Chapter Twenty-One
A Potter's Secret
"Sirius what are you doing?" exclaimed an appalled McGonagall. Everyone turned to look at him. Chris was holding his nose, which was bleeding. Samantha quickly handed him some tissue, which he took gratefully. Sirius was staring at Chris with pure hatred in his eyes. He didn't bother answering McGonagall's question.
"Nice to see you too," said Chris once his nose stopped bleeding.
"I'm surprised you even have the guts to show your face around here anymore! What, did your conscience finally guilt you into coming back?" sneered Sirius.
"And what would you know of having a conscience Black. You've never regretted anything."
"Ha, you are extremely behind in your news Potter! Maybe you should just go back to wherever it was that you were hiding and stay there."
"You know nothing about me Black!"
"I know that people like you don't change and because of that I should hex you back to wherever you came from!"
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a promise!"
"WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?" screamed Samantha. Everyone jumped at the sound of the new voice.
"Why don't you tell her Chris. After all you do know her the best," said Sirius.
"You're an asshole." Chris reminded before turning to her. "Look Samantha, do you remember when I told you about my parents?"
Samantha nodded not understanding how that fit into what as going on now.
"Well after they died I became a bit of prick."
"You became even more of a jealous, little, whinny, baby than you already were!" exclaimed Sirius.
"Do you want to tell the story or not?" Chris asked annoyed. "Anyway my brother and I had a bit of a falling out, which is why Sirius is not too happy to see me, seeing as how he was close to my brother. The falling out was the reason that I went to live in America,"
Harry had a feeling that there was more to the story than Chris was letting on.
"Wonderful Chris, now that that's out of the way why don't we go back to what I brought you here for. I need to know exactly what happened in Hogsmead," Dumbledore stared at each of them with a serious expression, one he rarely wore.
Each person told their story in turn. Once they were done and Dumbledore had established a pretty good time line, the four Hogwarts students and Chris were asked to leave.
"If you don't mind Albus I would like to speak with Harry and his friends some more," said Sirius eyeing Chris warily.
"But Sirius don't you want to sit in on the meeting?" asked Dumbledore with his familiar twinkle back in his eye.
"Remus can catch me up," Sirius said standing up.
"Of course leave all to me," Remus muttered.
"I can't help it, you always were the responsible one,"
"Alright, go to the Room of Requirement to talk. Chris I believe that Charms was your best subject. I would like you to help Professor Flitwick with some of his projects. He's expecting you so please go to his classroom as soon as possible, you do remember where his room is don't you?"
Chris nodded.
The others followed and five people and one black dog filed out of the headmaster's office. The black dog led the students to the hall where the Room of Requirement was. It was here that they separated with Chris, but not before he glared at the dog.
After Chris continued on his way Harry, Samantha, Ron, Hermione, and Sirius in his dog form entered the room.
"What's going on Sirius," asked Harry when they were all in the room.
"You'd better sit down," Sirius replied. He didn't continue until they all had. "There are things about Chris that you all need to know."
"No offense Sirius, but I know Chris pretty well, I don't think there's much that you can tell me," Samantha told him.
"You won't know what I'm about to tell."
Samantha raised an eyebrow.
"You see Chris didn't complete his seven years at Hogwarts. His mother was absolutely crushed at the thought that her youngest child wasn't going to finish his education. Sure he completed his OWL's but she really wished that he would complete his NEWT's like his older brother. She begged Chris to continue with his education but he wouldn't listen. His brother got so upset with him that he contacted me and we went to try and talk some sense into him. A huge fight erupted and Chris packed his bags and refused to talk to anyone in his family again. He didn't leave any contact information and for months no one knew where he was. Later that summer Voldemort killed his parents."
Samantha frowned, 'Poor Chris'.
"For some reason he decided to go to their funeral. His brother was livid that Chris had the gall to show up after all of the pain that he had put everyone through, especially their mother. His brother didn't confront him until after everyone had left the funeral and I can assure you he was rather civil considering how mad he was at Chris. They came to an agreement that basically stated that Chris would accept letters from his brother and then let his brother know if he was ever going to visit again. Chris followed the agreement for awhile. His brother graduated and got accepted into Auror training but Chris wasn't there to witness any of it."
"Why not?" Samantha asked. She was quickly hushed by everyone.
"Then one night Chris arrived un-expectedly to his brother's home. His brother and his brother's fiancé were having the rehearsal dinner for their wedding. Chris came in drunk off his arse and started saying all of these awful things, insulting everyone in the room. His brother kept his temper in check up until Chris called his future wife a dirty, loose-"
Sirius cast a quick glance at Harry and decided to keep the latter comments to himself.
"Er, let's just say that Chris had a few injuries the next morning. I don't know what Chris' reason for coming that night was but he pissed his brother off so badly, that the last time he saw Chris was that night. And the last time that he wrote to Chris was when his first child, a son, was born. The last time that we heard of Chris' whereabouts was when he wrote a letter to his brother right after his nephew was born saying that something had come up and he wouldn't be in contact with them for awhile,"
Everyone sat in silence processing what Sirius had just said.
"Sirius how do you know all of this?" Harry finally asked.
"I know Harry, because Chris," Sirius paused for a moment trying to figure out how to tell his godson the tragic news. "is your uncle,"
Everyone was stunned into silence.
"Nooo!" Samantha gasped. Sirius looked at her funny, she was rather dramatic.
"What?" he asked.
"No, I refuse to believe that Chris did such horrible things, to his family no less. He was always telling me to be thankful for having loving parents."
"Well maybe he realized how dumb he had been, but his stubbornness made him refuse to apologize. Or he realized it too late. Don't ask me how his brain works as I don't know. But I do know that Chris is James' little brother, which makes him Harry's uncle."
"Hooray! You've figured out a family tree, without the drapery!" Samantha applauded, remembering what Harry had told her about the Black family tree.
"She's so moronic," Ron said.
Hermione couldn't even respond.
Harry was stunned. He had never known that his father had any siblings at all and now he has an uncle from his father's side.
Samantha was in shock as well once her mind returned back to the bigger issue. She had thought that she knew Chris fairly well, but he obviously didn't tell her everything. She had never seen the side of him that Sirius had described.
"I'm sorry but I still have a very hard time believing this," said Samantha.
"I understand Samantha; after all you are close to him. But I want all of you to be careful around him. I don't trust him," Sirius warned.
"Why not?" asked Ron.
"Because when he was crashing the rehearsal dinner and in between insulting people he was spouting off some weird things, things that seemed too dark for comfort. Just promise me that you'll be careful around him please," Sirius asked each of them.
"I promise," said Ron.
"I promise," said Hermione.
"I promise," said Harry.
Sirius looked at Samantha, she just looked back and didn't say a word.
"Samantha I know you trust Chris and that you barely know me, but it would ease my mind a little bit if you also promised," Sirius told her.
"Fine, I promise, but only because I know that we have nothing to fear from Chris. He wouldn't…" She took a deep breath. "won't hurt us."
"I truly hope you're right Samantha, but I still want you four to be on your guard around him, and tell me if he does or says anything out of the ordinary or that could be suspicious."
"Alright Sirius, we'll be careful," Harry promised.
"Thank you." With nothing else to say Sirius stood up and transformed into his dog form and left the room but not before he gave a dog hug to Harry.
"Harry, are you going to be alright?" Hermione asked. Nothing small ever seemed to happen to her friend and she was anxious at how he would take this news.
"I'll be fine Hermione, I just…I just need time to process everything," He replied slowly, he didn't actually know the answer to that question. Would he be alright?
No one knew what to say.
It was the worst ending to an almost perfect day.
AN: I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT!! My beta got really busy with other stuff. Hopefully it won't take her as long to edit the next chapter, but don't hold your breath. Thank you all for reading. Please review.
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I would be living in England with my lovely beta reader. But alas I am a poor student, barely making ends meet.