Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(90) Extended Family

From the moment that the light crept into the holes of the curtains in the room Florence was occupying, Jane had woken her up promptly, leaving her no time to stare up and analyze the weird caricature of what looked like one of many Black family portraits painted directly on the ceiling. She hauled herself out of bed, wondering whether or not she will be able to take a shower during the following days, this answered by her mother as if she had read her mind.

"The water system should be fixed in a few hours. There's a little bit of water, but it's going to take forever if you use it to shower." Jane said, chucking an apron to Florence, "Meanwhile, you and I and anyone else who isn't doing anything will be sterilizing most of this filth, before the Weasleys arrive."

Florence cringed, a look of dread sweeping over her features, "Do I have to?"

"Ofcourse you do. Even I have to do it, and I have work in a couple of hours. It's better that you have something to do rather than to just mope around this depressing looking house all day."

She huffed, "Where's Emmy? Can I atleast ask her for some help?"

"No, Emmy is taking a well deserved sleep-in today for helping in cleaning out most of the rooms last night. We shouldn't tire the poor elf out."

"Fine," she caved in, "Where are the cleaning materials?"

"Kreacher is bringing them up in a second."

"Kreacher?"

"The Black family house elf, apparently. Sirius hates him, as he's a really big fan of his parents. But, since Sirius is technically still his master, he has agreed to help. But you have to be as nice to him as possible, gain his trust—"

"My trust will not be earned by some filthy blood traitors..." a deep, croaking voice muttered behind them, an old, resigned looking elf coming to view. He held two new-looking mops and rags in his hand, and was levitating two buckets filled with soapy water.

"Kreacher, huh?" Florence said, glaring hard at the elf for his words, "Well you look as depressing as this house."

"Florence," Jane warned.

"Sorry," she mumbled, offering to take the cleaning items from Kreacher, "I'm sorry. First impressions matter, you see, and what you said wasn't very nice."

"Kreacher should not be nice to filth who dares to step foot inside my master's house. Kreacher is disgusted, and so will my Mistress if she sees what has been done to her most noble home." he spat in disgust, handing Florence the items anyway.

"Well," Florence pursed her lips, taking a few seconds to suppress her violent nature that wanted to slam him against the wall for his rudeness, before resuming her talk, "I'm sure we have a lot of time to get to know each other, and hopefully your views will change, Kreacher."

His old face wrinkled in disgust, gently laying the buckets down before walking away, grumbling to himself.

"What an ass." Florence scoffed, Jane giving her a look.

"Go start with this hallway. Scrub off as much of the grime as you can, mop the floor, wipe down the stair railings."

She gave her a brief salute, before hauling her bucket of water over to where the hallway ends, deciding to start from there. It sucked that she was probably the only one in the house who couldn't make use of her magic to clean yet.

Florence didn't get very far down the hallway when she heard a bunch of footsteps bustling in all at once downstairs. It was followed by a happy sort of commotion, which made Florence infer that the Weasleys were here, and they were early. She abandoned her rag that landed into the bucket, racing down two flights of stairs. Her heart leaped excitedly in her chest as soon as she locked eyes with Fred and George, who flashed her a warm smile in return.