A/N: I didn't write in any Alex in this chapter. You can take that to mean that she isn't doing anything other than moping around their hotel room being sad that Sirius isn't with her so near Christmas...Right now in the story it is a couple of days before Christmas, just for clarification.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The feelings of guilt Sirius had experienced after initially learning of his mother's death had disappeared completely. Why should he feel guilty over his treatment of her just because she had died? She was the one who pushed him to act the way he did, after all. In the place of those feelings, he now felt nothing but a huge boulder being lifted from his shoulders. He had told Alex that his family would never try to help the Ministry find him, which was true about almost all of his family. However, his mother was so maniacal in her hatred of him that she was a loose cannon, and it wouldn't be hard at all for her to convince some of his cousins, who all wanted his money, to help her if she decided to help the Ministry.
Despite some of the pressure being lifted off of him by his mother's death, he still wasn't happy. He was currently on a muggle airplane en route to London. He hadn't been on the plane for five minutes when he was sick of it. He didn't have the option of simply appearing in London, however. The news of the death of Walburga Black was sure to have reached the Ministry – the death of any pureblood was known by the Ministry – and they would be looking for Sirius. He had read something in the Daily Prophet about how he had left home at sixteen (true, of course), but how the reason he gave his friends and acquaintances of having a falling with his parents was untrue. He had apparently truly left home in order to be trained by Voldemort. The newspaper had conveniently left out the part about his staying all summer with the Potters right after he left home. In any event, the Ministry probably thought that he had genuinely liked his mother, and they would be looking for him to make an appearance. Since he was supposed to be the right hand of Voldemort, anyone arriving by means of muggle transportation wouldn't be looked at twice since no one with that kind of reputation would be caught dead associating with anything muggle related.
Sirius couldn't have cared less about anything to do with his mother's death, and he certainly never would have even thought of coming to London if he had a choice in the matter. He didn't have a choice, however. He never even would have known about his mother's death if it hadn't been for the letter he had received from Gringotts. The letter had served the express purpose of summoning him to the Diagon Alley branch of the bank to settle his mother's affairs. So, here he was, in a muggle airplane, heading to London to talk about his mother even though he would rather be eating cake or something to celebrate the freedom that her death had given him.
Alex hadn't been able to come. After the rather unfortunate events of New York City some two (give or take a little) years ago, she hadn't been able to control herself around other people. She could function perfectly fine in a crowd, of course, but as soon as someone made her mad they were dead. Sirius had the theory that after everything she had suffered at the hands of other people, that her magic was just protecting her automatically from any further hurt. She was like an animal that had spent its entire life being beaten by its owners. Such a creature couldn't be trusted not to flip out around other humans since it would react automatically with fear and distrust. Sure, he personally made her mad on a regular basis since he was self-admittedly nothing but a clueless guy where she was concerned, but he had earned her trust. He figured that if anyone else was able to earn her trust before she killed them that she probably wouldn't react the same to them as to other people even if she was furious, but there weren't exactly willing volunteers for testing out such a theory.
He missed her. It had been years since they were separated for longer than a couple of hours at a time, and he really didn't know what to do with himself. To make matters worse, he was seated next to the most flirtatious, airheaded, bubbly, talkative girl in the world. She had done nothing but gush at him from the moment he sat down. He thought that he had handled her comments and questions about his appearance rather well considering the strain he was under. He was currently trying his best to ignore her. He hadn't even commented when she had leaned over him and pressed her chest into his with her hand resting on his upper thigh with the excuse of wanting to look out the window. That was a load of bullshit since there was nothing but the ocean to see. He didn't want to cause a scene when the last thing he needed was to draw attention to himself. She was making it progressively more difficult the more she opened her mouth, and she almost never closed it!
Her chatter about how he possessed amazing hair, which had resulted in a thirty minute narrative on hair care and how many men don't know the first thing about it, was interrupted by the pilot's announcement that they were approaching the airport. Sirius let out a sigh of relief as she stopped talking long enough to buckle her seatbelt and make sure that her items were safely put away for the landing.
His relief was short-lived, unfortunately, when she turned back to face him, "So you aren't married?"
"No," he answered her in a clipped tone while he gritted his teeth in an effort not to hex her.
"I didn't think so. I've noticed that you aren't wearing a wedding band. Of course, I had to ask since so many men take them off every chance they get," Sirius was on the verge of asking exactly how many men she had been married to in order to obtain this information when she let out a gasp, "Oh my God! That's amazing! Where did you get it!"
Sirius yanked his right hand out of the girl's grasp where she had been fingering his signet ring. "Family crest," he answered her in as few words as possible.
"Oh!" she cooed loudly, "Is your family rich?"
Sirius was really getting sick of the girl's tactless questioning. "No," he said. Really it wasn't a big lie since his family wasn't exactly rich. They had money, but he had the fortune and he hadn't let any of them get their hands on it. Besides, he didn't want the girl to start thinking about trying to get him to marry her or anything. He didn't have any proof that she would, but she seemed like a gold-digger if you asked him.
"Really? That's strange," she eyed him suspiciously, "I've never heard of a poor family being important enough to have a crest."
Their mostly one-sided conversation was interrupted by a gasp. They both turned to look at the person standing in the aisle beside them, and Sirius's eyes widened in recognition. The woman standing beside them was staring at Sirius in a mixture of shock and horror, and he was sure he had the same look plastered on his own face.
No words were spoken as the woman was ushered along by a flight attendant, "Excuse me, Miss, but you'll have to return to your seat. We're about to land and the seatbelt sign is on."
Sirius turned in his seat to try and see where the woman was seated, which turned out to be only a few rows behind him. The girl beside him whined loudly, "How rude! Just staring at you like that! Do you know her?"
"She's my cousin," he muttered offhandedly.
The rest of the flight was spent completely ignoring the girl to the point where she went on a rampage about how rude men were. Sirius really could have cared less what anyone thought of him at that point, since he was busy formulating a plan in his mind. He had to talk to his cousin before she left the airport. There was no way for him to tell what she would do if he let her get away. She might contact the Ministry immediately if he was going by the look of fear on her face. If she was afraid of him then she really thought that he had done what he was accused of.
Sirius was tense with anticipation as the plane skidded onto the runway. The girl sitting beside him – she'd honestly only told him her name once, and he hadn't been paying attention – had apparently decided to forgive him for ignoring her. She placed a hand on his arm and leaned in close to him, "What do you say I give you my phone number? We can meet up sometime."
Sirius was past the point of calm as the girl's breath against his cheek completely shredded his last nerve. He spun to face her as he threw her hand off of him and scowled at her, "I would rather take out a monkey in a tutu than go on a date with you. You seem the type to spread your legs with no questions in the name of fucking good looking men, but the ugliest and most disagreeable man on earth could find someone more worth his while to wake up to in the morning than you, so I think I'll pass."
The shocked expression on the girl's face was almost enough to make him laugh if he hadn't been so fed up. She was gaping at him, "Wha..."
He cut off her question with a glare, "Take your filthy eyes off of me." The girl stared at him for another few seconds before she abruptly spun around to stare off into the aisle.
Nothing eventful happened as the plane made it's way to the gate way too slowly in Sirius's opinion. The girl beside him continued to stare in any direction but his. He wouldn't have felt sorry for her even if he hadn't been under stress. He didn't think that he had been anywhere near too hard on her. She was just lucky that she didn't have tentacles growing out of her face as far as he was concerned.
As the passengers were finally given leave to stand up and exit the plane, the girl rushed away from him as quickly as she could. Sirius himself was in a hurry, and rushed to get off the plane as quickly as possible. He was on the receiving end of many glares as he shoved his way past people and out of the ramp. As soon as he was in the terminal he moved to one side of the gate so that he could see the people come out.
After a few minutes, the person he was looking for finally emerged. Unfortunately, she was on the other side of the wide line of people. Sirius fought his way back through the crowd to situate himself behind his cousin.
Finally, he got right behind her. With a deep breath, he grabbed her by the arm and swung her around. The people around them stopped to look as she let out a scream, and he was quick to cover up, "Andy! What a surprise to see you here! It's been ages since I've seen my favorite cousin!" Andromeda didn't seem capable of speaking, but both she and Sirius looked like Blacks, so his story was accepted and the onlookers went on their merry ways.
"You...you...but, you..." she seemed incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence.
Sirius looked to the brown-haired man beside his cousin. He was looking anxiously at his wife, obviously nervous and not very happy at all that she was being cornered by Sirius Black, but unable to stop it. Sirius noticed that he was struggling to keep a young girl behind him, obviously shielding her from him, but that the girl wasn't about to give in to the protection.
Sirius grinned at the girl as she finally succeeded in poking her head around her father's side, effectively knocking over two suitcases and almost tripping herself in the process. She grinned right back at him, which was a little surprising to Sirius, but he shook it off and turned back to Andromeda, "Don't make a scene. If I was going to hurt you do you really think I would have called all that attention to the fact that I was with you right before your death? How about we pop into that restaurant over there and have a little chat?" He indicated a cheap airport restaurant that only had a few occupants at one end.
Without waiting for permission, the little girl ran around her father and jumped on Sirius in an enormous hug. She was chattering before any of the adults had proper time to respond, "Don't mind Mum, Sirius. She thinks that you turned all evil on her. Says something about not being around enough after she got married to stop Bella from having her way with your mind. I told her that she was crazy, but she told me that I didn't know what I was talking about and that I didn't know her family. I asked her whose fault was that, but she bottled up and got all mad about it after that."
Nymphadora was already dragging him along beside her as she made her way to the restaurant he had pointed out earlier, and Sirius could only get out an, "Oh."
Before anyone else could speak, the girl suddenly stopped in her tracks and spun around to face him fully, "Look, Sirius, Professor McGonagall has been helping be with my powers." She proceeded to look around carefully and shield her face with her hair before she changed the shape of her nose into that of a pig and then back to normal in quick succession.
By the time they started back up on their journey, her parents had caught up with them and were hovering around trying to extricate her from Sirius's grasp. Sirius himself had little say in the matter of a little girl clutching at his hand. She didn't let go until they were all inside the restaurant and she had chosen a table. She let go of him as she slid into the booth, and Sirius looked around at her parents to make sure no one had drawn wands yet.
"I don't know what you're playing at..." Ted started angrily.
Sirius cut him off, "I'm not playing at anything, Tonks. I just want to talk to my cousin and see if she could really let herself believe that I'm evil is all."
"Sit next to me, Sirius," Nymphadora ignored the hostility between her parents and her cousin.
Sirius complied by taking the proffered seat, and soon enough her parents thought it best to just slide in on the other side of the table so as not to leave their daughter unguarded. Sirius looked across the table at his favorite cousin, "I didn't do it, you know."
"What else am I supposed to believe? They say that you did it! They put you in Azkaban for Merlin's sake! They don't do that without proof!" the woman hissed angrily.
"No, but they certainly do it without giving trials nowadays," Sirius stared at her passively, "If you believe everything you hear, then how do you explain all the utter bullshit they've been spreading about why I left home? You're the one who I went to first. You're the one who gave me the idea of staying with the Potters."
Andromeda didn't have anything to say to that, and her confusion was apparent on her face. Nymphadora spoke in triumph, "See, I told you so! I told you that Cousin Sirius would never do all that stuff they said he did!"
Sirius smiled at her, "Well, it's good to know that I have one supporter, Nymphadora."
A frown passed over the girl's features, "Don't call me that! I knew Mum was crazy even before she believed that you'd done it. What sane person would name their child such a thing! I guess you can call me what you've always called me. Even though I'm not a kid anymore! I'm thirteen, you know."
"Yeah, kid, thirteen is a very mature age," Sirius indulged her sarcastically. He stood up abruptly as he eyed Andromeda coolly, "It was Pettigrew, if you care to know the truth. Frankly, I don't think I care whether or not you believe me anymore. I don't know why I even bothered. You were my favorite cousin, I always came to you before anyone else, and you believed that I'd murdered my best friendwithout a question? At least you have a lovely daughter."
He spun around and stalked off without waiting for a response from anyone at the table. He didn't think that the Tonks would go off informing the Ministry of his presence. He was hurt that his favorite cousin had believed such a thing about him. He would have to get in touch with Nymphadora again, that was for sure. She was a great kid, and he'd always liked her. She'd only been eight the last time he had seen her, but her ninth birthday was in the middle of October and he'd sent her a gift. Her mother must have loved that her daughter was receiving gifts from cousins who were arrested for mass murder and treason just weeks later.
As he stepped into a cab in front of the airport and gave the directions for Grimmauld Place, Sirius wondered if any of the other members of his family would be there. The Blacks were a strictly loyal family, but they weren't particularly caring. They were probably all comfortable in their own homes and would only bother to show up for the funeral instead of even giving off the appearance of caring to society. He supposed that Regulus might be there. He was a momma's boy if ever there was one, and was probably completely devastated that there was no one around to help him get his way anymore. Personally, Sirius was surprised that he hadn't been arrested yet, but four years of listening to the news hadn't given any mention of his name as a death eater.
He paid the cab driver and stepped out of the car onto the sidewalk without bothering to change his appearance. He knew that no Ministry personnel would be allowed inside the house. There were far too many dark artifacts for anyone in his family to allow that even if they had the authority to do so. They wouldn't be able to even break their way into the house, so Sirius would be as safe as possible for the duration of his stay in London.
He was surprised to find that his brother was no where to be found. In fact, the only living creature anywhere in the entire house was Kreacher, the insane house elf. He bowed and postured as he was expected to do for his master, but Sirius just sent him off to his cupboard with an impatient wave of his hand. It was going to be a miserable stay as far as he could tell.
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Gringotts was making Sirius especially nervous. He remembered that he hadn't given the goblins any instructions about whether or not they could tell anyone if he had business with them, just that they couldn't divulge information or allow entrance into his vaults. He assumed that the goblins had been given no choice but to tell the aurors that he was expected to conclude business with them. He knew that Ragnok, who was personally over his accounts, would never have betrayed him in any way. Not that the goblin particularly liked him – Sirius got the impression that he hated all wizards – but he assumed that all Blacks were the same and that it would cost him his life to divulge any information. Any other goblin, however, would tell the Ministry anything it wanted to know as long as no personal harm would come to itself.
Sirius had, of course, plucked hair from a random unsuspecting muggle on the street and used it in a Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself. He did his best to act normally, and stood about inconspicuously in line like the dozens of other people in the bank. Despite his completely natural appearance, he was fidgeting horribly on the inside. He had been in the auror world long enough to be able to spot the less-than-inconspicuous aurors hanging around the bank. They were dressed in their everyday clothes and acting normal for the most part, but Sirius could spot them from a mile away. He had seen the first one sitting outside at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor keeping an eye on the front steps of Gringotts as if they honestly expected Sirius Black to just waltz up to the front door as himself. There were several more walking the streets in front of the bank to go along with the first one. It was laughable really. The six aurors – who, to Sirius at least, were obviously hit wizards – hovering about the lobby were doing nothing to affect his humor, however.
He glanced at the elaborate clock on the wall, and saw that he only had twelve more minutes until his polyjuice potion wore off. He couldn't take it again since someone tossing back refreshment out of a personal flask in the middle of Gringotts was a bit too conspicuous. He turned back to the line in front of him. There were still two people in front of him: one speaking with the goblin behind the counter, and one waiting to go next. Sirius sighed and hoped that they didn't have any particularly accomplished Legilimens in the room as he turned his attention to the old woman in front of him.
He was very careful not to let the old woman detect the presence of someone else in her mind. He didn't probe for any thoughts and instead simply read the ones she was currently thinking about so that she wouldn't get suspicious of foreign thoughts suddenly popping into her head. He glanced back to the clock, which now showed nine minutes left until he was back to his normal appearance. Finally, the woman thought about something that was useful to him.
Sirius concentrated everything he had on sending the thought of being late for her grandson's birthday party into the woman's mind. The woman began to fidget a bit and Sirius backed off, knowing that he had accomplished his task. The woman glanced at the clock and then back to the man in front of her. A few seconds later she glanced at the clock and sighed. Sirius's plan might not have worked if it weren't for the fortunate occurrence of a slight argument breaking out between the man at the counter and the goblin tending to him. The woman took one more glance at the clock, heaved another sigh, and stalked off, effectively leaving Sirius as the next person in line.
Sirius stepped forward anxiously to fill the space that the old witch had just occupied. Five minutes and counting. He tried not to appear nervous as he watched the seconds hand counting down on the clock, but inside he was a wreck. He was on the verge of shoving the man out of his way when the clock showed that he had three minutes left. When he had two minutes and forty-five seconds left the man finally stepped away from the counter.
Sirius practically threw his key at the goblin. "I swear if you don't put me through immediately I'll have your head," he hissed just loud enough for the two of them to hear.
"Of course, Master Bl..." the goblin obviously thought better of finishing this usage of Sirius's surname as the man in question glared at him. The goblin cleared his throat nervously before continuing, "Ragnok left specific instructions for your arrival. You're to be shown to a private room on the third floor."
Sirius glanced at the clock again as he waited for the goblin to get a move on. He had one minute and fifty-two seconds. He waited a few seconds further with no response from the goblin. Obviously he was new on the job and had no clue what to do. Sirius decided to help him along a bit. He growled out, "You have ten seconds to have me on my way to this room or I swear you'll never work here again."
The goblin stared at him in shock for six seconds out of his allotted ten before he seemed able to form a thought. He spoke quickly, "Through that door and up the elevator. Someone will be waiting for you at the top."
Sirius snatched back his key and made for the indicated door as quickly as he could without drawing attention to himself. When he reached the door he immediately looked around for a knob, but saw none. It took him a few seconds of panic before he caught sight of the keyhole in the wall beside the door. He quickly placed his key in the space and jiggled it experimentally. After a few seconds, it gave way and twisted to the left. Sirius waited in suspense for a few long seconds before the door swung out towards him. He side stepped quickly to avoid being knocked over by it.
He ripped his key out of the keyhole and stepped into the elevator. His relief was short-lived when he saw another keyhole. He fumbled to shove his key into place, finally succeeding with a sigh of relief as the door slammed shut. He had done it with seventeen seconds to spare. All that he could hope now was that there weren't aurors waiting for him when the door opened again.
His fears proved to be unfounded when the door swung open to reveal a single goblin sitting behind a desk in the middle of a good-sized lobby. He retrieved his key and walked to stand in front of the desk even as he felt the potion wearing off.
The goblin sitting behind the desk was staring at him in wonder. Finally, Sirius broke the silence, "I'm to be shown to a private room."
The obvious order was enough to snap the goblin out of his trance. He held out his hand, "Key, please." Sirius was getting sick of messing with the damn key, but handed it over nonetheless. The goblin examined the family crest embossed on the key for a few seconds before he handed it back with a nod. He stood abruptly, "Allow me to escort you, Master Black."
Sirius was hard-pressed not to sigh in relief at finally getting somewhere. He was led down a wide corridor to the left of the lobby, and then down a smaller hallway that branched off to the right. Finally, the goblin opened a door and stood back to allow Sirius to enter. He did so quickly, but stopped just inside the room to look around. It was a lavish parlor with an elegant sofa and two high-backed chairs situated around a coffee table complete with tea set and platter of hors d'oeuvres. It in no way looked to be part of a bank.
"What exactly am I supposed to do in here?" he asked the goblin behind him.
"Ragnok will be along in a few minutes. I'm to go and inform him of your arrival as soon as I have you settled in here. Is there anything you need, Master Black?" the goblin hovered outside the door.
Sirius waved a hand in dismissal, "No, I just want to get out of here. Go and get Ragnok."
The goblin left immediately, shutting the door behind him. Sirius was left alone to pour himself a drink and munch on the offered food as he waited. He couldn't help but wonder what the meeting was about. Settling his mother's affairs was never something that he anticipated having to do. He assumed that she would have stated somewhere in her will that there was no way her oldest son was allowed anywhere near her affairs.
He wasn't left wondering long before an obviously old goblin stepped through the door and addressed him, "Master Black. I assume that you'll be wanting to get right down to business?"
"Yes, actually, I would like to know what the hell this is all about," Sirius's foul mood over his close call in the lobby hadn't abated yet.
"I hope the letter wasn't too uninformative. I had an underling write it as I was busy actually tending to your vaults. My apologies, Master Black, if you weren't informed of the need to settle the late Mrs. Black's affairs," the goblin's tone was less than respectful and sorry, but Sirius let it slide since it would be a real pain in his ass to pick a replacement for him.
Instead, he settled for accepting the ledger the goblin offered him. A brief look at it was enough for him to recognize his mother's financial report. He glanced back at the goblin, "She actually left this for me to handle?"
"Well, no, Master Black, but you were the only one possible," Ragnok stared at him incredulously, "She didn't indicate anyone in her will other than one Mr. Regulus Black. As it is impossible for that gentleman to fulfill these duties it falls to you as both her only remaining child and as the head of your household."
Sirius was still completely lost, and he sighed in defeat of the fact that he was probably going to succeed in making a fool of himself in front of the goblin. Nonetheless, he voiced the question, "Why couldn't my brother fulfill these duties?"
The look of shock on the goblin's face was more than apparent. Sirius had never seen a shocked goblin before, but the one in front of him now was unmistakable. Finally, Ragnok exclaimed, "Because he's dead, of course!"
"What!" it was Sirius's turn to be shocked. He had never considered that as a possibility. When Regulus's name never showed up in the arrest reports he had just assumed that he had somehow managed to either avoid capture or evade the accusations altogether. The thought that his brother might simply be dead was not one that had entered his mind at all. "When did this happen?" he found himself asking.
The goblin had obviously just filled in the gaps about Sirius's lack of communication with his family, and he no longer looked shocked. He looked contemplative for a moment before he answered, "Years ago. There was no need to contact you on behalf of the bank because he had his affairs settled and you weren't involved."
Sirius was kind of still reeling from the news of him being the last Black in the main line. It took him a few seconds to respond when the goblin suggested that they get on with their business, but finally he turned back to the ledger. The business was concluded fairly quickly even though he was kind of in a daze. He simply had all of his mother's money and valuable possessions transferred to the Black family vault, and left her house as it was since he wasn't planning on using it anyways. He seriously contemplated having Kreacher given to someone else, but in the end he decided that the little rat could just stay in Grimmauld Place. He was probably busy making out with his mother's portrait and sleeping in her bed anyways, so he should stay where he was happy.
As he was getting ready to leave, Sirius thought of something else, "Would you have me a large bag full of galleons and one of muggle money brought up, Ragnok?"
"From which vault?" the goblin was already moving towards the door. The goblin was referring to the three vaults in Sirius's possession: the Black family vault, his own personal vault, and a second personal vault where he kept the spoils from his assassinations.
"My primary personal vault," he answered after quick contemplation.
The goblin opened the door and shouted orders to another goblin who was standing in the hallway. The second goblin quickly scurried away as Ragnok turned back to Sirius, "Do you need anything else, Master Black?"
"No, Ragnok. Thank you for handling this situation as admirably as you did," Sirius was truly grateful that the goblin had planned everything as he had. He had stood a real chance of being found out if it weren't for the goblin's forethought.
The goblin stared hard at him before replying, "It wouldn't do to have all of that money pulled out of the bank. We generally try to cooperate with the Ministry as least as we possibly can in the first place after they put up that horrible statue." Sirius almost grinned at the reference to the statue in which a goblin, house elf, and centaur were basically worshiping a witch and wizard. James and he had spent many a good time laughing about how stuck up and snobbish wizards were to even think of putting up such a thing. The goblin sniffed as if he had suddenly realized that he had been conversing with a wizard, and started to close the door with one last statement, "Your money will be at the front desk on this floor."
As soon as Ragnok was gone, Sirius reached into his robes and pulled out a small flask. With a look of utter distaste, he threw his head back and downed the contents. In seconds he was back in his disguise. It wouldn't do for the hit wizards to witness someone enter the door and never come back, so he had decided to ride the elevator back down and walk out the front door. He had originally planned to just take his second dose of the potion while he was in the complete and utter safety of his vault, but really he much preferred the room so he wasn't going to complain about the change in plans.
After picking up his money at the desk, Sirius reentered the elevator and began his descent. All in all, his trip to Gringotts had turned out well.
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Sirius was sitting in a bar in Knockturn Alley with his hair and cloak both doing their parts in covering his face. Anywhere else he would have drawn attention to himself as he sat in the far corner of the bar drinking potent (and dubiously legal) drinks, but in Knockturn Alley it was not at all uncommon for people to mask their appearance. As a result, he hadn't been bothered at all and he wasn't worried about being interrupted even though his potion had worn off quite some time ago. He wasn't too worried about being caught anyway, since he could just teleport himself away if anything happened and no one would report that he had been there unless they were willing to give it up to the world that they had been there, too. Not many people were willing to admit that they had ever been to a place such as this.
Sirius no more liked the atmosphere or the reputation of the bar than he liked the atmosphere and reputation of Grimmauld Place. However, he had gone way too long with nothing but the official news to go on, and he was sick of it. He needed to put his ear to the ground in the underworld. If anything was going to happen he would rather hear of it beforehand in a seedy bar than hear about it after the fact on the news. You got more useful information by eavesdropping on drunken dark wizards and their lackeys than you did from listening to reporters and politicians anyway. He had already learned of various plots and schemes: three plans to rob well off families, five creative ways to swindle the public for money, and two assassination attempts that he could tell from experience would never work out.
It was the third assassination plot of the evening that really drew his attention. A man, likewise covering his face with a cloak, had been sitting at a table rather close to him for some time now. Sirius had only paid the man any attention because he hadn't even ordered a single drink, and that was completely unusual. When a second man entered the bar and immediately headed for the sober man's table, Sirius immediately turned his full attention to their conversation.
"Everything is going well?" the newcomer whispered anxiously.
"Yes, everything is perfect," the original man answered back in a hushed tone, "They are on their way as we speak."
The newcomer turned around, and Sirius recognized Macnair as he spoke again, "You're sure this will work? Malfoy is so paranoid since the end of the war that I'm sure he put up more wards than the Blacks." Both the name Malfoy and the reference to his own family caught Sirius's interest as he drowned out everything but this one conversation.
"Malfoy is too cocky. He is an easy target compared to some of the ones left out there," the man with his face hidden answered, "The plan isn't even to go for him first. They're going for his family."
Macnair stared at his companion, "Why the family? My associates and myself wanted Malfoy out of the picture because he was gaining too much power. We didn't want an entire pureblooded family to get taken out!"
The other man wasn't effected at all by Macnair's reaction, "He has one heir. Take the heir and its bitch and what does he have left? There aren't any other witches that he would consider acceptable brides to take the place of that Black harpy. Not unless you count the other Black harpy, but she's married...and in Azkaban to boot so he can't even have her as his mistress anymore." The fact that someone had referred to Narcissa as a bitch in the meaning that she was only good for breeding almost sailed right through Sirius's mind as he was too busy worrying over her being attacked.
"Why not just take out Malfoy and stop worrying about the others?" Macnair insisted.
The hooded man sighed in exasperation, "Think, you idiot! We kill his wife and kidnap his only son and we'll have him eating out of the palms of our hands to get his heir back. We'll still kill him, but only after we get what we can out of him. He might be able to clear a lot of names and make a lot of charitable donations."
Macnair's eyes lit up as the concept finally penetrated his brain, "You're sure you can pull it off?"
"Who's going to stop us?" the other man cackled, "Malfoy is in France on business and his wife will do anything to save the boy if my sources are to be believed, and they are."
"I just don't think it'll be that easy. Even if you manage to get into Malfoy Manor without being detected first, I'm sure the boy is so heavily guarded that he can't even breathe without Malfoy knowing about it," Macnair continued to be wary.
The other man just cackled harder, "It's too late to stop now so quit making excuses. I suppose next you'll tell me that Sirius Black himself is guarding the entrance to his cousin's room!" Sirius knew that any death eater worth his shit knew that he wasn't really the right hand of Voldemort. However, they hadn't forgotten the battles, personal attacks, and assassinations that Sirius had been involved with against them. He had spent years building up his reputation and becoming one of the most fearedpeople in the world to anyone on the other side, and if he hadn't been so furious and so frightened he would have been happy that his reputation was still holding up.
Sirius didn't stay long enough to listen to the rest of the conversation. If they wanted Sirius Black guarding his cousin's room then they were going to be in for one hell of a battle. Narcissa had helped him more than once, and it was high time he paid her back. He'd be damned if he let a bunch of desperate death eaters on the sly kill his cousin just because they were afraid of Lucius Malfoy.
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A/N: Now it is time for me to explain some of my nifty wizarding logic that seems to confuse so many of my friends when they read these chapters. I figured I'd continue being nice and explaining it to everyone beforehand so I don't have to risk having to answer questions later when my mind is firmly in the next chapter I'm writing.
Sirius took the muggle airplane because he knew that the Ministry wouldn't be looking for the right hand of Voldemort in a muggle airport, of course, but why did the Tonks family take one? Well, they have a teenage daughter who can't apparate. I'm sure not many places amongst the muggle world are connected to the floo network, and it would be a pain in the ass to travel a very long distance that way anyway, I would imagine. Just from reading about having to go through all the checkpoints and everything on the way to the Quidditch World Cup in GoF, I assume that getting authorized to use a portkey is pretty difficult. Flying a broom long distances is restricted, I'm sure. Muggles might see you, and it would be extremely uncomfortable anyway. Ted Tonks is a muggleborn, so I'm sure he knows all about muggle transportation. Why wouldn't he automatically think to use an airplane?
For those of you who didn't recognize the name, Ragnok is the goblin that Bill Weasley was trying to convince to support the Order in OotP. I supposed that if one goblin's support would be enough to have support from the entire race, which is what the Order's goal was, that Ragnok must be a very influential goblin. Since the wizarding bank seems to be the most influence that goblins have in the wizarding world, what better way to gain influence if you're a goblin that to be in charge of the highest security vaults and highest profile accounts like I'm sure most old pureblooded families – like the Blacks – have?
The fact that Sirius has a high security vault is pretty obvious to me. Dumbledore's vault, which contained the sorcerer's/philosopher's stone, was number 713. I figured that they didn't just randomly sprinkle specially enchanted vaults all throughout the bank since it would get very hard to keep an eye on all of them. They probably put them all in one very heavily guarded section of the underground. Since Sirius's vault is number 711 it just goes to reason that it's a high security vault, as well. The idea that most pureblooded families have vaults that are at least close to the high security section is reiterated by the fact that the Potter's vault is number 687, which is pretty close to the 700s that seem to be very high security.
I was asked when I explained that last part to someone if the vaultscouldn't just be separated by size, but I think that's incorrect. I read a really goodessay on the difference between muggle limitations and wizard limitations that pointed out something to me...when Harry was kind of surprised that the Ford Anglia expanded so that everything fit inside of it on the way to the train station in CoS, Molly Weasley thought it was completely normal. That did kind of indicate that if it hadn't expanded she would have been very surprised. Another example is Moody's trunk in GoF. You can't tell me that a trunk just randomly had a dungeon built into it. Who would sell such a thing? Who would even think, "Hey, I need to buy this. I might need a dungeon one of these days!" It makes more sense that the different compartments of the trunk simply changed size to accommodate what was being put into them. Going by that logic, I would think that it would be very unlikely that the Gringotts vaults wouldn't accommodate things. I mean you don't want to have to change vaults every few years just because you came into a bit more money and you simply couldn't fit even one knut into your current vault.
Thatessay I spoke of was actually very interesting and very helpful to me years ago when I was first getting into Harry Potter. If you would like to read it the link is:
http/ www. essays/essay-magical-worldview .html
All credit for thepiece goes to the author, of course. Many thanks to Steve Vander Ark, just so I don't get harassed for not crediting him.