Chapter 21: The Raven's Descendents

'Why have we come here Remus?' Viktoria asked as together they made their way to the house where they grew up.

"Don't you remember that mother always wanted us to stay out of the attic, said that the books up there were not to be touched, well I think that there are old books filled with very old magic and as you want to teach Harry more magic then he would've ever learned in Hogwarts, perhaps we should look through the old books," Remus said as they opened the front door and made their way through the deserted house.

Viktoria gazed around and stared at the old furniture and could feel a small smile grace her features as she gently ran the fingers over the table in the entrance. Her thoughts returned to a time when they were children and the first war was still very far off. A time long before the Dark Mark came into being, before she'd ever known what heartbreak was, a time before she was traumatized, when their family was most united. It almost seemed like that was a completely different lifetime ago.

"Are you coming?" Remus asked as he looked at her. She merely nodded and followed him up the stairs. Upon reaching the second floor landing they walked over to the door at the very end of the hall. "What's this?" Remus asked as he walked over to the door and pulled a piece of paper taped to the door. Remus pulled it off and opened the piece of paper to reveal their father's handwriting.

To whichever of my children who return,
I dearly hope it is my Darling Viktoria or Remus to read this, for you are the worthy ones to open this door. And if you do not find the way, then I am sorry I have misjudged my own children so. And remember, if at first you don't succeed, try, and try again.

Love,
Your adoring father

Viktoria smiled as she stared at the pieced of paper. Neither she nor her brothers had ever returned to their parent's home once their parents died, which was quite sometime ago. 'Of course, knowing mother and father they would make this quite the riddle to open a door,' Viktoria said as she looked over at Remus with a smile. Remus merely nodded curtly as he put away the piece of paper in his pocket and reached for the door knob and turned it.

"Not quite the challenge," Remus said as he opened the door, but he'd spoken too soon for beyond the door laid a wall of bricks. Viktoria stared at it for a moment. "Perhaps it worked like Diagon Alley," he said as he pulled out his wand to tap on the bricks, but Viktoria smiled and held out her hand to stop him.

'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again,' her words appeared as she closed the door. She walked over to the other side and pulled the two nails out of the hinges and opened the door to reveal a staircase that led up to the attic.

"How did you know what to do?" he asked as he stared at her. She smiled as she looked at him.

'Father always said there was more then one way to open a door,' Viktoria's words glowed as she shrugged. Their father had always been a very corky man. Very strange and his wisdom never made any sense to them, but they loved him either way. 'Come on,' Viktoria said as she walked up the stairs. Their attic was large, but due to all the books in the attic, it seemed much smaller and cramped then it really was. 'So how do you plan on going about searching this place?'

"Just looked through the books and if your find anything of interest take it back to Grimmauld with you," Remus said with a shrug as he started to look through the first boxes full of books. Viktoria shrugged as she walked around the attic and made her way over to one of the bookcases. She very slowly ran her finger over the spines of the books and smiled. Many of these books she'd gotten the chance to flip through as a child for they had them downstairs. Most of them were about magical creatures, some which no longer existed for the books were so old.

Viktoria smiled as she grabbed one of the books and flipped through it. It was her favorite book growing up as a child. It was the Diary of Merlin, not a personal one, but where he wrote of Arthur's progress and other things, such as his experiments with some charms and potions. It even mentioned Vivian once or twice, the woman whom Merlin fell in love with and ultimately led to his down fall.

Remus continued to look through the books his parents had and pushed aside the box as he realized that most of the books were of no particular importance, for most of them were history books or on Magic theory. He picked up another book that was bound in blue leather and opened it, for it had no title. He flipped through the book and furrowed his brow as he noted it was written in tiny cursive writing.

As Remus flipped through the book, he soon felt a slip of paper fall out of the book. Remus momentarily put the book down beside him as he opened up the piece of parchment, which was rather large and seemed to be a family tree of some sort. "Viktoria come over here," he said as he looked at the very bottom of the tree. There was the name of himself, soon followed by Viktorias and lastly by Viktors. There was even a line connecting Viktoria to Severus Snape, and a line coming down from Viktoria alone that had Amadeo's name on it.

Viktoria walked over and sat down next to her brother, picking up the book that he'd laid next to him and stared at the piece of parchment. 'I didn't know we had a family tree,' her words appeared in green before him. He turned his attention to look at her and see that her eyes were roaming over the piece of parchment that he was holding up.

"Neither did I. Did you notice that it even has Amadeo in it, it must have a charm on it to update it," Remus said as he looked at his sister, whom he noted placed a hand over her mouth as her eyes widened. "What is it?" Remus asked as he stared at his sister. She merely pointed to the top of the family tree, tracing a line from the person at the very top to their father.

"We're descended of Rowena Ravenclaw?" he asked as he stared in shock at the name to which his sister pointed at.

'What other Rowena would it be? Look at the date of her birth and death, it fits perfectly into the times of the four founders,' Vikctoria's green letters said as she started to flip through the book which Remus had put down. 'This is the diary of Rowena Ravenclaw! It has every spell she's ever placed on Hogwarts for protection. It traces the development of the school and has some of her most private and powerful spells!'

"That should come in handy," Remus said as he stared down at the book. "Why do you think out parents kept this from us?"

'So that we could remain humble. Look at Tom Riddle, he knew where he came from and put it immediately into his mind that he was fit to rule the wizarding world because he was descended of Salazar Slytherin,' her green letters glowed as she continued to look through the book. She reached into the box from which he pulled it out and found a couple more of her diaries.

TBC…