Disclaimer: Still don't own HP just the OCs and most of the events in the storyline

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~Do what's right and not what's easy. Life is seldom for ease, but choose the right path and you will be rewarded~

Jane Black (nee Thomas)

Chapter 2- Phineas Black 1881-1976

It had been many years since Phineas Black had thought about his family, he used this term very lightly even in his head, but now as he watched the funeral procession from afar he remembered the times from long ago.

He was now an old man, not yet frail, but still old. Sometimes he found himself wondering how he came to be the one Black out of all of his siblings to buck the trend, as a teenager growing up with his siblings; Phineas always had thought that the one to marry a Muggle would be Belvina.

His sister had always been an idealist, as a child Belvina had had a curious nature that was hard to satisfy, she was always the one with the ridiculously romantic notions of marrying a Muggle. Never in his wildest dreams had it ever occurred to Phineas that he would fall in love with one.

He had been a young man when he had stumbled across some of the most unsavoury of wizards, ones that followed his father's rather demented teachings at Hogwarts, entertaining Muggle-baiting. Phineas had never taken himself for a knight in the Muggle tales of old, later he would blame his sister for forcing him to read the ridiculous tales of King Arthur to her, but at the time he was only looking at the beautiful young woman who was being lifted up in the air and left to hang by those fiends.

Phineas had sprung from his hiding place in the bushes where he had been stargazing and scared away the wizards, for his countenance; so similar to his father was truly worrying. For though Phineas Nigellus Black may have had many faults, even he would not have encouraged a hobby such as this. The young woman was startled but she quickly recovered, she looked at Phineas who despite having rescued her was scowling rather furiously at the fact that she was still standing in front of him and had not run away.

"Why have you not yet run," Phineas had finally asked of the beautiful lady, for the silence had gone on for too long and she had made no move to walk away.

"Did you wish for me to," she had returned, her voice was melodic.

"Well, surely you would not have wanted to stay with me," he had asked in astonishment, Phineas was a Slytherin, he could see what this young woman had intended, she had intended to remain with him.

"You did rescue me did you not, I owe you a debt," she had offered in response, her milky-white skin had glowed in the light of his Lumos charm.

He had scoffed, "Believe me, Miss, you do not want to be in my debt, I am not a pleasant man. Nor do I consort with Muggles like you."

It was only after she had laughed that Phineas realised that he had just said Muggle rather than Mudblood, and that he was actually entranced by the melodic nature of her voice.

"You may not wish to have me in your debt, but I always repay what I owe, it was the way I was raised. Perhaps you are different than what you appear I am a Muggle but I know of your kind," she offered. The young woman observed the aristocratic young man in front of her, he was handsome, in a haughty way but it was obvious that he had no idea what his true feelings were, regardless of how well he hid behind a mask.

Phineas groaned, "I suppose that I cannot persuade you to leave me alone," he had a feeling that his hope for this to be the case was futile and he was right.

"I owe you my life, good sir, indeed in this culture you would be expected to take me as a mistress or even a bride," her caramel eyes glittered in the moonlight.

Phineas held back the sudden bout of hysteria that this comment made and went to turn around, and as he left the beautiful woman behind him, he was aware of the words that she called after him.

"I have a feeling that we will meet again, Mr Black."

Phineas spun to face the young woman, but was only faced with the darkness of the night. He did not remember telling her his name or asking for hers. But of one thing he was sure, he would meet her again.

Now, almost 50 years from that day, the story of how Phineas had met Jane Thomas (for that was the beautiful woman's name) had become the tale of preference for his grandchildren.

Phineas had indeed met Jane Thomas again, because something about that young woman who could have been no more than 15 to his 17 had lured him in. She had ignited the spark within him for fighting against what his family believed in, Phineas had somehow become his namesake, his father's worst nightmare.

Instead of following the Pureblood agenda that his older brother Arcturus followed and the one that Cygnus had always believed in, Phineas had found himself doing something that he would have thought Belvina would have done. He was fighting for Muggle-borns.

It had been hard at first, but as Jane Thomas had told him the second time they had met by which point she was working with wizards to try to get equal rights for Muggle-borns, given the fact that her younger brother was one, "the right choices are the hardest to make". Those were the words that had taken root in his brain and the ones he embraced when he asked her on a date, and the words that continued to follow him throughout the rest of his life as he ignored his disinheriting, and even as he married a Muggle-born.

Now after all these years as Phineas watched his little sister's body be buried in the family crypt from afar, he found himself not missing the family he had left behind, but rather the company of his wife who was still at home awaiting his return. Phineas never thought that he could be the one to break free from his family, but here he was, the happiest of them all.

As Phineas returned home, he was glad that he followed the hard path, because it did bear the very best fruit. The rewards of love and happiness were much sweeter than the gold he had lost, and the family he left behind.