Sinister awoke. She pushed up the lid of her nest and took a few moments to rearrange the shredded paper and flannel then hopped out and let the lid close. The ancient book she had turned into her nest took up only a third of the floorspace in the cupboard and she rearranged her small treasures—the many items her Mistress had decided were no longer useful and made a fine collection of displays for mating. If a male house-elf ever visited the household.

Her displays arranged, she left the cupboard and checked the time. Four nineteen. A minute early.

She waited until the clock in the hall ticked to twenty after then burst into motion.

She dashed out the cat flap on the door and retrieved three eggs.

A door was opened to a deep pit with a snap of her fingers and she dashed down to the root cellar to collect a potato then down into the cold storage for the milk and bacon.

The Mistress refused to use magic on food Sinister reminded herself and grated the potato without magic then set it to soak in water as she prepared the eggs and checked the oats she had left soaking in yogurt the night before.

At exactly 5:18 and 40 seconds, the steaming bacon filled grits, eggs, hash browns, blueberry tisane, and chilled oats awaited her mistress.

She looked at the seat at 5:19. Her mistress didn't appear.

Sinister waited with great anxiety. "Missy Wallander never late!" she whispered to herself, twisting her ears as anxiety upset the small creature.

At 5:20, the house elf headed into the sitting room then carefully climbed the stairs. Her Mistress had been an Auror and an Unspeakable for decades and did not appreciate loud noises.

Sinister burst into tears when she saw her Mistress. But she knew exactly what she was to do.

With her Mistress dead, the house-elf began snapping her fingers, covering the furniture throughout the house with heavy black drapes.

She did the long list of chores she had been given to do when Mistress passed then did the final one on the list.

The house-elf removed a large painting from storage and carefully hung it above the fireplace, replacing the painting of Mistress Wallander's parents with one of the Mistress herself.

She touched the small nameplate and the painting snorted awake.

"I've passed then?" she asked at the sight of the grieving house-elf and black clad furniture.

She nodded. "Yes Mistress."

"Well, I hope your next family appreciates you as much as I did. Go on, someone else out there'll need you. Go let the Ministry know."

~•~

The Wizard working the desk at the DMLE was unsurprised to have a house-elf appear on his desk. As the current charge wizard, he was used to house-elves reporting crimes for their owners.

"Sinister is reporting that Mistress Wallander has passed away, sir."

This was his first report of a death but he knew the things to do.

He sent a plane off to the on-duty DMLE witch nearest and she and her partner approached.

"House-Elf Sinister has reported her owner has passed away.

"Sinister, the full name of your mistress?"

"Desire Montreguille Wallander, missy, sir, of the great and most honored Cavendishes and having married the wonderful Wallace Wallander!" She had never met her mistress's late husband but she had told stories about him all the time.

⁂

Sinister stood with the half-dozen house-elves in the House-Elf Relocation Office, all watching the young married wizard as he debated which house-elf to purchase.

He went with Kinzie, the current best all the house-elves agreed. Sinister knew she was considered less able than others. She resigned herself to a long wait of cleaning the Ministry for people she wasn't bound to.

Her darker skin, slighter frame, and lesser magic ability would likely have her unchosen even with her lesser cost.

~•~

Sinister was surprised to find a boy helping with the choosing until another house-elf whispered he was "Him! The Boy-Who-Lived!" "He's s'posed to be at Hoggywarts," whispered another house-elf. Those nearby who heard shivered in excitement, imagining being able to clean for a thousand messy students. House-elves who worked at Hogwarts would occasionally come visit and tell wonderful tales of incredible messes students had accidentally made or horribly frightening tales of the students having to clean up their own messes as punishment.

Sinister stared at him with wide eyes as Harry smiled at her. "Hi. What's your name?"

"S-Sinister is h-honored to meet Master Harry Potter Sir!"

She was even more shocked when the boy said something to the man with him and a minute later she was informed by Watto, the oldest Ministry House-elf she would be working for Harry Potter.

~•~

Sinister arrived at the Potter home and was surprised to find it was not an ancient manor. Disappointed slightly at its small size, she was delighted to find it had been magically expanded and there would be more than two people to care for when Sirius sat her down in the kitchen.

"So, having lived with my parents and their insane house-elf and Harry having grown up in the muggle world, we have some rules we all will abide by." Sinister nodded excitedly, her ears flopping madly. "The two rooms with muggle stuff in them are to be cleaned by hand, no magic. They have magic attenuation crystals in them you'll need to replace every seven days, seven hours, and seven minutes."

She nodded again. "Sinister knows magic atty crystals! Missy Wallander used them at the Ministry!"

"Oh? What did she do?"

"Mistress Wallander was an Unspeakable, Master Sirius sir."

He nodded. "Well, aside from replacing those and no magic in them, you'll be able to clean as normal anywhere else. There're six owls in residence and one cat, we're debating getting a dog and a snake. I'm also an animagus and Remus is a werewolf. The basement under the garage is out of bounds for you on the day before, day of, and day after a full moon." Sinister's eyes widened and she nodded. "Now, as for punishments. Harry was not pleased by learning from other house-elves that some are physically punished. Therefore there's a wheel you will spin in the kitchen for your punishments."

She nodded.

⁂

Sinister slid out of her bed—she still had her nest but Master Sirius had requested she try sleeping in the bed for a month—then pulled on her new uniform, a vivid blue dress in an old Danish design Harry's family had examples of in old tapestries.

She used ribbons to hold up the bell like sleeves then took the stairs down to the next floor of the closet that was her room. She was shocked at the waste of space allotted to her. Ten house-elves could easily stay in the closet she had to her own. Only the house-elves at Hogwarts had more space than her. They all had small cottages made from little logs arranged in a no longer used dungeon room.

She looked at her nest for a moment and her mating display, now supplemented with four new pieces from her new family. A quick rearrangement of it then she took the stairs down to the floor and went through the cat flap after rearranging the few muggle and magical cleaning supplies they kept.

Inside the kitchen, she looked at the time. Four nineteen. She waited.

At four twenty, she exploded into action. Unlike Mistress Wallander's home, she could use magic all she needed. Master Sirius wasn't as sensitive as she was.

A run through the house and she verified every room was as it should be, snapped the dust out of Master Harry's room, cleaned up the cat's urine from in front of his door, polished the weird muggle object called BOB in Missy Tonks's room she kept under the pillow, collected a dozen eggs from the hens out back and checked the two occamies to see if they had lain.

At ten to five she placed the bacon, bacon, seven cheese, and steak quiche into the oven then began setting the table.

At six fifteen, Sirius stumbled in to the dining room while Remus was already seated, reading the paper.

Sinister scampered along the table—Master Sirius preferred seeing her so she was visible—and plated his quiche, poured his tea, and set his three minute occamy egg into an egg cup then sliced up his toast soldiers.

Sirius blinked sleepily. "Occamy egg?"

"Yes, master. Cooked three minutes, green pepper is right here!"

He nodded and used a spoon to break the egg open, setting aside the valuable shell—mixing occamy silver with mined silver one to one ended up with a five percent heavier bar than expected—Potters, and now Sirius and Remus, were the only ones who knew how exactly.

Sinister watched with great pleasure as Sirius made his toast soldiers swim in the runny egg then make nummy sounds as he ate while Remus fought not to laugh at his friend. It was much too entertaining to wake him up enough to have him realize he wasn't alone.

"Amazing quiche," Remus finally said when Sirius was done and he looked at him.

"Uhh, how long have you been there?"

"I was here when you came in. And your Egg Eaters of Penzance rendition, while off on syllables, was utterly entertaining."

Sirius groaned at the evil grin on his friend's face.

~•~

Sinister stared at the box. She had made a mistake today. One big enough for punishment. She had to assemble… IT.

She opened the box.

Sticks and wedges and pegs and a pointer and nuts and bolts.

Slowly, she assembled the stand, carefully reading the directions.

She stared at it when done. A wheel with a dozen different punishments on it ranging from fifteen minute timeout in a corner to having to sit and watch a movie and eat popcorn and drink a juice box without doing any cleaning. It was the worst punishment she had ever thought could be forced on her. Then she saw the smallest one. She would have to make a mess and let it sit for four hours before cleaning it. Sinister nearly fainted.

She thanked Hecate and her ancestors this punishment was over having finished assembling it.