The Black Heir
Chapter 4: the tale of the ice and the dog
Child of Dreams: yeah, Dumbledore will, but maybe he might just know ;) and as for your review on chapter 3, I'm glad to see you've caught on to why I included that .
MarilynT: yes, I too love all the possibilities that come with the Black Family and how you can make them your own, and you'll find out about Sirius, I think by whom he is freed will surprise you.
Fae0306: thank you, everyone's love for this story keeps on motivating me to write… Even when I really should be revising ;)
Grin like the Cheshire Cat: I know, my poor blondie , I must say I have grown rather fond of him and thank you for all your support and, for you status as a continuous reviewer (I totally made that title up XD) I dedicate this chapter to you.
TBH-TBH-TBH-TBH-
2nd January 1986
Dear Remus John Lupin,
I regret to inform you of a matter of great urgency: Harry Potter is missing from his house in Surrey. Currently I find myself working on every possible aspect of his disappearance but I need help; I would much appreciate if you could do a little digging at Private Drive, see if any of the neighbours had seen anything suspicious.
With kind regards,
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
-TBH-TBH-TBH-TBH-
Eleanor Rothwell had always found herself feeling almost linked to magic – though the mother-of-two had still refused to believe it was real, rather believe herself simply drawn in by the mystery of it all.
But the lady at Number 8 Privet Drive knew that people did not simply vanish into thin air, it was more than a little unthinkable. And more than a little magical.
That's why the arrival of a rather peculiar man, strange-looking clothes ripped and scars that looked to have come from a rabid animal, had immediately set her on edge.
"Good evening, I am Officer Lupin and am investigating the disappearance of a young, black haired boy known as Harry Potter who lived at Number 4 Privet Drive with Petunia, Vernon and Dudley Dursley. May I come in?"
Eleanor found her eyes narrowing, this man seemed to be no Policeman but it was not a good move to deny him if she was; and she had her children to think of.
She nodded hesitantly, moving out of the way of the door, "please, come in," and thought she did rather well – considering the fact the twenty-six year old woman would have much rather thrown him out.
"Tea? Coffee? Would you like me to take your jacket?" The dark haired witch forced out, a seemingly sincere smile upon her lips.
"Thank you," 'Officer Lupin' thanked, handing her his jacket as he requested, "black coffee pleas-"
"MUMMY! BASH STOLE MY TOY DOLL!"
"SOFIA STOLE MY CAR!"
"HE'S RIPPED HER HEAD OFF!"
"BARBIES LOOK UGLY ANYWAY!"
She sighed at her children's screeches, heading up the stairs to where her son and daughter, twins the rascals were, and just turned six, leaving Officer Lupin in peace for a moment.
Remus Lupin could hear the woman telling her children that she had a guest, and to play nicely before the chorus of 'sorry, mummy' came. Remus smiled despite himself, for a moment he could just imagine he was Hary, imagine James' son was safe and sound.
When the resident of Number 8, of whom Remus still did not know the same of, she strolled to join him at her living room table.
After a moment of awkward silence, Remus was not stupid and knew the woman had no desire for him to be here but he had to try every house, for James and Lily and Dumbledore, "so, what do you know of Harry Potter?"
Eleanor found herself frowning as she thought of the poor little boy, "in the same class and year as my children, I believe, Sebastian always used to mention how the boy had next to no friends; always bullied by that awful Dursley boy. Sofia claimed he's been to school with bruises before, said the teachers didn't even question him, all the teachers think the boy is a delinquent apparently."
Trying to ignore the surge of anger he felt towards the Dursleys, the teachers and even Dumbledore himself at the scenario that Harry had to put up with Remus began to question the woman further.
"On Christmas Eve, did you see anything strange? Anything out of the ordinary?"
Remus observed as the woman clearly hesitated, scanning his face as if to decide whether or not he was to be trusted. After a moment of silence she began her reply,
"Yes, it was more than a bit strange," she stated, her mouth curving down into a frown, "there was this woman, she must have been at least late sixties early seventies, who took hold of a young boy who seemed to have been bleeding, and they simply disappeared, out of thin air."
Remus' thoughts were whirl winding within his head, but quickly quelled the storm enough to get out a pen and paper, "can you describe this woman for me, please?"
Eleanor nodded, "yes, she looked rather strange actually, her hair – despite her age – was darker than any other hair I'd ever seen, and she was… Oh, yes, I remember. She was wearing a violet cloak, it complemented her extremely strange violet eyes."
Remus Lupin paled considerably at her ending words. Violet eyes. It was a very, very rare eye colour that Remus had only seen or heard of before in the Black family and even then it was still rare, the only ones in possession of that eye colour on the current generation being Bellatrix LeStrange nee Black, but it couldn't have been her as she was rotting in Azkaban, and also Cassiopeia Black. The most formidable witch of her age, of any age in fact.
"Are you alright, Officer Lupin?" Eleanor found herself questioning, even if she wasn't particularly trusting of the man it didn't mean that she did not care for his welfare."
He seemed to snap out of his thoughts at her words, "I am quite alright, Mrs…"
"Rothwell, Eleanor Rothwell but it is Miss, Officer Lupin," She stated as she took a sip of her tea.
He raised an eyebrow and she immediately knew what he was thinking, about being umarried with children. At least he did not voice it as so many other rude people did, "were you ever married, Miss. Rothwell? If you don't mind me asking."
She laughed lightly, as if she were torn between amusement and bitterness, "I was once, by accident however. I was in Vegas in the May of '79 and had far too much to drink, ended up marrying some rather fetching man, who by his hangover in the morning, was completely wasted too. He left at the speed of the cheetah the next, morning. Neither of us knew that the wedding night created those two little rascals up there."
Remus smiled at her fond tone when referring to her children, "funnily enough I was in Vegas the May of '79 too, bachelor party."
Eleanor laughed lightly at the strange coincidence, "it's a small world, Officer Lupin."
It was then that she heard the pitter patter of her children's feet on the stairs and watched as he gaped at the two.
He couldn't possibly think he was the father for the man she married had known of what had transpired, if the 'sorry' note had anything to do with things; and more so was the fact that neither remotely resembled him.
"They look just like," he stared between them, causing the two six-year-olds to look up at him in complete confusion, "never mind, I really must go. Thank you for the coffee, Miss. Rothwell."
And before she could utter an inquiry the man was gone, leaving his jacket featuring both his wand and portkey behind.
-TBH-TBH-TBH-TBH-
No matter how hard Corvus tried he simply could not tear his eyes away from the portrait of his mother, of the family he had so dearly longed for.
They seemed to stare at one another for several moments – blue upon blue before Corvus couldn't stop the questions from flowing from his mouth.
"How did you die? Why was I given away? How did you and dad end up together, apparently nobody knew you were married? Did you-"
Ceres put her hand up, making his questions come to a sudden stop as she prepared to tell her story.
"I a fifth year Slytherin when I first met your dad," she began, a smile forming upon her rosy lips as she remembered, "it was the October of '76 when a duelling club had been announced. I absolutely loved duelling and decided to go along, and so had your father and his friends.
"We got put into pairs, I fought Hayden Mulciber then Thantos Avery then Luca Bell then Xeno Lovegood then Petunia Parkinson and beat them all easily, Carina Nott was much harder to beat but I did and many more; finally it was the last two standing. Sirius and I.
"We fought continuously for almost fifteen minutes, but while he was strong and new many, many powerful spells I was quick and agile meaning I did not always need to use my energy on a shield and knew how to put more power into my spells. And I ended up winning.
"I went up to him, shook his hand and gave him feedback. I guess my kind gesture piped his interest and we, to everyone's disbelief, became great friends and fast, though this friendship didn't half get me into trouble for pranks and mayhem," Ceres' smile gave away the fact that getting into trouble with Sirius Black was a fond memory, "he made me believe in myself, he challenged me in everything I believed in and I changed his views on Slytherins and so much more; we brought out the best in each other.
"He was out of school a year before me and in that year we lost our friendship, my parents were trying to throw me into the war on the Dark Lord's side and he was in the Order of the Phoenix, but not long after I graduated my father decided it was time for me to receive my Death Eater mark, the Dark Lord would be coming to our house the next day. That was in the August of '79.
"So, that night, I ran to the only place I knew would be safe, to Sirius' apartment. He was shocked to see me but understood at my story and I stayed there for six months, and in that time we grew to love one another more than we could have ever hoped to have loved anyone," a frown began to form on Corvus' mother's face and he knew what came next would not be nice to hear, "so we eloped, knowing that one of us could die at any time and knowing we wanted to spend what time we had left together,
"and everything was fine until Lucius came and dragged me back to our home at Malfoy Manor and I had a massive argument with father, it was the same day I had found out I was expecting you. He said if I were not to join then the Dark Lord would hunt me and kill me, for the bastard wished to have the full Malfoy backing behind him – his alliance would seem weak if so much as one was not joined and he did not want a repetition of the Blacks.
"So I ran away to keep you safe, I couldn't go back, not when he was hunting me down and my first and only priority was you, I-I even had to leave Sirius behind.
"I hid out in St. Raphael in France, and never left except for once to South Hampton in search of a friend of mine excellent in defence runes that I needed to protect us and, when you came early, you were born there before heading back to France. But they found me. I only had enough time to hide you before twenty of them swarmed. And before long, and only after Bellatrix had had her fun, I was dead," Ceres looked down at her son, tears in her eyes in knowing she would never truly see him grow up, "I don't know how to Potter's got you but I assume they found you and decided to take you in, you'd have to ask one of their portraits.
"But I am so sorry for not being here for you, for not being a mother you can grow up alongside but know that I will always be proud of you, my little crow."
Corvus felt the tears pooling in his eyes and longed for nothing more than to hug her but knew he could not, he hastily wiped his eyes knowing it would only make her feel worse; and he hated to see her sad.
"I love you, mummy," his voice sounded so hesitant, so scared as if she would not return his love but any spectator could see the clear love in her eyes as she stated,
"I love you too."
-TBH-TBH-TBH-TBH-
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
I know you are most eager to hear my news upon the situation regarding Harry's disappearance and I have found out some most disturbing news from the lady of number 8 Privet Drive, Eleanor Rothwell.
On Christmas Eve a woman, described to have had extremely dark hair with violet eyes and to have been approximated to have been around her late sixties to early seventies – to my deepest regret I must state that it sounds rather like Cassiopeia Black – and seems to have apperated with an injured boy.
I do believe the next course of action should be to confront Miss. Black, please mail me back with your thoughts.
Sincerely,
R. J. Lupin
After reading the letter Dumbledore's office looked as if a bomb had hit it, trinkets exploded and the frustrated man with his head lying upon the table, considering what his next move was to be after so much had been ruined.
It was impossible for them not to have found Harry Potter to be Corvus Black and knew that as soon as they found out that he had been the one to disguise the boy and give him to the Potters then they would be out for blood, and the Blacks were never to be underestimated.
And Merlin forbid if they were able to find out the truth about Eleanor Rothwell and her brats.
Moves and counter-moves, Dumbledore reminded himself, knowing his first course of action would be to erase the threat of the Rothwells for the Black-Malfoys would be a lot more formidable if they found out about his meddling upon their part as well, no, there were only so many battles he could fight.
And it was all for the Greater Good.
Who do you think the Rothwells are? Should I change things up and make Draco permanently a brat or a friend of Corvus'? What is Dumbledore up to? What house will Corvus be in?
Tell me what you think in the reviews as well as your Hogwarts and Ilvermorny Houses (I'm a Slytherin and Pukwudgie ).
PS sorry for all the speech but you guys needed to know Ceres and Sirius' story