Chapter – 16 : Disobeying McGonagall
Sirius P.O.V
Sirius couldn't find James anywhere. Nor could he find Peter, or Lily, or Remus. Because all of them had somehow disappeared. Glancing at the notes he was planning to revise that day, he thought about it. He could either study, while his friends ran around doing something that wasn't studying. Or he could find something interesting to do.
Making up his mind, Sirius happily skipped to McGonagall's office.
"Please, come in, Mr. Black." Minnie's voice called out sharply as he rapped on the door. How she knew it was him he couldn't have guessed, but he took the cue and entered.
"Pleasant day, isn't it, Professor Minnie!" He exclaimed, sitting down on one of the conveniently placed couches. Throwing a glance out of the window, he winced at his statement. It was cloudy and very likely to start raining around Hogwarts sometime soon. Oh well, too late for take-backs.
"What do you want, Mr. Black?" She asked, not looking up from the papers she was grading. Her absolute disinterest in his presence was a jarring change from everyone fawning over him, but a pleasant one, nonetheless. "Mr. Potter has gone out on family business."
Ah, no wonder she knew he was there. He was slightly predictable like that. James being missing was one of his main motivators to seek out other entertainment. With the arrival of the letter, and Lily's sudden friendship offer, James was missing more and more often.
So, Sirius had spent most of his time finding out more information on these Horcruxes. The Secrets of Immortality was an interesting read, and outlined how Horcruxes could be made, who used it, what would happen when used and how to kill a person who had one. Even how to destroy a Horcrux was easy to find. The main problem was the containers – what would be a good material, what objects would be better, what protections could be placed around them without negative effects, none of these had answers anywhere.
Another thing was how they could destroy the Horcrux. Sure, the solutions were theoretically easy, but getting basilisk venom was impossible, as the creature was said to have gone extinct a century ago. Fiendfyre was illegal in Britain, classified under Dark Magic, and impossible to use without intimate knowledge of what to do. The only person who used Fiendfyre with success in the past three centuries was Grindelwald, who was in prison.
These weren't all the problems Sirius faced. The one that irked him the most was family business – his heirship. He had to talk to Arcturus, without his mother intervening, and doing it sometime before the Spring Wizengamot would be a good idea. He could be replaced if he didn't get the ring back soon and he didn't want to be replaced, he couldn't be replaced.
Now, he just needed to broach the topic with McGonagall.
"I was wondering if I should talk to my grandfather," Sirius said.
At that, McGonagall looked up. "Are you sure?"
Sirius frowned. "Yeah. I mean, I guess I should have spoken to him in winter. But I was busy then, and easter will be a hit and miss with him being free."
"Mr. Black. I would like to remind you that students aren't allowed to leave school premises unless it's with permission from the parents."
Sirius almost scoffed at that. He knew that he couldn't leave without parents' permission, but he was never going to get his parents' permission. And Minnie wouldn't give him permission.
"Yeah, I know. I suppose I'll have to wait for summer then." Sirius sighed dramatically and gave a cheeky grin. "See you in class tomorrow, Minnie."
"Have care that you do, Mr. Black. And I don't want to find out about some prank that you set up because you were bored." She gave a withering glare, which he waved off, slipping out of the room.
Once in the corridor, he stood in thought for a few minutes. The choices remained the same, but should he really talk to his grandfather? Family business was tricky, always had been and always would be. Today was as good as any for what he wanted to talk about.
Looking at McGonagall's closed office door, Sirius grimaced slightly. This wasn't going to end well, at all.
Breaking and entering Black Manor was an impossible task, for anyone who wasn't a Black. To be fair though, Sirius would never get an 'audience' with his grandfather, unless he actively sought Arcturus out.
His grandfather was so busy and distant from the rest of the family that he probably didn't know that Regulus had started Hogwarts or that Andromeda got blasted off the family tree and that Sirius supported her choice. On one hand it had been a good thing, because Andromeda wasn't officially cut off from the family yet, but it also meant that he didn't know the full reason why Sirius was put on probation by a unanimous decision.
"A young Black," Hesper Black's portrait said, peering at him from her seat behind a desk.
"Don't you have school child?" Licorus asked, looking much too curious.
Sirius refused to stick his tongue out at them. "I'm here to talk to grandfather, Arcturus."
"Ah, yes. Arcturus. He's a little busy now," Sirius' namesake said, absentmindedly. "You might want to come back later."
Sirius wanted to rip all their annoying paintings off the wall. Instead, he asked, "Where is he?"
"In his office, dear," Phoebe's high, sweet voice called. "You shouldn't be – "
Sirius ignored them and walked to his grandfather's office, not meandering and roaming around the manor like he usually enjoyed doing with Regulus and Andromeda.
At his grandfather's office door, he knocked and opened the door, palming his wand. He expected an attack from his paranoid family patriarch.
Indeed, as soon as he entered the room, he got no less than seven spells thrown in his general direction. Cursing and ducking most of them, he threw up a shield that all Blacks learnt when they were young. A basic defense, but damn, his grandfather was getting more senile if he was sending that stupid specialty spell at him.
"Peace, grandfather!" He yelled, ducking under the desk, to avoid the barrage of spells. "I just want to talk!"
The spells reduced, but Sirius knew his grandfather was still being a paranoid old man. How he hadn't been replaced by father yet was a question everyone had asked at least once before.
"Come out then, child," Arcturus' deep voice almost growled.
Sirius prayed to whatever god existed that he wouldn't be blasted to hell if he stood up. Nonetheless, he did stand up. And Arcturus' wand slowly lowered.
"Sirius." There was extreme wariness in his tone, as though he didn't want Sirius there. Which Sirius already knew because Sirius wasn't a complete idiot. "What are you doing here?"
There was only one reason Sirius would break into Black Manor, and it was his heirship status and ring. Also, Voldemort was a contender, but Sirius didn't want all the pressure falling to Regulus or his mother manipulating everything to her own views. His mother was against him being heir and future Lord, so he was going to do exactly that.
"Just came to have a small chat, you know?"
Arcturus' expression was a cross between incredulous and suspicious. He seemed to be having one of his good days, and Sirius wasn't going to think about what his bad days looked like. "You left Hogwarts without permission for a small chat?"
"Well, yeah. I'm here, aren't I? Besides, it's pretty important, all things considered."
"Get to the point, child." Arcturus seemed to be losing his patience, even as he sat down calmly behind the desk that looked distinctly charred.
"The Dark Lord." Sirius stated, procrastinating talking about his heirship. He would have to explain his reasoning and well, it was irrational and slightly embarrassing.
"Whether we support him or not?" Arcturus asked, cutting through Sirius' words with an amused smile. "I can't tell you that, Sirius."
Sirius scowled, taking the seat opposite the desk. "You know, I would assume that after Grindelwald, you wouldn't allow anyone in our family to bow down to a half-blooded bastard child."
At that, all of the levity in the situation was gone. "What do you mean by that, Sirius?"
"Your Dark Lord is a half-blood Slytherin that you likely studied with." Sirius shrugged.
He knew that smiling smugly would just be a waste of effort. Until Arcturus agreed to stop the family from joining the lunatic, Sirius wouldn't be satisfied.
There was a sharp intake of breath and Sirius stared as his grandfather's face twisted, the curse scar on his left cheek making him look dangerous and unhinged.
"Tom Riddle, was it?"
"Right in one."
Arcturus looked at him with an inscrutable expression on his face. "What did you come here for, Sirius?"
"Well, I felt this was an important development," Sirius shrugged, "and it should be discussed between heir and lord."
"Don't try politics with me, child," Arcturus sounded tired. "You aren't heir right now."
Sirius rolled his eyes, muttering, "Through very less fault of my own and without any official investigation into the matter from your side."
Arcturus frowned consideringly. "What do you have to say for yourself, then? What happened at Lestrange's house at New Years?"
Sirius felt his tongue get heavier, making him unable to speak. A curse from his kind mother that he could only break if he wanted the ring with his whole heart, or something of the sort. Closing his eyes, he thought of the feeling he got when he put on the ring for the first time - the family magic welcoming him and generally being so much nicer and warmer than the rest of his family. He pictured how getting on probation was the worst few months of his life and how he wanted to get the ring back, and the curse loosened slightly.
Enough for him to blurt out, "Lestrange was being unfaithful, and I upended pudding on his fancy clothes. Bella took offense to me robbing her of the chance and started an argument with her father, which Regulus heard and reported to mother, who decided it was all my fault and proclaimed something along the lines, loudly. Bella agreed for a completely different reason and - "
The curse lashed out and Sirius choked, holding his throat and gasping for air. Just like his dearest mother to curse him so viciously when she realized the truth. Sirius' vision started going black at the edges, and he thought he might die.
There was a muffled sound and as his airway cleared, Sirius took in a deep breath. Looking up, he saw his grandfather muttering something as he scribbled away on his desk. The heir ring was placed on the table in front of Sirius, and he put his hand out to take it.
"You are off probation, Sirius, but another escapade like this and you will be permanently removed from the line of inheritance." Arcturus said, strict and determined. "Do you understand?"
Sirius nodded numbly, still reeling from the curse.
"Take the ring then, and I need you to do some work for me," Arcturus said.
Sirius grabbed the ring, and unceremoniously shoved it on his pointer finger, not pausing to relish the feeling of home that emanated through his body.
"Whose work am I doing?"
Arcturus looked slightly amused. "Bellatrix seems to have forgotten. I need you to get me the three necklaces made by Stephen Zabini. They'll be in Borgin and Burkes; talk to Borgin about them."
Sirius nodded and took the pouch of money Arcturus had procured from somewhere. "And what about the whole upcoming Dark Lord situation?"
Arcturus gave Sirius another stern look and said, "That's for me to investigate. I don't want to find you doing something you aren't supposed to be doing. If one of his followers attack you, then you can defend yourself, but until then, I want pristine behavior from you, Sirius."
Sirius wanted to laugh at that. Even his grandfather acknowledged that the Death Eaters would attack Sirius eventually, as though it wasn't even in question. To that end, Sirius supposed the deal was good. There was no reason to argue now.
"I'll get you the necklaces, grandfather," Sirius nodded once, and walked out of the office. Time to do some shady work for his family.
