After three and a half hours of sleep, Afiri, Lizzie, Hermione and I went to the Malfoy house. There was a reason for each of the girls to go: Lizzie wanted to see Rachel, whom she hadn't seen in a long time, Hermione had to study, and this lesson in crime and punishment wouldn't be out of place.
As for the dark-haired girl, she's very strong magically, and her very specific knowledge of dark and even black combat magic is very serious, especially when it comes to communicating with spirits. I don't expect any problems, but it's better to have a mage around who can hit the spirit plan than not to have one in the hour of need.
Suddenly I remember Bellatrix Black... and she was visiting her sister, who, when she came to her senses, burst into tears, hugged her sister who she thought was dead and didn't let go for a long time. A very ordinary family scene, a reunion of relatives who love each other, however strange it may sound in the perception of the local nobility.
A little later, I realized some things myself, and some things I learned from the Black sisters. It broadened my understanding of the local "cuisine" — the family relationships of the aristocracy and those who considered themselves aristocratic. In short, before the decline of the pureblood families, there was something like... I don't know, let's call it a "caste system" for better understanding, but the term "caste" is still a little bit wrong.
So, among the pureblood clans, and I'm talking about all the pureblood clans, not just the "28," there was at some point a clear division between those who were under the influence of Muggles and those who were faithful to the old traditions (which, over time, under the influence of factors unknown to me, mutated into a modern pureblood ideology chimera). It is quite natural that there were different "classes", i.e. "castes", which occupied different positions in the society of Muggles and Muggle-borns.
How the Muggle-borns were able to influence the closed and rather moderate society is unknown, although I suppose that the wizards, who had connections to the Muggle world, simply "picked up" the well-known English arrogance from the "dirty Muggles" and then brought it home like a syphilis, infecting everyone around them.
But let's leave aside the methods of infection and get back to what I was interested in, which was family relationships. Like the Muggles, some of the families began to look down their noses at each other, make a big deal out of themselves, and so on down the list, resulting in the well-known snobs like the Malfoys, the Yaxleys, the Lestrangees, and the other Foleys. The "crazy" Blacks, the "small-minded" Potters, the "blood traitors" Weasleys (with a small letter, because it was extremely difficult to break the "blood traitor" seal, and the Weasleys were punished, but it was a family matter, so if they tried hard enough, they could solve the problem in a generation or two, if not sooner), and the like.
And if the Blacks didn't want to lose their place in "high society," the Potters were simply what they had always been — a magical family with strong family ties, open to friendship and capable of revenge. As for "excommunicating" such clans from socializing with the most "important" clans, excluding them from holiday guest lists, cutting off contact, and so on, this move only accelerated the process of splintering the previously united front of pureblood clans into factions and their subsequent decline.
To be honest, I can't say that the information is overwhelming, not at all, but I can't say it's uninteresting either. Now the principles of dividing the purebloods into "obedient" and "undesirable" have become clearer to me. Although, do not forget that many clans died, some died out on their own, some were wiped out, but nature does not like a vacuum, so the free space was filled with an increased influx of Muggle-born wizards and wizards, so the "plebs" became much more "nobility".
In the Muggle world, ordinary people are kept in check by government laws, police and army, and also by "education" — brainwashing in the right way of indecision, moral weakness and eternal fear of "them". This is also present in the wizarding world, but we should not forget that magic is definitely not a toy, as many authorities have tried to show in the last century or two, for the sake of better control of the masses.
Magic allows even the weakest witch, an intelligent and educated witch, somewhere on the edge of geography, to build herself a house, grow a full set of necessary magical plants in five to ten years, brew some potion from them, and then spray it in the right place.
Chlorine? Mustard gas? No! I've come across recipes that I wanted to destroy after seeing the results described. Once, back in this life, I heard the expression that humans have improved their entire civilization in only one direction — by killing their own kind. And wizards are humans too...
Arriving at Malfoy Manor in the garden, we were met by one of the house elves and followed her into the next living room, where Draco and his wife, Narcissa, Bellatrix, and Andromeda and her daughter Nymphadora were already waiting for us. The sisters' offspring, by the way, were a little dazed, looking at their mothers and aunts with strange glances.
Rachel was clearly having fun and was even actively communicating with a somewhat overexcited Bella, while the girl looked at her stunned spouse and could barely hold back her laughter — it was noticeable. But even I agree with that chocolate echidna — a confused Malfoy is a funny sight, better to see once than to hear about so many times. After everyone had gotten acquainted, done the standard ritual of saying their first sentences and so on, it was time to get to the point of our visit.
Draco, who kept looking at me over his shoulder, led everyone into a large, bright hall, apparently one of the Reception Halls. The room was already prepared: ritual signs had been drawn, a substitute altar had been set up (who in their right mind would allow a crowd of outsiders, albeit allies, near the family altar?!), and smoldering herb gatherings had been set up.
After I had checked everything thoroughly with my spiritual sight — no signs of mistakes, conflict points or the like — I pulled the unconscious body in a long shirt out of the storage artifact under the impatient gaze of the heir of the blonde family. Yes, Lucius looked quite different without his shabby clothes, especially with his hair cut short and his eye blackened. Naturally, Draco didn't like the way his father looked.
— Why is my father dressed like this? — The teenager asked in a stern, ringing voice and immediately crouched down beside his parent.
— Your father is alive, alive. — I shrug. — Like he only digs and kills and even tries to. — I chuckle.
— Your jokes are inappropriate, Mr. Hoshino. — Mr. Hoshino frowns. — I don't like to hear such things about my father. Please stop.
In response, I smiled and shrugged again, glancing at Narcissa, who had picked herself up slightly, ready to stand up for her son if need be. But I had no desire to argue with anyone, and I was in a peaceful and contemplative mood, so I just stood back while a bruised Lucius was placed in the chair prepared for him in the centerpiece.