Hey A/all. This is chapter twenty-two of the new and improved The Black Heir: The Saga Begins. It was originally just a rewrite of my The Black Heir: First Year, but it has deviated so much from how that one used to be that it's now a new story all on its own, though the basic premise is the same. This story is unfortunately no longer complete and is currently 42 chapters long (I added lots of extra chapters!) and should end up 47-48 chapters long and it should be complete soon. Despite it now being a WIP I'm not going to stop updating, new chapters will still come weekly unless something drastic happens.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Evelyn Celeste Black is my own original character, but all other recognisable characters belong to J K Rowling, I just like to use them to do my bidding.
Summary: What happens when the mistreated daughter of Sirius Black is eligible for her first year at Hogwarts at the same time as her father's escape from Azkaban and she is reunited with Harry Potter. The summer before Harry's third year might just turn out to be just as much of an adventure as his years at Hogwarts. (Eventual HarryXGinny, NevilleXOC, and RonXLuna)
Warning: This story does contain spanking, but it is not the focus, still if you don't like it don't read it.
A huge, huge thank you to my amazing Beta who has been an amazing support in writing this. Yes, I am trying my hardest to turn her into a Harry Potter Fan. Without her support and guidance, you probably wouldn't be getting this story for a good few years.
~o~
Tom knocked on the door; a tray of mixed sandwiches, a bowl of crisps, and five plates floating along behind him, along with a second tray holding large flagon of pumpkin juice, five glasses, and Harry and Evie's potions. He floated the trays to the table and set them down, "will that be all?"
Sirius nodded; relieved Remus had remembered that they needed to eat. "Yes, thank you Tom, please start a tab for me and add onto it the Weasley's current tab as I will be covering that for them."
"Very good Lord Black," Tom agreed seeing the ring.
"Please Tom, we go too far back for you to be calling me Lord Black, just Sirius is still fine," Sirius insisted.
Tom nodded, "as you wish Sirius." He bowed his head and left the room.
Sirius grabbed a plate and filled it with two sandwiches and a good handful of crisps before handing it to Evie, followed by an identical plate to Ginny. He added four sandwiches but the same size handful of crisps to his next plate and handed that one to Harry, nodding to Remus to make a plate for himself before taking what was left. He handed Harry and Evie their potions and watched as they took them, unable to avoid smiling at the expression Ginny made imaging the taste.
"These are appetite stimulants and nutritional potions; they don't have a particularly unpleasant taste like most potions do. As they are often given to witches and wizards who already have tender stomachs, it would do no good if they made the drinker feel too ill to eat. Extended use creates a strange aftertaste, but it is covered easily by eating or drinking something," Remus explained smiling.
Sirius reluctantly agreed that these potions didn't taste too bad and necked his own, nodding at the kids to start eating.
Once everyone had at least started on their slightly late lunch, Remus and Sirius shared a look before Remus shrugged and Sirius sighed.
"I guess that means I need to start," Sirius admitted with a defeated grin. "See, back when we were in school, we Marauders thought we were hot shit. Really, we were idiots, Lily knew we were idiots but tolerated Moony because he was the least idiotic of us idiots. Then Lily and I became friends, much to James's disgust, but slowly she allowed James to show her that he was capable of being mature and responsible, the kind of man she deserved."
Remus smiled at the memories, "things were dark back then, there was a war raging, but inside of Hogwarts, it felt like it could barely touch us. Sure, there were times when we'd read in the newspaper that one of our friends had lost a parent or family member. Even worse were the times when we'd come back after summer or Christmas, and they'd not be there anymore. Most of the time though, Hogwarts was like its own little world, and we were determined to make the masses laugh as much and as often as possible."
"After graduation, the reality of war hit us rather harshly, but we immediately joined in the good fight. James and I joined the Aurors, Lily was recruited to be an Unspeakable along with your biological Mum Evie, Annalise, and all six of us joined the Order of the Phoenix, a group set up by Dumbledore to fight against the Death Eaters. Remus was sent away on missions to infiltrate packs and try to turn them to our side, or get them to stay neutral, or if that was impossible, then to spy on them and provide Dumbledore with information," Sirius continued.
Remus picked up from where Sirius stopped, "what he did with that information, I never knew; but it felt good to be doing our part to help with the war effort. We didn't see as much of each other as we'd have liked, but we didn't lose touch – as we had with some other friends. Still, the war continued, and it was getting worse and worse, more people were dying, and it was looking like we might lose the war."
"Then there came a Prophecy, the saviour was going to be born soon. At the time, Harry, your Mum and Alice Longbottom were pregnant, and both you and Neville were due at the end of July, as the 7th month dies. Both sets of parents had also met the criteria for having thrice defied him and it was decided that Frank and Alice, as well as James and Lily should go into hiding. It wasn't until after you both were born, that things started pointing towards the prophecy maybe being about you, Neville had a large core, but yours was unlimited which is extremely rare. Still, no one wanted to take any chances, so both families stayed in hiding," Sirius explained.
Remus sighed, "one night, about a week before that Halloween, everyone but Peter was at Godric's Hollow when Lily got a Floo call from an Unspeakable. Though she was on maternity leave from the Unspeakables, since about midway through her pregnancy with you Harry, she was still considered an Unspeakable. During their last encounter with Voldemort, Lily was able to spill his blood, causing him to flee. The blood spilt was only a small amount, but enough to collect and study in the Department of Mysteries where your Mums worked."
"Magical blood is very important and with the right spells and potions, one can tell a lot about who the person is from just a couple drops of their blood. Voldemort's blood revealed some things that utterly horrified us all; it revealed the body he was in had a much smaller amount of soul energy than it should have. This led to the reasonable conclusion that part of his soul was contained elsewhere, and the only way to do that is through the creation of something called a Horcrux," Sirius informed the children.
Remus could tell the kids had never heard that term before, "a Horcrux is the word used to describe an object used to contain a fragment of a person's soul, anchoring them to life. Meaning that if their body was to die, they would be able to live on and with the use of their Horcrux, they could be reborn. There wasn't enough blood to tell if he'd made one Horcrux or many, but there was enough to say that the soul energy in his body was unstable. No one knows the full accounting of what happened when he failed to kill you Harry, other than his body was destroyed. With his soul energy already unstable though, it makes sense that a fragment would be broken off during this event and latch on to the nearest living host."
Harry looked rather pale and horrified, "does this mean I'm a Horcrux?" He asked weakly.
"No Harry!" Sirius insisted quickly. "No, a living thing cannot be made into a true Horcrux. Horcruxes are able to influence those around them and drain the life energy of anyone nearby in order to revive the original soul owner. If you were a true Horcrux, you would be dead, and Voldemort would be alive again. More likely a very small fragment broke off, due to the instability of Voldemort's soul energy, and it latched onto the only living thing left in the room."
"The Goblins are experts in what they do Harry, they would have told us if it needed urgent removal. The fact you have lived with it for nearly twelve years should show you that a couple more weeks won't do any harm," Remus reassured.
Harry and Ginny barely took notice of what Remus was saying, they were staring at one another, "the diary," they murmured together.
Sirius and Remus frowned and looked at the two in confusion, "diary?"
Harry looked at Ginny with his eyebrow raised, silently asking if she wanted to go first or he should.
Ginny just shrugged and shook her head.
Harry sighed and explained about the events of last year, Ginny filling in where necessary. "From what you described; it seems like the diary could have been one of those things."
Sirius was shocked, "Merlin's ba… beard, you are both very lucky to be alive. However, you are likely right, the way you've described the diary it seems like that it very well could have been a Horcrux."
Remus nodded but saw Evie's shocked and rather frightened expression, "your first year at Hogwarts is not normally so dangerous, most of the time you'll just be focused on your studies," he assured her.
Ginny grinned at Harry, "well you haven't heard about Harry's first year yet," she told Remus.
Remus glanced at the redhead and then at Harry, "care to tell us about your first year Harry?"
Harry gave Ginny a playful glare before sighing and going on to explain the events of his first year at Hogwarts.
Ginny questioned a few parts she'd heard Ron bragging about, laughing when Harry told the truth about how small Norbert was and how green his hand had gone. "Ron claimed Norbert was almost the same size as him and his hand nearly came off completely," she giggled.
Harry laughed and shook his head, "no, but Hagrid really did give him a teddy bear and he was really heavy to carry around the castle under the invisibility cloak. Still can't believe we completely forgot about it, but then it would have only been Neville in trouble along with Malfoy and that wouldn't have been all that fair to him." He continued explaining how the rest of the year went.
Sirius and Remus had no idea what to say, unable to believe the trials Harry had already gone through.
"Well from now on, no more wild and crazy adventures for you two, and you better not get any ideas from this Princess. You're all going to focus on your studies, and if any mysteries come up, you will tell one of us and then ignore it understood?" Sirius insisted firmly.
Harry blinked at the firm tone in his Dad's voice. "Dumbledore gave me a load of house points for that though," he murmured.
Sirius shook his head unhappily, "Harry, I'm not saying you didn't do an amazing thing, but nothing is worth the risk to your safety. When we go over the rules, we'll talk more about it, but yours and your sister's safety matters far more to me than anything else in this world. I love you, all three of you, yes you too Ginny, you're Harry's Betrothed and so family now, losing any of you is too higher price for anything."
Remus just nodded in agreement, "I'll be at Hogwarts this year, so anything strange, odd, or just slightly out of the normal, you come right to me. Yes, you too Ginny. It is our job to protect you, but to do that we'll need you to come to us with anything that is bothering you."
Harry nodded, he wasn't entirely sure he could break a lifetime of habit of relying on himself, but he was willing to try.
Ginny found it much easier to agree to, if she'd had her Dad, Bill, or Charlie at Hogwarts last year she definitely would have felt able to go to one of them about her suspicions. She had tried to tell Harry that she thought it might be her, but when Perfect Prefect Percy appeared she had lost her confidence; Percy was too by the book and definitely wouldn't have even tried to understand. Even now she knew he severely disapproved of what she'd done, so much she had even overheard a 'discussion' between him and their Dad during their holiday.
Evie nodded hesitantly, she didn't know if that counted for her as well, she was still overwhelmed with everything. Also, she'd never been to Hogwarts before so she wouldn't know if anything was strange.
Sirius shifted so he could look at his daughter, "Evie, listen to me Princess, your Uncle Remus and I are going to be there for you. I know we've only just met today and it's not even dinnertime yet, but together we're going to build a family, the five of us. For now, I'll accept your agreement to tell your brother if you are worried about anything, just so someone knows." He hoped that in the few weeks they had left until the kids went to Hogwarts, he and Remus would be able to build up enough of a bond with Evie so she would be able to come to them if she had a problem.
Evie stared at the empty plate on her lap wordlessly for a moment trying to take that in. She had so many questions, but she wasn't brave enough to ask them. She glanced at Harry and just nodded; she could agree to talk to Harry if she was worried.
Sirius wasn't fully satisfied but consoled himself with the knowledge that he had time to build that trust, and in Evie's case, magic on his side as well. It would be slightly harder with Harry, but he still had that time. "Now, we know we've given you all a lot of information and it'll take time to process, so do you have any questions about anything? Once we're done, we'll head into Diagon Alley. I am in dire need of a respectable wardrobe, as is Remus and there's a few other bits I want to get."
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There you go, there's chapter twenty-two. Please drop me a review and tell me what you thought, cookies for those who do!