Pairings: Walburga/Orion, Orion/OFC, Cygnus/Druella, Remus/Sirius (eventually)
Author's Note: Ever since I finished writing A Noble and Most Ancient House, I've been enthralled with the character of Walburga. This is my attempt to create a sympathetic (though still stark raving mad) portrait of a much unloved woman through a series of glimpses into her life.
Chapter: [ 0 ] Will You Mourn Her?
Wordcount: 594
Warnings: slander, suggested incest
Summary: They wake up to find the daughter of the greatest wizarding dynasty dead.
Daughter of the House of Black Dead at 60
News came this morning of the loss of one our world's most enthusiastic advocates of pure-blood supremacy. Walburga Black, woman of a dwindling breed, was found dead in her long time residence at Grimmauld Place at the age of sixty.
Readers will no doubt be familiar with the tragedy that wrought this mad woman's life in the past decade. Her husband's death in 1979 is said to have had ill effect on both her mental faculties and the future of this wizarding dynasty. Two years later would see her eldest son—shining star of the House of Black, Sirius—in Azkaban for the murder of least a dozen Muggles and one time friend, Peter Pettigrew. Youngest son Regulus remains, to this day, missing.
Born in 1925 to Pollux and Irma (Crabbe) Black, the first eleven years of her life would be lived in relative privacy. Mrs. Black would then go on to make a name for herself at Hogwarts, becoming the crown jewel of Slytherin House from 1936-1943 and making Head Girl under Headmaster Armando Dippet. Fellow students would later note that this time period in Mrs. Black's life marked the beginnings of her infamously volatile temper and mad ravings.
An arranged marriage to second-cousin Orion Black would come some years after graduation. Described often as a cold and loveless union, time would see the husband and wife quarrel from things as trivial as the family silver to focal points of tension concerning Mr. Black's unabashed infidelity. During these years, Mrs. Black would become known for throwing lavish dinner parties, becoming single-handedly responsible for determining who was worth knowing and who wasn't, and establishing the Pure-blood High Society Ladies' Club.
The birth of her sons would coincide with Mrs. Black slipping ever quicker into insanity. However, the turning point, her brother Cygnus explained via Owl, was in the summer of 1966 when Mrs. Black is reported to have burned down the family holiday home.
"My dear sister was always ill in the mind, I'm afraid. Naturally, we did all we could for her, but after that summer, Walburga would never recover. She became exceedingly paranoid and showed more enthusiasm towards He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's cause than propriety deemed acceptable. Of course, we tried to reason with her, but she was beyond reason at this point."
It is no secret that the Black family had intimate connections with You-Know-Who's reign of terror. Elder son, Sirius, was reported to have been one of You-Know-Who's most trusted followers, and his uncle Cygnus and aunt Druella believe that it was Sirius who led their daughter, Bellatrix, down the path to destruction.
"That scoundrel was a notorious mischief maker," says Mrs. Black's sister-in-law, Druella, of Sirius Black. "If I could have seen how far he would fall, I would have advised Bellatrix away from him. Walburga wouldn't have had that, though. She had plans for Sirius and my Bella for some time. However, her complicity upon hearing of Bellatrix's marriage to the elder Lestrange can only be attributed to her sudden, unhealthy obsession with Sirius. If you ask me, there was something more going on there than anyone ever knew, and thatis the reason for her son's departure."
Whether there is any truth behind Druella Black's words cannot be said. However, no one can argue that something was happening behind closed doors and beyond those forced smiles that graced the Prophet's society page for years on end. What, exactly, those going-ons happen to be will go with Walburga Black to her grave.