Six and a Half Years Later: Outliving Your Usefulness
Title: Six and a Half Years Later: Outliving Your Usefulness
Author: kanedax
Spoilers: Deathly Hallows & Previous Chapters
Characters/Pairings: Harry/Ginny, Dudley/Susan, Kreacher, Teddy, James Jr., Hermione
Rating: R for language and sexual discussion
Notes & Disclaimers: I don’t own these characters. They belong to JK Rowling.
The Social Event of The Year / Previous Chapters / Rose Edith
“Here is your pasta, sir.”
“Thanks, Kreacher,” said Dudley Dursley. “Harry, I’m still not used to the idea that you actually have servants.”
“Not servants,” Harry corrected as Kreacher walked around the table, scooping steaming piles of noodles onto each of the five plates. “Not even servant. It’s… it’s complicated.”
“Something to remember,” said Ginny as she tried to put a bite of carrot into James’s mouth. “You don’t want to call Kreacher a servant in front of Hermione. She goes ballistic.”
“Kreacher is Master Harry’s servant,” said Kreacher, floating a pot of cooled macaroni noodles to beside James’s high chair, where he put a small scoop on the tray in front of him, “Whether he likes to call Kreacher that or not.”
“Well, thank you for making me even more confused,” said Dudley hopelessly.
“You’ll get it eventually,” said Susan, patting Dudley on the arm as Kreacher began pouring the sauce over everyone’s pasta. She turned to Teddy, who was sitting between Harry and James. “So what did Andromeda teach you this week, Teddy?”
“Do you have to ask him that?” said Dudley. “It’s a weekend. Let his brain cool down.”
“Addition,” said Teddy between bites of spaghetti.
“He’s starting to learn how to add numbers with zero on the end, right?” said Harry, and Teddy nodded.
“No!”
“Alright, eat your noodles, then,” Ginny sighed as James, his eyes and hair matching his mother’s, picked up some of the pasta. “We’ll try the carrots again later.”
“Teddy,” said Dudley, “what’s twenty plus thirty?”
When Teddy’s face scrunched in concentration, his face distorted more than one normally would. Harry watched as his nose shrunk and his eyebrows enlarged.
Does he even know he’s doing it? Harry thought, reminding himself yet again to ask Andromeda Tonks when a metamorphmagus should start learning to gain some control over the total body shifts that Nymphadora had been able to do instantly.
“I thought you said to let his brain cool down,” said Susan to Dudley with some amusement as Teddy’s hair turned orange, red, and yellow.
“Yeah, well…” said Dudley, and flinched he was smacked in the face with a piece of macaroni.
“Sorry,” said Ginny as Kreacher hurried over to pick up the piece from the floor. “James likes to check the airspeed velocity of his food before he decides it’s worth eating.”
“What are twenty and thirty?” Harry asked Teddy. “What are the two numbers in front of their zeroes?”
“A two and a three,” said Teddy.
“And what do they add up to?”
“Five… fifty!” said Teddy, his hair turning pink. “It’s fifty!”
“Good job!” Susan applauded as Dudley was wiping the last bit of macaroni from his cheek.
“Did he chew on that before he threw it?” he grumbled, and Ginny just shrugged.
“Yeah, he’s a smart one,” said Harry, ruffling Teddy’s hair. The boy wore a large grin on his face (possibly larger than a human could muster, Harry thought once again). “He’s got a good teacher, too.”
“Andromeda must be good,” said Susan. “I heard Professor Ogden offered her the Potions position after Slughorn left.”
“That’s what Neville says,” said Ginny. “I guess they went to school together. They were in different Houses, but they got along well enough.”
“She didn’t make much of it when I asked her,” Harry shrugged. “I think she might be tempted down the line if another position opens up. But not until Teddy’s old enough.”
“Have you decided on schooling for James yet?” asked Susan. “Homeschooling? Muggle primary school?”
Ginny snorted. “We’re going to at least wait until he’s done pooping himself,” she said, and Teddy giggled.
“What’s wrong with Muggle school?” said Dudley. “Me and Harry got through it okay, didn’t we?”
Harry gave Dudley a cross look, but decided to not mention the living hell that his early years were with Dudley and his gang harassing him constantly. “It’ll depend on a lot of things,” he said instead. “How we’re doing, for one. How comfortable we’d be with teaching him. What kind of a social life he’s getting. We don’t want him to be isolated from children his age…”
“But we also don’t want to send him to a Muggle school if he can’t hide the fact that he’s a wizard,” Ginny continued. “I was taught by my Mum. So were all of my brothers. I have no problem with teaching James the basics at home.”
“Bread, sir?” Kreacher asked Harry.
“Thanks, Kreacher,” Harry replied. “You can just leave it on the table if you want. Have a seat, your spaghetti’s getting cold.”
“It is fine, Master Harry,” said the house elf. “Kreacher will sit after he is done serving the bread.”
“Just so long as you’re sure,” said Harry, watching the elf’s basket hover a little more unsteadily than it normally would. Well, we aren’t the only one getting older, he thought. It’s been almost ten years since I’ve known Kreacher. Who knows how old he is?
“Okay, enough stalling with all this school talk,” said Ginny to Susan and Dudley. “There’s one reason we invited you over, and you know it.”
“Just one reason?” said Dudley with a smirk. “Heavens, Mrs. Potter, you’re certainly making a man feel welcome.”
“Cram it,” said Ginny with false rage as she pointed her James’s carrot spoon at him before turning to Susan. “Show me.”
“How many times have I shown you already tonight?”
“I’ve lost track,” said Ginny, barely containing her grin. “But I want to see it again.”
Susan Bones sighed dramatically, but smiled herself as she lifted her hand from her lap and showed Ginny the ring.
“God, that’s nice,” Ginny said, leaning forward and taking Susan’s hand.
“Real diamond?” Harry asked.
“Of course it is,” Dudley said. “You know I wouldn’t… okay, I would hope you’d know that I wouldn’t go cheap.”
“If you say so…”
“So how’d you do it?” asked Ginny.
“I worked a lot of overtime with the LCN project at University College, that’s how,” said Dudley proudly.
“No, the proposal,” Ginny said. “How’d you propose?”
“Oh, right…”
“Well, you already know it was the Hufflepuff party, right?” Susan asked. Harry and Ginny both nodded. Organized by Ernie and Hannah Macmillan, Susan had mentioned this miniature reunion of Hufflepuffs from her year when she turned down Harry’s invitation for New Year’s Eve at Grimmauld Place. As far as they had heard, it was a good turnout, with everyone attending but Zacharias Smith (“Ernie didn’t invite him,” Susan had admitted to Harry when she stopped by his desk on the day of the party. “They never really got on well”) and Megan Jones, who had died in the Second Battle of Hogwarts.
“Clock rolls around to midnight,” Susan continued. “Strikes twelve, all of the crackers and fireworks go off…”
“Those were from George’s shop, right?” asked Dudley. “Good work. I liked the big firebird one.”
“…And it was right there,” said Susan, squeezing Dudley’s hand. “He just held it up to me and proposed.”
“Well, I wanted to do something fancy,” Dudley admitted. “Or magic or something. I asked Fletchley if there was any way to get the ring into one of the crackers. He said do it this way, or else the ring’ll get lost in all of the mess. I didn’t believe him until I saw a life-sized stuffed horse fly out of one of those things.”
"You did just fine, love," Susan said, kissing Dudley on the cheek. Ginny responded with a broad grin while Teddy stuck his tongue out in childish disgust.
"So when's the wedding?" Ginny asked.
"We're looking at--"
CRASH!
"Kreacher!"
Harry jumped from his chair at the noise. Kreacher, finished with his job passing the bread, had returned to the stove to prepare his own plate of food. Now he lay on the floor on his hands and knees, a broken plate and a dented aluminum pot sprinkled among a giant puddle of sauce.
“Kreacher, are you alright?” Harry asked as he ran toward the house elf. The other four at the table had all stood up as well, and James, startled by the noise, began to cry.
“Kreacher is fine, Master Harry.”
Harry and Ginny both reached for their wands, but Kreacher stopped them.
“There is no need, Master.” Kreacher raised his finger and pointed at the mess. One of the pieces of plate jittered slightly, but nothing else happened. Kreacher sighed and lowered his head. Ginny and Harry exchanged a glance, then Harry pulled out his wand.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Ginny asked as she pulled James from his high chair and put him on her shoulder. Like the rest of the Potter family, she had never seen Kreacher unable to do the tasks that he required of himself. “Are you sick?”
“Scourgify!” Harry said, and the mess disappeared.
“Kreacher is just tired,” said the elf, but the way that he glanced at his powerless fingers made Harry believe otherwise.
“That’s fine,” said Harry. “There’s no need to strain yourself. Do you want to go back to Hogwarts for the night?”
“No, Kreacher just needs to rest.”
“Okay, sure,” said Harry, looking around at the others at the table. “Um, do you want to lie down in Teddy’s room? His bed’s the closest. That’s okay with you, right, Teddy?”
Teddy, who had been treated with nothing but kindness from the house elf since he first arrived at Grimmauld Place six years ago, nodded.
“That will suffice, Master Harry,” Kreacher said, slowly pulling himself to his feet with Harry’s assistance. “Could you do your humble servant one minor request, Master? Could you accompany Kreacher to Master Teddy’s room?”
“Of course,” said Harry. “I should probably make sure his toys are out of the way, anyway.”
Teddy’s hair turned bright green. “I’ll go, too,” he said, and jumped out of his chair. As he ran out of the hall and up the stairs, Harry realized with amusement that the boy probably hadn’t been keeping his room quite as neat as his godparents would like, and was making sure it was straightened up before he got there.
“Please go about your meal,” said Kreacher to Ginny, Susan, and Dudley, who were all still standing at attention. “Do not trouble yourself with poor Kreacher.”
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Harry said to Ginny, still bouncing a sniffling James on her arm. She nodded, and Harry and Kreacher left the dining room.
“Feel better, Kreacher!” Susan called out behind them as they ascended the stairs. As they arrived on the first landing, they heard ferocious movement behind Teddy’s door. A poster of The Incredibles, a film that he had seen with the Grangers last month, hung in rigid, Muggle fashion from the oak, with a crayoned sign above reading:
Teddys Room
DONT COME IN
As Harry and Kreacher stepped into the room, Harry was once again reminded of the similarities between Teddy’s bedroom and the room on the fourth landing that had once belonged to Harry’s godfather. Posters of David Beckham and Frank Lampard, his two favorite football players, bracketed a poster of Teddy’s godmother from when she was still playing for the Holyhead Harpies. Enchanted banners of the Harpies and Chudley Cannons hung beside carefully clipped pages from Muggle comic books like Superman and The Fantastic Four. As Harry leaned against the doorframe, Teddy threw his toy Snitch into its cage, stuffed his plush Ridgeback (roaring with indignation) and his Power Rangers into his Pikachu toy box (whatever that is, Harry thought as he studied the bright yellow mouse grinning from the front), and turned around.
“It’s clean,” said Teddy, panting from his exertion, but a big grin on his face, his hair now bright yellow.
“Close enough,” Harry said with a reluctant smile as Teddy covertly snatched his Game Boy, his Christmas gift from Caroline (with funds from Dan and Charlotte, Harry added), from his bed and pushed it into his back pocket.
“Are you okay, Kreacher?” Teddy asked.
“Kreacher will be fine, Master Teddy,” said Kreacher wearily as he climbed onto Teddy’s bed, which was draped in hand-me-down Cannons bed sheets from Ron. “He is just feeling… under the weather, as you would say.”
“Are you going to give him biscuits and ginger ale?”
“Maybe,” said Harry. “Why don’t you go down and finish dinner, Teddy? I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Okay,” said Teddy. “I hope you feel better, Kreacher.”
“Thank you, Master Teddy,” said Kreacher quietly. As Teddy ran from the room (Harry could hear his thumping footfalls as he ran down the stairs) Kreacher continued to look toward the door.
“The house of Black still lives on,” Kreacher sighed.
“His grandmother was disowned by them,” said Harry as Kreacher pushed himself up to Teddy’s pillow. “I don’t think they’d care to refer to a half-werewolf, half-metamorph as a Black.”
“Such as it is,” Kreacher admitted. “Kreacher has seen many generations of Blacks. He has remembered many more. In the end, the words don’t matter. Blood and family are what matters. It doesn’t matter if he is a Lupin, a Tonks, a Malfoy, or a Lestrange. The boy is still a Black.”
Harry didn’t know how to respond to that. Despite the fact that he had made amends with Narcissa, and hopefully with the rest of the Malfoy family, he still wasn’t sure how comfortable he was with Teddy being mentioned in the same family as Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Lucius, as true as the statement may be.
“Does Master wish to have a new house elf?”
“What?” Harry said, surprised at the question. “No! Kreacher, you do a fantastic job around here. There’s no one better.”
“Kreacher thanks Master for the compliment,” the house elf replied. “But Kreacher has outlived his usefulness.”
“No, you haven’t…”
“Does Master wish to have a new house elf?”
“Kreacher, I’m not getting rid of you,” Harry insisted. “So what if you dropped a plate? Everyone does it.”
Kreacher sighed. “Master does not understand the question. Kreacher forgets that he is Master’s first house elf, that the Potters had none of their own for many generations.”
“You’re right,” said Harry, sitting down on the bed. “I’m still new to this. You’re going to have to tell me what the hell you’re talking about.”
“When a house elf has outlived its usefulness,” Kreacher explained. “When it has grown too old and too weak to continue its services to its masters, it gives its masters a choice. If the master decides that the house elf has done well, the house elf can reproduce itself, creating a new house elf, a young house elf, which will carry all of the skills and memories of its ancestors.”
“So it doesn’t have to re-learn everything,” Harry mumbled. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach.
“Master is very intelligent,” Kreacher nodded. “If the master is not satisfied with the elf’s work, it simply fades away when its time is up.”
“So when a house elf dies, it vanishes?”
“Correct,” said Kreacher. “That way it does not put a burden on its master to dispose of the body.”
“What about all of the heads?” asked Harry. “The ones up in the attic? Or what about…?”
“What about Dobby?” Kreacher concluded. “The Free Elf?”
“Yeah…”
“The house elf could also choose to reproduce, but leave the body behind,” said Kreacher. “It is a rare choice, but it has happened. The Blacks were cruel enough to wish to mount the heads of its former elves, so they were happy to oblige.”
Harry was stunned. Kreacher almost never spoke badly of his former family, so saying the words Black and cruel in the same sentence was a rarity for him.
“As for Dobby,” Kreacher continued, “House elves must prepare before reproducing. Must prepare themselves before fading away. Dobby was never given that choice, never given that time.”
Harry remained silent. His mind, which had done its best not to dwell on the losses, forced itself back to that night almost seven years ago. He remembered being Apparated by the house elf from Malfoy Mansion to Shell Cottage. Remembered the knife in Dobby’s chest. Remembered digging…
“Does Master wish to have a new house elf?” Kreacher repeated, pulling Harry back to the present.
“How much time do you have left?” Harry asked, hearing a catch in his voice that he wished wasn’t there.
“A week, perhaps,” the elf replied. “But Kreacher can reproduce sooner if Master wishes.”
Harry thought it over. “I should talk to Ginny,” he said. “See what she wants.”
“Mistress Ginevra is just as important to Kreacher as Master Harry,” said Kreacher. “He can await her decision.”
“What do you want?” asked Harry. “I mean, I know I haven’t been the best master, or whatever. You know I don’t treat you like house elves like to be treated…”
“House elves are treated as their masters treat them,” Kreacher said. “No more, no less. But Kreacher would like to know if his Master believes that he has done well with his time. A choice to reproduce is affirmation of that belief.”
“Right…” Harry nodded, and thought some more. “Is there… is there anything that I can do? I mean, beyond a yes or no? Something to make the end… I don’t know, easier?”
Kreacher hesitated, closing his eyes in thought. “Kreacher believed that Master would ask him this question,” he said. “And Kreacher has thought it over, as he has felt his time coming for a few weeks now.”
“And…?”
“Kreacher wishes for clothes,” he said, tugging absently at his Hogwarts bath towel. “Kreacher wishes to die a free elf.”
The answer left Harry speechless, as it was one of the last things that he had expected the elf, who had spent much time in the past few years arguing that he wasn’t working enough, that Harry and Ginny were cleaning and cooking so often that he felt useless, to say.
“Kreacher has always wished to be free,” Kreacher said, as though reading Harry’s mind. “Wished to know what it was like. But he has been afraid. Being a servant is all that he has known. It is what has made him proud. But the years that he has spent with the Potters has felt like a breath of new air. It gave him more freedom than he knew. But…”
“But you want to know what it’s like,” said Harry. “Just at the end.”
Kreacher nodded.
“I can do that,” Harry agreed. “I will gladly give you your freedom.”
“Thank you, Master,” the elf replied, and Harry saw a rare smile twitch beneath his knobby nose.
“Is there anything else?” Harry asked. “Anything else we can do?”
Kreacher paused again. Harry could almost hear the wheels clicking in his head. “There is one other thing…”
Two hours later, the fireplace of number twelve, Grimmauld Place lit up in green flame.
After the six had finished their dinner, Dudley Dursley and Susan Bones had taken their leave. James Potter had been put down for the night, and Teddy Lupin was asked to play quietly in one of the other rooms, as Kreacher was resting in his own bedroom, and Harry and Ginny needed to talk about some things alone.
So it was that the two Potters were the only ones at the kitchen table when Hermione Weasley stepped out of the fireplace, carefully tapping her ash-covered shoes on the throw rug in front of the hearth before removing them.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “I had to do a little cleaning before I came.”
“It’s fine,” said Harry as he and Ginny stood up and hugged Hermione. “I’m glad you’re willing to give it up.”
Hermione shrugged. “It’s just a purse,” she said as she pulled the familiar beaded handbag from her pocket. “Besides, in the rare occasion that we’ll have to be running for our lives and living off the land again, I only need to spend two pounds at a charity shop. One Extension Charm later, and I’ll have a new one.”
“Well, if you put it that way…”
“The fun starts when Ron and I sort out the mess,” said Hermione. “I really haven’t touched it in the past few years, so most of what was in there is now piled in one of the spare bedrooms.”
“We can come help with that,” said Ginny. “I’m sure as much of that stuff is Harry’s as it is yours and Ron’s.”
“That would be a lot of help,” said Hermione. “There was a lot more junk in there than I had thought. Excess rubbish from our meals, things like that.”
“We’ll give you a day to make sure your personal items are out of there before we come,” said Ginny, and the wicked look on her face when she said it gave Harry pause.
Hermione seemed to see it, too, and she blushed. “Yeah, those,” she said. “I should… God, I should check…”
“What are we talking about?” asked Harry.
“Nothing!” Hermione said quickly.
“Hermione knew she’d get lonely on the lamb,” Ginny giggled. “So she packed a few special books and… um… private assistants.”
Hermione slapped Ginny on the shoulder as the three walked to the hallway. “You said you wouldn’t tell anyone about those when you saw me pack them,” she hissed.
“No, I said I wouldn’t tell my brother about them,” Ginny winked. “Harry’s open season.”
“Hermione, I’m fine,” said Harry as Hermione blushed harder. “I don’t want to know any more than that, but I’m fine.”
“It’s not a big deal,” said Hermione quietly. “I was young, and…”
“And single, I get it,” said Harry. “Besides, it probably doesn’t hold a candle to what Ginny has stashed away.”
“Bastard,” Ginny snapped, playfully smacking Harry’s arm as he laughed out loud. From above, they heard a crying baby. “And you’re saved by the bell,” she said, pinching his arm as she started up the stairs. “James must be getting hungry.”
“Yeah, sure, run away from the mockery,” Harry teased. Ginny stuck her tongue out at him, and then jogged up the stairs, passing Kreacher, who was coming in the other direction.
“Wow,” said Hermione. “You look fantastic, Kreacher!”
“Thank you,” said Kreacher, adjusting his dress robes. “They do fit me well, Master Harry.”
“They’re Teddy’s old dress robes,” Harry explained to Hermione. “He wore them to our wedding, but they obviously don’t fit him anymore.”
“If Kreacher could receive any clothes,” the elf said proudly, “he is honored to receive those of Master Lupin’s.”
“And here’s the handbag you wanted,” said Hermione, handing him the beaded purse.
“This is greatly appreciated, Mrs. Weasley,” said Kreacher. “May I have permission to enter the attic, Master Harry?”
“Of course,” said Harry. “And you’re free now, you don’t have to call me Master.”
“And Mrs. Weasley’s my mother-in-law, you can call me Hermione.”
“I will try my best,” Kreacher nodded. He turned towards the steps, paused, and turned around again toward Hermione. “And I must give my congratulations, as well, Mrs… Hermione. On your new expectation.”
As Kreacher slowly ascended the staircase toward the top of the house, Hermione stared after him in disbelief.
“Bloody hell,” she breathed. “I keep forgetting how good house elves are at magic…”
“…Says the girl who created S.P.E.W.,” said Harry, his eyebrow raised skeptically. “What was he talking about, anyway?”
“It hasn’t been a week… I haven’t even told Ron…”
“Hermione…?”
Hermione sighed, and looked at Harry uncertainly. “Harry, I’m pregnant.”
Harry’s mouth opened to respond, but nothing came out. He glanced back up the stairs, then looked back at her. “And Kreacher knew?”
“House elves are good at that,” said Hermione anxiously. “They have to know if a human is sick or injured or whatever. It’s part of their… you know… it’s one of their powers… Harry…”
“Well, I mean, it’s not unexpected, is it?” Harry asked. “You knew about it, right?”
“As of Monday,” said Hermione. “It happened sometime last weekend, I didn’t have the time or the… you know… the energy to check before then. New Year’s was busy…”
“Well, just so long as it didn’t happen in that fifteen minutes you and Ron disappeared during the party,” Harry chuckled.
“I don’t know,” said Hermione, her hands twisting nervously. “It might have been…”
“Bloody hell, it was a joke!” Harry blurted out. “You two…?”
“Had sex in your pantry, sorry,” Hermione said sheepishly. “We were both a little drunk and it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“That’s what Seamus guessed,” Harry admitted. “But that’s what he always guesses whenever two people disappear for more than five minutes. Makes me really want to not know what goes on with him and Lavender behind closed doors.”
“It might not have been then,” Hermione said quickly. “It was a weekend. It might have been the other two or three or… ten…”
“Ten?”
“…times on Saturday or Sunday.”
“Ron’s quite the gladiator.”
“His endurance is getting a lot better,” said Hermione. “And he’s rebounding faster than before we were married.”
“Rhetorical statement,” Harry sighed, wishing he could shut his brain off.
“Anyway,” Hermione continued. “I’m pregnant. And can you promise me that you won’t tell anyone? I want to talk to Ron before it becomes public business.”
“Why haven’t you told him yet?”
“Work’s been busy,” said Hermione. “You know it as well as I do.”
“I know,” said Harry. “But still…”
“Look, it’s complicated,” Hermione said shortly. “I’ve had a lot to think about. Things are going to have to change with this baby, and I have to figure out our options first.”
“Don’t you mean that you and Ron have to figure them out?” asked Harry. “He’s as much a part of this as you are.”
“I know, I know,” said Hermione, pinching the bridge of her nose in impatience. “We’re both going to have to make some changes, I get that. Can we not talk about this now, though?”
“Fine,” said Harry, raising his hands. “Subject dropped.”
“Thank you,” said Hermione as Ginny walked down the stairs, Kreacher close behind.
“James had a full diaper,” said Ginny. “He needed a change, but he’s good now.”
“Hey, Ginny?” Harry said. “Ron and Hermione had sex in our pantry.”
“Huh. I knew the beans smelled funny.”
“The Weasleys did a good job with their mess,” said Kreacher. “Kreacher barely had to clean any fluids off of the floor the next day.”
“Well, we were on top of my sweatshirt the first time,” Hermione said.
“Okay, that’s far too much information,” said Harry. "Wait... the first time?"
“Have Master and Mistress made their decision?”
“We have,” said Ginny, exchanging a glance with Harry, who nodded. “We want you to give your offspring to Hogwarts.”
“What?” Hermione gasped. “Harry…!”
Kreacher nodded. “That is a fair decision,” he said.
“Ginny and I were both raised to have to work for ourselves,” said Harry. “We wouldn’t be comfortable not raising our children, taking care of our house, by ourselves.”
“But Harry,” Hermione argued, “All you’re doing is putting another elf back into slavery…”
“An elf who will remember what it’s like to be free,” said Ginny. “But one who won’t be looked down upon by the other elves for being free. Hermione, if you want to make inroads, this is the best way to do it. You have someone who’s been there. Someone who can tell the others what it’s like, like Dobby was, but someone who they’ll actually listen to and respect as one of their own instead of as an outsider.”
“And if he wants to be completely free, he can come to me,” Harry said. “He’s still going to be mine, but he’ll be working at Hogwarts full-time. It will ultimately be my responsibility to free him if he wants it.”
“Allowing the elf the choice,” said Kreacher. “He will have experienced both sides, and can make his path from there. It is a unique proposition, Master Harry.”
“Harry,” he corrected. “It’s just Harry.”
“The new house elf will be installed at Hogwarts within the week,” said Kreacher. “After I have made my journey.”
“Where are you going?” asked Hermione. “And why did you need my handbag?”
“For Kreacher’s ancestors,” said Kreacher, holding the handbag up. “He wishes to give them a proper burial.”
“The heads?” Harry asked.
“They are all that remain,” Kreacher nodded. “But it should suffice to bury them near their masters. Then I will find visit the Free Elf. And sit by him. And disappear.”
“So that’s the plan?” asked Ginny. “Going to bury your ancestors with the rest of the Blacks?”
“And with Master Regulus, yes.”
“What?” Harry said. “Kreacher, you’re…”
“Kreacher will be returning to the cave,” Kreacher announced, “And he will be finding the remains of his Master. Kreacher has never wished for Master Regulus to stay with the Inferi forever.”
“That’s insane!” said Hermione. “Kreacher, you’re going to get yourself killed!”
“Kreacher will not be killed,” the elf said with a smirk. “Kreacher is far too powerful to be ended by simple undead. He escaped once, he will escape again. This time with his Master, as he should have from the beginning.”
“Well, you have to let me help you,” said Harry, with Hermione and Ginny nodding in agreement as Teddy came down the stairs.
“We can all come,” said Ginny. “You don’t have to do it by yourself.”
“No,” Kreacher said, and his smile grew wistful. “It is nice to be able to say no to my masters. No, you will not come with Kreacher. Even in his present condition, close to death, Kreacher is still more powerful than Master, Mistress, and Mrs. Weasley combined.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Harry said, chuckling despite himself. He held his hand out. “Kreacher, it’s been good knowing you.”
Kreacher looked down at Harry’s hand, at first unsure about how to respond. Then he slowly grasped it with his own wrinkled, gnarled hand. “It has been a pleasure serving you, Master Potter, Mistress Potter,” he added, nodding toward Ginny.
“Thanks for all of your help, Kreacher,” said Ginny. Hermione surprised Kreacher even further by getting down on her knees and giving him a hug. Harry was surprised even more when, unlike the day when Kreacher told them the story of the locket, the elf actually accepted it this time.
“Where are you going?” Teddy asked as Kreacher stepped back from Hermione.
“Kreacher is going away, Master Teddy,” said Kreacher, hobbling over to the boy.
“You’re coming back, though, right?”
Kreacher shook his head. “Kreacher is an old elf, Master Teddy,” he said. “It is time for him to move on.”
“I’m going to miss you,” said the boy, his hair now a dark blue. Tears were forming in his eyes.
“Kreacher will miss you, as well,” the elf said. “But Master Teddy will be able to meet Kreacher’s son once he enters Hogwarts.”
“You have a son?” Teddy gasped. “I didn’t know that!”
“Kreacher soon will. Remember to ask for Kreacher. It will not be the Kreacher standing before you now, but he will know you.”
“He’s Kreacher, Jr.?”
“Good name,” Harry smiled.
“It makes the world of house elves easier if we pass our name along,” said Kreacher.
At last, the goodbyes were made, and Kreacher walked to the door.
“Take care of yourself,” Harry said one last time as Kreacher stepped out onto the front stoop.
“Thank you, Master,” he said. He gave one last look back at Teddy, and nodded. “The house of Black still lives,” he said quietly to himself, and closed his eyes.
And with a pop as the surrounding air filled the vacuum, Kreacher the Free Elf disappeared from Grimmauld Place forever.
The Social Event of The Year / Previous Chapters / Rose Edith