Written for Round 10 of QLFC as the 3rd Chaser for team Tornadoes.
JKR is the rightful owner of Harry Potter's plot and the author has no intentions of making money with this story.
Main Prompt: The Portrait of Wallburga Black
Additional Prompts:
(word) history
(word) eager
(dialogue) "Can't say I'm too fond of house-elves."
Word count: 1046
Two Old Wizengamot Seats Claimed!
Two months back, the wizarding world saw the defeat of the worst Dark Lord of all times—Lord Voldemort—at the hands of Harry James Potter, also known as the Boy-Who-Lived, and the Chosen one, among other names. Another surprise came yesterday, when not one, but two seats in Wizengamot, which had been empty for years, were claimed, as reported by Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent.
Harry Potter, the Hero of the wizarding world, claimed his rightful seat of the Noble House of Potter by blood. He also claimed the Wizengamot seat for the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, which he inherited from his late godfather, Sirius Black. For more information, refer to Pg 8.
Sirius Black Wrongly Imprisoned?
Harry Potter, who had claimed his rightful place at Wizengamot last month and had claimed that his late godfather Sirius Black, who was rumoured to have betrayed Mr. Potter's parents to Lord Voldemort, and held criminal to the murder of a wizard and twelve muggles, had been wrongfully imprisoned, until he managed to escape the Prison of Azkaban. On his request, the DMLE had set a committee to investigate the case of Sirius Black.
Today, in the August session of Wizengamot, an interesting turn of events occurred, when it came to notice that Sirius Black never received a trial! This brings the then Minister Bagnold, and the then Chief Warlock Bartemius Crouch Senior in a negative light, showing the disregard of law on the part of Ministry itself.
Furthermore, willing testament was given by Lord Harry James Potter, along with the chief witnesses of the events of 1994, when Sirius Black was captured for a short time-being at Hogwarts. Refer to Pg 3 for the full story.
A Peep Into Sirius Black's Family History
While the public awaits the decision on the newly opened case of Sirius Black, Lord Potter gave the press an opportunity to interview the portrait of Walburga Black, mother of Sirius Black. While the woman in question was initially not too eager to reply to the questions posed by Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent, she gave in eventually.
Walburga Black's portrait is deemed to be slightly inclined towards insanity due to combined reasons of her house-arrest under the command of her father-in-law, and the death of her younger son. Yet, she did provide a great deal of information on the formative years of Sirius Black.
Walburga's portrait claimed that Sirius had been a rebel, being the first Black to defy the family's general sorting and being placed in Gryffindor. She told that when all his cousins (except the disowned Andromeda Black), and his younger brother decided on a respectable path to follow the Pureblood supremacy principle led by You-Know-Who, Black clearly stated he did not believe in the 'stupid family traditions' and that he had a brain of his own to make his decisions. He ran away at the age of sixteen and took refuge with the Potters, a family that supported the Light wholeheartedly and was tagged Blood-traitors.
In response to a question on whether she believed Sirius Black could have ever joined Voldemort, she barked a laugh and stated that it won't happen even if the pigs flew and the Sun rose from the west. In her own words, "Can't say I'm too fond of house-elves, but a house-elf will willingly give away his master before my son would follow the man who wants right to be done to the wizarding world by ridding it of the muggle-scum." Complete interview on Pg 4.
Walburga Black—Abuser or Abused?
In accord to the events that finally led to Sirius Black being proven innocent, a detailed research was done into the Black history, as reported by Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent.
The Black tapestry tells us that the Black matriarch, Walburga Black, was forced into an arranged marriage to her first cousin, Orion Black. Previous research has uncovered that Walburga had been intolerant towards her firstborn, mainly due to Sirius Black's rebellious nature to the family customs. But the question comes down to the fact that was it a mother's own wish to push her son away, or was it a cooked-up misunderstanding between the mother and the child.
The old house-elf, Kreacher, claims that his Mistress always punished him, as well as her sons, when they behaved badly. On the other side, it has come to light that possibly, Arcturus Black, father-in-law to Walburga, who forced her into a lockdown after Orion Black's death, took advantage of the reportedly trusty and simple nature of his son. Was it an abuse on her that led to take her anger out on her son and her house-elf?
The question remains: will this cycle of abuse and torture let generations of witches and wizards deteriorate? Is this what the society wants?
We at Daily Prophet are determined to get to the root of what caused Sirius Black to withdraw from the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black and fall into a continuous whirl of torture and struggle, ending only in his demise.
'The Truth to the Broken Black Family' by Rita Skeeter!
In light of the events of the previous few months, where the Wizarding World, along with the Ministry, proved to fail a great wizard that Sirius Black indeed was, and had yet been denied justice for long years of his life, and even after death, Rita Skeeter, a distinguished reporter and the writer of the bestseller, 'The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore,' took it as a duty to let the wizarding public know where a family failed for a lady (Walburga Black), and her son (Sirius Black). The reporter is proud to announce her latest work: The Truth to the Broken Black Family, as a tribute to the Black family who suffered at the hands of their own ancestors and the wrong decisions of the rule breaking rule-makers. The book comes out on May 2nd, the first year anniversary of the Great Battle of Hogwarts.
We at the Prophet believe you will all try to get to know the history of the person we all shunned out of the society on mere hear-say, and the life he lived. A short excerpt and the summary have been included on Pg 3.
