Have I mentioned before that I love you all? Seriously, I'm about to get emotional here…Thank you to all of my reviewers!

Chapter 7

Orion Black neatly folded the Daily Prophet and laid it down on his desk. The Minister's visit to the World Market together with a handsome French boy had made the front page. A large picture of the two at a jewelry stand preceded the article. As Orion watched, the Minister took a leather necklace from the merchant and put it around the boy's neck, fastening it deftly before examining how it looked.

Just for a second, the boy turned to look at the Minister, and Orion felt that shock again; he thought that the boy was Sirius for a moment. He looked just like his wayward son had at that age.

Orion catalogued the information for later and moved on to read the financial section of the Daily Prophet, but an owl swooped into his study and interrupted him. It brought a letter from Sirius, requesting a meeting with he and Severus Snape.

The reasons for such a request churned in Orion's mind as he agreed to meet with the two men. No matter the possibilities, the Black scion would make use of this meeting to its full extent. Severus Snape was one of the last living wizards with Prince blood. If he could just convince him to open the Prince Grimoire, then he would finally have access to the Prince family's numerous secret spells, charms, and potions.

He had been trying to open that book since he was eighteen years old.

"Black!"

Orion turns and gives the other seventh year a cursory glance. He is tall and thin, with sallow skin and lanky black hair. Octavius Prince.

"What, Prince?" Orion aks with an indifferent air. The graduation ceremony will be starting in an hour and he wants to find Walburga to congratulate her beforehand.

"I challenge you to a duel, on behalf of your betrothed, Walburga Black!"

Orion raises an eyebrow, mildly curious. So the fool wants to duel him for Walburga? Did he not know that Orion is the best dueler in his year? According to Walburga, Octavius Prince is certainly not the best dueler in his year.

No matter. This can only work in his advantage, so why shouldn't Orion humor the poor sod?

"I accept your challenge. However, I already have Walburga, so what do I receive if I win?" Orion asks, enjoying the expression on Prince's face. It seems that the boy doesn't like being reminded that his love is already taken. Octavius grinds his teeth together and clenches his fist sporadically around his wand.

"Fine. You may have your pick of one item that belongs to the Prince family."

Orion smirks. He must be fairly confident to give him free choice of his prize. That, or he is exceptionally stupid. How the heir to the Prince fortune had been sorted into Slytherin is still a mystery to him.

"That sounds reasonable," he agrees. They both feel magic crackle and settle around them, binding them to the deal. Prince snarls at his indifferent attitude but controls himself, instead positioning himself in the dueler's stance. Orion copies him, sparing a moment to wish that Walburga were here to see him run this kid into the ground.

"Expelliarmus!" Prince shouts.

Orion blocks the spell and conjures spikes of ice out of the air. He shoots them toward a shocked Octavius and watches impassively as the boy barely manages to block them in time. Before Prince's Protego spell can end, Orion is already casting his next spell. He will end this quickly; Walburga is expecting him.

"Diffindo! Sectumsempra! Ascendio!"

Orion casts in succession, the last spell hitting Octavius and sending him flying through the air. He crashes into the wall at the end of the corridor. Orion calmly walks up to the struggling seventh year and casts a body-bind curse. The younger man snarls at him as he plucks the boy's wand from his hand.

"Now, Prince, I believe we had a deal," Orion begins, smiling maliciously. He pauses, letting Octavius seethe, before continuing.

"I want the Prince Grimoire."

The seventh year pales and looks up at the Black scion. A look of horror flashes over his face and begins to plead. Orion sneers at the blubbering boy and hands his wand back, but keeps him in the body-bind.

"We had a deal, Prince, and you know the magic surrounding a duel. You will have to comply sooner or later. Summon it from your vault. Now," he commands, watching in satisfaction as the pathetic boy lowers his eyes submissively and mumbles the summoning charm.

A large black tome comes flying in their direction seconds later and Orion deftly snatches it from the air. He caresses the leather-bound cover lovingly, eyes alight with anticipation. Every Pureblood family has a Grimoire, a book that contains all of the spells, charms, potions, and the instructions on how to build any magical artifacts that the family's ancestors had created. The book is constantly being added to as each generation constructs new magical items. To have the secrets of another family's Grimoire is priceless and Octavius Prince is a fool for not expecting Orion to ask for it.

But who is Orion to complain? He'd benefitted from the boy's stupidity, after all.

"Now, open it," he says, holding the book out to Octavius. Each family's Grimoire is spelled to only open for those that have the family's blood in their veins. Orion can't open it, but Octavius can.

The lanky boy suddenly smirks and twitches his wrist, canceling the body-bind curse. He stands and stretches languidly, making a show of dusting off his robes.

"No," he speaks calmly and begins to walk past Orion. The older man grabs Octavius' arm and spins the boy around to face him.

"You don't have a say in the matter, boy. Open it," he demands. Octavius' smirk stretches into a full-blown grin.

"Actually, I do have a choice. You only asked for your pick of the Prince family's magical artifacts. Never once did you specify that I would have to open it." With that, Octavius Prince struts down the hall, acting as if he has won rather than lost. And in a way, he has.

Orion's yell of outrage can be heard throughout the entire castle.

If only he hadn't been so arrogant. He could only try and fix his past mistakes now. And that was exactly what he was planning to do. A loud knock came from his study's door.

"Come in," he spoke clearly and quietly, knowing that his voice would still carry through the thick oak door. Sirius entered first, followed by the ever-stoic Severus Snape. Orion's dark gray eyes immediately locked onto the Potions Master and tried to gauge his mood. What tactic had the best chance of succeeding in receiving the man's agreement to open the Prince Grimoire? As the two men sat across from him, Orion examined and discarded his choices.

"Father, this is a very important meeting, so I will skip the pleasantries," Sirius began, making Orion mentally scoff. When had his son not skipped the pleasantries?

"I want to offer you a deal."

The Black Head of House raised an eyebrow at his son. How interesting…it was unusual for Sirius to make a deal with anyone. If his son had learned anything from his lessons on Black traditions and manners, it was that making a deal with anyone, especially a Slytherin, was risky. One could never be too sure if he'd covered all possible loopholes in the deal or if the other person would actually uphold his end of the bargain.

Sirius had made a deal with Regulus once—though at the young ages of ten and eight, they had called it a "promise"—that they would prank Kreacher and if asked, neither of them would tell on the other.

Regulus had immediately blamed everything on Sirius the moment the prank happened.

Sirius never trusted so easily again.

"What are the terms?" Orion asked, weighing his options. He still hadn't figured out why Snape was here and if it was to support Sirius, then Orion might have a better chance at getting that blasted Grimoire open if he agreed to Sirius' deal.

"I want to claim my son, Harry Beauvais. He is illegitimate—" Orion's eyes darkened nearly to black and he made to stand up, his outrage propelling him to his feet, but Sirius held up a hand to halt his movement. "Let me finish, please. He is illegitimate, but we want you to accept him into the Black family and allow him to take the Black name."

Sirius watched with hidden glee as his father's eyes flickered over to Snape. He had purposely used the word "we" in his explanation to make his father believe that Snape wanted this as well. He was obviously trying to please the dour Potions Master in order to get him to open the Prince Grimoire; if Orion believed that it would please Snape to accept Harry, then he might just agree to the deal.

Or, at least, consider it.

"And what, pray tell, would I be receiving in this deal?" Orion questioned casually, hiding how excited he was becoming. If this was heading where he thought that it was heading, then one of his biggest desires might just be fulfilled.

Sirius exchanged a glance with Snape, silently asking if the man was sure that he wanted to do this. Of course he didn't care too much about the man's happiness, but this was an extremely important choice he was making. He was about to give up centuries of family secrets just for his rival's son to be allowed to claim his father's name smoothly.

Not that Sirius wasn't grateful. In fact, Snape's decision to help him and give up such a valuable item for he and his son improved the man's image in Sirius' eyes greatly.

Severus, understanding Black's hesitation, continued the conversation.

"In exchange for accepting Harry into the Black family, I will open the Prince Grimoire for you."

For the first time in a long time, Orion was experiencing great difficulty in refraining from grinning. As it was, he allowed a small smirk to cross his lips, deciding that it was an occasion that merited such a display of emotion.

Finally, finally, he was going to do what no other wizard had managed; he was going to unlock the secrets of another powerful Pureblood family!

However, before he could allow himself to run away with his excitement and anticipation, he needed to be positive that there were no loopholes. A Prince would not trick him again.

"I see. All I must do is accept Sirius' illegitimate son into the family as if he were legitimate, and you will open the Prince Grimoire?" Sirius was both amused and annoyed to find that Orion was only addressing Severus now. Apparently the Prince Grimoire was more important than his grandson. He didn't even seem angry anymore.

Sirius narrowed his eyes. This was too easy.

"Wait. Why are you agreeing so easily? A moment ago you were nearly out of your chair with outrage over my son's illegitimacy, and now you aren't even sparing it a thought?" Sirius asked, eyeing the Head of the Black House suspiciously. If there was one thing that he knew about his father, it was his uncanny Slytherin ability to weasel his way out of any inconvenient situation.

"Ah, I'm glad to see that you have learned something from your Pureblood tutors. It gives me hope that you will not completely ruin the Black name once you become the Head," Orion said, grimacing as he thought of his wayward son being in charge of the Black House.

"Nonetheless, I assure you that this time, I have no ulterior motives. I am not blind. Though he hides it well, the Minister is interested in the boy," Sirius bristled at his son being referred to as "the boy", but kept quiet. Orion was actually cooperating and there was no need to make him change his mind.

"Not to mention, he is nearly identical to you. Everyone would piece together the facts whether he had the Black name or not, and my ignorance of him would only add to the scandal. Severus Snape is offering me a good deal and I would be a fool to turn it down."

The two Blacks locked eyes and examined each other coolly. Finally, Sirius nodded his head in agreement, deciding that his father was being as truthful as he could ever be. Orion pulled out his wand and summoned the Prince Grimoire from his personal library, reverently handing it over to Severus.

The Potions Master nicked his finger with a weak cutting charm and placed the bloody tip onto the center of the large leather book. A ripple of magic flowed from his finger out toward the edges of the book, before it flipped open of its own accord. Severus handed the open book back to Orion and stood, Sirius following suit. The two men nodded to Orion—whose eyes were riveted to the book—and left the study, heading for the Floo.

"Snape," Sirius said, halting the man before he could step into the fireplace. Severus turned around and looked at him with an eyebrow raised in question.

"I…want to thank you. You have no idea how much your help means to me, even if you didn't do it for me."

Severus watched him indifferently for a moment before saying, "I know."

Sirius grinned. It wasn't the "You're welcome" that he was looking for, but it was a far cry better than the scathing retort that the Potions Master could have easily replied with.

Perhaps being civil with the git wasn't so bad after all.

"What are you doing?"

Harry and Elise glared each other down in front of the hotel's Floo. They had both left the hotel room and traveled down to the lobby at the same time, neither thinking anything of it until they had both stepped up to the Floo at the same time. Harry narrowed his eyes. The charity event at the Ministry was about to start and he was currently leaving to meet Voldemort there. Where was Elise going? This Floo went directly to the Ministry and only to the Ministry.

She couldn't possibly be going to the charity as well.

Elise glared fiercely at her son. She'd woken up at five in the morning and opened her window to let the owl carrying the Daily Prophet into her room and had been pleasantly surprised to see the picture on the front page.

That saloperie de gosse was chatting happily with the Minister and even taking jewelry from him! And now he was heading to the Ministry, no doubt to spend time with his petit ami and ruin her plans once more.

She sighed and resisted the urge to rub her eyes in annoyance; it would mess up her makeup. She had bigger problems to worry about, such as figuring out a plan to get the potion into Voldemort's drink and down his throat. How was she supposed to approach the man if he didn't want to talk with her?

She focused back on her son and suddenly stopped glaring at him. Instead, a sweet smile graced her features and she reached out, snagging the boys arm. Harry's expression didn't change but she could feel his muscles tense beneath her hand as she pulled him into the fireplace with her. A quick toss of Floo powder and they were spinning toward the Ministry together.

Harry tried to yank his arm away from his mother as they stumbled out of the Floo. Her smile was too sweet…

"Come, my son. We should attend the charity event together, don't you think?" Elise questioned rhetorically as she began to drag her son toward the room that was reserved for the charity event. She couldn't approach the Minister on her own, but if she stuck with Harry then the Minister would surely come to him and subsequently, her.

"What?" Harry asked, "How did you get an invitation to that?"

Elise's sweet smile turned malevolent for a moment as she glanced back at her son.

"Oh, you know that kind old politician I was talking to at the Ball…" Elise began, deciding to humor her son with the information he wanted to know for once.

"Well, it seems that he took pity on me after the Minister's…snub," she finished reluctantly.

Harry immediately understood. While the Beauvais name was nobility and the line was Pure, one of Elise's ancestors had squandered much of their fortune and left little for the future generations. By the time Elise's mother had inherited the family name and money, there was really nothing left but the one property Elise currently owned in France. In fact, Harry was sure that it was his Grandmother that had taught Elise how to use men to get what she wanted. Without a fortune of their own, the Beauvais women had turned to male Pureblood heirs for money. While her noble Pureblood status could get her certain places, Elise had to rely heavily on her male contacts to get any other invitations.

Well, she didn't have to rely on men, but it was her method of choice.

The charity event had only just begun, but the room was already crowded with politicians and ministry officials. Large round tables were set around the room with eight chairs and place settings on each. Immaculate white tablecloths covered the tables and place cards sat on the plates of each setting.

A doorman dressed in a white tuxedo stepped up to Elise and Harry and politely asked for their names.

"Ah, Mr. Harry Beauvais, you are up at the front seated with the Minister," he stated as he used a spell to search for their names on a list he had in his hands. He turned and lead the two to the table Harry was to be seated at and they found all but three of the eight seats to be full. Harry recognized Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, and Tom. He didn't know the blonde man seated on Tom's right, but he looked familiar.

"And Ms. Elise Beauvais…" Elise looked at the doorman and smiled prettily. "You will be seated at the table in the back."

Her smile immediately dropped.

"Oh, no! I cannot sit with my son?" she asked, her face a mask of horror and her voice loud enough to echo throughout the room. Several guests turned to see what the commotion was about. The doorman sighed, and looked at her apologetically.

"I'm afraid that the seating chart cannot be changed, madam."

"You wish me to leave my son alone in a foreign country?" Elise practically shouted, emphasizing her French accent and pretending to be a hysterical parent. The guests began to whisper around them and Voldemort stood, pulling out his wand.

Much to Harry's hidden disappointment, the man didn't point the wand at his mother, but at the table. The round table expanded and a ninth set of plates and an extra chair appeared.

"Nonsense, Ms. Beauvais," Voldemort spoke with false geniality. "Of course you may sit with your son."

As much as he hated to allow this, the Minister couldn't let the guests believe that he was deliberately splitting up a mother and son. He inwardly cursed the bitch for purposely causing a scene.

"Oh, merci beaucoup, Minister!" Elise exclaimed and sat down into the chair directly next to Voldemort. Harry blinked, but otherwise hid his disappointment and annoyance at Elise stealing the spot that he had wanted to occupy. The Minister hid his own annoyance just as well.

Harry, however, was quickly distracted by Sirius Black, who was sitting next to him.

"Who are the two other guests that will be arriving?" Harry asked Sirius.

"Regulus Black and Lily Evans." Seeing Harry open his mouth, an obvious question on his lips, Sirius continued, "Regulus is my younger brother."

"Really?" Harry asked and looked over Sirius' shoulder to see a man that looked a lot like Sirius coming up to the table with a beautiful redheaded woman.

"Hello!" The woman, Lily, greeted cheerfully. "Sorry we're late, we got held up at the department."

"Regulus, Lily, I'd like you to meet Harry Beauvais. He's visiting from France and has become quite a close friend of ours," Sirius said, shooting a meaningful look at all four of his friends. Yesterday, Regulus and Lily had both been informed of Harry's true parentage and were excited to meet the son of their friend and brother. Severus had informed Voldemort and Lucius about the news and the papers for a change of custody were already being drafted.

Soon, Sirius would be able to claim Harry as his son and take custody of him.

"It's very nice to meet you, Harry," Lily said, smiling at the teenager and stretching her hand out to him over the table. Harry met her half way and shook hands with the redhead, slightly surprised to find her grip strong and confident. While she looked sweet, she was obviously not someone you wanted on your bad side. Harry's admiration of the woman grew.

Regulus reached forward then and gave Harry's had a good, firm shake, nodding his head when Harry returned the strength of his grip. He seemed more serious than his older brother but still like the type of man that would make a great friend.

Or a great Uncle, Harry thought absently, smiling at the rest of the people seated at the table. His eyes naturally gravitated toward Tom and he cursed his growing interest in the handsome man.

"Harry, I'd also like to introduce you to Lucius Malfoy, a good friend of mine and a court official of the Wizengamot," Voldemort said, catching Harry's eyes and gesturing toward the regal blonde seated at his right. Harry smiled and shook Lucius' hand, marveling at how the man made something as awkward as reaching across a table look so graceful and natural.

Then he remembered a similar blonde bragging to him about how he was a Malfoy and his father was a high court official in the Wizengamot. No wonder Lucius had looked so familiar! He wouldn't let his less than impressive meeting with the man's son cloud his impression of Lucius, however. Sometimes children turned out worse than their parents.

Harry grimaced. He hoped that he wouldn't turn out worse than Elise. Determination filled him. He had to stop thinking like this. He was in complete control of his decisions, and if he didn't want to become like his mother, then he wouldn't.

The green-eyed teenager felt a small weight lift from his shoulders as he finally began to move out from the shadow his mother had left him in. He would be an adult in about half a year; it was time that he started to become the man that he wanted to be, rather than sit around and dream about it.

With renewed confidence, Harry engaged in conversation with everyone at the table. He noticed how Tom's silver eyes watched him with love and desire and he shivered in excitement. Maybe, just maybe, he could allow himself to love this man.

Lunch finished and Voldemort stood, striding over to the small stage at the front of the room. The Minister was going to give a short speech and then hand over a ridiculously large Gringotts bank note to the Cornish Pixie's Correctional Institute.

As Voldemort finished his speech and held out the bank note to the Head of the CPCI, all of the guests began to clap. Reporters took notes and photographers' cameras flashed.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Harry's fork suddenly slipped off of the table and onto the floor. He bent down to grab it, but the utensil seemed to have disappeared. Sirius glanced down at his son and raised an eyebrow.

"Alright there, Harry?" The boy glanced up at Sirius and smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, yes, I just dropped my fork. I can't seem to find it, though…" he murmured and went back to searching for it. Sirius frowned and leaned down to look under the table as well. Severus, Remus, Regulus, Lucius, and Lily all suddenly began to search on the ground and under the table for the fork.

The clapping died down and Voldemort returned to the table. Everyone sat up, looking slightly confused. What had they been doing…?

"That was an excellent speech, Tom," Severus spoke, quickly recovering from the confusion. He narrowed his eyes on an innocent-looking Elise. That confusion was not normal, especially not when everyone else at the table had been experiencing it all at the same time. Everyone except Ms. Beauvais…

Elise hid a smirk as she stashed the now empty vial of Erodition into her robe's pocket. A quick flick of her wand canceled the Confundus charm on the table's other occupants just as the Minister and his Undersecretary returned.

She watched, innocently, as Voldemort reached for his glass to refresh his throat after the speech.

Merci beaucoup – thank you very much

Petit ami – boyfriend

Saloperie de gosse – fucking kid

A/N: So I was looking up French swear words online and found some on a site called " " and the first thing I thought was " ". I have officially graduated from the school of "Nerd" and have been accepted into the College of "Obsession".