(This story's dates are so AU it isn't even funny. Walburga Black died in 1985, while in my story she died in 1980. Regulus Black died in 1979, when in my story his supposed death was in 1981. There are other random things that are different but it's just to make my story work. This is the first fan fiction I've written that wasn't a complete redo of a story I'd already read. I was amazed myself that I actually came up with a decent story idea. Well, sort of. the story line has been used but not the same characters and it's a little different.)
Harold James Who?
Lily Potter looked down into the steel gray eyes of her four month old child. She couldn't let James, who somehow didn't know yet, that her son was not a Potter.
That she had slept with her husbands best friends brother. Who was a death eater.
She cast a glamour charm. Harry would look like James until his sixteenth birthday, but that was as long as it would last. It couldn't last longer. She only hoped she could be there to tell him the truth. With the glamour on, the only thing of Harry that didn't look like James was his eyes, which Lily made like hers. A bit different from the mini-Regulus that had been there moments before.
Lily wiped a tear away. She hated to make her son live a lie because of her mistakes, but she didn't want to have to tell James. Harry slept on, having no idea of the life changing events around him.
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James Potter was furious. Anyone who took one look at Harold James Potter knew that he wasn't a Potter. He didn't have the Potter hair, didn't look the tiniest bit like a Potter.
Lily, his wife, had slept with someone else. Who, he had no idea, but she had cheated on him. And apparently decided not to tell him that his child wasn't his child.
James looked at the baby in his arms and tried to bite back a bitter laugh. This child now did have the Potter hair. Apparently his wife had decided that he was stupid.
How could you not notice that a child looked like someone one minute and then you the next?
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Regulus Black was confused, though that might have been an understatement. He was in his (dead) parents house, staring at the family tapestry, wondering how the hell it came to be that he had a child he didn't know about. The tapestry knew, it said, Regulus Black --- Unknown Male Child, July 31st 1980.
Anything further you had to add yourself. The tapestry couldn't do everything without any help.
Regulus was in shock. The only person he had slept with around that time frame, and then it had only been because he was drunk, was Lily Evans-Potter. Oh holy hell, Harry Potter is my son
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Harold James Potter – Not (Fast forward to the summer before Harry's sixth year.)Harry stared in the mirror in shock. At the pain that had gone through him around midnight last night, he should've expected something like this, but this wasn't… this… he looked like Sirius, except not exactly. He had the steel gray eyes and the long and somewhat shiny black hair, but some of his facial features were a bit different. He was taller than he had been previously, he'd been around 5'7 and was now about 5'11.
With a sigh, Harry headed back to his bedroom, determined to find out why he had changed so much. It took awhile, but looking through his fifth year potions book, he found a potion that told who your parents were…
Harry mixed the potion, put a bit of his blood in it and put a few drops on the paper, watching the words form.
Regulus
Black – Lily Evans-Potter
–
Harold James Potter/ Black
July 31st 1980
Harry gulped and stared at the paper, his state of shock increasing even more. Could life get any more dramatic? You would think I lived in one of Aunt Petunia's soap operas! So Sirius was my uncle… oh, Sirius, I wish you were here, you'd know what I should do … but there's no one, and I'm alone, and I don't know how to deal with this. I don't look a thing like Harry Potter, but I guess I wouldn't, seeing as I'm not Harry Potter, and I never really was.
There was a crash down stairs and someone yelled out, "Harry?" Harry sighed and stared at the door, willing whoever it was coming up the stairs to be a friend, not a death eater. A man entered the room, and Harry knew who it looked like, but he also knew it was impossible. Harry asked in harsh tone, "Who the hell are you?"
The man chuckled, "Easy there, I'm your godfather."
"My godfather is dead."
"I feel alive."
"Then you must not be him."
"What can I do to prove it to you?"
"Be Padfoot. If you don't get that, then you're obviously not my godfather."
Seconds later in the mans place was a large black dog. Harry fainted. Sirius enervated him and said, "Now it's my turn to make you prove who you are, seeing as you look nothing like my godson."
"Maybe I'm not."
"Care to explain that statement?"
"Not really. Just ask your questions."
"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs?"
"Remus – Werewolf, Pettigrew – rat, You – dog, James Potter – stag."
"Your patronous form."
"I'm not 100 sure, seeing as they can change and I would bet it has, but it used to be a stag, for Prongs."
"And how did I 'die'?"
"You fell through a veil in the department of mysteries, and it was entirely my fault."
The man laughed, "Now I know for sure that it's you, no one else would be so … you … as to take the blame for something that many people should have the blame for: me, Dumbledore, Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort, and yes, a little bit, you. But I don't blame you." Sirius sighed and looked closely at Harry, "Why do you look so much… like a Black?"
Harry snorted in laughter, "I wouldn't know, ask my mother and your brother. James Potter might have known too, but none of them saw fit to let me in on the secret."
"What exactly are you suggesting?"
"I'm not suggesting anything, I'm informing you of the results from the Paternity Potion. Regulus Black is apparently my father. Don't ask me how, because I don't know. Anyway, how are you even alive?"
"I was transported to the middle of nowhere and it took me forever to figure out where I was before I apparated back to headquarters and realized they weren't likely to believe me so I came here…" Sirius trailed off as two letters dropped out of nowhere on the desk, both addressed to Harry. "Those are time release letters, charmed to go to the person they're addressed to a certain amount of time after they're written." Sirius stared at the letters in shock. "One is from Lily, the other from Regulus."
My dearest son,
I'm so sorry for the lies that have made up your life because of my spinelessness. I'm somewhat sure that James is aware that he isn't your father, but he hasn't said anything and neither have I. I don't believe that your father even knows that he's your father. We were both a bit drunk, and we talked and then… well, I'm not going to describe it for you, but suffice it to say, you were the result.
I'm sorry that I've lied to you and to so many people, and I hope you can forgive me.
I'm writing this on your first birthday. From what I know, your father died recently, leaving the death eaters. I'm sure you know who they are, if not from the news and such then from history lessons. When we were together that night, he told me he regretted joining the death eaters, and that he honestly hadn't wanted to in the first place. He had believed in the pureblood crap for awhile, but never to the point that he would have started killing muggleborns for sport.
Anyway, your father is Regulus Black. He's your godfathers brother.
He went out as a hero, though. He spent the last year of his life sending information to the Order of the Phoenix about the death eaters and their attacks. Eventually Voldemort figured out who was spying and he was killed. That's all I really know, this makes me sound horrible, but the only time I really met him was that night. I'd seen him in passing other times, but that's it.
I love you, my son, in life or death.
Your mother,
Lily Evans-Potter.
Harry stared at the letter for awhile and then handed it to Sirius wordlessly, before picking up the letter from Regulus.
Dear Harry,
I'm writing this on your fifth birthday, I've just watched you get the crap beaten out of you and then be put in your 'bedroom,' more like the cupboard under the stairs, but anyway, I want to say that I'm so sorry I can't take you away from them. Even if I wasn't supposedly dead, I was a death eater, and though I no longer carry the mark of that, the ministry would never let me take their savior in. I've tried informing the headmaster and the ministry both, but nothing ever happens.
It wouldn't do either of us any good for me to just take you, so I can't do that either. I hope that you make it through your life without succumbing to the need for revenge. I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking when he left you there, but I'll never forgive him for leaving any child in that environment, especially my son.
Even after five years it still feels weird that I have a son, especially since I have never met you and I'm not supposed to know about you. I still can't believe Lily never told me or James about this situation.
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It's now your ninth birthday, and I think that your relatives have made it a tradition to beat you on your birthday. I still wish with all my heart that I could do more for you than be a supportive teacher at school, but like I said, I'm 'dead' and a 'death eater.'
I remember last year you turned my hair blue, that was hilarious. I suppose that it was deserved, but hey, I can't be nice all the time. What would that do to my reputation? It's funny that I've managed to be your teacher every year since you started school, but I have to act differently every time or you'd get suspicious. I hate that you're so smart but you hide it to protect yourself from them. If I had my way, they'd be stuck as the pigs they are for the rest of their lives.
Someday those Dursley's are going to get paybacks for all they've done to you, to my son, but I suppose it's a bit hypocritical of me to say all of that when in the last part of this letter I said I hoped you wouldn't succumb to the need for revenge. I would do so much if I could just get you away from those people, I'd give up every last galleon, sickle and knut that I've ever had to take you away from them.
Merlin, the lessons of being a Black have faded from my mind, I've let myself care about someone. The horror… not. I sometimes wonder what the hell my brother was thinking, betraying his best friends, but I guess I'll never know. I had so looked forward to some day telling him that he had more influence on me that he thought, that I didn't want to be like our parents, but I guess… he did. I'm furious with him, even more than I would be for turning to the dark, for the fact that he nearly led my son to his death. I wish he'd stayed 'true to the light.' It would have been nice to get to know him again.
Enough depressing crap. I love you, son, and I'm so sorry that I have to leave you with them. Dumbledore is either not getting my letters or ignoring them, and if he's ignoring him, Merlin help him when I get my hands on him.
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Happy twelfth birthday, son! When you got your Hogwarts letter at that Hut, it was all I could do not to burst out laughing when you said that you couldn't be a wizard. The sorcerers stone, Merlin you scared the hell out of me with that. I was so scared you were going to die and there was nothing I could do to save you, as I wasn't really there but just watching you through the Screen Spell. (I'll explain some other time.)
Merlin, the best thing I can say for those Dursley idiots is that they aren't hitting you anymore. I would so like to prank their house to the point where it would never be 'normal' again and they'd never be respected again, because they shouldn't be.
I know you won't receive this until your sixteenth birthday, but PLEASE don't scare me like that again, Merlin I've never been so afraid as I was when you were in the forest that night and when you were saving the Stone. I love you, and once again, I am so sorry I haven't been able to be there for you. Maybe after your sixteenth birthday, when the charm wears off, I'll come and see you, I'd like that but you'd probably curse me to hell and back for it, so I'll think on that for awhile.
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Merlin, is it possible that you're already fourteen? The time flies, I guess, when your scared out of your mind that your son is going to get himself killed. I wish I could see Sirius and apologize for believing he did that. When you saw him and when you realized he was innocent, when you said you'd go live with him, my heart broke. I so wished that I was him, and you were coming to live with me. But then Remus transformed and Pettigrew escaped.
Did you know what you did to save Sirius was illegal? Never mind, of course you did. But I suppose it would've been messing with time not to go, as you already had, god time is confusing.
I couldn't ask for a better son than you, and I'm so proud of you. All of your adventures, despite scaring the hell out of me, I'm amazed that you could be so selfless as to put everyone else in front of you.
Another thing I should curse the Dursley's for. It's not bad to be selfless, but you should at least care a little bit about yourself, you know. I guess that's all for this time, I'll write again a both at your fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, and then you'll get this letter.
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Fifteen. When I get my hands on Voldemort he'll be dust. I hate that bastard more than I've ever hated him for what he's done to you. To our whole family, dysfunctional though it is, and we never see each other but that's entirely besides the point. It's his fault that we're all this way. His fault that Sirius was in prison, his fault that you were with the Dursley's. I suppose it's my own fault for my situation, I'd probably have found another way to ruin my life if he hadn't been around.
I suppose that you're probably feeling guilty over Diggory's death. You shouldn't, you know. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't his fault. It was Voldemort and that rats fault. You probably won't believe me saying that, but it's true. It wasn't your fault.
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He's dead and I never got to talk to him. To tell him what he's done for me. Fucking hell I feel like an imbecile. I should have contacted him, told him that he meant so much to me and that without him I probably would be a death eater. I probably shouldn't write about this to you, seeing as you're sulking in your room about it just as I am, but at least you'll know that someone shares your pain.
He was a good man, but he wouldn't appreciate you spending all of your time to mourn him. He'd want his life celebrated, but he wouldn't want you to spend your life wishing he was there when he couldn't come back. I suppose that I've no right to talk about this as I've been sitting on my bed moping for the majority of the last week, but oh well, it's easier to give advice than to take it.
I'll write more on your birthday, and then this horribly long letter will be sent to you. I only wish that I could have saved you from the years in that hell that is your relatives house. I wish that I could have saved Sirius from the years in Azkaban, I wish that I could have saved myself and Remus from all the years we both spent alone. It's not like it's possible, but I still wish it. I wish I could bring Sirius back, for both of us. 'cause I think we both need him, and Remus does, too.
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Happy sixteenth, Harry. I hope you have a good day, though I don't think it's likely. Just don't curse me when/if you see me, 'cause you don't need more problems with the stupid ministry.
As for your birthday present, besides this letter, I think you'll quite enjoy. I won't leave you in suspense, I'll tell you. An anonymous tip led the aurors to a rat called Peter Pettigrew, who confessed to many crimes and your godfather, my brother, even though he is dead, is now a free man. They don't know he's dead, I didn't have a way to get that information to them.
I hope you'll want to see me, but if you don't, I guess I understand. To end this long letter, I love you, son, and I'm so proud of you.
Your father,
Regulus Black.
By the time Harry finished the letter he had tears streaming down his face. Sirius was staring at him in confusion and Harry just hugged him and sobbed into his shoulder. Finally his sobs subsided and Sirius asked, "What's wrong, Harry?"
"You're not reading the letter, it's too personal, but… your brother is alive. And almost as miserable as I was over your supposed death." Harry wiped the tears off his face, feeling like an idiot for crying so much.
Sirius gaped at Harry, "How did he even know I 'died'?"
"He's been watching over me since the day I was born, in various disguises and such. My teachers every year at muggle school were the same person in different disguises." Harry giggled, "I turned his hair blue once."
Sirius laughed at that. "He… he's not a death eater, then? Or just a special thing for you?"
"He said… that he'd looked forward to the day he could tell you that you had more influence on him than you thought you did, that he didn't want to be a death eater and that blood purity was bullshit. But then you were arrested and he said something like I wanted to tell him that I didn't want to be like our parents, but I guess he did. He wants to see me. Do you think it's a good idea? How would I even reply?"
Sirius was crying now, too. "Merlin… he wasn't… god, I'm so stupid. Why did I leave him there? I should have made him come with me. I shouldn't have left him with them. He…" Harry awkwardly patted his back. Sirius stopped crying and continued, "He must hate me."
Harry rolled his eyes and said exasperatedly, "Merlin, Sirius, did you miss what I read to you? He wanted to tell you that you had more affect on him than he showed, because he cares about you."
A voice from behind them said, sounding amused, "Harry's got it right, Sear, I don't hate you."
Both of them turned to the voice and stared at Regulus in shock. "What?" He asked innocently, "The Screen Spell I told you about, I didn't mean to intrude but Harry didn't have a way to contact me and I had to know if he wanted me to come or not." He turned to Sirius, "I'm so glad your alive, you have no idea."
Sirius grinned. "I think I might have the smallest clue, Reg."
Regulus turned back to Harry and stared at him, wondering what to do. Harry stared back, also wondering what to do. Finally Harry gave into instincts and hugged him, whispering, "Thank you, you have no idea what that letter did for me." Harry paused as if wondering if he should say what came next and then said in an even more quiet voice, "Dad."
Regulus had to blink rapidly to get rid of the tears that threatened him at that one word. Finally Harry released Regulus and stared at him for awhile before saying in a mischievous voice, "I think I liked you better with blue hair." He looked at Sirius, a question burning in his eyes and Sirius grinned back, before charming his brothers hair blue.
Harry burst into laughter. Sirius laughed too, and when he calmed down, he asked, "What's this about blue hair before this? When did he have blue hair?"
"I was eight, he was my teacher, I was mad, he had blue hair. End of story."
"Why were you mad?"
Harry growled under his breath. Sirius grinned, "Apparently you're still mad?"
"Not exactly. I just don't want to talk about it."
Regulus stared at Harry and then said quietly, "I think we should talk about this."
Harry glared. "I don't, I don't want to talk about it now, or ever. It's not important."
"It's important if it's not going to change."
"I…" Harry couldn't say it would change because he didn't think it would, but he couldn't say it wouldn't because that would just mean the conversation was definitely going to happen, and he didn't want it to.
"That's what I thought. So let's talk about it."
Sirius stared at the two of them in shock. "Would someone clue me into what we're talking about? Or what it is we're going to be talking about? Anyone, please?"
Harry took his glare off of his father and looked at Sirius pleadingly, "Please don't make me talk about this!"
Sirius frowned. "What's so important that you don't want to talk about it and Reg thinks you should? He is your father you know…"
Harry sat down and crossed his arms sullenly, glaring at both of them and muttered, "Fine. But I'm not saying anything. You two can talk all you want, but you can't make me talk."
Sirius rolled his eyes and grinned, "For someone who wants to be treated like an adult, you sure as hell don't act like one." Harry just turned his head and ignored them both. Regulus sighed. "I don't want you to be mad at me."
"It's a little bit late for that, I'm mad."
"Why, though? Is there really reason to be mad? The problem isn't even there anymore. The problem now is that you're still doing something that you don't need to do. It's pointless now. There's no need for it. So why still do it?"
"Because I don't know how to do anything else. I'll talk about it if you'll explain to Sirius. I don't feel like it right now." Regulus rolled his eyes at his son but nodded in agreement and turned to Sirius. "I taught Harry every year in his muggle school. He was the smartest kid in every class, but he would never try. I saw him spend every spare second reading and studying, improving his knowledge, but he always got horrible grades. I asked him about it and he told me it didn't matter. I told him that it did matter, and he said once again that it didn't. I persisted and he got angry, my hair turned blue. The main point of it was that he purposely underachieves." He paused and looked at Harry, "Does he know why?"
Harry paled. "No."
Regulus gaped at Harry in astonishment, "You never mentioned it, not once, to any of them?"
Harry blinked and looked at his feet. "It didn't matter anymore after Hogwarts started. And I'd like my godfather to continue NOT being a murderer. If you insist on telling him, this isn't the best place to do it."
Regulus blinked. "It did too matter. It always matters, because it wasn't right."
Sirius stared at the two of them and said, "Once again, I'm feeling rather left out. Anyone care to explain?"
Harry stared at the ground and muttered grumpily, "The Dursley's did more than lock me in my room." Regulus snorted. "That's the biggest understatement I've ever heard. Does he even know what your room was?"
Harry glared at his father, "You're not helping here, dad."
Regulus couldn't help but smile at being called dad, but said, "He has every right to know. He's your godfather and your uncle and he cares about you a lot."
"He also has one hell of a temper and whether I like them or not, I don't want them dead. Sirius was just cleared, he doesn't need a reason to go back to Azkaban."
"If I promise not to kill anyone will you tell me what the hell they did to my godson?"
"I'm sure even I don't know the most of it, Sear, but they were horrible." He ignored Harry's interruptions and continued, "I tried sending letters to Dumbledore and the ministry, even muggle child services, but … it never worked, somehow they were always ignored. I know for a fact that they beat him and that his bedroom was the cupboard under the stairs. From the time he could reach the stove, he cooked. He gardened, he cleaned, did laundry and dishes, and got in trouble if it wasn't all perfect. They were evil. They called him a freak, abnormal, said he didn't deserve to live. I'd have taken him and ran but he was the worlds hero and it wouldn't have done either of us any good." Throughout the whole thing Harry tried to interrupt, but Regulus kept going on.
Harry glared angrily at his father. His father met his gaze and said, "It's his right to know. You weren't going to tell him and I knew most of it, so I told him for you." Harry rolled his eyes, but stayed silent. Sirius was fuming and Harry was somewhat afraid for his relatives safety. After a few minutes of silence Sirius frowned at them and said, "Why did I promise not to kill anyone?"
Harry grinned at his godfather, "Because I don't like them but I don't want them dead, either." Harry's grin widened, "Do we have to stay here or can we leave?"
The brothers exchanged a glance and said, "Let's get the hell out of here. Are you packed?"
Harry blushed. "I never unpacked. Where are we going?"
The brothers grimaced and Sirius said, "To the safest place besides here we can be right now."
Harry groaned, "I'm assuming you don't mean Hogwarts?"
Harry's father frowned, "No, he doesn't. He means Grimmauld Place."
Harry sighed and Regulus shrunk his trunk, grabbed Harry's hand and apparated them to an alley behind Grimmauld Place. Moments later Sirius appeared. The three exchanged grins and walked to the house, ignoring the door bell so as not to wake Mrs. Black up. When they reached the kitchen, it was empty save for Remus who was on his way to being very, very drunk. Sirius snorted and said, "Can't leave him alone for ten minutes, can I?"
Remus looked up, groaned, and said, "I'm hallucinating, he isn't here, he's dead, it's not real…"
Sirius rolled his eyes and smacked Remus across the face. Then he grabbed a potion out of a cupboard and forced Remus to drink it, and it made Remus sober. Remus looked up and stared at Sirius. "Prove it." Sirius transformed into Padfoot. Remus blinked and grinned at Sirius, "Hello, mutt, where have you been?"
Sirius glared as Regulus and Harry cracked up laughing at the 'mutt' part. He said, "I've been in the middle of nowhere and then at the Dursley's house with Harry."
Remus looked confused, "You were with Harry? Where is he? I somehow doubt that he let you leave him there alone."
Harry burst into laughter, "Ah, Moony, don't you recognize me?"
"Harry?" Remus was clearly confused. Harry grinned. "Yeah, it's me." Remus frowned, "Why do you look so different?" Harry grinned wider, "I look different because Harry Potter never really existed."
Remus blinked. "What?"
"Harry Black did though." Harry wrinkled his nose. "That just doesn't sound right. It doesn't work. I should change my name."
Remus stared at Sirius. "You…?" Sirius held up his hands, "You think so little of me? It wasn't me, she was my best friends wife for Merlin's sake, I don't have a death wish." Regulus glared at Sirius, "Neither did I. I was a little bit tipsy at the time. So was she. And Harry, if you truly want to change your name, that'd be okay, 'cause I agree that it just doesn't sound right." He grinned mischievously and said, "But I get to choose."
Harry groaned in mock terror, "I shouldn't have said anything."
Regulus looked Harry over for a minute and then he grinned in a satisfied way before saying, "Xavier Lucas Black." A flash of light and magic went throughout the house and Sirius grinned. He grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him along like an impatient little kid. They reached Sirius' destination and he pointed his finger at the family tapestry. Under Regulus Black there was a line that said, Xavier Lucas Black. Harry – Now Xavier – grinned at the tapestry. He had known it was true before, but somehow this just made it even more real. A few other changes had been made to the tapestry, Sirius and Andromeda were both back on it.
What startled all of them was the line below Sirius' name. 'Unknown Female Child, August 10th 1980.' Sirius stared at the tapestry in absolute shock, and then said, "How in the bloody hell did that happen?"
Regulus snorted, "Tell me you don't need that explained to you, big brother."
Sirius smacked him lightly across the head, "That's not what I meant. I meant that… she was dead. They told me she was dead and she was the only person…" He trailed off in sad remembrance. "They – the healers – said that she died in childbirth, and that the baby died, too. So where the hell is my daughter? She's alive, there's no death date…"
Xavier looked thoughtful, "The potion I used to find out who my father was, can it be used for the opposite?"
Sirius' eyes lit up. Xavier had a thought, judging by the birthday, but he kept it to himself, not sure and not wanting to get his hopes up. Sirius made the potion and an hour later had added his blood and was putting a few drops of the potion onto paper.
Sirius Orion Black
–
Hermione Jane Granger/Hermione Annabelle Black
August 10th 1980
Sirius stared at the paper in shock and then passed out. Xavier chuckled, "I was right. I just had this feeling when I saw the birthday, I knew it had to be her." Regulus enervated Sirius who said, "Holy hell… this … I mean… she looks nothing like either of us!"
Xavier rolled his eyes, "Siri, the doctors lied to you about her being dead, what are the chances that they put a glamour on the kid and gave her to some other family? The glamour would fade off soon, too… she should know before then, I think."
There was silence as everyone contemplated the events of the day, until the doorbell rang, the door slammed, and Mrs. Black started yelling about blood-traitors and werewolves. A few seconds later they were greeted by the site of a girl who looked a lot like Sirius yelling at the portrait. "I don't give one tiny bit of shit about what your opinion of me or anyone else is, but you're going to keep your mouth shut, or I'm going to destroy the entire wall that you're on, and we'll never have to hear your shit talking again. Remus Lupin is a good man and he cares about people, unlike you, it doesn't matter if he's a werewolf or not, he's more human than you ever were. Your son, Sirius Black, cared for his godson so much that he gave his life for him, he spent twelve years in HELL and came back more human than you ever were! So get over yourself and learn to keep your mouth shut before I do it for you!"
There was a stunned silence, not even Mrs. Black said anything. After awhile Xavier grinned and said, "Well, it's about time someone did something like that, she needed it."
The silence got awkward and the Black men and Remus took the time to examine the girl. She had steel gray eyes like all of the Black men did, long curly black hair, her facial features were identical to Sirius', and all in all, she was a female version of Sirius.
Xavier was the first to talk, yet again. "Hermione…"
She looked up at him sharply, "How did you know that?"
Xavier grinned, "I'd make a sarcastic remark but somehow I don't think that this the best time for that. It's rather strange though, the charm shouldn't have worn off until your birthday, which is a little over a week away."
Sirius broke in, "I swear I didn't know, Hermione, if I had…"
Hermione looked at the four of them in shock and then started thinking out loud, "Sirius, who I saw die, Remus, who I've been told has spent the majority of the last month too drunk to stand, and two other people who look a lot like Sirius that I don't recognize. So what charms are we talking about and what didn't you know?"
Regulus laughed, "Hermione, they told me you were smart…"
Xavier glared at the back of his head, "She is smart. Be nice."
Sirius ignored both of them and said slowly, "About sixteen years ago, I had a wife and she gave birth to a baby, who I never got to see. The healers told me that both of them died. Anyway, fast forward to an hour or two ago, when the family tapestry updated. There was Regulus and Xavier, and there was me and an unknown female child born on August 10th 1980. So I used the opposite of the potion Xavier used to discover who his father was and discovered who my daughter was. And if I had known, I would have … I don't know, but I'd have done something differently."
Xavier laughed a little, "You know, our family is really twisted. Two kids who didn't know who their parents were until their sixteenth birthdays, and one of the fathers didn't even know he had a daughter. Strange, twisted family." He smirked, "But at least none of us are as bad as her." He said the last bit pointing at the still stunned portrait. The portrait looked at Regulus and said, "Regulus? You're …"
Regulus smirked at his mothers portrait. "I'm alive, I'm not a death eater, I have a son who is a half-blood, and yes, you could call me a blood-traitor like you do Sirius, because I'd say it's a complement."
Walburga Black was stunned. Well, her portrait was anyway, she was actually dead. She stared at the five of them, all standing there in front of her portrait and wailed loudly before falling off the wall and turning to dust. The five of them burst out laughing, Xavier finally said, "That was fu… that was priceless!"
Hermione turned to them again and said, "So who are the two people beside you other than Remus, Sirius?" She looked apologetic as she said, "It'll take some getting used to before I can call you dad, but seeing as my adoptive father is a jerk, I'll get used to it soon enough."
Sirius smiled softly and said, "It's okay, Hermione." Then he looked alarmed, "What do you mean by him being a jerk?" She waved her hand and muttered something about telling him later. He decided to let it pass for then. "Okay, this is my brother Regulus, your uncle, and beside him is my nephew – your cousin – Xavier."
Xavier grinned crookedly, "But you haven't always known me as that. You used to know me as Harry, but Harry Black just didn't sound right."
Hermione stared at him in shock, "Harry? But…"
Xavier's grin widened, "I just found out myself. I woke up, looked in the mirror and nearly passed out. Then I did the paternity potion and was in shock for awhile. Then Sirius showed up and we quizzed each other, proved we were ourselves, started to talk and two letters showed up. One was from my mum and the other from my dad – Regulus – and then dad showed up and yeah… we're here now. So how've you been, Hermione?"
Hermione asked somewhat hysterically, "You tell me that my life is a lie, your life is a lie, explain it all calmly and then ask me how I've been? Are you insane?" Then she glared at him and smiled angelically at Sirius and Regulus. "I need a middle name so I can do this properly?"
They both snickered and Regulus said, "It's Lucas."
Hermione grinned and then glared at Xavier again. "Xavier Lucas Black, you have a LOT of nerve! I'm confused, I'm hysterical, I'm angry and I'm happy and I'm sad, I'm feeling so many things right now it's unbelievable, but really, WHAT KIND OF A QUESTION IS THAT?! I woke up looking completely different then I've looked my entire life and finding out that my parents aren't my parents, and you ask me how I've been?"
Xavier drew back a little as she yelled but then just yelled right back, "Hermione Annabelle Black, I was honestly curious as to how you were handling everything! In case you haven't noticed, I had the same issue you did! It's called being a friend, Hermione, I care about you! I may be male and because of that have no clue about emotions but that doesn't mean I don't care!"
Hermione frowned and said, "I'm sorry, I'm just confused right now." Xavier calmed down and hugged her, "I'm sorry, too."