A/N: Reviewer appreciation: MystyTaurus: thanks :-) This chapter hasn't been beta'd so bare with me, let me know what you think. R&R


Chapter 3: Tea With Sirius and the Truth About Onyx



Onyx woke up with a start. She looked around the room. 'Onyx think about it, you are at school now.' She got out of bed and took a shower and changed into her school robes. She put her long black hair in a ponytail, grabbed her books, and then walked into the common room. All of the students were there. She noticed George and his brothers, plus Hermione, and Harry.

"Wow it's loud down here." Onyx looked around the room.

"Yeah, first day of classes, everyone is still trying to find everything." Ron pointed at Neville Longbottom, who was still searching for his toad Trevor.

"Lets go down the to the Great Hall for breakfast, we have Double Potions with Slytherin first." Everyone except for Onyx groaned. They all walked through the picture hole. The corridor was as loud as the common room.

"So I take it that it is a bad thing to have potions first." They looked at Onyx as they walked into the Great hall; it was less noisy this morning with only half of the houses in there.

"Snape isn't the nicest teacher in the world."

"That is an understatement. I swear the man is evil." Ron noticed Onyx's confusion, "He is the head of Slytherin house, and he likes to take our points away and not Slytherin's."

"Oh." Everyone had taken a seat and started to fill their plates with the food. Onyx just filled her cup with coffee and milk, and grabbed a piece of toast.

'it's okay Onyx, it can't be that bad.' She thought to herself as they made their way down to the Potions Dungeon. Boy was she ever wrong. She sat with Harry, Ron and Hermione while they waited for Professor Snape to walk in. Onyx looked around the room and spotted Malfoy, and the two she remembered from the train, he looked at her, sneered, and then turned back to the girl that was practically all over him.

"I am sure you all did your essays over the summer." Snape raced through the dungeon to the front of the class. "If you didn't that is ten points each from your house." He stopped and began to write on the board, the list of ingredients for the potion that they were going to start with. "I will be assigning partners, you will work with them until the winter holiday." He looked over his class list, "Ah yes, Miss Christie, you have until tomorrow to turn in a two foot essay on the uses of Belladonna."

"Yes, professor." 'That should be easy considering I just wrote one last year at Salem.' She smiled to herself.

"Now for your partners; Weasley, Longbottom; Granger, Parkinson; Malfoy, Christie…" Onyx couldn't believe this; she was going to be stuck with Malfoy for three months. 'Kill me now, please.' By the time she finished her inner ranting, she was already standing next to the table where Malfoy was sitting. She sat down and pulled out her parchment and quill, and began to write out the ingredients list from the board.

"Lets just make the potion, alright. You can get the ingredients." Draco went to retrieve the ingredients while Onyx set the cauldron up and prepped it.
"Damn bossy chit," Draco mumbled as he got the ingredients.

"Sorry about that. The coffee hasn't kicked in yet," She told him as he sat down. He couldn't think of anything to use against her. She wasn't like Granger, Potter, or Weasley. She had attitude, and he liked that. 'Too bad she isn't in Slytherin.'

"Whatever." They made their potion in silence. When they finished first, Snape walked over and looked into the cauldron.

"You look awfully confident Miss Christie, why don't you drink that potion then." Apparently they had to make a potion that changed ones hair color. Onyx quickly took the barrettes that had been in her hair, and drank the potion. Draco noticed, that as soon as she took the barrettes out of her long black hair, it turned a silvery-blonde, sort of like his own. Then, after she drank the potion, her hair had turned hot pink. "I am not surprised it worked considering that you worked with Mister Malfoy, five points to Slytherin." And with that he turned and went back glaring at the other students.

"Nice hair," Malfoy laughed. Onyx just rolled her eyes and replaced her barrettes; soon her hair was jet black once more. Draco stopped laughing and stared.

"The barrettes are charmed to make my hair black. What, you didn't think that I was going to walk around with hot pink hair all day did you?" The bells rang before he could answer her. Onyx picked up her books and went to leave with the other Gryffindors.

"It looks like your potion didn't last long," Harry and Ron glared at Malfoy as they walked out of the room, "Considering you worked with Malfoy. Did he make you do all of the work or something?"

"First off, the potion is still working. Secondly, no, we both did our fair share of the work." When they go to the portrait of the Fat Lady, Harry said the password (butter beer), and then the group walked in behind him.

"How is the potion still working if your hair is back to being black." Onyx had sat down in one of the big comfy chairs and took the barrettes out of her hair; it went back to hot pink.

"Theses barrettes," she held them out so the others could see them, "are charmed to turn the wearer's hair black. I created them during my third year; I was tired of having blonde hair. I have other colours too, they are in my trunk."

"Cool. We better get to class, I think you have Divination with Ron and Harry?"

"I believe so." As they walk out of the portrait hole, Onyx turns to Ron, "So, what is the divination teacher like?"

"She's a loon if you ask me. She kept predicting Harry's death in every class." Harry shakes his head and Ron chuckles.

"That does sound funny," the group splits up and heads to their classes. When they get to the Divination tower, the hall stops and a silver rope ladder dangles from the ceiling. "Going up?"



"Onyx I can't believe you did that!" Harry yelled as Onyx Ron and himself walked towards the Great Hall after Divination.

"It was bloody brilliant. I can't believe Trelawney fell for that." Ron exclaimed as Onyx smiled evilly.

"I did that to my last Divination teacher, only I told her that her cat was going to jump off a cliff. Only it did happen, only because she chased it there." Onyx shook her head. They arrived in the Great Hall just in time for the post to be delivered. Onyx's Barn owl Spike swooped down and landed next to her plate. He hooted softly and held out his leg.

"I remember that owl, the last time he came to the burrow, Ginny gave him half a plate of cookies, George wondered how Spike was going to make it back with the extra weight." He gave the owl a cookie. Just then Harry's owl Hedwig landed in front of Harry, holding its leg out as well.

"Oh my god," Onyx stated, just before she looked at Harry, he also yelled out. They looked at each other with confused faces. Onyx held out her letter again and read it.


Onyx,


Dumbledor informed me that you were in England attending Hogwarts. It has been such a long time since I saw you. I understand that you are going as Onyx now, but you will always be Chrissie to me. I hope you have met Harry, he is my Godson, and he's just like his dad, only you wouldn't remember much about him. I have arranged with Professor Dumbledor to have tea with you and Harry, Thursday afternoon at two o'clock in Dumbledor's office. Until then,


Sirius Black



"Harry come with me," Onyx jumped up from her spot and Harry followed. They walked out into the entrance hall and stopped.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Harry looked at her incredulously.

"I couldn't alright. If you only knew, if you had known the truth about me, the rest of Gryffindor and you, would have hated me. I couldn't take that chance. I didn't know that the headmaster was going to tell my uncle, who I haven't seen since I was two, that I was here." Onyx looked at Harry, who had calmed down a bit more, "I am sorry. I did…do want to tell you all. I can tell you more when we meet with Sirius, then you'll understand. You and I have a lot in common. More than you'll ever know. Now, can we go back in the hall?" Onyx smiled at Harry.

"Yeah. Hey I am sorry about yelling at you. It was just a surprise hearing it from Sirius," Harry stopped before his hand reached the knob, "I hope Ron didn't read that." Eyes wide Onyx and Harry rushed into the Hall just before Ron could pick up the letter. Harry snatched it up from the table.

"Harry what's wrong?" Hermione was at the table next to Ron.

"Nothing, I just wanted to read the letter again." He looked at Onyx, who was begging him with her eyes not to show them.

"Onyx, you got another letter." Hermione handed the letter to Onyx.

"Thanks." She smiled as she unfolded the letter.


Chrissie
Onyx

How's my favorite chaser? Well I found out that our team has a great chance at making the World Cup! Also, they told me that you could get High Box seats. Isn't it great? Well, have fun this year and don't let the Slytherin slime get you down.

Love

Oliver



"Who is that one from?" Onyx blushed.

"Oliver Wood." Onyx chuckled and set the letter down on the table. "He says that England has a really good chance of going to the World Cup this year, and he told me I could get the High Box seats if I wanted. That man has Quidditch on the brain."

"So how do you know Wood?"

"He's my 'cousin', and we kinda grew up together." Onyx stared at her peanut butter sandwich, and smiled.


Two o'clock Thursday afternoon came quick and found Harry and Onyx walking down the hall to Dumbledor's office. Onyx was nervous. She vaguely remembered her uncle, in a way, she was jealous of Harry, who had kept in touch with Sirius after he escaped. But she wasn't going to hold it against him.

"Here we are," Harry stood in front of a gargoyle statue. Apparently Harry had frequented the headmaster's office, he said the password (fizzing whizbeez) and the gargoyle started to rise and a staircase rose from beneath it.

"Wow," was all that Onyx could say as she followed Harry up the winding staircase. He knocked on the door and a muffled 'come in' could be heard. Harry opened the door and let Onyx enter first. The fairly large office was filled with portraits of wizards from the past.

"Good afternoon Onyx, Harry." Dumbledor smiled at the two students. "Please follow me," the headmaster led them to an adjoining room, where Sirius was sitting in a large armchair. "I will just leave you three now." Dumbledor nodded to Sirius then closed the door behind him.

"Lo Harry. Onyx." Sirius gestured for the teens to take a seat.

"How are things Sirius?" Harry asked as he sat down on the couch next to Onyx. "Pretty good actually, that is why I asked you both to have tea." Sirius looked at his niece, 'look how much she has changed.' "Onyx, didn't you have blonde hair?"

"Oh, yeah. Hold on." Onyx took her barrettes out of her hair, praying that the pick was gone. "Is it still pink?"

"No it looks like the potion wore off."

"Let me guess, Snape made you all make the hair dye potion?" Sirius shook his head.

"Yeah. So what did you want to talk to us about?" Onyx was anxious to know anything at this point.

"Well, I got the papers to adopt Harry, I just need them signed by the Muggles and the judge." Harry was grinning and Sirius smiled. " and the reason I wanted to talk to you, I wanted to know if you wanted to stay here in England and continue schooling here at Hogwarts, you could even be known by your real name too."

"Oh my, that is a lot to think about. But oh how I'd love to stay here. But, what about Liz and Rick?"

"Liz and I had a long conversation, and she believes that it is your choice. She also thinks that you should stay here so you are closer to your real family, even if they are slimy gits."

Onyx took a sip of her tea. All she had ever wanted was just given to her on a silver platter. Harry was still mulling over all of the information that he had just heard.

"Who else are you related to?"

"Like I said, if I had told you when you met me, you would have hated me." Onyx looked at Sirius who nodded.

"Who is it."

"The Malfoys. My mum was Lucius Malfoy's twin sister. My dad was Sirius' older brother."

"What do you mean by was, didn't you live with them before you came to England?" Harry was beyond confused, he didn't care that she was related to Malfoy. Sirius looked at his niece, and finished her story.

"My brother and his wife were killed while I was taking care of Christie at your parents house. They had asked me to take her while they were at an Auror's conference. When we came back with Liz that, is when we found them. Exactly two months before your parents, Jeff and Lucinda Black were killed by Voldemort." Onyx was in tears, Sirius went to her and she cried on his shoulder. Harry was in shock, he couldn't believe that Onyx was the little girl he remembered from when he was two. When Onyx stopped crying, she hugged Sirius.

"Thank you." She looked into Sirius's eyes and smiled. "I needed to hear this again." She looked over at Harry, "sorry you had to see that." She wiped the rest of her tears away.

"Onyx, it's fine. I remember things from before. I remember you." He smiled at her.

"Please, just call me Chrissie, it is my name." They all talked about the future and what happened over the last few years. "…When I was eleven, I was wandering around the school grounds during a thunderstorm. I didn't really care at the time; I had just had a memory of what my godmother had told me of my parents. Before I knew what hit me, literally, I was struck by lightning. The nurse and headmaster told me that I was out for a week. One of the fun side effects from surviving the lightning strike, I have been able to do wand less magic. Oh, and I got a really big scar on the back of my neck too."

"Have you noticed your accent is getting thicker?" Harry laughed.

"If you spent four days with Oliver Wood, who was talking non-stop about Quidditch strategy, you'd pick up his accent too." Onyx rolled her eyes and smiled, Harry and Sirius smiled back.

Five minutes later, Harry and Chrissie said their good-byes to Sirius and walked out of the small room. Chrissie stayed behind in Dumbledor's office. She asked if she could now be known as Christine Black. Dumbledor agreed and wished Chrissie luck.

When Chrissie returned to the common room, the room was abuzz with conversation. But when they noticed that she had walked in, it got really quiet. She looked over to Harry who just shrugged.

"Uh, hi everyone. What's going on?" She started fidgeting while everyone stared.

"Why did you lie about who you really were?" Lavender Brown asked from next to the fireplace.

"I had to. You all wouldn't understand." She walked over to where Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing. "Did you tell them?"

"No, I just got in here. It was like this when I walked in." Harry looked at everyone in the common room.

"Lavender, who told you?"

"No one. Parvati and I were looking in your trunk when we found your diary." Lavender answered, Parvati stared daggers at her. Chrissie hit the roof.

"You went through my trunk? What gives you the right to do that? I can't believe the nerve of you." Chrissie ran to the stairs that led to the fifth year girls' dorm.

"Gee Lavender, that's low even for you. What were you looking for anyway." Hermione asked, trying to help her friend.

"I was trying to find those barrettes that she had been wearing." Lavender answered like what she did wasn't wrong at all. Chrissie walked back into the common room just as Lavender answered.

"You couldn't just ask me. They wouldn't work for you anyway, that's the way I charmed them." Chrissie just shook her head. "Alright, all of you listen to me." The room got quiet. "Thank you. Now, anything you heard from them is most likely true. Yeah, I lied about my name, but I am the same person. Now, I am not sure how much on that page she read but, yes, I have the misfortune to be related to a Slytherin. But don't judge me because of that. I didn't even know him until the other day on the train. You can hate me because I lied about my name, but don't you dare, hate me because of who I am related to." She stopped and looked at everyone's face. "Do you all understand that? Now, if I find out that anyone else has gone through my things, they will regret it." While Chrissie had been in the dorm she had changed into her practice clothes for Quidditch. She looked at all of the stunned faces, then turned and walked out of the portrait hole; she didn't notice George walking behind her.

"Onyx, wait." Chrissie turned to face him. She gave him a sad smile.

"Please, just call me Chrissie. That's my real name." She slid down the wall and just sat there, looking up at George then back at the floor, "That is not how I wanted to tell you all." George joined her on the floor and took her hand.

"Its alright Chrissie. You are a good person and witch, and a great chaser. Don't let them make you think anything less." He looked into her eyes, "I like you the way you are, no matter what your name is." Suddenly he stood up and helped Chrissie off of the floor.

"Thank you for being understanding about this." She gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you George, you have no idea how much this means to me." She let him go and walked down the corridor, broom in hand, and headed out to the Quidditch pitch to practice, leaving a confused George behind.
A/N: So lemmie have it. Should I keep the story going or trash it?