Note: I do not take credit for the Harry Potter thingy…
Another school year through. Another misadventure. Another year older. Harry was almost sixteen now, in about one months. How life changes.
Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at the grand oak dinner table, quietly. The headquarters of the order of the phoenix were now silent. All the bustle of the older witches and wizards coming and going had moved to the Ministry of Magic. This was their secret place to hide the founding members and people such as Harry. Harry hated it. Everyone else was working with the ministry, recruiting new fighters, new potion masters, and new allies. Most of the summer had been like this, building and waiting for this climactic and inevitable war. He was the one who was waiting, preparing, because maybe it would be his end but most definitely his undoing. He hated waiting but at least this summer he had Ron and Hermione with him. In the headquarters everything seemed so protected and guarded. He was living in this isolated house, being kept pleasantly from the action. That was it. It was pleasant.
At the table Ron and Harry were discussing new Quidditch strategies and plays. As Harry was next in line for captain he began to understand why Oliver Wood had always seemed like he had a stick up his arse.
They had out many scrolls, all with the oval shape of the Quidditch pitch and the hoop and yard lines drew out. Hermione had magiked their labeled circles so that the players could move about on the pitch as Harry and Ron balanced strategy with their cereal.
Harry took a large bite of his cheerios. He had been living off cereal. Mrs. Weasley had been neglecting her shopping duties and Mr. Weasley had been neglecting them too at that point.
"Harry Potter?" asked a middle aged witch in a picture, "You presence is requested in the drawing room presently."
"Um thanks?" said Harry, not quite used to the fancy talk, "Why?"
"I'm sure you will find that out soon enough." answered the painting tilting her nose up as Harry slurped up the remainder of his cereal.
"What do you think it is?" asked Ron.
"I'm sure you could take a couple of guesses Ron, really." replied Hermione as Harry slipped out of the room.
"You know you're starting to sound like that painting you are!" joked Ron.
"Well I never!" exclaimed the haughty painting as she escaped to another painting to heal her bruised ego after being compared to Hermione.
Harry slowly pushed the heavy door to the drawing room open. It no longer squeaked he noticed. Sitting around the fire were six high backed chairs and a coffee table in the middle. On the table were spilled pages of parchments which the others were already looking at.
Professor Dumbledore was there, as was Tonks, a Gringotts Goblin, and two people unknown to Harry. He did not think twice of their odd clothing because he had by long become desensitized to the odd mélange of wizarding attire. They wore long cloaks to the floor and highly decorated jackets with large buckles everywhere. Their pants tucked into high leather riding boots. One had a large ornate pin holding his cloak and the younger one had on an odd looking hat with a low rim hiding his eyes. They both had large rings on their fingers.
"Ah Harry," said Dumbledore rising gently and motioning for Harry to take the empty seat, "I would like you to meet Mr. Orion."
Dumbledore watched as the man Orion extended a slender pale hand out of the folds of his cape to shake Harry's hand. "Pleasure to meet your acquaintance." said the man in English that was so refined it had to be foreign. Harry just nodded his head and plopped down in the chair looking at Dumbledore for further instruction in behavior, or an indication to why he was there.
"Yes, the other young man here is his son," Dumbledore quickly gestured to the smaller man with the hat, who tipped it at this introduction, "Harry, the matter at hand is the ownership of this building, being 21 Grimmauld Street. Although we may have assumed that it would now belong to you, due to Sirius' death, his will was made available at Gringotts. And due to wizarding laws, inheritance is strickly by blood."
Harry opened his mouth to protest but was cut off by the Gringotts Goblin who felt it was time to take control of the situation simply.
"Now for the formalities, as you know a vial of blood is left with the will, this vial being with a Mr. Sirius Black's blood. The property at question was passed onto Mr. Black when his mother died, however due to his condition, the state froze his property until his death, which would be inherited by the next closest blood relative. Following the ancient wizard laws, it is to be passed onto the eldest son."
This was all rather confusing to Harry. How could Dumbledore just let these strangers in to their hideaway which was meant to be a secret? And what was Tonks doing there?
The goblin then took the largest oldest looking piece of parchment on the table and poured the contents of the vial onto it. The goblin then took his wrinkled yellowing finger and pressed it into the middle of the parchment.
The blood seemed to flow into channels, going this way and that across the paper. First to appear was the name Sirius Black, then a line above it. It made a family tree as much that would fit on the paper. It showed his brother Regulus Black with a small x next to it, and both his deceased parents too. It showed that Sirius's father had had two brothers. One had been the one that Harry had seen on the Black Family Tree in the upstairs room, the other must have had been blacked out on that one, but on this one the name Alphard Black shone in the red ink just as bright. From these two brothers names showed their wives and a red line dropped below them to their children. Harry knew the other three already, Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa, but under Alphard Black's name descended Mina and Beth. Harry's left eyebrow raised. They were all still alive, so who did it go to? except for Beth who had already died it showed.
When the children of these children's names had been inscribed, the goblin lessened his pressure on the parchment. He scrolled down a large list consuming many pages quickly. He took out a quill and under each name he wrote a year. A birth date. None of them were male, so it was left to go to the eldest. If any of their parents had been alive it would have gone to them. Alphard had been the eldest, and Sirius' father the youngest.
This is what Dumbledore told Harry quietly. He had been softly explaining the situation to him. He told Harry that Orion was Mina's husband, and Tonks was a representative of her mother Andromeda. Narcissa would be notified of the new residence if the opportunity had occurred, however Dumbledore had arranged an agreement between the other family members and Gringotts due to the dangerous and secretive nature of the house and its residents. Bellatrix was suspended from the opportunity to even inherit the property because she was a convicted felon, unless of course she was the eldest, it would go to her, be taken away and go to whichever of her sisters were older. "It is all very ridiculous." Dumbledore muttered under his breath.
The goblin finally raised his head from the map, shedding light on the results of his searches. Mina Black had been born in 1941. Harry raised his right eyebrow this time. This woman would have had to be around sixty now, although her husband looked like he was in his late twenties, at the oldest. "That can't be right." blankly proclaimed Harry as he looked up. He was the only one sitting.
The man Orion smiled at this. "But it is. My wife was born in 1941. Your Professor Dumbledore will explain this you to latter I am sure. Dumbledore, we will do dinner soon and finish this up." The man, his son and the goblin left with all the papers. The room looked very empty now with just Harry, Dumbledore and Tonks there.
"Sooooooooooooo, how exactly is his wife that old? Maybe he was a gold digger. After her gold and uh inheritances…" Tonks trailed off as she remembered what a slump the place was.
"Yes well her husband, Orion is actually a vampire. Obviously when they were married he bit her so that she would stay like him. You've studied all that pish-tosh of vampires. Vampires have their own sort of magic I guess you could say. So she has retained her youth and beauty and now they have three lovely children who would be a sort of half-blood although the wizarding gene is dominant, and live mainly in the north of Germany; I say mainly because they refused to disclosed a definite location. I am hoping that through this newfound connection, we can gain their family's help with Voldemort. Getting the vampires on our side would be very useful. Yes they are quite influential in both communities. Any questions?" concluded Dumbledore seeming to snap out of his ramblings.
"But what about Grimmauld Place?" stammered Harry, rising.
"Of course, I forgot. If they become our allies, as I hope, then I'm sure they'll let us maintain residence, and if not, then they'll go back to where they came from and continue sucking the blood out of the necks of poor innocents in small farming settlements in the middle of the mountains.", Dumbledore seemed to have a twisted grin on his face. He like pulling the two young wizards' legs, it lightened the mood.
Tonks' mouth dropped slightly but the silence was broken was Mrs. Weasley's shrill yell of "Could someone please help me with the dishes already! It seems that everyone just happened to leave them all out and forgot to clean them again!"
"Oh the sarcasm." glowed Dumbledore as they all left to help Molly.
K. So I'm just trying out this idea to see if anyone likes it at all. If not then it's a bad idea, and if yes then I have the rest of the story planned out in my head already. It should continue along the year, including death eaters, the rest of the school, ministry of magic, Harry and of course what happens with un-pure blood. Hope you like it!