September 1985

Daily Prophet, lead story, Tuesday, September 24

Hydrae Arcturus Black named heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

Who is this young man and where did he come from?

Lord Arcturus Black has officially announced that the current heir to the Black family is his great nephew, Hydrae Arcturus, son of the wayward Alphard Black.

This young man was born in Australia and was recently crowned the Australian Duelling champion after a surprising run through the various duelling tournaments over the past season in Australia. This unheralded young man was apparently trained by private tutors at home as his father was concerned he would not have enough magic to be accepted in the Australian magical schools. Hydrae's success over the past several months has made it clear that he is not lacking when it comes to magical skills.

Alphard Black apparently left England trying to escape his family's growing dark reputation, and had a child with a muggle born witch. Clearly this was a surprising turn of events for the Black family, however Lord Arcturus Black as made a formal announcement that the significant magical skill and power of this young man is what qualifies him for the position as heir to this noble house.

Minister for Magic, Millicent Bagnold, was questioned about this new development. She released a statement indicating that she had already met the young wizard, and was quite impressed with his demeanour and the tales of his unique and powerful manner of dispatching all of his opponents on the Australian duelling circuit.

"The British Ministry of Magic is proud to accept Hydrae Arcturus Black as a citizen of magical England and look forward to his many beneficial contributions to our society," asserted Minister Bagnold.

Amelia Bones, director of the DMLE was also outspoken after she had met with the young man. "Someone of his skill and knowledge would make a welcome addition to our Auror force, all he need do is apply to Auror training and we will be happy to take him in to this department."

Lucius Malfoy slammed his copy of the Daily Prophet on the table and then to further express is anger at the situation he sent all of the breakfast dishes off of the table with a quick flick of his wand.

"Dobby!" he screamed. "Clean up this mess at once!"

Narcissa looked up from where she was seated at the other end of the table and raised an elegant eyebrow. "Now what did you read in that excuse for a newspaper today?" she asked.

"Your grandfather is mad and a fool! He brings in this unknown upstart from Australia, your uncle Alphard's son apparently. His mother is a mud-blood of all things! The Dark Lord should have eliminated Arcturus years ago! Draco is supposed to be the heir to the Black family!"

Narcissa raised her other eyebrow. "The news is hocking indeed," she said calmly. "Perhaps we need to get together with my grandfather, formally meet this cousin of mine, and make our position on the state of the Black family more than clear."

Lucius took a deep breath. "Right you are, my dear. Right you are. So you best get to making those arrangements right away."

With those words he stood up and stormed off to his study, slamming the door shut behind him with a quick wave of his wand.


~~~Mib~~~


Arcturus' study, Grimmauld Place

Tuesday, September 24

"Now Harry, or rather Hydrae, we need to both get more accustomed to your new name," said Arcturus, "we need to formalise our plans."

Hydrae nodded. "Well, we get the soul anchors, we get young Harry, we get Sirius freed."

Arcturus actually chuckled at the comments. "Yes, but we need a plan, not an outline. You already gave us the list of the items. But we need to make sure we can get young Harry and keep him safe."

"Well, we bring him back here," said Hydrae.

Arcturus shook his head this time. "No, this is not the place to raise a young man, and we're not ready to bring him in. Your younger self is fiver years old now. I know we don't want to leave him there any longer than we have to, but we need to be prepared. I have goblins preparing the Black country manor house. I have purchased the Leeds Manor House in Kent, and it will be fully warded shortly and protected from muggles and nosy ministry staff."

Hydrae raised an eyebrow at the idea of such a magnificent home becoming the place they would raise his younger self.

Arcturus continued, "But we will have to deal with the fall out from the remaining members of the Black family."

Hydrae leaned back in his seat and had a puzzled look on his face. "Sirius is in Azkaban, as is Bellatrix."

"But not Narcissa and her husband and their spoiled brat of a son," explained Arcturus. "And we will also have to address Andromeda and her family."

Hydrae nodded, "Clearly Lucius will not be happy to read that you are naming me the heir of the Black family."

Arcturus smiled broadly. "No, he will not, and I am sure we will be dealing with that quite soon. Besides, you said that he has the diary, the first of the soul anchors you dealt with. We will need to obtain the item, and I expect we will find a way to do just that soon enough. But we need to continue to make a name for you, Hydrae Black, so you should start registering for duelling tournaments in England and across Europe. Wouldn't want anyone thinking you've gone soft just because I'm grooming you to become a Lord."

"So, we meet with the Malfoys and work on getting a hold of Riddle's diary. We already have the locket," said Hydrae, "but we will need to develop our plan for destroying them."

"The killing curse will not work on the taint in those objects," observed Arcturus.

"No, but basilisk venom will work," said Hydrae, "we just need to get into Hogwarts castle and deal with Slytherin's overly large snake."

"That's a start," said Arcturus. "Now we will continue to train you in the ways of the house of Black. More magic to help you even beyond the tournaments that you will enter, as well as prepare you for taking a seat on the Wizengamot."

A short time later, Kreacher came into the study, holding out a piece of parchment. "Lady Malfoy sent this with her house elf, master Black." He handed the item to Arcturus.

Lord Black unrolled the parchment and laughed quietly. He looked up at Hydrae from over the parchment. "That was quick. Narcissa and her husband would like to meet the newest member of Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Perhaps we should invite them for dinner, tonight."

"Lucius, Narcissa, and young Draco?" asked Hydrae.

Arcturus scoffed, "Nonsense, we won't be inviting that brat until we know he is learning some proper manners, and at a time where he won't interfere with any of our plans."

Later that evening…

Kreacher showed Lucius and Narcissa into the sitting room where they were greeted by Arcturus.

Arcturus smiled broadly at his granddaughter. "It is good to see you, Narcissa."

Narcissa stepped forward and kissed her grandfather on each cheek, "And you as well, grandfather."

Arcturus offered a hand to Lucius, "Welcome to Grimmauld Place, Lucius." The smile faded from Arcturus' face as he spoke.

Lucius simply nodded his head slightly, "It is a pleasure to be able to meet with you and join you for dinner."

Arcturus ignored the haughty tone that the man used. "Now, I would like to introduce you to your cousin, Hydrae Arcturus Black, heir to the Black family, my great nephew and quite a skilled duellist."

Hydrae stepped forward, took Narcissa's hand in his and lightly kissed her knuckles. He then looked up towards Lucius and gave the slightest of bows towards the man.

There was a few minutes of small talk about how the weather in Australia compares to that in Britain before the group moved into the dining room and sat down at the large table, with Arcturus at the head of the table, Hydrae to his right, and Narcissa to his left, with Lucius seated directly across from him.

"Kreacher will be bringing us the first course momentarily," said Arcturus.

A salad was served to the four people at the table. As they started to eat Arcturus eyed Lucius carefully. "You don't seem too pleased with the food that is put before you, young man."

"Salad at the start of the meal, such a muggle and low born way to start a meal," sneered Lucius.

Narcissa forced a mask like expression to come across her face as she did not want her husband to see her frustration with his behaviour.

Arcturus shook his head. "Always the one to complain and put others down in a pitiful attempt to lift yourself up."

"Some proper wizards still keep to certain standards and do not lower themselves to accept the customs and the desires of those who are beneath them by birth or by skill," stated Lucius, whose irritation at the man to his right having been named heir to the House of Black was becoming all too apparent.

Arcturus laughed at Lucius for making the comment. "You do know that you only prove yourself to be the fool that you are when you make such ridiculous statements." He waited a moment, watching Lucius' eyes closely before he continued. "You don't even know who you swore to serve before and during the recent wizarding war. And then you publicly claimed to have been a victim of the Imperius curse to stay out of Azkaban for your blatant participation in the war. Are you that weak minded? Or are you just a fool?"

Lucius gaped at the man seated across from him, as he was not used to having anyone call him out, particularly so directly.

Arcturus did not wait for Lucius to say anything further. "Your supposed leader, did you not know that he was not a pure-blood, but the product of a near squib and a muggle? You are a disgrace to the Black family and to all of the Pure-blood witches and wizards by how you have behaved."

Lucius continued to sneer. "You're just an old fool."

Arcturus tilted his head slightly. "Old yes, a fool, sometimes, but you need to learn your place, you impudent cretin. Having plenty of gold to throw around to grease palms and keep you out of Azkaban does not make you wise." Arcturus' tone became more tense and his glare became more severe. "You allowed yourself to be marked by that menace. You disgraced your family and your body. Should I reveal to all of the wizarding world just what was required to take that mark? Your plea of innocence due to the imperius curse would become clear to everyone to be the lie that we both know that it is."

Lucius' eyes narrowed as he nearly growled his response. "You wouldn't dare."

Arcturus continued to smile at the man across from him. "And who would stop me?"

"I will," declared Lucius and he drew his wand. He started to call out a spell, "Avada…" He never finished the incantation.

Hydrae quickly drew his wand and hit Lucius with a concentrated blasting hex to the centre of his chest. The effect of the curse was similar to applying a non synchronised cardio-version to someone with heart problems, it caused his heart to stop.

Narcissa screamed as she watched Lucius slump in his chair.

Arcturus called Kreacher immediately. "Fetch a mediwitch from St. Mungo's immediately. And after that, you probably ought to notify the DMLE and have them send some Aurors. This will be dealt with properly and quickly!"

Arcturus quickly adjusted the wards on the manor house to allow several individuals to be brought into the home. A few seconds later Kreacher delivered a mediwitch to the dining hall. He popped away as Arcturus explained what happened.

Before she could even cross the room to where Lucius was slumped in his chair, two Aurors arrived with the house elf. Kreacher immediately popped away.

The mediwitch quickly determined that Lucius was dead and that there was nothing that she could do to revive him.

Dawlish and Shacklebolt were the two Aurors who arrived on the scene at Grimmauld Place.

"Now, just what in Merlin's name happened here?" demanded Dawlish.

Shacklebolt quietly tapped his partner on the shoulder and shook his head silently. "That's not how to start this, not here," he added with a whisper to Dawlish.

Hydrae recounted the events leading up to his casting a blazing hex, how Lucius reacted to Arcturus' words and then drew his wand to attack the Lord Black. "He started to cast a spell, I heard him saying 'Avada' and I sent a blasting hex at him."

"A blasting hex, kid? I doubt it," scoffed Dawlish. "A simple blasting hex wouldn't have killed him. Let's see your wand!"

Hydrae slowly handed over his wand. Dawlish examined the wand, and cast 'priori incatato' and it revealed that the last spell which had been cast was indeed the blasting spell.

"So, you may have not killed him intentionally but this is manslaughter," stated Dawlish.

Meanwhile, Shacklebolt had summoned the director of the DMLE, understand that this was quickly scaling to a high profile case as it involved two members of the Wizengamot. A minute later, Amelia Bones was allowed in through the wards into Grimmauld Place.

Dawlish started to explain that this foreign upstart, Hydrae, had killed Lucius Malfoy.

Amelia Bones raised an eyebrow at the assertion, but kept her monocle in place. "That's enough out of you, Dawlish, don't be too quick to judge what happened here." She then turned to Shacklebolt and to Arcturus. "What by Merlin's beard has happened here?"

Arcturus looked at Shacklebolt and allowed him to speak.

"What we have determined, Director Bones," began Shacklebolt, "is that during a conversation between Lord Black and Lucius Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy became angry with Lord Black, and drew his wand. The three people in the room confirmed that they all heard him starting to say the incantation for the killing curse. Young Mister Black, Hydrae, he states that he realised what was happening and to protect Lord Black he sent a blasting curse at Lord Malfoy to interrupt the spell that Malfoy was in the process of casting. The curse happened to hit Lord Malfoy in the chest, and the curse apparently caused his heart to stop. Arcturus Black's life was saved by the quick and decisive action of Hydrae Black."

Amelia turned back to Dawlish. "Is that your conclusion as well, Auror Dawlish?"

The Auror shifted on his feet and looked down at the floor between himself and the Director.

"Look at me when I am speaking to you," commanded Amelia.

Dawlish snapped his head back up and rubbed the side of his face briefly before slowly replying. "Well, I guess, yes, that is probably what happened, I mean, it would definitely appear that is the way things happened."

Amelia then questioned the mediwitch who confirmed her findings, that Lucius Malfoy's heart had stopped secondary to the spell that Hydrae Black had cast.

Amelia looked around the room. "This seems to be a simple case of protecting Lord Black from a clear attempt to kill him. I do not think there are any charges that need to be pressed against anyone. Lord Malfoy was a prominent wizard and a member of the Wizengamot as well as being one of the governors for Hogwarts. This cannot be ignored nor swept under the rug." She paused and took a deep breath. "You two, Dawlish and Shacklebolt, will have a joint statement of the events tonight upon my desk first thing in the morning. Once I have reviewed this document we will then release a statement to the press."

She then turned to the mediwitch. "Do you need assistance with removing the body?"

The mediwitch quickly indicated that she did not.

"Very well, take the body back to St. Mungo's, to the morgue. Lady Malfoy can arrange the next steps tomorrow." She then turned to Arcturus, "My apologies for the unfortunate events of this evening, but as soon as this is all sorted, you can go about your evening business."

She then turned to speak with Narcissa. "Lady Malfoy, no words can express our concern for you in light of your loss. Do you need an escort back to your home this evening? Surely this is a difficult time and you will still need to speak with your son."

"We can see to her safe return to her home," stated Arcturus.

Narcissa had still been in a state of shock, having witnessed the events unfold so quickly. She smiled slightly at her grandfather. "That would be fine grandfather." She turned to the DMLE director. "I will be fine, we are family after all. We will work through this, together."

It was clear through her tone that she was still in a state of shock.

Amelia then turned back to face Arcturus. "Let me know if there is anything further that you need from us. On a personal note, I am glad that you are safe Lord Black."

She then turned to face Hydrae, took a deep breath and then sighed slightly. "Having read about you just this morning in the paper and having been briefly introduced just last week, it is a shame that this is how we next met. I would expect that there may be some public backlash but the DMLE will be sure to support you and endeavour to make the facts clear as to what happened and who was at fault. I am sad to say that your current notoriety is only about to increase, for the better or the worse, I cannot tell."

After the DMLE left once the mediwitch had removed Lucius' body from the Black residence, the three remaining members of the Black family all seemed to relax slightly.

Arcturus spoke up first. "Narcissa, I will make no apology to you about what happened to your husband tonight. He was a fool of a man to behave the way he did. I may have provoked him with my words, but I will not retract what I said. Lucius had chosen to follow the Dark Lord Voldemort. The truth is that that arrogant poser of a dark lord was not a pure-blood, and you and I both know that your husband was not subjected to the imperius curse during the recent war despite what he claimed when he was on trial. I hope, young lady, that you yourself were not rash enough to have been marked by that foolish and crazy upstart. He led too many of this family astray."

Narcissa closed her eyes for a few moments, wiped a single tear away and then looked at her grandfather. "I do not blame you at all for what happened here tonight. I hold no ill will against my newly found cousin either. Nonetheless, it will still be difficult to explain all of this to Draco."

"Of course it will," interjected Hydrae.

Narcissa nodded slightly to Hydrae, then she spoke to her grandfather again. "It was clear with your words that you had more than a simple dislike for Lucius. It is even more clear from your actions in naming Hydrae as your heir that you would not have allowed Draco to become Lord Black if you had any control over that."

"That is a correct assumption, Narcissa," acknowledged Arcturus.

"Let me be clear, grandfather, I do not want to be removed from the Black family. I understand that Draco is not in line to become Lord Black, but I still want him to grow up knowing that he is a Black, that he is a part of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black," stated Narcissa, who looked visibly relieved once she had made her pronouncement to her grandfather.

Arcturus bowed his head slightly too Narcissa. "Then you will raise your son to know that his father was a liar and a fool. And just to be clear from the start, as you already indicated, no, your son will never inherit the head of this house. My words that were quoted in the Daily Prophet are true. I do expect that Hydrae will be the one who will be able to lead the House of Black to its proper position of respect and power within the magical world."

There was an awkward couple of minutes of silence in the room, until Narcissa stated softly, "I think it would be best if I returned home at this time."

Arcturus simply nodded and called Kreacher and then instructed him to return Narcissa to Malfoy Manor.

Once she had left, Arcturus and Hydrae sat in silence for several minutes.

"Well, that escalated quickly," stated Hydrae.

"Yes, it most certainly did," replied Arcturus. "We can give her a few days to recover from the shock of tonights events. Perhaps we should visit her in a couple of days, and maybe then we can get permission to inspect the home so as to retrieve the diary."


~~~~ Mib?~~~~


Daily Prophet, lead story, Thursday, September 26

Lucius Malfoy Dead!

Lucius Malfoy, who claimed to have been placed under the imperius curse as his defence for serving He Who Must Not Be Named after the end of the great wizarding war has died. According to reports from the DMLE, Lord Malfoy and his wife had been invited to dinner with her grandfather, Lord Arcturus Black, to formally meet young Hydrae Black, the newly named heir to the Black family. During the course of the small gathering, Lucius attacked and tried to murder Lord Black. Per testimony from those present, it was only the quick response of Hydrae Black who defended his great uncle and prevented Lucius Malfoy from completing the casting of the killing curse. A non lethal spell was cast by the young Mister Black, and complications of this spell led to Malfoy's heart to stop beating. A mediwitch was summoned from St. Mungo's immediately but she was unable to revive him. Amelia Bones, Director of the DMLE was even called to the scene.

"It was clearly a case of self preservation. Mister Hyrdae Black only acted to save the life of Arcturus Black. It is clear from the spell that he cast that his intention was not to kill Lucius Malfoy, but simply to incapacitate him and prevent the murder of Arcturus Black.

Narcissa Black Malfoy, Lucius' widow could not be reached directly for comments, however a message was sent to the DMLE and shared with the Daily Prophet.

"I am deeply saddened by the loss of my husband, the father to our son Draco. I am also embarrassed by his behaviour and actions which he took against my grandfather, and I am truly grateful for the actions of Hydrae that prevented Arcturus Black from being hurt. Please allow my entire family some peace as we grieve the loss of our loved one. This is not the time to judge him for his actions, past or present."

Arcturus read the article in the paper and smiled slightly, feeling relieved that the Daily Prophet actually got the story right and did not embellish it at all.

Hydrae joined him for breakfast and he glanced at the headline on the paper. "You're smiling slightly, Arcturus. That can only mean that the article was accurate with what they wrote."

Arcturus nodded. "Surprisingly enough, the Daily Prophet actually gave an accurate if not abbreviated description of the events from the other night."

Hydrae shook his head. "I've seen too many times they take liberties with the truth just to sell papers or to attack others, myself the most common one they would attack. Or is it will attack?"

"Would attack," said Arcturus. "We will not allow them to treat your younger self the way you were treated. Besides, we're also not about to allow any of what happened to you happen to Harry this time."

"So when are we removing him from the Dursleys?" asked Hydrae.

"The goblins report that the manor should be ready for us to move in within two weeks," answered Arcturus. "Then we move there, but continue to use Grimmauld Place for business meetings and when we need to be in London or at the Ministry."

Hydrae nodded in understanding.

"So, in the meantime, we will continue to build back the Black family," said Arcturus. "I don't know why Cygnus insisted on blasting Andromeda off of the family tapestry." He paused his train of thought momentarily before adding, "He listened to that banshee of a cow, Walburga. If she wasn't an argument against inbreeding among pure-bloods I don't know who would be."

Hydrae tilted his head slightly and started listing names, "The Gaunts, the Goyles, the Crabbes, just to name a few." He consciously stopped himself before adding the Lestrange family so as not to degrade Amanda Lester. At least her father was wise enough to leave England and expand the family gene pool in addition to their home location.

Arcturus shook his head. "No, Walburga was possibly worse than all of them." He took a deep breath. "But enough about that, my next step is to further expand the Black family. We will need to invite Andromeda, and her husband over."

"He has a name, you know," said Hydrae. "Ted, Ted Tonks. That's who married Andromeda. And they have a daughter, Nymphadora, but she hates her first name."

"Of course she does, it's not a proper Black name," said Arcturus.

"Her middle name is Vulpecula," added Hydrae.

"Well, that is better, and more befitting of a Black," said Arcturus as he nodded his head slightly.

"But she hated that even more than Nymphadora," said Hydrae.

"Whatever," said Arcturus with a roll of his eyes. "Kreacher! I need you to bring an invitation to Andromeda and Ted Tonks. They are invited for dinner tomorrow night with the opportunity to meet Hydrae Black." Arcturus snapped his wand and a small piece of parchment flew onto his desk. He pulled out a quill and wrote a quick note that he then handed it to the house elf.

Friday, September 27, 1985

Andromeda Tonks was initially hesitant to attend the dinner with her grandfather. But her husband pointed out that it couldn't be all bad, as they had recently eliminated Lucius Malfoy, and according to the story in the Daily Prophet it was reportedly due to this new member of the Black family protecting her grandfather.

At precisely 7 pm Andromeda Tonks stepped through the floo and into 12 Grimmauld Place, a home she had assumed she would never see the inside of again after having been banished from the family. Ted stepped through just after her and gazed around the room warily, as though he half expected someone to curse him for being a muggle born and entering the home.

Arcturus entered the sitting room where the floo was located and was about to greet his granddaughter when she turned and snapped at him.

"What is this all about?" Andromeda demanded harshly.

Arcturus took a half step back, shrugged his shoulders slightly, then spoke softly. "Sometimes a man may regret decisions that have affected his family. Sometimes certain things need to change."

"That's for sure," commented Ted, the sharp tone in his voice not missed by anyone.

Arcturus turned to him and gave him a harsh look. "You are not a part of the Black family, at least not at this time, and you have no place to say anything here until that changes."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" asked Andromeda defensively.

Arcturus took a heavy breath before he answered. "Our world needs to adapt, not necessarily change to be like muggles, but we need to grow. And we will not do so following the foolish rules of Pure-bloods who hate anything muggle and anyone muggle born."

Andromeda took a step back. Ted looked confused as he stared between his wife and her grandfather.

Arcturus straightened himself slightly before he added, "In other words, I am offering to have you, and your husband, and your daughter, return to the Black family."

Andromeda's face showed her confusion at this statement. "Why now? What is in this for you?"

"Why now? Because the time is right," answered Arcturus, ignoring the harsh tone that continued from his granddaughter.

"And as to what is in this for me? This is a chance to make the right change, to reestablish the Black family as the preeminent family in the magical world, to prevent the fools who would bring back the likes of the dark lord who was anything but a pure-blood and manipulated his followers into causing chaos and unrest that would possibly lead to his having power over all of them regardless of their blood status."

Andromeda was still wary despite his words. "You want to make the Black family prominent? What are you going to do about your grandson, my cousin, who betrayed his supposed best friend?"

Arcturus smiled at the question. His look disturbed Andromeda slightly.

"One, he did not betray anyone. Two, that egregious error will be corrected, and soon. But this is not something for anyone to speak of any further," stated Arcturus.

Andromeda gasped at her grandfather's words. "What? Sirius is innocent? How do you know this? He was tossed in Azkaban because he was guilty!"

Arcturus frowned before he continued with his response. "He was tossed in Azkaban without a trial. Those who did that to a Son of Black, to the Black family Heir, claimed to be the leaders of the light. What are they hiding? What do they fear? Why treat one of their own, one who publicly turned his back on Pure-blooded supremacy, like he was their enemy all along?"

Andromeda's brow was furrowed as she tried to grasp everything her grandfather had just stated. "But what about…"

Arcturus interrupted her question, "I said enough on that topic for now. So, back to the main reason why I asked you and your family to come here tonight." He paused once more and calmed his voice. "Do you, Andromeda Black Tonks, desire to be brought back into the Black Family? You, and your husband and your daughter?"

Andromeda could hardly believe what her grandfather was asking. "To be part of my family? Yes, but not if it will cost us our freedom, not if it will oppress my husband."

Arcturus nodded slightly. "Ted Tonks would be welcomed into the Black family. Anyone who would oppose this would have to answer to me, or to the Lord Black, if and when I am no longer the head of this family."

Andromeda's jaw dropped. "What about Narcissa? And what exactly happened to her husband?"

Arcturus answered her questions without hesitation. "If Narcissa is to remain a Black then she will no longer be a Malfoy. Her weak-minded pig of a husband attacked me, in my own home. Your newly found cousin, Hydrae, reacted in my defence. A simple spell caused the Malfoy fool to have a heart attack. He died. Yes, it was all that simple. Even the Mediwitch and the Aurors who came to investigate could readily determine that."

Andromeda raised an eyebrow, not expecting such a straightforward and simple answer.

"What do we need to do to become a part of the Black family? Pledge our loyalty to you and what ever cause your may support?" asked Ted who was still having a hard time believing what his wife was being told.

Arcturus turned and acknowledged his granddaughter's husband. "The Black family has a long tradition of being a leader within the magical world. However, we have not been regarded as leaders in this world for some time. We need to retake that position. And we need to do it in a way different from what we have been publicly known for. We need to do it the way it was done hundreds of years ago. Through politics, through leadership, through showing our world what we need to do. To be an example. The ways of the past, the pure-blood dogma, that is old. There are not enough pure-blood families left. Squibs are on the rise and magical power is weakening due to inbreeding amongst those families. You can think of some families that will show that to be true without my naming names."

He paused a moment as he let the enormity of his words sink in, and then he continued. "But the Black family will not support the muggle born if they want to just remake our world in the image of the mundane world. We are different, but we can learn. We will not adopt practices just because the muggles do a certain thing. But that does not mean we will not listen. And we also need to teach the new witches and wizards about our society and allow them to become a part of it and not prevent them from having any part of our society. The foolish, short sighted and self-serving rules and policies within the Ministry only lead to the majority of those that are muggle born choosing to leave our world, or leave our country. That is not good for our future as witches and wizards in England, or Scotland, or anywhere. "

Andromeda was still in shock by everything she was hearing. "Fine, but what about Sirius? Will you get Dumbledore to help you?"

Arcturus scoffed at her questions. "I said we will not speak of that situation further and we will not speak of it to anyone, including Dumbledore. But I will say this, Sirius will not sit in Azkaban for too much longer if I can help it. Knowing what is the truth is one thing. Convincing those in power in the Wizengamot and the Ministry of Magic, that is another thing entirely."

Andromeda was stunned by the words of her grandfather. "So, what exactly do we need to do?"

Arcturus smiled slightly. "You need to do nothing. We all will have a meal together, and Hydrae will be joining us. Then tomorrow I will make it official at Gringotts that Andromeda and Ted Tonks and their daughter Nymphadora will officially be members of the Black family."


~~~ MiB~~~


The meal with the Tonks went off and all four individuals enjoyed getting to know each other better.

Saturday, September 28, 1985

Arcturus finished his meeting with the goblins and was pleased to announce to Hydrae that the Leeds Manor House in Kent would be ready for them to move into next week.

Hydrae was happy to hear the news. "Now we can work on completing the arrangements for retrieving Harry from Privet Drive."


AN: There was a little more action in this chapter. Next chapter will deal with young Harry. Then the horcruxes, then getting Sirius freed, among other issues coming soon. Work is hectic so I am not guaranteeing how frequent these updates will come but I intend to keep working on things. I still have at least the next three chapters outlined.