Easy Mistake ; Harry Potter

O N E H U N D R E D | Christmas With Kreacher

Christmas was fast approaching. Eleanor was having such a blast that the worry about Voldemort vanished from her mind. Sometimes she would have sudden guilty moments where she reminded herself why she was actually at Grimmauld Place and the familiar ping of panic would hit her but then it would evaporate as quickly as it came when she watched Tonks change her nose into a pig's snout across the dining room table. Again, Eleanor tried not to let herself feel too guilty about this.

Eleanor wasn't the only one having a good time. Since Mr. Weasley's return from St. Mungo's everyone seemed in much better spirits. Eleanor's parents, William and Ethan, were enjoying themselves so much that they seemed to have forgotten to be angry at Harry and acted quite cheerfully around him now which both Eleanor and Harry were very thankful for. Even Josh, who had found out that he wouldn't be receiving many Christmas presents this year because his parents hadn't had enough time to finish Christmas shopping since being escorted to Grimmauld Place, was practically buzzing for Christmas day just because of the fact he was spending it in a magical household.

A few days before Christmas eve, everyone was helping decorate Grimmauld place to make it look festive. Eleanor was embarrassed but rather very happy when the inhabitants inside Grimmauld place all agreed not to use magic to put up the decorations in the house so it allowed Eleanor, Josh and their parents to help out and join in too.

This was all very fun for Eleanor as she finally had a chance to explore the rest of the house. Hermione, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George had no problem explaining to Eleanor why the house looked quite empty from the upstairs and they all had much fun explaining all the dark and dangerous things they had to get rid of before the house became livable.

After finishing most of the upstairs, Eleanor was now helping Hermione and Ginny string garland around the stairwell banister which the boys had not been trusted with as Mrs Weasley had strict instructions on how the garland had to be placed. Eleanor had found this highly amusing and enjoyed countless precious minutes teasing them about it, until the boys were instructed by Mrs Weasley to get a move on and they had to leave.

Just as the three girls were reaching the end of the stairs, the weird creature that had scared William on his first night at Grimmauld place came shuffling past Eleanor.

Eleanor had quickly learned that the strange creature was an House Elf, which were owned only by the richest of wizarding families. House Elves, Eleanor learned, were enslaved to serve one wizarding family for their whole life.

The House Elf standing before Eleanor was called Kreacher and had belonged to Sirius' mother. Sirius had explained to Eleanor on her second night staying at the house, that Kreacher had always been unpleasant but it seemed all the years alone had seemed to finally drive the poor creature over the edge.

Eleanor also quickly learned that Kreacher wasn't much of a fan of her. In fact, Kreacher didn't like anyone much. He shared the same views as Sirius' mother, which were old fashioned, biased views involving that if anyone were not Pure-blood then they simply weren't worthy of being in the house. And although Sirius was a Pure-blood, he associated with those his mother thought unworthy and so in Kreacher's eyes, there was no one worse than Sirius Black.

"Hello, Kreacher!" Eleanor greeted as herself, Ginny and Hermione finally finished with the garland.

"The Muggle is talking to me as if she is equal. Oh, if only Mistress Black knew...if only she knew what filth was inside her precious house..." Kreacher mumbled, apparently oblivious that the three girls could hear every word he was mumbling.

"We can hear you, you know!" Ginny said angrily.

Hermione shot her a reproachful look. Hermione took pity on the House Elf which Eleanor quickly learned. And although Eleanor took the same approach at the start and only tried to be kind to the House Elf, she quickly became irritated with his constant insults and mutterings about everyone in the house.