Chapter 10: The House of Black

The rest of the evening was quite entertaining for Harry. While Mrs. Weasley did all to stop Harry from getting any information, Sirius seemed determined that Harry should know as much as possible about the mess.

But Harry guessed that his godfather also had wanted to make it up to Harry. Not, that Sirius thought that Harry did have a horrible summer. Harry thought that at the beginning until Sirius had stated: "Don't know what you're complaining about, myself."

At that Harry had been incredulous, but the answer he got told him everything.

" Personally, I'd have welcomed a Dementor attack. A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely. You think you've had it bad, at least you've been able to get out and about, stretch your legs, get into a few fights… I've been stuck inside for a month." Sirius had said and Harry had connected the spots in his head.

" How come?" asked Harry, officially frowning. But inside his mind had been reeling. His godfather sounded not like an adult - he sounded like a boy, searching for adventure and danger. Harry had not liked the thought of that very much. Feeling restless like that was the first mistake that lead to the path of death…

" Because the Ministry of Magic's still after me, and Voldemort will know all about me being an Animagus by now, Wormtail will have told him, my big disguise is useless. There's not much I can do for the Order of the Phoenix… or so Dumbledore feels."

And there had been the second part that had started to let Sirius feel bitter. Dumbledore. Harry could hear it in Sirius voice every time Dumbledore had been brought up this evening. But not just then. He had also heard it in different arguments - and not just that.

Harry had heard not only Sirius bitterness but also the arguing of the others, especially Mrs. Weasley.

One of the most telling sentences was her: "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

Dumbledore.

Dumbledore.

And Dumbledore again.

As if her argument would count more when it was Dumbledore who had ordered it. As if you had to obey because of Dumbledore.

Harry filled away what he heard for later. Maybe he could use it. Now he did not need information like that. He had different things at hand - like the argument Sirius at that moment had with Mrs. Weasley about Harry being James.

" He's not James, Sirius!" Mrs. Weasley said furiously. Sirius answer was as heated as hers, even if his voice sounded cold, when he said: "I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly"

" I'm not sure you are!" said Mrs. Weasley. "Sometimes, the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!"

Well, that was some new approach.

Did they now fully confuse him with his father?!

Harry shrugged inwardly and returned to other things interesting him about the way his godfather acted.

He still listened to their argument about him, but this time a little lost in his thoughts. His mind drifted back to the time they were eating dinner, when Sirius had told him about the usefulness of Mundungus Fletcher. Harry still could taste the bitterness in Sirius voice when he commented that Mundungus was useful to the Order - not saying that he himself felt anything but.

Oh, yes. His godfather was bitter - and a lot of antipathy was heeding right at Dumbledore and his chronicle decease to toy with his… pawns…

Harry was sure that Sirius would spring into action as soon as he was able to.

Maybe…

Well, this thought had merit, but Harry would not decide for now. He had different things to do - and a maturity of these would not be solved in the next few hours…

But it needn't to be solved by them. Instead he waited till they had spilled everything to him that they wanted to say - inwardly laughing when Sirius used the term 'weapon' to describe Dumbledore's great plan.

Weapon.

Well, Harry knew Dumbledore's weapon.

Its name was Harry and it was fifteen years old.

Regrettably Harry was no longer available.

But that information was strictly secured until further notice and because of that not shareable.

Not that Harry really felt sorry for Dumbledore and his schemes.

Finally the day ended and the others went to bed. Of course, Harry followed and after that waited until he heard the snoring sounds of Ron.

It was way after midnight until Harry dared to leave the room again. He descended the stairs and stopped in front of the curtain which concealed the portrait. Warily he opened the curtain. The portrayed dame - Sirius's mother - stared at him, but reminded silence as soon as she saw who had dared to open the curtain.

"Lady Black" Harry said courtly.

"Lord Malfoy" she answered.

Harry smiled.

"It's Malfoire" he corrected her. "The English part of my family might call themselves Malfoy now - but I am part of the original House."

"Malfoire" the lady echoed. "Well, how come a pure-blood from a respectable family like yours is in company of blood-traitors and mudbloods?"

"I am scheming something" Harry answered shrugging. "And I am not only Lord Malfoire. I have also some other Houses to my name - and not one of them you would dare to cross. Truth to be told, Malfoire is even the least ancient."

"But you decided to go by their name" Lady Black said, raising an eyebrow. Harry shrugged.

"I am no Lord in my mother's House" he answered casually. "One day I might be, but until then I am still the heir."

"So you used your father's House" Lady Black said. "Pray tell, which House is your mother's? You seemed convinced that it would frighten me more."

Harry just smiled at her and asked.

"The protection-layer the old man laid upon the house - will it stop me from leaving and entering again or will it show someone that I did leave?"

The Lady frowned.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I want to fetch some… thing" Harry finally said. "I need to know."

"The old man… you are talking about the Headmaster of Hogwarts - Dumbledore?"

"I am. And I know that he is out of a respectable family. That does not count anything." Harry answered.

"He is one of the Gryffindor-heirs" the Lady said. "It should count something."

"The House of Gryffindor did not follow his line - even if he wants the people to believe that." Harry said. "Truth to be told, the Houses of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw both never existed in the first place."

Now the lady was intrigued.

"So you want to tell me that every family tree with their names in it are lies?" The old lady asked coolly. Harry shrugged again.

"I just wanted to tell you that there has never been a House of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. There were some family members who carried on these names because they did not want to carry on their original ones - but the Houses themselves never existed."

"And how do you know?" The lady asked chilly.

"Don't worry, madam" Harry answered smiling. "Your House still is close kin to Hufflepuff - and much closer to Slytherin himself."

"Slytherin?" the Lady asked astonished. "I never knew. I knew of Hufflepuff - but there was no entrance that we are descendants of Slytherin."

"Oh, you are not" Harry answered shrugging. "You are close kin, not descendants - but that's something I cannot tell you tonight. I need to know of the shields and wards tonight, I might tell you your relationship with Slytherin some other day."

Lady Black sighted. Then she called: "Kreature!"

An old house-elf popped in, looking expectantly at his mistress, the sneer at Harry barely concealed.

"Kreature" Lady Black said. "This is the Lord Malfoire. He is a pure-blood and kin to us and you will treat him like that, do you understand?"

"Yes, mistress" the house-elf answered and his sneer vanished, now looking at Harry with interest in his eyes.

"He asked to leave the house without being seen" Lady Black continued. "Bring him, accompany him by whatever he wants to do and after that bring him back. Understood?"

"Yes, mistress" Kreature answered and gazed at Harry. "When Milord is ready, Kreature will bring him wherever he wants."

"Just in front of the house for tonight, Kreature" Harry said softly. "I might have a surprise for you and the Lady Black."

The portrayed woman raised an unbelieving eyebrow but stayed silence.

Kreature just extended his hand and when Harry took it, popped him out of the House.

Harry looked the street up and down.

"Reg?" he asked and waited until a black cat had left the shadows.

"The street's empty except of me and Kreature, Reg - and I believe it would be better to do it here than in the house. I don't want to wake someone."

The cat stared at him, then it nodded and a second later instead of a cat a man stood there with black hair and grey-blue eyes.

Kreature stared at him unbelievingly.

"Master Regulus!" he finally cried, flinging his arms around Reg's waist while wailing his eyes out. "Master Regulus is still alive!"

"Yes I am, Kreature" Regulus said, awkwardly patting the house-elf's shoulder. "And I am sorry that I just come home now. I am sorry I did not return as soon as I could, really, really sorry."

Harry snorted. He knew, Reg wasn't really sorry. Oh, Reg was sorry to leave Kreature behind because he loved the house-elf like a family member - but he wasn't sorry not to return home. He had not wanted to return and tell his mother about his changed view.

But that was something Reg would never tell poor Kreature.

"We should return to the house, Reg" Harry said and Kreature turned to look at him.

"Lord Malfoire is a wonderful wizard" Kreature declared. "Lord Malfoire brings young Master Regulus home. Lord Malfoire is a very absolutely wonderful wizard that he is!"

Harry smiled at the creature in front of him.

"It's Harry, Kreature" he corrected the house-elf. "No-one is allowed to know that I am Lord Malfoire. I go by Harry Potter at the moment."

Kreature stared at him, then he nodded seriously.

"Yes, Harry Potter sir" he said. "Kreature will not squeal on the blood-traitors and mudbloods who Lord Malfoire is. Lord Malfoire's secret is save with Kreature."

"Kreature, you mustn't tell anyone about Lord Malfoire" Reg said intensely. "It is most important for the things I and Harry want to accomplish."

"Yes, Master Regulus sir!" the house-elf said with gleaming eyes. "Everything the master commands."

Harry laughed at that.

"We seem to have another pair of eyes for us" he grinned at Reg. The other one shrugged.

"Let's wait and see" he said and then commanded Kreature to bring them back in.

The house-elf obeyed and a second later they were again standing in front of the portrait.

Lady Black gawked at them.

"Regulus!" she shrieked, Harry's silencing spell was just in time to prevent the rest of the house hearing her.

"Hello, mother" the young man answered. "I heard you're torturing my brother now."

The lady blinked.

"I am not torturing your brother, Regulus" she said.

"I hope you don't" Reg answered. "We need him for later. When he's crazy until then we could have some problems."

"But it also would make some things easier, Reg" Harry joked.

"Stop it, Harry" Reg snorted. "Do not lead me into temptation."

Harry just shrugged.

"I should return to bed" he said. "Ask Kreature about the locked and stow it away safely. We will have to do it later. We need a secured and clean space where I can draw the protection, this will take some time."

"It will" Reg answered and turned to Kreature. "When did you last clean in this house?"

Kreature squirmed under Reg's gaze.

"Kreature will begin now" he answered, still squirming. "Kreature will have it clean pretty soon."

"Don't" Reg answered. "Better leave it like that, so that the… guests… don't suspect anything wrong."

Kreature nodded dutifully.

"Just clean a room they are not occupying and rescue the library books. I also need the locket I asked you to destroy."

Kreature winced.

"I now know you had no way to destroy it" Reg said soothingly. "I am sorry I asked you something you had no way to fulfil. I know if you had had a way you would have done it. Don't punish yourself for it."

At that, Kreature wailed again and hugged Reg.

"Master Regulus is a great wizard" he howled. "He does forgive bad Kreature for not obeying his command!"

"I told you it wasn't you fault" Reg said earnestly. "I don't want you to punish yourself for something you cannot do in the first place. I will destroy it myself. I now know how."

"Yourself, huh?" Harry asked. "I was not aware that you are able to do it yourself now, Reg. Should I go and leave you to your task?"

"You know what I mean, S… Harry!" Reg growled. "And I could do it myself - the object just would not survive."

"Maybe I should let you do it then. The locket is an ugly thing - I would not cry if it was destroyed."

"Harry!" Reg stared at him as if he was mad. "The locket belonged to Slytherin - do you know the value of something like that?!"

"It's still nothing special" Harry answered shrugging. "And just because you live and breath the Founders today I don't have to think differently of something as ugly as that."

"And I thought you were born a Slytherin" Reg said shaking his head.

Harry stared at him.

"I'm quite sure my father's surname was not Slytherin" he told Reg. Reg snorted.

"I'm sure it wasn't" he confirmed. "But I did it not mean it like that - and you know that."

"Of course" Harry shrugged, then grinned. "But I liked to take it like that."

"Harry…"

"Oh, stop it, Reg" Harry said.

"But…"

"No, I will go to bed now. You can receive the ugly locket and hide it. We will destroy it as soon as Kreacher has a ritual-room ready. Good Night."

Reg sighted, but answered.

"Good Night" and with that Harry was of to bed.

Under his pillow was lying an edition of The Quibbler, one, that Harry had received two days ago. He grinned. In it there was a special section which showed a letter written to the Daily Prophet some days ago.

Beneath it, Xenophilius Lovegood, the editor of The Quibbler had written his answers. The Quibbler Harry had was an edition in advance, because it was a weekly paper and would be released on Thursday every week.

The next Thursday would be Harry found it a very fitting time. It was the day of his trial - a very fitting day indeed.

Harry smirked at that, remembering his letter and the answer he had received:

Dear Mr. Twist

My name is Xenophilius Lovegood and I am the editor of the Quibbler.

I know, I am not the editor you wanted to answer your letter - nevertheless I will try as I was intrigued when I read that someone so young like you dares to question our world and our press.

Such courage and interest needs to be supported and so I decided to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge.

My competitor, the Daily Prophet is a private publishing newspaper, whose shareholders decide what will be printed and what not. The same goes for my newspaper, but the difference is, that my newspaper solely has two shareholders. The Daily Prophet has many. The major ones are the Ministry - which has the majority - and a French family, I think.

Definitely fact is, that the Ministry, as the major stockholder definitely can make sure that the Daily Prophet will following its lead.

Because of that, many of the articles the Daily Prophet writes, may contain facts, but they are also printed in a fashion that would indeed mislead the reader. So you should read every article that is printed with the thought in mind that my dear competitor tries to show the Ministry in its best light.

Another fact is, that there are definitely reporters in the Daily Prophet who are using Quick Quote Quills. Because of this, a lot of their news are inaccurate or simply false. My dear competitor seems not to care about proven facts and has little regard of accuracy in any form.

That shows also the fact that there are no consequences when the reporter uses Quick Quote Quills or faulty information.

Of course, that leads to your question about serious journalism and the freedom of the press. Well, I can't say much about that except: As long as the Ministry is the major shareholder in the Daily Prophet there may be serious journalism all you like - it just will not be printed when it does not favor the shareholders.

And when you want to see freedom of the press, you should not look at the Daily Prophet. It might be a private newspaper but even as a private one you are just as free, as your shareholders let you be.

Luckily, I am one of the two shareholders of The Quibbler and because of that able to decide what to print on my own.

When you ever have another question, just write me and I am willing to answer as good as I can.

Xenophilius Lovegood

Editor-in-chief of The Quibbler

"Let's see how the Ministry will react when their game is published publicly." Harry thought while closing his eyes. "I want to see them running with their tails between their legs - and it will end with that. This is just the beginning…"

And Harry did mean it. He knew he would not be able to do a lot until his trial, but slowly his game started - it just needed to finalize some major parts before he could finally move against the major players.

Harry would be waiting.

Waiting did not bother him. He was good at waiting.

Very good.

"Time for revenge" he whispered, then closed his eyes and slept.