Authoress: Stormy Llewellyn
Chapter: Prologue
Authoress' Note: I've worked very hard on this story and I would appreciate it if you reviewed after you finish reading. This is my baby right here, researched and all for those of us who are fascinated by the Black family. Future chapters will be longer than this one, so no complaints of length.
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June 2022
12 Griendwald Place
What had once been a beautiful garden full of roses, orchids, and begonias were now a tangle of weeds and dead plants. It overflowed onto the path leading to the imposing mansion causing a very annoyed young woman to stab her wand viciously at the tangle to burn it out of her way. A stench like rotting animal came from within the tangle and Cedrella Weasley decided to go investigate remembering that time last year when they had tried to tear down the building and the whole crew of construction workers had been found dead. She often wondered if this house, like Hogwarts, had taken on a personality of it's own. Considering those who had lived here it would certainly explain the malicious death of the men who had tried to transform this land for Muggle purposes.
"Merlin!" She gagged when she saw the dead house elf laying in the weeds, it's eyes rolled up in the back of it's head. The poor thing! She thought, kneeling down beside the broken creature, Was he waiting all this time for his masters to come back? Quietly, she withdrew her wand from her robes, still relishing in the freedom of using magic outside of school and cast a fire charm on it, reducing the creature to dust. Then she took a knut from her pocket and transfigured it into an urn to put the ashes in.
"Accio ashes," she commanded, watching them swirl neatly into the urn. With a sigh, she looked up at the sprawling building with ivy covering it's walls thickly. Some windows were broken and the others were simply coated in a thick layer of dirt and grime. The whole thing reeked of age, and although in it's prime it was probably beautiful, it was now beyond the repair of even magic.
"Alohomora," she mumbled absentmindedly at the front door. Even then she had to push against it with all her might to open the door with a resounding creak. No one knew she was here, especially not her parents. She had informed them that she had a job interview to go to causing her mother to beam at her proudly and her father to mutter about how she was 'just like her bloody mother.' Of course, her mom probably wouldn't have minded her coming here. In fact, she may have encouraged it. However, her father would have been put off, although a pureblood he would never understand her need to understand her family. Her real family, not her adopted one.
Cedrella still remembered the night that she had first became a Weasley, she'd been eight years old. It had been storming out, and not just a normal storm but a magical storm, She'd curled up in her bed, warding off the sounds from outside and wishing that she could curl up in her parent's bed as her friends so often did. However, her parents weren't home and even if they were she wouldn't dare admit to her mother that she was afraid of a little storm.
Suddenly there was a bang from downstairs as the front door was thrown open and there were hurried footsteps. Briefly, she considered running to her father until she heard her mother's angry voice hissing at him. When she was in one of her moods, Cedrella didn't dare approach her. Eventually, as all children do, she dosed off, the rain and thunder becoming a lullaby. When she awoke, there were a pair of emerald eyes staring back at her. Slowly, she blinked her huge grey eyes and then did the only thing she could; she screamed. For his part, the dark haired man seemed as frightened as she was and tried to comfort her by pulling her into what he probably thought was a comforting embrace. This, of course, only made her scream louder and punch him as hard as she could in the shoulder.
"Ow!" He protested, leaping away from her and rubbing his shoulder. The screaming had attracted the attention of some other people and suddenly there were two people at the door. A young man and a young woman, one with bright red hair and the other with plain, ginger hair.
"Merlin Harry, what did you do to her?"
"I didn't do anything Ronald," the raven haired boy said sarcastically.
"Well, honestly...you boys clearly know nothing about children. How did you think she would react to a strange man standing in her bedroom? Use some common sense. Ron, back some of her things to take to the headquarters with us."
"Yes, ma'am." Ron said angrily, with a salute. The one named Harry smirked knowingly as he went to follow the orders. "Honestly 'Mione, you've always been bossy and being a teacher is making you worse."
"I want my father," she demanded, raising her head up in a haughty pureblood manner.
"Aw, sweety, your father had to...go away for a little while so you're coming with us. Okay?" She whimpered so the older girl came closer to her and ran her fingers through the curly black hair. Sobbing, she buried her head in the girl's shoulder, forgetting the fact that she was afraid of these people. Besides, the lady seemed nice enough and none of the looked like psychotic serial killers.
The redhead had been watching them and was smiling with a distant look on his face. Only seconds after the little girl had noticed, the older woman did too. Ron explained, "You look good with a kid Hermione."
She turned red and looked away from him and Harry was smiling at his two friends who had recently had an old-fashioned wizard wedding although they still fought like cats and dogs. They dragged her off to a big building where a man sat and asked her a bunch of questions about her parents until Harry stepped in and declared that he'd 'had enough of this'. This whole time, Ron and Hermione had locked themselves up in an office and were talking heatedly. At the end of the day she ended going home with them.
And it wasn't that she was ungrateful for what the couple had done for her. She'd had a rather spoiled life with them and had grown close to both of them. Unlike with her real family she had nothing to fear there and felt free to run to them for comfort. Hermione didn't come into her room late at night drunk of fire whiskey and mumble all sorts of cruel words and accusations. Ron didn't live by his wife's rule and punish the child for not being perfect. However, she was the last of an ancient bloodline and she couldn't imagine going through life with so little knowledge of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Which is what brought her here today.
Cedrella couldn't imagine that there had once been life in these gardens. That they had once been shaped by the power of the women of the Black family. Children had once ran these paths and played on that lone swing that hung from a gnarled tree. Weddings had been held in the garden to join the witches and wizards who had been born, lived, loved, and died in this house. In a way the house was a representation of all the pureblood families after the war. Once in their glory, they were now reduced to rubble in their attempts to 'purify' the blood lines. Cedrella wasn't a fool, she knew of the pureblood mania that had run through the veins of her blood relatives. She also knew of the power that flowed there, the power that she herself could harness.
Straightening her Slytherin robes proudly (being fresh from the graduation that her mother, as headmistress, had presided over), she stepped into the old building. Then inside was worse for the wear. Moss grew from the stones, plants and insects had begun to make their way inside. Flies flew around the mounted heads of the past house elves. There were cracks in the ceiling where the sky actually showed through and the whole mansion smelled of age and mildew.
"Bellatrix?" Croaked a voice, Cedrella looked up and jumped upon seeing a horrid picture of a woman with greying hair and sallow looking skin.
"No ma'am. I believe your thinking of my mother." She said softly, wondering why anyone would want such a horrid picture in their front foyer.
"Does she have a daughter?" Said the woman airily, "I wasn't aware. Well, good for her. How is she?"
Dead, thought Cedrella bitterly. "As well as ever."
"Good, good. It's been so long since a Black has walked these halls..."she peered down at her, "Will you be staying long?"
"No, just visiting."
"Be careful."
Wondering what she meant, she wandered up the stairs and into a new hall. On either side of the hall were pictures of past people who had graced the family. Oddly enough, it seemed many men did not make this wall but it was always the women in their frilly dresses with perfectly done hair. One picture had been leaned against the wall where rats had gnawed at the wood.
"Er, hello." She glanced down at the sullen looking girl in the frame, "I'm Cedrella."
The sullen girl scowled at her but then giggled suddenly, "Why, I never thought one of the Black children would be named after me!"
"Really?" She asked curiously, "Why not?"
She sighed heavily and smiled, "Let's just say that the Black's have never understood my decisions. Of course, I'm not the only one."
Cedrella smiled at the portrait and walked quietly along the hall until she came to a huge tapestry that was covered in dust. Gently, she ran her hand over the tapestry and a piece of it came off in her hand causing her to gasp and pull her hand away. It was falling apart from too many cleaning spells and having seen too many generations. Gently, she blew on it and sent some of the dust scattering, revealing names with golden lines connecting them. The famous family tree her mother had always told her about. Some stories she knew such as Sirius, who had run away on principle. Andromeda, who had abandoned her old family for her new one. That was the same aunt who had named her, because it was a tradition that the oldest sibling to the parent name the newborn baby. Draco Malfoy, her cousin, who had renounced the Dark Lord publically for the Order and had later suffered death at his hands.
She wondered though...who were these other people on the tapestry? Had they attended Hogwarts where they made friends and enemies? Had they fallen in love? Had they been forced into a mold that they didn't fit? She wondered...
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Next chapter coming soon.
