Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything you can recognise from any books or TV series or movies. I do however take liberties with the plots or mentions provided by JKR or other writers. The only profit I'm getting out of it is improving my English.
Title: Secrets & Keepers – Supernova
Rating/Warnings: R/M [AU; identity crisis; teenage rebellion; canon typical violence; profanity; discussion of and references to past events of gore nature; references to off-screen original character deaths; pure-blood propaganda; references to past sexual abuse of a minor - no description of thereof just statement that such a thing took place]
Characters and pairings: Hermione Granger with the Granger family and wide assortment of original characters (some of which were referenced in Secrets & Keepers – Collision Curse) and surprise guest appearances from canon characters. References to Collision Course pairings and a couple of minor OC pairings. No Hermione's pairings aside of brief mentions about her crush on Lockhart.
Summary: Hermione learns the hard way that there's a lot of truth that shouldn't be passed around. It's a story of multiple crises starting from identity, trust in one's loved ones, the trust which one's friend put in one. It's a story of doubts which people voice about other people. It's a story of friendships that are forged in crisis. It's also a love story as much as a story about love. A pre-PoA AU.
Word count: About 11 000.
Spoilers: Canon spoilers for PS/SS, CoS and pre-Hogwarts PoA. Linked to but doesn't require reading of Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course.
Chapter summary: Arcturus shares with Hermione what he knows about her aunt.
AN: I swear that it's the last chapter that revolves around Mirzam But it fit with Larry's quest to find more about her so Hermione didn't need to decide what to do right away. It contains references to past sexual abuse of minors, no graphic descriptions are given, only statements that such things took place at all. This chapter, as well as chapter 14 & 15, should be one giant chapter but I took mercy on both you and my beta as individually they're quite long and as one chapter they would have been the length of the first chapter of Collision Course. But once Arcturus is done with explaining everything he thinks he has to explain Hermione does get her retribution in chapter 16. From there onwards is just the quest itself. But just to know what you can expect about the main subjects of discussion from each individual chapter here it is: 13 - Mirzam; 14 - Dumbledore; 15 - Sirius. My personal favourite is Dumbledore's.
The story updates on Tuesday and Thursday.
I hope that You will find this story enjoyable. I would be the most grateful for constructive criticism.
Beta read by Regnbuen
Secrets & Keepers - Supernova
Chapter thirteen: 8th July 1993
8th July 1993, 39 Grimmauld Place, London
Arcturus got up from the armchair with ease and approached them with a small smile.
"What the hell are you doing here?" asked Larry suspiciously.
"Visiting the Black family property," replied Arcturus dryly.
"This isn't a Black family property, Arcturus," replied Larry with a snort. "At your age it's easy to confuse numbers. For the life of me I can't remember the bloody number, but I quite distinctly remember staying with your brother in London and I remember that it was at Grimmauld Place. What I do remember however is that Grimmauld Street was located on the right side of the house and not the left."
Arcturus's lips twitched again before he replied, in the same dry tone, "As it sometimes happens you're right. The house which number you're trying to summon is located on Grimmauld Place under a different number. Yet, you're wrong on the subject of the Black family properties."
"Because you're wrong about the families," replied Larry.
"No, I'm not," quipped Arcturus.
"Mirzam Verascez was born Miranda Black and in all likelihood this house belonged to her…" started Larry.
"It did," agreed Arcturus.
"So let me ask, again. What are you doing here?" asked Larry in exasperation.
"Let me answer this, again," replied Arcturus dryly. "Visiting the Black family property."
"She didn't come from your Black family," grumbled Larry.
"From most certainly she did not," confirmed Arcturus. "Into, on the other hand she most definitely did," he added dryly.
"Ignoring her Muggle upbringing and opinion of being a Muggleborn even though she was not, not even you, in your most benevolent mood, would have allowed your heir to marry someone of such a low birth," replied Larry grimly.
"That's your opinion of her?" asked Arcturus dryly.
"Of course not," protested Larry vehemently. "You know what I'm talking about, you prick."
"Unfortunately, I do," said Arcturus with a grimace. "As much as I wished to undo the damage that my father had created I couldn't right all of the wrongs he made," he added grimly. "Had he been less hot-headed we would still have Phineas's branch with his heirs and most likely some members of that branch would be magical. Phineas was a capable wizard and his wife although non-magical herself was a highly intelligent woman of good health and constitution. With Phineas's levels of personal power at the very least one of their children would be magical but thanks to my father we will never know what could have happen if he simply accepted Phineas's choice. My Grandfather although he also have grounds to disinherit Iola and her heirs never did so. Then there was Cora," he grumbled.
"What about Cora?" asked Larry, with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"You two were too busy causing mischief to pay attention to her suitors but one of them, and one to whose attention she was actually receptive was Aidan O'Leary," replied Arcturus.
"Gryffindor or Ravenclaw?" asked Larry.
"Ravenclaw," said Arcturus.
"But he was a Muggleborn," muttered Larry.
"And therein lied the problem," said Arcturus grimly. "Never mind that O'Leary was quite a powerful young wizard, socially smart and a talented Herbologist that eventually made a name for himself in Ireland. What had mattered to my father was something the boy had no control of, but it was enough to deny my sister a long and happy marriage, filled if not with children, then at the very least with someone who would have been there for her," he added and grimaced.
"And Regulus?" asked Larry pensively. "I never saw him courting anyone."
"I did," replied Arcturus stiffly. "Unfortunately he was courting someone completely clueless of his affection and dedication."
"Who was she?" asked Larry curiously.
"A fellow classmate of his," said Arcturus simply. "A half-blood of somewhat questionable lineage but with a good head, dedicated heart and enough clout to get into the Auror Office and then into the Hit-Wizards."
Larry frowned and muttered, "I don't recall such a lass."
"There's no such lass because I meant you, you moron," said Arcturus sourly. "My brother was, what's that expression that I heard, oh, there it is, gayer than a pride flag. The only straight thing about him were his vests because even his wand was slightly bent," he snorted.
Larry locked shocked by the admission and after a moment he mumbled, "I never knew. He never said anything that would imply…"
"For the love of Merlin," groaned Arcturus. "He was gay, not stupid," he added grimly. "He saw you pining one lass after another, never showing more interest in him than that of a good friend. He could stand it while you were young while he still sustained some hope that maybe one day you would be able to see that he was more devoted to you than any of your female dalliances. But hope indeed is the worst of evils for it prolongs the torment of man. It took him years to come to the conclusion that he would never be more than just a good friend. It killed him, maybe not right away but the depression started consuming him little by little, eventually it spread all over the aspects his life. He started giving into youthful vices, occasionally at first, in order to improve his focus in his work, but instead of making him better it made him careless. His work, his professional opinion started to suffer. His success rate had faltered which made him take riskier and shadier jobs, he made a couple of enemies out of former allies. By the age of fifty he was all but a shell of the brilliant, energetic man he was in his youth," he paused for a moment before he said slowly. "Then things started to improve, he wrote enthusiastic missives, agreed to spend better part of the year in England even. He teased Lucy and Iggy over the lack of babies between coming up with most ridiculous names for Sirius. He spent time with our mother showing her more patience than I had. He went out with Alphard and…" he paused again. "Mea culpa," he sighed heavily. "I failed to see through what he was doing, I, who knew him the best of the entire family, maybe with exception of Cora. I didn't recognise that the reason why he started putting his affairs in order was not because he believed that a man of his age should have them prepared just in case but because he was planning to end his life," he paused again. "I thought that I could make you see this, but like those capitulating, cheese consuming chimpanzees you bought the cover he offered you."
As Arcturus went Larry's face turned from shock to a frown that gave way to a tight-lipped fury that culminated with hissed through gritted teeth, "Have enough courage to admit that you're blaming me for his death."
"I did," said Arcturus simply. "For a long while even though on Regulus's request I continued to look after you. Took me a while to understand that the thing you were guilty of was not ill-will rather than ignorance and short-sightedness peculiar to straight men that never once entertained the idea of someone of their sex being interested in them. Because if you had, then maybe things would have ended quite differently."
"Nice of you to bring it out now," spat Larry before he turned on his heel and with his wand threw the front door wide open before he flew out of the house.
The doors slammed shut behind him with a loud thud.
Hermione and Josephine remained standing, shocked by both Arcturus's confession and Larry's outburst. As Hermione looked at Josephine's face she saw how torn she was by what she witnessed.
"Go after him," said Hermione quickly. "Or at least try, he will need a friend."
"He could have disapparated," said Josephine slowly.
"Not his preferred method of transport," said Arcturus simply. "If you don't find him soon, knowing him you will be able to find him in the first watering hole that's open at this hour. There are a couple of them around the block up north on Donegal and White Lion, but I would check up Chapel Bar first, those two idiots liked to sneak in there when they were teenagers."
"Hermione?" asked Josephine cautiously.
"Go," said Hermione earnestly. "I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" asked Josephine sceptically.
"Yes," said Hermione quickly.
Josephine left the house in a far less dramatic manner, closing the door carefully after herself.
"That wasn't nice," commented Hermione stiffly.
"While part of me is delighted by your ability to draw to your aid people of many talents and many backgrounds the conversation which I want to have with you concerns private issues of people that valued their privacy and would have been appealed if I aired their dirty laundry to a crowd," replied Arcturus. "Not that I'm feeling at ease with the idea of discussing them with you. You're young and innocent, something that I personally wish to preserve for as long as humanly possible."
"Then why do you feel the need to discuss them with me?" asked Hermione sceptically.
"Because of what you already told me yesterday," replied Arcturus. "You want to make an informed decision and I'm about to offer you the means to do so. Why don't we sit down?" he asked. "We can either settle in here," he gestured towards the sitting-room and then towards the door at the end of the hall, "or in the kitchen."
Hermione gestured towards the sitting-room and Arcturus stepped away from the doorway to allow her entrance.
She entered the room, tactfully looking around the place. The room was painted in a lush green colour, curiously enough not a deep green she expected it to be considering who owned it now. It was a quite bright tone of green, that matched the wood of the furniture splendidly. The colour of wood was mid-brown and the floor matched the furniture to a t. The solitary window had an alluring looking window seat that was filled with pillows. On the opposite wall to the door was a fireplace with a high mantelpiece, tall enough for a man to pass through it. Between the door and the fireplace stood a long couch that at the very least could sit three people comfortably. In front of the couch was a low coffee table. Both sides of the couch were bracketed with side tables that were just tall enough to put or retrieve something from them. Next to them, on both sides of the room, though a couple of feet to the centre of the room stood two armchairs. The fireplace on both sides was bracketed with built-in bookcases that were filled with books. But the most curious piece of décor, considering the current owner, however, was a TV located in the corner of the room.
Unsure where to sit with so many options available she sat down on the couch, by the left arm of it, close to the armchair which Arcturus vacated when he stood up to greet them.
He returned to that chair and sat down, placing his cane by the left side of it.
"Mirzam's actual name was Miranda Black," she said slowly. "Coincidence or a relative of yours?" she asked pensively.
"Even though over the years I came to believe that there are no such a thing like coincidences, this case is an exception," replied Arcturus slowly. "Reginald Black, Miranda's paternal grandfather was one of the Crown's soldiers during the Greater Muggle War. His father, Patrick was the owner of a glass making manufacture, a business that he inherited from his own father, also a Muggle. I traced their lineage through twentieth and nineteenth century as well as very late eighteenth century but I found no connections between us and them. Not that I expected to find any. Unlike my father I wasn't deluded that our surname was unique to the wizarding world alone. The Blacks were a family of Jews that with passing time had migrated from the territory of Eastern Europe, they stayed long enough in Germany to attain their surname in the German language but eventually they made their way to Ireland, to the troublesome area of Ulster. Quite early they traded their German surname for the English version and settled themselves in Belfast. I don't know a lot about Mrs Black's past but I managed to learn that she was a child of migrants from the Austrian territory of Northern Galicia. For you it would be the territories of Southern Poland, Northern Ukraine and Czechoslovakia. Her father and his family lived in Casimir, a Jewish town just outside Cracow that eventually got incorporated into it. Her mother was a governess for one of the families for which his father had worked. He was Jewish and she was Catholic and their affair was discovered quite quickly. So they ran away, from the town as well as the country, they aimed for finding a new life in the United States, but when their ship was thrown off course and had to stay in the port of Cork for repairs, she was quite heavy with child and quite sick of sailing."
"So they decided to stay there," said Hermione.
"Eventually, due to unrest they made their way up north, to Belfast and decided to stay there," continued Arcturus. "Between the two they built a name for themselves there, even though people could hardly spell out their surname. They had no other children aside from Martha, living children at the very least, and as converts themselves they had no trouble accepting Reginald as their daughter's suitor. They got married, had three sons that didn't survive long after birth and one daughter that did. Maeve was born in the troublesome year of 1942 a couple of months after her father was summoned to the army. He died before she was born but Martha had too much on her shoulders to despair. She had a child to take care of and the manufacture to look after. She managed it quite successfully for a single mother. She ran it until she found her sixteen year old daughter increasing in size."
"And how did that go?" asked Hermione curiously.
"Like a lead balloon," said Arcturus with a grimace. "Maeve, after her parents and grandparents received the fair complexion of her maternal grandmother and the dark hair with curls that came from her paternal grandmother, an Irish woman. She was a girl of considerable beauty but very little sense or sensibility. Spoiled rotten by her mother, in an attempt to repay her the loss of a father, she sought out relations with older men."
"You mean whoring herself," said Hermione sourly.
"I'm not convinced that at that age she saw it as such," said Arcturus sourly. "Your grandfather was one of the many men that bedded her, and Miranda believed that he had done so repetitively enough for Reginald to also be his son. But at the moment I'm getting a bit ahead. Not wanting to hurt her daughter's chances for eventual marriage, Martha Black sold the manufacture and her family fortune and decided to seek her luck elsewhere. Why she thought that London was the best place for that I have no idea. But she purchased this house and another one that eventually got sold, and made a living out of keeping tenants. Sviatoslav Zahradníček," he said the name with the same enunciation as Larry had, "was one of those tenants. He was quite receptive of the attention that Maeve paid him even as she was already increasing with Reginald. He was charming and manipulative enough that he convinced Martha that he didn't mind raising someone else's bastards. Had she given him the boot back then, and maybe even forced her daughter to clean up her act then perhaps Miranda and Reginald's lives would have been different. But she eventually succumbed to her daughter's pleas. So they got married, but it quickly turned out that Maeve and Slav were like two pees in a pod. He worked, for a while at the very least, but everything he got from work he spent on alcohol and later on drugs. Prior to their marriage Maeve occasionally attempted to act like a proper loving mother, but under Slav's guidance she completely let herself go. All of the childrearing had befallen on Mrs Black, and quite soon the older two were joined by a child of Slav, at the very least he believed that it was his son, although that can't be certain. The boy was named Radoslav Aaron which supposedly didn't sit well with Slav but he didn't have a right to complain and neither did Maeve because on the day of his christening they were both drunk as a pair of skunks."
"Who named him then?" asked Hermione.
"Miranda," replied Arcturus. "A child of four years and four languages which she spoke quite fluently for her age because even though her grandmother was a convert she occasionally used Hebrew around the kids. Miranda had an ear for languages, English, she heard at home, Polish and Czech from old Mrs Zahradníček when the old ladies were on good terms. Apparently Radoslav's names were a form of vengeance that the old ladies thought was appropriate for Slav for deserting his father's name and language as well as for his anti-Semitic comments. So Radoslav Aaron the boy was named and the other one also received similarly punishing name, Zdzieslav Mordechai, another of Miranda's ideas."
"How do you speak it with such ease?" asked Hermione curiously.
"Like Miranda I was born with a good ear for language," replied Arcturus. "French was always highly valued in my father's family and my mother was a descendant of a Scot and Hispanic Jew. So Spanish was another language I learned early on as well as enough of Hebrew to please Nana Gamp. Hebrew itself I picked when I started pursuing my future wife, her Ma was an Irish Jew but her father was an anglicised Scot. German I learned out of boredom and Czech was something that I picked when I was an ambassador of England in Prague. Bits and pieces of Polish I learned from an acquaintance that I made there, an ambassador of the Polish ministry. A lovely fellow with a Norwegian wife, so my wife had learned just enough to cheer her up as outside of her husband she really had no one to talk to in her own language. Russian too I learned while I was in Prague because I discovered a…" he added with no short degree of pride before he stopped and said. "We're getting too far away from the subject of our discussion."
"It's still interesting," said Hermione dryly.
"Where was I?" muttered Arcturus. "Right. As long as Mrs Black lived, Maeve and Slav's children were taken care of and raised quite well considering the circumstances. Especially Miranda, she received a somewhat stern but proper upbringing with manners befitting a young lady. She was taught the difference of right and wrong and proper and improper. And she was a bright child, she saw that most parents of her playmates didn't act like her own. But when Miranda was seven and Zdzieslav was a couple months old the tragedy struck them, Martha Black suffered a massive heart-attack that killed her instantaneously."
"And Maeve and her husband found themselves alone with the kids," said Hermione.
"Yes," confirmed Arcturus. "What was more worrisome was the lack of a source of income as Mrs Black disinherited her daughter and her husband in her last will and testament. The will was a bit complicated in its wording but generally it made Miranda the sole beneficiary of all properties and whatever money Mrs Black had. Money were put in trust under the care of Mrs Black lawyer. He was supposed to take the monthly allowance and exchange it for goods as he saw fit. Be it food or clothes. A small portion of that allowance was supposed to take care of the utility bills of this house."
"But if Miranda was the owner of the house wouldn't her mother…" started Hermione.
"I know what you're going to ask and Mrs Black predicted that eventuality too. Both properties couldn't be sold until after Miranda turned eighteen. Upon reaching that age Miranda was obliged by the will to distribute everything as she saw fit, with instructions, that had Maeve and her husband managed to live this long, to award them with a shelter befitting their involvement and dedication as parents. The rest of everything was supposed to be split between all of the children equally with Miranda as a trustee until all of her brothers were of age. Additionally Mrs Black disinherited all of the future children that Maeve and Slav would have," explained Arcturus.
"But wouldn't that depreciate the value of the property or something?" asked Hermione sceptically. "If both houses were supposed to stand empty I mean."
"In this house Maeve and her husband were allowed to live with their children until Miranda turned eighteen, with like I said all utilities covered by Mrs Black's lawyer from the allowance. He was supposed to provide the children with all the goods necessary as he saw fit. He was also supposed to demand the removal of children from Maeve and Slav's care if he saw anything alarming at any point in time," said Arcturus. "Meanwhile the other house was supposed to be put under the care of an administrator that was allowed a portion of the income from the tenants there, supposedly a brother of a friend of hers, but I will get to that later on. For now all that matters is that Mrs Black tied her daughter's and her husband's hands pretty tight. They had a roof over their heads and Slav for a while managed to manipulate the lawyer into believing that all was well at home. But being a pair of drunkards and junkies, while provided with food and board they weren't provided with money for their whims. So quite quickly Maeve returned to whoring and subletting the rooms in the house for enough money to get by."
"And the children?" asked Hermione softly.
"That burden had befallen on the oldest of them. Maeve quite sternly told Miranda that if she was supposed to benefit from future ownership of the house then she should work for it. So all of the childcare had befallen on her. The lawyer managed to secure for all of the children a spot in schools and nurseries but it was Maeve's job to get them there. Something that quickly befallen on Miranda too, and Maeve only showed up just enough times to appease too concerned caretakers. So at the brink of turning eight Miranda, aside of her own school work and looking after Reginald's had duties towards her brothers that Maeve neglected. She fed, dressed, bathed them, kept schedule of doctor's visits when such were necessary and bartered with her step-father to take them there…"
"How?" whispered Hermione. "She was seven years old for Merlin's sake."
Arcturus sighed heavily before he said softly, "In the only currency that Slav accepted."
"Drugs? Alcohol?" whispered Hermione.
"No, my dear," whispered Arcturus.
"You don't mean…" Hermione started but couldn't bring herself to finish.
"Yes, that," said Arcturus grimly. "A seven year old whoring herself for fatherly duties being carried out on the top of essentially being a mother of three. But…" he hesitated for a moment, "she bore it without a complaint or plea for mercy. She loved those boys to pieces and there was nothing she wouldn't do for them."
"Even submitting herself to that?" choked out Hermione.
"Even that," sighed Arcturus. "Why I'm telling you that? I want you to see clearly the girl that she was when she first crossed paths with my grandson. An equally lonesome boy burdened with the responsibility of being a caretaker of a younger sibling, with parents just as ill-equipped to raise them as Miranda's parents were."
"One of which was your son," pointed out Hermione sourly.
"Yes, he was," said Arcturus grimly. "Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I chose to not see that, foolishly believing that his disdain towards me was extended to my person only. Sirius and Regulus spent quite a lot of time with us in their early childhood. My daughter-in-law was a woman of a troubled mind and she and my son spent quite a lot of their time abroad, in order to stabilise her. The stretches of time were…" he paused. "At certain times they were gone for a couple of weeks, at others a couple of months. By the time Regulus turned three and started to talk rather than babble he called my wife Mama rather than Nana. It broke my heart but at the time I was busy myself with teaching Sirius. He was a quiet, bright boy, polite and proper and curious beyond his age. Being in his company took years, decades even, from my shoulders," he paused for a moment. "To the point of finding myself constantly biting my tongue when I talked with him otherwise I would start calling him my son," he paused again. "He should have been my son, I should have made them both my sons by removing them from their parents care permanently. Their lives would have been much different if I had, but I was a coward that didn't want a conflict with my own son. So rather than doing what was right I did what I decided was proper. I accepted the position of an ambassador in Prague, a job that would occupy me for a couple of years, long enough for Orion and Wally to…" he shook his head.
"What happened to them while you were gone?" asked Hermione softly.
"For most of the time Orion and Wally left them under the care of the house elves, a devoted bunch that loved both to pieces. Lola in particular was devoted to the boys, she certainly was more of a mother to them than Wally had ever been," replied Arcturus. "But aside from that the boys raised themselves, well, Sirius was doing the raising and Regulus was being raised. Sirius was seven and a half I think and Reggie was a couple weeks away from turning five," replied Arcturus slowly. "It was early summer, my son and his wife were gone and Reggie came down with a summer flu. So one of the days after Lola boot him out of Regulus's room so he could nap under her watchful eye Sirius headed outside to the playground where he met Miranda and the boys," he paused and smiled softly. "Imagine those two meeting the other for the first time. A fierce little lioness protecting her cubs from a playground bully, displaying clear signs of magic in front of a morose, lonely boy that spent his childhood watching Muggle children from the window of his bedroom."
Hermione smiled sadly.
"It went like most meetings between children of such different backgrounds. Somewhat turbulent at first but soon they became inseparable companions and Sirius found himself adored by not only Miranda who pestered him with questions from dawn till dusk and sometimes a long after that, but also the other boys. Reginald in particular hero-worshiped him since the moment Sirius told him that he was also a wizard. Even more so once Sirius admitted that he had a brother his age. Unfortunately a meeting between the two didn't occur because Regulus's flu had turned into a case of dragon pox that kept him bedridden for the entire summer, and once the summer had ended…" said Arcturus with a heavy sigh. "My son and his wife returned to England within the first days of September, and even though Regulus recovered, Sirius would have a lot of trouble with sneaking him out too. Miranda's eight birthday came and went and September turned into October and that too had passed almost entirely with sickness, this time pneumonia and Sirius's flu."
"And the fire?" whispered Hermione.
"Happened on Halloween night," said Arcturus sadly. "A couple of days away from Sirius's birthday. I never learned the details of their last meeting but I do know that Sirius last saw her by the nearby church and on that day he passed his naming day gift from Alphard to her. Why? I have no idea. Maybe he thought that she needed it more than he did or maybe he had some sort of precognition. He used to be sensitive to that as a younger child, not that he was superstitious but he had an uncanny instinct and an eye for details which made him a vicious dueller even at that age."
"Do you know how she avoided meeting the same fate as the rest of the family?" asked Hermione softly.
"She never explicitly said and I didn't dare to ask," sighed Arcturus. "The words she used to describe it was that Sirius saved her, but at the time Sirius believed her to be dead like the rest of the family. It was a turbulent period of time for him. He couldn't even mourn her openly, not with Orion and Wally in the house and the charred ruins of this house was something he stared at all day long. By the time Mel and I returned from Prague for Christmas the boy I remembered was long gone. He lost a significant amount of weight, barely ate, not even his favourite meals. Never particularly exuberant in the first place he became even more morose. Regulus was the only person around whom he still smiled for, even though to a careful observer that smile no longer reached his eyes like it did before. When not morose he was combative and at times downright rude, usually to Wally but at times to Orion, that caused a lot of tension between them. Not that their relationship had been particularly easy in the first place. You see, Orion knew from an early age that my position would pass him by and he always resented that, and he resented Sirius even more for fitting in the criteria that the family law demanded to be met. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa," he sighed softly at the end.
"But he found her eventually," said Hermione softly.
"Before that happened many years had passed," said Arcturus with a grimace. "Christmas break of that year had ended with a very loud bang and Sirius disappearing for nearly three days. He was my heir and he knew how to hide within the house and grounds from everyone, even though the entire property was searched from top to bottom and from east to west as well as north to south and backwards. Mel and I were going spare, as did Regulus. Orion and Wally didn't really care and they eventually departed, to Greece most probably. It was only after they were gone when one of the elves had found Sirius in the thestral copse, a somewhat reclusive area of the property not very often visited. He had no wand or warm clothes and by the time he was found he was running a high fever. A flu we believed but when usual remedies had failed to improve his condition we summoned the family healer. Encephalitis," he sighed heavily. "Too severe to risk moving him to St Mungo's so he had to be taken care of at home. He was unconscious for the majority of the time, and when he wasn't he was delirious. I pieced bits and pieces of what occurred when he was out of his delirium. I learned about Miranda and the boys and…" he paused before he leaned forward, placing his elbows at his knees before he hid his face in his hands and choked out a sob.
Quietly Hermione rose from the couch and tiptoed to the coffee table before him before very gently she sat on the edge of it. Once certain that it wasn't tipping under her weight she leaned forward slightly and placed her right hand on his knee.
Arcturus lowered his hands just enough to look at her through his fingers. His eyes were wet with tears and he looked utterly miserable.
"Go on," said Hermione softly. "You need it."
Arcturus lowered his hands and placed his right hand over Hermione's and gave it a gentle squeeze before he said after a small sniff, "I shouldn't burden you even more than I had and it doesn't put me in a particularly good light."
"Let me be the judge of that," she offered earnestly. "Informed decision, remember?"
"You're right," he sighed and sniffed softly. "I like to present myself as powerful and omniscient, an old habit that I learned under my father's watchful eye. Hazard of the position, he told me, your word will be final and you need to make it clear that your opinion cannot be changed. Otherwise they will walk over you like they walked over my father," he added grimly as he gave Hermione's hand another gentle squeeze.
"Sounds wise," offered Hermione with a soft smile.
"He was but like I already said, he had his faults, we all do. Mine was incredulity," he sighed before he took both of Hermione's hands into his, giving them another gentle squeeze. "Although to be fair another one of them was arrogance. I fancied myself infallible even at the point when I was repetitively proven wrong. But I was never the one that had to suffer for it. My brother, my sister, they both paid that price," he paused for a moment before he breathed softly, "as did Sirius."
"What else did he say?" asked Hermione gently.
"Regulus broke a vase, a trinket of little but sentimental value, a gift of my aunt to Wally. Piece of tasteless shit, the Bulstrodes were never known for having a good taste," he said and grimaced. "But Wally valued it and Regulus was terrified of the punishment. As unstable as she was, Wally had good and bad periods, and at that time she was between both so it was hard to predict what sort of punishment she would dole out. So, Sirius, being the exemplary older brother offered to take the blame," he paused and sighed heavily. "But it wasn't Wally who doled out the punishment and it wasn't the one that Sirius expected."
"It was his father," whispered Hermione.
Arcturus squeezed her hands tightly before he lessened his hold as he said, "Yes, he was." Then he paused again and took a deep, shaky breath before he continued, "Orion took him up to his room and ordered him to strip, from the waist down. Spanking is a derogatory punishment to begin with, but one done to an already offended by their own nakedness party is even more so. I never did so, all the whacks any of them ever received were through clothes, but Orion," his face grew grim as he said his name, "he took a particularly vicious pleasure in doing it that way. It never occurred to me that there was something more sinister than the desire to make the lesson be remembered longer," he added and shook his head.
"So he beat him," said Hermione softly.
"I wish he had," muttered Arcturus grimly. "But that wasn't what happened," he added morosely. "He raped him," he breathed out. "An eight year old boy, his own son, as a punishment for something out of such little value," he spat angrily. "And I," his voice faltered, "I dismissed it as the ramblings of a delusional boy with a particularly tense relationship with his father. Not right away of course. I waited and watched. Once Sirius recovered he never brought up what he said, I'm not sure that he was even aware that he slipped it out. I took it as a sign that it was indeed a delusion, a bad, feverish dream born out of disdain and fear of his father's punishments," he shook his head. "But I watched them both very closely afterwards both at my home and during my increased visits to their own. Sirius wasn't scared of Orion, if anything he was more combative and mouthy and Orion…" he paused again. "Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa," he sighed heavily. "Eventually I forgot all about it until Miranda threw it into my face," his face crumbled. "My incredulity at the delusional accusations of a sick, grieving little boy not only allowed that singular incident to go unpunished, as it should have been, but also allowed my son to continue the abuse of his son for years to come until Sirius just couldn't take it anymore and he fled home."
Hermione's heart broke a little for that little boy as well as the man in front of her and she said softly, "He was your son, how could you expect the worst of him?"
"Quite easily," sighed Arcturus heavily and he grimaced. "All Blacks are more or less well educated in the area of Dark Arts. A relict of old times when such knowledge mattered whether or not you were going to live past your school years long enough to see your grandchildren and to ensure that they too saw their grandchildren. Also an occupational hazard of having one of the best supplied libraries on the subject. And believe me, it's massive. Orion, like his sister, was a bright, curious child that spent more time with his nose in books than outside. He continuously proved himself to be conscious of what he should or shouldn't read, so as he grew older I let it slide. Maybe if I hadn't, who knows," he shook his head. "All children are like trees, they all grow from little saplings into feeble young trees of weak roots but drive to grow bigger and stronger. And some trees do grow tall and strong, with deep roots, straight and proper. But some," he paused for a moment, "some do that to a certain point and then something, somehow or thanks to someone's interference goes wrong and they start to tilt dangerously towards one side, growing into caricatures of themselves. Orion was such a child. A model son and father in the public eye but in private a monster whose heart should have been pierced with a knife. An honour that wasn't bestowed on me."
"Why?" whispered Hermione.
"Because the list of his offences didn't only include family members. Had it been the case I would be able to claim familial judgement and punish him how I saw fit. But as things stood not only he was guilty of continuous sexual abuse of his own son but also of multiple murders, and Miranda took great pleasure in rubbing that into my face," replied Arcturus grimly. "Therefore that particular honour had befallen on her. Not that she was actively planning to kill him, just catch him and see him rotting in Azkaban for eternity, but due to unfortunate circumstances surrounding his arrest he suffered a heart attack and died, the coward," he added the last word with a snort.
"And Sirius?" asked Hermione pensively. "What sort of tree was he?"
"A capricious one," sighed Arcturus grimly. "Orion's abuse had changed him. It was only after Orion died, when I learned that he'd threatened Sirius with moving his abuse to Regulus if he ever breathed a word about it to anyone. How that was supposed to work I have no idea because if he as much as breathed a word about what his father was doing to him Orion wouldn't have a chance to even lay a hand on Regulus," he added grimly. "But fear is a powerful tool in the hands of a psychopath, and Orion knew what buttons he should press to make Sirius malleable. Regulus always had been a pressure point for Sirius, from the earliest age. Prior to Sirius's arrival to Hogwarts they were inseparable and they adored each other. He even went as far as to beg me to hold him back another year so they could go to Hogwarts together. At the time, unfortunately, I took it as the sign of co-dependency and decided that separation would do them both good," he paused and shook his head. "I didn't realise how terrified he had to have been that Orion would try something with Regulus. No wonder he wound up in bloody Gryffindor."
"Hey, it's not that bloody bad," protested Hermione.
"You're obliged to say that because you're a Gryffindor," replied Arcturus dryly. "To be fair it's my own fault, for instead of seeing him off to Hogwarts and making sure that he was surrounded with his acquaintances I headed to a Wizengamot meeting. Had I done so the odds of him meeting James Potter prior to their sorting would have been miniscule and most likely he would have ended up in Slytherin like the rest of the family or in Ravenclaw, something Mel was quite heavily betting on. But as things went he ran into that spoiled brat that I allowed Euphemia and Fleamont to raise without my supervision. Another mistake of mine," he sighed and grimaced. "Not that James was a particularly bad boy, mind you. Bright, magically talented but short-sighted, not only physically but also intellectually."
"Is that why you hate him?" asked Hermione sceptically.
"I didn't hate him," objected Arcturus before he sighed. "I can't make you understand my complicated relationship with the Potters without backtracking a bit from our current subject."
"I have a lot of time," said Hermione simply.
"Well then," agreed Arcturus as he let go of her hands and leaned back in his armchair. "I first encountered that smarmy, arrogant git known as Charlus Potter at a really turbulent time in my life while my cousin was making designs that could affect not only his own son's life but also that of mine. So I let a lot of things slide while I was trying to prevent what I perceived as a disaster. Dorea, my cousin whom this story concerns, was at the time living with her mother and my ailing aunt away from her brother. At one of the disaster averting meetings Potter was introduced to me as my Aunt's business partner, an owner of a Potter Potion Making Beautifying Emporium or was it Potter Beautifying Emporium," he grimaced. "Either of the two, not that it really matters in the end. Point is potion making was what he was into even though he himself hadn't done a lot of it. The company was conceived by his grandfather and at the time was undergoing a change in ownership. My senile Aunt Violetta, Dorea and Pollux's mother, saw it as a business opportunity, but since it was her own dowry she was standing to lose if things went south I didn't pay the lad too much attention. Had I been less arrogant or less worried about my son maybe I would be able to see through Potter's quite predictable plan."
"There was a dowry involved," guessed Hermione.
"And a quite handsome sum too," added Arcturus with a snort. "Enough to cover his gambling debts and give them and the old Potters enough to get by for a couple of years, provided that he wouldn't gamble that too," he said with a grimace. "So they got married and moved in with the Potters, the lad signed a marriage contract, an amended version from the usual one generation of primacy to two."
"Primacy?" asked Hermione.
"The right which gave me or any Head of the Black family the power to decide what would become of the heirs of their marriage union. Depending on the family to which our daughters or sisters married, the primacy extended to one generation and didn't affect their lives much. We've been using it for so long that many families eventually accepted the small loss of control over their sons or daughters for the price of connection or gold," said Arcturus with a grimace. "The primacy in the Potters case I extended immediately to two generations, and for some time had even been toying with the idea of three generations. I just really didn't like that smarmy git even though I couldn't really put my finger on it. The Potters, even though they lost their Wizengamot seat had many allies amongst the liberal members of it, and people of quite some power on that. And they were purebloods so breaking their courtship and forbidding their marriage from taking place wasn't a particularly bright move to make. Then there was the possibility of elopement which would really screw me over and out of money and control over their heirs, so I gritted my teeth and even wished them well."
"Surely it must have been a chore," deadpanned Hermione.
"It bloody was," snorted Arcturus. "A wedding union between an idiot and a dowry hunter arranged by a senile Bulstrode, with hostile in-laws worried that someone would poison their precious scheming progeny, my daughter-in-law constantly throwing up sometimes into appropriate places like a bin and sometimes into a punch bowl and I had to officiate it. It was a June wedding and Lucy, Iggy and Druella were allergic to pollen so almost every single bloody sentence was punctuated by someone's sneeze. On top of that my brother and my sister decided that they wouldn't be able to get through that travesty sober and got themselves drunk, on bloody gin which always made Cora giggly and Regulus weepy. Cassiopeia somehow managed to get herself stoned on Regulus's opium and when she wasn't snoring loud enough to startle the bloody fucking peacocks that Aunt Violetta borrowed from the bloody fucking Malfoys, which we had to invite to that stupid wedding, she was screaming at motherfucking imaginary dragons. It's an effing miracle that I didn't murder someone starting with the fucking best man because in the middle of exchanging vows he realised that he left the wedding rings in his other trousers," he relied sourly. "And let's not forget the kids. Bella somehow manged to strip the bridesmaid, her own mother, from the skirt of her dress while they were walking towards the altar, Andromeda wailed as loudly as the fucking peacocks and some idiot slipped Narcissa a hiccup inducing potion instead of a stomach soother, so that one was hiccupping and throwing up with the same frequency as my daughter-in-law."
Hermione that by the time Arcturus described throwing up Wally was trying to supress a smile, lost the ability to control her face by the time he got to the pollen and by the time he got to the bloody peacocks was snickering uncontrollably.
"At least it was unforgettable," she choked out when he finally finished.
"Unforgettable in all of it was my wife, the oasis in the desert of chaos, the eye in the storm," said Arcturus wistfully. "She ran interference with all the parties while everyone was losing their shit. At the very least she kept Fleamont from murdering Abraxas for saying that he imagined that a wife of a man who ran a beautifying emporium would look beautiful. Poor Euphemia was allergic to magnolias which were used quite extensively in the decorations and she was all red and so swollen that Mel had to alter her dress," he added and shook his head.
"She sounds great," admitted Hermione.
"She was," sighed Arcturus heavily. "I knew the moment I saw her in my first Ancient Runes class that she was it for me. Bright, beautiful, outspoken, caring. I would have loved to introduce you two. She adored Miranda from the very beginning and…" he shook his head.
"She's dead," whispered Hermione.
"No," sighed Arcturus as he shook his head. "She's still alive but as good as dead. The stroke she suffered didn't kill her, but for a while it was a touch and go. Eventually her condition stabilised and I was able to take her home. For many years she remained bedridden but with diligent help of the elves who always loved her to pieces she regained a limited mobility, but while she physically recovered, mentally the woman I knew and loved is long gone. She speaks very little and almost exclusively gibberish, has no memory of her life before the stroke even though on certain instinctual level she recognises some things as familiar, like embroidering, it's her favourite pastime aside of listening to stories and playing piano."
"I'm sorry," whispered Hermione.
"Don't be," said Arcturus softly. "She lived a long and happy life in which she loved and was loved in return. She saw her babies turn into adults and saw their own babies turn from babies into men…" he paused briefly. "And I still love her, I will continue to love her for as long as I can still draw my breath. If there's any advice I can offer you on that subject, don't settle for less than that if you ever decide to settle down. Sit your man," he paused briefly, "or your woman and ask them what would they do if you were incapacitated in any way, ask yourself what you would do if it was them instead of you."
"What happened after the wedding?" asked Hermione pensively.
"Nothing particularly worrisome," said Arcturus with a shrug. "A honeymoon that concluded with a 'we're expecting' announcement, and then that twerp went to the states and got himself killed there. So I sent a letter to Dorea and got one in return, as well as Fleamont and Euphemia's visit to the manor and a bloody nose for my trouble. Apparently their son decided to not inform them about the primacy clause in the marriage contract. Supposedly my fault," he snorted. "I set them straight and informed them that I will follow Dorea's will on the subject and she asked me to allow her to remain with them. That calmed them down and Fleamont even apologised for punching me. I really should have punched him back," he added sourly.
"And then?" pressed Hermione.
"Then Dorea's pregnancy concluded in the birth of one James Charlus Potter. She remained with them just long enough to recover from the birth before she hared out to who the fuck knew where. The United States most likely. So the old Potters had found themselves with a dead son, runaway daughter-in-law and a little baby to take care of," he explained. "They begged me to allow them to raise the boy and I conceded, I pitied them for their loss and I had no interest in taking the boy away from them. By the time James was born Sirius was already in the world for a couple of months and although quite sickly as an infant he was also very resilient in puling through one sickness after another. He was my primary concern and I saw no harm in allowing them to raise their grandson."
"But," interjected Hermione.
"It took many years before I realised that I should have run some sort of interference in raising the boy. Like his father before him James grew up spoiled and wanting nothing. Unlike his father however he was raised in a pretty narrow minded manner of a black and white morality. Dark Arts were bad, even mentions of Dark Arts were bad, and everyone who knew more than what was required for them to pass the defence course was bad. One schoolmate of theirs suffered quite badly because of that," said Arcturus and he grimaced.
"Severus Snape by any chance?" asked Hermione with a grimace of her own.
"A personal nemesis of James and by extension Sirius from as early as the Hogwarts Express. A son of the runaway daughter of the Princes, a half-blood, Muggle father, lousy drunkard, neglectful and abused mother. I met him a couple of times, mostly through Regulus. Highly intelligent, powerful for his age, arrogant and craving recognition at the same time. Supposedly as well-versed in Dark Arts as Sirius but without Sirius's upbringing, no wonder that those two got along like fire and ice, they were too much alike to stand each other, and then there was that Muggleborn friend of Snape's. A childhood friend from what I know, Lily Evans, insanely bright and talented. Potter fell for her like a plum into a plum pie, but she wouldn't have given him a minute of her day until Snape managed to screw up their friendship by calling her a Mudblood," said Arcturus with a grimace. "Well, the boot and we're not friends anymore is what he got for that, and in that Potter saw his chance. Because if those two had remained friends Potter could only pine after her from afar."
"Back up a bit," said Hermione quickly. "Snape was friends with Lily who eventually became Lily Potter? How did this happen?"
"According to Regulus, and he wasn't exactly a reliable source of information seeing that he was very much interested in keeping both of them separated as he had a vast interest in seducing Snape with his charms," said Arcturus.
"Stop," hissed Hermione.
"A boarding school full of hormonal teenagers what were you expecting my dear?" asked Arcturus simply. "Regulus was as gay as his namesake, at the very least I never saw him that much invested in any girl as he was in Snape. Sirius too and by too I mean was very much interested in a boy but not Snape in particular. James was the object of his teenage affection, probably because upon reuniting with Miranda at Hogwarts he received marching orders, because if there was one thing your Aunt couldn't stomach it was bullies, which Sirius managed to prove himself to be by the time he came to her, after the end of their first week at Hogwarts. That much of a hellion he was and because he was a scorned hellion with pride and she was prejudiced he found himself a new object for his affections, who in turn had his own object of affections who was also an object of someone else's affection."
"Let me get this straight. Regulus pined after Snape who just like James pined after Lily who by your accounts didn't pine after anyone. Then there was Miranda who," she paused as she looked at him expectantly.
"Who pined after the boy she scorned who in turn decided to pine after James who pined after Lily, then throw into it the other friends of James's, Pettigrew that pined after James too, albeit in a more restrained and platonic manner from what I heard, and that, what was his name, Lupin who in turn pined after Sirius. Either way there was a lot of pining going on at some point," explained Arcturus.
"And they didn't try to kill each other?" asked Hermione incredulously.
"According to Miranda not a week went by when she didn't want to punch either James or Sirius in the teeth. James and Sirius, with occasional help from Lupin and Pettigrew hexed Snape mercilessly, who gave them back as good as he got with a little help from Lily until he screwed that one up. Their fifth year was a hell," finished Arcturus sourly. "Not a week went by without an owl from Hogwarts, and then Sirius decided to feed Snape to Lupin and it's a bloody miracle that no one actually died."
"Why would Sirius do that? Was Lupin a cannibal?" she asked sceptically.
"No, he was a werewolf," replied Arcturus dryly. "Dumbledore's way to swindle quite a substantial amount of money from the board of governors, but I managed to put an end to that. Didn't even know that it was Lupin until I had to smooth Snape's ruffled feathers and bribe him into not pressing charges for what actually was an attempted murder. How I hadn't gone grey that week is a blood miracle," he snorted.
"And Snape accepted the bribe?" asked Hermione incredulously.
"Absentee mother who eventually ran away from her husband a year prior to that incident if not earlier, abusive and neglectful father, ambition to get himself away from that place and to achieve something in life. He would have settled for less than he got and I know that it founded a lions share of his advanced masteries," answered Arcturus grimly.
"And Sirius? Was he expelled from Hogwarts?" asked Hermione sceptically.
"Luckily for him, no," said Arcturus with a grimace. "He was allowed to finish his advanced studies at Hogwarts on the grounds that if he put even a millimetre of his toe past the very tightly settled lines he would be expelled from school no questions asked. He was immediately taken out of Hogwarts for the remainder of the semester and spent a week at home with Orion."
"That couldn't have ended well," muttered Hermione.
"It did not," replied Arcturus grimly. "The letter that I received from Euphemia claimed that on his way to their place he got himself in a scuffle with some Muggle fuckwits that wanted to relieve him from money and while I initially bought that, I know now that it wasn't what had happened."
"It was Orion," whispered Hermione.
Arcturus nodded before he continued, "He spent the summer with the Potters and while he managed to evade James's questions as to why he would have done such a thing, at some point he admitted that in some murky way, I'm not exactly certain how, it was related to the affection he had for James that went beyond the limits of friendship. James acted like all straight boys do when they're confronted with homosexual interest of their mates, told him off and afterwards avoided both Sirius and the issue. At some point it became unbearable for Sirius to even be with him in the same house so he spent his days in Diagon Alley where Miranda had found him sans his usual entourage."
"And then what?" asked Hermione curiously.
"She did what all of us should have done and instead of asking questions she listened reserving her judgement until he had nothing more to say. She sorted him out, both his head and his mangled heart. The man he became once he grew up he became because someone listened to him and still found him worthy of interest afterwards. That was all that he needed, a friend that cared for him rather than benefited from his intellect or his talents. Sadly at that age James as a friend had nothing to offer him. Then there was the fall out with the rest of the group. Somewhat justified on Lupin's behalf but James and Pettigrew too eagerly fell in line behind him. It served Sirius well, he matured, he concentrated on his studies and plans for the future, spent more time around level-headed people, followed all the conditions that were set before him and somewhere along the way he fell in love with Miranda again. Not in the teenage, hormonal obsession with image of her but the actual young woman that helped him centre himself, so did she. They found strength and motivation in each other. Happens in people of similar experiences and her life too wasn't filled with roses."
"What became of her after the fire?" asked Hermione softly.
"Never admitted what happened before she was found by the Muggle police, but under a changed name from Miranda to Mirzam she was turned over to a friend of old Mrs Black, Immaculada Diaz and her brother Clemente Verascez. They adopted her and had given her the name under which she appeared at Hogwarts. It wasn't a happy home, she was taken in for the money that old Mrs Black left her and abused verbally and physically by both, and sexually by him. The beginning of the summer after her fourth year she spent with a friend of hers and her family without consulting the plans with them but unfortunately due to their travel plans she was forced to return home eventually," explained Arcturus grimly. "The welcoming committee much like Sirius's consisted from continued abuse that went on for a couple of days before she had a chance to slip out. Some good people found her wondering the streets and while she collapsed she luckily regained consciousness while she was being treated and firmly instructed her doctors to not inform her guardians. They were both arrested and put on trial and the lawyer that lead her case was supposedly a ferocious fellow that not only won her case but claimed their meagre fortune as a restitution for what she suffered."
"That poor thing," whispered Hermione softly.
"She would have scoffed at you for saying that before she would have given me an earful for telling all of this to you," admitted Arcturus with a sigh. "She was a survivor and in her continued survival she found the inner strength to continue going through the darkest periods of her life with her head held high. She abhorred the pity of others and had no time for self-pity. She grew from a turbulent, angry, neglected child into a grieving, abused teenager that turned against her abusers with all the ferocity of her grief and anger. Seeing them punished had helped her a lot. It quieted her down and allowed her to settle into a future that finally didn't look bleak. She devoted herself to her friends and found herself caring for those that had no one to take care of themselves. She learned how to forgive a lot if she found in someone even an inkling of repentance. My grandsons both loved her for that, each in his own way."
"Both?" asked Hermione, feeling a hint of recognition as if there was something that she should remember.
"Yes," nodded Arcturus.
"Sister Mine," whispered Hermione. "I trust that this letter will find you and my brother in good health," she added trying to recall words from the letter. "But that doesn't make sense, it was sent after she died and wasn't he supposed to be deceased by that point for a couple of years too," she muttered more to herself than to Arcturus.
"Ah, so you found my wayward grandson," said Arcturus dryly.
"More like found the bloody PO Box he used way back in the eighties," replied Hermione with a snort. "Wasn't he supposed to be dead?" she asked suspiciously.
"He is better off dead," admitted Arcturus with a shrug. "Got himself in some very nasty business, tried to remedy that with Miranda's help and then he bloody died of all things," he snorted. "A couple of days before her death she just appeared in the manor, asked us to accompany her without protest or asking questions. Then she brought us to a Muggle hospital where our supposedly dead grandson was lying in coma. Talk about feeling about to be knocked down with a feather, on the top of finding out that she was carrying our great-grandson and still actively working. Funny couple of hours it had been, we really should have invited Sirius along but that ship had sailed and afterwards there was no point in opening that wound."
"And then what?" asked Hermione sceptically. "You brought him home too?"
"Mel and I considered it briefly but we decided against that. He was in coma, that meant all around the clock care on the level of detail we wouldn't be able to provide without help. Then there was his status in the wizarding world. He was a marked Death Eater, young and freshly out of school but still accountable of several crimes of which murder was only one of them. Miranda vouched for him and claimed that he saw the light, but the Dark Lord wasn't exactly someone to whom one dared to hand a resignation letter. So instead of doing that, without getting into much detail with Miranda, he decided to fuck up some of his nefarious plans and instead of doing that, he fucked himself up quite badly," replied Arcturus stiffly. "Aside from all of that there was his overall condition. He was repeatedly scanned for the condition of his magic, by me, Mel and Miranda, separately and together but each scan showed lack of magic. Whatever fucked him up, instead of killing him rendered him into a squib. Had he still had his magic then maybe we would have considered taking him in but with all of this he was really better off under the care of Muggle doctors that looked after him around the clock," he added earnestly.
"Well, he woke up eventually," pointed out Hermione grimly. "What he's up to now?"
"He spent a better part of the last decade passive-aggressively reminding me of my obligations towards the house of Potter via mail," replied Arcturus with a grimace. "He stopped doing that after I officially died, but to this day he remains Harrison's personal watchdog and quite a thorn in Dumbledore's side."
"Why?" asked Hermione incredulously.
"Because like me, he recognises Harrison Potter as a part of the Black family and unlike me he isn't tied up by Dumbledore in carrying out the familial obligations. If you asked your friend about his primary school years I'm quite sure that amongst his past teachers you would have found a man fitting the description of my supposedly dead grandson," replied Arcturus with a small smirk.
"Why would Dumbledore tie you up from carrying out familial obligations? What does he stand to benefit from that? Why did you even listen to him?" asked Hermione breathlessly.
"Glad you asked," replied Arcturus. "But before I will get down to that allow me to hydrate myself, I'm feeling a bit parched and this bit will take a lot of talking."
TBC
Next: Arcturus shares what he knows. Part 2: Dumbledore.