The Noble House of Black
Harry and Sirius reappeared just inside the front door of 12 Grimmauld Place. Harry looked a bit dazed as his head stopped spinning from the side Apparition. He didn't think he'd ever get used to the queasy feeling it left in his stomach. Sirius looked at his godson and cleared his throat.
"Well…this is it." Harry slowly moved into the long foyer and looked around. Everything was rather dark.
"Is it always this dark?"
"Afraid so. Mother never was much for decorating." He paused.
"Why don't we get you settled and I'll give you the grand tour."
Together they trudged up the stairs several flights and down a corridor. When they finally stopped at a door, Harry heaved a sigh of relief. He hadn't realized just how heavy his trunk had been.
"It's all yours, Harry." Harry pushed the door opened and looked inside. There was a large four poster bed and a dresser next ot it. On one wall a mahogany desk sat, quill and parchment laid out, as if waiting for someone to use them.
"It's brilliant. Thanks!"
"I'll be downstairs if you need anything. Just down the hall and all the way down the stairs."
"Right." Sirius turned to leave.
"And one more thing…do your best to ignore the house elf. He's off his rocker." Harry nodded and turned to his trunk. Sirius left the door partially open and Harry set about unpacking his clothes and school things. He set Hedwig's cage on the desk and tossed himself on the bed. It was soft and comfortable. He let out a contented sigh just as the door creaked open and a grungy looking house elf appeared.
"Filthy blood traitors, besmirching the name of Black." Harry sat up and looked at the elf, remembering Sirius' warning.
"Uh…what?'
"Bringing all this fifth and muck into his Mistress's house. Poor Mistress." Harry just climbed off the bed and inched his way past the ornery creature. He slowly made his way down the corridor again and down the stairs. He took his time, looking at the walls and the myriad of doorways leading off on other landings. He finally found Sirius sitting in a large study, staring at an empty fireplace.
"Sirius?" The man jumped, being pulled from his thoughts.
"All settled in?"
"I think so. I saw the elf…he's rather unpleasant."
"Yes, he is. And there's not much I can do with him, save wring his little neck. But that would make him happy…" Harry just nodded as Sirius rambled on about his immense4 dislike of the creature. From what Harry had gathered, the feeling was mutual.
"Let's start with the kitchens, shall we?" Harry followed his godfather down to the kitchen and looked at the large wooden table that took up most of the room.
"Hungry?" As if on cue, Harry's stomach grumbled quite loudly.
"Starving actually."
Together they made some sandwiches with pumpkin juice. It wasn't much. Sirius hadn't been shopping in a while. He would have sent Kreacher out to do it if he didn't think he'd run off to the nearest family member he could find. As they sat eating, Sirius kept looking at the doorway and back.
"IS something wrong?"
"Oh, no"
"So did you grow up here?"
'Spent the first sixteen years of my life in this dump. But after that, life was wonderful. I ran off. I got tired of Mother constantly complaining about me being a disgrace to the family."
"Where did you?"
"To live with your Dad of course."
"What was he like, my Dad?"
"A good man, great friend. James was always up for a good prank or two during the school term. We had a knack for getting into trouble, seems he passed that on to you." Harry smirked.
"Yeah…guess he did." Sirius seemed to be swept up in his own thoughts again. Harry h ad to set his glass down rather hard on the table to snap him out of it.
"Sorry."
"Are you alright?"
"Yes. Just thinking…it must be strange for you….finding out you've got a sister after all this time…"
"Yeah…but it got me away from the Dursleys. Did you ever meet them?"
"Once. Nasty people they were. Luckily your Mum didn't have much of them in her…least I thought she didn't." Harry's brow furrowed.
"What do you mean?"
"You know…your sister."
"Last summer, he showed up and he had this letter that Mum had written him, telling him everything. I didn't read it but Irlynn did. She said that Mum seemed to care about Snape…"
"Things back then were complicated." Sirius cleared his throat.
"See, they were friends for a while early on during our time at Hogwarts, Snape and your Mum. I never understood it. James and I did all we could to torment the poor bloke." Harry couldn't keep from cringing.
"Anyway, in our fifth year, we were messing around as usual and your Mum tried to step up for him. Well he didn't like that, having a girl defend him. So he called her a Mudblood, the filthy coward. That was the end of that. Or so we thought."
"He called her what?" His mind flew back to the many times Draco Malfoy had used that same insult against Hermione.
"He's a real prat, Snivelly. He no doubt hexed her into it."
"From what Irlynn said about the letter, Mum started it."
"I don't believe that."
"What if I showed you the letter?"
"Does Irlynn have it?"
"No…but she could get it. I'll go write to her."
"No, no need to steal it from him. If you say it was Lily who started it all, then I believe you. It 's just hard to believe a person I thought I knew so well, a good friend was capable of deceiving everyone."
"So…how about a tour of the house?" It was a clear change of subject. Harry felt that his godfather needed it.
"Oh right. Well come on." He led Harry through the lower levels; the sitting room and library with its dusty volumes lining the shelves. He hadn't been in there for years. They walked passed a hanging on the wall and Harry reached out to pull it away when Sirius stopped him.
"You've got to be real quiet going past here." His voice was barely above a whisper.
"Why?" Before Sirius could answer, the thing behind the covering gave a loud shriek and a wail. It was a woman's voice and she was shouting various obscenities at them. Harry jumped back and Sirius smacked the covering several times until the voice died down.
"What was that?" Harry asked once they had moved up a flight of stairs.
"Portrait of my Mother. She put dozens of charms and hexes on it. I can't get it down."
"She shrieks like that…all the time?"
"If you disturb her, yes." They said nothing more until they came to another large room. It had shelves of books and large tapestry hung on one wall. It was enormous with little ribbons with pictures and names sprawled out across the entire thing.
"What's this?"
"My family tree."
"It's huge."
"Most pureblood families are all related somehow. I'm distant cousins with Molly Weasley and her family. Arthur too." Harry looked over the tapestry to see several places with burn holes.
"What happened there?"
"Mother dearest did that when I ran away. She id that to my cousin Andromeda when she married a Muggle. Blacked out their daughter too." Harry's eyes wandered farther and he picked up names he recognized, Longbottom, Malfoy.
"You're related to the Malfoys?"
"Narcissa was a Black before she was a Malfoy. First cousin of mine. So is her sister Bellatrix. Andromeda was their sister too."
"Why don't you give Kreacher to one of them then?"
"I would but they're both on You-Know-Who's side. No telling what the little rodent would say." Harry walked the length of the wall, tracing the delicate lines of lineage out until he noticed a name he was surprised to see.
"Why is Snape on here?"
"Turns out his Mum was a pureblood, a Prince. She married a Muggle too. I suppose Mother didn't feel the need to strike her off…she's so distantly related."
"My Dad was a pureblood right?"
"That he was."
"So that makes you related too?'
"Very, very distantly, but yes."
"Does that mean….I'm related to Snape too?" Sirius saw the grimace on the boy's face and gave him a sympathetic look.
"Were hoping it was just your sister?"
"Yeah."
"Well we can pretend he's not related. I'll strike him off myself."
"Yeah…good idea." They stared at the tapestry for a while longer before leaving. The rest of the house wasn't very eventful. There were more bedrooms and little places to hide. Sirius showed Harry his childhood room and Harry smiled at all the Quidditch posters, even if they were faded and falling down. A while later they were back downstairs, sitting in the sitting room playing a game of wizard's chess.
"You're pretty good." Harry looked up from the game board.
"Ron taught me. One of the best chess players in Gryffindor."
"Apparently not well enough. Checkmate."