Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything you can recognise from any books or TV series or movies. I do however take liberties with the plots or mentions provided by JKR or other writers. The only profit I'm getting out of it is improving my English.
Title: Secrets & Keepers – Entropy
Rating/Warnings: R/M [AU; Manipulative Dumbledore (therefore not Dumbledore friendly); profanity; canon typical violence; frank discussion of past child abuse (Harry but not only) and of past child abuse of sexual nature (not Harry); not very detailed descriptions of torture (not Harry); Black family feels; identity crisis; pureblood politics; good Slytherins]
Characters and pairings: Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Regulus Black, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Bathsheda Babbling. As well as Hermione Granger, Arcturus Black, Larry Lawrence (OC) and Josephine Turner (OC). The rest of characters will appear as the story progresses.
All adults are more or less paternal towards Harry or grandfatherly towards Hermione as well as generally friendly or at the very least civil towards each other once they sort out their differences.
References to past and present relationship of sexual nature between Snape and Babbling. Occasional mentions of one sided Sirius/James, not one sided Sirius/OFC (the woman of many names). Contains mentions of Remus/Tonks, eventual allusions to Larry/Josephine and background Arcturus/Melania. No Harry or Hermione pairings because they have a lot on their plates and won't have time for teenage nonsenses for a longer while (at the very least through PoA timeline).
Spoilers: All seven books with occasional, brief references to ground work for HP & CC main plot as well as Secrets & Keepers – Collision Course and Secrets & Keepers – Supernova.
Summary: Harry & Hermione learn that as weird as everything become in the aftermath of learning devastating news is that the life actually goes on. There's a Dark Lord to destroy, a manipulative Headmaster to overthrow, family bonds and new friendships to establish and old ones to maintain. Direct sequel to S&K - Collision Course and S&K - Supernova.
Chapter summary: The Greengrasses.
Word count: About 4100.
Author's note: I had great fun writing this one. Next chapter will also be devoted to the Greengrasses but in chapter 12 we will return to Harry & Company.
Next chapter will be posted on Tuesday 23rd March 2021.
Beta read by Regnbuen (Nitraz).
I hope that You will find this story enjoyable. I would be the most grateful for constructive criticism.
Having a place to go - is a home.
Having someone to love - is a family.
Having both - is a blessing.
~Donna Hedges
Secrets & Keepers – Entropy
Chapter ten: Green is the Grass.
Hyperion Greengrass was the oldest son of Damocles Greengrass and Antoinette Avenant, and the only one of his siblings born without a twin. If one wished to argue about it, he wasn't technically the firstborn son, but the subject of his father's first wife and their unborn child was one that the Greengrasses avoided to address unless it was the anniversary of their demise. His father preferred it that way. He also acted the same way when Hyperion, Hector and Hecate's mother Antoinette passed away when the twins were seven years old. At the very least her death didn't turn him into dragon's rights activist. Not that their mother's death hadn't left the young Greengrasses rattled, as it happened right before their very eyes. They all mourned her death deeply and it had been Hyperion who convinced his father that he was still young enough to remarry, if not in order to gain a companion then at the very least to ensure that his younger siblings had a female role model.
Marigold Macmillan was a young distant cousin of the wife of his father's dearest friend. She was respectful of her place in the family and in their hearts, she never tried to replace their mother but she quickly became a dear and trusted friend to their father and in a way, to them. She also gave him another pair of twins, two hellions by the names of Perseus and Persephone. She was the one whom Hyperion and Eleanor's oldest sons called grandma, and the one to whom Eleanor had went for advice when she and Hyperion were at odds, which didn't happen often.
At the age of fifty-two Hyperion had two adult sons: Alexander, 21, current student of Institut de Droit Magique de Paris and future head of the Greengrass family, and Marius, 19, young painter that harried of to Rome faster than the ink on his NEWTs results had dried. He and Eleanor also had three younger ones that had been born after Marigold's death in 1986: Martin, seven year old and obsessed with racing brooms; Apollo, a four year old tone-deaf, aspiring pianist that was just learning how to make his musical efforts kinder to his listener ears, and a one year old aspiring climber called Remus.
Hyperion had also been the head of the Greengrass family for the least seven years, from the moment of Marigold's passing. And it wasn't that his father hadn't been politically involved after she died. He just lost his heart for it for a couple of years, and after he recovered from the worst of the grief, he found himself liking the freedom. Not that Hyperion minded, between himself and his siblings their father had a lot of grandchildren to look after. Not that he did a lot of minding, he was a doting grandfather but one that didn't try to undermine the efforts of the parents to rear their children.
Well, until Hector's bad decision that had been marrying Guinevere Goyle, that bloody harlot of the Pink descend. Then came the other, which was abandoning his young, rather attractive and very bored wife for the sake of looking for the cure for Astoria's malediction. Not that Hyperion wouldn't have done the same in his brother's place, he just wouldn't have gotten remarried in the first place.
The Goyle problem occupied Hyperion and his father ever since Eleanor's trusted healer had taken a good look at the twins and commented that they looked absurdly healthy for a pair of premature babies.
So when after dinner his father requested a private meeting with him, Hyperion was certain that he knew the subject of their upcoming discussion. He bid his older boys good night, kissed little Remus soundly and his wife as passionately as he dared to do in his father's company, before he called for his manservant, Legolas to have a glass of brandy prepared for them in his study.
"So have you decided what we should do with the harlot?" asked Hyperion curiously once they both had settled in the armchairs before the fire.
"Oh, that," Dad sighed distractedly. "I figured that one out ages ago. The most important is bringing the girls to the manor but keeping Vere at home. I thought about inviting Thomas's younger sister, Tracy. She and Daphne are good friends and Vere wouldn't put a foot inside the manor if Tracy would be there. The problem would be getting to Hector before Vere does, but he loves his girls more than he loves his wife so if you sufficiently threaten him even if Vere will manage to dig her claws into him he would be amenable to at the very least listen to the plan."
"But that's not the reason why you asked for a private meeting with me," Hyperion pointed out, slowly, to appear pensive.
"No," confirmed Dad. "It's something more up your professional alley rather than personal."
"I'm all ears then," said Hyperion in an attempt to encourage him.
"That's exactly what has me worried, you know," said Dad with a soft snort. "You know that I love you, Perry," he added after a moment. "And that I respect your decisions even if I don't always agree with them?"
Hyperion's left eyebrow quirked slightly at that. They were both old, too old for vocal expressions of love, just as much as very old terms of endearments. Not that for a single minute Hyperion ever doubted that he was loved by his parents, him and the rest of his siblings. But it wasn't just something that men their age did, so he found himself sufficiently alarmed by his father's admission.
"Are you dying Dad?" he asked in concern. "Have you seen a healer?"
"Merlin, no!" protested Dad. "What are you going on about?" he asked quickly and after a moment he mumbled. "Oh. The last time we had this talk Marigold just passed away."
"Yes," confirmed Hyperion. "What's going on, Dad?"
Dad reached for his glass, took a small sip and placed it back on the table before he cleared his throat and said, "First, allow me to express that I'm not suffering any sort of malady or disease other than my advancing age. Second, I plan to at the very least see your grandchildren and with a little bit of luck, great-grandchildren. Third, the reason why I might seem apprehensive about breeching the subject is because if you decide to get involved you might put the entire family at risk."
"At risk of what?" asked Hyperion.
"Attracting attention of a very powerful man and a very dangerous enemy," replied Dad grimly.
"The Dark Lord is dead," Hyperion pointed out, he wasn't the fan of either the bugger's own moniker or the ones given to him by the wizarding public.
"I'm not talking about him," said Dad with a grimace. "I'm talking about Dumbledore."
That was surprising. Hyperion was aware of his father's feelings towards the Headmaster, and had his own, not very high opinion about the man as someone who dealt with him on semi-regular basis. He was quite relieved to see him removed from the position, not that it lasted for long. Minerva McGonagall was much more pleasant and easier to deal with.
"Carry on," Hyperion prompted him. "I know that if I say no, you will at the very least wipe my memory of this conversation."
"That's another thing that's causing me not a smaller level of apprehension," sighed Dad. "I really respect you, Perry."
"As do I," said Hyperion sincerely. "Now stop acting like a lovesick teenager and cough up what's been bothering you."
"Sirius," mumbled Dad, so softly that Hyperion barely heard him.
"Sirius?" asked Hyperion. "As in Sirius Black? The first man known to escape an inescapable wizarding prison Sirius Black? That Sirius Black?"
"No, his great-grandfather, I recently had a nice talk with his portrait," replied Dad with a huff. "Of course I mean that Sirius Black. You know, the one that planned to marry your lesbian sister," he added quickly.
"What about Sirius Black?" sighed Hyperion.
And so he had been told. Everything it seemed. And a lot of it had been very disturbing. Not that he had an easy time trying to get past the image of Black as the Dark Lord's right hand and a mass-murderer. But he was a bloody lawyer and he defended scumbags for a living, though to be fair he tried his best to avoid taking murder cases when the fault of his client was evident or at the very least hard to justify. Not that murder should be justified, but there were certain cases, always had been, when the murderer in Hyperion's private opinion, had been punished enough by suffering through years of abuse.
But this case, the bloody conspiracy to imprison a supposedly innocent man rattled him. It rattled him because he knew Sirius, maybe not as well as his youngest siblings but he knew him. He talked with him and he remembered him as a quick-witted lad with views very similar to his own.
He also remembered him as an adult, Auror and a bloody good one at that, very effective if a bit too rogue for his liking. He was sufficient and thorough with paperwork, a great witness on the stand and a man of his word. Most people would have shrugged off a delay and said they were sorry if something didn't arrive on time, but not Sirius. If Sirius Black promised that he would bring a report on a particular date, then he would bring that bloody report at midnight at the latest.
That dreadful fall of 1981 neither Hyperion nor his father had been working at the firm. In early October, Eleanor had lost her pregnancy and nearly died, it had taken her many months to recover physically, and many more to even dare having another child. So the mess that was Sirius Black's trial, or the apparent lack of it, had passed them by, and by the time Hyperion returned to work there were other people to defend, other cases, other people's problems.
And Sirius Black had become nothing but an unpleasant memory.
Charming Perpetua Spellman into leaving him alone in the evidence archives had been disgustingly easy. And if he hadn't used her short attention span in the past and planned to continue doing so for years to come, he would have ratted her out to her superiors. Once he was certain that she would be gone for long enough to sneak further into the archives, past the evidence box he supposedly needed, he wasted no time in getting what he needed.
He made copies of every statement, every photograph, made notes on what was lacking from the box, and by the time Spellman was back from her trip to get proper tea, he was engrossed in the contents of his decoy box. He made sure to waste a couple minutes more in there before he returned home.
He abhorred bringing work home, but if his own gut and Dad was right, it wasn't a case that he could keep at the office. Not that he didn't trust him employees. They were good workers and terrific lawyers, but too many of them had been more or less staunch supporters of the Headmaster.
And by the time he was done with the evidence he issued an elf to each of his siblings and his oldest son. Not that he expected Lorelai to find Hector any time soon, but at the very least he had to try. Each elf carried a letter meant only for the eyes of the recipient for the gathering of all of the Greengrasses.
"You could at least have invited us to dinner," commented Hecate with a huff once she stepped out of the fireplace. "Or at the very least allowed me to bring the kids."
"To let Elijah eat his way through the kitchen?" he quipped. "Emmeline is still twitching at the very mention of his name, and I happen to like her cooking. No, Cate, your progeny won't be causing any distress to my house-elves this time."
"I told you that it was a bloody prank, Perry," she retorted. "And don't call me Cate, it's bad enough that that cheating scumbag left me for that tone-deaf pianist. As my brother at the very least you could do me the courtesy of not using that old pet name which also happens to be the name of that bloody harlot."
"So what should I call you?" he asked with a smirk. "Heca?"
"I have a perfectly nice full name. Hecate I was baptised and that's how I would like to be addressed, Hyperion Alexander Greengrass," she said briskly.
"Okay, Hecate," he said dryly. "Now budge over because your sister is coming through."
Cora, never Persephone with the exception of official documents, had fallen out of the fireplace with her usual grace, straight into his arms.
"Brother mine," she greeted him exuberantly as she hugged him tightly.
"How has Moscow been treating you?" he asked curiously.
"Bad enough to reconsider accepting another contract," she replied as she stepped back and to the side. "Lovely people, Russians, government horrible, and their stance on people like me…" she grimaced. "Mia and I have been thinking about spending next year or two back on English soil. We aren't getting any younger, kids are growing and I would love to be the cool lesbian aunt for a little while longer before I become the old, cool lesbian aunt."
"Well I'm sure that I could find a broom closet for you two to use," he said dryly.
"Git," she quipped. "What happened to that charming little guest house by the river?"
"Nothing," he replied. "Well, Uriel needs to clean it, but he has been preparing that old villa in Greece for sale, and you know him, he's always dissatisfied. He would be offended if I had given that job to any other elf."
"Then I will be fine with a broom closet," said Cora happily. "Sister mine," she exclaimed happily as she turned to Hecate.
"Oh, I missed you too, you perky lesbian," replied Hecate dryly when Cora threw herself into her arms.
They got away from the fireplace for Hyperion to hear only bits and pieces of their conversation about Mia's work in restoration of instruments.
The next guest that stepped out from the fireplace wasn't his younger brother, but Thomas Davies, Percy's boyfriend, although they were both at the age when partner suited them better.
"Hyperion," Thomas greeted him with a big smile.
"Thomas," replied Hyperion with an answering smile as he shook his hand.
"I will just greet my sisters and I will be off. Do you think that Eleanor would mind not keeping her company?" he asked as he started walking away.
"No, she wouldn't mind," said Eleanor. "Come on, Tommy, I got the suite ready for you two and Viola is drawing a bath."
"I love you, Ellie," said Thomas in relief. "That bloody spell has been messing up my sleeping schedule," he added, and turning towards Hyperion, said. "Good luck with keeping Percy awake though."
In the meantime, Percy stepped out of the fireplace, with far more grace than his sister and a massive yawn.
"Brother mine," he sighed when he finished yawning, reaching for a one armed hug. "Please tell me you've got coffee."
"Help yourself, you Tibetan vampire," said Hyperion as he gestured towards the coffee table.
For the couple of minutes that it had taken Eleanor to lead Thomas out of the room and to the guest suite, they argued as they always had. Dryly but without malice, occasionally shrieking over each other.
He was so distracted by the sight of them that he hadn't realised that Alex stepped out of the fireplace until he found himself being poked in the shoulder.
"Old age catching up with you, Dad?" asked Alex dryly.
"You will understand once you reach my age," answered Hyperion as he turned to hug his son. "Welcome home, Alex."
"It's good to be there but it's great to be back," said Alex. "I'm just surprised by the secrecy."
"You will understand soon enough," Hyperion assured him. "Go, greet your aunts and uncles. I'm still waiting for that vagabond."
"You should have said so," Hecate called out. "He isn't coming. He has been loitering around that Australian rock which name I can't remember. Told me that he won't be reachable for a couple of weeks at the least."
"Great," snorted Hyperion. "Pity that he failed to mention that to me."
"Well, you know him," said Hecate simply. "Being hurried distracts him, and he has been counting on twins being born a little later. Didn't Eleanor said that they were fine though?" she asked curiously.
"Perfectly fine," said Hyperion, almost through gritted teeth. "That's another thing that I would like to talk with you about."
"You summoned us to the family meeting what could you possibly want to talk about if not family?" asked Cora curiously.
Just as she said that, Dad stepped into the room, with a surprised Eleanor and yawning Thomas trailing after him. Hyperion looked from his father to his wife which gave him a small smile and a shrug before tugging a yawning Thomas to the coffee table where she greeted her oldest son.
In the time it had taken his siblings to realise that those that previously left the room had returned into it, Hyperion crossed the room and whispered to Dad as he was locking and warding the door, "Are you certain, Dad?"
"It's their family too, Perry. They deserve to know," Dad pointed out softly.
"I'm not negating that," replied Hyperion. "It's just…" he mumbled.
"You wanted to be certain where your siblings stood on it," finished Dad.
"Daddy!" exclaimed Cora.
Hyperion turned from the door just in time for Dad to get mobbed by Cora and to a lesser degree Percy. Dad saw Hecate and her children often enough for their greeting to be less exuberant but still fond.
Distribution of coffee, much needed in Percy, who was on his second cup already, and Thomas's case, had taken a couple of minutes, but soon enough Hyperion found himself at the receiving end of his family's gazes.
So he finished taking his sip of coffee, placed the cup back on the coffee table, cleared his throat and started talking. Quite predictably at the mention of Sirius's name Hecate started shaking her head and by the time he reached the description on how it was Peter Pettigrew that had been responsible for the mass-murder that until now had been attributed to Sirius, Cora's left hand fled to her mouth and stayed there.
Eleanor and Alex, at first wary, had soon been nodding and whispering between each other just like Percy and Thomas had.
Finally, when he was done talking, he reached for his coffee and took a big sip of it.
"What are you planning to do about it?" asked Hecate stiffly.
"I'm a lawyer," said Hyperion calmly. "And this man has been put in Azkaban without a trial, and for a crime that he didn't commit. What do you think my work ethic requires of me, Hecate?"
"Just to be in the clear," interjected Dad. "Even if your bother hadn't been on board with the idea, I would have taken his case."
"Why?" pressed Hecate.
"Because I'm a Greengrass, my dear," said Dad calmly. "I'm a man of honour, that was how I've been raised by my parents and that was how I tried my best to raise you all. Arcturus Black has for many years been my steadfast friend and comrade, I could count on him when I had no support in my own family, or no family to speak of. And I will honour his request if nothing else than for old times sake."
"Isn't he supposed to be dead?" said Alex pensively. "I distinctly remember reading his death notice."
"Me too," said Hecate pointedly. "Dad?" she turned to Dad. "Have you been seeing dead people?"
"Well, one of them interrupted my breakfast yesterday," said Dad innocently. "Got him back for that rather nicely I think. Befriended his charge, lovely girl, very direct."
"How can you be sure that they were both real?" asked Hecate suspiciously.
"Because your niece knows her from school, my dear, and she's been talking with him the same way I'm talking to you now," replied Dad. "So Greengrasses? What do you think?"
"I think that it will blow up in our faces and that we shouldn't get involved," said Hecate quickly. "I don't know about you but I have children to bring up, children that are going to that school."
"How can you say that?" protested Cora. "An innocent man rotted in a high-security cell of Azkaban for nearly twelve years!"
"That doesn't mean that we should get involved," retorted Hecate with a huff. "Especially in a conspiracy that has Dumbledore, Fudge and blood Malfoy in it."
"Bloody Malfoy is quite easy to get rid of," Alex mussed at loud.
"Maybe with a cannonball," snorted Hecate.
"I'm being serious," said Alex simply. "There's a Malfoy in my class, a French one, some very distant cousin to Victorie Malfoy, that absurdly wealthy widow that Lucius had been courting for ages for a portion of her wealth."
"I know her," said Cora pensively. "She's obsessed with some supposedly lost wizarding culture from the area of the Pacific islands."
"So if someone suggested to her that they know where to find some missing artefact that can only be obtained by say a powerful and worthy man…" Eleanor started slowly.
"She would start looking for such amongst her relatives," finished Alex dryly. "French Malfoys these days are like Weasleys, lots of missed potential and menial jobs. Lucius would be in for the win."
"That's Lucius," muttered Hecate. "What about Fudge?"
"If you remove one crutch from the scene then it would be easy to slip in the replacement," said Dad simply.
"But who would do that?" asked Percy pensively.
"Your dear old dad," said Dad swiftly. "And I'm planning to drag Lazarus out of his hiding place once the legal situation of his grandson will no longer be a problem."
"What about Dumbledore though?" asked Thomas. "He's too big to be removed easily."
"Luckily for me I know someone who has as many issues with his headmastering as I do," answered Hyperion. "Edgar Macmillan, Robert Bones, Amos Diggory, that what's his face MacLaggen and if the worst comes to worst Nott."
"Nott was a known Death Eater," Thomas pointed out sourly.
"Twelve years ago," said Percy pensively. "Twelve years ago Nott had a family to spare and now he only has that nephew of his, Theodore I think."
"So if someone leaned on him quite heavily and made him see that what's the best for his family is neither with the Death Eaters nor with Dumbledore's supporters," said Hecate slowly. "That might actually work."
"What about Sirius?" asked Cora.
"And who do you think would do the leaning?" asked Hecate pointedly. "Black has been screwed over by the Dumbledore fair and square. He also hunted Death Eaters with the ferocity of a pissed off nundu. He might not be on board with leaning on Nott, but if someone, say his childhood friends, convinced him that getting that old fart on board would sufficiently shift the power in the Wizengamot towards the centre…"
"Aren't you getting a bit too far ahead, sister mine?" asked Hyperion dryly. "Sirius Black is still a wanted man."
"Then what are you waiting for, Perry," said Hecate.
"Your unanimous su…" started Hyperion but he barely managed finished saying unanimous when all hands shot up in the air. "And I really need to talk with Lazarus, Dad."
"As do I," muttered Hecate.
"Why?" asked Dad sceptically.
"I'm just curious," said Hecate innocently.
"Last time I checked his wife was still alive, my dear," said Dad dryly.
"Wait a minute," interjected Cora. "What about that sister-in-law of ours?"
"Oh that," sighed Hyperion.
The discussion concerning Guinevere Greengrass (hopefully for not much longer) had taken them the rest of the night and didn't bear repeating.
TBC
Next: The Greengrass family business.
