"Petunia! I'm so sorry— I don't know what came over me!" Arcturus.

He looked so shocked. Petunia couldn't hold back her giggle. "It is fine. It was a very nice kiss."

Arcturus looked confused. "Yes. Yes it was." He sat back, with a bit of a frown. "I haven't kissed any woman other than my wife since my marriage."

Petunia nodded. "Life goes on. I never expected to kiss anyone beside Vernon." She sipped her drink.

"So, how was your day?" He asked after a pause.

"My day was actually quite relaxing. I don't know why I can't sleep. I guess because of the situation with Dumbledore."

"I think we can handle Dumbledore. Actually, I think he will be out of the way for sometime. My curse did hit him. And it was a Black Family curse. Dumbledore's healers won't know the counter curse. Eventually they will come close, I'm sure."

"Harry seems fine. I thought he might have nightmares. He is still very angry with Dumbledore. I thought he might have nightmares, but Neville, Draco, and Dudley are all having a sleepover in the schoolroom. With the girls next door in the small children's schoolroom."

"The pink and yellow one? They are probably still young enough to like the pressing unicorns."

"Yes." Petunia grinned. "This week is so full of activity. And they have begged me to take them to muggle movie after the Black Family Meeting ends. Apparently, Dudley is quite a salesman."

"I confess I have not spent much time in the muggle world. In the thirties, Melania loved to go to London, to the ballet and opera. We never watched a film, though we knew those that did. But the war stopped that. And then the attitude toward the muggle world hardened."

"Oh, I would love to see the ballet in London. I took lessons for years as a girl. Loved it."

Arcturus looked at her. "Petunia, I would like to spend more time with you. The problem is, the press and gossips would give us no peace. It would be a madhouse. Not to mention the Elder Ladies."

Petunia gave snort. "Trust me, the younger ladies would sink their teeth into it, also."

"Indeed." He thought for a while. "Well, it is possible I could create a level in this room that only you and I could find. It would give us a bit of privacy. And we could attend the ballet. Muggle London would be safe. You could show me around."

"I like that idea. I don't want Dudley...confused."

Arcturus nodded. "I agree. We will see each other in secret. How scandalous!" Petunia grinned.

After a companionable silence, Arcturus sighed. She looked at him, eyebrows raised.

"The Weasleys. I meet with them tomorrow."

"Oh?"

"The two oldest boys will be no problem, whether they choose to formally join the Black Family or not. Both have chosen careers they love. Neither live in Britain.

"But, Molly." He sighed again. "Huge Dumbledore supporter. In fact, I believe she worships him. Arthur, too, but he is more reasonable, perhaps."

"Oh. Well, good luck. The two youngest play well with my boys and their friends. Molly seems somewhat fixated on her children being Harry's friends. Not that Harry dislikes them, but he is busy with his small group. Luna and Ginny Weasley seem to fit in better than the Weasley boys."

"I'd love to have impact on those twins. I think they might have some of the finest minds Britain has ever seen. But they are so full of mischief."

"I'll bring it up at the family breakfast," he said. "Maybe someone has some insight. I think Arthur would like to formally join the Black's."

"Good idea. I get the idea that Molly herself is frightfully smart. Narcissa smart. And they have very little money."

"Hmm. Perhaps we can use that."

St Mungo's Hospital

"We have not discovered which blood clotting curse was used. There's the medical spell, but this doesn't respond to the counter curse." Healer Spindleflick spoke with his healing staff in his office after a long evening. "If we wake take him from stasis, he will die."

"What about the Unspeakables?"

"They don't know the curse. It's new, or perhaps a family magic, Spindleflick said. "They suggested we let their mind magic specialist use legilimancy. They believe he could burrow through the stasis spell."

"Without his consent?" a healer asked, aghast.

"We would have to gain consent from his brother."

Aberforth Dumbledore enjoyed a cup of tea in his favorite stuffed chair in the kitchen of the Hog's Head. He only had one room renter, a Mr. Devore, and Imogene, his cook, could handle it just fine. He paid Imogene with a large room at the back of the Inn. She had a half goblin daughter, and no one in wizarding Britain would rent to her. Quiet as mice, both of them. An excellent cook, and her part goblin daughter was ten or so and worked alongside her mother in the kitchen. She had a story that would probably be fascinating, but she kept it to herself. Both were up now, getting ready for tomorrow. They would clean the tavern when the last patron left the tavern. There were still a few stragglers, Aberforth would send them home in an hour.

The floo in the main room roared to life. "Aberforth Dumbledore?"

With a curse he left his comfy chair and footstool. Well, hopefully it was a rental inquiry.

"This is Healer Spindleflick from St Mungos. We need to speak to you. Confidentially."

"What about?"

"It concerns a serious matter. That is all I can say over a public floo."

"I'll right." Imogene refused to be on the tavern side during business hours. Aberforth figured she had her reasons.

The healer gave him his office floo address and. Aberforth sent a Patronus to Daedalus Dingle. Daedalus arrived in the tavern a few minutes later, the only person Abe let through his apparition wards.

"Can you watch the bar? I have to go to St Mungo's. Something concerning my brother, perhaps? They wouldn't say."

"Hmm, haven't heard anything. But, sure."

"A meal, three galleons, all the tea you can drink and a fire whiskey at the end of your shift?"

Daedalus grinned. "Lovely. There's a book I found, now I don't need to wait until my quarter trust."

A younger son, Daedalus had a modest trust fund, a couple house elves and a small manor and acreage.

"Come meet Imogene and her daughter. Don't scare them off. Best help I've ever had. They do not work in the tavern. Oh, and tell no one where I went."

"Sure, sure."

"Imogene, I am needed at St Mungo's. Daedalus here will man the bar. He'll need meals and tea. This is Imogene and her daughter Stormlight."

Daedalus showed no shock or surprise, "How do you do, ladies. I'll be out in the bar for those morning drinker. "Just give me a call and I'll fetch my plate. Can I have the three galleons, now?"

Aberforth rolled his eyes but went to his rooms to get the money.

Daedalus called his house elf, gave her the money and instructions to buy the book. "Old Marcel will still be up." Elven Weaponry in WIzarding Times, an extremely rare old book, would be his!

Aberforth got cleaned up and threw on one of his better robes. He flooed to Spindleflick's office.

"Albus Dumbledore was attacked yesterday. We have him in stasis due to a curse we can't identify. The Unspeakables were called in and their Mind Magic specialist thinks he can burrow through the curse and see the memories. But we need your permission."

Aberforth pulled on his beard, thoughtfully. "I want to speak to the Unspeakable, and I'll need a contract. I do not want to end up thrown under the thestrals." He stared at the shocked healer and rolled his bright blue eyes. "Please. My brother has done it before."

The Unspeakable and healers weren't happy, but soon Aberforth had a magical contract. He would receive the memory the Unspeakbale pulled, watch it in a penseive, and decide what the healers could see.

To their dismay he insisted on taking the memory back to his home. "You own a penseive?" The healer asked, shocked.

"Made it myself. I do have a Mastery in Enchanting. It was my master's project." He flooed back to his private apartment above the Hog's Head.

In his room, Aberforth pulled his penseive out of his Fidelus Cupboard. Made of lead crystal, it was a thing of beauty.

"Merlin's Mangy—" Aberforth shut his mouth, thinking of Stormy sleeping right down the stairs. "Oh, Merlin. Kidnapping Black's heir. There's going to be a blood fued. Oh Marganna, help me."

He sent a message to Spindleflick. The curse is unknown family magic. Deep purple. I will not release the memory. It puts my life at stake.

Aberforth wrote a formal letter and flooed Arcturus Black's public floo. It was answered by a Black house elf. "Please convey this missive as soon as possible to Lord Black. I can be reached by floo."

He sat and waited, palms sweaty. He did not dare gulp down some whiskey. He needed to be sharp. Arcturus might be old, but he still held far more power than an elderly innkeeper.

The Black house elf flooed him a half hour later. "Lord Black can see you precisely at one thirty this morning, if it is urgent. Please be punctual, he has a tight schedule."

"It is very urgent. I will. Thank you."

He dug out his only formal robes, cleaned up and used a barber spell on his long hair and beard. One does not meet Arcturus Black looking like a wild man.

At one fifteen he stepped through the floo wearing elegant Acromantula silk, dark blue robes over a silver vest and plain blue shirt and black silk trousers. Black dragon hide boots. His hair was trimmed to his shoulder, beard and mustache clipped close and tidy. He wore his Dumbledore family ring, probably for the last time, and carried the memory vial with him.

He'd expected a feeble old man. He heard all the gossip in his tavern, and many said Lord Black was on his deathbed, hence the family meeting. But this was no ancient, weak man, expected to die soon. Arcturus Black appeared to be in his forties and fairly bristled with magical energy. His hair was black and shiny, with a bit of silver at the temples. Aberforth stared like an idiot, mouth open.

Lord Black laughed. A hearty laugh, not weak and wheezy. "Please sit, Master Dumbledore. Would you like a coffee to facilitate this late night meeting?"

An elf brought them a muggle-type coffee. Aberforth was glad he'd trimmed his moustache, it would have been covered with whipped cream. Well, Arcturus did his homework. Few people remembered he had a Mastery in Enchantment.

He placed the vial on Arcturus desk. "I have contract with the Healers and an Unspeakable, who wanted permission to get into Albus' head. They wanted to see the curse, and probably who cursed him. I made the Unspeakable give me the memory, and only I can speak of it. I told them it was a family magic curse and purple. They don't know you cast it.

"The small dark haired boy, he is your heir?"

"Yes."

"He's good with a knife. So is the small Bulstrode."

Arcturus smiled. "I have them training with Gore Shardfist-Black."

Aberforth raised his eyebrows. "Shardfist-Black? You adopted a member with creature blood?"

It was amazing how the Dumbledore brothers were practically identical, but so different. Aberforth had none of his brother's politician aura.

"Indeed. The Black family has a new definition of 'Always Pure'. Black blood purifies all other blood it mingles with."

"You look so young."

"Ancient family magic, restored to use after all these centuries."

Aberforth nodded. "So, what can I do to persuade you to leave me out of a blood feud?"

"Something that would be beneficial to us both?" Arcturus pulled two vials from his desk, along with a piece of parchment. He smiled. He explained the new Black Family Plan."

Aberforth read the parchment. "I have no heir. Dumbledore gave me the Lordship, as long as he could sit the seat in the Wizengamot. But it seems I was cursed as a youth and will have no children."

"Sign the contract, drink this. You'll feel decades younger. Then, blood adopt a child using the Black Family Ritual Adoption."

"What if I adopt a young woman? Her twelve year old daughter is part goblin."

"I would do as I did with Gore. Offer her child the Primogenitor potion. We are considering starting a school here at the Towers. Some of the Black children would not be safe at Hogwarts. We are forming it now."

Aberforth Dumbledore-Black flood to his private apartment for a long sleep, having drank the potion and taken the oath.. "Daedalus, I will need you here all day tomorrow. Six galleons, three meals and a Firewhiskey to end your shift? Oh, and Imogene and Stormy do not serve in the tavern."

"Certainly," Daedalus grinned. "Everything all right?"

"I think so. Everything is going to change, that is for certain."