DISCLAIMER: HARRY AND HIS FRIENDS AND ENEMIES DO NOT BELONG TO ME! THEY BELONG TO THE AMAZING J.K ROWLING! ONLY THE PLOT IS MINE!
A/N: This takes place at the start of the Christmas holidays, OotP. Does not follow HBP or DH timelines.
Harry Potter and the Black Legacy
Chapter 2—Preparations and Musing
"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" A shrill voice screamed into Sirius' ear. He groaned and looked at the magic alarm clock. It was midnight. He groaned again and smashed the clock to the floor. Great, he now had to enchant another one. However, to ensure the smooth working of his ingenious plan, he must get up now and prepare everything. He had a protegé to train. Thank Merlin for privacy wards and paranoid fathers.
He rolled up and changed into his robes quickly, hurrying out of the room quietly. He slipped out of his room and tiptoed downstairs with the aid of a silencing charm. He made it all the way to the hidden basement without alerting anyone to his presence. He cast some privacy wards just in case and canceled the silencing charms he put on himself.
"Lumos Maxima!" He whispered, and a ball of blinding light erupted from the tip of his wand and hovered above the room. He scanned his surrounding quickly and went to a shelf, which was stocked with potions.
"Snape would kill for some of these potions and ingredients." Sirius chuckled darkly, reading some of the labels. His fingers ghosted across the shelves and rested on an ingredient.
"Dragon scales…an unusually gentle Antipodean Opaleye." He read the descriptions below. "Perfect." He opend the cork and levitated a scale out carefully, setting it on a brewing counter a few steps away. It glimmered in the harsh wandlight beautifully, shining all sorts of colours.
"Unicorn blood from a young virgin female…given willingly." Sirius said, carefully setting the bottle on the table. The silvery, thick blood shone with a mythical quality.
"Fairy wings…harvested from centuries-old fairies who willingly gave them…" Sirius uncorked the bottle and levitated a few delicate-looking clear wings out of the jar and set it next to the dragon scale.
"Peacock feathers…plucked from a vicious but beautiful female in the mating season…" Sirius smiled amusedly, taking a long feather and setting it onto the table gently.
"Standard ingredient…of course." Sirius took a generous pinch of the green herb-like grass and put it in a bowl.
"Mooncalf dung collected before the sun rises." Sirius scooped some silvery substance and put it in a nother bowl. "About the only dung that's not disgusting." He muttered, glancing at some of the other, more unsavoury things on the shelves.
"Acromantula…venom? Taken after death." Sirius set a flask on the table carefully. "The things I do for family." He said. "Ah, the irony of it." He smirked to himself.
"Griffin claw from a thousand-year-old Griffin." Sirius said, awed as he took a sharp claw from a jar and placed it on the table.
"Veela hair, provided by a young girl." Sirius said, eyeing the silvery locks warily and levitating them into another bowl.
"That should be it." He finally decided as he lit a cauldron and collected the tools. He ground up the Griffin claw and dissolved the particles in the Acromantula venom and added it to the cauldron. He proceeded to spout jets of water into the cauldron. He left it to simmer for five minutes while he plucked the peacock feathers carefully. After the five minutes were over he sprinkled some standard ingredient before quickly adding the peacock feathers. He stirred it 13 times anticlockwise and left it to simmer again.
Picking up the fairy wings, he ground them up in a mortar with a pestle and added it to some unicorn blood he poured out. There was a bright flash and a crystal clear syrup was made. Then he smashed the dragon scales with force and ground them up violently. He glanced at the clock, started, and quickly poured the syrup in. He stirred the mixture feverishly. Three clockwise stirs, five anticlockwise stirs, three clockwise stirs, five anticlockwise stirs…
The potion turned from a murky grey to a clear colour, and Sirius added the ground up dragon scales in quickly. The potion hissed and leapt, and Sirius drew back as it boiled, turning a light gold colour. He added the rest of the standard ingredient in and stirred clockwise, 29 stirs. The potion congealed and turned a forest green colour and it bubbled thickly. Sirius left it to bubble quietly and he mashed the Mooncalf dung up into silvery paste.
"Too much silver recently." Sirius grumbled as he poured the now-liquid dung into the cauldron, which was now frothing. It immediately stopped frothing, however, when the dung reacted with the potion. It stilled and fizzed, turning a violent red.
"Finally, some red." Sirius said. He let the potion stay on the fire for a minute longer and removed it, immediately throwing the veela hairs in. There was a hiss again, and the potion glowed before turning a hot pink.
"Ugh. I'll have to convince her to drink that." Sirius groaned. He put a stasis charm on it and put it back on the shelf. He dug around the stash of goods at the back of the room after cleaning up the potion brewing tools and found a dusty black trunk with silver designs and a golden lock. He blew the dust off the box and saw the extravagant 'B' engraved on the top.
"This is it." He muttered, and opened the trunk. A heavy groan filled the air as the hinges protested. Sirius muttered a lubrication charm, blushing a bit as he thought of why he learnt of it. He peeked into the trunk.
"Seven inner layers." He muttered, looking into the depths. "Perfect." He activated the seventh compartment, the control quarters, and jumped in.
He landed on his feet in a large circular room. The lights switched on with a whirring sound. He sat in the control chair and pressed a few buttons. The huge screen flashed to life. The Blacks knew that the Muggles were advancing quickly in terms of their own 'magic' and 'borrowed' their technology. Sirius also happaned to add a few things to it when he was younger. Now he was glad he did what he did.
Sirius pressed a button labeled 'time management' and the screen flashed brightly.
"Time command on." A cool female voice echoed in the room.
"Change the time from 1 hour to 1 hour ratio to 1 second in the real world to 1 hour in here." Sirius said clearly. There was a beep.
"Time management changed. 1 secind to 1 hour ratio. Confirm?" The voice said.
"Confirm." Sirius said firmly. The room flashed green.
"Time confirmed." The voice said. Sirius pressed a few buttons.
"Set the rooms." He spoke. There was a series of beeps.
"State the compartments and purposes." The cool voice said.
"Compartment 1, storage. Compartment 2, living quarters. Compartment 3, training quarters. Compartment 4, potion labs. Compartment 5, library. Compartment 6, access to Gringotts vaults." Sirius enunciated clearly.
"Compartment 1, storage. Compartment 2, living quarters. Compartment 3, training quarters. Compartment 4, potion labs. Compartment 5, library. Compartment 6, access to Gringotts vaults." The voice repeated. "Confirm?"
"Confirm." Sirius said. There was a flash of green again.
"Confirmed." The voice said coolly.
"Perfect." Sirius said. He clambered out of the seventh compartment and closed the trunk, satisfied.
"Good." He muttered. He extinguished the floating ball of light.
"Lumos." He said instead, and only his wand tip lit up weakly. He walked upstairs stealthily, casting a silencing charm on himself. He made his way upstairs, but was stopped by the portrait of his mother.
"Very interesting, Sirius." She remarked calmly for once. Sirius turned his head, cringing.
"What do you want?" He said reluctantly.
"I know what you were doing down there, Sirius." Walburga smirked. "Finally come to your senses?"
"Oh yeah? What was I doing down there?" Sirius challenged.
"Making potions, preparing the trunk." Walburga sighed. "Sirius, despite us disowning you, I know you still feel strongly about your inheritance, isn't that right?" She asked.
"I…" Sirius swallowed, looking like a deer caught in the spotlights.
"Am I right?" Walburga raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Yes you're right." Sirius sighed. "I…think if we help Harry defeat the Dark Lord…I made him the heir anyway." He said boldly. Walburga simply laughed.
"A good choice. I would rather him get the title of Lord than that Malfoy boy." Walburga said. "I cannot let Malfoy get the line, of course. At least the Potter boy is an orphan." She sniffed. Sirius decided not to comment.
"So…I'm planning something really reckless." Siirus confessed. "I'm planning to break Bellatrix out, take Andromeda back, and divorce Narcissa, and then give them the de-aging potion, leaving some for myself, of course." Sirius said nervously.
"Smart." Walburga approved. Sirius looked at her incredulously.
"You approve?" Sirius asked, still shocked.
"I didn't say I approve. It is a brilliant plan. However, many flaws and risks, Sirius." Walburga said, looking at him critically.
"Felix Felicis." Sirius smirked. Walburga looked at him, smirking back.
"I didn't think you had it in you, Sirius." She said.
"Well, I'm not a Gryffindor for nothing, mother." Sirius said cheekily.
"Well, go to sleep, boy. We can talk later." Walburga said. Before Sirius could reply, the curtains drew shut, and he closed his mouth, shaking his head. He made his way upstairs and slipped into his room again, warding it again as well. He glanced at the clock. 1 O'clock. Not bad…not bad at all. He put his wand under his pillow and lay down, wide awake.
"How am I supposed to bring Andie back?" He whispered to himself. "She hates her sisters." He sighed. Then a thought stuck his head.
"Nymphadora…" He murmured. "If I were to…no, Andie would kill me if I held her daughter hostage." He said. "Merlin I'm too tired to do this!" He groaned softly. "But damn it I have to! Okay, so I'm breaking Bella out, I'm divorcing Narcissa as head of the Black family, and Andie…frankly, I don't know." He said to himself. "Ugh." He moaned. "Not. Fair." He said. "Why do I always have to be the one who has to worry about these kind of things? Why can't Narcissa realise that she's wrong? Why can't Bella break herself out of Azkaban? Why can't Andie…"
Snores filled the room before his sentence could be finished.
So...this chappie was shorter, but it was mostly preparations, as the title says.
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