Changes
*****
If they’d thought Harry had taken long, they were in for a rude awakening with Arianna. Apparently, with her blocks removed and reapplied so many times, they were all tangled together and wrapped tightly around her core. Her dragon had cleared as much as she could, but it was a paltry amount when faced with the sheer mess of the woman’s magic from being cleansed and having the various spells reapplied. Not to mention the prolonged potions use to keep her down. It was a wonder she’d been able to transform at all, let alone the amount of spells she’d been casting wandlessly. So, the group camped out in Gringotts and became concerned as the hours passed. But they were not idle, either.
Harry took his known rings as quickly as he could and ordered the same audits and Recall as Arianna. He held off on the Potter one, for now, since it had been active in recent memory and he didn’t want to risk alerting anyone that he’d taken the Lordship. Since his whole family was present, at least that he knew about, he also held off requesting the person recall for any of his Houses. He’d have to talk to his sister about that. And he would have to take some time to think about having a sister in the first place. The last week seemed surreal and he wasn’t sure how he felt about any of it. But he could admit he felt better physically and emotionally than he had in years.
The blocks and potions and spells had definitely affected him more than he cared to consider. All it took was him to think for a few minutes for the changes to reassert themselves and remind him of everything he thought he knew…. He’d never been stupid. He’d been hiding that fact since he was six when Uncle Vernon had beat him for doing better than Dudley again and unconsciously developing a habit that had continued at Hogwarts, but he was unprepared for the sudden ease his thoughts came with. He made connections he hadn’t before, saw subtle signs he would have missed. He remembered a lot more of his life and, if he concentrated, he could remember exact pages of his school books. He didn’t need to try too hard to remember spells he’d learned or conversations he’d had. He had a feeling the sudden boost of memory and thought would be incredibly helpful in the coming weeks.
He also manifested metamorphmagus abilities, though the Twins had had to explain that one. And it wasn’t until he’d accidently made his hair bubblegum pink that he realized what it meant. If he spent the next few hours altering everything from his skin color to his eye color to his height, no one really cared. But no matter what he changed, he couldn’t get rid of the one thing he hated. His scar. At least it would make it easier for him to disappear in crowds, since he could easily hide his typical Potter hair now. Or his famous green eyes. But the removal of the blocks also showed that he wouldn’t need glasses much longer. The amount of magical binds he had on him had prevented the typical eye-correcting potion from being effective, but now that he was cleared, Eir was able to provide it. She guaranteed he’d be spectacles free by the start of term, though she suggested wearing fake spectacles for a bit after to hide the fact. It was a strange concept since he’d had to use them since he was five. And no one had mentioned the potion yet in his years in the Wizarding world.
He also just felt lighter, as if a huge dark presence no longer loomed. Eir suspected it was the horcrux Adaya had removed so easily. Eir had scanned him as soon as she could after they’d all calmed down from that. He’d been relieved to hear that it had been done correctly, without damage to all the work the goblins had done already. Once it had been explained to him what an horcrux actually was, he promised himself he’d kiss Arianna full on the mouth in thanks. To get a piece of Voldemort’s soul off him was worth it.
And those were just the few changes he’d noted in the time he’d been awake.
The twins hadn’t changed much, from what he could see. It seemed they’d been fighting the potions subconsciously, aided by their twin bond, and were the most like themselves after their removal than any of them besides Charlie, though they tended to spend far more time touching or within touching distance of Harry than ever before. Not that he minded much. After all, he felt far more confident about his sexuality than he had been with the depression and guilt weighing him down and causing him no end of doubt about everything. With that mostly gone, he could barely take his eyes off the pair on occasion. Sirius and Remus seemed entirely too amused by that. At the moment, though, the pair of redheads had dragged themselves away to review the Prewett accounts and discuss with the House manager the options as the Heirs for the vaults and possibly locating their uncles, the current lords. It didn’t seem to matter to them that they’d never met the pair. The simple fact that they were family and another set of twins was enough for Fred and George to want to do everything in their power to help. If they also had plans going for the campaign of pranks they intended to embark on as soon as school started up, Harry knew nothing.
However, the largest change of all was the two Marauders. Sirius and Remus were no longer their sad, depressed selves. They acted more like Fred and George and far more like the Marauders in the stories Remus had been sending Harry via letter ever since the end of third year. The perpetual pranksters and fun-loving pair. Sirius could definitely switch it off at the drop of a galleon if the need arose, as he still had business with the goblins, but he more easily smiled when he did so.
Remus gladly took his ring and instantly called for a full Recall of the Lupin House, including people. At the moment, that meant working with his account manager on the returned items and hoping his brother showed at some point. Since the Lupin House had apparently been forgotten for generations, there were a lot of items being returned. It didn’t help that no one but the goblins had considered the werewolf able to inherit, so no one had thought to teach the man how to handle a full House, even if it was not as illustrious as the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black or Potter. So his account manager was being very patient with the wolf and Harry had to applaud the man for keeping his patience in return.
Sirius was bouncing between the pair of them like a Puffskin on pepper-up…. Harry really wanted Sirius’ undivided attention, with the amount of work he was trying to sludge through, but he understood as well. His godfather had his own House to clean up and insisted on helping the ignorant Remus. Harry had a desk to work from, various files to review before he could do anything, and Ragnok to assist. But he was far from prepared for the amount of intricacies he was facing.
He was currently receiving updates on the Recall, as the hours dragged, and the number of items recovered from various, strange locations became larger than the current vaults could handle. At Harry’s request, he set up an additional vault with numerous extension charms on it in the hope that there would not be more than even that one can handle.
Though he didn’t initiate the Recall on Potter, he did request a list of the known items that had been removed from the vaults after his parents had died. He figured it was a much more reasonable request than a full listing. House Potter was apparently old and wealthy and he had no doubt there would be many items misplaced or stolen in the years before even his grandparents had lived. It was a good thing that he requested such a small amount of time, though. The list Ragnok handed him some hours later was several pages that had Harry seething as he read. Apparently, Dumbledore had been removing, selling off, or disposing of a lot of Potter heirlooms, starting with the Invisibility Cloak currently hidden at the bottom of his trunk. That had been removed within days of his parents’ deaths.
When it came time, Ragnok explained that Riddle was the heir for Gaunt and Slytherin and that Riddle or his ancestors had done similar with the Gaunt vaults. Harry wasn’t too surprised, since the mad man would’ve need whatever profits he could get for the few heirlooms left for his campaign as Voldemort. And his real name was a fact Harry would very easily give to those around him now, to de-mystify the Dark Lord and get a small chuckle out of the fact the man was a half-blood selling off pureblood family heirlooms. If he couldn’t chuckle about it, he’d cry. The Slytherin vaults were a bit better off, though, as Riddle had never actually been able to claim those vaults. It seemed the House magics had deemed him unworthy of the Lordship but couldn’t strip him of Heir status. He’d definitely done damage as the Heir, but not as much as he could have.
Harry was actually quite happy that he’d ‘conquered’ the man when he had and gained control of the vaults, even if no one but the goblins had known. And that was just with his main lordships….
Once he realized why his test was so much longer than anyone else, he’d nearly had a panic attack at the sheer volume of accounts he now needed to manage. He knew he could easily just send the list to the goblins and be done with it, trust that they’d manage them appropriately, but he wanted to be involved. He knew this amount of lordships provided quite the punch of political power and he intended to use it to the best of his abilities. Add into it working with Arianna and her own Houses and they’d be able to make a lot of progress on policies and laws they found issue with. But it started with seeing about the bequeathed vaults and heirships. Since the Recall would take a while for his main ones, he decided to focus on those for now. He scanned the long list again.
“How many of these bequeathed vaults come with an heirship or lordship?” he finally asked Ragnok absently.
“More than half,” was the prompt answer, as Ragnok worked at his own desk.
He was just about to launch into the minutiae of the bequeathed vaults and the stupidly long list of potential additional titles he would have to get rid of, when Arianna returned.
As much as an unconscious, sickly looking woman could…
*****
Charlie darted to the floating bed as soon as it was fully in the room, wrapping up the small limp hand and following the bed as Eir levitated it back to its place.
“How is she?” he immediately asked.
Eir eyed him critically but refused to answer until Harry repeated the question. Charlie really did not appreciate that, but logically, he knew he wasn’t family and therefore had no right to the information.
“She’ll recover,” Eir advised. “She will be weak for a good long while and it may take her some time to adjust to the lack of the sleeping potion. The levels required to keep her down and in a coma were fairly high and she was on them for a prolonged period. She may be dependent at this point, but we will not know for certain for a number of weeks yet. Judging by her ability to sleep while you were cleansed, I would say it is a slight chance and will cite the dragon Animagus as a possible cause for her resilience. The blocks are finally, completely removed and the damage to her core repaired as much as possible. Again, it will be weeks yet before she is fully healed. I would also suggest keeping her well away from that child-hater until she is fully healed. Should blocks be placed again, they will most likely be permanent. As it stands, Mr. Weasley was almost too old to have his safely removed. We were unable to remove the blocks completely from Lord Black or Lord Lupin. Only weaken them. If the Lords hadn’t already weakened some of them when they were younger, I have no doubt it would be even worse. Such as Lord Black never achieving his Animagus if he hadn’t gotten it so young. Lord Lupin’s wolf even helped protect him a little.”
Charlie startled at that small insight into the lives of the pair, thankful Sirius and Remus had already followed his example and told Eir that they would have no secrets from those in the room. He also hadn’t considered that he might have left his cleanse with blocks still in place and he was quite thankful he’d been around when the Twins had caused this ruckus. He was also glad he’d thought to keep up letters to his mum so that there would be less suspicion on what they were up to. As it stood, she and the rest of the Weasley clan living at home thought he’d whisked the Twins away for some ingredient hunting for their pranks. He’d done it at least once before so it wasn’t wholly unheard of. And he was also already plotting to kidnap Percy for his own cleanse. If he was almost too old, he didn’t want to risk Percy and he had little doubt that particular brother had potions and compulsions. His younger brother had always been a bit weaker than the rest of them when it came to health issues and Charlie didn’t want to risk that affecting the chances of removing any blocks he might have.
“As for milady here, she will need rest, though I have little doubt asking for relaxation will be beyond her,” Eir continued, pulling Charlie’s attention once more. “Even in the few conversations we have had, I know her well enough to know keeping her in bed will be an undertaking. Therefore, she is allowed to work, from bed only. Until I say otherwise,” she ordered with a pointed look at Remus and Charlie.
Charlie held no illusions that the two of them were seen as the most responsible and would therefore fall under Eir’s punishment if Arianna succeeded in getting out of bed before the approval came through.
But it was a task he would willingly take up. After all, he had the least issues with his cleanse. He was much the same and had no unexpected lordships thrust upon him. His position in the world hadn’t really changed, but he wanted to know who his bondmate was. He doubted it was Penny. He barely remembered her but knew Percy was friends with the Clearwater heir. From his stories, he highly doubted the girl was aware of an impending marriage contract. Which led him to speculate on who his bondmate really was. With how he was reacting to Arianna, though, he could guess. And with how she was reacting to him, he held out hope that his stirring feelings were reciprocated.
He was also dead curious about his Animagus form. It was rare to block that, since Animagi were in general rare, but to block it completely when he hadn’t even thought of attempting the ritual? Well, now he wanted to. The worst thing you could do to Charlie Weasley was tell him not to do something. See his chosen profession. So, while he kept Arianna strapped to the bed and working on paperwork, he’d be researching the Animagus ritual. He wondered if McGonagall was safe to contact. She was the only Animagus he knew off the top of his head that wasn’t already beyond busy.
Then he thought of who he’d want to trust, with the information that was coming out in Gringotts.
He spent the rest of the time Arianna was asleep making lists of people he felt it would be safe to trust. People to get to Gringotts as soon as possible to get cleansed so they could help with this mess.
And a list of people to avoid at all costs, including Albus Dumbledore and, unfortunately, Molly Weasley for now.
*****
Sirius had never been as busy as the last few days had been and the next few years were looking to be. As Arianna slept, the group got on with the few things that didn’t seem to interfere with any possible plans the Hufflepuff had going. Or that any of them could think of. Since most of the Houses they had inherited were ones that had laid unclaimed for years, almost forgotten, it was not as much of a concern. They had little doubt that when news got out about the Founder vaults being active, speculations would run wildly, but their families had been so well hidden…. The last confirmed descendent of any of the houses had lived almost four hundred years ago and no one could really confirm if they’d had any children. There were families who claimed to be descended, of course, but without firm proof or the family magics accepting them, the claims weren’t taken seriously. The others were so old only the goblins could answer any questions on them, but soundly refused to until Arianna allowed it. They wouldn’t even provide first names for the vault holders, so Sirius focused on Harry’s and Remus’.
The Twins had returned from their meeting with the Prewett account manager with no real luck on tracking down the missing Prewett Lords. They had managed to find a loophole in the Prewett contract with Gringotts that allowed them, as Heirs, to request a partial Recall that included any and all items belonging to the Heirs specifically. The impressed manager, a surly gobliness by the name of Bichuwa, had noted the loophole and promised the Twins compensation for discovering it. After, of course, she utilized it excessively.
When Ragnok had been told the tale, he immediately asked the Twins if they’d ever considered becoming solicitors.
Sirius had laughed for hours, even if Remus had sent a silencing charm at him within the first few minutes so that he couldn’t wake Arianna.
Aside from that, however, he used his time well, working with Remus on sorting through the returned Lupin artifacts and neglected accounts. Sirius couldn’t really help the swell of pride that his best mate, his possible soulmate if Arianna was to be believed, was well and truly a Lord in his own right. The shifter was nervous about the whole situation, and Sirius could understand it. He was about to get a number of students in the Customs and Etiquette of Pureblood Lordship by Sirius Black. Or, as he had taken to calling it, “How to Act Like You Have A Stick Up Your Bum”. Remus hadn’t laughed at that, but Harry had so Sirius considered it a success.
But he wasn’t idle either. Once the Black Lord ring had accepted him, he’d immediately cast Bellatrix out of the family. He didn’t really care how many spells or compulsions she was under. The bitch was insane and he was not letting her anywhere near Harry. Or the Black family vaults. He didn’t care one whit that she was currently rotting in Azkaban. So had he only two years ago. Almost anything was possible at this point.
Narcissa and Andromeda’s statuses were still negotiable, though. He couldn’t fathom his once sweet cousin Cissa being a Death Eater, but after she’d taken Andromeda’s place as Malfoy’s wife, she’d changed. He’d have to see what her tests revealed before he determined her. And Andromeda’s marriage to Ted Tonks had been expected, at least by him. The marriage contract he’d been listed for, not so much. That had been cancelled immediately. As the Head, he could do that. And the contract shouldn’t have been valid anyway. The Blacks had fluid opinions on cousins marrying, but not 1st cousins. Not after his own parents. They were stupid, but not stupid enough to allow quite that level of inbreeding two generations in a row.
So he had to figure out how it had happened in the first place. He knew for a fact Dumbles had set it up on his behalf, while he was in Azkaban, but he wasn’t sure if the man had Andromeda’s approval or even Dora’s. Since Dora was young enough go to school with his godkid, it grated on him. Granted, she would have been a fifth or sixth year when Arianna went to school, but still. And it had obviously been set up with the expectation that at some point, Sirius would no longer be in Azkaban. After all, why set Dora up for marriage if her intended was to die in the prison with no hope of parole or even completing the contract.
And that thought had him seething, since it illustrated that Dumbles could get him out at any point and was letting him rot.
With that thought, Sirius was thankful the goblins had arranged for a mind-healer to visit. He knew with the blocks removed, he’d have an easier time of it all, but it did not mean he couldn’t use help. The last few years had been hard, trying to get by on his own wits when those wits were still scrambled, but he’d had no other choice. He couldn’t risk revealing himself and going back to Azkaban. Just like he couldn’t risk Remus joining him. The man had enough trouble trying to find jobs with his little furry problem. He hadn’t needed an escaped prisoner added to his list of issues. When Dumbles had made his inquiry about utilizing Grimmauld place, he’d jumped at the chance to interact with others. And now he was regretting it.
Revoking access, he had to admit, had been an idea sparked in anger and his typical ‘Gryffindor’ gut. But he could see the benefits of allowing the Order to still utilize the space and was glad Harry had talked him out of enacting the magic to throw all the traitors out of his house. With his permission granted, Kreacher had put off making the place livable and had gleefully accepted to go with the goblins on a hunt for Black family items. There was no doubt the current residents would make little progress cleaning the neglected building up. He’d just take his petty little revenge and dig into his Slytherin upbringing. As much as he hated his family, he was about to put his Black family teachings to very good use.
Starting with the mess they were facing with the inheritances of the Potter children.
He couldn’t even really begin to express how excited he was that little Ari, his Princess Pup, was alive and here. He often found himself scenting the room to ensure he wasn’t dreaming and that she hadn’t been stolen away again. A tick he noticed Remus partaking in as well. Neither man really wanted to remember the night Lily had suggested the plan. Or how much it had hurt that neither she nor James would let them know the location of the safehouse they finally sent her to. To have her back, in his arms and as spitfire as she’d been as a child?
He was almost afraid he’d finally cracked and this was all a fever dream in his cell.
His mind healer had laughed about that a bit before bluntly saying that if he’d cracked surrounded by Dementors, why was he still so bloody happy?
The logic was sound.
So he threw himself into the accounts and Recalls and political nonsense, grudgingly using skills his mother had beat into him.
The twins were easy, as they really couldn’t do much with their Heirships, though he was impressed with the loophole they’d found. He worked with Ragnok on a contract so the pair could benefit from any goblin utilizing that same loophole in similar contracts. Ragnok laughed at the fact that Sirius understood both that the loophole would be utilized and that the twins should be compensated for finding it in the first place, so easily agreed.
Charlie was even easier. He simply requested an itemized receipt of any monies used from the Weasley Heir vault on him during the course of his life. Sirius agreed the request shouldn’t provide too much insight, but it was good to know anyway. They were both shocked to see the number and size of some of the withdrawals. When the twins repeated the request, there were similar amounts.
“It would seem Mum has been skimming money from the vaults,” Charlie finally snapped, glaring at the pages. “These sums would have more than enough to pay for our schooling and yet we always had to hear about how poor we were so we wouldn’t ask about why we couldn’t have new wands…”
“What?” Sirius snapped, appalled. “What do you mean, new wands?”
“Mum had us pick family wands,” Charlie muttered. “I only have a new one as a gift for graduation and my new job at the dragon preserve. I think Ron ended up with my old one.”
“Which finally broke,” Fred offered, glaring at the page with his eyes sparking in anger. If Sirius didn’t know better, he would almost guess the boy was actually sparking.
“Ragnok!” Sirius snapped. “Would it be possible to arrange a visit from a wandmaker? I’m not sure I would demand Ollivander specifically, but it sounds like we’ll be needing at least a few new wands. And is there any chance mine is hiding somewhere?”
Ragnok grinned toothily, wrote a short note, and thrust it at a nearby page. “Send that to Mykew Gregorovitch and Shikoba Wolfe,” he ordered. “I have a feeling the limited selection of woods and cores Ollivander utilizes will not work with this lot.”
Sirius chuckled at that but couldn’t argue. Even his own was bordering on the edges of what Ollivander worked with. The Blacktorn and thestral tail hair had been an experiment of Ollivander’s from very early in his career and the man had all but given up finding its match. And then he’d stumbled in and made history by finding his own wand immediately. He’d been drawn to the box before he’d even entered the shop and Ollivander had been beyond shocked when he’d walked right past him and took the box down without thought. Ollivander almost had a heart attack when Sirius was able to wield it without the safety measures Sirius gleefully called boobytraps kicking in, knowing instinctively how to hold it correctly and using his left hand, as he did when writing.
And he could just imagine that the vastly different personalities and power levels in this room would confound the man.
“And mine?” he finally asked.
“Stored in the Black vault,” Ragnok said. “As soon as you were arrested, the family magics recalled the wand to the vaults to prevent it from being snapped. When you were prevented from having a trial, the lack of wand was forgotten and it appears as though the Aurors simply assumed it had already been logged into evidence.”
Sirius allowed himself a relieved sigh at that. He’d been afraid for a while and the wand he’d been making do with for the last two years was not very happy with him. “I request it be brought to me, then,” he said.
Ragnok nodded and with a snap of his fingers, another goblin popped into the room, only to pop back out moments later in search of the wand.
That taken care of for the moment, Sirius went back to reviewing the accounts in front of him. Aside from the withdrawals, the Weasleys’ Heir account was not bad off. And far more filled than they expected. It made Sirius wonder just how much of the Weasley’s situation was a true lack of galleons and how much was Molly being stingy. And how much Arthur knew. From what he could remember of the pair, he highly doubted Arthur would allow his children to want for anything if he could help it. To have at least three of the boys with second-hand wands? It was concerning. He’d have to have a conversation with the man and if he could manage it when Molly was conveniently occupied elsewhere, where his words couldn’t reach her? All the better.
He also made note to check the remaining brothers. He wasn’t concerned with Bill at all. The goblins had that man well within their protections and quite busy replacing the shattered wards. It was taking a while because Arianna’s magic had not only shattered them but thrown up its own. With her still sleeping off her cleanse, Bill had to pull Charlie to discuss the intricacies of dragon magic. Sirius had to give the curse-breaker credit for being able to pull the dragon handler away from his goddaughter. The man hadn’t left her side and Sirius had a feeling he’d be forced to use his godfather status soon to threaten the boy. After all, with James gone, he was the one allowed to make Charlie sweat, wasn’t he? And his Princess Pup deserved the world. Just as soon as he made sure she wouldn’t be buried in bureaucracy and nonsense with these vaults.
It was his current plan for both his godchildren. However, Harry’s accounts were simply the worst he’d ever even heard of. Years of neglect and generations of poor choices had left them a tangled mess of debts, monies owed them, artifacts either missing or listed as destroyed, properties long neglected and forgotten. When Sirius noted the list of house elves dead from neglect, it really wasn’t his fault when a set of beds disintegrated. They were all having issues with accidental magic now that they were suddenly more powerful than they’d been and more emotional as their personalities leveled out. It was not his fault that he had started out more powerful than most in the room. He’d been a top Auror and Hit Wizard for a reason and very little of that reason was his family name. He would also grudgingly admit he was a bit more barmy than the rest, even without the years in Azkaban.
“Sirius?” Harry asked questioningly from where he was sorting through some of the mail they’d found in a vault. Ragnok had assured him they’d already tested the letters for curses and the like, so Harry had decided to take a break from the legal documents to read some of letters sent to him as a child.
He had a few running lists of people; those to thank, those to curse, and those to keep an eye on. Sirius had chuckled at that when he’d read the names.
He wasn’t laughing now, though, and Harry was staring at him in concern.
“How do you feel about house elves?” Sirius asked quickly. He was never sure what Harry was aware of, having been raised by muggles, but he hoped the boy had at least been taught something of the creatures.
“Right useful things, when they’re not trying to kill me to save my life,” was the prompt answer. Sirius snorted involuntarily but sobered quickly. “Why?”
“Because you’re about to get several hundred of them and the sooner we bond them to you, the better for them,” Sirius answered, showing him the sheet detailing the current elves for his various houses. “It seems they’re not doing well without a lord and a good number of them have already died from the lack of a bond. Since some of your houses have been neglected for so long, a number of them have made the elves basically sterile until a new lord is named, to prevent further drains on their magic in the form of children.”
“But I’m only Lord of four houses at the moment. The rest are still being processed so I can take them on,” Harry protested, looking over the list in fear. “How can I possibly have so many? And can’t I just free them all so they’re not slaves?”
Sirius startled at that before he immediately set to correcting that view. He also took note of the suddenly interested attention of the rest of the room. “Harry, house elves asked to be bonded to wizards. We don’t force them to serve us. Their magic is too strong for their bodies and the bond allows them to use it without it killing them. It is a very rare elf that doesn’t need a bond, which is one of the reasons the idea of freedom is so horrible to the average house elf. Your houses are old, very old, and have a lot of places to upkeep, since they also were by all accounts, at one point, very large. The number of elves a House is responsible for tends to reflects the size of the House, since the magics required to be lord of such houses are equally large. Most elves are bonded to the House, as well, instead of a family. Kreacher is unique in that he is both a Black elf and an elf for my immediate family. If it makes you feel better, I have no doubt that Arianna will be getting many more when she finally wakes up. Suffice it to say, your elves have waited for a lord a long time and I can assure you, they’ll be thrilled to meet you. But if we don’t renew their bonds with your Houses, they will die. They’re running on fumes as it is. I’m actually surprised some of them are still around.” The pages held the ages of the elves as well and Sirius had never seen elves as old as some of these were.
“Then let’s get them bonded,” Harry muttered, setting the letters he’d been reading down. “What do I have to do?”
Sirius smiled at him gently before walking him through the bonding. It took a while for Harry to be able to sense the connection through his rings, but when he did, the sudden flood of magic to the room was almost overwhelming as golden threads suddenly appeared and then thickened. Sirius knew the preliminary bond was only a temporary fix, but he didn’t think the goblins would appreciate the long line of elves coming to bond directly with Harry. This would at least renew the bonds enough to bolster the health of the elves and let them know, without a shadow of a doubt, that a new master was chosen and would meet with them soon.
Once Harry had finished with his lord rings, Sirius walked him through the simplified steps for his Heir rings. He took great care in instructing his godson in excluding the Dumbledore house. They still couldn’t fathom how he’d garnered that one, other than some misguided belief that Harry would be grateful for the show of trust. Sirius had no illusions that there was no motive behind it beyond giving Harry a connection of family to his ‘grandfatherly’ Headmaster. The intricacies of that house would have to be looked into later, though.
For now, Sirius was glad that Harry was already heir for a number of Arianna’s own ladyships. As she was still sleeping and hadn’t given permission as the head for the goblins to share the files, they hadn’t been able to access any information on her holdings yet. Sirius worried that hers would be in similar, if not worse conditions, so he wanted Harry to at least try the same process with those elves. As the Heir, he’d be able to access some of them, but not all. The thought was that the ones he connected to would spread the word and give a bit of hope to the creatures. With the number of golden threads produced with that group, Sirius was growing alarmed with the sheer volume of holdings he feared Arianna had inherited.
“How do you feel?” he asked Harry once the bond-renewal was done.
“Like quite a crowd is thrilled I’ve said ‘hi’,” he grumbled, pressing at his temple.
“That should go away soon,” Sirius said, quickly helping Harry to the bed he’d claimed. “The connection will fade pretty quickly and you won’t hear them so well. It should feel like a faint hum in the back of your mind, just letting you know they’re there,” he continued, prodding his own link to his elves as he let Harry get settled for a nap to combat the headache.
Kreacher was perhaps the oldest, but he was by far not the only Black house elf. He just preferred to stay at Grimmauld Place, where his Mistress and family had primarily lived. With recent revelations, though, Sirius was beginning to wonder if the elf had stuck around hoping Regulus would come back. But Sirius blatantly refused to assign another elf to the dump, preferring to let the Order think the Black family only had the one residence and elf. Meanwhile, the rest of his elves were fixing up the Black Manor in the hidden space it occupied on the shores to the south. It was in somewhat better shape than the townhouse, but not by much, and it was taking a while.
Kreacher, though, was gleefully searching alongside a troop of goblins for the missing Black brother and heirlooms he could track down and Sirius was loath to start worrying about how long it was taking. The Recall should have given them a much more precise location on Regulus, but something was interfering. It wasn’t quite an unplottable spell, but it was close, and it was confusing the magic of the Recall. But if there was one being more dedicated to finding his lost brother than him, it was Kreacher. And that drive had smoothed over a lot of the issues Master and elf had once had.
He was about to delve into the exact quantities of properties and elves Harry now had when a familiar voice managed to penetrate the depths of Gringotts and throw his whole plan for the day on its head.
“What do you mean, I can’t see them?! I’M THEIR MOTHER!”
Well, shit…