounding the manor. The manor was two storied and looked like similar to the old English Castles.

Sherry knew the place and showed me the inside of the manor. The manor had similar layout to that of the Black castle but was only two storied.

The dungeon consisted of a huge ritual chamber and a huge potions laboratory with a store room for storing potions ingredients. On the ground floor was a huge kitchen, a huge ballroom to host events, a huge dining hall and many guest rooms. The first floor was the family residence area. There was a master bedroom, a master study, a huge library and a lot of other rooms.

After I was done with the tour of the manor, I called Elgar and told him to hire two elves to look after the manor. One male and one female. He nodded and then apparated away. Elgar should have the proper connections required to acquire me two good house elves.

After that I went to the ward room and started updating the existing wards and adding new ones. I did not have enough magic reserves to perform the Fidelius on the huge manor so I left that for later. But due to the strong wards that I had placed, the property did not need much more protection.

While I was resting after the tiring work on the wards, Elgar came back with the two elves. Their names were Seb and Liz. They were in very bad condition physically and were wearing rags. Elgar said that they are good elves but their masters do not treat them well. Since they used to be Black elves and grandfather had not properly cast them out, I can take back the ownership of them forcefully and save them from their current tough life even though they have bonds with their new masters.

I quickly bonded with them, making sure that their previous bond was broken and then told Elgar to train them properly. I told them to look after the Falken Manor after their training was completed.

When it was late, I apparated to my London home. The rooms in the manor were not in a good condition for me to live in. Since I had some time left, I decided to update the wards here.

I went to the ward stone of the house and checked the wards on it. It was a very poor selection of wards and were just basic wards. I guess the warding was done by my parents and they did not know much about warding. I decided to start anew and removed all the wards from the ward stone before adding new ones. I added all the protective wards that I could think of including anti-animagus wards and intent wards which would tell me the intent of all people inside the house to the ward scheme. It was now almost impossible for people to enter my house without my permission only some very powerful wizards or ward breakers could enter my premises without my permission.

I was tired by the time I had finished warding the house to meet by satisfaction. After a small dinner I decided to go to sleep.