The Future of House Black

By: Ryu Katanna

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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Four

It was a few days after his talk with Andromeda and Narcissa that Hardwin found himself lying awake in bed feeling restless. They had spoken more about his responsibilities as Lord before the two women and the baby had departed and Hardwin went down to dinner. Winky and Kreacher had both popped in after he had finished to show him the product of Winky's task that day. The outfits looked good, and both elves looked a lot more presentable. They both seemed pleased by that comment of praise before Hardwin had dismissed them.

He had sent Winky to Malfoy Manor the next day, but only after speaking with both her and Kreacher. They had both been given orders when it came to their safety as well as the safety of those of their House. Winky and Kreacher had both been told what to do if someone tried to harm them or if they were told to harm themselves. They were also given leeway to both protect themselves and the family in different situations. These orders had been enforced into their bond to the family magic so they could not be changed. This way, no matter who became Lord after him, they would both be protected from being abused.

He had gone to bed some time ago now but found himself too restless for sleep. Hardwin sat up with a grunt of frustration as he ran a hand through his hair to move it out of his face. His mind wouldn't be quiet enough for sleep with everything he had to think about. This wasn't anything unusual. He had never slept well in this house. Nor had he ever liked being alone there. There had always been something about Grimmauld Place that he disliked, a feeling heavy in his gut, but he always put it off as paranoia from the war.

He had spent over a week now avoiding his friends. He felt bad, but until SilverClaw finished the audit of his parent's vault, Hardwin didn't know who he should trust outside of Andromeda and Narcissa. It hurt to think that his friends were involved. How many of them had been paid to be nice to him? To be his friends? Who had he trusted while they had spied on him for Dumbledore? Those were the thoughts that left him feeling uncertain and his paranoia only grew as they swallowed him with the slow passing of the days and nights.

Hardwin cursed the old Headmaster again.

Albus Dumbledore had been so thorough in his manipulations that Hardwin knew he'd likely only just scratched the surface. There was so much he didn't know or was unsure of. He knew he had to take control of his life now. Hardwin would have to take the time to sort through the events and information he had and form his own opinions.

Maybe he was grasping too tightly to the distraction that accepting the Black Lordship presented. Maybe he was clinging too tightly to the knowledge that he had blood relatives other than the family who had mistreated him growing up. Maybe he was pushing himself too hard to separate the parts of himself that he felt Dumbledore hadn't intended from the puppet that the old man had created and molded.

He just couldn't be sure of anything anymore.

Hardwin needed a direction for his life now that the fighting was over. He needed to decide for himself what he wanted now. Something that he knew he had chosen for himself. Something that he knew now that Dumbledore had never intended him to have. Accepting the Black Lordship was a part of that. He knew it was something the old man had intended for him to never know about.

Hardwin hadn't said anything to either Narcissa or Andromeda when he had spoken to them, but SilverClaw had already discovered something else while going through the mess that Dumbledore had created with his vaults. Young as he was, Hardwin had never given a thought to creating a Will in case he were to die. Yet, SilverClaw had found one on record for him. It was an obvious forgery, but the names listed on that document had been telling as had the date of his forged signature.

He had spent these last few days alone with these thoughts and more. He'd had to examine his interest in both Cho and Ginny as well. Why had he been attracted to them? It hadn't taken long for Hardwin to figure out why. It was because it was what was expected.

The Dursleys had always been prejudiced. Not just toward magic, either. Vernon had ranted more than once while Hardwin was growing up about queers. Hardwin had tried to block it out, but it was possible for the man's hatred to have influenced him on a subconscious level. So, he took the time to think through this on his own.

He thought about different blokes he knew. He had always noticed when someone of either sex was attractive, but had he been sexually attracted to a boy before? He'd concluded that, yes, he had. Did that mean he would be fine with a husband instead of a wife? That was the question that he hadn't been able to answer just yet.

Green eyes moved around the room absently. He didn't know why he was still sleeping in the room he'd shared with Ron, but it was then he realized he didn't have to. It wasn't like he could sleep in the master bedroom anyway. That room was still destroyed from the time Sirius had kept Buckbeak in there. All the same, why had he returned to this room rather than move into another of the larger single rooms?

His skin prickled as he thought of the answer.

It was like he was waiting for the Weasleys and Hermione to show up. They would need the rooms they had slept in before when they arrived. It was a singularly unpleasant feeling that left him feeling like ice was freezing the blood in his veins. Looking around the room, Hardwin suddenly felt sick at the thought of sleeping there. He flipped the covers away and quickly stood from the mattress and put on his glasses.

He only allowed himself a breath once he'd left the room and shut the door firmly behind him. His eyes roamed over the hall as he took in the deterioration from what must have been a lavishly decorated home once. His feet led him as he wandered the halls, walking down and then back up the stairs as he wandered and took everything in for what felt like the first time since he had returned there after the battle ended.

His body felt heavy as he opened doors and wandered from room to room. He had always known this place would need a lot of work if it was to be truly livable, but it was like a veil that had been over his eyes had started to lift. This place was his now. This place with its peeling walls, narrow hallways, and the oppressive feelings on every floor. Soon enough, Hardwin made his way up to the fourth floor.

There were only two doors and a spiral stairwell leading to the attic. Both doors had names on them. The doors were open and the rooms undisturbed since the last time he had been up there. As if they were just waiting for the two occupants to return home to clean up the mess that had been left behind. One room was just a bit smaller than the other, and both rooms contrasted in color and personality. One had belonged to a teen who had made mistakes and went to his death trying to do the right thing. The other belonged to a teen who had left home to escape his parents and been forced to return as an adult.

How Sirius had hated this house.

Hardwin felt like he had a ball of lead pressing down on his chest as his eyes trailed from one door to the other. Ghosts of memories haunted this place and clung to his skin like a slick film that left him feeling chilled to his core; most of them not even his own. Once it had been the home of parents who were too proud of the purity of their blood. That pride had brought nothing but heartache and ruin to their children.

"Toujours Pur." Hardwin murmured to himself as he read the words on the wall of Regulus's bedroom.

The Black family had claimed a creed as all Ancient Houses did, had it emblazoned upon their crest and followed it to the ruination of everything that was most important. Walburga had believed so much in those words that she had driven one son to scorn his family as he fled his home. The other she had handed over as a servant to a madman who purported the values she believed in so proudly.

"Always pure." Harwin murmured to himself as he entered Sirius's room and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Had it always been about the purity of blood? What about the purity of one's heart? Or of the mind? How about the purity of belief? Was the family creed all up to interpretation?

Green eyes trailed around the room thoughtfully. Sirius had stayed in this room while he had been forced to remain in this house. It had been mostly untouched since his death a little over two years earlier. Dust had gathered on the table next to the bed and other surfaces. The posters of bikini-clad Muggle girls were faded and brittle with age; their edges fraying as they folded away from the wall where the sticking charms had weakened. Unlike Regulus's room, Sirius's room hadn't been ransacked by Snape during the war, and so most things in the room were as he had left them. There was a desk in the corner of the room which still had an open inkpot and parchment resting beside a mangled quill.

Curious, Hardwin stood and stepped over to the desk. There was nothing written on the parchment resting there, but indents remained where Sirius had pressed too hard with the nib of the quill while writing on another that had been on top. The parchment looked to be newer. It was not yet so faded with time as parchment found in other rooms of the house, and Hardwin realized that it must have only been a few years old.

He trailed his fingers thoughtfully over the corner of the parchment before sitting down in the chair. His attention was pulled to the drawer. Fingers trailed down to the handle. Slowly, Hardwin opened it and shifted through the parchment there. He pulled the stack out to look through them, surprised by what he found. They were letters addressed to Hardwin.

Hardwin; not Harry.

Most looked to be drafts where Sirius had started writing but had stopped partway through. A few were torn from where a quill had been pressed too hard as it scratched through a word or a sentence. Hardwin couldn't make sense of most of them as the words rambled into random subjects. He set those aside as he shifted through them until he found an envelope. Sealed in deep purple wax with the Black Crest. The envelope was addressed in a shaky but elegant scrawl that he knew from the few letters he had received between the end of his third to fifth years.

Hardwin James Felis Potter-Black.

Heir to the House of Black

Hardwin's hands shook as he held the envelope. It was slightly heavy as he held it. His heart hammered wildly as he stared at his name. Sirius had never, not once, called him by that name. It had always been Harry.

"Sirius…" The word was choked as Hardwin remembered the last time he had seen the man.

He tried not to think of it. The last words Sirius had said to him still haunted him. He had told Narcissa that he hadn't thought Sirius was as stable as he could have been, and he hadn't lied about that. It hadn't been too bad at the end of his third year, or even the beginning of his fifth year. It wasn't until he had been trapped in this house…

This house.

Hardwin was startled at the thought. He remembered his thoughts from earlier as he had wandered the house. Thoughts of ghosts that went unseen, but not unheard. How oppressive the house felt. The shadows that moved and seemed darker at times than they should be.

It had been this house. Sirius had been alright until he had been forced to live in this place. Did Hardwin really want to continue living here? The only sentiment he had for this place was that it was where he'd gotten to live with Sirius for three weeks. Three short weeks when they should have had years.

Years that had been stolen from them.

Hardwin felt like he was suffocating as he clenched the envelope in his hands. He forced himself to his feet and stumbled toward the door. Whispers of voices reached his ears as if a switch had been flipped now that he had acknowledged them. An all-consuming feeling of fear and isolation flooded his mind and heart. It was then he knew he had to get out of this house.

He had to get out before he went mad.

It hurt as he wrenched his ankle and almost tumbled down the stairs in his haste. One flight of stairs, and then two. A woman whispering Sirius's name. Regulus's name. It was familiar. He'd heard it before. It was always faint. Easily mistaken for something else. Hardwin choked as the air felt heavier still. Like iron filling his lungs.

"Wi-Winky!" He called out as he caught his breath enough to do so in his panic.

"Master Black called for Winky?" The little elf asked as she popped into the hallway.

"Ta-Take me to Andromeda. N-Now!" Hardwin gasped as he reached out for her hand.

Winky looked up at him in wide-eyed concern. Good elf that she was, she followed orders without questions. There was a feeling of pressure and then a pop that echoed before Hardwin fell into a heap on the floor with a heavy thud. Instantly, the suffocating feeling dispersed as he choked on the air he inhaled in shaky deep breaths. The whispers were gone.

"Hardwin?!" Andromeda's tone was shocked and he drew several quick breaths and looked up at her as she hurriedly entered the room in a dressing gown she was tugging on over her nightdress.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know where else to go." He replied as he exhaled heavily and drew in another sharp breath.

"Master Black not ables to breathes!" Winky said fretfully, her comment getting Andromeda's attention, who hurried over to him and ran a diagnostic charm over him.

"I can't tell what's wrong. Your heart rate is elevated, and you've pulled a tendon in your ankle, but there's nothing else unusual." Andromeda said with concern as she shifted the teen to get a look at his face.

"It's the house. There's something wrong with it. I've always felt restless staying there. A few times I thought I heard something. Voices. Wasn't until tonight it was like this." Hardwin replied as he finally felt like he was able to relax his tense muscles.

"Winky, would you go to the kitchen and get us some tea? What do you mean it's the house?" Andromeda asked the elf before speaking to Hardwin as she helped him up onto the sofa from the floor.

"I mean there's something not right with it. It's not so bad with other people there. It's when I'm alone that I notice anything off. The air feels heavy. The shadows feel darker, and I feel restless. I have always had trouble sleeping there, but now I'm lucky if I can get a few hours a night. I couldn't sleep again tonight so I was just wandering the house. I ended up in Sirius's old room. I found a letter address to me." Hardwin said as he held it up and handed it to her so she could see the writing on the envelope before continuing.

"I started thinking about the last time I saw him. How different he seemed. I thought about how he seemed fine until he was forced to stay there in that house. Even after Azkaban, he was more stable than he was after being left alone in that house. That's when I noticed it again. I thought I heard whispers. The air in that house is always heavy, but I felt like I would suffocate. Everything seemed darker. I had to get out Andromeda." Hardin explained as his eyes teared, and he felt a cold chill come over him.

"I don't think I can go back. Something isn't right." He said as he shuddered, and the tears fell.

"Hush. Hush now Hardwin. You'll stay with me and Teddy. Here. Drink this and let it help settle you." Andromeda said as she handed him a cup of tea when it appeared in front of them before taking her own.

Hardwin drank slowly as he felt himself calm down. He honestly didn't know what had come over him. He had never liked Grimmauld Place but had thought he would be fine with living there after the war. It had been where he'd gotten to be with Sirius for the short time they had been allowed together. He had ignored the condition of the house. It would take some work, but it could be restored, or so he'd told himself.

He had ignored the shadows that moved and seemed darker than they should be. It was a trick of the light, he'd told himself. He had ignored the feeling of loneliness that consumed him late into the night. He told himself it was normal after always having someone else around. He'd ignored the feelings that had left him restless and unsettled at night as well as throughout the day. It wasn't unusual when he'd just fought in a war. It would take time for him to adjust. He had even ignored the whispers. Slight wisps of sound in the stagnant air of an old house. He told himself he had to be mistaken.

He'd made many excuses to himself these months alone there.

He'd thought he could stay there. He'd thought he could have it restored. He'd thought he could make happy memories there. Have a family and raise children there. He'd told himself that it was what Sirius would have wanted. To turn the place his godfather had hated into something good.

Hardwin felt like he must have been crazy.

None of that was what Sirius would have wanted. He had hated that house. Yes, he had willed it to Hardwin, but that wasn't the only property belonging to the Black Family's estate that he had inherited. He had other houses to choose from. Sirius wouldn't have wanted him to stay in Grimmauld. Sirius had been content to let the place rot, and he would have if the Order hadn't needed it.

Hardwin couldn't stay there.

"Thank you, Andromeda. I'm sorry for showing up in your living room so late at night like this." He said as he shifted to get comfortable as he relaxed and soaked in the warmth he could feel in her home.

It was so entirely different from the feeling Grimmauld Place gave off.

"It is alright, Hardwin. If you feel there is something wrong with that house then I would rather you be here with me and Teddy. You may very well be right about it. I had heard Aunt Walburga was mad by the time she passed, and she had remained in that house after… Then cousin Sirius was forced to stay there. I believe you may be right about that place. I didn't feel right about you living there, but it is your decision where you stay. You are an adult, after all." Andromeda smiled softly as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze before pulling away to drink from her cup.

"I don't know what I was thinking. I think I've just been so messed up after everything. It was the one place I knew I could go. I thought I could have it fixed up. Try to make it something good after all of the bad." Hardwin admitted before shaking his head.

"Then I decided to accept the Lordship. I thought; I can do this. I can get married. I can have kids. I could make Grimmauld a place of good memories and try to erase the bad history of that house. Make it a home. I thought about all of that even when I knew in my gut that something isn't right. That I am uneasy there. I'm still trying to work myself out after being played with by Dumbledore all my life. I just kept thinking that I'm still so strung up from the events of the last few years, and that was the reason. I didn't want to think it was the house." Hardwin admitted with a frown.

"There are other properties, Hardwin. You can make one of them a home to be proud of, I'm sure. Sirius may have had the right idea. Leave the house to rot. That place is what the Blacks were. It is the past of House Black. You, Hardwin, are building a future. I know you'll make it a name to be proud of again." Andromeda said, and Hardwin could tell she believed that.

He felt a rush of warmth in his chest at her reassurance.

"Yeah. I will." He stated softly with determination as he finished his tea.

"Well, we should both get to bed. I just laid Teddy back down, but he'll be up again in a few hours. You can sleep in Remus and Nymphadora's room if you like. There's no other bed, I'm afraid. If you'd prefer the couch then…" Andromeda said softly knowing that he might not want to stay in the room.

Unfortunately, it was the only room currently empty in her small home.

"No…" Hardin choked at the thought.

"I'll sleep here if that's alright. I don't think I…" He trailed off as the grief hit him again at the loss of two people he had cared for.

"It's alright dear. I do understand. Spare pillows and blankets are in that cupboard over there. I'll leave you to get comfortable. Good night, Hardwin." Andromeda replied in understanding before she stood and left the room to return to bed.

"Good night, Andromeda." Hardwin said softly as he watched her leave the room.

He looked around the cozy living room before sighing softly and standing to get a blanket and pillow from the cupboard she had indicated. He got himself adjusted as he laid down and pulled the blanket up as he laid down his glasses on the table. He felt warmer already in her home than he ever had at Grimmauld Place. It felt like a chill was just leaving his bones for the first time that he hadn't even noticed was there. His eyes drooped with exhaustion that hit him suddenly and he shuffled to lay on his side and get comfortable.

Andromeda had left the envelope on the table, and Hardwin stared at the words in Sirius's handwriting as he drifted off to sleep.

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That's it for this chapter. I've had a few questions asked after the last chapter so I will answer those here.

Q: If they are family, why did Albus touch Potter's main vault?

A: Albus didn't touch the main Potter family vault. He stole from James and Lily's vault that was left to Hardwin upon their deaths. Hardwin has no access to the main Potter vaults though there is a deposit going from the main Potter vault to Hardwin's. More on this will come into the story later.

Q: If Charlus is not older, how harry ended up having the cape?

A: Charlus was not the firstborn of his generation and so James and his son would be of a cadet line. Hardwin would still have fallen under the care of Lord Potter according to the wizarding Lordship's responsibilities. More on this and why Hardwin has the cloak later as well.

Q: Is there a Lordship for Peverell, Slytherin, Gaunt, Montague, and Prewett?

A: Hardwin is of the Peverell, Slytherin, Gaunt, Montague, Nott, and Prewett bloodlines. However, he is not eligible for the Lordship for any of these lines. The Montague and Nott bloodlines both have Graham and Theodore who will take the Lordships. Hardwin would be eligible for the Potter Lordship only if his cousin's line died out because he is of the Potter male line. He would not have been able to take on the Black Lordship if Sirius hadn't adopted him, and brought him into the main line as he inherited the Black blood through females (Dorea and Marius's daughter). The other Lordships were lost when the families died out in the male lines. So while Hardwin carries blood from the Peverell, Gaunt, Prewett, and Slytherin lines he cannot take the title of Lord for those families. Females cannot take the Lordship nor give it to their sons; except in cases like the Greengrass family where their family charter allows for a female to carry the line due to the curse upon their bloodline. The seats in the Wizengamot can be passed down by the women and passed into their husband's line through their children. In this way, Hardwin has a claim to the Slytherin, Gaunt, and Peverell seats due to being the last of those lines who can claim them. With the deaths of Fabian and Gideon, the Prewett seats would pass from Molly to Bill as firstborn.

In short, it is a mostly patriarchal system of inheritance depending on the family's Charter; as daughters marry into other families. The wizarding world still follows an archaic system as the world is steeped in tradition.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I've already started on the next one though work is slow going. Once it's finished and edited then I will post it. I need to try getting some work done on Magic Will Find A Way but I'm a bit stuck at the moment as ideas for this story keep coming. Let me know what you thought!

Ryu

Edited: 11/15/2022