That summer, I had the worst argument with my mother of our entire lives. She was livid over the fact that I had been seeing my real dad all this time, communicating with him, behind her back. Despite Dumbledore trying to explain to her the truth behind dad's imprisonment and how he was innocent, she refused to believe it, just like I thought she would. I'd never seen her so furious, even Leo couldn't calm her down as the row escalated, both of us bellowing at each other and threatening all kinds of hexes. She wanted to forbid me from ever seeing him again but I refused. She wanted me to stop talking to Lupin too. I refused.
We shouted, argued and raged at each other until finally, I packed all of my belongings in my room, stripping it bare of everything and even took my furniture, shrinking it down to fit it into my trunk before I then closed it, grabbed Orion's cage and put him inside it. Mum refused to speak to me, ignoring me as I pulled my trunk down the stairs with angry clunks and bangs, trying to make it scrape the floorboards as I dragged it down. "Now, now dear, let's not do anything rash, shall we?" Leo tried to mediate, but I had had enough.
"Leo, you will always be a father to me and I love you, but this is something I have to do." I told him bluntly, looking him dead in the eye. He'd frozen, looking utterly lost and confused, but in the end he'd pulled me into a hug and kissed the top of my head.
"Alright then. I can't stop you, but promise you will keep yourself safe. Where are you going? To the Weasleys?" Saying that I was, I kissed his cheek then promptly left, apparating all the way to the Burrow where I appeared on their doorstep, much to Ginny's shock as she'd just opened the door to go feed the chickens.
"Mia! What are you doing here?"
"I left home. Is your mum in? I need to talk to her…I really need a place to stay." And that's how I ended up staying at the Burrow until Hermione joined us and, much to my excitement, we were moved to a new place altogether. It was a headquarters for a group of people trusted by Dumbledore, the Order of the Phoenix. Best yet, it was dad's old house, and he was there. When we'd entered after being invited inside, I'd dropped my trunk, squashing an ugly umbrella stand to fling my arms around his neck as he blinked at me in confusion, but just as pleased to see me.
"Mia? What are you doing here? I thought you were with your mother? We were going to come and invite you here in a few days…"
"Mum and I aren't speaking and I've left home. I'm moving in with you." Telling him bluntly and concisely what had happened, he didn't bother hiding the grin which suddenly spread across his face as he then hugged me tightly once again, kissing my face. That's when Uncle Remus appeared, drawn in by the sound of familiar voices and once dad let me go, I then sprung on him. "Uncle Rem! I missed you! How've you been? You're looking wonderful, are you staying here too?" Taken aback by my sudden tackle, Remus had to recover himself before he laughed and hugged me back, smilingly telling me that he'd been keeping my dad company.
And so dad eagerly showed me to a room of my own, though he apologised for the fact that it was dusty, mouldy and not the room fit for a princess like he wanted, but I quickly fell in love with it. The ceiling domed upwards with a central skylight as it was the topmost room of the entire house and already I had a vision of what I wanted to do with it. "It's perfect, once we've spruced it up a bit, it'll be gorgeous." I said confidently, walking around to inspect things. "I've brought my own furniture, though I quite like some of these things here. The vanity table is beautiful, and the canopy bed is magnificent. There's plenty of light from the window and at night I'll be able to see the stars…I can do whatever I want with it, right? Can I paint the walls? Take up the carpet?"
"You can do whatever you like with it, Mia. It's all yours. Go wild." Relaxing upon seeing how clearly I loved the room, I dropped my trunk then let Orion out of his cage, allowing him to flutter around so that he could explore and find himself a comfortable perch. Before we could discuss anything else, however, someone started screaming downstairs so loudly that it made me jump and Orion screeched, both of us looking around in alarm as dad groaned. "Don't worry, it's just my dearly beloved mother. She's got a portrait of herself stuck to the wall, I can't get it off…come on, I'll show you."
So we both hurried downstairs where I saw a portrait I had walked past earlier without knowing it was there. The curtains were flung back and the woman, who had long black hair and a rather haughty looking face, was screaming at the top of her lungs. "FILTH! BLOOD-TRAITORS! HOW DARE SUCH UNDESIREABLES DEFILE MY HOME?! BE GONE FOUL VERMIN!" Well, she certainly seemed like a delight. Dad and Uncle Remus were now fighting against the curtains, trying to force them closed so I stepped out into full view of the portrait and looked up at the woman.
"Hello, Grandmother Black." Suddenly she fell silent and her sharp eyes looked down at me. I could see the resemblance, apparently the Black family had similar dark hair and piercing blue eyes, though hers were cold and sharp like ice.
"And who might you be, child?" She demanded curiously, looking me up and down as both dad and Uncle Remus blinked in surprise, looking at each other before gradually letting go of the curtains to step aside and see what would happen.
"I'm your granddaughter. We never met, unfortunately, I was born seventeen years ago. My mother is Diana Fawley, which makes me a pure blood. I am entering into my seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, my father is your son. Sirius Black, though I only came to learn of this recently." I spoke pleasantly and lightly, making sure to stand up straight and draw back my shoulders as to appear like a proper young lady, as I assumed that this would make for a better first impression if I were going to get on my grandmother's good side. Can't have her screaming down the house, can we?
"My granddaughter? Well you certainly look like one of mine. Tell me child, what is your name?"
"Euphemia Selene Black." She hummed thoughtfully, deliberating over the names before nodding approvingly.
"Very traditional names, good. I suppose you were named after members of your mother's family?"
"Oh yes, I am named after two of my ancestors, Selene was my other grandmother. Selene Fawley." I explained to her and discreetly motioned for dad and Uncle Remus to move away so that I could try and calm her down. She seemed rather pleased that I was a pure blood and had been named traditionally so I kept her busy by asking questions about the House of Black, informing her that I knew very little about it to begin with and she launched into a grand lecture about our ancestry, listing off names going back several generations until she started to grow sleepy.
"My dear child, I am weary now, but worry not. Your education shall not suffer, you shall be properly instructed in the proud heritage of our house. KREACHER!" She suddenly bellowed and with a crack, I almost jumped out of my skin when a rather old looking house-elf appeared. He had a long, hooked nose and white hair growing out of his ears, making me blink down at him as he croaked reverently.
"You called, mistress?"
"Give this dear granddaughter of mine a tour of the house, be sure to properly instruct her on what it means to be a part of the Ancient and Noble House of Black." Kreacher bowed before turning to look at me, craning his neck as the curtains pulled themselves closed so that my grandmother could speak. The elf studied me suspiciously, so I drew myself up and looked at him calmly but firmly.
"I am Euphemia Selene Black, and who might you be?"
"Kreacher, young mistress." He answered croakily still, so I gave him a soft smile.
"Well then, Kreacher, would you please show me the house? This is my first time visiting, and I am quite sure there must be a great deal of history here. Where would you suggest we begin?" Kreacher frowned a little, glancing to the portrait of my grandmother before he seemed to soften a little, beckoning me to follow him and started to show me the rooms and telling me all about them. Mostly he talked about the old mistress, my grandmother, showing me her favourite chairs and the heirlooms of the house. He had a clear pride in serving this family, so I politely asked questions and the more I asked, the more eager he became to talk. By the time I'd had a full tour of the house, it was dinner time so Kreacher bowed to me, low enough that his nose touched the floor and told me to call for him if I needed assistance with anything.
And that was how I came to be at number twelve Grimmauld Place, surrounded by friends and family at the dinner table with light hearted banter as I helped Molly Weasley to finish up cooking and waving my wand to lay the table, cleaning the plates as they looked like they hadn't been cleaned or used in several decades. We all sat down together, me between dad and Uncle Remus, where we talked, laughed and joked until it was late and we each wandered up to bed with the knowledge that tomorrow, Molly would ensnare us all to storm through the house and clean it thoroughly. Considering the dust alone…I was somewhat dreading it.