CHAPTER 3

It took a lot of negotiating, but I managed to buy all I needed without getting ripped off too much. I could have gotten it cheaper, but I was running a little short on time, so I put everything in my mokeskin bag and left. I had to cast a shrinking charm on the bogart chest because even though the bag has a big space inside of it, you still have to fit it through the opening.

Anyway, now that I had bought a bogart it was time to use it. Well… I would love to actually use it but I can’t yet, it is easy and quick to cancel/hide a spell if someone is entering my room, which by the way happens suuuuuuper often, I mean I don’t know why but for some reason ever since I put up the barrier, my room became some kind of hotspot in the manor. I mean I don’t know maybe they felt some sense of pride or whatever every time they broke the barrier to talk to me about every little thing, or maybe its just about the thrill of making a flashy entrance. I don’t know but it’s a real pain in the ass.

Ugh dammit I got off track again…. Anyway, as I was saying, I can’t train at home because of the constant interruptions. So, I have to start another part of the plan waaaay sooner.

Now if memory serves me right, eventually after the Triwizard tournament, Voldemort will be back, and Malfoy manor will basically become the death eater capital of the world so obviously I couldn’t keep on living there. Now I planned to eventually buy a house somewhere in London but that wasn’t supposed to happen before another five to six years, so I rather not buy anything yet. But I had another, better option.

I spent the next few weeks studying enchanting and just waiting for my moment while the boggart was burning a hole through my mokeskin bag until finally one-day aunt Narcissa and Draco left to join Vincent (Crabbe) and Gregory (Goyle). Apparently, they were going on a little trip or something, I don’t really remember or care what it was about.

Narcissa wanted me to go too, apparently the fact that I didn’t have any friends was worrying her a little bit for some reason, maybe that’s why she keeps barging into my room all the time. Luckily Draco was fiercely opposed to that idea, apparently, he seemed to hate me for some reason…. I think he might have inherited his father’s superiority complex and had some trouble admitting I had a lot more talent in magic than he did, I mean it’s just a theory but it’s a very flattering one so I’m going to stick with it.

Meanwhile Lucius wouldn’t be back for at least one day as he was currently off on a trip somewhere. the timing was perfect for me because that meant that I would be alone for at least one day, which was enough for me to secure a good house.

I waited for about an hour after they both left before leaving for London, I could have bought a house myself but why bother if there is a perfectly safe, magically hidden, abandoned house right here in London.

It took me a little while to find it, but I finally managed to find It, 12 Grimmauld place. Now  the house was used to be protected by a Fidelius charm, so I normally never should have been able to find it, however I easily found it for a simple reason. The charm was gone. The way a Fidelius charm works is that you plant a secret in a keeper’s souls and from that moment on that secret disappears from the world and only those aware of this secret can find it. But if the secret disappears then so does the charm, and the fact that keepers like Sirius, Narcissa, Bellatrix and Andromeda are still alive doesn’t matter anymore since there is no more secret to keep

The secret used to be that this house was the residence of the Black family but since the house was now abandoned and nobody lived there anymore the Fidelius charm just dissipated.

Luckily my grandfather Orion was a little paranoid and had put up every security measure known to wizard-kind on it when he lived, even going as far as making the house unplotable. I suppose it’s a good thing since the house would have long been discovered by muggles otherwise. I was a little scared as I did not know if there were traps inside the house too, I would easily be able to take on these traps as they were already very old but if I was taken by surprise things could end up bad, so I had to stay alert.

When I entered the house the first thing I noticed is THE FUCKING TRUCKLOAD OF DUST EVERYWHERE. I am not even kidding there had to be at least an inch of dust here. It felt a little weird. I feel like I should be disgusted but for some reason I am not. I am however so pissed off at Kreacher, to think he just let this happen, what has he been doing for all those years.

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As I walked through the hallway I felt certain that there were not traps inside the house because of the HUNDREDS OF FUCKING DOXIES THAT WERE IN THE HOUSE!!!! Okay maybe I’m exaggerating but there were at least more than fifty, they were literally everywhere.

And guess what, I found a little surprise. Its my dead body lying lifelessly on the floor. Isn’t that nice?

Well to be fair it isn’t really a dead body, it’s a boggart. Yes, after all the trouble I went through to purchase a boggart I just find one lying around on the floor just like that. I can’t tell you how annoyed I was.

Anyway, I think an explanation is needed soooo… no I am not scared of my own body. But the way a boggart works is that it takes on the form of what you fear the most. Now most people have simple fears, you know things like spiders, snakes, monsters, people and things like that. But some people are more afraid of concepts like poverty, heights, pain and in my case death.

Now it is easy to imitate a thing or a person, but you can’t morph into a concept, I mean what does pain look like, or poverty or death. You can’t imitate that, so you pick the closest thing. You morph into a poor person, a person that is in pain, or in this case a dead me.

Now of course it might be related, but I am scared of dying myself, I don’t care if I see a body lying on the floor, even if its mine. But you know, this might be a blessing in disguise for me you know, as long as I capture it I could make some decent money if I sell it. I went around the floor and found a wardrobe in one of the rooms, I just cast an unbreakable charm and a containment charm on the wardrobe and put the boggart in it. Obviously, I immobilized it first, even though boggarts are basically harmless creatures one shouldn’t play with fire. After putting the wardrobe in my bag, I kept

Walking until I eventually found Walburga Black’s portrait… well to be entirely truthful it found me. I almost had a heart attack. I mean I just walked past it and all of a sudden it started screaming like a banshee. I already knew that talking portrait was in here somewhere, but I had no idea where it was.

“Kreacher show yourself!” I yelled with a somewhat angry tone.

“Who do you think you are, staying in hiding when your master Is calling for you! Do you want me to cut of your head and put on the wall with all the others!”

After a minute or so Kreacher walked out of a hallway mumbling incomprehensibly.

“you are not Kreacher’s master, Kreacher only serves the noble house of Black!” Kreacher mumbled as he started cleaning the portrait. I was kind f surprised to see him clean anything considering the state of the house.

“I am your master. I am Christopher Black son of your previous master Regulus Arcturus Black, if I am not your master who is!”

When Kreacher heard my father’s name he was visibly shaken and wanted to complain but when I ordered him to shut up and start cleaning the house he reluctantly obeyed. I was his master now I my will was law, so he had no choice but to obey.

Regulus must have told Kreacher about my existence before he died otherwise I don’t think he would have so easily accepted my orders. Or maybe there is a magical component involved in inheriting a house elf I don’t know.

I used the fireplace in the house to get back to Malfoy manor and get Dobby, the house was pretty big, and it would take way too long for Kreacher to clean everything alone.

While the house elves were busy cleaning I went around the house and captured two more boggarts.

It took me a while, but I visited every room in the house and evaluated the damages and I have to say, all these years of neglect really did a number on this house. I didn’t really care as I was going to redecorate this place anyway I mean seriously what was wrong with this family, using decapitated house elves as decoration, emptied troll legs as umbrella stands and that awful screaming portrait it all had to go.

I no longer had any time to waste so I quickly went to the master bedroom and started training in occlumency and just continued training until nightfall.

After several hours I sadly did not get any closer to mastering occlumency. I had apparently greatly underestimated boggarts, it I one thing to know something is reading your mind but it is an entirely different thing to feel it.

I spent the next few days alternating between training in the house and eating, sleeping and just showing myself at the manor.

I kept training in occlumency with the boggart. He changed his appearance a few times during my training, I can’t help but wonder if my fears were changing or if the boggart realized his previous attempts were flawed. It is hard to tell since it is unknown to what degree a boggart is sentient. Finally, on sixth day I managed to feel the boggart reading my mind.

After that things got really easy, it was incredibly hard in the beginning because I had no Idea what I was looking for but once you can actually feel it it gets a lot easier. Afterwards learning how to block it only took my about two or three hours.

Occlumency was definitely a lot easier for people like me, people who always remain cool headed and don’t react overly emotionally like harry. I mean no wonder he never managed to understand occlumency, he was always making decisions based on his emotions and not based on logic, that’s why he was so easy to provoke.

I mean remember when the burrow got surrounded by death eaters and instead of sticking with the group harry decided to just run through the field looking for Bellatrix? That’s just not how a levelheaded person acts.

Anyway, now that I could block mindreading I had to learn how to fabricate new memories. But for now, I wanted to relax a little. I haven’t had a some time to relax in a long time and I wanted to just do nothing for a while.