Chapter 14: The Black Magic

There was a general muttering and jabber in the attic of The Burrow that followed the narration of the fascinating story of the beginning of Magic. All the kids looked surprisingly interested in the topic and Harry overhead James telling Fred II and Al and Hugo something like "…you know, I bet you on my Firebolt that that bloke Everard really was DUMBLEDORE…!" and the rest of the kids all go "…Oh my god you're sooooo right!"

Harry, who had his hand around Ginny, chuckled at the kids and their wild imagination. He surveyed the room full of people and felt a warmth creep up in his heart. 'If only we had this growing up as well… No hurting scar… No war… No bloodshed... Being able to sleep peacefully at nights… If only…' he thought to himself.

Harry was snapped out of his reverie when he heard his youngest asking something to Hermione.

"Aunt 'Merione, what did the clock look like?" asked a very wide-eyed young Lily. "Was it made of goooold?" she asked, eagerly with a wide smile on her face. Hermione and Ron laughed. Hermione brought Lily to her lap and wrapped her hands around her niece and said, "Well, we don't know about that, sweetheart. Maybe it was. It is goblin-made after all and globlins love their gold," she said, smiling widely at her. She seemed to love the innocence of kids.

"Mum, look we have a pocket clock too!" squealed Rose and looked down at the locket that hung from her neck. It was Hermione's time-turner which had helped her get to her classes in her third-year at Hogwarts.

Hermione looked alarmed at her daughter holding the time-turner. She shook it off immediately saying, "Rose, that's a different kind of pocket clock, darling, give it back! How many times have I told you not to play with this? It's not something to mess around with!"

At this point, Ron yawned loudly and announced, "Okay everyone! I think it's time for bed. Hurry along now, show's over!" which invited a lot of groans and protests. But the kids did look very tired from all the playing and didn't mind making their way up to their rooms and calling it a night.

Ginny looked at Harry and said, "I'll take care of Lily tonight, why don't you hang around here and find out more about what happened. You won't believe how curious I am to know more!" she said, grinning broadly and gave her husband a good-night kiss and swept out of the room.

"Bye, darling," said Harry and waved to his wife and George and Angelina who all trudged down the stairs sounding particularly animated after that very gripping bed-time story session. Just as Harry waved them all good-bye, something struck him: 'A whip of time…?'

"Ron, what exactly did the prophecy say?" asked Harry, without looking at Ron, but rummaging the room for Sirius's diary. "Get me the notes, mate, we have work to do," he said.

Ron looked speechlessly at Harry and stood there pointing to his watch as if to say, 'Harry, do you KNOW what time it is?!' Harry simply waved him off saying, "Ron, come on, this is serious business. We need to get to the bottom of this and we need to do it quick! Something tells me we're running out of time" he said, and absent-mindedly went to fetch his diary.

"Wh… Harry…! Oh okay!" grumbled Ron and took out his little notes pad. "Okay, so" he said, stifling a little yawn, "it says here, 'Four decades hence, the fruits be borne; the change of fate with a whip of time; daughter of love, sacrifice and thorn; seven times doth the clock chime'" he added, sleepily, and then all of a sudden, his eyes went wide. "Harry! Does… Does this prophecy suggest what I think it's suggesting?!" he said, looking bewildered and clasping the pad shut loudly.

"Exactly what I thought a moment ago, Ron," said Harry, grimly. "Hermione, bring me that time-turner of yours, please? And keep it with you while we go into Sirius's memory?" he said, and Hermione obliged readily.

"Okay… Ron, Hermione, no matter what you do, keep your eyes open. Make notes whenever needed," and, with that, the three of them had plunged one more time into Sirius's diary.

oOo—Sirius's Memory–oOo

DECEMBER 21, 1976
Near The Whomping Willow, Hogwarts
6.54 PM

"What do you think, Peter, Remus?" asked Sirius, quite nervously, despite his cheery smile.

Remus and Peter gaped at Sirius for a second, quite unable to speak right away. Remus continued to stare at his best friend while Peter kept darting his eyes from Sirius to the large rock that he was holding in his fingers in utter disbelief.

"I er… Thought I'd tell about this to James a little later, you know. I mean, he'd be gutted if he knew I was getting engaged before him!" he said, and laughed a bit.

"Sirius…" Remus started, weakly, as a slow smile crept up on his face. He looked strangely more tired than usual. "I didn't know you were this serious… I mean, are you sure about this, mate?" he asked, sounding concerned. "Like, you're only all of 17. BOTH of you! I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Izzy, but do you want to…"

"Remus, I can't wait, mate," said Sirius, solemnly. "I mean, after what happened in the dungeons last week, I just… I dunno… I am having a very, very bad feeling about this, I am worried sick about her, mate. Keep getting this awful dream about her dying… Keep feeling she's in some sort of grave danger… And in my dream, someone's doing something really bad to her and I just can't seem to shake it off. I need her to be with at all times until this war ends, mate. If we get married, my family Magic will protect her to an extent... I mean, She'll be a Black too and I'd feel a lot safer letting her loiter off wherever, just for a little while, you see what I'm saying?" he finished, and looked expectantly at his friends. "Peter, mate, say something. What do you think?"

Peter, Harry thought, had gone extremely white with fear. He looked up at Sirius nervously and ran his hand through his hair as his eyes darted back at the ring in Sirius's hand. "Is that… Mrs. Black's wedding ring, Sirius?" he asked.

"Ha! Sharp you are, Peter! Yes, it indeed is, my friend. Why do you ask though?" Sirius added, curiously. He frowned at Peter's dumbfounded expression and added, "What's the matter, Wormtail, why do you look so tense?"

"Sirius, are you SURE you want to do this?" he said, and suddenly, his face changed. An expression of anger had replaced the scared, nervous look on his rat-like face. To Harry, he did not seem like a shy and timid little fellow anymore. Something had changed in him. Something he just could not a put a finger on.

"Sirius! You're a Black!" Peter continued. His face was quivering slightly from all the effort he was putting in. "And you're the eldest in your family, have you not thought of what that could do to your family's reputation?! You really want your mother's ring on that muggle-born's finger?!" he said, his teeth chattering uncontrollably now. It looked like he was not used to ever standing up to his friends up until this point.

"Peter, what are you ratting about?" yelled Remus, put Peter slapped his hand away and continued. Harry thought Remus looked like he was gasping for breath as he spoke.

"You really want to attenuate the power of your family's blood Magic?!" he yelled. Peter looked unstoppable now while a look of complete shock hung over Sirius's face. It looked like Peter had mustered up every ounce of courage left in him to finally speak his mind to Sirius's face.

"WHAT the bloody hell?!" yelled Sirius, and roughly pushed Peter back. "Where is all this coming from, eh? What do YOU care about my family's Magic all of a sudden?" he demanded. "Why do you sound so much like Regulus?!" he demanded. Peter continued to quiver in his face and started to move away from the two of them. "Peter, wait!" said Sirius, and menacingly grabbed hold of Peter's robes. Anger was dancing in his eyes as he looked at Peter's face and whispered, "Have you been talking to mum?!"

"Yes! YES! I worship her! She's like a mother to me too!" he wailed.

"She's a witch that is born to manipulate and play with your MIND, Peter!" snarled Sirius. "Her 'high' self and all! It's complete bollocks! Why else do you think I WALKED out of my OWN house if not, this summer, eh?! Do NOT listen to her, Peter!"

"NO! Unlike ANY of you, she respects me and acknowledges my presence! A privilege none of you extended to me! Said she'd take me as her own son someday since YOU'RE such a disgrace to her family! MY family!" he bellowed. He looked completely deranged right now. "I was supposed to keep an eye on you, you know?" he added, this time, looking nervously. "It's my responsibility to preserve the purity of the House of Black…"

"Peter, for MERLIN'S SAKE!" bellowed, Sirius and looked ready to punch him squarely in his face, when he was interrupted by an unearthly howl of a wolf from somewhere very near to them. Sirius and Peter froze in their footsteps and instinctively turned towards the sky as the cold moonlight washed over their faces.

The images slowly began to fade and warped back into the Great Hall.

~oO

DECEMBER 22, 1976
The Great Hall, Hogwarts
7.30 AM

It was early on a Wednesday morning and all those seventh-year students who intended to apply for the Auror program have stayed back in school for the Christmas holidays and attend their early N.E.W.T.'s. At the moment, the atmosphere in the Great Hall was abuzz with frenzied students thronging their House Tables to to grab a bite before their exams began. James, Sirius and Peter sat together on one end of the Gryffindor table, while the girls and Remus sat opposite to them.

Harry thought Remus looked terrible and worse than he's ever seen him before with bags under his eyes and scars all over his face. Harry also noticed Claiborne sitting next to Remus and helping him with his soup while whispering something across to Peter. The others clearly did not seem to find this odd, neither did they pay them any attention and continued to chatter away when a rather large owl swooped into the Great Hall and dropped a very official-looking box in front of Isabella.

"What in the world?" she said, picking up the parcel. She quickly paid the large owl and tore open the wrapping of the box only to find a black wooden crest with an ornate gold clasp. On the top right corner of the box, in bright gold, were printed the letters, "ISABELLA WILLIAMS."

She looked up at her friends curiously and gingerly opened the box. There were plenty of things inside the chest starting from ornate lockets to wands and orbs. However, one yellowing old rolled parchment caught her eye. She picked up the roll and carefully pulled the red string off. Harry saw Isabella's eyes instantly water as she recognized her mother's handwriting:

11th April, 1960

Dear Isabella Grace Louisa Williams,

I hope you find this letter at the right time; a time when you would understand why I wrote this letter in the first place, my dear baby. I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am today, Isabella. You were born this morning and you are the most beautiful little girl I ever laid my eyes on!

Isabella, there are some things that I will not be able to tell you until you have grown into a strong, beautiful young lady; things that are very complicated for a little girl like you to understand. I hope you understand that my sole intentions of keeping you in the dark are merely to protect you from the prejudices of the world and the pressures to conform to societal predispositions. I am going to tell you a little story in this letter, Isabella: the story of our family.

We are not Muggles, my dear girl. We are not non-magical people as you would eventually be raised as. We are, indeed, a proud and very powerful magical family, almost "royalty" so to speak, and we have held the "pure-blood" status for nearly thousands of years. However, that streak was broken a couple of generations ago when your great-great-great-grandmother defied our family values and fell in love with a Muggle-born man named George Alexander Williams.

Isabella, you have no idea what it is like to go after what one wanted at a time like that. Fortunately, you are born in times when things are looking very bright for young women to choose and want as they please, but back in the 1700's, the magical world was a very cruel place. Muggles were treated like slaves and were made to do odd jobs that were not even remotely civil. It was a time when haughty pure-blood gentlemen went to town and hunted Muggles down, humiliated them, tortured them, even killed them for their sheer pleasure and entertainment.

Our family was obsessed with blood status too, owing to our ancestral origins. However, as bold as your great-great-great-grandmother was, she did not care for what the world believed in, for she had fallen in love with a man that loved her to her very bones. Quite a scandal it was: the two of them had eloped and gotten married in a small Irish town. One year they spent together as husband and wife in the little town as they welcomed their new-born son into the world. However, our pure-blood obsessed family tracked them down and murdered the two, while sparing the new-born baby.

Our family magic continued on, however. The Williams family line has produced several very notable witches and wizards, Isabella. Several except me. As fate would have it, I ended up being born a squib. I have no magical powers whatsoever and am as good as a Muggle-born. However, I met your father, my third-cousin, who loved me for exactly who I was and, being raised with a very modern outlook, did not care if I could do magic or not and ended up marrying me. We decided to live as Muggles among Muggles in Muggle localities and raise our children in that environment where there is no prejudice and discrimination. Now, three years later, I have you on my lap as I write this letter. You may or may not end up being a witch, but just know that, no matter what you are, dada and I will love you and cherish you for exactly that.

I hope you are not angry with mum right now...

Lots of love and kisses,
Your Mother,

Elizabeth Louisa Williams

P.S. Your great-great-great-grandmother was Norvella Scarlett Gryffindor. Yes, you are the successor and belong to the direct line of descendants to our great ancestor, Godric Gryffindor, my baby girl.