Inheritance

The movement and clacking of a well-oiled mechanism could faintly be heard from the door and finally it opened. Inside, Irma could see an entire mountain of gold coins, if she had to guess, there were at least a few hundred thousand for them, more than enough to pass out little Ronald's allowance for a lifetime.

Irma could also see a dusty book on a small table and a trunk beside it. The trunk was decorated with strange symbols and so was the book, as best as Irma could tell. There were also various creatures from fairy tales on the cover of the leather-bound book, such as Dragons and Unicorns, and even Werewolves.

Little Ronald immediately walked to the book and took it in his hand, stared at its cover and even tried to open it, then pry it open with force, yet he was unable to.

"Do you want me to help you with that book?", Irma asked.

"I don't think it's a good idea.", the boy replied. "The book is most likely protected against strangers touching it."

Suddenly, the child seemed to have a thought as he squeezed his wounded finger once more and some blood leaked out again. Then a change occurred – the strange symbols on the cover of the book moved about and changed into something different, a written language, but Irma couldn't quite make out what was written there.

"It's as I suspected.", the child commented.

Then, Irma heard a click. When she looked at the direction of the sound, she saw dust falling off the trunk, as if it had been knocked on or something.

Little Ronald went to the trunk and lifted its lid, then said: "Ah, what was I thinking, of course it's one of those. I'll go in first, you can follow after me."

Irma wasn't sure about what the boy meant, as there was no way that the both of them could fit in that trunk, dream or not. However, as her little brother went in, she noticed that there wasn't even a hair of him sticking out, so she climbed into the trunk as well. She discovered that instead of a cramped trunk, she found herself in a large space. In the middle of that space, there was a small house with a garden around it.

There was some dim light emanating from small spheres fixed to posts, as if they were streetlamps. Right at the beginning of the path, there was a sign with bold letters stating: 'Private property of Grant Vywin, Demon hunter. Yes, they exist. No, I don't have one chained up in the basement.'

Once she was done disbelievingly staring at the sign that was apparently meant to dissuade anyone from bothering the former owner, Irma followed Ronald into the house. After a bit of exploring, they discovered a library stuffed from floor to ceiling with books. There was a door that led to another room between the bookcases.

Ronald in front and Irma right after managed to enter through the door. Inside, there were a lot fewer books, however, it looked like they were all on soft pillows and inside glass cases with strange symbols etched into the glass.

There were various figurines between each of the display cases that were filling the space next to each of the walls right up to the other end of the room.

As they left the library, there was an intersection of corridors, one of them seemingly a dead end. Yet, that was the one that the boy picked. He walked straight in and once he reached the wall, he disappeared.

What Irma didn't know was that the book 'little Ronald', or Gaude was holding, was whispering him the secrets of the house, the library being only the first of them.

Irma tried to follow at first, but bumped against a solid wall, so she decided to simply wait in the corridor. After a few minutes, her little brother was back, and he said in a cheerful voice: "I believe we've accomplished everything we needed from the bank. I'll just grab this trunk and a thousand Galleons and we'll be on our way. Oh, you should empty your handbag. It's perfect for carrying the money until we get me a proper portable storage item."

Just like that, they left the bank, Irma pushing the wheeled trunk in front of her along the cobbled street.

Ronald stopped somebody on the street and asked: "Where would I go if I wanted to buy a Mokeskin pouch?"

"Stowe and packers, straight ahead for a hundred and fifty steps, three skips and five hops, then turn left, do a backflip and skip straight for twelve times. The store will be to your left.", said a man with a hat that had gears on the outside that turned the rim, middle and top parts. "Oh, and make sure to not step on the Baloogaloos! They show up around halfway and mess up the sequence, every time. Then you'll have to start from the beginning."

They only started moving after two more people had been asked for directions and they both told the same story which was a lot simpler than the first man's.

"Can we at least try the first one's method?", Irma asked.

"Can you do a backflip?", the child rebuked her.

"I'd fail the landing.", Irma admitted.

"Then wait here for a moment, I'll just try it out.��

What followed was quite an eccentric mode of movement from little Ronald, but halfway through, he appeared on the spot where he had started. Irma was staring at his athletics with wide eyes, it was something that seemed both dangerous and a bit entertaining, not something a three-year old, much less eight month old, no matter their rate of bodily development, should be able to do in reality. What Irma didn't know was that 'little Ronald' was supporting his movements with a healthy dose of magic.

"Eh?", he said. "The Baloogaloos are real? Seriously! Of all the things!"

After a few attempts, Ronald finally got to the backflip part, performing it quite well and started skipping, then suddenly disappeared. From the far-off distance, Irma could hear him yelling out: "What are you still standing there for, make haste! I forgot to ask if my trunk would come along with me, and apparently it doesn't!"

Irma shook her head at the strangeness of the situation. She was a bit offended by the fact that she was demoted to a baggage carrier but she was a big girl and would get over it. As if! Ronald was in for a scolding after she woke up! For the time being, Irma pushed the trunk forward at a quick pace, along the path recommended by the other two.

Finally, she reached the store that Ronald had wanted to go to next, and they went inside.

"I'd like to buy a Mokeskin bag, with an undetectable extension charm and a featherlight charm on it."

"We don't do undetectable extension charms. They're illegal. We're a respectable business.", the shopkeeper said.

"Irma, please open your handbag. I have an offer to make."

Ronald then took out at least fifty of these gold coins and the look in the shopkeeper's eyes changed immediately.

"As I said, we don't do illegal charms, but we can enchant it with the regular extension charm. If you pay enough, I'll even throw in a stasis charm. It's quite in demand recently, it keeps your food warm among other things.", the man said, a greedy little gleam in his eyes.

The man then picked one of the bags from underneath the counter, took out his pointing stick and waved it around while chanting a few latin-sounding words. Finally, he handed the bag to Ronald.

"Irma, please hand me the money. This thing is a whole lot safer than your handbag.", Ronald said.

Irma, knowing that this was a dream in the first place, saw nothing wrong with giving away all those heavy gold coins. Ronald simply stuffed them into that small pouch of his until they were all gone. Irma wasn't even going to ask, that was obviously dream logic.

Once they exited Stowe & Packers, they made their way straight across the square, to a building bearing the sign 'House Elf Allocation Agency'.

###

Inside, there was a witch in her thirties browsing a magazine that she closed and hid quickly, as if a teen nearly caught doing something very private, after which they would establish the 'knock before you enter' rule, to have enough time for a tactical retreat.

"Yes. Hello. Welcome to the House Elf Allocation Agency. How may I assist you?", the witch shot off in rapid succession, very obviously flustered.

"I would like to buy my personal House elf.", Gaude said.

"Alright, come downstairs and pick the one you want.", the witch said.

The witch had assumed that since the young woman, most likely another witch, was simply following the boy around, the boy was the one with the money and status, no matter how young. He was likely the scion of one of the Noble Houses, and shouldn't be offended, if she wanted to keep her job.

Gaude chose the one that was the least grating to his eyes and said: "I'll take this one."

"That would be two hundred Galleons.", the witch said. "A Galleon for every year of high-quality service the elf is expected to provide."

"That's fine by me. An elf should outlive their master at least.", Irma suddenly spoke the words that Gaude was feeding directly into her mind. There was also the fact that Gaude had made her completely believe that she was currently dreaming.

"What's your name?", Gaude asked the elf.

"This one's name is Laly.", the elf replied.

"Good, Laly. From now on, you'll be my elf, so listen to me carefully. I'll be instructing you properly later."

"Not so fast.", the witch said. "You'll have to bind the elf to you first."

"How do I do that?", Gaude asked, honestly not aware of the process.

"To make it simple, here's an example.", the witch handed Irma a piece of parchment with quill writing on it. The witch didn't seem to expect Gaude to be able to read at his apparent age.

As such, Gaude had Irma read the contents out aloud: "I, (your name, the name of your house and noble title here) will take you, the (elf's name here) to be my loyal servant for as long as your services are required by me or my descendants. So mote it be."

Gaude then repeated, filling in the not-blanks: "I, Gaude Vywin, of House Vywin, will take you, Laly, to be the loyal servant of myself and my house for as long as you live. So mote it be."

As Gaude said those words, a golden chain, that only himself and the elf could see, wrapped around his right arm with one end and the elf's neck with the other end.

There was only a small change in wording that Gaude had made, however, the difference of meaning was like that between the Sun and the Moon. That little change meant that the elf wouldn't be executed or set free the moment that its value as a servant dropped but instead it would die a natural death as a servant of the family, something every house elf dreamed of.

The witch looked at Gaude a little strangely but said nothing. Some Galleons changed hand and the business was concluded. Meanwhile, Irma was giving Gaude even stranger looks, she hadn't missed the moment that 'little Ronald' had called himself 'Gaude Vywin, of House Vywin', as if he was actually some long-lost little noble brat, throwing away his given name and even the last name from his mother as if he was too good for it. That settled the matter in Irma's mind, Ronald would absolutely get a proper scolding from her.

Next, Gaude and Irma returned to the orphanage where Gaude managed to put Irma back to sleep in the rocking chair. He then summoned his newly-bought elf and had her take his trunk into the orphanage's attic.

Half an hour later, a very odd event took place where 'Ronald' was the recipient of a very long and firm lecture from Irma on how to properly treat ladies and how to respect family and traditions.

A few days later, Irma would have business in the attic and discover the chest. She would then faintly remember that the chest was featured in an amazing dream she had, but unable to recall it, she'd figure she had seen the trunk in the attic first and it appeared in her dreams only after that.

Irma would also notice two bruises on her left arm and wonder how she got those.