บท 34: Bug Problem.

The next day, Draco went back to the place with a couple of elves including Dobby and left them there in the care of Kreacher who had finally stopped crying. The cleaning up would require quite a lot of time considering the area and having to clean up the nest of different creatures living there. Other than the antique's, Draco planned to change all the furniture as some had dead Puffskein and may other creatures corpse lying around.

The layout of the house was pretty simple, the front door opened up to a hallway, then on one side of the hallway was the dining room, which featured a dresser holding the Black family crest and China. The dining room also contained a long wooden table with chairs and hanging light fixtures. At some point, while the house was abandoned, a family of spiders the size of saucers moved into this dresser. The spiders were none the less very creepy, causing Draco to jump every time they came crawling out and kill them.

At the end of the hallway were the stairs that led to the upper floors, decorated with a row of shrunken house-elf heads, mounted on the wall on plaques. Dobby seeing them was kinda scared specifically when Kreacher showed his mother's head among the plaque, telling Draco that his dream was to have his head up there along with other elves.

The other elves were slightly scared of Kreacher. Earning Kreacher's loyalty wasn't that easy since he was just following his orders without any diligence as if he was being forced to do so. Due to Walburga herself naming Draco the new head, Kreacher was respectful of him but wasn't truly loyal.

There was a door at the far end of the entry hall, a set of narrow stone stairs leads to the basement and the house's kitchen. Though less ornate than the floors above, the kitchen was still a large, "cavernous" room with a large fireplace at the far end. Iron pots and pans hung from the ceiling above, and a long wooden table sits in the center of the room, large enough to fit a couple dozen people around it for a meal.

Also in the basement, just off the kitchen, was a dark pantry, large enough for two people to stand in comfortably; and another cupboard off the kitchen houses the boiler for the house, as well as Kreacher's den, filled with rags, smelly blankets, and photographs of the Black family. Other than these two small rooms, however, the kitchen seems to fill the entire basement — making it quite a large room indeed.

The first floor had three rooms, a bedroom, a Bathroom, and a drawing room. Out of them, the Drawing room held the most significance. Draco knew that this place held the Slytherin's locket which was one of Voldemort Horcrux. Draco wasn't confident enough to face a Horcrux right now as Horcrux had their own defense set up against anyone who tried to destroy it and besides he didn't even have a tool to destroy the Horcrux.

The drawing room was at one time exquisite, with large windows overlooking the street in front of the house, a large fireplace flanked by two ornate glass-fronted cabinets, and an entire wall covered with a tapestry of the Black family tree. Draco was sure the room mostly just needed a good cleaning and it could return to its former self. Draco along with the help of elves cleaned up the curtain which held a lot of Doxies in them. Like in the Malfoy Manor the place held a lot of dark items in the cabinets — from snakeskins to bottles of blood to boxes of Wartcap Powder — which were ready to put up a fight against anyone trying to clean them up. Draco didn't have any problems with Dark items so other than dusting them up, removing it wasn't required.

The other important thing this place held was a Black Family Tapestry. The tapestry looked immensely old; it was faded and looked as though Doxys had gnawed it in places. Nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show a sprawling family tree dating back to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black 'Toujours pur'.

The tapestry was in the Black family for seven centuries, being passed down to descendants through the ages, finding its way into their homes, and by most members of the family, it was treated as an object of reverence, representing their pure-blood heritage, which the House of Black held in great esteem. Despite this general respect of the object, some Blacks, the earliest known being Eduardus Limette, and the most recent being Sirius Black III was disowned for various reasons; supporting Muggle rights, being Squibs, fraternizing with other disowned people, etc., and treated the item with resentment and disrespect. The disowned members of the family had their images in the Tapestry burnt off by a spell and their descendants' names were not even included on the tree. Disowned members' birth/death dates were also never recorded on the tree.

The tree contained the names and respective birth dates of the family members inside small pieces of parchment, as well as a small images of the Blacks by birth, There were names including his Mother, even his name was in there along with his picture. The Tapestry updated itself after new members were born in the family and similarly the Tapestry had changed his name from Malfoy to Black.

The second floor held a couple of bedrooms. One bedroom in specific held two twin beds and a wardrobe, and like the rest of the house it was gloomy, had lofty ceilings, and had a doorknob in the shape of a serpent. On the wall was a portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black, from what Draco remembered Phineas was one of the Headmaster of Hogwarts and one of the least popular ones as well, Draco didn't know what Phineas did to deserve that title but he was sure it was something related to him being a pure-blood fanatic.

The third floor had two rooms in it, one led to the Black family library which contained tons of books, mostly related to dark arts. Draco read through the name's of the book and was delighted to find rare and old books which weren't even published anymore and the other room led to Broom storage, which contained a lot of old brooms which weren't manufactured anymore.

The fourth floor held Sirius and Regulus's bedroom, which Draco wasn't interested in. Draco didn't plan to touch Regulus and Sirius room, other than cleaning it. Draco knew of the importance Kreacher held towards Regulus and besides there were plenty of other bedrooms in the house where he could sleep comfortably since he would be mostly staying in the Malfoy Manor and even if he stayed here, he would mostly be alone. This caused Kreacher to be very thankful of Draco who bowed to him, thanking him again and again.

On Regulus room, there was a sign on the door, marked — "Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black" Draco could tell that both rooms had once been beautiful, with carved wooden headboards on the beds, velvet curtains, and fine wall hangings and furniture. However, the decor in the two rooms, of course, could not have been more different: Sirius decked his room out in Gryffindor colors and banners, and posters of Muggle biker girls and in Regulus's room, slightly smaller, the decor, of course, highlighted his Slytherin, pure-blood heritage, with a Black family crest painted over the bed and newspaper clippings about Voldemort donning the walls.

After looking around the entire house, Draco found a couple of items that really interested him. He found an ornate crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper, full of Dragon blood and not just even a normal Dragon Blood but one of the extinct Dragon's which no longer exists. He also found a music box that played a faintly sinister, tinkling tune that when wound nearly knocked everyone out. An ancient set of purple robes that tries to strangle a person when one tries to remove it from their wardrobe. A spidery instrument, rather like a many-legged pair of tweezers, which scurried away and tried to puncture Draco's skin and a grandfather clock that shot heavy bolts at whoever passed by.

Other than the enchanted items, there were quite a few items he didn't understand like the boxes, made of tarnished silver and inscribed with some sort of ancient language. There were several ancient seals, and rusted Daggers as well.

Surprisingly there were a few muggle items in the house such as a Piano, which was enchanted to play music any time someone poured mana into it.

Kreacher handed Draco a box, which contained a large, golden ring bearing the Black family crest. After checking it for hexes and curses, Draco determined the ring was safe to wear and put it on. The ring signified him being the next head of the Black family.

Next day, huge news broke out through the wizarding community in England. The Daily Prophet released a piece of news shocking a lot of people, the front page of the news had a very domineering title. "HOUSE OF BLACK REVIVES" the news read,

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black is one of the largest, oldest, and wealthiest pure-blooded wizarding families in Britain, and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. The House of Black is synonymous with elevated status and wealth and is considered to be akin to the Royalty in the British Wizarding Community. The pure-blood family has always placed and followed its pure blood heritage with great pride with its motto, Toujours Pur, which means "Always Pure" in French.

The Black family which was on the verge of destruction after all the members of its family died after following You-Know-Who, with its last successor Sirius Black being in Azkaban for killing muggles and being under the service of the You-Know-Who. The family which end seemed near has its fate changed. Draco Malfoy, the genius prodigy in potions and spells, who has amassed fame over the years for his charity and intelligence has stood up to inherit the position to be the next Black.

Draco Black, (formerly Malfoy) has now inherited the position of the next head of the Black family. With Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco Black who is now pregnant with his new siblings, Draco Black took the chance to inherit the Black family leaving the Malfoy family. With Draco Black's intelligence many wizards have predicted in the past that he might become the next Dark Lord and now with him joining the pure-blood supremacist Black family, many professionals have suggested that it might really be the case. From being related to the murder Sirius Black and other dark wizards, the suggestion may not be very far from the truth.

Slowly gaining power from his charisma and intelligence, Draco Black has succeeded in things that some wizards may not even succeed in their lifetime. Being born with a silver spoon in his mouth in the Malfoy family and now inheriting the rich Black family, Draco Black is surely one of the wealthiest young wizards around. But it is still questionable what he decides to do with all this power.

With the current generation having young talented wizards like Draco Black and the Harry Potter, (who is also suspected to be the next dark lord) our future may not be as peaceful as we imagined it to be. Let's just hope that our prediction may not be true if it is we are going to be in a lot more trouble than before.

---------------------------------------------------

(The Gryffindor sword was only able to destroy the Horcrux because it has the ability to absorb the power in a way of the item it has defeated, so after fighting with the Basilisk it absorbed its venom property to help destroy basilisk.) Just in case you wanna know.