A/N: Yelp! Stepping out of my comfort zone for once, not quite sure how I feel about this yet. :3 R&R please? Thanks!
Good Fortune or Bad Fortune?
Whenever a great disaster happen both Muggle and Wizarding words were affected. No matter how much they tried to detach their pure, royal family from the Muggles that they were forced to share a world with.
Arcturus Black cast another glance at the paper in his hands. He watched the ship sinking for yet another time on that morning. The Muggles did not know yet, but soon they would realise that the great Titanic had sunk. Wizards had yet to find a more secure way to travel between continents than simply Apparating, which could only be done by extremely skilled wizards and here and there they would hear about a batty witch who vanished leaving her leg behind and appeared in China barely aware of what year they were in. Several lives had been lost, though exactly how much, the Prophet alleged that they did not know yet. The final paragraph of the article would point out that the argument over the safety of Muggle ways of travelling would be put at stake once more.
If countless lives of wizards are lost every year to natural disasters the Muggles cannot predict, should we really be complaining about soaking our robes whilst travelling by Magic Carpets?
Arcturus could already see the discussion that he would hear at every corner of the Ministry of Magic later that day.
"I will never trust another Muggle ship."
"Always thought broomsticks were safer, what did I tell you?"
"But they said that ship could not sink!"
Obviously the batty Muggles were wrong once more, Arcturus thought.
Personally, he despised those who chose not to show the whole world their magical power. He simply could not comprehend how some could rather not use magical and safer methods when the alternative could end as poorly as the Titanic did. To this day, he still heard at every family reunion the elder Blacks reminding them all of how it was to walk freely with your wand in your hand around London. He still heard his father wanting to banish the Statue of Secrecy.
"They cannot keep themselves safe! We would be doing them an immense favour by protecting them," old Phineas Nigellus would say.
And Arcturus had to agree. Muggles needed them. Though they kept telling themselves that magic did not exist and whenever a Muggle spotted a wizard casting a spell they would immediately associate it with a bad thing. If a wizard had saved the Titanic a few hours before, he had a feeling that Muggles would still be calling it dark magic. Well, to save a ship that big, the wizard would have to inevitably use dark magic. He wanted to hear those blood traitors argue that dark magic should not be used then, if it had saved hundreds of lives ... That was exactly why Arcturus held no emotion in his face as he first read about the tragedy a few minutes ago. He did not care if it turned out that every last one of the people travelling in that ship had died, all except one.
His wife, Lysandra, had a brother who wished to visit America and had boarded Titanic only five days ago. He had no bigger worries though. Close to the United States as the ship already was, he had no doubt that a pure-blood wizard such as Edwin Yaxley was smart enough to leave the Muggles behind and Disapparate to America the instant he realised something was not right. Arcturus trusted his brother-in-law not to stain the family name with waiting to see what was going to happen instead of saving himself.
Lysandra entered the room then and smiled at him.
"Good morning, love."
He didn't bother with a greeting and showed her the Daily Prophet in his hands.
"Another disaster for the Muggles," he pointed out and shrugged. "Edwin saved himself." He was, after all, a Slytherin and Slytherins were well known by their sense of self-preservation.
"Oh, I believe so, yes," Lysandra commented, reaching for a bun on the table. "Wonder if that was what that Seer was referring to last week. Do you remember? The one Violetta said that had spoken about a great terror nearly upon us, if I'm not mistaken. Such bad fortune ..."
"I suppose — GRIMPY!" Arcturus called the house-elf. "My work robes!"
He had utterly no patience for when his wife started talking about those kinds of charlatans who only wished to steal the gold of the ones who were naive enough to believe in whatever nonsense that came out of their mouths. It was of no use to argue though. Let alone when she would bring the name of his sister-in-law; Violetta was pregnant with her first child and wanted it all to be perfect; thus believed in every talk that was out on the streets if it meant that she could do something to keep her baby safe. He had tried to argue. Merlin knew he had tried. At the beginning of their marriage, a day would not pass without him telling her not waste their family gold on it. It made little difference of course. The piles of gold in the Blacks' vault at Gringotts bank were higher than ever. Nevertheless he still did not appreciate to have their royal name associated with charlatans and he was not the only one.
Grimpy brought his work robes and he had changed into them in a couple of minutes. Arcturus kissed his wife good-bye and vanished from their house, appearing at the Ministry's Atrium on the following second. As he walked towards his office, he heard everyone of the sentences he had thought he would not long ago. Wizards despising Muggle methods of transportation, complaining about how high the price of broomsticks and magical carpets were ...
When Arcturus finally arrived, he saw an owl waiting for him. He carefully took the note from its foot and unfolded the parchment.
Tell Ly that I am safe and sound in New York City. I'll be home before Christmas.
Also you'll have to find me a Pensieve so I can show you the panic upon the Muggles faces.
Arcturus couldn't help but to laugh at the mental image; apparently, good fortune did happen while travelling with Muggles and he could not wait for Edwin to return to England.