A/N: So, I had completely forgotten that I had started chapter twenty-one many, many months ago. Shortly after finding out that I was pregnant. I just opened it up a few days ago and managed to find enough of my muse for this story to continue what had already been written. I'm currently sitting in my bathtub as I type this because my husband is snoring quite loudly in our bedroom and it is very distracting. And so, without further ado, Chapter Twenty-One.

Chapter Twenty-one:

While it was a happy reunion for the three Black siblings, elsewhere in Britain there was a young Heiress in a complete meltdown.

"Daphne you must calm down before you magically exhaust yourself!" Gerald Greengrass had been left alone with his fifteen-year-old daughter after the Malfoy patriarch had left to tend to his fiancé. He had dwelled on the blonde's words for a few moments, wondering if it was truly time for the Greengrass' to step away from their usual neutrality.

"But Daddy, how could I do that to Mi? I've read what the Soul Bond does, why couldn't I fight the curse? Potter throws it off like a duck sheds water!" her magical aura flared violently with her upset.

"Harry Potter is a very powerful young wizard in his own right, you cannot compare yourself to him Daphne." Gerald shot back, his brows raising nearly to his hair line. His tone brooked no argument as his daughter deflated, her magic refeeding just as quickly as it flared. "Now, perhaps instead of standing here and berating yourself for something you couldn't control you should Floo over to Malfoy Manor and put a certain Black Heiress out of her misery?" he tilted his head towards the fireplace, making sure his daughter knew that it had been more of an order than a suggestion. His eldest was off like a shot, leaving the Greengrass Lord alone in his home.

Gerald sighed heavily and all but collapsed into the nearest chair, running a hand through his hair. Things were changing much faster than he had anticipated, and he wasn't sure what to do, or even how to react.

"Gerald? Darling?" his wife's voice broke him from his thoughts as she stepped through the floo, sans their youngest daughter, and quickly spelled the soot off of her robes. "What has you so thoughtful?"

"Lucius and Pandora were here earlier to remove the Imperius curse from Daphne. Lucius said a few things that have really got my mind in a whirl." Celine raised a slender brow and took the seat across from her husband,

"Alright, out with it. What are you thinking about?" Gerald sighed and sat up so he could look at his wife.

"Lucius kindly pointed out that with the particular relationship between our daughters that perhaps it was time that the Greengrasses pick a side in this war. He believes that we've remained neutral for as long as we can, and with what happened after I revived Daphne, I'm inclined to believe him." Celine couldn't help but laugh for a moment before she noticed how serious her husband was,

"Lucius Malfoy was talking to you about picking a side? What does he think you'll bend your knee to that insane megalomaniac? Why I-"

"Celine." Gerald cut her off with a stern look, "Lucius seems to have turned over a new leaf since the Lady Black came back into his life. Pandora was always a good influence on him, but even she fell to the pressure her mother put on her when it came to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I don't know what happened over the past sixteen years while she was thought dead but she was rather incensed that Daphne called her daughter a Mudblood." That earned another laugh from Celine, who had been at the wrong end of the former Slytherin princess's wand before. While being a half-blood made the insult null and void, the eldest Black sister had often called her a half-breed.

"Must have been something rather drastic if she's getting upset over the use of that word. She used to throw it around like it was confetti at Hogwarts." Celine and Gerald continued to talk for a while before reaching the same decision; they would speak to their daughters before deciding whether or not they would step away from their carefully guarded neutrality and into the Light.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Pandora clutched her baby brothers to her tightly, her entire body shaking with sobs of joy.

"Regulus, what happened? The tapestry said you were dead."

"Mother installed a failsafe after I joined the Death Eaters because she knew I was a spy. Should I ever be in mortal peril a portkey that I kept on myself at all times would activate and take me to a safe location. Only Kreacher would be able to get me out, but only if asked by someone related to me by my mother's blood. You two, or mother herself. But she had died shortly before I made my way to that damnable cave. I wasn't even sure until I woke up that it would work. Mother added a ward buster to the portkey so it could get me out of just about anywhere save Hogwarts." He rasped out, pausing when Pandora handed him a glass of water to drink, "Pandora, you were supposedly dead by the time I was trapped in there. Not that I believed it for one second, and Sirius hadn't spoken a word to me since he left to live with Potter." Pandora huffed, tonight would be very long, as both she and Sirius had stories to tell. The two elder siblings glanced at each other, trying to decide which of them should go first.

"Reg, there's a lot that has happened in the past sixteen years... you're more out of the loop than even Sirius and that's saying something considering he spent twelve years in Azkaban." Regulus' jaw dropped, but Pandora just held up a dainty hand, "Just, let us tell the stories, then you can ask your questions." He nodded and Pandora launched into her tale.

Regulus was delighted to find out that he had a niece, though not fond of Lucius. His outrage at her enslavement to Voldemort nearly topped Lucius' as well, though his rage at the fact that she had been looked away in a Muggle Zoo for almost six years, and while he had already been on the side of the Light he was firmly in Harry's corner after hearing about his freeing her, even if it had been on accident. Regulus just sighed heavily when Narcissa's predicament was explained, knowing that at this point in time she was too far gone to bring back. The Black family curse had taken hold over her and unless a way to break the curse entirely was found then there would be no saving her.

Regulus actually cried when Sirius started telling his own story, which was expected as the brothers had always been closer to each other than to Pandora. He was ready to go tear Dumbledore apart when he was told that the old wizard had allowed Sirius to rot in a cell, most likely to keep Harry complacent and ignorant of his place in the Wizarding world, not only as the Chosen One, but as the Heir of the Potter Lordship.

"The old coot has gone completely nuts!" The youngest of the three exploded suddenly, his grey eyes feverish with anger "Harry Potter should have been placed with a Light or Neutral family that has ties into the nobility that way he wouldn't reach his majority completely ignorant of his place in our world." Pandora sighed softly, her own storm grey eyes cast down at her hands,

"I don't believe he intends for Mister Potter to reach his majority. Sirius and I did some digging into cursed scars and Dark magic, and we believe that Dumbledore believes that Harry's scar is a Horcrux. We know the sick bastard made them, he tried to turn me into one while I was stuck in my Animagus form, but the magic rejected a living host, I think... It could be that he's split his soul too many times that he wasn't able to do so again, either way we need to figure out if Harry's scar is in fact a Horcrux or something else all together. Especially since Voldemort knows about the link between them." Her brothers nodded vigorously, Sirius would do anything for his godson, and Regulus wanted to be free of the bastard that had branded him a slave. "In the mean time we need to start training the boy for war. He got lucky in the Graveyard during his forth year with the connection between their wands, but Voldemort is an accomplished duelist, and has no qualms about going for the kill. Harry's favorite spell is the disarming charm..." she trailed off when Sirius tried to object, merely raising a slender brow at the younger man, who huffed and remained silent, "The boy is magically powerful, and could easily outstrip both Dumbledore and Voldemort in power should he live to reach his majority; I know you would like to keep your godson as Light as possible but this is war Sirius and he's going to need more than a few charms and jinxes to get him through."

"I know. It's just hard trying to convince myself to do this; it's not what James and Lily would have wanted for Harry." Pandora leveled a glare at her brother,

"Sirius, if Lily and James Potter loved their son even half as much as I love Hermione, then they wouldn't give a flying fuck what had to be done to keep Harry alive." both brothers struggled to match the fiercely protective woman sitting with them to the flighty and sometimes downright ditzy older sister they had known growing up. Regulus knew that much of it was an act, he had seen the way she and Lucius plotted when in school together, but Sirius had never gotten to see the truly Slytherin side of her before he ran away and she "died".

"Now, I need to go check on my daughter. I'm sure Miss Greengrass has managed to make her way to the Manor and I must ensure that neither of them are trying to blame themselves for Narcissa's interference with their bond." She stood and swept from the room towards the parlor that held the fireplace.

Post A/N: So, this chapter isn't the longest, and the end was starting to feel a bit forced so I cut it off at the best time I could. Please bare with me; I am just now getting back into the swing of things and it will take me some time to get back to my full capacity. With love, Scorched.