Chapter 2: Journey Begun
Sylvia sat in her bedroom in Ollivander Manor. It has been a day since they came back from the trip. Someone knocked on the door.
"Come in." She said absently, "Hey dad."
"Are you alright?" Mr Ollivander asked softly.
"I don't even know if I should call you dad anymore. I mean, I'm a Black, you're an Ollivander, we don't really have any relations apart from the Blood Adoption."
"Which is a relation." The wandmaker pointed out.
"I know, but – I guess you don't know how I ended up in here." Sylvia sighed, "Mum – my biological mum – was murdered because they – the ones who didn't know the truth about my father– don't want me to be raised in an evil family."
"The Black family is not evil, dear, it's one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and so are the Ollivanders, and Weasleys." Mr Ollivander said.
"Finding out who I am wasn't too hard to take in, you know? But finding out who killed my mother was a strong blow. My father still had stuff in Grimmauld, but my mother... the house was destroyed, I never got anything from her. I don't even know how I was born, like, thirty years after my father's death. It's just... so weird." She could almost feel the silver eyes on her like the bright moon, "I need some time. Alone. In my own place." She said, "I want to live on my own for a while, to... think things through."
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mr Ollivander asked.
"Too many things had happened, I don't even know who I am anymore." Sylvia nodded.
"I understand. Can you manage on your own?"
"My family owns more houses and money and house-elves than I can count, I know and can do all the spells there are for a Hogwarts student, so I guess yeah." She half-laughed.
"Does Matilda know about this?" He questioned.
"Yes." She responded.
"I assume it's a goodbye." Mr Ollivander sighed.
"Yes. Goodbye... Mr Ollivander." Hugging her knees, she vaguely heard the door close. Sylvia felt light. She was going to be a Black for the first time in ten years. "Pack." She swept her wand over the whole room and all the things started to pack themselves into her magically extended trunk. Nightstripe, her winged cat, and Sherell, her Swooping Evil, stared at her questioningly.
"We're going home, girls, my home. You've never seen it before, but I think you'll like it." She smiled to them. The door opened again.
"You're... leaving?" Gerhaze looked around the room.
"Yes. Well done for getting nine N.E.W.T.s, by the way." Sylvia replied.
"Well, I – but why? You were happy here." The only real Ollivander child in the building looked confused.
"That was before I found out how my mother was killed." She said simply.
"But what about – "
"About you? You were a great brother, Haze, but I can't stand it anymore. I don't belong in this family, not biologically, and I need some time to sort things out." She said in a rush. Gerhaze left with a sad look on his face. "I'll miss you, Ollie." She added to the house-elf.
"I thought you were going to wait until you're of age, but I guess not." Mrs Ollivander was saying as Sylvia reached the door.
"You knew I'll leave some day?" She asked, "And well, the Trace doesn't work on me anyways, so I don't really need to wait."
"I love you as my own child." Her adoptive mother whispered and pulled her into a hug.
"I know." Sylvia sighed and went through the door, into the wand shop and onto Diagon Alley, before Apparating with a soft pop. She arrived Grimmauld Place after being squeezed in a small plastic tube of space for a split second.
She focused on the address and the buildings of number 11 and 13 slowly moved apart, revealing an old black door of number 12 in the middle. Cautiously, she stepped into the familiar and unfamiliar place. The Noble House of Black.
She wasn't proud of it, obviously, but the late Black history wasn't too bad. Aunt Drommie was one of the nicest people she had ever met, her father Regulus Black was the first to discover Voldemort's Horcruxes and sacrificed himself to steal one, and Sirius Black joined the Order of Phoenix before dying in Department of Mysteries. Nyphadora Tonks, Andromeda Tonks nee Black's daughter, was in the Order as well, and so was Harry Potter, Uncle Sirius' godson. Scorpius Malfoy, Aunt Cissy's grandson and technically her nephew, was not an annoying blood-purist at all.
The portrait of her grandmother started shrieking. Sylvia sighed and walked to it. The old woman woke the other portraits in the hall, and they all started shouting as well.
"Where on Earth did you get so much energy to scream so loudly?" She muttered, "Grandmother? Can you stop screaming, please? There're no muggle-borns here."
"Use the word mudblood, you blood-traitor coward!" The most unpleasant portrait in the world sneered.
"No, I will not. Shut up you old hag!" She forcefully shut the curtains with her wand and silenced the other portraits. Sighing, she lit up her wand and walked down the grim corridors. "Kreacher? Hayley? Kreacher!" The very old house-elf appeared with a pop, followed by the younger house-elf.
"Mistress Black, the last of the noble line." Kreacher gave a very low bow. His big bat-ears had silver fluff sprouting from them. It was a wonder how he hadn't died yet.
"What can Hayley do for young Mistress?" Hayley squeaked.
"Good to know you're here. Kreacher, you can return to Hogwarts kitchens for now, don't tell anyone where I am. Not the teachers, not Filch, not McGonagall, no one. Okay?" He bowed again and disappeared with a pop, "Hayley, I need you to clean this place up a bit. It shouldn't take long, and can you make lunch after? Thanks."
"Right away, Mistress Black." The young female house-elf dissapparated to the kitchen.
Sylvia walked further up the stairs and came into one of the original guest rooms. Her room.
"Maybe Lord Voldemort wasn't too mad either. The half-bloods and muggle-borns had pushed the purebloods around for too long, and the Dark Lord stood against it. Pureblood wizards are the ones that need protection, they stand the smallest part of the Wizarding World." Sylvia murmured to herself, "The purebloods were the ones that were being discriminated, people kept clarifying all purebloods and Slytherins as dark wizards, but they're not. Slytherins can be heroes too but were overshadowed by Gryffindor. Everyone's overshadowed by Gryffindor. Out of all the great wizards, about ninety percent were Gryffindors. No one will ever notice a Slytherin trying to be good.
"Peter Pettigrew was a Death Eater, no one suspected it until he actually betrayed the Order, everyone believed he died a hero's death even after he betrayed the Potters, blew up the whole street and kill a dozen of Muggles before chopping off his own finger and went into hiding as a rat. Everyone believed Uncle Sirius to be a murderer because he's a Black. Same with father. No one knew what he did. Even his own brother believed him to be killed by Death Eaters for being a coward." It all made sense now. Purebloods didn't like the other blood statuses because they never got any goods from them. That was why Slytherin stood alone.
Thinking back, Rodfort Lestrange wasn't too much of a git after he knew about her blood status. They got on quite well, in fact. So were the other Slytherin students. They trusted her as a friend ever since their third year. No one understood why in the name of Merlin did she suddenly became popular in the snake's house. Now she understood fully. Not because they hate dirty bloods, but because they didn't trust her to be a real friend.
Without warning, the doorbell rang, and the portraits downstairs started screaming again. Sylvia grabbed her wand and quickly rushed down.
"SHUT UP!" She screamed back to the portraits.
"HOW DARE YOU – "The curtains were closed, and the mad woman was cut off. She walked to the door and opened it, only to find Matilda standing outside.
"I wonder which part of 'don't ring the doorbell' did you not understand?" She said coolly, "Finally decided to join me, have you?"
"Why are you talking like this? It's only been two hours since you left." Matilda asked and stepped in.
"I don't know, maybe because I've found out a few things?"
"Like what?"
"Like pureblood wizards are being pushed around by mudbloods and blood-traitors?" She snapped.
"Who are you and what have you done to Sylvia? And when did you start using that word?" Matilda hissed as she pulled out her wand.
"If you've come to boast about all your Gryffindor good friends or try to convince me to go back, I'll have Hayley to throw you out. I started using the word mudblood after I found that out." Sylvia huffed.
"What has Slytherin done to you?" Matilda breathed.
"Nothing apart from letting me learn the truth." She glared at the blond.
"What are you planning to do?" Matilda changed the subject.
"I'll sort out the things I need and head to Avengers Headquarters." Sylvia told her.
"I'm coming with you, but that doesn't mean I'm agreeing with your new point of view."
"I never said you're going to. If you're going to be a blood-traitor, then be it. I won't throw away a friend after ten years."
"Yet you defend your evil friends." Matilda said.
"They. Are. Not. Evil. Being a Slytherin doesn't mean being evil. Look at my father, Severus Snape, and Peter Pettigrew. Slytherin can be good, and Gryffindor can be bad." She rolled her eyes and began listing all the close Slytherins she knew, "Aunt Cissy isn't as bad as you think, and Uncle Cius... let's say he's changed. Dormine's parents are quite good, so are Falcon's, Charles', and Cleadrew's. Mr Lestrange is actually nice as well, Aunt Bella is a bit insane but not bad, and Aunt Drommie is one of the nicest people I've ever met, while Draco and Astoria are great, and you know Al and Scorpion King."
"When did you start calling Scorpius Scorpion King?" Matilda asked.
"Since I found out he's one of my close relatives. You know the Uncle Cius' sister is my mother, right?" Sylvia raised her brows.
"The Malfoys won't be so pure in a few years' time. Scorpius and Rose are dating." Matilda pointed out.
"Rose, unlike her mudblood and blood-traitor parents, acts like a pureblood, and she's not bad." She said.
"I guess I don't have any hope in convincing you in this whole blood status thing." Matilda sighed.
"That's right, you don't." Sylvia chuckled, "Hayley!"
"Yes, Mistress Black?" The house-elf appeared right away.
"Prepare a room for Miss Potter here, and another set of food." She ordered and he disappeared with a pop. "If you don't mind, I'm going to put a few things straight with my dear grandmother." Matilda sighed again and left to the stairs. "Don't scream, okay?" She pulled the black curtains apart.
"I see you've finally seen sense and decided to be a real Black." The portrait of Mrs Black, mother of Sirius and Regulus said.
"Yes, grandmother. Can you please stop screaming whenever someone comes in? Not that anyone would, but I just wanted to be sure." Sylvia requested.
"If no one other than purebloods come in." Mrs Black said thoughtfully, "Screaming all the time does get boring after so long."
"Thank you. I'm going to leave the curtain closed if you don't mind." She said quickly before the unpleasant portrait could change her mind.
"We'll see to that, young Black." The woman said and the curtains were closed.
"That's one thing done." She let out a breath, grateful that Hayley has actually been doing cleaning in this house, otherwise it would be swarmed with mad dark objects.
A few seconds of thinking resulted in she deciding to head to America two days later for a few reasons. First, she didn't want to leave Hayley alone only after a day, and second, she needed time to think about and get what she needed.
Lately, she had done a lot of things without her adoptive relatives knowing. This included sneaking to Knockturn Alley to visit the dark shops with her Slytherin friends and going to her biological relatives for dinners. She had enjoyed those moments, as a combination of two of the most respected wizarding families. She was even starting to like Rodfort, whom she had hexed multiple times in first and second year.
Again, Sylvia was grateful that she didn't have to be spied by the Trace at all, for according to Davina Sayre, American wizards could face execution instead of Azkaban.
After a nice lunch made by Hayley, Sylvia made a list of stuff she would need for fighting against aliens. She somehow managed to accept the fact that aliens and gods existed quite naturally, for wizards exist as well. Dr Banner had said that they would return the Infinity Stones into the times they took them after they've used them, but the idea of multiverse was still shocking, while logical.
The list of course included quite a number of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes stuff. Not only joke products, but useful ones for distraction, along with a few things from Knockturn Alley that could be useful. Apart from that, she planned to take Sherell with her, for the chance of the Swooping Evil to finally suck human brains. Okay, not exactly human as it was aliens that they were going to face.
And most importantly, her wand. She knew she shouldn't tell everyone about the Wizarding World, as from what she knew, Muggles would do anything to reach them and there would be a lot of mad things. Wizards would be treated like mice in the labs and Muggles would try to research everything on them. Mr Stark already knew, and she figured she didn't really need to tell the others as she had her own wandless powers. The wand was just in case there would be something she couldn't do with her elemental powers.
More importantly, she should start working on Earth powers. The other three, Air, Fire, and Water, are quite skilled already, while she hadn't used too much Earth powers because she didn't want to make an earthquake or anything.
Sylvia had to do an experiment to prove her earlier suspicion. She checked the wards again to make sure that no one she didn't trust could come into this house, which included most of the Order members who knew this place. she didn't want reckless Gryffindors budging into this Slytherin house.
The wards were still up, and she magically locked the bedroom door so that it can't be opened by anyone, anything apart from herself. Then, she pulled out her wand and drew an Age-Line, setting the age to seventeen, before stepping across it.
She wasn't flung back. She didn't grow a beard. Nothing. She just crossed it when she was supposed to be fifteen. She wasn't, however, too surprised. This was the only explanation for why the Trace doesn't work on her. If she could cross this line, then so could Matilda, because the Trace doesn't work on her as well.
"So, I'm seventeen at the very least." Sylvia muttered and drifted back to thoughts. She knew she wasn't like normal human... human. That was the answer. No. it can't be. She couldn't be an alien... right? Are the Blacks really her heritage? She would like to remain as a Black though, whoever she really was. Being Lady Black was better than she had expected. She didn't want to accept that she was not human, not when she had only known that aliens existed for three days. Besides, she was born a Black, so technically she was a Black whatever way she was older than seventeen.
The journey to the Alleys on the next day was uneventful. They didn't bump into anyone that would ask awkward questions and got the things they needed without distraction. Matilda was a bit uncomfortable with Knockturn Alley though but had gotten used to it after an hour in the gloomy alleyways.
"A mudblood lover in Knockturn Alley?" Came the voice of Rodfort Lestrange, "What has this world become?"
"Mind your own business, Rodfort." Sylvia turned to him, "Nice to meet you, Aunt Bella, and is that Delphi?"
"Delphini Voldemort?" Matilda exclaimed and quickly jumped into defence position.
"She's fine." She said unconvincingly.
"She killed Craig Bowker!" Matilda shrieked.
"And he's an unlucky git that got in the way." Delphi said.
"Technically it's Delphini Riddle, but I guess you hate that one." Sylvia smiled, "We're in a rush, can't let them know we're here. It's nice to finally see you in person, Delphi."
"The pleasure is mine." The child of the Dark Lord smirked.
"You're better than the Dark Lord really, for understanding love." She responded airily before continuing their way.
"I believe you now, for the Slytherins are human part." Matilda muttered.
"Of course, they're human. What do you think they are? Runespoors?" Sylvia glared at her.
They then Apparated back to the doorsteps of number twelve. "I think we should shrink my trunk and put all the stuff in it."
"And how are we supposed to do that?"
"It's got an Undetectable Extension Charm on it, silly." She got summoned her school trunk and set the form into "Others", which was yellow, and shrunk it before opening it. They didn't have too much things to take, as it turned out. They didn't need to take any clothes because both of them could change their dressings magically.
It was five to four. Sylvia made a portkey with an old camera and activated it as both of them were ready. She said a quick goodbye to Haem and took a deep breath before being sucked into the portkey.