Chapter 5

Phineas watched as Draco raised his wand again and waved it in wide, elaborate and complicated patterns.

„Pervideas Praeteritum!"

Phineas had never heard of this spell.

It was the second spell the boy used, and the second spell Phineas didn't recognize.

Now, Phineas was starting to get interested in this Malfoy boy.

The Malfoy boy's eyes became completely white as if his pupils and irises had just disappeared.

Or as if his eyes had turned inward.

It looked disconcerting, even to an old and experienced snake like Phineas.

The spell seemed to have no other effect, but when the Malfoy boy suddenly transmitted the passcode flawlessly and with complete surety, Phineas was totally astounded.

The safe opened with a click.

„How did you do that? What kind of spell was this? What did you do?"

Phineas was flabbergasted.

Draco ignored him and emptied the vault onto the old African blackwood office table.

There were some magical artifacts, some books and ledgers, some old Black Family trinkets, a pouch with extension charms with an emergency gold fund inside, and the thing Draco was here for, an ancient-looking ring box with the Black emblem on it.

The Black emblem was three purely black crows on bony white ground, with the words 'toujours pur' beneath.

When Draco opened the ring box, he felt the magic of the ring calling out to his blood.

The ring was pure white bone with a black onyx gemstone.

Its weight felt familiar in his hand.

Draco had worn this ring the last two decades of his old life.

But unlike before, when he had been the last wizard on earth with any Black blood in his veins, and the ring's artifact spirit had welcomed and nourished him with open arms, this time the ring's magic was guarded against him.

Draco stood straight and laid the ring on the palm of his left hand.

With his right he raised his wand, casting a controlled cutting hex to make two incision on his left palm in the middle of the ring.

His blood started gushing out unnaturally fast.

Not a single drop blemished the white bone of the ring even though he bleeding got continuously worse, because the ring was consuming all of his blood as soon as it made contact.

The Black family ring, handed down through generations, was heavily enchanted with blood magic.

With his actions Draco had initiated the inheritance of the position of Lord Black even though he was not the next in line.

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And the ring knew that, since it had tasted the blood of every babe born to House Black and could track the living members and bloodlines through its blood magic.

If Draco didn't know of the emergency inheritance procedures, the vampiric ring would suck his blood until he fainted.

But only on account of his Black blood.

If he was someone without the blood of the Black Family, the ring would suck him dry.

Draco continued feeding the ring his blood and magic, and spoke to it:

"More than a decade has passed without a Lord Black. The family is in ruins. Its last members are divided, only fighting for themselves. For the survival of House Black, I lay claim to the position as its Lord. May my leadership bring House Black to new heights. So mote it be."

These weren't the words of a spell or ritual formula, but just to convey his heartfelt intent to the enchanted ring.

Slowly, the ring stopped sucking his blood and started forming a stable connection.

Finally, it let Draco put it on his finger.

Once it was securely on his left middle finger, the ring immediately started healing his open wound and his anemia.

That was the Black ring's main ability, an ancient blood magic healing enchantment, derived from experiments on vampires, and made with ritual sacrifices of many more vampires.

The vampiric enchantment was supported and held by the onyx gem that had been known as a healing stone since ancient times.

The ancient blood magic healing enchantment wasn't the ring's only feature, only its strongest.

Among other things, Draco could now easily establish a connection to the townhouse's wards and he could also weakly feel the positions of the other living members of the Black family.

The strongest links lead to Sirius, who seemed pretty far away, probably even outside of the British Isles, to Andromeda, who was apparently the closest, somewhere here in London, to his mother at home and to Bellatrix in Azkaban.

Then there were two other unnamed, almost undetectable links.

Draco speculated they led to the two other people who had quite a good concentration of Black blood in their veins, that the ring had not directly tasted yet, Nymphadora and Harry.

The ring still revealed a last connection, and that was to the last living Black elf, Kreacher.

Draco could feel Kreacher's tenacious but declining vitality through their newly established magical connection.

Magically, Kreacher was a starved ghost, so Draco flooded their link with a healthy dose of magic.

Kreacher let out a gasp.

Kreacher had been silent the whole time the wizards talked, as befitted house elves, but now he couldn't contain himself any longer.

"Lord Black,... Missy Sissy's Draco...? " Kreacher cried out in excitement and stupefied wonder. "What...? Why...? How...? What about Bad Master...? "

"House Black needs me desperately, Kreacher. I can't just stand by and let this great family die out. So, I took up the duty of its Lordship."

"But how can you be the lord? It's impossible..."

Kreacher half wondered, half doubted.

"It's not only possible, it already is... You can feel it, Kreacher, can't you?"

Draco spoke to the flabbergasted elf soothingly, "You can feel it's true. You can feel it with all your being... That I am your Lord and Master now... I am Lord Black."

"Yes, Lord Master Black."

Kreacher discarded his confusion and his doubts, and welcomed his new reality.

"Good."

Draco was satisfied and praised Kreacher.

„How did you know you had to that, boy? Already in my time and age, not even the heirs had access to this information, only the Lords of the Ancient Houses had knowledge of this."

When Phineas' shock became manageable, he started questioning Draco again.

„You don't need to know. And you can stop calling me ‚boy' now."

Draco stated.

„What else should I call you, boy? Lord Black?"

Phineas sneered.

„Yes."

Draco confirmed calmly.

„You wish, boy."

Phineas snorted undignified.

Draco started putting the stuff from the safe he didn't need right now back inside, including the empty ring box.

In case of his untimely death, the Black Family ring would be resummoned into the ring box, waiting for the next inheritor.

Then he waved his wand at the closed safe to set a new passcode for the security enchantments.

Draco only addressed Phineas again when he closed the safe opening in the wall with his portrait.

„Do you want me throw your portrait out of the house, Phineas?"

Draco challenged.

„What do I care? Hogwarts is much more interesting anyway."

„More interesting than the Black Family under my rule? I doubt it. Do you want to miss how I'm going to develop the Black Family?"

Draco's words hit home.

This Malfoy boy was the most interesting and special wizard, Phineas had encountered in a long time, maybe ever.

And Phineas hung around in Hogwarts all year.

With the boy's extraordinary means and obscure knowledge, he would either doom the Black Family or bring them to exceptional heights, in any case it promised to get interesting.

Draco left the Lord's office without waiting for Phineas' response.