Stars Above Black Below
A/N: Hello! I wrote the first chapter of this fic about two years ago and finally decided to rewrite it into a new and hopefully improved version. There are some changes to the original storyline. I have Part One (+- 40k before editing) of this fic written but after that it's still in the outline-phase so any suggestions/requests will be taken happily into consideration! I hope you enjoy :D
- SABB -
It all started with a time-travel paradox.
Well, it really started when Harry - what Harry indignantly considered "strategically landed" - in front of the fireplace at Number 12, Grimmauld Place.
In other words, Harry fell flat on his bum and would deny the fact for the foreseeable future.
He heard someone snort amusedly slightly to his left. It was a mystery to Harry why people found his unique method of Floo Travel so amusing. Harry fixed the malefactor - Bill Weasley - with a relentless stare and quirked a black brow. Daring the redhead to keep that infuriating smirk on his lips for another second.
Bill took a pale hand out of the pocket of his slightly worn brown jeans and raised it in surrender, then he gestured to the dusty stairs: "Molly told me to tell you that the Family Tapestry room's yours."
Harry nodded stiffly, not at all happy that Bill still had an amused glint in his blue eyes.
Molly Weasley had come to the conclusion that the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix looking like a hippogriff had trampled over it was simply not done. Harry supposed she had a point. The plump woman had composed a cleaning army of every man, woman, child (and she had even gathered some volunteer House-Elves) - that were to make the house look "presentable at the very least".
As Ron had quickly pointed out; the average teenager with a room as clean as a horse stable
would probably consider even the Room of Hidden Things to look "presentable". Molly Weasley would not.
Ron had then mused aloud if perhaps his mother's Boggart was the Burrow in a state of utter chaos and uncleanliness. Fred had retorted that the Burrow was always in a state of utter chaos and uncleanliness and they had all come to the shocking realisation that Molly was constantly living in her own personal little hell.
Harry admitted that perhaps after 12 years of inhabitancy The Headquarters were a bit on the messy side.
Yes, Harry mused, as he stood in the middle of the room the family tapestry of the Ancient and Most Noble house of Black was in, the room was in need of dusting off.
Harry absentmindedly ran his fingers along the names on the beautifully painted tapestry and refused to acknowledge the fact that his fingers became practically blanketed with the dust that had gathered on the tapestry over the years in the process.
The paint had started to decoy and some of the names that Harry imagined dated as far back as the 1500's were barely legible. His fingers softly traced the golden, crinkly line that contrasted beautifully with the dark, deep green background and the white in which each name was written with practised delicacy. His fingers made their way across the wall from Phineus Black to Cygnus Black, from Cygnus Black to Pollux Black, from Pollux Black to Orion Black and from Orion Black to Regulus Black and… a dark, gaping hole on the family tree which had under under it, in barely legibly, white letters, written Sirius Black.
Harry would have thought that someone as - according to herself - refined and sophisticated as Walburga Black would have found a more appropriate way to remove someone from the family tree as basically, well, literally blasting them off it. But then again, the inner mechanics of the average pureblood mind had always been somewhat of a mystery to Harry.
Emerald eyes lingered momentarily on Sirius' name, then Harry tore his eyes away from his deceased godfather's name.
His eyes flicked to the left and spotted a familiar head of pale, blonde hair. Draco Malfoy, the name was written in the same fiery red colour Rodolphus Lestrange, Bellatrix, Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa were written. With a shudder Harry came to the cheery realisation that these were the only people on the family tree left alive.
At the top of the family tree, engaged in silvery white embroidery was written Lord of the most Ancient and Noble House of Black, with under it, in smaller but no less proud letters Heir to the most Ancient and Noble house of Black. However, as anti-climatic as it was, the portraits were… empty.
Instead, in what Harry guessed was latin, was written in bold, emerald letters:
"Stars Above Black Below."
Harry whispered the words.
Then he knew no more.
- SABB -
Harry awoke to his veins being burned with all the gentleness of a Cruciatus Curse; heat was rushing through them, his skin was on fire. He felt his heart pumping furiously and heard the blood rushing in his ears. He grit his teeth to keep from screaming out.
As another pulse of pure agony pumped through his core he screamed. Screamed for what felt like hours on end until his voice was hoarse. The burning sensations in his body intensified - a feat he'd thought impossible and his throat was straining dryly under the force of his screams.
He felt something wet and icy cold press down on his forehead, offering him the two seconds of clarity to figure out that the wet something was an ice-pack. Then, as if insulted by the comfort and coolness the ice-pack was offering him the monster roared up in his chest with renewed fervour.
His head felt like it was going to explode and his fingers struggled to tear the ice-pack away from his forehead in an attempt to appease the fire demon coursing through his being. Firm hands were holding him down preventing him from forcefully tearing the pack away. He balled his hands into fists so firmly that he felt his nails piercing his skin. Harry did not care, he had reached the complete maximum of pain his body could process.
So, when after felt like hours a sharp needle pierced his skin he did not flinch.
After two seconds of blissful nothing he blinked. There was white, a lot of it. It was blinding him and his head hurt so he closed his eyes again. Then, he tentatively moved one finger; wiggled a toe, dared to lift his arm and, when he wasn't instantly subjected to well, what he imagined being burned alive felt like dared to move his hand.
He moved his right-hand slowly to cover his eyes and protect them from the expected blinding white light. Then, after another two seconds of revelling in the pure bliss that came with not feeling pain, he cracked his eyes open. He blinked and slowly but surely parted his fingers to let light seep through them into his vision.
The room/space/heaven was still a startlingly bright white but the brightness was fading. At first Harry thought his eyes were simply getting used to the light but, when the room started clearing up the white was replaced by colour.
Vague shapes and colours at first; like a watercolour painting. Then as if being trapped in a painting the shapes started to clear up, the artist finishing up the work. The vague black blur became identifiable as a closet and the dark-green spot he recognised as the Family Tapestry.
Harry heaved a sigh of relief.
Frankly, he had not given much thought to his odd predicament yet. Since such predicaments were not new to Harry he had kind of learnt to just kind of go with it. He did however not fancy another run in with the Dark Lord or, worse, Molly Weasley when she found out he had managed to get himself hurt; again.
Relief washed over him as the shapes became clear enough to become identical to the Family Tapestry Room at Black Manor. Remembering that the last thing he remembered was uttering those unfamiliar latin words he cursed himself.
He, of all people, should have known better than to read latin words that you did not know the meaning of. Especially if those words appeared in the big booby trap known as Black Manor.
"Well, you are certainly not what I expected." A young voice rang behind him.
Harry's head snapped around as quickly as possible and he clumsily stumbled to make his way onto his feet. He stared into a face that looked eerily familiar. A young-man whom Harry estimated to be around nineteen years old was studying Harry with an odd look on his face.
The man's features were clearly aristocratic but were just out of proportion. His nose was slightly too long; his eyes too small and lips too thin to be considered beautiful. He was too short and too lanky to be considered handsome. The one feature of his appearance that was in perfect order was his shoulder-length hair, which was a midnight black and hung in perfect waves around his face.
Sirius.
The imaginary lightbulb went off above Harry's head after about 20 seconds of racking his brain. The man looked like a less-handsome, shorter and more Slytherin version of Sirius. Harry blinked and familiar grey eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?" Harry finally asked unintelligently.
The man chuckled and smoothed out his awfully Slytherin green and black robes. Then he quirked a black brow and replied smoothly:"Excellent question, although I could ask you the same thing."
Then the stranger held out his hand and smiled slightly at Harry, although the smile did not quite reach his eyes:"My name is Regulus Black, nice to meet you" then, with a glance around the room he added:"…although I reckon the circumstances of our meeting could have been better."
No matter that Sirius had spent 12 years in Azkaban where Regulus had not; the younger brother's eyes held the same haunted look that Sirius's eyes had.
Harry shook Regulus's hand numbly. His brain racing to keep up with everything and his body recovering from the little torture session the other boy had yet to address. He had been vaguely been aware that Sirius had had a brother. He had most certainly not been aware that said brother was alive and kicking and residing at Number 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Harry Potter" Harry stated simply, then he ran a hand through his messy mop of hair and continued:"Err- yes the circumstances could have been better. So ermm, what are the circumstances exactly?"
Regulus Black was quiet for a moment, he opened his mouth, then closed it and ended up facing Harry with a baffled look that would have been funny if it was not for the feeling of dread overtaking Harry.
"What - what do you mean what are they exactly? You do know why you are here do you not?" Regulus finally stammered out, a frown and a confused look plastered on his aristocratic face.
Harry faced the pureblood with a look of equal confusion:"What do you mean, what do I mean? I did not even know you were alive until 30 seconds ago! How could I possibly know what is going on?" he cried indignantly. The complete lack of common sense in most wizards never failed to amaze the boy-who-lived.
Regulus closed his eyes and Harry could see his lips forming a rapid: One, Two, three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten. Then the boy took in a deep breath and popped his grey eyes open once more.
Then he asked calmly, very, very unnaturally calmly:"You have no idea why you are here do you." Harry shook his head and was about to demand some answers from his unexpected companion when Regulus continued:"You did not know I am alive because I am not. As a matter of fact, the reason you are here, is because I am not."
It took Harry's already overloaded brain longer than it usually would to process this information. After 4.7 seconds Harry managed an unintelligent:
"What?I" Then, with pleading green eyes he looked at Regulus and half-asked half-demanded:"Please stop talking in riddles and tell my just what is going on, are you dead? Am I dead?"
Harry briefly noted that he was reacting surprisingly casual to his apparent death. But then Regulus crushed any dreams and hopes of his unevitable death by stating a curt:"No."
It took the older boy tantalisingly long to formulate his next sentence; Harry folded his arms over his chest defiantly and shot Regulus a challenging glare:"I- Merlin I don't know how to tell you this. As you already know I am, well - was a Death Eater?"
Harry's eyes widened and he instinctively drew his holly wand from his side-pocket. He pointed the wand at the Death Eater with shaking hands; Regulus, in turn let out a long suffering sigh and Harry swore he could see the other boy's lips doing a quick one-to-ten. Unperturbed by the wand now pointed right at his heart the black-haired youth continued on:"You are aware of course, that since I am already dead there's not much you can do to hurt me? Anyhow, as I said, I was a Death Eater.
You are at least familiar with my dear mother Walburga Black I hope?" Harry simply nodded, too confused to deny the boy an answer "Yes I supposed so, she is hard to miss after all." Regulus said dryly and chuckled at his own joke; Harry's lip twitched but the joke did not warrant a chuckle so Regulus shrugged and continued:"You also know my dear brother, Sirius? But, you do not know them as I did. You see, my mother was not always a, for lack of a better world, deranged banshee and my brother was not always a sensible man.
Well, he is still not a sensible man today, but he has gotten more sensible at least. It is a long story, I suppose you will find out soon enough… I ended up betraying the Dark Lord when I realised he was a psychopath."
Harry could not help muttering just how true he knew that statement to be, Regulus simply quirked another elegant brow at him and continued his tale:"I do however still stand by my belief that it is vital that the Old Families and their magical gifts are preserved. Which is why I took some… preventive worst-case scenario measures to ensure that at least the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black would continue to exist. Since you are here, and since I am here, I assume the worst-case scenario has come to pass."
Regulus was scrutinising Harry nervously now. Harry was looking at the other boy perplexed, he had still not truly wrapped his mind around the fact that he had been in agony mere minutes ago and he was not ready to process; let alone react to all this information.
"Where are we?" was the question Harry ended up asking. Regulus shot Harry an odd look but dutifully answered him:"Good question, in my mind I reckon. I always did find safety in family so the Family Tapestry room would be what my mindscape would look like. Although it could also be because it is where you spoke the spell." Regulus took a deep breath and looked Harry in the eyes, then he manned up and continued:
"Ermm all right, you are probably not going to be happy about this… But one of the measures I took meant that if there would be no suitable heir to the Black line someone fit for the job would be able to take my place. I used an old spell that… well I won't go into details, I doubt you'd understand and I am not sure how this works myself, so you could be whisked away at any moment now for all I know."
"Whisked away? WHERE TO?!" Harry practically screamed, briefly noting that his voice was not hoarse though he remembered screaming it into that state very vividly.
Regulus ran a nervous hand through his hair and pinched the bridge of his nose:"I do not know what I expected honestly. It was a last-ditch effort to safe my family. What it comes down to is that I had to sacrifice my -" the boy paused, coughed nervously and continued:"I had to make a sacrifice and in turn when someone deemed worthy spoke the spell you spoke they would be able to take my place and do all the things I could not do." Regulus concluded, Harry opened his mouth to protest but Regulus shushed him by holding up a commanding finger.
"Listen Potter - Harry. I know you have questions and trust me, so do I. I have no idea why you were deemed worthy specifically. Please just remember I made a sacrifice and, call it my dying wish if you please, promise me you will do whatever you can to prevent my House from falling, and from falling into disgrace. I am begging you" Grey eyes that looked so much like Sirius's looked pleadingly into Harry's own. He wanted to say No, you go save your own bloody family. But the desperateness and sheer resemblance to Sirius those stormy eyes bore would not allow him to speak the words.
"Please Harry." Regulus said sincerely as his voice cracked.
Harry mentally cursed himself and his hero-complex before he sighed and said:"All right, I promise I will try to keep your family from falling again. I will not do anything I consider wrong though."
Relief flooded Regulus's face and the older boy said openly:"Thank you, you have no idea how much that means to me. Now, I have done my part of the story. You could ask me some questions I suppose ? If you want to of course…"
"You're welcome." Harry replied automatically before realising that the boy was not welcome at all. As a matter of fact, he was a very much uninvited guest. "Now how did I get here and where am I going?"
A thoughtful look fell onto Regulus's face:"I did wonder that, since you do not know how you got here I am assuming you did not actually speak the spell?"
Harry huffed:"If by the spell you mean Converto Heredum, then yes, I did speak it."
"Why on earth would you speak a spell when you don't know what it does?!" Regulus practically screamed. Harry winced, knowing the boy had a point. Never one to back down from a fight Harry retorted:
"Why on earth would you leave an ancient spell in plain sight!"
Regulus opened his mouth to say something but before he could form a single word the colours started blurring. For a second Harry thought he had lost his glasses; before realising that he had not been wearing them in the first place.
His bafflement over that little fun fact lasted about half a second before panic rose inside him as the room kept getting blurrier and blurrier. He could make out Regulus's:"Remember what you promised me, please." before the room became too blurry and quiet to make out anything at all.
The dark colours of the room faded back into a light grey, then they became white before turning brighter and brighter and disappearing completely.