I do not like this song ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’
- Please do not come to my town.
December 1976
Grimmauld place number 12 seemed like a pretty normal house in the central of London. The ancient and noble house of black was well known for their pure bloodline and the brothers black. The heir, an elegant young boy around 16 with a charming smile and a mischievous face who had a unique way of doing or saying something wrong and sometimes got punished just for breathing too loud. The other one, a Slytherin of course, was meant for something bigger. The people always told him that. ‘You are meant to do, what your brother was too naive for’ ‘The dark lord thinks very much of you’.
Kreacher saw them grow up. Saw them taking their first steps (Sirius of course learned to run before he could barely walk), heard them talking about Hogwarts and watched as they got to be the strongest, youthful version of themselves.
Regulus had always been nice to Kreacher. Kreacher knew this wasn’t the usual way Masters behaved in front of their house elves. The night, Sirius ran away from home, Regulus was only 14 years old. Too young to understand why his older brother had to go. Old enough to know, that he will never be seen in this house again. Kreacher knew that too. Master Regulus didn’t eat for two days and stayed in his room for the rest of the holidays.
Returning in the summer, Regulus was angry. He was furious. How could his only brother leave him alone? Especially at grimmauld place where his parents treated his as if he, Regulus was the one sorted into Gryffindor and friends with muggleborns and half-bloods as if this was normal.
After grieving during Christmas Regulus wasn’t prepared to see his brother happily avoiding him and spending his entire time with Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew.
That made him furious, so he told Kreacher. And he listened. Kreacher hadn’t liked Sirius since he befriended all these blood traitors, but listening to the raging Regulus only made Kreacher hate him even more.
So naturally when Sirius got arrested for killing the Potters Kreacher thought there was no chance, he was going to see him again. That made him pretty optimistic that his life at grimmauld place would be peaceful and relaxing. After his mistress Walburga died, the entire Black family was extinct and Kreacher was living his best life. Of course he grieved over Regulus dying, but for the first time in his life no one told him what to do.
May 1994
Kreacher knew it was only a matter of time before Sirius would arrive at grimmauld place. After breaking out of Azkaban, he had to hide all over Great Britain but for some reason he never showed up at his old home. Nearly a year went by with Kreacher just waiting for the convicted massmurderer to show up.
It was almost summer, when Kreacher heard a sudden noise. For the first time in nearly 10 years someone other than him set a foot in the house of the blacks. But Kreacher had an idea, he had to get rid of Sirius. After all it was Kreacher’s house now that nobody lived here.
‘Hello’ a hoarse voice came from down the stairs. ‘Is someone home?’ Of course, Sirius knew that his parents and Regulus died over a decade ago, but he wanted to make sure he was alone.
‘Relax, we know there’s no one here’, another voice reassured him. It was Lupin’s, the boy that Sirius always talked about as if he was in love with him, even though Kreacher knew, something like that was not possible. That’s what Master Black Sr. had always told his wife.
‘Come in then, before someone sees us.
‘Master Black, don’t you have to be in Azkaban?’ Kreacher asked after appariting in the hallway.
It was rude of him to ask that and if he had asked this his old Master, Sirius’ father, he would have been punished for that, but he couldn’t help it.
‘Kreacher, I forgot you existed. Nice to see that you haven’t changed a bit’.
The coldness in his voice when he spoke didn’t seem to agree with this statement.
‘Sirius, be nice to him. He probably hasn’t seen a human in 10 years and- ‘but before Remus could finish his sentence, a thunderous voice of a woman yelled ‘KREACHER, WHAT ARE THOSE FILTHY, DISGUSTING BLOOD TRAITORS DOING IN MY HOUSE!’, of course Sirius and Remus were aware who spoke. They got pretty familiar with this sound and the vocabulary used to describe them by no other than Walburga Black.
‘My mother? Never thought she’d be alive. Didn’t she die around the time I was arrested?’
‘She did indeed die. Kreacher, who is this??’ Remus wanted to know.
‘Mistress Black was such a honourable lady, she decided before her death to get a painting of herself for Kreacher to talk to.’ Kreacher answered, the voice still shouting.
‘Typical Walburga’ Sirius exclaimed. He couldn’t bare himself to get to that portrait and see his mother again even if she was just a painting.
Moony, the man he was noticed that of course and slipped away from Sirius to go around the corner and close the curtains. Suddenly it was quiet again.
‘Kreacher, why don’t you be a good host and get us something eatable?’ he asked while returning to Sirius’ side.
With that, Kreacher disappeared and they were left alone.
‘You know, it is nice of you to bring me home to get to know your parents, only took you 16 years of being in a relationship’ Remus joked.
Sirius faced him, looking quit serious ‘It’s strange. Being here again I mean. Feels like I’m still sixteen, not coming out to my dear parents because of their hate against everything vulnerable like love.’
‘You’re not them Pads. You had Effie, Monty and Minnie parenting you, James, the girls and me who were there for you. And look at what we did all these years, we became part of Hogwarts history’
‘If only Harry knew that younger version of me, I was so cool’ Sirius managed to say jokingly.
Knowing it’s time to return to his old room, they sat foot on the stairs and started climbing.
Meanwhile, Kreacher had heard the whole conversation, wondering, what Regulus would do, if he was still there.
Time passed; he didn’t look for something to eat for the two men. Instead, he planned on what to do. This was his house by now, the black heir had died a decade ago and Sirius got disowned when he was still in school. So, to be correct, Kreacher had no need to do what he got told. Still, somewhere in his cold dark heart, he remembered his wish to be needed, he was a house elf after all.
Finally, Kreacher came to a conclusion. He would serve Sirius, not knowing what to do instead, but he would only do the stuff, which wasn’t against what Regulus would have done. And, to appear as the old grumpy elf he was, he would loosen his mouth a bit, letting comments slide every once in a while.
But to be honest with himself, Kreacher was grateful to be needed again and he knew, his master now would never hurt him the way the noble house of black did.