Chapter 31: Change is unavoidable
I don't own 'Harry Potter'
"So, how do you want to proceed from here?"
Sirius looked up from his notes, peering around at the assorted faces while resisting the urge to snort.
Bambi really is a sneaky little shit.
Thanks to his manipulative daughter's networking over the past year, the new governing body to oversee the welfare of magical orphans was entirely comprised of Rose's allies. Whether those be official House allies, or simply those who'd agreed with her political stances so far, every single individual in the room was a smart person who could be counted on to work with them rather than against.
The Department of Magical Child Welfare, or DMCW for short, was now a Ministry-funded body that was supported and overseen by no less than twelve magical Houses on the Wizengamot. The fact that a few members were currently in charge of more than one House, or married to someone else on the body, was luckily largely irrelevant. The presence of a few people not directly related to them had done wonders for their reputation in the eyes of the public. Not that everyone was so accepting, but Sirius knew full well that it was impossible to please every stupid bastard out there.
Rose had also been far too cheerful in writing to Chief Warlock Ogden, sending him her plans for the project that just so happened to include her choice of name. A name that had caused Sirius to nearly snicker through the first meeting like an errant child once he'd realised Bambi's intentions. His daughter was such a precocious brat.
What many hadn't realised – except for his beloved wife and possibly Cissa; his poised cousin was scarily intuitive when she wanted to be. Bloody woman – was that Rose's choice of name wasn't just a bland title plucked out of thin air. Rose had deliberately chosen those specific words, all for the sake of her own future plans. How she avoided Slytherin, I'll never know.
The use of 'child' instead of 'orphan' meant that their new department could eventually branch out to supervise all magical children instead of just focussing on the orphans in their country. Rose had made a very good point to him; they both knew that living with parents or other relatives didn't guarantee a safe home environment.
Personal experience, and all that.
Sirius was pretty sure that the orphanage was eventually going to house more abused children than actual orphans. He knew – even if his unfortunate co-workers were currently unaware; poor sods – that supposed 'muggle-borns' were actually half-bloods, and a great number of those would eventually be adopted by their ancestral Houses.
It was the children that were being treated like crap that would no doubt end up in the reconstructed manor in the Norfolk countryside. As much as people didn't want to admit, it was usually the two extremes of parents that were the worst. The muggles who couldn't deal with their kid being magical, or the strictest traditionalists who wanted a perfect witch or wizard as their child.
That wasn't to say that only those two groups had shitty parents in them, but it certainly seemed to happen more often in those particular camps. Physical abuse, mental, emotional … There were a great many possibilities for parents who wanted to terrorise their progeny or wards.
With this new department, hopefully they could do something about it.
And that wasn't the be all and end all of Bambi's sneakiness! As she'd smugly pointed out, underage magicals with creature blood were also children, hence there was no reason not to help them if the opportunity presented itself.
Seeing as custody of the child would initially go the DMCW, not even the rest of the Ministry would be able to remove them without explicit proof that they were a risk to anyone else. All children, whether they be Werewolf, Vampire, Fae, Veela, whatever, would be able to have a good home under their purview.
Sirius had a feeling that current creature laws didn't stand a chance against his imp of a daughter.
He cleared his throat. "What did you mean? I thought we moving the kids to Willow Lodge?"
Tiberius Ogden nodded slowly, though a small frown persisted between his thick brows. "That was the plan, yet the goblins sent over a curious letter with the tests saying that the children currently have living relatives that might be acceptable guardians."
Oh, really?
Sirius forced a politely interested expression on his face, even if he was cackling hysterically on the inside. He already knew that all magical kids had magical ancestors, all stemming from their governing Houses, but he couldn't wait for everyone else's reaction. And he didn't care about Remus calling him a sadist, his oldest friend's sense of humour was just as awful as his. As if he couldn't recognise the humour in those green eyes after all these years. Sarcastic arse.
"Such a fortuitous result, no?" came the Italian drawl from his right. Sirius couldn't decide whether he wanted to laugh or leave the room and never return. That woman was bad for his blood pressure.
He still wasn't sure why Alessia Zabini had decided to become more active in British politics in this way, but her amused smirk reminded him far too much of his manipulative daughter to not give him at least an inkling. Then again, it wasn't as if any of them could reasonably refuse Italy's infamous Black Widow from offering her generous assistance in this situation. He just had to ignore the fact that the murderous woman had been suspiciously - and worryingly - quiet throughout this entire meeting.
At the very least, he could just focus on everyone else's imminent shock to the system.
Cissa glanced over at him, a questioning glint in her blue eyes that made his lips twitch. She was probably going to give him hell for not warning him in advance, but this was too much fun to pass up.
"Really? I suppose it's more difficult for muggles to keep track of everyone on their family trees," mused Cyrus Greengrass quietly.
The former Slytherin was a pretty open-minded bloke in Sirius' opinion. As a businessman first and foremost, blood purity didn't really matter to the man who always focused more on making money rather than where it came from. Sirius could respect such blunt pragmatism. It was better than being a prejudiced prick, after all.
The Lord Black watched silently as Cyrus skimmed over the Gringotts letter, frowning lightly at the contents. The goblins had no doubt left everything vague and entirely uninformative. He knew that Rose had been exchanging a slew of letters with her equally sadistic Manager, so there was every chance that the bank had been gleefully preparing to pull the rug out from under the witches and wizards. Getting to tell the people that the goblins rarely respected that they truly had no clue about their own heritage must have been so cathartic.
The Head of House Greengrass then opened the first of the three inheritance tests that had been conducted the previous day. There were certainly more orphans at the school than just these, but only three who lived in foster care with people that they had no relation to. The three teens had agreed to take an inheritance test at the bank to see if they still had any relatives who were unknown to them, and were co-operative enough to send them the results, too.
And now here they were.
Cyrus stilled in his seat, blue eyes locked onto a certain spot on the parchment with clear shock.
"Cyrus?"
Laurel Greengrass' voice was enough to get her husband's attention, but instead of answering his wife, the man hurriedly opened the second envelope and scanned the new family tree intensely. A slight paling of his face was the only reaction before he repeated the same actions with the third and final envelope in front of him.
Once he'd finished – and gotten confirmation of what Sirius already knew thanks to Rose – Cyrus heaved a great sigh and reclined in his chair, roughly running a broad hand across his handsome face.
"Is there a problem, Lord Greengrass?"
Lord Warrington was a severe man, but he wasn't a complete and utter twat, at least. The seventy-something Lord definitely preferred to hang onto their traditions and culture, but he was also willing to listen to proposed changes into modernity. As long as the magical world was respected and kept their way of life, he was surprisingly open to increasingly progressive ideas.
(Then again, that might also have something to do with Rose's bizarre friendship with the morally-grey Cassius Warrington. How she ended up mates with Lord Warrington's grandson, he'd never know. Or want to know, considering his daughter's personality.)
Lord Greengrass sighed again and cleared his throat, looking up at everyone else with a baffled expression. "I think we might have to do some more investigation.
"It seems that these supposed 'muggle-borns' all have magical ancestors."
There was a beat of silence, then it was chaos.
Lord Jones and old Augusta kept trying to talk over one another, glaring at each other whenever they were inevitably interrupted, Cissa was sending him a glare worthy of dearly-departed Bella, the Greengrass couple and Warrington were furiously whispering to each other, excessive hand gestures and all, poor old Ogden was gazing at the table blankly like he was wishing for a case of his family's best firewhiskey, Lady Zabini was casually checking her nails with a smirk on her face, and his beautiful wife was subtly shaking her head at him, a look of complete and utter exasperation on her face.
All in all, a successful day.
Sirius smirked slightly to himself and leaned back in his chair.
Well, that was certainly a Marauder-worthy prank. Well done, Bambi.
Rose smiled to herself, the benign expression on her face at complete odds with her inner cackling.
Aunt Cassi's going to be so proud.
The young blonde took a small sip of her tea, then placed her cup back on the table and pulled the new paper towards her. It was a good thing she'd already finished her breakfast; she wanted to savour every second of this.
She surveyed the front page and smiled widely. Her enigmatic friend was doing well for herself. Rose opened the paper and quickly found the article she was looking for.
THE TRUTH OF OUR ANCESTRY
MUGGLE-BORN: NO MORE?
As I'm sure many of you will have already read illuminating article in The Daily Prophet on the Ministry's recent astounding discovery, I won't bore you by reiterating every little detail.
Thanks to the incredible work of House Potter, our government recently decided to create an orphanage for the orphaned and abused children of our world, giving them the opportunity to be loved and cared for as they should have always been. However, things quickly took a turn when checking to see if any of these children without current guardians had any other living relatives they weren't aware of.
It turns out they did, just not in the way they were expecting.
By using the infallible inheritance tests given by the esteemed bank, Gringotts, the governing body of The Department of Magical Child Welfare discovered that all of their initial 'muggle-born' students actually had magical ancestors! All of them.
This startling discovery lead the DMCW to hastily conduct more and more tests of others with supposed muggle parents, leading to a shocking revelation, one which many had never expected to be true.
Every single 'muggle-born' had a magical ancestor.
There was no particular pattern to how far back this ancestor was on the family tree, but they were certainly there, much to the bafflement of the Ministry.
As noted in Rita Skeeter's recent article, Minister Fudge has expressed his delight over how our government is steadfastly going to reunite these families with one another once more. It appears that the Ministry is well up to the task, with an abundance of help from the DMCW.
The only question now, is this: are we going to continue using the term 'muggle-born'?
A pure-blood is someone whose grandparents all have magic, and a half-blood has some muggle blood in their ancestry. Surely by this definition, 'muggle-born' is now entirely redundant?
I was lucky enough to speak to several students, and I have here some comments from them on this very topic:
"I don't think the definitions matter all that much, it's more about integrating everyone into the society together."
"It's bloody crazy! It's like the world's just tipped on its side! I mean, it doesn't really matter much to me, anyway. It's not like I ever cared about someone's parents, it's more about whether or not they're a git."
"This is going to be a legislative nightmare."
"Maybe if the Ministry wasn't full of superior morons, they might have noticed this years ago. Idiots."
"It's rather a good revelation for our society, though. The number of old Houses without Heirs or who've died out is too high. This is a fresh hope for everyone. And I'm sure that the goblins are going to appreciate having more gold in circulation from these changes."
"It doesn't change that they've grown up around muggles, though. They might not be pure-bloods, but they need to learn about the the world they've been born into. The Statute of Secrecy exists for a reason, after all."
As you can all see, opinions are rather varied after this astounding reveal, however one thing is clear: we must look to the future.
If any sort of divide is to be conquered, if our population is to come together, we must do so as one. Needless arguments sow seeds of suspicion and prevent us from bettering our society. Arguing just creates more problems.
We must work together to strengthen ourselves.
Luna Lovegood
Rose put down the newest edition of The Hogwarts Times and leaned over to grab the pot of tea closest to her. She busied herself with making another cup to her liking, pondering over what she'd just read. If anything, she had one prevailing thought.
Luna was a bloody genius.
Not just reminding everyone about Skeeter's earth-shattering article – which had left so many people dumbfounded just a few days ago; Rose had nearly pissed herself laughing over her eggs – but by being so unbiased. The inclusion of so many varying perspectives had been a stroke of genius for the younger girl.
Nobody could accuse the enthusiastic group of propaganda seeing as everyone had seen the little first-years running around the castle to interview people of all ages and Houses, and even a Professor or two, if Rose was remembering correctly.
Luna's school paper had so far proved to be a resounding success with the school, casually publishing about such topics about Flitwick's illustrious career on the duelling circuits, the intricacies of Yule traditions, and just how many exams students could register to take at the Ministry through the ICW.
Rose was so proud of her classmate.
"Do I even want to know why you've got that glint in your eyes?"
She casually put her mug back on the table and turned to her friend with a bright grin. "I really don't know what you're talking about. Is there something wrong with being happy?"
Blaise just rolled his eyes and slid onto the bench next to her. "You look about as happy as my mother does whenever she gets married."
Rose chuckled under her breath. "I feel like I should take that as a compliment." She glanced at the Slytherin sideways and smirked. "Do you think I should make a list of targets, too?"
"If you're going to follow in my mother's footsteps, at least wait until you start puberty," he replied flatly.
She snorted, bending over the bench to hide her hysterical laughter. God, I love winding him up.
"Please don't tell me you're plotting again."
Lifting her head, Rose caught sight of Neville's beseeching face and pasted an innocently confused expression on her face. Her poor cousin looked so done with her shit, and she loved it. Now she thought about, she was feeling a fuck ton better than she had done recently.
She shook off the thought – something to come back to later – and tilted her head to the side. "But Neville, my dear cousin, I never plot. What could you possibly be referring to?"
"Draco, Lockhart, Sirius and Remus, Tonks, the twins, Snape –"
"Alright, alright," she grumbled. "You're not supposed to actually tell me that. What if someone hears you?"
"You're an idiot." Blaise is extra snarky today. Twat. "You're like the golden child right now, what with the Wizengamot and your fantastic school work. You could probably push someone down the stairs in front of the entire Hogwarts population and get away with it. As long as you cry floods of tears afterwards, of course."
"Hmm …" Rose's eyes automatically settled on Smith's arrogant face. How tempting …
"Just because you don't like Smith, doesn't mean you can kill him," Neville deadpanned.
"I mean, pushing someone down the stairs doesn't necessary mean they'll end up dead." It was all about the details, after all. And Rose wasn't a murderer, she just wanted a bit of feel-good revenge. And yes, this little prat wasn't the same as her shitty ex, but it wasn't as if she could reach through time and space to grab the cheating tosser just to hex the fucker all the way to Timbuktu.
She could certainly dream, though.
It really was a shame, though. Their sex life had been bloody brilliant. Easily the best bedroom relationship she'd ever had with anyone. If only the personality had been aligned with the contents of his boxers. She wondered if –
"Rose."
The girl blinked away her porn-esque trip down memory lane and turned to her friends, the two boys giving her decidedly odd looks. Well, thank fuck they can't read my mind. As it was, Neville and Blaise looked more than a little disturbed at whatever face she had been pulling.
Blaise raised a brow. "What were you thinking about just now?"
Somehow I don't think 'how many different ways future-Smith can use his cock' is going to work here.
"Not much. Just remembering how amazing it was to avoid Valentine's Day."
Neville just shook his head. "I swear, you're practically allergic to the holiday."
Rose opened her mouth to respond when she caught sight of her room-mate. Hermione was wandering down between the tables in a daze, brown eyes wide and unseeing as she seemed to move on autopilot.
The blonde girl waved her over, slightly bemused at the unusually silent girl looking so far out of her comfort zone. She would have been more concerned, however Rose knew that Hermione had gone to Gringotts yesterday evening for her own inheritance test. She'd been asleep by the time the brunette returned to their room – for once – so she hadn't heard the results of which family her friend shared blood with. (Not that she didn't have any idea, but things could always end up a bit weird. Like every single aspect of her batshit life.)
She leaned forward, smiling slightly as her friend blinked rapidly. "How did the test go?"
Hermione looked up at her with wide eyes. "I'm the Heiress to the Dagworth-Granger House."
Rose smiled brightly. "Really?"
As the stunned girl got drawn into a conversation about House politics, Rose sat straighter and sipped her tea again, just barely holding in her self-satisfied smirk.
She caught Blaise's amused look and raised a brow. The boy shifted closer and murmured into her ear. "You look absolutely stunned by such news. Any reason for that?"
"Well, I certainly haven't heard of any other Dagworth-Grangers in recent times. Seeing as she's been using one half of the name her whole life, it seemed like a pretty logical jump to me."
His lips twitched slightly. "I get the impression that you're enjoying the chaos from all these revelations more than having genuine interest in their subsequent ramifications."
Rose mock gasped, a hand over her chest for added effect. "Blaise! Are you really accusing me of being so unfeeling? Do you honestly think that I'm anything other than truly moved by all of these families being reunited after so many generations?"
Her best friend just snorted and turned to conversation across the table, leaving Rose to grin wickedly at him.
Well, this has been a productive day.
"Aunt Cassi! How are you enjoying the mayhem?"
The older blonde pasted a smile on her face despite the pain in her chest. Regardless of her illness, she wasn't going to turn away her hilarious niece.
"I shan't say that things haven't been entertaining," she drawled with a smirk, thoroughly amused at the identical expression on Rose's face. She really is like Dorea.
The little shit just bounced on her feet slightly before dropping into the armchair next to the fireplace. It was nice to see her look more settled in herself. Recently, Rose had been far too docile for Cassiopeia's liking. She didn't know what had been on the girl's mind, but things seemed to be returning to normal, at least.
And if she found out that someone had hurt Rose, then it was tough luck. For them.
Cassiopeia clenched her fingers into a fist under the desk, trying to stop the twitching in her hand. It was fucking annoying, especially when she had so many documents to write. She wasn't so bloody weak as to rely on a Dicta-Quill; Cassiopeia was a Black, and Blacks bow to nothing, not even their own illnesses.
"Aunt Cassi?"
The older woman's eyes flicked up to her niece, the girl frowning despite having pilfered Cassiopeia's biscuits yet again. She smiled again, once more wishing that she could have stayed around to guide Rose until she became an adult. Oh well, wishful thinking never solved anything. Pragmatism and logic are my only tools now.
She raised a thin brow, casually reclining in her chair. "Yes? I certainly hope you haven't caused any trouble from which you require me to bail you out of."
Rose pouted. "Why does everyone think I'm doing something wrong? I told them I wouldn't kill him."
"Excuse me?"
The girl paused and flicked her blue eyes over to Cassiopeia. "It doesn't matter. Either way, the result is that I'm not a murderer. You should be grateful for that."
"As if we've never dealt with a murderer in this family," she snorted.
Rose didn't say anything but nodded, silently conceding the point as she scarfed down what was apparently her tenth biscuit at least. God, she's got as much a sweet tooth as Charlus used to.
She pushed that thought away. Reminiscing wasn't going to help her mood.
"Aunt Cassi?"
"Yes?"
Rose shifted in her chair to face Cassiopeia fully, her posture fucking awful. Oh, well. "So, we all know that there's no such thing as a muggle-born now, right?"
Cassiopeia snorted. "Yes, no thanks to your scheming without a fucking care in the world."
"What an apt description." The girl just grinned at her unrepentantly, and the older woman felt her lips twitch into a small grin despite herself. What a little brat. "Anyway," Rose continued, "this means that every 'muggle-born' has ancestry from a recognised House, right?"
"Right."
"Then doesn't that mean that there could possibly be someone with a Black heritage floating around?"
Cassiopeia sighed lightly. She'd thought the same thing as soon as this mess came to light. There was every chance that one of her kin could have had a bastard or two on the side, and considering the personality of some of her late relatives, it might not have even been that long ago.
"Yes, there is. While they would usually be on the tapestry at the manor, there are a few concealment spells that would ensure their names wouldn't appear. Not to mention that they might have simply been disinherited."
Rose frowned. "Can Dad find out the truth for himself?"
"Sirius would have to know who he was looking for before trying to do anything. His best bet would be attempting to get the information out of the portraits of previous Lord Blacks," she said with a sarcastic huff. "Merlin only knows how well that'll go."
"Sounds fun." The girl curled a leg underneath herself and nibbled a biscuit, looking deep in thought. "Maybe the knowledge that the House of Black is finally on the mend would be enough for Acturus, at least."
Not for the first time, Cassiopeia wondered just how her niece seemed to know enough about the Blacks' past to make such accurate judgments about them. Rose was an incredibly smart young woman, more so than she would have expected for someone in her position.
The older blonde was well aware that Rose was keeping many secrets from her, but she couldn't really begrudge the girl for staying quiet. Given her shitty past, it was perfectly logical not to reveal everything to someone she hadn't known for even a year.
Not even a year. It was far too strange to think that'd only met for the first time last summer, and already Cassiopeia was feeling more than melancholic about leaving the charming child behind. It wouldn't be too long until her disease overtook her, and then that would be it.
There wouldn't be any more hilarious study sessions, no more trips abroad, no cackling while planning chaos for their government, no nothing. Things would be over. She wouldn't be able to train Rose, or annoy Marius, or lecture young Sirius.
Her life was coming to an end, and there was nothing she could do.
"Aunt Cassi?"
Rose's hesitant tone made her blink, looking over at the girl who was frowning lightly in her direction, biting her lip as she usually did when she was nervous. A terrible habit, really.
"Yes, Rose?"
The young woman stared at her intently for a few seconds before her face relaxed. "Are we going back to France this summer?"
If only that were possible.
Cassiopeia smiled gently at Rose, a bittersweet feeling in her chest. "We'll see."
Before the girl could say anything else, the woman interrupted her. "Don't you have Herbology soon? You might want to get to the greenhouses before you're late."
Rose spun to face the clock and let out a muttered "Shit!" before hastily grabbing her bag off the ground. She took the chance to steal yet another biscuit – what a bloody glutton – and dashed out the room.
"See you later, Aunt Cassi!"
The oldest living Black watched her lovely niece leg it out the room, for once looking like the carefree child that she truly deserved to be, and smiled to herself. Cassiopeia shifted the parchment on her desk and pulled out the newest copy of her will, eyes flicking down to her beneficiaries.
Rose's future assets were, of course, the most numerous.
She read through everything once more, ensuring that everything she currently owned had been divided between the relevant parties in acceptable quantities. Her family was going to be rather well off after this, but they certainly all deserved it. After the House of Black going through hell for so many decades, almost being wiped off the face of the planet, only to come back with a vengeance, they'd earned some recognition for their efforts.
The Blacks had now placed enough roots to ensure that they were here to stay, and Cassiopeia was content for once. Her life had been rather shit for a great number of years in terms of family, so to find some resolution at the end of her life was all she could really ask for.
The woman picked up her quill and signed her name with a flourish, watching as the parchment automatically rolled up into a scroll and flashed gold once before disappearing. It would no doubt now be on the desk of her Manager, waiting to be verified before being duplicated for the relevant places it was needed.
It's done.
She stood up and made her way over to the window, watching a few Thestrals soar over the top of the forest in unison. There were students trailing over the grounds, some lazily enjoying their free periods, others rushing to classes they were clearly late for. The late February snow was finally melting away, the bare trees simply waiting for the chance to rebuild once more. A time for renewal, for change.
Life would go forward, and so would her family.
They would live.
Rose strode forward through the gate, the click of her boots the only sound around her.
She made her way forward on muscle memory alone, her mind wandering while she traipsed the familiar path. Her breath was visible in the evening chill, small puffs that appeared to be the only sign of her life. She pulled her coat tighter around her body and carried on, heedless of her pounding heart.
She stopped at a well-known spot, turning to her target with a hint of anxiety. Rose supposed it was an odd situation; this exterior hadn't made an appearance for a while.
Inky black hair fell to just above her knees in a slight wave, the strands floating about from the chilly breeze in the village. Rose stared ahead with her original poisonous green eyes, mouth set in a determined expression as she gazed down at the ominous stone in front of her. Having her original thirty-year-old body once more was rather nostalgic, even if her current life had given her more of what she'd always dreamed of.
The woman took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, eyes roving over the carved words.
"Hello, Mum. Hello, Dad."
The headstones of James and Lily Potter were terribly silent, almost looming with their ominous inscriptions, and Rose smiled painfully at the sight.
"It's been a while."
It's been far too long.
A/N: Hey guys!
For the first section, I mentioned that there were twelve Houses for the new department. I couldn't figure out how to properly mention them all without making the narrative really dry, so here they are:
Potter and Black (led by Sirius), Bones (Amelia), Malfoy and Rosier (Narcissa), Greengrass (Lord Cyrus Greengrass), Lestrange (Lady Laurel Greengrass nee Lestrange), Jones (Lord Michael Jones), Warrington (Lord Titus Warrington), Longbottom (Augusta), Ogden (Chief Warlock/Lord Tiberius Ogden), and Zabini (Alessia).
I hope that makes sense. Let me know if I've made things even more confusing.
In terms of who some of these characters, most of them appear on the family trees I've done for this fic. My deviantart is anime-otaku20 if you want to check them out.
Another thing is that the end of this part of Rose's story is nearly at an end. There are about 3-5 chapters left for 'Temporal Displacement' depending on how the chapters come together. After that I'll definitely be having a break to plan third year. Just a heads up.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you soon.
Until next time!