I do not own Harry Potter. All rights go to J. K. Rowling as well as Warner brothers (For the movie rights).
Daughter of Darkness
Chapter Forty-Three
Narcissa sat up in her bed as a crash sounded through the house. For a moment, she sat completely still, her sleep addled mind not quite understanding how someone had broken into one of the oldest houses in Britain.
Another crash, followed by what sounded like shattering glass.
Narcissa jumped, springing to her feet and pulling on her nightgown before snagging her wand off the bedside table. Was Sirius having another night terror? He'd been pretty good about them for the last few weeks, only happening whenever he'd had a particularly bad day, which wasn't too often.
"Sirius?" Narcissa called, holding her wand loosely in her hand as she looked over the railing. The light was on in the kitchen, but the crashing sounded like it was coming form the Black office. How had he gotten in there? Lyra always made sure to lock it before she left and the lock itself was impervious to unlocking charms.
"Narcissa?" came a voice behind her. The woman in question jumped out of her skin before whipping around to see Sirius poking his head out the door of his room. "What the hell is going on?"
Another crash came from the office, prompting Sirius into alertness. He ducked back into his room and came out a moment later, a knife gripped tightly in his hands. She gave a rather absurd look before shaking her head. Sirius scoffed.
"It's perfectly valid!" he whispered as they crept down the stairs.
As the two neared the landing, Narcissa heard another crashing, this one accompanied by a small choked whimper as several loud bangs came from the office. Sirius rushed in, only to pause at the door. Narcissa came in right behind him, her jaw falling open at the utter destruction.
Several stacks of books of books had been thrown around the room, the desk was completely cleared of papers as they were all now laying on the floor, and the metallic tang on her tongue of pulsing angry magic that swirled through the air. In the center of it all stood Lyra, shoulders heaving with deep breaths as she tried to contain the raw fury she was feeling.
She felt so foolish, so angry, and so betrayed.
Was it all a ploy? Had Andromeda only been using her to get back into the Black family? Had she kept it a secret, planning to swoop in when the time was right and ingratiate herself to her niece? Lyra growled at the thought as she slammed her hand down on the solid oak desk. A pop met her ears followed by a throbbing, aching pain. Another finger broken.
"Lyra?" she heard, breaking through the haze of anger. "Lyra, what happened?"
Lyra turned around, her eyes unwilling to focus on the woman in front of her. Everything seemed so distant, so far away. All she knew was the sting of betrayal.
"She lied to me," Lyra muttered, not looking at Narcissa as she slid to the ground, the back of her head thumping against the desk.
"Who lied to you?" Narcissa gently asked, moving into the room and sitting gingerly, slowly, by her goddaughter. Sirius stood awkwardly at the doorway, but stayed to provide support if he was needed.
"Andromeda. Nymphadora…They both lied to me," Lyra muttered, a growl ripping form her chest. She cradled her aching hand as tears slid free down her cheeks. "They knew," she continued, cutting off Narcissa's next question. "They knew who I was. A whole year they knew, and they never said anything. Andromeda took my blood and tested it against hers! She had Nymphadora go to Azkaban to talk with my mother, and she never told me!" Lyra shouted, diving back into the anger and betrayal.
"I'm…I'm sure she had her reasons," Narcissa softly replied, though even she could not think of why her sister would do something like this.
"Her reasons don't matter, not when the outcome effects someone else, not when it's about me!" Lyra shouted, her hair turning such a dark red it was almost black. Her eyes were completely gone, replaced by swirling black pits. "Everyone always makes choices for me, affecting my life, whether I want them or not! I'm bloody tired of it! She kept my family from me! She stole a year of time with my family from me! She stole the truth from me!"
Lyra's angry shouts devolved into sobbing as the full weight of her anger came crashing down all at once as she curled in on herself. Narcissa threw an arm over the girl's shoulders, pulling her in close and rocking her back and forth, whispering words of comfort all the while. Lyra continued to cry until she couldn't anymore, sniffling and wiping her nose every so often.
The pain in her hand brought everything back into focus as she hissed after moving the appendage wrong.
"Let me see," Narcissa softly commanded, holding her hand out. Lyra placed her throbbing one on Narcissa's for the woman to inspect. "Definitely two broken fingers and a fractured knuckle," she declared after a moment. "I'll heal these up, wrap them for tonight, and then you should try and get some sleep."
Lyra nodded mutedly, getting up off the floor and following Narcissa to the bathroom. Several quick 'episkey's' later, a light cooling charm, and cloth wrappings later, Lyra sat on her bed with Narcissa sitting beside her.
"You should try and get some rest," Narcissa said once again. Lyra continued to stare at the floor.
"I don't want to see her," Lyra whispered, her unfocused eyes snapping back to alertness, staring into Narcissa's very soul. The older woman nodded, remembering a familiar pair looking at her like that when she was much younger.
"Okay…I can talk to her for you," she suggested.
"Yeah…I think that's probably best," Lyra muttered, shifting in the bed to lay down and pull the covers over herself. Narcissa stood from the bed, moving to where Lyra lay, already drifting off to sleep.
"Sleep well," Narcissa whispered, laying a tender kiss to the crown of her goddaughter's head.
Xoxoxoxoxoxo
Tonks woke up to too bright lights and pounding head. Getting out of her bed, she stumbled to the bathroom as the previous nights revelries decided they didn't like being her stomach any longer. Vomiting up everything until there was nothing but bile, Tonks groaned as she rested her head against the porcelain throne.
"Oh merlin, never again!" she groaned, her voice coming out in little more than a whisper. Of course, she also promised she'd never drink so much again the last time she'd done it, so there wasn't much hope that the rather impromptu lesson would stick this time.
Eventually she found the strength to get off the floor, though the room still spun a little, and her head pounded like it was being wailed on by a goblin, but after brushing her teeth and combing her natural colored brown hair, she felt like she could at least function for the day.
A quick whiff of the air revealed the delicious scent of breakfast being cooked, though who was cooking it was the question. She knew for a fact that Octavia couldn't cook for shit (the poor girl could burn water without even trying), and Sam liked weird food things that didn't always make sense, like vegetable smoothies. A quickie? No, a quiche! Yeah, also he liked those things!
Lyra? No, she wouldn't even be up yet. She knew her little cousin liked to sleep in whenever she had a chance. So, Tonks prayed it was Hestia that was cooking, since she knew that Hestia liked similar foods and was relatively simple in her breakfast. Eggs, bacon, toast, and a good strong coffee. That was Hestia's breakfast for the entirety of their last year of Hogwarts.
Walking into the kitchen, Tonks did a little fistpump when she saw her best friend dancing around the kitchen cooking up a storm.
"You're a lifesaver, Hes," Tonks muttered with a happy smile on her face. Hestia smiled before using the spatula to smack away one of Tonks' wandering hands, slinking closer to the bacon.
"Ah! Back, foul maiden!" Hestia said. Tonks drew her hand back quick as lightning before smirking.
"Funny, but I seem to recall that this is my bacon, since I bought it," Tonks gleefully pointed out, right as Sam and Octavia came into the kitchen.
"Morning guys, breakfast is almost ready," Hestia declared.
Tonks looked at the clock on the wall before shrugging. "Well, I reckon Lyra's slept enough, it's nearly eleven anyway. Hope we didn't keep her up too long last night!" Tonks joked. She didn't immediately notice the awkward air in the kitchen, but she noticed when someone cleared their throat.
"Tonks, Lyra left last night. She was rather upset about something," Octavia said.
"What was she upset about?" Tonks asked, worry and concern slowly began creeping into her stomach. Octavia merely shrugged.
"Dunno. I was chatting with Sam, I didn't hear everything that you and her talked about."
"I did. I was right next to you," Hestia said, not quite looking Tonks in the eye. Tonks looked to her best friend.
"What did we talk about?" she asked, practically begged, wanting Hestia to just spit it ou-
"You told her that you and your mum knew for awhile that you were related, but you didn't say anything about it, just kept it a secret," Hestia confessed.
"Oh, god!" Tonks growled. "How did she seem? Was it bad?" she asked.
"She was pretty obviously hurt, her hair couldn't seem to stay between blue and red, and I mean deep blue and blood red. It's understandable, I suppose," Hestia explained, muttering the last part.
"What do you mean?" Tonks quickly asked. She knew she needed to fix this as soon as possible.
"Well, you know how my mastery in mind healing that I had to get if I wanted to work as a healer for the Auror corps required me to have a sub mastery?" Hestia asked.
"Yeah, you were so stressed about it you nearly pulled all your hair out," Tonks said. "But how does that-"
"I did my sub-mastery in child mind healing, or as the muggles call it, child-psychology. I decided on that for my sub so that I could help kids who'd been victimized in attacks or various other problems we encounter as Aurors," Hestia said.
"Okay, but how does that tell me what happened?" Tonks snapped.
"I'm getting to that you klutzy oaf!" Hestia retorted. She waited a moment, waiting for Tonks to add anything. When the metamorph didn't, she continued. "As I was saying, I basically have a sub-mastery in child mind healing, so, based on everything I know about the girl from what you've told me, and how she reacted to the truth, I can at least strongly guess that she feels either betrayed, or that you and your mum were using her, or, and this is the most likely, that you were purposefully keeping the secret from her because you never wanted her to know her family and thus, didn't want her around," Hestia explained.
"None of that's true, though!" Tonks explained, running back to her room and throwing on a proper outfit before rushing over to the fireplace and grabbing an unnecessary amount of floo powder.
"Tonks!" Hestia shouted just before her friend went into the flaming fireplace.
"What!?" Tonks snapped back.
"Don't you think you should let her cool off? She was pretty upset last night," Hestia said.
"No, I need to fix this as soon as possible. She has to know that we're family, that I didn't want to keep it a secret…that she's the little sister I've always wanted," Tonks passionately exclaimed before throwing in another bit of floo powder. "Grimmauld place!" she shouted.
She was thrown violently out of the fireplace the moment she'd stepped into the emerald blaze. "No, no no no!" Tonks shouted. She ran a hand manically through her uncontrollably purple hair. The Black family home had ejected her from the floo.
Someone had struck her name from the Black registry. If she wanted to enter the house, she'd have to be invited in. From the front door. Tonks dissapparated on the spot, leaving behind her friends to try and fix the mess she'd drunkenly made.
Appearing in the lot across the street from Grimmauld place, Tonks didn't even give herself time to find her equilibrium before rushing headlong into traffic, nearly getting hit by a honking car. She pounded frantically on the newly appeared door, barely taking notice of the wards surrounding the house, once giving a warm welcome, now giving off a frigid feeling in her chest.
The door cracked open after a few moments to a very pissed off Narcissa Black.
"You have five seconds to get off this front step before I blast you off," she said in a low tone.
"Please, you have to let me talk to her, I have to explain!" Tonks pleaded, bringing her hands together to beg.
"I don't have to do anything, Nymphadora. Now leave!" Narcissa commanded, brandishing her wand at the young woman.
"I'm not leaving until you let me see her!" Tonks argued.
"Then you'll be waiting for a very long time, girl," Narcissa snarled. She tried to slam the door, but Tonks jammed her foot in just before it closed, wincing at the force. "You do not want to be here when I activate the wards, Nymphadora, unless you'd rather lose that foot, I'd suggest you get off this property!"
"Fine! Do it! I'd lose a foot, an arm, or a leg for her, just please let me explain!" Tonks begged.
"You should let her in," came a voice from inside. Narcissa turned from the door, but not enough to give Tonks a view of whoever was talking.
"Stay out of this! And don't presume to tell me what to do in relation to my goddaughter!" Narcissa fired back.
"I care about her too, Cissa, and clearly she needs to hash this out before she shuts Dora out entirely! Or, heaven forbid, she's angry enough to boot Andi from the family again!" whoever was behind the door argued. Tonks winced. God, her mother would be so devastated if that happened, then she'd be angry that it was her own daughters fault.
"Enough, Sirius, she's not coming in, and that's final! I just got her to go to sleep only two hours ago, and I won't be waking her up just so that Nymphadora can assuage her own guilt!" Narcissa bit back.
Tonks sighed, wrapping her arms around her middle in some semblance of a hug.
"Will you at least tell her I'm sorry?" Tonks pleaded. "Please, if nothing else, tell her that I'm sorry, and that if she can never forgive me, I understand," she whispered. She felt like Narcissa's blue eyes bored into her own, no doubt, ocean blue eyes. Finally, Narcissa nodded, and Tonks breathed a small sigh of relief before nodding to herself. "Okay…thank you. I'll…I'll just be going, then," Tonks muttered.
The moment she turned her back, the door was slammed shut, rattling the knocker.
Xoxoxoxoxoxo
"Tonks, with me!" a hard voice called the moment she'd stepped into the DMLE. Tonks sighed, this was not what she needed, not today of all days. With one more sigh, she looked to see who had called her. None other than Amelia Bones, staring at her with hard, pinched eyes, had called her over.
"Shite," Tonks cursed under her breath. Tonks was by no means an expert in body language, but ol' Bonesy looked pretty hacked off about something, judging by the way her arms were crossed, and that she was looking at her pocket watch as if it had personally done something to offend her.
Tonks made haste as Amelia turned around and began walking to her office.
'Oh good," Tonks thought, slightly relieved. 'It's a private chat. God, I hope it's just about my lateness today.'
The moment Tonks had entered the boss' office, Amelia flicked her wand, slamming the door shut and pushing the chair in front of her desk out slightly, a sign that she wanted Tonks to plant her ass down for a long conversation.
"I had a very interesting floo call this morning, and I assume it's in relation to your tardiness today," Amelia said without even looking up from the reports she was sifting through, trying to find the most urgent one that needed to be dealt with.
"Um, I'm sorry I was tardy today, ma'am, it won't happen again," Tonks started awkwardly. Surely this whole thing wasn't just because she'd been late? Sure, it had been by an hour, but that wasn't the worst it could've been. Hell, sometimes she'd seen Dawlish and Savage come in hung over to hell and back almost two hours late for their shifts. They hadn't been fired yet, so she had to assume this wasn't just about being late. "What was the floo call about? How does it relate to me?" Tonks asked.
"Asking the tough questions," Amelia said, finally looking up from her papers. She sat up straighter and clasped her hands together, apparently trying to think of how to say what she wanted to say. "I received a floo call from a very pissed off godmother, who practically demanded I make your life a living hell for doing what you did to her goddaughter," Amelia finally explained. Tonks groaned and put her head in her hands. "Oh, don't groan yet, that's not even the worst of it," Amelia said. Tonks could've sworn she heard the amusement in her boss's voice.
"Boss, I am so sorry that my family drama spilled over into work like that. I swear, I'll…I'll talk to her, that shouldn't have happened," Tonks sighed. God, how had this turned into such a mess so quickly?
"You should be aware, Tonks, that I was tempted for a moment to grant her request," Amelia admitted in a low voice. Tonks gave her boss a bewildered look.
Amelia Bones was practically the ultimate symbol of a no-nonsense workplace. Why would she-
"In the interest of transparency, I tell you this with the trust you and your mother did not show to your cousin," Amelia bit out, pausing for a moment to let the seriousness sink in for Tonks. Was it a bit petty for her to drag this out on her employee? Oh absolutely, but she could allow herself this one small act of vengeance on Lyra's behalf. "You hurt a girl I care a great deal about. You hurt my niece, you and your mother."
Tonks' face, hair, eyes, and body went pale as a sheet. "Wait, you're-"
"Yes. I won't go into the details, but Lyra is my niece, Susan's half-sister," Amelia replied.
Tonks stared open mouthed at her boss before she sighed dejectedly. "I…I guess I'll just pack my desk up."
"I'm not firing you, Tonks," Amelia said immediately. "In fact, I'm going to help you."
"What?" Tonks croaked, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. Merlin, today had been an absolute rollercoaster, and it wasn't even over yet.
"I'm giving you the rest of the day off to get your head on straight, and then I want you to take the time to figure out how to make this right," Amelia said. "You hurt my niece, and while I feel an ungodly anger at you for it, I know you wouldn't have done it intentionally. You're a good person who made a mistake, and now you have to make it right," she concluded softly.
Tonks nodded, blinking away the tears in her eyes.
"I don't even know why I kept it from her," Tonks confessed in a low voice. "Mum told me not to and I just…agreed. I knew it would hurt her if she ever found out but…" she buried her head in her hands and cried quietly. Amelie let the woman cry for a few minutes before she pulled herself together.
"Go home, Tonks, get some rest," Amelia said. As Tonks got up to leave, Amelia stopped her as she reached for the door. "I would advise staying away from your mothers place. Narcissa is on a warpath, and Andromeda is next."
Tonks simply nodded, a slow simmering resentment towards her mother beginning to burn in her chest.
Xoxoxoxoxoxo
Lyra woke slowly, her sleep addled mind eventually catching up to last night. She didn't even remember when she'd finally fallen asleep, only that Narcissa had been with her when she did.
She didn't feel like getting out of the bed. Now that the anger had since faded, all she was left with was a mixture of simmering bitterness and no small amount of doubt. She remembered striking Andromeda and Tonks from the Black registry, the book that connected to the ward stone and allowed certain people into the house without any restrictions or permissions.
Was that the right decision?
'Yes,' an angry part of her mind hissed. 'They deserve to be punished for what they did.'
Another part of her didn't agree. Another part wanted to know why. Why did they keep a secret?
And still, a smaller, slightly paranoid part doubted, doubted if their relationship had ever been real; if Andromeda had just been trying to get close to her so that she could get back into the Black family by revealing the secret to a grateful orphan at the right moment.
It made Lyra sad to have these doubts, these thoughts that caused her such grief.
With a sigh halfway between angry and exasperated, she sat up, remembering that she was supposed to deal with Andromeda today.
Though, as she thought about what she would say, she had another thought. She was the head of the Black family. If she didn't want to deal with Andromeda, she didn't have to. Narcissa was the proxy for the Black seat in the Wizengamot. She'd be fine dealing with her sister for one day, and then she could simply say she didn't want Andromeda around for the foreseeable future. It was a win-win!
A weight off her shoulders for the time being, Lyra got out of bed, threw a robe on, and headed downstairs for breakfast.
As she passed the large grandfather clock on her way to the stairs, she revised her thought process slightly. She was heading to lunch.
"Well, if it isn't our resident sleepyhead!" Sirius joked as he made himself a sandwich. It always amused her that Sirius made his own food. Said he didn't trust that Kreacher wouldn't poison it, which he was partially right about. Kreacher did seem to hate Sirius the most out of everybody.
"Sorry. Last night was a bit…draining," Lyra muttered as she sat at the table.
"I can imagine," Sirius sympathized. "What are you going to do about it?" he asked. Lyra shook her head. She didn't particularly think about it right now, but she didn't really have a choice. She wasn't going to kick Andromeda or Tonks out of the family; that would just be cruel. But she couldn't exactly let this go unpunished either. In fact, she wanted a little bit of revenge, she wanted for them to know how much they'd hurt her by keeping this a secret.
"Where's Narcissa?" She asked instead, avoiding the question.
"She's probably at Andromeda's house by now," Sirius grimaced. Lyra nodded.
"Tonks was here. Earlier. She wanted to talk to you," he tried.
"I don't care," Lyra muttered, shaking her head. Kreature served her lunch at that moment, cutting off the conversation.
Several minutes later, Narcissa appeared in the family room fireplace, huffing and puffing, red in the face, and her fists were still clenched. Closing her eyes, Narcissa took several deep breaths, relaxing in the comfort of the wards before she opened her eyes and looked directly at her goddaughter.
"I-" she started, but Lyra cut her off.
"As long as you didn't try and tell her she was kicked out of the family," Lyra dismissed. Narcissa shook her head and moved into the kitchen.
"I yelled at her. A lot," she admitted. "She seemed very surprised at the colorful language I used."
Lyra gave a very subdued snort of laughter before her face went slack and she shook her head once more. "Fuck," she whispered, burying her head in her hands.
"Indeed," Sirius chimed in.
"This is going to be awkward, but I was hoping you would deal with her when she comes by later to talk about the finances," Lyra said. Narcissa nodded.
"Of course, I understand." Lyra stared blankly at her lunch as Narcissa wrapped and arm around the girls shoulder.
"I don't know what I want to do about this. She needs to know that what she did was wrong. Both of them," Lyra muttered.
"Actions have consequences," Narcissa agreed. Sirius merely stayed silent. Lyra went back to her lunch, though it tasted bitter in her mouth.
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Andromeda," Narcissa said when Andromeda came to house. It had been a surprise, for sure, when Andromeda had been bounced out of the floo, but she'd grit her teeth and dealt with it, apparating to the proper point and walking up to the front door of Grimmauld place.
"Is she here…can I see her?" Andi hesitantly asked. Narcissa glared. She'd already had this talk with her sister. She didn't want to have it again.
"You're dealing with me," Narcissa hissed, holding out her hand for the folder that her sister was holding. Andi handed them over without a word.
"Come along," Narcissa said, leading Andi into the Black room, taking a seat that was off to the side of the seat that Lyra took when dealing with business.
She immediately opened the folder and began looking over Andromeda's notes and the meticulous order of the papers in front of her.
"Merlin," Narcissa muttered, looking at the absolute mess that Walburga had made of their once great house.
"My thoughts exactly," Andi said. "If you'll look, though, all that money was borrowed by families with close ties to You-Know-Who, families with prominent death eaters, and sympathizers."
"That's a lot of debts," Narcissa murmured.
"Precisely. A lot of debts, and a lot of interest," Andi stated.
"Merlin, this isn't good. We have basically every dark and gray family by the balls," Narcissa said in shock.
"We'll have to proceed very carefully with this, otherwise we'll be bankrupting half of the Wizengamot," Andi said.
"We?" Narcissa asked pointedly. Andi sighed.
"I meant Lyra. It's in her hands, after all."
"Yes, yes it is," Narcissa glared. "And don't you forget that," she snapped. Andi threw a glare right back.
"I know that!" she growled.
"Then why did you seem to forget it? Give me one good reason why you had to hurt that wonderful girl upstairs? That amazing, selfless, kindhearted, girl. How could you be so foolish? How could you hurt her like that?" Narcissa asked.
"Because I am foolish, you said so yourself when you practically accosted me in my own home. I told you when you burst through my fireplace and began screaming at me; I didn't think she'd be able to handle it. I was wrong, okay?" Andi said, her voice raising slightly.
"You're damn right you were wrong," Narcissa said. She sighed a moment later.
"We're getting nowhere, and Lyra has a meeting in twenty minutes. You should go," She eventually said.
"The Weasley's right?" Andi asked, standing up and heading for the door.
"Yes. Her proposal is pretty sound. It's got promise," Narcissa said. "That kid is gonna be the best of us."
"I hope so," Andi whispered as she walked out of the office.
When she walked out, she came out into the living room to find Lyra with her back to her, her shoulders hunched, hair completely devoid of any color. For a moment, Andromeda thought she saw Bellatrix. With a quiet sigh, Andromeda walked away, leaving the house with barely a sound.
"Come on," Narcissa called. "We need to go over a few things."
"Right," Lyra sighed, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. She sniffled before heading into the Black room.
There was business to be done.
Oxoxoxoxoxoxox
"Merlin," Lyra whispered as she looked at just how much money the family was owed by these different people.
"The dead families you can claim easily. They owe a debt, you can take them for all they're worth," Narcissa said.
"Which ones are 'dead?'" Lyra asked.
"Avery, Rosier, Travers, Selwyn…and Lestrange," Narcissa said, hesitating on the last name. Lestrange. The family that her mother had married into. "Their members are either all dead, or in Azkaban on life sentences."
"Do it. Take them for all they're worth," Lyra ordered. Narcissa handed her a few forms that she needed to sign.
A few painful signatures later, the parchment was sent off to Gringotts to collect on the debts those five families owed the Black family.
"When will that be done?" Lyra asked.
"It'll be finalized by tomorrow. The goblins will send a response and a bank statement," Narcissa explained.
"Good. Now, the question is; What do we do about the houses that still owe me money but would be financially ruined if I claimed the debts?"
"That's a good question. I have an idea, but it's rather unorthodox for Noble houses to do this," Narcissa started. Lyra waved a hand, prompting her on. "Well, you could just have them pay it back over time. Gringotts does it, though they put rather harsh penalties for these types of payment methods, preferring everything paid back in one lump sum, but we're not Gringotts. We don't want to be seen as intentionally trying to bankrupt dozens of old families. The dark families would try to kill you, and the light families would say you're trying for a power grab."
"I think we'll have to do that. Press on them the importance of this. Like, really make it clear that I'm not trying to rob them of everything they have," Lyra said.
"Of course. I would advise meeting them individually. Particularly the largest ones first, like the Nott and Parkinson families," Narcissa explained.
"Wait…the Parkinson family owes us money?" Lyra asked. As much as she wanted to collect it all just to spite Pansy, that would be rather cruel of her to do so.
"Yup. Quite a lot. The interest alone will be a killer for them if you don't renegotiate it," Narcissa explained.
"Fine. I'll send a letter to Lor-Lady Parkinson, and talk with her," Lyra said, remembering that Mathias Parkinson was dead and had actually tried to kill her before he got eviscerated. She'd have to thank Celestia for that save if she ever saw the woman again.
"That would be the best start, I think. Nott Sr is…notoriously difficult to work with. He and Lucius are as close as one can be without being on friendly terms with one another. Unfortunately, that's only the first of your problems."
"What's the other problems?" Lyra asked wearily.
"The other minor noble houses that borrowed money to give to the dark lord."
"Oh, god, how many others did it?" Lyra asked.
"A lot," Narcissa stressed. "Over a dozen minor noble houses borrowed quite a bit of money. Nothing that would bankrupt them, but they'd be in a serious financial strain."
"Great. So, in a nutshell, I hold the fate of dozens of noble families in my hands. In the grand scheme, I have the power to put a vicegrip on the economy by absolutely destroying the big spenders? Oh, that's just fantastic!" Lyra exclaimed, throwing up her hands.
"Well, it's not that serious, but you'll certainly make the other purebloods sweat," Narcissa chuckled.
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Lyra sarcastically exclaimed through grit teeth and too wide smile.
A bell rung in the office, letting Lyra know about her appointment for the day.
"That'll be the twins," Lyra commented, heading down to the fireplace to open up the floo for them to use. "Hello boys!" she greeted as they stepped out of the fireplace.
"Hello, Lady Black…"
"A pleasure to see you on this fine day…"
"Though we must confess…"
To being confused on what the meaning of this is?" the twins said, playing twinpong with each other.
"You'll see. Come with me to my business office, and we'll talk," Lyra said, walking away towards a small office that was reserved for business not involving members of the family.
A little procession followed behind her as she took her seat behind the plain oak desk, stacks of neatly organized papers sitting, waiting to be read. They were organized for Narcissa's sake, as this would become her office once Lyra had gone back to Hogwarts.
"Nice office," Fred complimented.
"Rather official looking," George added.
"Yes indeed. Now, to business," Lyra said, leaning over and pulling out several sheets of parchment. Fred and George shared a look, no doubt using their weird twin telepathy thing they did
"We would first like for you to explain what you want out of this?" Fred said. Lyra nodded, as did Narcissa, in approval.
"I was hoping you might ask. One never should begin a business deal without knowing what's to be expected," Lyra said, repeating words that Narcissa had told her when the older witch had begun to teach her finance. "Basically, the point of this meeting is to discuss business arrangements that can be made between the Black family, and the business you wish to start up."
"So you want to talk about…what exactly?" George asked. Lyra smiled.
"A partnership," Lyra said eventually. "Specifically, funding and distribution of products."
"You mean like-"
"helping us get our business together?"
"In the simple sense, yes, that's exactly what I mean," Lyra said.
"Why?" both twins asked in unison.
"Short answer is because I think you've got serious potential," she started. "I think you have what it takes to make it. You just need a little help. The long answer is that I've known you for three-ish years, and I know that you're hard workers, despite what everyone might think. I know all those things you make to prank students come from your own minds, and I know that its your talent alone that makes those ideas come to life."
Fred and George were speechless as she spoke, dumbstruck as she explained her reasoning.
"I was…inspired, we'll say, when I saw how dedicated you were when you tried to sneak your product past your mother in order to try and make some money to get your business and name out there. I was even more impressed when you accurately predicted the outcome of the world cup and managed to make money on that, what I thought, was a fools bet," Lyra said, stopping when she noticed the sour looks on their faces.
"Not so smart about that, were we George?" Fred asked.
"No. Got swindled out of our money, we did!" George exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Lyra asked.
"We made nearly three hundred galleons on that bet, but Bagman gave us leprechaun gold!" Fred growled. Lyra didn't know the difference.
"Leprechaun gold always disappears within a few hours," Narcissa explained. "It's been used to swindle muggles for centuries, and if you try to give off leprechaun gold to Gringotts, the fines against your account can be quite severe."
"Ahh. Well, I'm sorry to hear about that, but I think I can make up for it, if you're willing," Lyra said, pushing the parchment stack towards the twins. Fred moved first, taking the sheets of parchment and handing several to his twin. Lyra sat patiently until they got to the part she'd been waiting for them to read.
"You want to give us a thousand galleons!?" they exploded.
"Well, it'll be a loan, and you'll pay it back eventually, but yes," Lyra explained.
"Why?" they asked again.
"For all the reasons I said earlier. You are hard workers, even if not many see it. This is your chance to finally prove to everyone just how smart and hardworking you are.
"Can you give us a minute?" George asked. Lyra nodded, looking to Narcissa who opened the office door for them. The two stepped out as Lyra looked to Narcissa again and offered a broad grin. This was going exactly as she'd hoped.
"You're happy, I take it?" Narcissa asked. Lyra just continued to grin.
"Of course I'm happy! This is what I wanted. With this, I can both take the Black family in a new direction and begin getting into the business world. Just imagine, the Black family with a large share in a successful business like I know this will be."
"That little speech was masterfully crafted. I think you had them hook, line, and sinker from there. I think they'll sign," Narcissa said confidently.
They came back in a moment later, smirking like they were the foxes that got into the henhouse.
"I take it you find the contract agreeable?" Lyra asked.
"We do, for the most part," Fred said.
For the most part?" Lyra parroted. "You won't find a better deal outside of Gringotts, and this is far better than what you're going to get out of them."
"We understand that. We don't think you'd try and screw us over, but we wanted to talk about how we're going to pay it back," George stated.
"Ah, well, if you don't think you can, I'm sure we can figure something out?" Lyra said, a little disappointed.
"It mostly relates to Hogwarts, actually. You see, we weren't planning on starting a full on business until we'd graduated. It would take time for us to start making enough money for us to pay you back in a reasonable amount of time," Fred explained.
"I understand, though I'm not sure what I can do other than offer the same contract to you when you do graduate?" Lyra sighed.
"Not necessarily. We can offer them a deferment on the loan, give them the money now, and they start to pay it back once they graduate," Narcissa chimed in. Fred and George grinned.
"That, we want to do that," they both said.
"The interest would go up. Gringotts does the same thing with a fifteen percent interest on the entirety of the loan," Narcissa explained. "Since they're your friends, and this is your first business deal, I think you could do seven percent. It's a good deal, considering that the Black family will get a fifteen percent stake in the company once they begin paying."
"Well boys? What do you say? Deferment or wait?" Lyra asked.
"Deferment and the interest. We want to get started!" Fred said. George offered an excited nod as Lyra handed them a blood quill.
"I'm legally required to tell you that this is a blood quill, and it uses your blood to form a magically binding contract. It'll sting, but not enough to scar you. You will have a scratching of your name in your hand for up to a few hours, but there will be no lasting effects," Lyra explained.
Fred and George both nodded, taking the quills and beginning to sign their names to the contracts.
"Excellent," Lyra said as she signed the contract as well, followed by Narcissa as the witness, before copying it, rolling up one and sending it to Gringotts, and setting one in her desk. "The one going to Gringotts is just a precaution should my house explode for some reason and take everything with it."
She pulled out an enchanted bag, setting it on the desk. It jingled slightly as she placed it.
"This is a thousand galleons. It's not in the contract, but I don't want you going and making bets with this money," Lyra said, giving them a teasing look as she slid the weightless bag over her desk. They took it and peered inside, marveling at the no doubt life changing amount of gold.
"We have to go start planning, Georgie," Fred said.
"Right you are, Freddie!" George agreed.
"Well then, don't let me keep you. Have fun, boys!" Lyra said as Narcissa walked them out of the office. The whoosh of the fireplace let her know they'd left. Her face lost the smile she'd had on the entire meeting. Today was just exhausting.
She slumped to her desk, banging her forehead on the dark wood. Sighing, she looked up as Narcissa walked into back into the office.
"I'm gonna go to bed for a bit. I need a nap," Lyra said eventually. Narcissa nodded, a barely concealed look of concern on her face.
Lyra slipped into bed without changing her clothes, curling up into a ball and snuggling deep into the covers. She would be glad to be going to Hogwarts.
Red=angry
Gray=nervous/anxious/irritated
Orange=happy/excited
Blue=sad/overwhelmed
Purple=worried/concerned/frustrated
Green=jealous/suspicious/grossed out
Brown=content/relaxed
Yellow=afraid/shocked
Pink=amusement/surprise/mischievous
Silver=determination
Light blue=embarrassment
