“Gods it smells.” Cepheus made a face. The front door creaked behind them, the bitter cold February air following them into the house. The colours seemed to have faded, not helped by both the smoke damage and the grey light falling in from the window on the landing ahead of them. Pictures either side of the hall hung at strange angles, the cupboard under the stairs was open, the contents spilling out. The house elf’s feet pattered on the stone floor before them, dismay clear in her body language from behind.

“Solly apologises sir, Solly’s will try to-.” She turned in a flash to face her owners, anxious.
“S’alright elf. Keep your ears on.” Orion placated, and reached out to ruffle the head of the house elf like he might a child. Solly cowered and squeaked, ducking from the touch before it reached her. Ceph’s eyes snapped down from the state of the house to the being half their size.
“Woah, woah,” he interjected, “Steady Ri, she’s as on edge as we are.” He made a mental note to sit down with Solly and check how she was doing. It was his duty both professionally and personally. She’d been in the house when it had all happened, poor thing.

Cepheus stepped forwards and peered into the room on his left. The study was a complete mess. The ministry had been through everything, and hadn’t bothered to tidy up. Parchment spilled over the floor, drawers were pulled from furniture, paintings pulled from walls. Their great-great grandfather bellowed, his frame upside down. Wincing, Ceph lightly trod across the floor to scoop the portrait up and set it against the wall the right way up.
“Ruddy disgrace, upsetting our family home, how dare they-”
“No, no. Solly will clean everything up, put it back…” the house elf was already deeper in the house, and Cepheus departed the study to follow the voices.

The stairs down to the cellar were black. The paint around the door and the hall floor beside the kitchen was scorched black. It was a hellish looking chasm, the stone steps thick with soot. If ever a place gave one a bad feeling, the cellar did now. Cepheus swallowed and looked to his sister.
“This sounds stupid, but I’d feel safer if you went first.” He admitted.

The house elf was upset. Andie was not doing a good job at making her feel better. She had let it clean her apartment. It was really clean. Like REALLY clean. But the house elf was still sad. Now it was really really sad. The house Andie, Cepheus and Orion grew up in was a mess. Andie's colleagues had made a big mess. They needed to search the house. She understood that. But it looked like a burglary!! Andie stood the grandfather clock up. It chimed sadly. Andie did not think furniture could be sad until that!

She went back to the hall. She and her brothers looked down at the cellar. Ceph asked her to go first. Andie lit her wand. She took a deep breath before she went. It was dark. The walls were really black. The boxes they kept here was all burned away. The smell was worse. Andie pointed her wand at a new hole. "That was not here before." She said. "This must be the room." Even though she was brave she did not want to go in. "We need more light. Lumos Maxima."

Cepheus followed his sister down the sooty stairs, the light from his wand not as bright as his sister's. Ri followed close behind, brandishing his wand like a torch by his hip. They made it down into the bottom of the house. Every wall that their wand light picked out was black with ash, and the smell was overpowering. Ceph covered his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his jumper pulled over his hand and turned on the spot. Magical fire, not quite fiendfyre, but enough to destroy anything down here and have St Mungo’s treat their father for burns.

Andromeda’s wand picked out he room which none of them had ever known was there. The three of them paused, looking into it. Their wands barely penetrated the ominous darkness.
“S’like someone’s used Peruvian darkness powder in here.” Ri commented from above their heads - the oldest, and the tallest of the three of them.
“And then some."
“We need more light. Lumos Maxima.” Andie’s wand flared with a brilliant white light which had Ceph shield his eyes from before it moved into the room.

The floor here was thicker with ash, but it had been readily disturbed, dug into and there were footprints in the dirt.
“They’ve been all over this.” Cepheus remarked, pointing out the floor with his own wand. “Isn’t this where dad kept the black books?” He asked his sister, who had gone through any reports or news from her team in far more detail than Cepheus had felt he could stomach.

Behind them came an ungodly wail. Ceph’s blood turned cold and he twisted round in fear. On the floor by the foot of the stairs, on her knees in the dirt was Solly, beside herself.
“Gods,” Cepheus spoke, his heart descending from his mouth to his chest. “Solly, come on, it’s alright, let’s get you out of here,” he left his siblings and pocketed his wand, extending his arms to the elf like a hug to move her away. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the other two.
“We’ll have to bring some lamps down.” He suggested, dismissing the notion that they could examine the damage by wandlight alone while the house elf uttered apologies to him through her sobs.

"Yes." Andie said. It was darker than dark here. Even she felt anxious. She trusted her gut. It was a big black hole under the house. She was happy to go back upstairs with her brothers. The house elf was very upset. Andromeda was relieved Cepheus would look after it. She looked around more. She put things back. It would take a long time. They would have to work together. "Ri will you stay here?" Andromeda asked. She did not want the house elf to come home with her again. There was nothing else to clean and it was making her sad.

“Come on, here, come on now, there.” Cepheus spoke kindly to the family’s elf, encouraging Solly to take a seat at the kitchen table, and offered her his handkerchief. He perched next to her, a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“I’m s-sorry master Cepheus - I - I,” the house elf squeaked and hiccuped, before dabbing her big lamp-like eyes with the the hankie.
“You have permission to be upset.” Cepheus told her firmly.

He looked round at his two siblings. Andromeda was righting things around them, restless.
“Ri, will you stay here?”
“You don’t have to.” Cepheus followed up, absentmindedly rubbing Solly’s shoulder over the pillowcase she wore.
“She won’t stop ’til it’s done.” Ri looked at Solly, shuffling his feet. He didn’t look particularly comfortable about being left for the night with an upset house elf.
“Probably not. She can stay with Andie again tonight.” Cepheus suggested, looking hopefully to his sister.

Andie scowled. "I do not think there is anything left to clean at my place." She looked at her biggest brother. "We should clean together. Solly does not need to do this on her own. We are a family. We are the Gamps. If we do not stick together we are done." Andromeda put her hands on her hips. "Let us begin in here. If the kitchen is clean it is a home."

Cepheus and Orion exchanged a look over the top of Solly’s head. Their little sister was a determined soul, it could not be denied. They had collectively had the rug pulled out from under their feet, but of the three of them, Andromeda undoubtedly felt it the keenest. She had been up at Hogwarts interviewing classmates of those who their father had abducted. She had run her boss through how best to raid the family home. Not that it felt like much of a home right now with that hell hole in the cellar.

“You’re right,” Cepheus agreed, “absolutely right, Andromeda.” Wands drawn, the three siblings and the house elf got to work on the kitchen in grim silence.

End