Hey A/all. This is chapter forty-four 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 once more complete! And is a whopping 48 chapters long, lots was added haha. Updates should be 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~
Sirius and Remus continued to try and make sure the lessons were an even mix of theoretical and practical, keeping them as fun as they could. Sirius had a lot of fun teasing Harry and Ginny when they'd included Ginny in the dancing lessons and both kids had been blushing fiercely at being made to dance together. It reassured both Sirius and Remus that though they were Betrothed their 'relationship' was still age appropriate and innocent, their relationship would grow and develop naturally as they did, but for now they were acting like normal twelve- and thirteen-year-olds. Sirius had also taken the time to sit and give Harry 'the talk' his son's face had been beetroot red that day, but it had been a wonderful bonding moment for them both as he gave Harry his first butterbeer. It was not 'the talk' he had thought he would be giving when he'd been made Harry's godfather, that was supposed to be James's job. He was supposed to give the fun talk, about how to woo witches, what the best pickup lines were, and encouraging his Godson to play the field, but James wasn't here and so he had to step up and give him the proper father son talk. Again, he pulled from what Mr Potter had told him; about showing a woman respect, being a protector, and listening to her, and that ideally one should wait until marriage, but if both him and his partner felt ready there were several contraceptive charms and Mr Potter taught him them all. It was far better than the talk his own father had given him, he told him he was offending magic if he touched himself and he could cause a magical backlash that would render him a squib. His father hadn't taught him any of the contraceptive charms, but he'd made sure to teach him the charm to end an unwanted pregnancy, to be used if he 'knocked up' a 'Mudblood' to prevent the shame of having a halfblood bastard.
After lunch today it was going to be a fun practical lesson, Sirius had decided that the kids needed to know the art of fencing. He and his brother had been taught by his father and Uncle Alphard; the lessons were some of the only good memories he had of his father. James had also been taught by his father and when he'd started spending more time with the Potters, he and James had engaged in some epic fencing wars. When Remus had started hanging out as well, they had shared what they'd been taught with him. With all four of them able to fence they had held a fencing tournament atop the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall during the Halloween Feast of their fifth year, using copious amounts of dragon blood to simulate injuries. Aunt Minnie had been furious, but it remained one of his favourite pranks they had pulled.
After a good lunch the kids needed to get changed before they all headed outside, whilst running around the house, playing a pirate style sword fight was great fun, it was not a suitable learning environment. Sirius had summoned the protective clothing and face shields from the attic and had sent Gizzy to the Potter vault to collect the fencing foils. When the kids arrived outside dressed in shorts and t-shirts Sirius and Remus helped them dress in the protective fencing clothing, making sure the charms on the jackets were still working well.
Dressed and looking eager to start swinging swords at one another, Harry, Evie, and Ginny listened attentively to the safety instructions they were given.
"Keep the tip of your foil pointed down when face shields are off, the tips are protected, but you could still take someone's eye out, so they are to be facing down if you're not wearing a face shield. Do not aim at anyone's head, the target area is the chest only, accidental hits to the head and face do happen, that's why you wear the face shields, but do not aim at them. Do not point the foil at anyone unmasked. Finally, when Remus or I call for a stop by shouting 'halt', you stop immediately, understood?" Sirius stated firmly.
"Yes, Dad," Harry confirmed with a nod.
"Yes, Uncle Padfoot," Ginny agreed smiling eagerly.
"Yes, Daddy," Evie murmured softly.
Remus and Sirius started off slow, first teaching the kids how to hold their foils. "You want to hold it gently, like you're holding a bird, between your thumb and forefinger," Sirius explained, showing the correct grip.
Remus walked between the three children gently correcting Ginny and Evie's grip; Harry's did not need correcting.
The next thing Sirius showed was the en-garde position, explaining why it was used and demonstrating by moving backwards and forwards.
Remus corrected Evie's position for her, helping her get into the correct en-garde position, neither Ginny nor Harry needing correcting.
The introduction to fencing continued in this manner Sirius demonstrating moving backwards and forwards and Remus helping to correct the kids if they were struggling. He had them practice moving backwards and forwards a bit, getting used to the unusual movement style.
Harry picked up the forward and backwards motion easily and was quickly showing off with some fancy footwork.
Ginny wasn't quite as much of a natural as Harry, but she was getting more comfortable and confident as she practiced the movements.
Evie was struggling with the awkward motion, getting confused with which foot was supposed to be leading when and how to keep her legs equally distanced apart.
Sirius and Remus shared a look and split the three up, Remus working with Evie and Sirius continuing with Harry and Ginny.
Sirius moved onto showing Harry and Ginny the most basic way of doing a lunge, demonstrating a few different methods but focusing on the basic lunge for now.
Remus continued helping Evie to master the basic steps, encouraging her, and supporting her to become more comfortable with the new and awkward movements. By the time his little Goddaughter could move confidently, Harry and Ginny were already trading lunges with one another, but Remus just continued Evie's instructions at the slower more gentle pace.
After showing Evie the lunge and coaching her through the very unnatural movement, Remus showed her where to hold her blade and how to aim her tip. He gently moved her arm into the right position and had her practice moving backward and forwards again this time holding her foil, letting her get used to having to hold it in the same position. Once she seemed comfortable with that, he moved onto letting her take a few steps before lunging.
Part of Evie was disappointed that she was not nearly as good as her brother and Ginny were at this sport, but her Uncle Moony was so kind and gentle with her, comforting and calming that it was easy to accept that she couldn't be a natural at everything. He had even told her that when her Daddy and James had taught him how to fence, he'd been absolutely rubbish at first. It hadn't been until Mr Potter had taken him aside and given him some one-on-one tuition that he'd even been able to master the basics. He reminded her that everyone leant everything at their own pace and there was no real pressing need to learn how to fence, it was just a sport enjoyed by a lot of Purebloods.
With Harry and Ginny mastering the basics of parrying and counter attacks Sirius let them go at it. Watching as any resemblance of form flew out of the window as they battled around the grounds, jumping, ducking, and spinning out of the way of each other's attacks, trading barbs as they did.
Remus smiled down at Evie, "I think your Daddy might like to take over your lessons whilst I make sure your brother and Ginny don't end up skewering one another," he declared. He headed over quickly to Sirius and swapped with him.
With Remus taking over watching Harry and Ginny, Sirius happily took over teaching his daughter, letting her demonstrate what Remus had taught her and praising her heartily for what she had achieved. She was ready to trade lunges, so he put his own face shield on and got into the en-garde position. "Now Princess when I say en-garde you get into your en-garde position, en-garde means on guard which is the signal to get in position, then I will say pret, which means ready, then allez, which means go. When I say allez, I want you to take a few steps forward and lunge, directing your tip at my chest, at which point my jacket will glow red to say you've won a point from me," he instructed.
Evie gave a slightly nervous nod to show she understood, she wanted to do this well, wanted to show her Daddy she could do this.
"We can keep practicing this as long as we need to. Your Uncle Moony knows plenty of advanced techniques he can teach your brother and Ginny once they get tired of fighting like barbaric pirates. We will work on mastering the perfect technique and etiquette of fencing," Sirius reassured his little girl.
Evie gave a little giggle and relaxed slightly, relieved her Daddy wasn't disappointed in her for not being able to get it straight away.
Glad to see the nervousness and tension leave Evie, Sirius raises his foil. He wasn't going to attack his daughter, but once he saw she was confident in making the attacks he was going to parry one. "En-garde," he commanded, watching as she slipped into the correct position, moving into his own en-garde position. "Pret, allez!" He called.
Evie did her best to do exactly as she had been instructed, closing the distance between her and her Daddy and lunging, letting the tip of her foil meet her Daddy's chest. His jacket glowed red, and she beamed happily.
Sirius let Evie practice the motion a couple times, watching as she grew in confidence, then as he had planned to, he parried her next attack.
Evie blinked as her foil went completely sideways instead of forwards as it was supposed to.
"That, Princess, was a parry, it's a way to deflect your opponent's blade," Sirius explained.
The lesson continued in this manner, Sirius gently and slowly teaching Evie what she needed to know, he parried on and off, sometimes allowing the hit, other times parrying before he showed her how to parry herself. He allowed her to get used to parrying by making slow lunges towards her, speeding up slightly when he could see her gaining confidence with the motion.
Harry and Ginny had no idea who had 'won' their battle, their jackets had lit up so many times, but they were both a bit worn out by the exercise. However, when Remus came over and asked if they wanted to learn some more advanced tricks they had immediately agreed.
The more advanced techniques came easily to Harry, he felt like the foil was an extension of his arm, like his broomstick was an extension of himself. He picked them up after only a couple demonstrations.
Ginny had to work a little harder to master the more complex tricks, it was not as natural for her, but her stubborn determination to succeed saw her through. "Rematch?" She asked Harry determined to try out what they'd just learnt.
"You're on Weasley," Harry grinned.
Remus smiled indulgently and cleared his throat, "shields on," he directed. Once their face shields were on, he nodded, "en-garde, pret, allez," he announced, setting off their second match.
Evie was growing and gaining in confidence quickly now, Sirius had once more surprised her by moving backwards away from her lunge, encouraging her to use her movements to 'chase' him. She had advanced to the point where Sirius was attempting a couple real attacks in-between the mock ones, he still kept his movements slower and easy for his daughter to follow, but he was aiming to make contact. Most of his real attacks did land, but Evie was getting quicker, especially at moving back away from the attacks. Sirius doubted Evie would be up for running around the grounds and the manor engaging in a sword fight anytime soon, but he could see she was at least enjoying herself and that was what mattered to him. He noticed that she was starting to flag though so allowed her one more win on him and called an end to the instruction. "I think we'll end it there today," he decided with a smile, tugging off his face shield once Evie's foil was facing down.
Evie immediately lowered her foil, letting the tip face the floor when her Daddy decided they should stop. She removed her own face shield after he did, revealing a hot and slightly sweaty face. It was late August and still warm, especially in the long-sleeved fencing jackets, breeches, and knee-high socks, with her shorts and t-shirt on underneath.
Sirius called for Dobby and before the elf could talk asked for a pitcher of ice-cold pumpkin juice and glasses for them all, motioning to Remus that he should call Harry and Ginny to a halt in a bit. When Dobby returned with the pumpkin juice Sirius thanked and dismissed the elf, setting the pitcher on the picnic bench before he poured a glass for Evie and handed it to her, "drink up Princess, and you can get out of those clothes too," he allowed smiling.
Remus let Harry and Ginny trade a few more blows before loudly calling for them to halt, smiling proudly when they both immediately jumped back from one another and dropped their foils, pointing the tips to the ground.
Harry and Ginny both made sure each other's swords were facing down before they removed their face shields, revealing two rather red, hot, and very sweaty faces. They looked around at Remus together, not sure why he had called a halt.
Remus chuckled a little at the expectant expressions, "we're done for today, there's pumpkin juice on the bench, I'm sure you're both rather hot and thirsty now and would like to get out of those clothes."
Harry realised only then just how right his Uncle Moony was, he was panting and hadn't even been aware of it. Quite suddenly the padded protective clothing was stiflingly hot, and he wanted to strip off out of it as quickly as possible.
Ginny was ahead of Harry and already tearing off her gloves and gauntlets as she kicked off her shoes so she could yank off the knee-high socks.
Once all three kids had stripped down to just their shorts and t-shirts once more and had gulped down several large swallows of the refreshing pumpkin juice, Harry flopped down onto the grass, laying on his back and staring up at the still bright blue clear sky. Ginny followed after a beat before Evie joined them more calmly, not as out of breath as the other two.
"We can do that again soon right?" Harry asked looking up at the two adults.
"We have to do that again soon!" Ginny insisted, "that wasn't just a onetime thing?"
Sirius chuckled, "now you know the safety rules and proper technique you can practice as much as you like," he informed them. "There have been many extensive sword fights played out through the manor, it was a favoured pastime of James and I when I used to stay over here," he confessed. The eager look in Harry's eye prompted him to continue, deciding to tell them about the fencing tournament the Gryffindor table played host too, Remus happily joining in with his own quips and comments.
All three kids paid rapt attention to the story, laughing along, as the two remaining marauders continued with other tales of memorable mock battles they had held in their youth.
~o~
There you go, there's chapter forty-four. Please drop me a review and tell me what you thought, cookies for those who do!