Chapter 73
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It was almost half past eight in the evening by the time they were finished for the day. They would still have to attend another hearing later that week, but they had a few days to relax before it happened.
Sirius and Rebekah got into Grimmauld Place with a satisfied sigh, only groaning when they heard screaming from one of the portraits. Remus Lupin greeted them at the door, already rolling his eyes before ushering them in and past the portrait and down into the kitchen for a meal. It was late and they still hadn't eaten.
It only took ten minutes of the woman's loud screaming for Rebekah to snap.
"I am this close to burning every single portrait in this house," Rebekah muttered as she excused herself from the table, walking straight up to the portrait in question.
"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers —"
"SHUT IT," Rebekah screamed, using a hand to silence the portrait with Magic for a moment before releasing the spell. "I AM SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING THIS FROM INBRED PUREBLOODS THAT DON'T KNOW THAT BLOOD AND MAGIC HAVE NO CORRELATION. I will burn every painting if you don't shut up! I have enough of this from my own House mates!"
Walburga Black narrowed her eyes, shrewdly taking in Rebekah's appearance of the purple dress she had worn to the trial. Her cloak had been thrown over the back of her chair in the kitchen. Walburga turned her nose up but cautiously glared at Rebekah who glared straight back.
"Only good Slytherins would understand," She muttered, impresssed with the fact that a young Witch would stand up to her.
Rebekah rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I don't know about good Slytherins, I've been told there aren't any and I kind of agree."
"What would you know of the noble House of Slytherin?"
"Being the Heir, I would think a lot, madam," Rebekah stated. "Now shut it about HalfBloods, PureBloods, MuggleBorns, blood purity and all that. I WILL burn your portrait otherwise, or I will invite every single MuggleBorn I know into this house just to torment you. Alright?"
"Just who are you?"
"Rebekah Potter, your son's GodDaughter,"
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK!"
"Oh, what now, Mother?" Sirius said tiredly as he stood next to Rebekah and the portrait.
"You!" His mother spat, then gestured to Rebekah. "You never told me I had a granddaughter!"
"GodGranddaughter,"
"GodGranddaughter, granddaughter, pish posh. Same thing. You never told me!"
"Because you never listened, Mother!" Sirius cried in frustration. "When she was born, I came here to tell you but you wouldn't listen. You didn't even want to see me. You were wallowing in grief and pity because Regulus and Father were dead. You were alone for years because you favoured blood purity over family. Family is not only blood, the Potters were my family, they treated me well when you treated me like dirt ever since I was sorted in Gryffindor."
Rebekah looked away from them. "Your House does not dictate who you are, and your family doesn't decide who you become. I'm the daughter of a MuggleBorn Witch and a PureBlood Wizard, and my Magic is more powerful than any PureBlood I have encountered. Even Voldemort is a HalfBlood."
"He can't be!"
"He is!" Rebekah snapped her gaze back to the sneering Witch. "His given name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, son of Muggle Tom Riddle Senior and Witch Merope Gaunt. I am more Magical than he is. Both my parents were Magical even if my mother's parents were Muggle. No family is without Muggle blood, disowned and banishing them from history does not change the fact. If my great grandparents were Muggleborn, I would be considered a PureBlood. Blood purity and its logic is invalid!"
"But MuggleBorns are stealing our Magic! It is our birthright!"
"As it is the MuggleBorns'. Inbreeding to keep the lines 'pure' has caused the increase of Squibs, who would marry into Muggle families. When two decendents of two Squibs have a child, they have a chance of being Magical. And besides, Magic is a privilege, not a right!"
"PureBloods have the right to use Magic,"
"But they do not have the right to decide who is and isn't Magical," Rebekah shook her head in disgust. "They do not have the right to decide who has access to the education needed to control their given Magic. You called me your granddaughter. Do you consider me less for my Muggle blood? My best friends, almost all of PureBlood lines, do not consider me less for something I can't help. The three smartest people in my year are a mixture of all types. I am the first and a HalfBlood, a MuggleBorn Witch is next and a PureBlood Wizard isn't far behind her. Tell me how that works then with your blood purity idles?"
Walburga opened her mouth but couldn't find the words to disprove Rebekah, making Rebekah smirk.
"Newsflash, it doesn't," Rebekah snapped her teeth before frowning with a yawn. "I'm heading to bed. I'm exhuasted after this."
Rebekah stalked away and was asleep with minutes of her head hitting the stiff pillow.
"Merlin and Morgana," Walburga Black muttered to herself. "She is a spitfire. Is she truely top of the class?"
"She is," Sirius said quietly. "Her whole group is made of PureBlood with the exception of herself and the Davis girl."
"House?"
"She's like me," Sirius continued when Walburga gave a snotty little hum. "She is the only Potter ever to be sorted in Slytherin."
She blinked with a twitch of the lips, "I don't think I have ever been spoken to like that since you left."
"She was the only one to ever believe me without proof," Sirius gave his mother a solemn look. "She has the loyalty of a lion but the mind of a serpent. Dumbledore says that she would have got into so much trouble if she wasn't so resourceful. He said she alone is worse than we were."
"We?"
"The Marauders,"
"I remember now…" Walburga shook her head with a soft smile. "She would make a great heir."
"She will be."
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"Sirius…" Rebekah smiled bittersweetly as she entered the living room the next night, watching Sirius read his newspaper.
"Yes, Cub?" He said without looking up from the armchair.
"I like the Weasleys and all," Rebekah stood in front of him, quickly tugging the newspaper down as she gritted her teeth. "But why, in the name of Morgan, are they here? You know Molly Weasley doesn't like me anymore. I don't think she ever did but less so now since I stayed part of last summer with the Malfoys."
Sirius sighed. "Dumbledore asked if he could use this as the Order's base."
"Yes, you've told me that, but why are the Weasleys here? They have their own place," Rebekah said, plopping into the armchair next to him with a pouting frown. "You know that— Hello, Mrs Weasley." Rebekah suddenly smiled.
"Sirius, can you help us figure out the bedroom situation?" Molly poked her head through the door. "We've congregated in the kitchen for now."
"Of course, Molly. I'll be there in a minute." Sirius said, watching as she left before turning to Rebekah with a pointed finger. "You be good to them. I don't want Molly hating you more than she already does. She really does disapprove of how much freedom you've received."
"I'll be civil…" Rebekah said as Sirius began to leave the room. "Only if I don't have to share a room!"
Rebekah sighed with a large grumble, settling into the armchair with a book off of one of the shelves. She spent only a good ten minutes reading it before she was called into the kitchen. She got to it and watched most of the Weasley family, save for the three oldest children, sitting at the table.
"What?"
"We're getting the rooms sorted, so you'll be staying with—"
"No one because I don't share," Rebekah interrupted Molly.
The Weasley mother narrowed her eyes. "Why don't you?"
"I literally have four animals to look after," Rebekah began to count them off on her fingers. "Emperor, Fidele, Hedwig, and Enyo. Emperor doesn't like Crookshanks and Ginny doesn't like Fidele. So the only option is for me to have my own room."
"Well, there isn't enough room for that," Molly frowned. "Emperor will either have to deal with Crookshanks, or the snake will have to sleep somewhere else."
"They stay with me, that is non negotiable."
"There is one room…" Sirius said, rubbing a hand down his face. "I'll ask my mother. Come on."
"Of course she can stay in my room!" Walburga said before shouting for Kreacher. "Get the master bedroom ready within the hour. We Black women do not share rooms. My granddaughter won't either."
Molly frowned as she looked at Walburga Black. "She's not your granddaughter."
"Not by blood, but she is my son's GodDaughter,"
"Your disowned son's GodDaughter," Molly emphasized and this made Arthur wince with disbelief at his wife's words.
"Regardless of that, Sirius is mine by blood," Walburga said, watching Sirius flaring his nostrils in anger of being reminded of his disownment. "The only reason he was disowned was because he left the family, he left us. I had no choice because that was done within the Black Family. Sirius was disowned but he is still Magically attached to the Black Family and is still the last living Black. He is my son, thus making Miss Rebekah Potter my granddaughter through the God parent-child link."
From then on, whenever Molly passed Walburga's portrait, the Black Witch would shout insults, but she never did them at Arthur Weasley or any of the children. Walburga only yelled at the twins when they did something that disturbed her.
The twins got shouted at a lot.
Two hours later, Rebekah sat in the newly cleaned bedroom. The master bedroom was large, taking up the whole top floor. The once beautiful warm grey walls had turned flakey and damp, along with the wooden floors. Rebekah had already asked Kreacher to bring the room up to its proper level of beauty, which he just bowed at and did as she asked.
That night, as Kreacher was fixing up the colouring on the walls back to the warm grey, Rebekah had gone through her clothing. She found an old shirt, dark green and black blouse that she didn't wear anymore because it was too small. Rebekah made a huge rip in the side before handing Kreacher it.
"Don't worry, it's not clothes, not anymore," Rebekah said. "It's fabric. You've been in rags long enough, Kreacher. Create whatever you want out of the fabric. While you might dispise Sirius, he is still a Black and you are still serving him. You should look like it."
As rude as it sounded, Kreacher had understood what Rebekah had meant. He was the Black Family HouseElf and he should look the part regardless of his feelings in the matter of heritage.
Treating HouseElves nicely wasn't something that many Wixen did, creating a large riff between Wixen and HouseElves. Rebekah always said her please and thanks you to the Elves, knowing that if she treated them with some ounce of respect, they would be less reluctant to do as she asked. Since Sirius had treated Kreacher badly or just ignored the HouseElf, Kreacher was indifferent towards Sirius' comfort.
Rebekah asked Sirius to treat Kreacher better and request instead of demand, and see how much the Elf respects him more because of it.
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The drawing room had a high ceiling with olive green walls. And one morning, Molly Weasley tried to get all of the teens to help clean out the infestation of Doxies in the curtains. Rebekah took her time in finishing her breakfast just so she could get out of doing it. It didn't work for long because Molly began to yell for Rebekah to hurry up.
"Cover your face and take a spray," She told Rebekah as the young Witch came into the drawing room. "Don't give me that look. Take a spray and help us. Spoiled child…"
"Why don't you ask Kreacher to do it for you?" Rebekah said as if it was obvious.
"He doesn't listen to me, Rebekah," Molly spat, bending forward to get a spray and shoving towards Rebekah. "Useless HouseElf. How can he allow this house to get to this stage?"
"No one lived here for twelve years, and Sirius has only been released for a year. He's been trying to get all the legal stuff sorted so I wouldn't think that he would be concerned with how the house is." Rebekah shook her head. "Kreacher, can you come here?"
He popped in next to her, now dressed in a green and black greek styled robe fastened with a thicker piece as a belt that used to be the old sleeve. He looked much happier even with the permanent scowl he wore. "Yes, Mistress Potter?"
"I know you don't need to do anything I request of you, but can you help fix the house up again? With the Black Family now living here again, it should be brought back up to its proper glory befitting the name." Rebekah asked the HouseElf before turning her voice lower and softer. "Regardless of who else is staying here."
"Oh Oh," Kreacher frantically nodded. "Yes, yes. Kreacher needs to restore the house back to the former glory of the Black House."
"Thank you, Kreacher," Rebekah smiled as the elderly HouseElf became alive with something to do that wasn't complaining about the occupants of the house.
Sirius smiled with a slight huff as he bent over to examine a locked cabinet. "Probably is a Boggart. When MadEye gets back, he can sort it out. Let's get this room sorted."
They began to clean the room, and even Rebekah participated in this, though all she wanted to do was go to the library of the house and sneak a few books into her new room. She watched as Kreacher sent disgusted glances towards everyone as they sorted out the cabinets, even stealing a ring with the Black crest.
"Stupid locket won't open," Ron muttered, fiddling with the side of the heavy gold locket in his hands. "Doesn't even have a latch. How are you supposed to open it then?"
"Who do you think the S stands for?" Hermione asked, leaning over Ron's shoulder. "Is it yours, Sirius?"
"No," He took it and looked at it in the clear light. "I don't even remember having this. Might as well bin it then."
"Give it here then," Rebekah said, grabbing it to look closer at the serpentine S in green jewels in the gold. "It just needs a good polish probably. I'm gonna keep it, I think."
"Are you sure? It's a bit useless," Sirius said before he shrugged at Rebekah's nod. "Have it."
"Yay," Rebekah muttered to herself as she placed the chain over her head and felt the cold chill of fear and darkness. It was familiar yet Rebekah felt like there was another mind in her head and she didn't like it.
Within the week, the house was up to its best standards. No longer were the house walls grim, they were a dark mahogany that worked well with the dark grey paints. Rebekah had to draw back all the portrait curtains back, telling each one that if they began to spew insults and slurs, they would be removed and burned. After they all agreed, grudgingly in some cases, Rebekah could finally see all the faces of the Black family walking around the house.
She was surprised with how easily they took to her. She was even more surprised when they began to call her dear and other small pet names of endearment. They probably heard the argument she and Walburga had on the first night.
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