บท 33: Walburga Black

"WHO IS IT?" The portrait screamed.

"It's me Narcissa, aunt Walburga." Narcissa said walking in along with Draco.

Seeing her the portrait calmed down, and the furious expression changed into a mild one.

"Why are you here, Narcissa?" The portrait asked looking at Draco, "And who is this?"

"This is my son, Draco." Narcissa answered. Draco felt a bit awkward but still did a noble greeting.

"That's good! You married a Malfoy, didn't you?" Walburga asked

"Yes, aunt Walburga." Narcissa replied.

"Yes, Blood purity must be maintained." Walburga said, "Seems like you are having new children as well."

"Yes, aunt Walburga." Narcissa replied, "And this is one of the reasons why I came here today."

"What do you want?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

"I want Draco to inherit the Black family." Narcissa said. As soon as she said that Walburga clenched her fist and wrinkled her eyebrows in anger.

"Please listen to me first, aunt Walburga." Narcissa said trying to calm her down.

Walburga didn't say anything but nodded her head a little, signaling Narcissa to continue.

"After your death, the Black family house has been empty for almost 6 years now, with no one left to inherit it." Narcissa said, "Due to this, the house and the other black family property were naturally inherited by Sirius."

"DON'T MENTION THAT BLOOD-TRAITOR'S NAME!" Walburga screamed angrily.

"It's necessary!" Narcissa replied, "Sirius is rotting in Azkaban and Bellatrix is the same. Unless the Dark Lord returns they are going to be stuck there forever, no matter what."

"So you are saying?"

"Since no one capable is in the line of inheritance, I want Draco to inherit it and continue the Black family line." Narcissa said, "With me, he still has the Black family's blood running in his vein."

"Why should I agree to it?"

"If you don't then the Black family line will end after Sirius's death in Azkaban." Narcissa replied. "As a member of the Black family myself, I don't want it to happen."

"Hmph! Since the legacy has been passed to that Blood-traitors hand, what are you going to do about it?" Walburga asked seemingly understanding of the situation after what Narcissa told her.

"With the Minister for Magic, being on our side. The problem will be solved in no time, but it will require him to be a Black first" Narcissa reassured her.

Walburga turned towards Draco, "Do you want to inherit the Black family's legacy?" she asked,

"Yes, Grandaunt." Draco replied respectfully, "With my siblings on the way, I can claim the Black family's name without any burden."

"So are you willing to become a Black completely and revoke all ties with the Malfoy family?" She asked again. Draco became confused, 'Is revoking all ties really necessary?' He thought

"She means, that you will have nothing to do with Malfoy family anymore and you will have to put Black family first before everything." Narcissa explained.

"I am willing." Draco said. Draco had the same plans to begin with, even though he won't completely let go of the Malfoy family but he will always put his new family first.

"Good! Then from now on, your name shall be Draco Black, not Malfoy. You will carry on the bloodline legacy of the Black family from now on and be sure to never stain its name." Walburga said looking at Draco.

'Stain? You are literally Voldemort's puppets. No matter what I do, the name won't be stained any further.' Draco thought with his mouth slightly twitching but since he was bowing to her, Walburga couldn't see it.

"KREACHER!" Walburga screamed again and from inside a room, an old elf came running.

"Yes, Mistress." The Elf said as he looked at Narcissa and Draco.

"Miss Ciccy, it's a pleasure to see you again." Kreacher said with slight emotion in his eyes.

Kreacher like all house elves was considerably smaller than a human. He had a bulbous, snout-like nose, bloodshot eyes, many folds of skin, and had white hair growing out of his bat-like ears.

"How are you, Kreacher?" Narcissa said gently.

"Kreacher is good." He said bowing towards her.

"Kreacher, From today onward. He will be your new master and the new heir and head of the Black family." She said pointing at Draco from the painting.

Kreacher looked at Draco with his eyes opened wide.

"From today onward your loyalty will shift to Draco, as he will continue the line of the Black family." Walburga said in a strict tone.

Kreacher looked at her and nodded,

"Hello! Kreacher, my name is Draco, please treat me well!" Draco said giving Kreacher a gentle smile.

"It's nice to meet you, Master Draco" said Kreacher, sinking so low that his lips almost touched his gnarled toes "Kreacher will do whatever Master wants."

Draco was kinda scared of this deranged elf, who he was sure was a bit cuckoo in the head. He knew of the elf's past and due to it being alone with this deranged painting for 6 years must have made it even more insane. Draco like with Dobby and the other house elves planned to treat it with enough kindness, so it won't betray him on the time of need.

"Kreacher, go fetch the keys!" The painting said.

The elf nodded and quickly ran back and came with a golden key in his hand and handed it to Draco.

"From now on the vault belongs to you," Walburga said looking at Draco.

Draco getting hold of the key nodded.

"Kreacher! I will be gone now, so make sure to treat him with great loyalty." Walburga said to Kreacher.

For someone who spent the last of her days grieving her husband and son's death, she had become very close to the elf. Kreacher like her was very attached to Walburga and started sobbing when he heard her.

"Come here." The portrait said to Draco.

Draco turned his head towards Walburga and walked towards her. Suddenly a light started glowing from the portrait showering Draco in it as well.

"Keep the Black family legacy alive." Draco heard her voice, the light slowly faded away and it was completely gone. Draco looked back at the Portrait, which still looked realistic but it didn't have any life in it like before.

"Mistress." Kreacher walked forward and started crying and wailing seeing the lifeless portrait.

While all this was happening Draco was trying to figure out, what just happened.

"She transferred the right to you." Narcissa said, "Now you are the true owner of the Black family and the secret keeper of it. After I go out from here, no one except you and Sirius will remember this place."

Draco nodded in understanding, "So Great aunt?"

"She is gone now." Narcissa said sighing, "Gone forever."

(I didn't want a weird talking portrait to be connected with Draco, who keeps yelling every chance she gets so with this, I thought of killing two birds with one stone, by giving the right to Draco and having the portrait gone.)

With Kreacher sobbing crazily, Draco looked around the house.

"A lot of cleaning up is required, huh?" Draco said.

"Yes, you will have to come back here with a couple of house elves to clean the place up." Narcissa said, "Looking at the place, I am sure it has become a nest for spider and pixies."

Draco nodded agreeing with her. He wanted to look around but seeing the dirty place, he didn't do it since he still had to go to the Ministry after this. Draco knew a Horcrux was in here, somewhere but he couldn't do anything about it for now.

Draco turned to look at Kreacher who was still crying.

"Kreacher!" He called out.

Kreacher turned his head to look at Draco, while still sobbing.

"I will come here with a couple of house elves to clean the house tomorrow until then clean whatever you can." Draco said.

Kreacher nodded and went back to crying.

Draco looked at Narcissa and motioned her to leave. Both of them got out of the house and as soon they did, the house disappeared between the neighboring houses.

"What are you thinking, Draco?" Narcissa asked

"I am thinking about the house." Draco said, since he was now the owner of the house, he wanted to change it enough so it could fit his own taste better. He wanted to clean up all the gloomy things that were in the house and since the house itself was rotting away, changes were necessary.

"House, yes but what.." Narcissa asked getting confused.

Draco looked at his mother and figured the Fidelius Charm was already working.

Draco took out a paper and wrote the address of the house with his wand and gave it to Narcissa. Narcissa reading the paper finally remembered 12 Grimmauld Place.

The Fidelius charms is a very effective charm, other than the secret keeper himself no one can remember the place unless the secret keeper tells the other person the information making him/her a secondary keeper. The Secondary keepers can't divulge the information to the other people even if they want to, no dark magic or curse can make them spill the information unless the secret keeper himself is tortured enough to reveal the information. The Secondary keeper themselves forget the information unless they want to remember it specifically and even then the secret will be revealed to them alone. After the death of the secret keeper all the secondary keepers will become the new Secret Keeper, so a Secret keeper must be strong enough to protect themselves. Any living creatures could be turned into a Secret Keeper, but people usually didn't choose creatures that couldn't speak human language, since a Secret Keeper needed to be the one to describe other people the secret unless one doesn't want anyone to find about it, not even themselves.

The Fidelius charm is an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. So not even Voldemort or Dumbledore can reveal the information. Dumbledore and Voldemort can walk around the entire area searching for this place but will never find it even if they have their nose pressed right against the window of the living room. The Fidelius charm also makes the place Soundproof making it impossible for people outside to hear what's going on inside the house.

The other advantage he knew of the place is that it was unplottable meaning muggles would never find the place even if they are walking past by them making it impossible to locate it or map it. The property was similar to the Leaky Cauldron.

Narcissa finally remembering the place nodded and suggested him, some places where he could buy the cleaning items. Similar to Narcissa, Lucius didn't have a clue about the house at all, so Draco passed him a parchment as well, making him finally remember the place. The next place they had to go to was the Ministry of Magic, for formally changing him to a Black from a Malfoy. With the help of the Minister for Magic, the process was done within no time, after giving a couple of signatures and a drop of Blood, he was now no longer a Malfoy but a Black.

Now even though, Sirius legally owned the Black family property and its legacy, Draco could use all the property however he wanted, except for selling it. Lucius held a small party inviting all the rich wizarding family to celebrate Draco finally becoming a Black. Daphne and Pansy couldn't come to the party since they were quite busy with things of their own but still sent him a letter congratulating him.

"So you are a Black, now huh?" Theodore who was at the party said.

"Well, I guess so." Draco shrugged, all the Slytherin first-year students had come to celebrate the occasion with him.

"So what about Sirius?" Blaise asked. Everyone was curious about Sirius since his deeds of exposing the Potters and killing 12 muggles was well known throughout the wizarding community.

"What about him?" Draco said pouring himself some butter-beer. "He is still in Azkaban and I am sure he isn't coming out anytime soon."

"It's surprising, that you are related to him." Millicent said

"Is it really?" Theodore replied, "I am sure, we are all related to each other one way or the other."

"Yeah! I am sure that I am even related to the Weasley's in some way." Draco said.

"Really?"

"Yeah! Since our wizarding community is so small, especially us who take the pure-blood stuff way too seriously than we should. Being related to each other is very common especially among us Sacred twenty-eight." Draco explained.

"So did you inherit all the Black family property?" Theodore asked since the Black family is known to be one of the oldest and the richest families, everyone was interested in this topic as well.

"I did." Draco said waving the Gringott's key around in his hand, "I don't know how much do I have in the vault now but I am sure it's still going to be a lot."

"Well I don't really care about the money but you will need to share some books with me, I am sure the Black family has a lot of unique books," Theodore said greedily.

Draco didn't reply and just drank his butter beer, rolling his eyes.

Unknown to them, someone was secretly listening to their conversation.