Sirius's mood seemed to improve slightly.
It happened after he learned that Dumbledore had agreed to let Jane Yu stay the night.
"I need to deal with this first."
Dumbledore held up the locket in his hand. It didn't look particularly ornate.
"I should have asked you to take Jane back, but I fear Spinner's End is now a death trap—you wouldn't want another trip to St. Mungo's, would you?"
This seemed to divert Sirius's attention. He stood up, the gloom on his face dissipating.
"Of course, like I said before, leave it to me!"
Harry also let out a sigh of relief, his lips curving into a genuine smile. His eyes lit up with joy as he glanced at Jane—
And then froze.
She was comfortably seated in a dark green, impeccably clean armchair, with an elegant teapot and teacup set before her.
The house-elf Kreacher, who had earlier been mercilessly mocking them, had already poured her tea and, within a minute, served her ten different kinds of pastries.
When Dumbledore left and Sirius turned back around, he too was dumbfounded.
But Sirius had always been much thicker-skinned than Harry.
He casually dragged over a dusty chair, cast a cleaning spell on it, and sat across from Jane. He transformed a porcelain bottle into a teacup and poured himself some tea.
"What are you staring at, Harry? Come and sit!"
He tossed a biscuit into his mouth and chewed as he beckoned his godson over.
Kreacher, hunched and dragging his feet, slowly shuffled toward the other end of the room, muttering in his hoarse voice:
"...Though the disgraceful master allows Kreacher to care for Master Regulus... Kreacher must say... neither he nor his Potter brat has any manners... facing a noble lady, a lady who has shown kindness to the Black family, and yet they compete with her for food..."
Sirius choked on his biscuit, his face turning red as he coughed violently.
"Should I thank you for calling me a disgraceful master instead of a filthy scoundrel, Kreacher?"
He looked indignant but hastily turned to Jane to explain.
"Jane! I wasn't trying to steal your food—"
Jane didn't mind him eating some. After all, the amount Kreacher had served could probably feed a pig to bursting.
"The honorable Miss Jane, so kind..." Kreacher muttered, quickly changing his tone. "She retrieved Master Regulus for the Black family, for Kreacher, from the cold waters below. She even considers the feelings of a filthy scoundrel..."
"But what has he done? He snatched her from someone else's house in front of her elders. How disappointed my mistress would be—if she saw him sitting here, treating Miss Jane like this, using her favorite teapot, what would she say?"
Sirius immediately pushed the "mistress's favorite teapot" far away with a look of disgust.
"If you think we're unworthy of using my mother's teapot, then don't bring it out."
He said coldly.
Kreacher shot him a resentful look and shrieked:
"The mistress would never allow the detestable master to use her teapot—but she would gladly let Miss Jane use it—"
A loud sound of fabric being pulled came from downstairs, followed by an ear-piercing scream from a woman. Even the walls on the second floor shook.
"I allowed it! I allowed it! She is worthy of stepping into my ancestral home—"
"But you are not... you filthy, sinful wretch! A disgrace to the family, the abomination I gave birth to!"
Sirius jumped up with a start, shouting, "Shut up, you horrible old hag!" as he rushed downstairs.
Jane heard the sound of fabric being pulled again, and then the woman's voice disappeared.
"My mother," Sirius said as he returned, panting. "She's not in her right mind... just ignore her."
Jane nodded to show she understood.
Sirius tried to lighten the mood. He stood up, intending to show Harry and Jane his room.
But Kreacher looked at him with an expression of sorrow.
"The disgraceful master... showing an elegant lady such indecent things... Kreacher cannot stop him..."
"Shut up!" Sirius's face turned red as he hastily explained. "It's just some photos from our younger days. There's nothing improper in my room!"
As if to prove his point, he rushed upstairs and flung open the door to his room.
"I decorated it beautifully! My room is perfectly normal—"
His voice cut off abruptly.
Jane felt Harry's hand cover her eyes as her body was turned away. She heard a hurried "Don't look."
But thanks to her excellent eyesight, she had already taken in the whole room—
It was just a bunch of posters of Muggle girls in bikinis.
What was the big deal?
Jane forcefully pried Harry's hand away from her eyes.
"Ha... Harry... take Jane to her room!" Sirius tried to salvage the last shred of his dignity as he hurled spells at the walls. "This blasted Permanent Sticking Charm! And... I'm not a pervert! Youthful folly... who hasn't been young once..."
Under Kreacher's muttering of "filthy scoundrel," "beast in human clothing," and "shameless rogue," a bit of awkwardness turned into a whole lot of it.
"Don't worry, Jane! I won't let Sirius near you."
Harry declared righteously, clearly having rekindled his earlier suspicions of Sirius.
In any case, until Jane went to bed, the entire Number 12 Grimmauld Place echoed with Sirius's explanations—
Occasionally interspersed with Kreacher's laments and Mrs. Black's curses at her son.
...
But when Jane woke up in the middle of the night and went downstairs for water, she found Kreacher curled up alone in a corner of the kitchen.
"Honorable lady—" His face was streaked with large tears as he struggled to stand and bow to Jane, his voice hoarse. "Benefactor..."
Jane noticed something strange. Besides sorrow, there was a conflicted look on his face.
She poured two glasses of water and handed one to him.
Kreacher's mouth hung open, his tears momentarily halting. He looked at the glass in his hand, then at Jane, his expression a mixture of confusion and astonishment.
He seemed on the verge of screaming but appeared to restrain himself. Finally, in a low voice, he muttered:
"Miss, Miss poured water for Kreacher... Kreacher is unworthy, Kreacher needs to grab a poker... Kreacher must punish himself..."
Jane stopped him immediately.
She had nearly forgotten how sensitive house-elves were, often resorting to self-punishment.
Kreacher looked as though he wanted to frame the glass of water and hang it next to his mother's decapitated head as a badge of honor.
"Miss... Miss is a kind person..." he murmured. "Kreacher cannot hide it from Miss... Miss is not a Black... Kreacher did not disobey Master Regulus's orders..."
He seemed to have made some sort of decision. Tears once again streamed down his face as he slowly pulled a locket from the rags around his waist. His hands trembled as he offered it to Jane.
"Miss... the locket... Master Regulus's locket..."
"The master forbade Kreacher from telling the family... He wanted Kreacher to destroy it... Kreacher couldn't do it... Please!"
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